Tag: author

Launching My Newsletter

by Diane, posted in News Flash, Uncategorized

I’ve been told for more than eight years that I need a newsletter to share news about my books with readers. I’ve ignored this advice until now. What can I say? I’ve had other things on my mind.

The past few days, I’ve been learning about newsletters and setting up the infrastructure to launch one. So far, I have the Sign Up form ready.

At this point in time, I will publish a newsletter twice a month: on the 1st and 15th. Over time, I imagine, like everything, this will change, evolve into something different.

What will go into my newsletter?

All sorts of things, including book launches, book sales, cover reveals, my writing progress, what I’m writing about now, interesting facts I uncover while researching for my books, and anything else book related. Don’t worry; the newsletter won’t be too long. I’m busy; you’re busy. Short is sweet.

Continue reading “Launching My Newsletter” →

Writing Update

by Diane, posted in News Flash

I’ve been doing a lot of writing, editing and formatting lately. So much so, I’ve neglected other areas of my life, but…laundry will always be waiting for me, and dishes will eventually get washed and snow will cover the long grass soon enough.

I have many things in the works, so I thought I’d make record of them here.

2nd Edition of Shadows in the Stone

Many might ask, why a 2nd edition?

The answers are simple and complex. Here are several:

  • I’ve grown immensely as a writer since 2012, when the book was first

    Shadows in the Stone 2nd edition
    2nd Edition Cover

    released. I’d like to show off these new skills by improving the reader’s experience.

  • I didn’t include a character list in the back of the book, and I’ve had several requests for one.
  • The print version of the 1st edition had smaller text, and I wanted to enlarge it slightly to improve the reader’s experience. The 2nd edition also has a prettier layout, which is more appealing to the eye.
  • The cover for the 1st edition was okay, but the 2nd edition cover is amazing.
  • The second book in the series, Scattered Stones, is several thousand words longer, which bumped it up to a more comfortable 6 inches wide by 9 inches tall book. Shadows was 5.5 inches by 8.5 inches. I wanted all books in the series to be 6×9.

Revelation Stones Progress

The long-awaited 3rd book in the Castle Keepers series, Revelation Stones, is scheduled for release in May 2019. It is more than 32,000 words written, but I have a long way to go to see ‘the end’. It will finish off around 140,000 words.

My goal is to write about 50,000 of this in November during NaNoWriMo. I’ll provide updates on my progress here.

Project M – A New Series

Well, not really a new series, but…I’ll explain further when the project nears the end.

Project M stemmed from a writing assignment by my writers’ group. We were challenged to write a complete story between September 2018 and June 2019 following the basic acts (Act I, Act II, Act III) of story telling. We could choose to write a short story or novella, but I chose a full novel.

Brainstorming for ideas brought me to Willow, a character who first appears in Junior Corporal Sawney Cronin’s vignette. Digging further into this woman’s background, I found an interesting story that ties into the ancient dwarf legend told in Glen Tosh. This story begged to be written.

This series will not take flight for a few years as I want three books written before they are released. They will reveal many secrets behind the stories in the Castle Keepers series, so it is best to wait and avoid spoilers. This will have a series name of its own but will be a branch off the Castle Keepers series.

I am supposed to write 400 words a day of this story. In three days, I have 2218 words.

Word Count Updates

I will put updates of my word counts for both novels – Revelation Stones and Project M – in the right margin.