Hi all! It’s been a few months since I’ve updated things here, and I’ve definitely been busy! To update from my previous post in February, I did not move forward in the book to screenplay competition, but that definitely gave me a good boost to getting things done!
Currently, I’m at the Storymakers Conference in Provo, Utah, wrapping up a two-day conference of learning about writing, being an author, and all sorts of techniques to improve. I even scheduled a manuscript consult with a literary agent, and showed up to my appointment Saturday super excited and nervous—only to discover I’d made a mistake, and my scheduled consult time was actually Friday. While I got notes back from the agent, I feel equally horrible that I missed the opportunity and that I wasted someone’s time while potentially damaging a potential contact in the industry. Otherwise, I’ve definitely enjoyed my time here, and I’m excited to bring what I’ve learned into my future books!
Speaking of future books, I have THREE more coming out this year! In February, I published Fragments: The Defiance, book three of my science fiction series. Book four is set to debut on June 22nd. Before that, however, I’m excited to announce the start of the Ancient Wonders series, titled The Sword’s Secret.
In this book, we meet Dr. Rhys Wilder, closeted mythologist and museum curator who gets the opportunity of a lifetime - funding to embark on a quest to find Excalibur, legendary sword of King Arthur, who’s existence has yet to be proven. The first of many planned books in this series, Rhys will undertake many adventures to find artifacts and truths from long-gone civilizations, balancing the ethics of what the truth really means when it’s discovered, and how it will affect the world. In this Lara Croft meets Indiana Jones meets Uncharted action-adventure series with queer lead characters, Rhys and his friends will find answers to questions never asked, and be left with questions that can never be answered.
The series debuts May 31st, 2024 with Gold Dust Publishing, and I’m so excited to see where this goes!
In June, the final book of the Fragments series is on the slate. Fragments: The Arrival is the exciting conclusion to the Fragments series in which Jake West discovers people who have the ability to control the elements using mysterious crystals. Turns out, the fragments themselves are from the alien race which first came to planet Earth. And as the series goes on, we learn more about not only what the aliens want, but what they’re willing to do to get it.
Finally, tentatively planned for September 2024, we’ve got the sequel to my romance Puppy Love, my contemporary LGBTQ+ romance which debuted in the summer of 2021. Come back to say hello again to Ash, Remy, and Bark Ruffalo as they continue their journey.
Now, all these books currently are only planned in print format. Turns out, audiobooks are a beast of their own! I unfortunately had a narrator fall through with the first book of the Fragments series, and I would love to find someone who is able and willing to do all four books. I will be working to get the audiobook published to a wider audience, and will work to do the same with the print and ebook versions once I have the ability to publish them on other platforms.
So, my question to you: do you prefer audiobooks, or would a podcast be more up your alley? See, I have a podcast I’ve kind of let fall by the wayside, but I can reprioritize my time to read a chapter from a book each episode. If I were to do that with my Fragments series, we’d be looking at about 80-85 episodes that are around half an hour each (one chapter is around 30 minutes if I read it straight through).
Upsides to an audiobook include me not having to take the time to record and edit the audio myself, in addition to the professional quality which includes someone being able to do accents. Downside is my own cost to do each book, and potential to not have the person sign up to complete each book.
The upside to a podcast is that I have complete control over uploading to a wide variety of sites, and there’s potential to have guests or answer questions from listeners in each episode. Downside to podcast is that it would take longer for the books to come out (even if I did one episode every week for a year would only result in 52 episodes a year). Even then, it would still be around the same timeframe for all four books to enter audio production and be complete and distributed. Additionally, a downside would be the fact that I’m not the best when it comes to accents, so quality would kind of suffer.
So, what do you think? What would you prefer? I’ll also be consulting with my BookTok people to get their thoughts on things. Additionally, are these blog posts enough? Or would you prefer to sign up for a quarterly newsletter to keep updated on all my book happenings? As I’m working to ensure I connect with my readers, I want to make sure I’m doing so in a way to actually connect, versus posting a blog no one reads, for example.
Am I yelling into the void? Let me know what you’d prefer when it comes to listening to stories and keeping updated about my future projects! Thanks!