Newly Released
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Progress BarUnannounced Project Second Draft
Daybreak City First Draft
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After almost three years, I finally buckled down to release Sunset City. This book has been in the editing stage for the majority of the time. When Midnight City was released back in 2021, this book had already been written. But I knew I really needed to focus more on editing than I did with the first. Despite this being the second book in a trilogy, the stakes had been risen, which meant I could not afford to slack off. The cover also took awhile to design as I had the original concept in mind, but couldn't quite pull it off at first. I'm happy with the way it turned out, and it's even inspired me to go back and do a redesign to the first novel, now that I have more experience under my belt. Sunset City is exclusively available on Amazon for now, but more outlets will follow in the coming months. Next stop, the paperback.
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It almost doesn't feel like I published If I fall over three months ago. I always look forward and dread the day. On the bright side, that means that a book has ran its course on KDP Unlimited Program and thus can now be sold on other platforms such as Google and Apple. However, this also means that no one can try out my book for free and must purchase it. This is always a big gamble for a self-publisher who can't rely on their name to instant-sell books. This means that the choice comes down to: Do I expand my book to many outlets so someone has a chance to read my book? Or, do I double down on Amazon and enhance my readers through their program?
My answer is always to expand, even if it has had little payoff. The reasoning for this is two-fold. First, if I only sold on Amazon, and allowed my book to be free through their KDP Unlimited Program, I still get paid, but not everyone has KDP Unlimited. And the broader problem is not everyone has Amazon. Here in Sweden, Amazon exists but Kindle does not. This means they do not sell e-books on the platform, thus locking my book out from potential buyers. They do, however, have Google Books and Apple Books. Second, not everyone likes Amazon, and that's understandable. So, I want to have the choice of offering my book to people who would have otherwise never seen it, if it only remained on Amazon. Now this does not mean I have won the Divide and Conquer war. Because I publish through Amazon, they always get first dibs on my book and they have the print rights as well for anyone wanting a physical copy. This means at the end of the year, Amazon is always making me more money than the other two options. This is subject to change however, as I just joined Apple's Itunes Connect Program and added my first book Midnight City. Only time will tell if any copies are sold through there, but it is another step to accessibility as Iphone/Ipad users were locked out of my content before unless they downloaded a third party app (ain't nobody got time for that). As of now, If I fall is now available through Amazon, Google, and Apple Books. I will continue with the same release format going forward, and who knows, maybe another popular book app will rise and I will divide yet again. 2023 was...a lot to say the least. Attempting to juggle learning a new language with its own grammar rules, proved too difficult to swap between when trying to write my own things. Thus I took a hiatus from writing to finish the Swedish language program I was enrolled in. This took waaaaay longer than I anticipated to finish. I won't get into why it took over a year to finish this program, but the end result is: Jag kan prata bra svenska nu :). However, the thing I'm most proud to announce, is the release of my romance novel that should have been released last year. After graduating Swedish class, we got a Whippet puppy that could not be left alone under any circumstances. Then, I was immediately hit with the holidays of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. I promised myself after the holidays, I would buckle down and get the book edited with the intent to release on Valentine's Day. And man did I barely make it.  If I Fall has been four years in the making. To prove how long it's been. I was working at a place before my last job. There was a lot of downtime and came up with the idea one night, and began writing the story down on little pieces of scrap paper I would properly type when I got home. Jake's physical description is actually based on a server who used to work at the same job. We didn't interact much, but I never could get over the fact he was so tall, I would break my neck looking at him. I'm glad I can finally mark this as done and move on to my next projects. My most important goal will be finishing the second book to the Contaminates Series, Sunset City. For the few that have been waiting for the second book in the series, I thank you for your patience. I'm aiming for a fall release, but we will see how life goes.  Drax If I fall is now available to buy through Amazon Kindle, and if you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read for free. Both ways support me, and allowing me to keep doing what I love. Thank you everyone for your continuing support, and I promise not to vanish again.
Man this year has been crazy. For all those that might have wondered where I've disappeared to or if I ended up in a ditch somewhere, I am happy to report I am alive. Since my last post, things have been crazy. Not only all the approaching holidays, but my continuing lessons in Swedish have escalated into more work and more focus. I decided to host both Halloween and Thanksgiving, and with Thanksgiving being the first time I've ever hosted (cooked) a big meal with a lot riding on that turkey coming out edible, it was a lot of pressure. Then at the beginning of December, my sister came to visit me, which meant the world considering this would be the first time I wouldn't celebrate Christmas and New Years with the fam. For my birthday week, we popped down the Berlin, Germany to visit the Christmas markets and for my sister to visit a country she's always wanted to go to. Safe to say, Berlin isn't what I expected, and I would probably never go back, but maybe the temperature being the coldest it had been in Germany this month didn't help matters. But we got to see the Brandenburg Gate, the remains of the Berlin Wall, and Museum Island whose architecture was the most impressive of all. Despite going for four days, it was constantly a busy day.   After our Germany trip, it's been the Christmas rush ever since. Getting gifts, decorating, meeting people. It's all been exhausting. But I didn't have to cook, and I didn't have to host, so that was a silver lining. And now we fast forward to the end of the year. Man it's been a ride. I didn't get my next book published this year, but I know that will be my new year's resolution. I guess settling into a brand new country is harder and takes more time than I realized. As I slowly fit in here, both with the people, the culture, and the way of life, I'm hoping this coming new year will help me find my footing. I appreciate everyone who continues to support me or listen to my ramblings because it means more than the world to me. But to cap off this year, I'm going to do one of those year in review things and fire off a list of things I loved or hated this year. Best Movie I Saw: Bullet Train (I haven't seen Glass Onion or Everything Everywhere all at Once) Worst Movie I Saw: Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (Thor 4 might be worse, but this movie was also my most disappointing I paid money to see) Best Song I Couldn't Stop Listening To: About Damn Time by Lizzo Worst Song I Wanted to Stop Listening To: ABCDEFU by Gayle Best TV Show I Saw: The Sandman Worst TV Show I Saw: She-Hulk Best Book I Read: The Observer Effect by Nick Jones Worst Book I Read: Kurtain Motel by A.I. Nasser (See my review on why I disliked this one) Best Game I Played: Guild Wars 2 Worst Game I Played: Lego Lord of the Rings (Played on PC with no controller) The Thing I was Most Excited For: The anime Bleach returned after 10 years hiatus The Thing I was Least Excited For: MCU Phase 4 My Favorite Place I Visited This Year: Sweden My Least Favorite Place I Visited This Year: Berlin (only because it was so cold) What I'm Looking Forward to in 2023: Releasing my Next Book What I'm not Looking Forward to in 2023: Tax Season I hope everyone has a Happy New Year and I'll hopefully be back with more exciting news and releases! So about a month ago I have a cover reveal for my next book If I Fall. If the cover doesn't make it fairly obvious it will be a Romance novel. It took a lot of time working with Bookbrush, finding useful images on Pixelbay, and refining a lot on Photoshop. And here is the fruits of my labors.  I always had this idea of what I wanted the cover to look like, and while I did have to do some compromising, I think it conveys enough of the story elements I wanted to incorporate. I'm hoping to have more information on the book soon. It is in the middle stages of the beta read. To which it will go back to touch up edits based on what my readers suggested. I'm still hoping for an end of the year release, fingers crossed.
Earlier this month, I decided to try something I've never attempted before. Watch every single Pixar movie in their catalogue. When I first decided to do it, it was going to be for fun, but as I watched some of these movies, I had some things to say. This grew as Pixar added Lightyear as I was almost done watching all of them. I decided to just make this the review instead of trying to squeeze in a book review. This turned into a thirty-four page massacre. This ate up the whole month, and I didn't expect it to take so long.
Because it's so large, I will be posting in parts to make it easily readable and save you from the dreaded wall of text. I encourage you to check it out. I've made a new tab called "The Reel Deal Reviews" which is where I will post film reviews. If you like this kind of content, more than the book reviews, let me know and I can do more of them in the future. Next month, look out for If I Fall cover reveal! While summer can easily be a time to kick back and relax behind the shield of our air conditioners, or to finally take that vacation we've all been craving the last two years, the wall of text that stares back at me (aka If I Fall editing) can sometimes be daunting. I have a horrible tendency to drop something if I start to grow bored, and thus I have to constantly hop around to different topics to keep things interesting. So far this month, I have accomplished quite a bit.
I have officially joined Goodreads and became a Goodreads Author! My book can now be successfully found on the site, to hopefully gain more of an audience and reviews. I have also uploaded this month's Book Review. Check it out over at The Bookshelf especially if you like Greek myth. And I hope to be close to the end of editing If I Fall by next month. I recommend setting goals for yourself. It has definitely helped me by setting up a task, and rewarding myself if it gets completed. I used to believe that kind of thinking would die when you become an adult, but it still very much works. And while I have no air conditioner to shield me, nor am I likely to take a trip this summer, I will find something to keep it interesting. I always seem to. Until next month. It's now been two weeks since moving to Sweden (yes the country) and it still feels like a vacation more than anything. This isn't helped by the fact I quit my job of nearly two years to move here. Going from working five days a week, to no days of week feels like I'm just waiting to go back to a life I have left behind. I am still going all in on my writing, and the most important step is setting up a schedule.  When not sight seeing or catching up with friends and family I haven't seen in four years, I have released a new book review for the month of June. Check it out in The Bookshelf Reviews. I am also still working on the final edit for my next book release If I Fall. Make sure to join my Subscriber List to exclusive access to my mini-series Camp Lazarus and other book updates.  A couple of weeks ago, I not only trekked across the vast open space of the U.S, but we travelled thirty-six hours for two reasons. The first was to accompany my sister before she starts her new job in a state across the country. It was a big step for her, and while we all supported her decision, I realized it would be a long time before we would see each other again. It was bittersweet as we both have reached the point in our lives when we want to say we did 'something' instead of 'nothing'. The second reason I wanted to go on this long journey was to visit Seattle, the setting of my first book, Midnight City.  When you set out to create a book, especially in a setting you've never visited yourself, you have to do a lot of research. In this case, Google Maps. However, things change, and sometimes things that were there one moment, are torn down and replaced with another. This is why I wanted to see the city for myself. Would it change anything? No, probably not. What's written is written. But I get to experience what my characters experience. I'm not just describing a street that I have no idea what's on anymore. I can now walk the same path my characters did. It was pretty cool, but it definitely wasn't what I expected. Many things I did write about four years ago had changed. The biggest change I noticed was with Northgate Mall, the location of the climax, and yet it was completely under construction. Like most malls, the effects of 2020 still take a toll, and many of the shops have long since vacated. Much construction plagued the downtown area, causing a lot of traffic gridlocked around the city.  My favorite place, and ironically the last place I visited, was the pier. Was it what I imagined? Absolutely not. Google Maps was never able to get close to it, thus I had to use my imagination for all of it. I was pretty off base, and to any native-Seattler who read it and was confused, my apologies. But seeing how lively the shops were, how calm the water was, it was different from the fast-paced city right behind it.
Would I go back? Doubtful. This definitely felt like a one-and-done trip. I'm glad I got to see the place, and I feel I can picture the scenes better compared to the view I got from the internet, but I'm ready to move on. Like my sister, we have to continue to pursue our dreams. On to the next book, and to a new location. Hello all and welcome to my site! I decided to create a site for a couple of reasons. First, it'll be easier for me to post things on here first exclusively before my other social media. And it also allows me to not only keep everyone updated on my projects, but to also keep me motivated to continue my projects. I will be posting more soon, so make sure to join the subscriber list to be notified on future updates and to get access to the episodic series Camp Lazarus.
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