Heir to the Firstborn

Making It!

Making It!

It’s Maker Faire Week and we are making it! Making what? Well… words. And making it to Maker Faire. I found out this morning that we will be in the Spirit building, in space SF6. According to the map, this appears to be Writer’s Row — we’re one of three authors in that aisle, and we’re next to a bookshop. So come and check us out and read all the things!

Tomorrow is Election Day. You’ve voted, right? Or you’re voting tomorrow? Remember, it’s important!

According to my wordcount, I am just over 75% done with King of Swords. According to the story… not even close. It might be closer to 50%, with the hinge coming in the next chapter. Which may mean this is two books. I hope not, but we’ll see. I’m just going to keep going until the story is done, and then I’ll decide when I edit if I’m breaking it up or just having having the third book be bigger than the first two combined. I’d like to see this book done by the end of the year, but… yeah, we’ll see how that goes. I’m not going to rush it — there needs to be some resting in and around the rest of the end of the year things.

Last week saw the first for me. Worlds Begin was #1 in two separate categories! (And, for the record, it still is! I took this screenshot two seconds ago!)

I have never before had a #1 in a category of anything — best I’ve ever seen was #2.

Once Maker Faire is over, I’ll be starting to reserialize the Heir to the Firstborn books on THEO. It’ll take me a bit to get all of the books uploaded, but once I do, they’ll be available to read the way I originally wrote them. (Mostly — the original serial wasn’t fully edited. Remember, the chapters were originally going live as I wrote them, with minimal edits. On THEO, you’ll be getting the finished and polished chapters.)

And that’s about all from my neck of the woods. Remember, if you come out to Maker Faire, let me know you saw this post and you get a discount on books!

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

90396 / 120000 (75.33%)

Appearances

Maker Faire Orlando
November 9-10th
Orlando, Florida

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, a-writers-life-is-never-dull, accountability, Heir to the Firstborn, Maker Faire, politics, public displays of geekery, Tales from the Arena, THEO, upcoming books, upcoming work, WIP, wordcount, Worlds Begin, Writer on the Go!, writing-mom, 0 comments
Once More Into the Beach… errr…Breach…

Once More Into the Beach… errr…Breach…

It’s a show week! Ready for Wizards, Witches and the Weird in Daytona Beach! Once more into the beach… errr… breach, dear friends…

Since we’re on show three of four, everything is still stacked in the living room, waiting to be loaded into the car on Saturday for a “what time did you say we have to leave???” departure on Sunday. I’m in space 38, which is along the left wall as you come in to the Ocean Center, and three from the end. Remember, if you mention you saw this post or that you follow me on social media when you come to the table, you get a discount on purchases!

I’m really looking forward to this show — it looks like it’s going to be a fun day, and the vendors look fantastic! (There’s a list if you go to the event link above.)

I’m also looking forward to the show in two weeks, which will be two days at Maker Faire Orlando. I don’t know where I’ll be setting up yet, but as soon as I know, you’ll know.

Before all of that? Early voting just opened today in Central Florida. We’ll be voting tomorrow. GO VOTE!

And then? What’s after Maker Faire?

A long rest before I start cooking for Thanksgiving. Cleaning my house. Finishing King of Swords. Edits on Morrigan’s Heir (and possible Morrigan’s Wrath.) And seeing what I’ll be writing for my first original piece for THEO. I’ll be starting with them with reprints, to give myself some time to get things planned and get started, but it’s looking like this is where my serial writing will be heading, and my serial writing is going to be a bit more spicy in the future! Since they take all heat levels, my work there may be starting with rerunning the Heir to the Firstborn serial, starting with Written in Water. As soon as my work on THEO starts going live, I’ll let you all know. And if you’re an author interested in taking a closer look? Click the blog button at the bottom of the THEO page. There’s more information there.

And remember… Cookiepocalypse is coming…

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

84098 / 120000 (70.08%)

Promotions

Kobo is doing a Free First in Series promotion for the entire month of October, so you can grab a copy of Hidden Things for free! (You can find it free where ever ebooks are sold — not just Kobo.)


I’m also a part of Enchanted Realms, and this promotion also runs for the entire month of October — sign up for newsletters, get free books and enter to win a $30 gift card!

Appearances

Wizards, Witches and the Weird
October 27th, 2024
Daytona Beach, Florida

***

Maker Faire Orlando
November 9-10th
Orlando, Florida

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, a-writers-life-is-never-dull, accountability, appearances, baking, Cookiepocalypse, forthcoming works, Heir to the Firstborn, politics, promotions, public displays of geekery, Tales from the Arena, The White Raven, THEO, upcoming books, upcoming work, WIP, wordcount, Writer on the Go!, 0 comments
Give Me The Coffee And No One Gets Hurt…

Give Me The Coffee And No One Gets Hurt…

Otherwise known as the Monday after a convention. Today is definitely a “give me the coffee and no one gets hurt” kind of day.

We found out Thursday night that Necronomicon was going to happen, so Friday morning, we packed up and headed out. The normally two hour trip to Tampa took us over three, but the hotel was lovely as always (except in a few places where it was… not. No functional elevators while trying to load into the room was not fun.) The area of Tampa where the convention is held is on the eastern side of Tampa near Busch Gardens, and you don’t have to cross the bridges to get there. Which is good, because when we hit Tampa, all the bridges were still closed. We didn’t see any of the flooded areas, but the convention was feeling the effects of the storm — the halls were empty, and panels that were usually packed had maybe six people in the audience. Entire panels and games were cancelled because people simply could not get to the convention.

And yet, it was still a good convention. Smaller audiences made for more intimate panels, with better opportunity for discussion. The opportunity to connect with fans and with other writers were increased. New friends were made.

It was a good convention.

Edits for Morrigan’s Heir should be hitting my inbox any minute now, and I can’t wait! One step closer to having you all meet Lorcan! Hopefully, we’ll be able to get this turned around for later this year. Cross your crossables!

I was eliminated from SPFBO right before we left. Honestly, I was expecting it — the judge who was assigned my book is very upfront about not liking erotic or dark, and Counsel of the Wicked is both. I’m not sure she even finished it. Which… again, it’s not a surprise. That book is A LOT, and I’m starting to debate if it’s worth it to keep it in print. I may pull the series at the end of the year. We’ll see.

Now, I’m prepping for my next show, the Not So Spooky Hallowfest in Deltona, Florida. I’ll have an abbreviated catalog with me — it’s a family focused event, so I’ll have Heir to the Firstborn and The Chronicles of John Zebedee and that’s all. If you’re in the area on Sunday, come and check out the show, which is going to be from 10AM to 4PM at The Center at Deltona, 1640 Dr Martin Luther King Blvd, Deltona, FL 32725-2912. If you come out and tell me you saw this blog, you get a discount!

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

71118 / 120000 (59.27%)

Promotions

I’m going to be a part of Enchanted Realms, and this promotion runs for the entire month of October — sign up for newsletters, get free books and enter to win a $30 gift card!


Coming up on October 11th, I have Chains of Light available for free in So Queer To My Heart, a spicy queer romance event.


Finally, I’ll be participating in a Stuff Your Kindle event from October 18-20th. There are over 400 books that will be free or discounted for that weekend, and I’ll have Written in Water up for free!

Appearances

Not So Spooky Hallowfest
October 6th, 2024
Deltona, Florida

***

Wizards, Witches and the Weird
October 27th, 2024
Daytona Beach, Florida

***

Maker Faire Orlando
November 9-10th
Orlando, Florida

Posted by EASchechter in a-writers-life-is-never-dull, accountability, appearances, Chains of Light, Counsel of the Wicked, edits, giveaway, Heir to the Firstborn, Hidden Things, Necronomicon, promotions, SPFBO, Tales from the Arena, The White Raven, WIP, wordcount, Writer on the Go!, Written in Water, 0 comments
Reality is Overrated.

Reality is Overrated.

I think that says it all. Reality is overrated, and I’m going to hide in a fantasy world with a guaranteed happy ending for a while. It’s better for my heart.

Not saying I’m not going to do anything. Voting is something. Raising money is something. (The Romancing the Vote auction starts today, and you can win a full set of Heir to the Firstborn.) But it’s still weird and scary out there, and I’m trying to stay informed while not overloading myself to the point of rocking in the corner.

I sat down and did my review of the first half of the year, and I’m doing pretty well in this year’s goals. But I noticed that there’s something I’ve been saying I’m going to do for over a year, and I still haven’t started. I have had on my plan to do a read-a-long of Written in Water, reading a chapter a week on Tiktok. And for some reason, I keep putting off getting started on that. Not sure what’s going on my head that’s causing the mental roadblock, but it’s time I figured that out. Maybe I just need to set a date to start and let the deadline override the roadblock?

I’m trying very hard not to let the Covert Saloon overtake my entire writing world — it’s shiny and new and it wants to be a real live book RIGHT NOW. But it has to wait — right now the work in progress is King of Swords, and the progress is going very well. I still have to have the first two books open to refer back to, but that’s more because it’s been eleven years since the other books came out. The characters are still very familiar, and I’m enjoying the process of writing their story of fighting back against a fascist government…

What can I say? Your output comes from your input. And I said I’m hiding. I didn’t say I wasn’t paying attention.

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

10006 / 90000 (11.12%)

Promotions

Support Democracy and get cool stuff! The Romancing the Vote auction starts today!

In and among all the other cool stuff is a COMPLETE set of Heir to the Firstborn in paperback. The bids are still low, so it’s a steal! Click the image to go right to the item in the auction.


The Smashwords Summer Sale is live! And, because of reasons too silly to go into here, I have two author pages. You can pick up my entire catalog on sale here and here.


Counsel of the Wicked is still a contender for SPFBOX, so it is STILL on sale, but because of the Smashwords sale, it’s even BETTER — it’s FREE!!!

Appearances

Necronomicon
September 27-29th, 2024
Tampa, Florida

***

Not So Spooky Hallowfest
October 6th, 2024
Deltona, Florida

***

Wizards, Witches and the Weird
October 27th, 2024
Daytona Beach, FL

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, accountability, Counsel of the Wicked, Covert Saloon, forthcoming works, Heir to the Firstborn, politics, progress, promotions, SPFBO, Tales from the Arena, upcoming books, upcoming work, WIP, wordcount, 0 comments
The Mondayist not Monday Around

The Mondayist not Monday Around

Today is technically the middle of my week, I think. I didn’t have a weekend — I had a reading on Saturday, and a book signing at a local bookstore yesterday. So my brain doesn’t think it’s Monday, which means that I’m writing this rather late in the day because blogs only happen on Monday, and it’s not Monday, but wait, it really IS Monday! So that makes it the Mondayist not Monday around, I suppose.

It’s also the weirdest Monday I’ve had in a while. I mean, it’s not every day that someone does a U-turn so that they can flip you the bird from EVERY possible angle. (I didn’t do anything, I swear! I was waiting at a red light to make a left turn to go to the grocery store, and this person LITERALLY made a right turn to flip me off, then made a U-turn to do the same from the other side of the car! And I have no idea who they are or why their bad day is my problem!)

So, we’ve determined that I’ve had a strange Monday. This follows after a fantastic weekend, though. I had a live reading of my SPFBOX entry on Saturday evening. You can still see it here

On Sunday, I had a signing at The Writer’s Block, which is an independent bookstore in Winter Park, right near one of my favorite museums — the Morse Museum. Because I had limited time and space, I just brought the Heir to the Firstborn books with me, and I had a wonderful time! (And nearly sold out of Written in Water! I went home with one copy.)

Unless something else comes up, that’s it for my appearances for the rest of the summer. Which is good, because we have a list of “Things To Do Before College,” and I have some revisions to do in The Sea Prince. I’m also still tinkering with what will either be The Covert Saloon books or The Crossroads books — I haven’t decided on the series name yet. But I did learn something really cool — the Oklahoma Panhandle wasn’t part of the state of Oklahoma until 1890. Until then, it was just a void of space in between several states, and claimed by none of them. The Homestead Act didn’t apply, so people who lived there were living there illegally, and it wasn’t really part of the United States, even though it was completely surrounded by it. It was called either the Cimmaron Territory or No Man’s Land. It was a liminal space… and where better to set a Weird Western?

So I need to do some research in that area during 1870, so I have an idea of what I’m talking about. I also need to research the Gullah Geechee people of that time period (one of the characters who already walked out of my subconcious), the US Marshals, and how people traveled in that time and in that particular part of the country. If you think that I fell down a transportation rabbit hole again, you know me too well. (However, this time, it won’t be trains! It’ll be a stagecoach — there wasn’t a train that ran through that area until much later. However, the Santa Fe Trail runs very close to where I’m thinking the fictional town of Crossroads will lie. I just need to find out how long it would take to get from the start of the Trail to that point. That requires math, so I’m putting it off for now.)

Oh, and I need to write King of Swords. Which I should get to, since it’s after 9PM and I haven’t written a WORD today.

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

6599 / 90000 (7.33%)

Promotions

Counsel of the Wicked is still a contender for SPFBOX, so it is STILL on sale! $.99 until it gets knocked out!

Appearances

Necronomicon
September 27-29th, 2024
Tampa, Florida

***

Not So Spooky Hallowfest
October 6th, 2024
Deltona, Florida

***

Wizards, Witches and the Weird
October 27th, 2024

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, appearances, Counsel of the Wicked, Covert Saloon, forthcoming works, Heir to the Firstborn, progress, promotions, public displays of geekery, reality-is-stranger-than-fiction, research is fun, Tales from the Arena, The Sea Prince, upcoming books, upcoming work, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?, WIP, wordcount, Worldbuilding, 0 comments
Back to Work!

Back to Work!

Vacation is over. So is vacation recovery (and all the laundry is finally done and put away.) Time to get back to work!

I will admit, I did get back to work last week. I started (and finished) a revision of The Sea Prince, and now I’m handing it off to Darling Editor for his first read through. Once he’s done, I’ll read it through on paper for the first time. Given how long this project has been in the works, and how much I’ve changed as a writer between writing the opening line and writing “the end,” making sure the voice is consistent throughout is part of the editing process.

I did do some writing on the cruise — the Disney Fantasy has the best little coffee shop in the adult only area, and I sat in there one afternoon with my notebook and pen, and I got started on writing King of Swords. It’s been an age since I last played in this world, and I did reread the books before starting, but I still feel a little bit like I’m visiting a place I haven’t been in years. Which, I suppose, is true in a sense — I’m going back to Tyese and Aakar some eleven years after I first wrote those books

Something else I appear to be going back to are Weird Westerns — last week, while watching Tasting History (a YouTube series I highly recommend,) I had new characters walk out of my subconscious. the episode was on Old West saloons, and before the end of the 25 minute episode, I had a cast of characters. No plot yet, but there was a Sidhe, a dhampir, an Irish werewolf, a human medium, and a Root Doctor, who all live in the Covert Saloon in a small town called Crossroads. I’m fairly certain that it’s not related to The Chronicles of John Zebedee, but it might be. We’ll see where this one goes.

That’s about all that’s going on right now. I’m waiting to hear on edits for the White Raven books, and I have a bunch of appearances coming up — two this weekend! The first is a live reading on YouTube — I’ll be reading from my SPFBOX entry, Counsel of the Wicked. And I’ll be having an in person signing of the Heir to the Firstborn series at the Writers’ Block bookstore in Winter Park on Sunday afternoon. More information on both can be found below, or on my Appearances page.

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

2688 / 90000 (2.99%)

Promotions

Counsel of the Wicked is still a contender for SPFBOX, so it is STILL on sale! $.99 until it gets knocked out!

Appearances

My upcoming appearances — I don’t have graphics for most of these yet, so right now it’s just a list.

Live Reading for SPFBOX!
June 22nd, 2024
5:40 PM

***

Writer’s Block Books
June 23rd, 2024
3pm – 6pm
Winter Park, Florida

***

Necronomicon
September 27-29th, 2024
Tampa, Florida

***

Not So Spooky Hallowfest
October 6th, 2024
Deltona, Florida

***

Wizards, Witches and the Weird
October 27th, 2024
Daytona Beach, Florida

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, accountability, appearances, Counsel of the Wicked, Covert Saloon, Heir to the Firstborn, John Zebedee, promotions, Reading, Rebel Mage, Tales from the Arena, The White Raven, WIP, wordcount, Worldbuilding, Writer on the Go!, 0 comments
Release Week!

Release Week!

The time has come — it’s release week for the final book of the Heir to the Firstborn series. Look at them!

Image of the seven books in the Heir to the Firstborn series. A small, stuffed Highland Cow plush looks over the covers.
(Coo and Boo approved)

And there we have it — the complete Heir to the Firstborn. And when I say complete, I really mean it this time. No more story here. It’s done. REALLY, it’s done.

Which is… a little bizarre, to be honest. I started the series on Patreon in June of 2018 with an outline for four books. Now, five and a half years and seven books later, I just announced on the Patreon that the page will be going dark at the end of February, and will stay dark until I have something new to share there. (Which, I think I do, but right now it’s just an opening scene. It needs more fleshing out.)

Seven years isn’t the longest I’ve spent on one series, I don’t think. I mean, Tales from the Arena isn’t done yet, nor is The Artificer (which started with House of Sable Locks). But neither of those was intended to be a series. Heir to the Firstborn was always planned out as a series, and it just sort of kept going. But it’s the longest I’ve worked on a single creative project continuously, because I was posting a chapter a week every week non-stop for the first six books.

Getting those characters out of my head after all this time? Takes a complete change of subgenre… so I’m currently working The Sea Prince as a palette cleanser (I described it to someone last week as a sort of fantasy-steampunk Master and Commander. Except it’s Age of Sail, so timing-wise that might be candlepunk? I don’t know. If you do, let me know!)

The Sea Prince has been in my queue since 2009 — it’s almost old enough to drive in this state. There have been a lot of false starts and a lot of putting it back on the shelf before I finally figured out where the story was broken. Now? I’m on chapter 23, and starting to pull this book toward a close (and how many of you are gasping in shock because didn’t I just get started on this again less than a month ago? Yes, yes I did. The words have been FLOWING. I’ve written five chapters in three weeks. That’s roughly 15,000 words.) I think there may be between 25K and 50K words left, but I can see the end from here, and I like it.

Then, of course, I need to write the second book in this series…. hopefully, it won’t take me as long as it took to write the first one!

Preorders

Coming TOMORROW to all your favorite bookstoresValley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7)

Print preorder is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, which means you should be able to order the paperback at your favorite brick and mortar bookshop.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

78426 / 120000 (65.35%)
Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, a-writers-life-is-never-dull, accountability, Happy Book Day, happy-happy- joy- joy, Heir to the Firstborn, Release date, The Sea Prince, upcoming books, Valley of Shadows, WIP, wordcount, writing, 0 comments
Rabbit, Rabbit!

Rabbit, Rabbit!

Welcome to 2024!! Saying Rabbit Rabbit at the new year is supposed to bring good luck. No, I’m not sure where it came from, but rabbit rabbit all the same.

It’s been a lovely, relaxing holiday, but it’s time to start ramping up to get back to work. I’m not going to get back to writing for another week — well, not back to writing The Sea Prince, at any rate. There’s something that popped into my head yesterday that I need to write down so I can see if I need to chase it or bank it for later. But when a really compelling voice waltzes into your head and makes you stop to listen, it’s something that need to be written down. We’ll see where it goes.

That story seed wasn’t the only thing to waltz into my head this holiday season. I had a character start talking to me, and I thought it was for something new. Nope… he’s one of the big bads for the Children of the Sword series, and I think the reason that it wasn’t coming together was that I was looking one way, and the story was really over there. What does that mean? It means that, while Swords of Charlemagne and The Chronicles of John Zebedee all exist in the same universe, the convergence of those two series isn’t happening where I thought it was.

Now, I’m not saying I’m going to run out and start writing Children of the Swords tomorrow. There’s too much research to be done — I know nothing about Edwardian England or WWI. That’s currently being addressed, so I’ll say that we can plan to see The Seer (Children of the Sword, book 1) at some point in the next few years.

What am I going to work on this year? Well, edits for Morrigan’s Heir will be coming this month, and then I have to read and revise Morrigan’s Wrath and send that in. Edits for Bonds of Blood and Steel will be along sometime later this year, and I’ll be turning those around as quick as I can. I plan to have The Sea Prince done no later than April 30th, because I’m taking May off entirely (why? High school graduation, that’s why!) Then, come July or August, I’ll be diving into Tales from the Arena: Dead Man’s Hand, because it is time to wrap up that series.

But that all starts next week. This week? I’m still on vacation. Still reading, still researching, still resting my brain.

Preorders

Coming January 30th to all your favorite bookstoresValley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7)

The print preorder will be set up sometime this week — I am waiting on the wraparound cover art.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

63623 / 120000 (53.02%)

Appearances!

For ONE DAY ONLY, I’ll be having a Meet and Greet at the Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, Florida! I will be there for 3PM to 4PM on January 21st, 2024. Come out and support small business!

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, a-writers-life-is-never-dull, appearances, Children of the Sword, forthcoming works, Happy New Year, Heir to the Firstborn, plot bunnies, presales, Release date, research is fun, Tales from the Arena, The Sea Prince, upcoming books, upcoming work, Valley of Shadows, 0 comments
That’s a Draft!

That’s a Draft!

And at 2AM on Sunday morning, I posted the final wordcount of Valley of Shadows (after increasing it by 3000 words the day before.) That’s a draft, folks.

The Patreon is scheduled out until late January, so I’m projecting a release in early February, but possibly sooner. Once I see how edits go, I’ll have a better idea. I will say that I think the ending is a little weak and fluffy, and it might change. 2AM writing isn’t necessarily quality writing, after all.

Edits will start tonight — I already have my printout and two general notes on things to change. Cookiepocalypse, however… that starts tomorrow, and will continue for the rest of the week.

Last week, I said that I was considering taking the rest of the year off, and I’m going to do that. So this will be the last blog post until the New Year. I’ll still be active on social media — cookie pictures must be shared, after all. But there is one exception — I will no longer be found on Twitter/X. My account will be there, but all that you’ll find there after this week will be a redirect to my other socials. (For the record, Blusky, Mastodon, Facebook and Instagram.) The only reason I’m not deleting entirely is that I don’t want anyone to hijack my name there.

What will I be doing for the next three weeks? Other than baking? Edits. I have to write a blurb. Finalizing the book cover (which you’ll see when the blog comes back.) Business planning, and getting back to my research. And catching up on both reading and TV — I still haven’t seen Loki season 2, and I have to watch the New Who episodes. Basically? I’m refilling my tanks and resting my creative brain.

So, this will be the last message until 2024. Here’s hoping that you have a happy whatever you celebrate, that you hold your loved ones close, and that we all come back together in this virtual space in the New Year.

Love you all.

Works in Progress

Valley of Shadows
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

78617 / 78000 (100.79%)

Now on to edits!

Promotions!

The Smashwords End of the Year sale is coming up December 15th. My ENTIRE self-published catalog will be on sale for 25% off ONLY on Smashwords!

Now, because of the Draft2Digital/Smashwords merger, I have TWO author pages on Smashwords (actually, I have four, but two of them are from publishers and I have no control over those.) The two that I maintain will be combined at some point, but until then, the catalogs that will be on sale are here and here.

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, accountability, baking, Cookiepocalypse, Grateful writer is grateful, Happy Holidays!, Heir to the Firstborn, Patreon, post novel ennui, Ta-da, thirty, upcoming books, upcoming work, Valley of Shadows, WIP, wordcount, 0 comments
Lofty Goals

Lofty Goals

Lofty goals, I have them. I have perhaps three chapters left to finish in Valley of Shadows (which drops my wordcount from 90K to 75K.) I am saying this to the public at large, and with my WHOLE chest!

This week I am going to finish this book!!!

As I said, lofty goals. Doable lofty goals, but lofty goals. I’ll be posting my daily wordcounts on Mastodon and Blusky, so you can follow along as I race to finish.

Then… COOKIES!!!

I’m honestly looking forward to the break this year. Although getting me to actually stop doing ANYTHING will be… challenging. I’ve been going at a fever pitch since I started Written in Water in 2018, and I’m not sure I know how to do downtime anymore. Even my vacations are high energy (I vacation at Disney…which means I have fun, but I don’t necessarily relax.) So I’ve decided that once Valley of Shadows is done, I’m taking time away from the laptop. I’m not going to get back to The Sea Prince until January, and I might not even blog! (We’ll see if I hold true to that!)

So what are my plans for the break? Because it’s me and of course there have to be plans? Reading. I have multiple stacks of books to catch up on, and I just added more. There is SO MUCH TV to catch up on — I still haven’t watched season 2 of Loki, and there are about a half-dozen Star Wars shows I need to binge. I want to go down to Disney to see the holiday decorations and do the gingerbread crawl (I’m not sure when that will happen — our park passes black out the 19th.) And I have knitting projects I want to finish.

So, knitting and reading and bingewatching and cookies? Sounds like a plan.

Cookiepocalypse will start next week, so you can keep an eye on Instagram for that. So far, I know I’m making three color cookies to start, and struffuli (which Owyn makes in Wings of Air) to finish. In the middle? I haven’t decided, although I did have a request for oatmeal carob chip. (Hrm… I haven’t made molasses cookies in ages. Maybe I’ll make those, too.)

Follow the Instagram for the cookies — it’ll be a surprise!

In other, other news, my publisher said the most fascinating words to be the other day. Foreign rights. As in, they’ll be shopping them around, so they needed some info from me to put into the pitch. 2024 is promising to be very interesting indeed!

Works in Progress

Valley of Shadows
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

66861 / 75000 (89.15%)

This book will be done this week! I have said it!

Promotions!

The Smashwords End of the Year sale is coming up December 15th. My ENTIRE catalog will be on sale for 25% off ONLY on Smashwords!

Now, because of the Draft2Digital/Smashwords merger, I have TWO author pages on Smashwords (actually, I have four, but two of them are from publishers.) The two that I maintain will be combined at some point, but until then, the catalogs that will be on sale are here and here.

Posted by EASchechter in 2023 plans, 2024 plans, a-writers-life-is-never-dull, accountability, baking, Cookiepocalypse, forthcoming works, From the Writer's Kitchen, Heir to the Firstborn, Planning, progress, The Sea Prince, the-end-is-near, upcoming books, upcoming work, Valley of Shadows, Wings of Air, WIP, wordcount, Write Faster!, 0 comments