Well, gosh. It’s hot outside. Makes me long for colder climates (like Alaska, as seen in the Denali photo above I snapped from last summer’s vacation).

Any parent out there will agree that the late adolescence stage of kids is an absolute time vacuum. This past semester, my daughter was busy with at least one after-school activity every single day. Piano, Spanish language, coding, rock climbing, two volleyball teams (one that I coached), math, academic competitions, multiple theater productions, and more. All over town. Anyone familiar with DFW knows that everything is always at least half an hour from where you live, and that doesn’t account for the inevitable traffic snares. With all those obligations, compounded with play dates, sleepovers, summer vacation planning, and the usual day-to-day requirements of family life, I have found my writing time of late to be severely challenged. Plus, I’ve been planning the DFW Writers’ Workshop Local Author Crawl (coming August 16!). Unfortunately for those of you who follow my blog, that means little new content is coming out here as it’s kind of at the bottom of the totem pole. Lucky for you, I’m waiting for my car to come out of service, so I have a few captive moments to throw out an update. Here’s how my spring has gone:

Steelwing: Friend or Foe a success? While I’m super proud of the second story in Cammie’s online adventures in Illiavar, and those who have read it rave about it, SW:FOF hasn’t been a smash seller at my book signings. Certainly, I’ve sold a few, but sales of the original Steelwing has outpaced it by more than tenfold. I guess the lesson here is that folks new to a series are most likely only to buy the first book. Fair, but I way over-ordered author copies to start. I guess they’ll sell eventually.

Lessons from book signings. With the release of Friend or Foe, I scheduled a ton of book signings. I had nine over the span of seven weeks. Some of them were smash successes (thank you Barnes & Nobles), others very good days, and a tragic couple were utter voids of despair and disappointment. In all, I’ve sold around 200 books this spring, almost all entirely in person, which is a worthy sum. But I’m not selling many online, partly because…

I need reviews! Getting reviews on books is crazy important. As in, the algorithms that drive books to be shown to shoppers on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere all gauge a suggested book’s potential to make a sale largely based on the number of reviews it has received. And to be sure, my three books have not garnered a lot of reviews. Those reviews I have received have been great, but I need more. Lots more. The magic number for Amazon is supposedly 50 reviews, so I have a long ways to go. If you have time, please leave a review for my books!

Authors beware! As writers get deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole of their journey, one of the things that becomes readily apparent is the vampiric nature of the support community surrounding those who want to become published authors. There are so many people with their hands out, saying they can help authors reach great success. Some of these can be legitimate – artists and editors are capable of transforming substandard work into something worthy of the book loving community. Social media personal assistants and book festivals are great ways to get your name and book out into the world. While there are many quality representatives of these author resources, there are others that are happy to take your money and give absolutely minimal effort in return. Unfortunately, I experienced this in the form of a book festival featuring over 50 authors a few weeks ago. We were told that there were over a hundred pre-registered guests, there would be world records achieved, and it seemed like money well spent (because few book festivals do it for free). Yet over a full two-day span, a meager total of five guests visited the room to browse the books on offer. I sold exactly one book, and that was to another author. That, in exchange for a $150 table fee, plus hotel and travel costs. None of the authors left happy, and some in fact left after just one day there. The organizers kept espousing the benefits we were receiving of exposure and “getting our names out there”, but it was just sad, sad, sad. Needless to say, I will not be participating in any of their future events. I will do the kind thing and not name them here, but feel free to ask me in person about it and I will tell you all about it. The lesson here is to do your research, and maybe not do every possible book festival under the sun. Some are clearly better than others.

More signings ahead! All that said, I have a few more signing dates coming up! It is great fun to talk books with eager readers and other authors, so don’t be shy. Come on out and support the author community.

Steelwing 3 update! I am more than a third of the way into the first draft of Steelwing 3 (those of you who have reached the end of Steelwing: Friend or Foe already know what it’s called). I have also ordered the cover and character art from the amazing artist who did the first two books. I’ve paused writing this for a brief period given my limited writing time to focus on another project. I still hope to have this book finished and released before the end of 2025, but don’t have a firm release date yet.

Secret graphic novel project! I am currently working on a middle grade graphic novel called The Department of Daniel Prevention. My daughter is 10 now and all about graphic novel series like Wings of Fire, Warriors, Babysitters’ Club, and a zillion others. I was watching as she crammed down book after book at Half Price Books one day and thought to myself, “I should get in on that.” So, I dove in headfirst. I brainstormed some concepts with my daughter and have come up with something super fun that kids will absolutely love. And I’ve designed think it would work very well as an episodic series. As I have no talent for drawing, I will be attempting to get an agent for this and pursue the traditional publishing route. Click here to read my article about the daunting challenge that can be. I’ve also attempted to closely hold firm to the Pixar storytelling formula with it, so we’ll see how it turns out. The first draft of the script is halfway done at this point, and I should have a complete draft out for beta readers hopefully within a week or two. Exciting! Once it’s polished, I’ll hit the query trenches with it and pitch it to agents at DFWCon. If you’re new to writing conferences, read my article about them. Well worth the price of admission.

And that’s about it for now. Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter to be eligible for monthly giveaways and to stay in the know about all of my signing events and other news. Talk soon! M