Resolution Update: November

My goals for this year began as:

• Graduate from college. (Accomplished)
• Write a new manuscript, something I haven't had time to do since I started college. (Accomplished)
• Take a vacation someplace out of Arizona. (Accomplished)
• Hug my daughter every day. (In Progress)
• Learn how to make book trailers and post them to YouTube. (Accomplished!)

As I continue through the year, my evolving list of goals reads:

• Hug my daughter every day. (Still in Progress, with modifications)
• Support my daughter as she takes her turn at college. (Accomplished)
• Finish editing The Siege of Kwennjurat and get it published. (Accomplished)
• Reformat all ebooks so they look better. (Accomplished)

The hugs were temporarily stopped during October, as we realized we were passing the flu back and forth. Now that we're recovered enough to consider ourselves no longer contagious, they have resumed.

Happily, The Siege of Kwennjurat was released on October 24th. Of course, if you read my blog, you already know this, because I've talked about nothing else all month. I've been working in this world for sixteen years, and was rather happy to be done with it at last. During most of that time, I have had a hand drawn and colored map of the Ten Kingdoms hanging above my desk. Even though the book was available for sale slightly before the 24th, I had decided to take the map down on the 24th, as a private celebration of the completion of my work in that world, and a symbol to myself that goals can be accomplished, even when they take a long time to materialize.

On the 22nd, I had a dream. Book ideas often come to me through dreams, and the vivid scenes that are the seed for the novel usually remains largely unchanged through the writing process. In this dream, I saw two people meeting in a shadowy place, and speaking in low tones. I recognized one of them immediately as a character from Kwennjurat. From their conversation, I soon realized that the other person had been mentioned in the books, but didn't have a large role. I had thought the second person was dead. They are not dead. I have left my map up. Research and plotting is already underway. There will, apparently, be a third book in the Kwennjurat Chronicles, even though most of the action in the third book will not be in the Ten Kingdoms. Hang on to your hats, this is going to be an interesting ride!

I have two trailers up on YouTube, and ideas are coming for other video projects including but not limited to book trailers. My video camera had other ideas. It apparently decided it didn't have any further interest in living, so further forays into video are temporarily delayed until I see enough books to replace the video camera -- or find the money someplace else.

I always have more than one book project under construction, and at any given time they're in different stages of being written, edited, and prepared for publication. Right now, I have a romantic novella that hopefully will be out around thanksgiving. It's a Christmas themed story, so if it misses its deadline it will have to wait a full year. Because of its length, I plan to release it in ebook only, and for at least the first several months, it will be in Amazon's lending program, which means Kindle only. The title is A Gigolo for Christmas. Yes, you heard right, A M Jenner is writing a book with the word "gigolo" in the title. You'll have to get the book and read it to see if my standards have actually slipped. I've also got a short story collection that hopefully will be out around the first of the year named Bits and Bites. By the end of next year, I hope to have the suspense novel Just a Name, and the fantasy Mind Touch published as well, so there's lots of good news and new books in the pipeline for my devoted fans -- all ten of you. (That's a joke - I hope I have more than ten fans.)

On the handcrafting front, I hauled out my daughter's knitting looms and started a shawl, but that project got derailed because of the dollhouse project I'm involved in. It began as an idea to make a miniature bookshop to use as a set for photo shoots for my website, but has evolved into simply a project to build a miniature bookshop dollhouse with a flat above the shop. Each of the floors has been constructed. My mom is planning on finishing and furnishing the flat, and I'm working on the bookshop. So far, I have built the stairs to go upstairs with, laid down hardwood flooring, painted, and polished it, painted the walls in the office at the back of the shop, and I'm working on creating the wainscoting for the front of the shop. I'm not going to post any pictures until it's finished, though. I'm making it on a budget in half-scale, which means I get to make the doors and windows and everything else completely by hand, because purchasing dollhouse things in half-scale is beyond my budget. Plus, it's fun to figure out how to create it and make it look good when my construction materials are mostly found items already in my craft supplies.

I only finished reading seven books this month, but my page total is 4367. 

~Marie

Exciting New Video!

More exciting news related to the October 24 release of The Siege of Kwennjurat. I wanted to share the video trailer with you, so you can see a little more what the book is about. Remember, The Siege of Kwennjurat is the sequel to Tanella's Flight. If you haven't read Tanella's Flight yet, there's still time to get it so that you’ll be caught up with the story when it comes out.

Marie

Resolution Update

My goals for this year began as:

• Graduate from college. (Accomplished)
• Write a new manuscript, something I haven't had time to do since I started college. (Accomplished)
• Take a vacation someplace out of Arizona. (Accomplished)
• Hug my daughter every day. (In Progress)
• Learn how to make book trailers and post them to YouTube. (Accomplished!)

As I continue through the year, my evolving list of goals reads:

• Hug my daughter every day.
• Support my daughter as she takes her turn at college. (Accomplished)
• Finish editing The Siege of Kwennjurat and get it published.
• Reformat all ebooks so they look better. (Accomplished)

The hugs continue at an accelerated rate, which is good for both of us.

My daughter has decided that, despite the support, an academic education is not what is right for her, and has left school. We are all happy for her mature decision. While college can be quite useful, it is not for everyone. We're happy that she has realized this, and chosen not to waste any more money, time, and extreme frustration trying to live up to cultural expectations. She is getting a lot of love and support now as she forges her own path in life.

The Siege of Kwennjurat is completely finished, and will be released on October 24th. There's going to be a lot of blog activity this month, with book giveaways and other pre- and post-release activity. I'm so happy to finally have finished this exciting two-volume tale after some sixteen years of combined work on the two books.

Last month I reported success with creating my first-ever video trailer, for Tanella's Flight:

This month, I have doubled my trailers, by adding a new one for The Siege of Kwennjurat. Although they are companion books, the feel of the two trailers is really very different. I think they each fit their book, though.

I finally finished the pair of socks last night. Due to my increasing arthritis in my hands, this will very likely be the last hand-knitting I will ever do. I also finished the quilt. I laid it on the couch to take the picture of it as promised.

I only finished a dozen books this month, but my page total is 5756. They were thicker books than last month.

~Marie

Goodreads Giveaway

My new book, The Siege of Kwennjurat, is coming out October 24. I got the proof copy in yesterday's mail. Here's the front cover, isn't it gorgeous?

For some reason, I'm more excited about The Siege of Kwennjurat being launched than the last several books. Maybe it's because I've been working on it for about 3 1/2 years. Maybe it's just that I'm excited that the rest of the story is finally available to everyone who enjoyed Tanella's Flight so much. Maybe it's just all the work I put into the front cover.

At any rate, keep your eyes on this blog because exciting things are going to be happening over the next month, and all of them will be announced here.

I'm giving away five copies of The Siege of Kwennjurat through Goodreads, so if you have a membership there, sign up for your chance to win an autographed copy. You can either sign up at Goodreads, or you can use the widget in the right-hand column of the blog.

I will be showing off the trailer for the new book in just a few days. During the next month, I also plan to host a hangout at Google+, give away signed books on this blog, and going on what I hope will be an international blog tour. The details for that aren't all quite arranged yet.

~Marie

Update on Goals

My goals for this year began as: 

• Graduate from college. (Accomplished)
• Write a new manuscript, something I haven't had time to do since I started college.
• Take a vacation someplace out of Arizona. (Accomplished)
• Hug my daughter every day.
• Learn how to make book trailers and post them to YouTube. (Accomplished!)

As I continue through the year, my evolving list of goals reads:

• Write a new manuscript, something I haven't had time to so since I started college.
• Hug my daughter every day.
• Support my daughter as she takes her turn at college.
• Finish editing The Siege of Kwennjurat and get it published.

My new manuscript, Crown of Tears was finished on August 25, a personal speed-writing record for me.

Our hugs have increased to multiple hugs per day, and let me tell you, my daughter gives really good hugs. On the school front, I check with her every day about her homework, asking about her assignments and following up to make sure she is turning them in on time.

I've finished the major rewrites on The Siege of Kwennjurat, and it is now being copy edited. I'm pleased to announce that it will be released on October 24th.

I learned new things about ebook formatting from my friend Green Tortuga, and am now in the processing of reformatting my ebooks to make them look better. Now that I've learned how to put pictures into ebooks, expect to find maps in the fantasy books after the reformatting is complete.

I also learned something from my new friend Paul Carroll, author of Balor Reborn. He taught me how to make video trailers for my books, and I started in with a trailer for Tanella's Flight. Earlier this year I had decided I wasn't going to be able to get to that this year, but things worked out otherwise. This shows me that what "they" say about goals is true. If you write it down and read it often, a way will be opened up for it to become accomplished, even when you don't know how it is going to happen. The trailer for Tanella's Flight can be seen here. You cal also view it below.

I'm still 3/4 of the way through knitting the same pair of socks. I haven't knit more than a couple of rows all month. However, I did begin work on another project that got put off because of school. Some two years ago I was involved in a quilt block swap with 11 online friends. We each made twelve blocks, sent them to a central location to be sorted, and received back twelve unique blocks, one from each friend. During August I embroidered each friend's name on her quilt block, and over this weekend I designed a reversible quilt, cut and sewed the back of the quilt, and have machine-quilted half the blocks. I also sewed two pillow cases from extra material that matched the back of the quilt. I expect to finish up the project in the next two or three days, and I promise to post pictures when I'm done.

I've read 33 books containing 3340 pages for pleasure reading this month. No, I'm not just reading short, 100-word books; some of the Mark Twain "books" on my nook are only a very few pages, but since they have a separate title page and a separate entry in the table of contents, I count them as a "book", even though they are sometimes only two pages long. I've also been reading 300-400 page novels, in fact, I re-read The Hobbit and all three of The Lord of The Rings during August.

~Marie

New Book Trailer

I'm so excited! I have finally learned how to do something I've been wanting to do for more than a year. I have made my very first ever book trailer, and posted it to YouTube.

First, I have to thank Paul Carroll, author of Balor Reborn. Last week I agreed to host him on his blog tour. His next stop after my blog involved a tutorial on how to make book trailers. Without his help, I would not have any book trailers until next year or longer.

Second, I need to thank Shen Hart of Literary+, because without her efforts to help authors get together and help each other with marketing, I never would have met Paul Carroll.

Third, I need to thank my friend Dzrt Bxr for performing the music on my trailer and allowing me to use it.

And fourth, I bet by now you're all wanting to actually see the trailer, right? Well, here you go, I hope you all like it!

~Marie