Projects Update and Month in Review: March 2017

Welcome, one and all, to the end of March 2017 round-up/projects update. This month turned out to be just as busy as February in terms of post numbers, and there is certainly plenty afoot! As always, let’s begin with a run-down of what’s been happening.

 

Postings for March 2017

• The importance of ‘Tale of Tiger Claw’
• Anime Review: Flying Witch
• Interview: Belart Wright
• Way Cool Wednesday: 8 March 2017
• Book Review: Hell’s Glitch – Into a Dark Adventure by Belart Wright
• Cover Reveal: Addict
• Comic Review: Blacksad Volume 1
• Anime Review: School-Live
• Well-Red Mage interviews Matt Doyle
• Cosplay: Foxy [FNAF] – Mask Commission 2016
• In Depserate Need Of Love: Shinobi

As you can see above, the post numbers have remained consistent with last month, as has the variety of things covered. As at time of writing, the top three most viewed posts for the month were as follows:

3) My review of the Flying Witch anime. I’m really happy to see that because it’s fast become a favourite for me and I am desperate to see it get a Bluray release over here in the UK. The series really is magical.

2) My interview with author Belart Wright. Belart is an absolute gent and a wonderful writer, and it’s always a pleasure when I get to chat with him. I hope you all enjoyed the insights into his latest work within the LitRPG genre as much as I did!

1) The cover reveal for my upcoming novel, Addict. This was a genuine but highly appreciated surprise. The postings about my own projects tend to do well, but this one actually had almost as many hits on its own as the second and third place postings put together.  That does make me smile, especially as I’m particularly happy with the cover itself and the book is one that I’m very happy with.

So, with all that activity, I am very happy with how things are going. Thank you all for dropping by, and please do continue to do so!

 

Upcoming posts for April 2017

There are actually two more posts to come this month, with another author interview landing tomorrow, and a Top 5 at the end of the month. This has only gone up early due to time constraints and wanting to make sure that I’m set for April and May. Moving into April though, I’ll be continuing a minimum of two posts per week. As it stands, you can expect the following:

• Tuesday 4^th April: I Can’t Understand What My Husband Is Saying – Why does it work?
• Friday 7^th April: Anime Review – Amanchu!
• Thursday 13^th April: Comic Review – Dreamkeepers Volume 2
• Wednesday 19^th April: Way Cool Wednesday
• Friday 21^st April: In Desperate Need of Love
• Monday 24^th April: Crunchyroll of the Dice 2017 Round 1 – ??? vs. ???
• Friday 28^th April: Top 5

These are, of course, subject to change. There will be some stuff to add too, including a book review, some cosplay stuff, and the Crunchyroll of the Dice 2017 brackets post. Full steam ahead!

 

Books and Stories

So, just as I was about to take the plunge and push The Spark Form Chronicles onto other formats (on top of Kindle and paperback), I got a ton of KDP pages read. What that means is that I’ll actually get paid for people reading the books through Kindle Unlimited. And therein is my dilemma. If I release the books elsewhere, they will be removed from this scheme. Now, I had been in a slump, which was why it made sense to shift them to elsewhere, but while I’m getting some steady earnings from there, I simply cannot do it. My earnings from this aren’t astronomical, but they’re regular, at least at the moment, and that is a bonus. If you follow my Twitter, you may also have seen that, while not exclusively an LGBT story, WICK has been hitting the Top 100 for LGBT sci-fi on Kindle. That is fantastic to see as Fahrn Starchaser (and out lesbian in a long-term relationship with an openly bisexual woman) is one of my favourite characters to write in The Spark Form Chronicles.

Moving on, and sticking with the LGBT theme, I’m really happy to see that the cover for Addict went down so well. The story is something that I’m really proud of, and I’m hoping that when people read it, they’ll pick up on the Bladerunner meets L.A. Confidential feel that I was going for. Yes, the lead is a lesbian, but I wrote this with the idea being to make it accessible for any audience with a love of cyberpunk stuff, irrespective of their sexual orientation. The manuscript is now done and ready though! We went through three extra rounds of editing to ensure that the work was tight, that I was using my Canadian slang properly, and that it was devoid of plot holes, so here’s to some success when it hits the shelves in the Summer! As a preview, this is the tagline that has been used on Twitter thus far:

In a city that works because good people are willing to do bad things, she’s your best hope …

Sounds cool, right? So, if you want to read a near future science fiction tale about a Chinese-Canadian PI who happens to not be heterosexual, keep your eyes open for when it’s up for pre-order!

No new news on Nor’Killik and its appearance in Bad Dog Books’ ROAR 8 anthology as yet, but I’ll let you all know when I have order links for that one too.

Writing in general has been a little more up and down this month due to some personal stuff. That said, I have made some progress. Cassie Tam 2 is now up to 44,359 words in total and not yet finished, so that’s something at least. Everything has fallen to the wayside a little though. Hopefully that’ll change this coming month. As it is, this is where I’m at:

• Simon Teller 2: Editing
• Simon Teller 3: Editing
• Simon Teller 4: Editing
• Cassie Tam 2: Writing (draft 1 about 90% complete)
• Children’s Furry/Dystopian novel: Planning
• Children’s Ergodic Novel: Planning
• Spark Form Chronicles Fahrn Starchaser Novella: Planning
• Spark Form Chronicles Connor Ford Novella: Planning

I’m unsure which of the ‘planning’ stage stories I’ll hit next. Possibly a combination of the Fahrn novella and the children’s ergodic one. Who knows though. I really want to start getting the other Simon Teller books out there too, so the formatting will take some time with that one.

 

Crossplay

Hyper Japan 2017 is getting closer! Am I still on course to dress as Inukai from Flying Witch? Yup! I’ve done a makeup test with the prosthetic muzzle and am very happy with the results, so look out for a post on that soon. Meanwhile, I now have the cloak too. Building the ears comes next!

 

General stuff

Not a lot to report here. I’m still waiting for a start date for my volunteer work in a Primary School, and I’m still on the hunt for employment. Who knows how that’ll all resolve itself. Still, here’s to a spiffing April. Thanks for reading everybody. I’ll catch ya later!