I’m going ahead at full speed these days – just like the Viking longship I use to illustrate this Progress Report. There is a lot to unload, and for once, I feel positive and determined. But let’s get started.
Book of the Month Offer is Dead
This will no longer happen. For months now, I’ve been offering books for free and for a reduced price for an entire month through my store, and practically nobody took me up on that. Nobody appreciated this. It’s work and heartache I don’t need, so I’ll stop doing it.
There will be flash sales in the future, announced in my newsletter, on Patreon, and on Mastodon, however, so if you’re interested, subscribe there, or follow me on Mastodon. I will always welcome those who are genuinely interested in reading – or even being friends. And those of you will get the special offers in the future.
I’m actually looking forward to that!
More changes – Freebies are Going Away
I’ve been offering the First Book for Free in my series, for almost forever. And I am seeing a lot of downloads.
What I’m not seeing is read-through. People grab the freebies and never come back. It’s frustrating and heartbreaking. What’s worse is that this – while loss-leaders are a well-known practice – is lowering the value of my books in the eyes of readers.
Free has no value whatsoever. It’s why people are grabbing them and not reading them.
I have chosen to value my books from now on. Which means I will phase out my freebies and start selling those books instead. The first ones to go are South Breaks and Decoy, they will become for sale only on September 1st, 2026, probably for 2.99 USD or Euro.
I’m telling you so you can go and grab them (and hopefully value and read them) now. Here are the links:
South Breaks – Epic Fantasy
Decoy – very spicy SF on a colony world
A Wolf’s Quest will move away from free in October, and Dorelle’s Journey in December. After that, the only free reads you’ll get will be through my store or my website. (If you ever needed a reason to sign up to my newsletter, do it now, fill in the form below.)
Another Surprise Release!
After setting up The Last Princess last month in a flash of hyperfocus, I thought I’d go a little easier on myself.
And then people on Mastodon started reading and talking about Finderlohn, my German novel about a paranormal detective having to deal with demons (which aren’t actually demons), and they wanted more. I do have a short story with Konrad in my collection Here Be Dragons, but then I realized that the German version of it was just lying around on my hard drive.
So I pulled it up. Read through it, fixed a couple of typos and truly enjoyed it.
Then I hopped on Canva, hoping to be able to create a semi-decent cover. You can see the result up above – when I found that dragon image I pounced on it. The rest was a no-brainer, and you can grab the story in my store right away – Warning: It’s in German! – if you so please. It’s on pre-order in all the other stores, both are at 99ct at the moment.
The price will go up to 2.99 on the official release day on August 21st, though. Just saying.
Store link: Der verschollene Drache
Everywhere else (pre-order until 8/21): Books2Read
And yes, I will set up the English version as a solo story next month. Plus I have more plans for more short stories – stay tuned!
Writing Progress Report
A big change is happening, and I owe that to Dean Wesley Smith.
First, I bought a seminar that he’ll teach about how to earn money with books in more ways than just tossing them up on Amazon. I know some of that, but I’m looking forward to learning a lot more.
Part of that seminar is reading his book “Advanced Magic Bakery”, basically using the analogy of a bakery to explain copyright and how to wield it to earn money with your writing. Definitely an eye-opener!
So I’m back to using a timer to write (30 minutes, called a Pomodoro among authors who know), to help me focus on my story. I can get between 800 and 1k words in that time, depending a little on how well the words flow and whether I need to look up things.
I have been happier in the last few days than in a long time. It feels like I’m coming home to my writing self. And you’ll get books out of that!
Winds & Pillars Progress Report
The first book you’ll get with this rise in productivity , is Moon Rises, of course.
I know I have been talking about finishing her book for a few months now. (Yes, I’m cringing.) The truth is, I’m on the final chapter today and there will only be an Epilog to write in addition to that.
Moon is a little overwhelmed by meeting the gang and learning of their plans – and *that* will become the final book in the series, Spirit Sings.
So far, I’m planning to release Spirit Sings in January. Ambitious, yes, but I really want to finish this series. There are so many more books to write and stories to tell!
Anyway, expect the next newsletter to be about the release of Moon Rises (and possibly another short story or two).
Wolves Progress Report
Nothing really new for the Wolves, except that I’ll have to rewrite parts of the 10k words I already have for A Wolf’s Love.
That’s fine, it will make the story better by giving my characters more depth and more conflict to grow with. I’m very much looking forward to getting into that adventure (hopefully next week). I have missed writing Wolves.
Short Story Progress Report
One big new project is actually taking out (most of) the short stories from Here be Dragons and releasing them as stand-alones. That way, you can pick and choose those that interest you most.
Since finding my own style while making covers on Canva (without using their AI!), I’ve been getting more confident about making them. Which is making it so much easier to actually release all the awesome tales sitting on my hard drive. Expect a bunch of them coming, both in German and English.
Also… let me know if you want me to write a short story about a specific character of mine (side characters are welcome), or something set in a specific world. It helps me get started – Writer Brain tends to stick to the novels otherwise. Just drop me a comment – or better, tell me on Mastodon!
Pockets of Happiness Report
I’m still coloring, and in fact bought a bunch of new pencils for my birthday last month. It’s still amazing how soothing that activity is to my mind. And it’s amazing what I’m learning about layering color and shading. Still much room for improvement, though.
Friends have said that this page is reminding them of Alice in Wonderland – I will admit that the colors I chose for the mushrooms are definitely somewhat psychedelic.
It’s been a challenge, since the set of 12 pencils I use for that page does not have a purple pencil among it. So I’m mixing red and blue, and really experimenting with layering. Great fun, and it gives me a very different area of creativity to work in.
Definitely recommend – but it is difficult to find coloring books now that haven’t been infected by AI. Still, it is worth the effort to find good ones.
Err… are you interested in having blog posts about finished pages? Where you can see the progress? I’d be happy to pots them, although they will be far and few between – I plan to spend more time on writing.
The Ember Tale – my newsletter
I hate popups, even though they are said to be very effective in gaining subscribers. So I’m not using popups. Instead, I’m asking you nicely to subscribe if you like my books.
The newsletter comes out once a month (on the 13th, because I love that number). Having said that, there might be one or two extra ones announcing new books, as my project with the short stories progresses. I hope you won’t mind.
In my regular newsletter, I’ll talk about writing, announce stuff (definitely new releases), share awesome book bundle deals through BookFunnel and give you the latest Ember Tale – a cute little adventure with my sweet dragon familiar. You can only read those tales in my newsletter, I don’t publish them anywhere else.
Deal?
Fill in the form below, and you’re all set. (Well, almost, you’ll get an email with a confirmation link to click on, because that’s the correct way to do it.)
