Just Us Chickens Launched!

[Just Us Chickens!]

I've been preparing for the Logan Holiday Gift Show and haven't had time to blog. The most important news is Just Us Chickens is available in digital and paperback.  This epic adventure of super chickens saving Wyoming from movie monsters. Read the exciting and hilarious tale of Impeckable, a Super-man like chicken who doesn't own an IQ but can rock the world with his grab bag of powers, Shadowchicken, a Batman-like chicken with balloons that can become anything he can imagine, and Wingmaster, a superspy duck and former villain who is now the leader of a group of superhero chickens! See how they create their own villain and then save the world from his monstrous army! Imagine Looney Tunes meets Star Animorphs. You can also buy it in black and white paperback. It will very soon be in large print as well. 

[Cookie and Her Sisters Series]

If you would like a fully illustrated book about the Three Little Kittens making a mess for the holidays. They are a lot like the kittens in the fairy tale. Come read Cookie and Her Sisters Love the Holidays. Today, this book was ranked 4th in children's digital cat books on Amazon and 5th in Thanksgiving books. It was still fairly high in Christmas book rankings, in the early 20s. This book is also available until Friday for free in digital format. In the first book, Cookie and Her Sisters Make a Holiday Dinner, the three little kittens make then destroy a dinner for the holidays. Can they learn to get along? In Cookie and Her Sisters Go Trick-or-treating, they also had to learn to get along for Halloween. This one made 4th in Halloween kids' books, even several days after the holiday. More books are forthcoming, including one in which they play in the snow. I'm shooting to publish this one in the next couple of weeks. 

[Pets Just Wanna Have Fun Series]

I've also been putting together photographic paperback books. Kitties Play for the Holidays is about a cat who just wants to get comfy but can't stand kittens or puppies, a kitten she can't stand, and those crazy Pomeranian puppies. This one ranked 3rd in kids' cat books and 4th in holiday books. Doggies Love the Holidays features pomeranian puppies growing up for the holidays, a Pomchi who is all about staying home for the holidays, and a silly Frenchie who enjoys playing holiday dress up. Cali the Silly Frenchie is about a French bulldog in three separate stories. This one ranked 12th today. One of those in a separate book and premium print is Cali the Silly Frenchie Goes for a Walk.  This one ranked 18th in kids' dog books. These books, too, are available for free until the end of tomorrow. I plan to release another holiday-related cat book soon. 

[Cockadoodle-DOOM!]

Finally, once again, Doomimals is also free in digital format. It's the one attached to the large print edition. Today, it ranked 38 today in fantasy adventure fiction in children's books. I'm still working on the Spanish translation. Ax the Narrator and I are working on book 2 for Just Us Chickens, wherein the heroes face the Quesadilla of Doom, and book 2 for Doomimals wherein the three little kittens lost the mittens of Cataclysm, and the kids have to retrieve them. Even before those books release, we're working on a book 1.5 for both series, a crossover novella between Chickens and Doomimals in which they face of with a mysterious Christmas threat. That should be released by the end of the week. 

I ask you to please drop me a review if you get a moment. I appreciate your attention. Very soon, you'll need to get updates on my website, through my newsletter. But until then, I will be back here to update you. 

Free Book!

 

[Book 1 cover]

Book one is free until tomorrow in digital format. You can buy it here. These last two weeks, I've been working on getting reviews, so people understand how much fun this book is. It's an end-of-the-world tale about kids and their super pets saving the world, in case you haven't heard. It's an action-adventure rewrite of "Chicken Little." One of the hardest parts is always getting reviews. If you have time after reading my book, I'd appreciate a review. 

[Recording: source]

TPAW/TPA Wulfric sent me proofs of his audio recordings to make it available to you in another format. I know a lot of people find audiobooks a better way to consume written material, so it will be ready for you soon. It sounds really good. 

[The Chickens Are Coming: source]

Meanwhile, my son and I are making great progress on the next big thing, he with The Misadventures of the Just Us Chickens, me with Doomimals Book 2: Cat-a-Clysm. He's rewriting chapter 7 out of 10. I'm about midway through the third revision, then I will present it to my beta readers. 

[The Magic of Picture Books: Source]

We've also been researching how to spread the word of these books. One thing I learned was that audiences love freebies. Soon, I'll be starting a proper newsletter, and in order to get those freebies, you can sign up for the newsletter, which will keep you posted on the progress of these books. The short story I'm almost done with tells the backstory of the kids' dad and how he first tangled with magic. Also, I learned it may be helpful to write children's picture books, so I'll be featuring the main characters from my main series in such books. A lot of exciting things are happening. Watch for all of this. 

Plans for the Future

[Recent launch. Source: Unsplash.]

This blog is about my indie writing career and what I'm doing with it. As you probably noticed, I launched my first book and made it available to you last week. I blogged about it last week. The book is about three kids and their super animal companions fighting off the Doomsday at the talons of The Bird, the evil Dog of War's right-hand monster. It's an action-adventure coming-of-age romp based on "Chicken Little." It's perfect for kids 8-12 or readers whose skills fall in that range. Adults have also read and loved it. This book series has the tone of a Percy Jackson book and is reminiscent of Animorphs. If your kids like books like those, this is for them. 

Some years ago, I made available a prequel to this series. You can read it for free on Amazon here. It can be read before or after any of the stories. It simply expands on the lore. 

[Book 2 illustration]

My next book is called Doomimals Book 2: "Cat-a-clysm" and is based on "Three Little Kittens." The three kids from book 1 team up with three kittens to try to retrieve the Mittens of Cataclysm before they are used to destroy the world. The rough draft was written some years ago and was rewritten more recently. I'm right now working on deepening the emotional context of the tale. I'll then run it by my beta readers. I hope to launch it in October. 

[Spanish. Source: Unsplash.]

Meanwhile, I'm working on a Spanish language translation of book 1 since I'm bilingual and having my nephew, TPAW aka TPA Wulfric, and whose books you can find here, do a high-quality audio recording for Audible. I made a superhero cape for him when he was a toddler, and now, he's helping me fly. His own little ones now wear that cape. He's been one of my greatest supporters and helped me reconceptualize my story structure. With both Audible and translation, I'm hoping to make it available to more people. 

[Chickens!]

I'm now working on helping Ax the Narrator, my own right-hand man and son, rewrite his masterful spin-off of my book, Just Us Chickens. The first book is called The Misadventures of the Just Us Chickens. Mine is focused on the kids and their struggles to reunite their family and save the world. His follows the adventures of the animals, particularly a group of super chickens who will save the world if ever they can stop tripping all over their own feathers. 

He took my scaredy Chicken Little, named Drumstick, and swept him into this new team. As I said last week, he wrote the first draft when he was 13 and just learning to write. It won second place in the kids' book contest against much older writers. He's now rewriting it to make it zanier, crazier, more human but also more fun. He takes his inspiration from books like Captain Underpants and The Bad Guys, though it's for a slightly older audience. We're shooting to launch this book in September, date forthcoming. 

[Writing. Source: Unsplash.]

Meanwhile, I'm working on reaching out more to you, the reader. I'll be blogging a lot more often. I'm enrolled in an online class that will help us learn how to bring my pieces to more people. I'll be donating my books to libraries and working on getting them into bookstores. I'm eager to share my books will everyone I can. I'd also love to hear from you. What do you look for in a book? 

Onto Book 2

[Book 1: A focus on Characters (art by Ghostelle)]

One Done

If I were publishing book one as a standalone, it would be ready to go to the publisher, ready to be prepared to come to you.  However, it's really hard to break into the chapter book and even middle-grade fiction markets since one tiny book on the shelf doesn't draw the eye nor have a big market or ready-made fans. I've taken some stabs at reaching out to publishers and agents, always ending up empty-handed.  That's why I embraced the idea of a hybrid publisher.  Once all ten of these first books (plus the first three of my boy's) are ready, they'll be available for you fairly quickly.  The hybrid publisher only takes less than a month from acceptance of the manuscript to readiness for market.  

[A focus on book 2 (art by Ghostelle)]

Moving on 

But now, I have the other eight from the regular series plus the bonus books to prepare.  I have the vision.  I know what I need to do for each book.  For one thing, I need to work on making each book's protagonist the kind of kid you or your child will enjoy following on an adventure.  I need to make sure he or she is truly the hero of his or her own story.  I say his or her because I have three main characters, twins Davis and Kitt and their younger cousin, Tessa.  The first book is from Davis's perspective, second from Kitt's, and third from Tessa's.  I need to polish each voice, so you hear their voices and hear their hearts.  Davis the nerdy slacker's first book is done.  I'll be moving to Kitt, the image-conscious overachiever next. After that, I'll be working on Tessa, the shy animal-loving character.  

[On the road to revising the next books (art by Ghostelle).]

What Else They Need

I'll also make sure the kids' antagonists weave throughout the book, causing problems and working under the umbrella of the primary villain of the first set.  I didn't understand story structure when I first drafted these books.  I'll be making sure I follow the story structure (3-act, 7-act, and hero's journey's 12 points).  The first book now fulfills all of this, though it took a lot longer than planned.  On the bright side, I am getting time to work on writing, plus all the other books are significantly shorter than the first one. 

Now, to get to serious work on book two.  This will be exciting. 

Wrapping up book one

[An illustration from Cockadoodle-DOOM!]

 I was hoping to finish two of my book series by the end of the holiday, but at least I'm just about done with rewriting book one.  I really want to do Doomimals justice.  I want it to be a kids' chapter book series that transports and entertains, while having a sense of reality and groundedness. I want a structure that works within the tradition of the three-act structure, one that keeps the rules but doesn't feel dull or by-the-numbers.  Basically, I want to offer you and your kids something fun and funny but smooth and streamlined as well.  

[An illustration from Cat-a-clysm]

Book one, Cockadoodle-DOOM, has evolved a lot through the feedback from friends, my writing group, a freelance editor, and more.  But it is almost to a finished, polished state.  Then, I will move onto book two, Cat-a-clysm and treat that the same.  It's just a lot shorter, since it doesn't have to establish ground rules for the series as book one does.  It, too, should transport and entertain kids and adults.  I'll keep you posted as I finish each book and get it ready for you.  

[An image from Just Us Chickens.]

Soon, I will have the first ten books published and ready to be read in one collection for you, along with bonus materials such as a video game, a card game, and some bonus books, including the first three of my boy's superhero chicken series Just Us Chickens.  I'm looking forward to bringing these all to you soon.