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. 

A New Strategy

[Typewriter/publisher-source]

Up until the end of 2021, I was sure our path to publication would be a hybrid publisher I picked out a couple of years.  I can write.  I can edit.  I have illustrated our books.  I can do all but a cover that will really sell our books and, of course, effectively market.  That is where this hybrid publisher was to come in.  All I had to do was submit a chunk of money upfront and send in about 150,000 words of semi-finalized print, and that hybrid publisher would prep everything for publication.  That sounded like a great plan because I didn't know how to market.  I've taken classes, and I've tried to execute the strategies those classes taught.  And the few things I've thrown into Amazonland hit like a drop in the bucket and disappeared in the crowd, including a preliminary Doomimals short story. 

[A new path-source]

Then, my genius son and co-creator of our multiple series got the chance to do a job shadow with an established self-published author, A.M. Luzzader, author of the Middle-Grade Mermaid series, who showed me a path, the path she took to success with self-publication.  She showed me it could be done, that she and several people she knows found a pathway to success with self-publication.  When I understand more about it, I will publish what I learn.  For now, it's simply a list of names, titles, and suggestions.  

[Investing in the future-source]

Luzzader suggested I take that same chunk of money I was going to throw at a hybrid publisher for one book and turn it into a wealth of knowledge that could lead my whole family down a path to successful self-publication.  This could lead to at least moderate success for Doomimals, Just Us Chickens, Key Lime Python, The Radiant Army vs Us (the working title for a series for older youth that we haven't started yet), and a whole pile of other projects including some about which my husband and other child have been dreaming.  

[Just Us Chickens]

In other words, within (hopefully) a month or two, I will have a strategy finalized for bringing you Cockadoodle-DOOM, the first book of Doomimals, followed by The Misadventures of the Just Us Chickens and so on, one after another.  You'll hear about it as soon as we have a formulated plan, but it should be coming soon.  Then, I can guide you along the same path.  

A Complicated Juggle

[Juggle-source]

I'm back around to working full-time as a transcriber and online college instructor, which means I'll be juggling work with writing.  On the bright side, I made it through the first trilogy of my series, Doomimals.  I have rewritten all three books over the summer, one per month of the summer, basically.  It's been wonderful to have time to take books that weren't bad and turn them into books you will enjoy reading.  On the not-so-bright side, things will slow down some since I have to reprioritize and have urgent items to deal with for a while.  

[An illustration from book 3 by Ghostelle.]

Last time I blogged, a month ago, I was just then puzzling over book three.  It was a book with a protagonist who was fairly weak, who was not much of an actor in her own story.  The normal world was her cousin's world and not even hers.  The climax was confusing and weak.  The whole thing needed to be rewritten.  And in the last month, I found Tessa's voice.  I found a way to start in her world, with her family, and to allow her take charge of her underworld, slowly gaining confidence through the adventure.  The climax is exciting and triumphant because I turned to my creatively genius boy to help me write it.  

Now, I'm ready to start working on book four.  It should be fairly simple because it already has a strong voice, and its events are fundamentally sound.  It mostly needs a polish. And I'm looking forward to getting it ready for you. 

A Roleplaying Game

[dice; source]

Next on the list of merch that may come with our books or at least may be available at some point with our chapter books is a tabletop roleplaying game that my teenaged boy is working on.  He is also working on the video game but has taken time out to work on this for a while.  It is somewhat inspired by D&D, somewhat by GURPS (Generic Universal Roleplaying System), and somewhat by TOON, but it's a lot simpler than all of them because he's just one kid, and I'm just one playtester, though we're likely to be able to find more.  

[Aliens from our books.]

The game will contain several of the alien races we invented for my Doomimals, his Just US Chickens, and their extended universe.  It will have aspects of magic, tech, supers, and other sources of power and will allow the player and the narrator (the equivalent of the game/dungeon master) to enter their version of our world.  He's getting to the point where we can playtest it and figure out if it works for an audience.  He's not sure if he wants to make it available to you just yet.  I imagine that will depend on how well it tests.  I hope to be able to share most of the merch he's working on at the same time as the books. I'll be delighted to share as much of it with you as I can very soon. 

Facing a Major Rewrite

 

[Editing-source]

I'm wrapping up one book and embarking on another rewrite, but this one will be far more intensive than the ones I've done heretofore.  Others needed polish, emotional depth, connections, themes, and the like.  They needed to be streamlined and have greater connections made.  This one is one I knew even as I drafted it that it didn't feel right.  Some books practically write themselves once you know your characters, the overall plot, and the basic events that will go into a given chapter.   It's always exhilarating to find out what the characters are going to say and do because I don't preplan, just find out as the events unfold, just as my characters do.  But writing this book felt like pulling teeth.  I didn't fully know the main character or understand why and how of the plot, and it shows in the draft.  

[An illustration that I hope won't need to be redone-thanks again, Ghostelle.]

One complication as I rewrite this is I already had my illustrator draw an image for each chapter.  At the time, I didn't yet understand how very much would have to be rewritten.  I hope I'll be able to use most of them, but I can think of at least a few that will have to be replaced as the story reshapes itself to get more at the heart of its main character.  

[My characters by Ghostelle]

Part of the sticky part will be keeping the voice interesting. At least one beta reader found the main character dull.  The Doomimals books alternate perspectives, one for each book.  Davis, the only male protagonist, starts the first book.  Through the book, the narrative explores the thinking and adventures of a snarky, ADD peacemaker nerd in a first-person style.  I didn't even know he was a peacemaker (of the enneagram) personality type until I rewrote the book, and everything he did, said, or thought fit that character.  His voice is distinct.  The second book is from the heart and soul of his twin, Kitt, a very opinionated performer "princess," one who is all about her image and impressing people. Her voice, too, is distinct and strong.  Mostly, I needed to shift her voice toward her pain at missing her mom and her desire for her mom to be proud of her when they met again. 

[A close look at Tessa, one of my pics.]

This third book is from the perspective of the third character, Tessa, the youngest character, one I first saw as the weakest and the shyest, an animal lover pacifist.  That's a hard voice to keep fresh and interesting. But as I've rewritten the other books, her voice came out more distinctly as a thinker, an intellectual who memorizes zoology books and intellectualizes everything. I think I'll be able to get to her heart if I rewrite her first book starting with her heart, with her relationship with her parents.  So instead of starting in her cousins' world and home, where we've been until now, we start in her world.  How else can you really get to know her?  Once I get this book down, I think her other perspectival books will work better.  I look forward to introducing these three unique characters to you once I've made them ready for your enjoyment.  

Beta Readers and Roadblocks

[source]

There's good news and bad news.  The good news is I'm about to have a break in my work schedule due to the holidays, so I will have serious time to work on my books.  Most days, I only get some editing done on my boy's books at the end of a day filled with hours of other work.  It would be so nice to do this full time.  Also, I finally have found some readers for my books, so I've at least had most of the first half of my series read by someone else and have had feedback given.  Two of them are willing to tackle more. 

[source]

The bad news is my illustrator has had serious technical difficulties and may not be able to proceed much further with illustrating.  She was all but done with the second book.  This leaves 8 books to illustrate and 9/10 needing serious revision (the first one is mostly done with revision, though it still needs some).  But I have time for a while to knock out illustrations, figure out Scrivener in order to work over the whole set, and have been told by a handful of readers that they've really liked what they've read.  This all gives me hope that in the next month, I can really accomplish a lot, possibly get this first set ready to go.  Here's hoping. 

Latest Chat with my Publisher

[An amazing drawing by Gostelle, my illustrator.]

I had a chat with my publisher recently, after my boy and I finished drafting the 15 chapter books in our first collection (the first nine in Doomimals plus a bonus backstory from a major character, and as an added bonus, the first three books in my son's Just Us Chickens series, a backstory for one of the chickens, and the first in another series he'll write, Key Lime Python.).  She's enthusiastic about my boy's clever, quick-thinking prose and would love for him to host a Roku-type TV series and possibly even be her co-host in another show.  First, I want to get our books edited before I can even start taking on another monster project.  She's working with so many serious projects that his whimsy and humor are a refreshing change of pace.

[illustration from one of the Just Us Chickens books]

 My struggle right now is to polish the books as well as I can then to find beta readers willing to give me feedback on the seven of my books for which I haven't found readers yet.  I want to make sure they're all polished as well as they can be.  The goal here is to help kids of that age fall in love with reading.  I really think my boy's books can do that, even better than mine.  If anyone wants to be a reader for any of my books, let me know.