Revving the Engines

 

[Revving Engines toward launch--source]

Update: I apologize. I'm still poised to publish the first Doomimals book. I've just been working 12-16 hour days and have not been able to squeeze out the energy and time combined to get my fully prepared manuscript posted. But the holidays and time off is coming. I should be posting a publication date soon. We have a webpage prepared to go with it. It just doesn't have links yet. Chickens should come soon after the launch of Doomimals. Also, soon after, will be the first Kindle Vella segment of my first romance novel, After the Dream. It is coming soon. I'll let you know as soon as I have dates. 

Why the Delay?

 

[Delayed launch--source]

I'm still planning a launch very soon on book 1 of Doomimals, Book 1 of Just Us Chickens, (both chapter books on KDP select, at least for the first while).  I'm also planning to launch part 1 of the Christian Romance book, After the Dream. I'm doing final editing on the latter two. Both kids' books have been illustrated. I was poised to publish Doomimals a few weeks ago since it's totally ready to go, but then, we realized it would be a good idea to have a website set up first. 

[Working on books: source]

I did have a website for several years, but it came up for renewal. I couldn't justify the price, so we started over. We have someone working on it now. Any day now, we'll have a basic page, and Doomimals Book 1 will go up.  In the meantime, Ax the Narrator (my son) will continue to work on new chicken books, a Wiki, and a universe-building role-playing game. Meanwhile, I'm doing the editing and getting the help of my writers' group on future sections of the romance novel.  Very soon, we'll announce a date, and I'll launch it and announce it on social media and advertise it everywhere.  Be watching for these books soon.  

 

[My teenage child's illustration for book 1.]

I'm ready to launch Doomimals. I'm just waiting for my husband to build our new website, so we can have something to which we can direct the reader. We are working on a landing page that will give you links to our KDP Select chapter book series, the Doomimals books, very soon to the first Just Us Chickens book (I'm wrapping up editing on the first one), and Imperfections, a Christian romance series that will go up on Vella. All of them, plus my published academic theses (one on the Pimpernel and one on fairy tale adaptations into fantasy and the healing power of fiction) will be linked to from the landing page and will become central pieces on individual pages. Our webpage will give you access to this blog as well as our pieces. 

[Upcoming fanfiction, source.]

I'll also shortly be working on highlighting my writer's blog, my mourning blog, and my cat blog in individual books.  I have a small readership but hope to broaden that. Meanwhile, Ax the Narrator will be working on a Doomimals universe Wiki. He's also doing a fanfiction crossover between Just Us Chickens, "My Little Pony," "Ben 10, " "Milo Murphy," "Phineas and Ferb," "Total Drama," as well as other popular pieces. It will be free, and I'll be linking to it here and on my website.  I also have various younger children's books that have already been written and just need to be prepped for publication. We will have a lot of material on our new publication website, Sleepy Hollow Press. I will keep you posted here as we make progress. It could even be later this week. 

Coming Soon: Launch!

[Just US Chickens cover]

 In the next week or so, both Doomimals Book 1 and Misadventures of the Just US Chickens will both be coming out. I have both covers just about finalized. Doomimals Book 1: Cock-a-doodle-DOOM! has been fully edited, and its images added. It's just waiting to get formatted. Just Us Chickens is almost done with its final edit. They will both be available on KDP Select for the first few months, anyway. We'll see past that. 

[First illustration from Doomimals Book 1]

We'll meanwhile be working on Just Us Chickens Book 2 and then a backstory for one of the main characters. Then, we'll work toward launching Doomimals Book 2. A FB page for each series will come out. We're shooting to release a new book per month as much as possible. We'll announce here, on the Just Us Chickens FB page, on Twitter, on a new webpage soon to launch, and everywhere else I can think of. We'll also be working on launching an Amazon ad campaign. Be watching for forthcoming news. 

Twice the Chickens, Twice the Fun

[Super Chickens]

My teenage boy, who will be going by Ax the narrator, is the other half of my writing partnership. He's the wildly creative half of our team who is unrestricted by adult fears and limitations like I have been. All you have to do is have a slip of the tongue, throw out a crazy wordplay, or watch a movie and play with him, and he spins off into a new character, subplot, or a new book, which he can churn out in a few days. It was his slip-of-the-tongue when he said Alpacalips that my brain started churning, and Doomimals was born. I, meanwhile, have the master's in English and the practical sense of grammar, structure, writing, and literary depth. I run into writer's block frequently, and he bails me out with his wild ideas. He'll spin out a crazy scene for me, and I'll weave it into something ready to be read. 

[School of Rock-source]

Recently, we watched the Broadway musical "School of Rock," based on the early 2000s movie with Jack Black. Even though it's about a slacker scamming his way into a substitute teaching, he must have done something right because during my Master's program, my whole group of budding college English instructors was taken on a field trip to see the movie in order to learn to teach in a creative way. But in the eyes of my boy, this became the inspiration for a crazy plotline about super chickens substituting at a high-brow school, where they end up having major super battles with possessed teachers. 

[The Bad Guys, a silly book series recently adapted for movie theaters. Source]

While I'm finishing up the editing process and doing the last items to prep my first book for publication, my boy is churning out zany Captain Underpantsesque/The Bad Guys-like insane books. I was going to release one of my books then one of his books, but it's pretty clear his go a lot faster than mine. How does this translate to your experience? The new plan is to put out one of my books then, the next month, release one of his then, a month later, another of his. Doomimals will come out every third month or so while his are going to come out a lot faster. As soon as my first is done, we'll immediately focus on pumping out his, one after another. It's something to look forward to in the near future. 

Revising for a Contest

[Romance novels-source]

Last blog, I mentioned that I was working on a couple of Christian romance novels. I started my serious revision on the first one, including filling out the story, adding to the first section that will be going up on Kindle Vela soon. I then submitted that first segment for a contest. I've also been reading a lot of romance novels, so I would better know how to revise and structure these novels. As any writer knows, a good writer also reads their genre. 

[McGuffin Puffin-source]

Meanwhile, my boy, Ax the Narrator, worked on revising short stories for the same contest.  He has a character who is a silly parody of Indiana Jones, McGuffin Puffin, who is always on the quest for a new McGuffin and drags the chickens along. We worked on fleshing that story out as well as revising another. He now has 15+ books and several shorter pieces that just need a final revision and a cover.  

[Main Character of book 1, by Ghostelle.]

Meanwhile, I'm finishing the major revision for book one of Doomimals, Cockadoodle-DOOM, today, and then I will be proofreading as well as choosing and prepping a cover and formatting, hopefully this week. We're close to getting ready to launch on KDP. I'll soon be announcing a release date as well as the launch of a new webpage since we took the old one down.  We're really close. 

Another Series

[Source]

I'm looking at KDP Select for Doomimals and Just Us Chickens, our chapter books, at least to start out with as we build a readership. I understand it may not be a long-term solution, but we'll see.  It doesn't pay lavishly, but those who sign up for this service through Amazon have ready access, which gives me a ready and eager audience, especially as we approach the summer when kids have lots of time to read. 

[Source]

In the meantime, I just learned about a new self-publication platform, Kindle Vela. It wouldn't work for children's books because it allows for words, not images of any sort. And you publish through it 500-5000 words at a time. This got my brain churning about a couple of longer books for an adult audience I wrote and had a freelance editor look at. These books have been waiting since for me to have time to work on them, while I polish my kids' books. 

[Looking to Shakespeare; source.]

Several years ago, I wrote my first romance novel. It's called After the Dream and is about a woman whose first marriage goes wrong. When she becomes a young widow, she has to take her broken soul and face the dating world again. It's about finding love and hope in the face of imperfection and damage. It was specific to my religious group. I've been thinking since that I wanted to widen the audience of this and its spinoff, Pigs Fly, to a broader Christian romance audience. Pigs fly is about the first book's brother, a man pushing 40 who says he'll only marry when pigs fly. Things get complicated when he meets a female pilot with a copilot who is a pig. It took inspiration from Shakespeare's "Much Ado about Nothing," while the first one tips its hat to "Romeo and Juliet."  

[Source]

When I heard about Kindle Vela and its approach to storytelling in bite-sized chunks, I started to hope I can also bring these novels out soon to you as well, juggling both kids' books and romantic novels. Step one will still be to finish polishing book one of Doomimals and then Book one of Just Us Chickens. Then, maybe the first romance novel will be next.