How can it be nearly the end of January?
January news from Sherry D. Ramsey
I mean, wasn't New Year's just last week? I guess time flies when you're having fun...or you're super busy...or maybe both! My orchid seems to know what month it is, anyway.
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Kicking things off with a Kickstarter
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Not long ago, I learned about the “Make 100” Project on Kickstarter. Have you heard of it? It’s a project to encourage creators to make small-scale projects with at least one reward tier limited to 100 backers. A fellow writer was working on a Make 100 project and mentioned it.
My mind immediately lit up with the idea for a Make 100 Project of my own: to write 100 drabbles (stories of exactly 100 words). Maybe next time Make 100 rolls around, I thought, because I have so much else on the go right now.
Sure, my brain said, next time. And then it proceeded to urge me to do it NOW, because 100-word stories are manageable bites of writing I could easily—easily!—squeeze in between writing lecture notes for two classes a week and editing my new Nearspace novel. Right? RIGHT?
My brain is a very persuasive organ.
And so...Around the Next Corner launched on Kickstarter yesterday. You can support the project with a small donation of $1 and get five stories; get the ebook of all 100 stories for $4; get a Deluxe version of the ebook including some bonus stories of various flash fiction lengths for $6; or go all the way to the top $8 tier and get the Deluxe ebook PLUS one special drabble written from an idea you provide, especially and only for you. This top tier is the one limited to 100 backers (because I can write an extra 100 drabbles, but probably not many more than that!).
If you’d like to back this fun project at any level, I'd truly appreciate your support. The campaign runs until February 21, 2020 right here.
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 The Murder Prophet is on sale for just .99 from January 25 through to the end of February! If you like Urban Fantasy with a twist, you should give The Murder Prophet a try.
Kit Stablefield is a detective with a secret and a crush on a guy she knows only online, in a future where magic is a part of everyday life. But when millionaire Aleshu Coro walks into the offices of Darcko and Sadatake with a message from the Murder Prophet and fourteen days to live, everything changes.
Suddenly Kit is questioning the decisions of her past, trying to find out if the man she loves is, in fact, a man, and hunting for a murderer and a mysterious seer. With her eighty-six-year-old grandmother insisting on helping out, and a sentient goose who simply won't stop pestering her to watch his "killer" video game moves, Kit has more than her hands full as she races against the clock to prevent Coro's murder…and possibly her own.
Catch your copy from your favourite retailer here!
Want to try the first chapter? Find it here! |
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At My Desk - 2020 Planning
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Most years I make a detailed writing plan right around now, filling up the months until at least July with what I plan to write, revise, edit, release, etc.
I never follow it.
I mean, maybe a little bit, but for the most part it only ends up making me feel disappointed and frustrated because I don’t stick to the plan. So I decided for 2020: no plan!
I knew the first few months of 2020 might not be great for fiction writing as I'm teaching this university class for the first time, and I was right to suspect it would demand quite a bit of my time. Even I didn’t realize how much. And along with writing lecture notes, I’m steadily chipping away at my novel revisions as well.
I took on the Around the Next Corner project after some serious thinking about how it might fit into my days right now. The lovely thing about 100-word stories is that they’re manageable bits of fiction that give me a little mental break from other work without being extremely time-demanding. Honestly, I’m having a ton of fun scribbling down these little story snippets as a break from more intensive work. It’s shaping up to be a really fun collection.
So I’m quite happy with how my non-plan is working out so far. Maybe once the university term is over I’ll map out the rest of the year, but for now, taking it day by day is just what I need right now.
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Some Special Deals & Projects
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Catch some great deals and freebies from other writers!
Everything is on the table when survival's at stake.
Captain James Henry is caught between a rock and a hard place – again. Merchant ships operating in neutral space near the Terran Coalition and the League of Sol are disappearing without a trace. The latest report has something the others didn’t.
A survivor.
When news reaches the planet Lusitania during a cargo offload, Captain Henry and the Shadow Wolf’s crew are hired to extract the surviving operative before she’s silenced and the information she has is lost.
But too many opposing forces are at work within the faction-torn republic – and they all want a piece of the prize.
With directives from multiple government contacts, Captain Henry concedes to protect his ragtag crew. Years ago, he surrendered to dishonor and dismissal from the Coalition Defense Force in order to protect his fellow officers. This time he knows how to play the game.
Grab your copy here!
 Wear Chainmail to the Apocalypse by David Hopkins is also just .99!
This is the end-of-the-world you've been waiting for! The sweet-Jesus-pandemic-martial-law-nuclear-wasteland-horror-theme-park level event you always dreamed it would be, it’s here. Lucky you. Did you prepare for the end? Do you have chainmail? If there’s one thing I know, it’s that you should always WEAR CHAINMAIL TO THE APOCALYPSE.
Diseased hordes! Guns! Swords! Packs of angry abandoned house pets! Overly researched details about horseback riding! Creepy retail outlets! Small towns! Thoughtful commentary about the world we knew! A plot-relevant chicken!
We’re all gonna die. Load up on reading material, and enjoy the journey.
Grab your copy now!
 Sorceress Awakening by Lisa Blackwood
A dryad sorceress with no memory. An immortal gargoyle with a dark secret. An evil demi-goddess with plans to use them to conquer both the Magic and the Mortal Realms. Lillian’s ordinary life is about to go off the rails.
When Lillian finds herself facing off against demons out of mythology, help comes from an unlikely source—the stone gargoyle who has been sleeping in her garden for the last twelve years.
Lisa is a horticulturalist and is using all royalties from the first three books in her Gargoyle & Sorceress Series toward purchasing seeds and supplies for the propagation of tree seedlings to help combat climate change. I think this is a wonderful project and I'm happy to pass Lisa's book along to my readers. Get your copy right here!
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 You can find/follow me on all sorts of social media! I'd love to be friends on Goodreads! I set my 2020 Reading Challenge goal to the same as last year because I'm a wimp. But seriously, I do like to set goals that are challenging but achievable. You can see all the books I read in 2019 right here.
Follow my writing news page on Facebook here. Of course, for more pithy musings and glimpses into my life, I'm @sdramsey on Twitter and Instagram. And if you're a fan of the visual over the written, follow me on Pinterest! I have a fun project going over there, a series of visual writing prompts to inspire you and maybe give you a chuckle or two.
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 Well, here we are at the end of another newsletter. It’s f-f-freezing most days here right now, so I’m very happy whenever I don’t have to go outside!
Your support and your thoughts are important to me, so if you have feedback or ideas on what you'd like to see in this newsletter, please reply to this email with your comments. I promise to read them all unless they're boring, nasty, or too long. :)
Feel free to forward this newsletter to anyone you think might enjoy it!
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