April 2024 Newsletter

You said you weren’t going to do a newsletter, Joseph

Yes, I did.

I’ve fulltime-authored since 2016 and rejected newslettering because no newslettering authors I talk with have any evidence their newsletters led to increased sales or other authorial opportunities.

Fortunately, I don’t expect this one to, either.

I post irregular announcements and both the open and clickthrough numbers hover around 90%.

Amazing, if you know about such things.

I’m hybridizing newslettering with my irregular announcements because I found a reason to do so; some of my friends have things worth announcing and, on the whole, about once a month should cover them.

So there you go and here it is.

April-May 2024 Announcements

• IPNE has an excellent and informative post entitled What to look for in a book awards program (downloadable PDF and definitely a worthy read (me thinks)). (bet you can’t guess what it’s about)
• BizCatalyst 360° is now carried on Google News. Big Congrats to Dennis Pitocco and the BizCatalyst 360° gang
• BeyondDesignBooks’ Tamian Wood offers Ten Tips For finding (and working with) your ideal cover designer! as a free download. Check it out.
• A movie star returns to her hometown and doesn’t live to regret it.
  Thriller author Donna Huston Murray’s new book, Farewell Performance (a Ginger Barnes Mystery) is available now on ebook and in print starting 4 June 2024. Pre-order is 99¢ You can also find it here.
• My That Th!nk You Do is now available as an audiobook, and I have some promo codes available. Fair-Exchange, folks: Want a promo code for a free audio version? Promise to review the book on Amazon, Goodreads, Bookbub, … before the next newsletter goes out (last week of May or so)? Let me know.
• Our March RoundTable 360 was sold out and many thanks to folks who attended and offered comment.
  Our April RoundTable 360 discussion topic is How do creative people work together? exploring collaboration in the arts. Starting with a panel discussion and then welcoming participation by the audience; our hope is to help creatives see their world differently. This episode will be moderated by author, playwright, and poet, Kenneth Weene. Join us Thursday, April 25, 1:30 PM in the East, 10:30 AM in the west and 6:30 PM in London. For your reserved space, please sign up on Eventbrite. Eventbrite caps these sessions at twenty-five (25) audience members so reserve your seat soon.
  Our May RoundTable 360 will be led by award-winning poet, publisher, and editor Clarabelle Miray Fields of Carmina Magazine.
  Our June RoundTable 360 will be led by noted EU actress, model, and voice talent Sabine Rossbach discussing creating realistic characters.
  Our July RoundTable 360 will be led by London based fantasy, horror, and scifi author Liz Tuckwell discussing rejection.
  Want to be on our panel and/or lead a discussion? Let me know here.
• I’m looking for first readers for my next release (schedule late June 2024), Tag. I’ll need your feedback/comments/edits/questions and definitely backcover copy and review material by 31 May 2024. Interested and willing to commit to that schedule? Let me know.
  About Tag: Two teenagers, Eric and Julia, seek tree grafts on the outskirts of their medieval village as a summer storm clouds the sky. Sullya, a witch hiding among the trees, grabs Julia. Eric swings his axe and severs Sullya’s hand from her arm. Sullya seeks refuge in the deep bole of an old oak. Her hand falls onto the same oak and crawls up the trunk to join her.
  Eric wants to flee but Julia, believing they are safe, torments the witch. Sullya curses them, their families, their crops, their livestock, and their eastern European village.
  Crops wilt, livestock dies, and much of their village falls ill. The village priest, Father Baillot, is often ignorant of church ways and proves ineffective against the curse.
  The elders seek help elsewhere, specifically from a distant priest,
  Father Patreo, who knows the Old Ways as well as the New.
  Patreo is out of favor with the Church because he makes no effort to hide his belief that progress comes from exploring all paths, not just those the Church decrees acceptable.
  He and Verduan, one of the elders, investigate, and what they discover changes the face of Eastern Europe forever.

And that’s it for April.

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Enjoy!

any new and interesting wordages are the product of me. i’m an author. i can do things like that.