Category: Newsletters

June-July 2024 Announcements

• From idea to paper (or word) to performance, how do we bring characters to life? That’s the question we will be rolling with at our next RoundTable 360° online discussion. Come & join us on June 27th, 10:30amPT, 1:30pmET, 6:30pmLondonTime, 19h30 CEST.
  Our goal in this RoundTable discussion is to explore the intricacies of character development across different creative mediums and to uncover effective strategies for creating characters that resonate deeply with audiences.
  In storytelling and performing arts, characters serve as the heart and soul of narratives. Whether on the pages of a novel or portrayed on stage or screen, well-developed characters have the power to captivate and evoke profound emotional responses from audiences. We delve into how writers and performers breathe life into their characters, making them compelling, multidimensional, memorable, and inspiring.
  This discussion will be led by noted EU actress, model, and voice talent Sabine Rossbach. Reserve your space here.
  Want to be on our panel and/or lead a discussion? Let me know here.
• Greg Hickey’s To Build A Dream is available on Amazon:
  

  He could be dead, dreaming, or painfully alive. Does he really want to find out which?
  Timothy Smit is sick. He’s stuck in middle management at a second-rate news aggregator when an intense coughing fit causes him to pass out at his desk. Tim wakes up in the ICU to a diagnosis of a rare and aggressive form of lung cancer and the news that he likely has no more than a few months left to live.
  Confined to a hospital bed with his health deteriorating, Tim finds himself immersed in a series of vivid dreams. As he becomes increasingly captivated by this enigmatic fantasy world, he realizes his dreams just might be keeping him alive.
  But can Tim discover a real life worth living before it’s too late?
  To Build a Dream is a mesmerizing psychological sci-fi novel that blurs the line between dreams and reality. If you like lone heroes fighting to survive, visionary quests, and a race against time, then you’ll love Greg Hickey’s enthralling dream world.

• You can get a free taste of Greg’s work at The Theory of Anything
• I’m hosting a writer’s month long workshop discussing many if not all phases of craft and storytelling. The next class runs Wednesdays, 3-31 July 2024. Sign up here.
• My Medieval mystery, Tag, will be released on 15 July 2024 and is currently available for preorder:
  

  Eric and Julia seek tree grafts on the outskirts of their medieval eastern European village as a summer storm gathers. Sullya, a witch hiding among the trees, grabs Julia. Eric swings his axe and severs Sullya’s hand from her arm. The witch 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’re safe, torments the witch. Sullya curses them, their families, their crops, their livestock, and their village.
  Soon crops wilt, livestock die, and much of village falls ill. The village priest, Father Baillot, seems ignorant of church ways and proves ineffective against the curse.
  The village 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 village elders, investigate and encounter witchcraft, devil worship, murder, a coup d’etat, and the clashing of three great cultures. What they discover changes the face of Eastern Europe forever.

• Last item – have an announcement you’d like my ~25k subscribers to know about? Comment with details and we’ll see about getting it in the next newsletter.

And that’s it for June.

You can read back issues of my newsletter here.

May-June 2024 Announcements

• Our previous RoundTable 360s were fascinating with lively discussions between panelists and audience members.
  Our May RoundTable 360 topic is creative block, and every creative’s been there…that dreaded feeling of hitting a wall, not knowing what to create next or even how to do it, wracking your brain for some kind of answer, direction, or inspiration. (Jack London famously said “You have to go after [inspiration] with a club.”)
  Creative blocks can be frustrating, but they are universal, and creatives have found various ways of dealing with them. Come take part on Thursday, May 30 at 1:30 PM in the East, 10:30 AM in the west and 6:30 PM in London, and join a panel of writers, artists, actors, and other creatives discussing the different ways creative blocks can present themselves, strategies for working through them, and tips and tricks to keep your creativity flowing.
  This episode will be moderated by award-winning poet, publisher, and editor Clarabelle Miray Fields of Carmina Magazine. Reserve your space at Eventbrite.
  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.
• Ross Pickering seeks beta readers for his
  Raine Summers: The Lost Child of the Aether, Book One in the Raine Summers series novel. Anyone interested please contact Ross via Facebook.

• For folks in or near Wales (wish I was there) – Arthurian Scholar Jeffrey Dixon’s putting on a photography exhibition of the late Llandrindod Wells artist Steve Harris. The exhibition is at Centre Celf and is open until 6 June 2024 from Tuesday-Thursday 10am-4pm and Saturdays 9am-12noon.
• Jeffrey Dixon’s latest work, Encyclopedia of the Holy Grail is currently available from the publisher at a greatly reduced price. Arthurian scholars and readers take note!
• Rika ChandraRika would love if you could fill in her 5-10 minute survey on family biographies as gifts.
• I’m hosting a writer’s month long workshop discussing many if not all phases of craft and storytelling. The next class runs Wednesdays, 5-26 June 2024. Sign up here.
• 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 4 June 2024. Pre-order is 99¢ You can also find it here.
• Amy Olmedo writes “I am looking for a perspective of a mature woman who has overcome adversity and discovered her purpose” to review her new book. Amy says “This book captures a unique blend of spirituality, mythology, and personal experiences, blurring the lines between fiction and non-fiction. This intriguing fusion promises to take readers on a deeply personal yet universally relatable journey of self-discovery and enlightenment.”
  Interested people please contact Amy directly via email or 443-691-4830.

And that’s it for May.

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Enjoy!