I’ve got a cover reveal for you this week! Yes, after what seems like eons, I can finally show you the cover for Evolution’s Hand Book 6: Unnatural Crypsis. The delay’s all on me, but I have a good excuse! Also, I have some progress to report on The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak, as well as another book in that series. And just to contribute to a sense of massive amounts of work being done (with only a lot of working actually having been done), I upgraded my office! Let’s talk about all of that, and a little more, after the infographic.
Progress Report 2024 Week 16 By the Numbers
Firebreak is officially underway!
It feels great to be writing again! I recognize that casting, and plotting, and designing sets is a creative endeavor. Honestly, I love doing those things. But I can chart my mood against when I’m writing and when I’m not. Put delicately, folks enjoy my company considerably more when I’m writing! My family and coworkers could tell when I started writing Firebreak — within about a minute.
The story’s flowing well, at least so far. The characters are running strong out of the gate. Fingers crossed that they’ll keep that up.
Cover Reveal: Evolution’s Hand Book 6: Unnatural Crypsis
Here’s the cover of the sixth book in the Evolution’s Hand series:
Here’s the cover for the sixth and last book in the Evolution’s Hand series!
I think miblart did a great job. Another artist handled the first four books. When I found they weren’t available, I won’t say I panicked, but I strongly considered it. Fortunately, miblart captured the spirit of the first four books in the covers for Split Infinities and now Unnatural Crypsis.
Here’s another announcement, and you’re hearing it here first: you can order it now from Amazon and from other retailers right now. If you want to stop reading this post and go buy the book, that’s cool with me!
In fact, please do!
Why’d it take so long to finally publish it? Well, I got busy on The Sword of Sirius, and my proofreader was booked by the time I got the manuscript to her. Though, to be honest, Split Infinities came out on January 26, 2024, so the delay wasn’t huge.
What do you think of the cover?
News about The Sword of Sirius
I’ve been keeping miblart busy. I just approved the final iteration on the cover of The Sword of Sirius Book 1: Red Flag Warning. I’m dying to show it to you! There’s going to be a little bit of a delay, though. I want to finish writing The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak first. I’m going to publish all three at the same time through KDP Select so I can reach Kindle Unlimited readers.
Yeah, I know: putting all my eggs in one basket (Amazon) is a risk. I figure it’s worth investigating, at least. I’ll keep Evolution’s Hand “wide,” meaning you can buy the ebook from multiple retailers. We’ll see how this experiment works out!
Details Matter
I upgraded my office. It wasn’t anything Earth-shattering, but it was something that was really bugging me. I noticed that my office chair was getting harder and harder to move around. The wheels looked intact, so I put up with it. But it got worse, and I found it was starting to affect my calm. So, I ordered some replacements from Amazon.
Turns out the original housing that kept the axles in place had broken. The wheels were still in their housing, but the housing dragged against the floor. When I tried to test it after installing the new wheels, I just about flung myself out of the room.
It’s amazing how much of a difference these wheels made!
I know — it’s a silly thing to be happy about. But now when I try to move my chair, it moves. It’s one less distraction I need to deal with. With everything else I have going on, the fewer distractions, the better!
Progress against Last Week’s Goals
Here’s how I did against last week’s goals:
- Writer the opening chapter for The Sword of Sirius Book 3: Firebreak: Done!
- Write Ira Malhotra’s hook chapter.: Done!
- Write Owen Payne’s hook chapter. Not Done! I swapped Payne’s opening chapter with the plot helper/novel hook chapter featuring Jackson Scott and the Endurance
- Begin incorporating the proof read edits into Evolution’s Hand Book 6: Unnatural Crypsis: Done! Also, I published the ebook and paperback, so bonus!
Goals for the Week in Progress Report 2024 Week 16
Here’s what I hope to accomplish this week:
- Finish Luisa Brunner’s Hook
- Finish Owen Payne’s Hook
- Finish Ira Malhotra’s Plot Turn 1
- Evaluate methods to create a cover for The Sword of Sirius Short Story: Fallback Position
What Do You Think?
Have you made any upgrades to your office — large or small — that made things disproportionally easier? I’d love to hear about your experience in the comments!
After the basement flooding last August, I was forced into a few changes. New chair, new bookcases, and a cage for the back of my desk to keep all my power cables off the ground in case something like this happens again. My desk has metal legs so it survived with a bit of a clean. At some point, I should get a whole new room, but builders are in demand at the moment.
The biggest change I did a while back was to get a second docking station for my laptop and a switch to change whether my laptop or the work one is using the monitors, keyboard and mouse. Saves me so much time.
Also, loving the productivity. You’re not just getting the words done, but publishing the books too. Keep it up and you’ll be at twenty books in no time at all.
That flooding had to be exasperating! I don’t like relatively minor changes to my schedule. Something like that would be a menace!
Being able to switch without changing cables sounds like a great improvement. It’s not hard to switch once. After that, it just gets more and more annoying! Which disrupts thinking and causes no end of frustration.
Thanks! I can honestly say these posts, and comments like yours, help a lot! Like tonight — I mowed the lawn, and I didn’t feel like writing. Then I told myself I’d have to confess that next Monday. That little mental space helped me trick myself into starting.
So, thanks for commenting!