These times are hard and weird.
If you’re feeling freaked out, my unsolicited advice is to go ahead and freak (don’t harm anyone). It’s better to get it out of your system than to hold it in. And please please do physically distance yourself from others. At least 6 feet. It really is the most responsible thing you can personally do right now.
Okay, so book news. If you’re on my mailing list, you’ll have received access to get the Episode 5 ARC for free: In Wait for Blood.
Someone wanted to know why I offer my books for free to my mailing list.
.:. Because when I get my books into the hands of my readers (instead of perfect strangers), readers are much more likely to leave reviews. And reviews are magic for authors, so they are worth more than cold hard cash.
So if you’re reading this…if you’ve read and enjoyed books of mine, please consider leaving reviews for them. You’d be doing me a HUGE favor. Thank you ahead of time. <3
Writing update
I just received Episode 6 back from betas. Feedback is positive! Whew! A good thing, too, because this one was a beast. I had to delete 3,000 words and start over a few times. Still tweaking the ending.
Highlights of writing Forged in Shadow: Season 2, Episode 6:
★ I researched how alligators kill people. It looked like this: Visit pet stores, receive slack-jawed expressions of horror, pivot back to Google and trusty Wikipedia.
★ I learned that Florida is built on porous limestone (thus the sinkholes) and is home to a half-dozen limestone caves.
★ I discovered a new brainstorming app that makes the writer in me squee. Goodbye artboard covered in stickies and getting thumbtacks in my feet when I step on fallen pins!
★ After researching Locked-In Syndrome, I’m astounded by technological advances that change a person’s life for the better. I’m also incredibly grateful for my body’s health.
★ I’ve come to terms with the “story beneath the story” — Rangers of the Rift, among other things, explores the nature of complex PTSD (more on this in another dispatch).
Take good care of yourselves <3
Talk again soon,
~River