Sarah Ettritch's Blog, page 2

Move House. Check.

So long, Toronto. Hello, Kingston. In my first post of 2018, I said the following:

We’re leaving Toronto. We have to declutter our house, do a major renovation and lots of touch-ups, stage the house, and sell it. Assuming it sells, we’ll then have to find somewhere to live in the destination city, pack, and move.

We’d lived in our Toronto house for 15 years, and before that, we’d rented a house. Moving out when you rent is easier than moving out when you own. Decluttering is optional. Renovations aren’t required. You don’t have a house to sell.

We were naïve. We didn’t realize how much work it would be, and thank god for our real estate agent, who kept us on track. Otherwise we’d probably still be in Toronto, still decluttering.

Phase One: Prepare the House

In January, we started preparing the house. I estimate that we got rid of about 70% of our furniture and possessions. Much of it was old, and we were brutal when it came to stuff we were hanging on to, “just in case.” We recycled, donated, and gave stuff to friends/family whenever possible. Everything else was junked.

We had a major renovation to do: replacing all the floors in the house except the bathroom. Gathering quotes takes time. It’s an important job, so we wanted to be careful. You don’t want new floors to look crappy. It took us a month to select a company. We chose well, but the house was pretty much unlivable for a week when the old floors were being ripped out and the new ones nailed in.

New floor!

We also had a long list of handyman-type jobs. It’s surprising how many little irritations we’d put up with over the years: cupboards that didn’t latch properly, closet doors that dragged when opened and closed, etc. We found a great handyman who spent a couple of weeks at our place fixing stuff.

We painted the entire house, including the basement. Well, not us, but a paint crew. When I say “we” in this post, I mean the workers we hired.

We replaced some of the light fixtures.

We fixed up and painted the front porch.

We had the house inspected, to see if there were any problems we weren’t aware of.

This took us from January to early May, and life was never normal. At least one hired worker was in the house pretty much every day.

Phase Two: Sell the House

We had met with the real estate agent in February and were shooting to list the house around May 1. We missed the target by about two weeks. The house went up for sale on May 15. Because it was being staged, we had to move most of our stuff to storage.

As I said earlier, it was a good thing the agent was checking in with us to see where we were in the plan. He made sure things were moving along.

We did an offer day, meaning that we showed the house for a week and then accepted offers on a specific day. We boarded the cats for the week. We felt it would be less stressful for them and us. We didn’t have to worry about them getting out when strangers were in the house. It also let us remove all signs of pets.

We had more than 50 people through the house during the week. Our lives consisted of leaving the house, coming back, leaving the house, coming back, etc.

On the offer day, we had a good number of offers, and we accepted one. House sold.

Can we relax yet? Not quite. Now we have to find somewhere to live in the destination city: Kingston.

Phase Three: Find Somewhere to Live in Kingston

Why Kingston? We’d visited it a few times and liked it, it’s not too big or small, it’s situated within day-trip distance of three urban centres (Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal), and most importantly for us right now, it’s within day-trip distance of my parents.

Once again, we were naïve. We figured we’d make appointments to view apartments (we wanted to rent for at least the first year, in case we don’t like living in Kingston), sign a lease, and move.

We didn’t know how tight the rental market is in Kingston, or how difficult it would be to find an apartment that didn’t look like it needed major renovations and/or a serious clean. We could have signed a lease on that first trip, if we were willing to accept promises that “the carpets will be cleaned,” “a new paint job will cover the stains on the walls,” etc. Call use cynical, but we weren’t willing to sign a lease on the promise that an apartment would get a makeover before we moved in.

We returned to Toronto discouraged.

On our second trip, we saw more of the same. We decided to consider condos and houses for rent. Things started to look up. We really liked one house, but the rent was a bit more than we wanted to pay. We could afford it, but we weren’t sure we wanted to pay it.

We returned to Toronto discouraged.

But…we kept thinking about the house we liked. We planned to go back to Kingston and keep looking, but after two trips of appointments being cancelled on us because units were rented before we got to see them, apartments that looked like a bomb had hit them, plain old fatigue, and just wanting to get on with it, we decided to check whether the house we liked (with the high rent) was still available. It was, and the landlord knocked $100 off the rent for us. We took it—and breathed a sigh of relief.

Phase Four: Move

This was the easiest phase. Because of all the preparation work and moving our stuff into storage for staging, 80% of our packing was already done. We packed the rest, and the day before the house closed, we junked the furniture we weren’t taking with us.

We boarded the cats for two nights while we stayed in an Airbnb. The house closed with no problems, and the next morning we picked up the cats and headed down the 401.

Out of the Groove

From January to July, life was turned upside down. I haven’t written a word this year. I was overly optimistic to think that with everything going on, I’d be able to write. It just wasn’t possible with all the renovations, the stress, and the admin/paperwork related to moving. I couldn’t get into a writing groove.

They say that moving is a major life stressor, and it is. Add to that renovations and decluttering, and I was shocked when I had my annual physical and my blood pressure was okay LOL.

I’m sitting in my new office now. My goal for August is to get back into some type of routine, so that’s what I’m trying to do. 

Conclusion

Life is settling down, so I’ll finally get back to writing.

Selling a house and moving is time consuming and stressful.

If anyone in Toronto wants recommendations for flooring, a great handyman, or a great junk guy, contact me and I’ll tell you who we used. We weren’t as thrilled with the paint job, but that’s a long story. Ask me privately.

Move House. Check. is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Another Type of Move

I mentioned in my last post that we’re moving house. I did another type of move over the past couple of weeks. I moved all my websites to another host.

Skip down to the next section if you don’t care about technical stuff and hosting

There are two parts to having a website. First, the domain. The domain of this website is sarahettritch.com. The second part is where to keep your website files. They have to be stored on a computer that acts as a server. The server is often referred to as a host.

If you know how to do it, you can use your own computer as a server, but some ISPs don’t allow it, and it’s more convenient to use a hosting company.

I was with the same hosting company for quite a while. I loved the support, and the hosting was reliable. I wrote the last two sentences in the past tense because over the past few months, the support hasn’t been as good. Also, my sites have experienced problems and been down a few times, sometimes for hours.

Two things changed at the hosting company. It hired a bunch of support people and split support into level 1 and level 2 support. I haven’t had a great experience with the level 1 support.

The second thing that changed is that the hosting company has automated a bunch of things, which is great when the automation works. But when it doesn’t, it breaks sites. And that’s what’s been happening to my sites. That’s also the reason I’ve had to deal with support more than usual over the past few months.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was when I woke up one morning and found a few automated emails in my Inbox from the hosting company, saying that my SSL certificates had been renewed. There were two problems with this. The SSL certificates weren’t due to be renewed. Also, one of my sites was now down.

I contacted support and the first answer I got didn’t make sense, and frankly if the support person had taken the time to do a simple check, he would have known it couldn’t be causing the problem. So when I replied to that effect (politely and diplomatically!), they fixed it, but I never got a good explanation as to why it happened, and it was the sort of thing that shouldn’t have happened out of the blue to a site that was working.

So, support wasn’t as good, and my trust in the robustness of the hosting decreased. It didn’t help that I was receiving daily emails from Google telling me that there was something wrong with my RSS feeds, and then another email saying, “It’s okay, they’re working now,” followed by another email saying they weren’t working again.

I decided it was time to look for another host. I’ve moved all my sites to Siteground (affiliate link), and I’m no longer getting daily emails from Google. My sites are up 99.9% of the time once again. Also, I’ve used Siteground’s support twice and they’ve fixed both problems within 10 minutes. It helps that they have live chat (at the other host, it was email support only).

Decluttering websites

Just as when you move house, moving websites is a good time to declutter. I looked at every website I had and decided which to keep and which to let go.

This site obviously made the cut! So did Self-Publishing Adventure, though I haven’t updated it in a long time and only moved it because it’s still a good source of information for people thinking about self-publishing. But I’m not sure I’ll keep it. I didn’t want to get hung up on making a decision about it, so I’ve moved it for now.

I moved a couple of other sites, but it’s the two sites I didn’t move that I want to let you know about.

I didn’t move Canadian Lesfic. In 2014, six of us started the site with a lot of enthusiasm. But then, as often happens, life got busy. We stopped blogging, and we hadn’t updated the site in a while. I contacted the other admins and explained that I was changing hosts and I’d be happy to move the site, but did it make sense? We agreed that it didn’t, so I quietly turned off the lights. If you go to the domain, you’ll see a parked page.

I also let go of Online Lesbian Fiction. I started the site back when I was posting Rymellan stories to rymellanstories.com. I linked to (legally) free lesbian fiction. In the early years, authors would contact me quite frequently to link to their sites. But then the eBook revolution happened, and most authors upload free fiction to Amazon and other bookstores. I hadn’t posted to the site since May 2017. I was receiving only 1-2 requests a year, and some of them were for links that weren’t lesbian fiction. So once again, it was time to let the site go. For now, the domain onlinelesbianfiction.com redirects to the lesbian fiction page on this site. I’m thinking about what else I could do with the domain.

As for rymellanstories.com, it will soon redirect to the Rymellan Series page on this site. I’ve wanted to do that for years, but it was the main domain on my hosting account. That’s no longer true at Siteground.

Moves always bring change. I wish moving house was as fast and simple as moving web hosts!

Have a great weekend!

Another Type of Move is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Mixed Bag: Their Last Hope, Reader News, And More

Their Last Hope

Their Last Hope is on its way. It’s already available at Amazon (print and ebook), Smashwords, and Google Play, but I’m waiting for it to show up at Kobo, Apple, and Barnes & Noble before I send out the new releases email. If you want to grab the book now, buy links are here.

I almost didn’t upload the files this week. I had planned to do it on Wednesday, but instead I was in a dentist’s chair for an hour and forty-five minutes having the first stage of a root canal done. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel yesterday. I felt fine, so I went ahead and uploaded everything. If I hadn’t felt great, I would have pushed publication to Monday.

I’ve mentioned before (I think in a new releases email, but maybe here) that Amazon always sets the publication date to the day before the files were uploaded, so the Amazon page says the book was published on January 24th.

When I checked the Google Play page this morning, it says the book was published on December 17, 2017. Considering that I hadn’t generated any ebook files at that point, it certainly wasn’t published on that date. I assigned an ISBN to the book on December 15th, so I’m wondering if the book record made it into Bowker’s database on December 17th, and that’s the date Google Play is using.

Anyway, if you’re on my new releases list, expect an email sometime within the next few days.

Bookstore News

Here’s some bookstore news, in case you haven’t heard. You can now buy audiobooks at Google Play. I’m not sure where they’re sourcing the books from, so the selection probably isn’t as good as Audible’s. But it’s early days.

Microsoft opened an ebookstore not too long ago, and without much fanfare. It’s not open to indie authors at the moment, but that could change. (BTW, Microsoft Edge is a pretty good EPUB reader. I used to check the EPUB versions of my books with Adobe Digital Editions, but now I use Edge).

Apple is no longer going to call its bookstore iBooks. It’ll just be Books. Some publishing pundits have taken this as a sign that Apple will be paying more attention to its bookstore and perhaps making more of an effort to take on Amazon, but it’s crystal ball talk right now.

Smashwords is planning to revamp its store this year. It did a cosmetic facelift to the site a few years back. I think the changes will be more substantial this time, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Goodreads Giveaway Changes

And here’s news about Goodreads giveaways. If you regularly use Goodreads, you might already know that the giveaway program has changed.

In the beginning, an author or publisher could only give away print books on Goodreads. Giveaways were free. They no longer are, and they’re quite expensive. There are two tiers. A standard giveaway will cost $119, and a premium giveaway will cost $599. As part of this, indie authors can now give away Kindle books (previously only traditional publishers could do so).

A premium giveaway provides featured placement on the giveaway page. Not sure that’s worth an extra $400+.

There are changes for readers, too. Entering a giveaway will automatically add the book to your want-to-read list.

I used to do Goodreads giveaways, but I stopped. It’s expensive for me to give away print books (due to Canadian postal costs), and I saw little benefit from doing them. The idea is to get exposure for your book and maybe a couple of reviews. But that’s only effective if the book gets into a target reader’s hands.

Many readers enter every giveaway without considering whether the book is right for them, so there’s a high probability that someone will win who isn’t in your target audience. That can be especially true for books that have LGBT main characters. Also, many winners don’t review the books (I suspect many turn around and sell them).

I would definitely NOT pay to give away books to an untargeted audience. I might as well throw my money out the window.

I’m guessing that this will reduce the number of giveaways at Goodreads, especially from indie authors.

Also, giveaways will now be open to US residents only (at least initially).

From what I’ve read, readers don’t like the book being automatically added to their want-to-read lists. So nobody is really all that happy about these changes, but we’ll see how it plays out.

If you’re interested in reading the official announcement, it’s here.

Other Giveaway Ideas

I would like to do a giveaway here, but with something other than a book. Why? Because doing a giveaway of a book does nothing for readers who already have the book. That means people who support me by buying my books are left out. So I’m thinking about what I can give away instead. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them (leave a comment or contact me here).

Have a great weekend!

Their Last Hope Cover Reveal

I’m in the middle of preparing Their Last Hope for publication. Every book needs a cover, and for Their Last Hope, I used a new cover designer. She came up with a fantastic cover.

Their Last Hope is a standalone science fiction novel about an AI specialist and sentient androids. When I started writing it, I thought that maybe it would fall into the cyberpunk genre. It doesn’t. It’s more a visionary/dystopian novel.

Here’s the blurb:

AI specialist Liz Price is determined to see sentient androids in her lifetime, but then she’s diagnosed with terminal cancer. Hoping that her dream will be realized in the future, she arranges to be cryogenically frozen upon her death.

When Liz is revived years later, she expects to be cured. But sentient androids are taking humans and killing them for some unknown reason. They control the medical system, and they don’t treat serious illnesses.

A resistance group wants Liz to turn the androids back into mindless machines. They tell her that’s the only way to stop the androids, and the only way she’ll be cured.

Liz wants to live, so she agrees to work with the resistance. She secretly hopes she can reason with the androids, but then she finds out why they’re taking humans.

The story has received an enthusiastic response from everyone who has read it. My usual editor said that out of everything I’ve written, it’s her favourite story, and she has read everything, from the Rymellan Series to the Daros Chronicles.

Their Last Hope has the dubious distinction of spending the most time on my hard drive between completion of the first draft and publication. I put it aside several times to finish the Daros Chronicles. I’m pleased that it’ll finally go out into the world.

Instead of publishing the eBook and then doing print, I’m doing what I used to do and publishing both versions at around the same time. Once I’ve approved the print proof, I’ll upload the eBook to the bookstores. The proof is on its way, so it’s just a matter of when it will arrive and whether it passes muster.

Enjoy your weekend!

Their Last Hope Cover Reveal is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Writing Plans for 2018

Happy 2018! Long time no talk. I just checked, and I last posted to the blog on September 1. I’ve been busy, but that was 2017.

So what’s happened since then, and what’s coming down the pipe?

Facing a Crossroads

In May, I started to work on a programming course for an online course platform. After completing it, I created another course. All told, I spent May to November working on the two courses.

It was a great experience, and when the instructor I worked with contacted me about doing another course, I agreed to discuss it in early January.

But here’s the thing: when I was working on the courses, I had to put everything else aside, including writing. I didn’t write at all, and I missed it. I also couldn’t spend any time promoting my books. To get the courses done, I had to focus on them exclusively.

In December, I realized that if I created more courses, everything else would continue to take a backseat.

I wouldn’t say the courses are easy money. Creating a course is a ton of work, hence having to put everything else aside. But a programming course is guaranteed income. Coding is hot these days, and many people are turning to online courses, rather than going to university.

Writing, on the other hand, is about as risky as you can get when it comes to income. You can spend months, even years, writing a book, and then make peanuts when it’s released.

I had a decision to make: go for something I don’t mind doing that’s guaranteed to make me money, or go for something I love doing that might end up making me only enough money to buy a cup of tea and a pastry at the local coffee shop. So it came down to creating courses or writing.

I’ve chosen writing.

If I were younger, I’d go for the courses and squeeze in writing and publishing when I can. But at this stage in my life, I’m not interested in working 12 hour days. My partner is retired. Spending time with family and friends is important to me. And as you get older, it’s important to mind your health. You also want to spend your time doing stuff you really enjoy, because you’re aware that time is slipping through your fingers.

So I contacted the instructor and told him I’d decided not to do any more courses.

Does that mean I’ll be releasing more books than usual this year? Maybe, but it’s going to be a bit of a crazy year. We’re leaving Toronto. We have to declutter our house, do a major renovation and lots of touch-ups, stage the house, and sell it. Assuming it sells, we’ll then have to find somewhere to live in the destination city, pack, and move. So it’ll be busy.

2018 Releases

I’m only committing to releasing one book in 2018. I’ll release the standalone science fiction novel I’ve mentioned previously. It’s called THEIR LAST HOPE, and it’s almost ready to go. The book should be available by the end of this month.

The Deiform Fellowship Five is on hold for now. Before I’d put it aside for the courses, I’d written about 30,000 words, but I wasn’t happy with the way the story was going. I’d decided to throw a lot of it away and take it in a different direction. Now that I’m back to writing, I want to give the story more time to percolate in my subconscious before I try again.

I’ve started a new story…actually, I’ve started three. When I looked over my ideas file, three ideas jumped out at me. I couldn’t decide between them, so I started writing all three, figuring that one or two would fizzle out, or one would really take off. But so far, I’m happily writing all three! However, it’s early days. One or two will probably fall to the wayside.

So…THEIR LAST HOPE will definitely be released. I expect more to come out from me this year, but because of how busy we’ll be with the move, I don’t want to make any promises.

That’s it for now. I’m going to try to post to the blog a little more this year, but with everything else going on, I’ll see how it goes.

Wishing you a wonderful 2018 and a great weekend! 

Fate or Folly is Out

Fate or Folly, the second book in the Daros Chronicles, is out. You can pick it up from your favourite online bookstore. Here’s the info:

Fate or Folly

Author: Sarah Ettritch
Series: The Daros Chronicles, Book 2
Genre: Epic Fantasy

At the end of Pawns and Puzzles, Erryn comes face to face with a goddess, and Fi faces a life of humiliation and servitude. In Fate or Folly, both women must find a way to fulfill their destinies, but with Fi shackled and Erryn a hunted criminal, the fate of Daros and its people appears grim. More info →

This book concludes the story that began in Pawns and Puzzles.

My next release will most likely be in February, 2018. It’ll be the standalone sci-fi novel I’ve mentioned. If you’re on my mailing list, I offered a few more details in the Fate or Folly announcement email.

I was hoping to write another holiday story, but I’m not going to have the time. I’m busy preparing Their Last Hope (the sci-fi novel) for my editor, I’m creating another programming course, and I’m sifting through the story ideas I’ve saved (so far) and deciding which ones I’d like to move forward with at some point. Related to the latter, I’m doing a couple of writing workshops.

I’ll continue to add story ideas to my file. I just want to sort out the ones I already have. There are so many that it’s difficult for me to see at a glance what’s there. Some have been in the file for 5, 6, 7 years. If I haven’t written them yet, I’m not likely to, though there may be a couple that survive the cut.

The author Jae posted on Facebook that a reader had contacted her at some point to say that s/he (the reader) had a story idea, and if Jae wrote her idea, the reader would split the book royalties with her.

But here’s the thing: the idea is the easy part when it comes to writing a book. Ideas come easily to fiction writers. I can take a walk around the block and come home with 20 story ideas. It’s the research, the preparation, the sitting down at the desk and spending months, sometimes years, to write the first draft, the editing, the re-editing, reviewing feedback from beta readers and an editor, and then revising and editing again…that’s the tough part.

Of course, Jae declined the offer.

Have a great weekend. For those who celebrate Labour Day, enjoy your long weekend!

Fate or Folly is Out is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Books about Lesbians in the 1960s

I was the guest poster on Women and Words yesterday. I talked about what books said about lesbians in the 1960s. We’ve come incredibly far in the past fifty years, but as one comment said, we still have a ways to go. You can read the post here:

When Others Spoke for Us

In other news, I’m busy reading the Kindle version of Fate or Folly (Daros Chronicles Volume Two). I expect to release the book by the end of August. Print versions of Volumes One and Two should be available by the end of September.

After that, I’ll turn my attention to the standalone sci-fi novel that I’ll release early next year.

Just a quick update for this holiday Monday in Ontario.

Books about Lesbians in the 1960s is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Pawns and Puzzles is Available

I would have announced this yesterday, but it was Canada Day. I was out on a Toronto Heritage tour, and then we had friends over.

Pawns and Puzzles is out. It’s the first volume in the Daros Chronicles and contains all the installments published so far.

Two friends learn how quickly life can change when they go from living lives of luxury to being the most wanted fugitives in the land.

When assassins threaten Princess Fi’s life, her foster sister Erryn summons cursed beasts to save her. Branded a heathen, Erryn escapes the guards ordered to kill her and flees for her life. When she hears about a faraway temple that may reveal why she has summoning powers, she sets out on the long journey to reach it. But Erryn’s pampered life doesn’t serve her well in the wild. Bounty hunters and guards become the least of her worries.

Back at the castle, Fi tries to carry on with her life. But then her father is assassinated, and Fi is framed for the crime. With the help of those loyal to her, she escapes from prison and searches for Erryn, hoping to enlist her aid in reclaiming the throne. But the outside world isn’t kind to treacherous princesses. Fi’s quest to prove her innocence leads to another cage, one that has her wishing she was back in a prison cell.

 

 

Click here for more info

Volume Two is with my editor and will be released in late August/early September.

If you liked The Salbine Sisters, this book is in the same genre.

Canada’s 150th Birthday

Yesterday Canada celebrated its 150th birthday. We started the day by going on a tour with Heritage Toronto. It focused on citizenship and stopped at a few places downtown.

Here’s the Toronto sign that was placed in front of city hall for the Pan Am games. It has changed a bit since then. The maple leaf is newish.

 

Here’s Jen and me at the end of the tour.

 

After the tour, we had a couple of friends over for lunch. One of them baked a birthday cake. Unfortunately it was raining, so we couldn’t sit outside, but we did go out for a few minutes to take photos. Here’s a festive corner of our back deck.

I hope my fellow Canadians had a great Canada Day, and if you’re American, an early Happy Fourth of July to you!

The Daros Chronicles – On Its Way

The Daros Chronicles is on its way! I’m just finishing my review of the ebook version of Pawns and Puzzles (Daros Chronicles Volume One). If it doesn’t show up in bookstores this coming week, it will be there the week after.

Fate or Folly (Daros Chronicles Volume Two) is with my editor. Barring any unforeseen problems, it should be available in August (September at the latest).

Those dates are for the ebook versions. The print versions always follow a few weeks (or a couple of months) later.

Fate or Folly concludes the story.

The individual installments are still available, but I’ll take them down at the end of July. If you started the Daros Chronicles and put it aside, intending to come back and finish it later, make sure you pick up the remaining installments before then.

My last post was about release dates. Daros Volumes One and Two are on track. But I shouldn’t tweak my nose at the Universe by announcing release dates too soon. Pretty much within a week after posting, an opportunity came my way related to my other life, that of a software developer. I was asked whether I’d be interested in teaching a programming course at an online school. I said yes.

First, it’s income. Second, I enjoy programming. I’ve picked up several new skills since leaving my last job, because I’m constantly tinkering with programming languages and frameworks. Lastly, I’ve taken courses at this online school. Out of the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of programming courses they offer, I’ve only ever come across two taught by female instructors.

When I was doing my Computer Science degree in the 1980s, men vastly outnumbered women. There were a handful of women in the first-year classes. By the final year, I was the only woman in some classes. Most of the other women had dropped out or changed their field of study.

Unfortunately, things haven’t changed much in the almost 30 (eek!) years since I graduated with my degree. In fact, a few years ago, I read that the enrollment of women in computer programs had gone down!

This is a shame, because it’s a great area to work in. It pays well, it’s in demand and will continue to be in demand, and there’s very little sexism. I can count on one hand the number of times I felt I was being spoken to or treated differently because I was a woman. Yes, it happened, but not more than 3-4 times.

If a woman came to me and said, “I don’t know what to do with my life. I’m open to anything,” I’d tell her to try computer programming. I’d say that whether she was 20 or 60 years old. These days, you can get a decent job without getting a degree, because there’s a shortage of programmers.

So part of the reason I agreed to do the course was because the school needs more female instructors. The people there are quite excited that I’ll be teaching a course. They know they need more women teaching tech.

The first course I’ll teach (I may do more) has a release date in August, because we want to time its release with the release of Android O. Because of that, I’m on a really tight timeline to create the course material. I’ve had to put everything else aside except editing and publishing the Daros Chronicles.

I’ve changed the editing date I’d arranged with my editor for the standalone sci-fi novel. Instead of September, it will go to my editor at the end of November, meaning it will only be released in January/February 2018. I’ve also had to put the Deiform Fellowship Five aside. I was hoping to finish the first draft by the end of the year, but that’s not going to happen.

If I do teach more courses, I won’t be on as tight a schedule, so I’ll be able to get back to writing/editing sometime in August. I figured putting everything except the Daros Chronicles aside for 2-3 months wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it does delay the release dates for everything but the Daros Chronicles.

Later.

The Daros Chronicles – On Its Way is a post from: Sarah Ettritch

Tentative Release Dates for 2017

I have a firmer idea of when I’ll release my next three books. Here goes:

Daros Chronicles (Volume One)

The text is ready, but the cover designer I’ll work with is busy, so we’ll work on the cover at the end of this month or early next month. I expect to release the book around the end of June/early July.

Daros Chronicles (Volume Two)

This will go to my editor at the end of June. Given the cover design situation, I might see if the cover designer will do both covers at the same time, rather than just doing the cover for Volume One and scheduling the second cover for later. Barring any unforeseen problems, I expect to release this one sometime in August.

Their Last Hope (standalone science fiction novel)

This will go to my editor in mid-September. I’ll get a cover done earlier than that, so I expect to release the book around the end of October/early November.

That Will Probably Be It

I was considering writing a short holiday story, like I did last year with The Perfect Christmas Gift, but as you can see, I’ll be publishing one book after the other until October/November, which won’t leave me enough time to write a story. But you never know. If I finish the first draft of Deiform Five early, I might be able to squeeze one in.

It’s pelting it down with rain here, but the grass is green, and I have a cat curled up on my lap as I type this, so life is good (plus, I’m one of those crazy people who likes rain—especially when I’m inside!).

Enjoy your weekend!