L.G. Estrella's Blog

On em dashes and AI…

One trend that I’ve noticed lately is to accuse anyone who uses an em dash of employing AI. Now, obviously, if someone has never used em dashes before in their life, then this might seem suspicious, but I think people need to be careful before accusing others of using AI.

Moreover, let’s not forget why AI uses em dashes. AI uses em dashes because em dashes were employed in the data sets used to train AI in the first place. In other words, AI uses em dashes because a non-insignificant proportion ...

Changing Circumstances, Changing Characters

Something that I think is often forgotten when it comes to making characters is the idea that the way characters behave changes based on their circumstances. How a character acts in one situation or around one group of people can vary dramatically in comparison to how they act in other situations or around other groups of people without that character necessarily ‘breaking character’.

This is something that happens with the Unconventional Heroes Series. Perhaps the best example of that is Spot.

...

Progress Report And Other News

I’ll start off with the progress report before moving on to other news.

The first draft of Cosmic Conundrum (Book 2 of Cosmic Delivery Boy) is complete. It runs to roughly 34,000 words.

Now, don’t let that seemingly short length alarm you. It’s only a first draft, which means it’s going to be way shorter than the finished story. A first draft is quite rough. Think of it as more of a skeleton to make sure that the story, as planned, will work the way I want. By the time the story is complete, it ...

Big and Strong

The girl ran over to Spot. “Is it true that you used to be really tiny?”

Spot shifted his attention from the massive shark he’d dragged up onto the beach. The shark had been menacing local fishermen for the past month, so they’d asked him to get rid of it.

Despite being hauled out of the ocean, the shark made one last frantic attempt to bite Spot. The dragon batted the shark’s attack aside and then brought one claw down with thunderous force, extending one wing to protect the girl from the showe...

Practical Dragon Slaying

The boy raised his sword (stick) high into the air and then plunged it deep into the wicked dragon’s chest.

“Die, foul creature! Be vanquished by the power of righteousness!”

The dragon roared in agony and then collapsed, toppling onto his back and then twitching several times before falling still. Elated, the boy yanked his sword free of the wretched reptile’s corpse and declared his victory.

“Behold, mom! I have slain the evil dragon! No longer shall – ah!”

The dragon’s tail coiled around the ...

Does Spot receive an allowance?

It’s been noted several times that Katie receives an allowance from Timmy. Naturally, Timmy provides for her necessities (e.g., food, clothing, research budget, etc.). Her allowance is for discretionary spending and to give her money that she can invest. Should those investments prove successful, then she can use that extra money herself. For the most part, the extra money she earns is put back into investing and to increase her research budget.

But what about Spot?

Spot actually receives an all...

Where would you have split it?

As I’ve mentioned before, I thought long and hard about potentially splitting Book 5 into two books. In the end, however, I decided to keep the book in one piece, resulting in an impressively lengthy tome.

If, however, the book was going to be split in two, where would you have split it? I am, of course, aiming this question at people who have finished reading the book.

The book has 42 chapters. I would probably have split it up into Chapters 1-21 and Chapters 22-42. Another viable split is 1-22...

The Sheep Dragon on Sale on Audible

I have been told that The Sheep Dragon is on sale on Audible until 31st of May. Based on past experience this is on the US store and may or may not apply on other stores, so be sure to check before purchasing.

www.audible.com/pd/1039403131

Something I’ve noticed…

Ever since I started having audiobooks published, I’ve noticed something interesting.

An eBook only reader will often look at a longer book and comment on the length. An audiobook only listener will look at that same book and say they would love it if it was twice as long.

I’m very curious to know how people receive the length of Book 5 in audiobook format vs eBook format. It will undoubtedly be plenty of bang for your credit, though, if that’s how you purchase it.

Incidentally, I am confident t...

Fun fact…

On the day I published Book 5, I treated myself to a nice lunch and decided to take a nap… I then woke up the next day. Oops.

Yeah.

The lead up to a book release is always a pretty stressful sort of time. As a result, my sleeping habits take a turn for the worse. On the upside, there are few better feelings than turning a book in for release and realising that, at least for a while, all you can do is sit back and watch what happens.

Every time I release a book, I think back to the first few book...