Updates! THE HIGHWAYMAN KENNEDY THORNWICK

Prepping for ARC readers!

Hey all! Just a quick status update on my next book, The Highwayman Kennedy Thornwick.

You can read my first post about it here:

I’ve sent out a couple early ARCs to folks in the last couple weeks, and soon I’ll be sending it to my proofreader/copy editor! Things are coming along!

I’m super excited to be getting this book ready for publication. I’m sketching out cover concepts and so hopefully soon there’ll be a nice cover reveal too! When that’s done it’ll have a solid release date and formally be in the ARC/preorder phase.

I learned a lot from Pallas’ release. The biggest thing I learned is that I need a street team. That means anyone who wants can sign up, recieve a free copy, and if they like what they read they holler about it. You are, essentially, my ground troops who want to see the book succeed. It’s hard for me to ask this, to be flat out honest, but it really is an essential part. Not just honest reviews, though of course those are very needed, but more than that. Post about it wherever books are talked about: Substack of course, but also discord servers, Malaysian basket weaving forums, tiktok, Instagram, Reddit, WHEREVER. We can all agree authors talking up their own books can come across as cringe and people just scroll past. This is where you come in: readers give validity to a book and especially one without a publisher stamp on the spine.

I’ll set up a form you can fill out and everything! That way I can easily contact you and send you some swag! (Bookmarks? Something nice.) Expect a post about that in a month or so.

I think I can safely say if you’re receiving this email you’re a fan of my writing. Even if you don’t want to be part of a “street team” or if the book itself isn’t what you'd normally read you might know one, just one person who might and you can share a post with them about it. It would mean a lot to me—I really want this book in front of as many eyes as possible and so I need all the help I can get. And I say with all sincerity, I appreciate each and every one of you, really I do. I wouldn’t have the courage to do this whole publishing thing if it wasn’t for you guys.

If anyone has suggestions for people I can reach out to (for example book reviewers who review indie books) I’ve also learned I need to stop being afraid of “cold calling” (emailing? DMing?) folks. So leave suggestions for me!

Here’s the hardest part, though. The book covers a lot of, let’s say, sensitive topics. So any reviewers I’d reach out to (including you, the ones I’m asking to be my street team,) would have to be OK with reading tougher subjects or fantasy that blends “literary” quite a lot. This isn’t a heroic fantasy. There’s no dragons or magic swords or prophecy. It’s a standalone (if you follow fantasy booktube for example, folks love trilogies etc.) I would even risk saying it would be more for fans of Goodfellas rather than… name any popular fantasy series. And stylistically it is very different from Pallas.

So there’s all that. Please leave your thoughts on this in the comments!

IN OTHER NEWS!

Pull Me Under is approaching the final chunk, so for those following along and would like to get the whole thing, or for anyone who hasn’t started but would like an easier way to binge, I’ll be setting up a PWYW option on Ko-Fi to get the full ebook once we get to the end. Very exciting!

(Why PWYW, and why on Ko-Fi? One, PMU is already free on my Substack and always will be, but going through the chapters one by one doesn’t have to be the only option. Two, it hasn’t had a professional edit, so I hesitate to put ot on Amazon. Three, I know there’s some readers who might want to throw a couple bucks my way but I’d like to keep subscriptions free at the same time, and Substack doesn’t allow for tipping. So this is a nice happy medium, in my opinion.)

Things are going a bit slow with part 3 of Temple of the Green Stone Men, but don’t fret, it’s coming. This is because I’m trying my best to focus on a first draft to a novel, plus prepping for Halloween/birthdays/other parental obligations for fall. Plus, you know, getting The Highwayman ready.

I’ve got some poetry I’ll be posting soon, too.

That's about it!

Cheers!