Friends, Readers, and Sorcerers All,
We are soooo close to having printed galleys for SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS! We’ll have some images to show you soon, but for now I’ll just say that our layout designer Kevin and illustrator Juliane are champions. We have been through many rounds of notes and tweaks, but it’s safe to say the finished layout will look like no novel you’ve ever seen.
In the meantime, I have a favor to ask. Goodreads has a list up of the most anticipated middle grade novels of 2017. It would be HUGE for us if we could get on this list. As it currently stands, it would only take 22 votes to get us into the TOP TEN!
You’ve already done so much, but if you could go here and vote for SORCERY FOR BEGINNERS, it would really boost the book’s visibility:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/74235.Middle_Grade_Novels_of_2017
While you’re there, you could also vote for another book I worked on -- SKAVENGER’S HUNT by Mike Rich (screenwriter of Cars 3, Finding Forrester, and many more). I edited Mike’s book and it’s a fun adventure featuring historical characters like Mark Twain and Gustave Eiffel.
Thanks again, and we’ll have more updates coming soon!
mh
Things are DEFINITELY starting to look better.
Originally we were all pretty sure I wasn’t going to make it. I had a cough for almost a year and they found cancer in my throat and lungs. There was a lesion in my left lung the size of a silver dollar (probably caused by second-hand smoke).
That lesion is down to the size of a nickel now. A NICKEL. I can’t believe it. I hit my assumed "expiration date" 9 days ago. The doctors are optimistic I’ll pull through. :)
I’m still sad about some of the things that I had to put down while I worked towards recovery, though. (I won’t lie-- every part of this process is horrible and I hate it.) I had to basically stop working on my campaign as I got sicker and weaker, which I think is the main reason why I didn’t push up to a higher spot in the G&S contest I’d entered (I think I ended at... 4th place in that HUGE fantasy contest). I really think I could have hit full publication if I had tried harder. I also know that I’d been nominated for several syndicates right before the end of my campaign, but because we all thought I was going to die I decided not to extend and lost those possible pre-orders. I really thought that I had lost all chance of ever seeing this book become real.
But now, thanks to the wonderful and understanding people at Inkshares, The Last Faoii might be out as early as August or September, and it looks like I’ll be alive to see it on my bookshelf at home! I do have 2 major hospital visits between here and there, though, so of course I’m still a little worried. But overall, I think that I’m going to make it. I feel alive and ready to go back to war for this book. I feel like a faoii. ;)
Thank you so much for your concern. I hope that my story and my faoii updates help to inspire other people and their campaigns. It’s a tough road, but it’s worth it. :)
(Oh-- and if anyone is reading this and is angry at me for jumping queue and probably setting your own production back, I am SO SO SORRY. I absolutely did not mean to make anyone’s campaigns harder than they already are. Really.)