Sparks' Notes: Weekly(ish) Writing Reflections by Author Lindsey Sparks

Episode 40: Tarot Cards, Cover Illustrators, and the Third Draft, Oh My!

May 09, 2022 Lindsey Sparks, Lindsey Fairleigh Season 1 Episode 40
Sparks' Notes: Weekly(ish) Writing Reflections by Author Lindsey Sparks
Episode 40: Tarot Cards, Cover Illustrators, and the Third Draft, Oh My!
Show Notes Transcript

Hi there! I'm Lindsey Sparks, author of books featuring hidden worlds and twisted myths. Welcome to my weekly author's notes podcast! This episode was recorded live in my Discord on Sunday, 5/8/2022, and I would love to share some of my reflections from this past week with you.

CURRENT FREEBIES:
Echo in Time (free ebook through all retailers)
After The Ending (free ebook through all retailers)
Starter Library for newsletter subscribers (ebooks and audiobooks of my series starters, and more!)
https://www.authorlindseysparks.com/join-newsletter

CURRENT WIP:
Revising: Blood of the Broken (Atlantis Legacy, book 5)

READING:
Crescent City: House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas
The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
Echo in Time by me (for Read By The Author)

WATCHING:
Snowfall
The Witcher (season 1)

PLAYING:
Elder Scrolls Online

HIGH:
Song of Scarabs and Fallen Stars Early Bird zoom chats
Kat's deck of Tarot cards
Refresh of KDC paperbacks

LOW:
Slow progress on the third draft of Blood of the Broken

LAST WEEK'S OBSESSION:
Browsing cover illustrators (for the Echo Trilogy 10th anniversary special editions)

GOOGLE SEARCH HISTORY:
elements not found on earth / theoretical elements
synonym for...(eked, dazed, vacuous, blank, empty, hollow, toxic, interloper, doubt, insidious, comfortable,
parasite that controls human brain
are mold and fungus the same
does cracking your back release endorphins

BIG GOAL(s):
Finish this draft of Blood of the Broken and send it to betas!

LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Resuming the No Shelf Control Podcast with LP (Lindsey Pogue)

-

JOIN MY READER GROUP: Lindsey's Lovely Readers
https://www.facebook.com/groups/lovelyreaders

JOIN MY DISCORD SERVER:
https://discord.gg/EH4XPY6djP

SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER:
https://www.authorlindseysparks.com/join-newsletter

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Hi there. I'm Lindsey Sparks, author of books that include hidden worlds and twisted myths. Welcome to my weekly authors notes podcast. Today is Sunday, May 8th, and I would love to share some of my reflections from this past week with you. Okay. First off, current freebies are still the same. So Echo in Time and After the Ending are free through all the ebook retailers. And, um, if you are a subscriber to my newsletter, you have access to my starter library, which includes Echo in Time, Ink Witch, After The Ending, and Legacy of the Lost in ebook and. And all of those, except for After The Ending in audio book as well for. For free, complimentary for subscribers. And the link, if you're not already a subscriber, is in the show notes. Um, my current work in progress is still Blood of the Broken. I am on the third draft. Um, I am on chapter 11, which is not as far as I was hoping to be at this point. but, I'm really, really, really happy with how it is turning out, and I am really, really excited about getting as much as I possibly can done, um, this week, but I just, like, this story, it's... I think a lot of my books are... It is like a slow buildup, but it's a slow buildup, and then it's just like, going and going and going. And there's just like crazy stuff happening. A lot. So. I'm really excited. Um, About getting all the crazy stuff. And, uh, yeah. I am reading. I finished Crescent City. House of Sky and Breath, the second book in the series by Sarah J Maas. the ending is nuts. Well, I'll just say that. Because I don't want to spoil it. It's nuts. In a very good way. I don't know where she's going from here, but it's nuts and it's cool. Uh, I am reading, um, um, I'm like maybe a little over halfway. Uh, through The Last Wish by... I don't know how to pronounce his name, um, Andrzej Sapkowski. That was terrible. I'm sorry. Mr. Sapkowski Um, It's the first book in The Witcher series. that the. Netflix show is based, and I need to honestly don't know which came first, the books or the video game. I want to say the books came first. Um, but the video game is very popular, obviously. Um, and then I am still reading, uh, Oh, I did want to say. Uh, I'm reading The Last Wish. Uh, well, Well, I'll mention this in the sec. Uh, I am still reading Echo in Time. for the Read By The Author, my other show. And, uh, I just recorded the second to last episode of that, of season one. One of the Echo in Time season. Um, and so then next Sunday. Sunday, I will be recording the final, season finale. The. The last two chapters and epilogue of the book. And then, uh, I'm excited, because I'll get a little bit of a break. Because one of my author, friends is gonna, is letting me put her, um, she's gonna read and record. her prequel novella for her. Um, kind of like contemporary fantasy. The series. Um, and she is, gonna let me. Do that for season one, it'll be like an in-between a season, season 1.5. and then I'm going to, can continue with the Echo Trilogy. So for season two, I'm going to do Resonance, and uh, if I have any other author, friends who want to come on and read and record their, any of their. Books. They are welcome to go on as, Whatever 0.5. You know, Uh, so yeah. That is what's going on with Read By The Author. So I am watching right now, Snowfall. We're. We just have the season finale of season three left to watch. Um, and I believe. Believe there are five seasons out of that currently. and then I am also. So watching, I just have two episodes left of the Witcher season one. I've already watched it. I'm rewatching a, but the reason I'm rewatching it and. Also reading The Last Wish, which is what the majority of season one of the Witcher is based on. Um, is because, uh, LP. And I are coming back. we are resuming after our. Hiatus. the No Shelf Control Podcast, uh, we'd been some changes. Uh, and what we're doing for this podcast for season two. Of the no shelf control podcast is not going to be focused on author interviews. about their books anymore, um, for lots of reasons, but mainly because, uh, We want to read the things that we. We want to read, not just the things that we can. Get. Let's schedule certain. Or that we're able to like schedule. Author's to come on and interview to talk about. Um, so. Uh, we are, so we have two different focuses that we're. Focused or that we're doing for the season two of the. The No Shelf Control Podcast. Uh, and show, I guess. YouTube show. Um, are. Going to be alternating. So it's going to still be every other week, but we're alternating. Um, month we'll have one episode that's focused on a book to screen adaptation. So, book to movie your book to show. Uh, so obviously this time we're doing the last. Which to the wish the Witcher. So the last wish being in the book and. The Witcher season one on Netflix. Uh, and I'm hoping I'll be able to watch season two, as well. I know LP has already watched it and I know. Some of 'em. The last wish is in season two as well. our other focus. So the other episode each month, Oh, we'll be focusing on us doing like a book club style with just the two of us, most likely. Um, about a book. That is popular on book talk. So on tick, tick talks, book, community. Um, our first book, I believe. book talk book is going to be, uh, From Blood and Ash, which I loved. I have already read it. She has not. Um, which. Makes me really excited. Cause there's like a big reveal that I'm excited to see what she, um, it, but I am excited to reread it because I think it's amazing. And I wanted. To reread it anyway, because I want to read The War of Two Queens, which is the newest book that's out. So very excited about that. Uh, And. Let's see, I am add, I added in a new category this week. So, which is playing. Um, Because my husband kept asking me what? So today is Mother's Day happy mother's day to all the mamas out there. Uh, and I just was thinking about what, uh, what do I want to do? And I thought about. W like going to spending the. Shopping at used bookstores, which I would love to do. But that. I felt like would have exhausted me and I already had a, um, Draining socially draining week. Not. Not in a bad way. It was just like a lot of. A lot of interacting with other humans, um, in a way that I didn't feel like. I ha like it would have been enjoyable for me to go. Book shopping. Um, there's not a lot of like human interaction. In book shopping necessarily there shouldn't be. I feel like. Um, want to go out really is what it is. So I decided. I wanted to play video games all day. didn't end up being all day because it has been so long since I turned on our PS4 that it had to do a bunch of updates and. And then it had to update the game that I wanted to play. Um, but anyway, I ended up playing. Elder Scrolls Online for like, Six hours and it was glorious. And I loved. Loved it. Um, starting from the beginning. With a new character. A new character named her, uh, I named her Cora Borealis after Cora from the Atlantis Legacy. Uh, the nickname that her mom gives her. Uh, Can I have the hardest time always naming my characters in games. I'm always just like Lindsey. But I feel really awkward naming this one, Lindsey. Because it's a, um, Multiplayer. Game, but it's also funny because even if I play. Um, MMO RPGs. Um, so like massive multipl. The player online. Role-playing games. Um, don't play it in a multiplayer way. I still play. Play it all by myself because I don't have any friends who play games. So. Yeah. All my friends live in the real world. Unlike me. yeah. Uh, that's what I did today. And it was amazing. And I. I I'm just going to like, make more of an effort to, especially now that I am not working on weekends. And I have mornings free. I have been catching up. Catching up on some shows in the mornings, but I think I'm also gonna work in, uh, Playing. Video games in morning, weekend. And mornings because I can't sleep in, I. I'm too used to waking up. Early at this point. So that's my plan. Um, I ordered. The, or. I don't know if I, I can't remember if I actually did check out. But I'm planning on ordering the 10th or the anniversary edition. Of Skyrim. Which I don't have for a head Skyrim for. PS three. And I don't have it for, um, So. I think I had it previous three now I'm confusing myself. I know I don't have it for the PS4 and I love that game. Um, Um, Aye. I my high, I have three highs this week that I wrote down. So the first one. Is was the song. One of the things that socially drained me. May this week. Um, but I also adored it. I loved it. I. Felt creatively fueled by it. Um, and that was the Song of Scarabs and Fallen Stars, early bird zoom chats. So for the people who registered, um, as early birds from buying. P or from ordering doing the pre-order or purchasing. Um, Song of Scarabs and Fallen Stars in the first week that the book was out. Um, could register and attend one of two zoom chats that I held yesterday, one in the morning and one in the evening. And it was amaze. Amazing to talk to, um, the readers who came, and answer their questions and just chat about my books. And I just like, love you guys so much. It's amazing. Blows my mind that there are people who love my stories as much as I do. That I'm not just like writing them for myself. Um, but there's. Actually people who care about them, that will never stop. Stop. Just like. Stunning. Stunning me like shocking me. I just. I do not. There's there's not a word to explain what that feels like. Um, Um, beyond. It just, it feels amazing. It feels humbling. Um, it feels. Like. Is it real, um, But I feel very. Very just fortunate that I have found ways to find my. Uh, people. And my people are amazing. You guys are amazing. Um, the other another high this week is, uh, I got the first two cards in a Kat's deck of tarot cards from Alyssa from Print Is Dead, is her company. Um, Print Is Dead UK. Um, She sent me the first two. They're amazing. I posted them. I posted one for sure in the Facebook group. I posted both of them in discord. So if you're in discord and the discord server. Uh, if you're not, you should join it. Um, But you could definitely see them in the, um, Kat's tarot card channel. Uh, I'll try to post the second one, the Nine of Swords um, Facebook group tomorrow. Um, but The Empress... this was the first one she sent me. Well, actually she sent me two at the same time, but. Um, The Empress, the first one that I posted it's stunning, it shows, uh, Isfet, uh, it's from Song of Scarabs and Fallen Stars. It is so pretty, and it is just like I am floored. I am so excited. It is everything I was hoping for. And more than that, says she's working on. On The Sun and The Star, now, so... I'm really excited to see those. I'm really. Excited to see those. One of those is from Song of Scarabs and Fallen Stars. And one is I believe from Underground. Um, and they are both very exciting. Um, seen so that they're depicting, so. am also very excited about, um, Mandy, my assistant who has a graphic design background and is, uh, always making beautiful graphics for me. She is. Going to tackle refreshing the Kat Dubois Chronicles paperbacks of the individual books that have the original illustrations. Because the current typography, so the title and the author name? Well, first of all, it's the wrong author name now. It's the old pen. It's the old name. And I want it to be updated to be Lindsey Sparks. Um, but I figure if we're going to be updating it. We might as well refresh it and just like, make it look a little bit. Just nicer, more polished, more professional, a little glitzier fancier. You. You know, whatever the right words there are. Um, so she's going to do a refresh on the kat Dubois Chronicles, paperbacks, and she is going to. Too. So it's still going to be the illustrations, the original illustrations, but just the. W she's everything else is going to change. Um, I mean the titles are going to be the same. But in the order of the books, but, but. Yeah. So I'm really excited to see what she comes up with for that. Um, okay. So my low this week was just the kind of being a little bit down on myself for the slow progress that I had on the third draft of Blood of the Broken. Um, but I'm not concerned. I might have to extend into, uh, so I mean, I may be sending, I am sending whatever I have ready on Friday to my beta readers so that they can at least get started. I may have to go into the following week, a little bit to finish the revision of this draft. And then send them just the final part. Um, After they get started on the first part. Um, but that's all right. It's, won't be the. The first time I've done it. So last week's obsession, was I had a hard time coming up with this one, but I, I would say it was browsing cover, browsing through cover illustrators, mostly on Instagram. Um, but I am trying to. To put together a, like a short list of the people who I want to approach. For the many design elements that are going to be in the Echo Trilogy 10th anniversary special editions. Um, so, I'm going to do the whole series all at one time. Um, I want to have there's the cover that's on the actual books. Um, going to be a dust jacket and I want it to be reversible. A reversible dust jacket. So there's going to be two different illustrations on either side. Um, and then there's other design elements that I want to have within the book. So I want to have like fancy end pages. Um, and then I also want to have scene line drawing drawing seen illustrations throughout. So we're going to, I'm going to pick out scenes thatI would like to see illustrated basically. And then, so I'm going to find somebody to do that as well. I've just been looking through tons of illustrators. And there's a lot of people who are extremely talented. So I feel like no matter what, I'm going to end up with somebody who is amazing because there are so, so many people out there, um, it is a little bit of a bummer though. Sometimes looking at them and falling in love with their work, and then seeing that they're like close. Close to for commissions. So, that I'll be able to find people, some people I love anyway. Um, had a kind of fun. Google search history week, just because in this revision phase, this is like, my cert Google search heavy revision phase. Um, through and explain them a little bit. So the first one is actually two that relate to the same thing, so... Elements not found on earth, and then, theoretical elements. So we're talking about like the periodic table of elements here. Um, and wanted to find an element, uh, the elements are really important to this book for a reason that you'll understand when you read the book. Um, but I wanted to find an element that they wouldn't have been able to find when the Tar- or not the Tartarus, the Elysium was still, um, in orbit around Earth. Uh, So. I was just doing some research about, um, the periodic. Table of elements and there are quite a few, um, The elements. actually a super interesting. I don't understand much of it at all. But it's very. Interesting. Um,

I looked up:

a parasite that controls human brain. This relates to, uh, if you guys remember the fungus from the maze. The labyrinth. So it's going to make a reappearance. Um, And then looked up related to that: are mold and fungus the same. And, um, it's not that they're different. It's that, I believe, it is mold is a type of fungus. It's one, either mold is a type of fungus or fungus is a type of mold, but I'm pretty sure it's that mold is a type of fungus. Kind of like a square is a type of rectangle. Does cracking your back release endorphins? Yes it does. I learned. Explains so much. Uh, I. This is the draft where I'm looking at. This is one of the drafts where I'm really looking for lots of synonyms. So, um, For. Synonym for. Uh, I don't know if you can pronounce this eked or eked, dazed, vacuous, blank, empty, hollow, toxic, interloper, doubt, insidious, comfortable.. So those were my big synonym searches this week. Uh, My bit. So that's it. And that's it for my search history. Um, my big goal for. For this week is to finish the draft of Blood of the Broken, and I'm laughing because I know this is not going to happen. Finish draft three of Blood of the Broken, and send it to betas. I will be sending what I have ready to betas on Friday, when I finish working. Uh, but I will not, I can like, almost guarantee that it is not going to be the entire book. So that's okay. So my goal for this week is... I don't know., I am on chapter 11, now. There's 35 chapters. They do get shorter in the second half of the book as the pace increases. And it's like, just to like, keep it like really going... Let's say I would like to get to chapter 25. I want to get to chapter 25, and have through chapter 25 ready for my betas. Um, and I could easily wrap up the rest in the next week. So, we'll see how that goes. Okay, so, I- aned then this week, I'm just looking forward to, uh, I'm looking forward to continuing revisions on Blood of the Broken. Uh, it really is a fun book. Uh, and I am like for lots of reasons. And I am also looking forward to resuming, uh, the No Shelf Control Podcast with LP (Lindsey Pogue). We're recording on Thursday evening and I am a really excited to chat about The Witcher and The Last Wish. So, yeah. I think that's it for me this week. Uh, thank you so much for listening and I will be back next week to ramble some more. Until then, happy reading.