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 on Monday, 12/27/2021, and I would love to share some of my reflections from this past week with you.
CURRENT EBOOK FREEBIES:
Echo in Time
Starter Library for newsletter subscribers
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
2021 Holiday Hangover Giveaway
CURRENT WIP:
With beta readers: Song of Scarabs and Fallen Stars (Fateless Trilogy, book 1)
READING:
Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1) by Robert Jordan, narrated by Rosamond Pike
WATCHING:
Hawkeye (finished)
Wheel of Time (finished)
Squid Game
Station Eleven
HIGH(s):
It snowed here!!!
LOW(s):
Self-doubt about my writing
THIS WEEK'S OBSESSION:
Snow!
Also, signing up for author courses...
NEXT WEEK'S GOAL:
Complete my 2022 business plan!
LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Channeling this end-of-year energy into so serious goals for next year.
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 on Monday, 12/27/2021, and I would love to share some of my reflections from this past week with you.
CURRENT EBOOK FREEBIES:
Echo in Time
Starter Library for newsletter subscribers
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
2021 Holiday Hangover Giveaway
CURRENT WIP:
With beta readers: Song of Scarabs and Fallen Stars (Fateless Trilogy, book 1)
READING:
Eye of the World (Wheel of Time, #1) by Robert Jordan, narrated by Rosamond Pike
WATCHING:
Hawkeye (finished)
Wheel of Time (finished)
Squid Game
Station Eleven
HIGH(s):
It snowed here!!!
LOW(s):
Self-doubt about my writing
THIS WEEK'S OBSESSION:
Snow!
Also, signing up for author courses...
NEXT WEEK'S GOAL:
Complete my 2022 business plan!
LOOKING FORWARD TO:
Channeling this end-of-year energy into so serious goals for next year.
Hi there I'm Lindsay sparks, author of books that include hidden worlds and twisted myths. Welcome to my weekly author's notes podcast. Today is Monday, December 27th. And I would love to share some of my reflections from this past week with you. So obviously this is another Monday episode and I'm actually kind of thinking I might switch to Mondays since lately. That seems what I seems to be, what I've been doing Monday. Well, I like Monday mornings. It's nice to do it. First thing. I just don't get a ton of like the only time my husband and I have together is in the evenings. It's just the two of us is in the evenings after the kids go to bed and it's like one or two hours. So I really get kind of bummed on Sundays when I don't get to hang out with him. So, but I do enjoy my planning time in my reflection. So I think I'm probably just going to switch to Monday morning. So it doesn't like complicate or interfere with anything. Just, I mean, it probably doesn't really matter that much to you guys when I do this, but yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Okay. Current ebook deals and steals right now. I only have one freebie on the retail platforms that is echo in time. It should be free everywhere for ebook. And I do, I just realized, I have never mentioned this on here. I don't think but I do have a starter library with several different books that are free. I'm available to my newsletter subscribers through my website, and I'll have the link in the show notes for that. But the books that are free for subscribers are echo and time Inc, which legacy of the lost and after the ending. And then also I think that's the only place people can get. Pretty sure resonance and sacrifice of the centers in ebook. So those are all available for free to newsletter subscribers. Yeah, and like I said, the link is in the show notes. And then I also wanted to let you know that right now until the end of the year. So the 31st of December I am doing a holiday hangover giveaway in my reader group on Facebook. And I'll have that link in the show notes too. And I'm doing every day, I'm doing a. Fun prize that everybody, you can probably hear my dog snoring, sorry. Everybody who is in, has marked themselves as going to the event. So it's only for people who are in my reader group. Everybody who has said that they're going is automatically entered into the daily contest. And then if they comment on the post for the contest, for the contest for that day, then they get a second entry into the contest. So, yeah. It's yesterday. We already had yesterday's winner of one of my wood marks or magnets whichever she chooses. And then today is a t-shirt For a villain lovers like myself. And then we have four more days of fun prizes ending with a Kindle Paperwhite, which is pretty exciting. But it was my e-reader of. When I'm not reading on my phone, which is where I just usually end up reading if I'm reading a Kindle book or other ebook. Yeah, so that's going on right now in my reader group. And like I said, there'll be a link in the show notes. My current work in progress is still and will continue to be until it is released. Song of scarves and fallen stars, the first book in the fetus trilogy and. It is with beta readers right now. So I'm not actually doing anything with it. However, it is on my mind, kind of on the back burner, thinking about a few different things I want to change. And I did receive my first little bit of feedback from one of my beta readers from the first part. Cause I didn't send it into two parts because it's really long and I didn't have it already by the deadline that I needed or that I had set for myself. But she did have a one great piece of critical feedback about this one scene that I was kind of on the fence about. And I'm really glad that she pointed it out or told me that it stood out to her because I think, I feel like I needed that confirmation from somebody to change it. And it's funny, it's like funny the things that you hold onto and these books, because it doesn't actually. Like changing that, that scene, it didn't need, it was like a very, not like extreme, but it was like, I probably took it farther than it needed to go. And so I can definitely like restrain it and pull it back a little bit. And the way that it's written now is definitely a little bit, a little bit off-putting and frustrating, I think. And by pulling it back, it will just kind of. I think it'll smooth, smooth over some things for later in the book and it, but it doesn't even, it doesn't really change anything other than maybe making characters a little more likable, which is a good thing. So I don't know. I don't know why I couldn't wrap my head around removing that beforehand, but I'm kind of excited. It is. It's a funny scene. It's a romantic scene. That involves the hero and heroine, but it's not between the hero and heroine. If that makes sense, they have a very complicated route to finding each other. And it's a very complicated situation that they're in with a lot of like deception and kind of like trying to manipulate people into giving you what you want kind of thing. Tarsa, isn't a super hard spot where she is. Kind of at this the no mark, the governor of the territory, she's kind of at his mercy mercy, and she's just trying to appease him and kind of like, keep him happy so that she can get what she needs from him. But he's kind of taken a liking to her. So, I'm really I'm I feel really good. About the way that it, that I'm going to change it. So I'm really excited about that. I think it's going to go over a lot better than the way that it's currently written. So that makes me happy. Yeah. So anyway I'm excited to hear. Or to receive feedback from the rest of the book to see what she thinks of the rest of the book and to hear from other beta readers. And then right now I am currently reading, I just started so the first book I read that I didn't write and while or I guess I did just read I should mention that here too. I did read I did not write this tightened Tempest by my co-author my ending series, coauthor, Lindsey Pogue. This is the third book in her forgotten land series. I read that for the no shelf control podcast, which I interviewed her about that book in that series. And the latest episode, which I think is episode 48, would that bug. That just came out today. Yeah, so that was super fun. I think that's my favorite series of hers. And it was fun to read that book because that was, I think the only book of hers that I've never been that I didn't pay to read because, you know, life just kind of got in the way. But yeah, so I read that definitely recommend it. It's like a fun historical, post-apocalyptic kind of very very unique, but Really fun and interesting. Very like survival, rich setting kind of stuff. And then I just started I of the world, which is the first book in the wheel of time series. The epic fantasy series by Robert Jordan. I, of course I'm reading the audio book narrow. This is the new version narrated by Roseman pike who plays Moraine in the Amazon prime series, the adaptation which we just finished last night. And. Now, I'm sitting here thinking like, oh my God, it's been so long since I read these books, which is funny because I've read them a bunch of times. But it's been so long that I can't remember everything, like the way it was written versus how it was shown in the series. So I are in the show. So I am excited to listen to. To the books again I'm unsure whether Roseman pike is going to be narrating the rest of the books in the series. I'm my guess is no, because she's like a big time actress and I mean, people are texting me. Cool. Sorry about that. She's a victim actress and I'm going to guess that the publishers don't have it in their budget to pay her to do the audio book. Like these are really long audio books, like 30 hours plus. So I'm going to guess that I'll probably be listening to the rest of the series, the Kate Redding and Michael Kramer. I think those are the narrators for the. The original audio book narrators, but I listened to those before and I loved them. So I'm super excited about that as well. But I do love Rozman pike as a narrator. She's excellent. I love her pride and prejudice. I listened to that a bunch. Anyway. Yeah, so we finished wheel of time. The first season, which is all that's out so far. And then I finished Hawkeye, which I thought was really great way better. I mean, I don't know why I just wasn't super excited about it. And then I loved it. I think Hawkeye is just not my she's not like my favorite character from the Marvel universe. And but it's funny because it, it totally fits with how his character is in this show. Like he. That's kind of meta about it. And then I am still watching squid game. I haven't watched any more of it since last week. It's just been a lot going on with the holidays. And then also am still watching stationary. And again, I haven't watched any more of that. Because that one I'm now watching on my own, my husband is no longer interested in that. And I think we started Luther and I, where maybe you're going to continue with that. I'm not sure if we're kind of all over the place right now. Okay. So my high from this last week is kind of. Silly one, but it's definitely a high, which is that it snowed here. And I live in Western Washington and the Pacific Northwest, and it's a very temporary climate. We usually get like some, some years we don't get any snow. And then if we do get snow, it's usually just like one good snow. So we got the most, no I've seen Since we lived at this house. So, in four years, and then in it's great, we got to play outside with our three-year-old do sledding and he wanted to build a snowman, but it's really cold. So the snow is not, we got at least yesterday when it was first, first falling we got like eight inches. But it's not, it's like really powdering and doesn't want to like stick together and forms, snowballs. But we might get out when he gets. This afternoon, we may take him out and do snowman. Cause I think it's a little, it's still super cold. It's colder today, but it feels a little bit stickier. So yeah. But I love snow. I think it's so fun. Probably love it cause it doesn't happen very often. And then my low, this last week I would say is just this like creeping self doubt. The longer I'd go with out hearing, I mean, it's so silly the longer I go without hearing positive feedback from beta readers, the more I start to think like, well, I ever, or they've had it for like over a week and, and they haven't said anything. So that means they haven't finished it, which means it must not be very good. And like, maybe I was totally wrong about this book and, and it's just these like terrible, poisonous thoughts that go around in my head. So I'm just trying to remind myself that It's the holidays. And then I gave them four weeks to beta read this for a reason, because this was a terrible time of the year to ask people to beta, read a book. And I, I love the story and that's I think my readers are gonna love this story and I need to like remind myself to just. Be happy with the story that I created. It's the story that I wanted to create. It was a story that was, that was flowing through me at the time. And and I'm still really excited about it. And I know that the self doubt will continue. But hopefully, hopefully I'll be able to work through it. I always do so always happens every single time. So this is just the first time that I've had this podcast and have people to listen to listen to me, talk about it. But all it'll be, it'll be great. I know it will be great. I hope it will be great. Hope you guys like it. Okay. Anyway, I don't have any fun Google searches this week because I'm not writing or editing anything right now. So sorry about that. So this week's obsession. There's a couple I would say snow, we have been so preoccupied with like watching our weather apps and the forecast and everything to see, see if we really were going to get snow because it had been projected You know, a week ago it was projected that we were going to get snow on Christmas Eve and then Christmas day. And then no, we like had some snow, but it didn't stick on Christmas Eve. And then it finally started snowing on Christmas day, but it still wasn't really sticking. And then we woke up on Sunday, so yesterday and we had like four inches and then it just kept snowing all day and we had eight inches and we were so excited. So. I'm sure if you live somewhere where it's always snowy or you get, you always get winters, you're probably like, this is, this is very ridiculous. I have no reason to be excited for the snow, other than that, it's really pretty. And and it's fun to play and I like sledding. Yeah. And the other thing I, I was obsessed with this week. I just like can't stop myself. I keep signing up for courses for author courses. So I signed up for a course for ads, an author ads. Course I already am in a big author ads course that updates every year, but this is a different one. And I'm pretty excited about this one because it It's by a romance author, a pretty big name, romance author. And she she does. More work with like authors who are wide across other platforms besides just Amazon. So I'm pretty excited about the things I'll learn there about ways to learn, to reach more readers, new readers to introduce more people to my stories. And then I also signed up for a strengths strengths for writers course because I am always trying to like Review, I'm always reviewing my process and trying to come up with new ways to make it more efficient. Because I have such limited time Available with the two little kiddos. And then also, because it gives you hearing about it everywhere. I signed up for a tick-tock well, two tick tock things. One is a tick talk for authors course. And then I also signed up for a tick talk for authors challenge in January the courses in February. I think I have a Tik TOK account, but I definitely haven't posted anything. And I have been on Tik TOK maybe once for like a maximum of 10 minutes. So, I don't really know much about it, but I do know a lot of authors are having a lot of success connecting with readers on Tik TOK. And so it feels a little silly to just turn a blind eye to it. So I'll just give it a try. Yeah. So next week's goal is to complete. Well, I guess it's this week now, since it's Monday to complete my 20, 22, I can't believe it's already almost 20, 22. My business plan for next year. And I am looking forward to it's totally ties into what I just said. Channeling the kind of end of year, finishing out the year energy into. Setting up some pretty great goals for next year. And just reflecting on this, this year, 2021, and thinking about how I want to what changes or what, what changes I want to make for next year and what it's just nice to like, have an overall bird's eye view of what the year is gonna look like and what kinds of things I'm going to try to achieve. So, That I think that's it for me this week. I'm really cold and I'm excited about turning my heater back on. So, thank you so much for listening and I will be back next week, probably on Monday morning to ramble some more and until then, happy reading and happy new year. Almost happy almost a year, I guess next week I'll actually be saying happy new year because it will actually be the new year. So anyway, happy end of 2021.