Monthly Goals: May

May. We're seriously in May now. My brain is trying to wrap around that concept, especially since May is going to be a month of madness for me. While April's blog posts were fairly simplistic, most of my time was spent promoting my second standalone novel, Storm Born, my which will be out in two days! 

I've already got my release-celebration events planned out, but my work is far from over. April was a good month– Not only was it my birthday month, I managed to complete Storm of the Gods, the first novel in the Areios Brothers series which will be sent to publishers once I work through the Beta edits. I got to participate in the cover reveal for Elise Kova's Crystal Crowned, one of my new favourite fantasy romance series. But May... Well, May is simply going to be almost madness. In addition to all the spotlights, reviews, and contests (one of which is going on now!) for Storm Born, I'm going to begin promoting the last novel in the Cursed series, Damnation's Door.

I'll likely be contacting a couple book promotion companies to help out with promotion, since I've got a lot going on and it will be nice to let someone else handle all that work. As I've learned, my reach can only go so far, and I can shift my budget to accommodate what will actually work for me rather than hoping for the best. I'll also be booking covers and editors for more upcoming work so I can keep the steady pace for my releases going until the end of the year.

In editing news, I'm hoping to have the edits for Midnight Sky, the sequel to Crimson Sky and second novel in the Dark Sky series back early so I can start working on those. The cover is supposed to come in at the end of the month, and I'm super excited to see what the wonder team at Deranged Doctor Design come up with. It gives me an excuse to bring out the old cover again and reminisce...

Now, for writing projects: I'm still writing the second novel in the Areios Brothers series, since I started it and hate to leave a project unfinished. While I do want the edits back for both Storm of the Gods and Midnight Sky, I would like to have this novel out of the way. Once the Beta edits for Storm of the Gods are done, I'll be holding my breath and sending them out to major publishers. While I bide my time with that and try not to chew my nails off with anxiety, I'll be working on the world building, story histories, plots, and quirks of a new series called Iron Gargoyle. Originally, I had planned to release a second urban fantasy series that I've wanted to write for years, but it might remind readers of Areios Brothers, a comparison I don't want to be made. Friends in my weekly writing group have edged me toward releasing Iron Gargoyle. Lots of the prompts I've done for the group have revolved around that series, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about it more often than not. It's a really unique world that I love creating, and I'm excited to plan it out. I won't say much right now, but here's the absolute vaguest description of what to expect: Humanoid gargoyles and actual gargoyles fighting mages in a post-apocalyptic war zone in the near future.

Once the world is built and the plots are ironed out (no pun intended!), I'll start the first novel, which will be titled the same as the series. That's my next major writing project, and I'm eager to start it soon.

So those are my plans for May. I can already feel the whirlwind headed my way. Let it never be said that I want to do things easy!

Cheers!

Amy