It's been a good month. I do have some bad news but progress on my writing and towards Moon Girl 4 has been good. :)
Marketing So let's get the bad news out of the way. The actress I asked to do my audiobook just got a part in a musical that puts her in a full-time contract until February. This leaves her no time to work on the audiobook. I'm happy for her, this seems like a great opportunity for her but for me, it does put a little hole in plans. The first thing I ask is don't get mad at her for it or anything. She was doing it mostly has a huge favour for me so her career was always going to come first and this was the risk I knew I was dealing with when asking. I'm happy to wait for her to come back though. I know this may be a bit disappointing but Moon Girl and my books just aren't making enough for me to go out and be able to pay someone else. If the Patreo/Ko-fi pick up then maybe I'll be able to but for now, it's just on hold.
Patreon/Ko-Fi I have a Patron! Woo! Thanks for the support. Here's a little run down of what you're missing by not being a Patron: A small cross-over piece between Moon Girl and Magic and Machines where Two is trying to get himself higher in the bank he works for by shaking down a major shareholder. Turns out she's more than he bargained for. (Moon Girl and Magic and Machines are not the same universes for the record, this was just for a bit of fun) I've answered some interesting questions from a blog post: What are common traps for aspiring writers? and Does a big ego help or hurt writers? And shown a visual sneak peek at new characters that will appear in Moon Girl 4 If you want to take a look, you can become a patron here:
Moon Girl 4 Stage: Editing A beta read of Moon Girl 4 has arrived and many of my main worries have been alleviated. They said it's the best Moon Girl yet! I'm currently polishing it up to perfection and splitting it up into chapters. One more step forward!
Moon Girl 5 Stage: Planning/First Draft I have done so well on writing this month. I've changed the way I do things a lot and it has paid off. Before now I would write as and when. Mostly at work when it was quiet, but I was wanting to change that for a while. A month ago I took a long break from writing and when I got back I decided to block off dedicated time for writing and it's been great. Whenever I'm home (which is about 3 times a week cause of living between mine and the boyfriends) I block off half an hour to an hour depending on the amount of free time I have in a day to dedicate purely to writing. So far it's paid off. I've gotten over double my monthly writing target done and it feels more manageable mentally as it's now got its own time rather than invading other parts of my life. It's also helped a friend of mine as we now have an hour writing session together when we meet up on Sundays :)
Other works So I've had many ideas floating around, written many beginnings, but they all needed some dedication to make it into full stories. So this month I posted a vote on the Patreon about what people would like me to write next. All of the stories mentioned are ones I love and am happy to push forward. The one that seemed to be wining was about immortals that are faced with mortality for the first time. So after blasting through my writing target, I've started working on that a bit. I'll be sharing more details on the Patreon next month.
Despite the bad news, this month had been good and I hope to carry on that goodness for the next one. I've got this new writing routine, a new project and Moon Girl 4 editing to do. It's exciting author times!