Hello~ Crystal
Announcing Healing Crystals & Other Breakables - my next collection!
News & Events
Books
Announcing Healing Crystals & Other Breakables!
This is my fourth short story collection, and it’ll be out June 24 on Amazon. In the meantime, I’m collecting names for an ARC team. People who sign up will get an advanced copy of the book, with the hope that they’ll leave a review in exchange. Reviews are very important to indie authors, so if you sign up for an ARC please try to leave a review on Amazon or GoodReads.
All my files are still processing on Amazon - but once you can pre-order I’ll send out an email with all the details. I simply wanted to get the news out to you, my readers, first!
Ah! So excited for this book to come out in a month 💚
In other book news - Amazon decreased the royalties it’s giving authors by 10% for paperback books. As such, I’m slightly increasing the price, usually by $.50 or $1, depending on the title. This means the cheapest place to buy paperbacks is from me directly, either at an event or via my Ko-Fi store.
Events
I was a guest on The Vlogging Pod this past week! It was great to talk to Eri, and as she mentioned several times during our conversation, it was like looking into a mirror. We are so similar in our approach to writing.
The Grayslake Author Fest is on June 21st! I’ll be sharing a table with
, and will be on the publishing panel as well. New to this even is a new writing game I’m creating! Come say hi to all the wonderful authors who will be there.July 22nd I’ll be holing a workshop called The Three Path to Publishing at the Glenside library, talking about traditional, hybrid, and indie publishing. This is an in-person event.
Gwen’s Writing Gossip
May’s been insane - and I don’t just mean the weather shifts in Chicago. I beat my sales record at the Wheaton author fest, saw a new show on my quest to visit every theater in the Loop 🔖, meet my baby nephew for the first time, and joined a second gym! I just missed the circus; lyra and sling really are just like dancing in the air and I have fun doing it.
With circus done I have done my best to turn my attention to writing - finally releasing my next anthology! Thank you everyone gave me feedback about the cover - I feel like I ran four different polls as I struggled to find the perfect one.
I was making good progress on the next Chicago Grimm’s story (we’re doing Rumpelstiltskin), but my 4hr drive for Memorial Day involved a lot of brainstorming, including the sad realization that I think it will be better if I kill the B plot. It will be a shorter, more melancholy piece as a result, but it does mean more time to edit and craft it as I have to restructure things.
Hoping to be in a few more podcasts as well as I promote Crystals!
Media Recommendations
While I have read this month, still haven’t finished something new. I will admit to having dived into a new tv show - not the one I expected to dive into either: Spy x Family
This is an anime that takes place during a cold war, with a spy tasked to pose as a family man to get close to a contact. His ‘daughter’ is a telepath eager to escape the orphanage and his ‘wife’ is an assassin for the opposing country looking for a socially acceptable cover. They’re keeping their secrets from the rest of the family.
I love how this show has serious and funny moments, and the family-of-convience vibes are amazing. The daughter is in on most things - it’s hard not to being a telepath - and it’s such a delightful way to present the irony of the parents coming to different conclusions about a situation - like the assassin trying to hide an injury from a job while the spy believes she’s upset at him and might leave the fake marriage.
You get into the weird anime things (an underground tennis tournament!?) but there’s also true heartwarming moments as the family grows closer, even as the spy is trying to prevent a terrorist attack. Very much recommend - there’s something about this show I think everyone could enjoy.