June 2026 Newsletter
Hey, folks – Despite a tickbite fever, a family-related trip, and a book convention, I actually managed to finish the core manuscript for book 3. That’s the good news… the bad news is that the 10k-word storyline of the Battle of Balta ended up being about 29k words, which brings us to the core manuscript to just over 138k words – without the appendices. For those of you that have known me for a hot minute, you know that I do not believe in cutting content. So, I’ll find a good point to move stuff into the book 4 prologue or early chapters. While I don’t have a lot of visuals to show you right now, I’ll be working on that and some other things for June.
June is going to be a start for a few things. Editing the core of book 3, for one. Identifying which appendices need to be written for another. There’s at a bare minimum, a need to expand on the gnoll appendix from book 2, which was shared with bugbears and ratfolk, ideally with some illustrations that will follow later. Website redesign and working with an illustrator for book 3’s centerfold illustration also starts in June.
The Kansas City Fae Ball and Literary/Vendor Market on Satuday, May 30th, was a great time. Met a lot of cool folks there: readers, other authors, and the event coordinators and staff.
I have to say this and I can’t say it enough: every single interaction that I had and every single book that I sold was made possible by Luke’s maps. I am still a noob at these conventions (this was only my second one), but these really brought people in. Some bought books, some didn’t, but it was a HUGE conversation starter with readers and with other authors. So… thank your local cartographer (thanks, Luke!)
Couple pics from the show. I know it’s visual-light this month, but it has been really writing intensive. I’ll have a post out on Instagram and Facebook with a few more pictures early this week.
I did just about finish that table that I showed you last month, but I want to clean it up a bit. I’ll post those on socials and in next month’s newsletter.
Here’s the upcoming events:
Kansas Summer Spirit Festival, Leavenworth, KS, June 25th-27th
O-Con (Omaha Convention), Council Bluffs, IA, July 17th-19th
Nerd Con KC, Overland Park, KS, September 19th (applied - no response, sad face)
Boozy Book Fair, Kansas City, MO, October 3rd (applied - pending decision - probably hear from them in June)
(New) Meeple-A-Thon, Overland Park, KS, November 6th-8th
Whatever you do, folks, work hard at it. Stay classy.
