Last year was a year of building foundations, with ARC Worlds kicking into gear, planning my second Kickstarter campaign, and expanding my publishing pursuits beyond the NYC Questing Guild series.
While I only released one short story (Guild of Magic: Fortuna), I am expecting all that work in the background in 2022 to pay dividends with more releases in 2023.
Here’s what you can expect from ARC Worlds Publishing this year!
First, Guild of Magic, book 2 of the NYC Questing Guild series, is almost ready to go to our great Kickstarter backers, with a wide retail release to follow. I’m busy paying off all the set-ups from earlier in the book for an absolutely explosive finish!
Relatedly, if you have experience scuba diving and want to get a sneak (non-spoiler) peek at a diving-focused chapter and help correct my rudimentary Internet-researched scuba knowledge, shoot me an email!
Again, if you missed the Kickstarter, you have one last chance to get your pre-order in before I close the pre-order store. More details below.
I’m excited to get this book out into the world and share the next chapter in Jen’s story.
But there’s also another story that I’ve been waiting to share for a long time...
New Middle Grade series: Shearwater Adventures!
In my spare time over the last several years, I have been writing a middle grade (ages 8-12) book with a very special co-writer, my 9-year old daughter !
What’s the book about? Glad you asked!
For Bastien, adventures were only things he read about in books. Until one fateful day…
Bastien lives with his parents and pet parrot on Shearwater, an island in the Atlantic Ocean that may or may not be a home for retired pirates and their families. He dreams of exploring the world, but only through the books he reads.
Then one day, a ship arrives, and he meets Celeste, the granddaughter of the famous Captain LaMer. Celeste is headstrong, independent, and has seen the world, everything Bastien wishes he could be and do.
But when Celeste’s dog Frankie accidentally eats a weird island mushroom and turns purple, she and Bastien will have to team up to journey to the far reaches of Shearwater Island to find the cure before it’s too late!
Join Bastien and Celeste on their adventures as they explore exotic islands, outwit fearsome pirates, and search for long-lost treasures!
Genre: Middle grade adventure
What is that?: Think My Weird School but set on an island in the Atlantic in the mid-1800’s!
Perfect for: Kids in grades 2-5 to read on their own, and for pre-readers too!
My daughter and I recently finished the first draft and are hard at work with our revisions.
In the meantime, we’ve put together a four-chapter preview that we’re giving away for free.
To read it, click the Download Preview button below.
We’re also going to be giving the ebook of the entire book away for free!
To get your copy when it’s ready, you'll need to first subscribe to our special newsletter, the Shearwater Gazette, a separate monthly email that will be exclusively focused on the Shearwater Adventures series.
To sign up, just click the Subscribe button below and enter your email, which will start the welcome sequence with the preview download link and info on how your young reader can get a personalized letter from Bastien and Celeste!
Guild of Magic advance pre-order ending January 31
If you missed the Guild of Magic Kickstarter campaign over the summer, time is running out to pre-order any of the items offered through the campaign and still get them before the book's retail release. And also take advantage of free domestic shipping on all physical books.
I’ll also be un-bundling the Guild of Tokens: Origins short story/novella collection from the Guild of Tokens special edition e-book. Going forward (including in the next Guild Kickstarter), it will only be available as a stand-alone $5 ebook. So if you haven’t yet picked up the Guild of Tokens: Special Edition, this is your last chance! However, if you upgrade your ARC Worlds subscription to a paid monthly or annual subscription, you will still receive the special edition upon upgrade.
Check out the pre-order store below!
Other stuff I’m working on in 2023!
I’m finishing up a draft of my first full-length comic script, and am planning on bringing this new series to Kickstarter later this year!
I recently wrote a cool sci-fi short story that I hope to sell to one of the genre magazines. Stay tuned!
I (kind of) have a YouTube channel! I’ve recorded a couple of videos focusing on story structure and themes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and plan on expanding to other movies/TV shows as the year progresses.
ARC Worlds Highlights
ICYMI, I recently interviewed fantasy legend Robin Hobb and New York Times bestselling comics writer Jody Houser on their new Assassin's Apprentice comic series from Dark Horse Comics! Check out the interview below to learn more about the series!
Did you know that you can read all of Guild of Tokens for free on ARC Worlds? It’s true! Start reading here.
And if you’re ready to move on to Guild of Magic, you can read up through chapter 28 for free and through chapter 43 if you are a paid ARC Worlds subscriber.
Phew, that sounds like a busy year!
Question of the month
What do you hope to get done this year? It could be a creative pursuit, a book series you’ve been wanting to read, or a trip you’ve been meaning to take.
Drop a comment and let me know!