Hi Everyone,

On Saturday, my family and I flew to SoCal to enjoy two nights at Disneyland to celebrate my wife's birthday. The kids had no idea. It was fun watching their faces when they realized we were going to the airport. Even more fun when we landed and they saw a giant Mickey Mouse face on the airport wall.

I love to travel. I really do. Even with my family next to me on the airplane and the chaos that my boys bring everywhere they go, I managed to open up on my computer the edits for The Dark Thorn Preferred Edition. And in the two and a half hours down to Anaheim and the two and half hours back to Seattle, I managed to get the edits done. Finally. After so long.

I'm still not done though. I gave the file to our book designer and she will lay the book out now with Don Maitz's amazing black and white interiors included. Then I will read the book as proof pages. She said she will get that to me by next week.

Because there was one thing I didn't do while I edited: I didn't fix the timeline problems my characters face when traveling from one place to another. Sometimes I said it was two days, four days, or six days to the same destination. And I did that for all of the places my characters visit. So now I have to go to the amazing map done by Jared Blando, figure out time/distance, and re-read the book to fix all of those small little errors to ensure the very best reading experience.

I'm currently reading the omega-version of The Wounded Land by Stephen R. Donaldson. That's for Grim Oak. Once done with that this week, I'll begin work on that final part of The Dark Thorn when I get the proof pages next week.

Then it will be done! And off to the printer and bindery it will go! Later than I would have liked but at least done correctly.

Okay, back to work for me!

Shawn

Hi Everyone,

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. I can't believe the end of 2024 is nigh. Where did the year go?

I figure while my kiddos are building new Lego sets and playing a new video game that I could sneak away for a few moments to update you all about The Dark Thorn. I'm happy to report things are still moving. Artist Don Maitz just turned in the final piece of interior artwork. I'll try to attach a few to this update. I'm super pleased with his art. Don always manages to distill down the essence of what I'm trying to do as the writer and thinks of new and interesting ways of showcasing those ideas. He had to produce 15 illustrations due to that Stretch Goal being hit. Love them all.

Well, what's next? I still have the edit to finish. Yes, I'm running late on it. But I do plan on being done by mid-January. My book designer has already designed the editions and their interiors. That means the moment I finish my edit, she will throw it into InDesign and wrap up the first pass of the book.

I will then ask five beta readers to give the book a read to capture any wayward issues that might have fallen through the cracks. Want to be one of them? Comment your interest below and I'll reach out when the time comes.

Once the beta readers are done, I'll give it a quick once over. And we'll be estimating with the printer and bindery to get the editions produced!

eBook will come sooner, of course. Probably in February. I'll also get the maps produced and those will ship early as well. The final books and shipping? I'm not sure. Depends on the printer and bindery queue. I will know more about that in the New Year and will share then what I find out.

In the meantime, for your patience, I'm sharing A LINK here with you for the short story, The Green Lake Witch. It is the tale I started here with all of you. It will publish officially in Grimoire: ECCC, our anthology for March 2025's Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, WA. The book has a stellar line-up including Terry Brooks, Cassandra Clare, Matt Dinniman, Robin Hobb, and others. Click HERE to read more about it and/or pre-order the book if you are so inclined.

Right now, I'm writing a short story for my Patreon members. It is titled Hollycrown. Hope to finish that by year's end.

Then on to something new. Wyrmbane. A novella I'm writing on spec that two publishers have liked the premise of. I'm about 23% finished with it. So we shall on that front...

... definitely more in 2025! Excited to keep doing what I love. Thank YOU ALL for allowing me this! It truly means a great deal to me.

With Holiday Magic,
Shawn