Phoenix Rising: The Immortality Curse was a great success and I'm pleased to report that I wrote another 110,000 words in that universe. That's not news to those on the Phoenix Rising discord server.
Getting that novel out to readers has taken a back seat to life and the pandemic and moving across the country. I'm settled now and eager to write more in the Immortality Curse universe, so publishing what I have has been a focus.
Unfortunately things are somewhat complicated. I'd like to publish the existing novel as an ebook, not just here, and I'd like to do that before releasing the new novel.
Strangely enough the real challenge for me has been producing a book cover. I'm blind, so I'm not going to be the one to do that myself. I'm happy to pay for an artist, but I don't seem to be good at finding one. Going up to someone and saying "Hey, this is something I've invested a lot of my life into. Will you take my money and help make it better by putting together a cover," is hard. It's harder when the subject matter include adult content and you're worried about whether they will judge you. And unfortunately, getting rejections from people who aren't interested in taking my money and helping doesn't make it easier. The reason has generally been that they are too busy, and that's probably true. But it starts the little demons of self doubt running around in my head.
And yet I'm really motivated, so I'm going to go make another round of trying to find someone to do the cover. I picked up the new novel after having not looked at it for a while, and it's really good. I can't wait to see what you think of it, so I'm very motivated. Yes, there's a lot of proofing and editing to do. It will be a while. But this is the best I've ever written and I can't wait to share.
I am also almost done with a round of editing the existing novel. Even a year later, it holds up as quality work, which certainly agrees with what you readers thought. But I did want to take time to make an extra round of polish before publishing the ebook.
If any of you have recommendations for good artists in the community who would take a commission, please reach out. I have a few leads even if no one reading this has suggestions. i am really excited to be writing again, and plan to get started on entirely new content soon!