Hello!

Goodness, is it Memorial Day weekend already? Wow! Wherever you are, I hope you’re having a pleasant and safe weekend.

I’ve got an action-packed newsletter today, so I’ll dive right in. First of all, the audiobook of Honor Court is now up an all major storefronts. If you want to get it at a deep discount, you can buy it direct from me for $4.99. It will be delivered via Bookfunnel and you can listen to it on the free Bookfunnel app or download the MP3s and listen to them on the app of your choice. You can also rent it for 99c on Soundwise.

It’s also now available on Audible, Kobo, Chirp, and all the other major stores (universal link here). Most of the stores are offering some kind of a discount on it right now. You can also get it on Scribd, and of course you can listen to it for free by requesting it from your local library!

Although I’ve been busy with a lot of research reading, I have managed to do some “fun” reading too. I just finished Nobody’s Child, Book 5 in the Jeri Howard series by Janet Dawson. The series is from the 90s, when badass women sleuths had their heyday…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to fall into curmudgeonly nostalgia there. But seriously, don’t let the age of the series put you off. The books are page turners, with a tough female PI investigating cases on the mean streets of San Francisco and dealing with social issues that have only become more relevant 25 years later.

What about you? Do you have any reading recommendations? Let me know!

In writing news, I’m most of the way through the first draft of book 6 in the Doctor Rowena Halley series. Since I ended Book 5 on a cliffhanger, I knew I needed to get started on Book 6 pronto, but, frankly, I’ve been dealing with some burnout or writer’s block or something. I needed a little break from the series in order to figure out what happens next, since that ending to Honor Court came out of nowhere. I took a few months off to write something for my other pen name. Then I still didn’t know what to do.

Oh no! I kept worrying. I’ve got to get this project started! But how? HOW?

As I was fretting over this, YouTube started playing Florence + the Machine videos for me (I often have YouTube on while I write). The video for “Shake it Out” whispered something to my subconscious. 

I’ve always liked that particular video, with its fin de siecle aesthetic. Since Rowena’s research is on a Silver Age (early 20th century) author, this video speaks to that ethos and that general feeling. So after watching it, I felt like I was ready to start writing.

My original conception was to have Florence + the Machine songs running through the story as a repeating motif. I do have some scenes where Florence + the Machine songs play a role (although not “Shake it Out,” funnily enough), but things started to morph once the writing got underway, as they do.

From Florence + the Machine I found myself moving on to Miranda Lambert. At the moment, “Gunpowder and Lead” is part of an important plot twist (spoiler alert!).

Since the story is still in first draft stage, I can’t promise that the song will remain in the final version, but here’s hoping!

At that point I thought I’d figured everything out. Then YouTube started playing Fleetwood Mac songs for me, reigniting my love for what, let’s be honest, has to be one of the greatest pop bands of all time. At the moment, I have this feeling that the song “Gypsy” is somehow significant to the story.

I still don’t know exactly how I’ll be working the song into the story. Maybe I won’t. I keep discovering that whatever triggers the original moment of inspiration often needs to be considerably reworked, or even discarded entirely, during the actual writing process. So I can’t promise that “Gypsy” will actually appear in the finished product, but I’ve been listening to it a lot as I write the final scenes.

That’s where we are now! I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as there’s more news about the next book, so stay tuned for sneak peeks and other fun stuff! 

Meanwhile, I’d love to hear what you’re listening to. Send me your listening recommendations!

All the best, and happy reading,

Sid

Hello All!

How is it May already? How the time does fly, especially when you’re keeping busy!

The good news is that I’m continuing to recover from my COVID vaccine. It left me with some pretty significant joint/muscle pain and all-over fatigue that did get a little better every day after the shot but still has been lingering on for weeks. I thought it was gone, but a recent weather change brought it back a bit. Still much better than actually getting COVID, but not fun. Even so, I hope you’ve all been able to get vaccinated, or will be able to soon. It certainly makes me feel better about going out and about now, inasmuch as I can. I even had a tiny outdoor gathering with other people outside of my household recently, which was a lot of fun.

The even better news is that I’ve been hard at work on my audio projects. I finished the audio for Honor Court, which required some redoing, and recorded and edited the audio for the companion novella Spring Break as well. It’s been uploaded onto Audible but that could take a while–like several months–to go live. So in meantime, Honor Court plus Spring Break are available direct from me for a very low price! Yes, indeed. I keep hearing about selling direct, so I thought I’d dip my toes in it. 

What, you ask, is selling direct and why should I care? Basically, selling direct is when an author sets up their own store front and you buy directly from them instead of via Amazon or Apple or whatever. The benefit for both parties is that the author keeps a much higher percentage of royalties. So I can, for example, sell you the audiobook of Honor Court for $4.99 and make as much or more money as if you bought it from Audible at full price. My storefront is still a work in progress, but I’m slowly rolling it out.

So, with that in mind, there are currently two options for snagging the audiobook of Honor Court (with Spring Break as a bonus!).

1. Buy it from my Payhip store for $4.99. It will be delivered via Bookfunnel, and you will have the option of listening to it on the free Bookfunnel app or downloading the MP3 files to have for yourself forever. I’ve used the Bookfunnel audio app and it’s pretty decent. They also have good tech support.
2. Rent it (yes, RENT IT!) for 99c on Soundwise. You can listen to it on the free Soundwise app. I listened to it all the way through on Soundwise and I found the app serviceable, although not as slick as Bookfunnel’s app. Still, you can’t beat the price.

And if that isn’t enough, I’ve also put the audio version of Trigger Warning up on YouTube for free! You can listen to it here. And while it’s free for you, every view and listen helps me out 🙂 

So that’s about it for the moment. The animals and I are enjoying the flowers but fighting the pollen. I’ve even had some lovely roses come out already 🙂

I hope you have lots of flowers wherever you are, as well as lots of delightful literature.

All the best,

Sid Stark