What I'm Working On - Quarterly Update

​This year is off to such a great start. The first quarter is nearly over, so, I wanted to give everyone an update on my progress, and what I hope to accomplish in the second quarter of 2024.

After nearly two years of burn-out and lack of creative inspiration, I’ve finally come out of that dark valley and life looks bright again. I'm eager to spending time working on my stories each day and building the world they live in. I continually get new, fun ideas that I hope you’ll find delight in. I have so many ideas, my head is bursting from them all. However, my time is limited, so I’m learning how to work smarter and focus on projects I know will benefit my business.

Most of all, I’ve learned to slow down, take one thing at a time, and put my heart fully into that thing to make it the best it can be.
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So, let’s dive in to what’s brewing at Castle’s Story World, shall we?

​Phoenix Rising…or rather Revising

​When I first decided to go back in the history of Alburnium, I’d wanted to write fairytale retellings. They’re fun. I love reading this genre of books, and watching movies to see how they take the old classics and make something new…but familiar.

I did this with the Lionheart Province trilogy, but I took a rather obscure fairytale that sounded horrid to me at first. Once I slept on it, I realized what an amazing story it was and how I could incorporate it into the world of Alburnium. So, we have Kardia and Leon’s story.

You can read more about this series Here and Here .

​Once that was finished, I decided to pick a more famous fairytale and settled on Cinderella. It’s one of my favorites, anyway.

Now, the Phoenix Province Series is loosely based on Cinderella. We have the evil step-mother with her daughters, we do have a ball, but no glass slippers. Instead, there’s a magical glass-handled dagger involved.

Why? Because Rillion is no ordinary princess. She’s a warrior.
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Eh, what can I say? I love writing those Warrior characters.

​Where Am I With the Phoenix Series?

​I had a good start with Wings of Flame: Book One, then started to struggle on Book 2: Blade of Ember. Then I fell on my face with book three, which I’m still working on a title for. Yes, this is the book that feels like it’ll never be finished… except, it is finished. And edited. Except for the last 2 or 3 chapters. 

​So, why haven’t I released it?
Because, dear friends, it’s not ready yet. Because I was sliding into burnout, my writing was poor, scenes weren’t fleshed out properly, characters were skimmed over. After 35+ books, I should know better by now. And I do.
I went back through books one and two and decided I could and should have done a lot better.

Which is why all three books are undergoing revision. If you haven’t noticed, I took down the print versions. There were some really dumb mistakes in them. I’m making them better. The plot hasn’t changed and all the scenes are still intact. However, I’ve dived deeper into what’s motivating Avera to stick with her brother. The world of Alburnium is an amazing place so I’m making sure to paint better word pictures of the places Sterlyn visits in his journey to become a Prior. And the turmoil Rillion goes through at the hands of her cruel step-family needed to be explored more.

These are things I’m working to improve.
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Now, perhaps you’ve already bought the first two books. Don’t worry, I didn’t change anything important. However, maybe you’re thinking that you’d like to see those revisions, and you will. I have a plan in mind. (I’ll explain that in a bit)

​ETA on Phoenix completion?
Don’t quote me on this, but I’m hoping to have all three books completed, with new covers,  bonus stories, and character art, by the end of the 2nd Quarter of this year. Hopefully, sooner. But I have a lot to do; such as come up with a new cover concept. I don’t like the current covers, especially book 1.

​Just being honest, here.

​New Side Story: Juni’s Heart

​Because all editing and no writing makes Jackie a frustrated girl, I’ve started a small writing project, but kept it in the same story world that I’m editing.

Soon to come to you is Juni’s Heart which explains how Juni snagged her prestigious title (IYKYK) and how she came to be Sterlyn’s best friend. This is a short story about forgiveness, growth, and loving the unlovable.
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I think you’ll enjoy it. Again, I have a plan for this story that I’ll share with you shortly.

​My Plan to share Juni’s Heart for Free
I’ve been wanting to expand Alburnium’s story world for some time now. I’ve tried a couple of platforms, but they didn’t really work for me. Now, I think I’ve found a place where I can put out some fun material and share new, upcoming. stories as I write them!

 See my notes about Ream below.

​Future Plans Dreams for This Year

​I have a big decision to make and you can help me out:

• I can write a new Alburnium story involving either Elves (Spoiler Alert: You’ll meet a couple in Book 3) or a serial about group of youths from one of the Academies and a life-changing challenge.
• I’ve really been wanting to try writing a serial. I think it would be fun.
• Or, start a completely new fantasy series that takes place in our time. I have a book full of notes about characters, places and world rules. It involves a circus of non-human performers. A small town full of non-humans who are hiding in the human world. Think Once Upon A Time vibes. I have two short stories already written from this world. One is King of Ice and Time. The other is Entangled which was in a collection that is no longer available. I’m thinking of going though and editing it again, then publishing it this summer. Should I venture into a new world? Let me know your thoughts.
• Perhaps I should do both. I want to do both. But which one would you be more interested in? Share in the comments.

​Finally, I Have Two Big Projects I Hope To Have Going By the End of 2024

​REAM SUBSCRIPTION PLATFORM
What is Ream? Picture if Wattpad (which I do have a couple of books on there) and Patreon merged. Then you have Ream. It was created by authors for authors and readers. I plan to use it to share Juni’s Heart with you… as I write it! That means, you can follow along on my writing process, share your thoughts and feedback, and learn more about the craziness on how I write books. I think it’ll be fun and I’ll share this book in the Followers tier so it’ll be available for everyone at not cost.

I also want to share the changes I’ve made to Phoenix Province. Here’s how that will work.

I will put the first two books under a paid tier, the lowest priced tier. If you’ve purchased either book and can prove that to me, I will send you a free month, or two, if you’ve bought both, and you can read the first two books on Ream. It's a lot like reading on Kindle because Ream has an app and I can load whole books. No searching through dozens of post like they do on Patreon to find a chapter. Or trying to keep up with which ones you’ve read and need to read. It's super amazing what they've created over at Ream and it gets better each passing month because it's new and still being built. 

I will even put up the third book in this tier as I run through the final edits. All this should happen within this quarter, but I'm not making any promises. I'll do the best I can to get these books finished and out to you. 

​DIRECT SALES STORE
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Finally, by the end of 2024, I will have a Castle Story World Store up and running. All my fantasy books will be listed, first as ebooks, then as print… but not until I can offer special editions of my print books. I will start with the Phoenix books, then the Lionheart books. Next year, I want to revise the White Road Chronicles and I’m thinking of doing a Kickstarter to get those books on audio. All that is scheduled for 2025.

​My Why Am I Doing All This, Instead of Just Putting Out More Books?

​Because…

1. In the past, I’ve pushed out books because that's what everyone said we needed to do. Hurry up and publish another one! I’m not proud of some of them. They were rushed, and I tried to follow trends that people said were selling best. Boo on that! No more. I want to put out quality work in genres I love to read and write. Which is why I’ve returned to only writing fantasy stories.
2. Because Amazon is unstable for authors. I see people posting almost daily that their account was shut down without explanation. Now, I feel that all my books are on the up and up, but so did they. Getting your account back can takes weeks if not months. Some never get their account reinstated. I will not have all my books on one shelf anymore.
3. Social Media does not show posts like they used to. They want me to pay for you to see my post. Uh…no thanks. Not when there are other, better ways to reach readers.
4. I can make more money selling direct. I can make a side income by setting up a subscription service and producing fun material for my super-fans who love my story worlds and want more of them. 
5. I need to earn a living so I can continue writing books. My sales on Amazon are way down, which is partly because I’ve not published in a while. Another reason is because there are a lot of books out there and Indies are finding they need to stretch themselves and find new steams of income and various ways to provide new material for their reader base. That’s what I want to do. It sounds like a lot of fun to me.

 ​I’m excited about what’s to come. Mostly, about getting a new and improved Phoenix series out very soon. That’s top priority right now.  All the other stuff is down lower on the list.
Please share your thoughts in the comments and let me know what stories you’d like to see in the future. I’m busting with ideas, but need help deciding which way to go.
Until next time--
Happy Reading and Be Blessed
Jackie J. R. Castle