2020 Year in Review

Hi all!

Next week I'm going to write about my 2021 writing goals, so this week I thought I would look back on my writing goals of 2020!

Write two books

I've managed to write four books this year:

Celestial Plague #3: Purgatory

Years

Mute

Curse of Anubis #1: Halfway

Publish two books

Elemental Dragons #2: Venom and Earth and Elemental Dragons #3: Glass and Ice were both published this year, thanks to everyone who has read them!

Get three covers designed

Elemental Dragons is now complete with covers, and I managed to get one for Celestial Plague: Seashine. Seashine's cover will be revealed at some point next year.

Edit two books

Although I wanted to edit Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana, instead I edited Mute. But I still manged to meet my goal, despite swapping the books around!

Write four short stories

I've written multiple short stories this year, though I didn't manage to get any published. I've posted a lot of them in my monthly newsletter for my subscribers to read. I also hope to combine some into an anthology of sorts once I have enough of the same genre.

Read 15 books

Due to lockdown I managed to blow this goal out of the water. I have read 100 books this year! Most of them were ones that I had wanted to read for a while, like Wings of Fire and Five Nights at Freddy's. However I also discovered new authors this year whose work I love.

Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo

I participated in both this year, with writing Years, Mute and Curse of Anubis #1: Halfway.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! Next week I will discuss my goals for 2021. See you next week!

PS; looking for new books to add to your list in the New Year? Check out these book bundles:

Fantasy Reads for Cold Winter Nights

New Year, New Monsters!

New Website Feature Announcement

Hi all,

This week I'm going to talk about a new feature that I will be adding to my website - character profiles!

For each book I write I will create a character profile for each of the main characters, antagonists and any popular side characters. Of course as the only books I have out at the moment are in the Elemental Dragons series, they're the first profiles that will go up!

I ran a Twitter and Facebook poll to see what interest there was for character profiles and was surprised to see that so many of you were interested. So, on the 22nd August I will send an email to my newsletter subscribers with a poll for them to pick who the first character profile will be. I think it's only fair that as they have signed up for my mailing list they get to be the ones to decide which ones shall be added first. 

So, what exactly will be in each character profile? I've listed it below:

Eye colour

Hair colour

Skin colour

Physical appearance

Age

Nationality

Mannerisms

Parents (if known)

Siblings (if known)

Animal companion

Accessories

Best friend

Love interest/Partner

Favourite foods

Favourite drink

Hobbies

Favourite colour

Element/Magical Power/Magical Features

Anything extra that I feel needs to be added

As you can see from the above these profiles will be very detailed, so I won't be able to do one for every character at once. I'm hoping to start doing a few in September, with polls every so often so people can decide who they want a profile on next! I am planning on doing profiles for the human and dragon characters, so the dragon ones will be tweaked slightly as some of the above doesn't apply to them.

At the moment I am not planning on having any of the characters illustrated with their profile, but that might change in the future.

Another announcement to make is that Glass and Ice will be going up for pre-order in the very near future, so keep an eye out for it.

Are you excited to see the character profiles? Let me know in the comments!

That's it for this week, see you next Sunday!

Last chance to check out these books!

Dragon, Creature and Monster KU

Entering my First Book Award

Hi all!

In November I entered Blood and Water in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards, and I thought I'd share how it got on!

The Wishing Shelf Book Awards is an award run by Billy Bob Buttons, a children's author. For each category a group of the target audience reads the books and rates them. I entered the teenage category, so my book was read by my target audience.

A few weeks ago the finalists were announced, but unfortunately I didn't get through. I did however get wonderful feedback from those who read my book and a four star review!

There was a surprise among my feedback, Blood and Water won a Red Ribbon Award! This means that although my book didn't get over 30/40 to be a finalist, (it got exactly 30/40), it was enjoyed very much by the readers, who gave it a Red Ribbon! I'm thinking of adding it on the back cover, so it doesn't draw from the front cover.

The Red Ribbon Award I will be adding to my book cover

For my first time entering an award I wasn't expecting to get through, but I'm very happy with the fact that I got an award out of it. I've entered another two different awards, so fingers crossed I'll win something there too!

That's it for this week, hope you enjoyed. See you next week!

Venom and Earth Preorder Live

Hi all!

You may have seen my posts on social media this week, but if you haven’t; Elemental Dragons Book 2: Venom and Earth is available for preorder!

I can reveal that the publication date for both ebook and paperback is 14th April 2020.

If you would like to preorder the book I have linked the US and UK versions below, but is available internationally if you aren’t in either of these places:

UK Version

US Version

If you’ve already read the first book and are hungry for more, the sign up to my mailing list! In return you will receive a free enovella with four short stories from the Elemental Dragons universe. The only way to read them is by signing up, as they aren’t available anywhere else!

https://www.subscribepage.com/jessicaturnbull

Thank you to everyone who supported me through publishing Blood and Water, I’m so grateful that I now have the opportunity to publish a second book.

See you next week!

My 2020 Writing Goals

Hi all,

Following on from my year in review last week, I'm now doing my 2020 writing goals. They are as follows:

Write two books.

I'm hoping to write Celestial Plague Book 3: Purgatory and Years before the end of 2020.

Publish two books.

Elemental Dragons books 2 and 3 will be coming out this year! Venom and Earth in April and Glass and Ice in October. I will also be entering both of them in Cover Wars.

Get three covers designed.

I've already booked Deranged Doctor Design to do the covers for the next two Elemental Dragons books, but I also want a cover for the Celestial Plague Short Story Collection.

Edit two books.

I would like to edit Elemental Dragons Book 4: Cinder and Fire and Celestial Plague Book 1: Nirvana myself before passing to my editor.

Write four short stories.

I haven't written a short story for a while and would like to get back into it. I'd also like to start dabbling in horror.

Get a short story published.

I would like to get one of my short stories published in a magazine or anthology.

Read 15 books.

I've already set my goal on Goodreads and I'm hoping that I'll be able to find time to read again, even if it's not as many books as last year.

Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo.

Having a goal to work towards seems to work well for me, which is why I'll be doing NaNo again this year! I'm aiming for 50K each time, nothing crazy.

Thank you for reading! I would also like to thank everyone who voted for Blood and Water in Cover Wars, it came third!

See you next week.

2019 Year in Review

Hi all!

Seeing as next week's blog post will be my 2020 writing goals, I thought that I would do a year in review for the last Sunday of 2019! 

Published Blood and Water.

My debut novel came out this year with the next one out in April 2020! It's been a great experience self publishing and I want to thank everyone who bought my book.

Sold 40 books.

I've sold 40 copies of Blood and Water, thanks to everyone who bought one!

Wrote three books.

I set a goal for writing two books this year, but I managed three! 

Elemental Dragons Book 4: Cinder and Fire - 88,000 words

Celestial Plague Book 1: Nirvana - 83,000 words

Celestial Plague Book 2: Heaven - 83,000 words

Participated in July Camp NaNoWriMo and November NaNoWriMo.

I finished Cinder and Fire during Camp NaNo and Heaven during NaNoWriMo. I said last year that I would participate again, and I've enjoyed it. Now I'm just taking a break until the beginning of January to start working on Purgatory.

Hired editor for two books.

My editor, Nicola, has edited two books for me this year. Elemental Dragons Book 2: Venom and Earth and Elemental Dragons Book 3: Glass and Ice. Venom and Earth is almost ready for publication as it is in the formatting stages, while I have only recently got the edits back for Glass and Ice. Next year I will be asking her to work on the final book.

Two cover designs.

Both Blood and Water and Venom and Earth have come to life this year thanks to Deranged Doctor Design! They both have gorgeous covers and I've already booked the next two books to be designed by them next year.

Entered Blood and Water for a book award.

I've entered Blood and Water into the Wishing Shelf Book Awards. Wish me luck!

Read 30 books.

I've read 30 books this year, most of them being Warriors books. I've already got a little pile going ready to be read next year.

That's it for this week, come back next Sunday to read about my 2020 goals. See you next week!

Venom and Earth Cover Design

Hi all!

If you haven’t seen my social media posts the cover for Elemental Dragons Book 2: Venom and Earth has been revealed! It has been posted to my Twitter and Facebook pages, and also on another author’s book blog:

https://suesbookblog.wordpress.com/2019/11/25/cover-reveal-venom-and-earth-by-jessica-turnbull/

As with Blood and Water this has also been designed by the wonderful people at Deranged Doctor Design. (I got the Print Social package for those who are interested).

Like with Blood and Water, I thought I would explain a few key details of the cover:

The colour scheme is green and purple, to represent the title of Venom and Earth.

Hazel, the MC, is again on the cover.

The rocks are not being created by Hazel as she is not an Earth Elemental.

The rocks are being conjured by someone else, cornering Hazel.

The background is a forest, which comes into play later on in the book.

I liked the font from last time and kept it, as well as the colours.

Again, dragons aren’t in the background as I thought it would be too overwhelming.

That’s it for this week! Next week I’m going to talk about NaNoWriMo, how I felt during the entire process and how I managed to churn out 61,908 words in total.

See you next week!

My Publishing Plan

Hi all,

With Elemental Dragons Book 1: Blood and Water now out I thought I would talk about my publishing plan so you all know when I will be releasing my next book.

I'm hoping to release a book every six months, so the plan for Elemental Dragons will look like this:

Book 1 - October 2019

Book 2 - April 2020

Book 3 - October 2020

Book 4 - April 2021

Hopefully if that goes well then I'll follow the same plan for my future books. I've got a vague idea of the order I want to publish them in which will be as follows:

Celestial Plague series. (3 books)

Years standalone.

Possible Elemental Dragons prequel.

Damaged Goods series. (3 books)

Possible Damaged Goods prequel.

Curse of Anubis series. (4 books)

Street Rats standalone.

Enna standalone.

Aerus Vs Bolt standalone.

This may be subject to change depending on what I feel like writing next, or if I come up with a new idea that I'm desperate to write straightaway.

Six months gives me enough time to get everything ready but also makes sure that the readers have consistent content. Having written all four books in the Elemental Dragons series already, I'm confident that I can keep it up.

Thank you to all those who have already bought my book, and I hope you're enjoying it! If you want to show your support, please leave a review on Amazon, it really helps me.

See you next week!

Blood and Water Preorder Live

Hi all!

You may have already seen my posts yesterday, but if you haven't - Blood and Water is available for preorder!

I can reveal that the publication date will be October 15th 2019 for both ebook and paperback.

If you would like to preorder the ebook version I have linked the UK and US Amazon sites below, but it is available worldwide if you don't live in either of these places:

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07VY4QZQS/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=Elemental+dragons+blood+and+water&qid=1564849975&s=gateway&sr=8-4

US - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07VY4QZQS/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=elemental+dragons+blood+and+water&qid=1564849744&s=gateway&sr=8-1

In the meantime if you want a taste of my writing and the Elemental Dragons universe, sign up to my mailing list to receive a free ebook. It contains four stories from the series that tie into the books, three of which have never been published anywhere else!

https://www.subscribepage.com/jessicaturnbull

Thank you to everyone who has supported me so far, I couldn't have done this without you!

See you next week!

Mailing List Live

Hi all!

If you follow me on Facebook and Twitter, you may have seen me posting about my mailing list.

A mailing list is a list of email addresses that readers let authors have in exchange for a newsletter, free book etc. In this case, I will use my mailing list to send out a monthly newsletter which will contain the following:

- Pre-order dates.

- Release dates.

- Cover reveals.

- Book recommendation of the month (both traditionally published and self published books).

- Blog posts from the past month.

- Writing excerpts.

- Facts from the Elemental Dragons universe.

- Monthly news.

- Giveaways and contests.

- Announcements.

In return for signing up, you will receive a free ebook! The ebook contains four stories from the Elemental Dragons universe.

They are:

- Circles: Russet dreams of being free but is trapped in reality.

- Hesitation: Hercules finds an opportunity to escape the humans who have tortured it for decades, but the world outside has changed.

- Passion: Ophelia desperately tries to find inspiration amongst the grime of the city.

- Purpose: Moon takes in four younglings for his own amusement, but he finds himself getting attached to them.

If you would like to sign up, please click the link below and keep an eye on your emails for your free ebook:

https://www.subscribepage.com/jessicaturnbull

See you next week!