Last week was intense.

Last week, I locked myself in my house, was completely anti-social, and wrote. Then I wrote some more. I spent the week creating a new world. All of the worlds that I have built/wrote up until this point have grown organically, over the course of weeks or even months. A small detail here and there, jotted down in the notes section of my phone. This one I attempted to crunch out in a couple of days to move my writing schedule along.

And man, it made my brain hurt!

The world’s history, inhabitants, science, creatures, legends & mythology, landscape & geography, and even weather patterns.

Yikes.

How does magic work in this realm? I better figure that out.

Why is it so cold? There has to be a reason.

Why does that deer have giant oak trees for antlers?

Yeah…try explaining that.

All of that being said, I love world building so much. It was a fulfilling and satisfying week of writing. The opportunity to allow my imagination to run wild and just accept whatever cockadoo thing it creates as fact, is a fantastic game.

A game I hope to keep playing for years to come.

Just a teaser…some inspiration I used for my world…

 

How you can help!

For the first time, I have been a small part in helping a friend launch a book, and am genuinely invested in wanting it to be successful. I’ve seen first hand just how important friends and family are to getting books out there. (And how much fun it is to see someone buy it that otherwise might not have!)

I guess the one thing I never thought about is how authors are just someone’s friend or family member. It’s easy for me to think about all of the big name authors and how they just write a book and BAM it’s a bestseller, but that’s not how it works; and it’s especially not how it started. They had a ton of help, which is why I have so much hope.

Because you guys are flipping amazing.

I have already had so much encouragement and support surrounding my upcoming book release and it’s still 5 months away! But just in case you want some tangible steps to help me, or any other of your author friends, here are 5 ways you can help us!

1. Buy our books. Buy on pre-sale, Amazon, or at the bookstore. If it’s not in your local bookstore, feel free to pitch a hissy fit because they don’t carry it. Even better, have someone film it so it can go viral, like that poor lady wanting to find Paul Sheldon’s new book. “How can you not know Steen Jones?!” 😉
2. Review our books. Reviews are super important, especially on Amazon (although, you can’t review books on Amazon until they are released…so you will need to wait until The Door Keeper comes out. Also, you can’t say you are my friend or they will pull the review.) But you can review it on Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads if you have an account. Just copy and paste that junk, easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy.
3. Follow us on social media and Share! I will tell you right now, I plan on doing some fun things involving social media, giveaways, and special offers leading up to the book launch. So if you want your friends to have the opportunity to win some free stuff, you will need to share it all with all of them.
4. Recommend us. If you have a Goodreads account, a blog, or you’re part of a book club, or your small group at church. Recommend our books to your friends. I’m way more likely to buy a book because my friend told me I’d love it, than any other reason. Well, that or I saw the movie, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 😉
5. Offer to help! Most all of you have done this already, so thank you! I will most likely put together a launch team to help plan and execute my Book Launch Party and help promote for my blog tour, etc. If you would want to be a part of that team, shoot me an email at steen@thedoorkeepertrilogy.com

I’ll make a deal with you, if you complete all 5 tasks on this list, I’ll make sure you have the opportunity to be an extra in the movie when it comes to film in Woodstock.

Now who’s getting ahead of herself?! Lol