What’s new for the New Year?

Hello everyone,

I hope you all had a wonderful new year. 😊

Some illness in the family, including myself, pushed this post back later than I had planned. Covid was not fun to say the least, but I’m back and hoping to return to the swing of things.

I wanted to make a quick post to hold myself accountable for last year so I can take inventory and layout my writing plans for this year. So, before taking a glance at what’s new for the new year, let’s look back at 2022.

2022 in review🎉

The successes

Last year marked the one-year anniversary of Lafonda and Leo Heroes of the Land with a giveaway, and a lovely animation showing off character designs of the heroes themselves. The hardcover edition also released that year.

My work in progress currently titled, The Hollow Death of Belladonna Bates, flew off to the editor, and I published a Novella named Amorphous Tides, in the same universe.

My short story Low Places went live on YouTube, narrated on audio by the talented Robert Fisher. A poem also went live. You can listen to them both here.

Last, I started a small Discord community to encourage some friends in their writing and have some fun.

The Failures

Admittedly, the anniversary shebang could’ve had more oomph or marketing behind it. No one participated in the giveaway, unfortunately, but I had fun finally trying to make a bedtime burrito from the story. I think recreating them like a cannoli, a “bedtime taquito” if you will, is the trick. Some cream cheese with M&M’s in a waffle cone shell would be good. (Now it’s making me hungry.)

Amorphous Tides had a rockier launch than I hoped. Between the extra hours at my day job than previous books that ate up planning, and some unsuccessful experimentation of wide distribution, it didn’t create the same splash as my other books had. In hindsight, I should have coordinated a bigger launch team as well.

So, I encourage you to please leave an honest review for Amorphous Tides if you’ve read it. A simple two sentence review of what you liked and didn’t like goes a long way in helping decide whether others will read the book.

Plans for the New Year ⏭

In short, I have three projects in the works, but I’m not sure which will come to fruition first.

1. The Hollow Death of Belladonna Bates
2. The Gathering of Misfits in The Muscle
3. A potential comic book for Lafonda and Leo Heroes of the Land

Adventures in the Land of Magic (Lafonda and Leo Heroes of the Land Comic) 💭

I wasn’t sure whether to mention this one as there is a lot of legwork and pieces that need to click together right before it publishes, so it could be pushed to the following year. But I wanted to share some of my excitement with you!

The idea came from feedback I’ve received on the story thus far. A friend of a friend shared my book with a girl with special needs. Ultimately, she said she liked the book, but couldn’t get over how it had no pictures in it. What kind of book has no pictures? So, she drew me some!

The girl took her drawings home, but they texted pictures, and my heart melted. I feel like I had to make something illustrated for the kids. Thus, this project is born.

A script is being adapted from the first chapter of the book, and I have an artist or two lined up to illustrate depending on their availability and how each step goes as it comes together. Average comics consist of twenty-two pages, so it may not be cheap or quick.

Granted, this is a completely different animal than a novel. I need outlines for panels and lots of elements I would’ve never considered, but it will be neat to try.

The Gathering of Misfits in The Muscle💪

This project has finished a peer revision and I personally feel it may need some tweaks on the plot, but it’s nearly there for a professional edit in terms of prose.

In case you don’t recall, this was a story I had written about an avian secretary who must assemble a team of criminals for a crime boss, or else he will kill her sister, and this story centers on the muscle of the team. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with parts, but everyone who had read it said they loved the characters, humor, and the action of the story.

Currently, I’m seeking a developmental edit and taking the project as it comes.

The Hollow Death of Belladonna Bates ❄ 

This has been my work in progress for almost two years and may finally come together in a couple months.

The first professional edit should finish a week or two, providing a good diagnostic of what to improve and sharpen. I feel the ending is solid. It’s the middle that worries me. Without seeing my editor’s remarks, I haven’t ruled out more reworking of the plot. I don’t believe it’ll be too drastic though.

I’m predicting a May/ June publishing date, but as I’ve said before, I want this story to be the best it can be, and I appreciate everyone’s patience so far. This book has been a labor of love.

What am I writing❔🖊

We’ve talked about what’s written and may be published soon, but what am I writing? What else is new for the New Year?

Currently, I’m eleven chapters deep in my first ever superhero story. It follows the daughter of supervillains falling in love with the son of superheroes and all the chaos that emerges as they’re caught between their parents’ feuds.

I started it for some friends in our small discord and it came together rapidly at first, but then I caught Covid. All progress stopped after that and writing it has been hard ever since. I’m not sure if I’ll finish it. I want to, but I’m not enjoying it. Frankly, I’d rather be writing something else as I’ve been struggling with this one.

Lots of ideas to continue stories that I’ve already written have been branching out and bouncing in my head.  I’d like both Belladonna Bates and the Gathering of Misfits to be their own series as they happen in the same world.

My current goal is to plot out bullet points to finish projects that I’ve started so I can share them quicker with you all. I don’t like making you guys wait.

In Conclusion(☞ﾟヮﾟ)☞ ☜(ﾟヮﾟ☜)

In conclusion, that wraps up the past year and my plans this year!

Thanks so much for reading and all your support during 2022.

Here’s to what’s new for the new year. 🍾🥂

Keep Writing!

-Antonio