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Happy New Year! Check out Cover Reveal, YouTube video + NaNoWriMo completion!

Hello Reader Group,

I've had a busy few months, but managed to accomplish a few goals before the end of 2020. I hope you have, too.

The first accomplishment happened last month when I chose a cover design for my second book. Charlie 2nd To Search is the next book in the Charlie, the Mystery-Solving Great Dane & His Quick Traveling Partners series.

Because I loved the first cover so much, I used the same designer. Shout out to Gabriela Novotna. I found her on Fiverr and she did an amazing job on both covers. I'm so happy with them and their corresponding back pages.

She made Charlie come to life on book one and when I asked her to draw an active pose for the second book, she managed to do it again!

I love it!

Here's a peek at the new cover!

It's the most important part of a new book.

The cover is the first thing everyone sees and is a tough decision for a new author.

* Who should be on the cover with Charlie?

* Where should I place them on the page?

* Where should I put the details?

Whew! Glad that's done.

While working on the cover design, Gabriela, made some coloring pages for me so I could add them to my Freebie page.

Click here to get some Freebies.

I'm hard at work editing book two and have a release date of early 2021.

Editing is a tough climb for me as it requires thinking like a reader, not a writer. Since working on my NaNoWriMo project last month, I'm testing my Inner Critic as I bounce between projects.

It's an excellent test because when I'm tired of editing, I can switch to my fun project and write for a while. This is my favorite part, creating a new world for my characters. I love being a master puppeteer!

I'll post a blog confirming the launch and a sneak peek of the final product.

My Next Accomplishment

I recorded a video for my YouTube channel.

Here's the link.

Behind the camera is where I'm most comfortable, so I had a huge learning curve, remembering my lines and not stumbling.

I'm working on videos promoting book two,

Charlie 2nd To Search, and will upload them in a future blog post.

My NaNoWriMo Project

I can't end this post without mentioning I finished my third NaNoWriMo on November 16th with 53,247 words.

I wrote the fourth book in the Charlie series, tentatively called Charlie 4th to Forget. I have 20,000 words left to finish the book, but 50k+ is an impressive start, and in 16 days.

This isn't my earliest finish to 50k, but I'm happy my elbows don't hurt this year. I learned a valuable lesson after last year's challenge when I wrote 2 books, 50k each, and completed them in 24 days.

What can I say? I enjoy pushing myself to the edge. For those of you who know me, you know my fear of heights, so this is my metaphorical edge.

This year I challenged myself differently, so I could rest my forearms. I wrote one book and edited another. It was a noble compromise and still accomplished my goal of completing NaNo.

The NaNoWriMo Winners video this year made me smile. It's a wonderful community encouraging you to get to 50,000 words in 30 days. At the end, you have a story. Even if you don't finish, or get to 50,000 words, you get the structure of writing every day which helps hone the craft.

I changed methods this year, too. I began writing on the computer and then moved to pen and paper. It helped my brain empty its thoughts and encouraged weird obstacles to trip up my characters. Using both methods, my creativity burbled up as I sat and relaxed, the words flowing in a blur of scribbles.

That's it for me and my news for the last two months. I'll send out another post when I'm ready to launch Charlie 2nd to Search.