Dear Readers,
It’s Official
The launch engine officially starts up here. Without further ado, I am delighted to present to you …
The What?
‘What are these nightstairs of which you speak?’ I hear you utter. They are a feature unique, as far as I can tell, to medieval monasteries. The dorter, the dormitory, of the ‘choir monks’ – as opposed to the lay monks, who did not receive holy orders – was on an upper floor adjacent to the church.
Now, there were services or ‘hours’ held at various times around the clock, including during the watches of the night. The stairs allowed the monks or, presumably, nuns to come down the stairs from their sleeping quarters directly into the church and return by the same means.
This most likely gives you a Clue as to the theme of the sequel, and the structure in Amanda Cadabra’s village of Sunken Madley that takes centre stage.
Who is Doing What With the Sequel?
A thorough going-over of the manuscript is now being conducted by the editor, Kim. Not only that, the manuscript has gone out to the VIP Readers, who have been weeding out the typos and omissions that have made it under the wire.
Feet-up time for the author? Not yet. The first step was to prepare this post for you, dear readers, with the image to announce the title of the new book. Next, I prepare images for the partial cover reveal and accompanying Letter.
And The Visuals?
Meanwhile, our illustrator Daniel Becerril Ureña has performed the last tweaks to the ebook cover. When he sent me the initial six sketches to choose from, they each took my breath away. It was a tough choice, but after some gazing, staring, and comparing the covers of the other books, one emerged as the winner. A sneak peek is coming your way next. Now he is working his magic on the paperback cover.
So much for the static images. The most challenging, complicated, and in many ways, fun step is the creation of the trailer. I’ve made a start on that too.
In wings, our admirable formatter awaits. This lady transforms the manuscript for the ebook into a guise suitable for the paperback. Ideally, I would like to launch both the ebook and paperback on the same day. We shall see.
A Chance Encounter
Yesterday, I quit the comfort of the scriptorium in my ivory tower for an adventure. During the aforementioned, I enjoyed a chance meeting. As a result of this, I hope to have some delightful new photos to share with you of Sinner’s-Rue-type pub that may be as much as 500 years old. When I add them, I shall share with you the strange and somewhat exciting tale of how I came to find this gem, and, hopefully, a juicy story or two about its history. For now …
Happy anticipating of the joys of autumn (or spring),
Holly
PS Thanks to https://create3dmodel.com/en/catalogue/church-frame/ for kind permission to use their web image of the frame around the title.
PS If you want to start the series now:
