Jon Cronshaw's Author Diary - The Real Life of an Indie Author | Writing | Publishing | Disability

Welcome to Jon’s Author Diary for the week ending June 14, 2020.

Woohoo! It’s taken a while, but the final draft of Cleric of the Wasteland is done and ready for the editor.

I started work on this book in winter 2017, so it feels good to finally be done and ticked off my list of open projects.

It’s been an intense week of getting up at 5 AM each day to get it done. But it’s done and that’s what counts.

As for The Ravenglass Chronicles, I received The Star (episode 17) edited and proofread. I’m going to give it a final look over and then get it up on Amazon for June 20.

I’ve had a few readers ask me when I plan to finish the series. The Ravenglass Chronicles is based on the tarot’s major arcana, which has 22 cards. This means there will be 21 episodes in the main series with The Fool representing card zero as the prequel.

The means that I should have the series wrapped up by the autumn.

Of course, my long-term plan is to write many more books in the Ravenglass Universe (there are the minor arcana cards too!)

Take care,

Jon

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Welcome to Jon’s Author Diary for the week ending May 17, 2020.

Something happened this week that felt like a massive weight was lifted off my shoulders, like a huge ball of tension burst.

Some of the lockdown restrictions were lifted here in England on Wednesday, so I’ve been taking advantage of being able to go outside more than once a day.

However, that wasn’t what relieved the tension.

It was my birthday on Tuesday. I celebrated in true author in lockdown style by releasing a book and eating pizza. It’s the second time I’ve released a book on my birthday, and, if I’m being honest, it’s probably not the best idea, especially when the book in question didn’t exactly do well.

No. The thing that did it was a chiming melody coming down our street and an ice cream van stopping outside our house.

We all had a 99 (which for those unfamiliar is whippy ice cream on a cone with a chunk of Cadbury’s Flake sticking out of it.

This was the best ice cream I’ve ever had.

I’m not kidding. Sure, it tasted like every other 99 I’ve ever had, but this one brought huge smiles.

And, I can’t believe I’m writing this, when I reflected on it I ended up shedding a few tears. Crazy, right?

Of course, it was probably a whole bunch of tension about everything coming out, but for me it signified we’d passed an important point. We are now in a world where when an unexpected treat is possible, where spontaneity is possible.

When you’re planning your meals out two weeks in advance and the days seem to blend into one, a little thing like an ice cream van turning up unexpectedly represented something hopeful to me.

I hope wherever you are things are starting to look better.

Two releases

This week saw me release two books! I launched Blind Reset, which is the second book in my Gambit duology—a GameLit series about dealing with going blind.

The Tower, book 16 of The Ravenglass Chronicles, just went live in the Kindle store. Click HERE to grab your copy.

You can read both titles on Kindle Unlimited.

Writing update

I’ve sent The Star, episode 17 of The Ravenglass Chronicles, to my editor and have turned my attention to redrafting Cleric of the Wasteland, which will be the fourth novel in my Wastelandseries.

I wrote the first draft a year ago and I have to admit it feels very odd going back to that series. It’s a story I started writing in 2016, and so it’s been a bit of shift to get back into Abel’s head.

That being said, the writing is going well enough. It’s a slow process, but I’m 20 percent through the redraft. It’s just a case of working on a few thousand words each day until it’s complete.

This is part of my 2020 aim to clear all my open projects before moving onto my new series next year.

Looking forward

If you missed my author diary podcast last week, I talked about my plans for my next series when Kat’s journey ends.

I’ve really enjoyed using the tarot’s major arcana to inspire the story.

I’ve decided to keep going with the tarot influence and move on to the tarot’s suit cards—swords, cups, wands, and coins.

The new stories will be set in the Ravenglass Universe with new characters and new locations.

My head is filled with ideas for a series featuring a pair of thieves turned reluctant assassins. And, of course, there’s always room for more wyverns.

Take care,

Jon

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Welcome to Jon’s Author Diary for the week ending May 3, 2020.

As I write this, I’ve just finished my first draft of The Star, book 17 of The Ravenglass Chronicles.

Book 16, The Tower is currently with the editor, so I’m hoping to get that released as soon it is proofread, which should be some time over the next week or two.

My novel Blind Reset, the follow-up to my GameLit novel/mediation on disability Blind Gambit, is also being edited, and should be back for the final proofread next weekend.

I don’t have a release date set, but as soon as it’s ready, I’ll get it out to the world.

Blind Reset will be the second and final book in that series as I’ve told the story I wanted to and anything else will be padding for sake of it.

If you’ve been following along with my Author Diary podcast, you’ll know that I came to a decision about the future of The Ravenglass Chronicles.

Kat’s story is told using the cards of the tarot’s major arcana—22 cards equals 22 episodes (including the prequel).

I’ve built quite a world and magic system, and have a lot of stories I still want to tell in that universe. So once the final book of the current series is done and Cleric of the Wasteland is released, I’m going to carry on writing in the Ravenglass Universe.

It’s an ambitious aim, but I’m going to start writing series based on the minor arcana—four suits containing 14 cards. This means four series of 14 novellas.

By the time I’ve finished, I will have written 78 novellas. So this one’s going to keep me busy for the next few years.

With the backlog projects (three non-fiction books, two novels, and a collaborative trilogy) behind me next year, I’ll be able to focus my full attention on getting the stories out on a more consistent basis.

I’m excited and daunted by the prospect. But I love a good challenge!

Yours,

Jon

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Welcome to Jon's author diary for the week ending April 19, 2020.

I have had a busy week, working hard to get my redraft of The Tower, episode 16 of The Ravenglass Chronicles written. It’s now ready for the editor.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be working on episode 17, The Star, and on getting Blind Reset proofread and ready for publication, hopefully by June. And, then, I need to redraft Cleric of the Wasteland.

My goal for this year was to clear the backlog of open projects. So far, I’ve completed two non-fiction titles (The Stoic Writer and Podcasting for Authors) out to the world, Blind Reset redrafted, and three episodes of The Ravenglass Chronicles written. There’s still the Black Death trilogy lingering in the background, but I’m not sure how much of an appetite there’s going to be for a series about a worldwide pandemic.

Podcasting

I appeared on a few podcasts this week—Too Young Cinema Club and Sci-Fi Roundtable.

Too Young Cinema Club is a podcast about movies you watched when you were far too young that had a lasting impact. For me, that movie is Terminator 2: Judgement Day, which I first saw when I was about nine or ten.

During the podcast, it dawned on me just how much that movie inspired the way I tell stories.

Which movies did you watch when you were too young that stuck with you?

Visit: spreaker.com/show/too-young-cinema-club

On the Sci-Fi Roundtable, we discussed time travel (which inevitably led to a discussion about Terminator 2). It was a fun times as usual!

Visit: sfrtpodcast.libsyn.com

Welcome to Jon's author diary for the week ending April 12, 2020.

It’s been another busy week of lockdown. I've kept on with my schedule of writing in the mornings then home-schooling my son in the afternoons.

His guitar lessons are going really well. He’s getting the chords quite quickly and has got some strumming patterns down. I’ve taught him how to use a plectrum and started work on his first scale.

It’s surprising how fast he learns. He's seven, so he's basically a sponge at this age.

I love seeing his face when something clicks and he can do something he couldn’t before. I'm really proud of him for that.

We’ve definitely been enjoying the sunshine this week. It’s finally started to feel like spring. The sun’s been shining and winter seems like a distant memory.

We’ve been going out for walks each day. A few days ago, we took a walk along Morecambe prom and down the stone jetty to watch the tide coming in.

Taking a moment to get outside and appreciate nature is necessary in these testing times.

Book 15 is now live!

This week, I’ve been working on my first draft of The Tower, which is episode 15 of The Ravenglass Chronicles. Things are ramping up towards what I’m seeing as the final act (episodes 17-21) of the series.

In the meantime, episode 15, The Devil, is now live. As ever, I’ve kept the price down as low as I can—it’s 99p/99c or equivalent, or its available to read free on Kindle Unlimited.  

Click HERE to get your copy.

The Devil has received the most pre-orders of any book I’ve released, so thanks to everyone who pre-ordered. It really means a lot to me.

Happy Easter!

I hope you’re having a hood weekend, especially if you’re celebrating Easter.

For lent, I gave up alcohol, chocolate, cake, biscuits, and bread. I’m sure my waistline has thanked me during this time being stuck at home, as I may have drifted into the habit of drinking far too much ale and gorging on German cookies. Mmmm…

It’s going to be a different kind of Easter for my son this year as we’ve not been able to buy him an Easter egg.

The shops are only stocking ‘essentials’ apparently, so no Easter eggs for us. We did manage to buy beer and gin though, so I guess alcohol is essential.