Hi and welcome to my June newsletter. There's a brief update on my
writing, plus the usual news about one of my current dogs in training, followed by links to free samples of fantasy reads to help you discover new authors. And this month, a limited-time offer of the ebook of A Queen To Come. I hope you enjoy reading this email. Thank you for being part of my publishing life ❤️ Best wishes Frances |
Progress report: A Crown Denied Having finished the first draft I am now in the beginning phase of re-edit purgatory - rounds and rounds of edits before final sign off and release. But it's been worth the effort, as I realise I have to write a few more chapters to build out some of the characters more and to provide a better link between some chapters. Once I'm
happy with that I'll send it off to my Dream Team for critical reading and feedback (and I mean, critical!). Seriously, though, these wonderful people are worth their weight in gold to me; keeping me honest, picking up errors and contradictions, suggesting improvements and encouraging me all the way - you can find out more about them on my website. |
The day job, for now....? If you've come across my Author Bio you will know that I train guide dogs for the blind. I am going to introduce to you a new dog I’ve been training. Her name is Opal, and she is a golden retriever / Labrador cross. Opal is incredibly smart, and amazingly calm and relaxed. She picked up the guide work like a pro, and has never been rattled by difficult or super busy
streets. So, teaching her the work was incredibly easy. |
| What was more difficult, was convincing Opal to always do the work. See, sometimes she just doesn’t feel like it; then she’s more into her surroundings, and when I needed to turn left
somewhere while a park lay to our right, Opal usually then decides not to listen. She knows exactly what the commands mean, but if she thinks it’s more beneficial to her to not listen… she won’t. Which is why I needed to—and still am—teaching this little evil genius that it’s more beneficial to listen to me, than to not. |
So, I’m using her most favourite reward: playing with a small tug-of-war toy. Every time she decides to turn away from where she wants to go to, and listen to me instead, we play. And now we play a lot, which I don’t mind at all, because it's a much nicer to reward her for doing the guide work, than to get mad at her for not doing it! |
| It's that time of year again - yes, pollen season! I couldn't resist sharing this photo of Uday and
Misha after a run around in the long grass. Fortunately for them, they do not suffer from hay fever 🙃 |
And finally..........one really amazing thing that has happened this past month at work, was
that I have officially completed my course for guide dog trainer 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉. This has been two years in the making, and yes of course, I’ve already been doing the work all this time, but from now on I am completely left to my own devices. I no longer have a supervisor who shadows me while I train my dogs and gives me tips and tricks on how to improve my training techniques. Now I know enough that I can do it all. Although, all the trainers do still exchange ideas and their training experiences
in monthly meetings, which I really enjoy. That way I never stop learning and I can still keep getting better! But I am very excited to go out on my own, and I definitely celebrated when I passed that final test! |
Discover new fantasy reads To find new readers for my books I work with fellow authors to widen our readership by promoting our books to each
other's email list. We offer an e copy of a book, novella or custom short story for free on sign-up to our newsletter, to help the reader decide if they want to keep following us.
Interested? Just click on the images or links below to get to the website, browse through the free book(s) on offer, and take a punt. |
| The Otherside Chronicles is a YA sword and sorcery romance short story introducing the serial fantasy set. Get your free short story here. |
| Time Crystal is a short story prequel to The Progenitor Chronicles, a YA space opera fantasy with a female protagonist. "Beautiful worldbuilding, fun characters, and an intriguing storyline." "Super exciting, with twists and surprises." Get your free short story here |
If you have a subscription to Kindle Unlimited, here are some magical YA adventures you can find there. |
Limited-time offer* A Queen To Come FREE!! 20-24 June If you haven't yet got your kindle copy, or want to share
this offer with your reader friends, now's your chance. *USA and UK markets only | |
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