Elf Queen Weekly Update 5/21/23 + Q&A

Hello my book besties! It’s a lovely day here in east Idaho. Everything is green and the sun is shining! I did a Q&A on my Instagram stories this week so I thought I’d add them here too.

How many books will be in the Elf Queen series?

I don’t know for sure but I know there will be a 4th. I’m not ruling out a 5th but it’s not planned at the moment.

Will there be more funny, sassy Tif moments in book 3?

YES! Tif is a star!

Do I have an ARC team?

I don’t have a team per say but I give readers in my Facebook group the first chance to sign up for ARCs. They will be limited.

If I could pick one of my series to be made into a movie or tv adaptation which would it be?

The Elf Queen series for sure. It’s the most fleshed out, best book series I’ve written.

Will Thane and Layala get their Happily Ever After in book 3?

No spoilers from me. You’ll have to read and find out.

What are my author goals for the next 5 years? (this is way longer than my Instagram answer lol)

Although I do have big goals, I don’t think that far ahead really because I focus on things going well for me, feeling good, writing the next book, and following my intuition in the moment. I have dreams of my books being #1 on Amazon and in all the stores!

Would it be amazing to have a book series that millions read, of course! Would I love a t.v. series, absolutely but that’s not something I can predict. I think if I put in the effort to do my best and believe good things will happen even if I don’t know how, God opens doors for me (and for you too).

There’s a certain amount of luck that hits when I expect good things, when I believe and feel gratitude and joy. Not to get all woo woo but people can feel energy, good or bad. When I feel good, when I’m in a state of gratitude and I’m happy to just exist, and grateful for my health, my family, loved ones and you readers, things fall into place.

Videos go viral, Amazon randomly selects my book to be the deal of the day and it gets in front of thousands of people. Hoopla makes my audiobook a featured book, the Bookish Box makes my book the book of the month, opening me up to thousands of more readers and boom. I couldn’t have guessed those things, I just live in a state of gratitude and believe the best will happen.

I used to be a negative person with no goals, no direction and no hopes of ever being something. I just worked as a restaurant server to get by. I often woke up in a bad mood for no apparent reason and it’s because I wasn’t living my life’s purpose. I felt lost. I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do. I was at a job I hated, bored with life, and nothing to really look forward to. Everyday was the same. I was overweight, I ate a lot of junk food, and sat around. Inside, my heart wanted more, but I didn’t believe it could happen for me.

At some point I had a change of mind. I literally lost weight with a change of mind. The weight started just to fall off because I stopped giving into every craving or bad mood where I used to turn to food. I got up and walked a lot. I met my now husband and obviously fell in love. I started listening to motivational books and videos. We wanted more out of our lives than just getting by. I tried different entrepreneurial things because I hate having a boss. I like my freedom. I NEED freedom.

It wasn’t until I believed I could actually write books for a living (which is what I wanted to do since I was 18 but everyone said authors don’t make money so I didn’t try) that I went for it. I put my mind to that and my focus there. And it took years to get where I am, and trust me, the time will pass anyway so why give up after a few months of something not working out? Why not keep pushing forward if it’s what you love even if it’s years later that finally the work pays off?

Now I focus on writing books people will love that I love too, and what we can all get excited about and things just align.

I believe mindset plays a huge factor in success. When I changed my mindset from playing small, hoping to just get by, to believing I was meant for so much more, it changed the way I showed up, and everything I did. It made me write better books for you all and gave me the confidence to show them off so you could enjoy them too.

Whenever I sit down to write these updates I never know what’s coming, I just let it flow lol. Oh, and I’d also love to do my own special editions of my Elf Queen books as well with artwork inside and shiny foiling on the cover. And of course I plan to write many more books.

Update on book 3

Two of my beta readers have started reading. I’ve been doing major edits based on their feedback. Some parts were just a mess and I didn’t know how to fix it without talking it out with someone. They’re loving the book so far which is so awesome to hear given that I’ve been working on it alone for the past seven months.

I’m still working on the ending too. But we’re getting closer everyday!

Anyway, that’s it for the update this week. I hope you all are doing well!

JM