I’m Back! | Elf Queen 3 Weekly Update 4/16

Hello, my friends! I’m home from vacation and back with the weekly update. Florida was such a great time. We went to Disney World with the kids, not gunna lie, they didn’t have the best time. Magic Kingdom was sold out for the entire two weeks we were there so we went to Disney Hollywood. 

The Star Wars area was super cool but the lines were too long and the kids too little to ride much of anything. My daughter wanted to see princesses and there was a play for Beauty and the Beast but that was about it. I think my daughter wasn’t feeling well and my son is too young to do much. 

However, we had a great time at Clearwater beach! It’s such a beautiful place, white sand, warm blue water, and lots of shopping and places to eat. 

The seagulls are aggressive there, one tried to snatch food right out of my unsuspecting Uncle’s hand haha. 

We collected seashells, ate burgers on the beach, sipped on diet Dr. Pepper (the only soda I drink) and played in the water. 

Universal studios was amazing. My mom watched the kids so we were free to run wild like back in the old days! :) we had express passes and went on almost every ride, drank frozen butterbeer, ate ice cream from Diagon Alley (it was the best chocolate ice cream I’ve ever had) rode the Hogwarts Express and more! My favorite ride was the Velocicoaster in the Jurassic Park area. It was a blast, super smooth, lots of twists and dips, and fast!

It was nice too just to hang out by the pool at our AirBnb and soak up the sun. As I’ve stated, this Idaho winter has been long and cold and I truly needed the sunshine. I sat out every morning before the kids woke up and watched the sunrise and listened to soothing music. 

Many mornings I also read through what I’ve written on Elf Queen 3 making edits and finding joy in the story again.

 I finished my read through and started writing again yesterday! Progress! My goal is to finish the draft in 3 weeks and then let my beta readers have a go at it and then I’ll do more edits. 

I keep saying I’m shooting for a June release and I still hope to do that, but it will be late June if I make it. 

I keep getting asked about beta reading and how you can do that for me. I have a small beta team of 5, two are editors. I don’t open my beta team up to a lot of people because I can’t have too much conflicting feedback or too many opinions. I also usually make extensive edits from feedback and I know a lot of readers want a more polished copy that doesn’t have big changes. 

I will open up book 3 for ARCs (advanced reader copy) and this means it won’t need any major edits but there could be some minor errors like typos. Copies will be limited, you must have already read and reviewed the first two books AND you have to have loved the first two. My assistant checks and reads all the reviews from applicants.

 I want to give early copies to people who enjoy my books, not people who think they’re mediocre or don’t even like them. I’m not sure why those readers want an early copy to begin with. In my opinion, an ARC is a privilege. 

And I also assume if you’re a fan you won’t take the copy and upload it to pirate sites. (I’ve seen that happen to other authors.)

This is just the way I do it. I know some authors give ARCs out to whoever applies. Neither is wrong.

Ooooo I have character art I’m going to reveal this week! I’m so excited to show you all. It’s a beautiful art of the flower crown scene! I’ll have prints available in my shop soon, I just have to wait for them to arrive in the mail. 

Alright that’s it for this week! I hope everyone is doing great!

JM