What Will 2024 Bring?

I Know the Plans I Have for You

New For You

Do you set reading goals for the year? If you’re active on Bookstagram, BookTok and GoodReads, you’ve seen people posting their end of year reading accomplishments and their goals for 2024. I’ve never set a reading goal and have never been particularly good at keeping track of my reading. For 2024, I decided it would be fun to change that. I set a goal of 75 books for the year and I’m already off with a bang. Here are two of my favorites so far.

Loved this book, but then a friend told me the series is still incomplete…oof. At least the author is still alive. I’ll do my best to never leave you hanging like that on a series.

The Agency - DDD Inc. Video of Chapter One

In the last newsletter, I gave you a free audiobook preview of The Agency, and now for something completely different. I made a video of chapter one. Let me know what you think!

There’s Something Happening Here

Late last year, I started a new experiment on Kindle Vella, a kind of blog, focused on a relentless pursuit of the truth. There’s Something Happening Here deals with the hot topics of the day and the last few years. The Vella Platform now allows for interaction with comments as well as responding to the episode polls. Unfortunately, Vella is still only available for US users. If there’s interest, I’m thinking of expanding the blog behind a paywall here, which would allow worldwide access. Just let me know. If you’re in the US, click through to try the first three episodes for free!

Writing Updates

I’m finishing up The Agency - DDD Inc., and hope to have it done by February. The plan now is to release it in an eBook format on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited in a series of volumes. The story is clocking in at over 120,000 words and it is really unlike anything I’ve written or read.

The last month has seen me giving more time to research for two upcoming projects. The Crimson Plains is a historical fiction account of the settling of the plains of Oklahoma. Immigrants came from a variety of countries and went to where there was nothing to create a life for themselves. This story will follow my great grandfather’s journey from Germany at the turn of the century and his decision, along with my grandmother to pursue a new life for themselves on the Crimson Plains.

A short story I’ve been researching is about the town of Urkhammer, Iowa. Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction and this story will investigate a possible answer to what happened in Urkhammer. In the 1930s, every one of the more than 300 residents of Urkhammer disappeared. No one knows what happened, but I have a few ideas. :)

2024 Plans

Some of you may be looking forward to the new year and others may dread it, but I’m personally hopeful, in spite of all the difficult and dark plans going on in the world. Why? To find out, listen to this song, which forms the playlist for today’s newsletter.