Wow, can you believe it's July already?! I feel like I've blinked and half the year has passed by! I've been busy over here at Conquer Thy Fear Studio!

What's Covered In This Newsletter?

• Current Goals of July – As always, I like looking forward first and then reflecting on the last month. Let's check out what's going on in July!

• Upcoming Events, Releases and Deadlines (July - September) – This is a snapshot of events, promos, and deadlines throughout the next three months!

• What I Worked On In June – Now that we're done looking ahead, let's take a moment to look back at June and ask — what went well? What didn't go well? What could I have done better?

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July's Goals

Top Goal - Such Sweet Sorrow Cover

Such Sweet Sorrow has been on the back burner for quite a long time, both art and writing-wise. Now that Aloe has released my attention, I can focus on it. I'll be doing a crowdfund for it at the end of October, so now it's rocketed back up to the front of my To-Do list. I'm making a placeholder image for the cover for now, but I'll need a polished cover before the campaign starts.

So, that being said, I have a solid idea for the cover and I'll be drawing it as soon as I have the time to do so. My goal is to have it finished by the end of July.

Top Art Goal - Yule Parlay Illustration

Yule Parlay the novella has been finished since February, and yet I haven't drawn anything for it. I need to have a cover when I get the story back from the anthology rights, so I want to draw something for it. My goal is to at least get some sketches or thumbnails put together for this.

Ambitious goal is to get something completely done for Yule Parlay, but the Such Sweet Sorrow cover takes precedence.

Top Writing Goal - Dust off Such Sweet Sorrow

I've done this a few times over the course of the last few months, but now I'm going to actively make an effort to finish the draft by the end of July. I've gone through the first half twice, it's time to stop going through and finish the end. I can do this pretty easily, it's just a matter of putting my mind to it.

Other Goals

• Get the 2nd Uncanny and Uncouth story finished. This is an easy one -- it's already half-finished, and the deadline's been pushed slightly back, so I should actually have this done before the first full week of July.

• I've been wanting to write an article about fair pricing. I'm still in the research phase of this, and I've been exceedingly busy on top of it, so it's admittedly taking me a while.

• I really want to keep the art style of the Tarot decks consistent with what's in the books. The rewrites also heavily altered certain details of the story, so I'll need to revisit the card illustration ideas and re-do quite a few of them to match up with the new trajectory of the story. At this point I'm looking at restarting from the ground up -- which is frustrating, but also ultimately how projects like this go if you start with unfinished source material. I'm excited to jump back into these, either way!

• I want to make more pre-made book covers and offer them as a cheaper option than customs. I also want to spruce up my portfolio and make pricing sheets.This is something I've been meaning to do, but higher priority work keeps getting in the way.

• I want to finish revamping my portfolio and building my commissions page on the website. It's been sitting on the back burner for a bit, and I'd love to make that more of a priority so that people aren't confused by what I do.

• Tiffanie and I had to step away from Threads of Scarlet Gossamer, but I want us to step back into it soon. We've both once again gotten too busy.

Upcoming Events and Timelines

Current Open Commission Slots

1- FILLED - timeline concepts
2 - FILLED - landscape concepts
3 - OPEN

Releases

Nothing in the next three months, aside from member rewards

In-Person Events

July 11 -
Local Author Book Fair (Houdini Plaza, Appleton WI)

September 12 -
Sip and Story (Tardigrade's Bookshelf, Appleton WI)

Virtual Events

July 29 -
Hosting the Horror Writers' Chat on Bluesky
#HorrorWritersChat

Promos, Sales, and Crowdfunds

Because I just finished a crowdfund, there won't be too much going on this month in this regard. That being said, now that Aloe's crowdfund is over, you can still pre-order through Backerkit! I also have an option where we may be able to get the audiobook launched:

If we can get enough interest, then the audiobook will unlock. If not, then the item will be cancelled before people's cards are charged. The E-book, paperback, and hardcover will all be fulfilled regardless. You can only Pre-Order Aloe through the BackerKit!

That being said, I do have another crowdfund popping back up in a few months as part of The Book Bazaar at the end of October, for Such Sweet Sorrow. I'm not ready to say too much yet, but you can follow the teaser link here!

Google Calendar Link

Want to keep up with the events happening, but everything is too overwhelming? I hear you. That's why I have an event calendar that you can add to your google calendar! Check out the invite here.

What Did I Work On In June?

Week 1 - 1st-6th - Most of what I worked on this week was Aloe. I finished a self-edit pass and sent it off to my alpha readers. After that, I worked on a book cover commission and finished it off. Then, I worked on my shops. Marketing happened intermittently for both Aloe and The Book Bazaar.

Week 2 - 7th-13th - This week was pretty heavily focused on writing. For drawing, I got the Aloe POV headers personalized for the print version. I also started my other commission. In terms of writing -- I wrote a decent amount Sanguivore's first draft (a short sci-fi horror), started Gaps in the Mist ( a short horror story), and fully drafted Nocturnes in the Mist (the short dedicated to paid patrons.) Marketing happened intermittently for both Aloe and The Book Bazaar.

Week 3 - 14th-20th - I worked pretty much solely on my commission, art-wise. Marketing happened intermittently for both Aloe and The Book Bazaar. I finished Sanguivore, kept working on Gaps in the Mist, started working a little bit on Such Sweet Sorrow, struggled through a small part of Gaps In The Mist. On Friday, I made new chapter headers for Aloe.

Week 4 - 21st-27th - Marketing happened intermittently for both Aloe and The Book Bazaar. I finished commission #2, and picked up a third commission. I worked on a little bit of Such Sweet Sorrow some more, and struggled a bit more through Gaps in the Mist. I also got alpha notes back and wound up editing the entire manuscript on the 27th.

Nub of the week - 28th-30th - I took a break and went hiking on the 28th. Pretty sure we went into the feywilds that day. The campaigns in The Book Bazaar wound down and wrapped up at noon CST on the 30th, and I marketed pretty heavily for both my campaign and others in the group. I struggled through Gaps in the Mist some more (seriously, this manuscript feels like pulling teeth right now), got my BackerKit Pledge Manager set up, organized my stickers into a new storage container, and typed this newsletter :)

June's Good

I thought things would calm down throughout June, but oh my goodness I was wrong in the best way! I should know better than to plan for a chill month when I'm running a crowdfund campaign, but I'm too stubborn to learn haha! Sometimes it's a good thing to be busy, so that's definitely a positive. Let's break it down --

Aloe funded!

I am so, so happy! We raised $1,423 over 54 backers, which is just short of doubling the support that we had for Lemon Balm! We missed the first stretch goal by less than $80, which is huge for me! Thank you to everyone who backed, and thank you for giving my story a chance! I hope you love it and can feel the care, love, and effort poured into this series.

Lavender is the next — and final — book of the trilogy. (There will be offshoots, but not connected to the main trilogy and considered their own standalone novels within the world.) I will keep you all updated on the manuscript. Right now I'm back to starting from scratch on it. I'm going to be taking a step away from the series for a minute so that I can finish Such Sweet Sorrow, and then I'll be easing back in. I'm hoping to have it ready in 2027, but there's a chance that Lavender will take slightly longer than Aloe did. We'll see! Right now, I'm feeling good about the project.

I stuck to my edit schedule and got Aloe to my editor on time!

This was honestly a bit daunting, because I buckled down in hyper-focus mode to get it done. But, I had so much fun with it! My Alpha readers (Grey and Allyx) were awesome, and had great feedback to help make the manuscript shine! I'm really proud of its current iteration and I can't wait to see what my editor thinks.

I should be getting it back in about a month and a half, so I'll be trying not to think about it until it's back in my hands!

I've been getting work/commissions!

This is a big one. I can't share any work I've done quite yet, but I've been able to touch some really cool stuff! This has honestly been one of the coolest things this month. If you look at the Events section, I've decided to start showing what I have open. If it comes to the point of needing a waitlist, then I'll start sharing that too.

Every time I seem to get close to giving up, something comes through, and I'm so grateful every day that people like my work enough to hire me DESPITE the recession and the rampant AI everywhere. It makes me happy.

Right now my main commission draw is book covers. I want to brush up on my animation skills to do book trailers as well, but that would be very costly for the commissioner and I'm not sure how soon it would be. I'll need to plan that better.

I've been going way out of my comfort zone!

This is also a really big one. Because I've gone out of my comfort zone quite a bit throughout the first half of the year. Because of this, a lot of good has happened. I've made a lot of good friends and also gotten into some good opportunities and events in neighboring cities. Here's a short list of some good that's happened this month --

• I put Lemon Balm up as a reward for a giveaway as a partner with Indie Bookstack and people actively entered for it, which is a good feeling.

• I officially have a launch party planned at a local bookstore!! I'll talk more about this next month when I have some of the details planned.

• I'm hosting the Horror Writer's chat at the end of the month on Bluesky, which is just really cool in general! Lots of amazing horror writers chime in!

• Contacted acquaintances with questions about hiring them for voice acting

• I got into an anthology that comes out October 1st

• One of my stories will be narrated on a podcast! I will share details when this comes closer.

This has been really, really cool. I have a bunch of events that I'll be a part of — One in July, one in September, potentially FOUR now in October — and I have a bunch of releases coming up this and next year, writing-wise.

I'm past the bulk of my deadlines!

My biggest deadlines were for Aloe and the crowdfund. Now, I mostly just need to focus on my current commissions through July, the schedule for Such Sweet Sorrow's drafting and release, the editing schedule for the anthology, the marketing schedule for everything, and gearing up for all of the events. The second half of the year will be less grind and more socialize and share!

June's Bad/Ugly

I was crunched more than I'd like to be during portions of the month.

This speaks for itself, unfortunately. I was stressed through portions of the month and often skipped days off. I really need to be a bit more diligent on separating my work and my relax times, taking breaks, and creating a work/life balance for myself. This is something I struggle with.

In an effort to curb this, I'm trying to implement a software I've used before — On Together — in order to remind myself to take breaks throughout the day and stop making work my entire life. I'm also trying to break my day into 1-2 hour chunks, so that I focus on a specific task during that time and set it aside after. We'll see if it works!

I didn't have time to do any personal art this month.

This is a good problem to have, but it also means that I'm slightly behind on my own projects this month! This is the first time in six years of art business that I haven't been able to draw a single thing outside of work requirements. Now the "fun" stuff is going to have to have dedicated work times laid out for them, to make sure I get things done in time. Which, again, isn't the worst problem to have!

All in all, my complaints this month are very, very small compared to the wins. I'm happy with how this month went. Let's just hope I can figure out how to get my workday to be a consistent chunk of time and give myself time to do other things.

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Thanks for reading, and I hope you all have a fantastic month!