Hello friends,

What a crazy few months it’s been since my Spring 2024 post back in April! Here’s to hoping things on your end haven’t been as seemingly hectic or chaotic — and if they have, then I pray things settle down for you. Summer is a great time to relax and slow down to enjoy what we have in life, but it’s also an easy time to get sucked into running around too much or doing too many things. Remember to make time for yourself and your loved ones 🙂

I have some great news in this summer post, so let’s dive on in…

Life Update

The school year ended for Everett and Marin on a high note. We got to do a zoo trip to Columbus, and Marin’s PreK graduation ceremony was fun. Summer has come, which means the kids have been playing outside quite a bit: Alder loves to scoot around on his Paw Patrol car; Everett and Marin are both now riding their bikes without training wheels; and Eliza-Jean smiles and squawks like she’s a bird because that’s how she shows us she’s having fun. Sarah and I have enjoyed our backyard patio/pergola area, having eaten outside a number of times as well as having had a fire with s’mores to top it off.

Combined “Faces of the War” Collection

In my last post, I mentioned the launch of the combined edition of my first four books — The ‘Faces of the War’ Collection — which went live on April 25. You can get the paperback or Kindle version here if you’re interested: Combined Edition – Kindle & Paperback

The Education Front

As you probably know, I pivoted into higher education by taking a new job as an instructional designer for the University of Jamestown. Since December, I have designed and developed a number of courses ranging from tech/computer science to counseling to leadership to business. I have mostly been working on courses for the University’s new MBA program launching in the fall, and I’ll continue designing courses for that program into 2025. I have grown more comfortable in my role, and my teammates are wonderful. I’m kind of at a point between courses, so it’s a nice breather for a second before new courses are added to my plate later next month.

Regarding my adjunct lecturer job, things have remained somewhat steady there. I’m offering a Western Civ I course in July and August, and then will teach the same course (but for a semester term) in the fall. Having grown more in my understanding of instructional design principles and theory, I’ve decided to revamp my Western Civ I course to be better designed and aligned than what it currently is, so that’s been taking up a little of my time here and there. I won’t formally design/develop any new history courses this academic year, so I’m focusing on what I can offer and do at this point in time.

Progress on The Ivory Obelisk

Last but certainly not least, I have a big update for my upcoming book. Just this week, I finished the final round of revisions on my rough draft and sent the manuscript to my beta readers! The word count for what they’ll be reading is almost 78,000 words; for some perspective, I believe the longest of my first four books was around 50,000 words. Over the past few weeks, this process has boosted my confidence in the work I do, revealing a higher level of storytelling compared to what I’ve previously published. I’ve ironed out what kinks remained in the plot, refined any grammatical/spelling/voice errors, and finalized the documents for the beta readers. As I did that last part, excitement coursed through me, an excitement which I haven’t felt since I launched my last book “Needless” in 2017. I must say, though, that it’s an excitement mixed with a little anxiety, mostly because this new book’s plot is very different from what I’ve written before, and it kind of developed on its own over the past two years (different from the original story idea). I constantly find myself asking, “What if this story doesn’t ‘feel’ right? What if the plot doesn’t make sense? What if the characters are developed enough?” I’m hopeful that I’ll receive some constructive feedback to act upon when I revise for my final draft. At the end of the day, though, I think it’s a story with meaning that’s told in a cool way, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing it.

As for this project’s remaining timeline, here are my thoughts at the moment:

• June 28 – September 2: Beta reading and feedback
• September 3 – October 10: Revise based on feedback; final draft of manuscript
• October 11 – November 28: Submit finished manuscript for reviews and finalize Kindle/print book covers with review blurbs
• November 29: Kindle pre-order begins
• December 12: Kindle version launches; print version(s) live soon thereafter

I’m hopeful that there won’t be a lot of major changes to the manuscript after Labor Day, meaning I can adhere to this timeline and launch the book when I want. Also, I’m not sure what the final page count will be, which plays a part in determining whether or not the book will have a hardback version, or if it’ll only have Kindle and paperback versions. I will certainly keep you posted over the coming months!

That’s it for this post. I look forward to updating you all in my next post on or around October 1. Thanks and have a great summer!

Mike/”Eli”