Still not much in the way of snow these days, unfortunately. It's going to be an awfully dry, smoky summer here, I'm afraid. At this point it's late to be counting on a March snowfall.

Oh well.

Life is proceeding. I managed to get Vision of Alliance released on time, which...more on that further on down. At the same time, we've been driving two hours one way every other day to finish off prep for a rental house we're selling...simplifying life in our elder years, especially since I'm not interested in continuing with the business. I've never been thrilled by it and, well, I don't have the temperament for that biz. So it's been a saga of scrubbing down walls, finding coffee stains almost to the ceiling, vacuuming up all sorts of junk all over the place before I could paint. Candle wax on the carpet. Gum ground into the carpet. A half-rusted metal barrel in the driveway that was apparently used as a fire pit. Bits and pieces of beads, Legos, hair bands, broken fake fingernails, and pennies, of all things, scattered all over the floor. And the joys of discovering serious repair problems with the plumbing never reported to the rental manager that we could have had fixed much sooner and made the tenant's life much more comfortable. Oh well. It's done.

Sad news, then happier publishing news below.

I have a sad announcement to make. Vision of Alliance has done so poorly in its first days that I am not going to continue with the trilogy. I'd say "at this time" but, honestly, it was so hard for me to finally figure out how to make this series work that I doubt I will pick it up again very soon, unless a miracle happens and it gets a lot more attention. When I started out publishing independently, I swore that I would finish every series, every trilogy, that I started.

I guess I'm breaking my word.

Granted, Barnes and Noble has yet to finish processing its link, after eight days. It's down there on my Draft2Digital dashboard with Hoopla, which already has the tag of "long processing times." I uploaded everything early to avoid this particular issue but...oh well, it doesn't matter. It's done and this trilogy is clearly cursed for some reason. I just can't see beating myself up for the rest of 2026 chasing after sales that aren't going to happen, and this series has already caused me sufficient trauma that I don't want to keep doing this to myself. It took me so many years to work out the first series in this world, then to figure this one out and...I don't have the spoons to keep up with it. I feel so awful about this world that I can't even touch it anymore.

For what it's worth, here's the link to its landing page on my new website. https://joycereynolds-ward.com/books/vision-of-alliance/ef7ac7a1-fb6b-4a6b-8c5a-203b9915fda6​

So what happens now? Here comes the happier news!

Well, given that we seem to be on the Netwalk Sequence timeline, at least the parts that are the 2020s-2030s elements, I'm spending some time promoting that series. I also had issued illustrated ebook editions of two of the novellas that make up the first book of the series, Life in the Shadows. They didn't do well, but...technology is better these days. I'm going to make illustrated editions of Winter Shadows and Shadow Harvest again. Not only do I have better tech but I have better pix.

And...this time around I might even try illustrated paperback and hardcover versions. Which leads to a happier announcement--The Cost of Power trilogy is now available in hardback! It's case laminate, because trying to design dust jackets is more than I want to deal with these days. Now that I've somewhat figured it out, I'll be reissuing more works in hardback. Next up will be the Netwalk Sequence books.

The next project is going to be a SF/Western crossover. I haven't settled on it for sure, but what seems the most tempting at the moment is a spinoff of my Bearing Witness novella, where there's a multiverse full of malign entities hunting down sorcerers and destroying their worlds. But it will feature Abigail Pruitt, who runs a sort of refuge not just for exiles fleeing from the Vortex Hunters, but for the multiverse/time-traveling sorcerers who battle the Vortex Hunters and need a break. This notion has been stirring for quite a while but I've had other projects--such as Goddess's Vision--demanding they come first.

I'm actually kind of excited about this notion. The fact that my brain is starting to chew on new ideas tells me a LOT. Perhaps I just don't have the desire to write epic fantasy these days. Who knows?

Oh, and the new website is absolutely marvelous. Take a look at it! https://joycereynolds-ward.com/​

That's all for this month. See you around!

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