A Very British Witch Boxed Set
Page 81
As I mentioned last time, JIT means Just In Time. They step in after the manuscript has been written and edited to help catch any last-minute issues.
If you have an eagle eye for typos and you’d like to join our special team of readers who help us do the quality check before we put things out, we’d love to have you. Just hit me up with a message on Facebook and we’ll go from there. We’ve already welcomed a number of new folks into the fold since publishing the last book, and we always consider ourselves fortunate to have folks who have enjoyed the series want to be more involved.
As we produce more series and have more collaborators join us down the line there is only going to be more to do. If this sounds like your kind of jive, I’d love to welcome you on board! :)
Dental Escapades, continued
I you’ve read any of the The Ascension Myth (Sci-fi) books, you will have seen the saga in my author notes that I’ve had with getting tons of dental work done since I arrived in the US.
Part of the problem may have been UK dentistry, but I think a big chunk of it has been just genetics. Apparently you inherit your teeth (issues and all) from your mother. My mum has lots of teeth problems, as does my little brother.
Anyway, visits to the dentists over here in the US have yielded much humor, and some trauma… which have necessarily been converted into humor for your entertainment.
About 9 months ago I has some crowns and another root canal done here in Austin. Things were going ok, or so I thought, but then the root canal never settled down. I think I went back to the practice about three times after the treatment, telling them about the pain. The guy said that it was fine, it wasn’t infected, and to just let it be and it will settle.
That, as I said, was nine months ago.
This week, having returned from the trip that I was waiting to get out of the way for the last several weeks, and the pain having got to the point where it was an annoyance more often than it wasn’t, I decided to chase up an endodontist practice that I had been in touch with several months ago. They hadn’t responded to my last email and I got busy, but now I needed to do something about it.
After calling them and realizing that they were going to try and charge me over 40% more than I had been paying in LA(!) I found another practice. I had the appointment this morning.
They confirmed that there was a shoddy job done by the first dentist here in Austin and that I should get my money back on a bunch of it. They also made some adjustments to the crown that had been bothering me and already it feels miles better.
However, during the examination, one of the other dentists was talking to someone in the corridor. “Have you even seen the Statue of Liberty?” he asked in a loud voice.
One of the female assistants giggled.
“I can’t believe you haven’t seen Chicago. Call yourself an American?”
I started giggling forcing my dentist to stop poking with the instruments in my mouth. His assistant started laughing, and evidently he couldn’t help but join in.
“That’s Dr. Cook,” he said, by way of explanation.
We got talking about movie musicals, and I recommended he watch “My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”- a tv show with musical elements. He seemed to like the title, and agreed to watch it just on the basis of that – even though there are a hundred more hilarious reasons to watch it.
If you’re into comedy, and tv shows, I’d recommend watching it if you haven’t already seen it. It’s super profound and actually educational. I learned a lot from it, about how people are, and I think most folks would too.
Anyway, he promised to watch it. I’m sure I’ll have more to update you on after future visits.
100 Books
Last month I was hanging out with the same friend who had originally recommended “My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” to me. She’s super smart, well read, opinionated… and not called Amy! (You might know from Patreon and fb that Amy is one of my other friends that fit all those above criteria).
Anyway, this other friend is called Claire.
Over dinner last month she told me about how she was just a few books away from completing her reading goal: to read 100 books that year.
It’s sounds like it’s a bit of a club.
Like Mensa, but less of an organization.
Anyway, she was explaining about all the good things that happen to your brain and mood when you read. She told me that Bush (Jr) read 100 books a year, even when he was in office. (It sounded like the media portrayal of him was inaccurate – quelle surprise).
As you may already know, I don’t read. Not unless it’s something I need to know for business or the art of writing better stories. If it doesn’t directly help me, I just don’t prioritize it… and it’s been a running joke in the indie community about how I could write and publish successfully without being an avid reader.
My excuse was always about prioritizing my time. If I’m reading, for example, I’m not writing. Also, after a day of churning out words, sitting and reading is the last thing my body or brain want to do.
But as I listened to Claire talk, I started to wonder… what if it wasn’t either/ or? What if I could read? There were certainly a bunch of books with insights I was hungry for, and had just resigned myself to getting to “someday”.
But if a sitting president could still work and read, then perhaps I could too?
In fact, perhaps that’s the very reason why I should?
And so began the process of mulling the idea. Even if I manage 50, that’s still 50 more than I would have read.
Later that night, tipsy on my one bottle of beer(!) I downloaded the Goodreads app that Claire had shown me. She’s been using it to track her books. I thought that was a great start. I began adding all the important books that I knew I didn’t want to forget about.
Then I added all the ones she had recommended from her reading this year that might help me understand some of the personal development stuff I’ve been working on.
Then I added other things that I’d seen on Amazon and Scribd that looked interesting.
I’m up to 85 books, and now three weeks into January I’ve read about 20 from my list I made in December, and completed 3 this year.
Ok, so not read read necessarily. Some of them I’ve listened to on audio book – which is especially helpful when at the gym, traveling or doing chores…
But according to Claire, it still counts. You’re still consuming the material and honestly, that’s what is important to me.
I’ll keep you posted with how I go. I’m optimistic about this new habit :)
Ok, I think we’re up to the post-story word limit, so I’m going to sign off. All being well we’re shooting to get the next book to you in about a month after this one goes live.
In the meantime, do feel free to hang with us on facebook or over in Patreon for the inside scoop.
Looking forward to connecting with you! And again, thank you for reading <3
Ellie x
A Mewsage from Raven the Cat
Hello, Raven the Cat here.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my friend Scarlett's mewsterious adventures so far... she's alright, for a human.
Now I know what you're thinking, a talking cat is just plain odd, but a lot of strange things happen in Bicester, so I fit in quite purrfectly.
Scarlett has asked me to keep you up to date on all the goings-on in town while she's busy solving mewsteries, so if you’d like to register for updates, please visit:
www.isobellacrowley.com
From time to time I'll send you an email telling you about her new stories. It's no bother to me, we cats love the warmth of a laptop ... well any lap, really.
Additionally, if you have any feedback for Scarlett, please don't hesitate to pass that on through me. All you need to do is hit reply to any of my emails.
I process every message purrsonally.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Raven the Familiar
(on behalf of Scarlett)
P.S. Sometimes emails can be funny things... You may want to keep an eye on your junk filters.
Receive updates from Raven the Cat by registering your email address here:
www.isobellacrowley.com
Isobella Crowley Social Links
www.facebook.com/isobellacrowley
Ell Leigh Clarke Social Links
www.facebook.com/ellleighclarke
www.patreon.com/ellleighclarke
Want more from Ell?
Join the email list here:
ellleighclarke.com
(yes, that’s three ‘l’s)
Want more books from Ell Leigh Clarke?
Check them out here, on Amazon
Here are other series written by Ell:
The Ascension Myth
– known amongst the fans as “the Molly series”.
How Molly has survived military life this long, we'll never know.
When her implanted computer interface is hacked by a nascent AI, Molly has to escape.
And her biggest problem?
The swiftest and most efficient way to get out is also the most embarrassing.
Mortifyingly embarrassing.
If you your space opera with snark, action and characters that support each other, you will love The Ascension Myth where we find out if a dysfunctional genius can change the universe.
We double-dog dare you NOT to fall in love with Molly.
The Giles Kurns Chronicles
– known amongst the fans as “the Giles series”.
Giles is a roguish space archaeologist.
And a good one too.
The problem?
He's addicted to adventure.
When the continued existence of his whole world is thrown into jeopardy, Professor Giles Kurns may well have to face his biggest challenge yet...
Growing up.
Together with an old war ship, an old frienemy, and a rather spunky AI, he embarks on a high stakes journey of intrigue to uncover the truth about the Ascension Myth.
Will they solve the riddle of the strange but powerful talismans before it’s too late?
If you like fun, Indiana Jones-like adventures you'll love this series because it is a smart, hilarious, swashbuckling romp in space with characters you'll just want to take home with you.
The Second Dark Ages
Books 3 and 4. aka the “Michael series”
– Ell helped Michael (aka Yoda) out on the last two books to help him finish out the series.
And because, well, he wanted to kill his villain using… physics!
Ranger Deuces
This series lays out the (mis)adventures of Tabitha (an enhanced vampire who is off saving the universe – yes, vampires in space!) and spunky Nickie (the messed-up niece who was left behind).
Ell calls this the Nickie series, because that was her storyline. Her collaborator calls it the Tabitha series, because that’s who he wrote. And sometimes they find a middle ground and agree to disagree on stuff…
The Sword-Mage Chronicles
Three gods kicked out of the unseen world.
One chick with a sword.
In space.
What could possibly go wrong?