Ronit J

Feb 2024 is coming to an end, and what a month it has been! I made significant progress on the two WIPs I mentioned in my Jan post. Since those are meant to be my primary projects for 2024, I’ll be talking about those two at length. But, I do have some more exciting announcements, so read on!

My WIPs as of Feb 2024

Untitled Fantasy Stand Alone – Rough Draft Completed!

My WIP’s rough draft is now completed! 50,000 words, 3 months of on-again off-again writing, and I finally did it! I finished writing the rough draft in mid-Feb 2024 and jumped into edits almost immediately. And, I know you’re supposed to wait for things to settle, but I’m just so charged up about this one that I couldn’t help myself.

The first draft will include two new POVs, which means the word count is going to increase, might go up to 70k words (like Help! My Dog Is The Chosen One!), but that’s a good thing. The majority of my 50k words are just my protagonist, with the secondary character arcs not fully fleshed out. However, I did discover some really interesting plot points while writing the rough draft, and I’m super stoked to tackle them.

I need to start calling this by its title, which I should finalise soon. If all goes right, I’ll do a title reveal sometime in March. Until then…

Abandoned by the Gods (Short Story Collection) – with beta readers

I mentioned this one in my previous updates. And now it has a title! I did a sweet Title Reveal reel, if you’d like to check it out.

Abandoned by the Gods is a 30,000-word short story collection that includes four fantasy shorts set in the godless lands of Adeva. Adeva is an Indian-inspired fantasy setting, and has been the setting of my main WIP since 2021. After years of hard work, I’m finally prepping myself to share it with the world.

Abandoned by the Gods collects four dark tales featuring individuals who lived lives parallel to important historical events. Originally part of a world-building exercise, these four shorts in particular were conceived as accounts of lives forgotten by history.

I finished reading and editing the first draft of the collection early Feb 2024. As of writing this post, the book is with my beta readers (already got feedback from three).

The cover is almost ready, just need to finalise the back content. I’ll do a cover reveal soon as well.

Finally, as I’m done with beta reader feedback and final edits, I will put a call for ARC readers. If you’re interested, keep an eye out for that, or subscribe to my newsletter to get notified!

Help! My Dog Is The Chosen One! – Hardcover Editions available worldwide! – 7 Feb 2024

On my 30th birthday, I launched the hardcover editions for Help! My Dog Is The Chosen One!

They’re Case Laminates (to maintain consistency between KDP & IngramSpark settings). Read the announcement post for all the details.

These editions are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retailers!

Books Read in Feb 2024

Feb 2024 wasn’t a great month reading-wise. Part of the reason was because I had to read my own WIP twice, but Winter’s Heart did put me in a bit of a slump. I only read two novels and one short story. I did finish reading Good Omens, but I had read most of it last month, so I’m not including it here. The books I did read —

Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan – ★★★1/2

Winter’s Heart is probably the best of the four slog books. I actually enjoyed the second half despite the slow pacing and overwhelming number of characters. But that first 40% [especially Perrin, Faile & Elayne] was insufferable. Seriously, Faile-Perrin section could’ve been one chapter, and did not belong in this book. The Elayne parts were outright boring, and the 3 slog books I’ve read so far have serious pacing and narrative issues.

The ending was epic, enough to make up for the slog bits. With better editing and pacing in the first half, this could’ve been a 4.5, maybe even a 5-star book. I strongly believe a restructuring of the narrative of these books might make them more palatable.

Long Chills & Case Dough by Brandon Sanderson – ★★★1/2

Called a “Sanderson Curiosity”, this was a surprise for many who had backed Sanderson’s Kickstarter. For those who didn’t, you can get the book off Sanderson’s website.

I love Sanderson, and I finished this short story in two sittings. It was quick, quirky, read, and I read this right after Winter’s Heart, which could be part of the reason why I loved it so much. I did find the protagonist a bit hard to get, but overall I enjoyed this one.

The Storm Beneath the World by Michael R Fletcher – ★★★★

I signed up to get a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. And honestly, I LOVED it. This was also my first Michael R Fletcher book, but most certainly not the last.

Unique world, very real characters despite them being insectoids, and an interestingly meta magic system, The Storm Beneath The World is a brilliant start to what I’m sure is going to end up being a brilliant series. 

Available for pre-order, releasing on April 5th, I highly recommend this one!

Lastly…

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading! I’m trying to make it a habit of posting more regularly, and I think I’m getting a hang of it.

As mentioned earlier, I’m going to put out a call for ARCs soon, and my newsletter is where you’ll hear it first! Subscribe to my newsletter to receive updates on the release, deals, giveaways, and more! 

Thank you for reading, and have a great day!