James McGowan Reader Group- Not Quite Full Dance Cards

Yo yo!

I have myself a busy late spring.

Lots of family events of the May Pomp and Circumstance variety. Plus a bunch of other fun visits. And then there’s all my writing and author comings and goings. I’ll get into more of the details of all that in the WIP section below. But the headline above aptly tells you the tale.

I have a dance card that is nigh out of room.

A quick Gemini search pretending to be a Google search told me that the term comes from 18th Century Europe and ballrooms. And yep. Exactly what I expected. Something you’ll find on popular streaming shows that I don’t watch.

However, one might expect that I’m feeling spread thin. And I’m not really feeling it. I feel adequately activitied. Whelmed, if you will. There are miles of difference between a not quite full dance card and one that runneth over.

Pretty sure the key to my inner equilibrium is the things I’m not doing. I’ve not said yes to everything that’s come my way. And I think that’s helped me creatively thrive and feel more engaged at the events I am attending.

Speaking of which.

Jim in the World

I teamed up with Concierge Marketing and a bunch of other local authors at Junkstock on May 1st.

It’s an Omaha-area massive craft fair out on a farm in the Waterloo suburb. Or maybe it’s an exurb. Some kind of urb.

And it’s still going on at the time of this writing. May 1-3 and the following weekend, May 8-10.

Check out all kinds of quirky crafts and grab some books from Concierge Marketing’s stall in Sycamore Stables. Including a few of mine.

And say it like Fred Schneider in the B-52s Love Shack:

Junkstock, Baby.

It will delight me. And only me.

Players of the Game Works In Progress

Here’s a rundown of all the writing nigh-full dance card stuffage.

Secret Fronts’ second draft is still very first-draft flavored as I fill in more of the initial “wire frame”. It’s clocked in at page 448 with 46 pages for the month. Better than last month’s 25 pages.

There was some rewriting of old scenes, but a lot of it was new writing for fleshed-out passages. So I’d call that pretty decent output.

And my producer and I are still plugging away at Repenter’s full-voice cast audio book with the AI voice clones from Spoken.Press. It’s sounding really cool. We’re about a third of the way through the book.

There’s A LOT of work in making the deliveries sound good. The UI does indeed have a button you push to narrate it. But that first output needs plenty of massaging to get everyone sounding correct. Lots of little things. But diz-amn does it come together nicely once we’re done.

High-quality, high-effort artisanal AI creativity abounds.

As I mentioned last time, I think I’m pivoting to high-quality hardcovers as well. Rather than using Ingram Spark’s process, I think I’m going to wait for Book Vault to set up shop in the US, and order a limited number of their expertly crafted hardcovers, and just sell those at in-person events as the high-end fancy option along with the paperbacks. So hardcovers are on the back burner for now.

And the cover refresh is inching closer to its reveal. Just need to get the new covers for New Players: Origins and Breakers, and I’ll share them all once they’re done.

Jagged Pieces is looking more likely to be published in early 2027, but I’m not for sure on that yet. I want to see what I can do to be better about advanced promotion prior to release. It still might squeeze into the end of 2026.

I’ll keep you posted on that and everything else.

Players of the Game Out of Context Quote of the Month:

Tiff Shalai: “We’ll keep the rest away from you. Please slice out their gonads for me.”

Gath: “Only because you said the magic word.”

Recommendation Corner

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

I liked this last installment of The Broken Earth Trilogy. But it didn’t quite land for me.

There are several interludes with the Hoa character that show the decadence of the dead civilization in its prime that were incredibly difficult to fully immerse myself. I couldn’t really get a sense of place with all the talking heads stuff until much later.

I eventually got into it. And it was interesting to see the “original sin” of the dead civ’s attempt to harness the Earth’s magic, which led to the moon’s altered, millennia-long orbit and the Evil Earth’s eternal grudge against humanity.

But I’ll be honest. I groaned every time one of those countdown interludes popped up. Especially when I realized it was a countdown to zero, rather than one.

So why am I still recommending it?

The stories of Nassun and Essun remained compelling. The former with her broken Guardian who’s loyal to her, but at the cost of massive pain caused by the Evil Earth. And the latter with her adopted com’s exodus to the empty city of their petrified enemies. The mother and daughter’s paths at last converge.

But both of have changed. And let’s just say that Essun’s prickly behavior is not fondly remembered by her child.

Worth the read, despite the momentum-sapping interludes.

Dan Murrell on YouTube

My wife and I have been watching this guy for six years. And I figured he’s overdue for a shout-out.

He was originally on Screen Junkies, writing Honest Trailers. But his Charts With Dan show migrated to his own channel. He goes over the box office numbers and streaming rankings.

I’ve always enjoyed seeing how movies are performing, going back to the quick segment on MTV’s Big Picture. Dan generally keeps his analysis pretty neutral. Though he’ll let rants sneak into his live shows.

Just search for him talking about Hereditary and his fury for Toni Collette not getting an Oscar nom. Or even better, his antipathy toward the enduring popularity of the Minions.

He’s very earnest and anti-click baity. Which is what I gravitate towards on YouTube. And everything else, for that matter.

Check out his recent video on the largely under-the-radar but disastrous opening US box office for the Saudi-funded Desert Warrior.

Compelling stuff. And a compelling YouTuber too.