December 2020 - Update

 Highlights for December:

• I continued the first draft of The Blighter’s Shadow. Early 2021 is my goal for completion and it would be a fantastic way to celebrate our passage out of 2020.
• I reviewed 8 recorded chapters of the audiobook version of The Alterator’s Light. When I review a recorded selection, I listen for minor issues, such as a mispronounced word, and offer feedback to the sound editor and reader. It is coming along quite nicely, and I anticipate its release sometime in mid/late 2021.
• NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) was successful. While I didn’t reach the 50,000-word goal, I did make good strides. I am already looking forward to next year!
• If you are still looking for a gift, there's still time to purchase one of my e-books as a gift for friends and family. (It’s too late to have a physical copy shipped at this point.) The Alterator’s Light and The Tower of Dread are both set in winter months, so they would be even more appropriate. 😊
• Jólabókaflóðið is a fun Icelandic tradition that is celebrated each Christmas Eve. My family adopted the tradition a few years ago, and we have a lot of fun exchanging books. The tradition highlights the joy of reading. If you are interested in learning more, click here.

Inspirations:

• I added this new section to my updates, as I want to offer you a glimpse of where some of my ideas come from. A few months ago, at the Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, I noticed the carving simply titled “Head of a Wrathful Deity”. Normally I pass by this Japanese carving without much thought. Little is known about this piece outside of its estimated time frame (1185-1333) and that it is tied to the Buddhist belief system. This is interpreted as a representation of a wrathful guardian deity, which is based largely on the angered face and flaming hair. 
  • I wondered about the masterpiece's meaning and what the carver's thoughts and desires may have been while creating this piece: did that person receive payment for creating such a beautiful piece? Did the artist adhere to the religious beliefs laced within the carving? 
  • We will likely never know, but it is a fun thought experiment, which also helps me with the world-building in my own work.​ 

Head of a Wrathful Deity

Please be sure to check out my website for continuous updates on my progress. Some of the updates are below:

• I’ve added a few short book reviews that I think you’ll find interesting for gifts or for yourself. I finished The Invisible Life of Addie Larue earlier this month, and you can find my thoughts on the novel here.
• I am reading two newer books: Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry of the Future and Barack Obama’s The Promised Land.
  • Both are excellent so far. It is interesting to see to how Robinson shows, through a realistic and theoretical lens, how climate change could affect us in the not-too-distant future. Obama’s writing style is well-honed due to his previous two memoirs, and this newest memoir is fascinating, in that he discusses his path to the presidency.

If you have questions for future newsletters/updates, please be sure to send them to [email protected]. There are numerous media links for your convenience: on Twitter at @brigmanauthor, on Facebook at Dan Brigman, Author, or on my website, www.danbrigman.com.

Thanks again for your support! Besides taking the time to read my updates, please visit the following links to create a review of The Alterator’s Light, The Point of Woes, or The Tower of Dread if you’ve read those stories.

Reviews are quick to create! They offer potential readers insight into what you thought about the book. They also help get the word out about the stories and the author. You can simply search for the title of each of my books on Goodreads and/or Amazon or follow the links below.
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For Amazon, please click here.
For Goodreads, please click here.
You can also check my work out at BookBub by clicking here.

Luc says, "Merry Christmas to all!"