Tomorrow News Network: A to Z Reflections

Hello, friends!

I feel like I’ve said this twenty-something times now, but my theme for this year’s A to Z Challenge was the universe of Tomorrow News Network, my upcoming Sci-Fi adventure series.  And at the very beginning of April, I admitted to having certain ulterior motives for doing this.

Ulterior Motive #1: Buy My Book!

The Medusa Effect: A Tomorrow News Network Novella will be released on June 4, 2020.  It’s available for preorder now!  Click here!!!

My hope was that this A to Z series would entice you, dear reader, into wanting to buy my book.  Preorders for The Medusa Effect have already started coming in, so I guess my top secret marketing strategy is working!

Ulterior Motive #2: Get Reader Feedback

The Medusa Effect is basically finished, but I still have many more novellas and novels planned for the Tomorrow News Network series.  With this year’s A to Z Challenge, I wanted to get some early feedback from potential readers about the story universe I created.

And I definitely got some useful feedback!  People questioned me about stuff that I honestly hadn’t thought about before.  People expressed interest in things that I honestly didn’t expect anyone would find interesting.  And then there was that one comment about the Galactic Inquisitor that inspired a whole new story that I never would have thought to write on my own.

All of this feedback will be invaluable to me as I get started on books two and three and four and so on.

Ulterior Motive #3: Get My Writing Mojo Back

Toward the end of March, I fell into a bit of a writing funk, thanks to the scary situation in the world and the resulting anxieties related to my day job.  As feared, April turned out to be even more stressful than March.  And yes, participating in the A to Z Challenge was an additional source of stress this past month.

But I’d say A to Z was the good kind of stress, the kind of stress that helps counteract all that bad stress.  It was exactly what I needed to keep me sane.  I’m so glad that I participated in this year’s challenge, and I’m grateful to all of you who joined me on this month-long adventure.

As for my writing mojo, it’s back.  My muse and I are now hard at work on the next Tomorrow News Network novella, which will tell the story of what “really” happened at Roswell.

Next time on Planet Pailly, I don’t need to be rich.  I don’t want to be the next Stephen King or J.K. Rowling.  I just want to make a living writing the kinds of stories I love.