🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇
By Des M. Astor
Hey bats! This newsletter will provide updates on my craft, such as novels and short stories. It will also remind people of the blogs I write, which primarily center around worldbuilding & creatives' thoughts on various subjects. Writing tips will be tossed in here and there. Facts exclus... Read more
Hey bats!
This newsletter will provide updates on my craft, such as novels and short stories. It will also remind people of the blogs I write, which primarily center around worldbuilding & creatives' thoughts on various subjects. Writing tips will be tossed in here and there. Facts exclusive to this newsletter, for 6 months, about my works and characters will also be offered!
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🦇Des M. Astor - WRITING UPDATE🦇 - "Claws of Midgard" & MORE
Last month I announced my Norse Mythology Urban Fantasy, which has a twist on vampires & werewolves and LGBTQ+ romantic subplots. There are still a few Advanced Reader Copies left, which you could grab here. The deadline for the remainder copies would be …
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Full time Freelance?!
Heya and welcome to my freelancing announcement! I know I've been quiet here lately, but work stress will do that, oof! That said, I've resigned from my job for personal reasons, and am on a new journey. It's scary, but we'll see what happens. I have a lot to…
BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT: CLAWS OF MIDGARD!
Guess what?! I wrote another book! The Advanced Reader Copies will be available soon; I will send out a newsletter on the proper links and such when they are all settled! In the meantime, enjoy my description of the book... and the trailer!Description:Ragnaro…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - My Ships!
All too often, we see relationships that are utterly miserable either in literature or in real life. However, there is that 'unicorn' of relationships actually working out. I like to describe those more and avoid conflicts that would break people apart. We ex…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Technomancy - the Fantasy x Sci-fi blend
I'm far more of a fantasy reader and writer than sci-fi, even if I blend a lot of biology into my works. That said, I find the idea of mixing magic and tech intriguing. I think the more 'fantasy' part of the spectrum would be technomancy. There's a lot you ca…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Querying, again?! UGH
The bane of a ton of writers is querying for an agent. It's like looking for a job, except you're on fire and everyone else around you is also on fire. Agents are super picky, and if you don't write to the 'meta', good luck getting a contract. Despite this, I…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - What I learned about creating an audiobook
I recently released an audiobook for The Dancing Crow and couldn't be more proud! I learned a lot during the experience. It was far more complex than I thought, at least with actually exporting the files as mp3s. My narrator, Rein, helped me through it, thoug…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Character building is super important!
My latest blog post was "Quirks & Stuff - Things to Keep in Mind while Character Building". To me, character building is super important, even more so than the plot. The plot is just a structure to point the characters in a certain direction. I want to se…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - MY AUDIOBOOK IS OUT!
Hey all! There's a few exciting things I wanted to tell you today! Today's issue will be short for said announcements, but rest assured... there's tons of content coming soon.(1) I've returned to making posts on my blog! Subscribe to that for writing tips, sh…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Don't listen to bad writing advice
Check out my book list here if you're interested in a dystopic urban fantasy series!
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - It's Querying Month!
Like my Vampire Wars series, it's an urban fantasy, however, not necessarily a dystopia. That's what the heroes have to try and prevent! It takes place in Midgard and utilizes Norse mythology to a huge degree. I wrote it in November for NaNoWriMo. Well, half …
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - I've Improved with BOOK TRAILERS!
The above link will take you to the trailer I made for my series recently. Bear in mind that I pay for a program (yearly subscription) called Cyberlink Powerdirector. This has been super helpful throughout the years, and I also use it for my narrations channe…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Looking Ahead through April
Above, you can see what I have planned for the month of April. Be sure to subscribe to my blog if you want some super in-depth content regarding worldbuilding. As of now, I'm taking a break from my 'Deep Dive' topics due to lack of interest. They take a LOT o…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Misunderstood Monsters
Hey bats!I absolutely adore the 'misunderstood monsters' trope, which applies to real life as well with animals. Often a horrifying animal is actually really harmless, like the whiptail scorpion or tarantulas in general. Did you know that if you don't handle …
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Side Characters
Hey bats!I love side characters in stories, especially when they get a lot of love from the author. I've seen on more than one occasion that a side character can be more interesting than a main character, which is fair given some people just connect with vari…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Short Stories
Hey bats,Short stories can be a great way to get your work out there, but I've had very limited success. Not only do they cut into my novel-writing time, but they also aren't guaranteed to be accepted, and rejections hurt a lot. This is especially the case wh…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Where I get my pictures
Hey bats!Today I wanted to talk about both where I get my pictures for my blog and my character art. Pixabay is super helpful for free pictures to use, but I also like to credit nowadays in the caption of my blog post where I got the picture. It feels right, …
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Inspirations
Hey bats!I think getting inspiration from other writers or any media in general is awesome. I often listen to music when I'm writing, and whole characters can be created just based off of a song. Actually, I've written down a few ideas for entire stories that…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Creatives' Thoughts, My Deep Dives
Hey bats!I often do deep dives on my blog, where I'll ask folks on twitter (given my audience is mostly writers) what they think about various topics. These can give some great insight on what the current ideas and thoughts are flowing around a genre, monster…
🦇Gone Batty: DesAstor's Author Updates & Writing Tips🦇 - Happy Near-Valentine's Day! Looking for a treat?
Hey bats!My paranormal erotica novella anthology dropped today. It's not my primary genre, as I prefer urban fantasy, but I dip into erotica every so often because it can be fun to write. I know there's an audience for it, and the stuff I write is particularl…