Mascarpone vanilla ice cream, a newsletter and new projects

Again long time no see, but the truth is, things have been rather chaotic here on my writing HQ. Although I'm glad to say all systems go for the upcoming release of Avalon Hall. Final re-reads were done, last minute edits and changes applied, it has been formatted to the best of my capacities - which, let's face it, aren't all that jazz but hey, they will do, the book is readable and looks pretty enough - the cover reveal was a success (you can view and read the blurb at my author webiste) and I have a TON of graphics for social media promotion already done and locked away inside a folder so I can start using them as soon as I'm back from my vacation. Which I will be leaving for in about a week. I honestly cannot wait, seeing I've already packed up a couple new projects to my full schedule... but hey, turns out I am a workaholic when it comes to writing, and I'm not sorry for that.

To add to my ever growing to-do list, I decided it was about time I tackled the NEWSLETTER monster. This beast has been on my mind for the past couple of years, and it started to take a firmer hold (a nagging voice in my ear telling me I should really look into it) after I started my Author Website. So this past month I decided to look into it and take a few hours to understand how to make it work for me and set one up. Am glad to say success has been achieved and I have now a monthly newsletter where I will fill you in on all my writerly news, bring you new releases from other authors and share book recommendations. You can sign up here, I promise I won't spam your inbox. Maybe you'll even find your new read through it, who knows!!

Along all this, I've been forced to cut down on my reading time, which means I had to turn down some ARC and Beta reading projects I was very keen on, but hey, I figured if I really want to take this seriously, I need to put my work first, and seeing time won't stretch beyond the 24h a day, and I do have a family to tend too as well - it's Summer school break for my son, so my working hours have been cut down by half - something had to go. Seeing I don't want to give this blog up, I am now down to one post a month, which I'm okay with, and only taking on ARCs and Beta reads I've already compromised myself with. Thing is, I am already working on a new trilogy - writing book two as we speak - and have added a couple new (super secret for now) projects to my already overwhelming workload. But these are projects I couldn't resist and which made me breathe like new life had been instilled on me the moment I decided to go for them.

I'm not going to rush them, there's plenty of time, and with them being a bit of side-project, I feel I can be very lenient when it comes to them. It's not as if I don't have books to publish - one of my biggest fears is running out of written material I can keep publishing so I garner new audiences, but seeing I'm not getting new readers, I figure that's a bit of a mote issue - there's the entire Avalon Hall trilogy to put out, and I plan on delivering one of those per year. I know indies are supposed to just keep publishing and publishing month in, month out, but seriously, that's not working for me. I have 9 books out, all of them currently on promotion at half price (you can get your copies here) and they're still not selling. Maybe it's the quality of the work, maybe it's the economy, maybe it's none of the above and I just can't sell my work to save my life, the reasons aren't all that important. What is important is that overworking myself in order to get 3 books out per year is doing mw no good, so why should I? My latest release I Am the Night isn't doing well AT ALL, despite being one of my best work. So now, and in order to keep myself sane, I won't be publishing more than a novel per year.

That should give me more time to work on each book individually prior to publication - it also allows for a longer breathing stint, as I let them sit for months or years before I go back to them and edit, and this, I've found to be rather beneficial. And it does give me time to pursue other pleasures and dive into other projects, because the moment you put a book out there, the amount of promotion and marketing work you have to do is excruciating and so time consuming. This way, instead of having to do this for 3 books a year, I only have one to worry about. More time to write and work on other stuff is a win for me. More time to read, also. And hopefully more time to go back to ARC and Beta read for some of my fave indie authors, which I love doing and have sorely missed. Also more time for pleasure reads? We'll see. I hope to get myself so organised I manage to fit in everything to please my never pleased self.

As for now, I'll leave you with a mascarpone ice cream recipe, and promise to return by the end of August with another post. To make yourself some of this you'll need:

• 200 ml milk
• 70 gr sugar (I used brown sugar)
• 2 egg yolks
• one vanilla pod
• one packet of mascarpone chees
• 2-3 tbsp light brown sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Start by making a custard with the 200ml milk, the egg yolks and the 70gr of sugar. Refrigerate it overnight for optimu results, just remember to cover the surface of the custard with cling film to stop it from forming a skin. After the custard has refrigerated for at least a couple of hours beat the mascarpone with the sugar to soften it up. Pour it onto your ice cream maker and add the vanilla custard. Start the maker going and let it beat the mix together for about half an hour, twenty minutes, it usually depends on the machine. Once it's reached that perfect setting, take it out of the maker and pour it onto a container that can go to the freezer. Serve it with pitted cherries or strawberries, I find that this kind of ice cream works very well with red berries.