ERIN HALBMAIER

Happy New Year!

It’s the time when everyone comes up with a list of things they want to change about themselves, hoping that this will be the year they maintain their goals past the first month or two. Some people succeed. Some…don’t.

Last year, I was going to finish the score and mock-up of my arrangement of the hymn “Breathe on Me, Breath of God”. I had a S.M.A.R.T. plan and everything! And I did finish the composition, but my out-of-practice mocking-up skills left me frustrated in what should have been the most beautiful passage. I let myself be derailed from my schedule.

And then I started writing a novel. There was no goal; it was simply a book that I felt needed to be written.

Slippers and Thorns isn’t the typical romance novel, but I like it, biased as I am. I enjoyed writing it so much, though, that I decided to continue! The rest of the books in the series should be more in line with what readers expect from romance, and I hope you’ll love the characters and their stories as much as I do.

What do I hope to accomplish this year? I have a few things in the works:

• Publish Songs and Spun Gold (book 2) at the end of April
• Write & publish Spirits and Pacts (book 3)
• Clean up Night of Dance (prequel novella to Slippers and Thorns) and decide if it is a reader magnet, freebie, or to be published
• Write a novella for an author collaboration I joined
• Write & publish Arrows and Gems (book 4)
• Write a novella for another author collaboration I joined

I may find that I’m expecting too much of myself, but I’m excited to see how far I get!

What goals do you have on your list for 2024?

Newsletter Format Change

I’m pleased to announce that I set up a mailing list over at MailerLite, so future newsletters, announcements, etc will come from erin@erinhalbmaier.com with a prettier format than “blog notice” emails. It’s not a big deal, but I figured I should let you know so you’re expecting the change…and so you make sure the new email address won’t get sent to your junk folder.

Giveaway Winner

I was planning to actually list a name, but I decided that was probably unwise from a privacy perspective. I’ll be emailing the winner to get details for sending the book, so make sure erin@erinhalbmaier.com is in your contact list, safe senders, or whatever your email provider uses so you get the email if it’s you!

That’s all for this post! Congratulations to the winner (you’ll be hearing from me soon!), and best wishes for the new year!