Hey, guys. Things are even busier than usual for me, mainly due to the audiobooks (more on that below). I will be posting the next Angels & Gods episode, hopefully tomorrow and otherwise early Monday. This will be Episode 6: The Evergreen Shield.
So what's up with the audiobooks, and why are they keeping me so busy? No, I'm not recording or editing them myself. 😉 I have a pro studio taking care of that.
Over the course of the next year, I'll be getting about half of my catalogue of books into audio (others books will come later). We're doing full-cast immersive audio.
Paragons 1 & 2 and Phoenix Dynasty 1 & 2 are already in production. They're be done in the next few months.
Legion of Angels (complete series: 13 books) and Immortal Legacy (complete series: 3 books) are in pre-production.
For full-cast immersive audiobooks, you can't use the book text as-is. They require scripts, or the flow is terrible. Trust me, I've tried it with just the book text, and it doesn't work at all.
This means I need to turn all the books into scripts. I am doing this personally in order to preserve the integrity of the books. These are mostly minor modifications like cutting superfluous dialogue tags (he said, she said, etc.), which you don't need when there are different actors voicing different characters. In fact, you don't want them, particularly in my books which have fast-paced banter; the tags break the flow.
The problem is time. This doesn't take as much time as writing a new book obviously, but it does take time. And writing a script is a different skill and way of thinking from writing a novel.
Legion of Angels alone is something around 1.1 million words. That means I need to go through 1.1 million words of book text and covert it into scripts. Twice. Once to modify and once to check the flow with the modifications and make any necessary changes.
Immortal Legacy, for which I already completed the scripts, is another couple hundred thousand words. I also wrote 3 new bonus stories to go along with the series in preparation for the audiobooks.
The Paragons and Phoenix Dynasty books are generally ~80k-90k words per book, and there are 4 of them currently in production. They sound awesome so far, btw.
As you can see, all the time spent on writing scripts really adds up. I also have a lot of actor auditions to listen to. Legion of Angels alone has over 300 characters. The production studio is helping a lot with the casting, but I do need to listen to and decide on the important characters myself in order to give you guys the best possible audiobooks. There are a lot of important characters in LoA.
And I need to listen to the edits of the audiobooks, often several times as changes are made. Immersive audiobooks are much more involved than a simple reading, but they will be amazing.
In summary: these audiobooks are getting a lot of TLC from the author. 😊
So if you're wondering why I sometimes fall into a blackhole of work or I'm otherwise kind of slow to finish some projects at the moment, this is why.
Thanks for all your patience!
❤️ Ella
Hi, all,
Here's an update on what I've been working on.
The book I'm currently writing is Diamond Dragon (Phoenix Dynasty #3). As usual, I'm writing a bonus episode to go along with it. This time, the bonus will likely feature Elodie, Arina's shapeshifting ballerina friend.
Previous Phoenix Dynasty extras were:
- "Phoenix Rising" (for Book 1), a prequel featuring Arina
- "Dragon Descending" (for Book 2), a Dominic POV tale with Serelle & the kids set during Book 2.
I'm guessing Diamond Dragon will be ready next month.
Immortal Legacy. I've finished the 3 new Immortal Legacy stories. I posted story 1 already. Stories 2 & 3 will be posted this year. Finally got the edits done on those. Stories:
- The Magic Eater
- The First Angel
- The Perfect Goddess
Angels & Gods. I've finished the next two episodes (#5 & #6). I'll post #5 ("The Midnight Crown") this coming weekend. And #6 will be released before Diamond Dragon. Some of what happens in Diamond Dragon relates to some things in these 6 episodes, so I had to finish them up before continuing work on Diamond Dragon.
Lots of Audiobooks. Ongoing. There should be a few coming out this year and a lot more next year. Status:
- Phoenix Dynasty 1 (Editing)
- Phoenix Dynasty 2 (Pre-production)
- Paragons 1 & 2 (Editing)
- 2 Other Book Series, aka boatloads of books (Planning Stage)
Future Series Plotting. I'm always doing this. A new series takes me months (sometimes years) of pre-planning to work out the world, characters, plot points, etc., which I do in bits and pieces as I have time in between working on all the current series.
Lots of Tiny, Random Admin Tasks. Annoying but necessary. ;-)
That's all for now!
I'll post The Gold Gauntlets (Angels & Gods: Episode 4) here this coming weekend.
In the meantime, enjoy this picture of Savannah (my lady Ragdoll cat). ☺️
I'm back from my book-signing trip. All the Legion of Angels special edition books have shipped, and everyone who ordered them received a mail from me with a shipment tracking link. If you missed the mail, send me a message or mail, and I'll send it again.
The book trip took a lot of my time. That means I'm a little behind. I did manage to get some work done while in London and at the airport & on the plane, just not as much as I would have liked. Also, I've accumulated some unexpected extra work, as always. 😉
Here's what I'm working on.
Audiobooks. Very busy here. Anything from writing new audiobook scripts, to listening to edits from the producers (and giving feedback), to figuring out with the producers which actors need to do retakes, to casting for new projects, to writing up the audio technical specs for actors & producers, to just general coordination stuff & meetings to make the audiobooks awesome.
Immortal Legacy Bonus Content. I have finished writing the first story. The other two are in progress.
Angels & Gods. I need to write some new parts in the next episode ("The Gold Gauntlets") before uploading it. I didn't have time to do this while on the book trip, so that episode will go up next weekend or the one after, depending on how much I can get done this week.
Diamond Dragon (Phoenix Dynasty #3). Working on this too. I want to get some other work off my plate first so I can really focus on the book without interruptions.
In the non-work sphere, I'm slowly getting back to my usual sport routine after the trip interruption. And the cats are glad to see me again. They're following me around everywhere. 💕
Update on the Legion of Angels Special Edition paperbacks and hardcovers.
All the books have been signed! Yesterday I went to the printer facility (BookVault) and signed all the books.
Pictures and the story here:
https://www.ellasummers.com/legion-of-angels-books-signed-and-shipped/
Anyone who ordered these paperbacks or hardcovers will be receiving a mail from me shortly with the tracking link so you can track your books’ journey on the way to their new home.
❤️ Ella