July 2020 News

Right now, I’m still unsure what will happen in the Fall. I’m an elementary teacher by day and writer by night, which means I’m preparing to go back to school in the midst of a pandemic with rising cases or going online at a word’s notice.

It’s rather stressful, to tell the truth.

I don’t even think there is a right answer.

But, alas, that is not why we’re here.

My writing is meant to distract and to take you out of your reality and into a different one—my make-believe one.

I’ve been working some extra hours in school related stuff this summer, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t continued with my artistic endeavors.

I have one more week of free summer time (which is the week we had planned to go to the beach, but cancelled), so let’s see what I’ve done in the past months since we talked.

Projects:

Right now, I’m working on different projects at the same time. Some are currently only in my head and I work on them while I’m asleep or as I cook or go to the bathroom 😅. Others, I am actively doing and producing. But I think they are all important because it’s my wish that they will one day see the light of day, vulnerable to people’s reviews and criticism. 

Here they are:

1. NAVSA

2. Moose and Cow

3. Stand alone children’s books

4. NAVSA Spin-Off novella series #1

5. NAVSA Spin-Off novella series #2

6. YA 5 book series

7. Secret Trilogy Project

8. Teachers Pay Teachers

9. Reading

10. Videogames

So, there you have it. This isn’t counting that I’m taking a few courses on marketing and writing and Photoshop. I keep myself busy while I’m not taking care of my family (which actually takes about 80% of my waking hours during the summer).

How about we talk about my projects?

1. NAVSA is my current urban fantasy series (North American Vampire Secret Agency) that I have published under my name Claudia Silva. Currently, I’m working with an editor to hopefully bring you the definite edition of my stories. The books are now thoroughly revised in grammar, form and story. 

Right now I have published new editions of book 1 and 2 (and the prequel Suspension). Book 3 is currently being revised and will probably come out in August. After that, I will send the short story The Collapse to the editor. I estimate this will take about 2 months, which means that the finished book 4 will be sent to the editor in October or November for an early 2021 release. After that, I will send book 5 (which I still need to edit), a short story (which I still need to revise), book 6 (which I’m currently writing) and the final short story (which I still need to revise).

I stopped any major marketing since September 2020 on this series and have spent all effort in starting a mailing list since January. I currently have about 1, 200 subscribers with a rather low open rate. If you’re interested in joining my mailing list, you can always go here: www.claudia-silva.com

This is the story that taught me what self-publishing really is. I have learned a lot from it. So much that I am sure every other series that comes after that will take so much more into account. 

I would love it if you guys loved this series, but I know it’s unconventional and there will always be some of you who love it and some of you who don’t. I wish I could get out of the shadow of being an indie author who published low-quality books in the beginning, but I can’t change some things. Just know that everything I publish after 2019 is good quality and I know most of you will enjoy. Or at least I hope you do. Don’t worry, it won’t stop me from producing stories. It’s my soul-food.

2. Now, MOOSE AND COW is my children’s book series that I am investing my life in. Ha! Out of everything I’ve done, these are the books my family enjoys the most and I publish them under my married name, Claudia Alonso. My family members just love Moose and Cow. I love writing and illustrating these books. It’s so much fun. I love hearing my friend’s kids loving these books, too. Some have sent me videos of the kids retelling the stories and laughing and explaining what’s happening. My nieces and nephews really like them, too and are surprised that I wrote and illustrated them. My own kids, even if they’re older, can’t wait to see what will happen to Moose and Cow next. 

The only problem with these books (currently just the one) is that I haven’t figured out how to market them. They don’t have any reviews yet and I’m having a hard time starting a mailing list (and I have one, you go here www.claudia-alonso.com and you can get a a free Starting Larva digital copy).  So far, nothing. 

I will go on, producing more books until one day, they’ll be discovered. I know it! In the meantime, I have the best time producing them.

I’m currently working on Moose and Cow #2, for which the cover is ready to be revealed. The book has been plotted and I decided to finish all pencil illustrations first this time (for Moose and Cow #1 I did the pencil and then the digital for each page). I have drawn a total of 11 pages—out of 42. It takes me about 30 minutes to draw a page. It takes me about 20 minutes to work on it digitally and 10 more minutes to arrange the page in Photoshop. Then it takes me another 10 minutes to work on the dialogue and dialogue bubbles. Then, it also takes time to format it in ebook and paperback form, say another 10 minutes. So, if we add all this, I need about an hour and a half per page. Multiply that by 42 pages . . . that’s about 56 hours per book. If I worked an hour a day on the book I would finish in 2 months! Sometimes I have more than that, sometimes less… depends on the day. But my goal is to put it out this year, so I’d like to announce a pre-order in two months. How does that sound?

How about an October release date? Or November?

I wish I could tell you with certainty.

3. Apart from Moose and Cow, I want to use my pen name Claudia Alonso to publish other children’s books. I would like to work on a STAND-ALONE CHILDREN’S BOOK between each Moose and Cow. I have thought of retelling the fairy tales for bilingual students—unless I come up with some other idea for a book.

The first book I want to create is a retelling of the Gingerbread Man. After that, anything goes.

4.  Back to Claudia Silva… Back when, I stopped writing the adventures of Rebecca and Dylan in NAVSA to start writing two other different characters in the same universe. One of them is Michael Henson. Michael lives on an island and is a very interesting mutant. The island is populated by interesting characters and it belongs to Grant Helm, which some of you may remember from the NAVSA series. 

I wrote 6 stories that I think I can publish in inside the NAVSA universe. These aren’t full novels, they are novellas around 30K words each. They will release as I rewrite them and edit them professionally. I have some ideas for covers and I would like to start releasing them in 2022, once the original NAVSA storyline has wrapped.

There is no over-arching story to solve in these novellas. They are stand-alone, although they are in chronological order. 

5. As Claudia Silva I also wrote a few novellas starring James West. Now, you don’t know James West yet, but he’s the son of one of my NAVSA characters. I just love James and his fun stories. These stories are also short and fun. Like the Michael Henson stories, there is no over-arching storyline to solve, only James’ adventures. They are stand-alone stories narrating the life and troubles of this magic user.

6. Also as Claudia Silva I am already plotting a five-book series in the young adult genre. I want this project to be all plotted—all 5 books—before I write them. I’m planning a release for the first book sometime in 2022, as well. This books come from my love of comic books. When I was 16 years old I wrote a comic book. I got to a few issues (which were only 7 pages long), and I thought it would be great to tell this story as a book. I also have an idea of how I want my covers and I can’t wait to begin really plotting when I’m done releasing all of the NAVSA books. It’s going to be so much fun!

7. The last thing I am working on as Claudia Silva is a new trilogy based on a character I created in college while in a comic book club. I also had a 2 issue comic book with this heroine. A few months ago I was having a conversation with my husband about a certain type of hero and this character came to mind. She is that type of hero and a trilogy would work great to tell the story! I already know where each of the three books will take place and how it will all wrap up! It’s a fantasy story based on another planet and Earth. You guys, you have no idea how fun it is to think up all these worlds and then put them on paper. I just hope you enjoy reading them as I enjoy thinking about them and then writing them.

8. Teachers Pay Teachers. I’m a teacher. It’s what I do. Well, I’m a chemical engineer who turned into a teacher. Ha! Still, teaching is what I do. It’s my area of expertise. I even have a master’s degree and all. Back in 2012 I started to publish my teacher created material in the Teachers Pay Teachers store (TpT).

I don’t make hundreds of thousands of dollars with my store, but I do make enough to pay for my author hobby (and hopefully career one day!). So I keep my teacher store running by improving current products and creating new ones.

a. New products: A have a fluency product in the works. 

b. I am digitalizing current products to offer them for digital learning.

c. I am updating old products with newer fonts and covers.

This is going to take me months, maybe even years. Maybe it’ll be ongoing, but everything I publish I use with my own students and it works. These are quality products here and most are bilingual. I don’t just create to earn money, I create because I need what I create for my own class. Once I publish them, I’m also responsible to provide a good customer experience, which is why I still go back to older products and try to improve them.

9. Reading. Who doesn’t like to read? I’m always reading a book or listening to an audiobook. What are you reading? I just finished The Woman in the Window. It was pretty good, can’t wait for the movie.

Right now, I started:

I’m listening to:

And next, I will read:

Next, I’ll listen to:

Do you have any book recommendations?

10. Finally, I’m also a bit of a gamer. Right now I’m thoroughly enjoying Assassin’s Creed Origins. Sooo good! I’m probably going to be playing this one a while, it has to much to explore. Loving it!

Next, I’m playing Odyssey:

Do you like to play videogames? Any good recommendations?

Take care,

Claudia

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