Aurora Dimitre's Books and Rambling

 

 The summer between my senior year in high school and my freshman year in college, I read The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. That summer, the summer of 2015, Brandon Sanderson was just starting to REALLY blow up on BookTube, alongside other authors like Sherwood Smith and Scott Lynch. It was bookTube's foray into adult fantasy, and I read it all.  I don't know that I should have, because for most of college, after reading all of these books, I would claim that I didn't like fantasy. I enjoyed the Gentlemen Bastards series because they were funny, mostly, and I liked the Mistborn series, and I guess I liked the Inda series? But one series I could not get into for the life of me was the Stormlight Archive.  These past few years, when I've been teaching high school, I had a boy, a sophomore last year, who loved Brandon Sanderson. Desperately loved him. I could talk to this kid about these books because I had read a good chunk of them, but his love for the Stormlight Ar

  I'll be the first to admit that I don't really care to understand how social media algorithms work, but lately on Twitter, I've been seeing a lot of self-published authors talking about how they've made zero sales in August.  As I'm one of these authors, I do try to pick up a Kindle copy when I can. I mean, I have so many goddam digital credits that I might as well, right? And I know how happy I get when I get one sale, because like I said--none in August. Not one. And while I do publish just because I love sharing shit and not because I want money from it, nobody can read it if nobody's buying it. Or reading it on KU. Or whatever.  I have made more this year than I did all of last year. However, this year I did experiment with Amazon ADs, and I did not earn out what I spent on the ADs, so, really did I? Did I make more? If you look straight at sales I did. I am not a marketer. I write my books and I throw them on Amazon and sometimes I talk about them on soci

 

 Most schools around us are starting today. The school we used to work it starts today. We have another week.  I don't know how prepared I am. I have no idea. There was an event last night where I rushed to get folders together (because elementary teachers have folders they give to kids???) to hand them out to ten out of seventeen fifth graders I'll have this year. The funniest thing was just how much you could tell that I was a former high school teacher. All those elementary teachers had fancy cover pages with names and mine, uh.  Masking tape with a Sharpie'd name on it? Lol. They can draw their own.  But I did meet ten of them. I always forget how LITTLE fifth graders are. Some of the girls are sort-of tall, but all of the boys are so small. I guess boys generally hit their growth spurt after girls do, but man. Tiny. I'll be going in this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon and Friday afternoon and Monday afternoon.  I have shit to do. 

 So I saw Motley Crue last weekend.  It wasn't just them, it was also Alice Cooper and Def Leppard and there is something so insane about seeing such a major rock band. I mean, I didn't start going to concerts until I graduated college, and the idea that I'd seen someone like this, seen a band like this , live and in person --Steven got us great tickets, we were so close, so so so close.  And then this morning I got an e-mail that Megadeth was coming to Fargo in September. It's a Friday. They're coming at a Friday and the show starts at 8:00 and I could. I could make that. I could check off another one of the Big Four.  (Ignoring the fact that Anthrax was in Grand Forks in January because IT WAS THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK IN JANUARY AND IT WAS WINTER AND EVERYTHING WAS TERRIBLE AND THE ROADS WERE TERRIBLE AND I DIDN'T HAVE A CAR)  But September is early enough in the year that I can get to Fargo. And I have a car now, if Steven's not willing to take me.  And I

 

 

 So, currently, at this exact moment, I don't have great access to a printer where I can totally not steal prints from one or two jobs.  My general writing process (this does, sometimes, vary, but this is what it's been for most of my books) is as follows: First Draft --> Outline from First Draft --> Second Draft --> Print & Edit --> Retype --> Publish. So, with no access to a printer that I can not spend fifty fucking dollars or whatever to print off a double-spaced full-length novel, I decided to do something I, at risk of sounding like the Gen Z I kind of am, depending on the article you're reading, saw on TikTok.  I ordered a proof off of Amazon. I plugged it in and ordered a proof. And despite the fact that ordering a proof meant I had to wait a few days... when it comes to the editing, I think it's not quite as satisfying as printer paper, maybe. But it is convenient that I don't have to worry about dropping it and it going absolutely everyw

 

 I've talked about Until I Fall Away and the Aughts Boy s series so often, so we're not going to talk about that much... just know that it will be the next book I publish, and it's great, honestly, I do love it with all my heart, keep an EYE out!! It's the Matt book! We love the Matt book! Other than that, New Match is coming out... probably directly after UIFA. I have the second draft finished. I'm going to be diving deep into UIFA soon, like, today, and not leaving that world for a while, but after that, it's straight into New Match.  So what is New Match?  New Match is what I've been colloquially calling "the christianmingle thriller", despite the fact that it's really not a thriller, it's a slasher. Thrillers have to have some kind of mystery to them, right? These kids just keep getting murdered. Basically, it is the start of a new series--I know, I know, I JUST knocked two series off of my plate this year, just to add another--about st