Susan L Markloff's Blog

There are so many emotions in this.

I know I signed up for the award. I know I was told I got a 5-star review and that put me in the running for further consideration. I know I wrote the book to the best of my ability. I know I gave it the best fighting chance by giving it a gorgeous cover, solid artwork, and decent formatting.

But that doesn’t mean I expected to win anything.

I’ve submitted Rise to a few different contests. It didn’t make it to any proper judging. It wasn’t a finalist. It wa...

The last month has been a bit of a whirlwind. The weeks leading into the new year are typically busy for me and my family, with get togethers and road trips and visiting family.

I knew going into the new year that I had 6 novellas I wanted to get rough drafts done before September. But then I wrote one of the novellas and realized I needed to write them by April at the absolute latest.

The nature of the whole project is tied directly to The Human-Born Era. And while they're shorter stories, th...

I've never really loved the idea of New Year's Resolutions.

I know they're trendy and all, and lots of people do them. But for me, they're just kinda...eh. Probably because I feel like the stigma of them has sullied the concept in my noggin. People make resolutions and are all gung-ho to make them reality. They stick with them for a little while, and then a few months later it's back to old habits and shrugs of apathy as if to say, "Eh, whatever. No one takes New Year's Resolutions seriously an...

IT'S CHRISTMASTIME FRIENDS.

I've always adored Christmas. While we never were like, huge "Santa" kids, I love Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (for many different reasons). My childlike mentalities can explode at nearly the drop of a hat when we get to Christmas season. Flurries makes me smile outright, and snow makes me want to skip for joy. Cold nights make me giggle and let out puffing breaths like a dragon breathing smoke. Lights on houses have my inner monologue going, "Squee! It's so pretty!!...

It's like I'm determined to never have downtime ever.

We're nearly 4 weeks removed from the launch day of The Rise of the Raidin, and whoo buddy it's been a roller coaster! The week of launch was a ton of excitement bottled into a few days. I've seen major dropoff of sales since the first two weeks, but my ads have also ended, and I'm hoping for a few more reviews before I launch the next set of ads to, Lord willing, garner more interest and sales for the book.

About a week after launch day, I d...

I should preface this by saying Social Media still confuses the tar out of me. I don't even remotely understand algorithms, or what makes a good social media presence. I'm still muddling my way through it all.

All of that to say, I have learned at least one thing that might be beneficial for someone else!

So, fellow creators, I totally get it. We're busy like whoa. Because unlike lots of others, we have like, eight jobs. We're creating our art (whether it's illustrations or writing or photogra...

With five days till Rise comes out, I find myself going over and over things in my head, trying to make sure I've done everything I can to make this all come together well.

I'm stupid excited one minute, and terrified the next. The excitement usually eclipses the terror (usually).

Today I got a few more of my editorial reviews back, and was glad to hear their comments. It's kinda surreal reading them all, and finding they all have very nice things to say. For those that don't know, editorial rev...

How...how did we get to less than a month till book launch?

It feels like just yesterday I was in Ocean City, sequestering myself to no entertainment outside of my computer and working tirelessly on the last round of major edits of The Rise of the Raidin. It doesn't feel like that long ago when I was at camp. Has it already been over a month since I was in New York, visiting friends in the Buffalo area?

How is it 26 days until book 1 goes live?! How are pre-orders of the Kindle version already...

I doodled a lot in school. If there were margins on a worksheet that was handed out, I was bound to have scribbled something into that space. I was in middle school when I sketched out a werewolf-esque creature with wings and a reptilian tail, and thus Kaldok was born. Though why he was part werewolf and part dragon was beyond me and my eighth-grade brain.

The bratak'ra weren't very different.

I distinctly remember being in chemistry class. Why I remember this so vividly, God only knows. Becau...

WELL LET'S JUST TACKLE SOMETIHNG I WAS LESS THEN STELLAR AT SIX MONTHS AGO, SHALL WE?

A couple days ago, my dad asked, "Is the cover art what you envisioned when you started the whole process?"

And I responded with, "I had zero idea of what I wanted for a cover when I started."

That's 100%, honest to God, hand on the Bible, the truth. I had no clue what I wanted the cover of my book to look like. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. It's just the reality of things. I, as per usual, ess...