Hello friends and fans!
Christina Engela when answering a question about the name of her newsletter “Another Round At The Crow Bar“: “The name refers to a bar in my Quantum Series – the one at Atro City Spaceport, which is called “The Crow Bar”. Since people like to share anecdotes and funny stories while sitting at the bar, I figured it would make a good name for my newsletter, and imagined myself sitting at the Crow Bar chatting and sharing news with interested readers and fans!”
With that, welcome to Another Round At The Crow Bar – and my 49th newsletter, for January 2021!
Let me begin by wishing you all the standard new year’s greetings and wishes for a better year over-all (and pandemic-wise) than the last one. I doubt it – sorry to be the Prophetess of Doom here – but we can wish, right? 2020 was a shitty year for many, and while we hope the new year will be better in some ways, reality is unlikely to oblige. With at least two new mutations (one from South Africa) of the COVID-19 virus floating around, 2021 is likely to be just as surreal, awful and shitty – if not shittier – than 2020. I’ve already made my mind up to hunker down and just make the best of it, and to take life at whatever number of WTF’s per minute. At least on the bright side, that orange orangutan international neo-Nazi idol will be leaving the White House shortly, one way or another, marking the return of sanity and compassion to our news timelines – which is something I’ve been sorely missing since 2016! As bad as 2020 was, 2016 to 2020 has been an absolute neo-Nazi shit-show, and I’m glad it’ll be over soon!
In the meantime, let me tell you a bit about my December! I’d barely sent out the newsletter for last month, when a few things happened that I wish I could’ve included! On the tenth of December, “Christina Engela’s Strangely Compelling SciFi” was released in audiobook format! This means that I now have five titles already available as audiobooks on Audible and Amazon!
I’m also pleased to tell you that my book sales for 2020-21 were – thanks to you, my readers – very satisfying. 🙂 In fact, they were more than double 2019-20’s figures, thanks largely to the addition of more sales and distribution channels, including the efforts of my friend and publisher Brandon Mullins, CEO of Moon Books Publishing, and of course, the 5 audiobooks added during 2020 (wonderfully narrated by Nigel Peever, Miciah Dodge and Michelle Innes).
After most of a year in semi-isolation, December was also an opportunity to reconnect with some of the people important to me, and road trips… road trips are important too!
Perhaps the most important thing that happened in December was that I started my annual vacation! Due to all the COVID shenanigans of 2020, I hadn’t taken a single day’s leave last year, so I still had my full number of days available – so here I am at home, at my writing desk, appreciating some restful time off! The knowledge that I’ll only be going back to work in February makes it even better – ha ha!
Anyway, let’s get to it and take a look at the usual list of goodies!
Current Writing Projects
I was very naughty and took the remainder of December (as of the 22nd) off from writing and editing! 😉 I’ll see how January goes and let you know in next month’s newsletter!
Marketing – The Dreaded “M” Word!
As an indie author, most of the marketing that gets done, is done by me. This is an unfortunate consequence of choosing the path of an indie author – but the cons of indie authoring are far outweighed by the pros – and I’m certainly not sorry!
One of the main benefits of being and indie author and walking the self-publishing path, is retaining creative control over your works. Also, having the support of a traditional small press (Moon Books Publishing) handling my main distribution channel for eBooks, paperbacks and audiobooks via Amazon and Audible for me, is a great bonus!
What helps indie authors like me most however, is when readers share my posts to help me promote my books! Word of mouth sales make a huge difference – so I really appreciate it when I see you share my book promotion posts on social media!
By the way, how do you like the new header image for the newsletter? 😉
Videos
I’ve nothing new to show you here this time, but feel free to browse through the videos on my YouTube video channel!
Publishing
I haven’t published anything new for 2021 yet – although I still have a few new works in progress! Meanwhile, here are the books I released in 2020:
Let’s see what I have to offer you in 2021!
New Releases:
I can mention one new release so far in the form of “Christina Engela’s Strangely Compelling SciFi” – newly released during December in audiobook format narrated by Miciah Dodge!
Audiobooks
I have 5 audiobooks available on Audible and Amazon! Click the links in the slideshow below to view titles available as audiobooks.
Stay tuned for new releases and updates!
Reviews
I have one exciting item to show you in this section this time!
Enjoyable action-packed original space sci-fi…
“South African Author Christina Engela was the very first person to reach out to this site for a book review and served as an important turning point for this blog. Since then her work has probably been one of the most featured here and for good reason – she writes great books! Even though it has been a while I eventually got to the next book in the space sci fi Galaxii Series ‘Blachart’ and was not disappointed by this futuristic action packed tale of space pirates. Highly recommended!” – Lee Hall, UK writer & reviewer, December 04, 2020
You can see all my previous reviews here.
Currently Available Titles
My books are available as eBooks, Paperbacks, and Audiobooks, and you can find them everywhere. Click the links in the slideshow below to view titles available in these formats.
If you’re still wondering where to find them in the format of your choice, you should read “Where To Get My Books – Specially For My South African Readers!“.
Communication
Below are links to a few of my most recent posts and articles since my previous newsletter:
- New Year’s Day Special!
- A Brief Introduction To Self-Publishing (part 5)
- A Brief Introduction To Self-Publishing (part 4)
- A Brief Introduction To Self-Publishing (part 3)
- A Brief Introduction To Self-Publishing (part 2)
- A Brief Introduction To Self-Publishing (part 1)
- Find Innovation DIY in the Weekly Weekend Post!
- Another Round At The Crow Bar #48 December 2020
Interactions
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Fan Mail, Reader Reviews & Honorable Mentions
I have the following awesome items to show you this month!
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- A book I edited for Moon Books, “Why I Cried: Tales from Hysterical Pregnant Women” by Jennifer J. Lopez, became available on October 01, and the write-up mentions my review of the book!
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The audiobook for “Blachart” received the following review on Audible in December: Fun Book. “I thoroughly enjoyed the first two thirds of the book and was all set for a five star review, but I lost some interest once the story went planetside. The voice acting and sound effects were great. I love it when sound effects are used for audiobooks.” – Roger Hawkins, 4 stars, Dec 24, 2020 on Audible.
I display my Fan Mail & Compliments with pride, gratitude and humility. You’re always welcome to have a look.
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Hate Mail & Horrible Mentions
I haven’t received any hate mail this month either – wonder what I’ve done wrong? Perhaps I need new haters? They seem to have forgotten me!
I’m rather proud of my hate mail, and you can review my collection here – but be forewarned, don’t do it while eating or drinking, or you might choke while laughing!
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Interviews
All my interviews are linked to from this page. If you would like to do an interview with me about my work, please do get in touch!
In Closing
Well, that’s all for this time, folks! 🙂
Thanks again for all your support, sharing, friendship and interaction!
As always, feel free to email or message me via Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn if you have any comments or questions!
Cheers!
Catch me on social media!
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All material copyright © Christina Engela, 2021.