Update Winter 2022

The world-wide pandemic of 2020 shut down our usual fun activities and 2021 went much the same way. I didn’t have any author signings or appearances. Truth be told, I didn’t leave the house a lot, but the cats loved that.

That said, now that it’s 2022, I have been invited to attend two events this year!

The first event, at Cupboardmaker Books, is scheduled for March 12th. I will be signing books and hanging out from 12-2pm. The event is from 10am-6pm.

The second event is the Second Annual Chocolatetown Book Festival on October 1, 2022 from 1-5pm in downtown Hershey.

More details may be found on my Events page.

New Year, New Book!

The year 2020 was not good for a lot of people and we’re still trying to recover from it. I think it will be a long road to recovery, but we will get there!

With the pandemic, I only had one author signing in February 2020 (it was great, though!). However, being quarantined at home did give me the time I needed to finish editing my third novel.

Now that 2020 is finally behind us, it’s time for a new year!

What better way to start off a brand new year than with the release of a brand new book? I am proud to announce that my third book, “Bonita Blue” is now available from Amazon in paperback and on Kindle. You can order you copy here.

Here’s the description: “After personal tragedy strikes, Scott moves to Mexico to bury his pain in one of his favorite pastimes, scuba diving. While working on a dive boat in the sunny Caribbean and diving in the beautiful blue waters off Cozumel, he sees something in the water that shouldn’t exist: a mermaid. Is he crazy? Or is there really some truth to the local stories about ‘la sirena’ protecting the waters offshore?”

I wrote “Bonita Blue” in 2017 for National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoWriMo, where the goal is to simply write 50,000 words or more, in the 30 days of November. The challenge is just to see if you can write that many words in a story, going back and editing it comes later. The first few times I participated in NaNoWriMo, I failed. I didn’t commit the time needed and my story ideas fizzled. However, I have since succeeded in winning NaNoWriMo three times in 2015, 2017 and 2019!

NaNoWriMo is a challenge, but if you want to try flexing your writing chops by completing an original story, it’s a fun ride.

Here’s to a new book and a healthier and brighter new year!

Update Fall 2019

Since my last update in the spring, I have been diligently working on editing and formatting my book ‘Wicked Wolves’. It is now available on Kindle and as a paperback book!

Coming up this weekend is another author signing at the Middletown Public Library. I have another author signing in November too. Check out my Events page for the details.

Additionally, I’m on the fence about participating in NaNoWriMo again next month. I know, come the end of October, I’ll get the writing itch again, but it’s a long, stressful process, despite the rush of excitement it also brings! I’ve been kicking around ideas for a third book in my Tales of the Red Wolf series, so we’ll see if I can get enough of an outline organized to start it.

Happy Fall!

Where Have I Been?

Unfortunately, life took a very sharp, downward spiral for me shortly after my last update. Which, yikes, is almost a whole year ago now! (But I’m getting this update in before May 1st so that’s got to count for something, right?)

Where have I been throughout the last half of 2018 and early 2019?

My Dad passed away last July and his loss has hit me very hard. It still punches me in the gut daily. He was one of my biggest author-champions, so continuing to write became a major challenge I needed to overcome.

Come November, I participated in NaNoWriMo again and dedicated the book to him. This seemed to help get me out of my writer’s slump. After I had written ‘House of Red’, he thought there was enough material and interesting elements for at least a sequel (although I had not intended for there to be more than one book at the time). My latest NaNo story, which was another win for me at 56,578 words, is the sequel entitled ‘Wicked Wolves’.

This is my fourth completed book and is definitely not my last! ‘Wicked Wolves’ is currently with my editor and I hope to have it published this summer, so stay tuned for more updates on that!

In other exciting news, I’ve been invited to a local author book signing this coming Saturday, May 4th from 1-3pm at Cupboardmaker Books in Enola.  They’re currently finalizing details on who will be there, so please check out their website.

Here is where the signing will happen:
Cupboard Maker Books
157 N Enola Rd (Routes 11/15)
Enola, PA 17025

I’d love it if you came out and said hi! Introduce yourself, hang out, peruse their large selection of books and meet their kitties from 1-3pm on one of the nerdiest holidays of all-time, Star Wars Day!

May the Fourth be with you!

A Long Overdue Update!

It’s been awhile since I last updated. Life got in the way, as it tends to do, but mostly I haven’t updated because I’ve been working hard on my next novel ‘Bonita Blue’.

I completed it in November 2017 with another NaNoWriMo win. The current score is 2-3: me vs. NaNoWriMo. I’ve participated in the event 5 times, although not in consecutive years. My latest story, ‘Bonita Blue’ is my second win. (And hopefully not my last!)

The story is currently with my editor, Franc, who’s going over it with a fine-toothed comb and magnifying glass to get it to a point where I can start sending it out to potential agents and publishing houses. I’ve also sent parts of the story to my dive master down in Cozumel, Mexico to check that my scuba diving details are accurate and that my Spanish is correct.

I self-published ‘House of Red’ through Amazon’s Kindle Publishing and the whole process was easy and enjoyable. However, I want to try going the more traditional publishing route once ‘Bonita Blue’ is ready just to see how the process differs and how it feels.

I’ve sent out a few query emails to literary agents too, but no bites so far.

Coming up of potential interest to fellow readers, this weekend in NYC is Book Con! This will be my first time attending, although I’m not going as a writer but rather as a reader. I’m really looking forward to the panels regarding fantasy stories and getting to meet one of my favorite author’s Brandon Sanderson!

I’m also hoping to learn something from the ‘Turning your Manuscript into a Published Success” panel. Hopefully, I’ll get some good pointers. And I’ll have my business cards on-hand to give out to potential publishers too!

That’s all for now in the world of Sickler’s Stories, I’ll try to keep you all up to date on how ‘Bonita Blue’ does throughout the rest of the editing process. Until next time!

 

 

Welcome!

author pic-small

Welcome to my website! I’m E. Sickler, author of House of Red. This book, my very first published novel, is a young adult fantasy re-telling of Little Red Riding Hood, with various other fairy tale characters thrown in for good measure.

The book came about in regards to the annual National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) competition back in 2015 where individuals are tasked with writing at least 50,000 words in 30 days. I wanted to see if I could complete a novel in that time, so I participated and won. The concept for the story came from the idea that I’ve never been happy with the story of Little Red Riding Hood, so I wanted to try it from a different perspective.

After I finished the story, I had a professional editor friend proofread it before self-publishing it through Amazon.

I have plans for several more stories already, including a potential sequel to House of Red and a fantasy scuba diving inspired story too. So stay tuned for more exciting adventures!

Thanks for visiting!