As of June 2026, The Chronicles of Talahm is a complete 4-book series (quartet). It took eight years to write, and almost five to publish, but here are my main lessons learned from the self-publishing process.

What you can expect to learn:

• How it feels to complete the series
• Managing a series arc
• Skill increases across the books
• Lessons from series data (because why wouldn't I have data?)
• Whether I miss the characters
• Plans for future books
• How much it cost to publish books 1-4 👀

Send us Fan Mail

What to do next…

• Read transcripts & access interview recordings on Substack
• Apply for Author Coaching with Colleen
• Take the 60 Day Novel Writing Challenge for FREE
• Sell your eBooks direct with Curios (keep 100% of sales) - Affiliate Link
• Read Colleen's clean YA portal fantasy series (The Chronicles of Talahm)
• Read Halie's YA fantasy series (Secrets of the Tally)
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

AI can do far more than simply chat back and forth in a tool like ChatGPT or Grok.

Book marketing expert Thomas Umstattd Jr, host of The Novel Marketing Podcast, joins me to share how AI can become a gamechanger in your marketing tasks.

Whether you're an AI proponent or not, this conversation is eye-opening to the scope of what tasks authors can delegate to an AI agent as if it were a virtual assistant.

After all, the only thing authors can truly do themselves is WRITE. What if we let the AI handle the rest?

*disclaimer: don't let AI edit your book*

Connect with Thomas at authormedia.com

Interested in Thomas's upcoming webinar on GrokBot? It's on October 22, 2026:

• https://www.crowdcast.io/c/grok-bot-for-authors-oct

Send us Fan Mail

What to do next…

• Read transcripts & access interview recordings on Substack
• Apply for Author Coaching with Colleen
• Take the 60 Day Novel Writing Challenge for FREE
• Sell your eBooks direct with Curios (keep 100% of sales) - Affiliate Link
• Read Colleen's clean YA portal fantasy series (The Chronicles of Talahm)
• Read Halie's YA fantasy series (Secrets of the Tally)
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts

Creating a believable sci-fi or fantasy world doesn't happen by accident.

Whether a world has lived rent-free in your heads for years or you're trying to create one from the ground up, immersing the reader takes more than an infodump of backstory or lore.

Author Clint Hall shares how he built not one, but five worlds in his Worlds Collide trilogy (book 1 available now), and did so such that each one was unique, immersive, and rich with implied history.

Clint also turned the tables on me a few times (since he's also a podcast host of The Experience: Conversations With Creatives).

Connect with Clint:

• https://clinthall.com/

Listen to my review of Worlds Collide:

• https://thechristianreaderspodcast.buzzsprout.com/2529164/episodes/19500538-book-review-worlds-collide-by-clint-hall

Send us Fan Mail

What to do next…

• Read transcripts & access interview recordings on Substack
• Apply for Author Coaching with Colleen
• Take the 60 Day Novel Writing Challenge for FREE
• Sell your eBooks direct with Curios (keep 100% of sales) - Affiliate Link
• Read Colleen's clean YA portal fantasy series (The Chronicles of Talahm)
• Read Halie's YA fantasy series (Secrets of the Tally)
• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts