AJ Alanson, Author

A Fool in the Grand has passed 45K words and I’m closing in on the end of the first six books of The Admiral Inn Series, a half-year in June Faust’s incredible life, a year of writing in my life and completing the publication of my first 1/2-million words (~497,000).

Hence the author coping kit pictured below. Special keyboard, 1-2 per year, analgesic hand cream, eye drops, copper compression gloves and the biggest writer’s hack: the grain-filled microwavable neck wrap thingy that acts like a bean bag to vary hand positions and completely stop the carpal tunnel pain.

Add dog licks, a nightly hand message from my partner, and lots of rescue reiki from a reiki master (who works exclusively on animals so not sure what that means) and the only other trick I have is to wrap my hands around a giant mug of tea all the while I’m at my desk.

My conversations with fans and watching my sales grow each day also go a long way to making the process fun and painless. A Fool in the Grand comes out December 1 in ebook, and paperback soon after. With readers chewing through the previous books, it looks like I’ll go straight on to book #7.