Jay Olsen-Thrift

It’s been a few months since I’ve written anything longer than an Instagram caption, that wasn’t part of my book series. I locked in from October 2024 through February 2025 to write book 2 in my fantasy trilogy, THE FROZEN STEPPE and I am very proud to announce that I’ve finished writing the book.

So, what next? Probably the longest to-do list ever.

Turns out, writing the book wasn’t the hard part.

BUT I am so excited to keep the momentum rolling in 2025. Now that I have a complete draft of THE FROZEN STEPPE, I’m moving onto editing and beta reading. I’ll be doing a first (technically second) pass through the book as I reread both THE WHISPERING PASS and THE FROZEN STEPPE, to ensure there’s solid continuity and pacing. I also have a few friends who will be reading through the book to give me their first impressions, and then work any potential feedback into the draft. At the end of March, I’ll be handing it off to my editor, who will do the Professional Stuff™ to make the book read, sound, and flow good.

And that’s just the prose itself. I’m also working with a fantasy digital artist to create book covers for all three books in the trilogy.

“But Jay”, you say, “THE WHISPERING PASS already has a cover, and you haven’t even started writing [Untitled Third Installment] yet!”

Hah hah hah, this is all according to plan, my dearest reader. I always knew I wanted to work with a professional artist to design book covers for my trilogy. The current cover for THE WHISPERING PASS was something I pulled together to get the book published and have something tangible in my hands as quickly as possible. To be honest, I was actually planning on redoing the covers after the entire trilogy was complete, but I got lucky with finding a wonderful human being in the past couple of months, and I’m very excited for our collaboration together.

So with that announcement, I will also be republishing THE WHISPERING PASS this summer. It will include a brand new cover, minor edits in the text, and a complete character list in the back of the book. I’ll be starting an ARC recruitment campaign in the near future, and actually do all of those “pre-publishing hype train” things I should have done last year. It’s never too late to do things properly, right?

If you’re interested in receiving an Advanced Reader’s Copy of THE WHISPERING PASS and/or THE FROZEN STEPPE, get in touch with me on Facebook or Instagram.

Some other very fun things that you get to hear about here first, before any other social media platform, is that I will be attending (and hosting) several events this year!

Saturday, March 22 I’ll be hosting a Worldbuilding class at Rêve Coffee and Books in Hixson, TN. More details will be posted in the coming days, but I’m really excited to host my first writing event. Over the course of one hour, I’ll be taking the attendants through a crash course on how to bring the world of their stories to life and become Worldbuilding Wizards.

Saturday, September 27 I’ll be a vendor at the Night of Enchanted Realms in Dalton, GA hosted by Moonlit Productions. This one is obviously several months out, but I plan on having copies of both THE WHISPERING PASS and THE FROZEN STEPPE available for purchase, along with some other trinkets, baubles, and curiosities I can create between now and then.

You will also be able to find me at Rêve Coffee and Books and The Crazy Book Lady later in the year for book signings once TWP and TFS have been published.

And I guess I’ll also try to find time to finish the trilogy, so I don’t pull a GRRM… 2025 is going to be one hell of a year.