Road Map

From our valleys, there are many mountains to climb…

Thank you for visiting this page which tracks highlights in the Valley of Writers journey and the plans I have for Valley of Writers. It is constantly evolving and changing.

Open skies,
Fungai

Where we’re going…

March 2022

The Iz Mazano Challenge Round 1 Begins (Originally set for May 2021)
Best Tools for Writers on the web Launch
Launch of video series (Originally set for May 2021)
Agency4W Beta Launch – Cancelled
Interview series with authors begins
Launch of Author Intel Newsletter
Launch of Valley of Writers Inspiration Shop
Launch of first online course (Originally set for June 2021)
Merch4A Training Begins
PR4A Training Begins
Work on NEW starts
Launch of writers support group (Rescheduling this. TBA)

June 2022

Launch of Tools4W
The Iz Mazano Challenge Round 1 Ends

November 2022

2023 Planning Retreat

December 2022

Full launch of LTB

May 2023

First Valley of Writers Conference. Still to be named. Still to be themed.

Where we’ve been…

January 2020

Started building Valley of Writers website
(Jan 12. First Instagram Post)

February 2020

Covered our (Royal ‘our’ ;-)) first literary event as Valley of Writers. LitFest 2020 at Amherst College. Photographed Jesmyn Ward, Laila Lalami, Susan Choi, and Karen Skolfield, among others. I’m excited to be working on an arts/tech/content project again.

March 2020

Lockdown. COVID-19 has us all sent home indefinitely

June 2020

Launched Beta Version of website

August 2020

There was no response to our first call for interns sent out in June. Will try again next year.

December 2020

New branding complete. To be included in new site and all social media and comms.
Working on the new site is taking longer than expected. Still at it.
Started working on the basement office/studio. DIY project. Plan is to paint walls, put in a ceiling, new lights and get as much of the required tech as possible in preparation for online interviews, recording of videos, etc.

February 2021

Launch of new Valley of Writers website (Feb 16)

April 2021

Launch of The Ultimate Book Launch Checklist. Backend pre-launch of LTB.
Currently traffic to the site is really low. Less than 100 visits per month. Not unexpected as I haven’t done much promo work. I’ve been focussing a lot on the backend and functionality. Working on a strategy for traffic, social media, mailing list and content. Also working on a plan to get freelance contributors.

May 2021

Launch of Questions Writers Ask (Planned launch Date: May 2021)
My first experiment with a freelance contributor didn’t go so well. Found someone on Fiverr. Article was good, but too generic.

June 2021

LitStream now fully functional
Kicked-off daily site content updates
June 8. Launched Hot Events for Writers
June 22. Launched Quicktakes
June 23. Created first Valley of Writers pin.

July 2021

Launched Links for Writers

September 2021

Online Events for Writers section now fully functional. Over 30 free virtual events uploaded. More going up.
We’re retiring the Power Tools for Writers section since we now upload tools to Links for Writers. We’ll just introduce a ‘power tools for writers’ tag to connect these and make them easy to find.