2023 plans

Nov

2022

First Day of Taking a Break

I’m not counting last week as taking a break, because I spent all week cooking. A little relaxing — I do enjoy cooking — but not exactly restful.

I did start on my “I need to catch up on reading/watching all the things I’ve missed.” However, I started slow. I caught up on Tasting History with Max Miller, and I watched (and was very unsatisfied by) Behind the Attraction: Haunted Mansion. (they kept stressing how if an attraction works, then you don’t change it, but completely fail to mention the major renovations and changes made to the Haunted Mansion in Florida in the early 2000s.) Then I watched the first episode of Lost Treasures of Rome, which was fantastic! I need to watch the rest of that series.

I’m also into a new book for my Imaginative Anthropology project. I finished The Art of Being Human by Michael Wesch while on jury duty, but hadn’t had a chance to pick up the next book on the pile, which is Folklore 101, by Dr. Jenna Jorgensen. I started it yesterday, and I can already tell that this is going to be pivotal in showing the role that creating folklore has in worldbuilding, and how much of effective worldbuilding rests on having a solid foundation in your world’s folklore.

(insert anthropology geeking here…)

Cookiepocalypse is coming up soon, and I still am not entirely sure what I’m making. I’m trying to keep it reasonable this year. Three color cookies are definitely on the menu, and a white chocolate oatmeal cookie (because I found dairy free white chocolate chips and may have bought too much…) I’m not sure what else. Maybe chocolate chip cookies? Maybe? But I’m the only one who can eat them so not a lot of those. Biscotti? Maybe those, too.

Trying to be reasonable is hard.

I’ll be doing a deep dive into my office and cleaning it up. There’s a lot of stuff in my office closet that should not be there, and if I can get that out, I can get the show supplies out from under the day bed and make them more accessible. But that might also take the rest of my break.

And in the meantime, The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath is buzzing away in the back of my head. I have ideas and scenes that are going to be coming up, but they have to wait until January. I’m refilling my tanks.

Nov

2022

It’s Still Monday.

So this totally counts as a Monday blog. Right?

Children of Dreams is now out, and I am officially taking a break until the end of the year. I’m holding The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath until January. I intend to spend the next month refilling my creative bucket, planning for next year, working on some edits, and doing some research.

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath
(The White Raven, Book 2)

19677 / 90000 (21.86%)

Now, that being said, what am I doing?

Cleaning my house, that’s what. While doing my pre-Thanksgiving prep.

I’m both tired and bonkers. But the house has to be clean before guests arrive, and I have to have something to feed them, so there you go.

I am a little worried, though. My turkey has been in the refrigerator since last Wednesday, and it’s still a 16lb block of ice. I need to it thawed by the day after tomorrow so I can brine it. So… ummm… that’s a thing. And the guest of honor for Thursday’s dinner may need to have a long soak in the bathtub tomorrow.

I’m very pleased with the reception that Children of Dreams has had over the past week — the first review hit two days after the book released, and the reviewer loved it! It is, I think, a satisfying ending to the series, to know that readers are loving it.

It’s a good way to end the year.

Now, Cookiepocalypse is coming, so I will still be blogging. But the writing year is over for 2022. And it was a good one. Weird, but good.

On to 2023?

Nov

2022

Worlds Begin. Worlds End.

And tomorrow, the world of Adavar ends. At least for now. I can’t think of any other stories that will be told in the world of Heir to the Firstborn, but that might change. I don’t think they will involve any of the current characters, though. Their story wraps tomorrow.

(click the graphic to go to the Amazon series page)

It’s strange. When I first started this series, it was supposed to be four books. If you’ve been with me long enough, you’ll remember me talking about how there was too much story for four books, so I was going to add a fifth one. And… yeah. Six books. Characters who REALLY got under my skin — I still say Owyn is my favorite out of all the characters that have walked out of my subconscious.

And it’s all over tomorrow. My part in it, anyway. Now it’s your turn, oh Reader.

(I will say that there’s one character who’s sort of poking at me, but I don’t know what they want yet. If they tell me, then there might be some more Adavar. But until they start doing more than a mental “I’m not touching you!” I’m going to ignore them and focus on Lorcan.)

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Heir
(The White Raven, Book 1)

18418 / 90000 (20.46%)

Now here’s an amusing tidbit. I wrote The White Raven: Morrigan’s Heir a few years before I started Heir to the Firstborn. And there’s a character in Morrigan’s Heir who I now need to give a new name.

That was the first time I used the name Owyn. And he’s nothing like Heir’s Owyn, who is so much of a strong character and strong voice in my brain that the name Owyn is now being retired.

So when you finally meet Bran in Morrigan’s Heir, his name was originally Owyn.

And, with the Heir to the Firstborn coming to a close, I’ve made an executive decision.

I’m taking the rest of the year off. I need to reset and recover from what’s been a heck of a year, so I’m taking some time off. I have books that are piling up to read, research I want to do, movies I want to watch, and my house needs cleaning. I need to plan for 2023, and set my goals. Oh, and Cookiepocalypse is right around the corner! So I’ll be taking my winter break early, and I’ll pick up Morrigan’s Wrath in January.

You may now open book on if I can actually make it to January without writing new words.

Oct

2022

This is Halloween.

Sitting here today in my witchy tights, wearing a tarot card t-shirt. There are pumpkins in the living room, and a metric ton of candy that I can’t eat. The soundtrack for today includes Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, and my son went to school today wearing a colander on his head….

Yup. It’s Halloween.

I really do feel for the teachers today and tomorrow. Today they have excited kids looking forward to tonight (assuming that they didn’t do one of the many trunk-or-treat events this past weekend.) Tomorrow they’ll have exhausted, sugar-buzzed kids who will NOT want to do a durn thing.

Tonight, we’ll get the table set up in the driveway, and for the first time in two years, I’ll dress and go sit outside to give out candy. (Yes, I will be masked.) I need to put new batteries in my lightsaber.

Boy, that’s a string of words that I never before thought about putting together in that order.

For now, though, I’ve done my usual Monday things. Yoga. PT. Done the dishes. Need to put together a grocery order, but that’s for once I’m done with the blog post. And then there will be words. Hopefully, all the words before I have to head out to school, because I doubt I’ll get much done outside.

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath
(The White Raven Duology, Book 1)

11204 / 90000 (12.45%)

***

The Sea Prince
(The Sea Prince, Book 1)

39892 / 120000 (33.24%)

Preorders are still open for Visions in Smoke and Children of Dreams. Visions in Smoke comes out November 8th, and Children of Dreams on November 15th. The paperback for Children of Dreams in also available for preorder wherever you buy print books. And I’m still trying to get my brain around the series being complete. It’s still very strange.

John Zebedee is still ongoing over on Vella, and if you’re a Prime member, they’re giving away tokens. Today is the last day to claim 200 tokens to use to read anything in the Vella library (since I told you, I hope you’d read mine! But it’s cool if you don’t.) I haven’t started the process on getting a cover for The Chronicles of John Zebedee, but that will be soon, and I’ll have the collected works up in March of 2023. That’s about all I know for the 2023 publishing schedule at the moment.

That’s about it for this week. See you next time!

(And for those who were curious? Yes, witchy tights. They’re sparkly. Got them from Snag.)

Oct

2022

Time is a concept and I don’t believe in it!

That title is a phrase my son has started saying, usually when we remind him that something has to be done by a certain date or time. At this moment, I’m pretty certain that time is a purely theoretical concept. If it was actually a thing, I wouldn’t have this much to do in a day, and I’d be getting a heck of a lot more sleep!

Preorders are live on Amazon for Visions in Smoke and Children of Dreams. They’re live everywhere else for Visions in Smoke, but I’m only halfway done with final edits on Children of Dreams, so it won’t be live in preorder anywhere but Amazon until next week (I can use a placeholder file on Amazon. I can’t do that anywhere else.)

I realized something this morning. The first four books of Heir to the Firstborn were updated in such a way that people who bought the books could just download the updates. You can’t do that with Visions in Smoke, because it’s NOT Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads. It’s a whole new book, with some major changes. But there are people who bought Crossroads, and who shouldn’t have to buy it again because I edited things.

SOOOO…. what I’m going to do is take care of you. If you bought Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads, email me via the contact me page. Answer two questions, and I’ll send a copy of Visions in Smoke to you. What two questions?

1. The Progress meets a group on the road the day they leave the Palace. What’s the name of the headman?

2. What’s the name of Othi’s horse?

You also have to tell me what format you want. So, three questions.

I’m working slowly on The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath, and procrastinating on The Sea Prince.

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath
(The White Raven, Book 2)

4909 / 90000 (5.45%)

***

The Sea Prince
(The Sea Prince, Book 1)

39892 / 120000 (33.24%)

Now, it’s still slow going, but that brings us back to the whole “if time were real, I’d have more of it…” There aren’t enough hours in the day for me to do everything that needs to be done.

What? So maybe do less?

Yeah, that’ll never work.

I’m tossing around the idea of a writing retreat for the beginning of 2023, so I can do a hard reset. Go off for a weekend so I can do nothing BUT write. And sleep. (Oh, and let’s be wild and maybe get a massage!)

It’s a lovely idea.

Oct

2022

Cover Reveal!

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you saw these on Friday. (If you’re not… well, you could be. There’s a sign-up widget either to the right, or down below this post, depending on if you’re using an laptop or a mobile device.)

Anyway… Patreon patrons saw these first, newsletter subscribers got them Monday, and now here’s the big, wide reveal of the final two covers of the Heir to the Firstborn series!

I think Visions in Smoke is my new favorite of my covers. Preorders for both books are open now on Amazon, and will be coming shortly everywhere else. Click the covers to be taken to the preorder.

The other big announcement that went out on Friday was that Riverdale Avenue Books has acquired The White Raven: Morrigan’s Heir! Okay, blog readers knew that two weeks ago — sometimes, there is a benefit to following both the blog and the newsletter, since the blog is weekly and the newsletter is once a month.

As usual with me and writing historical fantasy, I have to look things up. A lot. So this week, my topics have been Roman medicine, surgical techniques (including the use of fibulae to close wounds!) and what would Cretic wine have tasted like (Cretic wine being wine laced with opium.) And I’m not even done with chapter one!

(Yeah, I’m not done with chapter one after two weeks. The writing has been slow.)

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath

2859 / 90000 (3.18%)

***

The Sea Prince
(The Sea Prince, book 1)

39655 / 120000 (33.05%)

In other news, the final part of the Chronicles of John Zebedee went live on Kindle Vella this morning. John Zebedee Meets the Witch Queen of the Elvenlands is a long one, and will run until the end of January. Amazon is currently running a promotion where you can read 100 episodes a day for free. It ends tomorrow, so if you want to read the first two parts of John Zebedee, you can find Heir to the Elvenlands here, and Monstrous Town here.

Oh, me, will you look at the time? It’s right at this moment 1:30 PM and I have to leave in twenty minutes. That’s all for this week. Stay safe, everyone.

Sep

2022

I Have An Excite!!!

Why am I excited? Because Friday, this happened:

I had NO idea that the release date was Friday, or I’d have said something sooner!

Now, this new edition contains two bits of new material. The first is old new — I wrote The Ice Raven for the Princes of Air launch ten years ago, and it was serialized on the Circlet Livejournal. It’s never before been available for sale.

The second new bit of material is an exciting announcement, because you get a sneak peak at the first chapter of The White Raven: Morrigan’s Heir… coming in 2023 from Riverdale Avenue Books!

Lorcan finally gets his own books! Two of them — I’m starting The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath today. (That was the mystery synopsis I was working on a few weeks back.)

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath

0 / 90000 (0.00%)

***

The Sea Prince
(The Sea Prince, book 1)

37782 / 120000 (31.49%)

Yes, I am still going to be working on The Sea Prince.

In other writing news, I finished the rewrite of Children of Dreams, and I’ll be setting up a preorder for that and Visions in Smoke this week. I’ll post links to those on all the social media once they’re up. Bones of Earth went live last week, and is updating everywhere. Not sure what’s happening with the paperbacks — they’re listed as publishing, but Amazon hasn’t updated to the new information, and Barnes and Noble is still listing the old prices. Remember, if you find books with the old covers, it’s the old content.

Not much else to share, and I need to get on getting on to writing.

Have a great week!!!

Sep

2022

This Is Getting to Be a Habit

I used to post this blog early on Monday. Maybe one of these weeks, I’ll get back to doing that again.

This is not that week. Today has been a very Monday-ish Monday, and about midday, I hit the “No spoons, ONLY KNIVES!!!” point. I’m a little less frazzled now, but I still have this blog post to write and two more chapters of Children of Dreams to rewrite.

Speaking of that, I’m about halfway complete with the rewrite on Children of Dreams. I still think it will be ready for the November sale date. but I’m not setting up the preorder until I hand the book off to Darling Editor. Which I hope will be sometime next week.

The new edition of Forged in Fire went up for sale this week, and the ebooks look like they’re available almost everywhere. Paperbacks appear to be rolling out, too — Barnes and Noble says they have the new paperbacks, and Amazon has the new cover but the old book blurb. If you order and get a copy with the old cover, that’s the old content, too. Same with Written in Water.

I should have Bones of Earth ready to go sometime late this week or early next.

I love these covers, but you won’t get to see my FAVORITE until we hit book 5. Which I’m not showing you yet.

John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town is starting to wind down — there are two chapters left to go in this middle part of The Chronicles of John Zebedee. Then we hit the final portion — John Zebedee Meets the Witch-Queen of the Elvenlands, which will take us through to the end of the year. And at some point I have to give all of these images to a cover designer for the collected Chronicles of John Zebedee. Which may include bonus material, but I haven’t decided yet. I’d have to write it, and writing brain is still not entirely functional.

Proof that I’m LOUSY at marketing is that I’ve been completely forgetting to promote the collected Rebel Mage ebook, which will be coming out on October 4th! This will be Amazon only, and includes Counsel of the Wicked, Haven’s Fall and Where Home Lies.

There are still eleven days to go grab the updated Written in Water for FREE through the Fantasy Frenzy. Click the image and grab a pile of free books. Did I mention they’re free?

Back to the revision grindstone. Catch you all next week, with hopefully some new news to share!

Sep

2022

Late Post is Late

It’s been a Monday. That’s my reason and my excuse. Monday. That and I’ve been busy!

Written in Water is now up for sale with the new cover and edits. If you see an electronic copy with the old cover, it’s the old version. There shouldn’t be any vendor with the old covers anymore, except in paperback.

The updated paperbacks will be coming in November. That will, I hope, give vendors a chance to sell out of the old stock. I hope.

The rest of the Heir to the Firstborn series are not available for sale. That’s so people don’t buy the old copies expecting new updates. I’ll be relisting them as the new edits are completed and run through my editor. Forged in Fire will be coming in the next two weeks or so.

Today, I finished the edits for Visions in Smoke, so I’m now onto the rewrites for Children of Dreams.

I have updated the giveaway to include the revised edition of Written in Water. So… want it free? Go here!

And in other news…. I’ve just approved the final proof of the anniversary edition of Princes of Air. The cover is ready. There’s bonus material. I can’t wait!!!! SOON!!!!

Boy, I cannot WAIT to see Princes of Air on the table at a convention next year! It has never before been available in print.

I think that’s all. And even if it isn’t, it’s late (for me, yes, this is late.)

Sep

2022

Now.

This is basically where I live these days. Now. I’m not really thinking more than a week in advance, because so much can change in a week. So, I live in the now. The future? That’s Future-Liz’s problem. Now-Liz has enough to deal with.

As you might imagine, this makes planning anything… interesting. I’m still sitting down with my planners on Sunday, but I’m not looking any farther out than the following Sunday. Meal plans? Those are suggestions that may or may not happen (especially since my oven has decided it’s going on strike, and replacing a gas oven? That’s an interesting undertaking…)

On the upside, I’ll have an all new oven for Cookiepocalypse, when Future-Liz gets to that point. On the downside, I won’t have a new oven in time for next Sunday dinner. See why meal plans are suggestions?

So what’s happening in the now?

I’ve finished my read-through of the first four Heir to the Firstborn books, and passed them on to Darling Editor. New editions of the books will be going live in the next month or so, leading up to the release of Children of Dreams in November. I’ve updated the covers on the website, but I won’t be updating the covers in Goodreads or on any sale sites until the new content is available. Then I’ll do them all in one swell foop.

Today I start the read-through and rewrite on Visions in Smoke, which means that I should get into the read-through and rewrite of Children of Dreams sometime next week. At that point, I’ll probably set up the preorder for Children of Dreams. I’ll keep you posted on that.

Also in the now, I’ve confirmed that I can’t package and sell a book of compiled Vella episodes until 30 days after the last episode goes live. So that means that The Chronicles of John Zebedee will be an early March release, and I need to engage my cover designer at some point soon.

I’m doing another newsletter builder giveaway this month, with copies of Written in Water up for grabs, along with 30 other titles. Click the graphic to go over and see what’s available, and enter to win a $25 gift card.

I’ve gotten back into researching Imaginative Anthropology, but it’s hard to focus on even non-fiction at the moment. And I’m working on new edits on Swords of Charlemagne for Book View Cafe,

At some point, I may tell you what’s going on behind the scenes on this end, and WHY I’m so distracted. But right now, I don’t have permission from the others involved. Until that happens? You just get to know that there’s a lot of things happening here, and even vague good thoughts are appreciated.

2023 plans

First Day of Taking a Break

It’s Still Monday.

Worlds Begin. Worlds End.

This is Halloween.

Time is a concept and I don’t believe in it!

I Have An Excite!!!

This Is Getting to Be a Habit

Late Post is Late

Works in Progress

Appearances

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