Forged in Fire

Nov

2023

Changes in Altitude

This week’s blog is being written in my family room instead of my second floor office, which is why the title today is changes in altitude. I didn’t say they were BIG changes.

I’m downstairs because I’m monitoring the pumpkin crisp that I’m making for Thursday and Thanksgiving. (And I wish you could smell it. It’s AMAZING. Hrm… I know what recipe I’ll be putting in the next newsletter!) I’m on the last few bits of prep. All the shopping is done, the turkey is in the fridge and (I think) defrosted. Tomorrow I’m making apple pie bars and apple muffins for breakfast while we watch the parade, and I’ll take the sides I made and froze last week out of the freezer. Wednesday I’ll be putting the turkey into the brine and making stuffing. On the day, the turkey will get roasted, and the sides will all be heated up (the only one that’s actually going to be cooked on the day are the roasted green beans.)

Surprisingly, the writing has been going well, even in and around shopping and cooking and cleaning and way too many other things. And given where I am in the story, I’m projecting maybe another four chapters before I bring Valley of Shadows and Heir to the Firstborn to a close.

Wait… Valley of Shadows?

Yes. The Patrons have spoken, and the new title of Balance of Power is Valley of Shadows. The Patreon will still say Balance of Power, because I’m not going back to change all the previous chapters or the tags, but it’s all good. When the book comes out, it’ll be Valley of Shadows. And since it may very well be done before the end of the year, I’m going to rethink that March/April release date and move it up to something closer to the end of January/beginning of February. We’ll see how the editing goes, especially since I may be juggling Cookiepocalypse, edits for Valley of Shadows AND edits for Morrigan’s Heir!

Speaking of the Patreon, last week I got the sad news that one of my original Patrons passed away after a sudden illness. They had been a friend for years, even before I started Heir to the Firstborn, and they were part of the Patreon since I started the entire thing and it was still all called “The Elemental Project.” Valley of Shadows will be dedicated to them.

The final bit of news this week is that copies of Written in Water are back in Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, FL. They’ve just reopened in a larger space, closer to the historic district. If you’re doing holiday shopping in the Sanford area, shop small and local, and check out Spellbound!

Works in Progress

Valley of Shadows
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

59057 / 90000 (65.62%)

New Release!

Wait, a new book on a MONDAY? I thought books dropped on Tuesdays!

Usually? They do. Because I can’t read a calendar, you get a new book a day early!

Snowbound — because brown paper packages aren’t the only things getting tied up…

Preorders are live wherever you buy books

Promotions!

First in Series Friday is THIS WEEK! Friday, November 24th (Black Friday in the US), the first books in Heir to the Firstborn, Rebel Mage, and Swords of Charlemagne will be on sale everywhere for 99 cents.

Then, on Cyber Monday, the sale continues! The Cavalcade of Authors will be holding a huge Cyber Monday sale, and for that sale, I’ll be adding in Forged in Fire AND Bones of Earth! To know when the link goes live for this one, you need to sign up for my newsletter. There will be one blast email on the morning of the 27th, letting you know the link is live.

Oct

2023

Tenth Anniversary!

I have to lead with this gorgeous thing — the tenth anniversary cover for House of Sable Locks…

Isn’t he LOVELY???

This went live sometime over the weekend, and I missed it until this morning, when I received a spam email from a book promoter about my “new book” House of Sable Locks.

That’s very much William… which is funny because that particular model is also on the cover of Infernal Machine! Clearly, the art director and I have similar tastes in steampunk cover models.

The tenth anniversary cover is still going out to all the booksellers and isn’t yet up everywhere. If you want one now, you can get it directly from the publisher.

In other news, I got the news this week that Written in Water was cut from SPFBO, and will not be continuing on in the contest. The reviewer was incredibly positive about the book, and loved the series as well. Really, I can’t complain — the entire experience has been amazing from start to finish. You can read the review here.

In and around working on The Sea Prince and Balance of Power, I’m planning out what the next book will be. Part of that depends on one thing that is out of my control — which books that are out for consideration sell. If I don’t have an answer for that by the time I finish with either of the two books I’m working on now, then I think the next thing I will write will be either The Iron Virgin (aka Pirate Princess), or Tower of Light (aka gay steampunk retelling of Metropolis). I’m not sure which, because it all depends on which one yells at me the loudest.

It’s hard to believe I’ve been doing this whole full-time writer thing over ten years now. What a trip this has been! I have to say, it’s not getting old — I love every minute of it!

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

63523 / 120000 (52.94%)

Balance of Power
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 7)

34357 / 90000 (38.17%)

Promotions!

A new Cavalcade of Authors promo is coming this week, from October 13th through the 15th. Again, 200 books or more free for download. For this one, I’ve put both Written in Water AND Forged in Fire into the pot.

There’s also a single day event on October 27th, hosted by Stephanie Freeman. You can find more information on that and sign up here. For that event, you can grab free copies of The Chronicles of John Zebedee!

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.)

Aug

2022

Summer’s End

Yes, I know the rest of the world still has about a month or so of summer left, but in WriterLiz world, this is the end of summer. School starts this week, and I get back to a regular writing schedule. As much as I ever have a regular schedule.

I’ve been working on The Sea Prince in fits and starts (more fits than anything else, because we went on vacation.) I may have to shelve it soon because there’s something new on the horizon, but for now, it’s been coming together nicely.

The Sea Prince
(The Sea Prince, book 1)

36345 / 120000 (30.29%)

What’s on the horizon? Can’t tell you yet. But it’s exciting and that news will come to you as soon as I can share it.

I’m working on new edits on the Heir to the Firstborn series, too. Those will be coming out with new edits and new covers sometime next year. I have all the covers, and they are GORGEOUS and amazing, and I can’t wait to share those. But they’re not being shared until we get closer to the new release dates. I’m currently working on new edits for Forged in Fire, and I have a printout of Children of Dreams (formerly The Way Home) to edit for a Patron release in November. No, that one won’t be going wide until it goes wide through Book View Cafe. So if you want to see how the story ends before next year sometime? Go check out my Patreon.

We’re into the second part of The Chronicles of John Zebedee on Kindle Vella. Chapter 4 of John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town just went live today. I need to start thinking about a cover for the book, which will come out early next year — Vella requires that you wait some period of time after the last episode goes live before collecting episodes as a book. I need to look up how long — I want to say three months, but that may not be right.

I’ve seen the new cover for Princes of Air, and it’s GORGEOUS. I haven’t gotten permission yet to share it, but I’m really excited to show you all. I’m very fond of my original cover, but it’s not on trend anymore. I don’t have a date for the release of the anniversary edition yet, but as soon as I know, you’ll know.

Not much else is happening. At least, not yet. Once Wednesday hit and school starts, I’ll be back to work, and I’ll have new excerpts and wordcounts and news for you.

Until next week!

Mar

2021

Whiplash

Ever had your luck change so fast you get whiplash?

That was me today. Yesterday was a technological mess, to the point that I was ready to throw my laptop away and buy a Mac. I use Libreoffice, a solid, free open source office suite. It does everything that Office does.

Well, almost everything.

In one of the last updates, they managed to break something to the point that saving in .doc or .docx corrupts the files. They become unreadable. I, of course, discovered this when I attempted to upload Ashes and Light to Draft to Digital for formatting.

Cue much thrashing and flailing, and finally purchasing Office. And then discovered that the corruption was embedded in the formatting — I could not copy the text from the .odt file and paste it into a Word document! It locked Word up solid. What I ended up doing was copying the text from the .odt to Google Docs, then copying from Google Docs to Word. Which somehow fixed the formatting issue and it worked.

And then I ripped Libreoffice out by the roots.

But tell me again how technology makes your life easier…

Flash forward to this morning. File uploads like a dream, preorder is ready, print proof is ordered, and I go do my morning yoga. When I pick my phone up again, T-Mobile is reminding me that it’s Tuesday, so I should go check out my free stuff and play the giveaway game. I NEVER win the giveaway game, and as I spun the virtual wheel, I muttered, “I never win this. Why do I do it?”

And promptly won a $5 Visa gift card.

Now, the T-Mobile reminder also reminds me that it is Tuesday, which is when my county releases the new block of Covid vaccination appointments. They changed the criteria YESTERDAY, and I’m eligible for vaccination now. So I log into the vaccine portal…

And score an appointment. I get my first shot next Tuesday.

I think I may need to nip out to play the lottery…

Heir to the Firstborn(Heir to the Firstborn, book 5)

36493 / 150000 (24.33%)

Work continues on Heir to the Firstborn, and I’m ramping up for the release of Wings of Air on the 23rd. How, you ask?

A sale!

Starting next Sunday, and running all week (so, from March 7-13th),

Written in Water will be $1.74 (75% off).
Forged in Fire will be $4.49 (50% off)
Bones of Earth will be $6.74 (25% off)

The sale is already set up in Draft to Digital and Smashwords, but I need to set it manually in Amazon.

In addition, there will be a Kindle Countdown deal on Hidden Things, starting March 14th!

Wings of Air will go on sale everywhere on the 23rd.

Jul

2020

(Insert Witty Title Here)

Maybe I’ll get back to that title. Or maybe not. That’s about the state of my brain this morning.

It’s been a long weekend. Not in a bad way, mind you. In a “it’s a holiday, so people around me are blowing things up.” kind of way. They’re still blowing thing up — I heard fireworks going off as I wrote this sentence, at 12:41 Eastern on Monday the 6th.

Florida tends to go all in on the fireworks, and for DAYS.

We did what everyone else in their right minds did — stayed in, had our own personal barbecue, and watched Hamilton.

Yes, there was ugly crying in Act 2. And I had massive amounts of restrain and didn’t sing along with… well… EVERYTHING.

There wasn’t a heck of a lot of writing. I haven’t actually written a word since Thursday. But last week was still a good writing week

Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

40655 / 120000 (33.88%)

Things are progressing, and I think I might actually get Aria and her Companions out of the city and on their way by the start of the next chapter.

Maybe. I hope.

In other writing news, the deadline for John Zebedee has been pushed back, so I have time to explore the other stories that he’s been whispering in my ear. I’m plotting those out now, and we’ll see where they go. I have on my to-do list to edit the first book this month, and then get into reworking Sea Prince. Once I’m done with that, I’ll dive back in to writing John and Ethriel.

In other, other writing news, there’s a new online bookstore out there — Eden Books. I spent a good bit of my morning getting set up there. We’ll see how it works out.

Also, I’m running a Summer Sale from now until the end of July. Written in Water is marked down to $2.99 on all platforms, and Forged in Fire is $4.50. Running a sale without spending any advertising dollars (because let’s not feed the FB hate machine) is a bit like yelling down a well. The books are on sale, but does anyone know about them?

Well, now you do. And if you don’t already have the first two books? Give them a try! There’s even a shiny new bookstore to check out!

Stay in, y’all. Stay safe. Read more books.

Jun

2020

Progress, and the lack thereof.

Echoes of Light

23004 / 50000 (46.01%)

***Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

20000 / 95000 (21.05%)

I spent most of last week plugging along, arguing with Amazon, doing promo for Bones of Earth, arguing with Amazon, prepping for the RWA Board meeting that happened this past weekend, and arguing with Amazon.

You know, the usual.

Why am I arguing with Amazon? Because the week prior, I did a giveaway of Written in Water, and a sale on Forged in Fire. Now, I can control the sale price, but setting Written in Water for free on Amazon is something only they can do, and only they can change it back. The prices reverted to $6.99 on every other platform last Tuesday. Amazon still hasn’t changed the price back.

Yesterday, I emailed them for the third time and asked them if they were planning on paying me royalties for the books that were downloaded for free after the price was supposed to have reverted. No answer yet.

I think, from here on out, I’ll be doing $.99 sales. Freebies are a pain in the posterior, and I have no control over when Amazon changes things.

(Note — I just went and checked and they’ve FINALLY put Written in Water back to the regular price. Apparently, telling them I expected them to made good on the consquences of their screw-up did something?)

Last week was also the last day of school — I now have a rising 9th grader. High school… eep!

Now, normally, this is the point in my year when I take time off — as much as I ever take time off, anyway. However, Heir to the Firstborn won’t wait. I’m going to keep on working to get Wings of Air up on time. Chapter two just went up on Patreon, and I’m working on chapter seven — I might be doing a little backwards writing on it, though. Owyn is in the kitchen, and whenever he goes to the kitchen, chapters tend start reading like a cooking show. Which is fun, but he’s not supposed to be taking over this book again.

(Owyn: “You only think so.”)

(Me: “Shut up, Mouse.”)

So I need to get out of Owyn’s head and back to Del’s. And I need to wake Treesi up — she’s sleeping in at the point where I am in the book.

Echoes of Light is coming along nicely. I’ve just revealed the big bad, and he’s being big and bad. I’m slightly more than halfway through the book, I think. So we’ll have a short novel (40K), which is good for a box set. I’m hoping to get this to a draft sometime this month. We’ll see how that goes.

And that’s pretty much all here.

It’s in no way everything. There’s a lot going on out there. Lots of fear. Lots of violence. Lots of hate.

I am in no way qualified to talk about it, other than to say this — in my social media, I will amplify the voices of activists, the voices of BLM, the voices of hope and the voices that call for justice. I will use y platform to spread their words, because it is their words that are important here. Not mine.

Stay safe out there.

May

2020

What Day Is It Anyway? Blursday?

Blursday? What day is that?

Well, it’s when you’re not sure what day it is. Actually, I do know it’s Monday. I’m blogging, therefore it’s Monday. Tomorrow, I’ll be doing a Circlet Press writing sprint, therefore it’s Tuesday (or Thursday — it might be Thuesday).

Days run together. Words don’t. The works in progress continue apace.

Echoes of Light

17706 / 50000 (35.41%)

***Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

10634 / 95000 (11.19%)

Bones of Earth drops one week from tomorrow, and I’ve decided to run a sale this week so people can get caught up! You can download Written in Water here, and you can buy Forged in Fire here.

Until the 26th, Written in Water is FREE, and Forged in Fire is 20% off the usual $8.99 ebook price (down to $7.19) The sale is running wherever ebooks are sold, so if you see someplace where Written in Water is not free and Forged in Fire is not $7.19 (or the equivalant 20% off price in non-US markets), let me know so I can fix it!

In other news, edits have come in (and gone back out) on Time for No Mercy, the short story that I sold to Riverdale Avenue Books for their upcoming Sexy Superheroes anthology. No data yet on when it will be coming out. As soon as I know, I’ll let you all know.

There isn’t a lot else happening. We’re wrapping up the end of the school year. Drive through middle school graduation is next week. I’m doing a million things for the RWA. I’m exercising. I’m baking. I’m cooking. The house is spotless.

I’m tired of quarantine, but it really is the only way to stop this damn thing.

Stay in. Stay safe.

See you all virtually next week.

Forged in Fire

Changes in Altitude

Works in Progress

New Release!

Promotions!

Tenth Anniversary!

Works in Progress

Promotions!

I Have An Excite!!!

This Is Getting to Be a Habit

Late Post is Late

Summer’s End

Whiplash

(Insert Witty Title Here)

Progress, and the lack thereof.

What Day Is It Anyway? Blursday?

Works in Progress

Appearances

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