Happy Holidays!

End of the Year Roundup

End of the Year Roundup

This will be my final blog post of 2024. Which… it’s been a YEAR, hasn’t it. Anyhow, time for the end of the year roundup.

Published in 2024

  • Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, book 7)

Outlines in Development

  • Covert Saloon (three book series)
  • The Mentalist’s Cat (series of unknown length)
  • Children of the Swords (Five book series, sequel to Swords of Charlemagne)
  • Men of Mortal Seeming (Book 3 of The Artificer series)
  • Holy Orders (sequel to Heart’s Master)

Works in Outline

  • Iron and Silk (four book series)
  • Midnight Wars (two book series formerly known as Frog and Fae are Friends)
  • Tower of Light (standalone)
  • Flesh and Blood (Books 2 – 5 in a five book series)
  • The Coral Throne (Book 2 of The Sea Prince)
  • The Willow Sword (standalone)

Books in Process

  • Tales from the Arena: King of Swords

Manuscripts in Edits

  • The Sea Prince (The Sea Prince, book 1)
  • Morrigan’s Wrath (The White Raven, book 2)

Books under Consideration

  • Blood Bound (Flesh and Blood, book one)
  • Bonds of Blood and Steel (The Artificer, book 2, sequel to House of Sable Locks)
  • Sapphires and Gold (standalone, I think… there might be another one in this series.)

As of right now, Morrigan’s Heir is looking like an early 2025 release. I don’t have a date yet, but if that shows up before the end of the year, I’ll post it in my socials.

As of right now, I don’t have anything that I’ve committed to in 2025 with the exception of ICFA in March. I’m considering a show in May, but it’s an outdoor venue that would require us to break out the tent, and I’m not sure I’m up for that anymore. There are a couple of things toward the end of the year I know that I want to do, but I don’t have dates yet for them.

Once I’m done with King of Swords, I’ll be taking up one of those works in outline. Possibly The Coral Throne, since I think The Sea Prince will be out in 2025. However, Iron and Silk has been yelling at me (and people who I’ve let see the series plan have also been yelling at me.) It may be time to get to my Venetian-inspired Pirate Princess. It might be both — we’ll see once the current manuscript is done.

i wish you all the best for the end of the year. Be happy. Be healthy. Take some time for yourself if you can. And whatever you celebrate at this time of year, make it the best.

See you in 2025

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

103442 / 150000 (68.96%)

Promotions

It’s time for Smashwords End of the year sale, and everything in my catalog will be 25% off! The sale starts Thursday the 12th and runs until January 1st.

Since my accounts still haven’t been merged yet, I have two Smashwords accounts, so If you want the Heir to the Firstborn books 1 through 6, you can go here. However, if you want Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn 7) or any other of my books, go here.

Posted by EASchechter in 2025 plans, accountability, forthcoming works, Grateful writer is grateful, Happy Holidays!, round-up, Tales from the Arena, The Iron Virgin, The Sea Prince, upcoming books, upcoming work, WIP, wordcount, 0 comments
Cookies!

Cookies!

Today starts the annual Cookiepocalypse! Pictures of cookies incoming! If you want to follow along with the baking this year, be sure to follow my Instagram. There will be five or six types of cookies this year, starting with the non-negotiable, it-isn’t-the-holidays-without-them Three Color Cookies. I’ve written about these cookies, including the recipe if you want to give them a try. They are tradition, and we do not mess with traditions.

The rhythms of the holidays are comforting. We set up the tree yesterday. Baking starts today. Darling Editor will be taking time off, and we’ll do our usual holiday things. Go down to Disney Springs and do the Christmas Tree scavenger hunt and have lunch and shop and maybe go get gluten free beignets. We’ll have far too much fish for Christmas Eve. We’ll watch the Disney parade on Christmas Day, then light the candles for Hanukkah. Usually, by this time of the year, I’m done with writing and taking the time to reset and plan for the new year before I start over in January. Now… well, I’m not done, but I may still take those two weeks off to read and reset and make my plans.

King of Swords is hitting the hinge point in the next chapter, and I’ll need to decide if it’s going to be one book or two. I think I’m just going to keep writing and decide once it’s done, because I already pulled one full chapter out as cool, but you don’t advance the story at all. That, and it revealed something I decided shouldn’t be revealed just yet. I have a feeling there are other scenes in this monster that fall into this category, so once it’s done, I’ll be going back through with a machete and cutting hard.

But that will happen sometime in the new year. For now, I wish all of you Happy Holidays! See you in 2025

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

100628 / 150000 (67.09%)

Promotions

It’s time for Smashwords End of the year sale, and everything in my catalog will be 25% off! The sale starts Thursday the 12th and runs until January 1st.

And because my accounts still haven’t been merged yet, I have two Smashwords accounts. If you want the Heir to the Firstborn books 1 through 6, you can go here. If you want Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn 7) or any other of my books, go here.

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, 2025 plans, baking, Cookiepocalypse, From the Writer's Kitchen, Happy Holidays!, progress, Reading, Tales from the Arena, upcoming books, upcoming work, WIP, wordcount, 0 comments
Cookies Called on Account of Pain.

Cookies Called on Account of Pain.

I’ve had to delay the start of Cookiepocalypse. With my incredible sense of comedic timing, on Day 2 of Cook All the Things, I pulled a muscle in my back badly enough that standing is mind-numbingly painful. Cookies called on account of pain. I should be up to baking later this week or early next week, and I have a list of four cookies so far (there might be one or two more before I’m done. I’ve been challenged to make a coquito shortbread to go with the coquito poundcake….)

There wasn’t a lot of writing last week, because cooking and pain medication don’t add up to a lot of words. Granted, they’re words I’m starting to wonder if I really need, but I think I’m just going to keep going the way I’m going and see how the story falls out. If it needs to be cut, then I’ll cut it in post. If I second-guess myself, I’ll never get done.

The Sea Prince is going to be off to a sensitivity reader today or tomorrow. Writing a character who is a double amputee was more than a little challenging, and I want to be certain that I’ve done it right. If I haven’t, then I need to know what to fix. I’m hoping to have this book out in early 2025, but that will depend on how much work needs to be done when I get it back. Once it’s done and out in the world, I’ll need to start The Coral Throne.

The other thing I need to start is planning for 2025. I know I’ll be at ICFA in March. I’m considering a mall show in May, and that’s about all I have written in warm Jello at the moment. I’ll update the list of appearances as soon as I know where I’ll be.

That’s all for this week. Make sure you check out the books on sale with Stuff with Fantasy!

Special Offer!

Stuff With Fantasy is hosting the December Dash promotion, where you can buy signed books and book bundles directly from indie authors (like me!) I’m already set up with a 25% off coupon on my signed book site for those dates. Use code DECDASH to get the discount, and your books will arrive wrapped, with a gift tag for you to personalize, and with a couple of goodies added for good measure. (Please note: anything purchased this week will be shipping on Monday the 9th, because I’m not up to running to the post office every day this week.)


Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

100602 / 150000 (67.07%)

Appearances

All done for 2024!

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, 2025 plans, accountability, appearances, baking, Cookiepocalypse, forthcoming works, From the Writer's Kitchen, Happy Holidays!, ICFA, Planning, progress, promotions, Tales from the Arena, The Sea Prince, to-dos, upcoming books, upcoming work, WIP, wordcount, 0 comments
Day One of COOK ALL THE THINGS!

Day One of COOK ALL THE THINGS!

It’s Monday of Thanksgiving week, aka Day One of cook ALL THE THINGS! It takes me four days to prepare everything. Today was desserts, and there are now a pumpkin pie and apple pie bars in my refrigerator, and cashew milk ice cream in my freezer. Tomorrow will be mulled cranberry sauce and the sweet potatoes. Wednesday is going to be a DAY — I start out with a dentist appointment. When I get home, it’ll be time to prep the brine for one turkey breast, and the chili rub for the other. I’ll get the brussel sprouts prepped (roast them. Trust me on this. If you roast them, they’re SO GOOD!) And on Thursday, while the turkey is in the oven, I’ll make the salt potatoes and the stuffing (box mix from Katz.)

Too much food? Nah….

And in the meantime, I’ll be working on King of Swords. I’m writing in reverse at the moment — I don’t like the scene I was working on. The timing is off, so I need to backtrack and figure out where it went off the rails and fix it. It’s not a big deal, really. It’s all part of the process. Sometimes, your daily wordcount is in the negative, and that’s fine.

I’m also prepping for a special Holiday sale. From December 2 to the 7th, Stuff With Fantasy is doing a December Dash promotion, where you can buy signed books directly from indie authors (like me!) I’m already set up with a 25% off coupon on my signed book site for those dates. I’ll post the coupon code to my socials over the weekend.

Back to writing backwards.

Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!

Work in Progress

Tales from the Arena: King of Swords
(Tales from the Arena, book 3)

98825 / 150000 (65.88%)

Appearances

All done for 2024!

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, a-writers-life-is-never-dull, accountability, baking, From the Writer's Kitchen, Happy Holidays!, promotions, Tales from the Arena, WIP, wordcount, 0 comments
That’s a Draft!

That’s a Draft!

And at 2AM on Sunday morning, I posted the final wordcount of Valley of Shadows (after increasing it by 3000 words the day before.) That’s a draft, folks.

The Patreon is scheduled out until late January, so I’m projecting a release in early February, but possibly sooner. Once I see how edits go, I’ll have a better idea. I will say that I think the ending is a little weak and fluffy, and it might change. 2AM writing isn’t necessarily quality writing, after all.

Edits will start tonight — I already have my printout and two general notes on things to change. Cookiepocalypse, however… that starts tomorrow, and will continue for the rest of the week.

Last week, I said that I was considering taking the rest of the year off, and I’m going to do that. So this will be the last blog post until the New Year. I’ll still be active on social media — cookie pictures must be shared, after all. But there is one exception — I will no longer be found on Twitter/X. My account will be there, but all that you’ll find there after this week will be a redirect to my other socials. (For the record, Blusky, Mastodon, Facebook and Instagram.) The only reason I’m not deleting entirely is that I don’t want anyone to hijack my name there.

What will I be doing for the next three weeks? Other than baking? Edits. I have to write a blurb. Finalizing the book cover (which you’ll see when the blog comes back.) Business planning, and getting back to my research. And catching up on both reading and TV — I still haven’t seen Loki season 2, and I have to watch the New Who episodes. Basically? I’m refilling my tanks and resting my creative brain.

So, this will be the last message until 2024. Here’s hoping that you have a happy whatever you celebrate, that you hold your loved ones close, and that we all come back together in this virtual space in the New Year.

Love you all.

Works in Progress

Valley of Shadows
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

78617 / 78000 (100.79%)

Now on to edits!

Promotions!

The Smashwords End of the Year sale is coming up December 15th. My ENTIRE self-published catalog will be on sale for 25% off ONLY on Smashwords!

Now, because of the Draft2Digital/Smashwords merger, I have TWO author pages on Smashwords (actually, I have four, but two of them are from publishers and I have no control over those.) The two that I maintain will be combined at some point, but until then, the catalogs that will be on sale are here and here.

Posted by EASchechter in 2024 plans, accountability, baking, Cookiepocalypse, Grateful writer is grateful, Happy Holidays!, Heir to the Firstborn, Patreon, post novel ennui, Ta-da, thirty, upcoming books, upcoming work, Valley of Shadows, WIP, wordcount, 0 comments

Traditions, Stories and Three-Color Cookies

So I wrapped up Cookiepocalypse today. If you haven’t been following me long, you may not have experienced a Cookiepocalypse yet. It’s the time of year when I bake for a solid week, making all the traditional cookies that my mother made, and that her mother made. Pictures go up on my social media, and this year there were process videos in my Tiktok.

Now, why do I do this?

Part of it is tradition — this what we do because this is what we’ve always done. But most of it is connection. These recipes are part of the story of me. This is my history, and it’s a story that I’m passing on to my son, and that I share with you every year.

Let me show you:

 

This is the recipe card for the Three Color cookies that I make every year. I copied this recipe from my mother’s recipe book. Now, if you look at that, you can see it makes NO sense to someone who has never made them before. But I know exactly what this means.

So allow me to translate:

Three Color Cookies

1 can of Solo Almond filling OR 1 box of Solo Almond Paste.*
1 1/2 cup butter (dairy or plant based) softened.
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups flour (I use Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free One-to-One flour)
pinch of salt.
Red, Green and Yellow food coloring
Jam (your choice)
Dark or white chocolate chips 1-2 bags

*If you have a stand mixer, use the almond paste. If you have a hand mixer or no mixer at all, use the almond filling. Trust me on this.

Set your oven to 350 degrees F/177 degrees C.

Put your almond filling or paste into a bowl with your softened butter. Add sugar and mix until fluffy. If using the almond paste, make sure there are no lumps of almond paste left. Mixture should be smooth..

Add eggs one at the time.

Add almond extract.

Slowly add flour and salt. Mix to combine. It will be sticky.

Separate your dough into three equal parts. Color each one — one red, one green, one yellow. I use gel coloring to get a better color, but you can use what you have on hand. I don’t recommend natural colorings, because the color won’t stay when the layers are baked.

Take three 9x13x1 foil pans. (They don’t need to be fancy — I use EZ Foil pans that I got three for a dollar at the Dollar Store maybe ten years ago. Why? Because they work the best.) Line each pan with piece of parchment. Spread your dough evenly in each pan. I find an offset spatula helps for this.

The recipe card says bake until done. Done depends on how thick your layers are, and your oven, but it’s usually about 30 minutes. I rotate the trays at ten minutes, and start testing at 20.

You end up with this:

Let them cool completely, then start the sandwich.

You have your choice of jam here. The very traditional jam is apricot, but you don’t have to use that. I use strawberry. Starting with the green layer, cover with the thin coat of jam. Put the yellow layer on top of the green, and add more jam. Top with the red layer. Yes, in that order. Why? It won’t taste right if you change them. No, I’m not kidding. Also, the layers may crack when you move them. That’s fine.

Wrap the sandwich in plastic wrap, and put into the refrigerator under weights overnight.

The next day, unwrap your layers and melt your chocolate. What chocolate you use and how you melt it is up to you. You don’t want to go too thick, because that makes it harder to cut. (A mistake I make EVERY YEAR!!!!)

Pour your melted chocolate over the top and smooth it down the sides. Use that offset spatula, if you have one. Let the chocolate set until it’s no longer runny, then cut. If you let it set to the point it’s hard, it will crack. Again, mistake I make every year.

Cut into squares. The corners WILL fall apart — those are the cook’s treat.

Keeps in the refrigerator for… well, we always finish them before they go off, so I’m not sure just how long they will keep. They also freeze beautifully.

Three Color Cookies are Love.

If you decide to try these in your house, let me know how they come out!

Now, I’m going to be taking the rest of the year off, so my next blog will be in 2023. Whatever you celebrate this time of year, make it a happy one.

Posted by EASchechter in baking, Cookiepocalypse, From the Writer's Kitchen, Happy Holidays!, 1 comment

C is for Cookie. That’s Good Enough for Me!

Cookiepocalypse 2021 is done, and because my website is being a bit strange today (to go with everything else!) I can’t load the pictures to show you. But I can link to the Instagram hashtag, so you can see all the cookies in their carby goodness!

Writing also happened last week, in and around cookies. I’m now just about at the halfway mark for Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home, and it’s coming along nicely.

Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)

72587 / 150000 (48.39%)

Tomorrow is the day that Table of Stone goes wide — it’s out of KU already, but I give it a day to make sure that Amazon doesn’t get grumpy at me because I had the temerity to put something that’s coming out of KY up before they release it. Not all the bookstores are up in that link yet, but the book will be in ALL the bookstores. Which reminds me — I need to add it to Eden Books.

And it’s either a good thing or a bad thing that there were so many cookies in the house, because last week, in the midst of baking, I made the very difficult decision to walk away from the Romance Writers of America.

No, I’m not talking about it. I’m still processing. I probably will be for a while. But I know that the work I started will go on — I’ve passed all my notes, and all my contacts on, and I’ll be sitting down with my replacement tomorrow. The Romance Education Initiative will go on, so there’s some comfort in that.

But 2022 is going to be an interesting year.

I may not blog next week. We’ll see. If I don’t, then I wish you all the happiest of New Years.

 

Posted by EASchechter in 2022 plans, a-writers-life-is-never-dull, accountability, Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Cookiepocalypse, Happy Holidays!, Happy New Year, Heir to the Firstborn, Release date, sadness, Swords of Charlemagne, Table of Stone, Updatey things, WIP, wordcount, 0 comments

Work in Progress, Week Nineteen: Bones of Earth

Bones of Earth
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 3

50591 / 95000 (53.25%)

 

Coming up on the end of the year, and just over halfway done with Bones of Earth. I don’t expect to get a whole heck of a lot done between now and January 6th, when school starts back up. But once school starts, this will be my primary focus — I need to finish Bones of Earth and get started on Wings of Air, so I can get them both finished and released in 2020.

I have other 2020 plans — writing John Zebedee and the Elf-King’s Son, for one.  That’s due in by December, and it’s supposed to be short — only about 30K (hey, 30K for me is short!) I’d like to have that done well in advance of December, but it is definitely secondary to  finishing Heir to the Firstborn.

Also on my to-do list for 2020 is to go back to Swords of Charlemagne. It’ll either find a home with a publisher somewhere, or I’ll publish it myself. Watch this space to find out which!

Planning out my show schedule for this year, too. Keiser Supercon is already on my list, but the rest of the year is hazy. I’m not sure if Oasis is happening in 2020, so I’m keeping the end of May/beginning of June open for now. Necronomicon is in September this year. And I opted out of Indie Bookfest (now Orlando Reads Books), because they moved to the end of August. Which my son starting high school in the fall of 2020, I thought that having him miss two days of school during that crucial settling in period would be a bad plan. (Yes, I know I could go alone. That’s an awful amount of work without help.)

Also on the horizon is the IAFA conference in March. Which happens to be the same weekend as Keiser Supercon, so I’m probably not going to do more than my usual drop in to pick up Cecilia Tan for our annual lunch date.

The RWA National convention is in August, in San Francisco. I’d like to go, but it is a big maybe for me — as in, only if Written in Water finals for the RITA.

That’s all I have for now. I’ll see what else I can pick up for 2020 for in person appearances. For now, you can find me here.

 

 

 

Posted by EASchechter in 2020 plans, Best laid plans, Best planned lays, Bones of Earth, forthcoming works, Happy Holidays!, Heir to the Firstborn, John Zebedee, Keiser SuperCon, Necronomicon, round-up, Self-publishing, Swords of Charlemagne, Wings of Air, 0 comments

Ummm… hi…

Been absent a while.  Part of it was that right after I finished writing Written in Water, and immediately after I printed the manuscript for editing, my laptop died. Near as we can tell, the motherboard went, and took the SSD with it. When we took the SSD and mounted it in another computer, there was no there there.  I had just backed up my files, so I didn’t lose anything but some old emails (because I had to forget to back up just one thing…)

I’m now on my new baby — a very nice Lenovo Thinkpad. My first writing computer was a Thinkpad, and it lasted seven years and five novels. The two Dells I’ve had since then? Not so much. (The one that just fried was not even two years old. A refurb, so no warranty.)

While waiting for the new laptop, I finished my read-through on Written in Water, passed it on to another editor, and now have all the edits and suggestions back. I’ll be incorporating those in to the manuscript, and hope to have an ebook ready to go by Valentines Day.

There was also this holiday… I can say that the extra ticket events like Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party are indeed worth it.

There were treat stations (sadly, not much was offered that was both gluten free AND chocolate free, but when I spoke to Guest Relations about that, they comped us some lovely treats from the Confectionary). They also pulled out all the stops for the fireworks, and (according to a certain young man of my acquaintance) launched everything but the cow! It was daylight-bright in Fantasyland at 10PM.

I can say that I have a new favorite restaurant in the Magic Kingdom — Skipper’s Canteen is a MUST. The food is much more interesting than anywhere else in this park, and the schtick reminds me of the late-lamented Adventurer’s Club. For example, I had the Sustainable Fish (Not Pirhana). It SAYS that on the menu!

So, what am I up to now? Well, the synopsis of Forged in Fire is almost done. I’m just about to the big reveal, which leads directly to the black moment that will lead us into Bones of Earth. I’ll be starting Forged in Fire probably in a week or so, so there might not be a break in the action over on Patreon once Written in Water ends. I’m gearing up to start Table of Stone, too, so I can bring Swords of Charlemagne to a close. I’ve got a busy 2019 ahead, and I can’t wait!

And that’s where I am in my little corner of writer land.

Posted by EASchechter in 2019 plans, a-writers-life-is-never-dull, Adavar, Elemental Project, Forged in Fire, Happy Holidays!, Heir to the Firstborn, Patreon, progress, Swords of Charlemagne, Table of Stone, thinking thinky thoughts, Updatey things, Written in Water, 0 comments

Odds and ends

No round up on words today. If you missed it, I finished Ashes and Light two days ago. The first draft is off to my editor, and we’ll see how this goes.

I haven’t done much on Written in Water for the past two days, simply because my “I finished the book” house cleaning is coinciding with my “Thanksgiving!” house cleaning and food prep. Yesterday was shopping, and today I started cooking. So for most of today, my house smelled like mulled cranberry sauce.

This does not suck.

More prep and cleaning tomorrow through Wednesday, with some writing in between, I think. I’m coming up to my last big black moment in book one. Then comes the denouement, and  making sure I know where I’m going for book two. Over on Patreon, the story is just about at the halfway point, which means that the scenes I’m writing now won’t show up there until sometime in January 2019.  There’s still time to catch up, and be guaranteed a copy of at least the ebook once it’s available.

(hint-hint-hint)

 

Posted by EASchechter in 2018 plans, Adavar, Ashes and Light, Elemental Project, forthcoming works, Happy Holidays!, Heir to the Firstborn, Swords of Charlemagne, Ta-da, upcoming books, upcoming work, WIP, Written in Water, 0 comments