Swords of Charlemagne

Mar

2022

Fitting an entire week into two and a half days

Or at least, I’m trying to.

The International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts starts Wednesday, and I’ve been looking forward to it since i attended the October conference. It’s local, so I’m commuting Wednesday and Thursday, but I’ll be staying on site Friday and Saturday. Which means getting everything I usually do in a week done today, tomorrow, and Wednesday morning. All while trying to make sure I get in some words, finish up some things, do laundry, and pack.

Speaking of words, if you’ve been paying attention to the wordcounter, you might notice a change this week…

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

109552 / 170000 (64.44%)

I bumped the total words for The Way Home. It’s going to be massive, but it’s also going to be complete. There will not be a book seven for Heir to the Firstborn. That thump you heard was my foot going down.

If you haven’t yet started the Heir to the Firstborn series, and you want a low-entry way in, Written in Water is a freebie in the Worlds of Fantasy giveaway, which runs until the end of March. All you have to do is sign up for newsletters, and you also have the chance to win a $20 gift card!

I’m working on some stunt writing — some purely erotic non-speculative BDSM short reads that will be going up in KU under the name E.A. Butcher. The pen name is because this is very different from my existing work. The title of the first one will be Tell Me, and I’ll let you know when it’s available.

In other news, unless there’s a miracle or a sudden, INCREDIBLE boost of pledges in the next six days, the Kickstarter for the audiobooks for Swords of Charlemagne will not fund. In the past week, it’s gone backwards. But I’ve learned a thing or two (or six,) and the next time will be better.

And that’s about everything, I think? Even if it isn’t, I need to go cram some more things into a day that’s already way too short.

See you next week with a conference report and possibly a sale link for Tell Me!

Feb

2022

Who Let It Be Monday Again?

I’m seriously not ready for Monday, y’all. It’s taken me until past 2:00 PM to even come up with that much.

Focus? There’s no focus today. There is only coffee. Well, there was coffee. I finished the coffee. Now there is only tea. (Chocolate Mint “Like-the-Cookie” Oolong, from Plum Deluxe.)

And… well, I’ve bee thinking about writing. But not actually doing it. I have to get these words down before I get those words down. Right?

So here are these words about those words. Those words from last week — of which I had a fantastic word week. Sitting in the car dealership for two hours appears to be my word place — there were twelve pages handwritten in my notebook. Which was fun when it came time to transcribe because my handwriting is… creative. There was a bit of “What the heck does that say?” But it came out to just over two thousand words written in just about two hours.

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

101619 / 150000 (67.75%)

Too bad I only have to take the car in for regular service twice a year. Imagine how fast I’d finish a book if I had to bring it in more often!

I have heard the first sample of the Hidden Things audiobook and I am so excited over this! There were a few little tweaks that needed to be made (Roland sounded too young, for example), so Mark is making adjustments. Once I get the redone sample, I’ll see if I can share it. Reminder –the Kickstarter is still ongoing, and needs to really get up and go if it hopes to fund! So if you’d like to get all four audiobooks read by the incredibly talented Mark Oosterveen, then share and maybe throw something into the hat!

Next week, I’ll be appearing on the These Mums Write podcast, a podcast about supporting mothers in achieving their writing dreams and goals. My interview with show host Jackie Amsden I talk about the Kickstarter, share my experience pushing through fear and breaking boundaries as a sex-positive story-teller and as an introvert navigating the extrovert world of author marketing.

You can find this show on Apple or Spotify.

Today is also the last day to grab books at the Red Hot book giveaway. The last day to grab Hidden Things for free by signing up for my newsletter. The newsletter comes out once a month, on the first Friday.

I feel like there’s something else I’m missing, but I honestly can’t think of it. One of those Mondays, right?

More tea!

Feb

2022

So Busy!!!

This past week feels like I’ve been running from pillar to post all week, and yet I’m not sure I have much to show for it. Strange.

I didn’t get as many words down as I’d have liked, but I did get to write some interesting scenes that revealed once again that my characters keep secrets from me, and only tell me when it’s the right time. If you’ve seen “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” you probably remember the scene where Roger slips the handcuffs? And Eddie demands to know why he couldn’t do it before, only to have Roger reply that he couldn’t do it before. He could only do it when it was funny.

My characters only reveal things when it’s going to complicate the plot. However, I like this complication, so it stays.

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

94275 / 150000 (62.85%)

Then again, I usually like the complications, and they usually stay. My characters have more of a direct line to my subconscious, which is where these stories start. I figure they know what they’re talking about.

The Kickstarter has another month to go, and I really hope it picks up. If you want to see audiobooks produced for the Swords of Charlemagne books, please share the graphic and the Kickstarter link?

Another thing that’s still running is the Red Hot giveaway! You have until the end of the month to grab your free books!

The last thing that I’ve been working on is the revisions on the Rebel Mage books. Counsel of the Wicked and Haven’s Fall are ready, and I’m putting the final polish on Where Home Lies. All of the books will be out this year, with Counsel coming next month, on March 8th! You can preorder now on Amazon — these ebooks will be Amazon exclusives for purchase or for reading through Kindle Unlimited.

I was also interviewed for the These Mums Write podcast, which was an enormous amount of fun. As soon as I know the date that the episode will air, I’ll let everyone know. I think it’s in early March.

Okay, so maybe I did get a lot done last week. And I have even more to get done this week, including attending Boskone virtually this upcoming weekend, and finding out the results of the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewers Choice Awards!

Wish me luck!

Feb

2022

Toss A Coin To Your Writer…

And on this gray and rainy Monday, I’m having a slow start. Sort of like my Kickstarter…

You did know about the Kickstarter, right? To fund all four audiobooks for Swords of Charlemagne, so that we can have the same narrator for all the books?

The Kickstarter has a little over a month left to go, and hasn’t broken 10%. Not going to lie, I’m starting to worry here…

If we don’t make it, there will still be an audiobook for Hidden Things — I’ve already contracted that, and Mark (the narrator) is working on it now. But I’ll be paying him out of pocket for that, which means that I won’t be able to get The Lady and the Sword into production until later this year, which means gambling on Mark’s availability.

So… if having an audiobook series change narrators halfway through annoys you as much as it annoys me? Share the Kickstarter, and maybe throw something into the hat. And if nothing else, go read the updates — I’ve been posting about the visual inspirations for the main characters. So far, I’ve done Turpin/Yael, Roland and Olivier. Margaret is next.

Which I’m on the subject of Swords of Charlemagne, voting is open for the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewer’s Choice Awards. The Lady and the Sword is up for best LGBT Fantasy, and Swords of Charlemagne is up for best LGBT Fantasy Series. Voting is open until February 12th.

I’m now twenty-seven chapters into Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. I think I’ll be pulling this one off as the last book. We’re about to hit a point where I can move them along more quickly, so I think we’re almost to the top of the big hill on the plot roller coaster. I’m debating adding a scene not in the outline (because that never happens. Ever.) I’ll see if it actually fits when I get to that spot.

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

91442 / 150000 (60.96%)

Preorders are up for the re-released of the Rebel Mage series, and the first two books have been finalized. I’m going to get started on the reread and revision of Where Home Lies today. I’ve already made a note of something that came up in one of the earlier books that I never addressed or resolved, and I’ve caught a few places where people leave the same room twice, or say they’re going to go get something, never leave, and then magically have the thing they never went to go get.

It’s interesting, going back and rereading something that I wrote with an eye on republishing it. There are some things that I did then that I wouldn’t do now, or would do differently now. If changing them wouldn’t break the story, I made changes. But for the most part, there’s very little that I’m changing other than editorial goofs that were missed the first time around.

And finally — FREE BOOKS!

Yes, really. The Red Hot book giveaway is ongoing for this entire month. Nineteen books either free to download entirely, or as a sample. Go check it out!

And that’s where things are in this neck of the woods. Plugging along until next week!

Jan

2022

That was Quick

Tomorrow is February.

How did THAT happen?

Part of it was that last week was a blur — I was sick for a few days of it, and then it was over. It wasn’t anything major, and I’m fine. But time and words both ceased to exist.

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

87541 / 150000 (58.36%)

Not quite as many words as I’d have liked, but there was some forward movement. That’s a plus.

Tomorrow, the Swords of Charlemagne box set drops. There’s still time to preorder.

Also tomorrow, the Red Hot giveaway begins — you can sign up for my newsletter, and get a copy of Hidden Things absolutely free! The promotion runs the entire month of February.

And on Wednesday, voting begins for the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewers Choice Awards. I’m nominated in two categories. The Lady and the Sword is nominated for Best LGBT Fantasy Romance, and Swords of Charlemagne is nominated for Best LGBT Fantasy Romance Series.

The Kickstarter is ongoing, and is slowly moving in the upwards direction. The project is 5% funded, with 47 days left, and has been picked up as a Project We Love by Kickstarter itself. I’m updating regularly over there, with things specific to the books, and that I have never shared anywhere else. So check it out, and maybe throw something in the hat!

And finally, preorders are now open for the Counsel of the Wicked re-release, which happens on March 8th. The ebook will be available as part of Kindle Unlimited, which means it will NOT be for sale anywhere but Amazon. The paperback, however, will be available everywhere.

And I think that’s all the news I’ve got this week! Busy, busy, busy!

Jan

2022

On a Cold and Frosty Monday.

How cold was it?

My car door froze shut.

Let me repeat that. MY CAR DOOR FROZE SHUT!

In Florida.

As a friend of mine put it, Florida has forgotten how to Florida.

So, while I try to stay warm (Florida houses are not built for this sort of weather), let’s see what’s going on in the weird, wild world of writing!

I have an upcoming promo — the Red Hot book giveaway. It runs the entire month of February over on My Book Cave. You can click the link now, but nothing will be live until next Tuesday.

Also on next Tuesday, the box set for Swords of Charlemagne drops!

This will be ebook only, and will be available wherever ebooks are sold!

The Kickstarter to fund the Swords of Charlemagne audiobooks is off to a slow but steady start. I have some newsletter mentions upcoming, and a podcast although we haven’t yet set a date for that. If you’re interested in seeing audiobooks for the Swords of Charlemagne series, maybe toss a coin to your writer? And share the Kickstarter with your friends!

Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home continues.

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

85073 / 150000 (56.72%)

Slightly more than halfway on my anticipated words, and we’re slightly past the halfway mark, so this is good.

I have virtual Boskone coming up in February- virtual for me, anyway. There is an in-person convention, but I’m not going north in February. It might be warmer, but there will almost definitely be snow! I’ll be on two panels:

The Name Game

18 Feb 2022, Friday 19:00 – 19:50,
If you think baby names are hard for Earth parents, try naming characters for a fantasy realm or a totally alien planet. Let’s ask our panelists where they find sources of inspiration for the name game. What are your favorite memorable names from fantastic fiction? Are there any rules for painless name generation?

Writing the Naughty Bits

19 Feb 2022, Saturday 12:00 – 12:50,
With the increased popularity of erotic romance and erotica, more and more genre authors are trying their hands at adding sex to their stories. Let’s discuss the differences between romance, erotic romance, erotica, and pornography, and talk about how to incorporate sexual scenarios into a story. [This panel will contain frank language.]

They’ve put the naughty bits panel at NOON. The programming chair may need to put their asbestos underwear on because having this panel during the day? Um… okay?

Should be interesting! And hey, I’m virtual, so if there’s outrage, I won’t be there when they come for me with the pitchforks and torches!

Although a fire might be nice right about now…

Jan

2022

New Things!

It’s been a WEEK, y’all. Three new things to discuss today, and only one of them is on the usual radar.

New Words!

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

81461 / 150000 (54.31%)

Of course there are new words. I’ve been working away at Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. If you follow me on Facebook, you may have caught a glimpse of some of those new words — there was one phrase in particular that struck me as amusing enough to share:

“You might as well spit on a fish for all the good it will do.”

Patreon readers haven’t yet met the character who says this, so that’s all you’re going to get.

There’s also been some more planning on Tales from the Arena: Dead Man’s Hand. I will hopefully get to that book late this year, but there are some other things that have to come first. Like finishing the revisions and re-release on the Rebel Mage books, for example. And prepping for the next thing on my list….

New Audiobooks!

Friday evening, I got the approval from ACX to start accepting auditions for the Hidden Things audiobook. I immediately sent the audition page to a narrator whom I’d picked out months ago… AND HE SAID YES!!! So Hidden Things will be narrated by Mark Oosterveen. I’ve already told him I’m interested in having him read all four books.

Putting together an audiobook is not cheap, even under royalty share. So I’m starting a Kickstarter to fund all four books. The Kickstarter will go LIVE on Wednesday, and we’ll have 60 days to raise $5000. You can click the link to follow on Kickstarter, which will notify you when the page goes live for bids.

New Awards!

I got an email out of the blue last week telling me that Hidden Things has been nominated for the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewers Choice Award for Best of 2021 (I’m not sure what category), and that Swords of Charlemagne has been nominated for Best Series. I have no other information on that but OMG!!! More to come when I know more.

New Shop!

Conventions are starting to say, “Um…. maybe meeting in person isn’t a good idea” again. So, because I probably won’t have that many opportunities to get out and meet people and sell signed books this year, I’ve gone ahead and made a virtual dealer’s table! You can buy print books and I’ll ship them directly to you, personalized however you like. You can also buy the limited edition Swords of Charlemagne thumbdrive, which is a 2GB thumbdrive that contains all four books in mobi, epub and pdf formats.

And that is, I think, everything that happened this past week.

Wow!

Jan

2022

Drive the Cold Winter Away.

Those of you who know me, and who know I live in Florida, are probably laughing right now, and looking at me funny, because cold winter and Florida do not usually go together. And while it did snow in Florida recently, it’s nothing like what they have in our former stomping grounds of the Baltimore/DC Corridor. So cold winter, Liz? Really?

For the record? It’s a song lyric from a Tudor era song that may have been written by Henry VIII (or it may not have. Provenance hazy, ask again later.)

It’s chilly in the mornings, here, but not enough to need more than a sweatshirt when we leave to head out to school at way-too-early-for-a-teenager. But this morning, I noticed that it was lighter out when we left. Dawn is coming earlier, which I like — I hate driving to school in pitch blackness.

I had a busy week last week — I went through all three Rebel Mage books, tweaked them, fixed the formatting, and uploaded them for presale! Now, these will be working a little different — Rebel Mage will be staying in KU. You won’t find these ebooks on any other platform. There will be paperbacks, but the ebooks will be KU only, at least while dark romance remains a hot item in KU page reads. Counsel drops in March, Haven’s Fall in May, and Where Home Lies in July.

Last week I also got some marketing done for Swords of Charlemagne: The Complete series — the box set is on preorder for a February 1st drop, and I started ads running to promote that on Friday. The box set will be wide — available everywhere you find ebooks. (that link will show all the bookstores, once they all finish loading. I just this moment realized that I never hit PUBLISH on the wide version when Table of Stone came out of KU. Umm… oops.)

Focusing on marketing and on the Rebel Mage books means that I didn’t get as much work done on The Way Home as I wanted. But there was some forward progress, so I’ll take it.

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

77002 / 150000 (51.33%)

I’m thinking that I’m still on track for a November release on this book, with a possibility of moving it up. We’ll see how the chapters play out over on the Patreon — the book will not release to the public until after the last chapter is live on Patreon, whenever that might be.

I’m still dithering over what the next Patreon project will be. I have three potentials, but two of them are books that I started and that stalled out. I need to see if I can figure out where those broke and fix them before I commit either of them to Patreon.

And I’m working on the synopsis/outline for Tales from the Arena: Dead Man’s Hand, because Teren is FINALLY talking to me and wanting his story told. We’ll see when that one actually gets written, though. Depends on… well, a lot of things. It’ll get written. At some point.

And that’s about all from this particular locale.

Jan

2022

Don’t Make Any Sudden Moves!

We don’t want to startle 2022. Approach gently and carefully, and maybe we’ll be all right.

Seriously, how many of us are starting the year like this?

Welcome to 2022. I think? Maybe?

I spent time last week catching up on my rest, my reading, and on my TV. We’re into season 2 of She-Ra, and I started Bridgerton, and was immediately annoyed by the subplot that shouldn’t have been there (I spent quite a few minutes going “Who’s Marina? Did I miss her? Is she in the later books?”) I’ll try again later, when I’ve given myself space between reading the book and seeing the series. I watched quite a bit of Tasting History with Max Miller on YouTube, which is well worth the watching and I can’t wait for his book to come out! And we watched Encanto on New Years Eve, and everyone needs to see that movie (also, Bruno is living rent-free in my head now, and I need to cosplay as Luisa.)

There was no writing done last week, and only a little after I blogged two weeks ago, but Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home is now past the halfway mark in the outline (you know, the one that my characters never seem to want to follow?) We hit the midpoint event, and introduced a fun character (when you meet Frayim, you’ll know WHY Bruno is now living rent-free in my head.)

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

73606 / 150000 (49.07%)

I spent time last week thinking about Tales from the Arena: Dead Man’s Hand, which is the final book in the series, and had been taking a while because the characters wouldn’t tell me what it was about. I have about half a book plotted out. Slightly less plotted out on Blood Price, book 3 of the Flesh and Blood series, but I have time on that one.

In the works for this year? The Box Set of Swords of Charlemagne is currently up for preorder, and will drop on February 1st. I’ll be reformatting and re-releasing the Rebel Mage books on KU (and they will be staying on KU. Dark erotic romance seems to do well there.) The Way Home will be out in late 2022, and we’ll see if there will be one more release this year (I have the date blocked out, but I might not have anything ready to release. We’ll see.)

I’m also waiting on news on several things in slush, including

Sapphires and Gold (which is under contract)
Bonds of Blood and Steel (sequel to House of Sable Locks)
The White Raven: Morrigan’s Heir
the John Zebedee books (not sure what’s happening with that project anymore)
Blood Bound (Flesh and Blood, book 1)
The tenth anniversary edition of Princes of Air (which is late, I know.)

On the business side of writing, I’ll be working in a business plan this quarter. Writing is a business, I should have a plan. Q2 will have a financial plan as a focus, and Q3 will have a better marketing plan (better than throw money at ads and hope it works…)

So that’s where things are in this neck of the woods. At least, for now.

Dec

2021

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.

Swords of Charlemagne

Fitting an entire week into two and a half days

Who Let It Be Monday Again?

So Busy!!!

Toss A Coin To Your Writer…

That was Quick

On a Cold and Frosty Monday.

New Things!

Drive the Cold Winter Away.

Don’t Make Any Sudden Moves!

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

Works in Progress

Appearances

Find My Books!

Social Media

Let's Keep in Touch!

Thanks for signing up!