Swords of Charlemagne

Dec

2021

Where’d This December Come From?

No, really. November was RIGHT HERE a minute ago! I blinked and it was gone!

Seriously, I feel like I missed most of November. There were things that were supposed to happen in November, and I think they happened? Maybe? I don’t quite remember them. But no one is grumbling at me that they’re not done, so I must have done them.

I think.

There are still a lot of things to do before I take time off (starting the 19th). I have Keiser Supercon this weekend, and I have meetings this week and next. I have plans to make — I need to start putting together the information for the Kickstarter to have Swords of Charlemagne made into audiobooks, and 2022 is the year I finally make a business plan, and marketing plan, and a financial plan. This is my business, right? I need to treat it like one!

I have a couple of holiday things to finish, and Cookiepocalypse starts next Sunday! (I’ll be working on business planning while cookies are in the oven.)

My goal for writing is to have half the novel scheduled out on Patreon before I go on vacation. Which… yeah, I’m really darned close to that!

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

61163 / 150000 (40.78%)

The writing slowed down a bit this weekend because I hit a heavy emotional scene, and my brain didn’t want to go there. Yes, there was sniffling when I wrote it. I’m right in the heart of it now, and everyone is dealing with the fallout, and I still have to wrap things up and get them moving again. But yeah, I’ve known this scene was coming since book one, and now that it’s here, I don’t want to write it!

But, if I don’t write it, no one will get to read it. So… time to put words on the page!

Cookie pictures start next week on my Instagram! Cookiepocalypse is coming!

Nov

2021

Things and Stuff

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

38961 / 150000 (25.97%)

I am all KINDS of busy right now. Between writing and Pen to Paper and REI and RWA and business planning and book releases and starting to plan for holidays and one more convention this year and why is there never enough sleep in this house?

Rhetorical question, I know. I know very well why there’s never enough sleep in this house. Also, why I always seem to be running out of coffee.

(looks at empty coffee cup)

Next week is the RWA National Convention (online!) and I’ll be presenting on Friday the 19th, talking all about the Romance Education Initiative and what that means. When talking about this project to a friend, I made a joke that I needed to get a long coat and an eyepatch, so I could pull a Nick Fury and say “I’m here to talk to you about the Romance Education Initiative.”

Guess what arrived from Amazon two days later? (hint — it was not a long coat…)

No, I’m not going to wear it during the panel! Really. I’m not! (There is, however, a certain slide in my presentation…)

That’s next week. The week after is Thanksgiving, which I think is going to be a small thing for us this year. And the following week is a book release! Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads drops November 30th wherever ebooks and paperbacks are sold.

There will, maybe, be something NEW to announce at the end of the month, too. I hope. Once I know that I can share something, I will.

Then we move into December, and you all know what that means! Cookies for miles!!!! And my last convention of the year — Keiser Supercon. Following which, I shall turn into a puddle. I might even take time OFF!

Stop laughing.

I have my publishing schedule planned out for 2022. A box set, some rereleases, and the final book in the Heir to the Firstborn saga (no, really! This time for sure!) Now, these are preliminary dates (except for the box set), and they might shuffle. Right now, this is what next year looks like for the publishing that I control:

February 1st, 2022 — Swords of Charlemagne Box set. (preorder is up now!)

March 8th, 2022 — Counsel of the Wicked rerelease

May 17th, 2022 — Haven’s Fall rerelease

July 12th, 2022 — Where Home Lies rerelease

October 4th, 2022 — TBD

November 15th, 2022 — Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home.

Wait! A full YEAR for the last Heir book?

Preliminary date, remember? If I finish it up quickly (and I’m already a quarter into it), then I’ll shuffle the other dates around. That publishing date also depends on when the chapters run out on Patreon — I’m not publishing the book until after everything is complete for my Patrons. So those dates are written in warm Jello.

Having most of 2022 be rereleases means that I can focus on business planning, which I really should do at some point. Right? I mean, this is my business. It should have plans — both business and financial. I’m also doing research into a Kickstarter. I want to do audiobooks for Swords of Charlemagne. If I figured the costs right, paying the narrator who I really like will cost about the same as a used car for all four books. This is not cash that I just have lying around, so I’ll be running a Kickstarter. Which means learning how to run a Kickstarter, and what goes into making audiobooks for yourself — the only one I have so far was a book acquired by Audible, and I wasn’t involved in the process at all.

So, I have something that sort of looks like long-range plans for both publishing and business.

And I need more coffee.

Oct

2021

It’s Monday Again

That just keeps happening, doesn’t it? Mondays, I mean.

I suppose the alternative isn’t very good. So we’ll keep the Mondays, and keep on plugging away.

Work continues on The Way Home, and Owyn and Alanar have once more surprised me. Not saying what yet, but when you get to the “Where did THAT come from???” in Chapter Three, know that I’m asking the same question.

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

22230 / 150000 (14.82%)

I’ll be finished with line edits on Crossroads tomorrow, and I’ll upload the document and set up the preorder so I can order the author copy and proof that. It’s looking like I will make that November 30th release date that I’d picked out when I set my publishing schedule for the year, so yay, me! And since this entire series revolves around choices and consequences, it seemed fitting to pick crossroads for this cover image.

One of the next things on my to-do list is set up my publishing schedule for 2022. I know The Way Home will be coming out, and I’m planning on rereleasing the Rebel Mage books in 2022. I’m hoping for some new from my traditional publishing submissions, too. Which might turn anything I plan on end, depending on when and if they set anything for 2022. I’ve also got a box set of Swords of Charlemagne coming out February 1st, 2022. And I’m going to look into a Kickstarter to fund audiobooks for the Swords of Charlemagne.

There’s not much else going on. I’m working on things for the RWA, and I’ll be able to tell you more about those next week (I think). Pen to Paper just started back up after a week break, and everyone is loving this program. There are a bunch of other irons in the fire, and so many wonderful things in the planning stages. I have a class coming up next week on business planning, because I really should have done that by now. And I’ve been looking at the book on branding that I picked up over the summer, and that’s been taunting me… time to actually READ it!

…

Sure… that’s not much.

Really.

It’s not like I’m writing two books at a time right now, right?

Right?

Sep

2021

Home Again, Home Again.

This weekend was NecronomiCon, and we had an exceptionally good time. It was our first time back at a science fiction convention since 2019, and… well, okay, it was a little weird. I would not have expected quite so many people to be so… cavalier with regards to the convention’s mask requirement. I mean… we’re FEN! We’re smarter than that!

At least, I thought we were.

Definitely had a good time, though. Friday night was the return of the Writing the Naughty Bits panel, which I hosted, and which this year was a wonderful craft discussion on writing sexual tension and sex, and how one doesn’t necessarily have to lead to the other. My Saturday panel was unfortunately cancelled due to technical difficulties. Sunday was a really great discussion on the Hero’s Journey and the Heroine’s Journey, and how the names of those don’t necessarily have to match the gender identity of your protagonist — I proposed that they be renamed to the External Journey vs. the Internal Journey, which seems to be the major difference between them. Following that panel, I had a delightful conversation with an independent filmmaker who came up to me and said, “I know NOTHING of the romance genre! Teach me your ways!” Not because he’s interested in writing romance — he wants to be sure that if he picks up a romance project, he gets it right! So we spent a good half an hour with me explaining and him taking notes.

Came home. Crashed HARD (tired Liz was TIRED!) and woke up to an invitation to be a guest at a new-to-me convention in February! I’ll be a virtual guest at Boskone from February 18th to the 20th And yay for virtual guests, because I don’t really fancy the idea of going to Boston in February!

Today also marked the arrival of the author proof of my first hardcover, and me posting my first Tiktok — an unboxing video of the hardcover. As I said in the video, it’s PRETTY, but I need to fix the cover art, which is in process now. I also need to remember to turn off the notifications on my phone when I record a Tiktok — Beaker makes an unexpected cameo.

@easchechter

#booktok #newbooktoker #unboxing

♬ original sound – Elizabeth_Schechter

Never had a book before that I could click my nails on. That’s pretty neat! Those hardcovers should be available soon-ish.

Edits are now underway for Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads, and I’m almost done with the synopsis for Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. I want to finish the edits before I start writing the final book, so that I have all the details fresh in my mind. We’ll see how the timing goes, though — I have until November 19th, which is when the last chapter of Crossroads goes live on Patreon. So I need to have at least a chapter or two of The Way Home ready to go by then. I don’t want to break my never-missed-a-week streak in the home stretch!

And I think that’s about all in my neck of the woods! See you all next week!

Sep

2021

Mondayest Monday Ever

Today is indeed the most Mondayest Monday ever.

On Friday, my windshield caught a kicked-up rock, and cracked. I’ve always been taught that you shouldn’t drive with a cracked windshield, so I got the car home, and set up an appointment through my car insurance to have the windshield fixed.

This morning, bright and way-too-early, windshield company shows up. They’re going to try to repair the crack first, because it’s not large and not in the direct line of sight. But injecting the resin made the crack get bigger. The tech stopped immediately and told me “We need to replace the windshield.”

Okay, but guess what they don’t have in stock? If you answered the particular windshield for my particular car? You win a gold star!

They’re going to try and get a new windshield for me before Friday and Necronomicon, but they assured me that the car is safe to drive. So that’s something.

I’ve got something of a busy week this week — tomorrow is the Kindle Unlimited release of Table of Stone, the last Swords of Charlemagne book. To celebrate that, Hidden Things is on sale everywhere for 2.99 this week.

Wednesday night I’ll be doing the Busy Black and Beautiful with LaQuette video podcast, and I’ll tweet the link to watch live out once I have it. And Thursday and Friday will be con prep. And in the meantime, I’m doing all sorts of writing prep.

I spent most of last week working on synopses for future writing. Ready to go are Tower of Light and Blood Brothers (Flesh and Blood 2). I’m working now on Blood Price (Flesh and Blood 3), and I’m refining the synopsis for Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home, so it better aligns with what happened in Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads. I also need to update the series bible for Flesh and Blood, because i noticed that I left a lot blank that shouldn’t be left blank (There are whole character pages blank, and that’s not good. That’s how you end up reading three books to see if you ever mentioned a character’s eye color.) I’ll be starting the editing reread of Crossroads at the convention, and I’ll be starting to write The Way Home once Crossroads is handed off to my darling editor.

I’ve also got a bunch of things in the RWA pipeline, but I can’t talk about them yet. Exciting stuff, though! You’ll learn more about it soon.

And that’s pretty much it for what’s happening in my neck of the woods. See you all after the convention!

Sep

2021

Down Time and Catching Up.

I’m taking a week or two to rest my brain before launching into Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. I actually haven’t even started on the edits for Crossroads yet — I figured I’d work on them at the table at Necronomicon, and shoot to have them done by mid-October. Which means that the on sale date for Crossroads will probably be December. Once I have that set, I’ll announce it.

I realized just now that I’ve been sitting on the cover for Crossroads, too.

Choices must be made. But choices have consequences.

Part of my brain break has been laying the groundwork for what I’ll be doing after I finish The Way Home (or while I’m working on it, depending on things.) I’ve written a synopsis for Blood Brothers (Flesh and Blood book 2), The Iron Virgin (that Pirate and Princess thing), and I’m working on the synopsis for Tower of Light (the gay steampunk retelling of Metropolis that I was challenged to write years ago by one of the best editors I ever had). I’m hoping to get the rest of the Flesh and Blood synopses done before Necro, but Tower of Light is going slowly — I’m having to be very conscious of matching the beats of Metropolis. So I may save Tower of Light to actually write until I have nothing else going on.

Stop laughing.

I’m also still working on RWA things. Pen to Paper is running, and my team is working on incorporating our development tester feedback into upcoming units. I’m tech support on call for our participants, and having a great time with that. I’m also working on another couple of projects that are still in the warm Jell-O stages, and won’t be solidified until after our first Board meeting, which will be… soon? Ish? I don’t have a date for that yet. So there is a lot in flux in that area.

Coming up on the end of third quarter also means starting to look at what I’ll be doing and publishing in 2022. Right now, I know for certain that I’ll be wrapping up Heir to the Firstborn, releasing a box set of the Swords of Charlemagne books (February 1st, 2022!), and I will be rereleasing the Rebel Mage books — I have all new covers for them. I haven’t set up a schedule yet for most things yet, but I will next quarter. I need to decide if I will be doing a box set for the Heir to the Firstborn books, but I’m not going to decide on that until I finish The Way Home. If I do put one out, it will be late 2022. That’s the publishing that I have control over. I’m waiting to hear what’s happening with John Zebedee (it appears that the project may have been pushed back, but no official word yet), and with the myriad of things over with Riverdale Avenue Books.

And that’s about it for this week. Back to work!

Sep

2021

Time to Clean!

I’m cleaning the house.

Now, if you’ve been with me long enough, you know what that means.

Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads IS FINISHED!!

Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 5)

126460 / 130000 (97.28%)

I figured out what the problem was Thursday night — I’d been slogging over one scene for nearly a week, and I finally took a step back and asked myself “What is the point of this scene? What does it do to advance the story?” Answer? There was no point to scene. It did nothing for the plot that couldn’t be done somewhere else. So I ripped it out and finished the book Saturday.

One of these days, I’ll pay attention to my subconscious telling me to stop that.

So, since the book is done, now what am I going to do?

Well, clean the house, to start. I have synopses that I want to finish up, and work that needs to be done for Pen to Paper and for other RWA projects. I’ll get started on editing Crossroads in a week or two, but in the meantime, I want to put together a box set of Swords of Charlemagne to release in 2022 (once Table of Stone is out of KU), and I need to start uploading the Rebel Mage books for 2022 releases. I have Necronomicon in a couple of weeks, and I need to plan for that.

But first? This house will be cleaned.

Jul

2021

Home Again, Home Again

And tired to my bones. But so, SO happy! The RWA Retreat in Nashville was amazing! Not just because I finally got to meet AND HUG some of the extraordinary people that I’ve been through Hell and back with, but because of the incredible sense of hope that came out of this past week.

The message of this entire weekend? We are romance writers. We are the RWA, and together, we can move mountains. We are going to come through this. Stronger and better than ever.

It. Was. GLORIOUS!

And the hotel — WOW! The Gaylord Opryland is amazing. And it’s a really short walk from the hotel to the Grand Old Opry, so like any country music fan? I made pilgrimage. (And I’m not ashamed to say that I was in tears walking up to the building. The sheer weight of history and passion in that structure is overwhelming.) There are too many pictures of the Opry and of the hotel to post here — my server would faint! So you’ll have to go look at my Facebook. Opry pictures are here, and Hotel pictures are here.

There may be pictures of me from the retreat on someone else’s camera, from the Pen to Paper presentation, or from introducing Sherrilyn McQueen (writing as Sherrilyn Kenyon) on Friday morning. I haven’t seen any yet. If I do, I’ll share them.

There wasn’t a lot of writing done while I was gone — most of what I did was in a notebook, in and around other things. (I did have some productive time, though. I finished my proofreading of Psionics for Skillskape, and I finished my readthrough of Metropolis and started planning out Tower of Light. That one is still in the squidgy early stages of story — have a vague idea of characters, but not much else. Which is fine, because I have quite a way to go on Heir to the Firstborn.

Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 5)

123553 / 150000 (82.37%)

It’s official — Heir to the Firstborn is two books. Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads, and Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. Which may mean some major revisions in Crossroads. We’ll see what happens once I get it to a point where stopping this one and starting The Way Home feels right.

Now, on the upside, that means that Crossroads should be out in November, in time to be my planned sixth release this year. And it also means I have a little more breathing room in figuring out what will be coming next on Patreon.

Tomorrow is a book birthday — Ashes and Light releases in KU. The paperback is up in Amazon today, and will be up everywhere else tomorrow… I hope. (There was an issue with Draft to Digital putting the paperback up for sale a month and a half early. They fixed it, but let’s see if it goes on sale tomorrow the way it’s supposed to!)

There’s not much else going on. This week is catch up. Next week is vacation, ending with the Vivian Awards, which will be livestreamed! I may be a mess coming itno that, because we will just be back from vacation. We’ll see.

No blog post next week! See you in two weeks, when I will either be a Vivian winner, or will in complete honesty say it was an honor to even final!

Tune in to find out which!

Jul

2021

Trying to Fit One Week into Two Days

What? Liz, why are you trying to fit a week into two days?

Because on Wednesday, at an ungodly hour of the morning, I leave for the RWA Summer Retreat in Nashville. So before I leave, I have to get all the other things done that are usually done in a week. And pack. And finish up things for the retreat. And… probably something I’m forgetting. There’s always something I’m forgetting.

So there’s not going to be a lot of writing done, at least not today and tomorrow. There’s a dedicated Writers Room at the Retreat, so I’ll get some work done there.

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

122957 / 150000 (81.97%)

And… I have come to a decision. See that total number there? And the percentage?

Yeah, Heir to the Firstborn isn’t going to be one book. It’s two. (Which, yes, I know. I said that with Wings of Air.) There’s still a lot of story left. This isn’t an issue with the serial — it’ll take as long as it takes to finish. But when I go to make print books? There’s a limit to how large a print book can be before it self-destructs under it’s own weight.

So, we’re looking at two books. Right now, I’m calling them Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads, and Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home.

On the upside? This means that there will indeed be a November release, because Crossroads is almost done!

Today has been more than a little “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”, because my brain is going in fifteen directions at once.

For example — I got a new fitness tracker today. I have screen protectors for it, so I left this post unfinished to that I could go into the bedroom to get the package. While looking for the package, I realized that when I’d packed this morning, I’d forgotten to pack jewelry. So I went through and picked out some things, including a pair of statement earrings that I haven’t worn in ages. Packed them away and went to put them in my carry-on. Realized I’d forgotten something else, and went back to the bedroom for it. Found the package of screen protectors and took those out to the kitchen. Realized what time it was and that I had to start dinner.

Nearly four hours later, I’m back at the computer to finish the blog post.

In other news this week, I’ve gone and done something I should have done years ago.

I now have my own logo. And it’s GORGEOUS!!!

I mean, seriously. Isn’t that pretty?

New business cards and other marketing paraphernalia have been ordered, and I’m working on figuring out what new swag I’ll be getting for Orlando Reads Books in August. I don’t want to get something cheap, or… well, ordinary. Remember, I’m the one who brought naughty dice to my first RWA National convention. I need something different.

Hrm… I had an idea….

See you when I get back from Nashville!

Jul

2021

On Your Mark…

This week starts the race that will be July. I have just over a week before I leave for the RWA Retreat, and I have THINGS that must get done between now and then.

Things I need to do:

Finalize the presentation that I’ll be giving at the retreat.
Save presentation to a thumbdrive and put it in my travel purse.
Email the presentation to the office (just in case)
Finish the video logs for Unit 11. (These will be DONE before I leave, durn it.)
Write the Unit 11 quiz
Decide which knitting project I’m taking with me for the Fiber meet-up I’m hosting.
Decide which research materials I want to bring (Hrm… Tower of Light or SooperSekrit Edwardian-era project?)
Write up a packing list
Pull out my suitcase
Pick out clothes

And in and around all of that? Working on Heir to the Firstborn, prepping for the Ashes and Light release on the 20th, and maybe going out for dinner (to an actual restaurant – gasp!) for our anniversary right before I leave.

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

118734 / 150000 (79.16%)

Heir to the Firstborn proceeds nicely, if slowly. I sincerely doubt that the 150,000 word target will stand for another week, which will then lead me to the question of… one book or two.

I know. I KNOW! I said this was going to be one book. But, I also said that about Wings of Air, and look where that got us (hint — 118,734 words into the second book of what was supposed to be one book.) Heir to the Firstborn is going to be massive. And while that doesn’t much matter in serial or as an ebook. In print, that’ll be a problem. Because there are only so many pages you can put into a trade paperback before it falls apart.

So we may very well have Heir to the Firstborn: The Progress and Heir to the Firstborn: <something that has to do with the second half of the book>

(Book one may not be The Progress. I have to decide. Book two will either be The Crossroads or The Way Home. We’ll see.)

But we’ll also get to meet an interesting character in that half of the book. I started writing his scenes already, and I love him to bits. Nope, not telling.

Now, if I do break this into two books, then I will definitely make the November release date that I was worried that I’d miss, because that part of the book is done. I will need to make new cover art for the second book, those. Not a huge problem there.

I’ll make up my mind about it at the retreat.

Swords of Charlemagne

Where’d This December Come From?

Things and Stuff

It’s Monday Again

Home Again, Home Again.

Mondayest Monday Ever

Down Time and Catching Up.

Time to Clean!

Home Again, Home Again

Trying to Fit One Week into Two Days

On Your Mark…

Works in Progress

Appearances

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