The Sea Prince

Feb

2023

February Musings

It’s Valentine week. That time of year when the mainstream media remembers that romance novels exist, and that they have to publish their hot takes about how this romance is not like all those other trashy books. This is trashy, but with class!

The “I’m not like other <fill-in-the-blank>!” stories that you see every year about this time.

Now, I tend to ignore those. Because really, these journalists prove time and again that they are not and have no interest in ever learning about the audience for romance. All they want to do is say, “Look! Books with kissing and girl-shit! It’s Valentine’s Day. That’s about kissing and girl-shit! Let’s write about how dumb we think kissing and girl-shit is!” They completely ignore that romance is big business that keeps the lights on in publishing, because kissing and girl-shit.

I haven’t cross-referenced, but I wonder how many of these same journalists wax lyrical about the Super Bowl. I mean, really, it’s just violence and boy-shit, right?

(I used to be a football fan, but the NFL’s blatant disregard for player health and safety has turned me off the game entirely.)

Anyhow, I heard that yesterday Rhianna threw a baby shower, and some football broke out? Oh, and there were puppies playing for a few hours. That was fun.

I got no writing done over the weekend. There was some hefty organizing — I emptied my pantry, sorted and disposed of expired things that had gotten buried, and then put everything back in. (The impetus was my husband telling me I didn’t need to go pick up cake mix for his birthday. He found some in the pantry. It was, however, three years expired. “No, honey, I’m not getting you botulism for your birthday.”)

I’m closing in on the hinge chapter of The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath — the travel chapter that brings our hero back to Eire. Then the shenanigans really start! And I need to rework the last chapter I wrote of The Sea Prince and have this one character tell me if she’s actually an abusive, manipulative bitch or not. It could be that she’s gaslighting but that would mean she’s gaslighting ME. Which, I suppose, means that she’s good at it?

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

38974 / 90000 (43.30%)

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

43901 / 120000 (36.58%)

In other news, the Rebel Mage series went wide this weekend, and is now available wherever ebooks are sold. The paperbacks have been widely available since I republished last year, but I took the ebooks out of KU when their term expired. So if you prefer to read via Apple or Nook, or shop at Smashwords or Kobo, you can now get the complete Rebel Mage series on your ereader or tablet. The series begins with Counsel of the Wicked. Rebel Mage is, I think, the darkest series I’ve ever written, and the only one that has content warnings at the front of every book. The preview should show you the content warning page, and this is a series where I must insist that you READ THE CONTENT WARNINGS. (If you can’t see the preview, you can find the content warnings on the book page of my website.)

That’s pretty much it for this week. Now to go see if I wrote myself into a corner in this hostage situation in ancient Rome…

Feb

2023

Monday? Why Does It Have To Be Monday?

I was going to ask why it always seems like Monday, then I realized that I blog on Mondays, so of course it always seems like a Monday when I do this. It IS always Monday when I do this!

(pause for more coffee)

It’s been an eventful week, in a good way. Last Monday, I got the cover art for The Chronicles of John Zebedee, and I’ve set up the preorders! Not all the stores are available yet (Barnes and Noble is slow), but most of the big ones are ready, so click the graphic to order!

This one, I actually forgot to post about last week — Children of Dreams has been nominated for a Paranormal Romance Guild Reviewer’s Choice Award! These books are nominated by reviewers, but voted on by the public, so if you’ve read Children of Dreams, please click on the graphic and vote!

I started The Sea Prince back up again, since edits are off my plate for right now. I’m not sure when I’ll get the edits for Morrigan’s Heir, but until I do, I’m going to keep plugging away on Morrigan’s Wrath and on The Sea Prince

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

36067 / 90000 (40.07%)

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

41188 / 120000 (34.32%)

I’ve started giving some thought to the books that will follow The Swords of Charlemagne and The Chronicles of John Zebedee, because the two will converge in Children of the Swords. I don’t have a fully fleshed out idea just yet as to where the story is going, and there’s some research to be done. So that’s a teaser for you (Another teaser? The first book is tentatively titled Seer.)

And I’m about to roll the Rebel Mage books out wide — meaning that you’ll be able to order the ebooks from places other than Amazon. That will happen Friday, February 10th, so if you’re looking for those books on Apple or Kobo, Friday will be the day to start shopping!

There isn’t much else going on in this neck of the woods. This time of year is usually quiet, so I’m taking advantage of that and making words.

Time to go make the words.

Jan

2023

Wait, What Was I Doing Again?

(aka what I honestly just said when I came back to this tab on my desktop….)

It’s Monday again. Who let that happen? But since it is Monday, even though I do not recall saying the weekend could be over already, it’s blog day. Which leads to the weekly question of “what am going to blather on about today?”

Which, if you think that means I’m going to blather on about deciding what to blather on about, you’ll be pleased to know that you’re wrong. I’ll save that for Tiktok — I’ll only have to blather for one to three minutes there.

Work continues on The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath, and the list of notes on things I need to address when I get the edits for The White Raven: Morrigan’s Heir continues to grow. For example, did you know that it was forbidden for the Flamen Dialis to handle bread? Yup, me either. Even though I researched Roman religions and the various restrictions on their priests before I wrote the scene in Heir, there the Flamen Dialis is, holding a load of bread. So I need to change that.

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

30463 / 90000 (33.85%)

Other changes involve inconsistencies with characters who have changed as I write them in the second book, characters who have come into the second book who were never mentioned in the first one but should have been, and some stylistic choices that need to be consistent throughout. Oh, and double checking that some of the herbs I have our healers using in Rome are things that they’d actually have in Rome at that time.

Yes, I’m going through a lot of trouble for a historical fantasy set in an entirely fictional, very idyllic Rome. I know that. I’m having fun with it. And there will be an author’s note that roughly says “I am fully aware that none of the history in the parts of the book set in Rome is accurate. This was deliberate. Don’t yell at me. Fantasy. Totally fantasy.”

Although… not in so many words, right?

I hope to have the edits for The Chronicles of John Zebedee finished by the end of the month, and I hope to have a cover reveal sometime in the next week. The latest cover mockup is really good, and I think we’re almost in the right place. Once this is published, I really need to start figuring out timelines and storylines for Children of the Swords — which is the series that will tie The Chronicles of John Zebedee into Swords of Charlemagne. No, I’m not sure how yet. There must be research because I know nothing about Edwardian England or World War I, and I’m not going to rely on Downtown Abbey as reference material. (Although I did use a floorplan of Highclere Castle as a reference for the Sussex estate in Table of Stone.)

Also… ah… surprise? There’s going to be a sequel series to Swords of Charlemagne. It will be focused on Margaret and Douglas’ children, and there are going to be elves in there! The series will start with Wesley, the working title of his book is Seer, and that’s about all I know at the moment.

Other irons in the fire? Getting back to The Sea Prince, which will happen once I’m done with John Zebedee edits, and getting started on either Tales from the Arena: Dead Man’s Hand or Tower of Light. Both of those are fully plotted out and just need to be written. Although I might stay in a seafaring mood, in which case I’ll start The Iron Virgin.

That should be enough to keep me out of trouble.

Stop laughing.

Oct

2022

This is Halloween.

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

Yup. It’s Halloween.

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

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

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

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

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

11204 / 90000 (12.45%)

***

The Sea Prince
(The Sea Prince, Book 1)

39892 / 120000 (33.24%)

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

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

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

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

Oct

2022

Recovery

It’s been a long week, and one that didn’t involve nearly as many words as I’d have liked.

Last Tuesday, we settled in for what promised to be two days of storm. Schools were cancelled for Wednesday, because Ian was bearing down on Tampa Bay. Now, we’re two hours from Tampa, and we were already starting to see the initial rains on Tuesday as we got home. The storm was MASSIVE.

You’ve probably seen the news at this point. We were extremely lucky — we didn’t flood. We didn’t even lose power. Yard cleanup took two days, and I have the roof guys coming next week to check and see if the roof made it through the winds. We were relatively unscathed.

But I also did next to no writing last week, because I had next to no focus, and very little sleep (hurricanes are LOUD!)

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath

1316 / 90000 (1.46%)

***

The Sea Prince
(The Sea Prince, book 1)

38914 / 120000 (32.43%)

What I did do was work on incorporating edits into the Heir to the Firstborn books, and the first three are up. Wings of Air will go up later this week, and the preorders for Visions in Smoke and Children of Dreams will be up later this week as well. I am not quite sure what the heck is going on with the paperbacks — they’re supposed to be available, but no one seems to have them yet. I’m about ready to order them myself and list them on my website — I’ll have an exclusive!

Hrm…might not be the worst idea…

You all did know that I have a bookstore link on the website, didn’t you? The new books aren’t listed there yet — I don’t have any stock on hand, but copies are on the way.

The final chapter of John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town went live this morning, and next week, the first three chapters of John Zebedee Meets the Witch-Queen of the Elvenlands go live. I’ll have that link next Monday, so watch for the blog next week. It’s a long one — it’ll run until January.

The box set for Rebel Mage drops tomorrow, too. I’ve been very lax in my marketing, so this has basically flown under the radar. It’s Amazon exclusive and on Kindle Unlimited.

Something to look forward to next week? The cover reveals for Visions in Smoke and Children of Dreams! In the meantime, check out Wings of Air, which should go live this week.

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!!!

Aug

2022

Monday, Monday

It’s late (well, it’s late for me) on a Monday, and I’ve finally gotten the time to sit and actually write something. Which is about par for my days these days. If the words aren’t already on the page, I’m not getting to them. So The Sea Prince is officially on the schedule for 2023. I’m focusing on edits for the moment.

I finished my first read through of Children of Dreams and… yeah, there are some rewrites in that book’s future. It will probably be the book that changes the most from the version that went live on Patreon. And I’m okay with that! My plans right now are to finish the rereads of Wings of Air (currently in process) and Visions in Smoke (formerly Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads), and then get the rewrites done and get the book to Darling Editor. I may be pushing it on time, but I think it will still come out in November. But notice that I haven’t yet set up the preorder…

Preorder will go live once I hand the rewrites off. And the updated copies of books one through four will go live once Darling Editor has a chance to go through them. The paperbacks are down, and will remain down until closer to when Children of Dreams releases.

And, since books one through four aren’t going to get spiffy new preorders and ISBNS and rereleases, (because they don’t need them) I’ll just go ahead and show you those covers.

Aren’t those gorgeous???? No, you don’t get the last two yet. Not until the preorders are set. I’ve been using GetCovers.com for these, and they have been a joy to work with.

It’s time for me to start at least thinking about thinking about a cover for The Chronicles of John Zebedee. I can publish the book thirty days after the last episode goes live. Which means that The Chronicles of John Zebedee will be coming out in early March of 2023. Get Covers lets you hand them images for inspiration, so they’ll be getting the three Vella covers that I put together. (In order: John Zebedee and the Heir of the Elvenlands, John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town, and John Zebedee Meets the Witch Queen of the Elvenlands.)

And that’s about all in this neck of the woods. Newsletter will be going out in a few days, and I need to figure out what recipe is going in it. Hrm….

Aug

2022

Prioritize the Glass

I do a daily tarot post on Instagram. It’s a single card draw, and I just did today’s right before I opened this window to blog.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Elizabeth Schechter (@schechterelizabeth)

The phrase “prioritize the glass” is resonating with me at the moment. You see… that’s what I’m having to do.

So… there were no words written on The Sea Prince this past week. The word count remains unchanged. Instead, I’m focusing on edits, and on a proofreading project. I’ve finished the new edits on Forged in Fire, and have started Bones of Earth. I’m working on the initial edits of Children of Dreams, and I think this book is the one that’s going to change the most from what appeared in Patreon. I have edits open for Hidden Things for Book View Cafe, and I’m working on those around the proofreading project. And that’s on top of everything else that’s happening that I’m slowly getting a handle on.

So right now I’m focusing on the words that have already been put down, because I don’t have the bandwidth to put into new words. The Sea Prince will get written. Maybe not in 2022, but I’ll put it down for my January project in 2023.

Now, I was planning on releasing the new editions of Heir to the Firstborn one a week leading up to the release of Children of Dreams. However, it appears that I’d be making things much more difficult for myself than I have to — since there are no major changes to the first four books, all I have to do is update the files and the cover art. Once I get to Crossroads, which is the first with a new title, then I have to change the ISBN and create a new book. I’ll set Visions in Smoke (New title) to release the week before Children of Dreams.

Now, if you bought any of the first four books of Heir to the Firstborn in ebook from Amazon, your files will update (you’ll have to trigger the update, but you’ll get the new versions.) I do not know if any other ebook seller updates in the same way. So if you bought through Barnes and Noble or Apple, your files may not update. If they do, great! If they don’t, don’t worry. I’ve got you. If you have a file that does not update when I release the new versions, email me with a screenshot showing you own the book already, and I’ll get a new copy to you.

Now, in preparation of updating all the files, I will be taking the paperback editions down by the end of this week. Hopefully, that means that when they go back up for sale, people who order will not get the old copies. I hope.

In other news, episode 6 of John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town just went live.

This is the halfway mark for this part of The Chronicles of John Zebedee. I have to reread the Kindle Vella TOS and see what the turnaround is on putting them three parts together as a book. I think it’s 30 days after the last episode runs, but I need to be certain. So we’ll have the collected Chronicles of John Zebedee early next year, I think.

Time to get back to making sure the words on the page are the right words.

Aug

2022

Late Post.

It’s late, but it’s here.

There was no post last week because I was on vacation. I enjoyed myself immensely, and got home Saturday. The laundry is all done and put away, and I think everything is unpacked. Now we’re in the last few days before school starts, and before I get back to work.

What work? Well, if things keep going the way that they were before vacation, I might be putting The Sea Prince to the side again. Not because of lack of story, but because I may have something else I need to work on first.

Yes, that’s very vague. But I’m not saying anything more until it’s written in stone.

I have several sets of edits that need to be worked on — I need to edit Forged in Fire for re-release, and edit Children of Dreams for initial release to my Patrons. I also may have new edits on Hidden Things… because BVC wants the Swords of Charlemagne books, too! I was planning on going over Hidden Things again, because working with Mark on the audiobooks pointed out a few things that made it past me and three editors.

I’ve been wildly distracted by things over the past month, so I haven’t done much on the Imaginative Anthropology project. I will hopefully get back to that, but it’s of lower priority at the moment. The research will keep.

So, for the next week and a half, I’ll be making plans and planning things out. On the 10th… we’re off!

And for now… I’m off to BED.

Jul

2022

In The Blink of an Eye…

Everything can change.

And in other news, this past weekend was a hell of a long year.

Shit happened. Shit happened that I am not at liberty to talk about, but the ripple effect is in play.

Now, I am fine. Darling Editor and Teen Boy are FINE. But there are extended family things that I must focus on, and priorities that must come first.

To that end, I will not be making any in person appearances for the remainder of 2022.

Children of Dreams (formerly titled Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home) is now tentatively scheduled for sometime in 2023. No date yet. When I know, you’ll know.

As of right this moment, I’m not sure what’s going to be happening with writing in the fall. I will probably spend the fall focusing on editing, so that I can have Children of Dreams ready for you in 2023. I was poking at The Sea Prince, so I have a word update, but it may have to wait until things calm down for me to focus on writing.

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, book 1)

34014 / 120000 (28.34%)

As things settle, this might shift and adjust. We will see.

John Zebedeee and the Heir to the Elvenlands is wrapping up — two episodes left after the one that dropped today. John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town will start August 1st. (Vella doesn’t give you a link until the first episode goes live, so once I have that, you’ll have it.)

Where Home Lies releases tomorrow, to wrap up the reissue of the Rebel Mage series. Which means that my last release for the year will be The Rebel Mage box set in October.

So… that’s where we are right now. If I miss a week on the blog, or miss a newsletter, please be patient with me. I’ll be back when I can.

In the meantime, if you can put some good thoughts out into the universe, I’d appreciate it.

Thank you all.

Liz.

The Sea Prince

February Musings

Monday? Why Does It Have To Be Monday?

Wait, What Was I Doing Again?

This is Halloween.

Recovery

I Have An Excite!!!

Monday, Monday

Prioritize the Glass

Late Post.

In The Blink of an Eye…

Works in Progress

Appearances

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