thirty

Mar

2024

At Loose Ends

Finished. The Sea Prince is FINISHED. After 15 years, and I’m not even sure how many starts, stops, revisions, rewrites and just throwing the manuscript under the virtual bed because this thing is broken, The Sea Prince is finished. Which means… I’m at loose ends until Morrigan’s Heir edits come in.

Now, being at loose ends doesn’t mean I’m not doing anything. I’m figuring out where The Coral Throne is going to go, and deciding if this is going to be duology, or if I really want to tackle The Mancer Regent (answer to be determined during the writing of The Coral Throne, I think?) I’ve started the worldbuilding for Frog and Fae are Friends (I love this placeholder title, but at some point, I should name this baby.) I’ve finished one book for research for Children of the Swords, and I’ve got another sitting next to me ready to go, and I’ve been noodling with a synopsis for The Seer, which is book one of Children of the Swords. And I’m prepping for ICFA, which includes sewing a dress.

So… yeah, at loose ends doesn’t mean the same thing for me as it might for someone else. I’ve never been very good at downtime. Although I’m trying! I’ve been reading more, and I finally started playing a Switch game that my son gave me for a present. (Granted, I’ve had it for a few years now. But I started it! That counts for downtime!)

So, when will you see The Sea Prince? I’m not sure yet. I won’t be looking at it again until mid-June at the earliest. Then edits and revisions will happen. And then…I don’t know if I’ll be shopping it around, or if I’ll be taking it to Vella, or if I’ll just go ahead and publish. I do know that it won’t be a Patreon project — my Patreon is current unpublished because there’s nothing going on there, and this is a complete manuscript, so it doesn’t fit my serial stunt writing model for Patreon. The next Patreon project will probably be Frog and Fae, to be honest. I just need to get the worldbuilding a little more clear in my head before I start the story up. Again, probably not until mid-June. also in mid-June, I’ll be making the call on what my fall project will be — my plan for 2024 says either Tales from the Arena: Dead Man’s Hand or The Iron Virgin. I’m thinking it will probably be The Iron Virgin, since I’ll be going from one adventure on the high seas to another, but I haven’t yet started the research for that project, so maybe not? (What research? The society will largely be based on Venice and Venetian traders, and I haven’t done any reading on that yet. I have the books, but osmosis doesn’t work with worldbuilding.) However, if Blood Bound gets picked up before then, then I’ll be starting on Blood Brothers.

Who knows? By mid-June, something entirely new may have shown up. Flexibility is key, after all.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

100187 / 100000 (100.19%)

Giveaways!

For the month of March, you can download a copy of my dark fantasy romance Counsel of the Wicked FREE through the On Fire Romance promotion. (Content warning — this book is the darkest thing that I have ever written, and includes on the page explicit sexual violence. Go carefully.)

Image of a flame. Text reads "On Fire. Free Spicy Romance Ebooks. March 1-31"

Sales!

The Smashwords Read an Ebook sale is this week, and all of my books are on sale! Now, given that Draft2Digital still hasn’t finished merging legacy Smashwords accounts, I have two links for you.

You can find the first six Heir to the Firstborn books and the collected Swords of Charlemagne here.
You can find book seven of Heir to the Firstborn and the rest of my books here.

Cartoon image of a female presenting figure with long hair, reading a book. Text reads "Smashwords. Your Ebook, Your Way. Read and Ebook Week. Smashwords.com/shelves/promos"

Dec

2023

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.

May

2023

Thirty. Finished. The End

Well, I guess that clears up any question about the topic for this week’s blog, hm?

The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath
(The White Raven duology, book 2)

106550 / 106000 (100.52%)

I finished the draft a week ago, after writing over three thousand words in a single day. (That’s a lot for me. But I was SOCLOSE to being done!) and it occurs to me that I wrote last week’s blog post AFTER finishing the book! So this is not news, unless you missed last week’s post because I was so late in posting it.

The manuscript is now printed off, along with the editing notes that I made for The White Raven: Morrigan’s Heir, and I have put them aside to wait for the edits to come in on Morrigan’s Heir. Once I have those, I’ll make my changes to Heir, then start my personal edits on Wrath. Once I’m sure both books agree with each other, then they’ll both go back to my editor. But I am now done for the summer.

Sort of.

I’ve spent the past week planning out the first two books in a new series tentatively called Iron and Silk (to be honest, the synopsis for the first book was already written — it’s that Pirate and Princess thing that came out of my trip to Nashville.) Book one is The Iron Virgin. Book two is The Silken Courtesan, which I just finished planning out today. This might be a trilogy, and book three is tentatively titled The Iron Queen. I still have to plan that one.

I’m also planning out book seven of Heir to the Firstborn, and trying to think of a title that fits the existing title patterns. The synopsis for this one is about a third of the way done, but I got distracted by The Silken Courtesan. Once this one is done, then I’ll dive into the worldbuilding for Iron and Silk, and for The Sea Prince.

And there’s research to be done for Imaginative Anthropology, which has been on the shelf for a bit while I finished up The White Raven. Time to get back to that.

Honestly, though? All of these are playtime. I am now off for the summer.

There are still five days left in the Red Hot book giveaway, where you can grab a copy of Hidden Things (or some twenty-five other books) FOR FREE! Click the image above to check out what’s available. I’ll have another giveaway later in the summer — keep an eye out for a Written in Water giveaway in August.

But for now, I’m giving myself a brain break and deciding what I’ll work on once August rolls around and school starts again.

May

2023

Late Post, But A Good Reason….

This is posting rather late on Monday, but there’s a very good reason for the delay…

That’s the final wordcount on The White Raven: Morrigan’s Wrath. That’s a draft, folks!

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

106550 / 106000 (100.52%)

So, now what? Now, this manuscript gets read over quickly, to make sure I didn’t forget any scenes that I meant to fill in later. I’ll compile it from Scrivener, and print it off… and then put it off to the side for a bit. I’ll be sitting on it until I get the edits back for Morrigan’s Heir, and then I’ll read both of them one right after the other. That way, I can be sure that the details in both agree. (and there are some edits that need to be added to Heir, because of things that changed in Wrath. And one character name that needs to be changed because the name Owyn is now retired.)

Once that’s done? I’m off for the summer! Which means… well, this house needs to be cleaned. And I have worldbuilding and research to work on. And SO MUCH READING to catch up on.

And I have a short story to write. There’s one thread in Wrath that didn’t get tied off, and one couple that’s getting their own short. But I’m in no rush.

In other news, Hidden Things is currently part of a giveaway, and you can check out the other books here. The giveaway runs until May 20th. Just in time for beach reading!

Since it’s late, that’s all there is. I’m going to bed now!

Oct

2022

Slightly Domesticated. But Only Slightly.

Every so often, I take some time off from writing to do something homey and domestic and… well, things that make people say things like “You actually DO that?”

I make and can my own preserves. I think I’ve talked about The Peach Truck in the blog — where I can get 20 pounds of fresh Georgia peaches delivered to Central Florida. In July, which is not my favorite time for canning, to be honest. But I get my box, and I make peach butter and peach jam, and peach chutney and cobbler and all sorts of goodies.

Saturday I discovered the existence of The Apple Truck. Same deal, only I kinda went a little wild, and we now have 32 lbs of fresh Michigan apples (that were picked a week ago!).

Which means that yesterday, there was baking. (there was also an apple crisp and a very unphotogenic strudel. The picture of the crisp doesn’t want to load.)

The pies are now in the freezer for Thanksgiving.

Today, there is apple butter, and the race is on! Will the apple butter be done in the canner before I have to leave to go get into carline?

(The answer to that question, by the way, is yes. Right after I wrote it, I got up to check on the apple butter. Ten minutes later, it’s in the canner. It has to stay at a rolling boil for 15 minutes, which means I’ll be turning off the burner and leaving.)

There has been some writing this past week, but my focus really was on getting Children of Dreams wrapped up. Which… Children of Dreams is wrapped up, and it’s now available for pre-order almost everywhere! (More places are being added daily — for some reason, some vendors are dragging their feet.) I’m still waiting on the final cover art for the print edition (because they needed the page count), so paperback preorders will be up sometime later this week. For the record? 598 pages. It’s a BEAST.

It’s also oddly sad, in a way. I’ve been living with this particular set of voices in my head for four and a half years. Owyn especially — he tends to take over any scene he’s in, and when I say that the hardest part of writing this series was keeping it from becoming The Owyn Show? That’s the honest truth.

So now I need to clear my head and start looking at other characters. Lorcan is a good one, and telling the rest of his story is going to be fun. I had a good week on this book. And I mostly ignored The Sea Prince, and we’ll see if he’s got his nose out of joint over it when I look at the file again.

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

8314 / 90000 (9.24%)

***

The Sea Prince
(The Sea Prince, Book 1)

39892 / 120000 (33.24%)

We’re coming up on Halloween, and I’m still not sure if I’m going to set up a self-service grab your candy bowl (which we’ve done the past two years because pandemic), or if I’m going to set up the table and dress up and hand out candy while getting eaten by mosquitos. We’ll see.

And… I still have to go get candy!

Timer is going off. Off to carline! Then on to writing!

May

2022

Thirty

Late Friday night, I posted this to my socials:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Elizabeth Schechter (@schechterelizabeth)

That’s the final wordcount for Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. It’s done. This marks the end of the Heir to the Firstborn series, too (although it won’t wrap up in Patreon until sometime in November.)

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

164465 / 170000 (96.74%)

Not gonna lie. It’s weird being done with this series — it’s been a constant in my life since June of 2018, when the worldbuilding started in Patreon. The first chapter of Written in Water went live in August of 2018, and I’ve been working on it ever since. Four years with these characters, who’ve grown and changed and amused me to no end.

I’m still getting my head around the fact that I’m not going to be writing Owyn anymore. Yes, he is my unabashedly favorite fictional child, and he took over darn near the entire series.

So… what now?

Would you believe… new edits? And new covers?

See, in March I was introduced to Book View Cafe (and by introduced, I mean I was very firmly told “You need to be working with them!”) Book View Cafe is a co-op publisher, and after their vetting period, I was welcomed into the fold, and the Heir to the Firstborn series will be my first books released under their aegis. The first three books are currently being read, and I’ll be making edits to them. I have the new cover for Written in Water and IT. IS. AMAZING!!!! And no, I’m not showing it to you yet.

Soon.

Now, I’m going to do something that I haven’t done in four years.

I’m taking the summer off. Not entirely — I’m horrible at doing nothing. But I’m not actively going to work on fiction this summer (with the exception of one short story that I started and haven’t finished.) I’ve got research to do, and a pile of fiction to read that is taller than I am. I have one more part to my business plan to finish, and a class I want to take. And vacation. I’m taking a vacation.

No writing fiction. On August 10th, when school starts up again, I’ll be diving back into The Sea Prince, and I’ll be starting edits on The Way Home.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be new fiction this summer, though. The Chronicles of John Zebedee starts on May 30th on Kindle Vella with John Zebedee and the Heir to the Elvenlands.

(One week from today!)

And Where Home Lies drops July 12th, to finish out the re-release of the Rebel Mage trilogy. (You can still preorder this!)

Downtime. I’m not sure I know how to downtime anymore.

I think I need more practice.

Sep

2021

That’s a Draft!

Heir to the Firstborn: The Crossroads. Thirty-nine chapters, complete at 126,460 words.

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

126460 / 130000 (97.28%)

Nov

2020

Sneaky Sneaky Sneaky POUNCE!

Wings of AirHeir to the Firstborn, Book 4

128417 / 150000 (85.61%)

***

John Zebedee Meets the Witch Queen of Elfland

29157 / 30000 (97.19%)

***

NaNoWriMo Words

50774 / 50000 (101.55%)

That’s about how I’m feeling at the moment. I just won NaNoWriMo (50K words in a month), AND the ending of Wings of Air just snuck up on me. So that number up there? That’s the total. It’s complete.

Here, have a cover to celebrate!

I honestly wasn’t expecting to finish this book today, nearly three weeks ahead of my schedule. Which is good, in a way. It give me that three weeks to finish John Zebedee Meets the Witch Queen of Elfland, which is going to be a much longer book than I thought.

So what happens now? Now, edits! In Patreon, Wings of Air will run until mid-February (I think) so that means we’re looking at late February or early March for a wide release. (I might hold out for March, just because I have Hidden Things coming out in January.) Now remember, if you don’t want to wait, you can always go join me over on Patreon and read Wings from the beginning.

Now, if you’ve been with me for a while, you know what’s coming. It’s December tomorrow.

Cookiepocalypse is coming!

This year, I’m being practically sedate in my baking. Virtuous, even! I’m only making… (looks at list) six different kinds!

But first, I need to finish John Zebedee.

Jun

2020

Finished things and Things in Progress

John Zebedee and the Heir of Elfland

37123 / 40000 (92.81%)

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

30376 / 95000 (31.97%)

There’s a little of both today. A finished thing, and some things in progress.

John Zebedee and the Heir of Elfland (formerly Echoes of Light, formerly John Zebedee and the Elf-King’s Son) is DONE.

Sort of.

John and Ethriel have sort of moved into my skull, and there’s more to their story. So there will be a series of John Zebedee novella-length paranormal westerns set in the 1870s. Not sure yet how many novellas there will be — I need to work that out. That’s one of my things in progress.

While that’s percolating, I’m working on Wings of Air. It’s going to be a long one, I can already tell. I’m nearly a third of the way to my projected wordcount, and the first major plot movement hasn’t happened yet. It’s coming, but so far there’s been a lot of little movement and a lot of character development that I didn’t realize needed to be done first.

Also in the back of my brain is The Sea Prince — something that I started a while back, stopped, started again, and stopped again. I’m going to attempt to restart it. Again. Which might require a scalpel. Or a machete. We’ll see.

There are other things currently wandering around the dark recesses of my creative mind: the series plan for the Flesh and Blood books (which may stay on hold until I sell Blood Bound.) The second White Raven book (also on hold, until I sell the first one.) It’s never really quiet in there. Always someone yelling for me to tell their story.

And in other, writer-but-not-writing-related news, I’ve declared my candidacy for the RWA National Board elections for the upcoming year. Yes, I’m running again. No, I have not lost my mind. Well, not much. I just want to see the work we’ve started continue. The best way to do that is to keep doing that.

Not much else going on in my wide, weird world. My son was fitted for his first pair of glasses today (so he joins the rest of the spectacular family — the only immediate relative he has who doesn’t wear glasses is his six-year-old cousin). We’re holding on and staying in, and watching Florida go ever more insane — today the Governor redefined how to count occupied ICU beds — instead of all ICU patients, they’re just supposed to count the ones who need intensive care.

Ummm… Doctor Bashir, help me out here?

Nope, doesn’t make sense to Julian either.

Needless to say, we’re staying in.

Here’s hoping the world makes more sense in your neck of the woods. Stay safe, all.

Apr

2020

Work in Progress and Completed Work!

Bones of Earth
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 3

109904 / 95000 (115.69%)

Echoes of Light

2765 / 30000 (9.22%)

I gave Bones of Earth a final push yesterday, and finished it last night with a daily word total of 4,303 words. Which means today I’m going to take it easy.

Stop laughing.

Last week, I started the work that I’d been calling John Zebedee and the Elf-King’s Son. The new working title is Echoes of Light, which means I’m in a titling rut — (something of something else). It also resulted in me spending about an hour finding out if there were fireflies around the Sea of Galilee in Biblical times. The answer? Umm… maybe? There are eight varieties in Israel, but nothing I could find said definitively yes, there’s a variety around the Sea of Galilee. Which means I’m going to do something I don’t normally do — I’m going to wing it.

No, that was not a pun.

Okay, it was, but I didn’t mean it to be.

I’m working on the synopsis for Wings of Air, and will probably be starting to write that in a week or so. Wrapping up Bones of Earth threw some curveballs at me, so I need to work those into how things resolve. I need to see who is going to be my focal characters in this one. I knew going in that Aria was going to be the primary focus, but Treesi was SUPPOSED to be the primary focus of Bones of Earth, and Owyn sort of took over. Again. Because he’s a brat. So I need for him to take a seat so I can focus on someone else for a change.

(insert Owyn here: “Hey, it’s not my fault you love me so much!”)

(Sit down, Owyn!)

So that’s the plan for now. Work on the synopsis, work on Echoes of Light. Set up the preorders and the ad campaign for Bones of Earth, and get the final polish done. I’m planning on a May 26th release, but that might get pushed back a week or two, depending on edits. We’ll see. I want to have copies on the table at KeiserSupercon in June (assuming KeiserSupercon happens in June.) There are a couple of other irons in the fire, too, but they’re still written in warm Jell-O. For now, this is what it is.

See you all next week. Virtually, anyway.

Wash your hands! Stay home if you can! And wear your mask!

thirty

At Loose Ends

Works in Progress

Giveaways!

Sales!

That’s a Draft!

Works in Progress

Promotions!

Thirty. Finished. The End

Late Post, But A Good Reason….

Slightly Domesticated. But Only Slightly.

Thirty

That’s a Draft!

Sneaky Sneaky Sneaky POUNCE!

Finished things and Things in Progress

Work in Progress and Completed Work!

Works in Progress

Appearances

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