Valley of Shadows

Feb

2024

Smooth Sailing

I’m always a little hesitant to use a phrase like smooth sailing — it usually ends up being anything but! But right now? Things look good. Valley of Shadows is out in the wild, and doing reasonably well. The Sea Prince is coming along nicely, and may be done by the end of the month (and then what am I going to do???) Edits for Morrigan’s Heir will be along this week or next (oh, that’s what I’m going to do.)

So… yes. Right now, we have some smooth sailing.

I honestly thinking I’m going to celebrate when I finish The Sea Prince. This book has been in my queue for so long, and has had so many false starts, that actually finishing it feels like an accomplishment. I do know that I need to revise the synopsis for The Coral Throne, because it was based on the book that I thought The Sea Prince was, back when I first started it however many years ago that was (2009? I think?)

Which, I suppose, answers the question of what am I doing when this book is done. Edits, and a synopsis. Oh, and deciding just what I want to do with The Sea Prince once it’s ready for prime time! Just publish? Shop it around? Vella? Patreon? I hesitate to make it a Patreon project, because I’ve set the pattern there of the book being written in real time, and The Sea Prince will be fully complete by the time I started posting it there. So perhaps Vella, with an eye on releasing as a book late this year. We shall see. I should start looking at stock photos for cover models, though…

There isn’t much else going on here — this is my quiet time. I’ll be attending and reading at ICFA next month, but that’s next month. This month? I’m writing, reading, and waiting for news and edits.

What am I reading? Swordspoint, by Ellen Kushner, Death by Silver by Melissa Scott and Amy Griswold, and a book on Edwardian England whose title escapes me, but may very well be Edwardian England. I ended up having to buy the ebook of Swordspoint, because I couldn’t see the tiny, tiny print in my paperback! Sigh…

And that’s where we are at the moment. Surrounded by words, listening to the quiet.

New Release

Now available at all your favorite bookstores — Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7)

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

83458 / 120000 (69.55%)

Jan

2024

Release Week!

The time has come — it’s release week for the final book of the Heir to the Firstborn series. Look at them!

Image of the seven books in the Heir to the Firstborn series. A small, stuffed Highland Cow plush looks over the covers. — (Coo and Boo approved)

And there we have it — the complete Heir to the Firstborn. And when I say complete, I really mean it this time. No more story here. It’s done. REALLY, it’s done.

Which is… a little bizarre, to be honest. I started the series on Patreon in June of 2018 with an outline for four books. Now, five and a half years and seven books later, I just announced on the Patreon that the page will be going dark at the end of February, and will stay dark until I have something new to share there. (Which, I think I do, but right now it’s just an opening scene. It needs more fleshing out.)

Seven years isn’t the longest I’ve spent on one series, I don’t think. I mean, Tales from the Arena isn’t done yet, nor is The Artificer (which started with House of Sable Locks). But neither of those was intended to be a series. Heir to the Firstborn was always planned out as a series, and it just sort of kept going. But it’s the longest I’ve worked on a single creative project continuously, because I was posting a chapter a week every week non-stop for the first six books.

Getting those characters out of my head after all this time? Takes a complete change of subgenre… so I’m currently working The Sea Prince as a palette cleanser (I described it to someone last week as a sort of fantasy-steampunk Master and Commander. Except it’s Age of Sail, so timing-wise that might be candlepunk? I don’t know. If you do, let me know!)

The Sea Prince has been in my queue since 2009 — it’s almost old enough to drive in this state. There have been a lot of false starts and a lot of putting it back on the shelf before I finally figured out where the story was broken. Now? I’m on chapter 23, and starting to pull this book toward a close (and how many of you are gasping in shock because didn’t I just get started on this again less than a month ago? Yes, yes I did. The words have been FLOWING. I’ve written five chapters in three weeks. That’s roughly 15,000 words.) I think there may be between 25K and 50K words left, but I can see the end from here, and I like it.

Then, of course, I need to write the second book in this series…. hopefully, it won’t take me as long as it took to write the first one!

Preorders

Coming TOMORROW to all your favorite bookstores — Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7)

Print preorder is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, which means you should be able to order the paperback at your favorite brick and mortar bookshop.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

78426 / 120000 (65.35%)

Jan

2024

Quiet Now.

I can has quiet now?

I love doing things and meeting readers and getting out, but there’s something to be said for an unbroken stretch of time where I can just drink coffee and put words on the page.

(sips coffee) Ah… quiet now.

Yesterday’s Meet and Greet at Spellbound was fantastic, and I am looking forward to being invited to more events there. At the moment, I am between consignment contracts, but look for The Chronicles of John Zebedee on their shelves real soon now. (How soon? I’ll let you know.)

The only thing that went wrong was nothing to do with the bookstore and everything to do with the mail — the box that should have arrived Saturday with advance copies of Valley of Shadows disappeared from tracking on Friday. Here’s hoping they find it, but there’s now no rush for them to do so — I’m not going to be in person anywhere until March, when I’ll be reading and volunteering at ICFA.

So what am I going to be doing with all my quiet time? Well… there are four started books on my nightstand that I really should finish. I have a started novel on my screen that needs finishing, and research that needs doing. There will be edits coming in sometime soon that will need to be taken care of and gotten back in. Quiet doesn’t necessarily mean not busy, at least for me. For me, it just means that I don’t have to change gears from backstage author to onstage author, with all the planning and prep that goes along with being onstage.

So, for the next month and a half or so, things will be quiet. There will be words, and research, and reading, and while there may be some shenanigans, they will be quiet shenanigans.

At least, I think they will be quiet shenanigans. If they’re not? Then you’ll be among the first to know!

Preorders

Coming January 30th to all your favorite bookstores — Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7)

Print preorder is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, which means you should be able to order the paperback at your favorite brick and mortar bookshop.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

71295 / 120000 (59.41%)

Jan

2024

Do All The Things!

January is supposed to be quiet, I thought. The holidays are over, and we all have time for some boring. Right?

Maybe for other people. In our house? We must do all the things! Post holiday time is Highland Game prep! And today? Is Highland Game recovery day.

I’m not Scottish. Not at all (I don’t think my family even has any connection to the northern Italian town settled by Scottish mercenaries in the 1500s.) But I’ve been working with a small group of my friends of Scottish heritage at the Games since 2012, as the founders and staff of Bairn Care — a family tent so that parents can care for their kids in comfort. We have changing stations, a private nursing and feeding area, extra supplies because there are never enough diapers some days, and on occasion, we will watch your child while you run to use the facilities next door. We’ve been told that our Games are the only ones to offer this sort of service, and it’s been amazing to watch the families grow over the years. It’s a labor of love every year — setup Friday, two full days on site, and tear down Monday.

It was on a quiet morning at the Games some seven years ago that I wrote the outline for The White Raven books. So occasionally I do get some writing in. Not this year, but sometimes.

On the upside, I now have a tiny Highland Cow.

Now I have a couple of days to recharge before my first writing event of the year — my Meet and Greet at Spellbound Books! I’m ready for it, although the advance copies of Valley of Shadows may not make it here in time. However, I will have the complete Heir to the Firstborn series for sale as ebooks on a thumb drive.

I’m trying to get my brains to wake up enough today to commit words on The Sea Prince. There’s been three cups of coffee, and… maybe? I’m not holding my breath, though. This might just be a true recovery day and I’ll go for a thousand words tomorrow.

Preorders

Coming January 30th to all your favorite bookstores — Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7)

Print preorder is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, which means you should be able to order the paperback at your favorite brick and mortar bookshop.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

66791 / 120000 (55.66%)

Appearances!

For ONE DAY ONLY, I’ll be having a Meet and Greet at the Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, Florida! I will be there for 3PM to 4PM on January 21st, 2024. Come out and support small business!

I will have a limited number of thumb drives for sale containing the COMPLETE Heir to the Firstborn series — including the not-yet-released Valley of Shadows! Get it from me before it’s available anywhere!

Jan

2024

An Advanced State of Higgledy-Piggledy

The first day of class is the perfect time to tell someone that their class isn’t at this campus, it’s at THAT one all the way on the other side of town. Right?

Needless to say, today has been in an advanced state of higgledy-piggledy.

I’m trying to convince my son that they’re predisastering the semester for everyone’s convenience. I’m not sure he’s buying it, though. Then again, I’m not sure I’d be buying it if I found out an hour before class that we have to drive half an hour to the back of beyond, to the campus with “Warning: Bear Crossing” signs on the walking paths. Oh, and if the person who was supposed to be doing the driving wasn’t home…

We made it work. The campus is pretty. There’s a Starbucks nearby (because of course there is), and the teacher seems to be a good sort.

But now you know why I’m getting to my blog post after 5PM Eastern… and since it’s after 5PM, I need to go start cooking dinner. Back shortly.

(time passes)

Two and a half hours later, I’m back to finish this post, and hopefully get some words in on The Sea Prince. Today feels like it’s been a lot longer than the clock says — the clock says 7:51PM. My body says 11:51PM and you should have been in bed two hours ago.

I’m not sure why we were all in such an all-fired rush to get older when we were kids. It’s overrated and I want my money back.

Off to attempt words. Wish me luck.

Preorders

Coming January 30th to all your favorite bookstores — Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7)

Print preorder is now available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, which means you should be able to order the paperback at your favorite brick and mortar bookshop.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

64370 / 120000 (53.64%)

Appearances!

For ONE DAY ONLY, I’ll be having a Meet and Greet at the Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, Florida! I will be there for 3PM to 4PM on January 21st, 2024. Come out and support small business!

Jan

2024

Rabbit, Rabbit!

Welcome to 2024!! Saying Rabbit Rabbit at the new year is supposed to bring good luck. No, I’m not sure where it came from, but rabbit rabbit all the same.

It’s been a lovely, relaxing holiday, but it’s time to start ramping up to get back to work. I’m not going to get back to writing for another week — well, not back to writing The Sea Prince, at any rate. There’s something that popped into my head yesterday that I need to write down so I can see if I need to chase it or bank it for later. But when a really compelling voice waltzes into your head and makes you stop to listen, it’s something that need to be written down. We’ll see where it goes.

That story seed wasn’t the only thing to waltz into my head this holiday season. I had a character start talking to me, and I thought it was for something new. Nope… he’s one of the big bads for the Children of the Sword series, and I think the reason that it wasn’t coming together was that I was looking one way, and the story was really over there. What does that mean? It means that, while Swords of Charlemagne and The Chronicles of John Zebedee all exist in the same universe, the convergence of those two series isn’t happening where I thought it was.

Now, I’m not saying I’m going to run out and start writing Children of the Swords tomorrow. There’s too much research to be done — I know nothing about Edwardian England or WWI. That’s currently being addressed, so I’ll say that we can plan to see The Seer (Children of the Sword, book 1) at some point in the next few years.

What am I going to work on this year? Well, edits for Morrigan’s Heir will be coming this month, and then I have to read and revise Morrigan’s Wrath and send that in. Edits for Bonds of Blood and Steel will be along sometime later this year, and I’ll be turning those around as quick as I can. I plan to have The Sea Prince done no later than April 30th, because I’m taking May off entirely (why? High school graduation, that’s why!) Then, come July or August, I’ll be diving into Tales from the Arena: Dead Man’s Hand, because it is time to wrap up that series.

But that all starts next week. This week? I’m still on vacation. Still reading, still researching, still resting my brain.

Preorders

Coming January 30th to all your favorite bookstores — Valley of Shadows (Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7)

The print preorder will be set up sometime this week — I am waiting on the wraparound cover art.

Works in Progress

The Sea Prince
(The Coral Throne, Book 1)

63623 / 120000 (53.02%)

Appearances!

For ONE DAY ONLY, I’ll be having a Meet and Greet at the Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, Florida! I will be there for 3PM to 4PM on January 21st, 2024. Come out and support small business!

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.

Dec

2023

Lofty Goals

Lofty goals, I have them. I have perhaps three chapters left to finish in Valley of Shadows (which drops my wordcount from 90K to 75K.) I am saying this to the public at large, and with my WHOLE chest!

This week I am going to finish this book!!!

As I said, lofty goals. Doable lofty goals, but lofty goals. I’ll be posting my daily wordcounts on Mastodon and Blusky, so you can follow along as I race to finish.

Then… COOKIES!!!

I’m honestly looking forward to the break this year. Although getting me to actually stop doing ANYTHING will be… challenging. I’ve been going at a fever pitch since I started Written in Water in 2018, and I’m not sure I know how to do downtime anymore. Even my vacations are high energy (I vacation at Disney…which means I have fun, but I don’t necessarily relax.) So I’ve decided that once Valley of Shadows is done, I’m taking time away from the laptop. I’m not going to get back to The Sea Prince until January, and I might not even blog! (We’ll see if I hold true to that!)

So what are my plans for the break? Because it’s me and of course there have to be plans? Reading. I have multiple stacks of books to catch up on, and I just added more. There is SO MUCH TV to catch up on — I still haven’t watched season 2 of Loki, and there are about a half-dozen Star Wars shows I need to binge. I want to go down to Disney to see the holiday decorations and do the gingerbread crawl (I’m not sure when that will happen — our park passes black out the 19th.) And I have knitting projects I want to finish.

So, knitting and reading and bingewatching and cookies? Sounds like a plan.

Cookiepocalypse will start next week, so you can keep an eye on Instagram for that. So far, I know I’m making three color cookies to start, and struffuli (which Owyn makes in Wings of Air) to finish. In the middle? I haven’t decided, although I did have a request for oatmeal carob chip. (Hrm… I haven’t made molasses cookies in ages. Maybe I’ll make those, too.)

Follow the Instagram for the cookies — it’ll be a surprise!

In other, other news, my publisher said the most fascinating words to be the other day. Foreign rights. As in, they’ll be shopping them around, so they needed some info from me to put into the pitch. 2024 is promising to be very interesting indeed!

Works in Progress

Valley of Shadows
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

66861 / 75000 (89.15%)

This book will be done this week! I have said it!

Promotions!

The Smashwords End of the Year sale is coming up December 15th. My ENTIRE 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.) 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.

Nov

2023

Back to Work

It’s the first Monday after Thanksgiving, and it’s time for me to get back to work. This book won’t write itself. Valley of Shadows has three, maybe four chapters left. And my incentive to get this done quickly is that December starts Friday, and that means…

COOKIEPOCALYPSE IS COMING!!!

I need to sit down and decide what cookies I’m making this year. There will definitely be three color cookies — there have to be three color cookies or it’s not Christmas. There will be struffuli on Christmas Eve (and if you want that recipe, check out Love at First Bite, which is a collection of recipes available as a free download from the Cavalcade of Authors.) But in between? I’m not sure yet. I need to ask the family what they want. As always, there will be pictures posted to my Instagram — I know there are some of you who wait for those pictures every year!

As I bake, I’m also going to get back to my research for Imaginative Anthropology. I’ve been putting that off because I had too much on my plate, but baking and reading seem to go hand in hand. There will also be the planning for next year, revisiting my business plans and setting up my annual goals for 2024. The end of the year is a busy time for the small business.

At some point, we have to put up the tree, and Hanukah starts next week (blended household, in case you didn’t know.) Fall semester is over next week, and we’re all very much looking forward to Winter Break. We found out last week that Teen Boy has been accepted to his top college, but we haven’t committed yet — we want to hear from the last two and see what they’re offering. But top school has started the process of evaluating the college credits he already has, so we’ll see what they come back with.

Spring semester will be all kinds of interesting and exciting — here’s hoping that senioritis holds off until the first week of May, though!

So much happening in 2024! But I need to finish 2023 first, so back to work!

Works in Progress

Valley of Shadows
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

62071 / 90000 (68.97%)

New Release!

Snowbound dropped today! You can get it anywhere you find ebooks!

Snowbound — because brown paper packages aren’t the only things getting tied up…

Promotions!

Cyber Monday Sale is Live!!!! You can find the first three Heir to the Firstborn books for $0.99 cents each! In addition, Hidden Things and Counsel of the Wicked are also still $0.99!

Nov

2023

Changes in Altitude

This week’s blog is being written in my family room instead of my second floor office, which is why the title today is changes in altitude. I didn’t say they were BIG changes.

I’m downstairs because I’m monitoring the pumpkin crisp that I’m making for Thursday and Thanksgiving. (And I wish you could smell it. It’s AMAZING. Hrm… I know what recipe I’ll be putting in the next newsletter!) I’m on the last few bits of prep. All the shopping is done, the turkey is in the fridge and (I think) defrosted. Tomorrow I’m making apple pie bars and apple muffins for breakfast while we watch the parade, and I’ll take the sides I made and froze last week out of the freezer. Wednesday I’ll be putting the turkey into the brine and making stuffing. On the day, the turkey will get roasted, and the sides will all be heated up (the only one that’s actually going to be cooked on the day are the roasted green beans.)

Surprisingly, the writing has been going well, even in and around shopping and cooking and cleaning and way too many other things. And given where I am in the story, I’m projecting maybe another four chapters before I bring Valley of Shadows and Heir to the Firstborn to a close.

Wait… Valley of Shadows?

Yes. The Patrons have spoken, and the new title of Balance of Power is Valley of Shadows. The Patreon will still say Balance of Power, because I’m not going back to change all the previous chapters or the tags, but it’s all good. When the book comes out, it’ll be Valley of Shadows. And since it may very well be done before the end of the year, I’m going to rethink that March/April release date and move it up to something closer to the end of January/beginning of February. We’ll see how the editing goes, especially since I may be juggling Cookiepocalypse, edits for Valley of Shadows AND edits for Morrigan’s Heir!

Speaking of the Patreon, last week I got the sad news that one of my original Patrons passed away after a sudden illness. They had been a friend for years, even before I started Heir to the Firstborn, and they were part of the Patreon since I started the entire thing and it was still all called “The Elemental Project.” Valley of Shadows will be dedicated to them.

The final bit of news this week is that copies of Written in Water are back in Spellbound Bookstore in Sanford, FL. They’ve just reopened in a larger space, closer to the historic district. If you’re doing holiday shopping in the Sanford area, shop small and local, and check out Spellbound!

Works in Progress

Valley of Shadows
Heir to the Firstborn, Book 7

59057 / 90000 (65.62%)

New Release!

Wait, a new book on a MONDAY? I thought books dropped on Tuesdays!

Usually? They do. Because I can’t read a calendar, you get a new book a day early!

Snowbound — because brown paper packages aren’t the only things getting tied up…

Preorders are live wherever you buy books

Promotions!

First in Series Friday is THIS WEEK! Friday, November 24th (Black Friday in the US), the first books in Heir to the Firstborn, Rebel Mage, and Swords of Charlemagne will be on sale everywhere for 99 cents.

Then, on Cyber Monday, the sale continues! The Cavalcade of Authors will be holding a huge Cyber Monday sale, and for that sale, I’ll be adding in Forged in Fire AND Bones of Earth! To know when the link goes live for this one, you need to sign up for my newsletter. There will be one blast email on the morning of the 27th, letting you know the link is live.

New Release

Works in Progress

Preorders

Works in Progress

Preorders

Works in Progress

Preorders

Works in Progress

Appearances!

Preorders

Works in Progress

Appearances!

Preorders

Works in Progress

Appearances!

Works in Progress

Promotions!

Works in Progress

Promotions!

Works in Progress

New Release!

Promotions!

Works in Progress

New Release!

Promotions!

Works in Progress

Appearances

Find My Books!

Social Media

Let's Keep in Touch!

Thanks for signing up!