I used to post this blog early on Monday. Maybe one of these weeks, I’ll get back to doing that again.
This is not that week. Today has been a very Monday-ish Monday, and about midday, I hit the “No spoons, ONLY KNIVES!!!” point. I’m a little less frazzled now, but I still have this blog post to write and two more chapters of Children of Dreams to rewrite.
Speaking of that, I’m about halfway complete with the rewrite on Children of Dreams. I still think it will be ready for the November sale date. but I’m not setting up the preorder until I hand the book off to Darling Editor. Which I hope will be sometime next week.
The new edition of Forged in Fire went up for sale this week, and the ebooks look like they’re available almost everywhere. Paperbacks appear to be rolling out, too — Barnes and Noble says they have the new paperbacks, and Amazon has the new cover but the old book blurb. If you order and get a copy with the old cover, that’s the old content, too. Same with Written in Water.
I should have Bones of Earth ready to go sometime late this week or early next.
I love these covers, but you won’t get to see my FAVORITE until we hit book 5. Which I’m not showing you yet.
John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town is starting to wind down — there are two chapters left to go in this middle part of The Chronicles of John Zebedee. Then we hit the final portion — John Zebedee Meets the Witch-Queen of the Elvenlands, which will take us through to the end of the year. And at some point I have to give all of these images to a cover designer for the collected Chronicles of John Zebedee. Which may include bonus material, but I haven’t decided yet. I’d have to write it, and writing brain is still not entirely functional.
Proof that I’m LOUSY at marketing is that I’ve been completely forgetting to promote the collected Rebel Mage ebook, which will be coming out on October 4th! This will be Amazon only, and includes Counsel of the Wicked, Haven’s Fall and Where Home Lies.
There are still eleven days to go grab the updated Written in Water for FREE through the Fantasy Frenzy. Click the image and grab a pile of free books. Did I mention they’re free?
Back to the revision grindstone. Catch you all next week, with hopefully some new news to share!
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.
I’m not actively writing. Except that I am messing around a little with The Sea Prince, because I was bored. I redid the outline, and am messing with things to see where they go. It definitely falls into the realm of my favorite trope — “These Two Idiots.”
I’m not actively editing, either. Except that I’m rereading Heir to the Firstborn and making notes of all the things that need to be updated and expanded on for the new editions.
I’m not actively planning, but that’s because I finished the synopses for Flesh and Blood.
I am doing research, but that’s mostly reading, so it’s relaxing even though I’m kinda working.
And in and around that, I’m catching up on TV — we binged The Book of Boba Fett, and finished Obi-Wan Kenobi last night (viewer note — I came away from this series completely convinced in my bones that Obi-Wan is an IDIOT!) I think our next binge is getting back to She-Ra. We have two seasons left on that, I think. Maybe I’ll watch Gentleman Jack when we get back from vacation.
I’m catching up on my reading, too. I finished the main series of Bridgerton books, and I read the newest Valdemar book from Mercedes Lackey. I’m back to reading the Magic in Manhattan (Allie Theron) series, and I have The Tale of the Five (Diane Duane) series downloaded. I haven’t decided yet what book is coming with me on vacation, but I should do that.
Now, if you want to catch up on reading, chapter 8 of John Zebedee and the Heir of the Elvenlandsdropped today. There are only three chapters left, then John Zebedee and the Monstrous Town starts in August.
And Where Home Liesdrops a week from tomorrow, bringing the last Rebel Mage book back into circulation.
It’s amazing how much you can get done when you take time off.
That’s not supposed to be sarcastic, but it might be, just a little. Because I’m zipping through things that I’ve been putting off while I worked on finishing up Heir to the Firstborn. I’m moving things to the completed column of my kanban board, which is cool. I’m going to see how many things I can get done before I reset the board for 3rd Quarter at the end of the month. So, since I finished the book, I’ve completed my marketing and my financial plans, wrote a series breakdown of Heir to the Firstborn because I have five DIFFERENT beta readers at Book View Cafe. (The only one not at a disadvantage is the person who has book one…) I updated the series bible for Flesh and Blood (the BDSM Vampire series) and realized that it is five books, not four. Wrote the synopsis for book three, and started on book 4. I’ve completed two finance classes and am halfway through a third. And I’m having fun with the research for Imaginative Anthropology, and I have a book on order for a research paper I’m considering on the evolution of the woman warrior. (Working title: From Britomartis to Brienne)
Oh, and I’m sewing for vacation. And learning to shuttle tat.
Now, this seems like a LOT of things, and it is, but there’s no pressure to do any of it. Most of it is really relaxing to do, so it’s not even like work. I’m busy, but I’m not stressed about it.
I’m not sure anyone is actually reading, though, so I might put together an ad to promote it. I can see why people are saying that Vella isn’t really being pushed by Amazon, though.
And Where Home Lies goes live on July 12th. Once the entire series is out (including the box set that is coming in October), I’m going to move this over to be wide. So that will be sometime early next year for wide distribution of Rebel Mage. (I have to wait until the box set comes out of KU, which will be in January, I think.) But this series may move over to BVC, too, so we’ll see what that changes between now and then.
Counsel of the Wicked is a freebie until the end of the month over in the Love Me Now giveaway. There are some interesting spicy romances in there, so take a look!
And that’s about everything for this week, I think.
This past week feels like I’ve been running from pillar to post all week, and yet I’m not sure I have much to show for it. Strange.
I didn’t get as many words down as I’d have liked, but I did get to write some interesting scenes that revealed once again that my characters keep secrets from me, and only tell me when it’s the right time. If you’ve seen “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” you probably remember the scene where Roger slips the handcuffs? And Eddie demands to know why he couldn’t do it before, only to have Roger reply that he couldn’t do it before. He could only do it when it was funny.
My characters only reveal things when it’s going to complicate the plot. However, I like this complication, so it stays.
Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)
94275 / 150000 (62.85%)
Then again, I usually like the complications, and they usually stay. My characters have more of a direct line to my subconscious, which is where these stories start. I figure they know what they’re talking about.
I was also interviewed for the These Mums Write podcast, which was an enormous amount of fun. As soon as I know the date that the episode will air, I’ll let everyone know. I think it’s in early March.
Okay, so maybe I did get a lot done last week. And I have even more to get done this week, including attending Boskone virtually this upcoming weekend, and finding out the results of the Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewers Choice Awards!
The Kickstarter has a little over a month left to go, and hasn’t broken 10%. Not going to lie, I’m starting to worry here…
If we don’t make it, there will still be an audiobook for Hidden Things — I’ve already contracted that, and Mark (the narrator) is working on it now. But I’ll be paying him out of pocket for that, which means that I won’t be able to get The Lady and the Sword into production until later this year, which means gambling on Mark’s availability.
So… if having an audiobook series change narrators halfway through annoys you as much as it annoys me? Share the Kickstarter, and maybe throw something into the hat. And if nothing else, go read the updates — I’ve been posting about the visual inspirations for the main characters. So far, I’ve done Turpin/Yael, Roland and Olivier. Margaret is next.
I’m now twenty-seven chapters into Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home. I think I’ll be pulling this one off as the last book. We’re about to hit a point where I can move them along more quickly, so I think we’re almost to the top of the big hill on the plot roller coaster. I’m debating adding a scene not in the outline (because that never happens. Ever.) I’ll see if it actually fits when I get to that spot.
Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)
91442 / 150000 (60.96%)
Preorders are up for the re-released of the Rebel Mage series, and the first two books have been finalized. I’m going to get started on the reread and revision of Where Home Lies today. I’ve already made a note of something that came up in one of the earlier books that I never addressed or resolved, and I’ve caught a few places where people leave the same room twice, or say they’re going to go get something, never leave, and then magically have the thing they never went to go get.
It’s interesting, going back and rereading something that I wrote with an eye on republishing it. There are some things that I did then that I wouldn’t do now, or would do differently now. If changing them wouldn’t break the story, I made changes. But for the most part, there’s very little that I’m changing other than editorial goofs that were missed the first time around.
And finally — FREE BOOKS!
Yes, really. The Red Hot book giveaway is ongoing for this entire month. Nineteen books either free to download entirely, or as a sample. Go check it out!
And that’s where things are in this neck of the woods. Plugging along until next week!
Those of you who know me, and who know I live in Florida, are probably laughing right now, and looking at me funny, because cold winter and Florida do not usually go together. And while it did snow in Florida recently, it’s nothing like what they have in our former stomping grounds of the Baltimore/DC Corridor. So cold winter, Liz? Really?
For the record? It’s a song lyric from a Tudor era song that may have been written by Henry VIII (or it may not have. Provenance hazy, ask again later.)
It’s chilly in the mornings, here, but not enough to need more than a sweatshirt when we leave to head out to school at way-too-early-for-a-teenager. But this morning, I noticed that it was lighter out when we left. Dawn is coming earlier, which I like — I hate driving to school in pitch blackness.
I had a busy week last week — I went through all three Rebel Mage books, tweaked them, fixed the formatting, and uploaded them for presale! Now, these will be working a little different — Rebel Mage will be staying in KU. You won’t find these ebooks on any other platform. There will be paperbacks, but the ebooks will be KU only, at least while dark romance remains a hot item in KU page reads. Counsel drops in March, Haven’s Fall in May, and Where Home Lies in July.
Last week I also got some marketing done for Swords of Charlemagne: The Complete series — the box set is on preorder for a February 1st drop, and I started ads running to promote that on Friday. The box set will be wide — available everywhere you find ebooks. (that link will show all the bookstores, once they all finish loading. I just this moment realized that I never hit PUBLISH on the wide version when Table of Stone came out of KU. Umm… oops.)
Focusing on marketing and on the Rebel Mage books means that I didn’t get as much work done on The Way Home as I wanted. But there was some forward progress, so I’ll take it.
Heir to the Firstborn: The Way Home
(Heir to the Firstborn, book 6)
77002 / 150000 (51.33%)
I’m thinking that I’m still on track for a November release on this book, with a possibility of moving it up. We’ll see how the chapters play out over on the Patreon — the book will not release to the public until after the last chapter is live on Patreon, whenever that might be.
I’m still dithering over what the next Patreon project will be. I have three potentials, but two of them are books that I started and that stalled out. I need to see if I can figure out where those broke and fix them before I commit either of them to Patreon.
And I’m working on the synopsis/outline for Tales from the Arena: Dead Man’s Hand, because Teren is FINALLY talking to me and wanting his story told. We’ll see when that one actually gets written, though. Depends on… well, a lot of things. It’ll get written. At some point.
Today I’m a guest over at Bending the Bookshelf, talking once more about Writing the Other.
This book did it to me again — first, it was Matthias telling me halfway through book one that I was wrong when I planned for him to be gay. He was asexual.
Now, there’s a new character who did the same damned thing! I wasn’t planning on writing a transgender character when I started this book, but the character had other ideas. Which meant that once again, I had to stop midstream and make sure I was doing it right. If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you know how important that is for me.
Go read the blog post. Then go read the book. I want to know what you all think.
No longer in exile, the rebel mage Matthias can finally return to his home enclave and settle into a new life with his beloved Solomon. As he struggles with his role leading the new town of Sanctuary, upheld by the people who once rejected him, Matthias knows all too well that the relative peace he’s found is temporary. The forces that razed Haven are still out there, still looking for him, still seeking to destroy everything he now protects. While there are alliances to make, mouths to feed, and people who look to him to protect them, his enemies will just have to wait.
When tragedy strikes, Matthias, Solomon, and Matthias’ cousin Tam are forced back onto the road again, this time seeking answers in the forbidden north; answers that may lead to new beginnings, or to the end of everything they’ve ever known. (M/M, M/F)
Here, have an excerpt:
“Sol, can I talk to you? Alone?”
Solomon looked puzzled, but he stopped and waited, listening until the front door closed and the house fell silent. Matthias let out the breath he was holding, then gestured — the library door closed and locked.
Solomon arched an eyebrow. “We’re alone in the house. Isn’t that overkill?”
Matthias smiled slightly and started to pick his way around the stacks of books, pacing nervously, drunkenly through them. It was hard to look at Solomon, hard to get the words out.
“You asked me to marry you,” he finally said.
“I remember.”
“I said yes.”
Solomon coughed. “I remember that, too.”
Matthias stopped, looking out the window. He really couldn’t see anything except his own reflection — the windows on this side of the library faced away from the square, and in the darkness, the glass was more of a mirror than a window. He could see Solomon watching him, and it didn’t make the actual asking any easier. He watched in the glass as Solomon came closer.
“Matt?”
“Tomorrow is Midwinter,” Matthias said. “I was born on Midwinter day.”
Solomon’s hands were warm on his shoulders. “I think I knew that. What are you trying to ask me, Matt?”
“Solomon, if I asked you to, would you take me upstairs and take me to bed? For sex, I mean. Not for sleep.”
For a moment, there was no answer. No sound at all, and Matthias wondered if he was even breathing. Then Solomon gently turned him around until they were face to face.
“Explain?” Solomon asked softly. “I can’t follow you when your thoughts go off at angles like this. How did we get from one to the other?”
Thoughts going off at angles? It was a good way to describe it, and it took a while before Matthias could manage to gather his thoughts into something that might make sense to someone who wasn’t inside his head. “I’m twenty tomorrow. I’m of age by the laws of the Enclaves, and don’t tell me that those laws don’t matter anymore. I know that. But I’m used to them.”
“I wasn’t going to say that,” Solomon said, sounding amused. “I am going to say that for someone who hasn’t had a man’s status, you’ve had a man’s burden for a long time.”
Matthias nodded. “No arguments. And tomorrow… I want my life back, Sol. I want what the Elders took from me. Everything they took from me. I have most of it — I have my freedom again. I have a home, a place. A purpose. I have people who care about me, and that’s something I never thought I’d have. There’s one thing left.” He rested his hands flat on Solomon’s chest. “I want to feel whole again. I want to stop feeling broken. I want me back.”
Solomon swallowed and let out a long breath. He covered Matthias’ hands with his own and looked Matthias in the eyes. “Matt, do you understand that this might not change that? It’s not going to magically make it all better.” He grinned slightly. “I’m good. I’m not that good.”
Matthias smiled. “I know it won’t make everything right. Give me that much credit. But that’s not what I’m looking for.” He licked his lips, and saw Solomon’s eyes track the movement. “I’ve taken back control over the rest of my life. It’s time I stopped being afraid and took this back, too. I don’t know if I’ll want it ever again, but tonight? I love you, Solomon. I know you said you weren’t going to take me to bed until I was ready. I’m saying that I think I’m ready.” He paused. “No. I’m saying that I am ready.”
Solomon nodded slowly. He ran his thumbs up and down the sides of Matthias’ hands, then asked, “You’re sure?”
“I think so, yes.” He swallowed, then repeated, “Yes.”
Solomon smiled slightly. “Then ask me again.”
Matthias blinked. He tried to step back, but Solomon kept a firm hold on his hands. He nodded, wordlessly encouraging Matthias to speak. Matthias licked his lips again and softly asked, “Solomon, will you take me upstairs and take me to bed?”
Solomon smiled broadly, bringing Matthias’ hands up and kissing both palms, one after the other. “All you had to do was ask, love. And mean it.” He tugged Matthias toward the door. “Come on. We’ll eat first, then—” He smiled. “Then I’ll show you how it’s supposed to be.”
Release Week (to the tune of Maria, from West Side Story)
Tomorrow, my new book releases tomorrow…
And.. that’s about as far as I got on that one. Luckily, I write novels better than I write song parodies!
Today on the blog tour, I give up the secret to writing success, something I learned while at RWA Nationals this past July. Want to know the secret? Go look!
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