Tag: announcement

To update or… Wait. There is no Option B

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How to tell when a writer is working: you don’t see her for months on end. Ever make a detailed, step-by-step action plan, only to have it get derailed at every single freaking step? That’s pretty much been my year so far. My plan was to write and finish Prince of Deceit and Dearest Love, and make some progress on Sweetest Kiss, all while doing the barest minimum on the business side. Well, Dearest Love is done and out, so yay for that. As for the rest… imagine me laughing anxiously while holding back frustrated growls. Instead of finishing my novel, I ended up writing a whole lot of other stuff (which I loved!), restructuring my entire business model (not so much with the love), and doing a bunch of stuff I hadn’t planned on, but which turned out to be necessary (long-suffering sigh).

Long story short, due to technical reasons with which I won’t bore you, I am having to change the Dragonblood series name. I did not come to this decision lightly. I’m not doing this just to get prettier covers (although they totally are!!). I’m doing it to correct a problem I’ve had with the series since before book 2 came out last year. The original series name had to be changed at the last second and because I was rushed for time, I ended up slapping on a new one that doesn’t really fit the series story line. This is something that has been pointed out by readers, reviewers, friends, and family, and has bothered me for almost two years.

So why now, rather than after Prince of Deceit? Because I recently started the process of moving/expanding my print distribution to IngramSpark, and a part of it involves reformatting the covers. So I can either make the change now, or duplicate my work later. For the sake of my own sanity, I’m opting to do it all now in one fell swoop.

Mind you, the stories themselves are not going to change. The book titles are not going to change. All that’s different is the series name and the covers. If you already have a previous print version of The Royal Wizard and/or Dragonblood, congrats. They are now limited first editions that could potentially be worth a lot of money in a few…decades. 😉 If you don’t, give the eBooks a gander. Check out the previews and see if they strike your fancy. Ya never know until you try! (*hint hint*)

Okay, that about covers the boring stuff. And now, without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the newly revamped Dawn of Ragnarok series, and reveal the cover for the third and final (planned) book: Prince of Deceit.

Continue reading “To update or… Wait. There is no Option B” →

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State of The Author Update

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After all the DIY stuff, I figured it was time for something different. I’ve been pretty active (for me) on Facebook which is where I post most of my updates, but it’s nice to post them here sometimes too. So what’s been going on?

DragonbornI am currently dividing my time between Dragonborn and Blood Hunt. Recently Dragonborn has hijacked my brain and I have been writing up a storm every time I have a day to myself. As soon as I finish this post, I will be getting right back to it. The novel is now over halfway finished and going very well, so I changed up my website a bit to put it in the In The Works section. It doesn’t mean I have given up on Blood Hunt (see below). I am also updating the Glossary as I go so there are a bunch of new terms and phrases. If I’m not careful, that page is going to turn into an Aegiran-Common dictionary.

ComingsoonFor those of you eagerly awaiting Blood Hunt, I’m sorry to say it probably will not be finished this year. Like Dragonborn, it is about half done, but I’ve run into several snags I have to go back to correct and it will take time. I’m talking things like character inconsistencies, awkward scenes that don’t necessarily have to be there, weird dialogues… basically a major edit/revision. I’m not taking it off the table (never! Pixie would eat me alive) but I have to work with the canvas my muses stick in front of my nose and right now that’s not Blood Hunt. It’s still very much alive and kicking, just not fresh on my mind. I will get to it, I promise. 🙂

Now, as fate would have it, life decided to interfere with my ambitions. I was hoping to make it to Authors After Dark this year (as a guest, not a featured author) but unfortunately I will not be able to make it. The time and financial considerations are simply not there. Hopefully next year, though. In the meantime, all this means is that I will have more time to write, which is always a good thing. I know I tend to get ahead of myself sometimes, push myself too hard and lose sight of why I do this.

I write because I love writing. And it never fails, the second I start treating this as a job or a career that requires my appearance and participation, I get blocked and my stories become crap. So rather than become a socialite in love with her own spotlight (trust me, nobody likes that, least of all me) I am just going to keep on typing away in my little writing den. Really, it’s the stories that should be out there, not the author behind them, right?

Until next time!

The Royal Wizard Now (FINALLY) Available!

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When I finished the first “official” version of The Royal Wizard in 2008, before I thought I had any hope in the world of getting it published, I “pseudo-published” it just for myself. I sent off a copy for an official Copyright, and then I formatted the word document to look just like a real book (without really grasping the concept of the page break yet, so imagine a lot of line breaks being counted off) and created a cover from images I found online and loved. I printed one copy, had it bound at FedEx Kinkos, and placed the 8.5″ x 11″ booklet on my bookshelf among a small handful of first editions, which will probably never see the light of day. This first edition was roughly 68,000 words long and on the first page I had written the following epigraph:

Dreams open the windows through which in our waking hours we seek to see. They are the worlds we create when reality fails to live up to our expectations, and the secret lives we wish we could live. They are the stories we write for ourselves, with no thought of critics or audiences, knowing that, whatever they might be, they will always be well received.

On the very next page, I had written another:

A dream which needed to be told.

That, more than anything is the reason why I am sitting here today, writing this nostalgic post. Because I still believe those words. They guide everything I do in this life, and every word I write, published or not. Those closest to me know how important dreams are to me. I have hundreds and hundreds of pages worth of dream journals and those I trust most know that they’re not just random images and scenes, but stories and movies playing out my head while I sleep.

TRW_ERRNow I get to rack up my courage, square my resolve and share one of those dreams with you. The Royal Wizard is, in a way, a dream twenty years or so in the making, and it has come a long way over the years, grown with me to roughly 100,500 words and an awful lot more complications and intricacies. You can imagine how nerve racking it is for me to put it out there LOL. Nevertheless, I love the story. I adore the characters. As my younger self had said, this dream needed to be told, and so I can do no less than tell it. I owe that to my inner child.

With great pride (and more than a little trepidation at having the inner workings of my mind revealed to the world) I present to you The Royal Wizard. Now available at Smashwords and AllRomanceEbooks,  and soon to be distributed everywhere else.

The Royal Wizard Trailer and Release Date

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Greetings! Long time no see! I hope your holidays and New Year were a fantastic end to 2012 and beautiful beginning to 2013.

I have a lot of news to share. For those who follow me on Facebook, you may have noticed the new book trailers I’ve posted in the last few days. Yes, I started dabbling in a new art form–Windows Movie Maker. And, believe me, it truly is a form of art to get that finicky piece of Microsoft software to do what I want it to… But I am happy to report that in the battle for a put-together book trailer, I am winning! There will be more trailers to come, I hope to have one for each of my books, but for now, check out my YouTube Channel to see what you might have missed and enjoy this little piece (my absolutely first, very virginal attempt at making a trailer so don’t laugh too hard, the second one already looks better!):

And that is not all! I am happy to report that The Royal Wizard is now safely in the very competent hands of my editor and I can therefore finally announce the release date! Come March 3, 2013, there will be a new literary baby born to Smashwords. I will have cameras and tissues ready.

The Royal WizardWith all that said, it’s time for the good part! I would like to share another little piece of this book, a preview of what will be to come. If you missed it, you can still read the unedited Prologue here. But today, I am also adding the unedited Chapter One for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!