When I started writing If A Butterfly Don't Fly, it was supposed to be a fun stand alone story.  I wanted something different in tone and texture to my dragon books, but I still wanted that same sense of wonder and adventure.  The ideas for Underhill bloomed from that.  Underhill is the hidden world where the fae live, accessible only through a magic mushroom circle, and I really enjoyed building the magic of Underhill into a vibrant setting.  However, I knew Underhill would have to interact with the human world, so I also focused on finding out how Underhill's culture and beliefs would intersect with those of the human world.  As you'll see in If A Butterfly Don't Fly it's not always smooth, but it's always going to be fun! 

As I continued to write Butterfly, I realized Underhill needed more than one book to fully explain what it is and how it works.  The way Butterfly was written expects the reader to already have some understanding of the world of the fae, and Butterfly wasn't the appropriate vehicle to fully convey it all.  Instead, I set Butterfly aside for a while and wrote the prequel, Kelpie Blue.  When I finished Kelpie Blue and returned to Butterfly, Underhill had expanded into an even more wondrous place.  I was able to convey so much more about the fae, and about why they're in the human world, thanks to Blue and Rin in Kelpie Blue.  Merridy and Fion from Butterfly certainly appreciated all I could suddenly add to their relationship and their story, and If A Butterfly Don't Fly became one of my favorite books from then on. 

Fun Fact:
All the song lyrics in If A Butterfly Don't Fly are original.  Songs are often used in movies and TV to convey or evoke some sort of deeper reaction from the viewers.  While I can't create the heart thumping reaction of the actual sounds (like the Jaws theme song so effectively does), I tried to use the words themselves and how I inserted certain stanzas into the text to build drama or emotion.  Based on past reviews of Butterfly, I think I was pretty successful, but I'm eager to hear whether you think the same too! 

The reprint of If A Butterfly Don't Fly comes out on April 5th, but it is already available for pre-order at NSP.  If you buy with NSP, you will get your copy today.  It will be available in ebook and print from most major retailers in just three short days. 

3/21/21

Readers who have been with me from the very earliest days of my writing know my Dragon's Hoard series.  Finding the Wolf, book one, was my first ever accepted manuscript, and Tori, the main character from Stealing the Dragon, book three, captured hearts.  I have had some readers who remember the series and I've had readers who have only recently discovered my books ask when the Dragon's Hoard will be republished.  I am happy to say the first round of edits for Finding the Wolf are completed!  Finding the Wolf is slated to be republished with NSP in June, so you won't have to wait much longer for my very first set of happy dragons to fly back into your arms. 

There have been a few other things going on with my writing over the last few days: 

• I have seen the ARC for If A Butterfly Don't Fly, which means that story is 100% ready to be republished.  I expect it will be available for preorder at NSP very soon.  Did you see the amazing cover?  Check it out. 
  
  
• I have completed the copy edits for Justified.  I have also seen the first draft of the cover and it's as perfect as the cover for Magnified.  There's only the proof reader and the ARC left, and Justified will be ready to go.  Look for it in May! 
  
  
• The third book in my (still untitled!) circle series has doubled in size over the last week.  I've added a powerful antagonist, but still need to flesh out the rest of the plot.  I'm hoping to figure all that out over the next couple of weeks.  I'm also thinking this might be the last book in the series, although I would like to write a second trilogy with another main character at some point.  I am hoping once I've gotten this series out of my head and onto paper, I'll be able to return to some of my long-waiting stories.  The faster I get my circle story written, the sooner I'll get back to my dragons!

Passover starts next weekend, so I probably won't be able to put up a blog post like usual.  I'll still do my best to keep you all in the loop if anything fun happens, though! 

3/6/21

It shouldn't sound so shocking to say I've been writing, but I feel like it is.  The last few years have been editing and more editing, and even more editing.  However, with Magnified now released, I'm starting to see the finish line.  Yes, I have books and reprints coming out for the rest of 2021, and even into 2022, but Magnified was the big one.  It was the longest, with the most convoluted plot, and I knew it would require the most strenuous edits of all the books I have coming out.  Having Magnified re-released--and with such stellar feedback from readers--is a big relief. 

And, somehow, despite the fact that edits are still around, I have been finding some time to write.  Of course, I haven't been working on the next books in any of my established series.  That would be too logical.  Instead, I've been working on my new series about a witch, some vampires, and a werewolf pack.  I completed writing the second book this past week, and have started on the prologue for book three.  In fact, the only thing that isn't running smoothy for this new series is figuring out what to call it.  Everything I've come up with has sounded too trite.  I'll think of something eventually, I hope, but until then I will continue to work on Circle Z (untitled). 

I am hoping once I get my coven circle stories written and therefore out of the way, the ideas will start flowing again for some of my other books.  Lumie, from my Supernatural Consultant series, has been poking at the back of my mind, wondering why his next book hasn't grown any in a long while.  The rest of my books seem to be content to wait their turn, but I will get to them all eventually as long as I continue to find time to write. 

Magnified started as an experiment.  Most of the books I write fall within the 20k to 40k word range, and I wanted to know what a story I wrote in the 60k range would be like.  I also wanted to know whether I was capable of writing a novel-length story.  From that desire, I crafted Magnified. 

Learning how to elongate the story with additional scenes of drama, pulling the story together around a pair of budding romances, and creating an enemy threatening everything they stand for was unlike anything I had ever written before.  Or since.  Magnified took a lot out of me to write, and challenged my abilities in ways I hadn't dared try before.  The results awed me, and to this day Magnified remains one of my personal favorites of the stories I've written. 

I admit, after writing Magnified I was happy to return to the world of happy dragons and simple romances, but I soon returned to the challenge to write the sequel, Justified, and will return once more to write the last book in the series, Codified.  The challenge teaches me new techniques that I then bring to my books about happy dragons, so I am pleased whenever I have the time and energy to focus on Magnified once again. 

Fun Fact: 
I wrote the prologue for Magnified first and submitted it to LT3 as a 10k word short story.  LT3 liked it, but told me it didn't have enough romance for their press.  They asked me to rewrite it and try again.  The ideas for adding werewolves and wizards to the vampires I had already introduced blossomed, and the challenge of creating a novel-length book bit me.  Over a year later, and an additional 50k words written, I resubmitted Magnified.  I told LT3 the story was a bit different to last time, and they responded with: A bit?  The rest, as they say, is history, and now NSP is republishing Magnified so a whole new set of readers can enjoy this wonderful story. 

Magnified comes out on March 1st in ebook and print at most major retailers.  You can pre-order it today from NSP and get it three days early! 

If you're a reader like me, while you enjoy ebooks, there's something about the feel of a print book.  If I can, I prefer to buy books in print, so I want to take this moment to highlight some of my own books that are available in print right now, or will be available in the very near future: