7/15/20

I am caught up on editing.  Shocking, I know, but I don't have any edits to complete right now.  The copy edits for Dragon Soldier, book five in my Supernatural Consultant series, are complete and off to the proof reader for final checks.  I also completed the first round of edits for Dragon Adventure, and expect the second half for Dragon Home to arrive soon, but until then I have no edits on my plate! 

Which means I finally have free time!  Normally, I'd be taking this opportunity to get some writing done, but that's unfortunately not going to happen this month.  I have been spending every free moment wrapping fragile things in paper, packing boxes, and bringing what I can safely carry on my own over to the new house.  I already spent one long night cleaning and measuring for new appliances.  Area rugs are arriving by mail and the place is slowly starting to feel like it's mine.  Even after the moving van comes and goes, I know I'm going to be spending a lot of time I would normally devote to writing to unpacking instead. 

What does this mean in the long run?  Not much.  NSP still has 25+ of my books to evaluate, edit, and publish.  Anything I completed now would simply go to the end of that very long list and you wouldn't see it for a few years.  While there are books I would love this chance to get ahead on (Codified being number one on that list), I have to be pragmatic here.  Taking the time to get my real life in order is just as important as completing more of the research Codified needs.  Truth is, one of the big impediments to my writing has been my environment.  I'm constantly interrupted by annoying neighbors being obnoxious, and that hasn't been good for my writing for a while now.  After the move, when I have my own, quiet, place, I do feel that writing will go better.  Hopefully next time I get a nice break between edits I'll be in a position to really get some writing done. 

7/7/20

Dragon Dilemma is available for preorder at NSP.  It comes out on July 20th, but if you buy from NSP you can get it three days earlier!  (FYI, if you already own Dragon Dilemma, not much has changed in this re-release.)  I have also seen the first draft of the new cover and it's as amazing as the rest of the series.  I can't wait to share it too. 

Road to Revenge and Road to Home were both accepted for publishing at NSP!  I very rarely write contemporary, but I loved writing both of these spy stories.  In fact, prior to my writing Magnified, I think this series was my favorite.  I don't know when they'll reach edits, but it should be a fun process when they do!  For now, you can check out the series on my website and I'll let you know when they start to move towards publishing. 

I successfully closed on my house, so now I need to focus on getting packed and getting moved.  As I write this, a child is screeching in the hallway and someone is blasting music from their car in the parking lot.  I cannot get away from this apartment fast enough and am looking forward to having my own, quiet place to finally get some writing done! 

The cover for Dragon Deception, the second book in my Supernatural Consultant series, is amazing.  Bright and happy, as all the covers are, yet also showing a pivotal scene from the book.  Those that have read it before remember the fateful picnic Lumie cooked, and those who have discovered this series for the first time have a glimpse of the kit-caused chaos to come. 

Dragon Deception comes out June 22, 2019 at all major retailers, but you can preorder it now from NineStar Press and get your copy today: https://ninestarpress.com/product/dragon-deception/ They also have an excerpt if you want to check it out!

6/20/20

These days it seems like all I have to talk about in these blog posts is editing.  Yes, editing for my Supernatural Consultant series continues at a good pace, and we're ahead of schedule, but there's more to my writing world than that and I want to share it with you. 

I've submitted two huge projects to NSP: 

• First was my fairy tale collection.  I'm calling it A Little Fairy Dust and it's a collection of every single fairy tale story I've written to date.  It includes Cleanly Wrong and Cinder-Elle, which went out of print before some of my newer readers could get them.  I can't tell you how many people have begged to know when one, or both, of those stories might be available again.  A Little Fairy Dust was just submitted, so it'll be a few months before I hear yea or nay, but step one is complete. 
  
• Second was the entirety of my Oracle series.  I went through and edited the first five books, including making changes to some of the content to adhere to NSP's rules (particularly for the first book).  The overall plot, setting, and characters did not change, but now they will hopefully be acceptable for NSP to publish.  I also finished the edits for The Oracle's Current, the sixth and final book in the series, and submitted all of them together.  Again, it will likely be a while before I hear anything, but the series is finally done so those of you who have been anxiously awaiting the last book will hopefully soon have it in your hands.  
  

I have added 2k words to Dragon Spy, the next book in my Supernatural Consultant series.  (For new readers of this series, by next I mean not previously published.  There are seven previously published books, all of which have been/will be re-released by NSP in 2020.  Dragon Spy is book eight.) 

• I realized the reason I was stuck was I couldn't figure out who to focus the book on.  I needed a new romance and a new perspective, and I found it with Moonstone, the newest dragon to fly across the pages of this series.  I think you'll like him, but I'm trying not to give away any spoilers here so I won't say anything more. 
  
• Adding the new character allowed me to focus where the plot of the book is going.  I now know the mystery and the romance.  All that's left to do is figure out how Moonstone is going to be introduced to the crazy family, and then to put it all down on paper. 

In other news, I bought a house.  It's my first house so I'm super nervous.  Closing is in a week and a half, the moving truck is scheduled to come soon after that, and my apartment is currently stuffed with boxes.  I foolishly thought packing my books would be the easiest place to start, however, I've filled four boxes of just books (and I know about weight limits, so they're not overfull), but have only taken about a third of my books off the shelf.  Luckily, I'm moving close by.  I'm going to have to take those full boxes over myself, empty them, then bring them back to fill again for the movers to take.  If someone can explain how books multiply so quickly, I'd appreciate it. 

6/16/20

I've been getting a bunch of questions from my readers about a number of different stories and topics.  I thought I ought to post some answers in a central location where everyone can read them.  If I missed your question, or if you have more questions, feel free to reach out to me (comment on any of my blog posts, on Goodreads, on Facebook, or Twitter) and I'll definitely answer it. 

Q: You said Alloy is going to have a story with the crazy territory leader in Texas.  Where is that story? 
A: Quite frankly, I've realized I just don't know enough about Texas to write a story with a main character from there.  I don't understand the cultural references that would make a character a fully-rounded individual.  No amount of research is going to get me to a place where I feel comfortable writing that character.  While I still like the idea, unfortunately I think the best option for everyone is going to have to be scrapping it.  That said, I have another idea for Alloy that I think will incorporate the parts I liked from the previous plan, and will likely flow better overall.  (I'm not giving anything away yet to avoid spoilers, but you should see the first hints of this in Dragon Spy.) 

Q: Will there be a Ge-Mi: Part Three?
A: Short answer is no.  The long answer is much more complicated.  Book One was Ge-Mi.  Book Two is Di-Na.  Book Three doesn't have a name yet.  I'm not done writing Nevada and Taylor just yet, but chronologically (both in my writing and in the timeline of the story) Di-Na: Parts One and Two must come first.  I haven't decided whether Nevada and Taylor will have cameo appearances in Di-Na: Part Two, or whether I want to hold off on their involvement until book three.  Rather than writing Gi-Mi: Part Three, my plan is to write Book Three under a new name, but with all the main characters from the previous books coming together. 

Q: I have been waiting for years for the sequel for X story.  When will it be released? 
A: Every single one of my series, and even some of my stand alone books, have received some variation of this question.  There are three possible answers. 

1. I'm still writing it.  Given how slowly I write and how many different stories are in progress at once, I can't provide an estimate as to when I will finish a specific story.  The best thing you can do is follow along on my Current Projects page, which I update with approximate word counts regularly.  
2. It's with my publisher.  Obtaining a release date from a publisher is contingent on a number of things.  The biggest ones are when the editing and cover art are done, and when there's an available spot in the release calendar.  I can guesstimate (and you'll see those guesses in some of my blog posts), but until those conditions are met, no one can provide an exact date. 
3. There isn't a sequel.  Some of my series are complete.  Some of my individual books were written as stand alone stories for a reason.  At the bottom of every series page is a status report, and if that report says complete then I have zero plans to write more.  If a story is listed on the Stand Alone Works page of my website, as the title implies, there are no more stories to be written in that world. 

Q: When will Y story be re-released with your new publisher?
A: See #2 in the previous answer for part of the explanation.  The rest of it is: I sent NSP 30 books.  I have effectively buried them in manuscripts.  So far they've released three, one is due to come out next week, three are in the midst of the editing process, seven more have been accepted, and the rest are still in the assessment queue.  Everyone involved with the process of re-releasing all my books must be patient.  It's not a fast process, but NSP and I will continue to move forward with it until every book is back on the shelves. 

Q: But what about your out of print books?  When will you re-release them? 
A: The ones that can be re-released will be.  There are restrictions I have to follow regarding story length, content, and quality that means six of my previously published books are not acceptable by NSP's standards.  The most pressing issue is story length; LT3 accepted shorter word counts than NSP, so unless I can figure out a way to add a few thousand words to some of my old stories, NSP will not accept them as is.