Today I have for you the cover of Ground of Insurrection, the first book in my Wizard Wars series, which is coming out on June 13, 2018.  I took one look at the cover and went "yes!".  It's basically a snapshot taken directly from the book, with the prairie stretching on for miles.  I admit the prairie wouldn't have left a bit of food like the skull lying around like that, but the skull is very dramatic and provides the context that no matter how pretty the prairie might be, it's deadly.  This cover definitely reaches the top of my favorite covers list. 

Check it out: 

Ground of Insurrection is currently available for pre-order at LT3.  Normally there's a 15% discount, but LT3 is turning 9 this year and the combined sales mean you can get it for 40% off instead.  It's a great deal, so make sure to get your copy today: https://lessthanthreepress.com/books...

4/11/18

This past month has been a bit crazy, so I haven't been able to keep you all updated with news as I learn it.  I do have a lot of fun things to share!  First, I have potential release dates.  They're subject to change, but as long as I get all my edits done on time (which as you'll see below I'm not doing too well at) they shouldn't change too much.  Mark your calendars:

• Ground of Insurrection: June 13, 2018
• If A Butterfly Don't Fly: July 11, 2018
• The Coup and the Prince: September 5, 2018

Insurrection has already gone through one round of edits.  I'm expecting the second round to appear sometime this month, which should finish up the editing process for this story.  Insurrection is now available for pre-order at LT3 for a 15% discount (plus more because of LT3's birthday sale), so you can get your copy now.  It's also been listed on Goodreads if you want to add it to your to-read list: https://www.goodreads.com/book...

I received the first round of edits for If A Butterfly Don't Fly, so that story has started moving forward too. At first, the edits for Butterfly didn't seem to be too bad, but then I found where the editor asked me to add in a new chapter.  The reasons for that new chapter are solid, so I started writing it, but it's been fighting with me and now the edits are late.  LT3 was kind enough to grant me an extension for the edits, so I'm hoping to have them done really soon.   

The reviews for Kelpie Blue have been beyond stellar.  Everyone that has left a comment has agreed that Blue, my lively Kelpie with the sharp teeth, is adorable and the story itself is a ton of fun.  If you've read Kelpie Blue, it would be awesome if you could pop over to Goodreads or Amazon and leave a quick review.  

As for writing, unfortunately edits take precedence.  That means I didn't finish writing Ground of Resurrection in March like I had hoped.  However, that doesn't mean I can't plan the rest of my stories out mentally.  The main characters in Codified, the third book in my Magnified series, have been stuck in the basement and I've been struggling to figure out how to get them out.  I think I've come up with an idea, but until I see how it flows on paper I don't know whether the idea is a viable one.  In Ge-Mi: Part Two, they've all arrived at the graveyard, but I need to figure out the ceremony there in order to get them out of the graveyard and into the scene that really starts the romantic drama.  I think I'm starting to get a good idea of how to move it forward, but until the edits are out of the way I can't work on it. 

2/28/18

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I have a good reason.  The third round of edits for Kelpie Blue arrived and I had to focus on getting those done.  There were a lot more edits than I expected for a third round and the due date came and went far too quickly.  I have finally gotten the edits back to LT3.  Kelpie Blue comes out in less than a month and I can't wait!  Make sure you pre-order your copy today so you can get a 15% discount: lessthanthreepress.com/books...

Heartbeat, a story I submitted to LT3 as a reprint, was accepted for republishing.  It was previously published as part of LT3's Satisfaction Guaranteed anthology and is the prequel to my Trickster's Eye series.  I don't know what the editing process will bring, but as of right now I can say nothing substantive has changed from before.  I can't promise it will stay that way as edits always tend to be more involved than I expect.  I will keep you updated as I learn more. 

I am in the process of renewing the contract for The Oracle's Flame, the first story in my Oracle series.  It would have gone out of print next month, but now the run will be extended.  There shouldn't be any changes to the cover and I don't know if there will be any edits completed.  I recommended a round of edits for Road to Revenge when that contract was renewed, but I haven't heard anything about that happening.  I don't know that it will happen for Flame either.  I will let you know as I learn more.  

I don't have any news about any of my upcoming stories.  I'm expecting the second round of edits for Ground of Insurrection and the first round of edits for If A Butterfly Don't Fly any day now.  I also don't have any potential release dates to share, although I expect Insurrection to be scheduled for May or June, Butterfly for sometime from June to September, and The Coup and the Prince for fourth quarter 2018.  I'm hoping LT3 will be able to give me more information soon.

1/28/18

When I'm writing a book, a lot of the time the ideas for the sequel start popping up.  I usually shelve those ideas until the current book is complete, and then pull them back out to start work on the sequel.  Except, by that point those new ideas are dusty and sometimes difficult to work with because of the amount of time they've been sitting (which has sometimes been years).  That was the case for Ground of Resurrection, the second book in my Wizard Wars series.  It took me years to write book one, Ground of Insurrection, and all the ideas and plans for book two got warped and messed up.  I've scrapped and restarted the first 1k words in Resurrection at least three times, just trying to get the pieces I shelved to work with what actually wanted to go onto paper.  The story was stuck around 1k for a few months, but then I received the first round of edits for Insurrection. 

Somehow, reading through Insurrection reminded me of those original, shelved ideas, and reordered them until they finally started to come together in a story that makes sense.  Writing Resurrection suddenly became a process of getting the words onto paper fast enough before my brain moved on to the next scene.  Resurrection has just passed the 10k words mark.  (I've also started shelving ideas for a potential third book in the series that will likely be called Ground of Defection.)  10k words is the halfway point for the books in this series, which are all only about 20k in total, and I know the basic layout of the rest of the story.  It's just a matter of finding the time to write it all down, but I'm really hoping Resurrection will be completed soon. 

On another note, thanks to all your advice from my last posting I have decided to go with Dragon Spy as the title for book seven in my Supernatural Consultant series.  I hope regular readers of my blog will understand that I am recycling a previously scrapped title.  I have also come up with the first paragraph of the working summary for Spy, which you can read HERE.  I'll be able to add the second paragraph and smooth out the first paragraph once I've fleshed out the story a bit more, but at least now you can get the basic gist of what I'm going for in this story.  I haven't made a decision on what to do about the title for my coliseum story, but I'll let you all know what I eventually decide. 

1/20/18

I have been working on my untitled coliseum story off and on for about a year now.  It's purely fantasy with a type of dragon character I haven't utilized before.  Writing it has been fun even though it hasn't been smooth sailing.  I am finally approaching the climax of the story where the hero must fight the bad guy and I realized I needed to come up with a title.  The problem is that the only potential titles I could think of were 'Dragon Sands' or 'Dragon Moons'.  Both would fit with the story and I'm leaning towards the former, however I realized that the title is far too similar to that of my Supernatural Consultant series.  Every single one of those titles are two words and start with 'Dragon'.  The last thing I want is for someone to spend money on what they think is the next Supernatural Consultant book, only to be greeted with a vast desert and a cave full of dragon eggs instead.  I don't know what to do.  Should I use 'Dragon Sands' anyway?  I could use your advice, so please let me know what you think! 

Speaking of Supernatural Consultant, despite not being on the short list I mentioned in my last post, book seven is the story I started working on.  I've added about .5k words, which was enough to set the next scene and build some drama for what's coming next.  Which brings me to my conundrum about this story as well.  I originally settled on 'Dragon Trick' for the tentative title because it fit with the rough outline in my head.  As the story continues to expand on paper, I'm realizing that 'Trick' is not the right fit after all.  In fact, I think I might be leaning towards resurrecting 'Spy', which was scrapped as the title for book six (Dragon Lesson).  Do you think if I started calling book seven 'Dragon Spy' I would confuse readers who associate that title with Dragon Lesson? 

1/17/18

Three day weekends with very few plans are a wonderful thing when you've got edits that need to get done.  I spent just about every free moment this past long weekend editing Ground of Insurrection and was able to finish it early.  I've just sent it back to LT3.  They do need another round with the editor, but I don't foresee any serious difficulties arising.  Additional news about potential release dates, covers, and everything else will hopefully be forthcoming at the end of the month.  I'll keep everyone in the loop as I learn more. 

I was checking the links on my website this past weekend and I realized the Satisfaction Guaranteed Anthology is no longer.  According to my records it went out of print this past September.  I totally missed this fact.  Heartbeat, my story from the anthology, is actually the prequel to my Trickster's Eye series.  I gave it a read-through, fixed a few small issues, and have resubmitted it to LT3.  I hope they will accept the story a second time. 

I don't know how long I'll have until the next round of edits appears, but I'm hoping to get some writing done in the interim.  I have three stories open on my computer right now: Ge-Mi: Part Two, Ground of Resurrection, and my untitled Coliseum Story.  I have plans for what happens next in all three and all three are clamoring for me to write them.  Whichever one screams loudest at me will win, but any writing at all is good progress.  I'll be sure to let you know how it goes. 

1/13/18

I have received the first round of edits for Ground of Insurrection.  A glance through says they'll be very straightforward, so hopefully I'll have them completed and back to LT3 for a second round quickly.  The editor said the story was "fantastic", which I was overjoyed to see.  This story gave me some trouble as I was writing it, trouble that is unfortunately repeating itself as I'm trying to write the sequel, so hearing it did turn out well after all that was really wonderful.  Now that the edits are moving along, LT3 can start planning release dates.  I expect to learn a tentative date for Ground of Insurrection sometime after I return the edits, so I had better get to working on them now because I'm as anxious to learn the release date as I'm sure you are. 

I don't really have all that much else to share with you today.  It's been a while since I posted anything so I wanted to say hi and to let you all know that I am trying to work on some of the stories you're anticipating.  Mostly I've been planning, which doesn't sound super exhilarating, but is absolutely necessary to move my stories forward.  For example, in the next Supernatural Consultant book (tentatively titled Dragon Trick, but that might change) I know the ultimate goal of the story, but I haven't quite figured out how to get the characters there yet.  I can't start writing again until I figure that bit out. 

I've been plucking away at Ge-Mi: Part Two as well.  I've said it before in regards to this story, but I'll say it again anyway: it's slow going.  I'm setting up so many little things right now that will have an impact all the way to the end and I really want to get them right.  That means the story is only growing by a few hundred words each time I work on it.  That's better than nothing at all, but it's not a lot in terms of how much I still have to do. 

Aside from that, I'm patiently waiting for the next round of edits for Kelpie Blue to appear.  I'm hoping they'll wait until after Ground of Insurrection is back with the editor, but as March and the imminent release date looms closer, I know they'll have to appear soon.  We're also nearing the time when If A Butterfly Don't Fly should begin the editing process (especially since it was accepted for publishing at the same time as Ground of Insurrection), so I expect that story will also appear in my inbox sometime in the near future.  There's so much to look forward to!

12/31/17

LT3 emailed me to let me know Road to Revenge, the first book in my Road To duology, will be going out of print on January 1, 2018 (tomorrow).  They asked if I was interested in renewing the contract, to which I immediately replied yes.  This isn't going to be a huge rigamarole like with Dragon's Hoard.  Road to Revenge will get shined up a bit with a quick edit, but it shouldn't even have an interruption in sales.  Dragon's Hoard was down for weeks while it went through editing and getting new covers, which Road to Revenge honestly doesn't need.  Still, it's nice to see Road to Revenge getting a bit of spotlight for once. 

On another note, I completed the second round of edits for Kelpie Blue mostly on time.  They are headed back to the editor for another round, but I can really see the improvement in the story so far.  It's far smoother to read through and now that the edits aren't making me want to tear my hair out, I'm relearning to love my crazy kelpie.  March seems so far away, but it will come soon enough, and then all of you will be able to read it too.  I can't wait. 

I have written over 1k words in Ge-Mi: Part Two today and I hope to continue adding more to the story the rest of this long weekend.  It's not even close to being complete, but I'm liking where it's going.  I'm building up right now to introduce a new character that will add some tension to Nevada and Taylor's relationship.  I am also working towards getting the plot reintroduced, which requires setting up some twists and turns that I hope readers will enjoy.  There's a lot of little things to get right, so it's slow going, but it is going and that's what's important.