Dragon Soldier is the second half of Nickel's story that began in Dragon Detective and it also concludes the first arc of the series.  I had some second thoughts when I was thinking about what to do for the cover for Dragon Soldier.  The story is about Nickel and Platinum, yet every time I reread the book one of my favorite scenes was one where Chrome and 'Ron knock down a tree in Dane's backyard.  I liked the scene and the idea for the cover so much--and I know I won't be writing a book with Chrome and 'Ron as the main characters--that highlighting them here just worked for me.  Let me know what you think! 

Dragon Soldier comes out on April 5, 2017.  I'll let you know when it becomes available for pre-order.  Be sure to read Dragon Detective first, which is available right now. 

9/10/16

Despite my needing to take some time off from writing, things continue to progress with all my stories.  Here's an update on how things are going:

• Magnified was released on September 7th and so far has been getting great reviews.  Thank you to everyone that purchased a copy.  I really hope you enjoyed it! 
  
  
• Cinder-Elle, my fairytale short story from Fairytales Slashed Volume 4, is out of print.  I have some plans for this story, so look for it to appear on my to-do list again. 
  
  
• Speaking of stories going out of print soon, Cleanly Wrong, my story from the Bestiary collection will be going out of print at the end of September.  I'm hoping to polish and resubmit this story, but it may be a while before I can get my act together and make that happen.  Bloody Kiss, my story from the Proud to be a Vampire collection and Jack O'Lantern's Grin, my story from the Halloween Rentboy's collection will both be going out of print in October.  Bloody Kiss might return as part of a larger series, but don't hold me to that.  Jack O'Lantern's Grin will not be returning, so get your copies before they're gone. 
  
  
• I have also been getting a lot of editing accomplished.  The first round of edits for Ner Li and Ge-Mi: Part One and the second round for The Case of the Wandering Wolves and Dragon Soldier are back with LT3, as well as a final proof read for Dragon Detective (out on October 19th).  I have the second pass of edits for Elemental Ride sitting in my inbox that I will start working on soon. 
  

June was a difficult month.  I finished training, moved, and started at my new job.  It was stressful, exhausting, and very time consuming.  All things writing got pushed aside because my real life was far too hectic.  I did manage to get some things done, though. 

1. Be Prepared.  I returned the copy edits for Magnified to LT3 and made a lot of progress on the edits for Dragon Soldier.  There's still more work to do in Soldier, but I don't think I did too badly. 
   
   
2. Writing.  Surprisingly I was able to get some writing completed.  Almost 2k words in book three of my Magnified series.  It's a good place to grow from and is indicative that the planning and research I've been working on is heading in the right direction.  There's still a lot to do in this story, but I'm very happy with it so far.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get anything completed in any of my other stories, but I have high hopes for next month. 

I didn't do too badly in February.  I got a little off track with writing some new stuff, but overall I think I got a lot done.  Here's how I did:

1. Editing. The first round of edits for Dragon Detective was returned to LT3.  I received the second round of edits for Magnified too late in the month to finish by today, but I will have them done soon. 
   
   
2. Supernatural Consultant.  Dragon Soldier is complete and I've submitted it to LT3.  Dragon Adventure and Dragon Home have both been submitted to LT3 as well.  I hope to hear whether they like them soon.  I've also poked at Dragon Spy at bit and it's coming along nicely.  Alloy's first book also has a large chunk of planning completed, but I won't start writing it until Lumie's story is complete, which might require multiple books.  
   
   
3. Justified.  I have completely edited and formatted Justified and I'm really happy with it.  I'm in a bit of a conundrum about whether to submit it and could use some advice. 
   
   
4. Writing.  I did a lot of writing this month, although not exactly in the stories I had hoped to focus on.  My Coliseum story is starting to come along and I've resurrected an old story about an incubus called Ink.  Both are very interesting to write, and I didn't mind working on them, but I would have preferred to focus on my works in progress instead of starting something new.  Still, I can't complain about writing no matter what the story.