9/09/20

Yes, you read the title correctly!  Every single manuscript I sent to NSP for consideration has now been accepted.  The last stragglers were my entire Dragon's Hoard series (minus the short story collection, which I cant submit just yet), Elemental Ride, The Coup and the Prince, and Space Stars.  It's taken a year of hard work to reach this point, and I am incredibly excited! 

When will you be able to buy any of those books?  I can't say with any certainty right now, but I'm hoping NSP will weave them into the 2022 release schedule.  "What do you mean, I have to wait until 2022 to buy Tori's book again!?!?"  Sorry, but I have so many books in NSP's queue that my Dragon's Hoard series was unfortunately pushed to the end.  It's my very first series and Finding the Wolf was my first accepted manuscript at LT3, so I promise you I'm as eager to get Tori, Nyle, and White back on the digital shelves as you are.  (For anyone wondering, Tori is a very similar and equally lovable character to Lumie.) 

This also means I can start shifting my focus from the past to the future.  It's time to start writing brand new material again rather than just worrying about all my reprints.  Yes, I will be editing endlessly for the next few years, so writing time will continue to be limited, but it finally feels like I'm making forward progress again with my writing. 

2/23/20

It's been a very long February for me.  Some unhappy family issues pulled me away from writing for about two weeks, and I'm only now caught up.  That said, a lot has happened recently that I want to fill you in on, so I'm going to write another long post full of fun information.  Read on:

Submissions to NineStar Press:

• Wounded Alpha, Kelpie Blue, If A Butterfly Don't Fly, Magnified, and Justified were all accepted for publishing at NineStar Press!  I'm super excited as I really love these books.  As soon as I have concrete information on release dates, I'll share more, but it won't be until August at the earliest.
  
• I have officially maxed out NSP's release calendar for 2020.  What that means is NSP can't assess any more of my submissions until they create their calendar for 2021.  Everything else I've already submitted to them will therefore have to wait, and I won't be submitting anything more until they tell me it's okay.
  
• I also submitted my Dragon's Hoard series (minus the short stories as I'll have to add one more to get to the length requirement), Elemental Ride, The Coup and the Prince, My Truest Love, and Wings of the Stars.  They're going to have to wait, along with my Road To series, for the 2021 calendar. 
  

Writing:

• I have fixed my Oracle series!  It took a bit of finagling, but I made the changes without having to significantly alter the plot.  The series is officially ready and waiting to submit when NSP gives the okay.  I have also added 1k words to The Oracle's Current, the sixth, and final, book in the series.  The real drama is just starting, and I'm about to introduce the love interest, so I'm really excited about where the story is going.  I'm hoping I can get it completed before The Sentinel's Prophesy is released by NSP (should they accept it, of course).
  

Editing:

• I was able to complete the second round of edits for Dragon Consultant.  I got them back to NSP late because of my family issues, so I don't know if that will effect the release date.  I'm hoping April is still far enough away that it won't, but we'll see.  Next for Consultant is copy edits, which will hopefully arrive soon. 
  
• I am working on the final proofreader's edits for Ge-Mi: Part One.  There's not a lot to do, so I'm hoping to have them completed and back to the editor by today.  That should be it for edits for this book, so I don't foresee any issues meeting the March release date.  I will hopefully have an exact date available for you soon.  The first round of edits for Ge-Mi: Part Two should also be heading my way in the near future as well.
  

Book Covers:

• I have seen the first draft of the new cover for Ge-Mi: Part One and it's really nice!  It's simple, but lovely, and is definitely more safe for work than the original cover. I can't wait to see the final draft, and then share it with all of you!
• I have been asked what I want for the new cover for Dragon Consultant.  I think I want to go with something simple again, but still bright and happy, and focused on kit-level destruction. I'm really looking forward to what the artist comes up with, and I can't wait to share it with you. 
  

That's it for news for February.  I know there's a lot going on, and it's probably going to continue being a fire hose deluge of things to do until at least this time next year.  I'm enjoying it, though, and I'm so glad you're all sticking through it all with me as we all patiently wait for all my books to become available again. 

1/31/20

I can't tell you how many blog posts I've written this month where, just before I was ready to post, I got more news and had to rewrite.  I think this is my third or fourth attempt to get out a blog post, but there's so much to tell you I'm just going to post what I have, and I may end up writing another blog post tomorrow. Either way, this post is really long, but I promise there's exciting stuff inside.  Read on:

Submissions to NineStar Press:

• Both Ground of Insurrection and Ground of Resurrection have been accepted at NSP!  The editor really seemed to like them.  I'm so excited Resurrection will finally be available for you to buy.  I can't estimate when a release date might be, but I'd like to think sometime in 2020.   
• I am still waiting to hear about Wounded Alpha, but I'm very hopeful.  I know the editor has it in her queue, so it's moving along in the submission process. 
• This editor asked me to submit all the other stories I had ready, so I have submitted six more books to NSP.  All the completed books from my Road To, Magnified, and Out of Underhill series have officially been submitted.  The editor will evaluate them all and will let me know whether NSP is interested. 
• My Dragon's Hoard series, The Coup and the Prince, and Elemental Ride are next on my list.  I need to get them formatted for submission first, which will take a little longer for The Dragon's Hoard as I'll need to read through to make sure all the page breaks are correct and such, but I hope to have all of those books submitted by next week. 

The Oracle series:

• I know many of you reached out to me asking for The Oracle series to get republished as well.  I inquired with NSP as to whether it was possible to republish The Oracle's Flame as-is, and the answer was the expected no.  However!   I have an idea that will fix the issue without substantially changing the plot or too much of the characterization.  I just need to find the time to actually get it written.  If I'm able to make that change, NSP is willing to assess the entire series, so I will have to find the time somehow. 
• Of course, this means Heart's Tournament will not be reprinted.  There's no way to soften the same issue within that story as it's integral to the plot.  Until I figure out whether it's worth trying to self-publish it, that story will have to remain out of print. 

Editing:

• The copy edits for Ge-Mi: Part One are complete.  I have sent them back to the editor.  I don't know whether NSP has one more editing step before it gets turned into an ebook, but it's closer to being ready to go. 
• The second round of edits for Dragon Consultant have arrived.  What about the first round, you ask?  That was one of the things I wrote in a previous blog post that never got published, but I finished those too.  I should have the second round complete within a day or so. 
• The Supernatural Consultant series as a whole will be marketed for a YA audience.  That means a few things will have to be changed to make it suitable for a slightly younger audience, but I promise there are no changes to the overall plot and characterizations.  Lumie will always be Lumie, and I don't think there will be any changes at all in the later books. 
• Once I finish the second round for Consultant, there will be copy edits.  I'm also expecting to see the first round of edits for Ge-Mi: Part Two, which I'm super excited about.  I'll try to let you know when those arrive. 

Writing:

• I completed The Beast from my fairy tale project.  That just leaves A Heart's Dream to finish and then the anthology will be complete.  As always, this is a time issue.  I need to find the time to sit down and write it, and this was at the top of that to-do list, but has been supplanted with fixing The Oracle's Flame. 
• Aside from that, I haven't had the chance to get much writing done.  I don't know I'll be able to write more as long as edits keep appearing regularly, but I'm going to do my best to keep on writing as much as I can whenever I can. 

11/11/16

• Elemental Ride is out!  It was a best seller on All Romance Ebooks for a while and has generally been getting good reviews.  The biggest complaint I've seen is that it's too short, which is more of a compliment than a complaint.  I really hope everyone has been enjoying reading it! 
  
  I really liked the world I created for Elemental Ride with the coexistence of sprites and humans.  When sprites reach adolescence, they stop being able to feed from their parents and are forced to learn how to absorb from the land on their own very quickly.  A lot of sprites die when they can't learn before they starve.  At some point, humans and sprites began talking with each other and they struck a bargain.  In return for use of a sprite's magical powers for ten years, the young sprites could feed off a human body.  The sprites could take extra time to learn how to survive to adulthood and humans could now use magic.  From that premise I built a story for LT3's Roughhouse Raiders collection--stories written to the theme of motorcycle clubs--and I am very happy with how Elemental Ride turned out. 
  
  Will I ever write more in this world?  I do hope to, but right now my to-do list is far too big.  Once some of my larger projects have been completed I want to return to this world and see about putting together something. 
  
  
• Dragon Detective has also been doing very well.  Readers are overwhelmingly enjoying the story, which I am so happy to hear.  Dragon Soldier, the next book in the series and the conclusion to the plot started in Detective, will be one hundred percent ready to go by April 5, 2017. 
  
  
• I have returned the edits for Dragon Adventure to LT3.  The editor really enjoyed the story and appreciated the shorter format.  This interlude in the series was a ton of fun to write and I'm so excited to have begun polishing it for publication.  I have no idea about a potential release date for Adventure just yet, but hopefully it will also come out in 2017. 
  

The covers for Elemental Ride and Ner Li, two of my upcoming books, arrived a few weeks ago.  Since those books will be coming out soon, I thought I should actually share the covers.  They're both absolutely beautiful!

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.