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. 

1/3/20

I hope everyone had a very happy new year!  I couch surfed and watched the ball drop, which was fun for me.  I keep writing 19 rather than 20 for the year, but I'm sure I'll get used to it eventually. 

On to book news:

Ge-Mi: Nevada has been sent to a cover artist.  NineStar doesn't work with an illustrator.  What that means is they can't keep the original cover because they don't have someone that can continue with the same style cover for the next books in the series.  Ge-Mi will therefore be getting a fresh new look.  I have to admit I'm bummed.  I designed the original cover myself and had grand plans for the rest of the series.  I was really looking forward to seeing how the artist brought my characters to life in the next covers.  That won't happen now.  That said, there are definitely benefits to the new cover.  The new cover might actually be safe for work, which means you can read it in public, and won't be as confusing for readers that saw a naked man on the cover and immediately thought erotica rather than romance.  I can't wait to see what the new cover looks like, and as soon as I have a final copy I'll be sure to share it with you all. 

I haven't gotten any new edits yet, but I'm expecting them any day.  I also haven't heard yay or nay from NSP regarding my Wizard Wars series.  There's still a few more weeks left before their timeline ends, so I'm trying to be patient as I wait. 

Since patience is hard, and since I know a bunch of you were excited when I originally announced Wounded Alpha, I decided to go ahead and finish shining that story up.  I have just submitted it to NSP.  It fits within a theme they put out an internal call for, so I'm hopeful I'll hear before the 16 week timeline.  Wish me luck! 

And now I have to decide what story or series I want to fix up and submit to NSP next.  Since I just submitted yet another fantasy/paranormal story, I'm wondering if this might be a good time to slide my lone contemporary series across their doorstep.  Road To is my modern day spy thriller, but it's also one of my oldest series.  I'm honestly not certain NSP would be interested, but I do think it's worth a try.  What do you guys think? 

1/5/19

I hope everyone had a happy holiday season and a good new year.  So far, my new year is starting off well.  I have lots of news to share, but first I want to tell you my new years resolution for writing: Get all my edits done on time!  Conversely, if I'm struggling with the edits, contact LT3 well ahead of the deadline so we can work something out before it gets away from us both.  I'm not going through that again this year, and it's not right that I put LT3 on the spot like that.  2019 is a new year with a new start where I will juggle my real life and my writing life competently. 

With that out of the way, on to my news:

Edits have returned.  The Sentinel's Prophesy has arrived in my inbox to start the editing process, which I'm super exited about.  There's always a lot to do for the first round of edits, but nothing crazy jumped out at me after a quick glance through.  I started working on it already and I hope to get a big chunk completed this weekend.  By Sunday night I should know how crazy this round will be, and how many rounds of edits this particular story will need.  I want to get Prophesy back to LT3 quickly because I'm expecting edits for the two postponed stories to appear at any moment.  Both If A Butterfly Don't Fly and The Coup and the Prince went back for more edits.  I don't know what the timeline is for either story, which means I don't know when to expect them back, and in the interest of avoiding overlapping edits (which is one of the things I had issues with last year), getting Prophesy completed soon is a high priority. 

Two of my stories have had their contracts renewed.  Road to Home, book two of my contemporary spy thriller series, will continue to be sold through LT3 without interruption.  I will not be making any edits or changes, so if you own the book don't worry, and if you don't own the book, you have plenty of time to get your copy. 

The other renewed contract belonged to Wings of the Stars, a short sci-fi story I wrote for LT3's A Loose Screw collection.  Wings of the Stars is technically the second story in a series I've always loosely called Space Stars.  The first book in the series, My Truest Love, was written for LT3's Rocking Hard anthology, and it went out of print a few years ago.  Therein lies the dilemma.  If I wanted to renew Wings of the Stars, I needed to do something with My Truest Love.  I spoke with LT3 and they have accepted My Truest Love again.  I would like to have new covers made for both stories that reflect the fact that they're in a series together.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. 

The last bit of news is that the voting for M/M Romance's Best books of 2018 closed.  I have to wait until next weekend to learn how Ground of Insurrection did.  There was a lot of competition, but I'm still hopeful.  Thank you to everyone that took the time to vote.