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. 

6/1/19

Ge-Mi: Part Two was accepted for publishing with LT3!  I'm so excited!  Right now I need to get the contract in the mail so everything is signed and official.  I expect this book to come out in approximately ten months, so first quarter 2020.  Aside from signing the contract, my first step is providing LT3 with a description of what I want on the cover.  Readers either loved or hated the cover for Part One--there was no in between--and I think I'll get similar reactions for my idea for Part Two.  You'll just have to wait and see ;p. 

The Oracle's Golem was also accepted for a contract extension.  There won't be any edits or cover changes for this book, and therefore won't be any break in sales.  I'll get the contract in the mail with Ge-Mi's and Golem will be good for another few years. 

I forgot to mention earlier, but I did get the edits for My Truest Love back to LT3.  I still need the new cover, as well as a release date, but otherwise this story is mostly ready to go.  The second round of edits for Ground of Resurrection should be coming my way soon, as well as the reprint edits for Wings of the Stars, but I'm enjoying the brief respite.  I had to take a mental health break from working on my stories for a few days, but I eventually found the energy to resume working on The Oracle's Current and Di-Na: Part One. Neither story is anywhere close to being completed, but every bit of progress helps.  I hope to keep working on them until another round of edits comes my way. 

4/28/19

Those of you that follow me on Twitter already know that I successfully submitted Ge-Mi: Part Two to LT3.  For everyone else, Ge-Mi: Part Two was officially submitted to LT3!  I got confirmation that they received it, so now it's just a waiting game.  LT3's website says it's a 6 to 8 week waiting period while they evaluate the manuscript.  If they accept it, I should be signing the contract sometime in June and the book should be released anywhere from 9 to 12 months after that. 

So what's next?  Editing, of course.  I'm still working on the edits for the reprint of My Truest Love.  After that I'm expecting the edits for the reprint of Wings of the Stars.  The Coup and the Prince might have a copy edit or galley coming my way in the next few weeks, and then the second round of edits for Ground of Resurrection will arrive.  Editing continues to take the bulk of my writing time, but once that list is done, I'm expecting to have a few months without any edits. 

Which means, I finally get to write again!  Di-Na: Part One is, of course, high on my to-do list, but that list is incredibly long right now.  I think I need to focus on the stories that have languished the longest.  I really, really want to finish off my Oracle series and The Oracle's Current, so that's on the top of my list, and I also want to finish my fairy tale project.  There's also Codified and Dragon Spy, which are both patiently waiting for a bit of my attention.  There's so much still to do and I'm looking forward to finally having the time to actually do it! 

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. 

4/3/14
There are two giveaways of my books that you should all check out! 

1. Wings of the Stars at Hearts on Fire
2. The Oracle's Flame at ScatteredThoughtsandRogueWords

Good Luck!

Wings of the Stars, part of LT3's A Loose Screw anthology, is set to come out on April 2 and Heart's Tournament, part of LT3's Won't Back Down anthology, will arrive only a month later on May 14.  Since I have so many anthology stories coming out this year, I thought it might be interesting to explain why I continue to write for their calls.  Read on if you're interested, or go check out the pre-orders for those two books.  I've posted links at the very bottom of this post. 

Writing for an anthology call is how I got my start as a published author.  I submitted Cinder-Elle to LT3's ongoing Fairytales Slashed call in December 2011 and Cinder-Elle eventually became my very first published story.  Since then, I have published five stories in anthologies with an additional three to come out soon.  Anthologies are so much fun to write and there are so many practical applications that every writer should keep in mind.  Here are a few: