83K Or Bust: Day Seven
Falling a tad bit more behind, yes, I know. But today I woke up feeling absolutely splendid after a night free of pain, had a very nice final day at the con, and came home with an urge to sit in our hot tub for a bit and soak my knees. After I got out, I almost fell asleep in my chair, so a nap was necessary before I could get my wits together enough to churn out any wordage. No problem, I can make it up over the next few days.
Today’s stats:
Started With: 18,170 words
Wrote: 1,218 words
Total word count: 19,388 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Drove to the con hotel, sold a copy of Storm Season and HIS, also sold a set of skull and rose earrings, did a panel and an autographing, drove home, discovered to my delight that our pool/spa heater still worked after three years of non-use, sat my happy ass in some bubbling water, took a delightful nap, and now I’m heading back to bed because it’s 1:39 AM and that’s late enough for me.
Writing Tips: “But Nicola,” I hear you say, “you have 5,000 words to make up, and you’re already supposed to write 3K a day. How in the world can you make up that backlog?”
Simple — I write 500 to 1,000 additional words a day. I tend to go a bit over the 3K mark anyway, so adding on a few more paragraphs usually isn’t that big of a deal. And if I’m stuck on a scene, I can always jump around a little bit in the story and find a scene I do I want to write and add in some wordage there. It may well be edited or even deleted when I get to hooking that scene up to the rest of the story, but at least the words are there. This, by the way, is why it’s useful to have an outline either on paper or in your head. If you’re stuck on one scene, it allows you to jump around and keep working until you can figure out what’s holding you up (or you get in the mood to write a smexy scene).
Nicola’s Sunday Shoutout: Erzabet Bishop
Today’s Sunday Shoutout goes to Erzabet Bishop and her smouldering new book Lipstick (Black Dress Chronicles 1), is now available from Evernight Publishing and other purveyors of fine erotic romance. Take it away, Erzabet!
The perfect shade of lipstick can lead to the perfect opportunity for sin…
When living-challenged author Claire Presswood gets invited to go on a night out on the town with her two best friends, she isn’t prepared for the evening that awaits her. Hungry and overworked, she arrives at a masked party at an art museum in time to meet debonair artist Maxwell Douglas. One look from his luminous eyes and Claire knows this will be a night to remember.
Story Excerpt
“What would you like to see first?” Maxwell’s eyes resumed their fiery trail down my body.
“How about that spanking bench?” I smiled, letting him lead the way.
He led me to it and I leaned forward onto the padded seat, deliberately giving him a stellar view of my backside. Rachel was right about the dress. It was perfect.
“Is this right?” I feigned ignorance, waggling my ass in the air.
He moved behind me and as I arched my back in a provocative pose. He sucked in his breath. “Yes. I’d say that’s just about perfect.” He pressed his erection against my ass, grinding it against me.
I moaned deep in my throat, sure that this had to be some kind of dream. Moisture pooled in my slit and hunger clawing at my insides. A low keening growl escaped my lips and I froze.
Bad zombie.
He reached around and kissed me, his breath falling short as he took in the slight glow of my eyes.
“Exactly.” He opened my mouth, sliding his tongue against mine, urging me to respond.
I accepted the challenge, savoring his mouth. His scent was earthy and his essence made me want to devour him.
He broke the kiss and leaned back, his gaze meeting mine.
“God, my palm itches to spank you,” he breathed, reaching for an errant curl that had fallen across my face. “You are intoxicating.”
I took his hand and placed it on my breast, eager and more than ready. I turned in his arms and pushed my ass alongside the erection straining against his trousers. I imagined it inside me, pressing in even closer.
“I want you,” I breathed.
“Well then, there is just one little thing we need to remedy.” Maxwell’s voice was low as he ran his hand in a light trail down my spine.
“Really? What’s that?” I shivered as his hand traced lines down my body.
“The dress. It has to go.”
“Ummm.” I lifted my arm and his hand found the zipper. As he slowly moved it down, the dress loosened and he pulled it over my head. Clad in the thong, lacy-topped black thigh-highs, and shiny black stilettos, the chill of the room had fine goosebumps erupting all over my skin. My nipples pebbled with the delicious blend of cold and desire and maybe just a little fear. This man could do anything to me and who was to say the woman in his pictures upstairs was even alive?
The danger sped up my heart and made my juices flow.
Where To Buy
Evernight Publishing
Amazon
Bookstrand
All Romance eBooks
About Erzabet Bishop
Erzabet Bishop is an award winning author and she loves to write on the naughty side. She is a contributing author to a wide variety of anthologies including Tease to Please, Demons Imps and Incubi, Opposites, and Sci Spanks 2015. Erzabet has been a finalist in the GCLS awards for 2014 and 2015. She lives in Texas with her husband, furry children and can often be found lurking in local bookstores. She loves to bake, make naughty crochet projects and watch monster movies. When she isn’t writing, she loves to review music and books.
Where to find Erzabet Bishop
83K Or Bust: Day Six
Due to my knee acting like a complete bitch this morning from messing it up on Wednesday at the gym and hobbling all around the damned hotel yesterday, I missed my reading at the con AND my other morning panel, and was basically miserable until about 2 PM. By the time I got back to the con I was tired, cranky, and ready to be swept up in some fun, so I pretty much took today off (I actually wrote more than 61 words, but I deleted about 270 so, yeah, that happened). Meh, it happens. I’ll play catchup over the next few days.
Also, if you have knees that feel like they’re full of ground glass due to injury, arthritis, whatever, go check out this knee brace (it’s called Kneed-It). My friend Selina saw me hobbling into the hotel, said, “I’m going to lend you my other brace,” and gave it to me. I swear to God, if this brace was human I would marry it and have its babies, I love it so much. NO PAIN. AWESOME.
Today’s stats:
Started With: 18,109 words
Wrote: 61 words
Total word count: 18,170 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: Drank hard cider, ate a lot of candy, discussed the beauty of Michael Fassbender with a large table of people, 75% of whom were straight males, showed off my Sherlock plushies at a fencraft panel, and had a shitload of fun.
Writing Tips: An outline is a good thing, but you do not have to follow it slavishly. It should be a general road map to the story, but you will quite often run into all kinds of interesting detours, side trips, U turns and out and out dead ends that you didn’t expect but wind up informing your story (and often making it better). Frex: Empress has been laid out in three acts — Act I is where Matthias and Danäe start out on the bumpy road of their marriage and find out surprising things about each other and the people around them. Act II is the trip back to Hellas for the second marriage there — I knew I had to have some complications added there as well as a mid-point bump, but didn’t really know what that was going to be. Holding a cheerful two-year-old on my lap while we colored and played with crayons gave me an insight into two people who really need heirs for their kingdoms, and BAM I had my mid-point bump. So be open to things around you and use them as inspiration for your writing — you’d be surprised how helpful it can be.
83K Or Bust: Day Five
As you may know (Bob), I also write science fiction and was invited to attend a local SF convention this weekend as a panelist. Deadlines do not stop for cons, however, so in between panels I plunked my butt down in the hotel’s breakfast room (I love how most hotels now have tall tables with outlets and comfy stools for people who have to work on laptops) and chunked out 2K, then added the final 1K when I got home.
Things I learned — writing sex scenes in a public place while people are walking behind me or coming up to give me a hugs is…challenging. Yes, let’s call it challenging. That being said, I wrote over 2,000 words and I didn’t even have a margarita. I RULE.
Today’s stats:
Started With: 15,102 words
Wrote: 3,019 words
Total word count: 18,109 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: cat chores, attended two panels, limped around a hotel a lot, held an adorable two-year-old on my lap, and stopped off at the drugstore for hair dye.
Writing Tips: Listening to music while writing can be hella useful — it helps you set the emotional tone of the section and can inspire anything from a super hot love scene to a ginormous battle scene straight out of 300 (yes, I put battle scenes in my erotic romance. I’m just that kind of writer). I know writers who can listen to vocal music when they write, but I find it extremely distracting so I tend to listen to soundtracks or other types of instrumental music when I’m working. Some of my favorite writing soundtracks are Sherlock Holmes (from the Downey Jr. movie) and Stage Beauty, and a lot of the fight scenes in the Olympic Cove books were written to the Pacific Rim soundtrack. Right now much of Empress is being written while listening to the soundtrack from Sir Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V because it’s giving me the right temporal feel (I have a separate playlist for sex scenes).
And now, your faithful narrator needs to haul her butt off to bed. I think I’m reading the opening chapter of Empress of Storms tomorrow at my reading. This should be fun.
Fabulous Friday Reads: Sybille’s Lord
TGIF! Let’s kick off the weekend with Raven McAllan’s new book Sybille’s Lord, now available from Evernight Publishing and other purveyors of fine erotic romance. Take it away, Raven!
Hi there, thanks for letting me drop by. waves madly
I’m so excited. Sybille’s Lord is ready to jump onto your eReader.
This is the third story in the Moon Curse series.
Compromised, the first story is a prequel, and a free read. That’s Theo and Mijo’s story. The rest of the books are their children’s stories as they try to make their family’s fortunes
You can download Compromised here on the Evernight website, or from Amazon, Are or Bookstrand
The second story is Lord Suitor. That’s Tessa’s story. You can buy that here on Evernight, or from the aforementioned sources.
And now drum roll book 3, Sybille’s Lord is out on 11th September and yes you can get it from Evernight here.
That of course is Sybille’s story.
When you have to marry to save your family’s fortunes, and the man of your dreams offers for you, you ought to be ecstatic, right?
Not, if you want it all, you’re not. Having witnessed first hand a love match in the shining example of her parents, Sybille is not prepared to settle for anything less than true love.
Thomas, Lord Jeavons might have proposed, but does he love her? Especially once she tells him her secrets.
For his part, Thom is enchanted, and far from being put off by Sybille’s demands, he vows to do everything in his power to convince her that he is the only man for her—both in and out of the bedroom.
With her family’s good name at stake, can they solve all their issues before it is too late and find their own happy ever after?
Story Excerpt
“Now where were we? Ah yes you were undressing me. However, I think I’ll do the next bit. Otherwise your education might push ahead faster than either of us anticipated.” Thom gestured to the bulge in his pantaloons. “My pego is so desirous of making your acquaintance, I might spill before he gets the chance.”
Sybille nodded, although she wasn’t really sure what he meant.
Thom grinned, as he hooked his fingers into the waistband of his pantaloons and inched them over his cock. “When a man is as excited as I am, sometimes he can spill his seed even before he enters a woman. Now we all know it is preferable to withdraw from her so…” He stopped. “Ah, do you understand what I mean?”
“Well, of course. If you don’t want a child on the wrong side of the blanket you don’t sow your seed in fertile ground.” Thank goodness for those pamphlets. “So you withdraw.”
Thom finished taking off his clothes. “Exactly.” He collected a ewer of water and a towel, and put them next to the wine. As he moved, his pego bobbed and swayed.
Almost as if it is introducing itself. Sybille mentally scoffed at herself. Giving a man’s staff a mind of its own. What next? Imagining it was about to speak?
Thom lifted the covers and crawled onto the bed next to her. “Let me warm you up.”
“I’m not… ah well ohhh my…” She spluttered to a halt as he took her nipple into his mouth and tugged. A hot flame of awareness streaked through her. She moved her legs restlessly, searching for a way to relieve the ache in between her thighs.
“Wait, my love.” Thom moved his ministrations to her other breast. He stroked her belly in soft soothing circles and edged his fingers lower, to ruffle the curls that covered her mound. “So beautiful.”
Sybille moaned. The soft voice teased her senses once more as she arched up into his hand.
“Slowly, love.”
It was as if she sat beside the bed, watching them. Thom kicked the covers to the bottom of the bed, and parted her legs with his thigh. Then she not only saw in her mind, but also felt one long, elegant finger enter her. She gasped. It was oh so different from anything she had sought to do to herself.
He paused. “All right? Tell me if not.”
“Oh so very right. I want more.”
“Impatient.” He kissed her nose. “All things come to…”
“Those who wait. I have waited.”
“So you have.” He added another finger, and then, as she clenched and relaxed her muscles around him, touched her nub with his thumb.
Tremors rushed through her and she writhed and arched off the bed. Thom held her down and increased the pressure. “Fly for me, my love.” He nipped her nipple with his teeth.
That connection from breast to where his fingers teased and pushed, increased tenfold.
Lights flashed before her eyes, stars danced in front of her, and her body was on fire. She was falling over the edge and into that place where nothing mattered except them.
With a keening cry, Sybille fell into the abyss.
Where to Buy
Evernight Publishing
Amazon US
Amazon UK
All Romance eBooks
BookStrand
About Raven McAllan
Raven lives in Scotland, along with her husband and their two cats—their children having flown the nest—surrounded by beautiful scenery, which inspires a lot of the settings in her books.
She is used to sharing her life with the occasional deer, red squirrel, and lost tourist, to say nothing of the scourge of Scotland—the midge.
Her very understanding, and long-suffering DH, is used to his questions unanswered, the dust bunnies greeting him as he walks through the door, and rescuing burned offerings from the Aga. (And passing her a glass of wine as she types furiously.)
Where to find Raven McAllan
83K Or Bust: Day Four
When you make a mistake in knitting and need to undo stitches until you reach the mistake and can correct it, it’s called frogging. That’s because as you’re tearing back your work you’re usually muttering “rippit, rippit” under your breath.
Well, knitters think it’s funny. Today was another day of tearing back words and writing new ones to take their place. This is fairly common, especially in the early stages of a story, but it’s also a little frustrating because it means that if you’re on a deadline like I am you have to write past your daily word quota to make up for lost wordage.
To make things a little easier I decided to leave the wedding night naughtiness more blocked in than completely finished, and did the same thing to another scene in chapter three. Yes, sometimes I have problems writing sex scenes. I usually have to punch them up on the second or third edit once I have a better feel for what my characters would do during bouncy bouncy fun time. So I skipped ahead to an important scene where we find out Matthias has suffered from bizarre migraines since the death of his first wife and the commander of the Ypresian cavalry baits Danäe into examining the king’s chambers with her mage skills to rule out evil hexes (Bardahlson’s just that kind of guy). Today’s stats:
Started With: 12,279 words
Wrote: 3,823 words
Total word count: 15,102 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: bills paid, new jewelry commissions taken, cat chores done, food (both human and cat) shopping, and some very necessary yoga to unkink
Also, typing with one hand because you have a grey tabby nestled into the crook of your other arm plays merry hell with your shoulder. Just saying.
83K Or Bust: Day Three
After spending much of the night staring up at the ceiling and really, really hating that wedding night scene, I realized what I did wrong. I fell back on a commonly used fictional trope to create tension; namely, I have two people who are not communicating properly with each other and thus have the wrong idea about the other. Matthias thinks that Danäe is appalled by the idea of bedding a guy old enough to be her father, and Danäe thinks that if she tells Matthias that she was never in love with his son (but was in love with him) she would look fickle, if not actually whorish.
Ya know what? I reeeeeeeeally don’t like that trope. It’s annoying. And they’re going to have enough shit to deal with later on in the story that they don’t need additional miscommunications on their wedding night. So I’m going to go back and tear all that out, and write what should have happened — Danäe stops Matthias’s deliberately truncated foreplay after he assures her he’ll make it fast, asks what he’s doing, winkles out the real reason, and sets him straight. And then they have still kinda awkward but MUCH hotter sex because Hellenes have rational views on physical intimacy and godsdammit, Danäe wants to get off. Heh.
Started With: 9,285 words
Wrote: 3,012 words
Total word count: 12,279 words (yes, I know this doesn’t add up correctly but I deleted a scene so I was at a deficit when I started).
What else did you do today, Nicola: due to a bad night not nearly as much as I wanted to get done. But I did manage to get the living room vacuumed, checkbook balanced, and cat chores done, plus one hell of a leg session at the gym (oh, Lord, I have to start going more regularly because this business of not going for weeks and then going back hurts like a mother) and a shower.
Oh, I told Ramón about this challenge today. His response: “Because you have a rod for your own back that you haven’t used recently, I assume?” He understands my little foibles so well.
Mid Week Tease: Alpha Blood #MidWeekTease #MWTease
Okay, I’m two days into my 80K or Bust challenge project and I will be perfectly honest that the scene I just finished is probably one of the most cheerless wedding night scenes in literary history. Necessary to the story, but not something I want to unleash on you today. So instead I’m featuring the lovely and talented Elena Kincaid and her smouldering new paranormal erotic book Alpha Blood (Pack Warriors #1).
Enjoy, and make sure to hit the list after the teaser to see other great Mid Week Teases!
Gemma, a she-wolf, alone and in unbearable pain, cries vengeance against the evil man who caused her suffering. Jordan, alpha of the White-Moon pack, the largest in the country, has a war to prepare for. Kane, his brother and beta, struggles to be worthy of the role thrust upon him.
When young girls start to disappear and rumors of a dangerous serum surface, the two men are brought face to face with their destiny. A fiery passion blooms between Gemma and her men, one that heals her body and soul, but a dangerous war still lies ahead. Will they be successful at stopping an evil tyrant before another girl goes missing or will Gemma pay the ultimate price? With her life!
Story Excerpt
Gemma still ached all over, but the pain was now dull and tolerable. She knew her reprieve would be short. More pain waited for her throughout the night. Something was different, however. Warmth surrounded her on both sides as she rested on what felt like a soft bed. A pillow cushioned her head.
She opened her eyes and bolted upright when a warm, calloused hand brushed her cheek.
“Easy, you’re safe,” said a deeply rich and sexy voice. “Lie back down.”
She looked around the spacious bedroom and even through the muted light could see the room was tastefully decorated with dark wood furniture matching the dark wood bedposts. A creamy white chaise sat in the corner with a cozy-looking rich brown throw blanket dangling off the side of it. She imagined herself lounging on it with a good book and a glass of wine sitting atop the small side table next to the chaise. Gemma did in fact feel safe, safer than she had felt in a very long time. She complied with the gentle command to lie down, pulling up the chartreuse-colored sheet that had pooled around her belly when she had sat up and she sensed a blush creep onto her cheeks while doing so. The memory of what had happened earlier in the forest with the two gorgeous men beside her came flooding back to her as well. They had given her a ray of hope when she had none left.
At first she was on her guard, wary of anyone who dared approach her lest they were part of Pollux-Moon or in allegiance with them. Then she became angry that two complete strangers thought it their right to order her around, to touch her without her consent. She’d been in too much pain to realize that they only wanted to help her. So in agony and unfocused as she was, at first she hadn’t even realized that they were her mates.
Mates. I have mates. She closed her eyes briefly and savored the delicious scents that surrounded her. Her pain had been reflected in their eyes earlier when she had locked gazes with them after she realized who they were to her. One of them had hair the color of midnight and eyes of gold. His hard gaze had softened when she stopped struggling and let him examine her. She found him looking at her when she opened her eyes again.
“What’s your name?” he asked. He had a slightly deeper baritone than the one who commanded her to lie down.
“I’m Gemma. But my friends call me Gem.”
“You have a beautiful name, Gemma, Gem.” His smile was breathtaking. He looked so open and friendly, a complete contrast to how he had looked earlier when he was being bossy and commanding. “I’m Jordan. Alpha of the White-Moon pack. This is my brother and beta, Kane.”
She looked over at Kane—hair nearly as dark as his brother’s, but eyes a mossy green—and managed a small smile. Both men were large and muscular and exuded a power hard to miss. They had identical tattoos on their left pectoral—a wolf’s paw print with a wolf face inside it. The eyes of each wolf, however, matched its owner’s. A full white moon stood out behind the paw and the White-Moon pack insignia, in elegant script, rested underneath. They both sported various other tattoos, but that particular one was breathtaking.
“You had us worried there, little wolf,” Kane said. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I just clawed my way out of hell for a temporary breather.” She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
Kane looked suddenly angry. “Who did this to you?”
Where to Buy
Evernight
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon CA
Amazon AU
Bookstrand
About Elena Kincaid
Elena Kincaid was born in Ukraine and raised in New York where she currently lives with her daughter. She graduated college with a BFA in creative writing and started a graphic design business a few years later. She developed a passion for reading and writing at an early age and loves to write what she loves to read and that is romance with a paranormal twist. Her desk is constantly cluttered with journals, sticky notes, and torn out pieces of paper full of ideas.
When not working, Elena loves to spend time with her family, travel the globe, curl up with a good book, and catch up on her soaps.
Where to find Elena Kincaid
http://elenakincaid.blogspot.com/
http://www.elenakincaid.com/
https://twitter.com/elenakincaid1
https://www.facebook.com/elenakincaidthree
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7060236.Elena_Kincaid
http://www.amazon.com/Elena-Kincaid/e/B011IOY3KE/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1440187214&sr=8-1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIxZQdZPqoNPTPMi03LrbKQ
http://www.evernightpublishing.com/elena-kincaid/
http://www.bookstrand.com/elena-kincaid
https://www.pinterest.com/ekincaid0582/
http://elenakincaidauthor.tumblr.com/
http://erotic.theromancereviews.com/mypageprofile.php?location=elenakincaid
http://www.cocktailsandbooks.com/top-shelf-author/elena-kincaid/
http://www.manicreaders.com/ElenaKincaid/
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83K Or Bust: Day Two
Okay, it’s late and I still have to post a Mid Week Tease so I’m going to make this quick. Here are the day’s stats:
Started With: 6,223 words
Wrote: 3,062 words
Total word count: 9,285 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: performed cat chores, made a necklace for a friend, went for a drive when I got stuck on a plot point, attended my local writer’s critique group, fended off humorous suggestions that I add a God of Chairs and a God of Dysentery to the book, did the food shopping, grunted through my knee PT, and took a shower.
Today the words did not flow easily. I basically bulled through it, going back and tweaking some things in Chapter One, and told myself screw it, I do NOT need a pantheon in this story. It’s not like the gods make an appearance anyway. And may I say that I have just written what may well be the most cheerless wedding night scene in literary history. A couple of kisses, a fondle here and there, and then straight to the main event? Matthias had better get his shit in order or I will have Danäe smack some common sense into him with a paddle handle.
83K Or Bust: Day One
Let’s do a little recap, shall we? As you know, (Bob), an indie author recently kicked off a kerfluffle by putting up a GoFundMe fund in order to write full-time, and revealed herself to have a totally unrealistic worldview on professional writing. After receiving both even-tempered remonstrating and plain old ridicule, she lashed out at her critics with, among other things, the following:
“I’d like to challenge each and every one of these wonderful women to a writing contest. How about an 80K (that’s 80,000 words people, not dollars!) novel. It needs to be fully edited, proofed and a professional cover designed for it. Oh, and they have only 6 months to do all this. Ok, go.”
You know me, I can’t pass up a challenge. I announced that I would go one better and finish an 83K novel (because I was already 3K into that crazy MF high fantasy erotic romance novel that wouldn’t let go), have it fully edited, proofed, and provided with a professional cover in six weeks, and release it as an ebook and trade paperback on November 1.
Let me take this moment to point out that every writer has their own speed. Some write fast, some write slow. Any speed you write at is fine. You do you, baby. But taking an 80K novel from zero to “Whoops, it’s on Amazon” within six m/o/n/t/h/s/ weeks is just not as impossible as some people seem to think. Part of this challenge is to show that it’s possible to do this without sacrificing quality, and while still maintaining something of a life.
So yeah, today was the official start of 83K or Bust, and Empress of Storms is now officially underway. Here’s my working blurb:
When widower King Matthias IV of Ypres has to fulfill a treaty with the neighboring country of Hellas and provide a royal consort for young Queen Danäe, the only Ypresian royal available for marriage is himself. Can he overcome his grief for his late wife and risk letting a blue-haired witch queen into his heart? And can Danäe, only half-trained as a water mage, root out a magical threat against Matthias before it kills the man she’s loved since childhood?
I’m pleased to report that it got off to a robust start. Here are the day’s stats:
Started With: 3,000 words
Wrote: 3,223 words
Total word count: 6,223 words
What else did you do today, Nicola: recorded, edited and released a podcast episode, signed up for RT, made a necklace and two sets of earrings for the Etsy store so that I could pay for RT (I’ve got some really cool Dia de los Muertos/Halloween jewelry up, just saying), ran errands, performed cat chores (feeding, watering cleaning cat boxes, breaking up cat fights), did two loads of laundry, cursed through my knee PT workout, fetched Ramon a Starbucks because I’m a nice wife, and took a shower.
At this rate I should be finishing the book on October 17th or so, which will give me two weeks to edit, proof, and put the ebook and print book together. I’ve contracted with the amazing Jay Aheer to design the cover (could have done it myself but the challenge stipulates “a professional cover” and I don’t want anyone to think I’m cheating), and I think it’s going to be absolutely gorgeous.
As for the writing, it’s not really much of a stretch at this point. I’ve introduced all the major players and am about to write Matthias and Danäe’s hot mess of a wedding (the treaty originally stipulated that Danäe was supposed to marry Matthias’s son Lukas, but the supposedly grief-stricken Ypresian heir disappeared after his mother’s death. So now she’s marrying the man who was supposed to be her father-in-law. Can you say awkward? I knew you could).
And I keep hearing Dawn French in my head whenever I write Flavia, Queen Danäe’s personal body servant, so that’s fun.
Nicola Cameron Writes 