Category Archives: Books

About That Side Quest

May 26

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Episode 22: World’s Not Going to Save Itself is now live at Kindle Vella. Go check it out.

Okay, so, I have a new cover for Random Realities.

The problem with covering this collection is that it has SF, fantasy, one horror-adjacent story, and a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, and that’s only the original ten stories. How the heck do you represent all those on one cover? Well, back in 2012 I went with a “girl blowing bubbles with the bubbles representing different realities” graphic for the old cover.

But my graphics skills have improved mightily in the last ten years, and the SF/fantasy antho market has also changed. Gotta keep up with the times, don’t you know? Plus the additional ten stories I’ve added to this collection includes a steampunk novelette, so that’s yet another genre to add to the cover.

Which is how I wound up with the image at left. What I especially like about this cover is that with all the cool stuff visible through the door (a steampunk balloon, a dragon, a space elevator, and something that looks a bit like a wormhole/event horizon/timegate), the girl and her teddy are still looking off to the right like something even better is over there.

I think it gives a sense of hope and optimism for the future. God knows we all need that right now. I’ve ordered a print proof, and if it looks as cool as I think it’s going to I’ll order copies to be sold from this website and at cons.

Posted in Crystal Blade, Publishing, Wide

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Still Formatting

May 24

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Crystal Blade Episode 21: I Have to Find What Now? is live at Kindle Vella. Go forth, read, enjoy.

So, formatting. I’m done with Shadow of the Swan and The Crimson and the Black so both of those are now wide, along with the Hidden Empire short story A Gentle Fall of Snow. I’m going to do Stealing Dmitri next, then I’ll just have the Olympic Cove and Two Thrones books to get through. My brain is also getting very, very tired with all of this, and my heart goes out to people who do this for a living. It requires greater mental strength than I possess, I fear.

On the plus side, since I have to skim every book that gives me a chance to refresh my memory on the Olympic Cove book plots and make sure any loose ends are taken up in High Tide. Yes, the Mad Nereid will come steaming back into town and we’ll get a chance to see what she’s been doing with her enthralled millionaire (i.e. nothing good). And the menage in this book will include a merman, a human (well, kind of) and—ta da—a satyr, plus a deeper dive (hur hur) into mer culture and some biases they hold. Because I can’t just make things easy for myself and write about hot guys having sex—I have to add social issues to my romance.

Posted in High Tide, Wide

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Mother’s Day Approacheth

May 19

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Crystal Blade Episode 19: At Her Majesty’s Pleasure is now live on Kindle Vella. Go read it already.

So yeah, Sunday is Mother’s Day, not that this has any real onus on me since my mother is currently sitting at the heavenly poolside dandling William Holden in her lap, but I know it’s an important day for a lot of mothers and their kids. If you fall into one of these categories I hope that the day is pleasant, stress-free, and provides you with everything that makes you happy.

In other news, all of the Olympic Cove and Two Thrones books, as well as Stealing Dmitri, are now officially out of KU and I fully expect to see my Amazon income crater until I can get Crystal Blade out. Still, I think I’m doing the smart thing by taking most of my series out of KU (I’m leaving the Paladins of Crystal books in there because KU is tailor-made for Why Choose readers). I’ve already seen a significant jump in wide sales of the Esposito County Shifters books and omnibus, better than they had been selling on Amazon, and I’m hoping that as I set the other novels wide I’ll see improved sales on all those as well. Maybe not enough to offset the KU income loss, but hey, that’s what Vella, audiobooks, and selling print books from my website are for, right?

 

Posted in Crystal Blade, Vella

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This Is Why I’m Not an Editor

May 18

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Still working on Shadow in Vellum to get it ready for wide release, and the focus it requires to pay attention to each line and not just skim is challenging. It does not help that the Orange Lump has decided to plant his butt outside my office door and meow mournfully until I find out what’s wrong (in this case his kibble bowl was empty. I ask you). I’m also still finding the occasional spelling or grammar goof, arrgh, so at least those will be cleaned up.

After that, I have to work on Crimson, and after that I have to prep the Olympic Cove and Two Thrones novels for wide release because they all leave KU tomorrow. Plus I still need to work on Crystal Blade, get started on recording audiobooks, and write something for my future Patreon. Did I mention the custom jewelry commissions or the cover art commission?

I totaled it up a few days ago—I am, in effect, running not one, not two, but three small businesses (the jewelry/quilting/whatever sideline and the cover art gigs count as businesses) in addition to being an indie author, plus I’m taking care of a house, four cats, and a husband. I mean, no wonder I’m exhausted.

On the plus side I’ve made enough from my assorted income streams so far to cover 1/3 of the HVAC repairs, which is nice. If I can get the bulk of it covered before June 9th I shall be be well and truly pleased with myself.

Posted in Crystal Blade, Shadow of the Swan, The Crimson and the Black

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It’s Wednesday. You Know What That Means

May 17

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Crystal Blade Episode 18: That Escalated Quickly is now available at Vella. Help a writer out and read the story, okay?

In other news I’m busily plowing through Shadow of the Swan in Vellum to make sure the formatting is accurate, and I have to admit that this story holds up well. I probably went a little overboard writing in a Victorian style but it’s still fun and engaging, and The Crimson and the Black is a pure romp. When I get around to working on To Love a Wild Swan I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with Louisa’s cousin Nessa and her unwilling Seelie Sidhe fiancé. I’m still toying with the idea of giving him a boyfriend who also takes a fancy to Nessa, but I’m not sure how that would fly with readers of this series.

Then again, Fyodora is pan and there was a FF love scene in Crimson, there are gay and lesbian couples in the supporting characters, and nobody’s complained about that. I think it might be fun for Nessa to join an icily handsome Fae and a (literally) hot djinn in a menage.

Posted in Crystal Blade, Vella

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The Hidden Empire Titles Leave KU This Week

May 16

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This includes Shadow of the Swan, The Crimson and the Black, and “A Gentle Fall of Snow,” which means I have to put them into Vellum, go over them one last time because the formatting from a Word doc to Vellum does not always transfer perfectly, then upload them to Smashwords/D2D and Google Play.

I already know that my writing income is going to go down for the next few months as a result, but ultimately I think this is the best, smartest thing I can do for myself and my career. Putting all my eggs in KU’s basket might have been profitable for awhile, but that isn’t the case any longer and I really don’t like the idea of waking up one morning to find that my account has been frozen because the ‘Zon found one of my titles pirated and that technically goes against their exclusivity rules. I’ll just have to nail my butt to the chair, get Crystal Blade finished and out there, and get to work on High Tide and Hurricane Warning, simple as that.

And if I can somehow squeeze out a couple of audiobooks and get the damned Patreon started, that would be lovely. Lord, I need clones…

Posted in Shadow of the Swan, The Crimson and the Black

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I Do Love a Productive Monday

May 15

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  • Got Crystal Blade Episode 17: Loose Lips Sink Ships up at Vella
  • Finished editing Blade Episodes 21 and 22
  • Got them saved on Vella so I have a full two weeks’ worth of episodes to post every M-W-F
  • Started working on Blade Episode 23 and got a goodly chunk of it done
  • Did a very necessary food shop
  • Swept and vacuumed the downstairs
  • Finished shaping a double gallery setting—next up is building V-shaped prongs and attaching those and a bail
  • Made dinner
  • Updated both blogs (sorry about the delay with this one’s posts)

All in all, I feel like I successfully adulted today.

Posted in Crystal Blade, Thoughts from the Bench, Vella

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So I Have a Cover

May 13

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*rubs face* I didn’t mean to do this, I really didn’t. But I’d finished all the chores for the day, made word count on Crystal Blade, and it was way too hot and humid to work on jewelry in the garage. With extra time on my hands, I thought, “Hmm … how hard would it be to make a Regency romance cover?”

Not hard at all, as it turns out. And the nice thing about this is, I don’t have to hew to the saturated colors requirement of Regency romance covers because I’m not publishing this one. It’s still pretty (and the more muted color tone is a visual callback to the mid-forties ages of the protagonists), it makes it very clear what the genre is (well, one of the genres, anyway), and now that it’s done I don’t have to worry about it. It’ll be ready once the story is done in a couple of months.

And, um, I also may have cranked out about 3K worth of outline. Hey, I already have the outline for High Tide done, so don’t @ me.

Posted in The Duke's Librarian

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Nobody Ever Tells You How Much Paperwork There Is In Indie Publishing

May 12

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Crystal Blade Episode 16: Children Are Our Most Valuable Resource is now available at Vella. Because maybe you’re not going out tonight and need something to read, I dunno.

I am also delighted to announce that people are starting to pay for Crystal Blade eps and not just read them using their free tokens, so I’ve got that going for me. Now if I could just rustle up some contract work and send Ramón home for two weeks things would be magic.

In other news I’ve got a weekend full of business work ahead of me (I need to start a business PayPal account so that I can sell books and jewelry through the website, start reading Zoe York’s books on the business side of indie romance publishing, update all of my income/expenses spreadsheets, and tweak my Amazon ads), plus I really need to do a big stock-up shop and give the bathrooms a deep clean.

I keep thinking that eventually I’ll have a weekend where I can just relax, read, watch TV, that sort of thing. I still remember a Sunday many years ago when the house was clean, I’d gotten all of my tasks done for the week, I didn’t have any jewelry projects on the go, and I spent the afternoon on the couch reading. It was freaking magical. I would like to experience that again.

Posted in Business of Writing, Crystal Blade, Personal, Vella

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Ever Wonder What $650 Worth of Handmade Sterling Jewelry Looks Like?

May 11

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Now you know. I already sold the amethyst earrings and fossilized coral pendant so I’ll list everything that’s still available on my Belaurient Arts page. Once I have PayPal buttons I’ll add them, but in the meantime if you see something you like drop me an email and I’ll send you a PayPal invoice.

Mind you, at least four of those pendants are at least three years old (why they didn’t sell, I have no idea) and I redid the larimar pendant because it just wasn’t selling in its old setting. But I have hopes that many of these will sell in the next month or so and help me defray the costs of the HVAC repair. Not that I’m hinting or anything.

I also blocked out Act III of Crystal Blade while I was in the garage tonight so I have that going for me. Yes, I have an outline but it’s bare bones, just an indication of what should happen in each chapter. But now I have some scenes hammered out in my head, as well as a bunch of dialogue, and it was fun working out the big duel scene that serves as the climax. Well, come on, with a title like Crystal Blade and my history with the SFWA Musketeers (oh, wait, you probably didn’t know about that. Yeah, I fence along with all of my other activities), I had to put a sword fighting scene in the book. I do love swashbuckling, after all.

Posted in Crystal Blade, Thoughts from the Bench

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