Category: books

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book euphoria and book drop

There really isn’t anything quite like a new book release for the endorphins, other than that first review. On the flip side, there isn’t anything quite like the drop after the release is done and you need to move on to the next.

It’s been a ride getting Thanátou out into the world. I love the characters so much and I’m thrilled that they now live somewhere other than my head.

But then comes book two. Mörderin was close to ready to go when I got my final edits for Thanátou and has been submitted to my publisher. The third book, Hêalic, is ready for editing. Book four, title undecided, is in its infancy and I really need to refocus efforts on that this weekend.

The problem? Well, my head is still really wrapped up in book one and promo work. Writing and editing a book is only one step in the process. The real work, at least for me, is what comes after. I’m not great at self-promotion and have to overcome some crippling imposter syndrome to thrust myself and my book into the public eye.

Not helping matters in the slightest is the need to continue working the day job, which is calling my name right now with a need to get busy. I guess it’s time to finish this cup of coffee and get on with it. With any luck, I’ll be able to shake off the book drop feeling and get some writing and/or editing done this weekend.

Happy Friday, Readers!

Photo by Jaredd Craig on Unsplash

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meet Thána Augusta Celene Alizon

Thána is our main character and narrator. Her story opens shortly after her thirty-second birthday in El Paso, Texas where she is working as a midlevel manager at a manufacturing facility. She grew up in foster care after she was found sitting on a bench outside a police station in Rochester, NY with no memory of who she was and a backpack containing a note that gave her name as Thána Augusta Celene Alizon Archer and her age as ten.

With no idea who she was or where she came from Thána had to build her life on nothing while cycling through several foster homes. In high school she developed a love of language, and in particular Old English, which she continued to pursue in college, although she recognized the limited career potential there, she majored in business.

From college she joined the corporate world, working her way up in a company that built electronics, eventually getting transferred to a plant in El Paso which is where we meet her.

She’s a pretty practical person, not given to fantasy or fairy tales. She believes in what she can see. Uncomfortable in large groups, Thána is a bit of a homebody, if you can call the tiny apartment she is occupying a home.

That is until a strange man appears telling her that she is in danger and after several unsuccessful attacks, she’s starting to believe him when she is transferred to a San Francisco plant.

Adventure she could never imagine awaits her in San Francisco.

Thanátou: The Blood Witch Saga Book 1 is available now!

Smashwords (ebook)

Googlebooks (ebook)

Amazon (ebook and paperback)

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meet Cambious

Our second character introduction is for Cambious, our transgender incubus. The guardian of the portal between our world and another, Cambious was born Cambia and transitioned with a magically enhanced surgery.

He is large and very dark-skinned. Thána describes his physical appearance this way:

Through the door, I could see…well, I didn’t know what I was seeing. It couldn’t be real though, that much I was sure of. Because seven-foot-tall men with horns and black skin, dressed in leather and boots just were not a thing that was real. And, let me be clear: when I say black skin, I mean the kind of black that devours light, and when I say horns, I mean horns, thick, black horns rising up from his ample head of black hair somewhere above where I expected his ears were and curling back around and down around toward his face.

Despite his fearsome appearance, Cambious is a gentle sort of soul who loves baroque music and gardening. He and his family are sworn to protect the gate as repayment for a favor done by Thána’s grandfather. When the Brotherhood of God come calling, seeking Thána’s life, Cambious helps her flee through the gate and sets out with her to find her mother.

Cambious uses a complex glamor to get by in a world that isn’t always open to those of his kind, enabling him to seek out partners for his needs. He also has connections among the sort of non-human underground that includes incubi, succubi, dragons, phoenixes, and more.

Thanátou: The Blood Witch Saga Book 1 is out now!

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a tease

As we draw closer to release date, I’ll be doing a cover reveal over on my Facebook/Twitter/Instagram. I’ve got that scheduled for Monday morning at 9am. I’m also planning on introducing you lovely Readers to some of the characters you’ll be meeting in Thanátou.

Meanwhile, I thought I’d give you a tease from the first chapter:

My earliest memories are of blood, the hot, sticky taste of it on my tongue, the strange, copper scent of it suffocating me. I had no context for these things. I knew that I was small, and I knew that the stain of it was on my soul, but like so much of my life before I was ten, I could only guess.

That was where my life began, on my tenth birthday.

Thanátou, Chapter 1

Thus begins the story of Thána Augusta Celene Alizon Archer, a mid-level manager at a manufacturing company who doesn’t believe in magic or witches or ghosts, until one day a strange man with a strange box and a stranger story about a family she has never known arrives and turns her life upside down. Not to mention the men trying to kill her, or the incubus in her closet.

Thanátou: The Blood Witch Saga Book 1 is coming soon! Keep an eye out for that cover reveal on Monday and get ready to READ.

Today, I drop myself back into the world of Book 2, where we meet new characters and face new dangers.

But first, coffee and some mindless game playing to get my brain functional.

Photo by Ed Leszczynskl on Unsplash

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thanátou is coming

I woke up this morning to the cover design for Thanátou, The Blood Witch Saga Book 1, which means we’re one step closer to release!

I really cannot wait for y’all to get your hands on this book!

I’m waiting for release dates so I can start sharing character introductions and plan a cover reveal.

I am also working at lining up folks who want to provide early reviews, so reach out if you’d like to participate.

The back cover blurb:

blurb

This book includes a bisexual, 32-year-old main character, a pansexual transgender incubus, found family, a desperate rescue attempt, magic, danger and more adventure than our main character can handle.

I’m hard at work finishing up book 2 polishing edits to submit, and hope to have that turned in shortly after Thanátou is released.

Stay tuned for more info, Readers, and have a wonderful Wednesday!

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sorry to disappear

It’s been a weird month filled with Covid, migraines, and a decided lack of writing. At least, any writing outside of the day job. Even after being mostly recovered from Covid, my days consisted of said day job and then vegetating on the couch because the fatigue hung on forever.

I’m only just getting to the point of having enough oomph at the end of the day to do stuff like cook actual meals and the like.

This largely means not having enough brain power to do much writing or editing since coming back from LA. However, this week I got Thanátou: The Blood Witch Saga Book 1 back from the editor, so this weekend I’ve been immersed back into the world of Thána and friends working through those edits and putting together a glossary of non-English words.

I haven’t yet seen any cover design options, but I look forward to seeing what Next Chapter comes up with. I have book 2 almost ready to submit as well.

I will likely do a number of character introduction posts as I did with the Shades and Shadows series as we get closer to release. I really do love these characters so much.

And I’m posting this at just after 3am because now that I’m past Covid fatigue, I find myself back in the world of insomnia. I dozed in and out for a few hours, but at 2am I decided to just get up and get back to editing.

It’s going to be a short work week, as I am taking my mother up to Oregon as the family finally comes together to put my stepfather’s ashes to rest in the private family cemetery up there. (Yes, four years later…no, I’m not sure why it took so long) But we also get to do a little photography wandering while we’re up there, so that should be good.

Okay, back to edits. Happy Sunday, Readers. I hope it’s a good one for you.

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books!

I read a lot of books. Like, a lot. My bookshelves are always overflowing. I read a lot of different kinds of books: sci-fi, fantasy, biographies, classic literature, books about religion and history, books about current or recent events, true crime…with lots of stops along the way.

I have recently been dipping my toe into books about business and industry, largely due to my day job sponsoring a book a month, which we get together (virtually) to discuss. This is a genre I’ve always struggled with, largely due to my rebellious nature. I tend to buck the status quo and dislike the homogenization that industry seems to require.

In a normal time, I have two or three books that I’m in the midst of, usually one non-fiction, one fantasy or sci fi and possibly a book of poetry or an anthology of short stories. In the last year or so, however, I’ve had trouble focusing on much. I’m reading in an all or nothing sort of way. I’m either reading or I’m not and I can not seem to deal with more than one book at a time.

Considering the size of my TBR pile, this is problematic! I got a new bookshelf yesterday, so I can finally get those boxes out of the garage later today. The house is coming together. I have a table and chairs coming today, and a few other things as well.

I hope your Wednesday is filled with wonder, Readers, wonder and joy.

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travel in the time of COVID

One week from today, I will be in Denver, CO for a convention unlike most others I have ever attended. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t anxious about the travel and the collection of people in small rooms. Sure, I’ll double mask on the plane and the con has good COVID practices in place (everyone must be vaxxed and have a negative COVID test for starters), but my only experience with “crowds” was in August this year, and there were only twelve of us.

I considered not going. Several times. However, Sirens is a place that feeds my soul, and if I’m honest, my soul has been sorely in need of feeding.

Sirens is a place where we get to explore the world of speculative fiction (sci-fi, horror, fantasy, etc) through the lens of voices that are not considered “traditional” in that space. By which, I mean: women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, etc. (Reminder that this year’s anthology, “Villains and Vengeance” is available now!)

It’s part reader’s conference, part writer’s retreat and part networking weekend. This will be my third time at Sirens.

Of course my COVID anxiety is only just part of my anxiety, because there is also the uncertainty of travel, particularly since I am flying Southwest, and my agoraphobia, which has only gotten worse since the start of COVID. I have the advantage of a) flying an airline I know well, out of airports I know well; b) the con hotel is also familiar; c) FRIENDS.

I think having friends who know/understand my *stuff* is my biggest coping mechanism. It provides a safe space when there is no safe space. I anticipate a need for a lot of hermiting time when I get back.

For now, though, Readers, I have a few hours before I have to start the day job and my coffee is fresh and hot. I think that means it’s time to write. Happy Friday!

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…for the love of words…

I love words.

I love long words, short words, weird words. I love unusual words and common words. I love combinations of words that absolutely, perfectly describe something or someone.

I love twisting words around until they come out just right.

I’ve been drawn to words and how we use them to communicate since I was a child. I learned to read rather young and I loved to immerse myself into the worlds of the books I read. Then I learned that I could write my own worlds, create my own stories with the words that I loved.

As is true of anyone, my first attempts at that were…shall we say, not good. From my juvenile poetry to my first attempts at short stories and even novels, my love of words only grew, and fortunately, my use of them improved over time.

Today, I hold in my hands a book of poetry…my poetry. Words that I wrestled with, slept with, scribbled out onto loose leaf paper or the back of receipts, words that I typed out in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep until I got them down.

There is a satisfaction in this project that is a little different to any of the novels I have published. It is more intimate, because these words often come from deep within my understanding of who I am.

And, I love who I am. I hope you will join me on this journey. Find your copy at Amazon or other online retailers. May this Tuesday serve you well and bestow kindness upon you, Readers.

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…tonight…

You may recall me talking about a collection of poetry recently. This morning, I woke to the news that my publisher, Next Chapter publications, already has it available to purchase! How awesome is that?

This collection of poems comes from across more than 30 years of writing poetry and covers the gambit from sweet, rhyming poems to sultry (and very adult) poems, with stops all over the spectrum.

To me, poetry has always been about capturing emotion in such a way that the Reader can feel what I was feeling when I wrote it. There are times I have agonized for hours over a single line in my attempt to do that. Sometimes over a single word.

My love of words began with poetry and grew from there. My heart lives here, and I invite you in to sit a spell and let my heart touch yours.

Get your copy now!

Happy Monday, Readers!