Tag: Thanátou

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a writer writing

I’ll admit, I’m struggling a little this week. I have a bit of a head cold and the accompanying fatigue has made it difficult to get stuff done. And there is so much to do!

However, there’s some Death Wish Coffee in my Star Wars “Pew Pew” cup, my throat is less sore and my space heater is making my office a little more cozy.

I’m working on book 4 in the Blood Witch Saga. I’m pretty sure where the plot is going, but this first draft is pretty rough and will take a lot of editing. This is largely due to the disconnected way I’ve been writing. The opening is way too slow and I need to get to the action faster. But, I will continue writing and come back to the edit later.

In this book, Thána and Co., including the ghost of an ancestor, are off to save magic. You can expect more world hopping, necromancy, possession, probably some new races/languages, and some mythological creatures.

You know, the usual.

For now though, I need to finish this cup of coffee and get the day job started. So much to do!

Oh, and don’t forget my giveaway! You can win a hardback copy of the first three books in the Blood Witch Saga.

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available now!

The first three books of the Blood Witch Saga are all available now, before Christmas! Do you have a reader on your list? Know someone who loves strong women, and urban fantasy, and wants to go on an adventure?

These are the books you’re looking for!

Follow Thána Alizon as she discovers that she is not the orphaned, mediocre middle-management corporate lackey she has believed herself to be and sets off on an adventure to find the family she never knew she had, traipsing through portals into other worlds, encountering mythical beings, dangerous cults, an ideological war, and a medieval plague.

Each portal takes her further from who she was and brings her closer to who she was meant to be.

Get yours now by clicking on the image above or this link.

Happy Holidays, Readers!!

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Mörderin: The Blood Witch Saga Book 2

Seeking to reunite her family, Thána and her mother Alaina head back to the world where Daria lives with her husband and son.

The once vibrant city where people traveled freely through a collection of portals has been reduced to rubble, and Daria is now a prisoner of the invading army. With her magic still in nascent stages, Thána agrees to a daring and dangerous rescue mission with Daria’s husband and friends, once again putting her life on the line for a family she barely knows.

To make it work she has to push her magical skills to their very limit and rely on those she’s only just met, not to mention breaking into a prison camp and getting out again in one piece. How hard could it be?

Mörderin: The Blood Witch Saga Book 2

I’m excited to share this with you, Readers! Now available in ebook and paperback on Amazon.com and in ebook from Google Books. I’ll be sure to update y’all when other marketplaces come online.

I also currently have two hardcover and six paperback copies of Thanátou available for purchase. Hit me up if you want a signed copy!

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hope rises with the sun

The world is a hot mess right now, and I have to admit that it is eating up a lot of my brain power and making me want to just hide in my safe little sanctuary until it sorts itself out. We’re still dealing with a pandemic, we’ve got monkeypox on the rise, new cases of polio (which we thought we had irradiated), some new virus in China…we’ve got war in Ukraine, a former president who appears to have committed even more crime than we thought, his supporters taking guns to the FBI and calling for civil war (let alone just plain murder of agents). We’ve got Israel pounding Palestine, civilians being killed the world over, continuing gun violence here in the US and a congress who seems to have forgotten they’re supposed to work for us.

It’s a lot, and some days it’s more than I can wrap my head around. Other days, I’m wallowing in it, which isn’t good for anyone.

Still, there is beauty and kindness in this world, we just have to dig a little deeper to find it these days. The sun still rises, the rain still falls (though most of the world really needs more of that), the flowers still open up and people still do good things for one another.

And when you can’t find that kindness around you, the best way to look for it is to be that kindness. It doesn’t have to be a big gesture or cost you a fortune. It can just be the little things, the smile for a stranger, a kind word to someone you pass in the street or stand behind in line. It can be the cup of coffee you bring a coworker who is having a hard time, or the lunch tab you pick up for a friend.

Hope rises above despair, but it needs our help. Find a moment today to hope for something. Bring kindness into the world.

Happy Sunday, Readers. May it bring you peace.

Photo by todd kent on Unsplash

By the way, have you picked up your copy of Thanátou yet?

Thanátou
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pamper me

I was supposed to be in Austin this weekend, but the cost of airfare priced me out, so I had to stay home. To comfort myself, I booked a facial for yesterday afternoon. I haven’t done one in quite a while, and my skin was feeling dry and lifeless, so off I went.

I didn’t go for anything fancy, just your basic facial which consisted of cleansing, a hydrating face mask, etc. It was 60 minutes of laying on a massage table having someone who wasn’t me pampering me. It was lovely.

Usually, when I want pampering, I get a massage, so this was something a bit different. I could still use a massage though! My last facial was a few years ago in Denver at the Sirens conference.

I always forget how good my skin feels after a facial. This morning my face is soft and it feels amazing.

It doesn’t completely make up for missing out on Austin, but it did make me feel better.

In writing news, I’m editing book 3 of The Blood Witch Saga, book 2 is with the publisher, and book 4 is underway. I also have a ghost story brewing in the back of my mind. I’ll toy with that later.

For now, I need to finish up this cup of coffee, have some breakfast and get myself busy. Happy Sunday, Readers. Go pamper yourself a little.

Photo by Adrian Motroc on Unsplash

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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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meet Merry

For our first introduction to the characters in Thanátou, I’d like to introduce you to Merry Ander-Wheather, the first family our main character meets as her journey begins.

Merry is a kitchen-witch, and a bit eccentric, especially for Thána who has lived a pretty mundane life up until the point where our story begins. We never learn specifically how old she is, but she is easily in her late seventies when she enters our story.

Merry wears her long grey hair in a variety of braids that she pins up in various messy ways and she uses magic to alter the color from time to time, preferring bright blues and greens, but tossing in other colors as it suits her.

Merry is a mother and grandmother, though it’s unclear how many children she had or how many grandkids there are, but she is a devoted family lover and she is happiest when her house is full and she can whip up tasty treats for everyone to enjoy.

Thanátou

Merry is eager to help Thána regain her memory and teach her how to be a witch, possibly too eager. She means well though, and becomes one of the first people Thána comes to trust.

I look forward to sharing this book with you, Readers! I am actively recruiting reviewers, so let me know if you’re interested.

I’m off to the day job and more coffee. I hope this Tuesday treats you with kindness!

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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