Works in progress

Rules of Redemption has been out for less than a week, and the reception has been amazing. Thank you everyone! It's always a little nerve wracking introducing a new world and set of characters. There's all this fear floating around that the book won't resonate or the story will fall flat. I am happy to report that those fears were unfounded and Kira and company are doing well. :-)

As exciting as that is, it has led to a lot of people asking me when the next book in their favorite series is coming out. Below is my current writing schedule. Note: this can change at any time based on my whim, but I do tend to stick to projects once they're started.

Dragon 4 - Currently in edits. I hope to publish around May

Broken Lands 4 - I have half of a first chapter and most of the plot decided. This book will feature Eva and her adventures. (She was the horse mistress in Mist and Wayfarer's). Caden or Darius will be her leading man. Shea and Fallon will show up but not be leads. Publishing target of Aug/September

This is where it gets a little tricky. Right now this is the plan.

Aileen 5 - I have some thoughts, but they're nebulous. Target of December.

Firebird/Rules 2 - Already have most of the plot thought out. Target of January/February.

There you have it. The publishing schedule for the next year. Things might shift around but all of these books will be written this yearish.

I realize some of you will be either very happy or very upset about this schedule. It was never my intention to have four series going at once. It just kind of happened, and now I'm tasked with keeping their stories in the air because I must know how it ends. If I could figure out a way to download the books from my brain or write faster, I would. Alas, I am only human.

Time to get back to work. Dragon 4's ending won't rewrite itself.

Beware... Long Post Ahead

This has been a crazy couple of days. The end of last week and most of the weekend was occupied with a mad dash to incorporate my proofreader's edits on Rules of Redemption, read through one last time to try to make sure I didn't miss any glaring problems (please let me have caught everything), and to format it for publication (please, oh please, let there be no major formatting issues like last time!). I triple checked everything, but I'm sure something has managed to wiggle its way through.

It's done finally--thanks to some long hours on Friday, Saturday and part of Sunday. The final copy is uploaded and the whole book is out of my hands at this point. This is about when nerves start to set in.

Instead of obsessing, my husband and I decided Sunday was a good day to get a head start on packing up part of our house in preparation for our move later this month. We've finally found a place we both agreed on and one that passed inspection with flying colors. The last house we were in contract for had a boatload of problems including a failing septic tank and leach field, forcing us to walk away. Not this house, though. This one had a near perfect bill of health. Even the inspector said he would have liked living there. My husband is thrilled since it means he won't have to maintain a house full of issues.

Packing up has shown just how different my husband and I are in our approaches to life.  One of the things I do when I pack up and move is go through most of my stuff and get rid of things I don't need. Like books I never read or the weird plates someone gave me when I moved into my first place. The thought process being the less I have, the less I have to move. The husband, on the other hand, is perfectly content with keeping the status quo, pointing to the bigger house as a justification.

I went through a couple of his boxes in the basement to see what I was dealing with. I found one filled with baseball caps..... that he never wears. Another was full of t-shirts.... that he never wears. You see where I'm going with this. When asked why he was holding onto these things, he shrugged and said, "I don't know. They seemed like they'd come in handy one day."

Sigh.

Because of everything we did this weekend, I'd originally planned to relax today, but I doubt that will happen. Audio just landed for Mist's Edge and I have this panic demon in the back of my head telling me if I don't make significant progress on Dragon 4, bad things will ensue.

It's panic usually sounds a bit like this--If you don't finish this read through and fix the problems, there will be too big a gap between releases. Your fans will hate you. They'll desert you for an author who can write fast enough to feed their insatiable need for good stories. If no one buys your books, you won't be able to help pay this new mortgage. You'll be homeless. Homeless, I tell you!

Facepalm. If you hadn't guessed, my panic demon is a bit of a drama queen mixed with a teenager's conviction that everything will bring about the end of the world. To make it clear before people rush to reassure me, I'm fully aware none of the above is a likely occurrence. Still, working through a chapter or two today will pacify it enough so I won't feel too guilty when I finally download the new Faith Hunter book later today. :-)

ARC For Rules of Redemption

Note: We have hit the number and I am closing the sign up sheet.

This is a little late this time around. I had a death in the family recently which has delayed plans a bit while I traveled down south for the funeral and visited with family. For those who follow me on Facebook and sent their condolences, thank you so much. It is very much appreciated.

Back to the ARC. This will be conducted as it has in the past. There will be thirty copies available. Once they're gone, they're gone. Amazon says I can't ask for anything from those who receive these, but it would be greatly appreciated if you decided to post a review on Goodreads or Amazon. New readers decide to give new authors/books a chance based partially on reviews.

One other note: There's been a little confusion about this book. It is the first in a brand new adventure--not a side story or a continuation in my other series. It is NOT connected in any way. (Just wanted to make sure that's clear.)

Below is a link. Click on it and fill out the form. Once you've finished and submitted your email, you'll receive an email from me containing the link to download. The first thirty people to respond will receive a copy.

Happy reading and good luck!

Snippet for Rules of Redemption

"That's a mighty fine cape he had. Very spiffy," she said, changing the subject. She gave Graydon a once over, taking in the defined muscles even his armor couldn't fully hide. "Why don't you have one like that?"

Graydon's lip curled. "His cape is ridiculous. An opponent can grab it and strangle him with it. No other weapons necessary."

Kira tried to choke back the laugh trying to escape. She was fighting a losing battle, his incredulous expression at her comment too funny to resist.

Graydon watched her with a frown, his jaw ticking.

Kira managed to compose herself, saying with a semi-straight face, "But you would look so dashing."

"All the girls would worship at your feet," Jin assured him.

Graydon's face turned slightly disgusted as he shook his head. He strode off, saying over his shoulder, "Come. They won't be patient long."


Available now for preorder.

A Name for the Space Adventure

I can't believe it's nearly time for this release, but I'm so excited to finally be sharing this adventure with you. Kira's story has been in my head in one form or another since I was twelve. When we were younger, my sister used to beg me to finish this story. She'd read the first few chapters  (admittedly not well written since I was twelve) and something about the characters had captured her imagination. A good thing too, since they'd done the same to me.

Despite that, the story never felt ready to be written. Then came Wayfarer's Keep and suddenly the characters in Kira's universe could no longer be silenced. I'd originally planned this to be my passion project -- something I tinkered with on the weekends while my weeks remained devoted to my main projects. Of course, my books have a tendency of taking over and after Dawn's Envoy, I knew I couldn't keep this one on the back burner any longer. 

I'm so glad at  least a piece of this story will soon be out there and no longer running amok in my dreams.

 Before you ask, this is planned to be at least a three book series. Knowing me that will probably spiral into five or six. I can't help it. Once I get into a world I have to explore all the hidden crevasses and side characters. 

I sincerely hope you enjoy this new world. It's near and dear to my heart. 

Happy Reading.

Rules of Redemption

The war everyone thought was over is just beginning.

Kira Forrest is a survivor. She’s risen above the pain of her beginnings to become a war hero only to leave it all behind in the pursuit of a simple life. Now a salvager, she makes a living sifting through the wreckage of dead alien ships from a war that nearly brought humanity to its knees.

After her ship takes damage, she’s forced to re-route to a space station where her past and present collide with dangerous consequences.

Kira’s existence holds the key to a faltering peace treaty with the Tuann—a technologically advanced alien race who dislikes and distrusts all humans. Winning her freedom should be easy, but a powerful and relentless Tuann warrior stands in her way. Deceiving him seems impossible, especially when he strays dangerously close to secrets she struggles to hide.

Can Kira reconcile the pain of her past with the possibilities of her future? The fate of two races depends on her success.

Preorder

Excerpt

A Tiny Snippet

Here is a very small, unedited snippet from Dragon 4. As always, no guarantee this will make it to the final copy.

“Make sure she doesn’t go anywhere,” the shiny one said, pointing at Ilith. “And for Saviors sake make sure she doesn’t add any more of my treasury to her horde.”

Ilith lifted her head at that. More treasure? Where?

“No,” Ryu told her in a firm voice.

She blew a cloud of smoke at him before putting her head back down. She didn’t have plans to go anywhere anyway. She was entirely too comfortable at the moment.

All the News

I have a couple of exciting announcements to share.

The first-- Amazon has agreed to push the properly formatted version of Dawn's Envoy to everyone who bought it. You should have received an email from them giving you instructions of how to download the new copy.

For all the audio book lovers out there--I've recently contracted with a narrator to turn Mist's Edge into an audio book. If all things go according to plan, it should be done sometime in March or April. Right now, my hope is to do the audio for Wayfarer's Keep after Mist's Edge so that I have the entire series available in audio. However, this will be dependent on several things.

The physical copy of Dawn's Envoy was approved yesterday so it should appear on the product page soon.

The space adventure has at long last made it's way to the editor. I'm hoping for a publication date of late February to mid March.

Lastly, I'm about 40,000 words into Dragon 4 which will hopefully hit the stores by May.

That's it for the announcements for now.