Frequently Asked Questions
It is pronounced Eee-step — not Essstep.
I have a merchandise shop at Redbubble where folks can get some Elemental Assassin and Galactic Bonds-themed art printed on notebooks, mugs, T-shirts, and other products. I am hoping to add some more designs for my various book series in the future.
Yes, I am still writing my Elemental Assassin series. However, I am taking a break from writing full-length Gin Blanco books for a while. Instead, I am hoping to write some novellas from some of the secondary characters’ points of view, like Heart Stings, which is about Lorelei Parker.
ICYMI, I have also released Spider and Frost, a crossover novella with Gin Blanco and Gwen Frost from my Mythos Academy series, and Stings and Stones, a short story collection, in my Elemental Assassin series.
I get this question a lot — probably more than any other question, which I think is a bit strange. Who knew folks were so interested in regional word choices? 🙂
In the South, where I am from and where many of my books are set, a “toboggan” refers to a winter hat — not a sled. A sled is just a sled in the South. We do not call those “toboggans”.
Many folks have also asked why I don’t use the word “toque” when talking about a winter hat. That’s a Northern/Canadian word. The Southern characters in my books would never use that word, so it’s just a difference in regional word choices. Here’s a blog post that I did about the subject several years ago.
I love going to different places and meeting readers, but traveling can be very expensive. Plus, it’s often difficult for me to make time to travel, given all my writing deadlines. I figure that y’all would prefer to have more books to read than anything else.
However, I do try to attend a few book conferences and other events every year. I usually post information about upcoming events on my social media sites, especially Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Thanks for reading!
No, there are no plans to do a cookbook. I don’t have recipes for everything that Gin makes in the books. Many of the dishes (like Fletcher’s secret barbecue sauce) exist only in my imagination or are just things that I think would sound good to eat. I just like writing about food.
Plus, I imagine that writing a cookbook would be a lot of work, and that’s something that I just don’t have the time for, given my regular book writing deadlines.
There are a few recipes posted on my website. Go to the Elemental Assassin series page, scroll down, and click on Gin’s Recipe Box.
I will sometimes share a recipe in my e-newsletter. You can sign up for that on the Newsletter page or by using the widget in the right sidebar on this page.
As of right now, I do not plan to write any more Black Blade books. I enjoyed writing the series, but I feel like Lila’s story is finished since she did everything she set out to do, including defeating the villain. I’ll never say never, but as of right now, I don’t plan to write anything else in this series.
Not at this time, although I have released Spider and Frost, an Elemental Assassin and Mythos Academy crossover novella featuring Gin Blanco and Gwen Frost.
Nope, I do not. I’ve tried in the past, and I’ve found that I’m concentrating so much on what I am writing that I usually end up getting annoyed by the music or tuning it out completely. So I don’t listen to music while I’m writing a book or reading through copyedits/page proofs.
However, when I’m doing other things like e-mail, blogging, social media, etc., I will often listen to music, especially movie soundtracks. Some of my favorite soundtracks to listen to include: Captain America: The Winter Solider; The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
I like different things about my different books. Sometimes, I like the plot of this book or a secondary character in that book. In general, I usually like the first book in a series the best. I’ve always enjoyed origin stories, and that’s often what a first book in a series is all about — setting up your characters and world for future adventures.
But if I had to pick one book as my favorite, it would be Karma Girl, book #1 in my Bigtime superhero series. Karma Girl was the very first book that I sold and got published back in 2007, so it will always have a special place in my heart.
Spider’s Bite would be a close second, though, because it’s the book that launched Gin Blanco and the world of my Elemental Assassin series.
I also really like Only Bad Options, book #1 in my Galactic Bonds science-fiction fantasy series. Science fiction was a new genre for me to write in, and Only Bad Options was very much a book of my heart, and I’m so glad that folks are reading/enjoying it.
No. There are no plans to make a movie or TV show out of any of my books at this time. I think it would be awesome if it were to ever happen, but that is something that is completely out of my control and that I have zero influence over.
My agent has said that getting a movie/TV deal is like getting struck by lightning — in other words, the chances of it ever happening are very, very small. Even if someone bought the movie/TV rights to one of my books, the chances of a movie/TV show ever actually getting made and being shown in the theater or on the air are smaller still.
So, as my grandma would say, I’m not holding my breath about it. LOL.
Not at this time. After Conquer the Kingdom, book #3 in my Gargoyle Queen series was released, the publisher decided that they didn’t want any more books set in my Crown of Shards/Garogyle Queen world. So I will not be writing a third trilogy about Delmira, like I had planned.
But I will never say never, so maybe I will be able to tell Delmira’s story someday.