On Writing

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    Spider’s Trap, Elemental Assassin #13, up for pre-order …

    Book #13Spider’s Trap, the 13th book in my Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, will be released on July 28.

    Spider’s Trap is up for pre-order at all the usual retailers, including:

    Amazon Kindle / Amazon paperback / Barnes & Noble / Books-A-Million / iBooks/ Google Play / Kobo / IndieBound

    The audio book will be available through Audible, and the awesome Lauren Fortgang will once again the narrator.

    Here is the description for Spider’s Trap:

    Keep your friends close but your enemies within stabbing distance.

    One important lesson I’ve learned in the assassination business is that to be the best you have to roll with the punches. Now that I’m queen of Ashland’s underworld—by default, not by choice—a lot more punches are being thrown my way. But I suppose that’s the price of victory for taking down some of the underworld’s top dogs. Good thing I have my Ice and Stone magic to help me survive my volatile new position. Just when I think things are finally settling down, someone tries to murder me during a hush-hush underworld meeting. But the real surprise is how strangely familiar my shadowy assailant seems to be.

    My job is to maintain order among killers, crooks, and thieves, and soon I’m embroiled in a bloody game where the ability to keep secrets could be the greatest superpower of all. My enemies have all sharpened their knives and laid their traps, waiting for me to fall. But this Spider weaves her own webs of death …

    You can read the first chapter of Spider’s Trap here. Scroll down and click on the Read Excerpt tab, although beware of spoilers for previous books in the series, especially Black Widow.

    I hope that everyone enjoys the book and Gin’s latest adventure. Happy reading, everyone!

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    The work of self-publishing …

    Note: This post appeared last week at Magical Musings, and I wanted to share it here as well.

    Over the past several months, I’ve been working on writing and self-publishing a new book in my Bigtime superhero series. I’m happy to announce that I self-published Fandemic, the fifth book in the series, on June 2. Woot!

    FandemicI’m so glad that the book is finally out there for folks to read and hopefully enjoy. And frankly, I’m also glad that the book — and the work — is finally finished. LOL.

    Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy self-publishing, but it is a lot of work — a lot of work.

    When you self-publish, you are responsible for every single aspect of the book, from actually writing it, to getting it proofread, to the cover art, to the e-book and print book formats, and everything in between. Sure, you can hire folks to do some of the work for you (and I do), but if you don’t do the work (or pay someone to do the work), then it simply doesn’t get done. And once your book is actually published, you are also responsible for promoting the book and letting folks know that it’s available.

    I first started working on Fandemic in May 2014, so it’s taken me more than a year to go from writing the first draft to actually publishing the book. Why so long? Well, I’ve had to squeeze in all the work on Fandemic around writing my two traditionally published series — my Elemental Assassin and Black Blade series.

    With my two traditionally published series, I’m responsible for writing the book, as well as doing copy edits and proofreading the book. But that’s it. The publisher takes care of the cover art, the e-book and print book formatting, and some of the promotion (although I do a fair amount of promotion on my own as well).

    I do hope to write and self-publish more works in my Bigtime series, but it will probably be a while before I start on something new in the series.

    As for right now, I hope that everyone enjoys Fandemic. I’m going to reward myself and go take a nap. 😎

    The Fandemic e-book is $2.99 and is available at the following sites:

    Amazon Kindle / Barnes & Noble / Google Play / iBooks / Kobo / Smashwords

    A print version of Fandemic is also available for $8.99 through Amazon.

    Here is the book description:

    ­Piper Perez has always wanted to be a super­hero. Always wanted to wear a cool costume, have amazing abilities, and save the day. There’s just one problem—Piper doesn’t have any superpowers.

    So she focuses on other things. Facts, figures, memorabilia. Piper knows and collects it all, about both the superheroes and the ubervillains who roam the streets of Bigtime, N.Y. Piper’s friends jokingly call her a fandemic—someone who is a superfan of all things superhero. The nickname is truer than anyone knows, especially since Piper can’t stop thinking about Swifte, the speedy hero who broke her heart months ago.

    But someone has been killing off Bigtime’s heroes and villains. When one of Piper’s friends is murdered, she vows to do whatever she can to help bring the killer to justice, superpowers or not. All the clues and information she gathers lead her to believe that Swifte is the killer’s next target. Piper has always wanted to be a hero, and now she’ll have to use all of her fandemic knowledge to save the man she loves—or die trying….

    Fandemic is around 43,000 words, which means that it is a shorter book than the others in the series, which are around 95,000 words. For those of you who like page counts, Fandemic is about 150 pages.

    You can read the first chapter here. Scroll down and click on the Read Excerpt tab. Happy reading!

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    Fandemic, Bigtime #5, released …

    Book #5Fandemic, the fifth book in my Bigtime superhero series, has been released. Woot!

    The Fandemic e-book is $2.99, and it is available at the following sites:

    Amazon Kindle / Barnes & Noble / Google Play / iBooks / Kobo / Smashwords

    A print version of Fandemic is available for $8.99 through Amazon.

    Here is the book description:

    ­Piper Perez has always wanted to be a super­hero. Always wanted to wear a cool costume, have amazing abilities, and save the day. There’s just one problem—Piper doesn’t have any superpowers.

    So she focuses on other things. Facts, figures, memorabilia. Piper knows and collects it all, about both the superheroes and the ubervillains who roam the streets of Bigtime, N.Y. Piper’s friends jokingly call her a fandemic—someone who is a superfan of all things superhero. The nickname is truer than anyone knows, especially since Piper can’t stop thinking about Swifte, the speedy hero who broke her heart months ago.

    But someone has been killing off Bigtime’s heroes and villains. When one of Piper’s friends is murdered, she vows to do whatever she can to help bring the killer to justice, superpowers or not. All the clues and information she gathers lead her to believe that Swifte is the killer’s next target. Piper has always wanted to be a hero, and now she’ll have to use all of her fandemic knowledge to save the man she loves—or die trying….

    Note: Fandemic is around 43,000 words, which means that it is a shorter book than the others in the series, which are around 95,000 words. For those of you who like page counts, Fandemic is about 150 pages.

    You can read the first chapter here. Scroll down and click on the Read Excerpt tab.

    For those of you who need a refresher, Piper is the best friend of Abby Appleby, the heroine of Nightingale, the fourth book in the series. And many of you have been waiting to see who the superhero Swifte really is. I won’t spoil that here, but I think it has been fairly obvious in the books who Swifte really is.

    I hope that everyone enjoys Fandemic and the return trip to Bigtime. Cheers!

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    Fandemic, Bigtime #5, up for pre-order …

    Book #5Fandemic, the fifth book in my Bigtime superhero series, will be released on June 2. Woot!

    The Fandemic e-book will be priced at $2.99. It is up for pre-order at the following sites:

    Amazon Kindle / Google Play / iBooks / Kobo / Smashwords

    The e-book will also be available at Barnes & Noble. That link should go up on release day, June 2.

    A print version of Fandemic will be available for $8.99 through Amazon.

    Here is the book description:

    ­Piper Perez has always wanted to be a super­hero. Always wanted to wear a cool costume, have amazing abilities, and save the day. There’s just one problem—Piper doesn’t have any superpowers.

    So she focuses on other things. Facts, figures, memorabilia. Piper knows and collects it all, about both the superheroes and the ubervillains who roam the streets of Bigtime, N.Y. Piper’s friends jokingly call her a fandemic—someone who is a superfan of all things superhero. The nickname is truer than anyone knows, especially since Piper can’t stop thinking about Swifte, the speedy hero who broke her heart months ago.

    But someone has been killing off Bigtime’s heroes and villains. When one of Piper’s friends is murdered, she vows to do whatever she can to help bring the killer to justice, superpowers or not. All the clues and information she gathers lead her to believe that Swifte is the killer’s next target. Piper has always wanted to be a hero, and now she’ll have to use all of her fandemic knowledge to save the man she loves—or die trying….

    Note: Fandemic is around 43,000 words, which means that it is a shorter book than the others in the series, which are around 95,000 words. For those of you who like page counts, Fandemic is about 150 pages.

    You can read the first chapter here. Scroll down and click on the Read Excerpt tab.

    For those of you who need a refresher, Piper is the best friend of Abby Appleby, the heroine of Nightingale, the fourth book in the series. And many of you have been waiting to see who the superhero Swifte really is. I won’t spoil that here, but I think it has been fairly obvious in the books who Swifte really is.

    Many folks have asked me if I will continue on with the Bigtime series. I would like to write and self-publish more in the series, but self-publishing is very time-consuming, and my writing schedule is already full into 2016 with my Elemental Assassin and Black Blade series.

    If I do write more in the Bigtime series, it will probably be a shorter book like Fandemic or perhaps some more e-novellas, like A Karma Girl Christmas (which is about 14,000 words).

    Anyway, I hope that everyone enjoys Fandemic when it is released. Cheers!

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    Writing something new …

    Note: This post appeared at Magical Musings last week, but I wanted to share it here on my blog too.

    Cold Burn of Magic, the first book in my Black Blade young adult urban fantasy series, was released on April 28. Woot!

    Having a new book out is always exciting, but it always makes me a little nervous too. As an author, you always hope that folks will enjoy a new book as much — or more — as they have other books that you’ve written.

    Black Blade #1But this release has been a little more nerve-wracking than most because this is the first time that I’ve had a new book series out since 2011.

    Touch of Frost, the first book in my Mythos Academy young adult series, came out in 2011, and I wrapped up that series with Killer Frost in 2014. And I’m still writing my Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, which debuted in 2010.

    Cold Burn of Magic has many of the same elements that my other books/series do — a strong heroine, magic/world building, and lots of action and fight scenes. But it does take place in an entirely new world with entirely new characters. Here’s the book description:

    THERE BE MONSTERS HERE…

    It’s not as great as you’d think, living in a tourist town that’s known as “the most magical place in America.” Same boring high school, just twice as many monsters under the bridges and rival Families killing each other for power.

    I try to keep out of it. I’ve got my mom’s bloodiron sword and my slightly illegal home in the basement of the municipal library. And a couple of Talents I try to keep quiet, including very light fingers and a way with a lock pick.

    But then some nasty characters bring their Family feud into my friend’s pawn shop, and I have to make a call—get involved, or watch a cute guy die because I didn’t. I guess I made the wrong choice, because now I’m stuck putting everything on the line for Devon Sinclair. My mom was murdered because of the Families, and it looks like I’m going to end up just like her…

    So basically, the book features magic, monsters, and mobsters. The heroine is Lila Merriweather, a 17-year-old thief who lives in Cloudburst Falls, West Virginia, a town dubbed “the most magical place in America.” Tourists come from around the world to tour all the magic-themed shops and attractions, as well as see monsters like tree trolls, copper crushers, and more in their natural habitats.

    Lila also does her best to stay off the grid and avoid the Families — or mobs — who control much of the town. But when she saves a member of the Sinclair Family during an attack, Lila finds herself caught in the middle of a brewing war between the Sinclairs and the Draconis, the two most powerful Families in town.

    As an author, I want folks to enjoy each new book more than they did the last. But it’s a little trickier when it comes to creating a new series with new characters. What if folks don’t like the magic and world building of Cloudburst Falls? What if they don’t like Lila? These are the things that I worry about.

    We’ve all read books/series by authors that we like more than some of the other books/series those authors have written. In the end, I guess writing a book and trying something new is just a roll of the dice. Some folks will like it, and some folks won’t.

    That doesn’t keep me from worrying, though. LOL.

    What about you guys? Do you try new series by your favorite authors? Why or why not? Are there some series that you like more than others?