Black Blade series

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    Bright Blaze of Magic, Black Blade #3, up for pre-order …

    Book #3We’re only a couple of weeks away from the release of Bright Blaze of Magic, the third book in my Black Blade young adult urban fantasy series that will be out on April 26. Woot!

    This will be the third and final book in the series, and it will close out Lila’s story. As of right now, I do not have any plans to write any more books in this series.

    Bright Blaze of Magic will be available in print, e-book, and audiobook formats from all the usual retailers. The book is available for pre-order at the following sites:

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

    The audiobook will be available through Audible and Amazon, and Brittany Pressley will once again be the narrator.

    And here is the book description. This doesn’t contain any real spoilers for the book/series, but if you absolutely do not want to be spoiled, you might want to skip reading the book description:

    BAD THINGS ALWAYS COME IN THREES…

    As a thief, I’m good at three things: hiding in the shadows, getting in and out unseen, and uncovering secrets. I put these skills to work for the Sinclair Family, one of the magical mobs that run the tourist town of Cloudburst Falls.

    Everyone knows Victor Draconi wants to take over all the other Families—and kill every last Sinclair. What they don’t know is that I’m on to him, and no way will I let the man who murdered my mom get away with hurting all the other people I care about. Especially when I’ve got places to break into, stuff to steal, and Devon Sinclair fighting right by my side…

    The heroine of Bright Blaze of Magic 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 does her best to stay off the grid and avoid the Families — or mobs — who control much of the town. But Lila finds herself caught in the middle of a brewing war between the Sinclairs and the Draconis, the two most powerful Families in town.

    I hope that everyone enjoys the conclusion to Lila’s story when the book is released. Happy reading!

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    Dark Heart of Magic, Black Blade #2, to be published in German …

    Estep Black Blade 2Attention German readers: I wanted to let you know that Dark Heart of Magic, the second book in my Black Blade young adult urban fantasy series, will be released in German on May 2.

    And here is the cover for Dark Heart of Magic. I always think it’s so interesting to see how the covers vary from country to country. I really like the white covers that my German publisher, Piper Verlag, has been doing for this series, along with my Mythos Academy series. (Although my favorite German covers are the ones with the flowers on the front and on the spines for my Mythos Academy series.)

    I’m not sure when Bright Blaze of Magic, the third and final book in the series, will be released in German. If I had to guess, I would say probably sometime in the fall 2016, but I don’t know for sure. If I get some more information about the release date later on, I’ll try to remember to share that here on my blog and social media sites.

    And of course Cold Burn of Magic, the first book in the series, is also available in German.

    I hope that all the German readers enjoy Dark Heart of Magic when it is released. Happy reading!

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    Attending the Frankfurt book fair …

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    A shot of one of the many convention floors/halls at the 2015 Frankfurt book fair.

    Back in October, I got to do something really, really cool — attend the annual book fair in Frankfurt, Germany.

    My books — especially my Mythos Academy young adult books — are very popular in Germany, and my German publisher, Piper Verlag, invited me to attend the fair. So away I went.

    It was a really wonderful experience. The book fair is huge — something like 300,000 people attend it every year — and it takes up large several convention halls, all of which have multiple floors. We are talking miles and miles of books here, and every different kind of book you can possibly imagine, from fantasy books like mine, to cookbooks, to sports books, to calendars, to stationary … You get the idea. And many of the book displays were just stunning — works of art in and of themselves.

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    A large banner with the German cover of Cold Burn of Magic, along with a display of my other German books/covers, at the 2015 Frankfurt book fair.

    I did several readings and Q&As, meet with bloggers, and of course signed books — lots and lots of books. I knew that my books were popular in Germany, but I had no idea how popular. For a couple of my signings, there were probably 100-200 people in line. It was like being a rock star. LOL. And all of the readers were so enthusiastic, not just about my books, but about all of the books and just the book fair in general. It was great being around so many folks who love and are so passionate about books.

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    A charm bracelet with the German cover of Cold Burn of Magic.

    And everyone was so nice, from the folks at the publishing house, to the book bloggers, to the readers. One blogger brought me a lovely gift basket of chocolates, while another made me a personalized charm bracelet with the German cover of Cold Burn of Magic, which was awesome.

    Some of the cultural differences were interesting too. For example, in the U.S., people shake hands when they meet. In Germany, people shake hands when they meet and when they leave. And if you ask for water in a German restaurant, you will often get sparkling/fizzy water, whereas in the U.S., you would just get plain old tap (non-sparkling) water.

    I had such a great time and met so many wonderful people. I want to give a big, big thanks to everyone who helped with my trip and all the bloggers, readers, and other folks that I met at the book fair. It was a fantastic experience, and I hope to go back again some day. Danke schon! 🙂

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    Jennifer’s 2016 Book Release Schedule …

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    Greetings! I hope that everyone had a good holiday season and that everyone got lots of good books to read. 🙂

    A new year also means new books from me. Here is my book release schedule — so far — for 2016.

    JENNIFER ESTEP’S 2016 BOOK RELEASE SCHEDULE

    Book #14Bitter Bite — Elemental Assassin #14 — Feb. 23

    Bright Blaze of Magic — Black Blade #3 — April 26. Note: As of right now, this will be the final book in the trilogy/series.

    Unwanted — Elemental Assassin #14.5 — July 18. Note: This is an e-novella from Finn’s point of view that takes place after the events of Bitter Bite. It’s about 20,000 words and will be priced at $1.99. It will be available as an e-novella only.

    Unraveled — Elemental Assassin #15 — Aug. 30

    So this is my book release schedule as of right now. The release dates for Bitter Bite and Bright Blaze of Magic are definite — my work on those books is done, and they are up for pre-order at all the usual book retailers.

    The release dates for Unwanted and Unraveled are also pretty firm, although they could always change due to various publishing whims.

    As for other potential projects, I will be writing Elemental Assassin #16 this year — that one will probably be released in early 2017. I’m also hoping to do another Elemental Assassin e-novella — not sure who’s point of view that one might be from yet.

    I’m also working on some ideas for a new young adult series. I always have more ideas than I will ever have time to write, so we’ll see what I come up with.

    Unfortunately, I probably won’t have time to write and self-publish another Bigtime story this year. I love writing the series, but self-publishing takes a lot of time, and my writing schedule is already full going into 2017(!) now.

    Anyway, I will be updating this schedule and sharing book covers, descriptions, pre-order links, etc. as they become available here on my blog and on my Facebook and Twitter pages.

    Here’s to happy reading in 2016!

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    Writing book #2 in a trilogy …

    Note: This post appeared at Magical Musings a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to share it here too.

    Dark Heart of Magic, the second book in my Black Blade young adult urban fantasy series, has been released today, Oct. 27. Woot!

    Dark Heart of Magic finalThe heroine of Dark Heart of Magic 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 does her best to stay off the grid and avoid the Families — or mobs — who control much of the town. But Lila finds herself caught in the middle of a brewing war between the Sinclairs and the Draconis, the two most powerful Families in town.

    The  Black Blade series will have three books in it, which makes it the first trilogy that I’ve written. As a writer, it’s been interesting to write a shorter series, since all of my other series have several books, e-novellas, and short stories in them.

    To me, the second book of a trilogy is particularly tricky to write. You want the characters to grow from where they were in book #1, but you also want to leave them enough growth for book #3 as well. Plus, you also want to tell a complete story with book #2 (I hate cliffhangers in the middle of trilogies), but you also have to set things up for the big showdown with the bad guys that you know is coming in book #3.

    It’s been a fun challenge, and I hope that I will leave readers looking forward to Bright Blaze of Magic, book #3, and the conclusion of the series that will be out on April 26, 2016.

    What about you guys? What things do you look for in book #2 of a trilogy?

    Dark Heart of Magic is available at the following sites:

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

    The audiobook is available through Audible and Amazon. Brittany Pressley is once again the narrator.

    And here is the description for Dark Heart of Magic. It doesn’t contain any real spoilers for Cold Burn of Magic, book #1, but if you absolutely want to remain spoiler-free, you might want to skip reading the description.

    SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES…

    As a thief, I stick to the shadows as much as possible. But when the head of the Sinclair Family picks me to compete in the Tournament of Blades, there’s no escaping the spotlight—or the danger.

    Even though he’s my competition, Devon Sinclair thinks I have the best shot of winning what’s supposed to be a friendly contest. But when the competitors start having mysterious “accidents”, it looks like someone will do anything to win—no matter who they hurt.

    As if I didn’t have enough to worry about, mobster Victor Draconi is plotting against Devon and the rest of my friends, and someone’s going around Cloudburst Falls murdering monsters. One thing’s for sure. Sometimes, humans can be more monstrous than anything else …

    You can read the first chapter of Dark Heart of Magic by clicking here. Scroll down, and click on the Read Excerpt tab.

    I hope that everyone enjoys Dark Heart of Magic and Lila’s new adventure. Happy reading!