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No Rest for the Wicked – Release Cancelled, but there is a silver lining…

Greetings all!

You have probably noticed a weird amount of radio silence going on considering I announced that July 1 would be my release date for No Rest for the Wicked. I didn’t want to say anything until I knew more, but I think we’ve reached the point it is time to bring you into the loop.

I wrote the majority of No Rest for the Wicked during NaNoWriMo in November, and queried it to a few select small presses early in 2017. There aren’t that many places interested in novella-length works, so I didn’t hold out much hope of doing anything but self-publishing. As I expected, several months went by with no replies, so I moved on and announced a release date.

About a week, A WEEK, after I made this claim, I had not one but TWO requests for a full manuscript from publishers! As you can imagine, I was thrilled. But, I was also put in a bit of a bind when it came to the timing. I’ve received some very good feedback, as well as an invitation to revise and resubmit. Though of course I’d have preferred a resounding YES! the absence of a ‘no’ is still pretty awesome. In theory, I could now scramble to get ready to self-publish as I’d originally planned. But between the interest by the publishers and the issues that came up in the feedback, I have decided to officially cancel the July 1 release of No Rest for the Wicked while I work on further revisions. I have two avenues to pursue, and I am not sure which will serve the series better yet.

No matter what happens, I am confident this extra time will result in a better reader experience when the story finally comes out, be it on my own or working with a publisher. I look forward to the challenge, and I hope to have good news for you soon.

Thank you for your patience and continued support.

No Rest for the Wicked – Chapter 6 Teaser

The henchman glowered. “This is her, right boss? I think she was planning to run.”

“Let her go!” Vi shouted and got to her feet. “She was on her way here, you idiot.”

Bonnie wrenched her arm free and walked over to Salty. “Here you are. It’s everything we owe you.” She threw the bank note onto the table.

He reached out a grubby hand and retrieved the paper. After a glance at the scrawl he tossed it back down. “Where’s the gold? And your husband? I made a deal with Mr. Murray to get paid in gold for my investment.”

“This spends even better than gold,” she replied.

“What about the interest?”

“Don’t push it, Salty,” Vi growled.

Bonnie pouted and her gaze met the other woman’s in concern. “What interest?”

“I gave you an extension, remember? This isn’t near enough anymore.”

Vi gave a minute shake of her head. They both knew the gold Bonnie had just deposited was worth twice what she’d owed, but Salty didn’t need to know it, too.

“But, it’s all I’ve got! You’ve got to accept it.”

“I’ll play you for it.” Vi slapped her hand down on the bank note and grinned. There was no way she was going to let this weasel extort more than he was owed, and Bonnie had played her role perfectly. “You and me. One hand of black jack owns the Murray’s debt. You game?”

Get Your Copy of ‘Chasing Magic’ on May 6 and Enter to Win Books, Gift Cards, and More!

You’re invited!

My short story, The Vigil, is being published in an anthology and I’d love to see you at the Facebook launch event this weekend. Join me and 22 other talented fantasy writers during our launch event on Saturday to get a Chasing Magic for just $.99.

Plus, when you buy a copy of Chasing Magic on May 6 and post an image of your purchase confirmation in the Facebook event page, you’ll be entered into a giveaway for three Amazon gift cards, free books, and more fantast goodies.

Join the fun!

 

The 15 AWESOME People You Meet in Steampunk

A wonderful article about the people of Steampunk, and why this is such a great community to join.

Malice in Londerland

img_0064Salutations,

For my first post, I really wanted to do something upbeat, positive and a bit geeky…but on a serious note first, I’ll tell you how it came about. You see, for a while now (mostly since I joined the land of social media), I’ve been seeing a lot of silly in-fighting, bitching and complaints between various alternative communities, and it really does sadden me, after all, we’re all a bit weird, we’re meant to be sicking together.

It’s a small thing, but I’ve seen a lot of “fifteen annoying/stupid people you meet in (insert subculture here)” and I’m not going to name names or point fingers, as I’m sure their intent wasn’t really that malicious, but I saw one about steampunk not long ago which insisted on roasting pretty much everyone who did anything in the community. I’m sure you’re not meant to take it seriously, but I’m really…

View original post 1,890 more words

No Rest for the Wicked – Chapter 4 Teaser

“I thought you should know. It’s possible that the moment I put that gold in Bonnie’s hands that you’re going to pass over.”

 “I…what?”

“Unless we’re wrong about what’s holding you here, when I finish your unfinished business for you, then you’ll probably move on right then and there.”

His voice broke her heart with every syllable. “I won’t get to say goodbye to her?”

“I could be wrong,” she replied, swinging herself onto Smithy’s broad back with a smirk. “Do you owe anyone else money?”

Anthology Review: Steampunk World (2014)

“Steam Speaks All Languages
Steam Knows No Boundaries
Steam Is Universal”

sw-cover

I am usually more of a novel reader, but lately I’ve been both reading and writing a lot of shorter fiction. Figuring out the right amount of words to fully tell a story is both an intellectual and artistic challenge, but I believe editor Sarah Hans did a wonderful job of pulling together this anthology composed of fabulous stories. I’ve noticed a trend in the last year or two of agents and editors looking for non-Western Steampunk, and this collection was already on the shelves so kudos to all 19 authors and the publisher, Alliteration Ink. Each story is even accompanied by a beautiful black and white line drawing.

With 19 completely different tales to tell, I’m not going to even try to review everything in Steampunk World. I had hoped to dedicate a few days to it, but with Christmas right around the corner and this book so perfect for a last minute gift idea I’m just going to say that overall, I felt like this was a very strong book, both as a collection of short stories and a collection of Steampunk. It was originally funded through a Kickstarter campaign, but you can read all about the book and the authors at Alliteration Ink.

Multi-cultural Steampunk sound good to you? Check out their next collection, Steampunk Universe as well!

 

There's Still Time to Sign Up for the Collaborative Writing Challenge! Begins Dec. 30

I learned a lot of things from participating in this year’s NaNoWriMo- Pre-writing is a godsend, I need to stop deluding myself into thinking I can write after 5pm, and I can write over 3000 words a day for a week straight if I have to.

But I also got a real taste of how very lonely being a writer can be.

Which makes me even more excited for the novel I will be coordinating with the Collaborative Writing Challenge! This is a chance to build up a really cool community of writers that I hope will go above and beyond this individual project.

The deadline for possible first chapter submissions is today, and so far we’ve got 7 submissions. I’ll be reading those submissions and talking over the potential for growth with the rest of the CWC over the next few weeks to narrow it down to three, then it will be time for people to vote on their favorite.

Didn’t write a starter chapter? No problem! I think writing the parts in the middle are the most fun, personally, because you wield so much power over the rest of the story. I’ll be starting my try for Project, 6, Esyld’s Awakening, Chapter 16 this week. It’s been 10 chapters since I saw the story last and I am really excited to see where it has gone when I wasn’t looking. Wish me luck!

cwc-announcement

Here’s a quick reminder of how the whole project works.

  • Writers sign up for a chapter try by December 30. (We’ve reached our minimum number of authors to get the project going, but the more the merrier!) Sign up by filling out the form here
  • 3-5 Writers attempt each chapter, one week at a time. You’d have access to the following:
    • The chapter immediately before the one you attempt
    • detailed chapter summaries of any chapter that came before
    • detailed notes about characters, places, and any special objects or magic schema that may be at work
    • prompts and questions from the coordinator to help you decide which direction to take
  • The coordinator (me!) chooses the chapter(s) that moves the story along the best (and/or is my favorite for whatever reason. Sometimes we also combine multiple chapter attempts).
  • At the end, we have a 30-chapter book with at least 30 contributing authors who all get to put another book on their resume
    • 10% of proceeds go to charity!

These pins are available through my Kickstarter campaign!

And don’t forget, if your chapter is chosen at any point during the challenge, you’ll also receive a United we Steampunk, Divided we Fall pin by yours truly.