Retail news, appearance news, news I find interesting, but generally no presidential election babble
So I was having an exchange with someone who ordered a paperback copy of Kin & Kind for a friend, trying to make sure she understood that it would not reach her friend before Christmas, and was that still okay?
“I’m ordering it for her before the book was even supposed to be out!”
Well, that’s a valid point, if the book was still on schedule it wouldn’t even be on sale before Christmas, so you make a good argument and thank you. :)
Because, yes, Kin & Kind is releasing early!
Continue readingDo you remember the Equus anthology, full of magical horses? We’re doing it again.
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G is for Ghost releases today. It has 26 stories, one for each letter of the alphabet. There are 26 days ’til Halloween. Coincidence?
A teenage girl’s classmates begin disappearing only to haunt her dreams, ships full of ghostly passengers in need of release test those who are tasked to give them peace, psychopomps whose job is guiding the spirits of the dead to the other side meet in a support group, and more fill these pages.
Continue readingJoin me today for a shiny new cover, this time for The Windward King.
The Windward King has tree-dragons, platonic relationships, sibling drama, self-doubt, so much sweet fried dough, and a sweet, cute, shapeshifter protagonist who totally does not know the fangirling he’s about to get.
But we came here to talk about the cover, so:
Continue readingIt’s heeeeere!
I’ve got the shiny new cover for Kin & Kind, book #4 in the The Shard of Elan series, and let’s cut the walking-on-the-beach-memories recipe blog filler and get right to it:
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Today I’m happy to announce the re-release of a story you might not have seen before.
This story was originally published in C is for Chimera, a 2016 anthology edited by Rhonda Parrish. I’m proud of this story for several reasons. First, I actually do like the story itself, its imagery and its theme. Second, I’m proud of how it happened.
I wasn’t supposed to be in this anthology. I was just ending a vacation in Denmark with my husband when I got the message from Rhonda. One of her anthology authors was not able to turn in a story, and because it was an alphabet anthology it needed a full 26 stories, one per letter, and would I be able to write a story to theme in the two weeks before it went to layout? Oh, and for the letter N?
Of course, I said, without the faintest idea of what that would be.
I started a story on the flight home, about medical chimeras and genetic engineering, but it had, like, two decent lines and I trashed it. Then I started another story, about a prince and the original Greek Khimaira and its dark foretelling, and this one started to come together.
(By the way, that’s where the Ivory Throne came from! I had just seen Denmark’s throne made of unicorn horns narwhal tusks.)
I had a lot of fun researching this piece, which I did a fair amount of despite its short turnaround. I drew on some unorthodox ideas of Atlantis and a lot of earthquake and volcano research, from a frighteningly fast geological crack in Africa to toxic gasses that kill in seconds.
The first bull mentioned in the story is a red roan, and of course that is a reference to the famous bull-leaping fresco from the palace of Knossos. If you’re going to borrow from history, at least make it obvious!
The chimera itself I kept very close to Greek legend, and I used a well-known Etruscan statue for visual inspiration.
I’m happy to have this story out again. It has a new title for independent reading and two shiny new formats.
I’ve just added short story benefits to my Fae Tier on Patreon, so supporters at Fae and above will get it this month, in both ebook and audio, or you can pick it up separately here on my website.
Continue readingAnd a TOC!
The next installment of punk’d up fairy tales is coming, and here’s what it looks like:
Continue readingNew serial! New story!
The Poet’s Eye is about a red-headed farm boy who steals a magical amulet to keep his family from killing each other for it—again. Giving up all he knows to protect them isn’t too big a sacrifice. Too bad it turns out to be a hoax, especially since a magical amulet would be real handy about the time an inhuman horde begins to invade. So now he’s partners with a notorious sorcerous highwaywoman and facing down a legendary threat, and they have to stop an evil queen who is saving thousands of lives.
“Surely that’s a typo, Laura — you meant they have to stop an evil queen who is ending thousands of lives.”
I said what I said.
Continue readingThe next installment of the Alphabet Anthologies is all about the spooky things. And it will drop just in time for the spooky season, releasing on October 5, 2021.
Wanna see it?
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Friday is a pre-order party (join us!) for Sensational, Havok’s collection of sensory-related flash fiction. I have a story in here, too!
But not just a story — a puzzle.
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