I'm still here

Hey, it's been a while. I hadn't realized how long of a while it was, however. Sorry about that. I've been dealing with real life stuff, Meanwhile, something went wrong with my email, so I haven't been getting notificiations from this page, and while I have been trying haphazardly to fix it, I finally gave up and created a new one.

My official author email is ljmcdonald.author@gmail.com. I see at the top of this page that it's listing hydraarill@gmail.com instead and won't let me change it, but either will reach me.

It looks like people have been asking me the same question of what's up with the writing and when the next book is coming out. Unfortunately, the answer is, absolutely nothing. The fifth book is written, but there's been zero interest in it from the publisher. I have no feedback on why or if that's going to change. At this point, I've basically stopped asking because I'm not getting an answer. There's also been no interest in anything else I've written.

I've looked a bit into self-publishing and put out a few things on Smashwords, but the response isn't really worth the sheer amount of work it is to prepare a manuscript for publication, especially when you have to do all of the work yourself. I think that the last piece I put up, "Memories of Alexandria" sold maybe two copies. The thought of preparing a full length novel and getting that sort of response is outright depressing and I honestly don't know if I have the legal right to self-publish book five of the Sylph series anyway. Or if anyone would be interested in anything else I've done.

So that's where I am right now. I'm not writing much. I keep tripping over 'this isn't what people are going to want, this isn't good enough' and not writing anything. I'm creating a lot of art, which keeps me busy, but no one really sees that.

Sorry I don't have better news.

In Memory of Alexandria

It's up! Here's the link. I hope you like it.

In Memory of Alexandria

Soon to be appearing on Smashwords...

Hi, everyone. Sorry I haven't been around much lately. I haven't been writing much lately. I wouldn't say that I've got writer's block. More like my writing muse has gone into a fallow stage or something. I have been doing a lot of art instead, not that that matters much to any of you, I'm pretty sure. :)

I have, however, decided to try putting a short story up onto Smashwords, to see how it does. I don't have any major publisher prospects on the horizon, sadly. I guess I don't really fit into any one specific genre, so I make publishers leery.

Anyway, I'm putting up a short story, once I'm happy that the formatting in the ebook is good. It's titled "In Memory of Alexandria" and I've always liked it. I've also done the cover art for it. If it does well, I'll see about tossing up more works that I have, so if you like it, please buy it and tell your friends. I'm putting it up for .99 cents, which hopefully people will think is fair.

Here's the cover.

LJ's Easy-Peasy French Toast Recipe

Okay, here's my recipe for the 3 Seas Inaugural Joint Author Promotion event on their Facebook page.

Keep in mind two things:

1. I can't cook. I've burned water. Literally. I'd have starved to death years ago if it weren't for my husband; and
2. Since I just found out that I can actually write a post and schedule it to release on a later date (Joy!), I'm still doped up on the cold meds mentioned in the last post while I write this. 

Okay, this recipe is special to me because it's literally almost the only thing I can cook without the use of a microwave. I don't remember where I learned it, but I've known it for a long time now and I break it out occasionally on the odd Sunday for breakfast.

Here's the recipe.

LJ's Easy-Peasy French Toast

Ingredients:

• milk
• eggs
• vanilla
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• cloves

1. Get up wondering why you're awake on a Sunday morning
2. Drink coffee
3. Drink coffee
4. Pet the cat
5. Decide you're hungry
6. Find a frypan and some sort of dish big enough to hold a slice of bread and some liquid without getting it all over the counter.
7. Crack maaaaybe three eggs into the dish
8. Add a couple blorps of milk into the dish (uh, maybe a quarter cup? I literally pour it in and listen to it go "blorp blorp"
9. Grab the vanilla bottle, pour it and count to two
10. Add a bunch of dashes of the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves
11. Stir up the whole thing with a fork
12. Remember to turn on the stove, set to HIGH cause you have no patience (if you do and/or want to be able to walk away from the stove without testing your fire alarm, set it lower)
13. Drink coffee
14. Put a piece of bread into the egg mixture. Let it soak a couple seconds, flip it over. Let it get to your preferred soggy level
15. Slap the bread into the pan (repeat if you have room for more than one)
16. Watch the pan sizzle and drink coffee.
17. Check the bottom of the bread numerous times to see if it looks cooked.
18. Flip the bread over. 
19. Push the bread randomly around the pan with a spatula while it cooks.
20. Put everything on a plate
21. Go wake up the husband and find out he wants one piece less than you just cooked.
22. Realize you're out of maple syrup
23. Enjoy!

3 Seas’ Inaugural Joint Author Promotion!

Hey, everyone! If you're looking for a chance to win something before Christmas, 3 Seas (my agents) are running a contest starting next Monday 1 December and running through Friday 5 December. The way it works is, (from my limited drugged-up-on-cold-medication understanding) go to their Facebook site anytime that week and see all the author sites who are participating. Each of them will have a recipe they love posted that will hopefully be less random than mine.

Go to all the different sites, collect delicious recipes, and "earn" raffle entries for the prizes. The more sites you visit, the more raffle entires you get. I'm not sure how that's counted. You think I understand computers? Not really.

The prizes are:

1)      Grand Prize:  A $300 gift card for Amazon, B&N or iTunes – winner's choice

2)      Sample boxes of current releases from participating authors

Not too bad. So come back and see my recipe offering on the 1st and good luck winning the prize.

(Their Facebook URL in case I messed up embedding the URL:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/3-Seas-Literary-Agency/75205869856?ref=bookmarks)

Has it really been that long since I posted? Wow. Even for me, that's almost impressive, in a sadly pathetic sort of way.

I'm sorry about that. I doubt anyone's sitting around with bated breath for me to say anything, but I didn't really mean to keep quiet this long. It's the introvert in me. I'm not the best around at the social interaction thing and if I don't have anything concrete to say, I don't seem to say much of anything.

I will have something for Dec 1. Not writing news, I'm afraid. My agent's running a 3 Seas Inaugural Joint Author Promotion where we'll all post recipes. Mine should be somewhat frightening, given as I can't actually cook. >.>

The Sylph Hunter is out!

Woohoo! My book is out! I really hope all of you enjoy it! And if you do, spread the word!

First Blush

Hey, good news.  THE SYLPH HUNTER is being featured by Amazon. If you want a chance to win a free copy, go here.

http://apub-blog.amazon.com/post/TxJDSS9TUDPEOJ/First-Blush-The-Sylph-Hunter-by-L-J-McDonald


Good luck!

That took way too long...and btw, here's the prologue for my new book.

Okay, I managed to fix my stupid book listing page. Pain in the butt! I've even put the excerpts for my last two books in the page descriptions, which is apparently something I totally forgot to do sooner. Books 1 and 2 always had them, but now 3 and 4 do as well.

That said, here's the prologue for book 4. Keep in mind, this is a cut/paste of the last doc version I have of the manuscript (frighteningly full of copy editor remarks and cuts that I've cropped out). I don't usually have the clean official final version of the book, so this might be a bit different from the published version (I'm talking maybe a word here or there and some formatting, I hope).

Here's hoping it wets your appetite. Uh, pun not intended, if you see what I mean by the end of it...

###

The sylphs were dancing.

There were hundreds of them, a storm of colors swirling around each other in a glorious celebration of life. Despite the fact it was once a place used to lure and trap their kind, the underground chamber they used was now a brilliantly lit place of joy. Air, earth, water, fire, healing, and battle, they whirled in a mad happiness that had no music.

Over by the far wall of the massive chamber, Gel sat on the floor with his arms across the tops of his knees and watched the sylphs play. They were ecstatic with the idea of being free, the joy of being allowed to do what they wanted and to interact as they never had before the queen came. Not in Meridal, where even human beings were once sold as slaves and sylphs had been nothing more than property.

In the center of the chamber, a circle of noncolor gleamed, floating a dozen feet above the ground. The sylphs danced around it, calling those on the other side to come through and join them.

He’d been told it was a small hive past the gate, one badly depleted by predators, though Gel couldn’t imagine what kind of predator would threaten sylphs. He’d seen the battlers the day the queen had arrived. He’d seen how much they had destroyed, including all of the nobility and even the emperor himself.

Gel closed his eyes, not really wanting to remember that day any more than he did any of the days before it. He’d spent years locked in a cage not much larger than he was himself, his tongue chopped out to keep him from speaking to the earth sylph who had been bound to him. She was only supposed to feed from him after all, him and the four others caged with him.

Are you all right? he heard Shasha ask in his mind.

Gel opened his eyes. Before him stood what appeared to be a young girl, except her skin was formed of smooth marbled stone and her eyes were rubies. She looked at him critically, her hands clasped behind her back while the sylphs behind her continued their silent display. The only real sound in the chamber was the chanting of the priests, left alive for their skill with the gates, and the fearful chattering of the humans brought in—sometimes against their will—to become masters for the newest sylphs. Most of the more experienced masters were like Gel, sitting against the wall and watching. To them, none of this was truly real and it was easier to just stay out of the way.

His earth sylph kept watching him. Her official master had been killed by the battlers during the rebellion for the newly established crime of having kept a sylph under control like a tool. Gel had been nothing more than a feeder, one of the five men kept caged for her to feed from, all of them tongueless to stop them giving commands. Of all of them, he was the one she’d chosen to be her only master after they were freed. Gel didn’t know why, but he wasn’t unhappy about it because he’d always liked the little creature. When he’d been in his cage, she was the only highlight of the day, coming as she did in the shape of a pillar of earth and somehow seeming both sad and kind to him. He’d loved her a little bit and had always wanted to set her free. Perhaps she’d sensed that in him.

“I’m okay,” he said slowly. The feel of his regrown tongue in his mouth was still alien to him and his words slurred.

Behind Shasha, the gate continued to glow, the storm of sylphs happily flickering around it . It shimmered briefly, and a tendril dropped out of the hovering gate like a thread drawn across his vision. Gel blinked.

“Do you want to leave?” the earth sylph asked. Spoken aloud, her voice was gravelly.

Gel shrugged, hugging his knees. Where was there to go? At least it was cool in here and there were no expectations. “It’s all right.”

“Okay.” Leaning forward, she kissed him quickly on the cheek and turned, stomping back toward the dance. Gel lifted a hand to his cheek and touched the skin where she’d kissed him with a trembling smile.

The line swished again, dragging across the floor. Gel blinked a second time, squinting to try and see it more clearly, but the sylphs were in the way. He wasn’t even sure he was seeing anything at all, since it was almost invisible and no one else appeared to notice it at all. Gel blinked a third time and shook his head, but the thread didn’t go away, though the sylphs continued to ignore it. If they didn’t see it, it had to be imagined. Gel sighed, feeling odd and out of sorts. He had his freedom, but he didn’t know what to do with it. Going in a heartbeat from slave to . . . what? What was he?

Shasha came back toward him, her expression concerned. Gel didn’t know what to say to her or what she wanted from him. Not much it seemed, save his energy and his company. She certainly didn’t expect him to work, though he accompanied her when she did. Gel didn’t like the idea of being alone. This whole freedom concept was much easier on her than him, but then again, sylphs in Meridal were now the rulers. All of the old leaders and masters of the former regime were dead or being hunted down. Those who remained weren’t allowed to give orders at all; they were just supposed to exist in harmony with their sylphs.

Gel didn’t have any urge to order Shasha to do anything, but harmony wasn’t something he was sure he could ever get his mind around.

Shasha hunkered down beside him, looking at him with worry he could feel as well as see. She put a cool stony hand on his shoulder and he just stared toward the swirling dance and the gate, not knowing what to say, or even what word to put to this tumult of emotions inside him. Being mute had been so much easier.

The gate was swirling now as well, in a mimicry of the sylphs around it. That distortion was one that everyone saw. Gel watched the sylphs stop their dance, many even becoming solid as they peered curiously at the gate, and the battlers started to move in. Everyone seemed puzzled; they still didn’t see the thread that swayed down from it. No, threads. Gel saw dozens now, dropping out of the gate and swishing across his vision. Hundreds? Gel blinked, now seeing the entire opening of the gate bearded by them, though that was the only place where he saw them. If it was his vision gone strange, wouldn’t they be everywhere? Some were thicker than mere threads, grown in width to the thickness of a man’s arm, or even a man’s body. Gel stared. Shasha looked at him, confused by his confusion, and turned to peer uncomprehendingly at the gate, seeing absolutely nothing.

A water sylph that looked like a rolling ball of liquid wandered into the forest of threads. Immediately, she turned translucent and vanished, flowing so swiftly up the length of the tendrils that she was gone before he even realized she’d been touched. Gel’s breath caught.

The sylphs definitely couldn’t help but notice that. Even as the water sylph’s master started screaming from somewhere at the edge of the chamber, the battlers began to roar. They didn’t have time for more than that.

Things exploded through the gate, and these weren’t thin as the first threads had been, but tentacles that were thick and barbed. The sylphs still couldn’t see them, and even to Gel they were clear as water, visible more as a distortion than an actual object. He drew breath, forgetting he had a tongue to scream with, and saw them tear into the sylphs, lashing together dozens with a single tentacle and yanking them in, only there were hundreds to lash with. Ozone stank in the air as the sylphs vanished, turning strangely gray before they were sucked away and the tentacles reached farther, sweeping through the room where the only sounds were sylph wails and human screams.

Gel finally remembered how to scream then, forgotten after years in the cages. His voice came out shrill and inhuman and he clutched Shasha’s arm tight, his fingers turning white and painful against her stone. She was staring around, terrified and not understanding even as everyone else died.

We should have left, was all Gel could get himself to think. We should have left.

Something forced itself through the gate, ripping it apart but still managing to hold it open while the priests died. Gel continued to stare in horror. Whimpering, Shasha threw herself at him and he felt her arms go around him as tentacles ripped through the air toward them both.

###

It had been a good feed, the best it had had in a long time, but one that would have been dangerously rich had it been in free air. If it hadn’t been in this enclosed space, it could have made itself float much too high above the ground, with the risk of winds tearing it apart or pushing it to where there was no food. It had just been so hungry though. Already through the gateway before it realized the way back would close behind it, it swept through the chamber, looking and feeling with its tentacles for more food, but it had devoured everything.

It paused there for a moment, collecting itself, but it was pressing uncomfortably against the ceiling and the way it had come was gone. There was nothing left to do but go out through an opening in one wall. There was no other exit and it could smell more food that way. That was all in the world that mattered. Just the sky and the food.

Picking the only route out of this place where the food had drawn it, it lashed a thousand tentacles, some as thin as a human’s hair, others as thick around as an oak, flashing them down a wide corridor, and anchored them into the walls. Sure of its grip, it pulled itself forward, sliding its way down the corridor. The way was tight, but the creature was malleable when it had to be. Still, it didn’t like this feeling and it swept its tentacles farther, grabbing and pulling.

It found even more food during the process. When a human wandered around the corner, drawn by the noise, it wrapped a dozen tentacles around him and sucked him in to feed. The taste was strange, different from anything else it had ever tried, but it was food and the food was all. It chewed, swallowed, absorbed, and nothing but a splatter of blood was left as it pulled itself forward again, making its way into a huge area of abandoned, shattered cages and catwalks. There it let itself float, squeezing its way upward to the ceiling and then across to another, smaller corridor. That was harder to get into, but it managed, pulling itself through and to an even smaller staircase that led up. It was almost trapped there, but it exhaled some of the gases inside it, forced itself out, and finally was free, letting its tentacles hang below it as it floated up, giving itself wearily to the winds and wherever they decided to take it.

Anything it saw on the way, it ate.

Oops...

Uh, anyone who's visiting my site today, I kinda sorta accidentally deleted the My Writing page. Working on it...

I'll be updating the front page too, once I remember what program I used to create it with...

*sound of head hitting desk*

The Hunter is getting closer and there's now a cover!

Oh, crap, has it been that long since I posted? Yikes! Sorry about that. I've changed workplaces and am working on an online art course. Plus I didn't really have anything official to say and I can't really believe any of you are here to hear about the rest of my life.

There's now cover art. It went through a few iterations. I rejected Amazon's first suggestion for reasons I don't want to get into (if you can't say anything nice...) and the second one they had trouble getting the model rights to. For the third one, they let me pick the image (I'm still stunned I have any input in this. Woot!) and this is the one I liked the most out of the options they gave me.

The cover is by Anne Cain, just as with the first three books. I really like that they have continuity between the books of the series. Here is the full front and back image, with the description on the back:

I really hope everyone likes this book when it comes out, and if you do, tell all your friends. Whether book five or any later books come out is directly dependant on this one selling enough for Amazon to want to buy them. Not to pressure anyone, but it is a fact of life.

Amazon Promotion for QUEEN OF THE SYLPHS

I just found out the other day. QUEEN OF THE SYLPHS has been made part of an Amazon kindle promotion.  Here's what I was told:

I’m very excited to let you know that we have selected Queen of the Sylphs to be in our month long Amazon Publishing Kindle promotion! The titles selected for this promotion are all priced at $0.99 and are being promoted with high visibility to Kindle customers. The promotion will run for an entire month, from September 23 through October 23. You can view all the titles included in the promotion here: http://www.amazon.com/b/?ie=UTF8&node=7528080011. We can’t wait to see the results!

So, if you haven't picked up the kindle version of that book, or know someone who wants to, now's a good time to do so. I'd have mentioned it before the promotion started, but I literally just found out this week. Yeah, whoops.

In other news, from the sound of it, THE SYLPH HUNTER is going to be released in early March.

The Hunter's getting closer

For those who are wondering what's been happening, yesterday I received the write-up for THE SYLPH HUNTER. It's the blurb that goes on the back of the book and once I have the okay, I'll post it up here.

Today, I received the copy edited version of the manuscript. I get two weeks to review and return it. This is one of the steps to make sure that the book is as tight as it can be, with no continuity or grammar errors. The copy editor's made their adjustments, now I get to make sure I agree with them.  It's a lot of work and it's very important. It's also one of the final stages before the book is turned into a galley proof, which is how it'll look published.

For now, have some drawings.

pencil

pencil and copic markers

pencil and copic markers

The Sylph Hunter is on its way

Well, I've signed the contract for book four of the Sylph series. It's called THE SYLPH HUNTER and takes us back to Meridal, where Devon Chole goes with his air sylph Airi and runs into all sorts of things he wasn't expecting. Remember Devon Chole? The air sylph master formerly from Eferem? The one with the phobia about battle sylphs? Oh yeah, gonna have fun with him.

I'm not sure at what point the book will be released. Amazon would like it to come out in March 2014, but I have a full time day job, so unless the edit process goes swimmingly well, it'll be delayed some. We all want the book to be at its best.

I do know that it will be released as an ebook in the US, Canada, and the UK, all at the same time, and also as a trade in all three countries. So it will be easy to get. I hope you grab it when it does come out and let all your friends know about it. The better it sells, the more likely that Amazon will pick up the next three books in the series.

Yeah, I said three.

A Cage of Burning Light is available to read

Hey, good news. My Kindle Worlds story, "A Cage of Burning Light", is up on the US Kindle site. It's based on "Vampire Diaries" and you can buy it here.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CS7HKMY/ref=s9_al_bw_g351_ir014?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-3&pf_rd_r=AA40289C34EF45F1A7ED&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1570530182&pf_rd_i=6118587011

As far as I can tell, it's only available in the States so far. I'm trying to find out about the Canadian distribution.

Here's the cover, which I had no input on, but rather like.



They also asked me to remind everyone that Kindle Worlds is open for anyone to submit stories in. If you're trying to break into the publishing world, this might be a good way to get started.

Kindle Worlds has been announced

A couple of posts ago, I said there were a few things I was up to, not all of which I could talk about. That's now changed. Here's a cut/paste from an email I received from Amazon this week.

Greetings, Amazon Publishing authors: 

We have some exciting news to share with you: Amazon Publishing has launched a new program – Kindle Worlds.  Kindle Worlds is the first commercial publishing platform that will enable any writer to create fan fiction based on a wide range of original stories and characters and earn royalties for doing so. As with Kindle Serials and Kindle Singles, we hope to open up new ways for authors to write and provide readers with an innovative way to experience great writing.

Amazon Publishing has secured licenses from Warner Bros. for Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries, and plans to announce more licenses soon. Through these exclusive licenses, Kindle Worlds will allow writers everywhere to publish authorized stories inspired by these popular Worlds and make them available for readers to purchase in the Kindle Store. In June, the Kindle Worlds Store will launch and at that time, the Kindle Worlds Self-Service Submission Platform, where any writer can submit work, will also open. We encourage you to visit Kindle Worlds (www.amazon.com/kindleworlds) to learn more.

As part of this launch, Amazon asked fifty some odd authors back in March to write stories in one of the universes they had the rights to. Obviously, I was one of them. Sounded like fun, so I agreed.

I've written a 24,000 story set in the Vampire Diaries universe titled "A Cage of Burning Light". Amazon liked it, and once the official release date rolls around and it's available for purchase, I hope that all of you do too.

I'm inflicting art on you!

Nothing new on the writing front. Nearly done the second serial in FOR THE LOVE OF A SYLPH. Ten thousand words sounds like a lot until you realize how much you have to cram in there. Gah.

I've been on vacation the last two weeks, so between writing and building a rocket launcher, I've done some painting.

The rocket launcher, btw, is a prop. It's for a steampunk costume. I'll post pictures when it's done if anyone cares.

I have reached a new first

Wow, even for me, this is a long time to go without saying anything. Sorry about that. I haven't posted because there hasn't been anything happening that I can really talk about.

That does mean that yes, things have been happening, but no, I still can't talk about it. Not much. Well, I'll try.

Moving to Amazon has been interesting. They actually pay on a regular basis, which is quite amazing. They also give me breakdowns on where my books are being bought. I'm apparently doing okay in Germany. Yay, Germany!

Amazon is also a lot more proactive at poking authors (at least they've been poking me) and going "Hey, we want to do 'this'. Are you interested?" So far, the answer to this question that I've been asked twice is to say "Sure!" Whereupon they reply with "Great, give us a synopsis and a first chapter and we'll decide whether we want to buy it."

One of these days, my dream is to have someone suggest I write something and actually pay me BEFORE I do it. Dreams....such nebulous dreams...

Project #1 I flat out can't talk about. It doesn't involve just me, so the announcement about it has to wait until Amazon releases it. Yeah, I have no idea when that's going to happen. "Soon," I think.

Project #2 I can give a few details on. It's not solid yet. I'm still getting that synopsis and first chapter to them, so a contract isn't 100% guaranteed and I don't want to jinx it. Call me paranoid. However, it's very likely it will be.

Amazon has asked me to write a new sylph book, separate from book 4 (which they say they're buying anyway. No, I haven't got the contract yet). The format of it is a little different. They want an 8 part serial, each serial being ten thousand words long and ending at a cliffhanger. It's to be released electronically, each serial coming out two weeks apart and then the whole thing being released as a novel afterwards.  The reader only pays once for the whole thing. They're called Kindle Serials and it's the same idea as the ongoing stories in pulp magazines back in the day. Amazon has some of them out already and they're quite popular, but I'm their first stab at a fantasy serial. So I'm busily at work on this one, which from what I understand, they want to release this fall. For publishing, that's an insane turn around.

Given that they also want the book to be able to stand on its own with new readers, I've had to put book six aside while I write it. Six has way too many spoilers for other books, like five. Five of course can't come out until after four, and four they're paying me for anyway, so I'm not interested in turning that one into a set of serials.

The book is called FOR THE LOVE OF A SYLPH and is set after book three and four. I'm not saying what the plot is, but I will say that anyone who remembers the water sylph and battler who were friends in ALPHABET SOUP FOR SYLPHS is going to recognize the leads. This is very much going to be a first as the entire book is written from the point of view of a water sylph. I've always wanted to try something like that. Usually just the battlers get focused on.

So that's what I've been up to, along with working full time, having fun with digital art, and spending way too much time in Minecraft PE or Real Racing 3.

To close, something that's never happened to me before happened yesterday. I was at the Ottawa Comicon and chatting with one of the artists doing commissions there. We got to talking about art and writing and he asked if I was someone he'd have heard of. I said probably not and told him my name.

He'd heard of me.

Forgive the squealing, but NOBODY's heard of me. Not standing face to face. You guys read my blog because you came to find me. This was like meeting one of you randomly on the street.

Yeah, I ended up flailing uselessly. It was great. :)

Amazon Bought Goodreads (and other stuff that blindsided the crap out of me)

I received an email today from Amazon.  I get heads up on some stuff since they own some of my books, but I gather this one is out there in the world anyway, so I can talk about it.

Dear Friends,
 I wanted you to be among the first to know that Amazon has reached an agreement to acquire Goodreads, a leading site for readers and book recommendations that helps people find and share books they love.
 Amazon and Goodreads share a passion for reinventing reading, a love of books, and an appreciation for the authors who write them. We both work every day to help authors like you reach a wider audience and make a better living at your craft, and together with Goodreads we intend to build many new ways to delight authors and readers alike.
 We’re excited to help create an even more powerful offering for all of our authors, and we hope you are too. You can read more in the press release here and the blog post from Goodreads here.
 If you have any questions, please let me know.

Amazon press release: here
Goodreads press release: here 

 I really didn't see this one coming and as of right now, I have no official opinion about it, just some personal musings of my own. I figured I would let everyone know, though, in case they hadn't heard.

In other news, I'm up to something for Amazon. Sounds terrible, doesn't it? :) I can't say what it is, but when it's finally announced, I think it's either going to be seen as an awesome thing and a tremendous opportunity, or as a horrible disaster. Or both. Maybe. I can see it going either way and it's driving me vaguely nuts that I can't say what it is. It's Amazon's news to release, however. I'm just involved in my own little way. 

I don't know when Amazon will announce it, but my deadline is April 6, so I think it'll be sometime around then, or later.  Once I can talk about it, I'll let everyone know what I've been up to.

Almost there now

Well, I haven't signed the contract just yet, but Amazon's offered to buy THE SYLPH HUNTER, which is book four of my sylph series. Depending on how well it does, they'll buy more. We tried for a three book deal, but as far as Amazon is concerned, I'm untried to them, so they want to make sure I'm worth it. Eek, no stress there. :D

I don't know how Amazon does it just yet, but when I was with Dorchester, it was a good year from a contract being signed to the book hitting the shelves, so THE SYLPH HUNTER won't see bookstores until 2014. Sorry about that. Theoretically the first three will be coming out again in 2013, and Amazon will be doing some promotion of them. So that will hopefully mean more sales, and more interest when THE SYLPH HUNTER comes out. The more I sell, the happier everyone will be.

For the first time in my life, I'm getting regular royalty statements and I'm selling at a steady rate, but I have no frame of reference to know if it's considered a good amount or piddly, and I'm somewhat afraid to ask. :) But the more of book four I sell, the sooner Amazon will be willing to take a chance on five and six, as well as anything else I write, so tell your friends, I guess.

Book Six, btw, which I'm still calling THE LONELY SYLPH is already over 17,000 words, and would progress even faster if I could get off Tumblr or stop painting. Also if I didn't spend a sickening amount of time at my day job every day. Heh.

Speaking of painting, here, have a picture.