Should You Reference the COVID-19 Pandemic in Your Writing?

So exciting! DARK WIZARD, Book #1 in a totally new series – new world, new magic system, new everything! – is coming February 25, 2021. You can preorder now.

Available at these Retailers

 

    

Yes, I know I just released a book last week, but sometimes this is how balancing an Indie career with a Trad one works out. Probably we could do a theme week on that topic. Suffice to say, I’d already planned out and begun the Heirs of Magic series, when this book – finished and very sparkly to my eye – was returned to my aegis. I could have sat on it. Or I could just launch this series, too!

You all know me (or you should, by now) – I checked my Gantt charts and decided to go for it.

Our actual topic at the SFF Seven this week is *not* filling the pipeline with projects in order to juggle the demands of a career as a hybrid author. It is, however, not entirely unrelated. We’re discussing topicality and making choices about what to write and publish – “In These times of plague: Writing about the real world in fiction.” Come on over for my advice!

New Release! New Series!

The first book in a brand new Fantasy Romance series from me, Heirs of Magic, is out in the world! Get a copy of The Golden Gryphon and the Bear Prince now! : -)

Links below if you prefer the direct clicky clicky!

Why Daydreaming Increases Productivity

Our topic at the SFF 7 this week is: Dreamzoning (term from Robert Olen Butler’s book From Where You Dream): Do you daydream on purpose?

I’m not familiar with this book, but I absolutely daydream on purpose! I call it The Dreamthink. Come on over to find out more!

 

Cover Reveal: DARK WIZARD!

So, yes – I do have another new release coming soon! And, yes, it is also Book One in a new world, magic system, and series. I’m introducing you all to Bonds of Magic. The first book is DARK WIZARD, which you may have heard me talk about before this.

You guys, I’m so excited about this book and series!

DARK WIZARD is a story I’ve been mulling for a long time. Last summer, I went to write the beginning of the book, so we could submit it on spec to St. Martins for my option book on the Forgotten Empires contract. The story seized me by the throat and wouldn’t let me stop writing it. I ended up writing the whole thing, loving every moment. Even better, my beta readers LOVED it! They’re calling it their favorite book of mine. (Well, Grace Draven still likes THE PAGES OF THE MIND best, but that’s because she’s such a Dafne fangirl. Now DARK WIZARD is her second favorite.)

St. Martins reluctantly passed and – instead of submitting it anywhere else – I decided to keep this series for my very own precious.

So, for those of you asking how I can be coming out with two series pretty much simultaneously, that’s why. The timing just worked out.

You can preorder DARK WIZARD now, for a low preorder price – this book is longer, so the price will go up after release – at the buy links below or on my website!

Available at these Retailers

  

Lord Gabriel Phel wants one thing: to restore his shattered House to its former station in the Convocation’s complex and arcane society. Fortunately, through a wild chance of birth, he was born with the magic of a powerful wizard, the first in his family in generations. If he can obtain a familiar to supplement his skills, ideally one who is a highborn daughter who can also be his lady wife, then he’ll be that much closer to restoring House Phel. And to exacting his ultimate revenge on the Convocation that destroyed his family.

Lady Veronica Elal doesn’t have many choices. To her bitter disappointment, she will never be the powerful wizard she and her father hoped she’d be. Instead Nic is doomed to be a familiar like her mother, a second-class citizen in the Convocation, and one destined to be bonded to a wizard, serving his purposes for the rest of her life. Her one hope lies in entering the Betrothal Trials—and choosing a wizard from the Convocation candidates that she can manipulate. Whichever one of her suitors impregnates her will claim her as familiar and wife, and she can use her wiles to rule her wizard master, and the House she marries into.

But Gabriel throws a wrench into Nic’s careful scheming, by seducing and fascinating her. When she finds she’s pregnant by the rogue wizard she can never hope to control, Nic does the unthinkable: she runs.