THANK YOU!

In the wake of Thanksgiving, there's one thing that's stood out to me that I wanted to express on the webs, but it'll take me a few paragraphs, so, *TL, DR: I'm grateful to be an author, and I'm grateful for every single one of you awesome folks who have helped, contributed, offered encouragement, and bought or talked about my books!*

I have two books on shelves, and three more in the pipeline. DUSKFALL is still doing very well where sales are concerned (🙌). I'd like DARK IMMOLATION to be doing better, but considering it's a direct sequel I can't be upset at its performance so far at all. And I'm ecstatic for BLOOD REQUIEM to hit the shelves in June! DF is already out in Germany, and DI comes out in Germany in May. DF should be out in Poland in the very near future. There are print, ebook, and audio versions of each of my books available.

Basically, I have a lot to be thankful for on this front, and I'm so grateful to be doing what I love for a living.

But I can't say that without thinking of all of you. So, this post is for you all! THANK YOU! 🙏

Thank you for telling me you've enjoyed my books! That, more than anything, helps me on the days where I wonder what in the world I'm doing and why I'm doing it. That helps me remember the why.

Thank you for talking about my books with other people! That's the single most helpful thing anyone could ever do for an author, I think--just talk to someone about a book, and how/why you enjoyed it.

Thank you for leaving reviews of my books on Amazon and Goodreads! While you may not realize it, that actually helps a lot as well.

Thank you for liking and sharing, or at least putting up with posts about my books!

Thank you, of course, for purchasing my books! Whether for yourself or as gifts, I sincerely hope you enjoy them (and, to those of my friends who have bought them with no intent on reading them whatsoever, of which I know there are a few--I hope you enjoy bragging about how you know an author! 😉 ).

And, most of all, thank you for reading. I'm so grateful I get to tell the stories of Winter, Knot, Cinzia, Astrid, and so many others. I hope you're enjoying their tales as much as I am--and I CANNOT WAIT for you to read what I've written in Books 3 and 4! 😁

So, again, thank you. It looks like I'll be able to do this for a while, and that is, in large part, thanks to you ❤️. I have the best friends, family, and fans in the world, and I love you all!

The Forge and the Flame

Receiving requests to review manuscripts, read ARCs, and give cover quotes is a part of author-life. Unfortunately, if I said yes to every single one of those requests, I'd never have time to write, but I do try to acquiesce as often as I can, because that's part of the business--writers did that (and continue to do that!) for me, and I'd like to pass that on to others. It's a pay-it-forward system, and it's one of the parts of the business I appreciate the most.

Well, along those lines, I recently read The Forge and the Flame by Aaron Lee Yeager, and I'm happy to say that this book is one of the good ones, folks!

Beren Collier is shocked when Master Tannimbaugh--the greatest blacksmith alive, able to forge weapons that can summon dragonfire and call down lightening--chooses Beren as his new apprentice. But Beren, despite his unsophisticated upbringing, takes naturally to the apprenticeship, and quickly shows his quality as both a burgeoning blacksmith and a hero-in-training. But a rival apprentice who will stop at nothing to overtake Beren's coveted place at the foot of Master Tannimbaugh is the least of the young man's problems; dark forces stir in the corners of the world, threatening not only the tightly knit circle of friends and family Master Tannimbaugh has created around himself--of which Beren is now a part--but the entire world.

The Forge and the Flame is genuine in nature, epic in scope, and downright entertaining. I enjoyed the melding of magic with the well-researched, fascinating aspects of blacksmith life--there's a beautifully written sequence toward the middle of the book that had me reading on the edge of my seat as the characters raced to forge a special weapon to save Master Tannimbaugh's business. The characters, especially Beren, are vividly presented, competent but flawed, and powerfully hopeful. They solve complications as effectively as they create them, and that makes for pretty great storytelling.

Aaron Lee Yeager weaves an enchanting, uplifting tale with engaging characters and an intriguing magic system. The Forge and the Flame has the soul of a true classic!

BLOOD REQUIEM Cover!

Aaaaaand it's gorgeous and I love it. I have to say, Titan has done me right when it comes to cover art. I've been very happy with what they've done so far!

Also, I fully acknowledge I've been flying under the radar for a few months, now. That's more or less been on purpose; I've been getting a lot of work done and sort of keeping my distance from the really involved social media stuff, and it's been a very positive thing for me. I'll probably be diving back into things in the next month or so, but it's been good to take some time away and focus on work.

Speaking of work, I've started Book 4 of the Chaos Queen Quintet, currently titled Fear the Stars, and it's going very well. I feel really good about the outlining and pre-writing I've done. I have to say, it's pretty strange to be moving into Book 4 of a five-book series; I'm consciously trying to wrap quite a few things up in this book to prepare for the finale in Book 5, and that's, well...just kind of crazy.

Also, Book 4 is an interesting one, because a few of the key events in this book have been swimming around in my head for a long time, and a couple of them actually inspired me to write this series to begin with. It's really interesting, fun, and actually a bit emotional to be preparing to write some of those scenes. I'll let you know how they go when I get there :-).

So: I have a great cover for Blood Requiem, I'm plodding right along through Book 4, Thanksgiving is next week, and life is generally pretty great.