Mental Health Month

May is Mental Health Month, so I'm going to do something a little different. All* of my book royalties for this month will be donated to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).

Why am I doing this? Many of my books, especially The Bacra Chronicles, were born out of my own struggles with prenatal and postpartum depression, anxiety, and depersonalization-derealization. Writing these stories helped me climb out of the depths of my own personal darkness, and now I want to try to give something back to help other people through their own journeys. May is also the birth month for both my youngest child and me, so it seems fitting to do something that honors both her and the people who held lanterns for us during those months when I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to escape the cave I was lost in.

*This includes ebooks, paperbacks, and KU page reads for all fourteen of my books. Not included are the three multi-author anthologies (Trick or Treat!, HOBOF, Infinite Dysmorphia) since they are through other publishers. There is about a two month delay between book sales/page reads and receiving royalties.

New Book, New Site

I have a new book, but I also have a new website! I've copied this blog over to my new Wordpress site, so join me there!

Happy Valentine's Day! Spellkeeper, Book Three of The Bacra Chronicles has been released into the wild. The ebook and paperback aren't linked yet, but they should be soon.

Love is at the core of this book, but it's not all romantic. Old love, new love, romantic, platonic, friendship, familial, redemptive, even learning to love oneself. Spellkeeper is often dark and violent and devastating, but can also be sweet and funny. One of my beta readers described it as "a real emotional roller coaster."

I highly recommend reading Cavelost and Faelost before Spellkeeper, but the same things I said above can be said for them. Love and survival are the driving forces for my characters, but those two things mean something different to each of them. All three books of The Bacra Chronicles can be read for free if you have Kindle Unlimited!

The Bacra Chronicles is an epic fantasy series, but it's a little different from much of the genre. The books are about dragons and magic and adventure, but they're also about living with chronic pain and mental illness, families forged by both blood and choice, struggling through that awkward cusp between adolescence and adulthood, and clawing our way out of the darkness to become better than those who hurt us. The cast is diverse, the language tends toward snarky and colorful (especially once the mercs arrive in the second book), and the journey is a wild ride through a world inspired by locations that include the American Southwest, California, and the Pacific Northwest. I don't particularly recommend The Bacra Chronicles for readers offended by: queer heroes, mental health/chronic pain talk, soft men, assertive women, blood, explosions, casual profanity, blatant insolence toward authority, or weaponized forks. Everyone else, good luck and have fun!

I hope you take a look at my odd little fantasy world. It's quite a ride and I love it just as much as I love my first series, The Malora Octet. I'm writing Book 4 now, and I think the series might finish at Book 6. Who knows, though... The Malora Octet was nothing but a short story that got out of control, after all.

Rain Falls on Malora

Rain Falls on Malora is now out, in both ebook and paperback.

This short story collection spans the entirety of The Malora Octet, from Mirren Kelta's story halfway through the Mayfly Requiem timeline to Sora Thula's story sixty years after Arrow of Entropy. Rain Falls on Malora expands the narratives of established characters such as Lucienus, Solace, Rabbit, and Vutan, as well as introduces new characters, including two of Bethel's children from the millenniums between Shadows of Absolution and Sand into Glass. I don't recommend reading any stories that correspond to books you haven't read yet because there is a lot of revealing information within them, both spoilers for the books and connections or events that were always in my notes but didn't make it into the final versions of the books.

I've also included character illustrations (color in the ebook, b&w in the print), and a selection of appendices that includes a Volle-Common translation dictionary and family trees (incomplete because one particular character shows up in multiple locations and makes it difficult to draw the trees by hand).

I started working on The Malora Octet in 2003, when I had an unexpected burst of inspiration between my junior and senior years of college and wrote the first half of The Crystal Lattice. I didn't finish that first draft for several years, but when I did, I knew I had to write more. Although I don't think I'll ever truly leave the first world I created, I think I'm finally done writing in it.

A Little Bit of Magic

What feels like a long, long time ago, I wrote two little stories called "Lastborn" and "Facsimile". They were released on May 31, 2018 within the sci-fi anthologies Holding On By Our Fingertips and Infinite Dysmorphia by Kristell Ink/Grimbold Books. I won't give any specifics on the plots of the stories here since I don't want to be a spoiler, but I will say I'm proud of them and I hope you enjoy reading them.

Photograph by Aline de Nadai on Unsplash

I finally finished a project I began three years ago, and I'm in the last couple steps before publishing it. Rain Falls on Malora is a collection of eighteen short stories set within the world of The Malora Octet. Each story is told by a minor, non-narrator, or entirely new character from the series who hasn't been able to share their own version of events until now. The stories begin with the reveal of what happened to a certain missing character in Mayfly Requiem, cover the Echoes of Oblivion years and their aftermath, introduce you to a couple of Bethel's children who lived between the trilogies, and close with a narration by Sora Thula sixty years after Arrow of Entropy. I'm also including some original character illustrations, maps, family trees (this got way more complicated to draw out than I expected. Thanks, Bethel), a Volle-Common translation dictionary, and some recipes and poetry I created while working on the series.

I'm waiting on my print proof copy now so I can do final edits and fix any formatting errors. Hopefully I won't have too much trouble converting this file to an ebook. I'm excited to give this little treat to my long-time readers, some of whom inspired specific stories within this book. So, here's to the characters who finally get to tell the world their own versions of the truth: Mirren, Delora, Ariana, Summer, Sharo, Rastaban, Mirazen, Rain, Aurelien, Solace, Maple, Zoli, Ulali, Laira, Terali, Eliani, and Sora.

I hope to release Rain Falls on Malora in July. I'm in the process of moving to a different state, so between that and the setback I had with my repaired ulnar nerve earlier this year, I'm a little behind where I wanted to be. I had an ulnar nerve transposition in my right arm in September and I have some permanent damage from the hourglass constriction that lead to it, so I've had to modify how I type, hold a pen, cook, etc. It has been a long and painful process, but I'm getting there.

Photographs via Unsplash: Nathan Dumlao, Christian Holzinger, Christopher Campbell, Steve Halama,
Tess Nebula, Jing Ang, Ricardo Gomez Angel, Nate Reyfield, Aline de Nadai 

Oh, look at that! The weird things I do when on migraine meds... I wanted to make the chronological order of The Malora Octet a little more obvious and tie the entire series to Rain Falls on Malora visually, so I redid all of the ebook covers. I love seeing them all together. I've left the paperback covers alone since it takes more time to change them than I have right now. You can still find all eight books on Amazon.

Last, but very much not least...

I finished Faelost!

I'm also awaiting the arrival of the Faelost print proof. I like to use a print copy to do my final edits, and this one will take a little while. Why? It's long, 145,000 words, so it's by far my biggest book (Mayfly Requiem was *only* 130k). And, I have no idea what to write for the blurb without spoiling something major that happens just a few short chapters in. I'll have to think on that.

Faelost is the sequel to Cavelost, and it continues immediately where Cavelost left off, but it should work as a stand-alone story. It's told by Rin's second son, Tessen, who finds himself on an unwanted adventure following the hatching of his brother Shan's two stolen dragon eggs.

Oh wait, there's just a little bit more. I'm working on The Bacra Chronicles Book 3 now, Spellkeeper. I'm way into it and hoping I can keep up my momentum on it over the summer. Spellkeeper is the first time in over ten years that I've written a novel in third person (the last being the Echoes of Oblivion trilogy). There are four point-of-view characters for this book -- two from the previous books and two who are new. I'm not sure yet how many books The Bacra Chronicles will end up being, but as of now I know where books 4 and 5 need to go.

Little Embers

Keep Persisting

I have a Zazzle store! There are some kinks to work out (items only showing up in collections and not in the store list), but that should be taken care of by the print company within a couple days. Make sure you switch the content filter from "Safe" to "Moderate" to see everything. I had to go PG-13 on a the "Nevertheless, She Persisted" and "He Persisted" items so they didn't get flagged for language. Most of the individual products have multiple options for style, size, and color once you're on the product page. Let me know if there is something you'd like that isn't currently offered and I'll get it in the store for you.

For reference, the URL is: https://www.zazzle.com/keep_persisting

This print store is a charity art project. All proceeds from the products will be split between two charities - The Trevor Project, which provides support to LGBTQ youth in crisis, and The Midnight Mission, a Los Angeles-based organization that helps people overcome homelessness. Both organizations help people through hard times and dark places and give them the tools to keep persisting.

If you want to know more about my art project and philosophy, I've given several interviews in the last week. There is at least one that hasn't been published yet, and I'll link that once the journalist finishes it.

OpEdNews
Bustle
Diverge
Huffington Post

I have a lot more to say but I should have gone to bed two hours ago, so for now I'll leave you with this. It's my latest piece, "We All Belong", and the idea came from my five year old daughter, Lyra. She told me to "draw lots of different girls holding hands", so I did.

Nevertheless, she persisted

I'm rather overwhelmed right now. A piece I drew this morning has gone viral on Facebook. If you happen to see this without attribution somewhere, it's mine. I drew it in response to Mitch McConnell's words in silencing Sen. Elizabeth Warren's reading of Coretta Scott King's letter, and for all the women I've run into who don't think they need feminism. It's amazing that something so simple can resonate with so many.

The original was missing the signature because I totally forgot to sign it, plus I didn't expect it to be shared further than by a couple friends. Facepalm for that now. I signed it and rescanned it this morning.

ETA: I'm being asked a lot about prints. I'm extremely busy today with kid scheduling and general life (curse you, narcolepsy), but a few friends and I are working on figuring out print options with the intent of any proceeds going to charity.

Political Artwork

We're not in Malora anymore

It was inevitable. I returned through the portal from Malora over a year ago, but I knew my wanderlust couldn't be satisfied until I discovered a new one to a new world. I dabbled with time travel for a while and returned to 1999 Michigan with Huron. Then I built a rocket ship and took my toddler to the Solar System's moons in my first children's book, Elora Goes to the Moons.

Then, one summer day, I found a portal I didn't know I was looking for. It was a shower epiphany, as many of my ideas are. I suddenly found myself transported underground, with no idea how I got there and no idea how to escape.

Thus, Cavelost was born.

I chose a strange route when I drafted this book. I wasn't sure if it was meant to be a short story or a novel, so I chose neither. I started writing it as a journal in blog format so my alpha readers could read each entry as I wrote it. Two and a half months later, I climbed out of that cave and into the starlight, and discovered that I now had an entire surface world to explore. One little project became an unknown many, and Cavelost was formatted and edited into Book 1 of The Bacra Chronicles.

I released Cavelost into the wild today in e-book format. The paperback will come shortly, since I needed to tweak a few things. The book is listed on Goodreads, so it would be wonderful if you added and reviewed it.

Now, back to work. I started Book 2, Faelost, for National Novel Writing Month. I finished the 50,000 word goal before the end of November, but that puts me maybe halfway through the story, so I'll just keep writing. Cavelost was told by a former mercenary named Rin Sylleth, and Faelost is told by her seventeen year old second son, Tessen. Faelost begins exactly where Cavelost leaves off. I'm not sure yet how many books will complete The Bacra Chronicles, but as of now I plan on a different narrator for each story. I already have plans for one narrated by Yana.

Busy, busy, always busy

First of all, I have a new book release, and it is nothing like my others. Elora Goes to the Moons is a children's book I wrote for my youngest daughter, who loves the Moon. I made a weekend project of flying the cartoon version of her through the Solar System. Several of my friends wanted their own copies of the book after seeing my fragile scrapbook version, so I scanned it, uploaded it to Createspace, received a beautiful-looking proof, and made it available in paperback on Amazon. It's handmade and handwritten, and it has a lot of fun little science facts throughout.

I've hidden my epistolary blog, Cavelost. Why? Because it's finished. I've done a couple of editing rounds on it, and today I uploaded the formatted version so I can get a print copy to do final edits and copyedits on. The characters have decided to expand upon their world and make Cavelost the first of a series called The Bacra Chronicles. I'll be starting the next book, Faelost, during NaNoWriMo. Cavelost is told by a former mercenary named Rin Sylleth, who wakes up trapped in a massive cave system. Faelost will be told by Rin's second son, Tessen.

On a sadder note, I lost my cat muse on Friday. Reno passed away suddenly during the night, and we have no explanation for it. Since he was young, only between 4-6 years old, the vet said it was most likely caused by a heart issue. We adopted Reno on Valentine's Day almost two years ago. He helped me out of the doldrums so I could finish writing Sand into Glass and editing The Crystal Lattice, and he sat with me through nearly every word of the three books I've written since. I'm in shock and I'm going to miss him tremendously. I keep expecting to see him lounging on his favorite chair and when I get up in the middle of the night, I run my hand across the end of the bed, expecting him to be there. It's difficult to write without him by my side.

Cavelost

I've started writing a fantasy epistolary story in blog format, Cavelost. The strange presentation is a way of holding myself accountable to short, frequent writing sessions. I've been fighting through my own dark caverns for a while now, so this story is a way to help me find daylight. If you're interested in reading along as I write this adventure, visit Cavelost and start with the oldest entry first.

Huron Update

The print and Kindle editions of Huron are now linked together and visible on my author page, so it should be easier to find my newest book on Amazon. You can even read Huron and my previous books for free if you have Kindle Unlimited, and you don't need a Kindle since Amazon has free e-reader apps for many different devices.

Huron

I've done it, I've finally hit the "publish" button on my 2015 NaNoWriMo project, Huron. The paperback is up on Createspace and Amazon, ebook version is live on Amazon. The versions should be linked together within a couple days. I fought with enough of my own monsters to fill a forest in order to bring this little horror story to life. Huron is a significant departure from my previous novels, and I hope you enjoy it.

On August 1, 1998, a trio of seventeen-year-olds venture into Huron National Forest near East Tawas, Michigan for a live-action role playing adventure. Before long, all three realize something is watching them from the forest, something that no mythology or cryptozoology they know of can explain. Thus begins a twisting, turning, terrifying chase into an old-growth forest inhabited by nightmares.

First Draft Complete!

My goal was to finish the rough draft of Huron by the end of November, and I typed the last words in the wee hours of November 25th. Another draft completed! Of course, Huron won't be finished (or more accurately, kicked out of the house) until it has undergone a couple rounds of edits and rewrites, beta reading, proofreading, formatting, copyediting, and a lot of frustrated tears.

This is by far my shortest novel, but that's okay since it's YA. The skeleton draft is about 62.5k words, and I'll be fleshing it out and giving it another row of teeth during rewrites. After spending twelve years writing the Malora Octet, finishing a stand-alone novel in a different genre is refreshing.

Huron begins on August 1, 1998 in East Tawas, Michigan. A trio of seventeen-year-olds venture into Huron-Manistee National Forest for a live action role-playing adventure. Before long, all three teenagers realize that something is watching them from the forest, something that no mythology or cryptozoology they know of can explain. Thus begins a twisting, turning, terrifying chase into an old-growth forest inhabited by nightmares.

National Novel Writing Month 2015

This is why I've been aloof lately. I've been working on a new book in a new genre, and I was so into it that I hit the 50k word count NaNoWriMo goal on November 18th instead of the 31st. Here is my participant page if you want to check out my stats.

I'm not finished yet. 50k is awfully short for a novel, so I've got a little ways to go before I'm done with the first draft. I tend to write skeletal first drafts and then add a couple thousand words with each round of rewrites. This will be a shorter book than my previous ones, but that's perfectly fine for the genre and plot.

So, what am I writing? I'm not entirely sure how to categorize Huron yet, so for now I'm calling it YA Horror. It's a funny, scary, old-fashioned horror chase set in 1998 in Iosco County, Michigan. My narrator is Casey Tallis, a snarky and nerdy seventeen year old who heads out into Huron-Manistee National Forest with two friends for a little live action role-playing. Before long, all three teenagers realize that they are being watched by something inhuman.

The picture below isn't my final cover, just a placeholder I made on Canva to put on my NaNo profile. I may still use this concept for the final version, switching up some of the colors and graphics. It suits the tone of the book fairly well. I wasn't expecting Huron to be so funny, but after writing 8 3/4 books, I've learned that sometimes you just have to run with whatever your characters decide to reveal to you. Narrators especially take on lives of their own, and this narrator happens to be hilarious. Hopefully the story still makes sense when I return to it for edits and rewrites in January, because I want to set it loose upon the world sometime in 2016.

Book Sale!

The Crystal Lattice (Emergence #1) is on sale for $0.99 on Amazon. The sale ends the morning of Wed., October 21, so grab your copy before the price goes back up. I may do Kindle Countdown Deals for the other two Emergence books if I have any success with this one.

"The ocean sings to me. The deserts, the wind, the rivers whisper to my soul. The mountains and forests beckon to me, but they are not my masters. I embrace the fire above all else. Starfire and kindling, candlelight and infernos. I am not a disciple of fire – I am the fire. I am wings of flame and sparks on the wind, dampened only by the bitter winter rain and the coldness of an empty universe. I close my eyes and see blazing cascades and meadows of molten rock. I breathe deeply of the ash and char to refresh my spirit and subdue my elemental nature. I open my eyes and return to a far more serene place, the halcyon world of my physical home." - from The Crystal Lattice

Wordless Wednesday: Fairies

Time-Lost Again

I haven't been able to write much recently. It's not due to writer's block or lack of ideas. I'm just exhausted. I have ideas eating away at my mind, but no energy with which to resolve them. I had kidney stone surgery at the end of July and that flared up my narcolepsy to the point that I have trouble staying awake for more than a couple hours at a time. I had bilateral stones, so I had a second procedure, extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy - ESWL, on my other kidney last week. I don't think it worked (will find out next week), so I may be in for a second surgery. I needed a stent for the first one and that was a little traumatic, so the prospect of going through that again is keeping my focus wobbly. I'm time-lost for the moment and hoping this narcolepsy flare doesn't last too much longer.

I do feel a little productive though, due to something I wrote in May. My short story, "They", was published in a little anthology Possibilities Publishing Company put out yesterday. The book is available in both e-book and paperback, so get your copy in whichever format you prefer.

I feel the need to stay productive despite the surgeries and narcolepsy, so I've returned to an old hobby... drawing. I'm planning on including some of my artwork in Rain Falls on Malora. I'm also drawing a geeky coloring book unrelated to my books, but since it's fan art, I don't think I'll be able to publish that unless I figure out copyright for each of the books, TV shows, and movies I've drawn artwork for. You can see some of them on my Instagram, though.

I want to share with you coloring book-style pictures I've drawn of characters from the Malora Octet. I bought a set of art pens recently so this has been a fun new experiment.

Bethel Masiona and Saruza Starsinger. Bethel is always a pain to color
against complex backgrounds for reasons that are obvious if you've
 read the series.

Rain and Dawn. I may alter this into a cover for Rain Falls on Malora
if I end up including Rain's short story in the book.

Silvan and Mairen from Arrow of Entropy. I don't want to be a
spoiler so all I'll say is they're learning how to spar.

Ravaki and Safora from The Crystal Lattice. I'm not happy with their arm
positioning, but I love how the rest of the picture turned out.

This was inspired by Nira's letter to Azfadel in The Crystal Lattice.
It's amazing how just a couple lines reveal her postpartum depression.

Sketching the Imaginary Friends, Part 3

I'm having way too much fun with this project. My creative brain is extremely visual right now. Eventually I'll get the sketches scanned into my computer, and I hope to include them as illustrations (probably grayscale) in my short story collection, Rain Falls on Malora.

Ikuren Nightsong, Masai snow Emergent from Sand into Glass

Wildfire (The Shattered Veil)

Roar Banan (Mayfly Requiem)

Kith (Sand into Glass)

Cinderstorm, the apex phoenix (Arrow of Entropy)

Zephyr and Rhodren Briarwind (Echoes of Oblivion trilogy)

Sevilen and Aridani (Echoes of Oblivion trilogy)

Sevilen and Aridani after shading and detailing

Vutan Gira (Arrow of Entropy)

Rastaban and Sevilen (Before The Abyssal Night)

Zorie Berylatia (Sand into Glass)

Sefa Metavanya, Reed Velarani, Muza Masiona, Faron Masiona (Emergence trilogy)