Monday, November 14, 2016

Everyn breaks radio silence...


It is I, the author commonly known as Everyn, here to assure you that I have not died and I am not in hiding... well, at least not in the real world.

I've been taking an extended break from all things internet-related while I try to refocus and recharge. Believe it or not, I have been incredibly busy lately (and feeling mostly better, thank you for asking). I have so many projects in the works I've actually been feeling overwhelmed, and as time slips by I become more frantic about how much I have left to finish and how little time I feel like I have to do it all.

This writing and publishing thing is a lot of fucking work. It's worth it, but don't expect it to be easy and quick.

But none of that is really important today, because I can't tell you about what I'm doing without adding the stress of "they're expecting it now, I need to work faster" to the heap that's weighing me down.

Deadlines are not my friend right now, so I'm avoiding them like the black plague. I'm just going to say that and move on.

Outside of my writing, there is something else in my life that is really exciting...
My daughter is learning how to read.
Not just read, but to enjoy reading. Helping nourish that enjoyment, and watching her find that love of words that has driven me my whole life is just awe inspiring. For me it's been like holding my newborn child for the first time - that kind of "WOW this is amazing" moment. I don't know how else to explain it.

So for now, I'm reveling in this new marvel, and gearing up for all the work that lies ahead.
Hopefully I'll be back soon with more news and possibly one of those dreaded deadlines.... errr, I mean release dates.

Thanks for reading!


Thursday, October 13, 2016

Delays, delays, infuriating DELAYS!

I know I haven't been around much the past few weeks.
After my eldest started school we were flooded with the inevitable chain of colds and sicknesses that come with kids being in close constant proximity to other kids. I weathered the first one - a stomach bug UGH! - in a matter of hours and went back to work... but the second one a few weeks later hit me hard, causing a sinus infection that still hasn't resolved and near daily migraines for the past three weeks straight. (If you missed my post about my constant migraine issues and diagnosis you can find it HERE).

My hopes for getting Curse out in early October have been flushed down the drain. I still haven't been able to get back to the last two rounds of edits since every time I sit down in front of my laptop the throbbing in my head makes it difficult to focus my eyes and read. For an avid reader and writer this shit is exasperating.

Basically, I'm feeling incredibly impatient and frustrated. I WANT to get back to work, but my body is holding me back. The practical part of me knows I need to wait and rest until I'm better, but it's just taking sooo damn long that it's driving me crazy.

So this is me, venting because I don't know what else to do... and also once again feeling sheepish for having to apologize for delays that are beyond my control.

It's hard when your own body stops you from doing the things you desperately want to do. I'm sorry once again for the delay, but I promise I'll keep trying. It's important to me to finish this series. I hope to be back regularly in the near future...

Sincerely,

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Friday, September 23, 2016

A Snippet of Silas


Unfortunately, as soon as school starts, my kids bring home every cold, flu and virus. My frantic momentum this past month has slowed while I recuperate, but I anticipate diving back into editing in the next few days when I'm feeling better.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share a little something I've been working on for fun while my brain recharges for the next round of edits on Curse. If you're already a fan of The Crow Series, you may get a kick out of this.

I present to you: The first time Silas and Denora meet from Book One, told from Silas' point of view!

Sunday, September 18, 2016

September Mojo


My brain is on fire.
Not sure what happened but the story won't leave me alone right now.
After struggling all summer to edit Curse, the moment I said I was taking a break Redeem started pouring out of me - I wrote the whole first draft in a week.
Then, I picked Curse back up.
I finished the first round of edits I've been struggling through for months in less than a week.
I don't know what's going on but my inspiration is burning a hole through me. The story has consumed me again and it's all I can think about.
So, it looks like you may be getting your hands on Curse earlier than I'd expected.
I still have to get through line and grammar edits so I won't set a release date yet - but it's coming, and soon!
I'm so pleased with how the story turned out and I really think you'll all love it too... especially now that I know how it all ends in Redeem.
*sigh*
I really want to get back to work now, so I'll keep this blog post short. That's a good thing, right?

Be back with more updates and perhaps a release date very soon!

P.S. Also want to mention, if you're one of my Patreon subscribers, I've posted the second Advanced Access chapter of Songbird of Souls for your reading pleasure.

Enjoy your weekend!
Twitter / Facebook / Google+ / Goodreads / Pinterest / Instagram / Youtube (Coming Soon!)

Saturday, September 10, 2016

I just don't know what to do with myself...


It's official. The Crow Series now has a beginning, a middle and an end.

If you've been following me on social media at all lately you'll likely be aware of the massive wave of inspiration that hit me last weekend, resulting in me writing 15 hours a day for a week straight. I poured out about four to five chapters a day, writing like a woman possessed.
More like deranged, but that's just the way it goes.
I wrote the very last chapter of Redeem last night. There's nothing left. It's done.

I'm both melancholy and elated. I feel like I'm losing friends I've grown to love over the past four years, never to see them again (unless I decide one day to write a spin-off series. I have ideas but not settled on doing it yet).
Everything just fell neatly into place. This makes me overjoyed and excited as well.
So I'm sort of floating in this sad-happy place right now, trying to figure out what the hell to do. Writing Redeem hadn't been on my agenda for a while and it busted my schedule wide open.

I literally don't know what the fuck to do with myself right now. I know diving back into editing Curse now that the story is complete would be the wisest choice. I'm going to attempt it tomorrow and see if it comes easier now. We'll see...

In the meantime, I have this song stuck in my head:



(I chose the video without the girl dancing in her underwear... because I'm behaving myself today.)

So, basically I have nothing else to say. I'm going to go try and figure out how to get this song out of my head and keep myself busy.

Thanks for reading.
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Sunday, August 28, 2016

Learning from your mistakes...

There are times when I feel as if this blog is just a diary of my frustrations and failures.
I've failed a lot.
I fail constantly.

You know what that means? I'm learning - a lot. I'm learning - constantly.

There is something I've learned recently about myself and the way that I write. Something I was blind to by choice and it wasn't until I was banging my head against the wall in frustration that I finally opened my eyes to what my brain had been screaming at me all along.

I've handled this whole thing the wrong way.
I was so focused on putting out the next book in The Crow Series, only focusing on finishing The Crow Series, and getting the next book in the series out to the readers who were asking for it. Though I am constantly inspired to work on other stories, I push them off, trying to keep myself devoted to one story until it's finished.

There's a reason why I've only been managing 1-2 books per year, and why last year when I secretly indulged in a second pen name I busted out five episodes in only a few months. I wasn't slowed and hindered the way I am now... and once I gave myself enough time away, working on the next book in The Crow Series became easy.

When my brain refuses to work on a project, it's because I need to give it space. I need to step back and work on something else so I can return to the first project with a clear head. I cannot, and now realize should not, try to tackle editing and revising a book a month after writing the first draft.
I've been doing this wrong - at least, wrong for me.

I need to work on more than one story at a time. I've always been this way, even back in High School when I worked on both Firechild and Lusus Naturae in the same year. They're completely different books set in completely separate worlds. I need to pull my mind out of one world and place it into another to find clarity. It takes me almost six months between a first draft and when my brain is ready to return to it. I struggle all those months in between, trying to force myself to work on something my brain refuses to touch.

It's why I'm constantly distracted by other stories when I'm supposed to be editing - but once I've given myself enough time away from it, I return with gusto and a renewed vigor. The story almost feels new and I can see it with fresh eyes, diving into the editing with the same enthusiasm I had when writing it initially.

It took me almost a year between writing Release and publishing it. I dreaded working on it. My brain refused. It made me miserable.

I'm experiencing the same thing now with Curse.

I've realized I should have tackled Songbird of Souls before trying to finish the fourth book in The Crow Series. I'm excited and inspired by this new story, and look forward to working on it when I get up in the morning. It's what my mind wants to focus on, and the more I try to force myself to only work on Curse, the more I'm swept into despondency and longing for something else.

I'm not sure what to do. I've already promised that Curse would be the next book I put out - but I still can't seem to get my head to agree. Editing is horrible and grueling the more I try...

I was getting ready to start posting advanced chapters of Songbird of Souls to my Patreon subscribers this coming week and it necessitated I give the chapters a passing edit first. The difference between my attempt to edit S.o.S. (yes, I shorten it. It takes too long to type out over and over) and my attempt only days earlier to edit the next chapter of Curse was obvious. This new knowledge about how I need to write slapped me hard enough to knock the wind out of me.

So what does this mean?
As I said, I'm not quite sure. I've already promised Curse and I plan to keep trying to honor my word and get it finished, but it may take me a bit longer than I'd like. After Curse, things are going to change with how I organize my writing. I'm going to start anticipating a five or six month gap between when I write something and when I am ready to publish it. It means working on other stories alternatively until I develop a rhythm. I need to work on what my brain wants to focus on or nothing will get done in those months in between.

The good news is, if I can get it all worked out and establish a rhythm in anticipation of the six month delay, you'll be seeing twice as many books from me a year, in more than one series.

The bad news is, I'm going to stop posting teasers for Curse until my head is ready to move forward with the edits. I'll still post updates and snippets here and there, but I can't keep promoting a story I don't see myself finishing for a few more months. I apologize to those of you who have already been waiting so patiently, but a block is a block and I need to listen to myself and understand why the block is there in order to get around it.

For me - that means working on something else until I'm ready. It may be edits for S.o.S., or it may be gleefully going back to work on the new rewrite of Firechild, which I'd like to put out after Curse but before tackling Redeem. All I know is, in order to be productive I need to allow my imagination to take the lead and follow my instincts when it comes to what I need to work on and in what order.

Thank you for taking the time to read.
You guys are amazing <3
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Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Curse Teaser #4


Teaser Tuesday! 
 
It's Teaser Day!
With the Patreon officially up and running, I'm now busily back to work editing and getting Curse ready for publication. I still don't have it together enough for a set release date but we're getting there.

This week, I'm offering a snippet between Denora and Graham who has been begrudgingly helping Denora hide out from the rest of the crew.

Without further ado, here is this week's sneak peek...

Friday, August 19, 2016

Author Patronage - Starting a Patreon



If you've been following along with my posts of late, you're likely aware that I've decided to jump in and start a Patreon Page. After two weeks of setting everything up I finally launched the campaign a few days ago.
Now first thing's first - I am aware that my fan-base is still pretty limited and I will probably not gain a lot of support there right away - that's okay. Even a little bit is helpful, and I'm hoping as I put more work out in the coming months that my reach will grow.
BUT - the main issue I'm facing is the fact that a lot of people don't know what Patreon is or how it works, so I felt it would be prudent to make a post to help explain.

What is Patreon?

Patreon is a crowd-funding site where people can pledge a certain amount of money to an artist / author / project either on a monthly or on a "per creation" basis. My Patreon is currently set to monthly, so anyone pledging to my page would be charged on the first of each month. It is similar to Kickstarter, if you need a popular reference, but unlike Kickstarter which is a one-time pledge for a single project, Patreon is meant to be a patronage system where supporters back an artist continuously so they can continue doing what they do and making the awesome things that they make. It's like paying an artist a salary so they can keep working - or better yet, a Tip Jar that refills every month.

Why do I need a Patreon?

My need for support is pretty basic - I can't afford to keep producing my work the way I've been doing it. It takes me months to write, edit and publish a new book and I'm doing it 100% on my own right now. My personal finances are already tight and I don't have the extra funds to hire out my editing, purchase professional artwork for covers, or advertise my work to find more readers. On average (on a good month) I make about $25 - $30 on book sales. That's two hours pay at my day job after taxes. Producing a new book costs not just for the things mentioned above, but then you have to take into account the hours upon hours I spend working on it, for MONTHS - basically unpaid. I LOVE writing these books, but I have to consider my family's needs first. Those countless hours could be spent making money the old fashioned way, and if things don't pick up they likely will.

For my birthday a few years ago, family members chipped in to help me pay for my website and blog. It didn't take long before it got too expensive, so I closed it down and moved my website to a free Blogger page. You see where this is going, right?

This year for my birthday, my family gave me money for stock photos for the book I was publishing that month and a little extra so I could advertise my free book and maybe find some new readers.
I spent $40 on stock photos and $60 on a handful of inexpensive ads. Considering the ads were for a book that I'm already giving away for free, I made $80 that month...

At this point, producing my work is costing me more money than it's making me. Money I don't have. Money my family needs. The Patreon is a way to offset some of those costs. Readers who want me to continue writing the books they love to read can help keep me funded month to month so I can continue without bleeding my family dry in the process.

What do Patrons get in return?

There are, of course, benefits to supporting an artist or author on Patreon. Most people there offer special incentives to people who support them - behind the scenes access, deleted scenes, advanced copies of their work before publication etc etc. Each Patreon is slightly different and the rewards you get for supporting them vary depending on what they're offering and the level of patronage you subscribe to.

For example:

My first tier reward for $1 per month patronage is: Access to my patron-only emails and feed - with sneak peeks into my current projects and bi-weekly chapters of one of my unreleased books prior to publication. All Patrons will be given access to my "I Support the Artist!" button and will be thanked by me for their support on social media at the end of each month."
It's pretty simple but still offers a little something extra to those who commit to supporting me each month at this level.

How much do you actually get from the money Patrons provide?

One thing that people aren't always aware of is the fact that the amount shown on Patreon that an artist recieves is not wholly accurate. Patreon takes a 5% cut, there are Paypal / bank fees for transfering the funds, and a smart artist / author also has to set aside about 30% for taxes. There is also the issue of declined payments and people who sign up and then bail before the end of the month when payments are processed. For every $100 an artist on Patreon "receives", they only actually get about 50% on average. HOWEVER, that's still 50% they wouldn't have had otherwise.
It's not all that different from how I get paid from online retailers for books sold. Books over $2.99 I make about 70% from Amazon, so I average about $2 per book. The same goes for paperbacks (roughly $2 per book) and that's BEFORE the 30% for taxes gets removed.

Producing art and writing books is not free for the person making it. So many people take for granted how much time, effort and money people put into the things that they create. They deserve to eat too, and pay their bills, just like everyone else. Artists and authors don't get paid a salary to handle these things. The Patronage system allows the people who love what's being created to help the artist / author keep making those things without, you know, starving...

If you're interested in checking out my new Patreon and seeing what it's all about, you can find it at http://www.patreon.com/EverynKildare

If you'd like to help out but can't afford the monthly donation, please help spread the word about what I'm doing. The more eyes I get on the page, the better it will do.

Still have questions about Patreon? Shoot me a message or comment down below and I'll do my best to answer any concerns you may have.

Thanks for reading!
All my love and gratitude,


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Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Teaser #3




Hello Friends and Lovely Readers!
It's that time again (and this time I'm posting on the correct day - Go me!)

For this week's Tuesday Tease I chose a scene that sheds light on what Curse is all about - Fiona's secrets from her journal. I won't spoil it by saying HOW exactly Denora comes by these visions of her mother's life but to make it a little easier to wrap your head around, just think of it for now like her journey in Book One with the Spirit Potion.

Without further ado, here is this week's sneak peek...

Sunday, August 14, 2016

Writing for other people


There is a part of me that cringes when I think that I started by publishing something other than Firechild first. The intention was always to get that particular story out there. It, along with Lusus Naturae, has haunted me for over half my life now, and though most authors smile fondly and shake their heads when asked about the first book they ever wrote and laugh about how looking back it was a mess and they're glad it remains behind them - I still need to finish this particular book.

At the time I started Crow I had pushed Firechild aside yet again, but for differing reasons.

One, I still didn't think I had the story arranged the way I wanted and until I figured it out I was only making a bigger mess of it. I've re-written it so many times that now it's more like fitting together a complicated jigsaw and tossing the pieces that don't fit - but there are enough extra pieces to make eight more complete puzzles.

Secondly, at the time I was getting a lot of advice about "making it" in the business and I was eagerly absorbing as much info as possible on how not to fuck the whole thing up. "Find a niche audience you can connect with. Learn the genre and the tropes. Cater to you reader's wants and expectations..."
It was my first book and I really wanted to find my readers. I'd write something I thought they'd want, even if it wasn't really the story the way I'd like to tell it.

So,  I started a YA urban fantasy series. They were meant to be novella length, but as it usually works out with me, they grew longer and turned into short novels instead (ooops?) I included popular YA and urban fantasy elements (also part of the advice) even when I wasn't sure I wanted some of those elements in there. But I wanted to please my perceived audience. I included things I thought the reader would want.

I'm not saying I regret writing The Crow Series. Not in the least. It started with the vague notion of a girl desperately trying to save her brothers from a horrible curse and meeting a cryptic young man with dubious intentions who helped show her the way. Even though I meant it to be more commercial, I couldn't help but include the deeper more tormented things that came along while writing - the way I usually write. Loss, grief, guilt and betrayal. Mistrust. The thin line between love and hatred. Trying to be your own hero when you don't know where else to turn.

These same elements are part of why the series turns people away. The very first page is sad and talks about losing a cherished friend to suicide. I was sad when I wrote it - pulling from deep within myself from my own feelings of guilt and pain over friends from my youth that I'd lost along the way.

So, what was meant to be a commercial work turned into something most people were turned off by.
*shrug*
I guess I'm not cut out for the whole "commercial" thing. With each book, trying to keep it in the same vein as the previous books in the series has gotten harder and harder because I'm pushing myself to write in a way that is not authentic for me. I think, when I have other stories out to compare it to, maybe my blathering right now will make more sense - or it won't and you'll scratch you head and wonder what hell I'm going on about.

Last year, after spending months struggling with myself to finish Release, I was suddenly inspired by an idea for another story - an adult fantasy adventure serial with shape-shifters, pirates and time travel. It had adult (like, with a capital A - Adult*) themes and bordered on the erotica genre with some of its content. Because it was so different from the "Young Adult" series I was already publishing, I published the first five episodes under a different pen name.

TaDa!
So now you know. Last year when I "didn't" publish anything, I actually published A LOT. Five episodes and a compilation. I'm only half way through Season One, with 5 more episodes to go, but stopped when I got ill last summer. When I finally got well enough to go back to writing, my guilt over the long delay necessitated I finish Release instead, which was already a year overdue. I haven't gone back to finish the other episodes - yet.

And why did I do this?
Because writing the serial was FUN! I told no one I knew, other than my husband and my parents, who I instructed NOT to read them. My husband still hasn't read a single page. It would probably be a little weird with all the sex and suggestive situations. He already gets playfully jealous about how much time I spend with my characters. Instead, he now constantly makes up Bond Girl type names like "Major Peter Acrecock" and "Hugh Janhornie" and offers to let me use them in the next episode to make me laugh. (I don't have characters named like this - it's a joke between us)

The point is, with no one I knew aware that I was doing it, and no worry over readers' expectations of me, I threw myself into the story and LOVED it. I was cranking out an episode every two weeks up until I started feeling sick last August. I was writing them for me, because I was inspired to do so, and it was exhilarating.

I didn't sell a lot of copies. As a matter of fact, I gave away episodes regularly. I got ZERO reviews for it on Amazon, despite lots of downloads of the freebies, but did get one really nice and glowing review for the serial on Goodreads.

Yet, even though my work went mostly unnoticed (again) the first episode won second place in the SFWG's (Short Fiction Writer's Guild) New Series Contest that September. I hope that means my writing isn't actually a festering boil that people are too polite to mention, and is instead just a freckle hidden in a sea of larger blemishes.
That analogy was horrible. Forgive me, the burn on my arm has me obsessed with painful bodily issues right now lol.

Basically, I've reached a cross-roads in my career where the needs of my family outweigh my own need to create. I cannot financially afford to continue focusing on my writing. Unless I find a way to compensate for my financial obligations to my family (mind you, my husband still works his ass off full-time and I continue to work whatever days I can get at my day job, which are fleeting and far between) I will have to stop committing my free hours to writing and go back to trying to pick up extra work to ease the burden.

I've given myself until the end of the year to work it out. Until then I'm going to be trying something a little unorthodox.

I've decided to start a Patreon page to see if whatever fanbase I may have might be willing to help support me so I can continue my work without starving my kids. I know that sounds dramatic, but it's true. I don't know how successful it will be, because despite trying my damnedest for the past three to four years I've barely managed 100 followers on any of my social media things. But who knows? Maybe this will be the thing that saves me.

Patreon looks like it could be a great deal of fun - connecting and creating things directly for your audience. I have a plethora of projects, stories and art pieces to share and I look forward to interacting with people who enjoy my work as much as I do.

One of the things I'm going to be offering my Patreon subscribers is advanced chapters of my new steampunk fantasy series, Songbird of Souls, while I get it ready to publish by the end of the year. I wrote it just after finishing the first draft of Curse, so it's ready and waiting to be edited once Curse is complete.

Depending on what subscribers want, I may even throw in some of the episodes from my other pen name, but since they're Adult (with a capital A*, remember?) I'll likely leave that up to the Patrons to decide.

In that way, I'll be writing for others, but not in the way I've been doing. The people who support my Patreon page will get behind the scenes access to me and my work, and they'll be given opportunities to make decisions on some of my future writings (like character names, which projects I tackle next and Q&A's with me about my inspirations, plans and worlds I have created).

I think having a direct line to my readers will help keep me motivated too. Knowing that there's people out there actually waiting and asking for my new work will help push me through those days when I'm convinced everything I touch is a pile of stewing crap.

That, and knowing I don't have to worry about how I'm going to squeeze out money for a new cover or (hopefully one day) hiring someone to help ease my editing load so I can work faster will be a lot easier if I'm not also obsessively worrying about how I'm going to be able to buy groceries the following week if I can't pick up any extra days at my job.

I'm really excited about starting this, but also incredibly nervous. I'm not very good at building relationships with people and starting anything in the social-sphere always makes me feel slightly manic. But you can't create in a vacuum and art by its very nature is about sharing what's inside you that you can't express any other way - so I'm going to give this a shot and cross my fingers.

For those of you who are interested in seeing what I'm doing, I'll be making the new Patreon page live sometime next weekend once I've gotten everything set and in order. I'll let you guys know when it's up so you can take a peek and see what it's all about.

Much love,

Thursday, August 11, 2016

The Tuesday Tease for Curse - on a Thursday.


Yup - I'm really late, but I've been really busy!

There's been a bunch of stuff going on which has left me rather frazzled and feeling all over the place, but I'll get to that in a moment.

First - and again, sorry for the delay - I have put up the first half of my new About the Author thing I've been working on. It got longer than I expected and I ended up cutting it into two parts because who the heck wants to be met with fifteen pages of story when expecting a short author bio?

I haven't put the second part up yet because I had a little cooking accident which has hindered the use of my arm a little bit (won't slow me for long though!)

That nasty blister is the result of a scalding hot butter-splatter while making french toast the other night. Yes, we have french toast for dinner on occasion. It's awesome, just not when you get burned.

Anyway, this post is supposed to be a teaser for Curse!

I picked one of my current favorites. I'll probably use it as one of the excepts for Curse in The Crow Series section when I finally get around to that...

Sunday, July 31, 2016

What the hell do you mean, it's already the end of July? (aka where the fuck does the time go?)

I think the post title sums up the way I'm feeling pretty accurately right now.
I have so many things I'm trying to finish and seem to be going nowhere real fucking fast. It's already been a month since I mentioned my new About the Author project I'd been writing and I just spent this past weekend in a mad dash to finish and edit it so I could put it up for my blog post today. 'Cause it's already been a month. It should not have taken me a month to do this...

You see it here anywhere? No? Me neither.

Same goes for Curse. Still struggling to get through my edits and it's been over two months now with at least another month's worth of work ahead of me before it's finished.
I feel like I'm drowning right now, trying to keep my head above water and only just surviving.
Yes, that means more than just keeping up with my writing deadlines. My money situations just seem to be getting worse and worse, making me more stressed and less able to focus.
Vicious cycle and whatnot.

On the plus side, this month finally brought answers to my weird health issues that have been plaguing me for the past year. We ruled out a dozen awful possibilities - like Lyme disease, Lupus, for awhile we even feared M.S.

Nope -  After being poked, prodded and zapped with electricity, I just have a severe migraine disease with Aura (which means it effects my eyes) kinda like Lewis Carrol, I was told. No wonder Wonderland is so trippy! I wanna laugh at that, because headaches don't seem so serious, and when I tell people migraines leaving lesions on my brain are causing my neurological issues, blurred vision, extreme fatigue, chest pains, numbness and a host of other insidious seeming symptoms, they look at me like I'm nuts.

Case in point - when I first told a certain relative of mine the neurologist's final diagnosis, their reaction was to tell me all about the "migraine" they'd had the night before (probably from drinking too much red wine, tbh). *dramatic eyeroll*

Yeah, that's why I didn't really tell people.
I mean, everyone gets headaches once in a while - just not these kind I guess. Probably why it had never even occurred to me that all my weird symptoms were caused by migraines in the first place. I was told I get what they call "silent" migraines as well, meaning all the migraine symptoms only sometimes without the head pain.

You know what part of it annoys me the most? I mean, really frustrates me and pisses me off?

That damned aura! My vision alters during a migraine - blurs and is hard to focus - which means it's really hard and kinda uncomfortable to read. TO READ! And these migraine episodes are frequent with me, and sometimes last for a couple of days at a time. You ever try to edit when reading is painful? Yeah, so it effects my work and my enjoyment of words. Way to ruin things, brain!

Anyway, now I know it's not a death sentence - just a debilitating state of being - because it can't be cured, only assuaged with meds to dull the symptoms as they come.
This little adventure sunk my family into even more debt / stress for medical bills that my insurance didn't cover in full - tests and procedures to give me peace of mind, even though I'm no better off, or feeling any better than I was before I went to the doctor in the first place...

Sorry, I just needed to vent for a moment. The stress levels are only increasing post-diagnosis, and sometimes it's overwhelming and hard to feel positive.

I hate when people whine in blog posts.
I hate even MORE when I whine in blog posts...

Fine. Change of subject:
How would you guys feel if I started posting Tuesday Teasers for Curse? I'm thinking if I can get my shit together in the next few days I'll start posting snippets ASAP up until it's ready for release. And I should have at least the first part of the new About the Author posted by the end of this week.

Thanks for being patient with me. Things get kinda heavy from time to time, but I'm gonna keep bulldozing through. It's either that, or give up - and I don't do that shit.

See you in August!

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Curse - Cover Reveal and First Teaser for Book Four!


Well friends and lovely readers, though my editing is still slogging along at an agonizing pace, I have finally bitten the bullet and decided to share a bit more about the fourth book in The Crow Series with you. Personally, I'm hoping by being public with it, it'll help motivate me to get the damn thing finished. It's a good book, and an important one for the series, but for some reason my brain just doesn't want to get involved. I think it's "getting towards the end" syndrome, seeing the final book on the horizon and desperately avoiding the culmination and ending of something I have grown to love and enjoy over the past few years.

My mind keeps drifting off to other stories I have in the works, books I'll be focusing on once The Crow Series is finished. I'm excited to get back to work on Firechild, which I've returned to writing lately - as well as editing Songbird of Souls, which is probably the next book I will release after Curse and before the fifth Crow book, Redeem (Yes, I did just tell you the title of the final book. Can't recall if I've mentioned it before and I'm too tired to go read through previous posts to see if this is new knowledge or not.)

I haven't officially set the release date yet for Curse, mostly because I don't want to set a date I might not be able to keep, but right now I'm shooting for the last week in August, provided I can get my ass moving and get the editing wrapped up satisfactorily by then.

I've actually had the front cover done for over a month now. I'm still making little tweaks here and there, but for the most part this is it:


Usually, this is where I'd post the blurb but I'm not quite happy with the current one I'm using, so I've decided instead to give you a sneak peek at Chapter One. (Please remember, this is not the final version and is subject to change during the final round of edits.)

Thursday, June 30, 2016

PART III? aka The New Everyn never shuts up.


Okay, so this isn't actually a Part III to my ranting posts from last week; more like a follow up on the changes I've been working on and some of my ideas for the future.

First, let me say that the shift in my perception and handling of this whole creating / writing / art thing has left me feeling relieved in a way that I've needed badly. I've been able to put things back into perspective and look at them from a distance instead of the red-eyed stressful haze of hurry, hurry panic I've been in ever since I started taking my writing career into my own hands. To be taken seriously as a professional I needed to be serious. I constantly felt like I was behind and needed to catch up in order to succeed. Needed to write more, better, faster. I'd get all worked up, produce a lot of inspired work very quickly, and then burn out to a frazzled mess unable to even look at my work without feeling like my brain was going to melt into a puddle at my feet.

Right now I'm at ease.
I found that once I slowed down, stepped back and stopped worrying, the authentic ideas started pouring out so fast I could hardly keep up. I'm calling them "authentic" ideas because I can't think of anything better to call them at the moment. Authentic to me as a person, not necessarily authentic in the grand scheme of things. I'm sure someone has done something similar at some point in history.

I wasn't inspired by them. These stories and projects genuinely reflect the way I approach and think about things. They're not plans for how to make more money. Not how to publish faster to keep up with other prolific writers who have found their success. Not how to reach more readers via advertising schemes, giveaways and other marketing blah blah. Yes, I'll still try things out from time to time. You can't create in a vacuum and you certainly can't run a business in one. But I'm not going to get wrapped up in it and I'm going to try to keep my focus on the creative work, because that's what really drives me and keeps me going.

For example:
I've started completely re-writing my About the Author section on this blog in a way some people might find a little unorthodox. It's not quite finished or cleaned up the way I like it, so it will probably change a bit when it's finally posted. Since I managed to pick up an extra day at my job this week I probably won't post the full Introducing Everyn Interview until later when I have time. Until then, here's a sneak peek at what I've been up to...

 ~*~

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Summertime, and the livin's easy... PART II

Warning: This post ended up going off on several tangents, having multiple conclusions and became way, way too long. I've had to split it into two separate posts. If you missed PART I - click here to read the first half.

 

 I did not post Part II yesterday as I had intended. Staring at the screen at 10:44 last night after spending hours upon hours pouring over my words and thoughts I'd written, trying to determine if I'd said all I wanted to say, and feeling that creeping guilt growing more and more as I realized that the day was almost over and I still had not lived up to my promise and posted the other half. It was causing me stress, knowing I was pushing past my own deadline. But I just couldn't post it. Something was missing.

I closed my laptop and put Scarlet to sleep, then cleared it from my mind until the morning.
I'm so very glad that I did. I'll explain why by the end.

My procrastination yesterday was two-fold.
First, I kept feeling like I was being too all over the place. Too many tangents. A long path, twisting and turning and not really leading anywhere in particular. Maybe it was the route that was actually important, or maybe I just hadn't reached the destination yet and was simply getting anxious. Imagine me as the embodiment of a toddler in the backseat - screaming, whispering, whimpering, "Are we there yet?"

At the same time, I was seriously tempted to delete all traces of these two posts and pretend they'd never happened. I felt too exposed. I'd been too open, too vulnerable. I'd talked about myself too much. The internet can be a hostile and scary place, except when hardly anyone pays you any mind, in which case you worry that you're screaming into the storm and someone might spit and accidentally hit you because you happened to be loud and in the way.

I was being much louder than I usually allow myself to be and stood waiting for the inevitable spittle to strike my cheek...

When I got up this morning I still hadn't decided what to do about the second half of my post. I'd given myself an extra night to sleep on it and make up my mind.

I opened Scarlet and immediately procrastinated by opening my email instead... then Facebook. I scrolled down the social media mess, my eyes glossing over pictures and catchy comments until I randomly clicked on an article about Neil Gaiman.

I'm sure you probably already know who he is, so I won't bother explaining too much - except to say that I have always admired the brilliant creativity of his work and thought he presented himself like a pretty down to earth kind of person. I respect people like that.

So I clicked the link and read while sipping my second and third cups of coffee, then opened a video of a commencement speech Neil gave which is pretty well known.
The "Make Good Art" speech.
I may have watched it before. I'm sure I probably have, but I don't recall. It doesn't matter, because this time it actually made perfect fucking sense to me. Several things that he said reflected ideas that I had expressed only a day or two before while writing this post.
It changed my mind about hitting the delete key.

So now, before I go off on yet another tangent, let's get back to where I left off in Part I.

I'd realized that by trying to be the best parent and role model I could be for my children, I had sacrificed a large part of what made me who I am.

And I'm not just talking about the way I look, my choice in music, style and superficial stuff on the outside. It's the way these things make me feel - how content I am with myself and my surroundings, how comfortable I am in my own skin - how I express myself in all things. I'd stifled my own creativity to focus on these amazing miniature people who needed me, and had inadvertently made myself into less of a person.

It's the opposite of what I want to teach my children. I want them to embrace their differences, learn from them, make mistakes, be independent individuals and forge their own paths. I want them to make their own choices, be unabashedly themselves and not feel the need to follow the rules and go along with the crowd if it didn't feel genuine to them.

So, this marvel realization left me staring in confusion at my own nose-less face, wondering who the hell did this to me. Who had disfigured my self so thoroughly without me noticing?
I did it to myself, obviously.

After making the unnoticed shift from self to parent, eventually my children were less demanding (but of course, only slightly less). I started trying to redirect some of my attention back to writing. I'd decided some years before to try self-publishing my work. I loved the idea of having complete creative control but kept putting it off, because back then self-publishing was so taboo that people scoffed and said that it would ruin my chances of a career in the future. I was told publishing my own book would doom everything I wrote afterward with the stench of "not good enough to get properly published".

But it seemed like so much fun! I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

This was shortly before the Amazon Kindle opened up a whole new world for indie publishing, when the advice for D.I.Y. writers was mostly to start your own publishing company, invest in buying ISBNs and literally hand sell your work. I'd done the research, formed a plan and had several half finished novels taking up space on my hard-drive that I needed an excuse to finish. Then I found out I was pregnant with Momo and pushed things off again while I adjusted to this whole new unexpected world of motherhood.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned it before, but I'd never anticipated being a mother or a wife. It was something I'd never even thought about or planned for. It wasn't in my life goals.
So when I plunged into family-life headfirst, the people who knew me longest and best did a bit of that exorcist-style head spinning in surprise. It was a huge detour from where I thought I'd be in my life, but I don't regret it for a millisecond.
My kids are dope-sauce. I can brag about them all day long until my face turns blue.

Doing anything that requires concentration with little kids around is like trying to juggle angry flaming felines while simultaneously trying to stand on one leg, recite the national anthem, and look fabulous while doing it.
Yeah right.
I’m sure it can be done and someone on YouTube will attempt it, but it's really fucking complicated. You might be capable of some degree of coordination and grace, but eventually you’ll end up letting something slide, because dammit that cat just did a back-flip and now your perfectly coiffed mane is singed. The smell of burnt hair assaults your nose, choking your breath and causing you to completely butcher the most moving part of the anthem. Your eyes start to water, you fumble for words, your leg is sore and tired and you just dropped the other cat.
Thank goodness cats usually land on their feet. Now if only you could find a fire extinguisher...
Juggling babies, work and trying to write novels is exhausting. Something is always half-done because there just aren’t enough hours or hands or brain cells to do everything all the fucking time.
But writing is necessary for me. The longer I go without writing the more of an emotionless automaton I become - or at least that’s how I feel. So as soon as I had the chance to focus on writing again I dived in.
But the publishing climate had completely changed. I started looking into it again, re-evaluating my plan from before my daughter was born, only to discover there’d been a self-publishing boom with ebooks. I was elated!
But I didn’t know where to start. I read and researched. I asked questions, read blogs, listened to other writers and self-publishers looking for advice on how to proceed in this new publishing frontier.
I didn’t have a clue what I was doing.
So I learned as much as I could and slowly stepped forward into the world of indie publishing. I kept my head down. I kept my interactions overly professional, because I was terrified someone would smell the stench of noob all over me and I would never be taken seriously. I took advice like studying a rule book on how to not suck. I’d never done that before and it made me feel guilty. I started placing boundaries on myself, forcing ideas of what I should and shouldn’t do to avoid fucking it all up. Things got too rigid and I felt trapped. I failed at everything I tried.

I wasn’t being myself. I was trying to be like the other writers who were succeeding ahead of me, because obviously they knew more than I did.

And every time I failed, I blamed my need to do things my own way. Someone once told me my blog is too dark and readers don’t stick around because they don’t like reading light print on black backgrounds. Or I’m just too boring. Either way, it’s all me.
Same with my blurbs, my covers, my social media gibberish. I was doing it right but getting it wrong. I wasn't being genuine or creative. I was not only not being myself, but I was blaming the bits of myself that inevitably peeked through for my failures. It stopped being fun.
The only fun part was the writing itself.

And I'm done feeling like that. I’m bored with it.
I've been trying to keep my personal and public life separate in a way that feels very fake and impersonal. Bits of my personality have seeped through here and there, but I've always tried to reign it in and keep it safe.

I'm tired of being bound by rules that I don't believe in. I’m tired of acting like a mannequin with no personality just so I don't scare away my audience. I'm tired of worrying about how to get more readers, how to reach people, how to turn this into a career so I can pay my bills and don't have to feel like it's always art vs. feeding my kids. None of it changes anything.
I'm still struggling. Still mysteriously unwell half the time. Still broke. Now the creative thing I love the most has become more business and less fun because I’ve been taking it (and myself) too damn seriously.
Fuck that.

Following the rules hasn’t gotten me anywhere. Where the hell did these rules come from, anyway? I'm going back towards the person I used to be - the woman who expressed herself shamelessly and in everything she did. That’s sounds incredibly pretentious but it’s true.
When I was younger, I sought out life experiences - because if you're not living life, what the fuck do you have to write about?

I'm just gonna wing it and go with what feels right from now on. Mistakes will be made. Lessons learned and not tinged by regret. Most of all, I'm done stressing out about it. My only concern is making the best art I can - writing a good story that feels complete and authentic to my intentions with it. I want to make money to continue doing what I'm doing, but I don't want to do it for the money.
I just want to write.

This blog is my personal online void in the universe... and I'm going to treat it like my house from now on. I'm going to paint the walls, etch poetry in black marker on the windows, strut around in high heeled boots with music shaking the room until we all feel like dancing.

I'm going to unleash myself on you in a way I haven't before because I’m tired of being something I’m not. It may get a little weird in here. I'll just warn you now.

To add a few more obnoxious "I" statements to this unending list I've got going on:
I’m going to go back to being me and I'm going to ignore the rest of it.
I’m going to be the kind of person I would want my kids to respect and learn from.
I think I may have finally come to the end.

Damn, that was a long ride. Took me three days to get to the destination.
Be true to yourself and you’ll have nothing to regret.
Thanks for reading.

Thursday, June 23, 2016

Summertime, and the livin's easy... PART I

Warning: This post ended up going off on several tangents, having multiple conclusions and became way, way too long. I've had to split it into two separate posts. In light of this, the next line is going to seem incredibly ironic by the end.


I haven't posted much this month because I haven't had much to say.
Wait, that's not really true. I've had a non-stop torrent of words filling my brain and tormenting me in a ceaseless loop - but not of the kind I felt like sharing with the world.

My editing goals for June have stagnated and a foul whiff of failure has been hovering like too much cologne whenever I get near Scarlet and sit down in front of her red-lit keyboard. 

In case you haven't met before, let me introduce you to Scarlet. This pic is from back when she was new and shiny, before I filled her with dream-like scenes, surreal worlds of wonder and so many, many countless words. She's sexy and she damn well knows it.

After an intensely inspired and productive month in May, June was swift to kick me in the gut and make sure May hadn't given me any illusions of grand productivity on the horizon.

I've re-written / edited two chapters in 22 days.
Two.
I wrote two whole books in 22 days last month.
Fuck.

So, my writing life has hit another lull - mostly because my brain is currently obsessed with other things, ideas and emotions which have little to do with the novel at hand.

My countless doctor visits over the past few months have been one of them. MRIs, throbbing headaches that last for four to five days straight (as in, wake up with it in the morning and go to bed with it at night in cyclical fashion), blood tests and eye tests and tests that zap your limbs with low electrical current for hours to see how your muscle and nerve connections are functioning, because why the hell is your knee and the left side of your face numb unless it's something horrible and serious?

Anxiety has been a new acquaintance in my plethora of feelings lately. I've never been this jittery and feverishly distracted before. I literally CANNOT SIT STILL the day before my neurologist appointments, yet they all end the same - no diagnosis yet.
More tests, more waiting.
I have another test in a few weeks. An EMG. Needles, needles and more needles.
By the way, have I mentioned before how much I hate needles?
And if that doesn't get us an answer, they're pushing me towards a lumbar puncture.
Fuck.

But maybe there's a silver lining to all this bullshit. The inability to focus on my creative needs, the waiting... waiting... waiting (because I just generally suck at waiting), and the need for distraction to keep my anxiety from overwhelming me completely, has created the perfect storm of having nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs and sink into the abyss of my thoughts.

B&W photo I took waaaaay back in High School.
That's a fancy-ass way of saying I've been doing a lot of thinking. 

Soul-searching. Rebooting. Re-evaluating how I've been handling and approaching things lately. I'd say I've had an epiphany, but that's too strong. More like, finally figuring out that something is off after spending an hour staring at a face with no nose.

I don't particularly see a need to lay it all out, but considering the outcome of this realization, I probably should explain a little so I don't WHAM! unexpectedly and freak you all out. It's a personal understanding and one that I'll either embrace and things will change, or I'll forget about and it'll fall to the wayside while I'm swept away by other ideas that will fuel me for awhile.

Photo of a painting I did on a "canvas of skin".
Okay, maybe I'll dig in a little.
I'm a creatively fueled person (yeah I kinda just said that last paragraph, but bare with me) and that burning need to make something from nothing is not always realized through writing. I've done a mess of other things in my short 33 year existence. I've painted practically everything I could get my hands on: murals at school, furniture, people, but strangely never real canvas... Photography was also a big part of my youth. There are actually people in this world who don't know what my hand looks like without a camera in it. I've done sculpture, crochet, costumes, made jewelry, pottery, poetry, philosophy, hair (usually my own, but sometimes others' for fun). I've dabbled in acting on both stage and film (small stuff) but find I'm usually too introverted to really rise to it, though I still enjoyed it immensely. Music has also always been of huge importance in my life. I've played many instruments (drums are still my favorite!), sung in school chorus and written a song or two, but pretty much suck at all of it. Yet, music moves me in ways nothing else can and part of my current shift includes reestablishing my need for it in my daily life.

When I had kids, a lot of my self was left lingering while I focused on the needs of my most momentous creation - a person. Like, holy shit I made a whole, individual person! And this creation is one that never ends. Each day is a new opportunity for life experiences, knowledge gained and love to help them flourish and shape them into the people they will become. But you give so much of yourself to them that sometimes you forget there's a self there in the first place.

I think a lot of parents feel like this.
Children are remarkable - insane, beautiful, frustrating, brilliant, creative beings that bring us awe, exasperation and love all at the same time.
It's easy to get wrapped up in them and forget about you.

The description above is how I feel about my kids and is remarkably similar to the way my husband once described how he perceived me before we got married. We are all remarkable, insane, beautiful, flawed, creative beings that can bring awe and love to those in our lives. We each need to nourish ourselves to remain whole.

It's Throwback Thursday, right? An old pic from college captures my current mood.
I can't neglect myself or my creative needs.
I've abandoned things I was drawn to because they weren't child-appropriate. Music that moved me was silenced because the content was unsuitable for little ears.
Time is never my own, it's shared. So are decisions.
Clothes that make me feel good are left on the shelf, because I don't want my daughter's friends to tease her about her "weird mom" who wears combat boots and suspenders with electric blue jeans and orange hair. I don't want my choices to negatively influence my kids' life experiences.
But all that ends up teaching them is to be fake to fit in.
I just became my own worst fear.

Part II will be posted tomorrow.
I need a breath before I continue.
Thanks for reading!

Sunday, May 22, 2016

So much to do, So little time

If you haven't seen my updates on Facebook recently:

I've finished the first drafts of both Curse (Crow Series Book Four) and the first draft on my Steampunk Fantasy book, Songbird of Souls. I somehow managed to get both written in less than a month, which astonishes me. With all the crazy personal issues I've experienced since starting my publishing journey in 2013, I'd been averaging two books a year.

This gives me hope.
With all the uncertainty over my strange illness this past year, it's amazing and uplifting for me to be able to work like this. There are so many stories I want to write - and half the time I worry if I'll ever be able to get through them all (I literally have like five years worth of books waiting in the wings to be finished).

The next few weeks are going to be hectic for me. Doctors appointments, MRIs, my son's third birthday (damn, that was fast. Where did the time go?) and I'd planned to take a break from writing until the beginning of June when I intend to start editing Curse and getting it ready for release. Still no official publishing date on the next book in the Crow Series, but I hope to have it out sometime this summer. I've already got the cover almost finished. :D

I'm really eager to wrap up the last two books in The Crow Series this year, but it's also slightly daunting. After being with these characters in their world for so long now, I'm almost sad to see it end. On the other hand, I'm also anxious to start sharing the new steampunk fantasy series I've been working on. I've got lots of fun things coming up but it also means I have A LOT of work to do.

Which, I suppose, I should get back to.

Signing off,


Thursday, May 12, 2016

A Morning's Ruminations

Good Morning Lovely Readers!
Things have gone well since my post last week. I was swept up in such an intense surge of inspiration, I finished the first draft of Curse a whole week earlier than I'd anticipated!
*shakes pom poms excitedly*
I've set the draft aside for a few weeks to breathe before I dive into the editing, and in the meantime I've been working on the first draft of another book I'd left on the wayside for a while (not part of The Crow Series).

I'm feeling good and writing my little butt off. I intend to dive into the second draft of Curse starting June 1st and will set the release date once I've made enough headway on it to have confidence in how long it will take me to finish. One way or another, you'll be getting Book Four sometime this summer.

And then - just one book left to wrap up the series.
I'm already feeling nostalgic now that we're almost at the end. When I started this series in 2014 I'd originally thought it would be four books and I'd wrap it up within a year - BOY, was I in over my head! I guess it just goes to show, this is still a learning process.

How I write - How often I can write - How quickly I can publish.

You never really know your limits or what you're capable of until you try. I've learned a lot about myself and my own personal writing process while working on this series and for that alone it will always hold a special place in my heart. Though continuous issues have slowed me down - that's just how life is. You have to roll with the punches, take each day as it comes and try again with each new dawn if you don't succeed today.

Don't give up and give it time.
I'm still nowhere near successful with my work, but I'm loving it everyday.
I suppose I'm rambling now. Those are just my thoughts this morning.

So for now, I'll say this:

Thank you for reading. I appreciate my readers more than you know and I hope my scribblings take you far from your daily trivialities and let you dream for a while. Because dreaming is part of living too, and stories make us who we are.


Friday, May 6, 2016

Updates on Curse!

Greetings!
So, as many of you have guessed, my health took another turn for the worst towards the end of February. Luckily, I'd gotten Release finished before I started to feel ill again. I was forced to take a few months off to rest, re-couperate and refocus. My doctors and I are now hard at work running tests and trying to get to the bottom of my recurring mysterious health issues...

But in the meantime, I've gotten back to work on the fourth book in The Crow Series. In the past week alone I've written about half of the first draft on Curse and barring any unforeseen circumstances, I expect to have the first draft completed in the next few days! Yay! I can't express how excited I am and how much I'm enjoying working on the story again. We're on the downward slope of the series, so things are moving pretty hard and fast at this point - questions being answered and mysteries being revealed. It's both exhilarating and sad at the same time, as I can see the series coming to an end in front of me and I'm missing the characters already. lol

I'm not sure yet how long it will take me to get the editing completed after the first draft is done so I'm not going to set a release date yet. I just wanted to let you all know that I didn't just disappear and the book is in the works. I'm having a lot of fun playing with Denora and her friends and I hope you'll enjoy the next installment of the series as much as I'm enjoying writing it.

I know there's not a lot of people who get to do what they love everyday, and for that I'm incredibly lucky. I've only got about a handful of chapters left to write for Curse and I'm already putting together my ideas for the final book in the series. I've got lots to do and I'm reveling in it.

So, I hope you're all having a fabulous Friday and here's to a productive weekend!


Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Teaser Tuesday


Teaser Tuesday!



Allrighty! Last teaser for Release, incoming:


Release - The Crow Series Book Three:

 

I had left my door ajar and a cool breeze kissed my cheek as I stepped into my room. I was immediately glad I’d left the window open as I spied three black-feathered mounds deep asleep on my pillow.
They must have come in to get out of the rain.
I smiled to myself, sinking onto the open area in the middle of my bed.
Feathers ruffled in front of my face as Felix lifted his beak and fixed me with curious eyes.
“I saw Silas today.” I whispered, reaching out and running my fingers down his back. My spirit soared as I uttered the words.
After all these months, all the waiting, all the obstacles…
“I miss you so much.” I murmured, rolling onto my back to stare up at the ceiling, “It almost feels like a whole other life since I’ve seen your face.” Felix squawked in response and I sighed, “Or heard your voice.” He slowly rose up, his sharp talons sinking into the plush pillow as he moved closer to me. “Shit, what I wouldn’t give just to talk to you - like, really talk to you. You’ve always had a knack for setting me straight when I’m fucking up…”
Felix tilted his head to the side, his small black eyes considering me.
“Am I fucking up, Felix?” I breathed, a shudder creeping up my spine, “What if it’s all a lie?”
Despite Silas’ re-assurances, my mind kept going back to what he’d said on the train.
I startled from my thoughts as Felix nuzzled his beak against the side of my face. I could almost imagine the way he used to affectionately kiss my cheek when I was worried. He settled into the crook of my elbow as I rolled onto my side, leaning his beak over the surface of my arm.
“I love you too.” I whispered, smiling as I drifted off to sleep.

I hope you liked all the sneak peeks at book three. Release is officially out in ebook and paperback through Amazon. If you haven't gotten your copy yet, what are you waiting for? lol
Seriously though, I really enjoyed writing this book, even with all the delays and hiccups along the way. I hope you enjoy the newest installment of The Crow Series.

Pssst... I've already started working on Book Four. Crossing my fingers it doesn't take a whole year like the last one :P

Have a lovely week!

Saturday, February 6, 2016

Release!


After the long wait, the third book in The Crow Series is finally here!

Release


http://amzn.to/1PZE9iN
Time is moving too slow for Denora. 

After months of waiting, she’s made no progress on her brothers’ curse, her mother’s journal keeps slipping through her grasp and she hasn’t heard a word from Silas. But with the Clandestine celebration of the Vernal Equinox looming on the horizon, both friends and enemies return, along with Denora’s hope for a cure. 

With each step forward, the secrets of her family’s past are coming into the light. Loved ones show their true faces and betrayal comes from someone she least expects. Denora’s misplaced trust could cost her everything she holds dear.


Mature Young Adult Fiction. Recommended age 16+


The ebook is currently available for $3.99 on Amazon and FREE through Kindle Unlimited. 

Tuesday, February 2, 2016

Time for the Tease!


Teaser Tuesday!



All right! Just a few more days until you can get your hands on Release! This was going to be my last Tuesday Tease for the new book, but I think I'll post one more next week for those of you who won't be able to pick it up right away.
For this week's Tease, I picked a scene with both my favorite boys :)


Release - The Crow Series Book Three:

 

My eyes peeled open to bright morning sunlight through the window. Conner was still fast asleep. He shifted slightly as I lifted my head off his chest, rubbing my eyes with my palms.
Something had jarred me awake, but I was still half lost in dreams and couldn’t make any sense of it.
Sienna was growling with a deep resonating rumble, his tail fat and furious behind him.
I bolted upright in surprise when the sound registered in my brain. My eyes landed on Silas where he stood in the open doorway and Sienna hissed again, pushing through Silas’ feet out into the hall.
“When I asked you to keep an eye on my nephew, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.” Silas said quietly. I sat up the rest of the way and blinked at him in confusion. He certainly looked like something out of a dream - his black hair wild around his face, his emerald green eyes alight with jealousy. “You look surprised to see me.”
“Honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to come back so soon.”
“I can see that.” His eyes sharpened on Conner like a blade.
Conner must have sensed it. His eyes snapped open suddenly and his hand reached out towards the warm patch beside him where I had been sleeping moments before. When he saw Silas standing over us he shrugged lazily.
“Oh - you’re back too.”
Silas crossed his arms over his chest, “Yes, I am.” The way he said it was like a threat.
Conner stretched his arms up over his head, broadening his chest as he sat upright beside me.
I groaned, pushing myself up onto my feet.
“I’m not awake enough for this.” I mumbled, grabbing a towel and shoving my way past Silas as I headed for the bathroom. “I’m going to take a shower. When you guys are done with your territorial pissing match, let me know who wins.”

Heehee damn I love those two! The edits for Release are all wrapped up and ready for this weekend. If you're interested in the new book, I'll be announcing it this Saturday when it goes live, otherwise please consider joining my mailing list for updates and special promotions:






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