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Fantasy Romance

romance author

Cover Reveal!

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Yes, it took much longer than I had planned, but here is the cover for Knight of Valor!

And the link to pre-order it!

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What would it take for you to make the devil’s own bargain?

The vampires hunting Brelynn are the least of her worries. Not even the demons stalking her are enough to convince her to make the bargain. But to prevent her master from capturing her again, she’ll do anything, including make a pact with the King of Tamryn and the Knight of Valor he sends to fetch her. A Knight of Valor that eradicates all that is unholy in his path, including her, if she’s not careful. But he’s the only man that can destroy her master. The only man that can truly free her. And the only man that can win her heart.

Sir Marcus Valerian is the Knight of Valor who slew a lich, freed a nation, and came home a broken man. The Dragon Church wants him to retire. The Tamryn people want him to be their legend. He just wants a purpose again and accepts a mission from the king. The mission wasn’t supposed to involve destroying vampires, demons, and necromancers. But those aren’t the hard part. Reminding himself a man like him can never fall in love is.

As another lich rises, Sir Marcus and Brelynn must decide how much they’ll risk, how much they’ll give, to save the land and for their own chance at love.

Writing: June Progress Update

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Here is my progress for the year through the end of June:

JulyProgressUpdate

I hate missing deadlines.

I am going to confess that being so open about how much I have missed this year is a little embarrassing.

But also motivating.

While I am still behind where I had planned to be at the end of June, you can see my Type A over-achiever has been in full swing getting me ahead on the rest of the year’s goals so that I WILL be caught up by the end of the summer.

Maybe.

What is holding up the release of Knight of Valor?

Interesting that you should ask. I am struggling with the book cover. Again.

After all of the work that goes into writing, editing, editing, editing.

 

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And this was the fourth round of edits

The book deserves a professional cover. We’ve all seen books that don’t have them and cringed.

As a matter-of-fact, the first edition of George RR Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice (also known as Game of Thrones) had an “experimental” cover and almost tanked the entire series.

Covers are important, so I am working toward getting a professional looking one.

I know some authors create their own. I laud them for that, but I don’t have years of graphic design experience. I am not afraid of learning, but I would rather spend that time on writing and improving my abilities as a storyteller. Some authors hire professional accountants to do their books and prepare their taxes. That is something I can do myself.

A few things about cover artists:

  • Most have more work than they can handle, and you must put your name down for a slot based on when you think your book will be complete
  • I can’t order a cover until I have a page count.
  • I don’t have a page count until I complete the final draft.
  • I missed my target date to complete the final draft

So, yes, I missed my slot. The person I am working with thought she would get to it back in May. Then she pushed it out to mid-June. Now I am hoping mid-July.

In the meantime, I have not stopped working on new stories or revising existing stories.

I am hoping this is going to work like buffer stock. Once I have worked ahead a bit, I can better absorb variables without disrupting my end release date to readers.

Fingers crossed.

And the Cats Watch

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I fear spiders. Note, there will be no pictures of spiders in this post. You will have to Google them if you want to see them.

I didn’t always fear spiders. When I was a child, I would play with them. Yeah. I know. I had a deprived childhood. But I would hold them in the palm of my hand and giggle as they ran across my forearm. Or I would build little labyrinths for them, which they mostly just climbed over the walls.

All of that changes when we moved to Seattle, and spiders went from being a run-of-the-mill insects (okay, arachnids), to creatures that could necrotize flesh.

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Exactly what you need to do if you find brown recluses nesting in your vents.

Seriously.

My sister was bitten by a spider. I won’t describe how awful it was, how painful, or the scars the bite left.

If you want an idea, go look up brown recluse bites. Yeah. They are awful.

That completely changed my view on spiders, and I went from playing with them to smooshing them. Or fleeing from them, as the case may be.

Then I moved to New Orleans.

In addition to brown recluses, they have black widows. And brown widows. And a slew of other really nasty and unpleasant things.

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And the basement, too.

So, yes, my fear was solidified.

These days, I have two cats. One is a former barn cat. These boys should be able to take out a mere spider, right? Especially now that we live in the frozen tundra, and there are no brown recluses or wolf spiders here.

Yeaaaaah, about that. Apparently, we didn’t set expectations properly.

As I was getting out of the shower the other night, both cats had managed to get into the bathroom. If you don’t close and lock the door just right, they can jiggle it open. And both cats love to join me in the shower.

Whoever said cats hate water don’t know my two.

As anyone who owns cats knows, cats love to get their hair all over you. And one of my cats is a 26 pound long-haired Maine Coon. What better way for him to get hair all over me than to rub up against my bare wet leg?

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And the sofa, and the floor…

As I was about to step out of the shower, I noticed a spider on my floor roughly the size of my palm.

I managed not to scream.

But I am in the shower. I don’t have shoes on.

So, I do what anyone else in my situation would do and call for my husband without trying to scare the kids.

He must have heard he urgency in my voice, as he came before I called for the third time.

During this entire process, both cats are simply watching the spider crawl across the bathmat as I stand in the shower waiting to be rescued.

KillSpider
Might do the trick. Maybe.

Fortunately, my husband arrived and squished the spider. At which point, both cats had the nerve to be disappointed that the thing was gone!

I swear, those little beasts aren’t worth the cat food we feed them!

 

 

Serial Micro Fiction: Miracle

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Makayla whispered a prayer to Dracor.

Better to die from an archer’s arrow than fall to a vampire.

Another arrow shot from the woods.

And another.

Each felling a single enemy.

It was the miracle she needed as she carved a path through the remaining thralls and their vampire masters.