Category Archives: Publishing News

Publishing delay…

I’ve been putting this off because I hated to break the news, but I’m going to have to delay publishing Stalked by Flames. A few too many things in my personal life came up this month that severely delayed my getting through revisions. Family troubles, illness, round after round of thunderstorms and massive flooding in my state–a lot of things. As soon as I’d think I could get back to work something else would come along to throw me off my game.

In addition to that, I’ve just been taking longer to get the story how I want it. One of the great things about this stage in my writing career is I’ve learned a lot through publishing the Sensor Series. I’ve been taking all those lessons and applying them so that this new series can start off with a bang, but it has meant revisions have gone slower. Plus a good deal of research and fact checking has gone into Stalked by Flames. Not that I don’t have a lot with my other books, but this story has some major elements I haven’t had to deal with before.

I’m rather amazed the guy at the water treatment plant in the town where this book takes place didn’t hang up on me the other day. I needed to know how the long water would keep running if dragons invaded and knocked out the power grid. A reasonable question, right? Of course, I did introduce myself as an author and gave him a brief summary of the story first. Still, it was a little awkward to ask. I must say I’m grateful there are sci-fi/fantasy lovers everywhere and he understood my need for information. We had a nice fifteen minute chat on all the possible scenarios so I could be sure I got it right in my book. I’ve had other phone calls like that where people were just as cooperative. And no federal agents have showed up on my doorstep wondering what I’m up to, so that’s a bonus.

I’ve just about got the first quarter of the book where I want it. That is always the hardest part for me and takes the longest to get through because all the groundwork is laid there. It had been a while since I’d started a new series and I’d forgotten how complicated world building, character introductions, plot, etc. could be when you don’t have previous books to rely on. This is an all-new cast with dynamics that are rather different from my other books.

Needless to say I’m estimating it will take a few more weeks to get through revisions on the rest of the book and bounce the manuscript back and forth with my editors. My hope is to have the book out by July 25th. If anyone would be interested in doing a beta read of the early chapters (about 20k words) let me know by Sunday, June 28th. Please only respond if you’re serious about looking them over and can have them back to me in a few days. For those who email through the contact page or comment here, I’ll get the file to you on Sunday for you to look over.

Thanks to everyone for their patience. I am very excited about this novel and hope to have it out soon. For those who haven’t signed up for my book release alerts and want to be sure you don’t miss Stalked by Flames when it comes out, click here. You’ll only receive emails when I publish new books, nothing else.

Charity Drive, Audio, and other updates

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I meant to have an update post sooner, but I had a family emergency come up over the weekend. My brother was in a car crash last Friday and ended up being flown by helicopter to the hospital because of a head injury he received in the collision. At first they feared they’d have to operate, but thankfully the bleeding in his brain stopped and they transferred him over to the ICU where they monitored him for a couple of days.

It was a scary experience seeing my younger brother lying there on a ventilator. The hospital where they took him is nearly an hour from my home so I spent as much time as I could with him until he was out of danger. Thankfully, he’s been released now and is recuperating. If anyone messaged me in recent days I apologize for not getting back to you sooner, but I am trying to catch up.

Memorial Day charity drive

For those who read my previous post or caught my mention on Facebook, I participated in a charity drive for veteran charities late last month. From May 22nd to the 29th any sales I received on Darkness Haunts (all formats), would go to the Wounded Warrior Project. I didn’t meet my goal of $500, but did raise $302.54 between ebook and paperback sales. For audio, I’m traditionally published and can’t get the numbers for a while so I kicked up the total amount to cover that. Today I sent $400 to the Wounded Warrior Project as my donation from the fundraiser. Thanks to everyone who either bought a copy or helped spread the word. I really appreciate it.

Darkness Shatters audio release

For those who have been waiting for Darkness Shatters to come out in audio, it is available today. You can pick up your copy wherever audiobooks are sold in either digital or CD format. I’m including a few links below:

Amazon

Audible

iTunes

Tantor (only $4.99 as of this posting)

Stalked by Flames news

I plan to have the first three chapters posted by mid-June for you all to check out. Stay tuned if you’re interested in trying the first book in my all-new dragon series. If you haven’t heard about it yet, you can find out more details here.

Cover reveal for Stalked by Flames

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I’ve been keeping this quiet for a while now, but it’s finally time to announce a new series I’m starting this summer. The idea for this came to me over a year ago. At the time I was working on Darkness Divides and knew I needed to stay focused on the Sensor Series for a few more books before mixing anything else into my writing schedule, but the story continued to bug me. While plenty of ideas hit me all the time this one refused to let go. I jotted notes, wrote random scenes, and did some research, but it wasn’t until the release of Darkness Shatters that I allowed myself to focus on Stalked by Flames (though, not to worry, Darkness Wanes is still coming out in October).

It is the first novel in what I hope will become a long series. The genre is urban fantasy with some apocalyptic elements and it has entirely different creatures/races than the Sensor books. For those wondering about romance it is going to be a slow-burn that will play out over the course of the series. There’s no rushing this one, but it will happen eventually. The heroine will have her POV in first person and the hero in third person (much like what you saw in Darkness Shatters).

Next month I’ll post a book trailer, behind-the-scenes shots from the model photo shoot, and a book excerpt. For now, you can check out the cover and book summary. Hope you all are as excited about this one as I am!

EXPECTED RELEASE DATE- July 20th, 2015

SUMMARY:

Bailey Monzac has just graduated college and is heading to her parents’ ranch for the summer when dragons invade. Like something out of her worst nightmare, the fire-breathing beasts rain down chaos and devastation on unsuspecting human populations. One minute Bailey’s planning her future; the next she’s merely trying to survive.

But it isn’t long before she discovers she’s different from the people around her—the dragons’ destructive flames don’t affect her. That gives her an edge, but it also means she’ll become a target for powerful individuals seeking to use her to their advantage. Bailey will have to distinguish between allies and enemies quickly as she gets drawn into a war unlike anything the Earth has seen before.

Add to your Goodreads TBR list here.

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I also have a lot of people to thank for the cover design on this one as it took a whole team to put my vision together. Below you’ll find everyone involved in the process, but I’d like to give a special shout-out to Alison Esposito at Wild Wolf Leatherwork on Etsy for making the custom leather harness the model is wearing. It turned out amazing! Also, I can’t express how much I appreciate the help of my fan design team including Rachel, Sarah, and Kristy who helped me with wardrobe selection and model poses. You ladies are awesome!

Background design with dragon- Jeff Brown Graphics

Model- Isabella Capri

Model photographer- Teresa Yeh

Hair stylist/make-up artist- Nadya Rutman

Cover design- Claudia McKinney

Typography- Catie McKinney

April updates and sale on Darkness Haunts

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For those who don’t subscribe to my newsletter and missed it this morning I wanted to give a few updates. The first is that Darkness Haunts is currently on sale for only 99 cents through to tomorrow night (April 2nd) on all the major retailers. If you know anyone who might be interested in trying the series out, this is a great time to get the first book at a discount since I’m not sure if/when I’ll drop the price again. You can find the purchase links for it here.

In other news…

One of the questions I’ve been asked a lot lately is when the Darkness Shatters paperback will be out. I’m waiting on the hard copy proof to look over, but I expect to approve it and have it ready for sale within the next two weeks. Some of you are also waiting on the audio version of Darkness Shatters. My publisher has set the release date for June 3rd of this year and the CD version is already up for pre-order. They usually don’t have the digital version on pre-order until 2-3 weeks before the release, but I’ll put out another reminder close to then for those who need it.

As far as my publishing schedule on upcoming books go, I’m writing a novel now for an all-new series with the first book releasing in late June. It’s an idea that hit me about a year ago and has been bugging me ever since. I’ve worked on it in bits and pieces over the past months, but forced myself to wait until after publishing Darkness Shatters before putting my full attention on it. This one falls within the dark fantasy genre, but has totally different races/creatures than the Sensor Series. Most of my current readers should find it appealing. Yes, I’m leaving the details vague but I’ll reveal the cover and summary in about a month so you can find out more then.

For Darkness Wanes, book six of the Sensor Series, I expect to have it out in October of this year. That will wrap up the story arc for the main series, but I’ll go on to write spin-offs for some of the side characters and explore more on how *spoiler alert* the world has changed with supernaturals coming out in the open. There will be at least two of those novels (one featuring Cori as the main character and another featuring Micah) and possibly a third if the demand for Kerbasi to get his own novel keeps up. After that, I may do a book seven with Melena and Lucas where I actually keep them together for the plot (try not to be too shocked). Yes, I hear the complaints but keep in mind this is an urban fantasy series, not a paranormal romance so the focus has been different. Book seven would be to please the PNR lovers.

That’s it for now, but feel free to ask questions below if you have any.

Darkness Shatters is now available!

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For those of you who haven’t caught it yet, Darkness Shatters is now out. This is the fifth installment of the series and events are really heating up as we near the end (one book left to go, not counting spin-offs). If you didn’t read the three chapter sample I provided in my previous post, you may not know Lucas has his point of view in this installment. He only gets about twenty percent of the novel with Melena still narrating the other eighty percent, but it is important at times you see things from his side (for the sake of the plots and their relationship). I really enjoyed writing this one and hope you’ll enjoy reading it.

Below is a summary for the novel and links to the retailers. Thanks to everyone who has stayed with me this far into the series. It’s meant a lot to me.

SUMMARY:

Winter has come to Alaska and it’s about to be joined by death.

Since moving to Fairbanks, Melena Sanders has watched too many of her friends die because she couldn’t react fast enough. When a mysterious illness comes along targeting only supernatural races she’s determined to stop it. But as the death toll climbs she realizes finding a cure is more complicated than she thought. Melena might have to give in to plans to reveal the existence of supernaturals to the human world—as it may be the only way to save them.

Word count: 96,000 (approximate)

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RETAILER LINKS:

AMAZON US AMAZON UK AMAZON DE AMAZON AU AMAZON CA

NOOK KOBO ITUNES