“When’s That Book Coming?” Winter 2014 Update

So I can’t link to the old state-of-the-union posts because, as you can see, I have a new site/blog now and the old posts are gone. Last one was October and I was on a bit of a writing hiatus and had just lost/left/mostly-lost-but-semi-left my day job.

For the job thing? I am sublimely happy.

I mean, I spend a fair amount of time wondering how I’m going to pay my rent. It’s not just the unsteady income but the difficultly when relying on royalties that come from several different sellers who are all on their own payment schedule–it would drive me to drink if, y’know, I had the money to spend on alcohol.

And yet there is so much less stress. I can actually make a living wage now on things like editing and I dictate my own terms (no more being required to do content and copyediting AND proofreading for what amounts to pennies an hour), I get down payments up front and full payments immediately after work is complete, and thus far have worked with utterly fantastic clients. Plus no one screams at me constantly for other people’s fuck-ups. WIN.

But that’s not why you’re here; you come for book stuff! Since the last post…

Relaunch

There was the week-long blog tour and relaunch of the Demons of Oblivion series late October, as I had my rights back and wanted to give the books a push. Thank you so, so much first and foremost to Melissa of My World…in words and pages for organizing the tour and taking care of everything for me. And thank you to everyone who allowed a guest post, interview, or reviewed the books.

The result was around a bunch of new people getting Bloodlines while it was free, and a handful sticking around and picking up the other books over November and December. If you’re a new reader who came from that–hello! Nice to meet you. Thank you for reading, and if you also posted a review and told your friends, I really appreciate it. You are sexy and awesome.

This has also increased illegal downloader traffic by tenfold. Folks, the series will not continue without reader support. The books are extremely affordable and made available everywhere. I am not a popular enough author to justify publishing books that are stolen more than they are bought, especially not now that this is how I make my living. Rent comes first. If you stumble across this blog post while looking for torrents, please stop. /rant

New Releases

All the Demons of Oblivion novels and stories have been re-released in ebook. I’m not sure about print yet–the print rights for Bloodlines still lie elsewhere, and if I’m going to do print, I’d like to release all of the books together. Incidentally, Bloodlines is also now in audiobook if that’s your thing.

I also released a short story, Hungry Like the Wendigo, under the Tales from Alchemy Red banner. It’s a Ryann David short (well, a LONG short story at 9K words), includes Ellie and Nic, and takes place between Hunter and Lineage.

While it wasn’t exactly a “release”, I wrote a novella set way in the Demons of Oblivion ‘verse future called Dial V for Vampire and offered it as a Christmas gift to members of the Facebook fangroup. It’s Zara narrated, set after Solace (the theoretical sixth book).

I’m also serializing Soulless, which you’ll recall was a PWYC/fundraiser thank you gift for Sophie in 2012 when she was sick. Two chapters a week, and there’s a tip jar there–when donations reach $50, I post an additional chapter that Friday. Eight chapters are already live.

What I’m Working On

Uh…

I tried to take January to just write something for me and failed at that because I hate everything I write right now. So I’m back to working on for-pay writing projects, which you (probably) don’t read, because I am officially a full time writer/freelance designer now and I need to be able to pay for heat during this -30C winter. Like a grownup. Which is my least favourite thing to be.

There are several projects on my radar, however.

• Odin’s Spear (Livi #2) – the zero draft is such a damn mess that I decided to call it done despite the five or so missing chapters, and I’m now working on a decent first draft.
• Amends – this is the old Zara serial. I’m not relaunching it until I have a draft done but it’s my intention to do that this year, hopefully after Soulless concludes.
• Retrograde (Baptiste’s War #1) – formerly known as Nairobi Spy Book. Nothing I can say right now except that, though it’s been fighting me, I expect the zero draft to hit me like a freight train when it’s done simmering in my brain soon.
• River (River Wolfe #1) – planning to work on the rewrites for this in the spring and eyeing a summer release if all goes well. This’ll require a Kickstarter/Indiegogo sort of thing, probably.
• Oblivion – I’ll endeavor to get a zero draft done by the summer, with an eye on a possible fall release.

All of this is subject to change.

I hate being vague and not having firm dates for the books you’re waiting for, but to take the time to write projects with no guarantee of return on investment, I have to get a chunk of money saved up for rent and stuff first which requires focusing on paying work right now. I’d rather tell you that upfront than have to pick random release dates and then excuse away when they’re missed. With the lack of art patrons and sugar daddies nowadays, we do what we can.

I’ve also noticed a renewed interest in people hitting the old Children of the Apocalypse serial site. Book Three is still on hiatus; I pulled it out, I think, last year(?) with the idea to finish it at last and maybe start the fourth book, but there is so, so much I wanted to change with the whole thing, I realized that for me to revisit this series, I’m going to have to give it a total rehaul. Each book and short story, rewritten from scratch. And…you guessed it, that is just not in the cards right now for a freebie. I have hesitated even leaving the books up as-is because I dislike something out there that I don’t feel is my best work, but people still read it now and then and if they get some enjoyment out of it, I’d rather not take that from them, especially since I don’t know when I’ll have a chance to re-release it.

 Other New Stuff

There is a new…sort of addition to the home.

This is Vincent.

He was outside my apartment building in December, crying every time he saw me (he is NOT an outdoor/stray cat), and I live on a busy intersection in town where he was at risk of being hit by a car, if he didn’t starve or freeze to death first (as the temperature was dropping really fast).

Extremely generous friends kicked in $ around Christmas to help feed him (and boy, does he eat) and send him to the vet (he’s about five years old and healthy), so things are well right now. He was already neutered, not mircrochipped, and despite looking for his possible owners I’ve had no luck finding anyone. He’s now BFFs with Rodney Ballsnomore and he worships me, so we’re figuring things out as we go since there are no open foster homes here for him. At this point if his humans show up, I am probably going to bitchslap them for doing such a piss-poor job of looking for him.

Also, he’s ginger. We all know how I feel about ginger cats, considering 1/3 of my felines are of the redheaded persuasion.

So. Y’know. Tell your friends to buy my books so I can feed my cats? (Failed Marketing Slogan #147)

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Next update coming in April!