It’s Thanksgiving in Canada, and I did manage a family dinner yesterday, which is no small feat given that I’ve been getting over food poisoning.

Long-time followers will remember when I was sick five years ago (this month is the anniversary of my diagnosis and finally getting treatment, actually) and how difficult that was. What triggered the disease back then was (likely; nothing is every understood 100% but science is pointing this way) a bout of food poisoning that lead to my immune system becoming overactive and attacking my body. Five years is a long time for remission and to feel well-ish again, but this has thrown me back into the terror of a relapse. (Terror is really the only word for it, and I think only if you’ve ever been in remission after being seriously sick will you understand how scary it is to feel like you’re going to be ill again.) So I’m trying to chill for a few weeks and hoping I’m not about to get worse.

You don’t come here for my health updates, I realize, but that’s what’s going on here and why I’m not around much. I’ve been super stressed for a few months with work and volunteer stuff, and I’ve been fighting a depressive episode, so this is the trifecta of fucked-up health stuff. I’ve always seen physical illnesses as a sign to slow down, so I’ve been trying to take some quiet time while balancing it with the fact that if I get too quiet and keep too much to myself, it’s easier for my brain to try to murder me. Fun times!

With that out of the way…

What’s New

Shiva’s Bow released!

No one’s yelled at me yet for it, so I’ve got that going for me. Several new peeps joined Patreon–yay! (Except for the pledge-dodger who joined to steal stuff and delete before she was charged–boo!)

And also…

Bloodlines was officially moved in audiobook to my ACX account as well, which means when you buy a copy now, I will actually get paid for it.

What’s Upcoming

Stuff! One more project, hopefully before the year is out, and then stuff is coming next year.

The rough draft was completed and posted at Patreon, and will be coming your way either late next month or sometime in December (or January–I dunno)… A new Zara story.

As mentioned when I released King’s Bounty, I’ve a few First Dates stories I plan to write and release, and this is the next one.

Snarky vampire Zara Lain decides to end a dry spell by doing something new: she asks out the veterinarian for her saber-tooth cat for drinks.

The guy is nice. The date goes well.

And then all hell breaks loose.

An old enemy is back and willing to do anything to make her save him from an assassination attempt–bribes, threats, and even making her the new target.

Release date: TBD
Preoder: TBD

*Subtitle might change to “novella” since it’s 15K words and might expand a little bit in revision.

It’s set post-Oblivion and will dovetail into a new series coming next year…which I will now officially tell you about publicly as I’ve finished the (very, very rough) zero draft.

Introducing…Demons of Oblivion: The Next Generation

Elis O’Connor kills people.

“Garbage men”, to be exact—the predators, the abusers…and the occasional mansplainer. It scratches an itch and, since the death of her mother sent her spiraling, it hardly seems like the worst way to pass her time in a post-apocalyptic city crawling with demons and dimensional tears.

One thing she doesn’t do is save men.

But that’s about to change when a woman comes to her door for help finding her missing cousin. While Elis would love to send her packing, this cousin isn’t just anyone: he’s Elis’s estranged older half-brother Dev, and he’s gotten himself into trouble even the considerable magic ability they both share can’t get him out of.

Release date: TBD (2020)
Preorder: TBD

Series followers will recognize her surname and probably surmise who Dev is. While I think it is enhanced by knowing the previous series, it’s written as its own entity that newcomers should be able to follow along with. I will remind series fans that there was a whole other five-book arc due that I am likely not going back to–or if I do, they won’t be published–so a lot has changed in the world. That backstory is not the focus of the new series, though hints are given.

All I will confirm at this time is that yes, Nate has a daughter who is a pansexual witch serial killer of bad men. You’re welcome.

Blood Ties will have a wider release maybe by the spring, but the intent is to serialize it at Patreon and Gumroad with two chapters a week for a couple of months first, likely starting in January. I’ll set the dates once I have the zero draft worked into a respectable first draft–right now I’ve left out a couple of scenes and it’s more of a sketch than anything else. It’s also my plan to make it into a series because I love writing Elis.

So those are the projects I’ve finished.

Still in progress but set for sometime next year:

Betrayal and sacrifice follow Livi Talbot on her darkest adventure yet.

Still reeling from the ultimate betrayal that has set her entire world off-kilter, the hits keep coming when Livi’s estranged mother—who abandoned the Talbot family twenty years ago—shows up without warning. She’s looking for a pre-Incan stone idol in the ruins of an abandoned Spanish mission that has escaped looters for centuries, and she asks Livi to find it.

Livi wants to be anywhere but home, and a trip with her family to Peru is just what she needs to clear her head—even if it involves reconnecting with her mom. But a heartbroken adventurer is a distracted one, making Livi the perfect target for supernatural guardians in the jungle…and more danger from those closest to her that she might not see until it’s too late.

Release date: TBD 2020
Preorder: TBD

I literally have the rest all mapped out and ready, I’m just…so, so tired. But I’ll get there. It’s only 60K or so to go.

Also next year will be Waverly Jones, which is also mapped out and eager to be written.

Stay tuned for preorder links to various things soon!