I’ve set a date for the fourth Livi novel:
August 27, 2019
Read more for preorder links“When’s That Book Coming?” Spring 2019 Edition
When we last left our heroine…*checks*…oh, I’d sold a bunch of books over New Year’s. Sales were really good in January and February. They’ve dropped again now that those folks have caught up with the series (except at Kobo–love you, Kobo!), but I’ve picked up new readers excited about more Livi and who have joined Patreon. So that is amazing, and if you’re new around here, welcome! Please tell a friend or seven!
What’s New
The first Livi boxset is available–this contains Solomon’s Seal, Odin’s Spear, Ashford’s Ghost (novella), Emperor’s Tomb.
I’ve also set for re-release some of Aunt Judy’s books–Teacher’s Pet and Love by the Pound, two of her first books, are up for preorder. I recovered Big Fat Lies and Second Chances: Jack and Gillian with more traditional romance covers, which I think would please her.
Of her stuff, I think I still have a couple of novellas, and her novel Lady Blue left to release.
If you’re tired of me killing and torturing characters, check out her romances! They will not break your heart, as I am wont to do, but as her literary heir, I make full royalties.
What I’m Working On…
Livi #5 is once again in progress–I took a break because kittens–and it’s now up to 50K. I’m maybe at the halfway mark? There’s a lot of filling in to do but it’s coming along. While #4 is a game changer, #5 is what starts to set Livi on her path/mission/calling/whatever you want to call it.
ICYMI buried in the post a few days ago, here’s the look at the covers for the first six, all in a row.
Research for #6 is in progress, but I will likely need a break to let it percolate some. There are books beyond that, they just don’t have titles yet.
Also in progress, as announced last time, is the Waverly Jones mystery series. What was going to be a fairly simple thing I knocked out between Livi books has, of course, gotten a lot more complicated, and I’m actually sort of plotting properly with recipe cards and everything instead of leaving the tangles in my head.
Or, okay, I’m learning to plot before I can actually plot, and yes, I’ve written like forty books without plotting, and keep everything in my head. My brain is a very busy place. Stop judging me.
What’s Upcoming
New Livi novella this month! King’s Bounty is swinging your way in just over two weeks.
Kindle – Kobo – Nook – iBooks
It’s not always whirlwind international danger and adventures for single mom and treasure hunter Livi Talbot—this time, fun’s a little closer to home when she accepts a blind date set up by her brother. A perfect storm leaves her without a babysitter—at least until Dale West arrives at her door and is willing to watch her daughter for a few hours.
But even the nicest evening out can take a sharp downturn fast: Livi and her date are abducted, bound, and dragged to an abandoned farmhouse outside of the city.
No one is coming to save her.
Her date isn’t much help.
And the kidnappers? Well, they’re merely henchmen. The real boss is on their way—and Livi’s not sure she’ll survive long after they arrive.
For Livi Talbot, of course even an ordinary first date is going to end badly.
I didn’t actually have much of a soundtrack for this one, so I’ll be skipping Soundtrack Sunday, but this was the theme for the epilogue (with a bit of this one thrown in for West):
In addition to the kidnapping and West POV babysitting, in King’s Bounty you get:
- a loose end from Emperor’s Tomb tied up
- a celebration of Livi being super competent, at least in some circles
- my editor saying, re: West “If she doesn’t marry him, I WILL”
- Livi’s favourite mac & cheese recipe
After that…I think we will be looking at Shiva’s Bow releasing in August. I will probably decide that next month and, if that’s what I go with, I’ll have preorder links as soon as I set a date.
Prepare yourselves, boys and girls.
This is why I don’t write romance–it takes four fucking novels for anyone to kiss, I’ll have gray hair by the time they finally bang.
Waverly Jones should start in the back half the year–now that I’ve committed to plotting, I suspect writing will actually be easier with, like, all this shit in place so I don’t get halfway through and get hit over the head with information I should’ve had at the beginning. *cough*Emperor’s Tomb*cough*
Happy reading! I hope you like King’s Bounty! (Don’t tell me if you don’t!)
“When’s That Book Coming?” Winter 2019 Edition
A strange thing happened New Year’s Eve: I sold a lot of books.
Solomon’s Seal had been a 99c deal as part of a Kobo promotion–which is where it tends to do best–then Amazon price-matched and the sale ended up advertised in some high-traffic places. Sales jumped up on Amazon for the first time (Amazon sales have never been good for that series), a bunch of books sold, and I had a panic attack. Yes, normal people would immediately be excited. I am not normal.
Anyway, the series as a whole has picked up a bunch of new readers and the first book has been selling steadily. Thus far, at least the new readers I’ve heard from really dig the books, so yay!
This has meant a spike in traffic to the site with queries about when Shiva’s Bow will be released, so let’s get to it.
What’s New
Nothing since last time!
Actually, that’s not true. I finally released the Demons of Oblivion series bundle on Kindle Unlimited, so it’s free to read there. (New readers! If you like urban fantasy that’s on the brutal side, you might dig it. If you prefer romance HEAs, it is not going to be your thing. Really. It’s a bit of a gut-punch and VERY different from Livi.)
The West Is Best Club ($10+ tier) on Patreon got a new West short story for Christmas.
And…yeah. That’s it.
I’d genuinely planned a big update for the New Year. I go away to visit family at Christmas, which generally gives me an opportunity to get some writing done since I don’t work do freelance work during that time.
My depression was pretty bad by late November and well into December–I have very specific triggers I try to avoid and I ended up blindsided by one. Eventually I’m going to do a “life hacks for living with depression” post–I survived for three weeks just eating instant meals off of paper plates and trying to do a handful of dishes a day just to get caught up. Then my anxiety was through the roof with the holidays (depression, plus being poor and unable to buy gifts, plus large crowds). Then come 11pm Christmas Day, my old cat ended up at the emergency vet and had forty-eight hours of seizures until I could talk to my regular vet and get a prescription called in for him. Then the tail end of last week I developed bronchitis and I’m presently certain I have the plague.
I did get a lot of early research for Livi #5 done and a bit of writing.
My other big project was revamping my freelance site.
I’ve kept my rates really low for a lot of years and it’s time I start placing better value on my time–and I restructured things so clients could better pick what will fit their needs and budgets. If you have writer types in your life, please keep me in mind if they’re looking for a freelancer!
What’s Upcoming
All that said, I do have stuff upcoming in 2019, and here’s the status of said stuff:
A Livi boxset! The first three novels plus Ashford’s Ghost, which, if you missed, I highly recommend checking out. It’ll be important even if not readily apparent. I promise.
Release date ETA: March 12 2019.
Okay, so what you’ve actually been waiting for…
Livi #4: Shiva’s Bow
The one everyone is looking for updates about.
This book is done-ish. I have the second draft done, and I plan to do another nitpicky draft before I send it for copyedits.
But…
I want to do that after I have a zero draft of the fifth book (more on that below).
Release Date ETA: None. This is a big book in the series and, once you get to it, you’ll be clamoring for the next one. I’m not picking a date until I know for sure I can get you the next in the series after a brief 3-6 month break.
New Readers: I’m sorry, I used to be one of those people who could write books in quick succession. I’m not now. I’m a pretty severely mentally ill, chronically ill, single-income person who works as a freelancer, and Livi books do not lend themselves well to being fast-tracked. I want them well-researched, unrushed, and crafted well for you.
I hope you can be patient! I promise it’ll be worth the wait because, well…
Nowhere to run. No one to trust.
For once, life is looking good for single mom and adventurer Livi Talbot.
Work is steady, her team is dependable, her daughter is thriving. And then there’s deadly operative Dale West—who sometimes turns into a tiger and always throws her off her game. Just as she’s ready to confront her growing feelings for him, he invites her on a mission for his agency that will take her team to Nepal. A recent earthquake has revealed a mysterious temple deep in the Himalayas, and the secrets within could be fatal in the wrong hands.
A supernatural weapons dealer and his army of mercenaries are at their heels to complicate things, as is someone from West’s past who makes Livi question their potential future. She’s always been slow to trust, but believing in West might be the only way they survive.
If his lies don’t get her killed first.
I know plenty of folks are excited, and I am so thrilled for you to read it–but Emperor’s Tomb just came out in October, so it’ll be some time. I’m hoping by the summer for this one.
Livi #5 (Untitled)
I’m about 20K into it. The shape of the thing is becoming clearer for me and the research is helping me slide the pieces together. It’s a huge game-changer for both Livi and the series, and I am so excited for you to read it.
Once I get through the murky middle, the ending will be quick to write, as it’s stuff I’ve been planning for years now.
I’m hesitant to give it a title since we all know the third book’s ended up changing before release–I’m strongly leaning toward Yampellec’s Idol. The cover is in progress as well–by the time I’m ready to share it, the title will be nailed down.
Release Date ETA: late 2019 at the earliest but probably 2020.
Bonus Livi
To tide everyone over, there’ll be a fun novella which has been posting at Patreon. I’d hoped to release it in February but that’s not happening as it’s not quite done yet. It’s on the way, though! Essentially Livi goes on a blind date that goes very badly (it involves kidnapping) while West babysits.
I have a newsletter if you want announcements about upcoming releases.
New Series
I wasn’t going to say more until I had it set for preorder, but I promised news this month, so: I have a new, non-paranormal mystery series in progress.
I will talk in detail about it eventually–I can write entire ESSAYS about where it came from (essentially, Twin Peaks S3 pissed me off big time, which you know if you followed my livetweeting, and AUDREY DESERVED BETTER)–but as the stories have been rolling around in my head, I realized what I really wanted to do was have a PI series focused on women’s stories. I wouldn’t presume to call it feminist–it’s fiction, I’m only human, and there are bound to be problematic elements I’ll miss–but it’s definitely going to be a series that unapologetically centers women as villains, as heroes, as victims, and with the nuance their depictions typically lack, and turn those PI tropes around and examine how they change when the major players are women.
It’s more challenging than I anticipated but I think you’re gonna love it.
The goal is to eventually alternate them with Livi books to give my brain a bit of a break. I’ve been writing a prequel at the same time as the first novel, which will serialize this year at Patreon.
Her’s the cover and jacket copy for the first book:
Bodies of middle-aged men have been washing ashore in Port Milton. The police have confirmed homicide but not much else, which makes it the perfect case for PI Waverly Jones.
Who just happened to stumble upon the latest victim.
Driven to the point of obsession by the ghosts of her past, she’s been combing the beach to examine each body, afraid of finding one man in particular: Detective-Sergeant Sebastian Kyle, missing these past eleven years after investigating the now-dormant serial killer who made Waverly’s sister his last victim. Though none have been him so far, her familiarity with the murders has left her well-prepared when hired by the wife of the man most recently killed. Have the police unintentionally fumbled this case in the wrong direction, or does the widow not know as much about her husband as she thought?
Port Milton has always had its secrets, and Waverly will drag every single one into the light to get to the bottom of this mystery.
And maybe somewhere along the way, she’ll get another step closer to who killed her sister and what happened to Sebastian Kyle.
Waverly is manipulative and damaged and brilliant and I can’t wait for you to meet her.
West Christmas Story Coming to Patreon
The list of WIPs and things I have to write (HAVE TO, because I’ve promised folks and/or they’re scheduled for release) is long, and yet a couple of weeks ago my brain said, “Hey, why don’t you write something totally different that barely anyone will get to read? Because that’s a fun use of your limited time.”
I thought maybe I’d write a little bit and it would fizzle, but instead I wrote the whole short story that day around freelance work.
Accidentally. As one does. (Fun fact: Soulless was written accidentally over two weeks circa 2009. Sometimes novels fall out of my head unintentionally.)
A bit of revision and tweaking, and it’s currently sitting at 8K and scheduled for the West Is Best Club at Patreon this Saturday morning (EST). And as a bonus, it helped me fix some world-building problems I’ve been dreading dealing with much later in the series.
Why Patreon and why only the West Is Best Club tier? Because a. it’s West POV, and they’re promised a West POV story/chapters monthly, and b. his POV spoils a lot of things in the series because he knows a lot more about everything than everyone else does. That’s why it’s an ideal project for Patreon–otherwise that kind of thing languishes on my hard drive unless it’s seen by a couple of friends.
This story takes place a year after Tiger’s Memory and directly deals with the aftermath of that novel.
Yeah. Yeah with that. West is kind of blindsided.
I still have a Livi novella in progress that all folks at Patreon have been reading. I don’t think I’m going to have that project done for Valentine’s Day (not if I keep writing shit I’m not scheduled to write) but we’ll see.
In addition to new Livi books next year, I have another new project in progress that I’m hoping to launch–Patreon and Alchemy Red folks have had a little preview.
I really, really want to talk about it. To anyone who will listen. But before a project is done, it’s…vulnerable. I get uncomfortable with the books-are-babies metaphor (because it’s illegal to do to babies what I do to books), but writing–particularly a zero draft–feels a bit like gestation, or maybe baking. What you’re creating is new and still developing, and anything can knock its development off and fuck it up. Aunt Judy was the only person in the world I used to send projects to as I was writing them–like a handful of chapters at a time–because she provided only positive reinforcement (that was how I wrote River, Bloodlines, and the four out of five books I’ve written of an unpubbed dark YA series). Otherwise I don’t like to talk until something’s done-ish.
So I’m not talking. Yet. But the more it simmers, the more excited I get about it.
I’ve written it off and on for a few months when I suddenly thought “I wonder if I’m struggling because it’s in the wrong POV”. Sure enough, I switched from third person to first, and everything’s clicking much better. I’m hoping to get some of that done over the holidays before I start working in earnest on Livi #5.
When the first book in the new series is done-ish and ready for preorder, I’ll announce it. I’m also going to be serializing a prequel novel next year to dovetail into it, not only on Patreon but I’m going to try on Gumroad as well. I dislike all my eggs in the Patreon basket, but thus far it’s the one service that’s offered everything I need it to do, and Drip by Kickstarter was never launched publicly (and has since been sold). If the new serial works out on Gumroad, I’ll see about duplicating other content there as well.
So basically, that’s what’s new here, and those of you getting the new story on the weekend, I hope you enjoy it.
Livi Talbot is back!
The hunt for immortality is on!
CAT BURGLARY. TOMB RAIDING. TREASURE HUNTING. ALL PART OF THE GAME.
At the end of a well-earned vacation, Livi Talbot is ready for more work. She just didn’t expect “work” to be a call from a friend suffering a small case of blackmail. One short Australian heist later, a simple retrieval becomes a tangle of sacred mountains, dangerous tombs, a fellow treasure hunter’s disturbing hotness, murderous sea monsters, and life-threatening danger.
Most of her usual team is AWOL, she’s now reluctant allies with her enemies, and a jail cell at best—or a bounty on her head at worst—awaits her if she puts a toe out of line. The prize for success is immortality itself, but Livi will settle for just getting out—and returning to her beloved daughter—alive…
Kindle US | Kindle UK | Kindle CA | Kobo | Nook | iBookstore | Smashwords | GooglePlay | Payhip | Print
ICYMI, here’s this book’s soundtrack. And remember, if you preordered or buy this week, I want to send you a postcard from Livi! Details here.
I’m pretty stressed and going to be offline getting some work done before I drink. A lot.
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Urban fantasy writer. Fifth-generation crazy cat lady. Bitchy feminist. Cranky designer.