hunter

The "When's That Book Coming...?" Update: Spring 2012 Edition

It's been three months. Time for another State of the Union!

* Exhumed - Second draft complete. Should be in edits next month (I want to run through it one more time first). Looking at a July 10 release so I can avoid a Mercury retrograde. Shut up.

* Amends - On hold. If I'm able to take a working vacation soon, I'll churn out a few more chapters so they're scheduled and ready. It was burning me out and like three people were reading it anyway, so it got backburnered (*waves to the three people*).

* Oblivion - Planning stages still. I'm going to try to write it early fall, hoping for a January release.

* Solace, Broken, Viral, etc...? - Uh...next question please.

* Children of the Apocalypse - Backburnered. Still on my radar. I need that working vacation.

* In Darkness Waits - I realized what was tripping me up with it. It's on hold while I sort it out.

* Ashes - Still poking around with it for fun.

* Godless (Dessa 5) - Baking in my brain. Characters are talking to me--probably cause they know half of them won't make it out alive.

* Haunted - Nowhere near having time to work on rewrites yet.

* River/Wolfe omnibus - Still on hold. *sigh* It'll get on Kindle eventually.

* For-Pay-Writing-That's-Killing-My-Soul - Two projects down, four to go over the next few months.

* Solomon's Seal - In progress and SO MUCH FUN OMG.

I don't like talking about stuff I might jinx. But screw it. I'm happy so far.

I was writing an unpublished blog post the other day (still in draft mode) and sort of scared myself. If Oblivion is the last in the series I publish, that means as of January...I won't have ANYTHING new scheduled to come out--no new Skyla Dawn Cameron books.

*is askeerd*

I haven't been in that place for years now. Even when I delayed stuff by years, at least I knew it would come eventually. I have tons of other finished stuff, but nothing I want to shop around for various reasons. So...square one, baby.

Enter Solomon's Seal.

I'm having a blast.

Want a random teaser? Read below, under the cut. Not giving any context, as I think it speaks for itself.

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The "When's That Book Coming...?" Update: Winter 2012 Edition

How about an updated book state of the union? Plenty has changed in three months.

* Exhumed: Complete. Awaiting a second draft from me in the spring. I have to do some schedule shuffling so there's a strong chance this release will be summer now.

* Amends: This'll be hit when I'm done with my writer burn out. I finished two books back to back in Nov/Dec and really needed a break from writing. I will update my blog when we're back on track (hopefully within a few weeks).

* Oblivion: This is the fifth book, after Exhumed. I don't need it done summer/fall but it's tickling my brain. I think it just needs to percolate awhile longer and it'll be ready to start. Currently I'm jotting notes down on my murder board and I almost have a first draft of the jacket copy written.

* Solace: I'm plotting this one as well (it's the sixth). I likely won't start it until the end of the year, but then sometimes I surprise myself.

* In Darkness Waits: I'm going through that thing again where I'm struggling with the voice and wonder if it's supposed to be in first person. The book won't tell me. None of you have read it, though, so you don't much care but I still want the first draft of this done by March.

* Godless (Dess bd 5): It's still baking in my head.

* Ashes: It's likely a trunk novel so I pull it out and play now and then.

* CotA 3: I'm re-reading everything written so far and I'm hoping before I dive back into another book, I'll get my feet wet finishing up this one. Fear not! It's on my radar, at least.

* Haunted: I have to edit the other novellas coming out before I can get to my rewrites on this.

* River/Wolfe omnibus on Kindle: Delayed as I haven't the time to proofread with extra work stuff. *pushes to bottom of to-do list.*

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I think that's it. I need to write a post about other stuff and I'm trying but I keep thinking I sound bitchy so haven't saved it. For now: bitching at me that the series isn't The Zara and Nate Show? Yeah, that's not going to change. They're not the main characters of the series--they never will be--nor can I write books that are carbon copies of Bloodlines. If you feel you have to suffer the other books for moments of them, you're probably going to be really disappointed. Baking cupcakes might be a better idea than reading stuff you'll hate. Or write fanfic. Fanfic about cupcakes. Or something.

Please send me fanfic about cupcakes. Yeah, I think that was my point.

Holiday Sale

From now until January 2, you can enter the coupon code SANTA (unless it's santa--I don't know if it's case sensitive or not) at checkout when shopping at Mundania.com to receive 25% off your order, including both print and ebooks.

You'll find fab books by fab people, including my very talented authors: Dina James, Sarah-Jane Lehoux, Frances Pauli, J.A. Saare, Adrienne Jones, Judy Bagshaw, Melinda Skye, Elaine Corvidae, Krista Ball, and so, so many more (wicked talented veteran authors like William Greenleaf, Louise Cooper, Piers Anthony, and more).

Also, ME. We'll talk more about Author!Skyla in the new year with my resolutions/goals post, but for now... Lineage is out in February so if you want to catch up on the series, now's a good time.

Book One: Bloodlines
After three hundred years of unlife, vampire Zara Lain has seemingly done it all, and she's now making a living as a successful thief-turned-assassin. Her newest assignment seems simple enough--kill the aging leader of the O'Connor Coven and his only heir, and she'll have another ten million in the bank. But in the dangerous world of the supernatural, few things are ever "simple.

Book Two: Hunter
Sometimes natural predators need to be kept in check, and for that, there's Ryann David. Orphaned as an infant and raised by an exiled branch of the church to become a warrior for God, she and her fellow members of Venatores Daemonum have trained all their lives with only one purpose: destroy all demons in the mortal realm.

You can also get the rest of my backlist and the anthology Bad-Ass Faeries 2 with my short story "Whiskey Sour".

Hunter Giveaway

NOTE: This is closed. I drew a name Friday, contacted the person on Saturday. Prize is being sent off. Thanks for playing!

I have a big stack of books here.

Okay, not that many now. I sold a couple. Gave away a couple others. But you get the picture--I have more Hunter than I currently know what to do with.

Want one?

I have to go to the post office in a few days to mail stuff, once my paycheque transfers and I have more than $8 to my name (glamorous life of an author, y'all). And I want to send YOU a book for Christmas/Solstice/Horus's Bday/what have you.

Yes, yes, how do I enter?

Leave a comment on this post.

That's it. Really. No hoops. No song and dance. Signed book from me to you.

When do you pick a winner?

On...um...let's say Friday, maybe ($ may not transfer 'til Monday, but we'll see), I will randomly pick a winner from the comments here. Just include your email address when you're replying (you'll see a spot in the comment form) otherwise I'll go to the next in the list as I'm not chasing anyone down.

That's all?

Of course, I'd love you to RT the link. Or click my new, lonely "Follow this blog" link to the right. Or like me on Facebook. Or post reviews of Bloodlines on Amazon. Or send me cookies. But it's cool if you don't.

I haven't read the first book in the series, Bloodlines.

Hunter features a mostly different cast of characters. You can follow it without reading the first.

Sometimes natural predators need to be kept in check, and for that, there's Ryann David. Orphaned as an infant and raised by an exiled branch of the church to become a warrior for God, she and her fellow members of Venatores Daemonum have trained all their lives with only one purpose: destroy all demons in the mortal realm.

But when Ryann and her team are sent to hunt down a vampire who has killed one of their own, a new world of danger, betrayal, and conspiracy greets her. Allied with an irreverent psychic detective and the very monsters she was raised to kill, Ryann will risk everything—her life, her faith, and her heart—in pursuit of the truth as the black and white existence she knew turns a murky shade of gray.

Want to know more about it? Read the first four chapters in a PDF here. Also, WLP gave it 4.5 Stars, Bells gave it 4 Bells, The Romance Studio raved (despite the lack of romance), and Mel's recommendation was "Hell yes!".

Is this giveaway international?

You bet.

Why don't you give away more than one?

Because I have another novel coming out in FebruaryOMGFLAILOMG and if I get my ass in gear and try to plan some promo (gulp), I'll give away more stuff then.

So there you go. Go forth and enter.

Books 6, 7, & 8

Yes, yes, there are more books, and now I have to write two for the series a year through 2014.

It all started when book five (Oblivion) at last began to crystallize in my head. Writers probably know what I mean when I say a book has to simmer in the brain for awhile as we do things that don't look like writing--jogging/walking, doing the dishes, staring blankly out the window--so the story can shape. Sort of like working with dough. The ingredients are there but they're a bit of a mess, mushed together, and even if you've tried to shape it, you don't really know how big it will be, if it'll collapse when it's cooked, what the consistency will be, etc. I'd always been a big fuzzy on Oblivion except that I knew it was The Book Wherein I Deliver On Plot Threads Introduced Earlier and it initially did a lot of simmering when I was hacking and slashing on my old Xbox years ago.

Then I realized how it was going to end.

And more books took shape.

So I did what anyone would do...I pitched them to the boss man. He accepted. I'll answer some FAQs below.Read more

The "When's That Book Coming...?" Update: Fall 2011 Edition

Everyone wants me to finish something.

Freebie serial readers have asked when Children of the Apocalypse 3 will be done.

Zara fans want to know when Exhumed will be done (never mind released).

Zara fans who either don't buy books and/or are impatient for Exhumed want to know when the next Amends chapters will be up.

Beta reader wants me to finish Dessa 5 (as do the couple of other people who have read some of the other books in this unpubbed series).

I want to do all of the above along with finishing Ashes and IDW, which I can maybe do something with. Mostly, though, I'd like to sit down long enough for the room to stop spinning. This year I wrote one new novel, totally gutted and rewrote from the ground up (and expanded) two novels, and I'm on track to finish another new novel. And it never seems like enough.

Most importantly, however, I have a book called Lineage which has been contracted for *cough* three years now and my last draft has to be in by December for edits so we can make a February 21 release date. It's one I get paid money for, so it will be finished before everything else. If I can jump in late with NaNo, maybe one of the above will be written in part next month too.

So, to answer the FAQs (I try to keep this updated on my author page as well):

* CotA: It's always been my intent to finish by the end of the year. I wrote most of the end of the book--I think I have 3-4 chapters to finish. I will post when it's done. I realize it is frustrating because it's basically one big long story divided into five parts and even when three is done, I'll be leaving it with a cliffhanger because there's a lot to go. But it's still a freebie so I do what I can when I can. I'm also going to try to slip in time to redo the covers. Maybe around Christmas I can schedule a week to devote solely to CotA.

* Exhumed is in my head but unwritten and as I have a novella out next summer, Exhumed won't hit until late 2012. Your eagerness pleases me, though you'll come to regret it when you read the damn thing, or when you hear me tweet "WOE" while writing it. But it won't be seen by anyone until November 2012 at the earliest--I don't even have jacket copy written for it yet.

* Amends will be updated when I can update it. Every 2-4 weeks. Please keep an eye on my blog/FB/Twitter (and chapter five has been up for awhile now).

* Lineage, as said above, is February 21, 2012. Buying the ebook from Mundania or the paperback will get you a Nate short story I'm finishing right now, called Sunrise.

* Dessa 5 (99.5% of you can skip this): It's called Godless and I have a few scenes in my head but unlike the first four, I've no idea how it will end. It also breaks my heart a little to write it and end Dess's story (and Vaughn's, and all the rest) for good, so that could be why I don't want to think too hard about it. They might all die at the end, so I don't want to rush.

So there you have it. What I'm working on and when you may see some of it. I'll do another round up early next year.

I Think Nate Won (+ Writing Update)

Bumping the poll off the top of the blog/book pages as the masses have spoken--I think we're getting a Nate story with Lineage. In fact, Krista tells me Nate should just be in every short story, even if it has nothing to do with that series. Well, I can get on board with that.

Thank you all who have voted! If you didn't get a chance, it's in the blog side bar--scroll down to the bottom.

Okay, public declaration of goal (which means I'll likely fail): if I write about 2K - 2.5K/day of Lineage, I'll be done by the end of the month...which means I COULD start Exhumed for NaNo in November. Will I do this? We shall see. I'm letting myself suck at Lineage a bit more now, remembering I can fix it later--you'd think I would know this by now, but sometimes I need reminding.

In other news, The Romance Studio dug Hunter. It's always a relief to hear people like the nun book. I know there was disappointment I didn't directly continue Zara's story, I know most don't love Ryann like they do Zara, and I know it's a different kind of book--which is why it thrills me so much when readers "get" it.

Soon we'll see if anyone digs Lineage.

Amends is late which you're probably tired of hearing at this point, but if I have writing time I tend to spend it on paying stuff when I'm real busy. I'm about halfway through the chapter, which is a non-fun flashback...dark, violent, and a bit depressing. I'll have it up shortly.

I am making headway in Lineage, though. Wrote a scene last night I adore. Peri, Zara, and Nic are pinned in Zara's parking garage behind some cars with about two dozen guns trained on them. Brief excerpt under the cut:Read more

Lineage Reader Poll

You'll notice a new poll at the top of the blog pages. To quote what I say in the comment on it:

Much like in Bloodlines and Hunter with Thrall and Malice respectively, Lineage will have a short story included in the paperbacks and the Mundania-sold ebooks.

So...who should narrate it? I'm looking for reader feedback. The short will, once again, factor into the overall series and hint at stuff to happen in future books, as well as offer another perspective on what happens in the book. To this end, I possibly might not end up using what readers select (as it is, I'm leaning toward Nate, even though he's not in Lineage at all), but it'll definitely have an influence on what I choose to do. So please let me know!

You can also vote here.

Nate tapped me on the shoulder today while I was cleaning (in my head...if I meant literally, well, I'd be insane, but also really glad it wasn't that creepy Mr. Clean guy or something, and then I'd ask him to please make all the cat hair from my floor disappear and then we could talk more about that Aphrodite Sex Magic Cult he used to be in...but I digress), so I fear I'll have to write a short from his POV regardless. If it doesn't end up in the book, no worries--it'll end up somewhere.

Also, feedback so far on Hunter seems to be that people dig it and seem to "get" the book, which is awesome. That one had me extremely nervous. So I just wanted to say, sincerely, THANK YOU to everyone who has read/bought/reviewed/etc. It really means a lot to me that you chose to spend your time and money on my work. I have the policy of not commenting on reviews (okay, okay, so I did once to give out a spoiler), so even when I want to thank people for reading my work, I don't unless the @ or email me. But thanks to Google alerts, I tend to know about them, and your support means the world to me.

Anyway. If you can take a moment to vote in the poll and/or leave a comment about it, that would be lovely.

Now I have Lineage to work on late tonight. Peri's killing people again and getting into all sorts of wacky trouble with Nicolette, Zara, and Ryann. And I'm about to do something horrible to Ellie.

Amends is still late. Yes, yes, I know. Nearly there.

Uppity-Update

Last few weeks have been exhausting--after the stress of release day/week, I had a bunch of other things to get done, and blogging was about the last thing I could think of. Of course, I did still HAVE TO blog as I was committed to some things, so while I wasn't here, I was:Read more

New Release + Interview/Guest Post + 2nd Review Round-Up

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

It's going to be a busy week. Here's the run down since I likely won't be blogging.

* Today I'm at Hanging with Bells for an author Q&A. I adore Bells (and her taste in book boyfriends) and was thrilled to be invited. I talk about the upcoming books in the Bloodlines series, where Zara came from, why I think Nate is swoonworthy, etc. Please drop by and say hi so I'm not so lonely!

* Tomorrow I'm at Melissa My World...in words and pages for a guest post on going from writing assassins to nuns, holding down the fort while she's away. Mostly I talk about my cats. (Speaking of, did you know I have a new kitten? This is why I'm not around much--it's like having a new baby. I need maternity leave.)

* Last night I posted a new chapter of Amends. Zara is also sort of dealing with being a new "mom" and she's talking to a dead man. I'll let you guess who.

* Bloodlines is on ARe/OmniLit in multiple formats.

* Bloodlines is on Kindlegraph so I can sign it for you.

Below I'll put a review round-up, as I haven't done one since June.

Tomorrow Hunter releases, for better or worse. I'm not so much nervous as filled with dread; I think it's a better book than Bloodlines, but it's also extremely different, so I've worried a lot about what reception it'll receive (even though I keep screaming from the rooftops, "It's NOT like Bloodlines!"). But I've committed to being honest and telling the story as it wants to be told; Hunter is what it is, and while I hope people enjoy it, at the end of the day I'm proud of it regardless. Of course, I also read it four times in two weeks, so I hate the thing and never want to see it again. I'll update the Hunter page tomorrow with some buy links but, once again, recommend you get it from Mundania if you're buying an ebook because it comes with bonus content--this time in the form of a short story called Malice from Zara's POV.

I'll probably take a cue from Jaime and hide for a bit after release, just to clear my head. I'm participating in a multi-author fall blog tour, so I need to get ready for that, and I have a spare room to clean, and a book to edit by next week, and day job stuff to do and and--

And if I keep thinking about it, I'm going to run away to be a ninja again.

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