Exciting News!

If you're on my newsletter then you've likely already heard the news, but, if you haven't read the email yet or aren't subscribed, I'm super excited to announce that there's going to be a book release this year!! It's not the book I'd first planned to be next up for release, but it insisted on it so, for the last year, I've thrown almost all of my writing efforts behind it and seriously burning the midnight oil (and 1am oil and 2 am oil...). So which book is it? If you guessed book 2 of The Gemquist Chronicles, alas, no. That book is still being resurrected after the laptop gremlins got to it. However, if you thought the high fantasy, fairy tale retelling I've been serializing over on Patreon, Royal Road, and Wattpad, you'd be right!

I can't tell you how excited (and relived and exhausted) I am to finally be at this point! It's been so long since I released a book and it feels great to be on the verge of another. There's still a lot of work left to do though. First, it has to go through editing and, while that's being done, I've got some maps I need to paint (well, want to really; it could do without them, but where's the fun in that?), as well as, the final cover art to do. There's also all the formatting to do, ISBNs to assign, Library of Congress number to get, etc. and so forth. My aim was for a late spring/early summer release, but a mid/late summer release is probably more likely. All depends on how long all the pre-publication prep takes to do.

In the meantime though, you can still read the chapter drafts on the sites I mentioned earlier! Patreon, of course, gets the chapter drafts first and is still patron-only, but there are public chapters available on both Royal Road and Wattpad. All of which will continue to be updated until it is complete. Bear in mind though, that this is the draft version and, as such, may still contain grammatical goofs and typonese and that some changes may yet be made to the book during editing in the way of adding, modifying, or removing scenes or other story details. However, if you'd like to read the drafts, you'll have to hurry! Once it's ready for it to be released on Amazon, everything will be coming down so it can be released into Kindle Unlimited.

In the meantime though, here's the book with its promo cover and the blurb!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A young artist desperate to be free. For nearly seven years, Lael Verane has lived under the ever watchful eye of her stepmother. Forbidden from leaving the grounds of the estate and locked away whenever visitors come to call, Lael's only solace is in her art. There's just one problem, due to another of her stepmother's strange restrictions, art is not welcome at Avarill. A prince on a mission. Agents of the Crown have been dying and elves are disappearing from across Rynn. Prince Nathyn Trysele is determined to find out why. His only clue? A letter from the deceased spymaster, but he's convinced that the answers he seeks are buried somewhere in the Caeth night-markets. But not everything is at it appears and, in a kingdom where art guilds and magic collide, deadly secrets lie buried that could tear the kingdom apart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh! And one last thing! I hope you love big books because this one is a whopper! Pre-edit word count clocked in at 171,193 total words! I'm also not expecting it to go on a sudden word loss program as, historically, my word counts have only ever increased during editing.