I’m Alive! With Photo Proof and Everything!

/ Author News, Life, Writing

I’m alive, I’ve just been super busy trying to crank out as many words as possible on book two. I’m behind schedule, but I’ve had three good writing days in a row, so I’m taking a short break.

Polaris Rising continues to move through the publishing steps. Most recently, I received feedback from the proofreader that I needed to address. So now it’s been looked at by me, agent, editor, copyeditor, and proofreader. I think we might be done at this point, but I thought that after copyeditor, too, so it’ll be a surprise one way or the other. :)

Because we’re inching ever closer to release, Voyager needed an author photo of me for their catalog. If you’ve seen my social media photo, you’ll notice it’s a snapshot of me that I ran through a Prisma filter. Not exactly professional enough to use in a book catalog. …

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The Queen’s Gambit: Cover Reveal, Preorder, and New Snippet!

/ Author News, Snippet, Writing

The Queen’s Gambit is now available for preorder! Woohoo! Seeing my name on a novella at Amazon is kind of surreal, I have to admit. :)

Behold, the cover:

The Queen's Gambit Cover

Many thanks to Natanya Wheeler at Nancy Yost Literary Agency for her help with the cover design!

Preorder links:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo | Google Play

Print on demand paperbacks are coming, but they will not be available until closer to release/on release day.

I also created a fancy book page where you can read the blurb and the first two chapters. There weren’t a lot of changes early on, so for those of you who read the serial, below is a peek at the beginning of Chapter Eight. …

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A Stardew Weekend

/ Games, Life

My husband and I bought Stardew Valley a year and a half ago because we thought multiplayer co-op was “coming soon.” It’s still not here completely, but we spent the weekend playing the co-op beta and it’s awesome. I finally see what all the buzz eighteen months ago was about. :)

If you haven’t heard of it, Stardew Valley is a Harvest Moon-esque game where you start with a run-down farm that you have to fix up by clearing the land, planting crops, and tending animals. And fishing. So much fishing.

Because we’re playing co-op, I took over animals and fishing while my husband deals with the plants. Every day I go pat my chickens on the head and they get happier and produce better eggs. …

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Polaris Rising Proof Pages

/ Writing

The PDF proof pages of Polaris Rising landed on Friday. Looking over these pages is my last chance to catch any mistakes that weren’t caught in the seven million other times I read the manuscript.

The PDF also gives an idea of what the formatted print book will look like. For example, here is the first page:

Proof Page

How awesome is that? ?

I might have made a very undignified squee of excitement when I opened the file because it’s starting to look like a real book.

Also, all those pens I bought? I need to buy more because it looks like the title page may have a black background. Holding off on heading to the office supply store until I get a printed galley to confirm. Barely. :)

In TQG news, we are working on finalizing the cover which is the last step (I think!) before it goes up for preorder.

Lots of exciting things happening, plus I’m writing PR 2, so it’s kind of crazy around here. Now I’m off to the grocery store because I drank the last of the milk, and without milk there is no coffee. The horror!

Book Two Title Redux

/ Book Rec, Life, Writing

The working title we decided on for PR book two has to change because it’s too similar to another Voyager book coming out next year. So it’s back to the drawing board.

Boo.

I like for my titles to have a deeper meaning, even if I’m the only one who will get it. It’s one of the reasons naming things takes me eons.

The verboten title had that extra layer of meaning, so I bid it adieu with some regret. And now I can’t think of anything else I like as well. Partially that’s just my brain being stuck on what it can’t have, and I have some time, so I’m giving my subconscious a chance to mull it over.

I passed 20k words last week, and while I’d like to be closer to 30k (or, let’s be honest, 90k), I’m at least off to a solid start. This is also where doubts tend to assail me and I start thinking that the beginning is all wrong. However, there is no time for doubting. I must forge ever onward. If it really is wrong, I’ll fix it later. …

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