Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the day! The day where you lucky readers can finally order THE RED CROWN! And then in two weeks, THE LOST PRAYERS!

I am so excited to finally share Nisa and Cayden's adventures with you all. But! This is not the time for sitting back. There is too much to be done.

More novellas to finish. More agents and publishers to query. More hitting refresh on my emails to hear back on the outstanding submissions.

It never ends, but I really don't want it to end any time soon.

Check back tomorrow for the full details on how to purchase the eBooks or signed paperbacks! I can only hope you are as excited as I am!

WIP Wednesday!

Things are quite busy here in Elsewhere. The Red Crown is at the printers, so to speak. One week and one day until you can read it for yourselves! I'm adding the final touches to The Lost Prayers, which comes out on October 15th. Here's a little tease:

“I remember a lot of dark tunnels,” Nisa began speaking, but stopped once Cayden winced. He attempted to mask the expression with a smile. The sight did not lessen the distress across her face. 

The Lure of Victoriana and Steampunk

Seeing as little over half my writing takes place in some form of the 18th and 19th centuries, I thought it was time to delve into why that is.

Several years ago, I went to New York Comic Con and attended some great panels on steampunk. What really stuck with me was something that author Kate Locke said. Please excuse me for not remembering the exact words, but she said her writing focuses on that fine balance between dreams and despair. That sums up so much of what I feel about this genre.

Both the historical fiction and steampunk share this double edged sword. The Victorians got to see the dawn at the new future, but so much of their lives changed. Science battled religion. Technology filled the streets. People are naturally terrified of change. So how will they react when murder or magic is thrown into this?

This is what I love exploring. It's a blend of fear and excitement, dread and hope. That still resonates with us today. Take a look of a snippet of a conversation between Esther and Bryan that puts it perfectly:

"The world is changing." "But into what?"

A Very Busy, but Happy, Bee

After yesterday, I've fully thrown myself into querying agents. It's exciting and terrifying. But, I'm a lot more hopeful after PitMad.

I've always had that feeling that my stories matter and need to be told. That's part of what makes you a writer, in my opinion. I've always had that drive, but it's so different to actually see people agree with you. Complete and total strangers saying they want your story! I actually had someone rank my pitch for The Resurrected Thief as their number one favorite pitch!

I might not have gotten fifty million likes or requests yesterday. But I did get some! I have solid proof that there is interest out there. That's all the encouragement I need.

So I say, Ha to those whole told me I wouldn't get anywhere with my writing. And a big thank you for those that supported me.

Things are only going to get better!

An Experiment in Social Media

Today, I tried something totally different. I participated in #PitMad, which is a twitter event for writers. You tweet out pitches to agents and publishers. I learned of this last week, and decided to just go for it. It can't hurt, right?

No hurting at all! I spent all sending out my pitches, and had a wonderful time. In the end, I had over 30 people retweet my pitches, and 7 agents ask for submissions. Not so bad!

Honestly, I would have been happy if just one person liked my pitches. I never expected so much! This really encourages me and shows there are people really interested in my stories.

And as ever, the schedule has been thrown out the window. I need to get these queries out right away. Then back to the novellas.

So expect plenty of good news in the future!