Prelaunch! Editing, commissioning, reading...
Meet one of the artists for The Seaglass Blade Kickstarter!
The Seaglass Blade just finished its first month in “prelaunch” on Kickstarter. Books normally hang out in prelaunch from anywhere from two weeks to a year, while the author gets things ready behind the scenes, and gathers followers for the campaign. This is my first Kickstarter, so I’ve been pretty nervous about it - and thrilled that right now Seaglass has 75 followers! This might not sound like much, but it’s a very good number for a first time Kickstarter. If you haven’t gone to the Kickstarter to click “notify on launch,” please do come join in! The people in the followers group will be immediately notified via email when the project launches - that’s when it will be possible to actually support the project and get your book and rewards.
I’ve just begun my final revision pass on Seaglass, and I’m taking my time, slowing some action down at the beginning, fine-tuning some of the relationships and motivations. Right now, I’m deep into Aili and Chenguang’s early story arc. I love getting back into quality time with this book: loves and desires, failures and victories, phoenixes questioning immortality and dragons learning to dragon and sword lesbians working out their trauma through weaponry. One last round, and then line and proofread…it’s KICKSTARTER LAUNCH TIME! Hopefully in October, if all the art and other pieces come together in the next few weeks.
look! it’s a trope map!
New art incoming!
One of the things I’m excited about with the Kickstarter is getting to highlight the artists. Each of the character art pieces for Seaglass has its own story, and in addition to the collection I’ve already put together while writing this book (because writing this book took a while), I’ve commissioned two new art pieces from Rebi (@rebiesque.art on instagram). The one below is an older picture by her, featuring Aili and Chenguang, and I love how the new ones are coming along! As part of the Kickstarter, supporters will be able to have the art as digital or physical rewards for supporting the project, and it allows me to be able to commission even more wonderful art in the future.
Aili and Liu Chenguang, by @rebiesque.art
I found Rebi as I was roaming around instagram looking at #griddlehark character art, as one does while waiting for Alecto the Ninth. Rebi had a couple of beautiful Harrowhark and Gideon pieces, and when I looked at her page I realized that pretty much all of her art is sapphic epic fantasy. I love how her character art captures emotional context, especially with couples. Want Luca and Touraine from C.L. Clark’s The Unbroken? (I mean, who doesn’t?) Sabran and Ead from Priory? Priya and Malini from The Jasmine Throne? Go visit Rebi’s instagram page!
In Seaglass, Aili and Chenguang are an established couple - very much so, since they’ve been together for three hundred years - and one of the themes of the book is a deeper, more familiar love, with people who are beyond the excitement of first meetings and first kisses, and who are still growing and learning about themselves and one another. The solo picture of Aili will show her in her vocation as a teacher of cultivation, a sword master, and the second picture will be another one of them together, in their home, with all the layers of laughter and history and passion and risk.
Rebi’s a serious fan of the same sapphic fantasy books I love, and she hosts a Discord that’s centered around Samantha Shannon’s Roots of Chaos series. Last year The Priory Discord led buddy reads for Priory of the Orange Tree and A Day of Fallen Night, and on September 20th Rebi will start another buddy read for the new RoC novella, Among the Burning Flowers. If you want to join in, check out the discord (the link is in her instagram bio)!
Reading this month…
I’ve had a little swerve into sapphic romance this month! Among some of my favorites:
Nav’s Foolproof Guide to Falling in Love, by Jessica Lewis, a YA contemporary with fake-dating high schoolers, mental health, and emotional healing. I loved the genuine character development, and how it explores friendship and family as much as romance.
Gwenhyver’s Theseus and the Sky Labyrinth, a space opera romance of a monster-hunter and the true monster at the heart of a labyrinth, with two entertaining main characters and some very unexpected twists. I love an intellectual, competent character coming to terms with emotions, plus wild, fun, descriptive worldbuilding.
The Woman from the Waves, fantasy romance by Roslyn Sinclair. I absolutely loved this book - it kept me up all night! Inspired by Scottish mythology, Waves has two complex and moving main characters in a modern setting, each struggling to find themselves and what love means. One of them is not human, and Sinclair’s writing captures her internal alienness beautifully. I particularly appreciated that this story has a closeted main character struggling with internalized homophobia. That’s a theme in the book that I’m currently preparing to query, something that many people will recognize as part of their experience, and in the current world we live in, it’s so important to resist the beliefs and systems that cause it. Check out The Literary Grind for a more detailed review!
Kobo Plus Sci Fi and Fantasy Highlights
Kobo Plus is Kobo’s version of Kindle Unlimited, a read-all-you-want monthly subscription. From September 18-29, Kobo’s highlighting some of the fantastic options in Kobo Plus. My books are there (The Phoenix and the Sword and The Shoreless River, as well as the omnibus version, The Crane Moon Cycle), with lots of other choices to explore.
Looking forward to talking to you again very soon! I’ll be sending out an extra email or two as we’re getting close to launch on the Kickstarter, because I absolutely don’t want you to miss it. And meanwhile, take care of yourselves. It is very rough out in the world, and we’ll need one another.