Bookaversary!

And new books on the way

One of the many small adventures my books have gone on (this one at a location that inspires The Seaglass Blade!)

Despite a lot of heaviness and despair in the world at large, there are still some things that give me joy. Among them, it’s my bookaversary! I published the first book of the Crane Moon Cycle, The Phoenix and the Sword, in June 2022. The learning curve was steep, since I had no idea what I was doing or how to market a book, but it’s been incredibly rewarding. The duology has found readers that love it, and that means the world; it was why I published. I’ve found an indie author and reader community that is supportive, engaged, joyful, and energized about creativity and stories. And that makes the work fun.

And now: what comes next!

New books and new covers coming!

Since publishing the duology I have written several other books, but I haven’t published. In my own mind these stories are already alive - but they’re not, really, because except for beta readers, no one’s seen them. You, for instance, have no idea who Falu and Inuri are, or why the Empress can’t be trusted. You don’t know what the secret of the Line is. You have no idea what’s up with that lighthouse or why Ardith carries that journal everywhere. You don’t know what Yisue, Liu Chenguang, and Aili are doing, three hundred years after The Shoreless River ends. All the characters and stories I want to share are just waiting to be read. And stories being read is the whole point.

For the second half of this year, while I continue to work on new projects, I’m also going back to the joy of publishing, getting stories out there to readers. It’s risky (because then people read the stories!) and joyful (because the story is always for readers). I’m hoping to get two books out, my long-suffering third Crane Moon Cycle book, and a gothic historical lesbian novella, and I have cover art in process for both of them.

Seeing the cover designs for a new book is the most indescribable feeling, and one of the best things about being an indie author is that you choose the artist yourself. I’m so thrilled that the cover designer for The Seaglass Blade is Alyssa Winans, who has been nominated multiple times for the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist. I saw the initial sketches she came up with for Seaglass last week, and was utterly thrilled.

Alyssa’s work captures a sense of space, mystery, light and wonder, as well as subtle threat, that I think fits Seaglass. It’s a story which might almost sound cozy - a story of a queer found family of phoenix, human, dragon, and demon and the home they’ve built together - but it has incredibly high stakes, and a lot of risk as well as beauty. (It’s one of the reasons the title has shifted from Seaglass Tide to Seaglass Blade.) You can see some of her illustrations and covers at her website, and on instagram. I can’t wait to be able to share this cover with you sometime this summer or fall!

And I’ll soon have more to share about the gothic lesbian historical novella as well and introduce you to the cover artist…it’s a very different kind of book, so the cover design will be very different, and I’m hoping that I can have this haunted love story ready to publish in October.

To celebrate my bookaversary and Pride month, The Phoenix and the Sword ebook is .99 cents on all platforms until the end of June, so if you don’t have a copy yet now is a great time. I’ll also be participating in a shared sapphic fantasy paperback giveaway with sixteen authors (it is going to be a library for one lucky winner!) that runs June 23-30. I’ll send you a reminder for that next week. And be sure to pick up your free prequel chapters for Phoenix, which is a gift for my newsletter subscribers. Hope you are well wherever you are, and thanks for reading and subscribing!