Yes, I'm Still Alive

 I even updated the website a bit. Exciting, right?

Okay. Not really, but it is what it is. 

However, I just finished taking part in one of my favorite conferences for creatives, Flights of Foundry. Every year since I discovered this incredible and accessible event, I've made a point of taking part. This year, it wasn't just taking part in an event (as both a panelist and a participant), but a reaffirmation of how much life creative work fills me with.

Not only did I start a few new pieces of short work, but it reminded me of the novels in progress that I want to desperately get back to. 

If you're wondering what is on the list of things I wish to complete in the near future, well that shouldn't be too hard for me to tell you about. 

Most importantly, I would love to finish the final edits 'Rising Darkness', the sequel to 'Falling Light', and second book of the 'The Shadows of Fate' trilogy. This book has been sitting at the final revision stage for far too long.

The third book in the series, 'Penumbra', is still in the first draft stage, but I do want get that out. There are a few sticky plot points I am still working through, I am sure that those who have read and loved the first book, want me to finish the story of these wonderful characters. 

And yes, when all is send and done, I promise as happy an ending for those "goobers" (as one fan refers to them) as I am capable of writing.

Beyond that, I had a chance to talk about and really think about my other works in progress and I am not sure how much I have talked about them on my blog or outside of my writing groups. So, I thought I would write about them here and tell you why I am so excited to be able to work on each of these stories.

One of things that I really want to do is finish the second edition edits for the re-release of my novel 'Feathers & Fae', I even have a new concept cover for it. I have no plans to change the plot structure of this story, but I very much want to elevate this story to where I always wanted it to be. 

After that, I want to finish a story that I started years ago based on the joking challenge of how many times can I kill a main character in a story. In line with the tone of the story, it is called "Where the Dead Fern Goes'. The cover shown here is not the final cover, but something I created for fun. It has a snarky main character, Fern, who is death's assassin, killing those who are responsible for creating one too many traumatized souls. When her most recent investigation brings back memories that should have been erased, she risks losing herself and becoming an untethered, vengeful spirit.

One of the panels I attended at the conference reminded me of why representation is important. It brings me to a novel I have been longing to write for a while now, but haven't had a chance to get to that has an aro/ace main character. The tentative title of the story is 'Ace of Hearts' and this is the rough synopsis "Sam comes from a long line of demon hunters and has always been expected to learn the family business. When her entire family is brutally murdered, Sam learns that other families of hunters have been completed eliminated as well. Determined to get revenge, her investigation points to a cult of incubi and succubae. What she didn't expect was one incubus who wants to help her, or the friendship that develops between them."

Lower on the list, but still stories I really want to get to is finishing the sapphic, gothic horror novel, 'The Curse of Oakwood Manor' that is about halfway through the first draft. I do want to keep working on the next two novels in the 'Saints & Sinners' series with a couple of chapters of the next novel, 'Shards of Shadows' having been written. Though, with the first two books being my earliest published novels, I would love to be able revise the first two books 'Depths of Darkness' and 'Road to Redemption' up to my current standards.

There is also a book that I wrote years ago that I have never gotten out of my head. I loved the rich and detailed character. It was a fun imaging on the sword and sorcery genre with richly developed characters. It is called 'Blessings of the Damned' which is about an immortal sorcerer hiding from the
demons of his past under an assumed name in a quiet village. When an exiled queen discovers his true identity, she kidnaps his adopted niece to force him to help her break the curse his brother placed on her land. Unfortunately, this means facing the one person he never wanted to see again as the set out on a journey that can only end in death.

There is one last novel I want to talk about. This one started as a planned series of novellas of which the first was originally published in a short lived anthology that was published by Kyanite, one of the last things before they put out before they closed. The story was titled 'Call of the Void'. With the other stories in the series planned out, I wasn't going to let that work go to waste. The entire series will be under the novel name 'A Kingdom of Broken of Shadows'.  The other four parts of this are titled, 'Weight of the Throne', 'Curse of the Crown', 'Blood of the Ghost', and 'Heart of the Darkness'.