Heroes or Thieves

The second novel in The Kings series is currently free in ebook form on Amazon today and Monday! If you prefer the book in paperback or hardback, however, you can purchase it through our website. The series editor will be signing any books purchased through January 31st!

Gods or Men

The draft is now 25% complete. I estimate that it will be 50% by mid-February and complete by the end of March. Then it will enter the revision, flavor, and editing phase! I'd love to have even more to say about this book, but you know my motto: the less you know, the better! I can say that everything is going REALLY REALLY well and the two PoVs I have finished are filled with danger, drama, and maginificent character development!

Conventions

Currently we are making plans to attend conventions in September, October, and November of this year. I want to apologize in advance for this, but any conventions prior to these months are highly unlikely. The reason for this is: I really want to focus on writing.

Gods or Men is very big. And complex. And hopefully even more fantastical, exciting, thrilling, and twisted than the last!

(Fair warning, this is not going to to be prettiest of my posts-- I have so much to do today, but I really want to get this November newsletter out in...well, November... and this post needs to go with it! XD)

Knoxville was cute, small, and clean--much like Fanboy Expo itself, which was held in the shiny golden mage-staff of a building.

LOOK WHO IT IS AGAIN! Our best writer pal, Tony Acree! Ok, so NOW I can briefly pitch to you the amazing book series that is his--a super natural thriller about bounty hunter Victor McCain who only brother, Mike, sells his soul to the devil. Victor has 24 hours to find and bring a woman named Samantha to Satan before Mikey's soul is his. DUN DUN DUNNNN. It's like reading a movie--something you can totally sit down and read in an evening, and totally leaves you wanting the next book! @_@ (The Hand of God is the first book in the series)

And we have a new friend, Darrek, who is as fun as his cover is cool! He's a new fantasy author who write fast-paced action adventures. His first book, Awakening, is really good so far--I just started, but it is very promising! (And has great reviews on Amazon!)

Why does this picture come out so small in my post?! UGH. I'll have to fix this later--especially because this GORGEOUS gal is why I came to Fanboy Expo! You'd see how gorgeous she is if this darn picture got bigger... ANYWHO--an amazing Sopling with an AWESOME family! Love her so much! xoxoxo

New Soplings with an eye on Adonis and Vale. My type of ladies! ;D

Brandon, my favorite Sopling shopper! (Say that 10x fast)! Hehehe! His house is a gallery of Steps of Power art work! Look at his energy! <3<3

Met the awesome and charming John, friends with the gorgeous and talented creator- Seregon O'Dassey- of the steam punk space opera, #Absynthia- which you guys should absolutely check out! :DDD

And to finish off an AMAZING weekend, I met Chris Sarandon--aka, PRINCE HUMPERDINK. (faints*) So totally awesome!

Now I must go work on Gods or Men-- I'm swamped! xoxo

BUT WAIT--last but not least, the winner of the pre-released copy of Gods or Men is... (drumroll*)

Lindell P.!

Hello Soplings! Today I have an update for Gods or Men! The outline, of course, has been completed for a weeks and since then, my focus has been on Jerah.

(A quick reminder: originally Gods or Men was the second book in the series and there was no Heroes or Thieves. However, due to the fact that Gods or Men was nearly 800 pages, it was divided into two books. Which worked out marvelously. Jerah's part was the only part that remained untouched from this massive overhaul.)

And I intended to leave Jerah's part untouched in Gods or Men as well. However, as I was reading it over yet again, it just wasn't sitting right with me. I basically had two choices: settle or suck it up and admit to myself I wanted to revise this part of his story. Guess which one won out?

So yeah, a little bit frustrating that these last few weeks have been in vain, but I can promise you that your beloved Jerah is about to get a KICK ASS revamp for Gods or Men.

KICK. ASS.

Hey everyone! I had an absolutely wonderful time at New York Comic Con! It was fantastic and I will be hopefully be going again next year (I'll have another post later about my 2017 tour schedule)! I met so many amazing new and old Soplings, Twitter fans, and fellow vendors, plus I got to see NY for the first time! Thank you to all of you who said hi to me at the convention and greeted me again on social media!

And for those who have already finished the book and dropped me a message--You. Are. Amazing. !!!

I'll sprinkle photos throughout my posts--even though they won't necessarily line up with what day they were taken on.

(Also: as per usual, if you are using an Apple device, it'll do stupid stuff and make some of the images in this post sideways. You can thank Apple for that. Or, like me, you can chuck your phone across the room and see if it fixes the problem.)

[Final Note to my fellow authors: I will stil do the financial side of things at your request, but I do need a bit longer to get things in order. NYCC is first and foremost meeting fans and others in our business. If you are looking for the certainty of profit, this is not your event.]

Oh boy! Drive time! As you know, I live east of Cincinnati (out in the country with all my rescued beasts), so taking a road trip 12 hours away for a week has many challenging factors. You'd think, with such a long trip, I'd have knocked out an audiobook or two.

Nope.

Pretty sure I sat in that car and managed to chat with my husband for 12 hours about... nothing. XD

(nothing probably being food, kittens, horses, trees, and how bad the highway through Pennsylvania stunk)

Also, tolls kill.

The Lincoln Tunnel is a long and expensive route across to NY. I initially considered holding my breath, but I'd have died about 1/10 into that tunnel. (TOP)

But there waited the Javits Center where we would spend the next four days! (this picture does not do its size justice!)

After we got all set up, we spent some time exploring the MASSIVE vendor hall (OOO backstage photos)! It was Wednesday night at this point.

After a brief exploring (by brief I mean we walked around the hall for about an hour and still didn't see more than a fourth of the things there) we headed back to our hotel in NJ!

But we made it to the Port Authority after we stopped and got some $1 pizza. You know, they talk about prices killing you in NY, but our experience was actually pretty good. Everywhere we stopped on the trip was about what I'd expect back in the midwest--if you looked around, you could find reasonable prices. What really nails you is the transportation and living costs. Those are insane! (It cost almost $25 each day just to move to and from our hotel!)

Also, I should mention the people at this point. Everyone was so NICE. Noteably so!

When we arrived Thursday, the place had transformed into all it's NYCC majesty-- red carpets, lights, massive displays--all the flash and flare you would expect from a mega con!

(event about to start in 30 mins!)

Saturday was long day and man did things get crazy! I met so many people the day is like a blur to me!

I had the absolute treat of meeting several Twitter followers during NYCC (which as many of you know just tickles me to no end!!) <3

At the end of Saturday (and our adventures trying to use the subway for the first time which we scored an F in), we went out with another friend from Twitter (and his gorgeous gal)! They showed us the Highline and West Village, which were far more my taste--definitely a beautiful side of New York I had been missing!

And last but not least, Sunday, which turned out to be the busiest day! Thank you to everyone who stopped by and brought this amazing trip to a phenomenal close!

Right before Michael killed the car battery and we had to wait like thirty minutes to be jumped... XD

Onward!

Hello new and old Soplings! So today is also the Archon (in St. Louis) post! 40 huzzahs for this one! This is, as many of you know, my favorite convention--the atmosphere here is just unlike any other convention we attend--the people are phenomenal and the laid-back approach to everything is so great after the chaos of the big cons!

As usual, I'll sprinkle photos hroughout my post--even though they won't necessarily line up with what day they were taken on!

(Also: if you are using an Apple device, it'll do stupid stuff and make some of the images in this post sideways. You can thank Apple for that. Or, like me, you can chuck your phone across the room and see if it fixes the problem.)

So you guys have probably noticed I did NOT cosplay as Eldaeus this time! I needed a break from the physical wounds that costume inflicts on me--plus I originally thought I was going to wear it at NYCC.

Ha. Haha.

Right.

Anyways, so I decided to cosplay as Guinevere... Until I realized, wait, this could totally pass as Ilsevel. So then it became Ilsevel. So yeah... totally put a lot of thought into this one...

And best of all, Ilsevel is running around with Ilsevel's tattoos... since I had to wait about two weeks for them to actually come off. XD

But you know what? It didn't hurt.

As much.

(Top Photos) These lovely ladies made my Saturday bright! The one on the bottom here, Lee, was the highlight of my weekend. My editor got to meet her last year and this year, I got to spend a lot of time with her. She's sharp, fun, sweet, and fantastically talented! Hoping to see her next year as a vendor of glass figurines--I am SO buying a cat one! (HERE ME LEE? YOU BETTER HAVE YOUR CATS, WOMAN!) XD

(Right Photo) Being not in a horribly painful and difficult costume, Michael and I were able to attend the after party at the Double Tree. It was everything people had built it up to be! Free drinks, excellent music, phenomenal crowd--let me tell you guys, this is the convention to attend!

The last day of Archon, we went casual style (totally my favorite way to go, let me tell you. The day of no pain, as it stands.) We, of course, met more AMAZING Soplings and had a wonderful time unwinding before we drove the 6 hours back home!

And when we arrived, it was time to love the kitties! Link was particularly thrilled to see me and served himself as a magnificent pillow. I traded my table junk as a bed for him later.

Hey guys! So today is the day I try to catch up on all the magnificent conventions I've attended in the last three months (and there are three)! Huzzah huzzah! Now, before I hit these last three conventions, I had to cut my hair (it's about to my collar bone now)--which was tough because I LOOOOVE long hair. However, that was the only way to wear the wig going forward! Ah, what we do for cosplay!

The most awesome fans and cosplays shall abound in these here posts (at least, the ones I have photos of!--and unfortunately I never get enough photos! I'll sprinkle them throughout my posts--even though they won't necessarily line up with what day they were taken on and for what because, well, who cares? I know you guys just want me to get on with it! And at the end, I'll link to all the rest of our photos!

(Also, as a usual reminder: if you are using an Apple device, it'll do stupid stuff and make some of the images in this post sideways. You can thank Apple for that. Or, like me, you can chuck your phone across the room and see if it fixes the problem.)

We attended our first local event and it was a blast! It was also the first time I was barely at my table during an event and that was quite different (and yet, I didn't actually DO much since almost all of that time was spent cosplaying)! Friday was an easy-going day, despite the cosplay. I met some amazong Soplings and fantabulous fellow cosplayers, some new to the field (WELCOME DUSTY!) and some experienced!

Saturday was a marvelous day, though we did indeed arrive late since I was going to enter the cosplay competition. Unfortuantely, I was not around for much of Saturday (due to said competition), but I know our beautiful and charming editor met many new Soplings on my behalf! As always, you guys have so much energy! Love you guys! <3

As for the cosplay competition, I took 3rd place in the Master Tier category. The first and second place were marvelous and you can find some of their cosplays HERE!

(we are so weird, I know. <3)

The hat really tops it off.

...Get it?

Oh my gosh I haven't gotten enough sleep lately...

At the end of the day, I did my first panel with Travis Heermann, who like me, has a passion for world-building. I totally admit, I was freaking out--as many of you know, I have been dodging doing panels for the last year, but he made me feel right at ease. We had a marvelous panel!

He's a smart, well-informed man, so if you are looking for something new to read, you absolutely must check out his Japanese fantasy series. I bought his first book, Heart of the Ronin and it is very high on my TBR! SOON I SHALL BEGIN THIS ADVENTURE... SOON!