Skip to main content

A playlist for two emperors and what's next

The fantastic chibi versions of Dra’Kaedan and the emperors at the center of the picture were created by the incredibly talented Jen Fowler of Fofo Art which can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/artbyfofo/. She absolutely brought these guys to life and I love them! This is some of the goodies that will be accompanying me to GRL.

A big thank you to every one of you lovely readers! It means the world to me that you're still excited about visiting D'Vaire. What did you think of Chrysander and Ellery’s story now that you’ve gotten to read both halves? I hope you liked it! When you write something that is two books long you spend a great deal of time with the characters so as you can imagine I’m quite attached. Chrysander has certainly been in his fair share of the D’Vaire series and Elf has already made several appearances in the ones that I’ve already written since I finished Drakeling & Elf. I pared down their playlist after I finished their journey. Many of them were added in for reasons I couldn’t really discern, and I usually skipped them, so it was pure laziness to keep them in. But the essential core that got me through the many months of outlining and writing – not to mention the years I spent crafting these two in my mind are all there for you.

I know many of you are already wondering what’s coming up next for D’Vaire. There’s one more full-length novel that will be released this year in October as well as the first short story which will be unnumbered. The short won’t be released in paperback but the eBook will be available at the beginning of December. Aleksander has opened the house to the entire extended family to celebrate the holidays and as you can imagine there’s all kinds of nuttiness. 

Precariously Mated is the fourteenth novel and it’s a highly personal one as one of the main characters has OCD which is something I’ve mentioned before that I deal with daily. Although I’ve read that many authors find it cathartic to write about a topic that affects them directly, I struggled to face it. For decades I found it difficult to admit I had OCD even though it’s been with me my whole life but it wasn’t until recent years that I was able to accept how I differ, so I suppose that’s the root of it. Precariously Mated was the first novel that I wrote that my husband finished reading it and told me to get back to work — that I hadn’t adequately put the tension, stress, and anxiety of the condition in. I spent months rewriting and made him re-read it to make sure I wasn’t shying away from what it means to have OCD. It’s not just about OCD though I promise. I think there’s a particularly beautiful slow-growing love story between the MCs and it’s the center of everything. I can’t wait for you to get to spend some more time at the Draconis penthouse with the Royal Duke as he finds his other half.

At present, I’m still in the trenches on Book 19. I'm nearing one hundred and ten thousand words and normally that’s either near the end or I’ve already wrapped things up but this one is difficult to even pin down how far it’s going to go. There’s a lot going on story wise and in many ways it’s just beginning. This one has a different format and is essentially split into four parts. I thought I would be farther by now. It was going very quickly but the events in my life are heavily affecting my emotions which I must work through. (It’s also not coming out for more than a year and it’s easy to tell myself I’ve got plenty of time so I can put it off if I’m not in the mood or want to do something else. As I get farther ahead in my overall book count that’s becoming more of a danger and a concern as I'd hate to lose focus. This is something I’ll need to address one way or another when things are more calmed down.) I'll tell you who it features when I'm done because I'm mean.

As you can imagine, I’m stressed the fuck out and I can’t just worry about how I’m dealing with things because I need to be there for the people around me. I’ve moved up my trip to Minnesota which is not only a relief but something fun. It gets me there sooner to see Cecilia and we’re going to attend the state fair. We used to go every year, but my husband and I have struggled with some health issues over the years that kept us away from that tradition and we allowed it to fall into memory. Given her increasingly poor condition I don’t imagine we’ll be there long, but you only need a moment to embrace the atmosphere of a place and store it forever.

On a side note, I also hope it will make the GRL trip easier since I won’t have back-to-back travel to contend with. I know all too well how imperative it is that I take what measures I can to prevent spiraling into OCD madness (especially with my escalated stress level), so I’ve decided not to sell books while I’m there. It’s one thing I can take off my plate that would fluster me. Although I want everyone on the planet to get their hands on my D’Vaires and I would normally force myself to muddle through, I’m afraid I’ll fumble the hell out of it and make an ass of myself by messing up PayPal if they didn’t have cash or not have the right change or any number of catastrophes my troubled mind can conjure. (When my anxiety is high it sometimes gets me into dangerous mindsets like telling myself that it’s okay to worry about this obsessively or to lack diligence when it comes to the shame and guilt that accompany those thought patterns. Don’t even ask what kind of calamities I’m coming up with – I’m getting on my own nerves!) But I’ve got my pre-orders up until September 25th and might be able to throw in some extra goodies for those that take advantage of it. 

The Playlist:

“I Am the Fire” by Halestorm
“Unapologetic” by Halestorm
“Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel
“Wish That You Were Here (From “Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children” Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Florence + The Machine [I saw this movie not too long before I started working on No Ordinary Drakeling and when I heard the song I couldn’t believe how perfect it was for these books.]
“When Legends Rise” by Godsmack
“Murder” by Within Temptation
“Out of the Darkness” by My Indigo
“Missing You” by Imperia
“Run (Single Mix)” by Leona Lewis
“Fight Song” by Rachel Platten
“Just Another Day” by Jon Secada
“When You’re Gone” by Avril Lavigne
“I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers [I always have this image in my head of these two doing terrible karaoke to his song which drives Damian bonkers]
“I’ll Never Love This Way Again” by Dionne Warwick
“Goodbye Girl” by David Gates [For some reason Chrys hates this one and bitches in my brain each time it comes up on the playlist]
“Waking Up Beside You” by Stabbing Westward

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

It's great to be home.

The husband and I flew to Washington, DC for a long weekend and we had a wonderful trip. My niece and her family spent most of that time with us, and we’d gone entirely too long without seeing each other. On Sunday night, we had the awesome opportunity to attend an Iron Maiden concert and one of my favorite bands, Within Temptation, opened for them. While we had a fantastic time on our trip, sleep was not high on our priority list, so it’s going to take me a few days to get caught up. Beauty and Valor was released about twelve hours or so before I boarded my plane, and I really hope everyone enjoyed Preston and Ridgely’s story. Preston is an old character, and many details about where he came from and what race he belonged to changed, but the core of who he was never differed. He went through a few mates before I found the right one, and Ridgely was the perfect fit. Halfway through Gargoyle Birthright , that pair was distracting me, and there was no question that their book was re...

A sentinel and his dagger.

In my last blog, I talked about how D’Vaire was created. The first book was Dra’Kaedan and Brogan and I can’t wait for you to see their tale retold but let’s talk about what happened after the original story was completed. When I started the novel, I didn’t have an outline or anything. I wrote it by the seat of my pants and not even I knew how it would end. D’Vaire was supposed to be designed so that each one was a standalone title but when I was done there were so many things I didn’t have room to include. They would have to wait for the second which turned out to be Sentinel’s Dagger. Gavrael was the beginning of the sentinels. In fact, when I first started crafting his tale there was no Lich Sentinel. It was Gavrael (with Gedeon at his side) who was going to approach the Council to change the way the sentinels functioned within it. But I got sidetracked before his story could be completed by Chander and so things changed. (We’ll get to all that in a future post!) The thing you le...

Schereding in a new warlock book

Scheredin’s story wasn’t one I ever thought would come to fruition. As I created the D’Vaire universe, I put Noirin and Scheredin in there because they’re a vital part of my life and it was fun to add my gaming personas into my fantasy world. However, while Noirin’s path was chartered quickly thanks to Rafe and how his romance with Aleksander worked out, Scheredin didn’t cooperate in the slightest. His personality emerged as I poked and prodded at him, and he was full of surprises. I tried to pair him with multiple partners, and although I was pretty sure about his magic, I wasn’t positive he wanted to be a dark warlock until I wrote The Dragon Masquerade . But from the start I wanted Scheredin’s partner to have something to do with his gaming. For me, that was a neat way to honor the true Scheredin who exists virtually. Thankfully, Scheredin and Kieran liked the idea too, and when they were ready, the details spilled out in a rush. Their book wound up being one of those that was relat...