The publishing contract for my third high-fantasy novel is signed!

These past six months have been a roller-coaster as I’ve navigated rejections, more than a few CNRs, and a surprise second chance. Trying to keep an even keel through it all I am very happy to report that I have signed the contract with Apprentice House Press, publisher of my previous two novels, for my third story. You’ll be able to continue learning about Thorne and Reihana’s evolving struggle for the Archive's future in late Spring 2027 (exact release date TBD). I am beyond happy to be working with Apprentice House Press again. Title and cover reveal will happen around Thanksgiving, with ARCs ready in early 2027. As publication updates happen, I’ll be sure to post them in my monthly updates.

This past week I received the first round of comments and revisions from my AHP editor. It was predominantly a line/copy edit, but he had some very insightful developmental edits as well. I was very happy to hear from him that the story is already in great shape in terms of plot and world-building, so his critiques were more about character motivation. He has also been a great cheerleader and said that it’s clear that I’m comfortable with the world and the magic system. He said my own personal style really shined there. Encouraged, I’ve attacked the edits with a positive attitude and am finding new places to add character thoughts and feelings that I think will help readers get a bit more into Thorne and Reihana’s heads.

In parallel with the editing for the manuscript, I’m also tasked with providing the collateral materials, which includes dedication, map, author biography, acknowledgements, and blurbs. The first four items will take time (and calling in some favors for the map) but will not be difficult. However, the last one is always intimidating for me. For my previous two books, I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time to ask a fellow indie or small press author to give my book a read and blurb it. Very fortunately there were a couple people who did me a solid in the past. This time it's a bit different because I have been asking people that I learned about from podcast interviews. I am certainly acquainted with these authors’ works, but in some cases we’ve never been introduced. Putting yourself out there and asking for something is always scary, it doesn’t matter if you’ve done it before. Three have been gracious enough to say “yes” and are reading uncorrected proofs now. I am very grateful for their time and effort and hope I can repay the favor in the near future. When they are comfortable saying they are blurbing the book, I'll share their names in an update and link to their author websites.

As to be expected, drafting on my final novel in Thorne and Reihana’s story has completely stopped. For this month I only got in 5k words, but that pushed the total word count over 51k. I’m halfway done drafting, and that’s a great feeling for only 4 months of work. Once I get revisions back to my editor, which has a deadline of Sept.1, then I can pick up drafting again.

Also unsurprisingly, media consumption has dropped to zero as well. No new books read, TV watched, or games played. I’ve locked in (as kids these days say) and singularly focused on getting revisions completed. Deadlines are coming.

Thanks for stopping by.