the shadow lands

writing update

It’s been a while since I did a State of the Writing update.

So.

Flare, Book 2 of The Sunless World series, has been handed over for proofreading and formatting. This is the last planned book in the series, though I have left a smidgen of an opening in case there is demand for more.

I’m planning a cover reveal for July 20th–but it won’t be on this blog. A number of other authors and readers have kindly offered to host a cover reveal on their blogs, so I’ll direct you to theirs on that day. It’s a fabulous cover featuring Isabella, and I can’t WAIT to share it with the wider world!

(My mailing list has already gotten an exclusive first look at it. So, if you want to be in the loop for the future, go ahead and sign up now!)

Now I’m in the middle of editing Ghostlight, Book One of a completely different project. Whereas The Sunless World is a steampunk-flavored epic fantasy series, Ghostlight is a paranormal fantasy set in a Regency-inspired world. Think magic in a Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer setting and you won’t be too far off!

Allow me to share a snippet:

Arabella gave a merry laugh as she glided in behind him. “I should dearly love to see it. Perhaps I can breathe down his neck till he relents. That sort of thing always unnerves people in books.”

“I shouldn’t encourage you to haunt people, but I’ll make an exception this time.” Trey peered into an interior so gloomy, it looked like the place sunlight went to die.

It was also spectacularly cluttered, rather like the drawing room of an aristocratic emigree goblin family. He knocked against a table with slender gilt legs. The china on it rattled alarmingly and a cloud of dust flew up. Trey sneezed.

“Bless you,” said Arabella. She was already halfway across the room, examining a display cabinet entirely full of cross china cats.

Trey turned his head and found himself staring at a bedraggled stuffed owl with glass eyes. “I know how you feel,” he told it. “I’m the same way in the mornings.” The owl didn’t respond.

Fellow writers, what are you working on now? Any upcoming or recent releases? Please share!

writing update

At the beginning of the year, I wrote up a list of resolutions. How am I doing on these one month into 2016? Let’s dig in and see!

Write 25K words a month: January was a great writing month for me, with over 40K in new words. I’ve adjusted my February word goal to 20K, though, because…

… I finished the first draft of Flare (about 95K) words and read through the ms. It hangs together surprisingly well (yes, I was surprised!) but I do have some big-picture revisions I want to do before sending it out to alpha readers this month. I’m one (big) step nearer to publishing the third installment of The Sunless World.

All of my current new words are going towards Ghostlight, the first book of The Shadow Lands. Here’s the working blurb:

Trevlyan Shield knew that Arabella Trent was trouble the moment he saw her hesitating on the side of a busy street one morning. But it wasn’t her sparkling eyes or dark ringlets that caught his attention—it was the way the sun shone through her translucent form.

Bella has no memories of the runaway carriage that hit her and left her for dead. Nor does she know why she was found so far from home. Those hours are a total blank in her memory.

Fortunately, Trey is no stranger to dealing with ghosts and other phantasms. But the rules of his profession are strict: spirits must be sent on into the afterlife. Any who linger are susceptible to corruption and being preyed upon by the denizens of the Shadow Lands.

Time is running out for Bella. If she doesn’t figure out how to return to her body soon, she’ll be dead for good.

I’m about 24K into the book, with less than half of the story left to go. Finishing it this month seems a doable goal.

How am I doing taking better care of myself? Eh. This is the one thing that gets easily shoved aside. I’m getting sleep and watching my eating, but exercise is one thing that doesn’t fit into my schedule (and *confession* I’m not fond of exercise so I don’t try very hard, either).

How about you? How’s your year going so far?