Tag Archives: marketing

Finishing touches of A Taste To Die For

Leave a reply

There is something quite exciting about knowing something is finished. Today, all the final touches of the next Teddie McKay Novel are in place, ready for August 27th release. I’m so excited!

I’m not sure (because the past month has been a bit of a blur between this and several other projects) whether I have mentioned the title yet. If not, I can reveal that it will be called A Taste To Die For. That is not, in case you were wondering, some bad lesbian joke based around Teddie’s sexuality.

Until the book actually goes on sale in 7 days, I know I will be a bit of a wreck. It is an excited kind of wreck, but still a bit wobbly regardless. There is something quite terrifying about sending a novel out there for people to read. Even though everything so far has been positive, that doesn’t mean I will ever get complacent about people’s reviews and opinions. All I can do is put the best book I can out there, and hope that people enjoy it.

Despite the fear, it is a hugely rewarding experience too. My life revolves around writing and that goes beyond C K Martin and her books. Yet the Teddie McKay series and the Lazarus Hunter series are some of my favourite things. Why?

Because I can write them as I want.

I don’t have a publishing house or editor telling me how to make them more saleable on a mass market scale. I don’t have to make the characters thinner, fatter, straighter, gayer, more of this gender, less of that, or anything else. The characters are the people I am interested in and the stories are the ones I want to tell.

For example, since Twilight, vampires have been a hard sell in traditional publishing. Yet Indie publishing shows that there is still a significant market for them. The only thing the Lazarus Hunter series has in common with the significantly more popular one is the vampire theme. Therefore, I don’t feel like I should hide it away just because someone else did something similar once. That’s insane.

With Teddie, I wanted the book equivalent of cheesey cop shows. I love to watch them on TV but there are so few gay characters and not in a leading role. Most of the lesbians I know are cops. Just saying. So I wanted her to be identifiable. But the main point is that she’s a detective. A flawed but capable detective. She doesn’t solve the crime with her gay magic powers. She solves it the same way as anyone else would. Which should be the point, really, shouldn’t it?

Anyway, that turned into a post slightly different from the one I had intended. Which was *squee*. It’s done. Now, we wait.

If you haven’t yet read the first book in the series and the sequel sounds interesting to you, then you can buy The Crochet Killer on Amazon.

(Cover reveal on Monday!!)

Q and A With Teddie McKay

Leave a reply

Sometimes, the bits that don’t go into the final edits of a book are some of the best parts. This is something that secretly infuriates most writers at some point. It is the essence of killing your darlings. If it doesn’t further the plot, it doesn’t go in, no matter how much you love it.

The same can be said for some of the pre-writing and planning stages. It’s always useful to get into the minds of your characters by doing something different with them. So here is a little piece which is a lot of fun, but obviously would never make it into the book. It starts with a simple premise:

What would it be like if the tables were turned on Detective Teddie McKay..?

CKM: Thanks for joining me here today. I’ve just got a few questions for you, then you can go.

TM: Hey, I’m the one who asks the questions around here.

CKM: Not tonight you don’t. Tonight you’re going to sit there and answer a couple of simple questions. Nothing too dangerous. I’m not placing you under arrest here.

TM: Like you could. Go on, ask whatever you want. Don’t be too hurt if I plead the Fifth.

CKM: I’m hoping that you won’t have to do that. There is nothing too damaging in here.

TM: Okay, okay. Just get on with it will you? I have places to be.

CKM: Places to be? As in a date?

TM: Was that one of the questions? You’re using up your time here lady.

CKM: It wasn’t going to be one of the questions, but it is now. I can tell when you’re stalling.

TM: You don’t know me.

CKM: Yes I do. Better than you think. So spill. Do you have a date? Is that why you’re in such a rush to get out of here?

TM: That’s two questions. Which do you want me to answer?

CKM: Both. quit stalling.

TM: I might be meeting someone. An old friend.

CKM: With you, that’s the safe word for romantic. Who is she?

TM: Hey, I never said it was romantic. Your words, not mine. This would never hold up in court.

CKM: We’re not in court. Nor are we likely to be. So either answer the question or I’ll get some of the other characters in here as well. They’ll make you talk. I’ve never seen you get away with not answering a question when it’s coming from Kathryn Greene.

TM: That’s a low blow there, author lady. Alright, I’ll answer your damn questions. Yes, it used to be romantic. If you count more than a couple of dates as romantic. But it’s not any more. We’re just friends.

CKM: With benefits?

TM: Maybe a handful of occasional benefits.

CKM: Is that because you don’t like to commit?

TM: Everyone make it sound like some huge thing. I’m not scared to commit. I just have chosen not to so far, that’s all. No one should have to commit until they’re at least forty.

CKM: Why do I get the feeling that when you get to forty, you’ll decide to up that to fifty to be on the safe side?

TM: Is that another question? You’re running out of time now. It’s like three wishes. You gotta choose wisely.

CKM: I never specified how many questions.

TM: And I never specified how long I’d stick around for. And don’t even think about bringing Kat into this again. Now she’s the one who you should be asking about dates. Underneath that prim and proper skirt, I reckon she’s all kinds of interesting.

CKM: Do you often think about what is under Kat’s skirt?

TM: You’re sick, you know that? That’s my friend you’re talking about.

CKM: Calm down. I’m just messing with you, that’s all. We can make that a question. No attraction at all between you and Kat? You just see yourself as friends?

TM: No attraction at all. I mean, she’s got a pretty face and her IQ is probably off the charts, but she’s never really done it for me, you know? But there’s something about her… me and her we just clicked. Right from the day I met her. I thought she was going to bust my ass when they brought her in to help out on The Crochet Killer case. That was what we were calling him back then. Seems crazy to think of him like that now. Now that… But yeah, anyway, she’s one of my closest friends. You want commitment? I’d walk to the ends of the earth for that woman. Just because I don’t want to live with someone doesn’t mean I have commitment problems.

CKM: Speaking of The Crochet Killer, do you still have nightmares about him?

TM: We don’t need to go there.

CKM: We do. Enquiring minds need to know.

TM: I don’t have any choice in this, do I? In that case, yes. Sometimes, I still have nightmares about him. Jolanta says it’s completely normal to still get freaked out sometimes. It doesn’t mean I need therapy or anything. He’s just there sometimes. Hell, for all I know, he’ll be haunting my dreams for the rest of my goddamn life. Too many women died on my watch. I should have got to him sooner. If the only price I have to pay is a few bad dreams, then I’ll take it.

CKM: That case made the news. What was your toughest case before that?

TM: Man, that’s a tough one. There’s no such thing as an easy case when you work Robbery-Homicide. Even when catching the perp is a slam dunk, then you’ve still got to deal with a victim. But if I had to pick just one, I’d go with my a homicide in my first year. I was pretty fresh back then and I didn’t catch break. It was a kid. Turned out his step-father had been beating him for awhile. Mother to drunk and beaten down herself to do anything other than throw back another fifth of Wild Turkey and look the other way. That was the first autopsy that made me want to cry and walk out the room. I’ve toughened up a lot since then. But cases with kids? They never get any easier.

CKM: Okay, let’s move onto something a bit easier. Doughnuts.

TM: Now those are my kind of questions.

CKM: People want to know, do you really eat doughnuts all the time? Or is that just a police stereotype?

TM: That’s a brush we’ve been tarnished with for a long time. Doughnut Friday, that was a thing for a while. Day to day cases, they don’t really need a doughnut quota. Now a big case, that’ll have Gary reaching straight for a party box, you know what I mean? And I care about the man. He’s my partner. It would be dereliction of duty if I let him do that to his heart. I need to take a bear claw for the team every now and again, right?

CKM: I suppose that makes sense. In a weird calorie-justifying kind of way. Okay, so flipping that over into fitness, how do you keep in shape for when you have to chase down bad guys?

TM: Contrary to popular belief, I don’t get to do much chasing these days. But I’m a swimmer. Not much else really. Most people already know that about me.

CKM: I didn’t know if you were also a secret gym bunny or anything like that.

TM: *snort*

CKM: I’ll take that as a no then. So, if we’re being open about your swimming, it’s no secret either that you nearly drowned when you were longer. So how many metres can you swim underwater these days?

TM: Never nearly as many as I’d need to feel safe. I can do about twenty metres. Enough to get me out of a tight spot, but nothing crazy. If I had to do more than that, I probably could. I just never want to find out. I love to swim, but I hate to swim. That’s never gonna change.

CKM: Okay, final question, then you can go on your not-a-date date.

TM: About time. Go on. Hit me.

CKM: Shake Shack or In-n-Out burger?

TM: Are you kidding me? How is that even a question? Shake Shack all the way baby, all the way…

You can buy the first instalment of the Teddie McKay series The Crochet Killer on Amazon, currently on offer at $3.69 (was $4.99). This is because the second book in the series A Taste To Die For will be available for download from August 27th.

Crochet Killer Cover

Do the KDP structure changes make Amazon the enemy?

3 Replies

I have seen much outrage (and confusion) since Amazon announced it was to make changes to the payment structure for books. In case you haven’t heard about it, the Publishers Weekly article goes into detail about it here.

A lot of the criticism seems to come from an initial bout of ‘you’ll only get paid if someone finishes the book’. In fact the statement is as follows:

Under this new model, the amount an author earns will be determined by their share of total pages read rather than their share of total qualified borrows.

At the moment, this also only applies to books that are in the kdp select programme, which pays out a percentage based on those borrows as part of Kindle Unlimited or the Kindle Owners Lending Library. I’m processing how I feel about this, but two obvious things spring to mind.

Firstly, this is potentially the tip of the iceberg that becomes the standard model for all books, irrespective of whether they were purchased outright rather than borrowed. While I know most people who aren’t in the game will assume that this kind of change will only have any real impact on self-published authors, I know there are a lot of books out there that have hit the best seller charts and yet nobody ever actually gets round to finishing or reading.

Secondly, how much data is Amazon actually collecting on people? Number of page reads and the amount of time spent on each one in order for it to actually qualify as being ‘read’ seems like getting down to a level of granularity that is quite off-putting. No lingering or re-reading that favourite sex scene over and over. Big brother is watching you (and now really knows what you like).

As with all change, there are pros and cons. I can see the value of someone who has produced a good, 200 page book being paid more than someone who has churned out a 20 page quickie. However, that does set a dangerous assumption that quality is the same as length, which we all know isn’t true. Get your mind out of the gutter, I’m still talking about books here.

The reality is that Amazon can do largely what it wants, as it is by far the largest retailer of ebooks. Nothing else really comes close. However, that is reliant on people using the kindle as the ereader of choice, and on authors being willing to upload their words. Being the market dominator can change quickly when your customers decide to take a look at those alternatives after all.

Just ask Blackberry.

The End

Leave a reply

I’m taking a short break from the final chapter of the second instalment of the Teddie McKay detective series. Now the end is so close, I am at that mix of excitement  combined with the sadness that it is over. There will no doubt be many changes between this version and the one which finally gets published, but there is only ever one true moment of ‘The End’ when writing a book.

Of course, I won’t be able to relish it for long. As soon as I’ve allowed myself a brief moment to celebrate (maybe with a glass of wine), my mind will begin to think other projects. The pull of the bright and shiny new has been strong for a couple of weeks, but I have managed to resist it. You know when the end is near. You start to get a new plot idea roughly every thirty seconds and you are convinced it is the best story since Eve tempted Adam with the apple. When you go back later to those hastily scribbled notes, most of them are rubbish, or absurd, or just plain weird. They were just there to distract you in that moment of weakness to stop you from finishing. Anyone who has read The War of Art knows that feeling of distraction.

(Doing this blogpost is probably exactly the same thing, but at least I know it won’t take up more than thirty minutes of my time. You’re getting the rough and ready content here people. Otherwise the Wordpress time suck will be the death of me.)

Tomorrow morning I will be writing something new. In a completely different genre. My mind may struggle to adjust for a while, but I’m going back to work with some characters I already know well. I’m looking forward to playing with them again. Teddie can go back in her box for a few weeks until I have to do structural edits on her. Which just sounds plain creepy. I assure you it’s not.

Probably.

Subtext vs Queerbaiting: When does one spill over into the other?

Leave a reply

This blogpost came out of a conversation with a friend about how badly diversity is handled by some media. Whether in TV, movies or books, there are shining examples and there are terrible examples. Although the conversation was about diversity in general, it was the the fine line between subtext and queerbaiting that seemed the most blurred.

Firstly, whilst subtext can mean all manner of implied content, for the purpose of this post I’m just using it in a sexual / sexuality way. After all, subtext as a technique is essential in all art mediums, otherwise there would be only explicitly stated events. And that would be no fun at all.
joey quote

Firstly, let’s get some definitions going. Not mine, but stolen from the internet as generally accepted understandings:

Subtext is content underneath the dialogue. Under dialogue, there can be conflict, anger, competition, pride, showing off, or other implicit ideas and emotions. Subtext is the unspoken thoughts and motives of characters—what they really think and believe.

For me, whenever I heard the term queerbaiting, it always seemed to be in anger or thrown around without much thought to what it actually means. So I turned to Wikipedia to found out (if it’s on Wikipedia then it must be true, right?)

Queerbaiting is what happens “when people in the media (usually television/movies) add homoerotic tension between two characters to attract more liberal and queer viewers with the indication of them not ever getting together for real in the show/book/movie”

Now, one of these things sounds significantly worse than the other. One seems normal writing technique, the other seems malicious and cruel. But in the context of sexuality specifically, I’m not sure the difference between the two is as great as it seems. Stick with me here. Because (and I’m going to pull from TV for a second, rather than books), since the late 90s, we see very little has changed. Subtext was the source of great joy in the early days, queerbaiting a source of great anger now. But compare two shows, one from now and the other from back then, and other than the bad hair there is probably very little difference.

It is expectations that have changed. And rightly so.

It used to be that queer audiences were glad for anything they could get. In a world of terrible TV stereotyping, or gays that were essentially called that but were portrayed in a nice, safe, asexual way, some tense subtext between two characters was something to enjoy. A long, soulful glance could launch a thousand fanfics. It still can.

But queer viewers (and generally liberal viewers of all sexualities) no longer expect to be grateful for having someone throw them a bone. Fully rounded queer characters have been portrayed on TV, and in a world where gay marriages are increasing becoming enshrined in law and general social acceptance, it seems almost ludicrous that obvious sexual tension between two characters of the same sex wouldn’t lead to more. Why? Because in the real world, it would.

In the real world, when there is a smouldering sexual tension between two parties, it eventually explodes into something more. Generally after a bottle of tequila. Either that or it becomes confessed to a best friend after a bottle of tequila. Two things remain truth: acknowledgement of said tension and tequila.

The reality is the majority of TV is still written and devised by straight white middle class men. Usually American. Subtext was fine before, so why is it not now? I suspect there is a general mentality of let’s throw this in for the gays, they’ll love it, and then general confusion when they don’t. A lack of understanding of why, in 2015, they might just feel cheated and annoyed. Homosexual self-worth has increased ten-fold and those who have come out the other side of social shame are pulling the teenagers who are struggling right up there with them. Being reliant on subtext feels like going back in the closet, like becoming second class citizens again.

As a writer, I still love me some subtext. I love the freedom it gives for people to create their own imagined ships, whilst understanding that it may not work with the overall intention of the narrative. I completely get that, I really do. Likewise, I love the slow burn of subtext between two characters regardless of sexuality. Castle and Beckett holding out against each other for as long as they did made the payoff even greater. I’d like to think that audiences are smart enough to spot when that’s the case.

The art is understanding the line and knowing when you are about to cross the threshold. When the move goes from fun to offensive. Back to TV – shows like Rizzoli and Isles have come very close to crossing that line, without spilling over into the fury that has been seen with Once Upon A Time. Two very different shows, handled in two very different ways. One is a light-hearted detective show that is only one step up from Diagnosis Murder in its case complexity, with two female leads who are outstanding in their respective fields. It does not frame itself in any other way.

Once, by contrast, sets itself up for confusion: a re-telling of fairy tales (already pretty dark if we’re honest), whilst remaining a family show. It would be hard to reconcile those things at the best of times, but with an almost exclusively white, strongly heterocentric character list who do despicable and brutal things, it fails at both. Creating a convoluted family tree does not equate to a re-telling. Murder does not equate to a family show. Having your characters say one thing but behave in a way that is classic subtext, is no longer ‘just fun’ within the parameters the show has set for itself.

The world has come a long way. I guess that is the key concept I have reached in all of this. That subtext is fine, but context is key. Like all art, at the grand finale, the audience expects a payoff. Books have it much easier, allowing the audience to be privy to the innermost thoughts of the character. TV and movies have to convey much more to compensate for that. It requires a great script, great directing and great acting ability. But people have a right to vote with their fingers: to close the book or to turn off the TV.

People have a right to not enjoy it when something they identify with is being used as a fun plaything for someone else. They have a right to say so. Eventually the world will change more. Eventually, I hope, this blog post will be laughably obsolete as people no longer have to fight for entertainment that is ethnically, socially, sexually diverse. Oh, and don’t forget gender. Wouldn’t it be nice for the virgin/whore trope to be gone forever?

Feel free to agree or disagree, but politeness only in the comments section please!

Writing and motivation: keeping the momentum going

Leave a reply

I find the long weekend has been perfect for a little bit of extra introspection time.

I’ve spent the past few months building up to publishing Blood Inheritance, with the crazy planning and scheduling that goes with such a big endeavour. I say that because we should not belittle our achievements. I am terrible at taking time out to celebrate when I hit my goals. I’ve been talking about getting this book out there for the best part of two years, so I’m allowed to high five myself for being brave and letting one of my babies fly the nest.

The downside in achieving something that has taken up so much of your time and attention for months is that after the excitement fades, then there is a moment when you realise the enormity of the void it has left behind. Instead of breathing a sigh of relief that you have now got so many hours of your life back each week, you sense the loss. There is only one thing to do.

You have to keep going.

There will always be another book brewing on the horizon. There will always be an idea to be captured and the seed of the idea planted so it can grow. Writing tasks will never disappear completely, but neither will the joy of those first moments of creation. So when the sigh of relief wears off and I begin to think about that sudden free time, it’s always good to know that I have several projects I can dip into.

It is good to take a break. It is good to allow yourself to recharge. It is not good to allow that to turn into sloppiness and complacency. So how do you avoid it? It’s quite simple really.

fieldnotes1. Keep a notebook. Capture your ideas somewhere safe so you don’t have to keep them in your head. Then they’ll always be there waiting for you when you need them.

2. Plan your next project before you finish your current one. In those quiet times, those moments when you find yourself twiddling your thumbs, think about what you want your next project to be and outline what next actions you’ll be taking on it. That removes the panic of having to come up with something spur of the moment.

3. Be realistic with your scheduling. Each project will be different, but each one will also take a lot of hard work. Be kind to yourself and allow yourself adequate time when planning your project. Don’t be too generous though. You want to have enough tension there to motivate you to do something, rather than having the psychological freedom to continually defer it until next week. Be sensible, but also give yourself a deadline. Even self-imposed ones carry a punch when you keep a reminder of them where you can see them.

So that’s what I’ll be doing. The first draft of the next Teddie McKay novel is nearly complete and I’m going to be working through that for the next few months. My goal is to publish it in September, so that is the deadline keeping me on track. Whilst Blood Inheritance may be published, everyone knows that is not the point at which marketing and reader engagement stops. Of course, I’ve already got the next book I’m editing decided and set up to make it easy to start.

So the void of time was relatively short; I’m back to writing again.

Blood Inheritance – Finally Published!

1 Reply

This is a very exciting day for me – Blood Inheritance is finally published! Pretend you can hear me squee.

Blood Inheritance C K Martin

The first ever book I published, Rebirth, was more a way to prove to myself that I could do it. The Crochet Killer was fun to write and I enjoy the characters, but it wasn’t like publishing this book. This book has been like sending my baby out into the big wide world. It’s exciting, but it’s also terrifying. I want it to do well, but I also want to hug it close to my chest and never let it go.

This post should probably be some savvy piece of marketing, but instead I’m going to just talk honestly. I have invested in these characters far more than any others I have ever created. Elizabeth, to a degree, will struggle with something that I have spent the past decade and a half trying to deal with. It might only be in that one way I can relate, but it is fairly significant.

Urban fantasy is always about hot chicks in leather kicking ass. Kicking ass and then becoming soft as a kitten because some broad shouldered hunk renders them senseless for some reason. That’s not something I can relate to. And my friends, many of whom kick ass on a daily basis (albeit of a non-supernatural nature), don’t behave that way either. They are strong and independent.

Besides, if there is to be romance – and I’m not saying that there will be – then I’m more of a fan of the slow burn. There is something delicious in the smouldering stages of a relationship, in that confusing attraction that defies what you have always believed in. And it can change you, but it shouldn’t define you. That is the difference I wanted to see in the urban fantasy books that I read and when I couldn’t find it, I decided to write it for myself.

So, please, head over to amazon and download yourself a free sample. Obviously, I’d prefer it if you just bought the book straight away, but I’m prepared to let you have a little taste for free.

Because if there is any other theme going on in Blood Inheritance, it’s that the first taste is what gets you hooked.

Character Introduction: Elizabeth Hastings

Leave a reply

As a way of introducing Blood Inheritance I thought it would be fun to do a few character background pieces. There shouldn’t be any spoilers in here though, so you should be safe if you haven’t yet read the book.

Elizabeth Hastings is technically the main character of The Lazarus Hunter series. I say technically because I’ve always felt Monica Carletto has been a main character in her own right. There will be more about her in later post.

I love Elizabeth as a main character. She is smart, funny and capable. More importantly, she has a whole history to live up to and still always insists on doing things her way. I always admire (in both fiction and real life) people who can take the cards life deals them, no matter how bad the hand, and use it to work in their favour. The ones who get back up, no matter how hard they’ve been knocked down. For me, Elizabeth is the very embodiment of that quality. She’s not Buffy, but I wanted someone who at least didn’t undo all the amazing things that Joss Whedon did for female empowerment when he put the fate of the world in the hands of a girl.

Non-spoilery character background:

She’s British (and as she’s the main character, that is why the spelling in the book is British English, rather than using Americanised spelling). Her age is never actually mentioned in Blood Inheritance, although an interesting age conversation actually happens in book four (yes, I am that far along in writing the series).

She has some interesting scars, but none where you can see them.

She once ran a marathon in 3:02:59, but practices sprints more these days. After all, no one has ever had to outrun a vampire for 26.2 miles…

Blood Inheritance is available on kindle now.

Blood Inheritance

Book covers, line edits and pre-order systems

Leave a reply

This week has been a busy one pulling out all the stops to make sure everything I needed to do in order to publish Blood Inheritance on May 22nd happens. It has been far from easy, and I’m glad that this initial launch is on kindle only. This means getting the final draft uploaded by a date they specify in advance of the book actually becoming available. Failure to do so means the loss of certain publishing privileges, so that’s something authors need to be aware of before pressing that button.

I did consider making it available across other platforms, but my experience so far is that they are less willing to promote authors who do not come with the backing of a traditional publisher. While I want to keep the two sides of my life separate, that makes things much more difficult than they need to be, but I suppose I can just keep working around the issues until they finally sort themselves out.

So, without further ado, the final cover design for Blood Inheritance and links!  *drumroll*

Blood Inheritance

Blood Inheritance on Amazon.com

Blood Inheritance on Amazon UK

I’m really excited to be able to share this book with the world. This story is very special to me because it grew out of never finding the urban fantasy book that I wanted to read. One where the female characters weren’t actually all about getting the dark brooding man who they knew they shouldn’t love but did anyway. I wanted to see women stand on their own two feet and work together, especially when everyone would expect them to be bitter rivals. Women, especially on TV (which is the media that most people these days see) don’t support each other, not without being relegated so the ‘supportive best friend’ trope where they have no story of their own. When they do, the shows are runaway successes, but only Shonda Rhimes seems to have picked up on that…

So I wanted action, I wanted vampires and the supernatural, but I didn’t need a woman in leather and impossibly high heels brooding over a bare chested man. Blood Inheritance is the book that starts my two heroines on the journey that is going to be fun, painful and at times bittersweet. But there will be rewards and successes, even at the darkest of times and against all odds.

Feel free to drop me any questions in the comments about the book, or the ups and downs of the publishing process and I’ll be happy to answer them. Thanks again for your support!

Blood Inheritance – Available this week for pre-order

Leave a reply

So things have been a bit quiet here as I have been frantically juggling all manner of things and trying to get my latest novel, Blood Inheritance, available for pre-order. Pending a final review from my merry band of editors and some final decisions on the cover, we are pretty much there.

So, let me tell you a little bit about this book. It is a labour of love: ten years in the making. To put that in context, one of the main characters started out surgically attached to her PDA, which over time became a Blackberry (remember those?) and now is just a cellphone. Given the rate of change, I didn’t even want to give her an iPhone in case they fall spectacularly out of fashion in the next six months.

I started writing this supernatural series before Twilight became a thing and changed how vampires were perceived for a generation. For centuries now, this comes in cycles, but it certainly did lead to a massive saturation in the market for a while. It even ruined the fun for me and I’ve always enjoyed the heroes with pointy teeth. But now I believe that a good story, strong characters and self-sufficient women can be interesting enough to put the sense of saturation aside.

Over the next two weeks I’ll be updating this website with more details, character introductions and all the other good stuff that I’ve loved about writing this series before we release on May 22nd. I’m excited to see where this will take me and I know that regardless, I’ll continue to work with these characters until their stories are finished. I just hope you’ll join me for the ride!