Evernight Readers' Choice Awards!

Listen up, folks! It's that one time of year I put aside my shame of self-promotion and ask you to get out and vote! On the condition that you only vote if you actually read one of my books and enjoyed it. Don't just vote because I told you to. I feel like that would undermine the process.

Anyway! It's time for the fifth annual Evernight Readers' Choice Awards! Get out there and show your favourite authors and books some love (and get yourself in the running for a prize!). Five of my books are eligible for awards this year, should you be so inclined:

THROWN TO THE WOLVES - best lesbian, best paranormal, and best Romance on The Go

IN COLD BLOOD - best paranormal, best suspense, and best lesbian

LICH QUEEN - best paranormal and best suspense

ON A DARK TIDE - Best paranormal, best contemporary, best suspense, and best lesbian

And IMPERIAL DEMONS - best paranormal, best contemporary, best suspense, best lesbian

And you can vote for any of these titles for best cover and book of the year, as well as voting for Blood Canticles as best series and me as author of the year! Phew. It's been a busy a year, I realise, when I line them all up like that.

I've been honoured and humbled to be a winner or runner-up in several categories over the past four years. I never expect it and I'm always thrilled, and I would be grateful for your votes again this year! 

Happy Release Day To Me!

Yes, it's true, it's true. ON A DARK TIDE is out right this very second now! And you can buy it all the usual places, like Evernight, Amazon US, and Amazon UK. Huzzahs! I hope you all love the creepy ocean story as much as I do <3

True crime podcasters Piper and Cam have travelled to the sleepy seaside town of Findlay to investigate the disappearance of a woman nearly a decade ago. The theories are wild—everything from murder to mermaids, and Piper is determined to get to the truth. Battling her fear of the ocean, Piper soon realizes Findlay has deeper, darker secrets than she could ever have believed. As she struggles to master her fear and deal with her unrequited love for Cam, Piper is lured into perilous waters. The truth waits beneath the waves—and Piper's fate waits with it. 

Wednesday Snippet - On A Dark Tide

So! Tomorrow's the big day! ON A DARK TIDE will officially be released and I'm so excited! You know I love my creepy ocean story. This was my "rule-breaking" story. I resolved not to start any new projects, but once I had the opening for Piper and Cam's tale in my head, I couldn't help myself. It had to be written.

And since it's Wednesday and Wednesday means snippets, I figured I'd give you all a sneak peek at ON A DARK TIDE today. Enjoy!

Snippety-snip.

ON A DARK TIDE - Cover Reveal!

I have been waiting impatiently to show this one off to you. I was really keeping my fingers crossed for a cover that reflected the gloomy atmosphere and mystery of ON A DARK TIDE, and because Jay Aheer is a genius, she nailed it. I knew she would! But it's still tense waiting to actually see the artwork that's going to represent your story. But now the tension is all gone, because this is an actual perfect cover.

See for yourself!

August Accountability

Well, it appears another month has gone by! July just seemed to go by impossibly fast, but looking back, a lot happened. I polished up and submitted Imperial Demons, edited LICH QUEEN and had it released, and just yesterday I completed the last round of edits for ON A DARK TIDE. Around that, I wrote and edited a 12k story and submitted it to an anthology, and got the first 4k of my new Amber Morgan project written.

So actually, yeah, that's probably why the month flew by.

So! What's the plan for August? Well, ON A DARK TIDE will be out on August 24th. I'm hoping to be able to share news about Imperial Demons with you soon. In the meantime, I'm going to be focusing on that Amber Morgan book and brainstorming Urban Wolf 6.

I've been thinking about this book a lot recently. You'll see from the Work In Progress thingy over there somewhere ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
that I have about 8k written of it, but I wrote that a few years ago now, and I'm not sure it's the story I want to tell next in this series anymore. I think some of the bare bones of the plot can remain, but the big juicy meaty bits need to change. So I need to figure that out before I start work on it again, but either way, Urban Wolf 6 is definitely next on the to-do list. WOLF STRAP was my first professionally published story, and even though it's been a while since I wrote a full-length Ayla and Shannon novel, their world and lives are still important to me. I always planned to give them five full-length novels at a bare minimum. At the moment we're on three short stories, two novels, and one spin-off in the shape of IN COLD BLOOD, so even though Urban Wolf 6 will technically be book six in the Urban Wolf World, it'll still only be Ayla and Shannon's third novel. There's a lot of their world left to explore.

Anyway! That's for the autumn. August is all about Amber. I will of course be checking in here with news about Imperial Demons and ON A DARK TIDE and probably other stuff as well, so stay tuned!

June Accountability

You may remember that back at the start of May, I thought finishing Imperial Demons by the end of May was a pretty reasonable goal. Well, It's now the 5th of June and the book still isn't finished, so I'm starting to think I should just shut up. I had a really productive writing month last month, allowing for a few periods of down-time due to ye olde shoulder/arm/wrist issues, and Imperial Demons is sitting pretty at nearly 70k. I thought it would end up around 80k, but there is just no way I'll have everything wrapped up in just another 10k, so now I'm thinking 90k-100k seems more likely.

This is turning into a big book by my standards. I haven't written anything this long since my dad passed away in 2012. In 2013 I really lost my passion for writing while I was grieving, and it seemed for a while like the spark and the drive to write anything longer than a short story was never coming back to me. I don't know why I placed so much value on writing "big books," but it made me sad to think I'd lost some vital component in my writer's toolkit. Clearly I worried too much. Thanks, anxiety!

I guess it's a natural part of the series' progression - BLOOD WITCH was around 45k, DARK DAYS was around 63k. LICH QUEEN dropped to 58k, and Imperial Demons could easily end up being double the length of any of them at this rate. Expect to see Book 5 clock in at a million words...

Anyway, none of that is particularly interesting, really. I just like tracking that kind of thing. The point is, Imperial Demons is still not done, but it should be done in June (allowing for edits for ON A DARK TIDE and LICH QUEEN). Huzzahs! I am in the final act and it's time to start bringing all the foreshadowing and plot threads together for the big climax. Wish me luck!

So that's June's to-do list, really: Finish The Damn Book. I feel pretty inspired to do so, what with being so close to the end, and my tarot card draw for the month is encouraging too:

That's the Magician from the Quantum tarot deck. He indicates power, skill, and concentration, among other things. The Quantum deck tells us that whenever we create something out of nothing, we are inhabiting the Magician archetype. I can't think of a better card to represent where I am right now, focusing on finishing this goddamn book and turning all the ideas that have been tucked away in my head for over a year into actual words.

In the spirit of creating something from nothing, I spent most of yesterday afternoon making perfumes, something I never feel like I have time for anymore.

It felt so good to just chill out and make things smell pretty, and I really need to carve more time out of my schedule for experimenting. So we'll add that to the June to-do list as well. Let's see how it all turned out when I do this again in July...

Wednesday Snippet - Star-filled eyes watched her

The writing has been slow-going recently, mostly because I spent a lot of last week running around like a mad thing at the day job preparing for being off work this week. But! I am now off work. And hopefully the next few days will be productive and push me ever-closer to the end of Imperial Demons. Cross your fingers for me. I'm also anticipating first round edits for either LICH QUEEN or ON A DARK TIDE in the near future, since both are currently slated for release in June. Obviously edits will slow down writing, but maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, I am so excited about both those stories!

Anyway! Let's check in with Lola in the meantime.

May Accountability

So back at the start of April I decided finishing Imperial Demons in April was a pretty reasonable goal. Now it's May and I think finishing by the end of May is a pretty reasonable goal. This is entirely because I broke my "no new stories" resolution by writing ON A DARK TIDE, but since I got that written, edited, submitted, and accepted in roughly two weeks, I don't feel too bad about taking the break. But I do really want to finish Imperial Demons this month now. Getting back into the swing of things has been hard. Real Life in April is always busy thanks to family birthdays, and I knew the day job was going to be...trying. I also re-opened Common Brimstone in a limited fashion, and have immediately found myself back in the old struggle to balance writing, work, and perfume.

The problem is, of course, the longer I leave a story, the harder it is start up again. I struggled with IN COLD BLOOD last year because I kept doubting it and myself, and ignoring it for days and weeks at a time. I don't have those doubts with Imperial Demons, so I know I just need to carve out that first crucial bit of writing time and dive back in, and all the inspiration and motivation will come flooding back. The next couple of weeks should prove easier in that respect, so I have no excuses. I want this story done, partially so I can move onto the next story, and partially so I can share it with you!

So, the goal for May is simply to work as hard as I can on this book. I will possibly have edits for LICH QUEEN and ON A DARK TIDE heading my way, as both are slated for release in June, but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it, or something... Wish me luck!

Good news, everyone!

I'm delighted to announce that I've just signed the contract for the creepy ocean story ON A DARK TIDE, and it's coming to Evernight in June! Release dates are always subject to change, but potentially that means you could get LICH QUEEN and ON A DARK TIDE in the same month! Huzzahs!

As usual, more details will follow as I get them, but in the meantime, here's the (unedited) blurb:

True crime podcasters Piper and Cam have travelled to the sleepy seaside town of Findlay to investigate the disappearance of a woman nearly a decade ago. The theories are wild - everything from murder to mermaids, and Piper is determined to get to the truth. Battling her fear of the ocean, Piper soon realises that Findlay has deeper, darker secrets than she could ever have believed. As she struggles to master her fear and deal with her unrequited love for Cam, Piper is lured into perilous waters. The truth waits beneath the waves - and Piper's fate waits with it.

Five Creepy Ocean Stories To Shiver Your Timbers

As you know, I've been taking a short break from Imperial Demons over the past couple of weeks to write On A Dark Tide, a short story I've been repeatedly (and probably annoyingly) referring to as the creepy ocean story. It's nearly finished! I reckon I can have it done and dusted over the Easter weekend, and be back to work on Imperial Demons by Tuesday.

My jokey reference to it as a creepy ocean story got me thinking about other creepy ocean stories. It shouldn't be a surprise that I love reading and writing about the sea. UNDERTOW and THE SEA WIFE are both born of that love, although they're very different. On A Dark Tide is more akin to UNDERTOW, inspired by that idea that the deep, vast ocean is concealing a very alien and inhospitable world from us - and that maybe we don't want to uncover it's secrets.

These five books share that theme, and were all incredibly formative reads for me growing up. I make no apologies for three of them being Lovecraft stories. If you want creepy ocean stories, HP Lovecraft is your man. Enjoy!

1. DAGON
 

DAGON was one of the first stories Lovecraft wrote as an adult, back in 1917. Told from the point of view of a morphine addict recounting a horrific experience he had as a merchant marine, it's classic Lovecraft, encapsulated into a short but striking story. Adrift in an unknown region of the ocean, he finds "a slimy expanse of hellish black mire" thrown to the ocean's surface by a volcanic upheaval. Upon exploring the landmass, he discovers an inhumanly large monolith covered in hieroglyphics that suggest a terrifying truth about humanity. As he studies the monolith, an enormous creature emerges from the waters. Insane with fear, the man escapes, but is cursed to madness as fear of the creature consumes him.

This was the first Lovecraft story I ever read! It set me on a long and happy path of trying to make everyone I knew read Lovecraft (only partially succeeding). It's short enough that his sometimes purple prose doesn't grate on you, and leaves enough to the imagination that you can't help being fascinated by his submerged civilisations and cold, distant gods.

2. TELLING THE SEA

On a rather different note, we have TELLING THE SEA by Pauline Fisk. I must have read this dozens of times as a child. It's the story of Nona, who moves with her mother to a coastal village in Wales to escape an abusive partner. Isolated and lonely, Nona deals with her troubles by sharing them with the sea. But as life grows more complicated and no answers seem to be in sight, Nona does more than just talk to the sea...And soon her life is danger as the waters lure her in.

This is a YA book dealing with some heavy topics - domestic abuse and suicide, chiefly. I don't think I truly appreciated as a child how well those topics were addressed, but it's a book that's stayed in my memory my whole life. The setting and Nona's strange, difficult relationships, and her sanctuary in the sea, make this a one-of-a-kind book.

3. THE CALL OF CTHULHU

Maybe the ultimate watery horror? In his house at R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming, as we all know. Francis Wayland Thurston, our narrator, retells his discovery of notes left by his deceased grand-uncle, which slowly unfold a disturbing tale of sinister cults, dead sailors, and a peculiar bas-relief sculpture that conjures "simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature."

CALL OF CTHULHU, for many people, is the Lovecraft story, and if you don't know any of his other works I can almost guarantee you've heard of Cthulhu somewhere. He was in the Ghostbusters cartoon, for goodness sake! Lovecraft himself thought the story "rather middling," but it's spawned an ongoing mythos that other writers and creators have been tapping into and expanding ever since Lovecraft's time. The idea of a slumbering alien god waiting at the bottom of the ocean is captivating, especially in light of things like the bloop (now explained, sadly) and the elusiveness of animals like the giant squid.


4. SEA DRAGON HEIR

Oh man. If you want your high fantasy ripe with incest, have I got a book for you. Twins Valraven and Pharinet are heirs of a royal family cursed many hundreds of years before. Any woman married to Valraven was destined to become the Sea Wife, a being capable of commanding the vast powers of the sea dragons. Growing up, Val and Pharinet become lovers, and an intricate web of magic and betrayal engulfs them and everyone around them. 

I love this book, but it's definitely not for everyone. The nature of the sea dragons (are they real or just metaphors for the family's magic?) and the complex political intrigue make this an outstanding first book in the series. The rest of the trilogy drifts away from the ocean and the incredibly sinister dragons, sadly.





5. THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH

If I had to pick a favourite Lovecraft story, it would be this one (just edging out AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS). Our narrator, touring across New England, hears tales of ruined, strange Innsmouth, and decides to take a detour to the mysterious town. There unfolds a harrowing saga of malign underwater empires, and an ancient pact between men and monsters. It's part of the Cthulhu Mythos cycle and, yes, it absolutely did influence UNDERTOW, because it's great.

If I had to recommend you one book off this list, it would be this one. It's creepy ocean story personified, and still my go-to audio book when I can't sleep at night. I just love the story so much. For my money, it's better written than THE CALL OF CTHULHU, and tells a more complete tale. Get your creepy ocean story fix now!

Wednesday Snippets - And now for something completely different

I know, I know. There was a plan. A schedule. A resolution. I was not going to start any new projects this year.

Well, I kinda started a new project this year. But just a short story! Sometimes an idea just grabs you by the scruff of the neck and shakes you, and the only answer is to start writing. This is a minor diversion from Imperial Demons, focusing on two things I love: creepy ocean stories and true crime/unsolved mysteries. So it's pure self-indulgence, but hopefully it'll make a good short story for you guys in the near future.

Here's a teaser for the tentatively titled On A Dark Tide. Enjoy!