The Witch's Guide to Werewolves is here!

Happy Tuesday! And happy release day to me! My latest paranormal romance is available now! The Witch's Guide to Werewolves is a short and sweet story about an optimistic witch and a maybe-werewolf, and I hope you love it as much as I do!

Callie McIntyre believes in a lot of things. She believes in tarot cards and moon magic, and that's the reason her last girlfriend left her. But she never believed in werewolves until she meets Devon Miller out in the woods one night.

Devon's story is crazy, but who's Callie to argue about it? With a full moon fast approaching, Callie is determined to help Devon tackle her fears. Sure, neither of them know a thing about werewolves, but with another reluctant lyncathrope in tow and all Callie's witchy optimism at work, surely they can get through Devon's first full moon in one piece... Right?

You can grab your copy now from:

Amazon US/Amazon UK/Evernight Publishing

And wherever else you buy your ebooks!

Starting February the right way

Happy New Year! I know it's February, but I think technically the year is still new, and I spent actually New Year getting drunk in a rock bar in Tokyo, so I couldn't say it then. So, Happy New Year! 2020 is probably going to be a weird one for a lot of people, but I keep my political rants on Twitter, so let's focus on the good stuff here!

The first piece of good stuff is that I've signed my first contract for the year! My paranormal romance short story, THE WITCH'S GUIDE TO WEREWOLVES will be out in May from Evernight. Here's the blurb:

Callie McIntyre believes in a lot of things. She believes in tarot cards and moon magic, and that's the reason her last girlfriend left her. But she never believed in werewolves until she meets Devon Miller out in the woods one night.

Devon's story is crazy, but who's Callie to argue about it? With a full moon fast approaching, Callie is determined to help Devon tackle her fears. Sure, neither of them know a thing about werewolves, but with another reluctant lyncathrope in tow and all Callie's witchy optimism at work, surely they can get through Devon's first full moon in one piece... Right?

I'm excited about this! I had a lot of problems last autumn with writer's block and anxiety, and decided to write myself a cute, sweet romance with werewolves to help get past it. It took until late January for me to actually finish it, but I'm so happy with how it came out, and it definitely helped with the writer's block, so it's going to have a special place in my heart.

The second piece of good stuff is that Olivia R Burton and me/Amber Morgan will have at least two romances out this year. If you've loved our past collaborations, like The Godfather's Naughty Daughter and Song of the Argyle Goddess, you'll want to stay tuned for CASH GRAB and THE HARBOR MASTER'S SHACK.

And the third piece of good stuff is that I have a ton of other books planned for this year! How many of them I'll actually get to writing is another issue, but I will absolutely be writing the final Blood Canticles book this year. If you want to stay up-to-date on what I'm working on, the best places are either Twitter or my Facebook group.

Stay happy and I'll catch you all later!

VOID DREAMS is coming!

This is the official post to make it officially official! VOID DREAMS, Blood Canticles 6, is coming to Evernight in October! As usual, more details as I get them, but here's the blurb to get you excited.

Lola and Tristesse are back where they belong...but they didn't come alone.

Something is haunting the streets and dreams of Fort Rosser, and when Lola's clients start dying, she's forced to accept that Gehenna hasn't let her go yet.

Now Lola and her friends are in a race against time to stop a monster that can only grow more powerful. Cut off from the immense magic of the patrons, Lola needs to get creative to deal with this threat. But everyone has their limits. If Lola goes too far, can Tristesse bring her home?

This is the penultimate Blood Canticles book, and I'm kinda nervous about it. The series has become a big, important part of my life since I wrote BLOOD WITCH in 2014, and it's sort of hard to imagine my writing schedule without Lola and Tristesse on it.

Luckily, there is still one more book to write...and until then, I'm just going to get hyped about VOID DREAMS being on the horizon! Hopefully you'll join me!

CHAOS SONGS is in the wild!

The big day has finally arrived! CHAOS SONGS, book five of the Blood Canticles series,* is unleashed! It's been a long time coming - when I started this book, I was living in the UK, and the move from there to the Netherlands really disrupted my writing. So there was a big gap between the starting and the finishing of CHAOS SONGS, which left me feeling kinda tired of it at some points.

But now it's here! And I love it! And you're going to love it too! There are so many moments in the book that make me feel all giddy and excited, and as I work on book six, Void Dreams, it's important for me to remember that giddiness. And I'm really hoping Lola and Tristesse's continued adventures leave you feeling giddy too.

Chaos magic makes anything possible. Even the unthinkable.

Lola and Tristesse have defeated one enemy, but Gehenna isn’t finished with them yet. A way home seems impossible. And while Lola struggles with the magical bond she forged with the mysterious patrons, the Shrouded Guard are still hunting them down.

Forced into strange alliances with rebel demons and an underground cult, Lola and Tristesse must decide what they’re willing to do - and to sacrifice - to escape. And if they don’t decide fast, the choice may be taken from them.

Buy it now from Evernight Publishing, Amazon US, Amazon UK, and wherever else you get your ebooks. 

*Book five?! Can you even believe it?

Red Hot News!

I've just signed the contract for CHAOS SONGS, book five in the Blood Canticles series! This feels like it's been a long time coming. I didn't have any books in the series out last year, because...you know... the whole move-to-Amsterdam affair. I got pretty distracted, and then pretty worried the book was terrible, and then I wrote a completely different book.

Anyway! I'm thrilled to be able to finally say that Tristesse and Lola's next adventure is coming soon - hopefully April. Stay tuned for more news! In the meantime, here's the (unedited blurb) for your edification.

Chaos magic makes anything possible. Even the unthinkable.

Lola and Tristesse have defeated one enemy, but Gehenna isn’t finished with them yet. A way home seems impossible. And while Lola struggles with the magical bond she forged with the mysterious patrons, the Shrouded Guard are still hunting them down.

Forced into strange alliances with rebel demons and an underground cult, Lola and Tristesse must decide what they’re willing to do - and to sacrifice - to escape. And if they don’t decide fast, the choice may be taken from them.

"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes."

So! It's been a hell of a while, right? I've been dark here for a while (though, as always, the best place to see what I'm up to is Facebook or Twitter), because as you may recall, earlier this year Nero was offered an amazing job in Amsterdam. After a lot of soul-searching, we decided to take the plunge. We moved at the end of July, and since then, it's been...well, there's been a lot of pancakes.

There's fruit on it, so technically speaking it's one of my five a day.

There's been a lot of other things too. We lived in a fancy hotel for a while when we first got here and were house-hunting. Luckily for us, it was a pet-friendly hotel, so Yuki was able to be a five-star luxury cat for a few weeks.

Her life is pain.

She handled it as best she could, but I'll be honest - even a five-star hotel is still a hotel, and it was a massive relief to move into our new home in mid-August. We're in a quiet neighbourhood just outside of Amsterdam, surrounded by canals, ducks, and herons, and I absolutely love it here. Miss Yuki has settled in nicely, too.

Mijn kat is buiten

While Nero started his new job pretty much straight away, I spent August and early September job-hunting before finally landing a new role in mid-September. Yay! It's with a company I really like so far, doing work I genuinely believe in and that makes a difference to people's lives. And as an added bonus, the hours are pretty flexible, and I now have a much shorter commute to and from the office, so I have more writing time! Not to mention more time to explore Amsterdam.

Classic Netherlands.

I was apprehensive about the move, in all honesty. We've both left behind good friends, beloved family, jobs we were happy in, and a city we knew well and have lots of amazing memories of. And although I do miss my people, I have fallen in love with Amsterdam. It's vibrant and interesting, and has many fine pancake houses, and I now get the pleasure of showing people around when they come to stay, which I love doing!

So, it's taken a few months, but I feel settled in now, and have finally learned which way to look when I cross the road (not that it helps).

And in between all the moving, house-hunting, job-hunting, and waffle-eating, I have been writing. I did lose my rhythm leading up to the move (honestly, part of the reason I'm so glad I love it here is because I NEVER WANT TO PUT MY LIFE INTO BOXES, PUT THE BOXES ON A FERRY, TRAVEL ACROSS AN OCEAN, PUT THE BOXES IN A HOTEL AND LIVE OUT OF THE BOXES FOR A MONTH EVER AGAIN), and I really stalled on Chaos Songs for several months.

Instead, I ended up writing an Amber Morgan book that I adore, and which should be out later this month, and collaborating on another project with Olivia R Burton, which was just tons of fun (and you should check it out). I got back to Chaos Songs in September and was determined to finish it in September... and then in October... and then in November... and then it turned out this was quite a hard book to write because I really wanted to stay true to the rules of the world I've developed since BLOOD WITCH, whilst at the same time letting my characters progress, and, well, it was hard work.

But I finally wrapped the book up this weekend. Huzzahs! I feel kinda exhausted, but fired up at the same time, because now I can start thinking seriously about the next two (and last) books in the Blood Canticles series. My goal is write them both in 2019 if I can, although the next project on my list is another Amber Morgan book. I've been pushing myself since we moved to look at ways of increasing my writing productivity and managing my writing time better, and I have some plans in place to make sure I stay focused and busy in 2019. So hopefully I can bring you more books that you guys love as much as me!

I'm probably not going to get back to a regular blogging schedule, apart from to share news, as I think time spent blogging could better be spent writing. The same goes for the newsletter (which you may have noticed hasn't exactly been happening anyway, but in my defence, I've had a lot going on). So again, Facebook and Twitter are the best places to see what's going on and I love to make friends, so come on and say hi!

Leidseplein being all festive.

May Accountability

Emerging out the other side of the depressive fog that's been hanging over me since last autumn, I made the mistake of thinking hard about myself. This is a mistake largely because I'm riddling with self-doubt at the best of times, and the past few months (with a few small exceptions) have not been the best of times. I started analyzing what I'm writing, how I'm writing, whether I can do more as an author, whether I should change my focus, change my habits, change my identity...

(Never let it be said that I am not privately deeply melodramatic).

The main reason for all the worry and overthinking (besides that just being how I roll) is that being a writer is the only thing I've ever wanted, the only ambition I've ever had, and I want to do it as well as I possibly can. I think that requires regular revisiting of where I am, where I want to be, and what I can do to keep moving forward.

And after a few anguished internal debates and a few more books on How To Be A Writer, I realised (late in the game, to be honest), that the best thing I can do for my writing career is what I'm already doing. Write. It sounds ridiculously simply, but sometimes I lose sight of the woods for the trees. That feeling that I need to be marketing myself and my books, that I need to be "on," that my social media needs to be the magical mystic blend of Self Promotion and Self Deprecation to lure people in and sell them my books, that can become all-consuming. And it takes time away from writing.

And frankly, I don't have enough time as it is.

So, May Accountability - I am narrowing my focus. I'm not disappearing from social media. You can still find me on Facebook and Twitter, and I've love to virtually hang out with you and hear about your cute pets. But I'm going to be blogging a lot less. I don't blog much anyway, but I constantly beat myself up about that, and the best way to cut that shit out is to just officially decide not to blog much. I'll still be hosting my fellow authors for their books and posting news about my own books as it comes, but that's about it.

Writing. I'm going slow on Chaos Songs because I've had edits for an Amber Morgan project, and because all that overthinking really interfered with my ability to sit down and write. But I'm really hoping I can finish it by the end of June at the latest (don't hold me to that though). After that, I'm not sure what I'll work on next, but I've decided not to worry about that until Chaos Songs is done anyway. I have more ideas that I know what to do with, and planning too far ahead never works for me.

And finally, I decided to start a newsletter. You can find the sign up link in the blog sidebar. Currently my plan is to use it for announcements and giveaways tied to new releases, but I may also include a serial story (it will have werewolves!) if the interest is there. So feel free to sign up if you're curious and want to stay up-to-date!

Wednesday Snippet - Wherever she'd been, it wasn't their realm.

Happy mid-week! I hope you're all having the week you want, that your tea is hot and your favourite snacks are at hand. I've been neglecting Chaos Songs a little lately, which I've talked about a bit, but I thought I'd share a snippet anyway. Real life is calming down and balancing out again, which is good for me and hopefully good for my writing too. I have been kinda distracted by a couple of other projects, but in the spirit of the Year of the Kappa, I need to adjust and adapt and allow for that.

So! Let's catch up with Lola, shall we?

Oh, I am anxious and aching, breathing the burning air

A four-day weekend is upon us and I couldn't be more ready. It's been a strange week, mentally. The fog of depression and anxiety came down again, and suddenly every day has been a struggle from waking to sleeping. It's been a week where I haven't been able to write, despite being full of love for both the projects I'm working on. A week where my day job has seemed overwhelming and I've lain in bed every morning secretly hoping I'll discover I'm suddenly sick and can't go in. A week where I look at all the weird little coping mechanisms I have and suddenly wonder is this normal? A week where dread has settled in the pit of my stomach for no reason, and my head has throbbed and my body has rebelled against me, and I find myself wondering is there something wrong with me? Some mystery illness? Some phantom condition that's silently killing me?
Of course there isn't. My body is fine. My mind is mis-firing, and all I can really do is get through each hour and say to myself, see? Nothing bad happened. And that's how I make it to the end of the week. Tomorrow I won't have to get up with the alarm clock. I won't have to go anywhere or do anything if I don't want to. I'll have four days where I can read under a fluffy blanket with Yuki on my lap and a cup of tea at hand, write if the spirit moves me, and laze on the sofa with Nero watching MasterChef. I can exhale.
I don't know how other people experience anxiety, but for me it's a sense of not having enough time, of not working hard enough, of not being good enough, of having faked my way in life. And so my writing suffers. What's the point in me writing when my writing isn't good enough? What's the point of writing if I can't get out 5k a day, every day? What's the point in writing when I'll never write all the books in my heart? And so I don't write, and then I feel worse, because I'm not working hard enough at writing.
There really aren't any tricks to getting out of this cycle. I just have to write something. Anything. There are scenes in my head for Chaos Songs waiting to get out. I just have to unfreeze myself, and sometimes that takes a while. 
But I have four days ahead of me, and today the sense of dread isn't so deep. Today I feel like I might be okay, and while that feeling lasts, I plan to do the little things that bring me peace. Burn a spiced vanilla candle, read a Point Horror book, wear a perfume laced with lavender and chocolate. And write, because I know, I know, that once the words are flowing, I will feel less claustrophobic, less uncertain, and more grounded. I've been here before, so many times. I know the way out, and I find the way out, every time. And that's how I make it to the end of the week.

Wednesday Snippets - the wolves were at the gate

Happy Wednesday, folks! Hope you're all well and keeping warm (if needed). I'm seeing tons of snowpocalypse pictures from my friends all over the UK and USA right now, and it's still defiantly freezing here in Cambridge, so I'm just assuming Ragnarok has started.

I'm under the weather, appropriately enough, I guess, and battling a nasty cold. So there hasn't been as much writing this week as I'd like, but I think I'm on the mend now, so fingers crossed! Here's a little look at something I did manage to squeeze out. Enjoy!

Say hello to Allyson Young!

I'm turning the blog over to her today for a look at her new release, ASPIRE TO LOVE. Three stories, three romances, three ways to treat yourself on a Monday! Enjoy!

NEAR PERFECTION

Haley Snider thought Warren Chalmers was the perfect Dom, so she transformed herself into the perfect sub. A woman in love is truly blind, because Warren can be such an ass.

Warren doesn't really know what he wants, and questions the very perfection he apparently sought. Haley leaves Warren before he can reject her, unveiling a surprising temper and steely determination. He is both intrigued and forced to look at himself. He doesn't much care for what he finds, and is determined to change, to seek Haley out and really get to know her.

Realizing that her obsession with Warren has kept her from being true to herself and him, Haley decides to embrace life differently. Upon reconnecting with her, Warren discovers his best friend Gordon Sinclair has a different idea in mind for them all, and that life can be filled with both friendship and love. And hot sex.

TRUE PERFECTION

Haley Snider left her selfish Dom and sought solace with her best friend. Gordon Sinclair facilitated Haley and Warren Chalmers’s reunion—with a twist. He proposes a ménage relationship. But Haley isn’t so sure. She’s afraid of getting hurt again and also wants to pursue her career and live her life outside of the bedroom, something Warren hadn’t accepted before. She resists their attempts at building a relationship and then tragedy strikes.

She blames herself, believing she has been selfish and her desperate, guilty feelings cloud her thinking. She won’t walk away this time but will wait for Gordon and Warren to realize she’s brought them too much trouble and tell her to leave. In the meantime, she will try to make amends, reverting back to pretense.

It takes considerable effort on her men’s part to help Haley face reality and accept what she truly needs and deserves.

ABSOLUTE PERFECTION

Georgios Andreas’s wife, Jane, left him and died under mysterious circumstances. Afterward, he avoided relationships outside of club play.

At a ceremonial claiming, he meets the sister of the submissive, there to bear witness to her sister’s claiming. Iris Snider draws him, initially because she looks like Jane, but he quickly realizes she is so much more. He is powerless against the attraction.

Georgios sweeps her off her feet, insisting she too is submissive. Iris, for the first time in her life, leaps before she looks. She falls in love and submits to Georgios, hoping for more than a D/s relationship, and he, too, dares hope for more.

Iris then sees a picture of Jane and is devastated by her resemblance to Georgios's dead wife. She refuses to take the leavings of a ghost. Georgios gives her space, inadvertently putting her in danger. Jane’s killer is still out there, and he, too, has seen the resemblance. And he hates George.

Buy Links:

Universal- https://www.books2read.com/u/4EDXVM
Ibooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1355500386
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/aspire-to-love-allyson-young/1128111022;jsessionid=9E976046F4F12E45C61A3CDA14A0F261.prodny_store01-atgap13?ean=2940155004448
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BC681W3
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/aspire-to-love

Author Bio:

Allyson Young lives in cottage country, Manitoba, Canada with her husband and numerous pets. She’s always enjoyed the written word and after reading an erotic romance, quite by mistake, decided to try her hand at penning one.

A bestselling Amazon author, a hybrid author, as of December 2017, she, along with her alter ego and three coauthors, has published four series and several standalones in contemporary, sci fi, fantasy and suspense genres—50 books in total.

Allyson will write until whatever inside is satisfied, until the heroes man up and the heroines get what they deserve. Love isn’t always sweet and Allyson favours the darker side of romance.

Wednesday Snippet - I have never been nothing...

Guys. I can't tell you how good it feels to be working on a Blood Canticles book again! I feel so at home with Lola and Tris, it's like meeting two good friends for tea. Except my friends are trapped in another world. And the tea is probably poison, because that's just the sort of time they're having. But anyway! Here's a taste of what I've been up to with them both:

"By March, the worst of the winter would be over."

Neil Gaiman.

This quote is a lie, by the way. Here in Cambridge, we're experiencing Actual Snow and everyone is falling into a state of icy panic. We have fraught discussions over how many pairs of socks we should wear, whether the buses and trains will be running, and if our boss will let us go home early. We're not designed for snow. Especially in March.

And it is March! I've been conspicuous by absence round here, I guess. So let me catch you up on things in my favourite manner: by making a list.

1. THROWN TO THE WOLVES won an Evernight Reader's Choice award! It was voted Best Romance on the Go, so thank you very much, lovely readers. And IMPERIAL DEMON was runner-up for best lesbian romance, so thank you again! If you hop on over to Evernight's site, you can use the coupon code WINNER2017 to get 25% off any Readers' Choice winners and runner-uppers. I'm always slightly shocked to win any kind of accolade, and it wouldn't happen without people taking the time to vote for the books, of course, so thank you again! Kisses.

2. Nero and I had an AMAZING holiday in Japan and spent loads of time with @pocketrex, which was also AMAZING, and we met so many lovely cats and ate so much fantastic food, and saw so many incredible sights, and I loved it, and we're going back next summer. If you want a glimpse of our adventures, the best thing to do is find my pictures on Instagram.

3. I'm doing much better mental health-wise. I'm still having some black days here and there, but the constant, aching anxiety I was dealing with before Christmas is under control. There's still work to do, but I'm out of deep water.

4. I'm working on the next Blood Canticles book, Chaos Songs. I'm so happy to be back with Lola and Tris! My plan this year is to focus on Blood Canticles and the Luporum. The Luporum was always going to be a trilogy, and that hasn't changed. Blood Canticles, I think, has two more books after Chaos Songs. Work has started slowly, because I'm still trying to get back into the daily writing rhythm that my anxiety and depression busted, but I have so many ideas and plans for Chaos Songs that have been brewing since before I even finished IMPERIAL DEMONS, and I'm excited about sharing some snippets with you soon!

5. I always name the year after a mythical animal, dating back to the hallowed, ancient times of 2013. Normally I do a big post about it in January, but obviously it's not January anymore, so here's the quick and dirty version: 

2018 is the Year of the Kappa. Partly inspired by our visit to a Goblin Pond in Tokyo on New Year's Eve, partly because the kappa is a creature associated with water, which is the element associated with emotions, and that feels right as I battle against anxiety and depression, and partly because a kappa, to me, is a creature of balance. If he loses the water in the indent in his head, he loses his power. Balance is going to be a big theme for me this year as I work to keep various plates in the air: writing, perfume-making, home life, health, and work life. So even though the kappa has a reputation for trouble-making and, um, drowning people and eating their souls, I feel like he's the right symbol for me this year.

So I think that brings us up to speed. Hopefully I'll be blogging more frequently going forward, but you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook for more frequent nonsense. Happy March!

Housekeeping

Hello, folks. *blows dust off blog* It's been a bit quiet round here since the release of IMPERIAL DEMONS, I know. I've been a bit quiet. Normally I would have sent out promo packs to fellow authors who generously offer blog space, and I generally try to be "present" online without constantly screaming HEY I HAVE A NEW BOOK OUT PLEASE LIKE IT!!!

But I'm not feeling very normal at the moment. I'm going through what I think of as a quiet patch of depression. That is to say, I'm standing at the edge of a stormy sea, aware I could be sucked in by the tide, rather than being out in that storm, helpless while the water closes over my head. I've suffered from depression on and off for...most of my life, I guess? I was undiagnosed as a teenager, but once I got diagnosed at university, I could look back and say "oh, that's what that was." Sometimes I need counselling and medication, and sometimes I get by without either of those things and just ride the storm out.

This time, it crept up on me slowly. I knew I was getting more anxious and irrational in my thoughts throughout September and October, but I blamed that on the approaching anniversary of my dad's death. But the feeling didn't pass once October did, and suddenly I found myself in the toilets at work, the day after IMPERIAL DEMONS came out, sobbing over nothing, and thought, "yeah, you probably need to talk to someone."

So I talked to my doctor and I'm taking medication, and I'm now at that nice point where I recognise that my thoughts aren't facts, and I can observe them rather than let them consume me. The storm is still out there, but I'm safe on the beach.

The downside is I really, really cannot write. Forget the romantic notion that suffering is good for art. For me, that's never been true. My writing started to lag in September, was almost nonexistent in October, and despite my resolution to write every day in November to finish an Amber Morgan book, I've done...virtually nothing again. It frustrates and panics me, and it takes away one of my coping mechanisms for when I feel low. So that's kind of a vicious circle. I want to write because I feel sad, but I feel too sad to write. My brain is...blank. Simple tasks feel beyond my strength, and writing isn't a simple task no matter how much I enjoy it. It takes time and care and love, and I don't have the energy or motivation for those things right now.

So in short, I'm not doing very much at the moment and I'm saving my energy for stuff I can't avoid, like going to work and remembering to put my clothes on the right way round (I did forget one day, but luckily I realised my top was on back to front before anyone else got to the office).

Nevertheless, there is stuff happening that I want to talk about. People who follow me on Facebook and Twitter may already know, but for those who don't, Ragnarok Publications recently announced they will be closing their doors temporarily. I don't know what will happen long-term (though I wish the team all the best), but short-term, UNDERTOW is one of the books that will be pulled from sale in December. All the rights will revert to me then.

I won't lie. I'm gutted. I'd just started to think there was still a chance to keep the Shoregrave/Ethan Banning dream alive. I'd had some positive talks with the new Ragnarok team when they took over, and felt like Ethan, at least, had a shot.

Now...now I don't know. In a way, the depression is helping me decide, because when I weigh up whether I have the energy right now to either self-publish AFTERLIFE, DEMONIZED, and UNDERTOW, or try to find new homes for them, the answer is hell no. I've been trying to keep the series afloat for a long time now, and honestly, whilst I love Ethan Banning to death, I'm basically flogging a dead horse at this point. Part of my heart will always tell me I need to go back and write more stories in this world, with these characters, but after years of telling myself "maybe," I think it's time to tell myself "no."

So that's that. As from December 1st, UNDERTOW will no longer be available. I will leave the Ethan Banning Files short stories available on Amazon and Smashwords, but AFTERLIFE and DEMONIZED will not be republished and I don't intend to write anymore books in this series.

Phew.

Okay. That's it, really. I'm hoping to ease back into writing a bit at a time, and in my ideal world, I'll finish that Amber Morgan book before we take off to Japan at the end of December. Realistically, that probably isn't going to happen, but let's call it a soft goal. In the meantime, I'm off to check my jumper is on the right way round.

"I hate mornings, and Mondays. And working. But other than that I am entirely happy."

I've been in a real writing slump since September. I've been working on an Amber Morgan project ("working" in the loosest sense of the word, because not much work is getting done), which I really should have finished by now, but my motivation levels have been pretty much non-existent. I've been feeling low as a result - when I'm not writing, I'm not happy. It's taken me a while to figure out the problem, and it's a combination of things really, but yesterday I deleted the last 2500 words I wrote on that wip and felt much better.

They weren't bad words. They just weren't the right words. I'm confident that when I go back to the project, I'll be in a better place and frame of mind to tackle and finish it.

That didn't happen yesterday because I had the first round edits for IMPERIAL DEMONS to work on! YAY! This time last year, I was just starting work on this book. I took a break on it to finish LICH QUEEN, so it feels like a lifetime ago that I started it now. I loved getting back to Lola and Tristesse and re-reading the almighty tome that was never going to end that is IMPERIAL DEMONS. I can't wait to share it with you all, and now the first round edits are in the bag, hopefully it won't be too long before I can! I know some people were disappointed with LICH QUEEN and the switch to Dawn, but it was important for me to tell that story and wrap up that story arc in the series. IMPERIAL DEMONS and the next two or three books (haven't decided how many I'll need yet!) will focus on Lola and Tristesse, and the fallout of their time in Gehenna, and I wanted to clear the slate, as it were, before digging into that arc.

So stay tuned - release dates and cover art are surely not far away!

Meanwhile, are we following each other on Instagram? No? Maybe we should! You can find me there as naomi_jay_clark. Evernight's seventh birthday is coming up and part of the celebration is a Loop Giveaway on Instagram!

Myself and 31 other fantastic authors will be taking part on October 23rd.  Each author will have a prize to giveaway and Evernight is offering a few GRAND PRIZES, including gift certificates and prize packs. If you complete the loop, you’ll have the chance to #win at least 35 different prizes.

I’m giving away a collectible THROWN TO THE WOLVES mug, like so:

So hit me up and look out for the giveaway later this month! Following me also has the benefits of seeing silly pictures of Yuki, and you know that's the real prize.

October Accountability

What the hell happened to September? I feel like it just vanished without me getting anything done.

This may well be because I didn't get much done, really... I've been working on an Amber Morgan project, but progress has been slow. I really have no excuses except I probably needed to slow down a little bit. The day job has been crazy all year, and every time I get my head above water, another wave of ethics reports/grant reports/fire regulations crashes over me. I had a boss once who said I wasn't cut out for office work. I agreed with him at the time. Now I think I am cut out for office work, but only through some harrowing survival-of-the-fittest experiences where I am the only person who knows how to find out how to submit an ethics report to the European Research Council so my boss keeps me around forever and ever.

Anyway, it's now October! I am anticipating edits for IMPERIAL DEMONS and hoping to wrap up the Amber Morgan book (which I was definitely going to easily finish in September, no problem). The plan then is to move onto Urban Wolf 6, which I'd anticipate taking the rest of the year.

On the non-writing front, I'm trying to make daily time for physiotherapy/yoga for my poor knackered shoulders and arms. Winter weather tends to set off a lot of my aches and pains, so I'm trying to get ahead of the curve. I had an ultrasound earlier in the year that revealed no tears or inflammation that could be causing my various symptoms, so my only treatment option is strengthening my arms and back and seeing if that eases the pain. I am not one of life's natural exercisers, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. If it sees me through the long, dark, grim, dark, wet, dark British winter without the frustration and agony I usually get, it'll be worth it.

I'm planning to dig out some Halloweeny Point Horrors for some Retro Reading blogs this month if I can. There aren't that many available for the Kindle, so I may have to ~gasp~ buy some paperbacks.

I'm about halfway through my initial pass of Afterlife, which basically consists of changing a few character names and laying the groundwork for a proper, thorough going-over. I'd like to have it ready to submit by the end of the year, which seems doable (she said naively).

After that it's November, which means Anti-Nano! If all goes according to plan, I'll be working on Urban Wolf 6, but we'll talk about that later.

In the meantime, I'm leaving you with one of my favourite Tom Petty songs, because goddammit. RIP, Tom. <3

September Accountability

We're heading into Autumn and I'm thinking about werewolves. My plan for after the current Amber Morgan project is done is to move onto the next Urban Wolf book. I've also got the start of the next Luporum book floating around in my head, and some whispers of a stand-alone werewolfy urban fantasy romance revenge thing that I'm not even touching because I cannot start any new projects this year even though I did already.

My aim is to finish the Amber Morgan book this month, and move onto Urban Wolf 6 in October. I am hoping for first round edits on IMPERIAL DEMONS this month as well, though, so we'll see.

I'm trying to clear a few extra things out of my life this month to free up more time for writing, as well as squeezing a few new things in. I'm supposed to be doing daily physio for my knackered shoulder, which...doesn't always happen. I'm also supposed to be going to the gym and working on a routine to build the strength in both my arms up, which...hasn't happened at all, because as a hardcore introvert, the idea of going to the gym just horrifies me. But I suppose I should figure something out before I'm next due at the doctor and have to explain to him why I've been slacking off on all this stuff.

So we're approaching the change of the seasons, and I'm trying to make some simple life changes. I'm also letting go (or at least putting on hiatus) some writing and non-writing creative projects that have been causing me some anxiety to varying degrees this year. I'm not trying to be vague, I'm just not sure there's anything interesting to say about them, except that letting them go/putting them on hiatus is ultimately going to make me happier and more productive for the rest of the year.

So! That's September. Stay tuned for news on IMPERIAL DEMONS as and when I get it!

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!

July Accountability

Happy July! I am pleased and proud and tired to announce that the first draft of Imperial Demons is officially done!

Powered by Beastly Beverages' Death Walks Among You tea and many, many peanut butter Magnums, I finally wrapped the monster manuscript up on Monday. Huzzahs! It clocked in at just over 85,000 words and will get longer when I hit the second draft, because I already know there's stuff I need to add.

But I'm not thinking about that just yet, because the first round edits for LICH QUEEN are sitting in my inbox, which means it's time to dive back into Dawn's world. I haven't looked at them yet, but the editor is one I really enjoy working with, so I'm looking forward to digging in and bringing Blood Canticles 3 one step closer to you guys.

So! Where does that leave the to-do list? As you may remember, my resolution for 2017 was not to start any new stories, which I broke when I wrote ON A DARK TIDE, but there we go. I'm not in bad shape despite that little slip-up.

Through Fire (Blood Canticles 3)
Lich Queen (Blood Canticles 3.5)
Mercy's Gate (Southern Gothic urban fantasy book of my heart)
Black Dog (Urban Wolf 6)
Crow Called (Standalone novella)
Flesh and Bone (The Deva Chronicles 2)

My next project is actually going to be an Amber Morgan one, and after that I'd like to crack on with Black Dog. I miss my werewolf girls! I don't really know how long the Amber Morgan book will be, but I imagine it'll take me through the summer and into autumn. I will keep checking in here as I get news on LICH QUEEN, ON A DARK TIDE, and Imperial Demons, which I'm aiming to submit in the very near future. So stay tuned!

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!