New Release: One Shot at the Sphinx

Welcome to release day for my new Narvan novella prequel: One Shot at the Sphinx.

Yes, we got through six books in the series and now we're going back to the beginning. Why? Why not?  Ideas don't always come in chronological order.

Having gathered quite the series worth of notes by the time I wrapped up Tears of the Tyrant, I decided there was a story to tell: How Chesser Ta'set convinced Anastassia to come to the Narvan to start the chain of events that becomes the entire series.

These events are alluded to in Trust and Minor Years but now you can get a firsthand accounting in the midst of the action in one easy-to-get-into novella that will neatly deliver you right onto the doorstep of Book 1.

If you like action and intrigue with a side of romance and questionable motivations, One Shot at the Sphinx is now available for your eyeball consumption!

There are even multiple pricing options. Including free. Because you'll want to read this one...and I want you to be able to do so.

The enemy of her enemy might be just the tool Anastassia Kazan needs to remove the Jalvian invaders from the Verian space station she calls home.

Working out a treaty between the Jalvians and the Verian people was the highlight of Anastassia Kazan’s military career. Just when station life seems to be settling into a tolerable accord, a spy from the Jalvian’s enemy shows up to take advantage of her hard work and threatens the precarious peace with his very presence. It’s only fair, as a spy for the Verian army, that she uses him in return.

Chesser Ta’set’s mission to intercept the Jalvian’s next moves is imperative. Without them his people will soon lose the war with Jal and his entire star system will be in chaos. Meeting a human spy with the telepathic skill necessary to slip into his target’s thoughts presents an avenue that will greatly multiply the odds of his success.

All he needs to do is convince her to blow her cover and risk her life for a stranger from a world she doesn’t know.

Print copies are currently only on Amazon for $7.99

Ebook copies are on Amazon for .99

Ebook copies are also on Smashwords for FREE

I will have print copies with me at Alma Con (March 23-24) and thereon after at in person signings. They are currently on the way to me so unless a delivery miracle happens, I will not have any print copies available this weekend.

You get a free book for my birthday month!

This has been the best winter ever in terms of weather. We had real winter for a month. That was just long enough to appreciate winter. Anyway, moving on to Spring! Yay! I can deal with occasional days of snow in between the good ones, but being able to work in the yard in FEBRUARY is pretty damn awesome. Especially when the months that I'm usually trying to squeeze in lawn clean up are filled with book events.

Between the stick picking up duties and bonfires, I'm putting the final editing touches on One Shot At The Sphinx. Which led to sitting down to re-read the series to make sure I have all the facts straight. Oh, the perils of writing a prequel after building the world for six books. And while I'm reading, I got the bright idea to reformat the paperback interiors to celebrate the series being tied up. Is it actually done? It might go on (there are notes for another book) but the core series is complete. I'm not changing the content, just doing a facelift. #projects.

Painting on Laya's Vacation is slow going. The cover is done but I haven't found my grove on the rest yet beyond doing a full mock up of the book. My brain needs to wrap up the series first before it has the power to delve into this undertaking.

Writing on I9 is on hold, also until the series is wrapped up, because it turns out that working on two sci-fi projects at once makes story details easy to entangle. Oops. #dontcrossthestreams

March is my birthday month, so this year, I'm offering sales on some of my ebooks. 

A Broken Race is only .99 Feb 26 - March 4 on Amazon

Not Another Bard's Tale and Dreams Of Stars And Lies are only .99 - March 3-9  on Smashwords

Sahmara is FREE March 20-24

Mid-Michigan Women's Expo 

My one February event was a blast other than a medical emergency with one of the other attending authors the morning of the first day. Nothing like a medical scare to start things off. Thankfully, everyone is ok now and we agree on the need for having an emergency contact list for group events like this in the future. 

18 Authors and so many books

March is full of fun author events. You can find me at:

Hall of Heroes Comic Con - March 2&3

West Michigan Women's Expo - March 15-17

Alma Con - March 23&24

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

This month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question is:

Have you "played" with AI to write those nasty synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI's impact on creative writing?

This month's co-hosts are: 

Miffie Seideman  https://miffieseideman.com/  

Kristina Kelly    http://kristinaseyes.com/

Liza http://middlepassages-lcs.blogspot.com/   

Jean Davis http://jeanddavis.blogspot.com/  

I'm not a fan of AI in writing. I don't use it beyond the common features of Grammarly and Pro Writing Aid. Even then, I don't like the more AI involved features those programs offer. #theresistance

Could AI help me write my synopsis? Sure. Can I write a synopsis? Also sure. Having done it a few times, writing a blurb or a synopsis isn't a terrible chore anymore. I've gotten fairly comfortable with it.

Could AI help me brainstorm scenes? Yep. I could also just sit here and close my eyes and brainstorm scenes. Again, having written quite a few books, I'm fairly comfortable and confident in my ability to keep the writing momentum going.

Could it help me pick out appropriate keywords for ads? Now this I might delve into a little because I'm not comfortable there yet. But that's not quite as much on the 'creative' end of the AI abilities as much as other aspects. Like all tools, AI has its uses. Just be responsible so we don't end up with #skynet blowing us up over bad grammar.

Not Feeling The Love

It's been a rough start to the year. We had to stay goodbye to our 16.5 year old terrier a couple weeks ago due to health reasons. This was in the wake of the unexpected death of our 11 year old terrier in November. I also lost two of my fluffy chicken friends to a nasty illness in January. Crossing my fingers that the rest of the flock is ok. So far, everyone looks good.

Say hello to my new shadow, 9 year old Skittles. He's currently curled up in my blanket next to me on the chair. He prefers to be attached if I'm stationary anywhere. Good thing he's small because my chair isn't that big.

After three weeks of distribution snags, Frayed is finally available at all your favorite online retailers. It's been a journey, guys, I won't lie. The writing, the finishing, and then the distribution hiccups that were out of my control. But here we finally are. Whew! Signed copies are available from the tab at the top or you can find  me at the Mid-Michigan Women's Expo in Lansing (Feb 9-11).

God doesn’t make mistakes. That choice to give man free will, though, that has caused nothing but problems. Problems that need fixing.

When an angel shows up to hand Samuel Mason a task he never asked for, his first reaction is to refuse. Killing the little boy next door is unthinkable. But there’s a contract with Sam’s name already on it and the angel won’t take no for an answer.

Fulfilling his task will ruin Sam’s life, his family, and devastate the boy’s mother. How long can a good kid hold out before he becomes the very thing society expects him to be?

Frayed

Davis, Jean

Buy Now

January was a month for getting behind the scenes things gone. I updated awards, back cover blurbs, and 'also by' pages on all of my books, printed new booth banners, updated my book racks, and made new bookmarks and new business cards. All of these things had to be done because... I have several new books since they were last done. #writerproblems 

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

Which brings us to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group portion of the post. This month's question is: What turns you off when visiting a writer's website or blog?

My number one turn off is: I can't find what I'm there for. 

Have clear tabs for things. Make it easy for your visitors to find what they want. Links to your books, about you, photos, your signing schedule, blurbs, your contact information and your blog or posts. Or any combination thereof. Put all of that in an easy to find spot at the top of the page. Please. Do not make me jump through hoops, because I don't do much jumping anymore. I'm busy. If you make it hard, I will just go away.

It's 2024!

As we slip into shiny new year, it's time to look forward to new things. Usually I have a one word resolution but I've yet to come up with one so I'm forgoing that this time around. As always, I'm hoping for a more relaxed year, but that never seems to actually happen. Doesn't hurt to hope though.

How did I do with my 2023 goals?

• Release Everyone Dies: A Collection of Dark Tales DONE!

• Finally finish Frayed, because OMG this has been a tough one to get from brain to page. DONE!

• Illustrate Kay-Kay: The Littlest Chicken (new) DONE!

• Write/finish one of the following projects: Godmother (new), I9 (new), or Interface (2016 WIP). 

    I did start I9 so I'm calling that somewhat done.

• Release one of those five projects. I released Everyone Dies and Kay-Kay so DONE!

• Don't keel over. I'm still kicking. DONE!

New books I hope you'll see in 2024:

Frayed - out with ARC readers

One Shot At The Sphinx - in the last round of edits

Laya's Vacation - waiting for illustrations

Projects I hope to get to or wrap up in 2024:

Godmother - currently just notes

i9 - first draft in progress

Interface - first draft in progress

Other goals for 2024:

As always, I'm hoping to read more. I have so many books on my TBR stacks and on my kindle. 

I'd like to get out in my flower garden more. We'll see if my body cooperates.

Maybe work a little less. Yes, I'm laughing at that one while looking at my 2024 events over there on the right, but we're back to that hope thing. 

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

Let's get to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question: Do you follow back readers on Bookbub or only other authors. 

Well, I don't use Bookbub, so we're going to answer with platforms I do use: Facebook, Instagram, and Goodreads. I mostly follow back other authors, but if I've met a reader in person at an event, there's a fairly high chance that I'll follow them back too. I tend to only follow people I actually know rather than amassing numbers. That's probably not the most marketing beneficial way to go about it, but that's how I roll. 

December updates

It's hard to believe we're back to December already. Maybe if I wasn't always on the go, time wouldn't fly by? Nah, it probably still would. 

November always flies by. Between Grand Rapids Comic Con and NaNoWriMo, its a flurry of people and words. 

Grand Rapids Comic Con went well. It was fun as always and Kay-Kay got to come to her first con. Petting a chicken sure made a lot of people happy. Lots of books found new homes and I had a great time chatting with the other guest authors each day. 

NaNoWriMo resulted in 50,000 new words! Of my projects:

Laya's Vacation is a complete draft

One Shot At The Sphinx (a Narvan Novella) is a complete draft

I9 (a stand-alone scifi novel) is 1/3 finished.

Godmother didn't get started yet

Overall, I'm happy with the month of writing and the drafts are all workable. Hooray!

I'm taking December off, not because I want to but because work is crazy thanks to the holiday shoppers, I have a five day trip to North Carolina for work next week, and three small book events on the weekends until Christmas. Somewhere in there, I need to decorate, wrap presents, bake cookies, and host two Christmas family things. A writing break is in order.

Alrighty, let's get onward to this month's Insecure Writer's Support Group question: 

Book reviews

If you're not familiar with 

the Insecure Writers Support 

Group, check it out here 

and find links to all the other 

participating writers.

 are for the readers. When you leave a book reviews do you review for the Reader or the Author? Is it about what you liked and enjoyed about your reading experience, or do you critique the author?

The author isn't the book. I'm reading the book. Authors are people and many are like me, we write a lot of different things. We learn, we grow, our writing styles change. You may be reviewing the latest book they've written, but in the world of publishing, things move slow. That book could have been written three years ago and stuck in the publishing machine. 

Review the book. That book. Not everything else they've written that you may or may not have read. 

In a review, I will comment about what I liked or didn't like and why. I don't assume the author will ever read the review. Many don't. I rarely do. If you have something super nice or constructive criticism to offer, contact the author. The review is to help other readers decide if that book is for them.

If I don't pop on here before January, have a happy holiday season! Enjoy your family, your pet(s), or at least curl up somewhere quiet with a good book.