Tag Archives: Stonebearer Series

Stonebearer’s Apprentice Cover Reveal!

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The day is finally here! Cover reveal day! I’m thrilled to be able to show the cover to book #2 of the Shadow Barrier Trilogy. Many of you have been with me from the beginning and I’m so happy for you to share this moment with you today. A huge thank you to my cover designer, Fiona at Fiona Jayde Media, for combining my vision and her artistry to create something truly magical.

Without further ado, here it is!

In this installment the Shadow Barrier Trilogy, Katira must come to terms with the life she’s fallen into. She’s expected to face her fears as she endures training that will push her to her limits and beyond. But, things can’t be easy. There is a traitor hiding within the walls of Amul Dun. Wrothe is not defeated as everyone believed. If Katira is going to survive, she must master the power of the Khandashii. Without guidance, it will kill her. Her apprenticeship tests not only her strength and courage, but her determination to do what is necessary.

Sound like a good read? I sure hope so. One of the things I loved about writing this book was digging deeper into the personalities of the characters that appeared in book one, but didn’t get a chance to shine. We get to see much more of what makes these characters unique.

Psst – if you want to have the first dibs on seeing cool stuff, consider signing up to be part of my fantasy reader’s community. They get all sorts of good stuff before the general public, including free short stories, offers from other authors, early chances to snatch up preorders, and fun stuff like this cover reveal (they got to see it a few days ago). Go ahead, do it, I’ll wait.

Good news! Two weeks until I open ebook preorders for Stonebearer’s Apprentice to the public. Stay tuned for the link! I’ll be posting it literally everywhere.

You can also find updates and post notifications on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – chose the one you like the most!

Rerelease Cover Reveal!

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Just in time for the new year, Stonebearer’s Betrayal has undergone a massive face lift. This new cover captures not only Katira’s story in a new and powerful way, but also represents my growth as an author and my decision to become an independent publisher of my own works.

First, a huge thanks are in order to Fiona Jayde Media for transforming my ideas and thoughts into an image that represents everything I originally hoped the story to be. I loved working with her, and I’m looking forward to crafting covers for the rest of the books in the Shadow Barrier trilogy with her.

You’re probably wondering why I wanted to update my cover. It’s a long and complicated story that has everything to do with my writing goals and what needed to happen to bring them about. Long story short, after receiving a year of thoughtful feedback from people in the industry I trust, I knew a change was needed. Don’t get me wrong, the first cover was dramatic and moody and dark – which does represents some of the elements of the story . However, it didn’t capture Katira’s youth or insecurity and as she is the focus of the story, I wanted the picture to do that part justice.

A jaw dropping design by the talented Fiona Jayde.

The new cover shows Katira as a younger and far more feminine character. She holds the knife that Elan gave her in the beginning of the book and is encircled by magic symbolizing her plunge into the magical world. If you look closely, there are lightning-like lines skirting the outside of the image to represent the marks mature Stonebearers develop on their skin after years of working with the power. In the background are crumbling ruins, representing the Khanrosh where Regulus initially releases the demoness Wrothe and where the story’s climax takes place.

On January 2nd, the fresh new ebook and paperback of Stonebearer’s Betrayal, the first novel in the Shadow Barrier trilogy, will officially hit the shelves and be available for purchase once again.

Also coming soon, book two in the Shadow Barrier trilogy, Stonebearer’s Apprentice – hitting the shelves of online retailers on March 19th.

Want to be notified the second my books are available on Amazon? Be sure to follow me over there, it’s super easy and they will let you know whenever something new is available!

Click here to go straight to my Amazon author page!

You can also find updates and post notifications on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – chose the one you like the most!

Winner! NaNoWriMo 2019

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At beginning of this week I figured if I averaged 3300 words a day, I could finish my NaNoWriMo project on Wednesday, leaving the rest of the weekend to celebrate Thanksgiving. That averages to around three hours of intensely focused writing a day with no distractions. Lucky for me, two of those days the kiddos were in school and the third they slept in a few hours.

I’m proud to day that with lots of grit and determination (and an unhealthy amount of leftover Halloween candy) I slammed dunked my way to the finish before lunch on Wednesday. There’s nothing quite like typing the words “The End.”

Wow. While I’ve done the challenge for several years now, this is the first time I’ve finished an entire draft of a project with the intention of publishing it later this year. Just thinking about it is both exhilarating and terrifying. What if the story I came up with is actually really stupid and I haven’t realized it yet? What happens then? Was this entire month of work a waste? I guess I’ll find out soon enough when I read it in a few weeks.

Writing Isben’s story was challenging. I was confined to use and stay faithful to the already existing confines of the Stonebearer universe, including what point he needed to reach at the end of the story. While part of this meant a lot of thoughtful review of how that might limit the possibilities, it also meant I had some guidelines to follow – a perk I’d not had before.

The story starts on the day Isben discovers that he possesses the power of the Khandashii and follows his struggle for survival each day after until he reaches the tower of Amul Dun and safety. One of the characters he meets along the way is now my new favorite character, after Bremin of course. The more he showed himself to me, the more I liked him. Sven the bard has some delightful surprises up his sleeves and in his amazing wagon.

Vision board for Isben’s story

Should everything go to plan, Isben’s story will be coming to Amazon March 2020.

For the next two weeks, I will be taking a small break from the intensity of NaNo and will spend my time reading a few amazing books to recharge my batteries, possibly writing a short story or two, and catching up on the dozens of things that I allowed to slip through the cracks as well as what needs to be done to prepare for the re-release of Stonebearer’s Betrayal in early January.

Stay tuned, there are a lot of awesome things in the works!

You can also find updates and post notifications on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – chose the one you like the most!

Vision Board for The Path to the Tower

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As much as I’d love to write an insightful and deep post about a topic which is dear to my heart, I’d much rather share some of the art and inspiration behind my current work in progress. That, and like I said earlier, posts this month might be short and sweet due to NaNoWriMo (just passed 36,000 words, woot!).

This is my vision board for The Path to the Tower (working title), a novella that center’s around Isben’s journey to reach Amul Dun, the tower of the Stonebearers. He makes the unlikeliest of friends, attracts a powerful enemy, and learns that life sometimes doesn’t go as planned.

Enjoy!

Fellow creatives, do you use any type of vision board to help you organize your thoughts as you work? I’d love to see it! Share links in the comments!

You can also find updates and post notifications on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – chose the one you like the most!

Happy Birthday Stonebearer’s Betrayal!

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Photo by Cristian Escobar on Unsplash

Reminiscing…

Exactly one year ago today Stonebearer’s Betrayal, my very first novel, entered the world – and oh what a day that was. There’s something to be said about a dream you’ve worked on for years to finally happen. To be honest, I was more terrified and insecure about release day than for the birth of my own children. So much depended on things that were wildly out of my hands, everything from Amazon rankings, to generating a good public buzz, tp the people who ended up coming to my launch party. All I could do was try my best and watch and wait.

With my kids, I didn’t have to prove anything. My responsibilities revolved around keeping them healthy and happy and success was easily measured. The world had nothing to do with their well being, as well it shouldn’t.

Yeah, not quite so true with books… Authors are expected to flaunt their book babies to the unsuspecting public at literally every turn. Even more so, we are supposed to go flaunt it to complete strangers and beg, remind, and cajole them to tell us what they think in the form of a review. We spend hundreds of hours seeking out ways of making connections with as many people as possible, because the health of our book baby depends on it.

The Challenges of First time Authoring

Some authors are much better at it than others. One of those tragic truths about creative people is that we’re good at what we do because we thrive on spending time with words and ideas and finding ways to make them exciting. Most of us struggle to reach out to strangers by the hundreds to find ways to share our message.

For me, this entire year has been eye opening to say the least. Leading up to last year’s release, I spent hours and hours learning about all aspects of authoring books, including researching marketing needs. There is something to be said about learning by doing vs. learning by any other means. While taking classes and reading books about the subject is an amazing way to get a general feel for what needs to be done, it feels like each challenge or obstacle is a burning match and the solutions are as easy as blowing it out.

On the other hand, learning by doing, especially when it comes to marketing your own products, is more like being thrown into a building that is on fire. It’s dramatic, scary, and sometimes you feel like you might die from the sheer volume of what needs to be done. No matter how hard you blow, the flaming challenges keep coming back.

Photo by Mohamed Nohassi on Unsplash

I quite literally burned myself out. During the four months leading up to the release and then the six months after, I spent anywhere between 4-6 hours every single day working to find opportunities ranging from identifying people who would be interested in giving reviews to tracking down podcast hosts and pitching them show ideas. Over the course of the year, I showcased over a combined sixty different artists and authors on my blog as I tried to spread good karma.

Don’t get me started on the amount of time I spent trying to find my voice on social media. I still stink at that… But I’m learning!

Worse still, I lost the time to do the parts of authoring that I truly loved. I couldn’t find the time to write down new shiny stories and then polishing them up until they shone. The sequel novel didn’t get the attention it needed, not to mention the dozens of short story projects that I wanted to be a part of but simply didn’t have the time or energy.

Give me a new baby any day. Actually, I take that back. With my young kiddos still at home, I’m still balancing their needs into my working day.

The Future

All that said, the future of the Stonebearers brand is shining bright and I’m excited at all the plans that are coming together as I write this.

The biggest announcement, is that the sequel to Stonebearer’s Betrayal, Stonebearer’s Apprentice is slated to come out the second week of March 2020. Stay tuned for sneak peaks and other amazing stuff I’m planning for its release.

I’d like to thank all of you who have taken this journey with me. It’s been one wild ride, and will only get better. Thank you dear readers. I couldn’t do it without you.

You can also find updates and post notifications on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – chose the one you like the most!