Big announcement at end of post!
Still busy as heck over here. I’m making steady progress on the next book — the other day I sat for a solid four hour block and slammed out almost 3800 words. Which was so awesome. I’d forgotten how good that feels!
This book (the sequel to Lies of Stone) is going to be another complicated story. In order to make it less hefty, I’m putting together some of the pieces into a 1.5 sort of book. It’ll be a bunch of intersecting stories, stuff that was happening in the background during Lies of Stone.
SPOILERS (click to show)
As far as school goes, I’m about midway through a technical mathematics class. It’s pretty brutal on me in spots, but overall it’s more manageable than I feared. After this, I have one more class in the fall, and then *fingers crossed* I should be graduating with my third Associate’s degree (this one in Horticulture)! Of course, me being me, I’m already thinking about more classes. My time working in the library archives at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens is making me want to learn about preserving old documents, especially repairing them — that’s actually been a long time interest of mine, I just never wanted to put the effort into pursuing it. At this point in my life, though, why the heck not? I’ve managed to establish a pretty low-stress lifestyle, so I don’t have too many distractions, and I have the maturity and experience to tackle big, intimidating projects like that.
Speaking of Lewis Ginter and associated horticulture stuff, here’s a nifty article for you: “The Beauty and History of Kitchen Gardens.” I’ll put together another botanical/garden geekery post soon!
Moving on to the business side of things, my next big market is ‘Burg-Quest in September. This three day convention in Williamsburg, VA, looks like it’s going to be an awesome time. It’ll have music and gaming, performances, panels, and cosplay. Take a look, then put it on your schedule.
I might sign up for another Big Gay Market or two; they are a lot of fun and worth it from a sales perspective. Unfortunately, July and August are traditionally so damn hot (the 4th of July weekend is supposed to hit over 100⁰F here in Richmond, VA) and so humid, and I am doing worse with that year by year. So I’ll probably hide in the air conditioning and move to a partially nocturnal schedule until at least September. Which at least gives me time to manage projects around here, including writing.
SPEAKING OF WRITING. That announcement I mentioned at the top of the page? Here it is!
The first book I ever self published in print was Fallen City, a story based on a conversation between two characters in Guardians of the Desert, book two of the Children of the Desert series. I made a lot of typographic and content mistakes with that book, from front matter to back cover (seriously, the back cover copy I came up with back then was terrible), and it’s been bugging me for years. So I’ve created a second edition, with extra content! I like it a lot more, and I think you will too. So —
The second edition of Fallen City launches July 11, 2026.
AND IF THAT’S NOT COOL ENOUGH FOR YOU:
Any full price purchases in the Shop between now and then gets you 50% off the second edition!
Here’s the new and improved promo copy:
BEFORE DESERT OVERTOOK THE LUSH, TROPICAL SOUTHLANDS….
BEFORE HUMANS FORGOT WHAT IT WAS TO SERVE….
LONG, LONG BEFORE THE EVENTS
IN THE CHILDREN OF THE DESERT AND KINGDOM OF SALT SERIES….
THERE WAS A KING.
THERE WERE TWO PRINCES AND A PRINCESS.
THERE WERE ANCIENT CREATURES
WHO HELD ABOLUTE RULE OVER ALL HUMANS.
AND THERE WERE, OF COURSE, MONSTERS.
BUT WHAT DEFINES A MONSTER ISN’T THEIR HERITAGE….
Buy link coming soon!
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