New Art for Izzy

I commissioned an artist to create new cover art for my latest fantasy novel, The Glorious and Epic Tale of Lady Isovar, and I really love how it came out. I was looking for something that would have more of a comedic feel, because the book is very silly. I've got Olivia at Olivia Pro Design working on the lettering, but here's a preview of the art. It's by Laurent Reis, and it represents what's happened just as the book starts.

An Interview!

I did a fun interview for ReadIndieFantasy.com, a collective blog run by some great advocates for indie fantasy and for authors. They're doing a feature in November they're calling A Month of Rain and Reads, where they have a new featured article, interview, or book review every day. If you're an indie fantasy fan, there are a ton of authors and books to check out. If you're interested in my interview, which had a lot of interesting, thoughtful questions (and my typical meathead answers), you can read the interview here.

Writing update

I've worked on three projects recently. One is the romance novel I'm working on with Sarah Estow. We finished our first editing pass, which we did chapter-by-chapter, bringing plot elements into better alignment, fixing language, streamlining, and adding depth to characters and relationships. One of the things we wanted to work on from the first draft is that Mark (the character I mostly wrote) has longer chapters and a little more backstory than Flora, so I've turned the book over to Sarah. She's hard at work adding more Flora parts - I see notifications of edits coming through, and I'm super curious about what's coming, but I'll wait until Sarah's done to see. At that point, we'll probably do one more pass to make sure to weave these new parts into the story all throughout, and then it will be off to our early readers.

I also did some work on another Inquisitors' Guild book. I like how it's developing, but I was finding it hard to write on it every day, so I came to the decision that I'll set it aside to simmer for a bit. For my intensive November writing push, I will continue my sci fi novel I started last year. I had to reread it (I had about 33,000 words written, or about a third of it) to get back into the swing of it, but that was a lot of fun, and it got me excited about continuing. Now I'm working every day. I'm going to try to do at least thirty days straight on it like I do every year, although it will be Nov. 13 to Dec. 12 rather than Nov. 1 to 30th.

Running out of time for The Expanding Universe

Just a reminder - the sci-fi anthology I've got a story in, The Expanding Universe vol. 11, will only be available to buy as an ebook until December 13, at which point it will unpublish and only be available in paperback. If you buy the ebook before then, you get it forever, of course - it doesn't vanish. There are some great stories in there (plus mine! :-) ), so I hope you'll have a look. It's free for Kindle Unlimited readers, and only $4.99 for 600 pages of sci fi otherwise.

Some stories to try

I'm part of several author collectives, and we share each other's work to try to help all of us reach more readers. In many cases, the books we share are are free or discounted. Sometimes, they ask that you sign up for a newsletter like this one. Here are some new books I have to share this month:

First, I have Rift of Redemption by J.C. Juhl. This is a free sample of Juhl's dystopian, apocalyptic sci-fi novel about a warrior from the future trying to save his niece in a war-torn world.

Next, I have Cave of Time by Luna Fox and F. Lowberry. This free fantasy story is about a village drained of its magic, beset now by mysterious enemies, and one boy trying to save it. My OG Cave of Time is of course the Choose Your Own Adventure one from my youth, but this looks cool too!

And finally, I have a big group of 74 books and series that are all science fiction and fantasy and all completely free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers. There are so many different authors and subgenres here - check it out!

Thanks for being here!

I really appreciate you being part of my reading community! I'm really excited to share some new books with you, hopefully early next year. If you want to give any of my paperbacks to friends or family over the holidays, I've got them available here. Bulk discounts, free shipping to the US, and I can sign them and add any message you like.

May the Bloodmother watch over you - 

Dave