Today is the day! Bane of All Things has at last left the nest!

It’s a rather surreal feeling, to say the least, considering this tale first began as a short story idea some 22 years ago. I have of course worked on other, unrelated stories during that time, which may eventually see the light of day. BoAT itself went through two full reboots to become the novel it is today, comparable to how the Planet of the Apes film franchise has been reinvented.

But here we are. Don’t forget tonight’s launch event at 7 pm EST – here again is the Zoom link: https://bit.ly/3nZuswz 

If you have any issues or questions with receiving your pre-ordered copies of BoAT from Inkshares, please contact hello@inkshares.com

Help spread the word!

Word of mouth is vital to an author’s success. Any promotion today and in the coming days through your social media channels would be greatly appreciated. Reviews posted to Amazon and Goodreads are also critical to help a new novel stand out and get noticed.

Thank you again for your support and your patience. This day could not have come without you. I am eternally grateful.

Stay safe and keep reading!

Cheers

Leo

Hello, hello, hello!  

I am chug, chug, chugging along! I received my copy-edited manuscript back at the end of October. Then I spent a couple of weeks going through each note on every page. I submitted the reviewed copy edited manuscript on November 9th. Since I have never done this before, I was a little unsure of what to expect. 

As I did my initial graze through the whole document I was shocked at how thorough this copy editor person was. Shocked and delighted. The amount of time and care they took to fix emdashes, point out inconsistencies, and "just confirm this was what was intended" was a whole new level of oversight for me. And I was relieved. This is not just me throwing all of the words into a sentence and hoping my primitive knowledge of commas will get us to the end. A very smart stranger read 409 pages of something I wrote and then took the time to make notes. And not just vague notes, specific, granular notes.  

This must be how that shoemaker in the fairy tale felt when he woke up one morning and found that elves had made everything better in the night. I didn’t even know people like this existed, these copy editors. I believe they might be modern day elves. The next step will be to send this spiffed up manuscript to the typesetter to have it poured. Pouring is what makes it look like a real book. Again, kind of sounds like magic to me.

I hope you have a magical week. too.

Your friend,

Meghan Godwin  

We have progress, ladies and gentlemen! Cat’s Paw has always been only a working title, one I’ve wanted to change for well over a year now. And we’ve come to a decision: the book formerly known as Cat’s Paw will be published as Unnatural Ends ... a far better title, mainly because it does not conjure up pictures of cute kittens when you run it through Google.

Which also means these updates will need a new header:

If you head over to Amazon, you’ll find we also have a cover, though my understanding is that this is not final. The cover artist is still working on something much better. Still, having even a placeholder cover brings home the idea that this is really happening after all. I’m sure that, given the time this has taken some of you must have begun to give up, or cease to believe ... I know there was a sense of unreality about the whole process for me as well, towards the end.

Meanwhile, the proofs have come and gone. I heard mention of printing at the beginning of the next month, though I’m assuming that’s about the Advanced Reader copies for reviews and the like before the actual release. As I said: we have progress.

Good Sunday morning! Tomorrow will mark two weeks since the surgery that removed a cancerous “plum” from inside of my head. I continue to do well and to improve every day. My outlook for both treatment and recovery are good.

The next stage in my treatment will be five consecutive days later this month of targeted CyberKnife radiation therapy. This should have few side effects or ill effects of any consequence.

This therapy demands high precision targeting and control which will require my own custom iron maiden mask … of a sort (example pictured below.) This mask will be used to position and hold me in place during the treatment sessions. I just might mount this war trophy on a wall somewhere with my pointy sword afterward!

After radiation therapy concludes, we will then begin with immunotherapy. As I have said before, this is a regimen of medications designed to train your body to better identify and fight cancer itself – teach a man to fish rather than just give him a fish.

Let me take this opportunity to say that the standard of care, consideration and professionalism that I have experienced throughout all this – from the surgical and other care teams at my local hospitals here in Ottawa, Canada – was and continues to be outstanding, despite the extreme pressures placed on the whole system by the pandemic.

AND … BIG NEWS FOR THE BOOK LAUNCH!

Two days after I returned home from the hospital, I got some unexpected and totally awesome news: I have made the programme for the World Fantasy Convention (WFC 2021) taking place early next month in Montreal (I’ll be attending virtually). This is pretty much the top event of its kind in the world.

To say this was great news at a great time is a gross understatement. I will be on one panel, and I have also been given a slot to deliver a reading from Bane of All Things.

I bought my ticket to WFC 2021 two years ago and applied to its programming in March with no expectation of what might come of it as a debut fantasy author with a small and unconventional US publisher. I could not have expected better.

And ... another great Canadian author has also been gracious enough to provide a promotional blurb for the book: 

"A dark and engrossing epic fantasy that starts off small but just keeps building. I’m really looking forward to what comes next!”

That comes from James Alan Gardner, author of They Promised Me the Gun Wasn’t Loaded. Check him out!

That’s all for now. I definitely feel that the cup is half full.

Stay safe and keep reading ;)

Cheers

Leo

Thank you for purchasing Sorcery for Beginners. I wanted to point you to a new project I’m working on called YOU ARE A FILMMAKER. It’s a fun choose-your-own-career-path book for adults, currently funding on Kickstarter:

CANCER UPDATE AND PENDING SURGERY

As most of you know, I have been living with metastasized melanoma for almost two years. Since my second surgery in March 2020 to remove affected lymph nodes under my left arm, I appear to have been cancer free. To remain that way, I underwent a year of targeted gene therapy that ended in May of this year.

I now have periodic CT scans and brain MRIs. My last brain MRI seven months ago was clear. But since then, I have developed a tumor in my brain that would suggest the gene therapy was a failure. Plan B now will be to remove all evidence of this growth with a combination of surgery and perhaps radiation and then proceed with immunotherapy.

The kicker in all this is that I was on the gurney with the surgeon outside the operating room, ready to go under the knife, on Thursday afternoon this past week. Then word came down that a shortage of post-op recovery beds meant they had to bump my surgery. Because of other scheduling issues, I am still waiting to confirm a new date this coming week. In the meantime, all I can do is manage symptoms with medication.

It’s a tough time all around with scheduling in hospitals with all the pressures that are on the healthcare system because of COVID (I have zero sympathy and zero patience for anyone who refuses to get vaccinated without a legitimate medical reason, but that’s another story). I live in Canada with a public healthcare system and the there are still dire challenges right now.

All we can do is just wait and see and hopefully I will get a new surgery date confirmed on Monday and then take it from there.  

TREATMENT OPTIONS

Where gene therapy tries to attack the cancer directly, immunotherapy boosts your own immune system’s ability to identify, target and destroy cancer itself. So, you could say my first treatment with gene therapy was giving a man a fish to eat, and Plan B with the immunotherapy will be teaching him to fish for himself. 

THE GOOD NEWS

The good news is that the tumor is easily accessed and easily removed … relatively speaking. There are of course risks with any kind of surgery like this, but I am assured in this case that a positive outcome is the most likely outcome.

AND … Bane of All Things is still releasing, come hell or high water!

Again, due to COVID disruptions (this time, impacting book publishing supply chains) the release date has shifted back three weeks to Dec. 07 – but it will still be out in time for Christmas, so chill that egg nog!

Thanks again for all your love and support.

Cheers
Leo

Hello, readers!

How are you enjoying On Home?! I’ve been blown away by the amazing response and I appreciate every single message, selfie, and review! Please keep them coming!

I would love to have you join me for one or all of the following events:

This Thursday, September 23 at 6pm EST ONLINE: Queer Appalachian Parents, Sex Work, and the End of the World. Join rural authors Alison Stine, winner of the 2021 Philip K. Dick Award, and Becca Spence Dobias to discuss their new books, Trashlands and On Home. Trashlands is a strip club at the edge of an apocalyptic junkyard where a mother works to earn enough to rescue her son. In On Home, three generations of Appalachian mothers, including one who works as a cam girl, struggle with the weight of the past and the small town they call home. What can rural America—past, present, and near-future, teach us about queerness and the volatile world we find ourselves in today? Stine and Spence Dobias will ask each other these questions and more. Register for free here.

October 6, 6-8pm EST ONLINE: Join Beausoleil Book’s Manager, Alexis and I to talk about the writing process, On Home, and representation of the queer community in literature and pop culture. The $5 ticket supports this incredible inclusive bookstore in Lafayette, Louisiana, or there’s an option to get a ticket for free by purchasing a book from them! Register here. 

October 7, 7pm PST IN PERSON at NEW Riverside Main Library Community Room. Join me for a National Novel Writing Event Workshop. I wrote the first draft of On Home during NaNoWriMo in November 2012. In this workshop, I’ll share the journey from that draft to a published novel, provide tips and tricks for “winning” NaNoWriMo, and answer questions. Come prepared to write, as parts of the workshop will be participatory. Signed books will also be available to purchase.

Thank you so much for your continued support!!
Becca

“Visceral and vivid, Bane of All Things is a gorgeously imagined ride. I enjoyed getting to know these characters and the world of monsters and magic they inhabit. A terrific read.”

These heartwarming words came just this morning from fellow Ottawa-area scribe Kate Heartfield. She is the author of Armed in Her Fashion, Alice Payne Rides, and, coming early next year from HarperVoyager UK, The Embroidered Book. 

It’s hard to believe we are just two months from Bane of All Things’ release day on Nov. 16. Even more unbelievable (and affirming) is that I have fellow authors like Kate, whom I have admired for years, sharing their enthusiasm for my work.

My publisher continues to make the rounds with the bloggers and the magazines and e-zines that might post a book review or agree to interview yours truly. In a few weeks I will be launching a giveaway on Goodreads to also drive attention to BoAT. 

World Fantasy Con

Coming up on Nov. 4 to 7 is the 2021 World Fantasy Convention. As the “World” in the name suggests, this is a big deal. The Con is hosted by a different city in Canada, the U.S. or the U.K. each year. This time, it’s in Montreal – only a few hours down the road from my house. I bought my ticket way back in 2019. It will be my first time at this event and, as a debut author to boot, it should be memorable. There will be mandatory vaccinations and masks for all.

Would you like to join my Street Team?

The call is now open for volunteers to join my “Street Team” and help spread the word about BoAT. As a Street Team member, you are agreeing to be a positive and supportive cheerleader, because any debut needs all the positive press it can get!

Your participation could take any of several forms:

• Read and post a positive review before Nov. 16: I can hook you up (today) with a digital advance reader copy (ARC). Your mission, once accepted, is to read and post a 4- or 5-star review on Amazon, Goodreads and wherever else you might normally review books.

• (If after reading the ARC you honestly don’t feel that BoAT warrants 4 or 5 stars, that’s OK. An author can only expect to please some of the people, some of the time. I would only ask in that case that you let me know privately and hold off on posting your honest review/rating until after release date.)

• Take to social media: I can help set you up with social media posts/links you can publish to your social media channels of choice come November, to promote the release of the book.

• Hit up your local library, bookstore or book club: For any author, getting your book in the library is a big deal, too. In Canada, there is even a program that gets authors paid when their books are in public libraries. And as you heard me say many times way back during the pre-order campaign for BoAT, word of mouth to friends and family is gold!

If you are interested in taking part in any way with the Street Team, or if you have other ideas for how you might like to help, don’t hesitate to email me: leo@leovaliquette.com

That’s all for now. Stay safe and keep reading! 

Hello Friends! 

It has been a good long while since I sent out an update but, finally, I have some news! 

Inkshares is planning on a Spring/Summer 2022 release for Eudaimonia! 

In October it will have been 4 years since you helped me get this thing in production. Without your help it would have never stood a chance. So, again, thank you. We are getting there! 

Recently, I had to spend some time on a plane. I knew that I would be stuck for multiple hours with little to do. So, I uploaded the most recent draft of Eudaimonia (this makes 4, I think) to my Kindle. Everything inside of me cringed as I started on page one. 

I think when you create something and refine it over, and over, and over all you really see is what is wrong with it. That’s all you are focused on. Why is this terrible and how do I fix it? The decent parts you disregard because they don’t need attention. Hours are spent hunched over sections dickering around with the way a sentance sounds. And you are never reading it as a whole piece of work. Never. Throw in the insecurity of never having done this before and the doubt that it will ever get better, argh. 

This is what prompted the dread when I opened that Kindle thousands of feet above the ground. I didn’t want to, yet again, face all the rough and ugly parts of this book and all of my shortcomings as an amateur. Atrocious, right? Plus, it was impossible to correct anything on a Kindle in an airplane. So, as I read, imagine my suprise when I thought to myself, "I don’t hate this." 

That may not sound like a ringing endorsement to you, for me, that is progress. 

I hope you are having a wonderful summer, 

Your friend, 

Meghan Godwin