OK, folks, this is the news I have been waiting to share for … well, more pandemic-plagued months than I care to count: 

Bane of All Things will publish on Nov. 9, 2021!

That means you will finally have your copy, or copies, for Christmas (depending, of course, on the cooperation of the postal service, if that involves print copies).

Nov. 9 is months later than it might have otherwise been without COVID, but a month or two sooner than we thought it might be a couple of weeks ago. Thanks to the dedicated efforts of Avalon Radys, Noah Broyles and the rest of the Inkshares team, the train has left the station.

You can already see the placeholder for BoAT with its ISBN numbers here on Amazon.ca (it should be showing up on Amazon.com at any time). You have no idea how much I have anticipated the day when I could point you to that!

Sometime soon, we will get into layout and cover design. The next big milestone will be the cover reveal. The current cover is of course just a placeholder whipped up by yours truly with an Adobe Stock image.

I’ve said it many times before but can never say it enough – thank you to each and every one of you. None of this would have been possible without your support and patience.

Stay safe and keep reading!

Cheers

Leo

Exciting News!! WE DID IT!! WILD CONVICTION held 3rd place and will be published by Inkshares! I woke up about 1 am my time and checked. I can’t go back to sleep! 

THANK YOU to each of you for showing so much wonderful support for my novel. THANK YOU for supporting my dream--my wild conviction--to be a published novelist! I can’t wait until you have the entire novel to read! 

When I was fortunate enough to meet Nichelle Nichols several years ago, she autographed a photograph of her on the USS Enterprise bridge for me by writing: Blessings to you always and in all ways. I love that and am writing that to you. My friends, family, readers of WILD CONVICTION--Blessings to you always and in all ways!  Again, THANK YOU!!  Mary (and Twilight)

Hey Everyone!

The 2020 All Genre Manuscript Contest is coming into it’s last week and Beyond the Masquerade has made a good showing. Right now, it is holding at 8th place but I think we can do better. Let’s come together and help Beyond the Masquerade end the contest with a splash.

There are many ways to help Beyond the Masquerade gain momentum, and the majority of them are completely free. 

Follow: Following the Beyond the Masquerade campaign will give it more stock and will keep you informed of the campaigns progression.

Share: Tell you friends and family to get on board with the campaign to help it gain momentum. You can share it among the community on the Inkshares website or through social media.

Read, Comment, or Recommend: The first three chapters of Beyond the Masquerade for free to read on the campaign page. Give them a look through and tell me what you think through comments or recommendations. This will let others know that follows are giving the campaign some attention.

Nominate: Inkshares has recently added a Nominate function onto the book campaign pages. This enables you to send a clear message to the people with Inkshares on why you want to see this work published.

Pre-Order: The campaign for Beyond the Masquerade has to get at least 750 pre-orders in order for it to be published through this platform. So, if you love the epic adventure of Beyond the Code and want more action packed adventures with Luna and the other Knights, pre-order a copy today.

And remember, with every one of these you do, you will be entered into the Beyond the Masquerade 3 Tiered Raffle contest to win a tote bag, a coffee mug, or a cozy blanket.

Also, if you want a completely non-committal peek into the world of the Knights and The Order, the digital version or Beyond the Code is available on Amazon for FREE!

So let’s make one more push in the last days of the contest to bring more eyes on the campaign.

Thank you. 

Good day! For all of you who so generously pre-ordered Bane of All Things those many moons ago, this update is for you. (If you did already hear from me earlier today about the sequel, The Crucible Tree, this is a whole different update.)

First, I want to again thank you for being so patient. Getting BoAT into your hands has taken far longer than I had hoped. COVID-19 is the principal culprit.

What’s happening now?

At present, BoAT is off to copy edit – its last nitpicking round of editing.

As I am writing this, Avalon Radys, Inkshares’ Director of Editorial & Publishing Operations, has emailed me a tip sheet to fill out. A tip sheet is one of the essential marketing pieces for a book. We will see how my notes compare to hers.

Cover design will be next – I can’t wait to see how this goes and who will be the cover artist! When it is ready, you will be the first to see. (That cover below which you have become so accustomed to is just a placeholder by me using an Adobe Stock image.)

So, what does this mean for you?

I had hoped by now to provide a firm release date you could mark on your calendar. I can’t yet, but I will soon – the Inkshares’ team is making that determination right now. 

What I can say is that we are now aiming for a December-January release window. 

I know, that seems a looong way off. Trust me when I say I feel your pain – I live it. On the other hand, that gives us plenty of time to get this done right – to ensure a jaw-dropping cover design and make sure those reviewers and bookstore buyers are suitably wooed and wowed. Build as much advance buzz and anticipation as possible.

Why the delayed release?

As I have said before, the past year has been good for established authors as people do more reading while under quarantine lockdown. For new authors who are not yet established, the disruption of the publishing industry and the impact on brick-and-mortar retail made it a not-so-good time to release a first book.

For these reasons, Inkshares choose to delay most of the titles it had planned to release through the last half of 2020 and the first half of 2021.

But the end is in sight. Inkshares is ramping up for a slew of new releases through the latter half of this year.

Inkshares’ sales and marketing team wants to avoid rushing this backlog of releases out the door too fast. They want to make sure that every new title, including mine, gets its fair share of marketing and promotion. I can’t argue with that.

Meanwhile, I continue to work away on revisions to the next book in the series, The Crucible Tree. If you haven’t yet checked it out, you can find and Follow it here.

Thank you again for making all this possible. I truly hope you will be pleased with the result and satisfied that the wait was worth it.

Stay safe and keep reading!

Cheers

Leo

January felt long, didn’t it? 

I hope you’re staying safe and healthy and that this new year is better than the last. I’ve been staying home and writing, working on making our landscaping more drought resistant, and attempting DIY home renovation projects with varying degrees of success.

I turned in a new draft of On Home to my editor in early January and am waiting for feedback. I am really hoping there are only minor notes on this one. I’m still hoping for a summer release! 

The Book of Great and Tiny Things won the Breaking the Bechdel syndicate’s January pick so I got a nifty badge on the book page and some more orders. Please check it out and give it a follow if you haven’t already! There is also an option to “nominate” it, which tells Inkshares you think it should be published, no pre-order necessary. 

I’ve been reading a ton this year and am on my ninth book already. Most of them have been by Appalachian women, which has been inspiring in many ways. I’ll be reviewing some for Southern Literary Review, including Call It Horses by Jesse Van Eerden, which is beautiful. What are you reading? How else are you keeping busy and staying relatively sane? I am sending love to all of you, and, as always, gratitude.

Becca