Nephilim

Hi all,

A short of mine, False Comet, has been published in an Iron Faerie anthology! You can check it out below…

Dare to enter the cosmic battleground where angels, demons, and Nephilim collide!
Revealing forbidden love, celestial wars, and the extraordinary powers that shape their entwined fates.
Brace yourself for a rollercoaster ride through realms unseen, as each story lures you into a world where the boundary between light and darkness is blurred. promises a gripping journey that will leave you breathless, craving more of the supernatural tapestry these tales so masterfully weave.

Featured authors:
Barend Nieuwstraten III
B.F. Vega
D.L. Smith-Lee
Ellen Rose
Emily Sharp
Gabby Gilliam
Jessica Turnbull
Jordan Davidson
Spencer Helsel
Sultana Raza

False Comet is actually the first story I submitted to Iron Faerie. After I saw the prompt, I came up with an idea that I couldn’t shake! It follows three teenagers who are waiting for a meteor shower but instead witness a comet crash into the Earth. Upon further investiagtion, they wished they had they had just stayed at home instead…

I love seeing my work published in anthologies and I hope to continue submitting to them this year! I’ve already got my eye on a dragon one which I’m hoping to submit to by the end of the month.

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoy Nephilim! See you next week.

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles before you go!

Free to Dream (Sci-Fi & Fantasy)

KU Kickstart (All Genre - 1st in Series)

A Dragon-themed New Year’s Adventure

New Year, New Monsters 4: From the Caves

Flights of Fantasy

Hi all!

One of my short stories has managed to find a home in an anthology. You can read ‘Flames of the Moon’ in Flights of Fantasy, which is available now!

Dive into a realm where magic knows no bounds, and legends come to life.
From the mystical depths of ancient forests to the soaring heights of dragon filled skies, these tales will transport you to worlds where heroes rise, kingdoms clash, and the extraordinary becomes ordinary.
Whether you seek epic adventures, tales of mystical creatures, or stories of unlikely heroes, this anthology has it all!
Prepare to be spellbound and experience the magic of an entire universe in a single book.
The authors within this book are:
A J Wilson
Alexandra Haverská
A.M. Cummins
Andra Dill
Andrea Barton
Andrew Kurtz
Angela Zimmerman
Anna-Maria Aschmann
Ariel Finkle
Ashleigh Cattermole-Crump
Austin Worley
Barend Nieuwstraten III
Beth W. Patterson
Blake Jessop
Brandon Hingley-Lovett
Brenda Anderson
Bruce Rowe
Cara Twomey
Cassia Hall
Catherine Berry
Charles Reis
Charlotte Langtree
Chris Hewitt
Chrissie Rohrman
Claire Davon
Connor Sassmannshausen
Dale Parnell
Danielle Mikals
David Bowmore
David Green
Dawn DeBraal
Declan Liam McKendrick
Diane Arrelle
DJ Elton
D’mitri Blackwood
D.M. Slate
Dorian J. Sinnott
Edward Ahern
Elizabeth Nettleton
Ella Everly
Ellie A Goss
Emma Kathryn
Erica Damon
Fiona Honor Hurley
Gabriella Balcom
Gabby Gilliam
Gemma Paul
Georgina Stancer
Ian T. Wilson
Isa Ottoni
James Carraghan
Jasiah Witkofsky
J.A. Skelton
Jessica Labbe
Jessica Turnbull
Jodie Francis
Jon Chan
Jordan Eagles
Joshua D Taylor
Joshua Williams
Juliana Amir
Kailey Alessi
Kaitlyn Arnett
Karen Bayly
Kate Campbell
Katie Jordan
Keith Burdon
Kevin Hopson
Kim Plasket
Lauraine S. Blake
Lisa H. Owens
LJ McLeod
L.J. Wynn
L. T. Emery
Luis Manuel Torres
Lynne Phillips
Lynette S. Hoag
Maggie D Brace
Marianne Reese
Marie Sinadjan
Mckenzie Richardson
Meera Dandekar
Melody E. McIntyre
Michelle Ann King
Michelle Brett
Miriam H. Harrison
M. M. Montelione
MM Reynolds
Monica Schultz
M.W. Irving
Naito Diamond
Natasha Sinclair
Nathan A. Jacobs
NC Smith
Nerisha Kemraj
Nicole Walsh
Olivia Arieti
Pat Woods
Patrick Winters
P.L. Glaser
Rachel L. Tilley
R.A. Clarke
R.A. Goli
R. C. Capasso
Renata Pavrey
Rich Feitelberg
S.A. McKenzie
Sammi Cox
SL Kretschmer
Sophie Wagner
Stacey Jaine McIntosh
Stefan Grieve
Stephen Arndt
Stephen E Sorensen
Stephen Johnson
Stephanie Parent
Susan Cornford
Tabitha Baumander
Taya Rune
Terry Hooker
Terry Keelan
Tim Blaine
Toko Hata
Tony Steven Williams
Toshiya Kamei
Troy Deacon
V.H. Stone
Victor Nandi
Vinny Cucuzza
Vonnie Winslow Crist
Ximena Escobar

As you can see, this anthology is chock full of stories from plenty of authors! There are hundreds of fantasy stories to make your way through. I’ve read quite a few of them already and I think they’re all amazing.

I wrote Flames of the Moon on a whim after a writing prompt from my writer’s group. I had a dream about a girl who was given fire magic from a moon goddess and rolled with it. Despite only being 500 words, I really loved writing it. So much in fact that I have ideas to turn it into a book. The moon goddess will still give out fire magic but there will be three other goddesses too. Once I’ve plotted the story out a bit more I’ll share a few more details with you.

That’s it for this week, I hope you check out Flights of Fantasy. See you next week!

PS; don’t forget to check out this awesome bundle of fantasy books before it ends:

Abundant Woo-niverse Giveaways for Magical Realism, Supernatural, Paranormal, Fantasy, and Sci-Fi

My First Solo Book Signing

Hi all!

This week i'm going to talk about my first ever solo book signing event! I've done a group signing before with other authors at a different bookshop but this one was entirely me and my own books! It was scary and exciting at the same time and I wanted to share with you how it went.

The signing was at The British Red Cross Bookshop in Plympton, where I was their author of the month for August. They interviewed me in February and I donated a few copies of my books for them to display as well as some bookmarks. They offered to let me do an event at one of their shops which I happily accepted. At first I wondered if I should do a book reading but I'm not confident enough with that yet. Instead, I decided a signing would be a good idea. I designed a poster advertising the event on social media.

First off, I took all of my books. I didn't want to confine myself to one genre and also wanted a variety for the table. I also took stickers, bookmarks, bookplates and pins. I wanted to use them to brighten up the table and give readers a little extra if they wanted it. After doing a bit of research online I found it would be a good idea to have a list to collect emails just in case anyone wanted to sign up to my newsletter. I didn't have any takers this time, but I still think it was a great idea. There was also a price list, which I printed two of. One for anyone who comes up to my table and one for the bookshop to keep at their till. We both kept track of everything that was sold and made sure the numbers matched up at the end of the signing. This worked out great as readers knew what the prices were when they had a look and there was no confusion with the bookshop either. The last thing I printed was a QR code that took readers to my Amazon page. If for any reason they didn't want a paperback yet or they preferred ebooks, they could take a look on there.

Now, I know that some of you are wondering how many I sold...

I sold five books!

For the first hour of the signing no-one had bought anything and I was starting to get disheartened. But my boyfriend came with me for support and we decided to do a bit of book shopping ourselves when we were there. It distracted me for a bit and I've got two more books to be added to my 'To Be Read' pile! Some members of my writer's group popped in to show their support and bought a couple signed copies which was lovely. 

Five books may not sound like a lot to some, but for my first signing I couldn't be happier. I was so worried that no-one would show up and I wouldn't sell anything. But I sold two bookmarks and a bookplate too! 

I'd love to do another signing at some point now that I have some experience. I know what to expect and hopefully I can improve for next time and try to draw more readers to my table. The staff in the bookshop were kind and supportive and did everything they could to make sure I was comfortable.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! Keep an eye out for next week's post, I think you might like it! See you then.

PS; don’t forget to check out these awesome book bundles!

Celebrating Book Lovers

Angels of August: Fantasy Novels & Box Sets Galore

A Milestone in NaNoWriMo

Hi all,

Ever since I joined NaNoWriMo in 2018 I've tried my best to take part in all of the events that they offer yearly. I've written fourteen books during NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo and I've just hit a massive milestone...

One million words written!

If you haven't heard of NaNoWriMo, it's an event that happens three times a year where you have to hit a writing or editing goal. I always go for the usual 50K words in a month.

I've never counted up all the words that I've written but I'm so glad that NaNoWriMo gives you the option of doing so on your profile. I've seen that number tick up over the years and I'm so glad that it's now at one million. Every book that I've written for NaNoWriMo will eventually be published and I love adding the covers to each of the projects and marking them as published.

If you're curious, the projects that make up the one million words are:

Elemental Dragons #3: Glass and Ice

Elemental Dragons #4: Cinder and Fire

Celestial Plague #2: Heaven

Years 

Mute

Curse of Anubis #1 (Name Change Pending)

Curse of Anubis #3 (Name Change Pending)

Curse of Anubis #4 (Name Change Pending)

Original Elementals #1: Frostbite

Original Elementals #3: Shadowhunter

Celestial Plague #4: Hell

Original Elementals #5: Tempest

Orignal Elementals #6: Sunrise

Missing Constellations

I'd love to hit two million words written and I will keep writing for NaNoWriMo events. It has helped me so much with my writing and I love adding my daily word count to the website to see the numbers tick up.

That's it for this week! Next week I'm going to do a wrap-up for July Camp NaNoWriMo, see you then!

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles:

Celebrating Book Lovers

Angels of August: Fantasy Novels & Box Sets Galore

Camp NaNoWriMo Project Announcement - July 2023

Hi all!

Like with April’s Camp NaNoWriMo, I thought I’d share a brief post about my next project! As I’ve written three Original Elementals books on the trot, I’m now taking a break to write a standalone. This book is called Missing Constellations. I’m hoping to write 50K of the first draft in this month.

This book will follow Laelaps and the Teumessian Fox. The dog that always catch it’s prey and the fox who always escapes it’s captors. They are one of my favourite Greek myths as they get stuck in a never-ending loop so Zeus places them in the sky as constellations. This book will be a dual POV of both of them. I’m undecided if I will have chapter headers commissioned for both of them or not.

Every few years, Zeus allows the constellations to return to Earth for a day to experience life as a human. Once the sun sets, they are returned to the stars once more. Only this time, they don’t return. When the sun sets they turn into their canine forms and are still trapped on Earth. When one approaches the other, the loop kicks in and they are separated by a few feet. They travel the Earth trying to find out what has happened and eventually notice that all of the constellations are gone.

Laelaps is a quiet dog who would much prefer to sleep, while the Fox is more hyper and loves to run around and tease him. They’ve been stuck in the sky together for centuries in an endless chase. Though neither will admit it to the other, they consider themselves best friends.

My plan is still to set up a Patreon and this is the first book that I’m hoping to post on it! I’m still trying to figure out the details, such as covers and editing but I will worry about that more once the book is done. Alongside getting to read the book early, I’m going to offer other rewards such as ebooks, paperbacks, merch and possibly even a book dedication. With the book, I’m going to have character polls, 100 word drabbles and Q&As on there too. I’m not sure when I’m going to get this done, but I’m hoping by the end of the year I have a clear plan in place.

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week!

PS; don’t forget to check out this book bundle:

Summer Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books in Kindle Unlimited!

Paperback Price Increase

Hi all,

Amazon have recently announced that they are increasing the price of their paperback production due to rising costs. I will be raising my prices slightly to align with this, but you can still order paperbacks at the current price before the middle of June. The current prices for my paperback books range from £9.99-£10.99, depending on the book and series. The price will only go up by a small amount, but I still wanted to give you a heads up just in case you were thinking about buying one.

I do have some plans for my paperback books, some long-term and some short-term. Seeing as this post is about paperbacks, I thought this would be a great place to discuss it!

Signed paperbacks.

Some authors use their own websites or sites like Etsy to sell signed paperback books. I've thought about this a lot and it is definitely something that I would like to do in the future. I would like to do bundles where you can buy a signed paperback, bookmark and some stickers as well. This would be exclusive to that site and I think it would be a great way to also sell some of the merchandise that I've had created. 

Distribution.

IngramSpark have recently scrapped the fee that they used to charge authors to upload their books to their database. I'm looking into this one, but it is definitely something that I have been interested in for a while. On Ingram, you can list your books at a discounted price and retailers/libraries may purchase them. I've looked into this before, but the £50 upload fee for each book is what always put me off. Now that it's gone, I'm thinking of uploading all of my books on there at some point. This will only be the paperback version, the ebook and hardcovers will still be available on Amazon.

Rewards.

I've discussed creating a Patreon several times before on my blog. For Camp NaNoWriMo July 2023 I will be writing the first draft of Missing Constellations, the book that would be a Patreon exclusive. My plan is to have a tier where patrons would get the option of receiving a signed paperback twice a year. They would also eventually get a signed copy of Missing Constellations, when that book has been completely published on Patreon and is ready for publication in ebook, paperback and hardcover on Amazon.

Giveaways.

I would love to get back into the habit of doing regular giveaways for paperbacks whenever a new book is published. I just love the feeling of readers receiving a signed copy.

If you want to order one of my paperbacks at the current price, make sure you do this before mid-June, as that is when the prices will be raised. That's it for this week, see you next Sunday!

PS; check out this Fantasy/Sci-Fi book bundle!

Summer Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books in Kindle Unlimited!

Heaven Pre-Order Live

Hi all,

The second book in the Celestial Plague series, Heaven, is now available for pre-order! It will be out on Amazon in ebook, paperback and hardcover on the release date.

I can confirm that this book will be out April 11th 2023.

You can pre-order it below:

While you’re waiting for it to come out, why not sign up to my mailing list?

You get:

• Four FREE enovellas.

• Cover reveals before anyone else.

• First chapter reads before anyone else.

• Monthly news.

• Character design polls.

• Merch giveaways.

• Free and discounted book deals.

• Exclusive short stories.

You can sign up below:

That’s it for this week, I hope you are excited for the release of Heaven! See you next week,

My 2023 Writing Goals

Hi all!

Seeing as I posted my year in review last week, I’m now going to post my writing goals for 2023! There are a lot of big ones this year and I’d like to push myself to get them done.

Write five books.

Of course my first goal is how many books I want to write. This year I’m planning on hitting five. One of those will be Street Rats, which I want to finish by the end of the year. The others will be:

Original Elementals #6: Sunrise

Missing Constellations

Original Elementals #7: Stormburst

Original Elementals #8: Turf

Publish two books.

Celestial Plague #2: Heaven and Celestial Plague #3: Purgatory will both be published this year! Heaven in April and Purgatory in October. I would love to publish more often once my books start earning more profit.

This book will be published in April this year!

Edit three books.

Like last year, I’m going to stick with three books to edit. One will be Celestial Plague #4: Hell while the others will be in the Curse of Anubis series.

Get covers designed for the final books in Celestial Plague.

The cover designs have been booked for both Purgatory and Hell, which will both have covers by the end of the year! I’ll also be booking in covers for the first two books in the Curse of Anubis series. As always, I’ll be going to Deranged Doctor Design to have these covers made.

Write the Curse of Anubis Short Story Collection.

I’ve decided that I want this reader magnet to be like the Elemental Dragons Short Story Collection, a bunch of short stories written from that universe. So far I have stories planned for: the fight between Bastet and Sekhmet, how Sekhmet got her mane, why Mafdet ran away, how Set created the sha and Ra fleeing before the events of Curse of Anubis. I want to get all the stories done by the end of the year, even though Curse of Anubis won’t be published until late 2024.

Write more short stories.

I had so much fun with this last year and I love expanding my publishing portfolio. I want to add more anthologies to my publishing shelf so I will be writing more short stories to submit next year. Now that I have an easy way of finding ones to submit to, it shouldn’t take too long for me to submit them.

Design more merchandise.

So far I have had a lot of stickers designed for Elemental Dragons and also a bookmark (to be shown at a later date!). I want to get merch designed for my other books as well as finding a way to get it out there for you. I’m looking into setting up an online shop so you all can order what you like from me. I would love to add signed books into the mix as well, as I think that’s what you would be interested in as well. So for this year, I’ll focus on getting more merch designed with the possibility of a shop popping up as well.

I’d love to get stickers designed for Mute and Years - they will probably be cats!

Set up a Patreon.

I have been wanting to do this for ages. I’ve asked my newsletter subscribers what they would like to see most from me and also what rewards they would be interested in. I have a simple plan for content at the moment, which would be:

Mishie Mondays - weekly updates written in Mishka’s perspective, complete with pictures.

100 Word Drabbles - once a week publication of a 100 word story from one of my books. Although my main focus is to start with will be Elemental Dragons, I want to write drabbles from my other books as well.

Chapter of Missing Constellations - once a week I will post a chapter from the Patreon exclusive, Missing Constellations. It will be a YA Fantasy book focusing on Laelaps and the Teumessian Fox. Every few hundreds years they are allowed to return to Earth for a day in their human forms, but are then sent back to the sky. However, one day they aren’t sent back, and are instead turned back into their canine forms when night falls. They need to find out what’s stopping the gods from sending them back to their constellation, and why other creatures like them are also suffering the same fate.

Weekly polls - once a week a poll will be posted so my supporters can vote on what I write next, character design, 100 word drabbles and even what merch they want designed next.

Build up my mailing list.

My aim is to do more newsletter swaps and participate in more book bundles in 2023. I would love to spread the word of my books and my newsletter seems like the best way to do that!

Continue learning Spanish.

This is a more personal goal than a writing one, though I suppose it will help me if I decide to add a different language to my books. I want to continue learning the language anyway, even if it’s just five minutes a day!

Read 50 books.

I’m cutting my goal in half this year so I can focus on all of my goals above. The first book that I read will of course be a Warriors one! I have many books on my to be read pile that I need to get through so I can make room for more.

Participate in both Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo.

As with past years, I will be participating in all the events. I love filling up the word counter on their website and I’ve found that I work so much better with a deadline. Plus, I made a lot more buddies this year and it’s so fun to see everyone’s progress!

That’s it for this week! If you have any goals for 2023, I wish you the best of luck! Next week I will be posting an excerpt of the first chapter of Celestial Plague #2: Heaven, so make sure you keep an eye out for it, see you next week.

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles!

Mid-Christmas Horror Giveaway

New Year, New Monsters 3: From the Darkness

Nirvana is now Available on Amazon

Hi all,

The first book in the Celestial Plague series, Nirvana, is now available on Amazon in ebook, paperback and hardcover! This is the first book where I’ve used chapter headers, which I think makes each chapter look really pretty! Check it out below:

The world as we know it is over and all it takes to survive is your humanity.

The SARJ virus is an epidemic that is quickly overtaking an already broken world. Dividing it between the Bitten and Unbitten and forever changing the course of human history. When Shannon becomes infected with the virus her entire life changes forever.

For Shannon to make it to Nirvana she’ll have to spread the virus. But can she live with the consequences of those actions?

The urge to spread the virus is almost overpowering but infecting others comes at high cost; not just to her humanity but the innate powers she was born with. With every bite she loses a little of her power and a little bit of herself as well.

To stem the tide of Bitten rampaging through their cities the Unbitten release robots on them. Cold, calculating killing machines that don’t understand the term mercy are now exterminating people like Shannon.

Will she be able to survive the onslaught, protect her friends, and hold onto her humanity all at the same time?

That’s it for this week, if you read Nirvana, I hope you enjoy it! See you next week.

PS; check out these book bundles!

Flights of Fantasy

Dragon Books

Hawthorn and Ash Book 3: Alder & Ebony

Hi all,

One of my writing/publishing goals last year was to write more short stories and submit them to anthologies. One of the anthologies that accepted one of my stories has been published! You can check out Alder & Ebony below:

Alder and Ebony is a compilation of fantasy drabbles and flash fiction from authors worldwide.
Within its pages you will find enchanting stories of myth, legends and fairytales woven throughout.
Dive into the magic and wonder of these 50+ tales in Volume Three.

My story for this anthology is called Reclaim. It features the cat goddess Bastet, in her cat form, taking something back that was stolen from her. The piece was originally written for a contest that it unfortunately didn’t place in, but now you can read it in this anthology! The story doesn’t contain spoilers for the Curse of Anubis series and only features Bastet. You can get an idea of her character and her behaviour from this story, however.

The publisher is Iron Faerie Publishing and they have plenty of other submission calls on their website for various anthologies. My favourites are the fantasy and horror ones! You can check out their website and published anthologies here: Iron Faerie Publishing. I’ve submitted to one of their other anthologies and would also like to contribute to more of their anthologies in the future. They have great prompts and themes which are different to ones that you usually see for submission calls. Their Nephilim anthology is the one I originally submitted to as the theme was something I’d never come across before.

That’s it for this week, I hope you check out Alder & Ebony and Iron Faerie Publishing! Next week keep an eye out for the cover reveal of Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana… See you next week!

PS; looking for some new books to download? Check out the ones in these bundles:

Young Adult Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Science Fiction Giveaway