Mute Cover Design

Hi all!

If you haven’t seen my social media posts, then you might not know that I have revealed the cover for Mute! Without further ado…

Again, this cover has been designed by the wonderful people at Deranged Doctor Design! As with all of my previous covers, I thought I’d explain some parts of the design!

• The cat on the cover is Solaris, one of the guardians. He is not the main character, but he does assist her in her fight against the wendigo.

• The colour scheme for this book is grey and pale green.

• The background is a forest that is present in the book. Audra will sometimes dream herself there and be pursued by the wendigo.

• The buildings in the background are also a part of the forest, where the wendigo hunts.

• The blade beneath Solaris’ paws is a dagger, which Audra uses to defend herself against the wendigo.

• I originally wanted the wendigo to appear on this cover in some form, but I thought it would look too messy and also doesn’t fit with the overall look.

• I had a difficult time picking the font for this one but I think the one I chose is easy to read and also very fitting for the story.

• The cover is very dark and dreary, fitting the horror theme of the book.

• The design put my author name at the bottom this time as it is more standard for horror books.

All in all I am very happy with how this cover turned out as I’m not as well-versed with horror covers as I am with fantasy. I’ve a lot of people tell me that the cover reminds them of Stephen King’s Pet Sematary, and that was the book that got me into horror!

Mute will be out in October 2021, pre-order will be available in August!

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

PS; love reading about dragons? Check out this bundle full of FREE dragon books!

Dragon’s Lair

Elemental Dragons in a Physical Bookshop

Hi all,

This week I've got an announcement to make: a bookshop is now stocking paperback copies of all of the Elemental Dragons books!

This is a huge milestone for a self published author, as most bookshops won't even look at our books. I pitched quite a few bookshops last year, but got disheartened by the amount of negative responses. Due to publishing through Amazon, which is the biggest rival to bookshops, they weren't interested. After about a hundred pitches, some of which got extremely rude responses, I gave up. It was only when someone in my writing group mentioned that a new bookshop had opened that I decided to try again. I wasn't expecting anything to come of it, but they agreed to stock my books!

My books listed on the shop’s website

I'm glad that I've managed to hit another milestone in my author career. It's also quite surreal to see my book in a physical shop!

For the time being I'm not going to pitch to any more bookshops. The negative responses I got the first time round effected my anxiety, to the point where I didn't want to check my emails. I know that bookshops don't have to stock books they don't want to, but I think the rude responses were unnecessary.

I considered going through IngramSpark, as they have a high distribution rate with bookshops. The only issue I found is that it can be quite pricey just to set up one book on Ingram, let alone the four that I have. I've put that idea on hold until I decide whether the benefits will outweigh the costs.

If you want to check out the bookshop, you can do so here: Bookshop

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week!

PS; looking for some new fantasy books? The ones in this bundle are FREE to download!

Dragon’s Lair

Elemental Dragons Complete Collection Pre-Order Live

Hi all!

If you haven’t been keeping up with my social media, the Elemental Dragons Complete Collection is now available for pre-order! It will be out in ebook format on July 13th 2021.

The Complete Collection contains all of the books in the Elemental Dragons series in one neat little bundle!

You will receive:

Blood and Water

Venom and Earth

Glass and Ice

Cinder and Fire

While waiting for the Complete Collection to come out why not join my mailing list? You’ll get exclusive short stories, cover reveals and a chance to vote on what characters look like!

In return you’ll get a free ebook that can’t be downloaded anywhere else. I also plan on adding more free books in the future, so it’ll definitely be worth your while signing up!

Coming over the next year will be the following FREE enovellas:

Famished - a prequel to Mute

Sif’s Peak - a spin-off in the Years universe

Seashine - a look at the origins of a character in Celestial Plague

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

Before you go, this is the last chance to get some free books!

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

The Story of the Guardians

Hi all!

This week I'm going to tell you about the guardians - the ones in Mute whose job it is to prevent the wendigo from eating people. They also stop people from turning into wendigos by killing them. I thought I would tell you about their story, and how they became guardians.

In the Mute universe, cats are the guardians of the underworld. Their job is to guide new spirits into the underworld and prevent old ones from escaping. There are billions of spirits, so there are also billions of guardians. Some are assigned to keep watch further in the underworld, while others watch the gates. Despite the sheer amount of guardians, Solaris and Lunaris are the most well-known. This is because they made a grave mistake, allowing a certain spirit to escape. A spirit that would become the first wendigo.

Solaris is a ginger tom cat with green eyes. His sister, Lunaris, is a grey molly with blue eyes. Lunaris is the older of the twins, daring and more confident than her brother. Their first job when they were made guardians was to guard one of the gates. They both did their watch dutifully for a few years, until they got bored.

What Lunaris looks like

Solaris created a ball out of moss and grass, which he then started to play with. Lunaris joined in, with the two of them batting the ball between each other. However Lunaris got too excited and hit it too hard, meaning it rolls away from the gate. Without thinking, the two of them rush after it, eager to continue their game. While they were distracted, a vengeful spirit managed to escape. It attacked a Native American tribe and influenced a living man to kill someone and cannibalise their corpse. That spirit then took over their body and transformed them into a wendigo. Using their own flesh, they fed it to the corpse and created another wendigo.

By the time the twins realise what has happened, there are several wendigos. The two of them are scolded by the other guardians, and are punished with the task of getting rid of the wendigos for good. However, they are given powers to help them. Their claws will grow to three inches long when needed, and are made of the same wood that grows on the wendigo. The guardians also craft a dagger, which can be used by a human to subdue the wendigos. The two of them are then cast out, not allowed to return until all of the wendigos have been returned to the underworld. This brings us to Mute, centuries later, where the twins are still trying to correct their mistake.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading! See you next week!

PS; looking for some free books to add to your bookshelf? Check out the ones in this bundle, all Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

The SoundArt Dragon Award and Radio Interview

Hi all!

This week I'm going to talk about a radio interview I did a few weeks ago. You may remember John Eden from previous blog posts, who interviewed me on SoundArt Radio about the books in the Elemental Dragons series. You can check out SoundArt here:

In this interview we talked about Elemental Dragons as a whole, in order to get onto the topic of Cinder and Fire. We discussed the characters and my reasons for writing the books, as well as I'm what I'm planning for Elemental Dragons in the future. This interview was a little different, as we couldn't actually meet face to face in the studio. Instead we did it over webcam, although John couldn't see me!

He presented me with the SoundArt Dragon Award, which sits above my bookshelf (mainly so Mishka can't knock it over).

The SoundArt Dragon Award

Although the interview was a bit different from usual, it still followed the usual format. I had three songs played, which were:

Til The Love Runs Out - One Republic

Hey Brother - Avicii

It's All So Incredibly Loud - Glass Animals

We discussed Draca and the Wyrms again, as well as the characters in Elemental Dragons. We also discussed a blog post I made a few weeks prior, about the element of metal. He wanted to ask more about the Elemental Dragons series, but unfortunately I couldn't give too much away thanks to planning the Original Elementals series!

Mute and Years were brought up again, the next two books I'm planning to publish. I talked about what a wendigo is and how it features in the story of Mute. Audra as a character was also discussed, as she is the first character I've written who never verbally speaks a line of dialogue. I did mention the gore, but that didn't seem to put John off!

Mishka was constantly wandering in front of the camera throughout, which lead to me losing my train of thought at times! Luckily I was able to keep her from walking all over my laptop, which was her primary goal.

I read a bit of Cinder and Fire, and I think this time I managed to slow down a bit more. I tried to make my voice more steady, and I don't think I stumbled as much as I have in the past. Thanks to doing this twice before, I think it alleviated my anxiety a lot. I knew the format, I knew what was going to happen. That definitely helped with my nervousness.

That's it for this week, next week's blog post will be dedicated to a bit of Mute's lore which I hope you will find interesting. See you next week!

PS; looking for some new books without breaking the bank? Check out this free bundle:

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

Books That I Would Love to Read More Of

Hi all!

This week I'm going to talk about what kinds of books I would love to read more of! For once, this will not be about cats or dragons... Probably.

Giant Sharks.

I absolutely love b-movies, and can't get enough of books that are also like b-movies. The best ones for me will always be ones containing giant sharks. The ones where the sharks are gigantic due to nuclear waste or scientific experiments. They're usually super silly and such a joy to read!

Dinosaurs.

I can't seem to find many fiction books about dinosaurs. I'd love to read more about dinosaurs that have escaped from captivity, or have somehow survived the extinction event that wiped them all out. My favourite dinosaur of all time is the velociraptor, and I do love films and books about them.

Monsters.

To me, there's nothing better than a good monster story. Some people accidentally wake up a monster that's been sleeping for a thousand years, and it starts to wreak havoc. Unfortunately I can't seem to find many of these books that I can really get into.

Giant Bugs.

Again, this goes back to b-movies. I love watching some poorly designed 3D spider attacking people in a sleepy village. I managed to find a series about smarter, larger pests that I devoured. Now I'm hoping to find more books like it!

Monster Fights.

One monster being pitted against another. Which one will survive? Will the humans kill both? Nothing beats a good monster rumble. Whether it be between Crocoshark vs Sharktopus or Godzilla vs King Kong, I'd love to read more books where this is the focus!

That's it for this week! Next week I’m going to talk about an award - the SoundArt Dragon Award, keep an eye out for that post!

PS; looking for some free books? Check out the ones in this bundle - all Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

Middle Quotes - Camp NaNoWriMo April 2021

Hi all!

If you read my blog post in December you’ll remember that when I participated in NaNoWriMo I posted a compilation of quotes from the book I was working on - Halfway. I’m now doing the same for Middle, except this time there’s a quote for each day! I’ll do this again in July when I’ll be working on the final book in the Curse of Anubis series - Dual.

Days 1-10

Days 11-20

Days 21-30

That’s it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading! Next week I’m going to talk about books that I would like to read in the future. See you next week!

PS; looking for some free books? Check out the ones in this bundle:

Spring Sci-Fi and Fantasy Giveaway

Why I Dedicated a Book to PewDiePie

Hi all!

Now that Cinder and Fire is out I'm going to talk about the book dedication, and why it's so different from the ones before it. My other books have been dedicated to family members and a friend, so where did a YouTuber come from?

For those who don't know, Felix Kjellberg aka PewDiePie, is a creator on YouTube. He's been on there for years making a variety of content, starting with gaming and then branching out to music videos and commentary. I first discovered him when he was just starting to gain popularity, though I can't remember the first video of his I watched. Soon after discovering him I binged most of the videos that he uploaded.

I was depressed during my teenage years, though I didn't know it at the time. Coming home to see Felix had uploaded a video always put a smile on my face. Throughout his videos I would laugh and feel normal for the first time that day. When he uploaded multiple times a day I would watch one video and then wait for the next one to be uploaded. This continued for years. The fact that a new video would be uploaded after a bad day at school gave me a reason to keep going. Although I felt alone, when I watched his videos I could forget about that, even if for only fifteen minutes. Now I don't rely on his videos to bring me happiness, as I have found it in other ways, such as my boyfriend and my writing. I still watch his videos when I have the time though.

He has had a lot of controversies in the past, and while I don't agree with that behaviour, I commend him for taking responsibility. He promised that he would do better and he followed that promise, he showed that he could improve. The amount of charity work he's done over the years is amazing as well, though it's a fact that most of his haters like to ignore.

I know the likelihood of him finding out about my book is slim, but I still wanted to thank him in some way.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading, see you next week.

PS; looking for more fantasy books to read? Check out the ones in this bundle!

Dragon Eggs for Easter!

Cinder and Fire Now Available

Hi all!

The final book in the Elemental Dragons series, Cinder and Fire, is now available on Amazon!

As with the previous books it is available in both ebook and paperback.

This is the last one in the series, and the Complete Collection of all the books will be available to purchase in ebook format in July 2021.

I will also be doing a giveaway of a signed copy of Cinder and Fire on my Twitter account, so keep an eye out for that!

Find out what happens to Hazel and her friends below:

Avoiding a war isn’t getting any easier.

Hazel and her companions are shaken after the last battle and don’t know where to turn. Realizing that in the event of a full-scale war they would be sorely pressed, they take their time to regroup and try to form a better plan.

If that wasn’t already bad enough, tensions are high for other reasons as well. More personal ones. They have lost friends in their fight for justice and those losses now threaten to tear the group apart.

Hazel discovers that she has an exciting and dangerous new ability. One that might give them the edge they need to win. But only if she can survive long enough to use it.

Can Hazel and the others put personal feelings and vendettas aside to finish what they started, or will the group be torn apart and be hunted down one by one?

PS; looking for some more dragon books to check out? Take a look at the ones in this bundle:

Dragon Eggs for Easter!

Metal - The Lost Element

Hi all,

This week I'm going to talk about something that was briefly mentioned in Elemental Dragons #2: Venom and Earth; when Hazel and Marco were looking at the vats of Elemental serum. They saw one that mentioned someone developing a new Element: Metal. I thought I would explain a bit more about this element and how it effected the boy who developed it.

They were male, and seventeen years old when they were eaten by the Wyrms. They did have a dragon, which also had the Metal element.

Human Powers:

Ability to control metal.

Ability to walk through metal.

Can create metal out of thin air.

Can create a metal shell to defend themselves.

Dragon Powers:

Ability to fly through metal.

Can breathe molten metal, which solidifies upon impact.

Shards of metal can fly out of their wings as a form of self-defence.

Its horns can turn to solid metal.

What kind of metal can they use?

Any type of metal, man-made or not. Thus includes soft metals such as gold and tin. The one that they both chose to use the most was a form of iron or steel.

What effects did it have?

They could handle extremely high temperatures without damage.

They sunk in water.

Their limbs are a lot heavier than they should be, despite looking normal.

Why didn't this happen again?

The Metal element was a mutation that is extremely rare. When the scientists were mixing all of the Elemental serums to create one with all the elements, they accidentally created Metal instead.

Has this occurred naturally?

So far, due to its rarity, there have been no natural Metal Elementals. It's an extremely rare mutation that happens when a child starts developing their Elemental power. Scientists have theorised that it is a mix of Earth and Fire genes, which have combined and created a new element.

What happened to the dragon?

The dragon perished after the fire, trying to stop the Wyrms from consuming their companion. They fought valiantly, but died due to their injuries. A small sample of their blood was taken to create more of the Metal serum.

That's it for this week! Do you want to see a Metal Elemental pop up in the future? Let me know in the comments! See you next week.

PS; looking for new dragons books to read before the launch of Cinder and Fire next week? Check out the books in this bundle:

Dragon Eggs for Easter!