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When is [insert book/project here] coming?Short answer, I don't know. Make sure you check the Upcoming section for any release dates. ​ The long answers: ​ [THIS] audiobook — Again, I don't know. Audiobooks are incredibly expensive to produce and there has to be enough demand to justify it. THE FALL OF LEANDER WELLES (Book 5) — It's on hold for a variety of reasons. ​ [So and so]'s story — No idea. Could be this year. Could be next year. Could be never. If the characters aren't being particularly cooperative, I'm not going to force it out. You'll hate the result. I'll hate the result. It won't be fun for anyone.
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Will you ever do an audiobook for [THIS BOOK]?Maybe? It all comes down to cost and demand, unfortunately. Audiobooks are very, very expensive to produce and if I'm going to do it, I'll want to do it the best way possible. So... that might not be for a while. But I will certainly announce it if/when it happens, so make sure you sign up for my newsletter or check the Upcoming section of my website.
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What are you working on now?A lot of things. I don't say that to be snarky, it's just that I usually have multiple irons in the fire and I bounce between them as my mood and deadlines dictate. I used to share a lot about my WIPs over on Instagram but I've cut back because I don't want people to get their hopes up about a project that may never come to fruition. Unless the first draft is completed or I know for an absolute fact it will see the light of day (like for a group project/collab), I'm trying not to share anything about new WIPs. I may mention ones I've already discussed, but from now on I'm going to try to keep quiet about anything totally brand new.
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Why don't you announce an entire series at once?Short answer: I don't want to make promises I can't keep. Longer answer: I know some authors like to say they're writing THIS SERIES, FEATURING # BOOKS ABOUT X, Y, and Z, and give projected publishing dates. I do not. Nor will I ever say how many books will be in any given series. I'm very much a mood writer and I don't plan that far in advance. After suffering severe burnout, I learned not to promise anything before the book was actually finished.
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Why isn't [THIS BOOK] in Kindle Unlimited?In 2023, due to the insultingly low payout, I decided to keep my novellas out of Kindle Unlimited and distribute them widely to other retailers and libraries.
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Will there be more of [THIS COUPLE], like fics and novellas?Maybe? I don't have any plans at the moment to give any of my couples more page time. It's not that I don't love them, it's not that I don't want to check in with them, I just have a really hard time revisiting couples once I've finished their story. They may have cameos in other books, but I wouldn't hold out for any special fics or novellas unless I get a really compelling idea. So far I've only written two bonus stories (one for Cassius & Graeme and one for Roan & Sasha) and they were exclusive to my newsletter/Ream. Maybe one day they'll be published to a wider audience.
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Will [So and So] get a book?Maybe? Sometimes side characters will get a book and sometimes they won't. It all depends if I think they have a compelling enough story to stand on their own and how cooperative they are when it comes down to actually writing that story. Some characters, as amazing as they are, are destined to remain supporting actors instead of the stars.
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What is with the Latin titles?If you've been around for a while, you know I hate coming up with titles. I can write a 400+ page book with no problem, but ask me to come up with a title? My mind goes blank. But you can blame Pinterest/CALIGO for the Latin trend. I was writing that short story and saw one of those "Latin word of the day" pics pop up for "caligo." I loved it, obviously, and since I was also in the middle of creating the whole Tennebrose Universe, I went with "Caligo" as the title. Then when it came time for MALUM, I stuck with Latin because I loved the symbolism/play on words of "malum discordiae." And that's when I decided my paranormals would have a Latin word/phrase as a title. (I make an exception for COVENTRY because I still consider it more fantasy than paranormal, but it's a fine line.)
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What does [insert character] look like?Due to the highly litigious nature of today's society, as of April 2024, I am no longer sharing pictures or information on the actors/models/celebrities who may have inspired a character's appearance, who I think resemble my characters in the real world, or who I'd ideally cast should they ever come to life on the small/big screen. Is it stupid? Yes. Is it the world we live in? Unfortunately. Artists are no longer allowed to be "inspired" by anyone or anything without someone coming along and getting their nose out of whack or trying to sue them for something.
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WTF are those pages in the beginning of MALUM DISCORDIAE?Aside from the family trees and Tybalt quotes, there are some other interesting pages at the beginning of Malum Discordiae. But... what are they? Those, my friends, are not the random scribblings of my little gremlin. They're actual pages taken from a real Necromancer's manual dated to 15th century Germany that I included because I thought it would be a) cool AF and b) a nice way to pay homage to historical Necromancers. While it's not a working grimoire like most people associate with magic practitioners, it is a compilation of spells and rituals that circulated in the medieval world, straddling the religious/magical line that can be rather confusing to modern society. The unknown author appears to be linked to a lower order of the clergy, given his somewhat shaky use of Latin, but much of the manual's history can only be guessed at, especially considering there are missing folios. Sound familiar...? This was one of many examples I used for the Corbins' Book of Lazarus, where folios were either deliberately or accidentally removed from the main manuscript for reasons we can only speculate. The best book on the history of grimoires is, hands down, Owen Davies' Grimoires: A History of Magic Books. Linked below.* The manual is currently preserved in the Bavarian State Library under the lackluster title "Clm 849." If you want to read it for yourself, you're in luck! Historian Richard Kieckhefer thoroughly examined Clm 849 and reproduced it for modern audiences along with his scholarly analysis and translations. It's been scanned into the Internet Archive, which you can read for free OR you can purchase your own copy. I'm linking to Amazon for ease of use, but I'm in no way affiliated and I know the book is available with other retailers. The complete title is: Forbidden Rites A Necromancer's Manual Of The Fifteenth Century ( Magic In History) by Richard Kieckhefer Read Forbidden Rites on Internet Archive Buy Forbidden Rites on Amazon The blurb for Forbidden Rites: Preserved in the Bavarian State Library in Munich is a manuscript that few scholars have noticed and that no one in modern times has treated with the seriousness it deserves. Forbidden Rites consists of an edition of this medieval Latin text with a full commentary, including detailed analysis of the text and its contents, discussion of the historical context, translation of representative sections of the text, and comparison with other necromantic texts of the late Middle Ages. The result is the most vivid and readable introduction to medieval magic now available. Like many medieval texts for the use of magicians, this handbook is a miscellany rather than a systematic treatise. It is exceptional, however, in the scope and variety of its contents―prayers and conjurations, rituals of sympathetic magic, procedures involving astral magic, a catalogue of spirits, lengthy ceremonies for consecrating a book of magic, and other materials. With more detail on particular experiments than the famous thirteenth-century Picatrix and more variety than the Thesaurus Necromantiae ascribed to Roger Bacon, the manual is one of the most interesting and important manuscripts of medieval magic that has yet come to light. *And for those who are interested, here is a link to Owen Davies' Grimoires on Amazon. Again, no affiliation, it just seems to be an easy/universal source. Buy Grimoires on Amazon
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How the hell did the Leander Welles series go from M/F to M/M?I get this question/criticism a lot. A lot of new-to-me MM readers don't understand why Lorelei was ever involved or why I "wasted" time writing a book for her. The truth of the matter is, Lorelei came first. When I wrote her book, MM was a genre that wasn't even on my radar. I thought I was writing an MF romantic suspense. And I did. (And that book actually placed as a finalist for suspense, by the by...) Then I wrote RATIONALE just to challenge myself, to get inside Leander's head and see what was going on in there. The story, at that time, was still MF romantic suspense. I was in the editing process when I decided to do a "prequel" of sorts, showing how Leander ended up where he did in MYSTERY and RATIONALE. Since there were so many moving parts behind the scenes of his incarceration, I knew I couldn't do a prequel from Leander's point of view. In waltzed Bennett Reeve. Bennett was originally a two-line character at the end of RATIONALE (his role/lines eventually went to Timothy in the final version), but it turned out Bennett was destined to narrate his own book. In the course of writing that book, THE DAMNATION OF LEANDER WELLES, I began to seriously doubt the original ending I had planned for Leander. I tried to keep Bennett and Leander's relationship in the friend zone, but it literally did not feel right to me. When I finally gave in and accepted that they were meant to be together, it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders. But there was a problem. MYSTERY was already published and RATIONALE was already written, so there was only so much tweaking I could do. I went back and wove in pieces of Bennett throughout RATIONALE. It is incredibly subtle (until the end) because in my mind Leander really did shut himself off from Bennett by focusing all of his attention on Lorelei as part of his grand plan. But the pieces of Bennett are there and I love when readers pick up on them, especially after they read DAMNATION and it all comes together. Hint: olive eyes, rain, and Cezanne. That's why I say RATIONALE is the beginning of the MM angst. It may not be obvious when you read it, but it becomes much clearer after you've read DAMNATION. Speaking of DAMNATION... even if it was a "prequel," for the most part, I wanted to carry Bennett's story through to the end of MYSTERY/RATIONALE to give readers some type of closure. Maybe not what they wanted, but closure nonetheless. The lingering question from RATIONALE was finally answered: Did Leander love Lorelei? So, thanks to Bennett and Leander, the MM door was open in my brain and it wasn't long before another couple came barreling through it—aka: Roan and Sasha. (I wrote their story in one month, people. One.Month!) And that's why I "wasted" my time with Lorelei and how one character—Bennett—changed the course of the entire series and my writing career.
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Why write M/M?Short answer: I prefer it. Longer answer: I've always preferred writing from the male POV. When I started writing as a wee lass, I partook in an online community of writers who had gathered in a mystical place called AOL. These writers were, in fact, roleplayers. We roleplayed our characters in a large, collaborative high fantasy/sword & sorcery medieval setting. And since we got to pick whatever kind of character we wanted to be, I would (nine times out of ten) pick a male character. To borrow from another Q & A: My thought at the time was, "Who wants to be a simpering princess when you can be a magic-wielding dark elf assassin?" I was twelve. You can see not much has changed. As an adult, writing on my own, I still get the choice and I choose M/M. Had I known it was not only a genre but a thriving genre when I first started, I would have saved myself a lot of headaches and never even written M/F. See the "How the hell did the Leander Welles series go from M/F to M/M?" for more on my author journey.
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What is Dark Romance?There are so many different definitions of what people consider "dark romance." To me, dark romance is just what it says—romance that is dark. Meaning, it's not sweet and cozy (or healthy) or meant to give you warm fuzzies. Not all of the relationships I write about are going to be toxic, but a lot of them are because I like possessive, psychotic, morally gray/evil men. #villainsdoitbetter So, whether it's the situations they're in or the characters themselves, something about my books is going to be "dark" and "twisted" and probably violent. But I also favor the original Dark Romantics—Poe, Shelley, Byron, Dickinson, et al—and I try to bring a bit of that Gothic/Victorian sense of beauty and tragedy to my stories. I also love symbolism, hidden meanings, and Easter eggs, so I like to pepper those totally random and usually useless bits of information throughout my stories. Here is what AmericanLiterature.com has to say about the OG Dark Romantics: "Dark Romantics believed humans gravitate to evil and self-destruction...[they] focus on human fallibility, self-destruction, judgement, punishment, as well as the psychological effects of guilt and sin...There's an even darker side of the Dark Romantics: Gothic Literature, which involves sheer terror, personal torment, graphic morbidity, and the supernatural." ​ So, in short, I write a lot about mentally ill, morally gray, evil, broken, toxic, violent, misunderstood characters fighting their inner demons while also finding love along the way because villains need love too. Supernatural elements may or may not play a role in my books, but psychology definitely does, and writing about complicated characters with complicated motivations is like catnip to me. On the surface they might seem THIS way... but if you dig a little deeper, you'll probably find THAT instead. And when readers have those "ah HA!" moments or find a little Easter egg, I'm the happiest writer on the planet.
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Where do you get your inspiration?Everywhere. It could be a quote, a picture, a movie, a song, a news article. There's no telling what my brain will latch onto.
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Why do you write 1st person POV?I prefer being deeply embedded in a character's head. I think it helps me with writing and it makes for a more interesting story, to only know what they know, to only see what they see. Plus, I've been doing it so long, I don't know if I could switch to 3rd person at this point.
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How long does it take to write a book?It depends on a lot of things. Just to give some examples: I wrote KIDNAPPING in a month. MALUM took about five months. And IGNI took fourteen months. And last but not least, COVENTRY, took a week (it's also a novella, so there's that). I also consider my editing time as part of "writing," and editing usually takes the longest because I like to let a book sit and rest (basically to let my brain forget what it's written/read a thousand times) and then I go back and make adjustments. Other factors include my personal life, what other projects I have going on, how cooperative the characters are, how much research needs to go into a particular story (like IGNI, requiring a deep dive into Medieval Necromancy), etc. So there's no set answer.
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Will you ever write M/F again?Probably not, no. I'll never say never because the second I do, it'll bite me in the ass, but right now I'm quite happy focusing on my male characters. They are far more interesting to me than your average FMC and have been ever since I started writing waaaaay back in the day. When I would write stories with my sister and our friends online, I always preferred writing a male character (or roleplaying, as it were). My thought at the time was, "Who wants to be a simpering princess when you can be a magic-wielding dark elf assassin?" I was twelve. You can see not much has changed. So, it's fairly safe to say I'll be an M/M author from here on out.
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Will you ever write F/F?Highly, highly unlikely bordering on Never. I don't enjoy writing for one female character, so I can't imagine writing two.
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I have an idea for a story! Can I share it with you?I love that you trust me with your idea, but I have to respectfully decline. My head is full of ideas and I doubt I'll ever run out of things to write about.
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Can I get an ARC? Can I join your team?Thank you so much for your interest! Unfortunately, I'm not accepting applications for my street team at the moment. ​ Make sure you're subscribed to my newsletter so you don't miss the announcement if/when an opportunity for an ARC or a street team opening is available.
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Where can I get a signed copy of your book?Right here. However, as of September 2024, I won't be replenishing my stock. Once a book sells out, it's gone.
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Why don't you sell signed books anymore?As with all business decisions, it came down to cost and demand.
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Do you sell signed bookplates?Unfortunately, I don't sell them anymore.
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Who does your covers?All of my covers are credited to their respective designers inside each book.
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