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KoyoCon 2022

Artist Alley KoyoCon 2022

Last week I went to KoyoCon, as I do every year. It’s hard to keep coming up with new and interesting things to share when doing a post, but as is most often the case, I had a good time!

Even after all these years, I greatly enjoy talking to people who come by my booth in Artist Alley and I’m so happy that I keep seeing both new and old faces. There’s always an inspiring author asking for advice, and someone coming by to get my latest book after buying the other ones at a previous convention.

Oh, and then there are the conversation where you spend 20 minutes talking to someone with a TV for a head.

(Cosplay conventions are the most trippy experiences you can get without drugs.)

Artist Alley KoyoCon 2022

I did a bit of cosplaying myself as well. I had somehow gotten roped into cosplaying Ada Wong from Resident Evil 4. How she chases zombies in that evening dress in the middle of some Mexican desert town, I will never understand, but I think I mostly kept from accidentally flashing people.

My friends had way too much with getting me to pose for photos, though, so I’m honestly afraid of checking the contents of my camera’s SD card.

Maybe you’ll get an embarrassing cosplay post one of these days.

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Broken Melody is Out Today!

Broken Melody Book Graphic

Broken Melody Book Graphic

Broken Melody is out today, which means that you can now get it as both ebook and paperback!

Happy Release Day to me!

I’m celebrating on a beach on Crete right now, but that does not mean it wouldn’t make everything just a little better if I see some numbers on the sales report when I get time to check in.

Is that enough of a hint or do I need to try harder?

Go buy the book.

You can get it at Amazon and a lot of other places. I expect even more vendors will follow in the coming days, so there should be plenty of options.

For now, I will enjoy a well-earned break in the Greek sun. But I look forward to coming back to the online community I have grossly neglected over the past couple of months, so don’t completely give up on me!

…Now go buy my book.

 

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Broken Melody Releases on 10th September

Broken Melody Book Cover Graphic

Yep, Broken Melody will be out on 10th September as both ebook and paperback.

Hopefully some of you out there are looking forward to reading the fifth book in the Angel’s Voice series… because someone has to pay for all the caffeine that’s gone into writing it. Really, I was basically vibrating through the last few chapters.

Dangerous caffeine levels aside, I’m really excited to get this book out there. I’m on a roll and already halfway through the first draft of the aixth book in the series, and spoilers, I somehow managed to sneak a dragon into the plot.

I really love dragons, guys.

Anyway! 10th September, mark your calendars. Dragons, people.

 

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Editing at the Louring House

Editing Owl

As you might be aware, I’m currently hard at work, either editing Broken Melody or procrastinating from editing Broken Melody.

My editing process usually involves three rounds of going through the book myself before handing it over to beta readers.

Each time I read the draft I change the font and font size of the book. If the text looks different every time, you tend to catch different mistakes on each read-through. This time around I even went as far as to betray everything I stand for as a web and graphic designer and did one round of editing in Comic Sans.

Shudder

No one can say I haven’t suffered for this book.

But I also change the way I edit every time.

The first round is basically just a read-through where I replace all the placeholders and go through my editing notes on what to fix. It’s the round that takes the draft from a complete trainwreck that only I understand, to something actually resembling a book.

The second round (where I’m currently at) is where I read the entire book out loud to catch weird phrasing. This would be very simple, if I didn’t live with a tiny, judgmental owl that insists on giving his input. My reading today has sounded like this:

“Orrell tackled her to the gound as the explosion went off — shut up — shielding her with his body as the ceiling — shut up — above the door blew to pieces and — jesus christ, Artemis, mind your own business!”

My window is open, so I’m fairly certain my neighbors think I’m insane.

Editing Owl

The third and last round before throwing the damn book at the beta readers is simply running it through grammar software like Grammarly and ProWritingAid, and have a computer tell me how crappy my writing is. But unlike with Artemis, these judgmental bastards at least give me suggestions on how to fix it.

That’s a general overview of my editing process.

And, of course, it’s important to remember to procrastinate by stopping in the middle of editing to write a blog post about editing!

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Resounding Echo – Excerpt (Chapter 19)

Excerpt Resounding Echo

He definitely didn’t look like someone who would be a threat in an unarmed fight. Without his coat he looked even thinner than usual. His sunken cheeks had his skin stretched tautly over his skull, and his tall, sinewy frame looked like it might break in two if you hit him. Alassane was nothing more than skin, bones and sarcasm.