Category: updates

Gearing up for next week (and a new release!)

I’m commencing my final read through of Archivist 1.5 (which will be in my newsletter on Nov 25)(with, fingers crossed, a preorder link!) and Archivist 2 (which will then go to the proof reader) – yay! It feels like it took me forever to write the second book in the Archivist series – my notebook informs me that I started brainstorming in earnest all the way back in March! Four months to do a first draft is INSANE. Thanks headache.

The front page of MCD’s notebook for Compelling Infinity (Archivist 2)

Also a bunch of fun stuff coming next week, as I’m promoting I See Me (Oracle 1) with a $0.99 sale, a read along, and audiobook giveaways. I’ll add this info to the newsletter as well but here are the festivities in brief (if you want to prep ahead of time):

  • Read along with/via FaRoFeb Nov 24 – 30 – templates now available (see link) but reading list TBA
  • Mass audiobook giveaways: Nov 25, 26, and 27 at 9am PST (here on my blog). Remember the USA codes in particular go quickly.
  • Price reduction (TELL YOUR READER FRIENDS, pretty please): Nov 20 – December 1, 2021

Other items to come:

  • For the store: Archivist glicee illustrations (as soon as the damn envelopes show up!!)
  • For the recipe book: a new cookie recipe from Archivist 2 that’s perfect for the holidays (early Dec).
  • For publication: the Moments of the Adept Universe, Collected Stories 1, including a brand new Burgundy novella featuring cameos from a bunch of fav characters as promised! The eBook will also feature illustrations from Memo for each story. (TBA: as soon as possible)

I hope you all have a great weekend! And that you have fun with everything I have planned for you next week and beyond!

Chronic daily headache update.

Well … just in case you were wondering how my day is going, my menopause specialist just informed she’s tapped out, and referred me to the Chronic Disease Clinic in Vancouver – which is a rather crazy scary name BTW. It will only take 18-24 months to get an appointment – so much YAY!

Yep, 6+ months of hormone therapy (not including the 4 months of birth control before that) and it only makes the constant headache consistently worse. Sigh.

My headache specialist is likewise tapped out, waiting on a new class of drug to be approved in Canada. Three rounds of the botox (spaced three months apart) has not helped.

So – about to roll into my twenty-fourth month of daily constant pain – all that leaves me with is eating well, exercising as much as possible, and possibly trying to cultivate a daily mediation practice. For the foreseeable future.

Maybe the Goddess of Menopause will decide I’ve suffered for long enough and ease off on the headache (and the other symptoms while she’s at it).

I’m also emailing the massage therapist after I publish this update, because as of next Wednesday I’m fully vaccinated!

In other nicer news, my house is getting cleaned for me today. 🙂 I added 1300 words to Archivist 2 before lunch and my appointment (which isn’t a lot but I’ll take it). And here is a pretty picture of my desk buddy:

Leo the Silver Shaded Persian curled up on MCD’s treadmill/standing desk (tucked behind the treadmill control thingamajig).

News Flash: Sept 21

On my desk today. Dahlias from Hey Day Farm and a notebook devoted to Archivist Series world building.
  1. Idols and Enemies (Amplifier 4) releases in eight days. I’m trying to not freak out because I really thought I had MORE TIME. In fact, I’d somehow convinced myself that I actually had everything under control. But I have no marketing banners (Gene Mollica is working on those for me right now), I haven’t remembered to type up the granola recipe and put it in the Adept Universe cookbook (that needs to happen this week) (ugh, and I need photos!!), and I haven’t even shared a nice, long excerpt of Chapter 1 (that will happen tomorrow)!
  2. Amplifier 4 will release in eBook form on September 29. Rob from 52novels is currently formatting the paperback and Tia Rider is already recording the audiobook, so hopefully, those will follow in October.
  3. There is a bonus short story in the back of Amplifier 4, The Music Box (Amplifier 4.5) from Opal’s POV. It’s just a fun piece with a tiny crossover. But, since it needs to be read AFTER Amplifier 4, it didn’t make sense to use it as a preorder giveaway, so I tucked it in the back of the book. I’ll mention this a few times in a few places over the next week or so because I don’t want you to miss it!!
  4. In nonAmplifier news: Whitney Dykhouse just dropped her audio files for Catching Echoes (Reconstructionist 1) in my inbox so I get to start listening through the audiobook tonight – YAY!
  5. Currently writing: a short prequel (maybe 25k?) for a new series called The Archivist. Set in the Adept Universe with a twenty-five-year-old dragon as the main character. I already have scenes rolling around in my head for book two and three so the muse is obviously excited. The sibling relationship with Dusk’s much younger brother is really lovely (and something I haven’t explored yet). Also toying with a slow, slow burn, hot, hot romance with an ‘alpha.’ I’m not usually into the ‘alpha’ character trope but it might work for the character/the story. We shall see …

Have a great week!!

News Flash: July 27

Cabin addition update: Michael built the floor to my new office on Saturday!! Squee!
  1. I’ll be removing the last of the download codes from the Oracle audiobook giveaway in a few hours. As of writing this blog post (according to my end)(there is a delay in the reporting), there are 10 UK codes remaining. The next giveaway goes live at 3pm PDT next Saturday, Aug 1.
  2. The Reconstructionist audiobooks have found a narrator! Whitney Dykhouse!! Whitney is booked until the end of August, so she will start recording in September and the first book should be available in October (depending on upload times, which are currently taking 30+ days). With the next two books following a month apart.
  3. Amplifier 4 is off to the editor for line/content edit! So as soon as I get my hands on a book cover, the preorder will go live. Whoot! I’ll be doing a BUNCH of promos/marketing through Aug/Sept, including temporarily making Amplifier 0 free (yep!) and more audiobook giveaways.
  4. I broke my glasses yesterday. I’m pissed about it because I paid an obscene amount for these frames hoping they could last at least ten years. Sounds like the frames need to be shipping off to Japan for repair (if they can be repaired), which means I have to buy new frames so I can continue functioning. To that end, I have a ‘shopping’ appointment at 10:30am today. I loathe shopping for anything, but trying to buy glasses while wearing a mask is going to be delightful. Hopefully, I find something serviceable quickly!!
  5. We’re reading Grave Memory (Alex Craft 3) for the MCD book club over on the Facebook fan page until Friday, then we will start discussing book 4 (leading up to the new release in August)!

Have a great week!!

MCD News Flash: July 20

MCD taking a water break while hiking at Ruckle Park. Pender Island in the background. Picture secretly taken by Michael.

In an effort to collect all my thoughts for the week in one place, I’m going to try to blog an ‘update’ every Monday. So, yes, this is completely doomed to be a one-off. Ha.

  1. I’ll be removing the last of the download codes from the Oracle audiobook giveaway in a few hours. As of writing this blog post (according to my end)(there is a delay in the reporting), there are 6 USA codes and 11 UK codes remaining. The next giveaway goes live at 3pm PDT next Saturday, July 25.
  2. I’m looking for a narrator for the Reconstructionist series. I posted a call for auditions last night and have already received a bunch of GREAT reads. I’m so excited. I’ve already shortlisted FOUR narrators and I have a bunch more auditions to listen to. It is going to be difficult to narrow down!!
  3. I’m starting my next pass on the story edit of Amplifier 4. This means I go over everything I changed last week and decide if I like it. Then I address all the notes I skipped because they were too hard to wrap my head around at the time. Usually, the second pass smooths everything out.
  4. I made another attempt at baking wheat-free banana bread yesterday, half almond flour/half paleo flour. It wouldn’t bake in the middle. Literally. I had to cover it in foil and kept checking it – over and over – every ten minutes and the center still wouldn’t bake!!!! I’m giving up. Two failed attempts are all I can handle.
  5. We’re reading Grave Memory (Alex Craft 3) for the MCD book club over on the Facebook fan page.

Okay! I’ve got words to edit, auditions to listen to, and lemon sherbet to churn!