I asked my beta readers to share favourite quotes (if they came upon any) from their read of Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9). This was one of Theresa’s from Chapter One.
Dowser 9 releases on December 4, 2018. The preorder is now available. Make sure you’re signed up for the New Release mailing list so you get a reminder in your inbox on release day.
Mory jogged back into the room, sliding through the doorway and past Rochelle on the hardwood floor in her hand-knit striped socks. “I almost forgot,” she cried, thrusting her hand toward me.
She was holding a chocolate bar. A dark-chocolate bar with pistachios and dried cranberries, to be exact. From the ever-delectable, soul-fueling Chocolate Arts, to be even more exact.
“Oh my God,” I whispered reverently, gently prying it from Mory’s grasp. “Where have you been, my beauty?” I was practically cooing.
“In my bag,” Mory said. “I picked it up for you this morning. I have another one.” She looked at Rochelle. “In case things get really bad.”
The oracle stifled a chuckle.
The misfits were totally laughing at me. But, as I carefully slipped the paper wrapper off the bar and lifted the clear sticker sealing the flap, I didn’t care one bit.
Then the full implication of Mory’s words actually sunk in. “Wait!” I cried. “You were holding out on me?”
Mory laughed — apparently unaware that I was not freaking joking.
A cluster of sorcerers had fortified the doors to the stairwell, and likely the entire staircase leading down to the fourth level. Evidentially I hadn’t fooled anyone as to my objective.
A murder of sorcerers. Not a cluster. Bee’s presence brushed through my mind. She laughed, quietly deadly.
“Helpful,” I muttered, risking a glance down the long, straight hall. Looking for possible egresses, or anything I could use for shelter. There were none, which I’d already known But double checking never hurt.
A red laser sight bloomed on the wall above my head. I was crouched — the gun-toting extraction team were aiming for where my head should be. I retreated a couple steps, running the floor plan in my head. I could backtrack. But, since they knew where I was going, eliminating the other four while they were trapped in their rooms was most likely being discussed.
A botched attempt on my life was one thing. Perhaps the heart attack Macy had planned to induce was supposed to look like a complication from my wounds. But murdering the others without a traceable kill order was going to be difficult to justify.
Still, time was of the essence.
– The Amplifier Protocol, Amplifier 0, second draft
[Deleted long blog post. Then distilled it down to the important beats].
It is with joy in my heart but tears in my eyes that I share the cover for Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9). And yes, it is the last book – for the foreseeable future – in the Dowser Series.
The preorder will start to appear on all retailers in the first week of November. But there is no preorder giveaway for this release. Make sure you are on my new release mailing list so you don’t miss the release and any other ‘goodies’ I decide to include. 🙂
I haven’t been sharing as many teasers as I usually do while writing Dowser 9 because the entire book, practically every single line, is a freaking spoiler, ha! But I really felt like sharing something today, so here is the unedited opening of Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9).
A man hung suspended in a whirlwind of magic above me.
No … not just a man.
A dragon.
I crouched on the back edge of a six foot wide, foot high white platform over the elvish tech I was tasked to repair, fiddling with a gemstone I’d previously removed. Pretending to work while peering through the maelstrom of golden-tinted magic that fueled the gateway.
The golden-tint of the dragon’s magic.
Of his life force.
Energy … magic … life … that was slowly being siphoned away through the tech.
Something was wrong, terribly, terribly wrong with that … scenario, that situation. But whenever I tried to grasp that thought, to fully articulate it in my mind it hovered just beyond my understanding.
I glanced to my right, then left. The center section of the stadium grew smaller and smaller each day as the elves erected sections of walls, closing in on the gateway. If I tilted my head, I could still see the upper rows of seating that rose almost all the way to the domed ceiling. There were less rows than there had been the last time I’d counted. Not that I could remember the exact number. Or why that mattered.
We, the dragon and me, were surrounded by elves, including my liege.
But … we weren’t a ‘we’.
We’re we?
And why would being surrounded by elves matter?
I’d repaired the tech.
I’d created a pathway at my liege’s command.
Opening a rift between dimensions so that the elves could cross into the earth’s dimension from their own.
That I knew for certain.
That I remembered doing.
Except, yesterday — if my sense of time could be trusted — something else had occurred, something that upset my liege, disrupting our connection for a moment that lasted long enough for me to remember … other things, other ideas.
Ideas that fluttered just out of my reach even as I gazed up at the dragon fueling the gateway with his life force.
Though my liege’s hold on my mind kept slipping, through her I came to understand that the witches who claimed this territory, this city, had somehow reined the elves in, curtailing my liege’s plans.
For the moment.
The stadium was slowly filling with restless warriors as one elf at a time stepped through the gateway. Then waited.
Everyone was on the edge of violence, caught in the waiting.
Me especially.
– Gemstones, Elves, and Other Insidious Magic (Dowser 9), fourth draft (unedited, unproofed)
Writing the first draft of a book often feels like having a tug-a-war with your own brain, just to force words to appear on the page. Factor in coaxing and cajoling the muse to stick with you through the first 60k or 70k or 80k, and it is as if you’re at war with certain aspects of yourself.
Identifying and then avoiding personal delay tactics is one of the most important things a writer can do in order to increase productivity and focus. For example, I have a terrible habit of brainstorming/musing about numerous projects at once. I’m currently writing Amplifier 1, and this morning alone I have jotted down notes for Amplifier 2, Mistfits 1 (Mory), The Adept Chronicles 1 (Benjamin), and Jasmine 1.
And the result of that ‘personal delay tactic’ running amok is that, after 13 days of straight of hitting my word count (3k+) before 2pm or 3pm every day, I haven’t even started writing. And it’s currently 12:53pm.
And I’m now blogging.
But! Writing a first draft also means allowing for a certain amount of thoughtful reflection in nonwriting periods (while doing: pilates, showering, blow drying my hair, baking, etc). So while these reflective moments can derail me from my current work in progress (like this morning). They can also yield interesting ideas.
Such as realizing that the character of Zack Belanger, ex-armed forces/mechanic, in the Amplifier Series would be so more interesting if he was a she – Lani Zachary!
First drafts: the evolution of a secondary character.
So there you go – a tiny bit of insight into how a writer’s mind (occasionally) works.
It’s Thanksgiving Monday. Michael is stripping the turkey so we can make stock. And, while I have his captive attention, I’m brainstorming book titles for the Amplifier Series* – I’m exceeding lucky to be married to a songwriter who excels in condensing complex ideas down into evocative but short phrases.
We’ve been having trouble with the titles for the new series for some reason. We’ve easily had four or five short brainstorming sessions, usually while making hot chocolate for coffee break. And I had previously titled five possible books during an earlier brainstorming session for the series as a whole (see picture below). Those titles reflected the romance side of the Amplifier series but didn’t bring any magic into the equation.
By the end of the day we hope to have a solid framework in place (a running motif, is you will). So I better crack open the thesaurus, an idiom dictionary, and get to work!
First page in my Amplifier notebook, and soon-to-be-crossed-out possible book titles.
*FYI. The Amplifier Series is set in the Adept Universe but features all new characters, including the Amplifier Emma and her dark sorcerer Aiden. The prequel, first short story, and the first book are due out in early 2019.
Posting my fall schedule/upcoming releases, etc so I have it all in one place instead of just occasionally mentioning it whenever I’m asked in various places online. Yes, I’m attempting to be organized!!
If you have any spoiler-free questions, let me know in the comments and I will endeavour to answer them and/or add the answers below.
Upcoming release: Dowser 9. Fingers crossed for the end of November, but there are too many editing/proofing/formatting hoops to jump through to set a date yet.
AUDIOBOOKS
I See Me (Oracle 1) is set to drop on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes in a matter of days and it is crazy good!! Hold on to your Audible credit! And remember the whispersync option for those of you who have purchased the kindle version through Amazon USA.
Oracle 2 is currently in production. Expected release is early November.
CURRENTLY WRITING
I’m currently working on the Amplifier Series prequel novella (all new Adept Universe characters). Then I’ll write the short story that will be available as the preorder giveaway for book one. Then I’ll write book one. I intend to make them all available one right after another, releasing in early 2019.
Make sure you are signed up to my new release list or my monthly newsletter (and that you open the emails, otherwise your email provider will start putting them in your junk folders). When you sign up check your spam/promotions/junk folders for the welcome email.
You don’t want to miss the exclusive freebie I’ll be ONLY offering to my new release list when I launch the Amplifier series. As well as the preorder giveaway, of course. 🙂
Sometimes my job is just so hard. 😉 I snapped this shot when I was listening to the final files for the I See Me (Oracle 1) audiobook.
Short version: First drafts are hard. And I have a terrible habit of piling every single, nagging concern/fear/issue I have with my writing/career/future into a difficult-to-drag-around massive-bundle-of-angst. As we all do, I suspect.
Michael talked me down.
Again.
Back to writing.
I’m working on the first draft of the Amplifier Series prequel novella. Dowser 9 is due back from the story editor (aka SFG) next Thursday.
I took a moment this morning to review what I’d written of the Amplifier prequel so far before diving back in, coming up with one overwhelming conclusion:
Emma (aka the Amplifier, aka Socks, aka AMP5) is a real bad ass. It isn’t something that she grows into (a la the Dowser) or something she’s never known was possible (a la the Oracle) or something she’s suppressed (a la the Reconstructionist). It’s the only way she knows how to be, the way she understands her role in the world she has been bred into – a fundamental aspect to her nature.
So it’s a good thing that Emma (eventually) has a thing for gingersnaps and Downton Abbey, and that she falls in love at first sight in book one. Otherwise we wouldn’t have anything in common.
The birth of a bad ass in midnight blue ink.
So yeah, I’m writing.
Just in case you thought I had any sort of other bad-assed craziness going down over here in my tiny office perched on the edge of a tiny island. 😉
Interior kitchen. White glossy cabinets. Concrete counters. Approx. 10:30am. A Milk Cafe is running, whirling and heating skim milk destined to be a hot chocolate.
Me (measuring out chocolate): I’m just so scattered brained today. Which, for some reason, is always the case the day after a really successful writing session. I mean, obviously, I’ll write today but it’s going to take some effort to focus.
Michael (slathering cashew butter and jam on a toasted English muffin): Writing is like vomiting. You just get it all out, purge the idea onto the page. And after you vomit you need to eat, fuel up again.
Right.
I don’t usually feel the need to eat after I vomit … but I conceded the point because I understood the metaphor Michael was going for. Ha.
So … I am a little scattered today. I got the first draft of the first chapter of the Amplifier Series prequel written yesterday. It came out at 5,700+ words, which is closer to the length of the chapter of a novel, not the novella I thought I was writing. So that is interesting and pretty much ruins the ‘marketing direction’ I’d been planning for the series, because the ‘hero’ (and yes, that does need to be in quotes) doesn’t show up until book one and the main series takes place seven years after the prequel.
The muse apparently thinks I’m getting to comfortable with this writing gig. Thankfully between the story editor, Michael, and me we can usually work around (work through? work with?) the desires of the muse. So I’ll just need to figure out a smooth transition between the prequel and book one. A character changes a lot in seven years!
Presumably I’ll eventually stop calling Emma an alchemist instead of an amplifier …
