Mystery Boxes: round three: random Adept Universe

I have successfully gotten all of the last round of Mystery Boxes packaged and labeled. They just need to be dropped at the post office. Yay!

I then PREPACKED (look at me being all efficient!) ten more Mystery Boxes! And made those ten random Adept Universe Mystery Boxes available in my store. $45 CDN+ CDN and USA shipping included. Click the previous link for more info and/or to purchase.

Each box includes 1 autographed Dowser or Oracle or Misfits paperback, 1 sheet of Cake in a Cup stickers, 1 MCD bookplate, and 6 butterfly Oracle series temporary tattoos.

Note: I’ve thrown extra stickers into the box with Dowser 8.5 because it is slightly skinnier than the other novels.

I’ve included Canadian and USA tracked shipping in the price, $24. I’m NOT offering other international shipping because it costs too much, $65-$125. If you live closer to me the shipping will be less, so I’ll try to compensate by adding more swag (I’ll email and let you know if that is the case).

If you get a paperback you already own, maybe pop over to the reader-run fan group on Facebook and see if you can negotiate a swap?

Next up: Archivist series paperbacks. Warning: And then I will have cleared out my cupboard!!

Note: same caveats as always: please remember I’m not a store. I’ve simplified the shipping, etc, as much as possible. For example: set shipping rates, no extra sets, no special orders. Please remember I’m trying to write as much as possible and these are just meant to be fun extras. The prices are set in Canadian currency (which means some of you are getting a great deal!) so a different charge might show up on your credit card statement. Also, I believe there is a 2.9-5.5%+ $0.30 charge for certain payment methods.

Fun! Fun!

Mystery Boxes: round two, Amplifier Series

The boxes showed up!! YAY!

I’ve made ten Amplifier Series Mystery Boxes available in my store. $45 CDN+ CDN and USA shipping included. Click the previous link for more info and/or to purchase.

Each box includes one autographed Amplifier Series paperback, three oracle card stickers (I’ve randomized it so you get a fun mini reading with your package), one MCD bookplate, and a random postcard.

I’ve included Canadian and USA tracked shipping in the price, $24 (and ironically removing one paperback only reduced the average shipping rate by $2)! I’m NOT offering other international shipping because it costs too much, $65-$125.

If you get a book you already own, maybe pop over to the reader-run fan group on Facebook and see if you can negotiate a swap?

Next up: random Dowser, Oracle, and Reconstructionist paperbacks. Warning: I don’t have very many!!

Fun! Fun!

Amplifier 5.5: got something better to do?

Wow! Two updates from me in two days! I’m feeling rather productive!

I just sent Recon Mission: Bee (Amplifier 5.5) aka Zans’ novella off to the sensitivity reader, Natasha Lane. And I’ll forward her notes along with the manuscript to SFG (the editor) once she turns around on her read. Yay!

I’ve also started a search for a Black female narrator for the audiobook. Tia Rider will continue to narrate the main Amplifier series books – double yay!

And! Gene Mollica Studios has all the particulars for the book cover, so hopefully, I’ll start to see art soon as well. I’m excited!!

This is all a long-winded way of saying, I’m most definitely avoiding doing my taxes. Ugh. And now, I really don’t have any excuses. Sigh. Though I am going to play around with one of my Space Opera ideas, and brainstorm/outline Amplifier 6 over the next couple of weeks as well.

Oh! [I announced this on social media already] The sticker sets have all been mailed (as of late last night). Still waiting for the next round to be delivered to me, then I’ll relist.

How about a Zans snippet to celebrate? [I absolutely adore all the Fish/Zans interaction in the novella!]

Fish stood, crossing past me and into the tiny bathroom. He flicked on the light.

“I checked in there,” I said pissily.

He ignored me.

Like always.

I considered pulling out my phone and playing a game.

Fish stepped out of the bathroom, glowering. “Clean.”

“We grab our stuff from the motel and leave,” I said.

“We reach out to my contact,” Fish said, his tone dark. “And when we confirm he sold us out, we hunt him down.”

I sighed, heavily.

“Got something better to do?” Fish asked caustically.

I smirked. “Well, Emma might want some help with the wedding.”

He stomped away.

– Recon Mission: Bee (Amplifier 5.5), third draft

Are you new to the Amplifier Series? Start with Demons and DNA (Amplifier 1) then maybe jump back and read the prequel, The Amplifier Protocol.

Are you new to the Adept Universe? The first book in the recommended reading order is Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 1).

Amplifier 5: my magic beckoned

I’m pleased to announce that I just dropped Instincts and Imposters (Amplifier 5) into the editor’s inbox for story editing (the first stage of editing, also called developmental editing). To celebrate I thought I’d share a tiny snippet that Michael highlighted with a laughing face when he beta read the book last week.

Aiden flashed me a knowing grin. He couldn’t read my mind, of course, but apparently my magic beckoned whenever I was thinking of him in a certain way.

So … pretty much whenever I laid eyes on him.

– Instincts and Imposters (Amplifier 5), third draft

Are you new to the Amplifier Series? Start with Demons and DNA (Amplifier 1) then maybe jump back and read the prequel, The Amplifier Protocol.

Are you new to the Adept Universe? The first book in the recommended reading order is Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 1).

The Amplifier 5 curse is finally broken …

… but not without one more last hurrah.

My Friday started off exactly as planned. Pilates, hot chocolate, and then into the office to write the final chapter of Amplifier 5 – the denouement I’ve had in my head for over a year.

I climbed on my treadmill, put on my computer glasses, and started reading through a section of text that I’d highlighted to rewrite at the end of my day yesterday.

Then I reached for my hot chocolate.

And knocked it across the room.

Yes.

500 ml of dark, hot chocolate in perfectly frothed skim milk, flung … in an instant …

All …

Over…

My …

Tiny office.

White painted walls and baseboards (flat white paint, which is great for touching up but not so great for wiping off), a pilates reformer, hand-stained pine flooring, a portable heater (which was on and instantly dried all the liquid splattered across it), and a ten-foot-long wall of white cabinets (seeping through the seams into the cupboards themselves).

Molly Millions was delighted at this sudden explosion of tastiness dripping off practically every surface of the room. It was a miracle that she wasn’t in her doggy bed right beside me at the time, because it also got soaked.

I didn’t scream.

How? I have no idea. Except I had a puppy to grab and leash.

Long story short, hot chocolate gets EVERYWHERE. I had to dismantle my pilates reformer, and the parts of it that can be, are currently in the wash. Did you know that even well-finished plywood (such as the interior structure of my pilates ‘box’) can’t be cleaned of soaked-in liquid? Not even with a liberal application of hot soapy water? Ditto with the slightly perforated padding (for traction, I assume) on the jump board.

So … an hour later the floors, walls, cabinets, desk, heater, and pilates reformer were scrubbed and dried – and I’d managed not to cry about any of it. I made myself a second hot chocolate and treated myself to the latest installment of the Innkeeper novel that Ilona Andrews is currently serializing on their blog …

Then I wrote the final chapter of Amplifier 5.

MCD’s notebook for Amplifier 5. Brainstorming commenced in July 2020, but it took until May 2022 to complete the first draft.

It took me almost two years, but I now have a complete first draft of Instincts and Imposters (Amplifier 5). Along with a Zans novelette (Amplifier 5.5) (which will be included with Amplifier 5).

The curse is broken, but not before it tried to break me.

One.

Last.

Time.

😂

I’ll begin tackling the second draft on Monday.

Amplifier 5: whole and amazing …

I know some of you just wish I would write faster instead of sharing work-in-progress snippets. But I have to celebrate the little things that hit me in the moment! Like a sort of reverse fuel, you know?

Sometimes … it’s not just the sad stuff that makes me blubber while writing …

I slid off the couch, kneeling before the dream walker and taking her hands. “You are not evil. You are not inherently dark. You aren’t even half and half. You are whole and amazing. You are everything that has happened to you, yes, but you are also everything you are going to do in this world, including being a family with me and Aiden. And Christopher and Paisley.”

“And Samantha,” she added.

I pretended to internally debate it. “Yes, all right. And Samantha.”

– Instincts and Imposters (Amplifier 5), chapter five, first draft

Amplifier 5: the biggest, baddest?

Lani grunted noncommittedly. “Mercury herself is something pretty to look at though. Miles and miles of creamy skin and those white blue wolf eyes.” She flashed me a grin. “I might grab some tea first.”

I shook my head at her, but she sauntered off toward the treats with her hands still stuffed in her back pockets. Far more confident among unknown magic users than I was, even though I was the biggest predator in the room. In the entire area, perhaps.

The silver-haired witch — Pearl Godfrey — was watching me. Her indigo gaze was piercing, but neutral. I couldn’t feel even a hint of power from her. Yet.

It was possible I was wrong about being the biggest, baddest Adept in the library.

– Instincts and Imposters (Amplifier 5), first draft

So … who do you think would win in a one-on-one fight? Pearl or Emma?

Are you new to the Amplifier series? The prequel is The Amplifier Protocol (Amplifier 0). Are you new to the Adept Universe? The first book (in the full reading order) is Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1) and it’s currently free!

Sometimes all you can do is a …

… page one rewrite. After talking my issue(s!!) (see my last blog post) with writing the next Amplifier book over with Michael ad nauseam, I finally came to the conclusion earlier this morning that I was forcing Amplifier 5 to be something it was never meant to be – a full-length novel. I was trying to combine the next two Amplifier stories (aka not necessarily novels) into one book, gearing up for capping the series at book 6 (technically a seven-book arc, plus shorts, counting the prequel).

And now that I’ve come to that conclusion the only thing I can do about it is … a page one rewrite.

*cue silent weeping*

On rare occasions, even a detailed plot and well-utilized notebook aren’t a solid enough structure on which to build a great novel.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve gone so far off track (with an outlined book!!) that I needed to scrap everything and reimagine the story I wanted to tell. I actually can’t remember the last time I had to start with a blank page, and in this case, a new blank notebook.

Thank goodness I have a habit of overbuying notebooks! LOL

Here we go!

New notebook + redraft = a fresh start for Amplifier 5.

To clarify, Amplifier 5 will (likely) will now consist of an Emma novella and a Zans novella. And the projected release date will definitely shift further into 2022. Though, thankfully, I have a draft of the Zans story already done.

Here we go (for the fourth time)!

What I should be doing … part 42

What I should be doing: writing Amplifier 5. You know, the book I’ve been working on since 2020.

What I’m actually doing: writing a prequel short for a new (urban fantasy, portal fantasy?) universe.

I really don’t know what is wrong with me. Aka why can’t I focus on what I’m supposed to be writing? Other than being in constant pain, of course.

Michael says I should be happy that I feel like writing anything at all while recovering from major surgery. Unfortunately for me, logic rarely counters fretful anxiety aka the shoulds that I allow to build up in my beleaguered brain. But … I must admit, there is always truth in the ‘focus on new words’ idea … writing is a balm for just about anything, so … maybe I should listen to Michael (this one time only). LOL

Yes, it takes multiple notebooks when brainstorming/worldbuilding a new series/universe.

Have no idea what I’m talking about? I shared the ‘first words’ I wrote for Waypoint 42 in the Muse is Not Monogamous in April 2021. Also, there is a huge hint about this upcoming project in Burgundy’s Moments of the Adept Universe 1 novelette. Did you catch it?

Amplifier Series: pit bulls and dinners with witches

Here is a great example of how I completely fail at marketing. I should be sharing pretty memes and quotes or reviews from either of my two newest releases, Compelling Infinity (Archivist 2) or Moments of the Adept Universe 1, but instead, I’m sharing half-baked new words because they amused me (and my attention span is just that insanely short). 😆

“Witches,” Aiden sneered. “Nosy and self-righteous. I believe I shall come to dinner with you.” He returned his attention to his book, ignoring the pointed look I gave him.

Paisley pressed her shoulder to my knee.

“Sorry,” I said. “The sorcerer I’ll be able to pass off as an overprotective, controlling asshole, but the witches aren’t going to believe that my pit bull needs to come to a buffet.”

Aiden snorted, amused.

Paisley narrowed her eyes — at the offending sorcerer, not me.

– Instincts and Imposters (Amplifier 5), first draft