Cheers for Champions!

Good news all around! The Sleeping Beauty edits are going great! It never bodes well when the wizards (AKA my editors) suggest major revisions, and thus far it looks like it’s in pretty good shape. So it should be able to slide into its December release date with no problems!

I’m making some edits to Cinderella–there are no plot revisions, it’s all just stylistic stuff that you all hopefully won’t notice–but because of that I’ve temporarily blocked paperback sales. There are still some third parties selling copies, but ignore them! Cinderella paperback sales should be back up in January with the errors ironed out and a new cover to boot. Additionally, Red Rope of Fate and Swan Lake are at the formatters right now for paperback release. With a lot of luck, they’ll be available for purchase before Christmas time! Finally, I’ve gotten to work on some new short stories for the Snow Queen Anthology, which will be released this December as well. So yay for projects staying on time! (For once. Hah!)

Though I’m catching up on all this background work, I wanted to take a post to celebrate some awesome Champions. First up, we have a piece of Beauty and the Beast fanart!

Elle and Severin of B&B: Drawn by Melissa Kaye

This has been posted in the gallery for a bit, but I still wanted to give a public shout out to Melissa Kaye for her awesome artwork! Elle and Severin are very special to me because their book launched my career (Never mind that they were the most difficult couple for me to match-make. GAH!) so it was really fun to receive this. (I think the lighting effect and the background are especially drool-worthy. Wowza!) Thanks again, Melissa, for making it!

Also, back in September I got some really sweet and touching letters from Champions who were mailing in to receive a Snow Queen postcard! So a big thank you to Carly H., Audrey, Cami P, Kenley C., and Maegan S! Britta (my intern) handed over your letters right after I was coming out of a rough work week, and your letters were the pick-me-up I badly needed! Thank you so much for your encouragement and your kind words, it was really special to read your thoughts.

Which also reminds me, Sydney J.–Britta tried to mail off your postcard, but the post office said the address wasn’t deliverable. If you want to shoot me an email so we can figure out what address to send it to, that would be great!

That’s everything for today! Thanks for reading, Champions. I hope you have a lovely weekend!

What am I up to?

Greetings, Champions! Just a quick update today as I’m a bit short on time, but I wanted to bring everyone up to speed!

A lot of Champions have been wondering what I’m doing now in August, AKA are asking if I’ve started King Arthurs yet. Unfortunately…I have not. About once a year my brain decides “No. If I write one more sentence about magic and fantasy, I am going to shut down and begin reciting lyrics of all the songs you hate.” (This includes insanity-inducing music like Never gonna give you up.) To combat this I usually write a non-fantasy story for a few weeks to give my mind a break. That’s what I’m doing for the next two weeks, actually. I’m basically having a writing get-away.

I do this because I love my stories, and I don’t want them to be forced. So, to keep my passion going, it’s really in my best interest to play around every once in a while. I’m hoping to eventually publish this particular story that I’m working on, but it will probably be a long ways off because in September the next King Arthurs book and Sleeping Beauty are going to top my priority list.

So, if I’m only going to work on this non-fantasy story for two weeks, what I’m I doing for the last stretch of August? I’m going on vacation! Woohoo! This will be the first major trip I’ve gone on in a while, so I’m really looking forward to it. Obviously during that time I’ll be unable to answer comments and reply to emails, so I’ll post right before I leave. I am a little nervous as this will be the first time since I became a full-time author that I’ll be completely cut off from the internet for a significant length of time. Hopefully I won’t get Champion-separation-anxiety, but I’m not making any promises.

In the meantime I have to express my thanks. Some of you old-time Champions have been picking up the slack and answering a few comments that I haven’t had the chance to get to–whether it’s directing someone to the Timeless Fairy Tale timeline, or just chatting about books. Thank you! When I write it’s really hard for me to stay up to date with my website, so I really appreciate it when you bring the newer Champions up to speed!

Finally, I wanted to say thanks to: Sacha, Deanna, Hollie, and Sydney, who sent me some letters when they mailed in their envelopes to get a Heart of Ice postcard. You guys are so sweet, and the absolute best! Thank you!

That’s all for today. I hope you guys are doing well, and have a lovely week. Thanks for reading, Champions!

The celebration…

Greetings, Champions! I have some exciting news to share! First off, a reminder that tomorrow marks the beginning of the awesome Fantasy Romance sale I’m taking part of. A bunch of fantasy-romance authors, myself included, decided to band together and discount one book each from July 24th to July 27th. (Mine is the Little Selkie, which will be 99 cents!) There’s a pretty big list, and the organizer of the event–E. D. Walker–was kind enough to give each book a heat rating, so you know exactly what you’re buying! If you’re looking for some new books, I suggest you take a peek. Click here to go to the list and landing page for the promo!

But that’s not all! Today, I would like to introduce you to my amazing summer intern, Britta Vana!

Britta: Heyo!

Britta has actually been working behind the scenes for a few weeks, adjusting the Goodreads reading lists we’ve been populating together, but I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce her to you all. Tell us a bit about yourself, Britta.

Well, to start off, I am a reading maniac with two overflowing bookshelves, a Kindle, and a library within walking distance. I especially love Lord of the Rings and all of Kitty’s books! (My favorites are the Snow Queen series, Rumplestiltskin, Swan Lake and Princess Ahira.) I have numerous other hobbies, which go through phases, but reading has been my favorite pastime for as long as I’ve been able to make sense of the letters on the pages. Currently, I also enjoy calligraphy and drawing. I’m excited for this opportunity to be part of the team!

(She is far too kind regarding my writing, but I love being able to talk books with her!) I’m really excited to welcome Britta to our community—particularly because with her help I’ll be able to do a few things that I otherwise wouldn’t have the time to pull off. Which brings me to my next point!

This summer has been a huge thrill between getting Red Rope of Fate made into an audio book, releasing Swan Lake, welcoming Britta on board, and launching Heart of Ice and Sacrifice into paperback format, so I thought we should celebrate! For a limited time (aka, until we run out) I’ll be giving out Heart of Ice postcards!

Ta da! To snag one of these postcards just send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope to this address:

PO Box 357

Oconomowoc, WI 53066

(To make things perfectly clear, this means you send the self-addressed, stamped envelope inside an envelope mailed to the above address.)  Britta will check the PO Box and mail off the postcard back to you, but if you want to include a letter or something to me feel free to—Britta will put it aside and I’ll receive it the next time we meet up.

Britta: (These postcards are awesome, trust me! I snagged one for myself :P)

Britta’s right–Myrrhlynn adjusted the Heart of Ice cover so it was a perfect fit on the postcard. But when I was signing postcard #150, I wasn’t feeling quite so perky about it. Ha-ha. Anyway!

As we couldn’t really estimate how popular the postcards will be—I refrained from asking you all since I wanted it to be a surprise, and let me tell you that was tough—we have a limited number of them. I would suggest sending out your envelope sooner than later if you’re interested, but if we run out fast I’ll order another batch. When we’re winding down I’ll make an official announcement that the giveaway has ended, otherwise I’ll keep a mention of the postcard giveaway in the top post, so please tell your family and friends about it!

Unfortunately, at this time we’re mailing out postcards to Champions living in the USA Only. As this is our first time doing this I thought it was in our best interest to keep things as simple as possible, but don’t worry! Once we get a system in place we’ll offer this to Champions who live world-wide!

And I think that’s plenty to slam you with today. I hope you guys enjoy the postcards…and my messy scrawl on the back of them. Thank you, Britta, for joining us today, and thanks for reading, Champions. Have a lovely weekend! (PS: Sorry for the wonky formatting in this post!)