Update: March 2020

As you may have noticed, I don’t have a new release for you yet. I had hoped to have the third Kingmakers book out this month, and then Askarra, the final Wytch Kings book, by the fall.

Best laid plans and all of that.

Due to a rather annoying repetitive stress injury, I've had to train myself to type using the Dvorak layout, which is a more ergonomic keyboard layout. I started learning it nearly a year ago, and have only recently managed to truly accept the necessity of permanently switching (read: quit whining and cheating by going back to the qwerty layout “just for today”) and get on with it. Using the Dvorak layout is definitely helping with the repetitive stress issues I have, but it is also slowing me down, but not nearly as much as the family stuff I have going on.

Without going into a lot of detail, we lost my mum to cancer just before xmas, and the months leading up to that were busy, stressful, and exhausting in more ways than I knew I could be exhausted. The months following have been busy, stressful, and exhausting in different ways, with my dad needing a lot more help and attention than any of us anticipated.

Things have finally settled into kind of a routine, though I don’t have the kind of writing time I had before. I am writing again, though not at the pace I was a few years ago.

About a year ago, when things started looking bad for my mum, I had decided to push Kingmakers out farther and get Askarra done next, since the dragon stories were Mum’s favorite, and I wanted her to be able to read the end of the series. That didn’t happen, but since I managed to get Askarra about a third done before we lost Mum, I decided to finish it before going back to Kingmakers. Now that I have a little more space in my head for story stuff, I’m hoping to have it done by the end of summer/beginning of fall, but that will depend on how things go with my dad, and of course, how things go with COVID-19 and all the fallout from that.

In response to all the lockdowns happening all over the world, Smashwords is having an Authors Give Back sale. From now through April 20, three of my series starters are free on Smashwords: Burn the Sky (Wytch Kings 1), Psi Hunter (Guardians of the Pattern 1), and Khalshir (Kingmakers 1). I’ve also priced them at $0.99 at Amazon. In addition, I’ve tweaked the ending of Burn the Sky, so if you want to pick it up for free at Smashwords, you can download the tweaked version and check it out. I’ve been meaning to go back and rework the ending, which upon rereading, I decided was perhaps a bit abrupt, but haven’t had time.

Hopefully by the time I release Askarra, this virus and all the chaos it has caused will be largely behind us. In the meantime, I hope you all stay healthy!

A Discovery Most Alarming

Over the xmas holidays, I made a Most Alarming Discovery. It finally dawned upon me that when I leave those little yellow sticky-notes around the house as Gentle Reminders to the Spawn to get off their lazy arses and pull their collective weight, they don't actually read said sticky-notes. Yeah, I know, I'm a little slow, or as Husband Beast would say, Distracted.

Case in point, the Saga of Getting the Spawn to Take Responsibility for the State of Their Bathroom. (Yes, I'm aware that this is a battle I will undoubtedly lose.)

The bathroom did eventually get cleaned, and not by me. Which would have counted as a Major Victory, except for the fact that the following weekend, the Saga began anew...

Power Balance

There's been a rather dramatic, unexpected, and unwelcome shift in the power balance around here over the past couple of weeks, and I'm still struggling to adjust. Due to a back injury (Not My Fault), I have been demoted from Commander-in-Chief of the Holiday Preparations to Frantic Spectator.

The Symbols of Power (including the Ermine Cloak lined with Real Live Ermines) have been grudgingly handed over to Husband Beast, who is not taking the Responsibility of the Holiday Preparations seriously at all. The tree is not up yet. The gifts are not wrapped (or even bought). There is no white chocolate cheesecake nestled carefully in the freezer. Nor are there any gingerbread gargoyles (long story) in the cookie tin. And let's not even talk about the amount of dog hair on the floor. There's enough of it floating around to cobble together a whole 'nother dog or two. Not that we're in need of any more dogs, but if we were, we'd be set.

The only bright spot in this rather gloomy December is that Husband Beast very helpfully bought me a Granny Grabber. This is a long, stick-like device with a pincher on the end. It's good for picking up stuff I dropped and sorting laundry, as I'm not supposed to be bending over and stuff. It allows me to do a few things so that I feel Useful and Helpful, even though I am not In Charge.

It's also good for pinching people's butts as they walk by.

Best. Gift. Ever.

Pants... And Cover Art

Chinchbug has been on a creative roll lately. He's working on the covers for all five of the Guardians of the Pattern novels in one fell swoop because he wants to tie them all together thematically (I hope this is artist-speak for make them look cool, but you never know).

Last night he was working on the cover for Book 3, and he showed me the initial renders so I could tell him if the model looked the way I pictured the character. Our impromptu creative consultation session went something like this:

Chinchbug: So what do you think? Does he look young enough? Androgynous enough? Are his eyes and his hair right?
Jaye: Er... yeah... he looks good... but Dude, he's not wearing any pants.
Chinchbug: Well, no. He doesn't need pants. We're doing head shots, remember?
Jaye: Yeah, but... he's not wearing pants.
Chinchbug: I know he's not wearing pants. But what do you think of the rest of him?
Jaye: I can't take him seriously if he's not wearing pants.
Chinchbug: It's artistic license.
Jaye: Yeah, but--
Chinchbug (handing Jaye the mouse and getting up out of his chair): Maybe you'd like to drive?
Jaye (staring at Daz Studio interface in techno-horror): Er... you know what? I think I can live with a little pantslessness.

So anyway, here's the cover Chinchbug worked up for the soon-to-be-released short story, Facing the Mirror.

That's Cameron on the cover. He's the main character in Facing the Mirror, and he's a secondary character in most of the Guardians of the Pattern novels. Eventually, I'd like to give him his own novel, because he has an interesting story to tell, but for now, he's going to have to wait.

And in case you were wondering... he's not wearing any pants, either.

Outed...

So. Mother-in-Law. She visited last weekend and there we were, chatting away. I might have had a beer. And I might have said something about the LHNB story that would be out this summer. Well, Mother-in-Law knows I write, but she doesn’t know what I write. So she asked if she would be able to read it.

I shuffled my feet and prevaricated a bit. And it went something like this:

MIL: What’s it about?
Jaye: (realizing she should have kept her mouth firmly shut) Er... well. It’s a sort of a fantasy romance sort of thing.
MIL: Oh. I’ve read some fantasy before. I’d really like to read it.
Jaye: Er... well... um... it’s... um...
MIL: (frowns)
[camera pans to Husband Beast, who is standing behind MIL and listening with a highly amused expression on his face. He quirks one eyebrow as if to say, opened mouth and inserted boot again, didn’t you, dear?]
Jaye: (shuffles feet and ignores Husband Beast) Uh, well, look, Ma, the guys in my stories? They sort of have a lot of sex.
MIL: Well, that’s all right, dear. I’ve read Nora Roberts, and I really like her stories.
Jaye: (almost under her breath) With. Each. Other.
MIL: (deer-in-the-headlights look) ...
Jaye: (totally oblivious to the idea of quitting while she’s as ahead as she’s likely to get) And it’s um... kind of... explicit.
MIL: Really?
Jaye: Heh. Yeah.
MIL: Oh... so... you’d be right up there with that gay marriage thing, then.
Jaye: (Blinks.) Er. Yeah. Definitely on board with that. (Note that at this point, had I been Cunning and Clever, I could have taken advantage of this topic change and Distracted her. Alas. I am not Cunning. Or Clever, apparently.)
MIL: I’d still like to read it.
[camera pans back to Husband Beast, whose shoulders are shaking with laughter. His hand is clapped over his mouth to hold it in and his face is turning red.]
Jaye: (turning pale at the idea of having to explain the dubcon warning on the story) Um... well, actually... it isn’t coming out until this summer. I’ll... I’ll let you know, okay?
MIL: Great! I’ll be looking forward to it.
[camera catches the back end of Husband Beast as he bolts for the bathroom and locks himself in.]
MIL: (turning to look at the dust cloud Husband Beast has left in the wake of his hasty departure) Is he not feeling well?

Summer is a long way off, right? And she’ll probably forget between now and then.

And if she doesn’t, maybe I’ll have to write a very sweet fantasy romance just for her... (Except? I really don’t do sweet very well. More on that another time.)