Meet Sunshield's sequel: FLOODPATH.

From the outset, I envisioned The Outlaw Road as a two-part story---book one, where I set up and then broke apart my protagonists, and book two, where they have to figure out how to rebuild themselves. Despite Sunshield releasing in the early chaos of COVID-19, its sequel is in its final stages of editing and is on track to release in March of next year. This is your first look!

As a reminder, here is the cover of Sunshield:

We have Lark's buckler, shining with sunlight, set over a panorama of the desert below. So how did the design team take this cover to the next level?

Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard from so many of you as you progress through the book. I’m so grateful to everyone who is enjoying it and/or cursing me from afar as they finish it! No matter what you think of it, please remember to post a short review on Amazon or Goodreads--that means a lot!

Since release day, I’ve had the great fortune to have been a guest on several podcasts and blogs to chat about Sunshield, writing, and sundry other topics. So in lieu of a brand-new blog post (Covid has really taken a bite out of my work schedule, and as you may have noticed, monthly blogs have been one of the casualties), here are links to some of the places I’ve appeared. Make sure to check out their other guests and topics, too! Also listed are all the independent bookstores where you can purchase a signed copy of Sunshield​!

Check them all out below the jump!

Well, life has changed a lot since my previous blog post just a few weeks ago. I hope all of you are safe and well. It's been challenging to write and create in this new physical and mental reality, with my kids out of school and all kinds of anxiety. But I've been fortunate to have a lot of good news on the publishing end of things, starting with this exciting new sneak peek of Sunshield! Now you can read the first three chapters, meeting each of the three protagonists I've introduced to you over the past few months! Plus, Creatures of Light readers get a glimpse of an old familiar character. Follow the link below! 

But wait! That's not all! If you have pre-ordered Sunshield or pre-order it any time before its release, follow this link to enter proof of purchase and receive an exclusive themed cell phone wallpaper! 
More, you say? Guess what! Following the first two installments in the trilogy, Creatures of Light is an April Kindle Monthly Deal! From now until the end of the month, you can get the e-book for only $0.99 from your favorite e-book retailer! I highly recommend Bookshop.org, as your purchase goes to your local independent bookseller! Get it now!

Lark, Veran, The Witcher, a brain candy Queen's Thief piece, and some thank-you pieces to people who are making isolation a little brighter. 

A desperate outlaw. A sheltered diplomat. An imprisoned heretic. If you’ve been following my blog posts over the past few months, you know we have one more Sunshield protagonist to meet. I’ve introduced you to Lark, the dreaded Sunshield Bandit, and Veran Greenbrier, the earnest court translator. The final cog in this trio is Tamsin Moropai—poet, musician, and the epicenter of an ambitious political coup.

Last month, I introduced you all to Sunshield and one of it’s protagonists, Lark. But she’s not the only main character. The book is written in rotating perspective among three characters, and while it’s Lark who gives the book it’s name and muscle, there’s another narrator who might strike a chord with readers of the Creatures of Light trilogy. His name is Veran Greenbrier, and he’s the son of Mae, protagonist of my first book, Woodwalker.

In this month’s post, I’ll share a little bit about Veran’s character, his struggles, and his earliest sketches in my notebooks. For the sake of readers who haven’t yet read Woodwalker, I’m going to keep this post free of spoilers for the Creatures of Light trilogy. Readers already familiar with Mae will know Veran’s lineage and the kind of upbringing he had. Those not familiar… let’s go not so much with mama bear, but mama wolf, who cuddles her pups before leading them out to kill an elk and howl about how great her territory is.
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See it all after the jump!

Writers are busy, distracted beasts.

There’s never been a time in my writing career that I’ve had less than three manuscripts going at once. That’s not to say I’m writing them all at the same time—they’re always at different stages, from concept to drafting to editing to publication (for a peek at some of my strategies at each of these different stages, check out My Strategic Author Shoebox). This was true in the very early stages of Woodwalker, back in 2015 when it was just a baby manuscript looking for an agent. That year, I was a park ranger in Yellowstone querying my first book, drafting my second, and plotting my third, when a brand new character popped into my life. Over the past four years, that character has sprouted a whole world and duology around her, with book one, Sunshield, debuting on May 26, 2020.

The Outlaw Road duology has three narrators, but at the heart of the story is a single character, and it’s her alias that gives book one its title. Head below the jump to read about her origins and the story that grew around her, along with her visual development!