I’ve been singing Paloma Faith’s song Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful? in my head all day. So do you want the bad news or the worse news?

In somewhat okay news, the kids went back to school today. (I really need to update my bio because all five kids are too old to be called toddlers – even if they still act like it on occasion). You know they’ve been home too long when my desk organiser thingy is full of Crayola instead of pens and the surface of my desk is covered in Loom bands, Play Doh, half-read fairy princess/horrible science books, and indistinguishable sticky stains. I should take before and after photos. But that would mean finding my phone, and that sucker’s been missing since before Xmas. I should be writing (oh, those famous words), but I need to post some kind of update. And blog posts are words, too, m’kay?

For all of us EU readers, ebook pricing is changing because of VAT. We used to pay VAT based on the retailer’s location, and now we pay depending on our own. In some cases, this is a noticeable hike. (Just… ugh). Every retailer appears to be dealing with this differently, so pricing is going to get muddled for a time. I’ve been pretty… worn out with self-publishing for a while now, and this isn’t helping with the happy happy joy joy. Never mind. I’m sure Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream is on sale somewhere.

Your perspective will tell you if that was the bad news or worse news. I hate saying this, but I’ve had to cancel this month’s editing (Chaos series) which means that the whole publishing schedule will once again fly off track. I just need my editing fund for other things right now. Can’t be helped. Technically, I could publish Blight next month and be done with it, but I’d hate myself if I didn’t wait for editing. I do not like disappointing people, but if I went ahead and published it without making it as good as I possibly can, then it’d be a worse kind of disappointment, and I’d have stress dreams about it, and I desperately need some sleep.

My next editing slot is now in March, which sounds really far away. But I’ll try to get another inbetweener story set in Ava’s world (well, hello there, Phoenix) finished between Break You and Blight. I’m not making any promises though, because to be completely honest, I can’t remember the last time I read a book, and all my imagination wants to do is write historical fiction (yeah, thanks a lot, fucker), and I have a lot to do in the real life world, too. I’m basically holding on to the whole writing thing by the tips of my fingers right now. So it goes. Still, I’m going to keep on being ridiculously ambitious and sleep deprived because reasons, and 2015 is going to be the year I get (more) organised. *Swears* (Pretend I’ve never said this before…)

Have a good ‘un!

So… new release time. I’ll post the contents of the newsletter below (with an added Google link that I forgot about, sorry).

 Tainted (Ava Delaney: Lost Souls #1) is the big release (now on preorder at a discount). I wrote it last year (because *I* wanted to know what was up  with everyone), and I was going to release it next year, but I figured I should test the waters a bit. This series is not going to be like the original.  There’s no big bad across the books. It’s more like individual stories, and I’ll be working on other (hopefully shorter and therefore quicker to produce)  stories in the world in between. (I’m being stupidly ambitious, but it might work out eventually!) For example, in my current plan (that could totally  change because I can’t stick to a plan to save my life), the order of the next batch of releases in Ava’s world are looking like this:

Tainted (Lost Souls #1)
Ghost Moon Rising (A Peter Brannigan novella) (I’m testing out a new character in this that I’ve wanted to write a series about for a couple of years.  Still undecided).
Demon Dog (VBI #1)
Tethered (Lost Souls #2)
Unnamed Esther story

The second release, Tested, is something I decided *not* to publish last year. It’s in the POV of Ava’s first lost soul during the vampire war. The editing isn’t quite finished, and I’m uploading it a couple of chapters a day on Wattpad until Tainted is officially released. You don’t have to read this one, but if you do, then you should probably read it before Tainted. And I tried to make Tested as stand-alone-y as possible, so it can be read without prior knowledge of the world. If you’re curious, it’s set in the same time frame as Taste and Traitor (Ava books 5 and 6), just in different places.

Newsletter info:

Tainted, the first book in my new Ava Delaney series is now available for pre-order at 99c with the following retailers: Amazon US, UK, CA, etc.,Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBookstore US, IE, GB, AU,CA, etc., Google Play, and Smashwords. Official release date is 10/10/2014. (Also available is a kind of prequel to Tainted. Read the rest of the newsletter to find out more on that.)

Blurb:

~Best read after the original Ava Delaney series~

The backdrop may be grim, but Dublin city has become the centre of change. And as the humans and supernaturals figure out how to live in each other’s worlds, the person who forced that change has quietly stepped aside for a peaceful life.

Ava Delaney is still trying to adjust to her own altered existence when a tainted nephal turns up on her doorstep, apparently on the run from the monster who changed Ava’s life before she was even born. But she’s not supposed to interfere, even for the lost souls she’s vowed to help.

But as the first vampire leaves death in his wake, and Ava becomes an easy target to blame, she realises she has to take care of business once again. There are more secrets hidden in the shadows, more voices just waiting to be heard, and obedience has never been Ava’s thing.

Only one thing is for certain: for people like Ava Delaney, there’s no such thing as a peaceful life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the meantime, I’ve started publishing Tested to Wattpad. I’ll be uploading a couple of chapters a day until the release of Tainted. If you’re interested, here are Chapters One, Two, and Three.

Blurb:

The child of an angel, Jessica was supposed to be one of the great warriors, the nephilim, until the first vampire came for her mother. Tainted by the vampire since birth, Jessica has been on the run with her father since then, always keeping one step ahead of their enemy. But now they’re stuck in the UK while the vampires stage a takeover, and life just got a lot harder. The only sign of hope comes from Ireland, from the one person her overprotective father will never trust. Even so, there’s only one way out of the war, and that involves travelling for weeks, all the while avoiding a new breed of vampires, seemingly indestructible monsters. The taint inside her makes Jessica strong, but if she loses herself to it, her own father will take her life. If the vampires don’t kill her, her father just might…

I don’t know why I’ve become blog-phobic lately. But I thought I should check-in here a wee bit.

1. Promotions/Sales

Some of my stuff is taking part in the Smashwords sale. It’s over in a week. Lots and lots and lots of books by other writers are up  there, so it’s worth checking out. Soul is free pretty much everywhere right now. Most of my freebies are really old now. I’ve  written a lot of books since Thirst, for example, so I felt like I needed a fresher representation of what I do. Soul is long and  new(ish), and I’m really into Chaos this year, so it seemed appropriate.

2. Editing Slots

A brand new Ava Delaney book is in my editor’s hands right now. I’m trying some new things, and I don’t want to give release dates  or promises. I’m just seeing how this goes. If it works out, it won’t be like the original series. There won’t be a big arc that I need to  wrap up in a final book. It’s hard to explain exactly what I’m trying to do, but I’ve been working on a number of stories in Ava’s  world, and I felt like I needed a story with her first to set up the timeline. It won’t change any of the original series, and there’s no  desperate need to read this one (I mean, unless you really want to) to find out more about what happened in the old series. I’m so  ridiculously bad at explaining this. Full disclosure: I cancelled an editing slot this summer, so my projected release schedule is once  again out of whack. When I figure it out, I’ll update.

3. What I’m writing

I’m currently writing some Peter and Val words. I meant to finish this thing a lifetime ago, but it never happened. It’s just a novella, but if it works, it’ll be the first in their series. If. I hope it does because Val keep surprising me. It’s in third person, and I’m terrified of writing in third person (or in a male voice), so it’s one of those make myself as uncomfortable as possible writing scenarios that I like to punish myself with so much.

4. What I’m Editing

Chaos #4 is my editing punishment right now. I thought I would send it to the editor this summer, but I wasn’t happy with it and sent Ava instead. Now, as I’m editing, I’m all, what’s so bad about this? So the ending must be horrible. Mostly, I needed a break from this series. I cry while I’m writing it, cry while I’m editing it; it rips my heart out and shreds it into pieces. And then I have to take a breather or I’ll die. I’m spacing out my editing a little better, so I don’t get crushed over and over again on the same day.

5. What’s next

Weeell, I’m not as sure as I was. I know I have to write Break You, and I’m excited about that because it’s the final book, so I get to go out in a blaze of glory. I have to write Chaos #5 which I’m still thinking about. The order of events is so important that I can’t screw it up, so I’m going to be planning this one hard. And I’m a pantser, so outlining to the extent I’m planning is going to really suck. I have to finish the Chaos #4 edits, obviously, mixed in with editing another book that I haven’t quite decided on. Maybe the second Ava book. Maybe. I figure my brain will be more cooperative once the kids are back to school (and my baby is starting playschool so no kids in the mornings in September!)

6. Life

I stopped repeatedly getting my phone fixed and got a new one instead (I really hate change), so I’m a little more connected to the outside world. My eldest is away from home right now, so the rest of us are in a state of mourning. The other four are slowly taking pieces out of each other. They’ve been on holidays forever. I mean, really. They’re so intent on wrecking each other’s heads that their verbal battles are almost poetic. It’s hot. It’s so hot that it’s hard to remember to wear clothes or do anything but melt into puddles. My office is the coldest room in the house, and it feels like an oven. But we’re still getting rains and floods, so Mother Nature’s having a lot of fun.  Oh! And I’m super mega uber pissed that Dragon Age: Inquisition has been delayed again. I can’t think of anything else that’s been happening. Yes, we really are this boring. No wonder I don’t update much. And now I need to get out of this oven and spend time with my kids, so farewell. Have a good week (I have no idea what day it is)!

Aaaand here we go again. If you’re interested, I posted on year one, two, and three. This year I missed it by a week, but that’s pretty typical of me.

Four years sounds like a long time, but it feels short. In last year’s post, I mentioned that I wasn’t sure if there would be another indieversary. I’m still here, clinging on to the dream, but will there be a number five? Who knows?  I’m not overly concerned. What’s meant to happen will come, and if it doesn’t, then I probably didn’t deserve it anyway. (And according to a certain little twin, I’m a mean mom because I work all of the time and never let the kids have McDonalds. AND! I don’t give them sweets every day. The three-year-old called him a sidekick and a suck-mucher though, so I feel like we’ve even on the slurs around here).

The past year has been very uppy-downy as my five-year-old likes to say. I’ve just been trying to roll with it. I lost my confidence for a while because of a bad book I couldn’t publish, and that slowed down everything I’ve been trying to do. I’m not sure why I let it knock me so much, but I’ve had this weird fear over my shoulders since. Fade is just waiting on a proofreader, so the editing on that went really well, and that’s kind of unblocked me again. Okay, it’s only been a couple of days, but there’s been less teeth-pulling since then, so I’m clinging onto that as a good sign!

I insisted I wasn’t going to do the series thing until I had a couple of books prepared, but I made a massive liar out of myself for yet another year. I’m juggling too many books again, and I’m cursing myself for it. I’ve even written a couple of new Ava books, but I’m thinking I shouldn’t start publishing those until next year to lessen the gap between books. Chaos is the series I’m most excited about working on, so I’ve made that a priority. The third book is going out to my editor in less than two weeks, so something is working. I spent way too much time last year struggling to finish books I wasn’t in the mood for (while putting aside the ones I couldn’t stop thinking about). Down with that sort of thing.

I think this might be the dullest indieversary post yet. I’ve lost the knack for blogging – if I ever had it to begin with. Imma get back to editing Chaos #3 (because ermahgerd excite!) likely while listening to my three-year-old perform a medley of Frozen songs.

So long, farewell, and have a great March/2014.

I forgot to publish the blog post I wrote last month, so I’m going to ignore that and kick on with this one!

It’s been a weird couple of months. Not publishing Tainted put my schedule out of whack first of all. Then my phone broke, I burned through another laptop, and I thought I figured out a cool new schedule that actually worked for me, but once I realised I would be forced to dedicate February to editing, my enthusiasm kind of died a terrible death. Trying to plan out the entire year pretty much terrified me. My schedule is all pretty and highlighted and scary. I’m not a planner. I know how annoying that is to other people, but plans make my world go very wrong.

Anyway, what’s been going on is that I’ve been writing a crapton. Seriously, I don’t know what that’s about, but it feels good. The only problem is that I’ll write instead of editing all day long. I started a second new Ava book last week, but I’ve had to stop to edit Fade and Make You because time. There is none. Fade is going off to editing next week, so I’ll have to get cracking on finishing editing the third book in that series because that one’s scheduled for late March. Like I said. No. Time. And I still have no idea what I’m doing about covers for any of those books.

I did receive the proof copy of the print version of Soul. Amazon & Createspace did the cover and interior for me for free, which was super good of them. It’s already available on Amazon & Createspace, so that’s a relief! Here’s a small version of the cover (click on it if you want a better look):

My twins are about to come home, so I’ll leave you with a story my 3-yr-old just told me. This kind of stuff pops out of her mouth all day long.

Once upon a time, the dinosaurs caught me, and I escaped on a crocodile.
But then I sank, and I was dead.
Then a teacher saved me and let me eat my lunch.
Now I’m a wiggly worm.