Tldr: WERECATS EMERGENT is a great book if you like military adventure fantasy and kickass heroines coming of age, with *shapeshifting* feline humans. The author’s homepage is here: mark-engels.com The book’s main Amazon page is here. Look at this cover. It’s subtle but it gets the point across. I had nothing to do with this…
Read More Review: WERECATS EMERGENT by Mark J. EngelsMy writing platform on Ream.ink has launched! I write sweet to scorching sword & planet and space opera fantasy. https://reamstories.com/page/lfr7ennrzk There’s a Lonhra Sequence short novel already up on Tier One. That’s BLOODSHADOW. This is in prep for launching the sequel SOULBINDER in a month or so, chapter-by-chapter. My Ream site will start with two…
Read More The Lonhra Sequence on Ream!…And hi, Filigree’s Rule! I’d hoped to leave all my Filigree’s Rule writing posts up on this blog, but a stipulation of Amazon means I have to privately publish them now. Effectively hiding them from internet search. I’ve taken those posts, condensed some, expanded others, and updated everything I could into a more-easily read book…
Read More Bye, Filigree’s Rule…(This is a long post. If you just want my review and not my commentary, stop before the spoiler breaks.) People keep saying Emily Skrutskie’s space opera adventure BONDS OF BRASS is basically Finn/Poe fanfic, and I disagree. Oh, the pedigree is there, but this story has a much deeper….birthright, if you will. If you…
Read More Review: BONDS OF BRASS by Emily SkrutskieI’ve had a couple of blog posts over the years about Alis Franklin’s take on Norse mythology, Loki legends, and responsible LGBTQIA storytelling. Alis has updated and self-published those works, so go have fun. Link here. New covers, new material, squee! Not feeding an irresponsible beast of a Big 5 publisher, yay!
Read More An Alis Franklin updateThis one’s a gift to a writer friend of mine, to honor two of his passions. There will be another post plugging his writing once it comes out from his new publisher. The platform for Lynx Engineer is a Hurley hat from 2006, in black cotton with silk-screened white stripes. The ears are made from…
Read More Lynx Engineer HatThis merits breaking out from my usual addition to the ‘Filigree’s Rule’ page. Not all literary agents are equal! It’s a truth in current publishing markets, that an author in possession of a decent manuscript should at least try to find an a literary agent BEFORE approaching publishers. I still stand by that, even though…
Read More Another #AgentFail, or Money For NothingWhat happened: The celebrated M/M erotic romance publisher Dreamspinner Press appears to be heading for a rocky end or a catastrophic re-org. Right now, submit there at your own risk. I’ve been holding off this particular post for over a year. I don’t have any books with Dreamspinner, and I wanted to give both the…
Read More Alas, DreamspinnerThanks to the wonders of random number generators, we have our winners for the book and jewelry giveaway, celebrating the debut month of my fantasy novel THE PURIST. The two formal runners-up are Green Dragon Artist and Stephanie D. You get a choice of THE PURIST in the ebook formats of Mobi or EPub. (If…
Read More Book and Jewelry Giveaway Winners!I had toyed with the idea of doing some side-character interviews during the debut month of THE PURIST, and I still might. But today’s offering is an old, mad, bit of fanfiction that spawned out of my on-and-off-fanfiction obsessions from 1991 to present. As I say in the disclaimer, through what I’ve seen from far…
Read More Meta fiction! Character studies! Cheesy writing!Thank you to all the people who have purchased THE PURIST directly from NineStar Press, or from Kobo, Smashwords, and all the other non-Amazon platforms. Yeah, sure, you can buy it on Amazon, too. But if you do want to read this book, please consider buying directly. It helps my publisher and helps me! I…
Read More The Purist mini blurbIt’s Thursday 2 August 2018, and that means we’re getting closer to The Purist being available for general purchase from www.ninestarpress.com and other vendors. To celebrate (and calm my nerves a bit), I’m setting up a giveaway on this blog. What is this book? Learn more here. Rules are simple: From today until 3 September…
Read More The Purist Launch Party and GiveawayIn addition to the lovely cover, we now have a blurb and pre-order links. The Purist
Read More Purist blurb!In a little less than a month, I will be able to aim you lovely people at buy links for THE PURIST, my upcoming fantasy novel from NineStar Press. I’ve seen the final cover version. It rocks. It rocks so damn hard, in fact, that it could comfortably fit into the catalog of any of…
Read More Purist countdown!At the end of June 2018, my fantasy novel Bloodshadow will be unpublished from Wattpad. The book has been visible on the display site Wattpad since late 2015, and had over 2200 distinct ‘reads’. It received some lovely comments and votes. So why am I removing it? Wattpad is a sweet, fun place, but it’s…
Read More Leaving WattpadAge warning: the books and links shown here contain adult material. From May 3 to 4, 2018, this book and some other BDSM titles will be half-price at the NineStar Press website. Check them all out. Splurge a little: my fellow NSP writers offer really good reads! MORO’S PRICE is a space opera romance about…
Read More Flash BDSM romance sale: ‘Moro’s Price’ half-off!I still have #1, and just dug it out of storage a few days ago. Both of these are done on 8×6″ MDF boards, with unbeaded lips for sliding under a wood frame. These were fun but bittersweet pieces to do. In the spring of 2008, I’d been playing with my micro-mosaic technique for two…
Read More Storm Study 1 & 2 MosaicsAmid my busy scary schedule this week, I’m contemplating the kinds of jewelry pieces I’d need to make to effectively ‘go wholesale’. It’s a tricky calculation. Too elaborate (my normal setting) and I could never afford the time or materials to set up even a hundred-piece order with a boutique. Too simple, and I run…
Read More New jewelry ideas, new marketsAmazon finally made a move on (one) Kindle Publishing scammer. Read the Forbes article here. Why is this important? Given the difficulty of snagging a literary agent and the slow pace of commercial publishing, many authors are choosing self publishing as a side hustle or their main living. Amazon, for better or for worse, is…
Read More Amazon, KDP, and Self-Pub StuffersWriters need to be careful when they’re approached to pay for book reviews. Some of these are real opportunities for marketing, some are well-meaning junk, and some are simply heartless cash-grabs by the organizers. Paid reviews are simply where the author pays the reviewer. Kirkus has a branch dealing with this. It’s somewhat legit…but only…
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