the Author
June
4
3 Comments

The Wild Road, sample chapters

Posted in Essalieyan, chapters, The Wild Road.

I have been strug­gling a bit with real life, and, as always, am behind on every­thing. But: The Wild Road will be avail­able on the 17th of June, 2025 (I am prac­ticing 2025 because appar­ently some part of my brain falls back into 2024 mode. Usually I’ve beaten it out of my head by this time in the year, but, well. 2025.) I won’t be at my usual desk until the 19th of June, which I’ve been told is terrible plan­ning. And it is, but it wasn’t entirely planned >.<. I have a preview of the book, which you can find here. Usually I try to put it up a month before pub date. Did I mention that things have been 2025 chaotic here? But hope­fully this chaos actu­ally allows … Continue reading →

May
27
21 Comments

Heir of Light pub day!

Posted in Publication, Academia.

Today, the 27th of May, is my wedding anniver­sary. Today, the 27th of May, is the Guy Gavriel Kay book launch for Written on the Dark, which is being held at the Merrill collec­tion of Spec­u­la­tive Fiction. I’d link, but it’s a tick­eted event (tickets were free), that is entirely fully booked. I could have squeaked in as a book­store employee, except, see above. Wedding anniver­sary. HOWEVER, today is also the release day for Heir of Light. Heir of Light should, as of today, be avail­able for purchase at all ebook sellers, and also, book­stores. There’s a hard­cover and trade paper­back version of the book, and the inter­esting thing — to me, book geek — is that the hard­cover has the half-title page and the paper­back doesn’t. I just assumed that … Continue reading →

May
19
16 Comments

The Wild Road — cover

Posted in covers, Jody Lee, The Burning Crown, The Wild Road.

This has not been the best year, and I feel that I’ve been under water for most of 2025. But this morning it occurred to me that I’ve never posted the cover for The Wild Road here, so first things first.   Cover art by Jody Lee. The Wild Road is the second book in the series; it follows Hunter’s Redoubt. I have been working on the third book, but ‘working’ means starting it over and over again. But this morning when I woke up, I had that flash of insight that meant I’d been starting from the wrong place. Again. All West novels do this. To be fair to me, much of April was taxes and house repairs and copy edits (Cast in Blood) — the first attempt … Continue reading →

April
30
10 Comments

Heir of Light preview chapter

Posted in writing.

I’m a little bit late on this. It’s been a very hectic month, and I just finished my taxes (Cana­dian taxes are due on the 30th of April). My mother very help­fully suggested that I could get them done early and then I wouldn’t been in this crush – but I pointed out that it will take 3 days no matter when I start, and it’s not like I haven’t had a ton of other emer­gency dead­lines >.< So, this is the first two chap­ters of Heir of Light, one because I try to post a chapter a month before the book is out, and the second because I was late. I am sorry to be so behind in every­thing, and I mean every­thing. I am working on copy­edits for Cast in Blood, have just finished taxes, had some home repair … Continue reading →

February
25
4 Comments

Heir of Light, hardcover dustjacket

Posted in Elantra, covers, Academia.

This is the full cover dust jacket for the hard­cover of Heir of Light. I would have posted it when I posted the paper­back full cover, but I just received it today, so I’m posting it now. The text should be the same on the cover flap as it is on the trade paper­back. And now I’m going back to the joy of copy-edit reviews for Wild Road >.<.