the Author
August
7
20 Comments

State of the Author, August 2025

Posted in Cast, Elantra, writing, The Burning Crown.

I started this post in July of 2025, but clearly July has disap­peared beneath my feet. July was the month of CAC replace­ment and read­just­ment. Which tech­ni­cally started in June. 2025 has been the year of home repair. We live in a house that was built at the turn of the 1900s (I almost said century, but that could easily apply to the 2000s, which would not be accu­rate). I once dreamed of owning a home that wasn’t subject to land­lords and their need to get rid of tenants to raise rents, among other things. And yes, a home doesn’t have land­lords; it does require banks, and if you don’t pay your mort­gage the end result is the same, but they can’t arbi­trarily attempt … Continue reading →

June
17
5 Comments

The Wild Road publication day

Posted in writing, Publication, The Wild Road, Essalieyan.

The Wild Road should now be avail­able for order or purchase (or special order), in the format of your choice. The excep­tion, sadly, is audible​.com. The audio­book has prop­a­gated to other retailers, but audible​.com still doesn’t show it. I don’t know when it will go live. From my end, the only thing that’s waiting is audible​.com approval. Both the hard­cover and the paper­back should be avail­able for pre-order and order, as will the ebook at all of the vendors. This is the second novel in The Burning Crown. It’s shorter than the first book (which was 304k words), but short is offered in a West context. I had really hoped to have the book avail­able earlier, but end of 2024 and begin­ning of 2025 … Continue reading →

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 →