the Author

Category Archives: Cast

September
22
16 Comments

State of the Author: September 2021 edition

Posted in Cast, DAW, Elantra, Essalieyan, Queen of the Dead, writing, Severn.

It’s been an eventful behind the scenes September, and it’s not quite finished yet. First: I am going to be doing a library Zoom call. Back in the non-pandemic age, the Friends of the East Gwillim­bury library invited me to speak to library readers. In theory this was going to happen on the 20th of April. This did not happen for obvious reasons. I will be doing a Zoom library call, instead. From their email: This ZOOM  on-line event is limited to 100 people and will feature Friends board member and Sagara fan, Michelle Cowan, as moder­ator in conver­sa­tion with the author. How do I  get a ticket?  If you bought a ticket in 2020, we will honour it and send the link after veri­fi­ca­tion.  Please … Continue reading →

June
29
37 Comments

Cast in Conflict Release Day

Posted in Cast, Elantra, writing.

Today, 29th June 2021, is Cast in Conflict’s publi­ca­tion day. Cast in Conflict started life as Cast in Isola­tion. My editor(s) liked the title, and I was thinking purely of the book itself. Marketing, however, rightly pointed out that we’d had more than enough isola­tion in the past year, and anything that reminded people of covid shut­downs and quar­an­tines was Not On. This made sense to all of the people who had liked the former title, which is why it’s now called Cast in Conflict, or ‘Conflict’ as it’s called in this house. *** Today is also the day after my 2nd covid-19 vacci­na­tion shot. My reac­tion has been pretty mild so far (with the expected wow it hurts to lift my arm), and a touch of the usual Michelle … Continue reading →

May
12
22 Comments

Cast in Conflict: Preview

Posted in Books, Cast, Elantra, chapters.

It’s come to my atten­tion that it’s already May >.<. May is the month before June. End of June is the publi­ca­tion date for Cast in Conflict. My brain still thinks it’s April because April is a better month to be stuck in with impending dead­lines. But it’s May. So: it’s time for the preview first chapter for the upcoming Cast in Conflict. I believe previews exist else­where now — I’m not sure how long they are, though, because the last book I gener­ally check for these things are my own — I mean… I’ve read the book multiple times by the point previews gener­ally go live. One of these days, Kaylin will have a good day. This one even starts with great promise… You can find the sample chapter here: Cast … Continue reading →

April
18
26 Comments

Cover: Cast in Conflict

Posted in Cast, Elantra, covers, Shane Rebenschied.

I mentioned in my previous post that I had the full cover for the upcoming Cast in Conflict. I didn’t forget the cover — I did forget that I work at the store on Saturday (it’s curb-side only, but the books don’t get to the curb on their own yet). But it’s not too late. Here’s the full cover :). (I tend to post the full cover because often the front cover is out in the world before I get copies I can share, so everyone will have seen that already.) I like it. It’s a very different type treat­ment, and I’m curious to know whether or not people will see and iden­tify it as a Cast novel. The artist is Shane Reben­schied, and the art director, Kath­leen Oudit. Kath­leen lives in Toronto, as I do, … Continue reading →

August
13
13 Comments

Social Distancing Journal 16: Short Story: The Law of Man

Posted in Books, Cast, download, Short Stories.

Well. Today, Word­Press upgraded to 5.5. This… broke things, for the first time since 2.x, on my site. Much of the morning, in which I intended to upload the latest short story (after format­ting, proofing, etc.) was stalled by the fact that the backend of my site wasn’t really working. (Jeremy Tolbert rescued me: he told me exactly what was broken – a plug-in. It’s upgraded and working now). And then, to top it all off, when uploading the story to kindle, I uploaded the wrong story. I noticed this when uploading to Kobo, because the cover… was the last story’s cover T_T. I have not, however, thrown my computer out the window. Barely. This short story was published in 1997, so written in 1996. It’s inter­esting … Continue reading →