the Author
November
28
13 Comments

State of the Author, November 2024 edition

Posted in Cast, covers, Academia.

I’m sorry I’ve been so absent. I swear, I think all of my posts recently begin that way >.<.

November has been … a month. It’s taken me some time to get my writing feet back under me — but dead­lines “help” with that.

Someone in comments mentioned the cover for the upcoming (May 2025) Sagara novel, Heir of Light. I hadn’t posted the cover here because I usually post the full cover, and I don’t have that yet — prob­ably closer to May. But: I will post the front cover here in case people haven’t seen it yet, and post the full cover when I get it.

I’m waiting on revi­sions, etc., for The Wild Road, but have been working on Cast in Blood (which is what I’m currently calling the next Cast novel – but titles are always subject to change). I’m also a bit behind in words. I’m not where I hoped to be by the end of November, but as I mentioned, November has been a month.

I hope, however, those who cele­brate Thanks­giving in November (as opposed to October, when Cana­dians cele­brate) have a wonderful day!

13 Responses to State of the Author, November 2024 edition

  1. Dorthy says:
    November 28, 2024 at 10:31 am

    Happy Thanks­giving. Cover is beautiful.

  2. JB says:
    November 28, 2024 at 10:46 am

    I love it. I can tell a lot of thought and work went into it. Thanks for sharing. Can’t wait for it to come out

  3. Diana Brock says:
    November 28, 2024 at 3:38 pm

    Do you ever get inspi­ra­tion from comments fan make?

  4. Hugh Hagan says:
    November 28, 2024 at 5:29 pm

    I have read 22 of your books.I am amazed at how you keep creating new story lines for Kaylin and her comrades. The Sword and Sun series are also intriguing. You are a joy to my intellect.

  5. michelle says:
    November 29, 2024 at 10:18 am

    @Hugh: Thank you!

    I feel that my brain in November has been slug­gish, but hope­fully it’ll work itself out.

  6. michelle says:
    November 29, 2024 at 10:22 am

    @Diana: Not directly, no. It’s always a bit tricky. For instance, one reader wanted more of Robin after he read Cast in Wisdom — and I didn’t have more of Robin, and he said he has a weak­ness for Magic School books… and I real­ized that I sort of did have that. But I was also working on the Severn pre-Cast novels at the time, so of course said I did not have time in the writing schedule to write a novella about Robin.

    If, for example, I ask all the authors I know to come up with a Dragon story, all of the stories will be very, very different. Dragon in that case could serve as a prompt, but authors all know that how Dragons come into story indi­vid­u­ally means each story will be unique. I can work some­times with prompts — but I know that readers often have their own ideas behind that prompt, or even their own expec­ta­tions, and my writer-brain is kind of a Sagara brain

  7. Jazzlet says:
    November 30, 2024 at 12:11 pm

    I hope you have less disrup­tive December, I think November was a month for many of us.

    That cover is gorgeous, and all of that intact glass resonates with Shards of Glass too.

  8. Joanne Johnson says:
    November 30, 2024 at 1:35 pm

    Inter­esting cover. Change subjects though: when did Kaylin get Severn his own name?

  9. Mary Allen says:
    December 2, 2024 at 6:35 pm

    The book cover is pretty and ties into Shards of Glass. I look forward to reading the book as soon as it is avail­able. If you are doing revi­sions of Wild Road do you know a maybe date for the hard cover edition and will you still be doing a hard cover? I hope December goes better and you and your family have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

  10. Aquilegia says:
    December 6, 2024 at 7:39 pm

    @Joanne It may be one of those little hiccups in conti­nuity. Like Eddo­rian staying in the West March when he had spoken lines on the journey back. This is now a parallel universe with a few minor tweaks. But some­thing like a true name is pretty big, it may be hard to gloss over. I would love an expla­na­tion, prefer­ably in short story form. /PuppyDogEyes But I will take pity on over­worked authoresses and won’t make a big deal out of it.

  11. michelle says:
    December 8, 2024 at 7:05 am

    @Mary Allen: I’m not yet revising things that didn’t work or weren’t clear for editors — I’m waiting to hear back from them, and they’re working on it. I do plan to do a hard­cover; I was hoping February, but I think, given that I’m not the only one who was unset­tled, that it’s prob­ably March at this point. This time, I hope to be orga­nized enough to have the book avail­able for pre-order so readers will know it’s coming out.

  12. Mary Allen says:
    December 16, 2024 at 5:08 pm

    Thanks for the response. It means that I will have two of your books to read in the spring. I tried to preorder Heir of Light but kept getting two copies. I will try again later, I have time as Barnes and Noble have the book coming out on May 27th. My husband is sick with a cold so am keeping busy waiting on him. I hope you and your family stay healthy and have a wonderful Christmas.

  13. Aquilegia says:
    January 9, 2025 at 7:07 pm

    Hey Michelle, I hope every­thing is going well with you. That you had good holi­days and a happy new year. I have a ques­tion on the time­line in the Cast universe. When were the wars? The Cohort went to The Green nine centuries ago, and they were sent because of one of the wars, but I am not sure which one. I am also curious when Ravellon fell and when the empire was founded. I am trying to figure out how the history fits together. Thank you so much for all you do, we appre­ciate your will­ing­ness to share your worlds with us

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