It’s Canadian Thanksgiving today — American Thanksgiving is in November. But, as I’m Canadian, we celebrate in October in these parts :)
In between my last report and this one, I finished the page proofs for TOUCH, which is scheduled for January, 2014, in hardcover. I will have a cover to post very shortly, and will change the book on the front page at that time.
I am now over half way through Cast in Flame, although I’m now wondering about the title, given the complications that have arisen from the events at the end of Cast in Sorrow.
I am now over halfway (with luck!) through Oracle, which is the new title for the second last book in the House War series.
So writing has actually been going well – but there’s a bit of the usual deadline panic, which makes things more fraught. A word of advice: If you seriously blow a deadline for one book, it eats months and months of time out of every other book, so plan for that. Not that we ever plan to blow a deadline, and not certainly that we plan to throw out three large chunks of writing to start books all over again.
So — the writing part of this update is fairly simple: Working on Cast in Flame, working on Oracle. Neither are quite finished yet.
I now have covers & text for the UK ebooks for House War, because I promised I would release War, which is now Oracle and War, at the same time in the UK as it is released in the US. I need to format and upload — and for me, this is actually time consuming. Even the short stories were time-consuming, which is most of the reason the rest of them linger in limbo; the novels are…longer. But the first three books should go live within the month, followed by the fourth and fifth. Book six isn’t finished yet.
The last thing I wanted to talk about a bit is the forums.
In another thread (on the web-site), a reader said:
I don’t know if it’s my imagination, but I feel readers used to write much more when they could do it on these pages following the books releases than in the Forum. I have to say that for me Forum is more complicated but I’m learning to navigate it better.
I know Sorrow is a more complex book and I expected the many readers that are normally on these comments sections, even without spoilers. In any event, Part of the joy of reading these amazing books, is also sharing details with other readers. I’ll wait for the next book with Jewel and see what other readers like best. Comment here or in Forum.
I said, when I opened the forums, that I’m generally agnostic when it comes to the methods by which people have discussions. This is true. I personally find – for longer discussions – that forums are easier to use — but the key word is personally. In as much as I post on the web-site, I’m active here in all posts except the spoiler posts.
I had hoped to be more active in the forums – but I am behind enough that I haven’t been able to do that – and in any case, the discussions about books I’ve written are not discussions I join, because it can often be all kinds of awkward.
I am, if people find it easier, or in any way more welcoming, perfectly happy to continue with Spoiler posts on the main web-site. So, let me know what you think here.
DebbieH 
Paul (Drak Bibliophile) Howard 
Zia 
Lesa Thomas 
Rita LM 
Karen L Durst 
Madame Hardy 
Deirdre Roeser 
Dawna 
Stephen P 
Sivi 
Vickie Remo 
Cheryl Bradley 
christine 
Sere 
Rymunin 
Teresa 
HILDA 
Happy Thanksgiving! Glad to hear you’re making progress on all fronts. Last time, you sounded down and frustrated.