the Author
February
22
34 Comments

Sword and Shadow Publication Day

Posted in Elantra, Publication, Severn.

It’s pub day for Sword and Shadow, the second of the Severn novels!

Links to various retailers are on the book page on the link above :). If you find the book in the wild, send me a picture!

(Forbidden Planet in the UK has signed copies — by book plate. BakkaPhoenix, the store at which I still work part-time, will have signed books, but if you want the book person­al­ized, it’s easier for me to do that because I’m in the store weekly.)

I am being crushed by a dead­line that is looming like a loco­mo­tive toward a person tied to the tracks, but this is the part that makes it worth­while – knowing that I’ll finish and I’ll have a book out that I can finally share with people.

 

34 Responses to Sword and Shadow Publication Day

  1. Ashley M Womble says:
    February 22, 2022 at 10:03 am

    Already bought for kindle, it sent me a notice and got it right away! Such a nice surprise this morning 🙂. Now to figure out how to convince work I need the day off to read it! Can’t wait!!!!!

  2. elissacares says:
    February 22, 2022 at 10:08 am

    So excited to start reading this this weekend! Cannot wait. Always love Severn. Hope that you have been well Michelle; thank you for sharing your worlds with us.

  3. Julianne Single says:
    February 22, 2022 at 10:15 am

    Congrats! I didn’t even realize it was coming out today! I had forgotten in the mad rush of studying for my PALS certi­fi­ca­tion and Dad’s surgery. But it should be on my kindle I pre-ordered it as soon as it became avail­able for order. I’ve been re listening to the Elantra audio­books. I like to listen to books I never mind reading repeat­edly while I prac­tice my crochet and Elantran adven­tures are on that list.

    Recently I’ve started to try my hand at worry worms and worry pets as well and want to try bigger projects for other things like fidget mats and twiddle muffs. These fidget and anxiety toys started as things people made for dementia patients but kids love them too. I am going to make some in different textures or yarns for the kids at the hospital. At least I hope I am lol.

    Ques­tion, can we order prior books from your store with autographs?

  4. michelle says:
    February 22, 2022 at 10:19 am

    @Julianne: Yes, you can order prior books — or any books I’ve written (although one person asked me to sign a book written by a totally different author because he’s a troll) — as long as we can get them :). The one warning is: we’re in Canada, and Canada doesn’t have media mail or a cheap postage cate­gory for books =/.

  5. michelle says:
    February 22, 2022 at 10:19 am

    @elissacares: I have been well but slightly dead­line stressed. “Slightly”. I am almost finished the next CAST novel, though :)

  6. michelle says:
    February 22, 2022 at 10:20 am

    @Ashley: I work in a book­store, where one would think reading would be consid­ered Desper­ately Impor­tant, but I can’t gener­ally get the “I NEED TO READ THIS” to work as a day off excuse…

  7. emile666 says:
    February 22, 2022 at 10:34 am

    Five minutes after your noti­fi­ca­tion arrived the bell rang and the postman deliv­ered my copy from Amazon — in fact he deliv­ered 2 copies, although I had only ordered one! I know what I’m doing today.
    Oddly, an address (not mine) spon­ta­neously appeared on line 3 below — I deleted it.

  8. Farrell says:
    February 22, 2022 at 11:43 am

    Yea! Now I have some­thing to do this cold blus­tery winter day!

  9. Hilary says:
    February 22, 2022 at 12:35 pm

    Mine has just landed from iBooks so looking forward to diving into it. Also new Cast book to look forward to.

  10. Elizabeth says:
    February 22, 2022 at 12:39 pm

    Looking forward to my copy. It should arrive on Friday :)

  11. Vicky C Johnson says:
    February 22, 2022 at 12:49 pm

    I’m in the Moun­tain Time Zone so pre-ordered books from Amazon drop in my account about 10 p.m. on Mondays. I retired at the end of 2021 so I no longer have to wait to start reading because of a pesky thing like work 🤣😊.

    I pre-order both the ebook and audio­book from Amazon. Your books (both Sagara and West) are the reason I joined Audible in the first place.

    I read the book first to see what happens. And then I go back to listen to the audio­book for all the subtle things I may have missed in my rush to see what happens next during the first read.

    Take care of your­self Michelle!! Imagine Wiley E. Coyote as the engi­neer on the train rushing towards you and that you, tied to the tracks, are the Road Runner who always manages to deflect his dastardly deeds. Hope the image makes you laugh and relieves a bit ofvthe stress!!

  12. michelle says:
    February 22, 2022 at 3:59 pm

    @Vicky: It did make me laugh, but I feel as if I’m actu­ally Wile E Coyote chasing down the road­runner (the book) at the moment…

  13. Elizabeth says:
    February 22, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    Very happy to see the kindle pre-order arrive! I waited a little, and the audible pre-order joined it.
    But now I want to go back and reread the first Severn book.

  14. Gayle says:
    February 22, 2022 at 9:25 pm

    Spent a snowy MN day reading Sword and Shadow. I loved all the surprises. Ques­tion: Is it possible that Kaylin became the chosen because Sevren was living with her?

  15. br60103 says:
    February 22, 2022 at 9:31 pm

    I saw the book on the shelf at Chap­tigo today. My copy was not in my mailbox.
    :-(

  16. Vicki LENOIR says:
    February 23, 2022 at 6:38 am

    I had been spam­ming the audible and kindle apps since midnight 22nd to check when my preorders down­loaded. Unfor­tu­nately I think it’s all off of the Canada time­zone because here in France every­thing arrived only at 7am. But I devored the book and now I have SOOOOO MANY QUESTIONS! Wonderful infor­ma­tion and tiebacks. Fantas­tique *1000. But so many many ques­tions.…. I want to know every­thing and yet savor each discovery.

  17. Aquilegia says:
    February 23, 2022 at 6:46 pm

    When will the spoiler thread be up? Some of us are anxious to discuss.

  18. michelle says:
    February 23, 2022 at 6:48 pm

    @Aquilegia: I gener­ally put up the spoiler thread page one week after pub date to give people a chance to get the book and read it >.>

  19. Aquilegia says:
    February 23, 2022 at 10:20 pm

    @Michelle This is one of the curses that comes with reading fast and hyper-focus. I want to talk about stuff, but I don’t want to ruin it for people. /whines

  20. Zia says:
    February 24, 2022 at 10:06 am

    Sorry to hear a dead­line is feeling like it’s threat­ening to crush you on tracks…

    Hope­fully things settle down on your end soon. I can’t wait to read the upcoming book(s) — I’ve had Cast in Eter­nity preordered since January.

    I had a plan to read Sword and Shadows on release day fall apart around my ears when my job chose that partic­ular Tuesday as early arrivals for another training class day, but while the Amazon kindle and paper­back arrived on time, I actu­ally was able to salvage my plans by finding a copy in the wild at a B&N early. Which is also good because now I have my “read” paper­back copy, my spare, and my kindle copy (yes, I always have at least two book copies, I’m strange, I know.)

    I also can’t wait for the spoiler thread. I have a few things I’m curious about other people’s thoughts on. 

    Thank you so much for contin­uing to write!

  21. michelle says:
    February 24, 2022 at 10:09 am

    @Aquilegia: I totally under­stand both of those things — as a reader. But some people hate spoilers because they destroy the reading expe­ri­ence, so I need to give them some time before the front page/post is… the spoiler thread. Sorry >.

  22. michelle says:
    February 24, 2022 at 10:26 am

    @Zia: I have multiple copies of certain books, so it doesn’t sound weird (to me). It started when I wanted to make other people read things I love – and one book returned looking like it had become a chew toy for a pet -.-. But also, I had a “travel” copy, and those get more banged up just by the usual wear and tear of being carted around everywhere. 

    Writing is always both pain and pure creative joy. I’ve never figured out how to have it be just one thing — the latter, I hasten to add, so I accept the pain as part of the process. I’d change that part if I could.

    But a dear friend once told me that I need more hobbies. I need things that aren’t just work. And I did not quite under­stand this, because writing is both hobby *and* work, and I can’t sepa­rate them. So: I’ll continue to write, because it’s … what I do. That and read.

  23. Zia says:
    February 24, 2022 at 1:02 pm

    @michelle: I’m on the least 2 book copies rule strictly because I tend to revisit my books enough that at some point they look extremely well loved and/or they fall apart. So…2 copies. One of which I try not to touch when its mass paper­back size as a couple of the Elantra novels fell apart (and early on I was not wise enough to buy two books at the same time) and their replace­ments are different sizes, which bugs me. It shouldn’t, but it does >.< If I need to get a replace­ment for the worn-out copy I knew was going to fall apart though…that one can be any size as it’s on a sepa­rate part of the book­shelf since that side is already too wonky to recover. Plus, the more times I have to buy a book, the more small support I offer an author sooo there is a tiny bonus to my reading a book until it’s…um…less than together?

    As on the fence as I was orig­i­nally about eBooks, I confess they are a blessing when trav­eling. No longer needing to figure which books I will shove into my suit­case and how many I can fit without breaking my back or someone else’s…or going over the suit­case weight restric­tions, has been great. Though I still heavily favor the actual book. 

    Limited hobbies can be a good thing. I’m limited on hobbies myself. I consider there to be…two? Maybe? Reading is one and then I consider my eques­trian side as the second. For the most part, reading is a pure hobby, but the riding is a mixture (actu­ally, at one point, horses were hobby and my job, but now it’s just hobby and volun­teering to be an extra hand.)

    But I am glad there is still joy in your writing because I absolutely love reading your works. I do always feel guilty when the writing side of things isn’t going well or has added extra stress though.

    So, as always, thank you for writing because I cherish each novel, and/or short story, and Sword and Shadow was another delightful read.

  24. Skadi says:
    February 25, 2022 at 7:15 am

    I just wanted to let you know that while I love the Elantra series, both Chron­i­cles and Wolves, this last one has just left me totally awed. Ususally I am quite good at guessing where a story is going and what may happen but in this case it was a complete mystery and left me stuck to my book until it was completely read! The book was also the only think that kept me from going crazy yesterday (as someone living uncom­fort­able close to a Russian border), so thank you so much for giving us these great stories! Can’t wait for the next one!

  25. Hilary says:
    February 25, 2022 at 11:43 am

    My print copy arrived from Amazon just after my ebook landed so I switched to the print version. I love holding a book. Michelle I loved the story and the greater under­standing into Severn it gave. You write each char­acter with so much depth

  26. Vicky C Johnson says:
    February 25, 2022 at 2:53 pm

    Just curious. How much of a back story did you have for Severn before you were asked to write the short story that turned into the first novel?

    Without giving anything away, you seem to be weaving hints that were dropped in many of Kaylin’s stories quite nicely and in a way that flows into Severn’s stories.

  27. Rebekka says:
    February 26, 2022 at 7:17 am

    Loved the new book! Got it and did not let it go before the end. Then started again :D
    With every new glance into this world i just end up with more ques­tions though and of course a lot of them are big ques­tions like the mystery of kaylins “noble” family name, the rela­tion­ship between Eluvian and the Emperor but so many Others are just so random like how does Barrani child­bearing work? Is multiple spouses at the same time a thing? Why does basi­cally everyone equate mortals with humans? Do dragons sleep and If yes does that involve the mentioned heating stones? I will again spent the next months joyfully mulling over all the details until i can bury myself in the next book!

  28. Taen says:
    February 26, 2022 at 4:23 pm

    I read the whole of it this morning, because it was far too good to take a break. I’m looking forward to the spoiler thread so we can ask ques­tions and enthuse, but I have to say that I thought you outdid your­self with this one. :)

  29. Aquilegia says:
    February 26, 2022 at 7:03 pm

    I like having my second copy of a book be digital. Because it is much, much easier to take notes and search for names, and basi­cally keep the details straight. There are so many char­ac­ters and quirks in this universe that it really helps me to have a list.

  30. br60103 says:
    February 26, 2022 at 9:18 pm

    An certayne big cheyne gave me a good price to mail the book to me. But it seems to be still sitting in their ware­house while there are copies in the local store.
    How much to mail from down­town Toronto?

  31. Joey says:
    February 27, 2022 at 2:29 am

    Congrat­u­la­tions! I got my copy from a local book­store today, but I had pre-ordered it so it prob­ably doesn’t count as “in the wild.”

  32. Marilyn Requena says:
    March 3, 2022 at 12:00 pm

    I just got a noti­fi­ca­tion that the next Cast book is delayed. Are you all right?

  33. michelle says:
    March 3, 2022 at 12:07 pm

    Yes — I’m fine. My new editor actu­ally asked the marketing/sales people if we could push the book back a couple of months, which would give me time to finish it prop­erly (I had aimed for the 7th of March at the latest, but I had not finished yet). This would also allow me time to write proposals for future books which have to be approved by the publish­er’s edito­rial book, because… I couldn’t while trying desper­ately to finish the book. 

    I wasn’t expecting it, tbh, but… latched on to it with both hands so I could finally breathe a bit.

  34. br60103 says:
    March 4, 2022 at 9:22 pm

    My pre-ordered copy from I***** was deliv­ered today.
    But I’m re-reading Cast in Flight…

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