E.P. Clark's Blog, page 2

The Singing Shore I is now available for preorder!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you're doing well and enjoying your October. Over here we're having beautiful, if rather dry and dusty, weather. I've been amusing myself by photographing fall blooms and posting them on my Instagram feed (@elenapedigo).

However, the really, really exciting news is that The Singing Shore I is up for preorder! Yes! I finally decided to set a preorder date for the first book in the trilogy! It's a long way out--next April--but it is there! The book is currently available on Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Google Play, with more retailers coming soon.

As with the other books in the Zemnian series, I wrote the entire miniseries in one go, which is why it takes me so long between releases. The Singing Shore is currently a trilogy that weighs in at over 360,000 words. I'm hoping to have all three books pretty much done and dusted by the time TSSI goes live. My dream is to have all formats--ebook, audiobook, paperback, and hardback--ready to release simultaneously as I release each book in the trilogy, but we'll see about that. Audiobooks in particular are super-slow to produce.

I've been playing around with the cover and blurb for TSSI, and you're now about to get a world premiere of them! They may undergo further tweaking--or more than tweaking--but here is the current version of the blurb for your delectation and delight:

All magical gifts are wild. The seer’s gift is the wildest of all.

Dasha, Tsarinovna of all of Zem’, was expected to have great magical gifts. Why else would the gods have arranged her conception? But instead of anything useful, Dasha’s gifts first manifested themselves as visions of terror and destruction. Then, just when it seemed she might be gaining some control over them, they abandoned her entirely.

That’s unfortunate, because Dasha could really use some guidance right now. She’s volunteered to be her people’s envoy to the Rutsi, their warlike neighbors to the West. Dasha wants to make peace with the Rutsi, but the only way they want to make peace with her is by conquest—or marriage.

Dasha leaves behind her home and everything she knows on a dangerous journey to treat with the Rutsi. As she travels through a new land, she discovers new powers, new dangers, and the oldest magic of all—love. Dasha’s gift is wild, but she’s about to find out that the heart is wilder still. Her exploration of forbidden passion and forbidden magic might be the key that unlocks all her untapped promise as the strongest sorceress of her generation—or it could be the weapon that destroys her and everything she cares about.

A high fantasy saga that combines spiritual exploration with a touch of spicy romance, The Singing Shore I: Sea and Song is the first installment in the trilogy sequel to the award-winning miniseries The Breathing Sea. If you loved the Winternight trilogy, Deathless, and the Kushiel series, or you just want to immerse yourself in some subversive, snarky epic fantasy set in a matriarchal, Russian-inspired world, come visit the land of Zem’!

***

So there you go! I'm super excited about this trilogy, and I can't wait to share more of it with you. Here are those preorder links if you want to check it out:

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/d...

Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-...

Apple: https://books.apple.com/book/id159169...

And if that's not enough for you, the Welcome to Your Quest book event is still going on for a few more day. More than 100 fantasy ebooks, many of them (including mine) free or 99c. Check it out here: https://books.bookfunnel.com/begin-yo...

Happy reading!
E.P.

Wolves, Priests, and Heroes: Reading recommendations for recent fantasy releases

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to fall (or spring if you're in the Southern Hemisphere)! Here in NC it's slowly becoming somewhat autumnal. Not a lot of fall color yet, but the temperatures the past few days have definitely been cooler than they've been in a while.

I'm still working away on revising The Singing Shore (you can follow me on Instagram at @elenapedigo if you want day-by-day updates on my progress, FYI). And I've commissioned maps! I've seen some of the sketches and I can't wait to share the finished product with you. Meanwhile, though, I thought I'd share some recent-ish fantasy releases I've been enjoying.

I'm currently listening to the audiobook of For the Wolf, by Hannah Whitten. I'm only partway through it, but so far it's a delightfully atmospheric dark fantasy reworking of Beauty and the Beast meets Little Red Riding Hood. Definitely recommend if you enjoy fairy tale retellings and/or darkish fantasy in the vein of Tanith Lee or Robin McKinley. Chirp link (where it's currently on deep discount) here: https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks...

I recently finished reading Kat Ross's latest release, City of Storms. It's set in a new world she's created, a kind of Tsarpunk place where Russian-esque priests battle dark mages--but all is not as straightforward as it seems. If you've been following me for a while you know I'm a big Kat Ross fan, and this latest book does not disappoint. Amazon link here: https://www.amazon.com/City-Storms-Ni...

And last but certainly not least, I have to mention A.M. Justice's sci-fantasy novel A Wizard's Sacrifice, book 2 in the Woern Saga. It's a great exploration of a flawed female hero--the whole series is a thought-provoking exploration of female characters--and I highly recommend it to anyone looking to read something with complex but powerful female characters navigating challenging circumstances. Amazon link here: https://www.amazon.com/Wizards-Sacrif...

So that's what I've been enjoying lately. What about you? Any recommendations? I always love getting reading recommendations from my readers, and I've found a number of great books that way, so keep them rolling in :)

Happy reading!

E.P.

Sneak Peek of Sinister Squirrels

Hello Everyone!

It's certainly warm here. A little too warm, some might say. Although it could be worse. I am trying to enjoy the midsummer flowers as much as possible, given that there's still a chemical toilet next door filling up the neighborhood with toxic fumes. So mostly I've been hiding out inside.

But that means I've had plenty of time to work on fun things like my new foray into hardcovers. “Fun” is maybe the wrong word, since I've mostly found it pretty frustrating, but I have to admit, there's something deeply satisfying about seeing your work in hardcover.

So that has taken up a lot of my time. It will be one of those things I will be very glad to have done, I'm sure of it. It's also been really good to re-read the earlier books in the series as I prepare to start another round of revisions of The Singing Shore, the trilogy I started during NaNoWriMo last year and that I really, really want to publish this year. Or maybe next year. As usual, I had all these grandiose plans of glory, but the hard slog of actually revising and publishing a book is reminding me that you can't hurry these things.

In the meantime, I thought I'd share another excerpt from The Singing Shore! This one with squirrels.

But first! The LGBT Paranormal & Fantasy Bookfair is still going strong! Check it out if you haven't already: https://books.bookfunnel.com/lgbtfant...

Now for that excerpt. But first a little backstory. This particular section is from Part I of The Singing Shore. The heroine is Dasha from The Breathing Sea, now setting off on a mission to treat with the Rutsi (basically Swedes/Vikings). Her ship gets caught in a storm on the way over and they have to make land on the shore of Seumi (basically Finland). This is the moment when Dasha first discovers that there may be more going on than she originally suspected…

Without, I hope, too much of a spoiler, I'll say that red squirrels play a big part. The recurring “red squirrel” motif in the stories is based on my own love of red squirrels. To my extreme delight, I even captured one on camera during a 2007 trip to Turku, a town in southwestern Finland.

To supplement my own slightly blurred pictures, I also created a Pinterest board full of red squirrels. Check it out--the pictures are truly adorable! https://www.pinterest.com/EPClarkAuth...

But in The Singing Shore squirrels seem to play a slightly more sinister role. Check out the excerpt below to find out more:

***

They found a small stream that was flowing off the bluff and into the beach only a few paces away from the encampment. Urho tested the water and nodded in satisfaction. Dasha tried not to squeal with joy at the thought of fresh water. They had casks of water on the ship, but it already tasted stale to her, and there wasn’t enough for proper washing, even if there had been a place to wash. This little waterfall coming down the bluff was only a trickle, but if they were going to be stuck here for several days, she could probably collect enough fresh water for a decent rinse, at least. She cupped her hands and caught a mouthful. It was crisp and clean, with a faint hint of earth and pine. Dasha thought it was the best water she had ever drunk.

Urho said something, pointing up the bluff face. Dasha guessed that he meant he was going to climb the bluff and explore the top of it, and he was suggesting that the rest of them stay behind. She was disappointed not to be invited to explore more, but she couldn’t blame him for wanting her to stay behind. She wasn’t the slowest or the weakest person in the world, but she could tell it would be a difficult scramble up the bluff, and she might tear her gown or fall and hurt herself, and then that would be a problem for everyone.

“Alik and I will search for wood for the fire along the bottom of the bluff,” she told him, making what she hoped were meaningful gestures as she did so.

He nodded as if he understood and approved. He said something to Anders Olafsson, nodding towards Dasha and Alik, probably telling him to stay with them. Anders Olafsson started to argue, then checked himself and said something that sounded like agreement. Urho gave a single sharp nod, signalling that the matter had been settled, then turned and put his hands on the granite of the bluff face, looking up in search of the best path to the top.

“What’s that!” Anders Olafsson cried in alarm.

Dasha looked to where he was pointing. It was just one tree among many at the top of the bluff. She squinted. Was there movement there? No, just the wind in the needles…no, wait, there was something there…a flash of red…

“It’s a squirrel,” she said in relief. “Just a squirrel!” Then, summoning up every ounce of her ability in Rutsi, she managed to come up with “Ekorn. Ekorn.”

She thought that would reassure Anders Olaffson, but he looked even more alarmed than before. Even Urho, she thought, had a flash of worry cross his face before he suppressed it. He and Anders Olafsson held a brief but urgent conversation. At the end of it, Urho stepped away from the bluff, and motioned for them to return to the beach and the fire ring.

Dasha obeyed, confused. “Did you see anything?” she whispered to Alik as they walked back. “Anything other than a squirrel?”

He shook his head. “Just the flash of a squirel’s tail, Tsarinovna. And the only thing I heard was its chittering as it scolded us for disturbing it. Hardly reason to run back to the others, I’d think.”

“I know,” Dasha agreed. But Anders Olafsson and Urho were both striding away from the bluff as quickly as they could without actually breaking into a run. Urho looked back, saw that she and Alik had fallen behind, and gestured impatiently for them to catch up. Sharing a puzzled glance with Alik, she did.

***


What will those squirrels get up to? Stay tuned for more excerpts, and, of course, review copies! Meanwhile, if you want more of the animals in The Singing Shore, you can check out my Pinterest board (https://www.pinterest.com/EPClarkAuth...). And don't forget to visit the bookfair before it shuts down! https://books.bookfunnel.com/lgbtfant...

Happy reading,
E.P.

Free book fair and the agony and ecstasy of hardbacks

Hello Everyone!

Such a busy weekend! I hope you're enjoying it, wherever you are.

Let's see, where to start, where to start…I guess with the announcement that the ebook of The Dreaming Land I: The Challenge is currently free on all storefronts: https://books2read.com/DreamingLandI

Second of all, I got invited into a private beta Amazon is running of a new hardback program. So hardbacks of The Midnight Land I: The Flight are now available! They're gorgeous, but creating those files was quite a headache, let me tell you. And the pain went on for weeks.

But now that the pain is over, I'm quite pleased with the final product! I've even started working on the next book. You can grab your own copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Midnight-Land-...

And finally, I'm participating in Fantastic Realms' Free Scifi and Fantasy book fair. Loads of free ebooks, including my own, available here: https://books.bookfunnel.com/fantasti...

So that's it for this weekend! I'm sure I will have more updates on the agony and the ecstasy of creating hardback covers next time. Meanwhile, stay cool, and happy reading!

E.P.

Last chance to get The Midnight Land I free! Plus an excerpt of The Singing Shore

Hi Everyone!

I hope you're having a great May. It's been surprisingly cool here. That has not prevented the pollen from being released in enormous quantities. I like to think it's giving my voice a sexy, throaty quality. I suspect it's actually just making me sound hoarse.

I've got a jam-packed newsletter today, so I'll get right down to business. First of all, The Midnight Land I: The Flight is about to come off of its current price of free. If you want to snaffle it before it goes back up to full price at the end of the month, the universal link is here: https://books2read.com/MidnightLandI

And as always, reviews of any of my books are much appreciated! I'm planning a big promo soon of the first book in the summer-themed trilogy The Dreaming Land, so if you've already read it and you feel moved to leave a review (link here: https://books2read.com/DreamingLandI), that would be particularly welcome :) If you haven't read it yet, it will be free starting in June (if I can get the mighty Zon gods to cooperate), so keep an eye out for that email!

Now for that promised excerpt of The Singing Shore, my current work in progress. But first a little backstory.

Most of The Singing Shore is set in a place heavily based on Finland, and is inspired by my own trips to Finland. This particular excerpt shows the main character, Dasha, traveling on foot through an Arctic landscape near something like the North Sea. This was based loosely on my own hiking trip in 2010 in Finnish Lapland. In the excerpt below, Dasha and her companions travel past a mountain called Korkeamäki, literally “High Hill” in Finnish (my Finnish names are not very inventive). Korkeamäki is very similar to Saana Fell, a high hill in Northwestern Finnish Lapland that was sacred to the Sami people.

It's a rough walk for Dasha and her companions through a harsh but beautiful landscape. That, too, is based on my own experience: the Kalottireitti trail we were one was some of the roughest going I've ever experienced--but we were rewarded with sweeping, Lord of the Rings-style vistas.

(If you want to see pictures, check out my block post here: https://epclarkauthor.net/2021/05/15/...)

So with the proper setting firmly in mind, here's that excerpt from The Singing Shore:

Part II, Chapter 33, Scene 2:

They walked past Korkeamäki all day, its looming presence both a comfort and an obscure threat of…what? The presence of great magic, Dasha decided. The promise of a power greater than any they themselves would ever wield, a brooding presence that hung over the land.

At one point Dasha asked if they should go to it, perhaps climb it, in order to gain more magic for themselves. But Tuulikki shook her head and said no, the magic of Korkeamäki was wild and unpredictable. She had gone up it once, she said, when she first began her training as a sorceress. She had climbed to the top and spent the night there, praying to the gods and spirits of the place to grant her the power she deserved, and take from her any power she had gained through unfair means, anything she had not earned herself. All novice sorceresses did. Those that were worthy came down the next morning with access to their power. Some were granted more power than they had originally been judged to have. But those that were unworthy had their power diminished, or taken away entirely. Some never came back at all.


“What happens to them?” Dasha asked with fascinated horror.

“The spirits take them away. Or the wolves or bears,” Tuulikki said. “I have always believed it was wolves or bears. We have great brown bears here, and sometimes, in winter, the great white ice bears cross the frozen sea and roam our lands, hunting our reindeer—and us, if we are not careful.”

Dasha looked around in alarm, but saw no signs of any bears at all, let alone ice bears. There were a few small drifts of snow on the North side of the larger boulders they passed, and as the afternoon wore on and they slowly walked past Korkeamäki, she saw that the North side of it was dotted with patches of ice and snow. She shivered and pulled her cloak around herself tightly.

She was expecting a cold night camped out in the middle of the rocky plain they were crossing, but in the late afternoon they came to a small hut, set just off the road.

“This is the main way between Vanhakylä and Taikakylä,” Tuulikki said. “People often travel between the two. There are huts along the way.”

The hut was a primitive affair, just four walls, a roof, a floor, a simple hearth, and a couple of built-in benches that could be used for sitting on, cooking on, or sleeping on. But it was vastly better than Dasha had been expecting, so to her eyes it was as good as a palace.

They lit a fire in the hearth and ate a simple but hot supper. Then they went to bed. Tuulikki had declared that setting a watch would do them little good, so they all went to bed at the same time, Urho on one bench and Dasha and Tuulikki on the other.

Dasha had the side of the bench closest to the wall. This gave her ample opportunity to realize that, while sleeping in the hut was vastly preferable to being out in the open air, the hut walls were still only loosely chinked. Cold air, smelling of snow and salt, came creeping in through the cracks, chilling her face with the cold of winter, even though it was still only early autumn. She wrapped herself up as warmly as she could, but the cold drafts still managed to sneak their way in around her neck. It took a long time, and many changes of position, before she was finally able to find a position that was warm enough to allow her to fall asleep.


So there you have it! I hope you enjoyed it.

Until next time,
E.P.

"The Singing Shore" is finished! Sort of.

Hey Everyone!

Yes! It's true! I finished the first draft of "The Singing Shore"! The finished draft weighed in at 353,461 words. I'm currently planning to split it up into a trilogy.

As you can see, it was a gargantuan task. And there are many more gargantuan tasks left to do before it will be ready to go out into the world. I can't even begin to guess at a release date at this point. I have these vague fantasies that it will be ready to come out sometime in the fall, but those are just vague fantasies.

I knew this would be the case going into it, but The Singing Shore turned out to be even more long and complex than I had originally planned, even though I ended up having to scrap a lot of the plot. Of course. That's how these things go. Such tales tend to grow in the telling, and all that. There's a whole bunch that's loosely inspired by The Kalevala, the national epic of Finland, and all kinds of stuff from Nordic and Viking culture. I included a fair amount of Finnish in it, and a few words of Swedish and Norwegian that I scrounged up from Google Translate. I also included all sorts of animals, of course, especially birds. If you'd like to see some of my sources of inspiration, take a look at my Pinterest boards: https://www.pinterest.com/EPClarkAuth...

Anyway, while it will be many months before The Singing Shore is published, here's a little taste of it to whet your appetite. It includes birds--among other things.

Happy reading!

E.P. Clark


“Come on, Alik!” she shouted as he retreated from another attack by Mikhail Yarmilovich, stumbling in the sand and going down on one knee. Mikhail Yarmilovich leapt at him with a great hammering downward blow. Dasha shrieked through lips she was trying to bite closed, sure that Alik was going to lose, Mikhail Yarmilovich was going to disarm him and defeat him, maybe knock him unconscious, leave him disabled forever…

But he didn’t. Alik caught the blow with his own sword and turned it aside with an effort that made both men groan. Then, somehow, he was jumping to his feet, quicker than a cat, and pressing the attack on Mikhail Yarmilovich, driving him back through the heavy sand.

“Come on!” Dasha cried, knowing she was being silly, undignified, unbecoming to a tsarinovna. “Come on, come on, come on!”

Alik attacked Mikhail Yarmilovich again, their swords meeting with a clang that made Dasha’s own teeth hurt, and that they both must have felt all the way down to their toes. Their swords caught, and they circled, each keeping the other from attacking, less than a foot apart, the cords and sinews standing out on their necks and arms and shoulders as if they were in a deadly battle, not a casual training match.

“Come on,” Dasha whispered. Her whole body ached to do something, even though she knew there was no need, and Alik wouldn’t thank her if she were to help him. But she had to, her body was demanding it, it was demanding some kind of power, some kind of release, some kind of…

“Akh!” she cried, just as a gull called overhead, just as Alik, with a shout and a jerk of his sword, disarmed Mikhail Yarmilovich and sent him sprawling, just as the waves of a fit spread down her scalp, her neck, her shoulders, all throughout her body. “Akh!”

“Tsarinovna!” Marya Arinovna put out a hand to steady her. “Are you all right?”

“It was just a fit,” Dasha said. Alik was standing over Mikhail Yarmilovich, his chest heaving, looking straight at her, and she was looking straight back at him, unable to take her eyes away, unable to feel anything other than the feeling that bound them right now, so intense it seemed it must be visible, hanging in the air like a ray of golden light, from his heart straight to hers. “A fit,” she repeated. “Heralding the return of my visions.”

Doggy drama! Plus the rise of the machines

Hey Everyone!

I hope you're hanging in there with this crazy weather we've been having across a lot of the US. Especially if you're in Texas. Here in NC, it wasn't nearly that bad, but we did get more freezing rain than we would have liked. Fortunately no major trees went down in my neighborhood, and this weekend we've just been getting regular old rain, not freezing rain.

On the animal front (because I know this is the first thing on everyone's minds!), poor Renee still continues to have trouble eating. She was doing a lot better and seemed to be recovering from the Terrible Dental Surgery of December, but the past couple of days she started having issues again. The really sad thing is that when her mouth starts bothering her she becomes absolutely terrified of eating.

It's so pitiful! Fortunately, overall she does seem to be getting better, so I'm hoping that in eventually she'll be able to eat more or less normally again. She may have developed some long-term tooth and gum sensitivity, though, so she might have to live mainly off of soft food.

In other, more upbeat news, I have created a YouTube channel and posted all three audiobooks from the Giaco & Luca series on it! Yes! You can now listen to them for free here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS... If you haven't read or listened to them yet, and are wondering what they're like, people have told me they're sort of like a D&D game on Diagon Alley, but set in Renaissance Italy.

While they're completely free to you, listening to them and/or subscribing to my channel helps me, since once I get enough subscribers and/or listening hours, I can start earning money off the channel. Although I have to be upfront and say I'm not primarily in it for the money (which is a good thing). This is more about creating a piece of artisanal, handcrafted, unique art.

This is something I've been thinking about a lot recently, with the rise of AI and the predictions that within the next 5 years we'll have AI writing our books and narrating them. Frankly, I have my doubts, but lots of smart people are saying this, so I think it's worth taking seriously.

That being said, AI-generated books seem like a real waste to me. Maybe I'm wrong. Probably I'll be proven wrong, and sooner rather than later. But what's the point of an AI-generated piece of art?

So until you hear otherwise, you can safely assume that all my books are written entirely by me, with no AI involvement. They're also narrated entirely by me. That's a bold decision on my part, since narrating, editing, and mastering your own audiobooks takes a lot of work to get to something even vaguely approaching professional production values, but it also means that you get my voice and my interpretation of the characters.

What do you think? Is the rise of the machines inevitable? Ten years from now will we all be reading and listening to entirely AI-generated stories? Or will the human touch remain paramount?

In the meantime, you can listen to my entirely human-generated stories for free here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLS...

Happy reading!

E.P. Clark

My Favorite Fantasy Books of the Year So Far

Hello Everyone!

I hope you are staying safe and healthy and enjoying the new year. I'm still hunkered down pretty well, only going out to take Renee the Italian Greyhound to see her favorite people at the pet food store. She is still trying to recover from her tragic tooth issue and consequent dental surgery and complications, but I am glad to say she is doing a lot better than she was a month ago. She's still on a mainly soup-based diet, but she's eating pretty happily instead of trembling in terror. She goes back to the vet next week to get checked out again, so fingers crossed for a positive outcome there.

I myself have been super busy trying to do three projects at once, which I don't recommend. One of those three projects is The Singing Shore, my NaNoWriMo project. I'm now about 255k words into a planned trilogy of about 300k words. I'm trying to tell myself that the finish line is almost in sight! I will certainly keep you updated on my progress. Meanwhile, if you'd like to see some of my inspiration, you can check out my Pinterest page. I've added some boards on kanteles (Finnish harps), icebergs, and other things that make appearances in the story.

I have managed to read some really good fantasy books recently. I'm currently listening to the audio version of Kazuo Ishiguro's (yes, that Kazuo Ishiguro, of Remains of the Day fame) literary fantasy The Buried Giant, set in post-Arthurian Britain. It's a dense, beautiful work about memory and trauma, along with magical creatures. Highly recommended.

And I just finished The Conjurer, the final book in Luanne G. Smith's Vine Witch trilogy. It's set in an alternative version of early 20th-century France, where magic is real and witches make wine and perfume. All three books are fast-paced, easy reads that still manage to convey a lovely sense of place and time, with a distinctly French feel full of colors, tastes, and scents. Also highly recommended.

What about you? What have you been reading lately? Any recommendations?

All the best,

E.P.

Vet Visits and Audiobook Giveaway

Hello Everyone!

Goodness, what a week, what a week! I hope you are staying calm and safe in the midst of the maelstrom.

I have been doing reasonably well, although there have been some issues. Nothing to do with the madness in DC, but rather with my furry companions. Precious Renee, my Italian Greyhound mix, had to have a tooth removed last month. I thought she was healing well--and then she went completely off food over Christmas. Apparently she was in a lot of pain, although the vet and I were both unable to figure out what, exactly, was hurting her. She is a very delicate creature, poor thing.

She does seem to be the mend, I am glad to report, although the world has been watching with bated breath to see if she would pull through.

Meanwhile, Zelda the senior cat also went downhill over Christmas. Fortunately with a medication adjustment and a new diet she has perked up for the moment too. But there have been a lot of calls to the vet's office over the past few weeks! Also, I discovered that prescription cat food costs $68 a bag. I am glad to say that the cats have agreed to eat it, because it would have been extremely sad otherwise.

In the midst of all of this I have managed to do some writing and book-related stuff. I'm still working on The Singing Shore, my NaNoWriMo2020 project. I'm now about 220k words in and have just started Part III. It will be a serialized monster novel in several book-length parts, like the other books in the Zemnian Series. At the moment the main character is on the equivalent of the Arctic Ocean and is admiring icebergs. I've started an Iceberg board on my Pinterest page in honor of it, so you can check out beautiful pictures of icebergs here: https://www.pinterest.com/EPClarkAuth...

I'm also participating in an audiobook giveaway on Bookfunnel. Bookfunnel is now doing an open beta of audiobook services, so you can do download whole books, instead of just short stories and snippets, and listen to them on their free app. Since this is a new thing and still in beta, the giveaway is pretty small, but there are several good-looking audiobooks, including one of my own, available for free here: https://books.bookfunnel.com/startsom...

So that is about it! I hope 2021 is starting off well for you, and you are staying safe and enjoying seasonally appropriate activities for your hemisphere.

All the best,

E.P.

The Midnight Land I is now free on all storefronts!

Hello Everyone!

I hope you're staying safe and enjoying the holiday season. I have succumbed to my addiction to online gaming in a very minor way. You see, I got a Jacquie Lawson advent calendar. You might think that's pretty safe, but noooooooo. If you've ever gotten one, you know that they're fiendishly stuffed with various versions of solitaire and other games. I have been spending far too much time playing a Tetris-like jewel game. By far too much time I mean maybe half an hour a day, but when you have as many problems from sitting at the computer as I do, that's way too much time.

Still, we all must have a little fun and games in our lives, mustn't we? I mean, you've got to have some play, right? Right.

I've also been taking care of Renee, my half-Italian Greyhound who's been having some mysterious health problems recently. After a battery of tests turned up nothing, I had her teeth cleaned--and the vet discovered she had a broken molar (: (: She is now recuperating. At the moment things are still pretty sad for her, but here's hoping that she perks up soon!

The other exciting news is that the ebook of The Midnight Land I is now free on all storefronts! Link here: https://books2read.com/u/3yzg2l

And The Midnight Land II is on a temporary discount down to $2.99: https://books2read.com/u/3kAGwW

The Midnight Land was my first full-length fantasy novel (that I actually published--there were numerous novels that were finished but will never, ever see the light of day). It came out a lot wilder and weirder than I originally intended, but that's part of the magic of art, right? If you haven't read it yet, now is a great time to pick it up.

Have a wonderful weekend, and happy reading!

E.P.