L.S. May's Blog, page 2

What's in a name?

As you probably know, The Witch's Heir is a spinoff series of my very first series, The Innocence Cooper series. The Witch's Heir features Innocence's children, and obviously children are name by their parents, so where did the names Melanie and Grace come from?

Melanie: I can imagine Elliot (Melanie's father) pushing for his family's tradition of a name starting with El. I can imagine Innocence both thinking the names he suggests are kind of dumb, and thinking a little more irrationally that if she's named for his family, she becomes more his than she is hers. So I think of Melanie as their compromise - it contains 'el' but doesn't start with it.

Grace: In book 5 of the first series, Clay Collins says to Innocence that (to him) there's no truer measure of a person than grace in victory. Innocence counters with, "This friendship is our victory," implying she didn't actually defeat him. Some spoilers ahead... I imagine Clay, who was born a witch hunter but reformed to being on the side of witches, changed his mind at some point. I think he snapped when his father died, and he took it upon himself to take out Innocence - the leader of the witches. Innocence, of course, took him down shortly before Grace was born, and she named her after Clay's comment, both to remind herself that there was good in him, and to remind herself to be graceful in that victory, to not turn bitter against the other reformed witch hunters within her ranks.

Bloodlines, the third book in The Witch's Heir series is coming this year. I know this one has been a while coming, but it is still coming.

Also this year will be a new trilogy - Demon's Don't Love.

The Reaper's Curse - Out now

If you'd rather read the book than a blog post, go straight here. Ebook only as of today, paperback to follow.


When Cassie Montgomery starts seeing the Grim Reaper himself in her dreams, she knows it's a bad sign. But when he asks for her help, her heart tells her she can't refuse.

Despite her friends' warnings, Cassie grows closer to him. But when she finds out who he really is and what he really wants, it will change everything.


Admittedly, I've been dragging my heels with this one a bit. It is the fourth - and final - book in The Reaper's Heart series, and I wasn't sure I was ready to say goodbye.

Yeah, yeah - I can already here some of you saying 'just write a fifth book'. Which is kind of how that works, but also kind of not how that works. This is the last one in the series. There is a faint possibility of a distant spin off in which the main characters of this one are either not seen, or only briefly seen, but if that ever is to happen, it will be a while off.

So what is next? There is the third and final Witch's Heir book - which is still a work in progress, and will be out in 2020, although no guarantees as to when.

I'm also working on another unrelated series - a paranormal romance featuring a demon. Book one is almost done, but I may delay the release until book 2 is more complete, since there's kind of a cliffhanger at the end of book one, and the worst part about those is when the next bit simply isn't available.

The Reaper's Soul is out now!

This time, it's his soul on the line.

The Reaper's Soul (The Reaper's Heart Series book #3) is out now!

You can read it through KU or buy yourself the ebook here, or wait a week or two and grab the paperback.

When reaper hunters came for Cassie's boyfriend, Johnny, he broke the rules and refused to kill them. Now, to make up for it, the high council are demanding he takes three souls from the living - including one belonging to Cassie's ex-best friend, Kara. If he refuses, his soul will be claimed.

Will Johnny choose to kill to save his own life? And can Cassie save him if he doesn't?

This one is longer than the previous books in the series, so hopefully you find more to enjoy. If you have the time, reviews are always appreciated.

And, finally... the word trilogy is thrown around here a lot - especially considering I guess I've technically never written one. So, yes, there will be a fourth book in this series. Don't ask me when, but it will be called The Reaper's Curse.


Blood Debt is also available now - grab your copy here.

Covers!

So, my next two releases will be (in still not confirmed order) Blood Debt (Witch's Heir #2) and The Reaper's Soul (Reaper's Heart #3). And both of these now have covers.

Blood Debt:
The Reaper's Soul:

And in related news, I always planned for The Reaper's Heart to be a trilogy... but there will be a fourth component - not necessarily novel length. It's tentatively titled The Reaper's Curse.

Release dates for the two books above? Not confirmed yet... but soon :)

Grab your copy of Royal Blood today!

Royal Blood is out now! Grab your copy here or read for free with KU.

Royal Blood is the first book in a spin off series (trilogy?) from the Innocence Cooper series. A lot of your favourite characters pop in from time to time, but if you haven't read the Innocence Cooper series, you can start here.

As a member of witch royalty, Melanie Cooper should be one of the most powerful and respected witches of her time. But Melanie was born without an active power - half a witch as they say at her school. Weak. And that's exactly how Melanie feels.
The only way to fix it is to seek out the dark masters - powerful, ancient beings who could give her what she wants, for a price. With Melanie's bloodline coming under attack, she can't afford to be vulnerable. But what if there was a good reason she was never granted an active power?

Royal Blood is on sale for US 99c for the first week of January. This is a worldwide sale, with other-currency prices set to the equivalent of US 99c plus any local taxes.

What's next? The plan is to get The Reaper's Soul and the next Witch's Heir book (Blood Debt) out in the first half of 2019. I'll keep you posted.

Royal Blood Cover

Royal Blood (the first in an Innocence Cooper spin off trilogy) is almost here.

Almost enough to have its very own cover, and, finally, a series title - The Witch's Heir.


Leave your comments below, and look for Royal Blood in the next month or so.

I told myself I would never do this...

"This" being write from Jamie's point of view. So much of the fun with writing him is in how hard to read he is - how you don't know what's going on under the surface, but in the end I just couldn't get this story out of my head, and he was the right one to tell it.

So here it is - an Innocence Cooper short story set after book 5, but before 'Ghosts of Innocence' (bonus story included with book 5)

[image error] dreamsofinnocence.pdfFile Size: 187 kbFile Type: pdfDownload File So this is the part where I talk about the story - if you're not a fan of spoilers, I suggest you read the story first then come back here.

There were several things I wanted to do with this story. One was have Elliot trust Innocence - I felt like their trust issues weren't totally dealt with in book 5. Another was give a little hint of Cinder and Jamie. And I kind of did want one last kiss for Innocence and Jamie - even if it wasn't much of one.

The Reaper's Heart - Out Now!

Grab your copy here (KU or ebook available now, paperback within 2 weeks.)

Currently priced at 99c - get in quick, no guarantees this pricing will last.

In other news, you can pre-order The Reaper's Choice right now. It will be released on August 31st (if not before.)

Royal Blood Blurb

So, if you've been paying attention, you'll know there's an Innocence Cooper series spinoff (trilogy?) in the works.

The series/trilogy title is yet to be confirmed, but the first book is called Royal Blood - blurb below.


As a member of witch royalty, Melanie Cooper should be one of the most powerful and respected witches of her time. But Melanie was born without an active power - half a witch as they say at her school. Weak. And that's exactly how Melanie feels.
The only way to fix it is to seek out the dark masters - powerful, ancient beings who could give her what she wants, for a price. With Melanie's bloodline coming under attack, she can't afford to be vulnerable. But what if there was a good reason she was never granted an active power?


Basically, it's set twenty something years after the Innocence Cooper series. Melanie is Innocence's daughter, and - as revealed in the blurb - she was born without an active power. Naturally, as a Cooper, she finds this completely unacceptable.

There are a lot of characters from the first series that pop up throughout the story - some just for brief scenes, but some as fairly main characters.

In my tradition of vague release dates, let's just say 'this year'...

The Reaper's Heart - Cover Reveal

The Reaper's Heart finally has a cover - see below.
At its heart, this book is a romance... I think of it as a romantic comedy, but that probably understates the drama and (obvious) paranormal elements. It definitely gets more light-hearted than some of my other works, but it would be a mistake to think it didn't have some dark moments too.

As mentioned before, this book will be out October 31 at the latest. I'm hoping for before, but books really just have to come out when they're ready to.

In other news, the boxset of books 1-3 of the Innocence Cooper series is available now. Check it out here.