Kayleigh Nicol's Blog: The Broken Wing, page 6

Mage-Born Anthology Update

The Mage-Born Anthology is taking a trip to my editor in January! Eee, it seems so close now! I love this collection of short stories and I can't want to get it into the hands of my readers. It's been so much fun shining the spotlight on Reshi's siblings, especially as some of them had such a limited time on the page. Each story is set as the main character comes into their magic or has to learn to deal with their magic in a society where it has been outlawed. There may even be a few hints regarding the characters in my current WIP, the Great Mage Hunt! So if you are interested in learning more about Reshi's family, you may love these shorts featuring Reina, Eagan, Kila, Laki, Velyn and Cera--plus two bonus character stories!!

Even more exciting news: I am looking for beta readers! It's a crazy time of year with the holidays and a few of my usual readers have had to decline, so I have some openings for anyone willing to provide critiques and feedback on the Mage-Born Anthology as it stands now. Please let me know if this is something that interests you! You can DM me through Goodreads or email me directly at: ByKayleighNicol@gmail.com

Happy Reading!

An Off-Topic Anime Discussion

I consider myself an anime fan, but several years ago I kind of fell out of it, what with real life, video games, social obligations and general adulting. I've recently gotten back into watching some of the current series as they are released (Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, and a few others) but as I step back into anime culture, I realized I had missed quite a lot in my anime-less interim. Most notably, I had given up on Naruto back when the series decided to create a year of filler before switching to Naruto Shippuden. So, naturally, I've been trying to catch up in "all of my free time" which basically consists of watching three episodes a day while I run on the treadmill.

[Mild Spoilers for Naruto Shippuden ahead, you have been warned!]

I've just reached the end of the Sasuka/Itachi fight and I know I'm late to this party by about a decade, but seriously WTF?? I was already an Itachi-sympathizer. Why did they have to go and rip out my heart with even more baby Sasuke/big brother Itachi backstory? I don't even care if Madara is making it all up--my heart is irreparably broken. You bastards. ::dies sobbing::

So yeah, that's what I've been doing with my life lately. One day I hope to catch up on Bleach (once again, stopped at the filler arc, never went back) and watch a few other classic favorites. I did finish FMA Brotherhood and a few of the Gundam series (Seed/Seed Destiny/Iron-Blooded Orphans) but I know there are still quite a few I need to watch to be "caught up."

Anything to recommend? Tell me in the comments!

SPFBO News and a 99c sale!

Sorcerous Rivalry made it into the top four books of Team Weatherwax's SPFBO entries and while it was an honor to stand with these great authors, the team has chosen their finalist to advance in the competition. If you have not yet read Barbara Kloss's Gods of Men it is a thrilling grimdark-ish tale full of necromancy, intriguing magic, war and (dare I say it) a bit of romance. Amazingly written and such a strong story, I can honestly say I'm looking forward to watching it advance to the round of finals of SPFBO. Good luck, Barbara!!

In addition to SPFBO's first finalists being chosen, there is an SPFBO 99c/99p sale going on! Many of the books on sale are semi-finalists and have been reviewed on Mark Lawrence's SPFBO blog, so if your TBR is looking a little light (haha) pick up some of these amazing titles for cheap! I know I'll be going over budget once again... /sigh

Happy Reading!!

The Great Mage Hunt Begins!

So far, I'm having a lot of fun writing book one of the Great Mage Hunt! Thanks to NaNoWriMo, I am currently at 35k words of what will likely be a 120-150k novel. I'm having a lot of fun with the characters so far, although I'm already dreading my first editing phase. But that's a problem for future-Kayleigh to deal with.

Due to my intense focus on NaNo, I have not yet begun edits on the Mage-Born Anthology. My plan is to start edits in December, so maybe a January or February release date. It's always hard to find beta readers with time around December, so if you have experience beta-reading and you'd like to preview and offer feedback on the anthology, send me a message!

Good luck to anyone working on a NaNo manuscript and happy reading!

It's NaNoWriMo!!!

It's finally November and that means NaNoWriMo!!! My current daily word count goal is 2,500/day which, if I could maintain for 30 days, would put me at a little under 75% of the way through the rough draft of my current WIP. Perhaps I'll have a complete rough draft by the end of the year? That's what I'll be working towards, anyway.

In the spirit of NaNoWriMo, I am beginning a new project, currently titled "Great Mage Hunt." This will be a prequel title to Sorcerous Rivalry with new characters and a bit more background to the kingdom of Zarapheth. I spent a lot of time in October writing outlines and creating characters, so hopefully my preparation helps speed the writing process. But who knows? If this MC is anything like Reshi, the story could go in totally unintended directions.

To everyone participating in NaNoWriMo18, Good Luck!!!

Creative Break

So, since the Mage-Born Anthology is on cooldown for thirty days and I plan to begin the first Great Mage Hunt book on November 1st in honor of NaNoWriMo, I decided that October would be a good month for me to take a creative break. You know, rest my fingers, get some new ideas flowing, maybe jot down some character ideas and outlines for Mage Hunt, but mostly just mentally resetting myself. And so, I have spent most of October playing video games.

My plan was to play Final Fantasy X-2 to 100% completion (yes, it's an old game and not the best FF game, but it appeals to my obsessive nature). I've beaten it to 100% before, but it's been years. It took three weeks to get to the end-game content and just before I started tackling the Via Infinito (a truly painful experience, if memory serves me correctly) I realized I had screwed up my game percentage. Worse, if I wanted to fix it, I'd have to start the game over in the middle so all the previous end-game stuff I'd already done (including one extremely tedious 4-hour boss fight) would have to be done over. Needless to say, I set the entire TV and Playstation on fire before tossing them out the window.

So with one week left in my creative break, I decided to look for another old favorite game--and rediscovered my worst addiction: World of Warcraft.

I promise to try and drag myself away from this beast of a game (there's a new expansion! And new races!!) in time for NaNoWriMo (Headless Horseman! My favorite!!!) but at this point it's difficult to make any promises...

Winners of the 2018 IAN Awards Announced!

Back when I first published my debut novel, I entered Sorcerous Rivalry into the Independent Author's Network "Book of the Year" contest. This week, I was notified that Sorcerous Rivalry was named a finalist in the LBGT category! Yay! Lots of great books were entered into this contest and I'm especially excited to check out the outstanding winner of the fantasy category, The Shaman's Apprentice by B. Muze. If you are looking for something new to read, check out the list of finalists here.

It's a quiet month for me as I gear up to participate in NaNoWriMo this year. I've decided to start the first book of the Great Mage Hunt on November 1st and set a word count goal per day of writing. I'd love to get a rough draft complete by the end of the month, but that's a bit of a lofty goal right now. For now, I'm working on outlining the story and creating a few character profiles so I'm ready to hit the ground running come November. Shout out if you are also participating in NaNoWriMo this year--I'll look forward to cheering you on!

SPFBO Team Weatherwax Hopefuls Announced

In June of this year, I entered Sorcerous Rivalry into the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off contest run by Mark Lawrence and was lucky enough to be assigned to Team Weatherwax. Just this past week, Team Weatherwax hacked and slashed their way through their thirty-one books and announced nine books as "hopefuls," from which they will choose their semi-finalists--And Sorcerous Rivalry made the list!!! So excited and honored to have made it this far, especially considering the quality of many of the titles and authors within the Team Weatherwax group.

If you are looking for any SPFBO recommendations, my favorites so far have been The Gods of Men by Barbara Kloss, Kings of Paradise by Richard Nell, Kingshold by DP Wooliscroft and Hero Forged by Josh Erikson. I have a lot more SPFBO books on my TBR that I can't wait to get to!

Mistress Mage and the Mage-Born Anthology Updates

Mistress Mage is now live on Amazon in both ebook and paperback formats! Tell your friends, update your holiday wish lists! The cover is gorgeous and it wraps up Reshi and Kestral's story so you know you'll want it!!

And the other exciting news: The Mage-Born Anthology is a complete rough draft, printed and bound and sitting for my mandatory 30-day quarantine. Presently, it is a series of short stories featuring each of Reshi's siblings as teenagers coming into their magic, plus two bonus character stories. (Who, you ask? Wait and see!) As these stories take place before the mage-born bounties were announced, one or two characters from my planned Great Mage Hunt series make an appearance as well. I can't wait to share this with everyone!

Sometimes it still seems crazy that I've self-published two books. This time last year, I was just beginning to first draft of Sorcerous Rivalry and wondering if it was worth continuing--especially coming up on a cross-country move as my family and I were at the time. I'm so glad I stuck with it; becoming an indie author has been one of my proudest achievements to date. Self-publishing certainly isn't easy to do, but it's been a labor of love and I look forward to creating more and more works to share!

Mistress Mage Monday!!!!

So excited to announce that the Mistress Mage ebook goes on sale Monday! Pre-orders are available now if you just can't wait that long. The physical book is currently under review and should be available within the next 72 hours. This is it, everyone! The conclusion to Reshi and Kestral's story is here!

That's not to say there couldn't be more Reshi/Kestral stories at some point. My current project is finishing the rough draft of the Mage-Born Anthology and after that, I plan to begin work on a prequel series that explores the Great Mage Hunt that occurred nearly thirty years prior to the events in Sorcerous Rivalry. I'm equally excited about each project and hopefully my readers will be too, but if you want more Reshi and Kestral, TELL ME!! I love to hear from readers, either here on this blog or via email: ByKayleighNicol@gmail.com. I can't wait to hear from you!

Happy Reading!!