Matthew Cesca's Blog

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The Shadow Sisters Release Date Announcement

This standalone dark fantasy novel releases October 21st, 2025

Feast Your Eyes on the Cover of The Shadow Sisters

A standalone dark fantasy coming this fall.

Revisiting the Library

Re-reading your own books as an author can be weird. Let me explain... With The Shadow Sisters off to my editor, I've had a little free...

Meet the Author ...Again

Perhaps re-introductions are in order -- and a writing update!

Hey folks, it's been a while. I haven't written one of these here blog thingies in almost a year. But when you stop and think about it, it could be worse. I haven't published a book in almost three years -- which feels like an eternity when you're used to putting out one a year. And since its been so long since I've put out a book, I figured it was time to reintroduce myself to you all and give a few updates about what you can expect from me this year.

First of all, hi. I'm Matt and I'm a fantasy and scifi author. I've written and published five books, including a stand alone portal fantasy, a sword and sorcery trilogy, and the first book of a futuristic dystopian scifi series. I've also started a handful of other projects that I've been working on over the last year off and on. I would love to say that I'm a full time author, but I spend forty hours a week fixing broken computers to pay the bills while building my author brand and writing backlog. I play guitar and bass for fun, and got my start with writing music and lyrics. Over time it morphed into telling stories that I hope all of you will enjoy.

If you've been following along with my social media posts for a while or remember back into the distant past when I wrote my last blog, you're probably aware of my next big project, The Shadow Sisters. It's been a labor of love over the last three years, which is a very extended period of time for a writing project for me. I've had to fight some mental health demons along the way, as well as a number of life changes which have left me with little time or motivation to write for far too much of the last three years.

So it's with tremendous excitement that I'm proud to announce that The Shadow Sisters is finally off to my editor! I finished up the last round of pre-editing revisions on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday morning received proof drafts for the cover from my artist. I also already have a map done from another talented artist that I can't wait to reveal to all of you as well. All in all, we're on track for a fall 2025 release!

The Shadow Sisters is a much darker book than you might be used to from me. Not that I've ever been afraid to go dark in my novels before. If you've read them, you know that the body count can get fairly high. But in The Shadow Sisters, the darkness is very personal. This is the story of one woman's fall and the lies and betrayals that lead to it.

Our main character is a young woman named Anjia. Having grown up in a remote village, she's been promised to the local temple of Kyrsma. She's been training as an acolyte for seventeen cycles (years) to become a full sister of the temple, but there's one test that remains: Anjia must face the Khimital, a shadow demon that the sisters of the temple have keep bound to protect the rest of the world. If she does not defeat it, she will die at the Khimital's hands.

What Anjia doesn't know is that the temple has long ago fallen to the Khimital. The game is rigged. Facing the Khimital is a test to see if she is worthy to serve it as a shadow sister -- an assassin who it sends to kill targets around Ilisana in order to extend its grip over the continent. And though Anjia initially tries to resist, it's not long before she realizes that if she does not serve the Khimital willingly, it will simply take over her body like shadowy puppeteer and force her to act upon its will. Her only choice, if she wants to maintain any illusion of control, is to serve it. And the longer she serves it, the more she begins to enjoy what it's making her into.

In many ways, this is a story about choice -- or the illusion thereof. It asks the questions:

When the threat of losing control of your own bodily autonomy hangs over your head, what are you willing to do?

How far are you willing to go? And...

Will you let your actions under duress change who you really are?

Because that's the thing about evil. The more you commit it, the easier it becomes to justify. And it can begin with just the smallest of selfish choices and escalate out of control before you realize it.

So needless to say, I'm excited to finally have a product that I'm proud of in the hands of my very capable editor, Vanessa Redmon. I can't wait to show you the final cover by the extremely talented Fay Lane. And I'm truly looking forward to showing you the world I've created in my head that the incredibly talented Dewi Hargreaves has brought to life with the map he created for this book. The plan is to roll both of those out, as well as the blurb, release date, and preorder box options over the next few months for The Shadow Sisters to release this fall. If you want to stay up to date without having to scour social media, you can subscribe to my mailing list and receive announcements right in your inbox!

In the meantime, here's the teaser trailer for The Shadow Sisters to get you excited! Talk to you all again soon!

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Life in the Shadows

A writing update on The Shadow Sisters

It's been a busy last month or so around here, and it's all been a lot of pretty good things. My mental health has taken a turn for the better with new meds, so I can actually think clearly again. I've had the new cover and formatting rerelease of The Stairs in the Woods to celebrate. And I've also been busy with other writerly things of late as well. Specifically, the writing.

That's right, I'm writing again.

It had been a pretty rough last year and a half. in that time I barely touched my writing at all, and when I did it was in fits and starts. I detailed my issues with depression and anxiety in my blog last July. I had hoped to have things cleared up by now. Unfortunately, getting my meds right took longer than I had hoped. But I'm seeing a different doctor now and getting much better results than before. The brain fog is mostly gone. It's noisy in my head still, but I can fight through it for the most part.

At the time of the aforementioned blog, I promised more writing updates on The Shadow Sisters which I did not deliver on. And well, to be fair, there wasn't much progress to report. I wrote about five chapters over that last year, and in a lot of respects, the writing was not up to my standards. When I went back and reread everything I had up to this point, three of those five chapters were very weak. One of the chapters I completely rewrote and two of them I ended up scrapping completely.

But that's the thing. I was able to rewrite and make it better. And I've since added more words, moving the story along in a way that feels more coherent that what my brain was able to accomplish in the short bursts it was willing to work. I know the path forward now, and it's definitely a lot darker than my other books. I'm really looking forward to pushing my own limits and seeing where this story goes.

But my brain having a bit of a year and a half holiday certainly wasn't good for my self imposed deadlines once again. So we're probably looking at a late 2025 release, assuming everything stays on it's current track.

The Shadow Sisters is the story of a young woman named Anjia who has been raised for her entire life that she is in training to join the Temple of Kyrsma, the Goddess of Life & Light. But when she reaches her final trial, she learns a terrible truth. She and the other women of the temple are bound to Krysma's enemy, a shadow demon called The Khimital. Since it can use their shadows to puppet them to do whatever it wants, the women of the temple have no choice other than to decide to let the shadow do it's work through them, or to do it themselves so they can retain some modicum of control.

I recommend taking a look back a previous blog post for a more detailed primer on this tale. Much remains the same, except I'm a lot closer to 90K words now. I'm hoping to hit that milestone later this week. I'm hoping to have a finished manuscript sometime this year, giving me most of next year to worry about editing & formatting with the wonderful Vanessa Redmon, and hopefully working with the extremely talented Fay Lane once again on the cover. Both of their work on the latest edition of The Stairs in the Woods was top notch. But in order to work with these fabulous women again, I need to finish this book. So I'd better get back to it.

Besides, I can't wait to see where the story takes me.

Order Your Signed Hardback Now!

Comes with free gifts!

The last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind ever since I announced that my first novel The Stairs in the Woods, was getting a facelift. In that time, the new eBook, paperback, and hardback copies have become available everywhere books are sold.

Getting my books into stores has always been the dream, and with this refresh it's become a reality. While the books are still available on Amazon, retailers from Walmart to Books-A-Million have the books available online. Even independent retailers like Powells in Oregon or The Poisoned Pen here in Arizona can order it for you now. I even walked into my local Barnes & Noble and ordered myself a copy of the hardback just because I could. I'm looking forward to setting up a book signing there soon.

All of this has truly been a mind-blowing experience. To be able to check a life goal off my list is always an amazing experience, but I got to do it twice recently. One was getting my books in stores. But the other was finally having a hardback with a dust jacket. To be able to hold that copy of my book for the first time was reminiscent of holding that first copy almost six years ago now. Somehow, in a strange way, it made my author journey feel more real.

So to celebrate the relaunch of The Stairs in the Woods, I'm offering up a special bundle on signed copies of the hardback from my own online merch store. Check out the image below for the details:

Admittedly, I can't take much credit for this idea. My fiancee, editor, and all around cheerleader Vanessa Redmon has been the brainchild behind this promotion. She even designed one of the two bookmarks that will be shipping with the signed hardbacks. I honestly don't know where I would be without her. She and her mother designed the mockup of the packaging for this promotions as well, which you can get a peek at below. But don't be fooled, we have a couple more surprises for you other than what you see here:

As for me, I've been getting myself reaquainted with writing again after a long layoff. I've been working on The Shadow Sisters again and it's really coming together. This book is going to be dark, and I love it.

It's hard to believe it's been over two years since I published a book. For five years in a row, I published a book. But April 5th was the two year mark since I released The Miranda Project. I never thought I'd get stalled like this. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, these last couple of years have been a real struggle to concentrate.

But things are finally looking up. Putting together this fresh new edition of The Stairs in the Woods has really gotten me back in the flow and I'm finally writing again. I hope to have more news for you with regard to The Shadow Sisters soon. Until then, here's a fun little timeline of my writing journey for you to check out:

Time for a Refresh

The Stairs in the Woods Gets a Whole New Look!

In August of 2018, I took the biggest chance of my life by clicking the "Publish" button on Amazon. Life's been a bit of a blur since then. Five published novels and three paused works-in-progress later, it seemed like a good time to look back and see what I could do to improve the offerings I already had out while I got my writing back on track.

And there was one obvious answer. My first book, The Stairs in the Woods, was in dire need of a refresh.

And look, did I already get a new cover made for it once before? Yes. My first cover was one of those "made with Amazon's free cover tools" abominations. I hate seeing it still pop up on Goodreads ocassionally. I would love to be able to just erase it's existence from history. Alas, we live and learn.

When I got my second cover done, I made the mistake of trying out Fivrr. Never again. The artist completely screwed up the sizing (I mean, I sent them templates and everything) and they refused to fix it. I ended up having to get another artist to fix their mess. And while my second cover artist did a great job saving what my first one had botched, I never felt like it fully captured the story within. Not their fault, they did great work. I probably should have started over from scratch.

So this time I took a different approach. I reached out to a cover designer whose work I'd seen all over social media: Fay Lane. She'd done work for other self-published authors like myself, as well as a few small presses. And I'd always been impressed with her work. I reached out sometime last summer, and she was already booked through January of this year. So I booked her for as soon as I could. When this February finally rolled around, and she reached out, I was excited to see what she would come up with.

So, without further ado:

Aside from being absolutely gorgeous, if you're read The Stairs In the Woods you understand just how well this cover fits the story within. If you're a fellow author and have the chance to work with Fay, do it. The back and forth process was an absolute pleasure. She had the concept mostly nailed by the first draft, and nearly perfect by the second one. She takes feedback well and works to find a shared vision. I couldn't be happier.

And not only are the paperback and eBook versions already available on Amazon, hardbacks are on the way complete with dust jackets! That's a first for any of my books, and I'm excited to get my hands on one. Personally, I usually prefer a paperback. But in this case, for my own collection, I think I'll make an exception.

But it wasn't just the outside of the book that's getting a new look. My editor Vanessa Redmon and I undertook a reformatting project as well. I have to say, I love the way it came out as well. And while this is just a screen snip, you get the idea:

So yeah, Kaitlynn's tale is getting a refresh inside and out, and I couldn't be more pleased.

Ironically, I also recently started doing a reread of this book. And while I know my writing has improved over the last few years as I've put more titles out, I do feel like this is an easy read that holds up and is accessible for non-fantasy readers as well. If you've never checked it out, Here's a quick look at what you'll find inside:

So that's the big news for now. I promise I will try and keep up to date on blogging, as well as getting back into the swing of doing TikToks again. In the meantime, take care and I'll talk to you all soon.

The Forbidden Scrolls Turns Four Years Old

Let's Celebrate With a Sale!

Sometimes the stars align in just the right way. That's what happened when I heard about ,Narratess' big sale for Indie August. See it just so happened that on one of the weekends the sale was going to be running, I also had a book birthday coming up! This time it was for ,The Forbidden Scrolls, which also happens to be the first book in a ,trilogy of the same name.

So to celebrate the 4th aniversary of The Forbidden Scrolls, the eBook will be just .99 on all platforms from August 26th through the 28th. So if you haven't charged headfirst into this series yet, this is the perfect chance to do so. And my book is hardly the only one in the sale. Check out the video below to see all the titles that are included:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/4f12bd_779d0045a1304035a38e64cdbc25fd46/720p/mp4/file.mp4

The book birthday for Scrolls falls right in the middle of the sale on the 27th, which was some pretty lucky timing. I actually have two books with birtdays in August, the first of which I already wrote ,a blog post about. But by the time I'd heard about the sale it was too late to get ,The Stairs in the Woods added in. But still, I'm excited that Scrolls is going to be listed amongst so many other quality titles.

Sometimes it's hard to believe that this book has been out that long. My writing journey has been a bit of a blurr a times. At others it's felt like a complete struggle. But of all my titles, The Forbidden Scrolls has been my best seller overall. So if you haven't checked it out yet, this is a perfect oppurtunity. So make sure to check it out, along with the rest of the books in the sale:

How Not To Be a Creep on Social Media

A Beginner's Guide for Men--and anyone else who needs it.

You see it every day. Somewhere, someone is out there making women (or femme presenting folks--I see you too) uncomfortable, and in the process making other men look bad. Frankly it's an epidemic everywhere on the internet. Play a game on XBOX Live and there's a woman on one of the teams, chances are she's being sexually harrassed while she kicks everyone's ass in Halo. Or she's streaming on Twitch and getting told to take off her clothes while she's busy trying to DM a game on a D&D channel.

And god forbid she happens to make her way over to Twitter. Her DM's are probably full of unsolicited dick pics and unwanted propositions. Half the comments on every post are at least suggestive. And if she's brave enough to post a selfie, chances are some creep is bookmarking it for when he's alone later. Ew.

But just today alone I saw one author I follow and respect post a reel on Instagram asking men to stop soliciting her in her DM's or commenting suggestively on her posts. Later this same day I saw another author I follow and respect post a blog about what it's like to be a woman on social media and having to deal with all of this harrasment while just trying to sell books.

Literally none of this is acceptable behavior. Though I imagine that if you're a man who's reading this, you already know that. Sadly, the target audience for a post like this will never read it. Chances are they don't even know how to read, which makes the fact that the follow all these women who are authors even more mind-boggling. Maybe they got lost on the way to Pornhub, I don't know.

And that's just what I saw today. I'm sure there were dozens of other posts by many women I follow and respect effectively saying the same thing. I know I see this sort of thing online almost every day. Unfortunately, too many of my fellow men won't listen to them. But I have never been shy about calling out this kind of behavior when I see it. So I figured I'd give it a shot in blog form whilst breaking it down in an easy to remember format--do's and don'ts. And because no one should ever have to make a post like this, we're gonna put some photos that look like they were ripped right out of a really bad mandatory work Powerpoint presentation in there to REALLY get the point across.

So let's get started, shall we?

DO: Compliment a woman on her choices or her talents. "I love what you've done with your hair," or "That's a great poem," are both perfectly acceptible ways to compliment a woman online that you have never met.

DON'T: Ask her to take her clothes off, tell her she has great (insert body part here), or attempt to solicit sexual favors. That's Creepy.

DO: Like her posts and interact with her. Especially if you have common interests. For example, if you are both authors. Talk about that!

DON'T: Bookmark or ReTweet her selfies. That's Creepy.

DO: Promote the works of people you like and respect. A rising tide lifts all ships after all!

DON'T: Promote women's works as a way to try and slide into their DM's. That's Creepy, Dave Westfall.

Yeah. That's right. Fuck you Dave. We haven't forgotten about you. Creep.

DO: Follow all types of people from all walks of life in order to broaden your horizons and meet new people.

DON'T: Follow only women online. That's Creepy.

DO: Build a network of like-minded individuals who can help you learn and grow, and whom you can do the same for them.

DON'T: Form unhealthy imaginary relationships with people you do not know. Do not try to dig up information on them so that you can "be closer to them." That's Creepy.

DO: Treat others with the same level of respect you would like to be treated with.

DON'T: Be a dick. It's really that simple.

So there you have it. Hopefully none of you actually find this guide handy--because if you do, you're not the type of person I want following me. Women are fifty percent of the world's population with their own hopes, dreams, and goals--not objects for creepy men to use and throw away. They're human beings, just like you.

Do better. Be better.