Sasha L. Miller's Blog, page 2
December 1, 2014
NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month (herein referred to by the short and easy-to-type NaNo) was in November. I had a lofty, lofty goal of writing 75,000 words this month instead of the goal of 50,000 words.
That did not pan out, partly because of travel but mostly because of my headaches. I'm happy with what I did get done, though, and that's all that matters. I did NaNo last year, and I mostly wrote steadily (with some big jumps at the end). This year was all big 5-7k chunks with multiple days of not writing in between. (Me on headache meds vs me off headache meds, I guess??)
In any case, I scraaaaaped over the finish line yesterday. Unlike last year, I was working on several projects rather than just one, and here's what I managed to get done:
(1) I finished up the last few chapters of Losing Ground (my current serial /shifty look)
(2) A cute little fairy tale called The Cursebreaker. It will be part of the fairy tale serial in April or so, after the fairy tale (Tommelise by Diana Jean) that will be following the current fairy tale (Bad Romance by Remy Jensen).
(3) A short story (novella) for a charity prompt that I've owed since last year because I'm a terrible person (I also may have started and scrapped this one like, five gazillion times). It's untitled ATM, and set in Morcia (AKA Battle of Will 'verse). It'll eventually be available through LT3, though it needs some serious clean up before I inflict it on the editing department. :3
So that was my November. I am now behind on objectively All The Things, so I must get back to work. (Look, three weeks of posts in a row! Aren't you proud of me? ^^)
That did not pan out, partly because of travel but mostly because of my headaches. I'm happy with what I did get done, though, and that's all that matters. I did NaNo last year, and I mostly wrote steadily (with some big jumps at the end). This year was all big 5-7k chunks with multiple days of not writing in between. (Me on headache meds vs me off headache meds, I guess??)
In any case, I scraaaaaped over the finish line yesterday. Unlike last year, I was working on several projects rather than just one, and here's what I managed to get done:
(1) I finished up the last few chapters of Losing Ground (my current serial /shifty look)
(2) A cute little fairy tale called The Cursebreaker. It will be part of the fairy tale serial in April or so, after the fairy tale (Tommelise by Diana Jean) that will be following the current fairy tale (Bad Romance by Remy Jensen).
(3) A short story (novella) for a charity prompt that I've owed since last year because I'm a terrible person (I also may have started and scrapped this one like, five gazillion times). It's untitled ATM, and set in Morcia (AKA Battle of Will 'verse). It'll eventually be available through LT3, though it needs some serious clean up before I inflict it on the editing department. :3
So that was my November. I am now behind on objectively All The Things, so I must get back to work. (Look, three weeks of posts in a row! Aren't you proud of me? ^^)
November 24, 2014
The Errant Prince
I don't think I've announced here, but my next release from LT3 will be The Errant Prince, which is a fantasy novella that features an M/M couple, one of whom happens to be trans. ^^ If you want to skip the babble and just go preorder it, sight unseen, you can do so from LT3 right now for 15% off:
The Errant Prince
Myron's task is easy enough on the surface: locate the runaway Prince Tamsen and bring him home. But Tamsen is not merely a talented wizard, he's an exceptionally stubborn one, and dozens of others have already failed at the task. When he manages to find the cabin where Tamsen is hiding, Myron isn't foolish enough to mistake the find for a victory.
Instead of attempting to drag the prince home by force, Myron tries a different tact: patience. He might not be able to best Tamsen magically or physically, but Myron can certainly out-stubborn him. He's nothing if not used to doing what other people say he can't.
But neither prince nor soldier expected stubbornness to be the crack in armor they've both become adept at wearing...
So this story. I originally started writing it with both of the MCs as cis, but I think some conversation on twitter or another made me look at the story and go why not. Because ffs, why not make one of the MCs trans? Then I was all, oh, hey, well if one of them is trans, I can make it geeky fantasy, right, and put it out with LT3's Geek Out collection*. That didn't pan out, mostly b/c the MCs were too busy alternately flirting and angsting to geek out properly. It also (as I swear, everything does) got longer and longer and I missed the deadline. ^^
*The Geek Out stories are FANTASTIC. GO PREORDER THEM ALL.
Ahem. So The Errant Prince. I'm ridiculously happy with these characters (the flirting, I love it, they're so adorable), and I hope ya'll enjoy it as well. ^^
The Errant Prince
Myron's task is easy enough on the surface: locate the runaway Prince Tamsen and bring him home. But Tamsen is not merely a talented wizard, he's an exceptionally stubborn one, and dozens of others have already failed at the task. When he manages to find the cabin where Tamsen is hiding, Myron isn't foolish enough to mistake the find for a victory.Instead of attempting to drag the prince home by force, Myron tries a different tact: patience. He might not be able to best Tamsen magically or physically, but Myron can certainly out-stubborn him. He's nothing if not used to doing what other people say he can't.
But neither prince nor soldier expected stubbornness to be the crack in armor they've both become adept at wearing...
So this story. I originally started writing it with both of the MCs as cis, but I think some conversation on twitter or another made me look at the story and go why not. Because ffs, why not make one of the MCs trans? Then I was all, oh, hey, well if one of them is trans, I can make it geeky fantasy, right, and put it out with LT3's Geek Out collection*. That didn't pan out, mostly b/c the MCs were too busy alternately flirting and angsting to geek out properly. It also (as I swear, everything does) got longer and longer and I missed the deadline. ^^
*The Geek Out stories are FANTASTIC. GO PREORDER THEM ALL.
Ahem. So The Errant Prince. I'm ridiculously happy with these characters (the flirting, I love it, they're so adorable), and I hope ya'll enjoy it as well. ^^
November 17, 2014
Featured author!
I totally meant to post this earlier, like, Nov 1 or 2, but as you can see that did not happen. I fail at keeping my social media stuff up to date, ack.
In any case, if you've been waiting for a sale to buy my books, LT3 has me as featured author for November! To save $$ on my books, enter code MILLER during checkout, and that'll get you 20% off. It applies to ebooks and preorders only (b/c bundles and paperbacks are already discounted), but that gives you plenty to choose from. ^^ You can also grab any of my books in print for 25% off at any point, btw, so if you want those, you can get them at any point.
Speaking of which, The Heart of the Kingdom has been out for just about a month now! I hope those of you who've read it enjoyed (and if you haven't picked it up and are eying it, November is the time to get it! ;3). If you're inclined to review it, that'd be cool, though for personal sanity reasons I do not look at reviews. My poor, soft heart can't take it. :3
The sequels are taking shape in my head, though I haven't had a chance yet to work on them more (NaNo projects are other little things I'm finishing up. Oh, hey, I can blame that for my lack of updating!) I'm still working out whether it'll be three or four books, though after Book 2 I may break to see if I can't (finally) knock out the Stolen Hearts sequel. (Seriously I fail so much I can't believe people still follow me. :3)
Oh, and Heart is a full and complete stand-alone book, btw. No cliffhangers, though one of the planned books (#3 or #4, depending on whether my idea for the currently slated #3 book works out or needs scrapped) is a follow up with the two MCs.
Links below if you're interested in picking up The Heart of the Kingdom:
All Cenric wanted was a necklace to gift to his lady love, in the hopes it might persuade her to actually become his lady love. Instead of love, however, Cenric is informed of her engagement to someone else, wakes up to find his house burning down around him, and is dragged away by a man who might have saved him, but won't say much about why one necklace has Cenric running away from someone willing to kill to get it back.
Less Than Three Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
ARe
Bookstrand
In any case, if you've been waiting for a sale to buy my books, LT3 has me as featured author for November! To save $$ on my books, enter code MILLER during checkout, and that'll get you 20% off. It applies to ebooks and preorders only (b/c bundles and paperbacks are already discounted), but that gives you plenty to choose from. ^^ You can also grab any of my books in print for 25% off at any point, btw, so if you want those, you can get them at any point.
Speaking of which, The Heart of the Kingdom has been out for just about a month now! I hope those of you who've read it enjoyed (and if you haven't picked it up and are eying it, November is the time to get it! ;3). If you're inclined to review it, that'd be cool, though for personal sanity reasons I do not look at reviews. My poor, soft heart can't take it. :3
The sequels are taking shape in my head, though I haven't had a chance yet to work on them more (NaNo projects are other little things I'm finishing up. Oh, hey, I can blame that for my lack of updating!) I'm still working out whether it'll be three or four books, though after Book 2 I may break to see if I can't (finally) knock out the Stolen Hearts sequel. (Seriously I fail so much I can't believe people still follow me. :3)
Oh, and Heart is a full and complete stand-alone book, btw. No cliffhangers, though one of the planned books (#3 or #4, depending on whether my idea for the currently slated #3 book works out or needs scrapped) is a follow up with the two MCs.
Links below if you're interested in picking up The Heart of the Kingdom:
All Cenric wanted was a necklace to gift to his lady love, in the hopes it might persuade her to actually become his lady love. Instead of love, however, Cenric is informed of her engagement to someone else, wakes up to find his house burning down around him, and is dragged away by a man who might have saved him, but won't say much about why one necklace has Cenric running away from someone willing to kill to get it back.Less Than Three Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
ARe
Bookstrand
September 29, 2014
Giveaway! The Heart of the Kingdom
Holy crap how is it nearly October already? I don't know, but October means Halloween, Megan's birthday and shenanigans, and The Heart of the Kingdom comes out as an ebook/paperback release!
The Heart of the Kingdom is a novel based (extremely loosely) on Snow White. I had a ton of fun writing it, and I adore both the MCs to bits. Cenric has the (mis)fortune to buy an ostensibly cursed bit of jewelry, and gets stuck with Hunter (a.k.a. Rylan), who is a Huntsman who doesn't always think things through and is trying to get the necklace back to its owner. There's curses, shenanigans, dwarves, elves with sharp, pointy teeth, and general ridiculousness in all the best ways. (Or so I like to think ;3)
This is Book 1 in the series of at least two, potentially three. Each book features a different couple, though, so you're good to read this one and then never look at another of my books ever again. :3 Book 2, The Northern Wall, is about 90% done, but uh, other projects have shuffled it off the prime burner despite my sulking at it.
Uh, but enough of that. Celebration time! Have a giveaway. Two winners, both for any format(s) of The Heart of the Kingdom that you'd like.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Ends on October 15, release day. ^^ If you want to broaden your chances, make sure you hop over to the LT3 Goodreads Group and throw your name in the hat there. Good luck, and I hope you're all enjoying the start of fall! (I know I am!)
The Heart of the Kingdom is a novel based (extremely loosely) on Snow White. I had a ton of fun writing it, and I adore both the MCs to bits. Cenric has the (mis)fortune to buy an ostensibly cursed bit of jewelry, and gets stuck with Hunter (a.k.a. Rylan), who is a Huntsman who doesn't always think things through and is trying to get the necklace back to its owner. There's curses, shenanigans, dwarves, elves with sharp, pointy teeth, and general ridiculousness in all the best ways. (Or so I like to think ;3)
This is Book 1 in the series of at least two, potentially three. Each book features a different couple, though, so you're good to read this one and then never look at another of my books ever again. :3 Book 2, The Northern Wall, is about 90% done, but uh, other projects have shuffled it off the prime burner despite my sulking at it.
Uh, but enough of that. Celebration time! Have a giveaway. Two winners, both for any format(s) of The Heart of the Kingdom that you'd like.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Ends on October 15, release day. ^^ If you want to broaden your chances, make sure you hop over to the LT3 Goodreads Group and throw your name in the hat there. Good luck, and I hope you're all enjoying the start of fall! (I know I am!)
August 13, 2014
Misc News
Living Words and Saving Liam
The second editions of Living Words and Saving Liam are out! These aren't much different from the originals, I mostly cleaned up language and fixed some minor inconsistencies. The biggest changes are (1) the shiny, shiny new covers and (2) I created a map for Saving Liam. If you previously bought the book through LT3, the new versions overwrote the old, so you can download the new versions from your past order history.
If you haven't picked these up, or if you picked them up elsewhere and can't get a shiny new version, LT3 is offering them (and Megan's 2nd Ed. of Sandstorm and The King's Harem ) for $0.99! That price only lasts through end of day Thursday, so get them before then if you want the super cheap price.
The Heart of the Kingdom
This is currently running in serial (I may have mentioned this once or twice or a dozen times in various places ;3), but wraps as a serial on October 1. It's also listed in the ebook market, so if you're not a serial person and want to check out a ridiculously convoluted fairytale rewrite of Snow White, now's your chance to preorder. (You can do so here.)
I've already started on a sequel for it, because I don't have enough to work on. ^^ That's tentatively titled The Northern Wall and is 90% done. It'll require pretty big edits before it's ready to send to LT3, but I'm pretty pleased with the rough. That's getting set aside, however, b/c I need to have another serial ready to take Heart's place. But look for that next year, if you're interested.
That's all the news crap I've got for the moment. Hope ya'll are having a good August!
The second editions of Living Words and Saving Liam are out! These aren't much different from the originals, I mostly cleaned up language and fixed some minor inconsistencies. The biggest changes are (1) the shiny, shiny new covers and (2) I created a map for Saving Liam. If you previously bought the book through LT3, the new versions overwrote the old, so you can download the new versions from your past order history.
If you haven't picked these up, or if you picked them up elsewhere and can't get a shiny new version, LT3 is offering them (and Megan's 2nd Ed. of Sandstorm and The King's Harem ) for $0.99! That price only lasts through end of day Thursday, so get them before then if you want the super cheap price.
The Heart of the Kingdom
This is currently running in serial (I may have mentioned this once or twice or a dozen times in various places ;3), but wraps as a serial on October 1. It's also listed in the ebook market, so if you're not a serial person and want to check out a ridiculously convoluted fairytale rewrite of Snow White, now's your chance to preorder. (You can do so here.)
I've already started on a sequel for it, because I don't have enough to work on. ^^ That's tentatively titled The Northern Wall and is 90% done. It'll require pretty big edits before it's ready to send to LT3, but I'm pretty pleased with the rough. That's getting set aside, however, b/c I need to have another serial ready to take Heart's place. But look for that next year, if you're interested.
That's all the news crap I've got for the moment. Hope ya'll are having a good August!
August 9, 2014
Serial stuffs
So there are just about four chapters of The Heart of the Kingdom left, which means it'll wrap in serial on October 1 and be available in ebook (and print) on October 15. (It's up for preorder now, btw.) Yay! I'm neck deep in a sequel to it b/c that's what's struck my fancy for some reason. It will not be the serial following Heart, though, and that's what this post is about. I've got two ideas, and am not sure which to pick. That's where you lovely people come in.
Poll time!
Which serial should I write next? (If the above doesn't work, the poll is visible in the sidebar of the blog. ^^)
So what are these stories about? They might be vaguely familiar to anyone who's been following me since old, old LJ days.
The elemental earth wizards story basically rolls like this. Carter's mother owns a mid-sized earth territory that's under siege by a horrific disease that's killing off the plants in the territory faster than she can fix it. Carter, is a weak earth wizard, so he can't help much, and then a newcomer shows up in town, with more than enough power to overpower the family's weakened grip and steal the territory from them...
The urban fantasy witches rolls like this: Witch dude has a normal, everyday sort of practice doing magic for hire, when, of all people, an elf shows up looking for a love spell to make his intended fiancée more palatable (we're rocking the elves Do Not Approve of witch magic shenanigans). And then, b/c I like this trope too damn much, the two of them get (temporarily) stuck physically touching b/c of a spell gone wrong and then shit goes wrong for everyone.
Poll runs through midday Wednesday, at which point I will be kicking into high gear to get the first draft done ASAP. B/c I'm awesome at scheduling.
Poll time!
Which serial should I write next? (If the above doesn't work, the poll is visible in the sidebar of the blog. ^^)
So what are these stories about? They might be vaguely familiar to anyone who's been following me since old, old LJ days.
The elemental earth wizards story basically rolls like this. Carter's mother owns a mid-sized earth territory that's under siege by a horrific disease that's killing off the plants in the territory faster than she can fix it. Carter, is a weak earth wizard, so he can't help much, and then a newcomer shows up in town, with more than enough power to overpower the family's weakened grip and steal the territory from them...
The urban fantasy witches rolls like this: Witch dude has a normal, everyday sort of practice doing magic for hire, when, of all people, an elf shows up looking for a love spell to make his intended fiancée more palatable (we're rocking the elves Do Not Approve of witch magic shenanigans). And then, b/c I like this trope too damn much, the two of them get (temporarily) stuck physically touching b/c of a spell gone wrong and then shit goes wrong for everyone.
Poll runs through midday Wednesday, at which point I will be kicking into high gear to get the first draft done ASAP. B/c I'm awesome at scheduling.
July 8, 2014
Free books!
Want a free book or dozen? Check out Digital Book Day! On July 14, 2014, a whole lot of authors are going to be offering up books for free. (Including me!) I'm offering up Drinker Class X, for those of ya'll who didn't get a chance to nab a copy during LT3's anniversary giveaways in April. Drinker will be available for free from the LT3 site (because I have the power!) for the entire day of July 14.
Click below to check out Drinker and Digital Book Day:
Click below to check out Drinker and Digital Book Day:
June 11, 2014
New covers for old shinies!
New covers for old shinies! The lovely Aisha Akeju did these, and I am so in love with them both. ^^ The new versions will be out in the next few months (there is formatting and I want to clean them up and such), but I couldn't resist sharing in the interim.
June 3, 2014
Quality Assurance, serials, and other various things
I'm a slacker when it comes to my own blog posts and such. ^^;; I'm pretty good at keeping on top of LT3's social media, but past my twitter, I don't seem to update my author stuff much. So I have some 3-4 pieces of news to dump on ya'll at once.
QUALITY ASSURANCE
First up, Quality Assurance is currently on preorder and will be released on June 18. This is a short story I first wrote for LT3's very first anthology, That Famous Happy End. If you've got that anthology, don't bother getting this (unless you want it as a stand-alone). It went through another bout of editing, but nothing major changed. Mostly I just weeded out my qualifiers, b/c good grief do I love me some qualifiers.
Quality Assurance is also the story that kicked off the Paranormal Days 'verse, so if you've read Beach Remedy or Megan's Herbal Remedy, it's set in that same 'verse. ^^ Lee from Beach Remedy is Astor's cousin, who is the brother of Quinn in Quality Assurance. (Megan did Astor's story in LT3's Bad Moon Rising anthology, so he got some love in there too. ;3)
In any case, you can find that here (save 15% until June 17), and it'll be up at all the usual suspects soon.
SERIAL STORIES
Second and third, I've now got two stories running as part of LT3's serials. (Taking over the world!) Uh. But I think I've blabbed on here about The Heart of the Kingdom before, that's the main one. It's the snow white fantasy rewrite and it's rolling on into part two now. :3 Fun stuff is happening/about to happen.
The other one, I don't think I have mentioned. It's part of the fairy tale serial (it's shorter than The Heart of the Kingdom, which was waaaaaaaaaaaay too long to be suitable for fairy tale serial) and is called The Dragon of Bellerose Island. It's sort of kind of a riff on Beauty and the Beast, and I had a lot of fun writing the two MCs. Leandre is well-meaning but doesn't always see the big picture, which causes him to be stuck on inside the spell on Dilan's island. Dilan is a shy half-dragon who would prefer to hide away from the world forever, and now he's got to deal with Leandre. :3 Funtimes.
OTHER STUFF
I've got a couple short stories on my plate ATM. One is finished and features my very first trans* character. It's called The Errant Prince and is about a soldier-type dude going off in search of a runaway prince. The soldier is expecting a spoiled brat, the prince is expecting a bossy, order-following soldier, and neither of them is expecting the other. ^^ I'm hoping to get that one published at some point this year, just waiting on a last few betas before I throw it at Sam and tell her to do something with it.
Past that, I've got a mage-soldier short for a lovely (and very patient) lady that I need to get cracking on. I have some good ideas on that, just need to sit down and get it out. I also need to get started on the serial that will follow The Heart of the Kingdom (I'm thinking Elemental magics, b/c that's always cool to play with) and various other projects that I won't mention here b/c I don't want to get people's hopes up when I have no idea when they'll be actually done. ^^;;
That's all I've got. I hope ya'll are having a lovely summer so far!
QUALITY ASSURANCE
First up, Quality Assurance is currently on preorder and will be released on June 18. This is a short story I first wrote for LT3's very first anthology, That Famous Happy End. If you've got that anthology, don't bother getting this (unless you want it as a stand-alone). It went through another bout of editing, but nothing major changed. Mostly I just weeded out my qualifiers, b/c good grief do I love me some qualifiers.Quality Assurance is also the story that kicked off the Paranormal Days 'verse, so if you've read Beach Remedy or Megan's Herbal Remedy, it's set in that same 'verse. ^^ Lee from Beach Remedy is Astor's cousin, who is the brother of Quinn in Quality Assurance. (Megan did Astor's story in LT3's Bad Moon Rising anthology, so he got some love in there too. ;3)
In any case, you can find that here (save 15% until June 17), and it'll be up at all the usual suspects soon.
SERIAL STORIES
Second and third, I've now got two stories running as part of LT3's serials. (Taking over the world!) Uh. But I think I've blabbed on here about The Heart of the Kingdom before, that's the main one. It's the snow white fantasy rewrite and it's rolling on into part two now. :3 Fun stuff is happening/about to happen.
The other one, I don't think I have mentioned. It's part of the fairy tale serial (it's shorter than The Heart of the Kingdom, which was waaaaaaaaaaaay too long to be suitable for fairy tale serial) and is called The Dragon of Bellerose Island. It's sort of kind of a riff on Beauty and the Beast, and I had a lot of fun writing the two MCs. Leandre is well-meaning but doesn't always see the big picture, which causes him to be stuck on inside the spell on Dilan's island. Dilan is a shy half-dragon who would prefer to hide away from the world forever, and now he's got to deal with Leandre. :3 Funtimes.
OTHER STUFF
I've got a couple short stories on my plate ATM. One is finished and features my very first trans* character. It's called The Errant Prince and is about a soldier-type dude going off in search of a runaway prince. The soldier is expecting a spoiled brat, the prince is expecting a bossy, order-following soldier, and neither of them is expecting the other. ^^ I'm hoping to get that one published at some point this year, just waiting on a last few betas before I throw it at Sam and tell her to do something with it.
Past that, I've got a mage-soldier short for a lovely (and very patient) lady that I need to get cracking on. I have some good ideas on that, just need to sit down and get it out. I also need to get started on the serial that will follow The Heart of the Kingdom (I'm thinking Elemental magics, b/c that's always cool to play with) and various other projects that I won't mention here b/c I don't want to get people's hopes up when I have no idea when they'll be actually done. ^^;;
That's all I've got. I hope ya'll are having a lovely summer so far!
March 28, 2014
Birthday!
Happy birthday to me! And happy my birthday to you, too. :3 In honor of my birthday on Sunday, LT3 is hosting a 30% off sale from now until end of day March 30, so hop on over and stock up on anything you may have been contemplating.
If you're interested in a chance to win a signed copy of Battle of Will , head on over to Goodreads, where the giveaway there is still open (and will be open until end of day March 31).
That's all I've got. Hope ya'll are having a lovely March, and that spring comes quickly for those of you in the frozen states. :3
If you're interested in a chance to win a signed copy of Battle of Will , head on over to Goodreads, where the giveaway there is still open (and will be open until end of day March 31).
That's all I've got. Hope ya'll are having a lovely March, and that spring comes quickly for those of you in the frozen states. :3
