R.J. Blain's Blog

Life-Debt & Experimental Voyage Audiobooks & StoryBundle, plus other news!

Life-Debt’s audiobook edition has been submitted to all retail vendors, hooray! Kobo / Kobo Plus are already live, and you can expect the other vendors to release the hostage in 2-6 weeks.

Experimental Voyage has also been submitted, but it isn’t live anywhere yet. (You can start stalking Kobo later today for the audiobook edition.)

With that juicy bit of news out of the way, both Life-Debt and Experimental Voyage are part of the Space Opera Sisterhood StoryBundle! If you found my fir...

Let’s Play the Good News / Bad News Game! (Part II)

As I was tired, life was happening, etc, I did not finish the good news / bad news game yesterday. That’s okay, I’m not terribly sorry about it. So, let’s get right down to it.

150 Days to 100k

Good news: I haven’t forgotten about it. I’ve even made some progress on it. I have the new book one cover of the series conceptualized, and once my designer’s hand heals from an accident, she’ll paint it, and I’ll be able to show it to you.

Bad news: I probably won’t be able to work on it un...

Let’s Play the Good News / Bad News Game!

It’s my favorite.

I’m pretty honest and up front about all the things going on in my life, so… let’s play the good news and bad news game. Stick around for juicy details about what books I’m working on, what changes are being made to my tentative schedule, why I haven’t had a 150 Days to 100K post in a hot minute, and so on!

Good news: Grave Intentions will be the length I want, which is approximately 125-130,000 words.

Bad news: I will not be finishing at least one arc I wished to ...

Audiobooks, Patreon, and Other Things

Partner in Crime is now available in Audiobook edition over at Kobo. I have still not gotten the Patreon update, which essentially means I cannot put audiobooks up for sale in their store. (When the update goes through, my old store is locked, I cannot edit anything, and I have to revamp the entire store. This is a hellish nightmarescape.) Apparently, it might be until the end of September until they get this rolled out, and they have zero way to give creators even a heads up on when their accou...

New Embedded Page Edge Editions (6×9 Paperback), General News

Greetings, folks!

I’m going to get straight to the chase. I am working on the embedded page edge editions (Which will be found via Barnes & Noble and Bookshop) and have an update for you.

Playing with Fire and Hoofin’ It are done and ready for purchase at Bookshop. Note: I receive a percentage of sales from Bookshop as an affiliate.

I do not know how long it will take for these books to reach Barnes & Noble, but that will be another vendor these will be available at.

Here are some p...

General Update

I have been holding back the audiobook release of Experimental Voyage due to Patreon announcing a UI change. Why is this changing delaying the audiobook release?

All of the products in my store will need to be unpublished and republished into the new system. They opted against merging it. As such, until I have access to the new UI, which started rolling out on July 15, I don’t want to do any product launches from Patreon.

(People WILL get confused, buy the same product twice, etc, etc, etc...

Bonds (Susan Copperfield) is on sale for $0.99.

Bookbub offered a featured deal (international) for Bonds, so if you have missed it, you can get it for $0.99 at most retailers. I put the promotion up for US vendors as well because why not? The deal runs on July 10, 2025. (Some retailers may not have the deal quite yet, as it was set up yesterday.)

As a reminder, No Kitten Around is also being featured as a Bookbub featured deal on July 8, 2025 (US and International) and is also available for $0.99 at most retailers.

Currently, the only ...

A Light in the Dark (Audrey Greene) is on Audible, No Kitten Around Sale begins, Smashwords Sale!

Short, sweet, and to the point today. (I have a lot to do.)

A Light in the Dark can now be listened to at audible.

Most Titles by the following authors are 50% off at the Smashwords Sale until July 31, 2025. This sale is valid at Smashwords only:

R.J. BlainLilith DanielsSusan CopperfieldG.P. Robbins

No Kitten Around will be a Bookbub Featured Deal on July 8. As such, it is going to be on sale starting in the next day or two until July 20 for $0.99. Note: price change be...

#150Daysto100k – Assignment #11 – Character Development

Today’s assignment is actually an entire week’s worth of assignments rolled into one with a focal point that forms the actual assignment.

Every day this week (Tuesday through Sunday), your goal is to aim to write 1,000 words a day. If you can only manage 1, 1 is always better than 0.

Sit down and at least try. Writing a book is hard, it requires a lot of discipline, and it won’t get done unless you sit down and finish it.

You can edit a bad book later, but if you never get around to fin...

#150Daysto100k – Assignment #10: Make Your Starting Arc More Robust

A strong introductory arc is a critical part in writing a book. As mentioned in previous assignments, your beginning not only needs to be as close to the ending of the book as possible, it needs to be a critical event or decision that directly results in the lead character(s) heading for the story’s final destination.

I’ve completely scrapped what I started with, and I’ve made the decision to completely revamp how I’m going to open Rise of the Rift King. Boo hoo, oh well. This is a part of th...