R.J. Blain's Blog, page 14

If you want Trickster King for $5.99, Preorder or Buy on Release Day. (Plus other series status news)

Photograph: No idea what these flowers are, but I like them.

Trickster King was set up for preorder before the price change to $6.99, so the book will be priced at $6.99 the day after release.

As a reminder, the price change is a direct consequence of Amazon’s error reporting tool; production costs are now $2,000 per novel higher than it was prior to the tool to cover the hiring fees of the extra editors. (And no, please do not ask me to pay someone only $45 to edit a full manuscript....

Patreon News! (Seeking the Zodiacs Love for Otter+ Tiers)

Photography Note: Succulent taken at Casa de Fruta in California.

Greetings, folks!

For those of you who liked Hypnos (Seeking the Zodiacs), I’m pleased to announce that I will be starting a read along of Memento Mori, the first book of a trilogy that takes place after the events of the Seeking the Zodiacs series. (Spoiler Alert: The world is not destroyed, so there are places for the characters to stand after the events of the series. For the most part, Memento Mori doesn’t have many ...

Partner in Crime: Magic, Mayhem, and the Law in Precinct #153 is Coming on November 19, 2024!

The sequel to Dead Weight now has an official release date: November 19, 2024.

What should have been a break in a long chain of unsolved robberies leads Detective Valor Lovell into the dark world of murder, organ theft, and the black market. His informant, Miranda, shines light on the thefts tearing through Cauldron City and how they connect to the dead weight case continuing to thwart the detectives of Precinct #153.

To complicate matters, her security is his problem.

One underground ...

A Notice Re: The Royal States / Agents of the Royal States series.

Welp, the time of reckoning is at hand.

That sounds a little ominous. There’s a reason for that.

When the Vampire of Montana’s audiobook version released, and people pitched a fit over how foal was pronounced, choosing to call me a liar for… uh… (Checks notes) … having Texan audiobook proofers who used that specific pronunciation, I almost just completely canceled the pen name.

The crew over at Patreon rallied, and I decide that a certain percentage of the money that they bring in on th...

Explore a wonderful world of fantasy!

Playing with Fire is part of a super fun fantasy promotion for Kobo Plus! There is also a selection of science fiction. Basically, if it’s speculative fiction, you might find it in this promotion! Woo!

All books involved with this promotion are in Kobo Plus, including mine, so if you have a membership, you can get in a bunch of fun reading.

(Points at the link.) Click! Click! Behold the cover art!

This promotion is a “Browse by Cover” promotion. If you want to learn more about the book,...

Goodbye, 2023… Hello, 2024!

Photography Note: A great blue beauty of a heron posed for me in Halfmoon Bay during the Big Big Wave Event where I did not get a single photo of a large wave. (Oops.) If you want to follow my photography shenanigans, I have a Patreon specifically for that. Members get access to the photos to use almost however they want. (Blog usage is okay with a photography credit, but if you want to use pictures for commercial reasons, like selling a print, book covers, etc, you need to license the image...

And the Writing Community Implodes Yet Again…

Scandal.

This word has, increasingly often, gone hand in hand with the publishing industry. It has gotten so bad over the years that I wish I wasn’t part of this community, and I often do everything I can to avoid the toxicity of the masses. However, I like helping people, so I end up wading through sludge regardless.

That’s not my favorite thing in the world to say the least.

This week’s incident begins with this reddit post.

The author in question, Mark Dawson, has been a figurehea...

Whiskers on Kittens has released!

The next time a friend dared her to steal something, Kelsie would say no. Should the friend also be a succubus, not only would she say no, she would run for the nearest border faster than a bat fleeing the dark depths of hell.

Under normal circumstances, she didn’t even mind serving community service. It added spice to an otherwise boring day and gave her something productive to do.

Hoping to contain her prankster ways, the judge teams her up with a grouchy wolf of a cop with an attitu...

Author/Artist Beware: Shutterstock’s Marketing Team Uses Shady Upselling Practices and Scare Tactics! (Do not be scammed by these people.)

I normally do not like calling people or businesses out, but there comes a point where it is necessary. The first time this happened, I let water run under the bridge. But, as this is the second time that Shutterstock has attempted to coerce me into unnecessarily “upgrading” my account for “Corporate compliance”, I’m putting this shady af company on blast.

Here’s the situation:

My designer used stock elements purchased from Shutterstock for some of my covers. When I want to make stickers, ...

Strange Things People Believe Because I Wrote a Book…

Dear reader,

This is one part a window into the reality of writing books and one part a serious level “what the actual fuck???” associated with writing books. Here is a (shortened) list of things people genuinely believe about me because I wrote a book.

1: People believe I am a member of the BIPOC community.

Reality: Yes, I write characters who are not white. I have a lead character who is Asian. I have a Mexican (Nahuatl / Irish) mix. I have characters of varying skin colors who are ac...