I'm pleased to announce that City of the Invaders, in preparation for a more complete series and additional Palladia books in future, has had an overhaul of the cover! The lovely cover produced by my designer really wows me and helps to bring out the quality of this exciting futuristic adventure. Consuela also got a mild tweak so the fonts line up and now both books will be released on multiple platforms. So excited! 

And there will be more updates. 

I did a post on Sekana, the heroine of "Jurant" in Facets of Fantasy, a year ago. But after a while it didn't quite reflect her, so I'm doing another one. In a year an audience's feelings about something (or someone) can change pretty noticeably and you've always got to keep up with the flow of that. For one thing, there are a lot of characters in Facets of Fantasy. She's just one and possibly isn't even a front-runner. She's a bit deeper down towards the heart of the book, which makes sense because she only appears after two introductory stories.

I found this awesome fantasy art image for her! In the story she morphs from a shy, vulnerable-looking girl with knock-knees, who seems forced to attend a military academy, into a purple-haired warrior from a hidden group called the Kinari. Investigating her is the main drive of the story, which stands in the middle of Facets, as its center. Sekana isn't exactly hard to spot, although in her less-powerful form she probably thinks she is. (Don knew she was up to something and he wasn't trying, so it must have been easy.) But she is pretty sneaky too, a link she shares with his grandfather who's trying to use her powers. In other ways, she and Lord Andre aren't friends, but they have a shared perambulation around the obvious, a desire to blend in while they follow their own plans.

The story is just one angle of Facets, so it didn't go on to follow Sekana's journey once she was visibly-all-purple-warrior and went back to Rindon. Once again, she's not as subtle as she thinks she is and it's clear there's something that's being hidden about what the Kinari are like. Don feels loyal because she used great power to help him out, but he must wonder where that power comes from. After all, the only person caught reading a history of Rindon was Sekana herself. Maybe something in their past might hold a clue to Sekana's future.

And there will be more updates.

I’ve noticed there are characters in my books who are just plain strange. They always come in pairs—and who better to start with than Artie and BeBe from Bellevere House?

Artie is like something out of a freak show. He is the son of a radio producer—perhaps constant immersion in show business accounts for his being out of touch with normal life. He wears plaid suits and just zones in on Bebe. Zones in. She’s interested in voice acting, so he targets her. He doesn’t marry her even though he’s actually in love with her. Instead she gets pregnant, for almost no reason, he picks on her eating and table manners (what the heck!?!?) Then he disappears into the blue and pretends to forget about her. Later, they pop up happily married and he hopes her dad will accept him. He doesn’t seem concerned whether BEBE will accept him, although I think that should be a serious IF. If I were her, he’d be dead. He would no longer be a part of the world of the living. He would be gone from the Earth as we know it, right about the time I first met him.

There’s no explanation of BeBe’s reasoning—seriously, who would be interested in this guy? She gets in a lot of trouble with her dad after Artie runs off and diffidently assumes she could never even dream of getting married to Artie. After all Artie is—is—is what, exactly? A freaky guy in plaid who treats her terribly for some unexplained reason. Like he’s trying to impress her with how knowledgeable and distant he is, how hard to attain, how critical about how to eat crackers? Artie ISN’T hard to attain. He followed HER around from the first. BeBe is quite self-centered. That must be why she doesn’t see him the way he is. She doesn’t see him at all.

I think she’s perfect for him. The person married to Artie should be blind as a bat.
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And there will be more updates. 

Soon I hope to release a little story I wrote about 5 years ago. I’m not sure if it will be before or after Temmark Osteraith, which I’m also working on. This story, Two Days in Celesta, is a little variation on Cinderella that talks about the fairy godmother's backstory and tweaks Cinderella's adventures so the prince isn't who you expect. I briefly included this story in an older version of Victoria/Alyce from last year, but decided it would do better separately. I might even extend it to include a few more characters.

Facets of Fantasy was originally published 10 years ago--yes, TEN--and this year I'm going to move it out to some wider platforms. In short, to republish it, in a way. Not that I regret any of the past ten years' experiences with it, but that it's time for my authorship to take a new direction and where better to begin than at the beginning!

Facets of Fantasy will be on preorder for a few weeks starting early April (I hope.) I'm also mulling the possibility of a hardback book, largely because they hold up to wear and tear much better. Still thinking about that . . . but back to the preorder. Facets will be the first of several books to be re-released in this way. And I'm planning a new cover for City of the Invaders . . .

So excited . . .

And there will be more updates.