elizabeth_oswald

Covid sucks

Sorry, guys. I have covid, and my brain feels like a soggy cotton ball. I promise I'll make it up to you when I'm well. I'm just glad I got Sowing done before I got sick!

Book 3 is at the formatter!

She's usually pretty fast, so I should be able to get this up on Amazon by the end of the week. I'm going to try a pre-order type situation this time, mainly because I want to see if I can order print books before they go to other people. Last time, my readers were getting print copies weeks before I did, and I want to make sure the cover and everything looks good.

I'll let you know how that's going, and I need to get to work on Cultivation!

Meet Stick!

Patreon exclusive! No one else will get to see this until the next book is released (by late Sept).

I'm almost done editing Sowing, and since Aspen makes Stick in this book, I decided to make the staff the chapter header. This is my first attempt at making my own chapter header, so hopefully my formatter will give it the green light. The color one is for the ebook, while the B&W will be for the print version, if that matters. I'm really happy with it, and I've been thinking...

More author appearances booked!

This weekend, September 3, from noon to 3, I'll be at the Peculiar Games & Hobbies store in Peculiar, MO. On September 26, I'll be in Lee's Summit, MO at Recruits Con. The con is open Friday evening and Sunday morning, but unless things go amazingly well, I don't anticipate being there. Add those to ABC Day in Bethell, WA, on October 1, and I have a pretty packed schedule coming up!

I'd love to see any of you at these events, and if you let me know you're a Patron, I'll give you a f...

Good news and bad news

So the good news is that I'm going to be at the All Bethel Community Day in Washington on Saturday, October 1. This is awesome, because I'm going to start doing cons and small local events, because handing out bookmarks and offering to sign stuff is a great way to start making people aware of my books. My mom lives out there, so it'll be a short work trip, but I get to see my mom. Yay!

The bad news is that now I have to buy a banner, display stands, and maybe some swag? I ordered the ba...

Grimalkin's Test - Chapter Seven

When meeting new people, it is best to keep the customs of their culture in mind. However, one should always remember one’s own culture as well, and if someone expects you to marry them after giving you an unasked-for sheep, one should politely but firmly decline.

-Lady Chatterwick’s Journey

Maria’s eyes flashed to Tobias in amazement. Who was this strange man, and how did he know who she was? But Tobias was lo...

Harrowing is live!

The ebook is up on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9V6YFQZ and the paperback is in processing. Now that that's done, I get a week to breathe and work on Grimalkin before I need to push to get Sowing  to the formatter. I'm working on getting my timing down better so I can do preorders for the last three books. Still, I'm getting better, and I kind of knew what I was doing this time! (Though ...

Waiting on the formatter...

As soon as I get the final versions of the print and ebook files for Harrowing, I'll get them going on Amazon, and post a link. I was hoping to get them sooner today, but I guess everyone needs to sleep 😂

Soooooon, though!

I have the pdf proof back from the formatter!

Fingers crossed we stay on track, and Harrowing should be available in ebook on August 16, though it can take a day for the paperback version to get through the process. Fingers crossed that both versions will be available by the end of day August 16! Woot~!

Harrowing is off to the formatter!

She's going to try very hard to get it done by the 16th, so I can publish by then, but she has two projects in her queue ahead of me. Fortunately, we should have pretty well settled on fonts and styles in Clearing, so it should be a fairly smooth process 🤞

I started writing a chapter of Grimalkin, and I'll try to finish it up this weekend. Thank you for being patient with me!

Harrowing is heading your way!

I'm in the final stages of editing Harrowing, and I'll get it to the formatter by Friday. She'll get it back to me Monday-ish, and the second book should be up early next week! My goal was the 15th, and I'm going to miss it by a day or two, but I'll be close.

My daughter heads back to school on the 24th, and at that point I'll have a LOT more time to focus on work, so I expect to get the other books out much more quickly. 

Probably no chapter of Grimalkin th...

I'm back!

We had an amazing vacation, and here is my daughter getting dolphin kisses. (Though I'm pretty sure the dolphin is just like "Why do you make me bump the humans with my face, Human with Fish?")

My plan for this week is to buckle down and get book two through editing and to the formatter. So I hope to have Harrowing up on Amazon by the middle of the month(ish)!

Phew!

I was starting to be worried that I wasn't going to be able to get that chapter finished! Hopefully it makes sense. I had a lot of distractions. After tomorrow, I'll be completely out of touch for a week, but when I get home I'm going to get book 2 of LF published. Since my brother bought my ISBNs, I've now made enough from Clearing to pay for its copyright, formatting, etc, and also enough to pay for Harrowing and my snazzy bookmarks. Yay! Now I just need ...

Grimalkin Chapter Six

Never hesitate to venture into new places and meet new people. You rarely know what questions to ask until you have already stumbled upon the answers.

Lady Chatterwick

The carriage was large, and stuffed with benches separated by just enough space for someone to walk between them. The wealthy passengers, who were allowed to go first, took the widest seats, placing cushions and blankets on the hard wooden s...

Tobias (almost)

Obviously, there was no new chapter today. Packing with a kid is way harder than packing by yourself. Sheesh! I promise I'll get a chapter written this week, but it won't be today or tomorrow. In the meantime, this is almost Tobias in his human form. He should have a little more smile, and a little more twinkle in his eye, and possibly look just a smidge younger. When I tried getting Artbreeder to make him younger one step, he got a LOT younger (oops!). Hopefully, he looks around fifteen here...

Bookmark!

Here's what I ordered for the bookmark. I'll be getting a thousand of them, so I hope they look good! 😬 You'll notice I changed the sky on Harvest again, since my husband noted that it looked more like a Sci-Fi novel with a black space background. (Yay, feedback!).

I'm going on vacation Tuesday for TWO WEEKS (So updates will be spotty the first week, and then I'll be out of contact for a week. I'll have my laptop with me, but no internet, so odds are good I won't be able to post chap...

New cover for Harvest

I'm working on designing a bookmark to give away as a sort of business card (you'll get one with your book if you just send me an address for a signed copy!) and I want to get all the covers finalized. I realized that the battle in Harvest (formerly Reaping) didn't actually look like the cover I'd designed, so I started moving things around. So FantumHat is out, Akuji is up on the hill, and it's night. Poor Khor doesn't have a mini (couldn't find a goat with those horns!) and I left in the Bo...

Grimalkin Chapter Five

When traveling long distances, be certain to find excellent companions. I find that dullards only make a boring journey even more tedious, while those high society might shun as odd make jolly company indeed.

-Lady Chatterwick

To Maria’s immense surprise, Tobias made his way directly to the public carriage station, and proceeded to purchase a ticket for Bremerton, which was a smallish town a day or so to the east of the capital. Maria had studied every settleme...

Grimalkin - Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Upon beginning a new adventure, one should never forget the three basics: food, money, and a good disguise.

-Lady Chatterwick

Maria’s mother was allergic to cats, and thus they were technically banned from the palace. Maria knew there were a few who lurked around the kitchens and stables, but no one would claim them. Because of this, Maria’s closest acquaintance with that thing known as a ‘cat nap’ was when Tia would deign to fall asl...

Autographed book?

I can't figure out this coupon thing (I think it may not be available for self-pub authors), so for those of you who've stuck around (thank you!) if you PM me your address, I will mail you a copy of Clearing, complete with autograph. If you want a particular greeting, please let me know!

Still writing!

I just finished chapter three of Grimalkin's Test, and I'll be writing a minimum of two chapters per week until September, when that should pick up to three. I won't be releasing anything after the third chapter of Cuckoo on Royal Road until all five books of LF are complete and published, so only Patrons will see anything new until then. I'm also working on figuring out how to create a $5 off coupon for the print book exclusively for my Patrons.

Grimalkin - Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Upon beginning a new adventure, one should never forget the three basics: food, money, and a good disguise.

-Lady Chatterwick

Upon further discussion, it seemed that Tia was actually on her proving quest, which was probably why she was so insistent that she wasn’t a kitten.

“But what is a ‘proving quest’?” Maria insisted, as the two cats made their way back up the apple tree.

Cuckoo's Dream Chapter Three

“Who-?”

Amy just shook her head, grinning, and motioned toward a small hole at the back of the eye socket. Alpha hesitated, but the elf seemed innocuous enough, and she had kept Alpha from falling. Plus, Alpha really didn’t like R3dLit3 and his buddies, and she had no responsibility to them except to bring their items back to them if they died. Finally, Alpha shrugged and moved forward, crouching next to the slim elf, who shot her a conspiratorial wink before turning to l...

Paperback book is live!

That comes with a caveat, however. The cover looks a bit low res, so I'm going to look into that. Feel free to buy it, but the cover may change (though the inside should be fine). I'll get a coupon code once I'm actually happy with it. I'm going to order an author copy and see what's what.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1737651009

Free ebook anyone?

From 7/6 12AM PDT-7/9 11:59 PDT, Clearing will be free on Amazon! Please go snag a copy, review, and push it to all your friends! I could really use the help, and you guys are awesome!!

Final, Final, For real final - Chapter One - Rouge

Book One: Clearing

clear  /ˈklir/ verb

gerund or present participle: clearing

1. free      (land) for cultivation or building by removing vegetation or existing      structures.
2. gradually go away or disappear.

Chapter One

Rouge

Roug...

Why is there so much waiting?!

Today, as promised, I uploaded the final draft of Clearing on Kindle. It's now in the review process (which no one told me about! 😬😂) and when it's approved, I'll get you guys that link, and figure out your coupon code so you can get the print book at cost, if you want. I had to price the thing at $14.99, which seems ridiculous to me, but it's huge, and I still barely make any royalties on it.

Sigh.

In the meantime, I've updated the first chapter of...

The Cuckoo's Dream

Okay, Ava's story has a name! In this case, the 'cuckoo' is Amy, since she's a substitute for the real Amy, or at least she feels like she is. The dream refers to the game, since the premise of VR in the LF universe is that Bridget and Amy were able to induce and control theta (dreaming) brain waves, allowing players to experience something like lucid dreams. This is about the sum total of my actual ability to do science-speak on this topic, but if someone wants to be inspired by the...

Moving right along!

Clearing has cleared the formatter. It's almost 400 pages, so there's that 😬 I'm trying to price it as reasonably as possible, but in order for me to get any royalties, I have to put the physical book at about $11, and the ebook at at least $3.99.  They'll be really pretty though! My formatter created an adorable graphic of Silus as a chapter header, and my brother made colored (for ebook) or grayscale (print) stat block graphics. The book will be out on July 1 or 5, since I'm going t...

Ava - Chapter Two

Sampson, Alpha’s horse, stood placidly by as Alpha and R3dLit3 signed the contract. [Contract] was one of the first skills a mule learned, and was almost as important as [Identify]. A contract proved that two players had agreed upon something that might require a higher authority to step in and enforce. Usually, that higher authority was one of the servants of the complainant’s god, but in cases involving real world exchanges, such as bank transfers, it could even reach a game master, who...