From 2021 to 2022

Hey, I'm only a week late with my "year in review" post! 2021 was a busy year writing-wise and 2022 looks like it's going to be the same. Let's recap what happened and what's coming up!

2021:

The big event of this year was re-releasing the Disintegration series. New edits, new formatting, new (awesome!) cover art...and then I had to market the damn things. Overall, I'm happy with how everything went, and I'm beyond thrilled that these books I've loved so much for so many years are back out in the world and resonating with new readers.

I also released a short story, Sweet Escape, which is now on Kindle Unlimited after retiring from the role of being my newsletter freebie. Feedback on that one has also been good, and I'm happy with that, too. (How could you *not* be happy when chocolate cake is involved?)

As far as writing and planning ahead goes, I signed a bunch of contracts for some upcoming releases, which I'll elaborate on in my next section, appropriately titled...

2022:

The first round of edits plus the mock-up of the cover are done for A Flame Among the Stars, my upcoming lesbian fantasy romance. Longtime artist buddy Boobulon is doing character artwork for the main cast, which I also can't wait to share! No official release date yet, but we'll still label it as "coming soon!"

I also successfully accomplished many parts of another big item on my to-do list - rebooting the Searching the Skies series. To quickly recap, Book #1 was my first published book ever, Book #2 came out about a year and a half later, but while Book #3 was planned, it never happened for various reasons. At the beginning of 2021, I fiiiiinally wrote Book #3, which didn't take long at all, since it had been bouncing around in my head for many years. I also realized it didn't have a satisfactory ending to the series as a whole, so my planned trilogy is now five books long. (Hey, it worked for Kevin Smith.) I signed contracts for Books 1-3, and I'm nearing the end of writing Book #4 now.

I have another short story that's just about ready to go, but I'm trying to space out my publications. This one just needs one more quick edit, formatting, and a finalized cover. For that last point, I'm still working on my basic graphic design skills, but I was able to create a pretty cool text effect for the title. Somewhere in the back of my head, I do want to write more short stories, yet, as we all know, these things take time.

Lastly...I have to figure out what I want to do with The Edge of the Sphere, the last of my books where the rights reverted back to me after the publisher shut down. I'm kind of torn here - I do still like a lot of the story, though I definitely don't consider it my best work. It needs some editing, though not a ton. (I think I even started working on that a while back, but I don't even know off the top of my head.) It needs a new cover, and I'd have to decide if I want to tackle it myself or outsource it. If/when I get around to re-releasing it, I'd probably do a paperback version, so I might want to turn this one over to the pros again. My biggest issue, though, is marketing and promotion. Do I really want to spend a lot of time on a book I like very much, but may not love? Do I just want to sort of passively put it out there and let my other books sell it for me? I don't know. When I have the schedule for everything else more formalized, maybe I'll think about putting it back out there during a quieter period.

Whew! That's quite the list! Somewhere in here, I need to catch up with my reading and my Netflix, both of which have been seriously neglected over the past year. But first, back to writing the final chapter of Chasing the Skies! (Yes, it has a title already, yay me!)

Trope-Tastic Tuesdays: Birds of a Feather

Trope: Birds of a Feather

Description: We're all familiar with the Opposites Attract romance trope. Birds of a Feather is pretty much the opposite of Opposites Attract. (Oh ho ho, see what I did there.) Here, both characters in a relationship have similar personality traits and share common goals and interests. Birds of a Feather can also involve a number of sub tropes (though they're not necessary), such as Friends to Lovers.

Examples: Katniss and Gale from The Hunger Games, Harry and Ginny from Harry Potter, Tris and Four from Divergent, a whole lot of Jane Austen couples, many of the successful relationships on The Office

Pros: Birds of a Feather is probably a bit more realistic than Opposites Attract. After all, nothing but conflict after conflict would get exhausting after a while. People are often drawn to partners who are similar to them, and that can form the basis of a solid relationship.

Cons: In fiction, there has to be some conflict, or else things would get boring quickly. (Though that conflict doesn't have to come from inside the relationship, of course.) And even if the characters are similar, they have to have some distinguishing characteristics, or else the Love Interest just turns into a dull copy of the Main Character.

It's also worth noting in both the examples I mentioned and the full list on TV Tropes, Birds of a Feather is NOT a guarantee of a happy ending. Do with that what you will.

Would/Did I Use It?: Indeed I have! (I've also used Opposites Attract, but I think I lean toward Birds of a Feather more.) Most recently, I have Ro and Reggie from The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions. Soon after meeting, Ro even points out that she thinks they'll get along because he's a lot like her. That doesn't mean everything is sunshine and roses, though; some of the traits they share are darker or have negative connotations.

Probably the next strongest example I have of this trope is Jasmine and Aras from Out of Orbit. Both are strong leaders dedicated to the people they serve...and while this is one similarity that draws them to each other, it also poses a risk of interfering with their future happiness together.

The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions - Release Day!

 

It's here! The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions is now officially available on both Kindle Unlimited and in paperback. And! AND! To celebrate Release Day, Disintegration, Book 1 of the series, will be available for FREE on November 1st and 2nd, so if you need to catch up, now is the perfect time! Don't forget - if you haven't grabbed your free copy of Disintegration: The Prequels to round out the series, you can pick your favorite format here.

Blurb:

A year has passed since Ro Bernard escaped from the Midnight Scorpions, a clandestine group of mercenaries that exists in the outside world as little more than myths and rumors. Though haunted by the reprehensible acts she committed and witnessed as a member of the organization, her primary focus is keeping a roof over her head and food on her plate. A chance encounter leads her to Karin Cassels, whose son died in the Scorpions’ underground laboratory. While sharing details about her son’s research, Ro reveals the most disturbing information she has on the group. Their leader, scientist Dane Zedek, has been integrating cybernetic parts with human soldiers in the hopes of building a lethal army to help him achieve greater political power.

The women hatch a plan to take down the Midnight Scorpions with two ultimate goals: kill Zedek, and rescue Callum, Ro’s lover who was the first of the scientist’s experimental hybrids. For additional assistance, Dr. Cassels directs Ro to Reggie Quinn, a drifter who is no stranger to odd jobs and risky situations. Reggie negotiates a deal with Ro and agrees to join the cause in exchange for a percentage of whatever they loot from the Scorpions’ base.

They embark on an adventure throughout three warring countries to assemble their team and gather the necessary materials for their schemes. Along the way, Ro tries to fight her growing attraction to Reggie, especially as reminders of her unhappy past keep resurfacing. Love and redemption wait for her at the end of her mission to defeat the Midnight Scorpions…assuming she makes it out alive.

Excerpt:

Reggie collected their new belongings, and she opened her knapsack for him to deposit the ammo inside as they walked out the door. Once they left the shop, she took her handgun from him and slipped it into the back of the waistband of her pants. “Well, that was fun,” she said.

“I don’t know, Rosie. I think you could have batted your eyelashes a bit more.”

She’d given up on trying to fend off the nickname. “Don’t get too excited there, buddy. I don’t mix business and pleasure. It never ends well.”

They turned a corner, traveling back to Ted’s neighborhood on foot. “Sounds like you’re speaking from experience,” he said. “What, were there all sorts of illicit love affairs and secret trysts going on in the deepest recesses of the Scorpions’ lair?”

“Something along those lines.”

A wicked gleam lit up his eyes. “Ah, so you’ve been holding out on me. Way to leave out the best bits of the stories.”

“If you haven’t noticed yet, most of the stories don’t have a happy ending.”

“True.”

Ro bit her bottom lip as they walked along the paved path. She had yet to reveal her second main objective for when they made their way into the underground facility and disposed of Zedek. The gun at her back reminded her how much Reggie had been willing to risk for her. She owed him full honesty.

“Fine, you got me,” she said. “I may have neglected to mention one of my priorities for this mission, aside from killing Zedek, looting the place, and turning it into a pile of rubble.”

He stopped walking. “Dare I ask when you were going to bother filling me in?”

“I don’t know. Eventually?” She halted her pace and turned around to face him, sighing. “You’re right, I’m sorry. I should have been completely forthcoming from the get-go.”

“Apology accepted.” He continued down the road again, tugging on her wrist so she would do the same. “But start talking.”

Ro pondered how many details to disclose and the best way to convey them. “I have a friend down there and I don’t know if he’s alive or dead. I didn’t have time to find out for sure before I escaped and, obviously, I couldn’t take him with me.”

“So we add springing your friend to our list. I don’t see what the big deal is.”

She didn’t say anything.

“Oh,” Reggie said after a few beats of silence. “Let me guess. I stumbled across one of those love affairs I was joking about.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be that way. He was a project, an assignment, a responsibility.” The words tasted bitter as they rolled off her tongue. “And he deserved better than what he got.”

“From the Midnight Scorpions or from you yourself?”

“Both.”

The street shifted from asphalt to dirt beneath their feet. “If you loved him, I don’t think he got such a raw deal from you,” Reggie said quietly.

Her teeth gritted together. “Zedek and the lab rats were responsible for fucking up his brain and his body. His emotions, his soul, those were all on me.”

“It couldn’t have been so bad.”

“It was.” Nauseating guilt churned in her stomach, but she’d come too far to leave her confessions unfinished. “As soon as we started caring about each other, I should have walked away and put an end to it. Not only would it have been the professional thing to do, I knew nothing warm and bright and good could ever come from Zedek’s dark pit in the ground. I was right.”

He glanced up toward the sky. “When things look bleak, people want to cling to whatever glimmers of hope they can find.”

“Are you referring to him or me?”

“Both,” he said, repeating her prior answer.

They trudged along the dusty paths. The settlement of gray and brown hovels appeared in the distance, swathed in the illusion of murky shadows despite the mid-day sun. Before they reached Ted’s house, Reggie grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him. “Look, Rosie, I’m not going to tell you not to beat yourself up over whatever happened with this guy,” he said. “You and I both have our skeletons and scars, and sleep comes easier some nights more than others. I’m not going to delve into your innermost feelings or offer useless platitudes, and you’d probably tell me to go fuck myself if I tried.”

Ro shrugged, though the motion didn’t dislodge his grip. “Very likely.”

“For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re a horrible person, and I doubt anything you could tell me would change my mind.” His fingers remained on her arm, though his grasp loosened. “I don’t go following just anybody into hideouts filled with hordes of deadly mercenaries, you know.”

She stared up into his gold-flecked eyes. “You’ve heard enough evidence of how everything I touch turns to shit. Let’s follow through with the plans Ted helped us solidify and get the job done. Assuming we come out alive on the other end, we can then worry about whether your assessment was right or wrong.”

“Fine.”

They arrived at Ted’s door. “One more thing,” Reggie said as she reached for the knob.

“What?”

“Your friend, boyfriend, lover, whatever.” Sympathy softened the strong lines of his cheekbones and jaw. “We’ll find him and get him out, no matter what.”

Even More Disintegration News/Updates

Firstly, while I have your attention, go vote for Disintegration over at Cover Wars! I know I'm biased, but really, there aren't enough words for how much I LOVE this cover.

Okay, now that that's out of the way...actually, there isn't a ton to report from my writing world that hasn't already been covered. Just the other day on Twitter I was lamenting how time-consuming marketing is. I've said it for years: writing the damn book is not the hard part, getting people to read it is the hard part. I feel like I've just been going nonstop lately, to the point where I haven't written a whole lot of new words in other projects.

But! While I'm not a world-famous bestseller (yet?), at least I can say I'm getting some results. People are, in fact, reading what I'm writing, reviews are trickling in, and my sneaky ploy to include the pre-order link to The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions at the end of Disintegration is also paying off. And speaking of TFotMS, in case you haven't seen that spectacular cover yet, take a look!

So, I'm still plugging away at...well, everything. Marketing my existing books, writing the new ones, keeping up with the day job, and being present for my family. Outside of writing, we've been having a crazy couple of weeks in the Landen household, but I'm hoping things will level off soon.

I did notice that this blog went untouched for almost a month. Honestly, there was a time where I was thinking of switching my entire website over to a different format, one without a blog, but for now, I'm staying put. I do like to have a place for my "writing about writing" ramblings, whenever they're longer than a tweet or a Facebook post, and while the layout isn't perfect, I think it's easy enough to find the information about my published works. These days, though, I've been focusing on Twitter and my newsletter, so if you're not already following me in those places, click those links!

Disintegration Updates

In addition to writing my blog posts on tropes, I have been plugging away at other things, namely the Disintegration series re-release. For the most part, everything's been going smoothly, and I think I'm on track to release at the end of the summer as planned. As always, some things come with a learning curve, so I figured I might as well organize all my progress updates in one place and talk about my experiences, as I try to document in this "writing about writing" blog. Let's organize this into categories!

Covers: First and foremost, I cannot possibly say enough good things about Emily of Emily's_World_Of_Design. She has been absolutely fantastic to work with and I 100% recommend her to anyone who's looking for a cover designer. As of right this second, the covers for Disintegration and Disintegration: The Prequels are complete, and The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions is in progress. I'm planning on doing an official reveal for Disintegration in about another month, but in the meantime, here's a tiny sneak peek to hold us over. (I say "us" because this cover is amazing and I'm so impatient, but I want to wait for a few more things to be finalized before the reveal.)

Keep an eye out for that little scorpion to be showing up on all sorts of things in the weeks to come, and don't forget—newsletter subscribers will see the full cover first!

Editing: Everything's fine here. Since the kids are finally back in school full-time, I started getting back to my usual work schedule a couple of weeks ago, so that's slowed me down a bit on the editing front, but it'll get done. Again, Disintegration and Disintegration: The Prequels are completely done, and The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions is in progress. The "that" and "just" count for TFotMS did, as predicted, nearly make me sob, but I went through and slashed a lot of them. ("Still" wasn't awful. "Really" snuck in more than I'd remembered.) Like I said in a previous post, there wasn't a ton of work to do here (as compared to the Skies series, for example), but I still need to devote time to actually doing it.

Formatting: Aaaaaand here it is, why the statement "everything's been going smoothly" has the "for the most part" qualifier in front of it. By this point, I'm pretty confident in my abilities to format an e-book. I went back and forth for the longest time over whether to outsource the paperback formatting or do it myself. I finally decided to give it a go on my own, and then if it turned out I was in over my head, I'd pay someone else to deal with it.

I used a combination of Amazon's official guide plus a couple of other articles/blog posts that explained some steps a little more in-depth. While I know there are various programs out there for book formatting, I stuck with MS Word because that's what I already own and that's what I'm familiar with. As I followed (or thought I followed) the step-by-step instructions, it turned into one of those things where everything was going fine...until it wasn't. For the curious, where I got tripped up was the page numbers and the headers/footers. There's a difference between "acceptable" and "professional" and I was aiming for the latter, so I turned to Google for help. It took a little time, but I eventually wrapped my head around how to accomplish exactly what I wanted, and I think/hope it worked out. I'm crossing my fingers that I got all the margins and stuff right the first time out and it won't be rejected, and I'm definitely planning on ordering a proof to double check everything. If, after all that, something's still not right with the paperback, I'll turn it over to someone who actually knows what they're doing.

The e-book and paperback for Disintegration are mostly formatted; I have a placeholder in for the TFotMS cover and blurb, and I figure I should probably write a dedication for this one. Disintegration: The Prequels is only getting an e-book, but I haven't formatted it yet. I'm hoping once I get to formatting the paperback for The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions, I'll feel pretty comfortable. Maybe.

So that's where everything stands. I was originally planning for a September 1st release date for Disintegration (and make the prequel set the newsletter freebie starting then; I'll also make it accessible for free to current subscribers). However! I was recently reminded that the Alanis Morissette concert tickets I got last year were rescheduled for that day, and it looks like the show is going ahead, so even though I think everything will be all set up for the book release, it still feels like a LOT for one day, y'know? Since everything's going well, I'm now aiming for August 30th. I haven't decided when I'll make the preorder available, as I've heard conflicting advice about that, but there's going to be a lot of fun stuff going on leading up to the release, so stay tuned!

Multitasking

I'm pleased to say I've reached the home stretch of Surrendering the Skies. I have one more chapter to go, plus an epilogue. And honestly, I'm not crazy about where my word count is right now, so I might wind up going back and adding in a few more things, but we'll see where I wind up. Still, exciting!

As I started inching closer to the end, I also started thinking about what else I want to accomplish this year writing-wise. Regular readers will remember I have more older books that came back to me following a publisher shutting its doors, and I have to figure out what to do with them. It finally hit me that if I want to re-release any of them on my own, these things take time, and I should probably start making some sort of plan. (I know, it's obvious. Big derp on my part.) As I've been saying this past year or so, now that my kids are a little bit older, some of the brain fog is clearing, and I've been feeling more like my writerly self. So, let's attempt some multitasking!

I revisited my beloved Disintegration series to check out where it is now and how much work it would need. You know what? My love is not misplaced; those books are still fucking awesome, if I do say so myself. Really, some of my best writing is in there. They will need some editing, and I will probably sob to myself as I slash all the "thats" and "justs" and a whole bunch of adverbs, but otherwise, I don't think it'll be too painful.

Next, I realized if I want to do right by these books I love so much, I should invest in some kick-ass cover art. I've got tax return money coming. I've got stimulus money. LET'S STIMULATE THE ECONOMY AND SUPPORT ARTISTS! I put a call out on Twitter, reached out to some artists, and found someone I think will be a great match. Since I wasn't crazy about the original covers back in the day, I'm super excited about this part.

After/during cover art will come editing, which, again, I don't think will be too strenuous. And then after that...formatting. I've done e-books before, so I'm not too concerned there. It falls under the category of "time-consuming, but not terribly difficult." But I haven't done a paperback on my own yet, so I need to start doing research on that. I know there are ways to outsource this work, but since I'm spending money on the covers, I'll most likely handle the formatting myself.

So far, my plan is to finish up Surrendering the Skies, shop that series around, and then get to work on editing. As of right this second, I'm planning a release date for the first Disintegration book for September 1st of this year. It might be a wild ride, but I think it's doable. I'm also going to release the set of prequel short stories at the same time, but—BUT!—newsletter subscribers will get those for free, so make sure you're all signed up for that.

I'm voluntarily putting a lot on my plate, but as of right now, it's making me happy and motivated and all of that good stuff. Fingers crossed these plans work out (says the pantser)!

Choosing a Direction

In my last post, I made a short vague statement about revisiting an old project/idea, accompanied by a promise to write a blog post about it. You know how sometimes when you sit around thinking about something, debating all the pros and cons and everything, if you wait long enough, a decision is made for you? That's kind of where I'm at right now. So, here's the promised post.

A couple of weeks or months ago (time has lost all meaning in this pandemic), I was thinking about some of my earliest books. I reviewed my contracts to see when the rights would revert back to me, and I was there on most of them. I was debating emailing the publisher to clarify a couple things, and then working on a plan for what I want to do with the books. I ran this by usual sounding board buddy Boobulon, and his immediate reaction was to encourage me to do this, reminding me that the works are mine, and if enough time has passed, I should take advantage of the reversion clause. I thanked him for his input, and ultimately filed the whole thing away in the "stuff to maybe get to someday" mental folder.

Then this morning, I got an email saying that the aforementioned publisher is closing/being absorbed by another company, and all rights have reverted. Okay, that's taken care of, I guess. There was a list of options regarding relisting with the new site, paying a fee to retain cover art and formatting, and so on. I've given all of this some thought, and luckily, for what I want to eventually accomplish, I don't have to *do* anything or contact anyone. The rights are mine, and I'm not going to have the books listed with the new site.

To steal the title from my last blog post: So, what now?

That's where things get a little trickier, and I will actually have to do something other than sitting around on my butt. Some decisions are clear, while others, I haven't formed a definite plan yet. In no particular order:

For all of them: Redoing the covers. Whether that means throwing together something basic on my own or paying someone to do it for me, we'll see. (Maybe a combination.) I also decided to do all the formatting on my own. The Kindle publishing platform is less finicky than it used to be, and while yes, it's another chore to do, it's not the worst thing ever and I can handle it. For availability, as of right this moment, I am leaning toward making them all Amazon exclusives, free for Kindle Unlimited members, and a low-ish price for non-KU people. I have Feelings about Amazon becoming a monopoly, but for right now, I think it's the best way to go.

The Edge of the Sphere: This one's the easy one. New cover, check the formatting, done. I think I'll try to get this done by the end of the summer.

Disintegration/The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions: Since these two go together, I guess I should come up with some sort of branding and scheduling plan. Also, there's a glaring typo right in the beginning of TFotMS that's been bothering me since it was published, so I can finally fix that, at least. I've been poking around on stock image sites, and I may wind up outsourcing the cover design for this one, but we'll see. Not a priority right now, although I do still love this set of stories.

Searching the Skies/Defying the Skies: Arrrrrrrrgh. Lots going on here. This was actually what made me start thinking about looking into the rights reversion in the first place. I'm sure I mentioned it at least once here, but once upon a time, this was intended to be a trilogy, and then for a variety of reasons, the third book never happened. It has a pretty good outline, but I never even started writing it. Another complicating factor is that when I first got this idea, I went back to review, and StS needs a lot of work to make me feel comfortable rereleasing it. A LOT. The foundations are there, there's still a lot of the story I love, but there's a lot that makes me cringe because I know I can do better now. I'm not talking a total revamp/rewrite here, at least, but it definitely needs some polishing. (DtS has held up better. Yay for growth.) Yet another thought I had was, if I did clean up Book 1 and wrote Book 3, if I want to shop this around to a new publisher as a completed set, rather than doing it all on my own.

Then that leads us to perhaps the biggest question of them all: How much time do I *really* want to spend on this? Which is the better use of my time—giving these existing books the best shot I can, or focusing on the future with new projects? I mean, I can try to do both, but I also know my limitations.

To steal the overused emoticon from my last blog post: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My tentative plan is to get The Edge of the Sphere back out there soon-ish, but also focus on the new project I've been outlining and work on that. The other books will be relegated to the backburner for now, but I guess if I get into a writing slump with the new project, I can work on rereleasing the old stuff. As far as writing the third book of the Skies trilogy goes, I really don't know. It's not the priority now, but who knows, I may get excited over the idea again. At least it looks like I'll be keeping busy!

Interpersonal Relationships

In between working on promotion stuff for Out of Orbit (watch out for cool stuff in August!), I'm slowly but surely plugging away on Seductive Suspect. It's still too early for a really good estimate, but if I had to guess, said estimate would be I'm somewhere between a quarter and a third done. Probably closer to a third, but who's counting?

As I've mentioned previously, this book has the largest cast of anything I've ever written. Something I noticed when writing The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions, which also had a lot of major characters, is how it's interesting to see how the relationships between some of the characters develop. I mean, I primarily write romance, so obviously there's going to be a capital R Relationship between the two leads. But it would be unrealistic if the other characters never interacted with each other, and it's worth spending some time developing that.

Aside from the main Relationship, I didn't really plan for those other interactions. As I started writing and the characters came to life, it sort of just happened naturally. Which isn't a bad thing at all; we always want our writing to be natural! At this point, Laura despises Dylan, who is completely oblivious to her feelings. He, in turn, doesn't like Paul. Paul knows, but doesn't care. And lest you think everyone hates each other, Ruth is very protective of Brittany and tries to help her out when she can. Need a flow chart yet?

Doesn't matter, because EVERYONE'S GOING TO DIIIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!

Okay, not *everyone*.

Book Tour for The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions

The book tour for The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions kicks off today! I'll be commenting and tweeting and sharing and whatnot, but here's the schedule so you can follow along as well for some new excerpts and fun interviews. (Don't be shy about showing some love to the generous tour hosts!)

September 14^th: Starter Day Party @ I Heart Reading

September 14^th: Book Excerpt @ Author C.A. Milson’s Blog

September 15^th: Book Excerpt @ Indy Book Fairy

September 16^th: Book Excerpt @ Solafide Publishing Book Blog

September 17^th: Author Interview @ Teatime and Books

September 19^th: Book Excerpt @ Books Are Forever

September 21^st: Author Interview @ Editor Charlene’s Blog

September 23^rd: Promo Post @ Books on Fire

September 24^th: Book Review @ I Heart Reading

September 26^th: Book Excerpt @ The Single Librarian

September 28^th: Character Interview @ Compelling Beasts Blog

Meet the Team - Ro Bernard

Last one! And my favorite, of course! (from The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions)

Name: Ro Bernard

Role: The Leader

Country of Origin: Palavia

Known associates/affiliations: Former member of The Midnight Scorpions

Greatest accomplishment: Winning a training tournament with other new recruits at the time of her initiation, despite being younger and smaller than most of the competitors

Biggest fear: Never doing anything significant with her life

Additional information: Her full name is Rohalia, but only two people ever called her that. She thinks it's too frilly.

Trivia: After all this time, I still think Ro's my favorite character that I've ever written. I almost feel bad for everything I've put her through, but I know she'll keep getting back up no matter how many times I knock her down.

Anyway, on to real trivia. When writing the original Disintegration, she came very close to being named Rosie (partially due to the song "Cracklin' Rosie"; what can I say, I'm a closeted Neil Diamond fan), and I don't even remember why I changed it at this point. However, it does resurface as a nickname in this book.

Due to my affinity for her, I guess, I've been asked before if Ro is supposed to be me, or an extension of myself, or a projection of how I'd like to be. The answer to that is a big no. Sure, we have some similarities (I assume that's the case with most of the characters I write since, well, I'm writing them), but I assure you, she is not intended to be a self-insert character. We're both a bit snarky and we both hate to cuddle, but that's about it.

And so we come to the end of the "Meet the Team" series. I hope you had as much fun as I did, and don't forget to check out the rest of Boobulon's artwork and show him some love!

Meet the Team - Reggie Quinn

(from The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions)

Name: Reggie Quinn

Role: The Muscle

Country of Origin: Charytar

Known associates/affiliations: Occasional patient of Dr. Cassels; cousin to Ted Quinn

Greatest accomplishment: Leaving home and becoming completely self-sufficient at age 15

Biggest fear: Dying alone

Additional information: There are a number of allusions (some made by Reggie himself) to how not all of the jobs and tasks he's performed in the past were completely legal, but he chooses not to reveal specifics. He also mentions some siblings, but they're not close. How and why Ted is the only member of his family he regularly contacts isn't stated, but in some ways, they both need each other.

Trivia: To continue on with how completing Mass Effect was on my mind when I started writing, I'll admit I was thinking of James Vega when creating Reggie. Though if I had to pick a real-life person to model him after, I vote for Channing Tatum. ;)

Without giving away too many details or spoilers, I'll say that I loved writing Reggie's interactions with Ro. "Opposites attract" plots are all well and good, but one of the reasons I love them together is their similarities. There's plenty of witty comments and snark to go around, and that made writing just plain fun.

Meet the Team - Zara Thorne

(from The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions)

Name: Zara Thorne

Role: The Comm. Specialist

Country of Origin: Tektan

Known associates/affiliations: Graduate of Coral City University

Greatest accomplishment: Building devices and pioneering technology that (most of) her friends can't even understand

Biggest fear: Humiliation

Additional information: It's not specified in the book exactly what sort of skin condition Zara has; probably something along the lines of eczema or psoriasis. But, as Mielle says, we're not supposed to know about that (and Zara herself never directly acknowledges it).

Trivia: I guess I sort of set up a Betty and Veronica dynamic with Zara and Mielle without intending to. Oops. But just as every team needs some sex appeal, it also needs the shy, nerdy girl, too. Right? ;)

I don't always have people in mind when I create characters (either people I know or actors/actresses), but when writing Zara, and later helping with this artwork, I thought of actress Ariel Winter (from Modern Family) for some reason. 

Meet the Team - Mielle Markham

(from The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions)

Name: Mielle Markham

Role: The Explosives Expert

Country of Origin: Tektan

Known associates/affiliations: Previously served with the Tektani military


Greatest accomplishment: Received a perfect score on all her final exams during her military-based education

Biggest fear: Boredom

Additional information: Mielle and Zara (up next!) have been best friends since childhood. Though Mielle's tough and doesn't take any bullshit from anybody, Zara is her one soft spot.

Trivia: Mielle was fun to write, as she's conventionally beautiful and knows it, but it's not a big deal to her. Aside from a few brief comments from others as to whether or not the male teammates are attracted to her, she's one of the few characters with no romantic entanglements whatsoever. She's got better things to focus on, after all.

I also enjoyed writing her as not afraid or ashamed to be "girly" - she likes pink and sometimes wears dresses, etc. (It's never explicitly stated, but I'd imagine she blows out and styles her hair every morning.) I guess it's easy not to worry about liking what you like when you can blow things up with the push of a button! 

Meet the Team - Ted Quinn

From The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions:

Name: Ted Quinn

Role: The Hacker

Country of Origin: Charytar

Known associates/affiliations: Cousin to Reggie Quinn

Greatest accomplishment: Hacking into one of the Charytaran military's networks without getting caught, just to see if he could

Biggest fear: Rejection

Additional information: Ted feels much more comfortable dealing with computers and other electronics than he does with people. Aside from Reggie, his face-to-face interactions with others are very limited. While not necessarily happy, he's content with spending his time on little more than movies and games. Whether it's never occurred to him to aspire to do more with his life, or if he's afraid of trying and failing is anybody's guess.

Trivia: Aspects of Ted are very loosely based on one of my closest friends. I think that ultimately helped with making him a more sympathetic character than he appears on the surface.

While never explicitly stated, the handheld game Ted plays in several scenes is Tetris. I did not have any particular film in mind for the porn that is playing on his TV when Ro and Reggie first arrive at his house. :D

Meet the Team - Dr. Karin Cassels

Ready for some fun? My good buddy Boobulon has made me some nifty book-related artwork again to celebrate The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions. Now that the book is finally out, I'm ready to present them in profiles of the six main characters. I'll include some backstory that didn't make it into the final book, share some trivia, and otherwise introduce you to this kickass team that's taking on a mercenary cyborg army!

Name: Dr. Karin Cassels

Role: The Healer

Country of Origin: Palavia

Known associates/affiliations: Mother of Vlad Cassels, member of the Midnight Scorpions (though they have not spoken in years)

Greatest accomplishment: Single-handedly maintaining a clinic near the Palavia-Charytar border and offering medical care to those in need

Biggest fear: Never hearing from Vlad again

Additional information: Every now and then she volunteers as a medic with the Palavian military close to the combat zone at the juncture of the three warring countries. It was probably during one of these trips that she learned how to shoot a gun (and pretty damn well!), but the rest of the team never finds out for sure.

Trivia: When I was first plotting out the book, originally Dr. Cassels was going to be male, but Boobulon persuaded me to make Vlad's parent a mother, not a father. Dr. Cassels's role probably wouldn't have changed too much either way, but making her a woman skewed the male-female ratio of the team to 2-4 (rather than the initially planned 3-3). Obviously I don't have a problem with this, and I think I might even like it better this way.

Also, when I started writing, I had recently finished playing Mass Effect 3, and I won't even try to deny that the game influenced me. Once I decided that Dr. Cassels would be a woman, I couldn't help but envision Dr. Chakwas every time I wrote for her. I figured I might as well go all the way and borrow her first name!

The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions - Available Now!

It's here! The Fall of the Midnight Scorpions has been released! I have some fun promotional events coming up in the next few weeks, so be sure to watch this space. In the meantime, have a blurb and a nice, long excerpt!

Blurb:

A year has passed since Ro Bernard escaped from the Midnight Scorpions, a clandestine group of mercenaries that exists in the outside world as little more than myths and rumors. Though haunted by the reprehensible acts she committed and witnessed as a member of the organization, her primary focus is keeping a roof over her head and food on her plate. A chance encounter leads her to Karin Cassels, whose son died in the Scorpions’ underground laboratory. While sharing details about her son’s research, Ro reveals the most disturbing information she has on the group. Their leader, scientist Dane Zedek, has been integrating cybernetic parts with human soldiers in the hopes of building himself a lethal army that will help him achieve even greater political power.

The women hatch a plan to take down the Midnight Scorpions with two ultimate goals: kill Zedek, and rescue Callum, Ro’s lover who was the first of the scientist’s experimental hybrids. For additional assistance, Dr. Cassels directs Ro to Reggie Quinn, a drifter who is no stranger to odd jobs and risky situations. Reggie agrees to join the cause in exchange for a percentage of whatever they loot from the Scorpions’ base.

 
They embark on an adventure throughout three warring countries to assemble their team and gather the necessary materials for their schemes. Along the way, Ro tries to fight her growing attraction to Reggie, especially as reminders of her unhappy past keep resurfacing. Love and redemption wait for her at the end of her mission to defeat the Midnight Scorpions…assuming she makes it out alive. 

Excerpt:
Ro turned around and bent over the map again. Using her previous markings as a guideline, she labeled another potential point of entry to the hidden lair. Before she could measure the distance to the next area she wanted to denote, the door opened again. “Forget something?” she asked without looking over her shoulder.
 
“I just wanted to check in and see how you were doing,” came Reggie’s voice. “It’s getting late.”
 
He appeared in her line of vision, standing at the opposite end of the table. “The map’s coming along,” she said. “I just hope I’m remembering all of this correctly.”
 
“I’m not worried. You’ll get us where we need to go.”
 
“Eventually.”
 
Reggie nodded towards the door. “I saw Mielle come out of here. Everything all right?”
 
“Yeah, we’re good.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “So now you’re tracking Mielle’s comings and goings? Maybe you should be socializing with her at this late hour instead of me.”
 
“If I wanted to spend extra time with Mielle, I wouldn’t have come in here.”
 
“Uh-huh,” she said. “Hey, at least with her around, we can count on Ted to shower on a daily basis in order to make a good impression.”
 
He laughed. “While I was worried about having to wipe the drool from his mouth when we first met her, I don’t think Mielle’s going to be the motivator for Ted to behave himself. He’s got it bad for Zara.”
 
“Oh, really?” Ro smiled at this tidbit of amusing information. “What did he say to you?”
 
“Nothing. He didn’t have to.”
 
“What, is there some sort of psychic connection between cousins that I don’t know about?”
 
Reggie placed his palms on the table, bringing his face closer to hers over the map. “Come now, Rosie. Don’t tell me your astute powers of observation have been failing you. Every time he looks at her, it’s easy to tell what he’s thinking. It doesn’t take a mind reader.”
 
“Subtlety is sometimes lost on me.” She didn’t back down from him. “Don’t tell me your powers of observation have been failing you when it comes to me being rather direct, if not blunt.”
 
“No, I definitely got that.” The golden flecks in his eyes shimmered in the wan lighting. “An argument could be made for either approach.”
 
Ro blew out a puff of air. “I never had the patience for silly games.”
 
“Too bad. Games can be fun.” He pushed off the table, straightening up. “So show me what you’ve done so far,” he said. “I’d love to know how many secret doors and tunnels I’ve passed by without knowing it.”
 
“Fine,” she said. “The closest one is about thirty miles—”
 
“Hold on. I don’t want to have to read upside down.” Reggie walked around the table and stood behind her, leaving a narrow gap between them. “Sorry, go on.”
 
She knew what he was doing and continued as if he hadn’t moved. “As I was saying, the nearest entrance is about thirty miles from here. We might want to go scope it out in the next couple days and see how it looks.”
 
He peered over her shoulder, his mouth close to her ear. “It’s a good start,” he said. “And I’m sure you have some backup plans.”
 
His breath tickled her skin. “There were quite a few ways in and out of the base. Elevators, ramps…different areas were used for different purposes,” she said, keeping her voice even and casual.
 
“I see.”
 
Warm sensations skated down her neck and flooded through her chest, but Ro wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of squirming or wriggling away. If it’s a game he wants, it’s a game he’ll get. “There’s a big set of doors over here to the northeast,” she said. As she leaned over to the side, she made sure her ass grazed the front of Reggie’s body. “We used it to take the trucks and other vehicles out. It’s probably easy to get into, but it’s pretty far away from the command center. Traveling through the underground tunnels extensively might make us easy targets.”
 
“And we don’t want that.” The low tones of his voice hummed through her.
 
“Now, further to the south….” She backed up to indicate a lower portion of the map, pressing against him. Something hard met her in return. “This one’s closer to all the labs and armories and other places of interest, but that means it’ll be more heavily guarded, of course.”
 
“Every route is going to be risky, but maybe we can find some middle ground.” He rested a hand on her side, cupping the swell of her hip. “See, I knew my confidence in you wouldn’t be misplaced.”
 
His thumb stroked her back through the thin fabric of her shirt. Though flames flickered up her cheeks, she rolled her eyes and bit back a grin. “You know, if this was supposed to be some sort of lesson in understated advances, you’re not as discreet as you think you are.”
 
“I wasn’t trying to do or be anything.”
 
“Right.”
 
Slowly, Ro turned around. Reggie didn’t release her from his grip, nor did he do anything to untangle their legs and put some space between them. Propping herself up on one hand, she tilted her head back to stare up at him. She’d admitted some attraction to him in her solitary moments, but had sworn not to act on it. Now that one strong arm was curled around her and she stood face-to-face with his alluring smile, she didn’t know whether to give in to her impulses or push him away.
 
“Rosie?”
 
“Mm-hmm?”
 
“You’re going to smudge the map.”
 
She looked down at where she had planted her sweaty palm right over one of her larger markings. “Damn it,” she muttered, rubbing the silvery graphite smears off the heel of her hand.
 
“I’d better let you fix that.” Reggie stepped backwards and ran his fingers through his hair. “Try to get some sleep tonight, though.”
 
“Yup,” she said without glancing up. “You too.”
 
He left her alone in the quiet room. Ro inhaled and exhaled, trying to quiet the pounding of her pulse in her ears and ignore the heat that had crept throughout her body. Shaking her head, she smoothed out the wrinkles in the paper in front of her before resuming her work.