The second book in my II AM Trilogy of vampire novels is FREE today (Weds) and tomorrow (Thurs) on Amazon.com. This means that along with The Blood That Bonds, which is always free, you can get 2/3 of the trilogy for the low low price of zero dollars!

Already own Blood Hunt? Well, it still makes a great gift for the book-loving people in your life, especially combined with TBTB!

You can snag Blood Hunt for free right here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005JDGUS4

And The Blood That Bonds here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002R5B0WI

And if you want to complete the set, you can get The Children of the Sun for $2.99 here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009ZCSDA8

After careful consideration of my sales numbers, I’ve come to the following conclusion: few people are buying my books on iTunes or Barnes & Noble.

So, I’m going to try an experiment. Amazon offers a program called KDP select in which authors can add their books to certain promotions that may help to increase sales. The catch: they require exclusivity. This means I have to take any books that I want to enroll in their program off all of the other sites that sell them.

I’m not super-fond of this. I think it’s a sleazy attempt by Amazon to acquire a monopoly in the eBook industry, and I have resisted going this route for a long time for that reason. However, as sales on Nook, iTunes, Sony, Kobo and the rest have dwindled while my Kindle sales remain strong, it has become more and more apparent that Kindle is the dominant eBook platform of our times. In fact, even a large chunk of my iPad/iPhone readers use the Kindle app, rather than buying through iBooks.

With all that in mind, and since I know all of my most-loyal readers have already picked up Blood Hunt and The Children of the Sun, I’m going to give Amazon’s KDP Select program a shot with my vampire books.

This will not affect The Broken God Machine. That book, when it comes out, will be available for all platforms simultaneously, just like my other books have been. This is strictly about the II AM Trilogy. Update: this will also NOT delete any copies that have already been bought. If you own a II AM Book on the Nook or from iBooks, you will retain it.

I’ve begun the process of removing the books from other services. Once they’re gone, I’ll enroll in KDP Select for 90 days and see how it goes. Then I’ll reevaluate and decide whether I want to put the trilogy back on the other websites or not.

Wow, how has it been two months since I last posted here? Time flies, my friends, especially when you’re working on a bunch of different stuff. Let’s cover all that work, shall we?

The II AM Trilogy

With the exception of an upcoming contest, I’ve put the II AM Trilogy to bed by creating a compilation eBook that contains all three titles in one file, and by redesigning the website. Note: if you’ve already read TBTB, Blood Hunt, and TCotS, there is nothing new in the collection and you should not feel any need to buy it (unless you want it all in one file for some reason). This is just a way for interested new readers to get the whole thing at once instead of having to download/buy three different ebooks. It’s not intended as a cash-grab from people who already paid for my work.

You can get more info at the new II AM Trilogy website. There’s also a FAQ, the full historical timeline (starting at 5000 BCE and going all the way to present day), and some other fun stuff.

The Broken God Machine

I’ve completed the final draft of The Broken God Machine, making substantial changes to the narrative that I think really help the book. It will shortly be going out to my advance readers for one last, quick round of feedback, following which it will head for my editor Lauren. We’re looking good for an early fall 2013 release! I’ve also engaged a very talented illustrator to do the cover. You should check out his website!

More on TBGM in the coming weeks.

Monster Hunters

The original draft of Monster Hunters is a fun book and I like it a lot, but it’s severely flawed from a structure standpoint: basically the climax happens in the middle and the whole last third of the book is stuff that really should take place before said climax. This is what happens when you write a novel in 30 days with very little thought put into it beforehand beyond “this girl kills a werewolf and gets recruited by a school that trains monster hunters” …

So I’m restructuring it, basically by cutting and pasting the chapters and then reading through and changing stuff that no longer makes sense (like the climax happening in February when, in the new order of things, it should happen in June). After that, it’ll go out to my advance readers for their first round of feedback. I have no idea if I will ever release this book, let alone when, but I’d like to at least advance it along the stages.

Also I’m renaming it from “Morgan Skylark and the Monster Hunters” to “The Monster Hunters – Book 1: The Werewolf at the Window” … but since the name’s never been official anyway, it really doesn’t matter much!

Non-Fiction

HUGE gin roundup coming to Primer soon. I submitted it at the end of March so it’ll probably be up in late April or early May. Sixteen gins with full tasting notes, plus I did a martini test for each one. It’s a fun, informative read (I think).

The Future

With The Broken God Machine about to leave my hands for a couple of months, my thoughts are turning to starting a new book. I’ve spoken before about a revenge thriller set in a partially flooded, future Brooklyn, and that’s what I’ll likely be working on next. It should b a standalone book, like TBGM, and I’m expecting it to come in at about 95,000 words, also like TBGM (that’s a bit longer than The Blood That Bonds). Sometimes these projects have a tendency to grow, though, so we’ll see. At 1,500 words a day, I should be able to crank this thing out in about two months. Which is just about the amount of time Lauren needs for editing TBGM. Serendipitous!

That’s it for now.

A lot of readers are starting to report in that they’ve finished The Children of the Sun and so far the response is overwhelmingly positive! This is just a reminder that if you’ve finished the book and liked it, please please please go rate and review it. Doing so helps me move up the standings, move up in searches, etc. It really helps me immeasurably, and I greatly appreciate it!

Here are places you can review/rate TCotS:

• Amazon
• Barnes & Noble
• iBooks (note: you have to have iTunes installed to actually rate)
• Smashwords
• GoodReads
• Shelfari

Remember: you don’t have to have bought the book from a certain place to rate it there!

That’s right, I’ve released the third book in the II AM Trilogy 12 days early! You can get The Children of the Sun as an eBook or a print book (including signed copies) right now! What are you waiting for? Oh, a link? Here it is!

Note to my Nook fans: I’m very sorry but Barnes & Noble is taking forever to approve the book for sale. As SOON as they approve it, I will update the II AM Trilogy site with links (and post an update here, on Twitter, etc). If you want it right now, the standard Epub version or the Smashwords Epub version will work just fine with your Nook.

I’ve officially opened up ordering for signed copies of The Children of the Sun, as well as my other two books. These editions will only be available in limited quantity and for a limited time, so if you’re interested, it’s a good idea to get your order in ASAP. Once they’re gone, I won’t be offering any more. I’m making the entire trilogy available because I want newcomers to my work to be able to get all three books.

Want to buy a book or two (or three)? Head over to the order page on the II AM Trilogy site to get started. You can order one, two, or three books and I can ship them pretty much anywhere in the world!

The Children of the Sun

So close … we’re so close to the release of my third novel, the final book in the II AM Trilogy, The Children of the Sun. Are you excited? I’m excited! I can’t wait to see how people react to this one. I think they’re going to like it a lot. November 12th, on all eBook platforms and in print. Let’s do this thing!

The Broken God Machine

After shopping TBGM around for a while, I decided that it wasn’t quite “there” and that it was time to do something I’ve never done before: hire a professional editing agency to do a full content edit, where they go through the entire book and give suggestions for changes to the plot and structure that can improve flow and make the book more sellable. I should be receiving the document any day now. Very curious to see what it says.

After that? I’ll be making the suggested changes, and then it’s back to querying for a few months. If there aren’t any bites at that point, then I will engage an editor and cover artist, and begin prepping the book for a September 2013 release. I’m confident that it’s a good book and that my fans will enjoy it, even if it doesn’t work for agents and editors (after all — neither did The Blood That Bonds!).

New Work

I had intended on starting a new novel in October and even did some writing on it, but prep on The Children of the Sun has ended up taking precedence. That’s OK! The result is that I’ll be starting over and participating in National Novel Writing Month this November, as I did in 2008 (The Broken God Machine) and 2010 (Monster Hunters). The book I’ll be writing is a revenge thriller with noir-ish overtones set in the flooded borough of Brooklyn in 2058. I think it’s going to be fun. Should be 90-120k words long, so longer than TBTB but shorter than Blood Hunt, and is a stand-alone book, not a part of a series. More info soon!

Additionally, I’m strongly thinking about cleaning up the first draft of Monster Hunters and sending it out to my advance readers for feedback. I recently re-read it and while it has a lot of structural flaws right now, dammit … it’s fun! I think there’s real potential there for a five-book series of young adult novels, and I don’t want to leave it sitting around.

That’s about all for now. There will be lots of news coming in the next few weeks as I finish up TCotS and get it out the door. Stay tuned!

The release of The Children of the Sun, the third and final book in the II AM Trilogy, is just around the corner. It’s coming to eBook — Kindle, Nook, iBooks, etc — and print on Monday, November 12, 2012. Structural edits are all incorporated, and the manuscript is currently undergoing a final copy pass. After that, it’s all about formatting and preparing for the release.

In the interim, I thought people might enjoy getting a preview of what’s to come. I’ve posted the entire first chapter of the book at the II AM Trilogy website. If you’ve read The Blood That Bonds and Blood Hunt, this is your chance to see how the story moves forward. If you haven’t read those books, well … I’d stay away. Thar be spoilers ahead!

I’m excited to get this book into your hands. Check out the first chapter and let me know what you think.

We’re reaching the last few days of The Children of the Sun Kickstarter. It’s not looking so good for this particular project, but it’s not over ’til the fat lady sings, and sometimes big runs happen right at the end. If you’ve been holding off pledging until the end, well … this is the end! Swing by and see if any of the reward tiers interest you.

If the Kickstarter isn’t successful, there’s no reason to worry: TCotS is still on track for a November 12, 2012 release. It will be available simultaneously (or as close as I can orchestrate it) as an eBook on all major platforms, and in print. A few of the minor platforms like the Sony eReader will take a bit longer — sorry, Sony owners — because their store goes through Smashwords and takes approximately a hojillion years to update. But for Kindle, Nook, and Apple, which make up like 98% of my readers, we’ll be good to go on 11/12.

In October, I will be releasing the entire first chapter of TCotS for free as a special preview. More info on that in the coming weeks! In the meantime, please enjoy this ridiculously awesome fan art from TBTB cover illustrator Adrian Dadich!

After a couple of months of planning and getting everything together, I’ve launched the Kickstarter for The Children of the Sun! I’m really excited to be giving my readers the chance to pre-order the book, and to have a shot at some cool extra rewards as well. If you want a chance to get TCotS a week before it comes out, get signed copies of the print edition, or even get a chance to read my future work before it comes out, you should definitely check out the site.

If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, it’s easy and convenient: you can sign up using an existing facebook or amazon account, or make a new Kickstarter account. Then you select a pledge amount and a reward tier (you can pledge higher then the reward you choose, if you want), set up payment through amazon.com, and then wait to see if the project succeeds. If it does, your card will be charged on August 29, and I will send you your reward(s) in November.

You can pledge anything from a dollar or more, and rewards start at three bucks, so it’s not expensive. Of course, if you want to drop some extra cash, you can get some pretty great perks!

If the project should fail, don’t worry — I will still release the book on time in November. However, there will be no chance to get it a week ahead of time, signed copies will be extremely limited in number, and there will be no additional rewards. So your best bet is to back the project.

Oh, and make sure to watch the video so you can check out the star turn by my adorable cat, Baron Salvatore H. Lynx II!

The Children of the Sun at Kickstarter