Ten Books Published

Hi all,

With the last book of Celestial Plague published, I have now published ten books!

When I first started publishing I never thought I would ever hit this number. I absolutely love writing and this has been an absolute dream. Every single book that I've written has meant a lot to me in some way and I'm so glad that I can get them out into the world. It's the best feeling to see my books available for people to read!

If you had asked me ten years ago if I would have published ten books, I don't think I would have. My mental health had improved so much and writing has been a real outlet for me.

I don't want to stop writing or publishing and I can't wait to get my next one out. I'm so glad that people are enjoying my work and want to read more of it.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me along this journey and I'm going to keep going!

To recap, the ten books that I've currently published are:

Elemental Dragons #1: Blood and Water

Elemental Dragons #2: Venom and Earth

Elemental Dragons #3: Glass and Ice

Elemental Dragons #4: Cinder and Fire

Years

Mute

Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana

Celestial Plague #2: Heaven

Celestial Plague #3: Purgatory

Celestial Plague #4: Hell

The next series that I'll be publishing is Curse of Anubis, which will be four books. After that, I think that I'll be publishing the Empty Skies series and hopefully some of the Original Elementals series too. I still have loads of great ideas for books that I want to write so I don't think I'll run out of publishing material any time soon.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. Another thank you to everyone who has supported me so far and I hope you'll stay with me as I continue to publish books. See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles:

Kindle Unlimited Horror Bookfest

Exciting Woo-niverse Giveaways: Fantasy, Paranormal, Magical Realism, Supernatural, and Sci-Fi

April 2024 Camp NaNoWriMo Wrap-Up

Hi all!

We're now into May which means that Camp NaNoWriMo is done for the month! Empty Skies #2: Freezing Constellations was my project for the month. My final total is...

73,337 words!

I managed to finish the first draft on the second of May so the story is now complete at over 77K words.

In this book, the relationship between Laelaps and Ataraxia is put to the test. They start arguing a lot and going off on their own. The events of this book takes more of a toll on their mental health and the outlook is a lot bleaker at first.

A lot more constellations get introduced this book too! We get Scorpinus, Calliope and Pegasus makes an appearance too. This book is the one that will have the most Constellations in it. The next one will just have the ones that have already been introduced.

The dog pack is more prevalent in this book and Ataraxia is put to the test when leading them. This is one part of what puts a strain on her relationship with Laelaps. But I think the dogs are really cute and I love writing them! I found myself looking forward to writing parts they were in and wanting to add them in more. I'm hoping that in the next book they can really shine.

Yellow, the goddess who won't reveal her identity, is an even bigger presence in this book. But maybe not for the best. She is not keen on helping any of the characters in this book.

That's it for this week! I hope you enjoyed reading. Next Camp NaNoWriMo I'll be writing the last book in the Empty Skies series. 

PS; don’t forget to check out this horror book bundle:

Kindle Unlimited Horror Bookfest!

The Protagonists of Curse of Anubis

Hi all,

Over a year ago I wrote a blog post about the antagonists in the Curse of Anubis series. It's been a long time but with book one coming out in October I thought now would be a good time as any to post about the protagonists! They are my favourite characters (mostly because three of them are big cats).

Tahira

Tahira is Ra's chosen one who is being watched over by Bastet. She was a mummy (zombie) for the first year of the apocalypse before being 'cured'. At first she's desperate for human interaction and is used by survivors to get past mummies. She is sort of adopted by Bastet and the two have a mother-daughter relationship which grows as the series goes on.

Bastet

Ra's protector who is tasked with looking after Tahira. She is also the goddess that is represented by cats. She is the reason that Tahira is cured and is very proud of her role to Ra. Being his protector gives her a tiny portion of his power that she can use in battle. As his daughter, she's always considered it her birthright to become his protector. She has a rocky relationship with Sekhmet as she defeated her to become the new protector. But as they get closer they find that they develop feelings for each other, though neither of them wants to admit it to the other. She slowly warms to Mafdet, who at first she considers a buffoon.

Sekhmet

Ra's former protector and the goddess represented by lions. Looking strong is her major worry, which is one of the reasons why she has a mane. She considers it a show of power and command, which is why she had another God kill her over and over until she got her desired form. At first she's resentful of Bastet as she is Ra's new protector, but a few decades of having time to think it over has given her a new outlook. However, she still has her famous fiery temper and is prone to running into battle headfirst. Her and Mafdet start off on the wrong paw as Sekhmet doesn't like the fact that the cheetah goddess was always treated kindly by Ra. She is the one who spread the rumour about her being 'Ra's whore'.

Mafdet

The cheetah goddess who is an expert on poisons. Ra considered her a favourite of his and spent centuries trying to court her with no success. Despite this, Sekhmet's jealousy lead to her spreading a rumour about Mafdet whispering in Ra's ear and influencing his decisions. Mafdet is kind and caring but has no interest in interacting with the other gods because of their treatment of her. Instead she's happy enough living in solitude and finding new cures for poisons. This changes when she stumbles across Tahira and helps guide her as well. She acts like an aunt to Tahira and is loyal to her. Eventually she comes round to Bastet and Sekhmet and they are able to strike up a friendship of sorts.

That's it for this week! I hope you're looking forward to seeing these characters more in the Curse of Anubis series. See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles:

Spring Science Fiction and Fantasy Books in Kindle Unlimited!

Kindle Unlimited Horror Bookfest!

How My Endings Have Changed

Hi all!

This week I thought I would talk about my book endings. As my mental state has improved, I've found that my book endings have changed a lot. They've gone from really dark endings to some lighter ones, or even ones where there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Celestial Plague.

This series would have ended with book three, with Jenna getting away with her crimes. With the release of book four, I wanted her to receive some comeuppance for her actions. I think turning into the very thing she hates is good enough for her. Plus, her friends are freed of their disease and are able to live forever. It's a much lighter one than the one I had originally planned with book three.

Street Rats.

As I'm sure you've heard, this book was written during an especially dark time of my life. I was getting bullied at work and was taking on more than I could handle. But whenever I complained, it was thrown back in my face that I was bring ungrateful. That's why the original ending of this book was depressing. The main character, Hailey, had been abandoned by all her friends and was left all alone. Her parents turned their backs on her and a few antagonists from earlier in the book appear to make her life hell again. Thankfully by the time it came to me writing the ending I felt much better so it's a lot lighter.

Mute.

This book was originally going to end with Audra killing the wendigo and getting caught by the police. She would be framed by the surviving characters and left in prison. There, her mother, who had turned into a wendigo, would break into her cell to kill her. Luckily I had the idea of resurrecting Solaris and having him bring his sister to the rescue. Even though her mother is left in the police station, Audra walks away with a chance.

Those are my darkest endings so far without spoiling too much about books that haven't come out yet. From now on, I'm going to write the endings that feel right rather than going off my mental state. My writing gets darker the more down I feel and I don't want that to keep happening.

That's it for this week, see you next week! 

PS; don’t forget to check out these book bundles before you go:

Spring Science Fiction and Fantasy Books in Kindle Unlimited!

Kindle Unlimited Horror Bookfest!

The Rotten Sarjs

Hi all!

With Celestial Plague #4: Hell coming out soon I thought I would discuss the new type of Sarj that shows up in this book.

In previous books there have been three types: purple, blue and black. The colour a person will turn into depends on the way they were infected. If they complete the seven bite trial, they turn into a purple Sarj. If they are bitten by a Sarj, no matter how far along their infection, they will turn into a blue Sarj. Finally, if they are touched by the creator of the virus, they will turn into a black Sarj.

Hell introduces a brand new Sarj: grey. If you haven't guessed already by the title, this Sarj colour is influenced by The Rot. Even though Sarjs are technically not dead, they can still be effected by The Rot. It spreads through their body through the first point of contact and gradually turns their skin a pale grey. Once they've completed this transformation, they can then infect humans and Sarjs alike. The Rot damages their mind so they're incredibly aggressive and willing to infect anyone they come across.

As Jenna and her group will be traversing The Rot in this book, she will come across quite a few of these Sarjs. They are the most dangerous of all as without the creator, the other Sarjs aren't interested in infecting anyone new. Most other colour Sarjs will stay away from humans and live out their lives travelling and playing. But the rotten ones will forever roam the Earth unless they are put out of their misery.

I'm excited to release the final book in the Celestial Plague series and I love the ending of this series. I might continue to write short stories about Sarjs in the future if the right inspiration hits! I can't wait for you to read this book and finish the journey with Shannon, Ashleigh, Raya and Jenna.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these fantasy bundles before they disappear!

Epic Fantasy Spring Giveaway

Fantastic Fantasy

April 2024 Camp NaNoWriMo Project Announcement

Hi all,

It's a new year and the first Camp NaNoWriMo of 2024 starts on April 1st. I was going to start writing the next book in the Original Elementals series but I've really missed the characters in Empty Skies. So, I'm going to pivot to writing Empty Skies #2: Freezing Constellations.

This book will continue where book one left off, with Laelaps and Ataraxia. They've just defeated Scylla and are hoping for a bit of a rest before their next challenge. Unfortunately, that doesn't really pan out for them!

This book will have more scenes in the underworld and Cerberus will have a more active role. In the last book, they were there for the battle but that was about it. Now, their home is in danger and they need help to save it. The Namean Lion, Ichor, will be in this book with Charon, the boatman of the dead.

I'm also going to introduce a few more of the constellations in this book. One being Pegasus. They are one of my favourites and I'm hoping to give them a dark spin. They are working with The Freezing to take down all the constellations. I love writing pegasi as bad guys so I can't wait to continue with this book!

I have the prequel series planned which will introduce more characters and why they act the way they do in these books. But I really wanted to write this series first, even though Damaged Goods has been planned for ages. It gives me more time to flesh out events in between though. Some of the characters in this book will appear more often in the prequel series, so I hope you like them enough to continue reading about them.

This is my first Greek mythology series and I'm really excited to write the series which is why I've bumped it up a bit. I'm still undecided whether next NaNoWriMo I'll write Original Elementals or not. Luckily I still have loads of time to decide.

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next Sunday. 

PS; don’t forget to check out these fantasy book bundles before you go:

Epic Fantasy Spring Giveaway

Fantastic Fantasy

My 2024 Writing Goals

Hi all,

As promised, here are my goals for 2024!

Write three books.

I would like to write the first drafts of the following books in 2024:

Original Elementals #8: Turf

Empty Skies #2: Freezing Constellations

Original Elementals #9: Arcturus

Publish two books.

I’m planning on publising Celestial Plague #4: Hell in April and Curse of Anubis #1 in October.

Re-name the Curse of Anubis books.

While I do like the names they currently have, I think I can do better. I’ve been looking at shorter, snappier titles and also longer ones. I don’t want to publish them with the titles they currently have.

Get two covers deisgned.

The first two books in the Curse of Anubis series will have covers by the end of the year. They will be designed by Deranged Doctor Design, as always.

Self-edit two books in the Curse of Anubis series.

I think I’ve been too hard on myself with self-editing in the past so this time I’m going to cut myself some slack. Editing two books myself is acheivable and I won’t be pushing myself too hard to get it done either.

Finish the Curse of Anubis Short Story Collection and make it available to my subscribers.

I’m planning on getting this enovella finished this year and I want to make it available to my newsletter subscribers before October.

Read 100 books.

I love reading and seeing as I blew my goal out of the water last year I thought I would increase it!

Work on my book sales.

I’d love to be able to publish more books, but in order to do that I need to sell more. I’m going to be tweaking a lot of my books descriptions, blurbs and categories to hopefully get more eyes on them. I want to continue publishing in the future and would like to increase the amount of books I’m able to publish in a year.

Create a Patreon.

Even if it’s not ready by the end of the year, I at least want to get started on it. I put it off a lot last year because I was worried that no-one would want to sign up to it. This is still one of my big goals although I’ve tweaked the original vision a bit. It will now be a hub for all things Elemental Dragons, which means that Original Elementals will be published on there first.

Participate in Camp NaNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo.

I love participating in these events and my writing wouldn’t be where it is without them. I want to participate in all three events again this year and hopefully get some books done in that time!

I’m being a bit kinder to myself this year which is why I’m not setting as many goals as I usually do. I want to try to focus on my mental health a bit more this year. I didn’t realise how hard I was pushing myself until I looked back at my goals from last year. I’m going to slow down a bit but still keep up with my writing.

What are your goals for this year? Let me know in the comments!

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New Year, New Monsters 4: From the Caves

2023 Year in Review

Hi all,

It’s time for my year in review! Truthfully I haven’t been looking forward to this as I think I set my goals too high last time. I’m proud of what I’ve done but I think I could have been a bit nicer to myself. This will be reflected in next year’s goals. Either way, I still hit a few of my targets!

Write Five Books

I managed to write four books this year! They were:

Original Elementals #6: Sunrise

Empty Skies #1: Missing Constellations

Street Rats

Original Elementals #7: Stormburst

One off my goal, but I’ve still done pretty well! I have plenty of time to write all of the books that I want to write, which is what I need to keep reminding myself.

Publish two books

Celestial Plague #2: Heaven and Celestial Plague #3: Purgatory have both been published this year!

Edit three books

I just need to do one more self-edit of Curse of Anubis #1: Halfway and that will be two books edited this year. Celestial Plague #4: Hell is completely edited and ready for publication next year.

Get covers designed for the final books in Celestial Plague

I’ve had actually had five covers designed this year, three of which are in the Original Elementals series. You’ll have to wait to see those covers revealed though.

Write the Curse of Anubis Short Story Collection

I’ve written a lot of short stories in the Curse of Anubis universe, mostly thanks to the Furious Fiction monthly writimng challenge. I’m going to work on making a few of the stories a bit longer and then they’ll be ready to be made into a reader magnet. There are also a few stories that I still want to tell that I’ve drafted but not completely written yet.

Write more short stories

This one I’ve actually done a lot of! I’ve been writing a lot more short stories thanks to my writing group and the Furious Fiction challenge. A few have even been submitted to anthologies and have been accepted.

Design more merchandise

The Elemental Dragons bookmark was released this year and I was getting another one designed but unfortunately there were communication issues with the designer. I would love to get more dragon stickers designed in the future and maybe also some cats from my series.

Set up a Patreon

I’ve been stalling on this one because I’ve made a few changes to this plan. Instead of the Empty Skies series, it will instead be dedicated to Elemental Dragons. I want to turn it into a dragon lovers paradise. Everything on there will be dragon (or cat) related and I’d love to get this set in stone for 2024.

Build up my mailing list

This one has been great because I’ve got 450 people on my newsletter now. I’m running more polls and giveaways to hopefully drive up engagement. I’ll be releasing the Curse of Anubis Short Story Collection as well as a thank you to everyone who has supported me.

Continue learning Spanish

Unfortunately this one has taken a back seat this year. I’d love to pick it up again at some point and carry on learning.

Read 50 books

I blew this goal out of the water and read 126! I love reading and found so many good books this year. I read a lot of GameLit which was recommended to me by work colleagues. I’ve got plenty of books on my TBR list to get through which will hopefully make a dent in all of the piles around my flat.

Participate in both NaNoWriMo and Camp NaNoWriMo

I participated in all three again this year and loved every second of it. I managed to hit one million words written total throughout all the challeneges I’ve done over the years. I love the community and all of the work that goes into creating NaNoWriMo and how many writers participate. It’s my favourite writing challenge.

That’s it for this week! Next week I’m going to discuss my goals for 2024, so keep an eye out for that. See you next Sunday.

PS; if you’re looking for new monster books to read this year then check out this bundle:

New Year, New Monsters 4: From the Caves

A Peek at my Warrior Cats FanFiction

Hi all,

I'f you’ve read my blog posts for a while you might remember when I posted about the Warriors Short Story Competition. The book series, written by Erin Hunter, has been a favourite of mine for years now and I was so excited to enter. I didn’t win, but I did promise to eventually post my entry for you to read. I think you’ve waited long enough to see what my FanFiction is like!

Brightpaw swings around, expecting a short trek to Snakerocks. Instead, she finds that they've arrived already. 

"How did we get here?" 

Swiftpaw nudges her with a purr. "We walked, mousebrain!" 

"But I don't remember-" 

"Quiet!" Whitestorm raises his tail. "What can you two smell?" 

Swiftpaw eagerly inhales. "Dogs!" 

"Dogs?" Brightpaw echoes, her tail drooping. 

This doesn't happen like this.

"Yes, I'm sure of it!" Swiftpaw continues to meow excitedly. "Do we get to chase them off, Longtail?" 

Brightpaw wants to speak but finds herself unable to. Her mouth goes dry, and her paws feel rooted to the spot. 

There's a panicked yowl from the patrol as a dog seems to appear from the rocks in front of them. Its large body ripples with a bark and it pulls its lips back in a snarl.

"Longtail!" 

Swiftpaw's panicked scream makes her flatten her ears. The tabby tom is being dragged back into a forest by another dog who just came out of nowhere. Another has Swiftpaw pinned. She screams as the dog darts forward, going for her friend's neck. Before the teeth can make contact, the black and white tom disappears into a fine mist. Her fellow apprentice is completely gone and now the dog is glaring at her. 

None of this happened this way! 

She looks to her mentor for comfort, but Whitestorm isn't there anymore. Instead, a pure white she-cat is stood in his place, her green eyes flashing with fury. 

"Come and get me, mange-pelt!" The she-cat yowls. 

No! She wasn't here! 

The white cat sprints forward like Swiftpaw did. Her paws pound against the earth, sounding like thunder in Brightpaw's ears. She can only watch in horror as her beloved daughter springs forward, her claws outstretched, ready to fight like all of LionClan. 

"Whitewing! No!" 

Everything seems to happen in slow motion as the dog snaps its jaws around Whitewing's torso. The dog pins her beneath one of its grubby paws. Her daughter looks at her mother with fear in her green eyes. 

"Mother!" She cries out, clawing at the ground with her free paw. 

"Whitewing!" Brightpaw is still frozen to the spot, no matter how much she wills her body to move. "Whitewing!" 

"Mother!" 

The last shout is clearer, and Brightheart's eye snaps open. The ginger and white she-cat shoots out of her nest with a gasp, taking several clumps of clawed moss with her. 

Her daughter brushes against her with a purr. "I'm here, mother." 

Brightheart takes a moment to catch her breath. "Another nightmare." 

"I've asked Thornclaw to cover my spot on the dawn patrol. I can stay here with you." 

"You don't have to pause your warrior duties to worry about a silly elder." 

Whitewing brushes her tail against her mother’s chin. "I don't have to, but you know I will. Why don't we go out for a walk to clear your head?" 

"I'd like that," She purrs. "I love you." 

Whitewing grins just like Swiftpaw used to. "I love you too, mother." 

***

That’s it for this week! Next week will be my year in review, so keep an eye out for that. See you next Sunday.

NaNoWriMo 2023 Wrap-Up

Hi all! 

For NaNoWrimo this year I pledged to write 50k for the first draft of Original Elementals #7: Stormburst. After taking a break in July I thought I would go back into full swing into the Elemental Dragons universe. 

My word count is... 

I managed to finish the first draft on the final day and I am pretty pleased with the result. This book was a lot easier to write than other books I've done and I found I didn't get as burnt out. I don't know if that's because I love writing about dragons or if I was just in a better place mentally when I started writing it. 

This book focuses on Logan and his mission. He is to help a Sea Serpent find a mate. Although he thinks that this will be easy, he soon discovers that it would take longer than he hoped. The town of Serpentbridge is introduced, who live alongside Sea Serpents in harmony. 

Logan is based off of my cat, Rocky. When he passed away in August I was devastated. Especially since I knew this book was coming up. But I thought it was quite therapeutic and I was glad to give him the happy ending he deserved. I also managed to fit his girlfriend, Serena, into the book as well! Serena vanished one day so I wasn't sure if she passed away or ran away from home. Either way, I am so glad that I could get them together again for the book. 

This book also solidifies everyone's distrust in Zmei and most of the characters turn their backs on them. One decides to stand by Zmei rather than their friends, however. Draca comes across as the good guy but if you've read Elemental Dragons then you know that's not the case. 

The next book that I will be working on is Turf, the eighth book in the Original Elementals series. As I've said previously, I'm hoping to make a Patreon which will be a dragon lovers paradise. The books from the Original Elementals series will be posted there first and then published on Amazon at a later date. 

That's it for this week, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next week!