Nirvana Cover Design

Hi all,

As promised - this week I’m revealing the cover for Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana. This will be my second series published and the first books that I’ll be publishing in the post-apocalyptic genre. There will be four books in this series, each with a different main character on. When the book is out for pre-order, I’ll update my website banners and theme.

Check out the cover here…

As with all of my other covers so far, this one has been designed by Deranged Doctor Design. They will also be designing the other three books in the series as well! As with previous books, I thought I’d explain some of the design choices.

• The character on the cover is Shannon, one of the four main characters in the book.

• Shannon has wings thanks to her power, though in the book they are grey and cream. I love the design choice that DDD went with though.

• Shannon has a fear of flying, but still moves her wings when she’s nervous or stressed.

• The fire is burning in a city that the characters end up travelling to and staying in.

• I did think about having multiple characters on the cover but decided to give each character their own cover instead. Ashleigh will be next; on the cover of Celestial Plague #2: Heaven.

• My initial colour scheme for this book was scrapped as I wasn’t sure if it would fit with the genre. I love the colours that DDD eventually went with.

• All of Shannon’s clothes have wing zips, but the wings would cover them if they were included on the cover.

• I did consider having someone infected with the virus added in, but I think it would have made the cover too crowded.

• The font is similar to the one used for Elemental Dragons, which fits the genre for YA books.

Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana will be available for pre-order in August, with a release planned in October this year. I’ll post more blog posts about the Celestial Plague universe, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled…

That’s it for this week, I hope you love Nirvana’s cover as much as I do! See you next week.

PS; looking for some new books to read? Check out the ones in these bundles:

Young Adult Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Science Fiction Giveaway

Hawthorn and Ash Book 3: Alder & Ebony

Hi all,

One of my writing/publishing goals last year was to write more short stories and submit them to anthologies. One of the anthologies that accepted one of my stories has been published! You can check out Alder & Ebony below:

Alder and Ebony is a compilation of fantasy drabbles and flash fiction from authors worldwide.
Within its pages you will find enchanting stories of myth, legends and fairytales woven throughout.
Dive into the magic and wonder of these 50+ tales in Volume Three.

My story for this anthology is called Reclaim. It features the cat goddess Bastet, in her cat form, taking something back that was stolen from her. The piece was originally written for a contest that it unfortunately didn’t place in, but now you can read it in this anthology! The story doesn’t contain spoilers for the Curse of Anubis series and only features Bastet. You can get an idea of her character and her behaviour from this story, however.

The publisher is Iron Faerie Publishing and they have plenty of other submission calls on their website for various anthologies. My favourites are the fantasy and horror ones! You can check out their website and published anthologies here: Iron Faerie Publishing. I’ve submitted to one of their other anthologies and would also like to contribute to more of their anthologies in the future. They have great prompts and themes which are different to ones that you usually see for submission calls. Their Nephilim anthology is the one I originally submitted to as the theme was something I’d never come across before.

That’s it for this week, I hope you check out Alder & Ebony and Iron Faerie Publishing! Next week keep an eye out for the cover reveal of Celestial Plague #1: Nirvana… See you next week!

PS; looking for some new books to download? Check out the ones in these bundles:

Young Adult Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Science Fiction Giveaway

Characters in my Book Posters

Hi all,

This week I thought I’d talk about the characters that are portrayed in my book posters. I commission an artist to draw a character for the poster with each book I publish and I intend to keep doing it in the future!

Let’s start with Elemental Dragons:

Blood and Water - Aqueous

Art by - stevcelazarevsk

As Aqueous is the companion of the main character, Hazel, it only makes sense that he is the dragon on the poster! I also chose him because of the title - as he is an important water dragon in the books.

Venom and Earth - Winter

Art by - ivanterribly2

Winter is one of the main antagonist dragons in the series and I knew that she would be perfect for the poster of Venom and Earth. As an earth dragon, she fits the title and I couldn’t think of a better dragon to represent the book.

Glass and Ice - Damayanti

Art by - Danielle English

This book focuses more on Braith and her attachment to Draca and Hazel’s ‘natural’ element so I knew I wanted to use an ice dragon. Damayanti was the obvious choice. I also love her design so I wanted to see her in art form.

Cinder and Fire - Drea

Art by - toodlingart

Although Drea is a dual elemental there wasn’t another fire dragon that I wanted to use for this poster. She’s using her secondary element, fire, but her companion mostly uses fire so I thought it would make more sense for her to use that element. It turned out to be the right choice as I love how fierce she looks!

Mute - Original Wendigo

Art by - lorenzouccheddu

Although I could have used Hanne’s wendigo form for this poster I thought it would be best to use the wendigo that hunts the characters throughout the book. I also really wanted to see the design in art form as I love the branches sprouting out of its back!

Years - Mother Earth

Art by - chimerahh

Mother Earth was the only non-human choice that I had for this poster and I love how she turned out. She doesn’t appear in the book very much but she still has a deep impact on Cheyenne so to have her on the poster was the most fitting.

I would go into detail about what future posters would look like but I think that would spoil too much! I have already planned three out of four of the Celestial Plague posters, the first of which I’m hoping to get designed this month. As for other books, you’ll have to wait and see!

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

PS; looking for some new Sci-Fi and Fantasy books to read? Check out the ones in these bundles:

Science Fiction Giveaway

Young Adult Sci-Fi and Fantasy

Taking to the Sky This Easter

Blood and Water is Free to Download for a Limited Time!

Hi all,

Until 28th April 2022, the ebook version of Elemental Dragons #1: Blood and Water is free to download on Amazon! It is one of many books in the ‘Free Urban Fantasy in April’ that has been organised by the IASFA. Each month there’s a brand new Fantasy or Sci-Fi book bundle that contains plenty of free books in a variety of genres to fill up your digital bookshelf. You can sign up for the IASFA below:

Born to a common life, Hazel’s fate will be anything but…

Hazel is a commoner born with water elemental powers. When her dragon egg hatches, she's left with a black dragon that is the first of its kind to be tamed. Faced with discrimination on all sides, Hazel finds herself working twice as hard for less respect; and when dragon markings appear on her back, she needs to keep them hidden.

Bound together with friends and foes alike, Hazel must seek out the answers they so desperately need as quickly and quietly as possible. In a world where political parties divide those who would live with dragons as equals or masters, time is running out to uncover just who, or what, threatens them all. Against a world that has shunned and belittled her, Hazel must find the courage to seek the truth and make her own mark on Aria.

You can download Blood and Water for free until the 28th April 2022 !

If you download Blood and Water or other books in the IASFA bundle then I hope you enjoy them! See you next week.

PS; check out these other book bundles:

Science Fiction Is For Free

Young Adult Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Taking to the Sky This Easter

Years Now Available on Amazon

Hi all,

On Tuesday, Years was published on Amazon in ebook, paperback and hardcover! This is the first book launch that I’ve done where all three came out on the same date and I think it went well. If you want to check Years out, you can do so below:

What would you sacrifice to save the world?

In the future one thing keeps the entire planet going, the Gaia Machine. The only problem is that it feeds on the life force of people to run. This has led to certain people being born with the Gaia Gene, the ability to go into the machine for a full fifty-year cycle without fear of aging.

Cheyenne Meekai has the Gaia Gene and whether she wants to or not she’s going to have to save the world, but it might cost her everything in the process. The years served in the machine fly by for the person inside but outside life moves on, meaning when she gets out everyone she knows will either be elderly or dead.

Fifty years is a long time especially when you’re only sixteen, can she save the world and still have some sort of life, or will the demands of the Gaia Machine be more than she can handle?

Find out in this exciting Young Adult Science Fiction novel that will be sure to keep you reading every page until the very end.

That's it for this week, if you read (or have already read) Years then I hope you enjoy it! See you next week.

PS; looking for some new books to read this Easter? Check out the ones in these bundles:

Science Fiction Is For Free

Young Adult Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Taking to the Sky This Easter

The Future of Street Rats

Hi all,

This week I’m going to talk about Street Rats! The book has been on hiatus since October 2021 and I thought I’d make a blog post explaining why.

If you aren’t aware, last August I asked my followers to vote on what standalone book they wanted me to write next. The winner was Street Rats. You can see a basic plot summary and genre here:

I started writing that book soon after. At first writing went well and I was really enjoying the story. I also enjoyed the fact that this book is set in a parallel world with different ideas of technology to ours. Instead of police they instead capture animals and experiment on them. These animals are often given robotic parts and have chips in their brains from which they receive orders. Of course, there’s a cat in in it who helps the main character, Hailey.

However, my mental health started to decline and I started losing passion for the project. I wanted to get it done in time for NaNoWriMo November 2021, where I was planning to start writing the first draft of Original Elementals #1: Frostbite. More and more days were passing by where I would get short bursts of writing done but then write nothing for days. The book was slowly coming together but I found I wasn’t happy with it at all.

November comes around and I’m just over 72K into the first draft. I decided to put it on hold to write Frostbite like I’d originally planned. I managed to finish the first draft of that book in early December.

However, Street Rats is still on hold.

I’m not happy with how the story turned out, but I still want to write the ending. I know it’s going to need some heavy editing which I’m not looking forward to. However, I still love the premise and I am willing to go back and finish it. My mental health has also improved a lot and I am more willing to finish the story than I was before. I think the fact that I was feeling low rubbed off on the story and I started getting frustrated with it.

Will Street Rats be finished?

The first draft - yes. After that I’m going to leave it for a while before attempting to go back to it to edit.

When will it be finished?

I’m not sure, whenever I feel ready. It could be after I’ve finished Camp NaNoWriMo this month, or it could be later on in the year.

Will it be published?

I want it to be. Hopefully one day I’ll be able to change the story enough to where I’m happy with it. I still want to see the story out there.

That’s it for this week! Next week keep an eye out for Years, which will be available on Amazon on Tuesday! See you next week.

PS; looking for some more Kindle Unlimited books to read? Check out the books in these bundles:

The Fantastic Kindle Universe

Taking to the Sky This Easter

Why I'm Writing a Standalone After Every Three Original Elementals Books

Hi all,

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter you might already know the answer to this. But to those who are not, I wanted to let you know what’s going on and why I’m not writing all ten books in the Original Elementals series at once.

First, I’m worried about burnout. Ten books is a lot and it takes a lot of planning just to make sure that all of the books gel together and that there are no inconsistencies between books. The biggest one I’m struggling with right now is what the dragons look like, I find that I keep changing it every few chapters!

I also don’t want to be stuck in the same universe for a long period of time. While I love the Elemental Dragons universe, I have so many other book ideas that I want to get done as well.

So, to try and combat all of the above, I will write three books in the Original Elementals series and then a standalone that I’ve had planned for a while. The only exception to this will be Celestial Plague #4: Hell. I had originally planned for this to be a trilogy, but a final book would tie up some loose ends with one of the characters and would also offer more insight into what happens after the events of Celestial Plague #3: Purgatory. I won’t go into too much detail due to spoilers but I think you’ll enjoy this book as it shows more abut how society rebuilds after the virus.

So, my plan is:

Write Frostbite, Maelstrom and Shadowhunter. Then Hell, from Celestial Plague.

Write Devouring, Tempest and Sunrise. Then The Core, which was the second highest voted from my poll in August about what standalone I should write.

Write Stormburst, Turf, Arcturus and ???. Then an unnamed YA Paranormal Horror.

This will enable to me to get all the books written with a break in between to work on something else. I won’t be writing all of these books in 2022, however, I’m hoping to get the first drafts done for all of the Original Elementals books in 2024.

That’s it for this week! I hope this clears up some confusion as to why I might be hopping from project to project. Next week I’m going to talk about the future of Street Rats, which has been on hiatus since October 2021. See you next week!

PS; looking for some new books to read? Check out the ones in these bundles:

The Fantastic Kindle Universe

Taking to the Sky This Easter

My Outlining Process

Hi all,

I posted a poll on Twitter to help me decide what I should blog about this week. Talking about my outlining process is the winner! Outlining a story means to take your ideas and organise them in some sort of order. For example; plot points, character profiles etc.

Premise.

I start by writing down the barebones of my story. What happens in the book? How will it end? This is usually no more than a few sentences as I go back in and fill in the rest of the details later. Here is very basic the premise of Elemental Dragons #1: Blood and Water:

Main character gets dragon egg at fifteen. Has water element. She gets water markings on her back that only dragons can get. Scientists bring extinct dragon back to life. Extinct dragon goes after the main character using the markings as a beacon.

It's only a few sentences long and let's me get down the basic details of the plot. Adding in other characters, side plots and more details comes later.

Main Character.

When I'm writing the premise I usually come up with a pretty good overview of my main character. I don't have the finer personality details decided yet, but the appearance and name are the first things I decide on. This is how I first described Hazel from Elemental Dragons in my notes:

Hazel Adams (15-18) - Dirty blonde hair, hazel eyes, pale skin, acne, scar from nose to right eyebrow, 5"5 - anxiety. Water. Light blue swirl markings up back and neck.

I have her name, age and appearance done. I've also linked her to the premise by giving her the water element and the markings that will attract the dragon to her. I usually give my characters heights as well just so I can get a general idea of how tall they are compared to other characters. It can be an insignificant detail at first but I find it helps with my writing later. I give all of my characters surnames, even if they aren't mentioned in the book itself.

Main Plot.

Now that I have my main character and the premise, I move onto filling in the main plot details. No matter how much I outline I always end up deviating from what I've planned! So, I try to keep my outlines short and sweet as I know I'll change details later. For Elemental Dragons, the main plot is:

Hazel gets her dragon egg when she moves to Aria, a camp for Elementals. Her egg hatches into a black common dragon, which has never been tamed before. Hazel is looked down upon by others for being a commoner and is often ostracised from certain activities. Hazel starts getting dragon markings on her back and she starts meeting others who also have markings. She joins up with them to find out what's going on. She also has to deal with the Cindaraans, who are recruiting students into their group. The leader wants to know more about the dragon markings and orders Hazel and her friends to report to him. An extinct dragon species is brought back to life by scientists and escapes.

Setting.

Most of my books are set in the UK, so my main location is already decided. Next I decide on where the story will be set and the areas around. For example:

Aria - Elementals camp. Contains cabins, school, shops and hotel.

Arimouth - City near Aria. Mostly an urban area filled with workplaces, shops, housing and government buildings.

Mountains - Area from Draca's memories.

Again, basic descriptions just in case I change my mind!

Other Characters.

Now that I've outlined everything else, I can move onto the other characters in the book! I found the most fun ones to do were the dragons. I had a lot more fun with their designs and their personalities started coming through as I wrote them. Here is the outline profile for Aqueous, Hazel's dragon:

Aqueous Adams - Common Western black, turquoise eyes, markings to face and front feet. Hazel = Water.

Again, short and sweet as I like to develop their personalities while writing.

Write!

Now that I have my outline done, the only thing left to do is start writing! I haven't outlined many of the side plots as I find I change this while writing. So I try to stick to the main plot, though this often goes off course as well.

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

PS; looking for some new books to read? Check out the ones in this bundle:

The Fantastic Kindle Universe

Something for my Newsletter Subscribers

Hi all,

Those who are already subscribed to my mailing list will know what this post is about. The prequel enovella to Years is now available to download! Solar Child will not be sold anywhere and it is exclusive to subscribers of my mailing list.

Not only will you get Solar Child if you sign up, but you can also read the Elemental Dragons Short Story Collection and Famished!

Nova and her friends didn't expect a fiery lioness to ask them for help in the woods. They just wanted to bring their supplies back to the orphanage.

However, if they help her, the lioness offers them a gift. A gift that has dire consequences once it is given.

Will they help the lioness? What will she offer them in return to help them survive? And most importantly, how will humanity react to the gift?

This eNovella also contains the first chapter of Years.

When you sign up to my mailing list, you get a monthly newsletter filled with:

• Monthly News.

• Character Polls.

• Writing Excerpts.

• Cover Reveals.

• Free/Discounted Books and Book Bundles.

• Merch Giveaways.

That’s it for this week. If you sign up, I hope you enjoy the stories. With each new standalone/series I release there will be a free enovella that corresponds with it. So, you can expect many more books from me! See you next week!

PS; looking for something new download with Kindle Unlimited? Check out this bundle:

The Fantastic Kindle Universe

Owning Pets When You Have a Dragon

Hi all,

It's been a while since I blogged about the Elemental Dragons universe so I'm doing it this week! This blog post will centre around people owning pets, and how they get along with their dragon companions. There have been some characters who have had pets alongside their dragons in the series; the most notable being Hazel and Wes taking care of Normie, a cat. The dragons all get along fine with him and there are no signs that they are territorial around him. However, most dragons aren't comfortable with all pets.

Cats and Dogs.

In nine out of ten cases it's fine for someone to own one, or several, cats and dogs with their dragon companions. Dragons share a language with both cats and dogs so they are able to communicate fine and play together quite happily. Some dragons prefer not to be around the furry animals but most are happy to live with them. In Elemental Dragons, Normie grows up alongside Aqueous and Asteroid. Even though the dragons outgrow him pretty quickly, he's still happy to be around them and helps them out in the second book when dragons start to go missing.

Rabbits and Guinea Pigs.

A lot of dragons are not suitable to live with a pet rabbit or guinea pig. This isn't because the species can't get along, but because most dragons view the fluffy pets as food. It's common in the Elemental Dragons universe for people to bring home cute bunnies to keep as pets, only for them to disappear a few days later. It's not recommended to keep rabbits and guinea pigs with dragons, unless they have been trained not to eat their furry friend.

Rodents.

As these animals are kept in cages in most cases, they are usually fine to keep around dragons. People do need to be careful when they take them out of their cages as dragons may accidentally crush them while playing. If tiny animals are to be kept with dragons, it's best to supervise them at all times.

Reptiles.

Dragons aren't a huge fan of other reptiles and will usually go out of their way to avoid them. They aren't afraid of them, they're just not that bothered about them. They can't communicate although they share a lot of characteristics, but they don't usually interact. The best people hope for is a mutual indifference to each other. Fire dragons typically get along better with them than other dragons.

Fish.

Dragons are more careful around fish as they realise how delicate the tanks are. They will spend hours watching them swim around in tanks or ponds. Water dragons have also been known to refresh the tanks or even create bubbles for the fish to play in.

Birds.

Again, dragons love birds. If the birds are allowed to fly around then the dragon will try to fly alongside them, which will often cause a lot of damage to property. It's best to let dragons fly around outside and then play on the ground with their feathered friends. Wind dragons typically get along best with flying pets.

Horses.

Dragons and horses love to race each other. They will often spend hours galloping around fields and playing in the grass. Horse riders often taken their dragons with them to blow off some steam and get some exercise. There are some dragons who don't get along with horses however and will steer clear of them. It depends on the temperaments of both the dragon and the horse.

Insects.

No matter how many times it is explained to them, a lot of dragons don't understand that insects have been kept as pets. They will often free the little critters inside their companion's homes or squash them. Earth dragons have been noted as the least likely to do this, however.

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

PS; this bundle is about to end, if you want these books you need to hurry!

Young Adult Sci-Fi and Fantasy