Updates, Updates, and More Updates.
Everything happens so much
Hello everyone! As per the title of this newsletter, I wanted to share a few updates on MERCY and where to find it, the aduiobook, my convention schedule for the year, and another little update on MAGUS. I’ll have a regular newsletter on the 1st as well, but some things have happened that I wanted to cover.
First thing’s first: MERCY is no longer enrolled in KU! It can now be found on itch.io (as an epub and now as a pdf for the first time), and can now be found on Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords (Overdrive and Hoopla to come).
This is something I’ve been planning for a while, but with Amazon basically eliminating true ownership of your ebooks, it became the final nail in the coffin. A lot of authors are stressing about readers abandoning Amazon as a platform or cancelling their KU subs, so my gentle plea is to change your buying habits too. Check Smashwords, check itch, check ko-fi for that matter! If we want to lessen Amazon’s power in the book market, then everybody needs to drop their reliance on it. Okay?
(Also if you’ve bought the book from me on Amazon or read it via KU and lose access to your copy, just contact me with an email address and I’ll send it to you no problem. You already gave me money for it, it’s yours.)
Also also! MERCY is now available in Audiobook format! It’s available anywhere you can find Audiobooks and is narrated by Lance West for Ilya’s POVs (who you might know as the narrator for Angels Before Man) and Curtis Michael Holland for Danya’s POVs. Both of them did an incredible job and have been such sweethearts to work with. Even if you’ve already read MERCY, maybe you’ll enjoy it in a new format! Give it a listen and enjoy.
Next up is my convention schedule. While I appear at a good number of shows for my artwork every year, I’m now doing some book-exclusive events too! I’m nervous for them, as I have no idea what to expect in terms of response, but I’m hoping it’ll be fun. Here’s all of my confirmed shows for the year thus far (and I’ll update this when I have confirmation for others):
Anime Milwaukee (March 7-9 in Milwaukee, WI), C2E2 (April 11-13 in Chicago, IL), Sakura Con (April 18-20 in Seattle, WA), Anthrocon (July 4-6 in Pittsburgh, PA), Once Upon a Con (August 14-17 in New Harbor, MD), and lastly Fables and Flames (Nov 21-23 in Minneapolis, MN). Fables and Flames is my birthday weekend so you have to come see me okay? It’s the law.
Lastly, another brief update on MAGUS. We’re sitting at 82k words now, and I expect it’s gonna take 40-50k more based on what I want to incorporate still. My hope is for a late spring or early summer release (ideally by Fables and Flames, as it’s a book con).
I warned that MAGUS was going to end up darker than MERCY, and the recent chapters I’ve been writing really cement that. The dynamics in this book are a bit more toxic and fraught, and the main villain of the book spends a lot of time being a weirdo freak. Some of you might be excited by that and might love it more than book 1, and some of you might be put off by it. I keep mentioning it because I don’t want anybody to come into it and have a terrible time, so if you’re worried, you may want to treat MERCY as a standalone. You feel me?
Despite the current chapters being some of the darkest, the words are flowing better. I discovered that I was struggling so much because my outline for this book was so rigid. This section of the book (spoiler based on vibes, I suppose?) was in my outline as “GOD FUCK I’M SO TIRED OF OUTLINING anyway play Dance with the Devil by Breaking Benjamin” and that’s basically it. I’m a pantser at heart, so having the freedom to explore and go with the flow has helped a ton. Progress is not a grind because I’m enjoying the process again. What a relief!
That’s it for now. I hope you’ll enjoy the new places to grab MERCY from, the audiobook, and I hope you find me at a show this year. I’m always happy to sign books and say hi! (And maybe… there will be something special if you find me at a show this year. Oh ho ho.)