​New Years, Housekeeping and Forks in the Road

On January 2, I begin the process of de-Christmasing my home. It’s a large, rather historic-looking house – all stone and wooden beams, etc, and I love to decorate it in historical style. Plaids, cedar branches, snow-dipped pinecones, wreaths. The main staircase wrapped in spruce bows; candles in every nook, lanterns in every corner. It takes several days to complete and takes my breath away with merry atmosphere and seasonal warmth.
 
But come the New Year, I’m quite ready to take it all down. Pack it all away until the snow flies next December. I’m not sentimental. In fact, quite the opposite. I eagerly look forward to the future. Always have. And this year looks to be quite the cracker.
 
I’ll have 3 books released in 2016. That’s exciting for me. COLD STONE & IVY spent years on the shelf, being polished, edited, tweaked, changed, etc then left to collect dust while my agent moved on to other things. I’ve never recorded the fact that I fired her last March – she wasn’t professional but I was, so no grousing, no bashing, just took it in stride and moved on. CS&I found an immediate home with Tyche Books, a boutique press out of Calgary but their slate was full for 2015 so we had to wait. The long-awaited gothic thriller will be available April 2016 as my first traditionally-published novel.
 
SNOW IN THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON (formerly BONES IN THE YEAR OF THE DRAGON) will be ready to roll out summer of 2016. SONGS saw the team split up by the end, with many of the characters heading out on different roads to prepare the three Kingdoms for war and these roads are naturally not smooth. The Capuchin Council does not welcome the Army of Nine Thousand Dragons; the Lower Kingdom does not embrace the training of Oracles, and Pol’Lhasa has become a place of treachery and suspicion. On the continent of Australia, Solomon has found a new threat in the Sandmen of Kalgoorlie. The team is hard-pressed to rally anyone as the threat of Ancestors looms in the west.
 
DRAGON OF ASH & STARS. Now this. I had originally planned to stay indie with this adventure – the life of a war dragon, as told by the dragon but my editor has other plans. She is urging me to try the agenting route again, as DRAGON is a gripping tale for fantasy readers. I’m almost finished it and have begun to hunt for agents once again. But Angry Robot Books has one more month for it’s Open Door so I might give it a shot there. And if my experience with Tyche Books continues to be good, I may send it to them. And this is where I find myself of two minds – indie or trade, agent or self. It’s like a road with not two forks, but three.
 
I love indie publishing. I love crafting covers that reflect my work, drawing praise for their beauty and elegance and power. I love the entire process - the editing, the tweaking, the fear, the rush. It’s not a control thing so much as a quality-control thing. Maybe that’s ego but maybe that’s me. Go big or go home. Do or do not, there is no try. But then again, until CS&I debuts in April, indie is all I know. Maybe I’m just scared of the big leagues and feel safer micro-managing a little career. I don’t know, but I do aim to find out.
 
And if I make a wrong turn, I’ll just move some furniture around, repaint and change things up all over again. Reboot is the new black and I’m okay with that. I’ll just add a few pinecones and wait for the winds to change. The future is good, and it’s about to get wild.

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