Storm of Masks Cover Reveal

If you noticed I haven't been blogging much this summer, it's because I have so many projects going at once...including one that I'm finally ready to share!

Storm of Masks is a paranormal romance set in a small town, full of mystery, ghouls, and holiday festivity! Halloween is my favorite holiday, and fall is the best season in my humble opinion, so I wanted to write a book celebrating them as we get closer to that magic time of year.

Storm of Masks is set in the small town of Ashbrook, which is home to an annual Fall Festival gearing up to Halloween, which the locals go all out for.

It's usually Jen Gordan's favorite time of year...but this year, she's gained the uncanny ability to see ghouls. And they're everywhere.

To get answers she has to turn to the charming new boy in school, Carter Lord.

I'm glad I held off on sharing this one, because it originally had a different name, but Storm of Masks came from a line I drafted closer to the end of the book, and I really loved it, because it fits the book perfectly.

Everyone wears masks; the living, the dead. They hide parts of themselves from us and let others radiate. It's not always deceptive, either; it's part of life.

I wanted to explore the different parts of people that war with each other and the facades we build against those around us. Anybody you think you know can be keeping secrets, and isn't Halloween the best time of year to start yanking off masks for a peek at what's underneath?

I can't wait to share this story, but for now I'll leave you all with a quote from the book!

       The days went on like that, a blur of rotting leaves and morning conversations, the bitter burn of hot coffee and the bite of frost filling the air. Long hours in stifling classrooms listening to shuffling sheets of paper lulled me into a sense of peace. I buried myself in routine and academia, doing my best to ignore the ghouls.

Shelves, eBook Pricing, and Cheekbones

I rearranged my book shelves and I gotta say, they're looking better than ever. Last night I noticed I'd lost my copy of Night Myst, the first Indigo Court book, so I bought the ebook on Kobo because I wanted to reread. It cost me fucking ten dollars. FOR AN EBOOK.

I mean, it's traditionally published, but still. It's makes me mad that publishers expect readers to dole out ten dollars or more for a digital file they consume in less than two days.

I will never charge more then five dollars for an ebook, and that's God's honest damn truth. (Fun fact: Divinity is on sale for 99¢ right now!) I mean if I'm ever working with a publisher, they'll be in control of that, but still, all my self-published ebooks have been and will be under five dollars.

Look, for ten dollars I could buy three paperbacks on Amazon or at a used bookstore. For ten bucks I can get a to-go combo of the best Chinese food in the city. I can buy new headphones and a fancy candle or body lotion. I don't need to spend ten dollars on a fucking ebook I'm gonna blow through in two or three sittings. I'm telling people fun stories with romance and action and swords and explosions - I don't think it's fair to charge an arm and a leg for a story.

I mean, there are exceptions, sure. If it's a box set or a super long book. Like, as an author, if I'm writing a book and it turns out to be this 200,000 word epic, yeah, I expect to get paid fairly for that. But even then, at least to me, for how fast I write, yeah, that's still only gonna be an eight dollar book, you know?

Maybe it's me - maybe I'm cheap and skeptic because I grew up poor and even now, ten or twenty bucks that I get to spend on myself instead of essentials is a rare treat that I want to squeeze every penny out of, because it's rare, but most of that money goes to books. And I think it's kind of unfair to charge a reader that much.

But I'm off on a tangent; the point is, I'm rereading Night Myst so I can devour this whole series. The covers are beautiful and the story, from what I recall, is so much fun. Definitely worth a read.

Meanwhile I'm drafting Atrocity (gah!) and making plans for a bunch of other fun stuff I can't wait to share.

I'm also working on an anthology set in the menagerie world (Shadows of Ourselves, Maelstrom, et-cet) and it's so much fun. It's called City Magik, and I'll probably be fairly hush on it until the day it comes out, but it's great and the cover is a beauty.

In the meantime I'm listening to a lot of Tinashe and mainlining coffee. And watching Eye Candy, which I never saw and should not have been cancelled. I can't get over how good this show is.

Also, I really wish I could pull off the same angles as Victoria Justice. Damn, those cheekbones. Color me jealous.