Blogger Hates Me

I'm aware my last couple blog posts look really messed up. I have no idea what to do about it because every time I try to edit them, Blogger just doesn't actually update the changes. I can't fix the font to match the rest of the blog (Helvetica is how I roll) and I tried making the fonts larger but it honestly made them smaller. I blame it on the fact that I originally wrote and posted them from my iPad. Ugh. If you can't zoom to read, you can skip 'em, because I didn't say anything too important.

A new edition of Iceblood and a new edition of Storm of Masks are both out, they have nice new covers, and that's about it. Iceblood got a new round of editing and I think it's a lot better now. You should go read it...

I'm also aware I haven't blogged since August. (Bad author!)

I did that because I've been writing/editing other stuff, and I replaced blogging with morning pages for a while there. I'm going to try to balance them out more now and blog a little even if I've already done morning pages. It's a lot of effort though. >.>

The truth is my main energy reserves are all going towards resisting shiny new ideas. I fell for one the other night and wrote the first chapter and now I guess I'm just writing a full novel. The Novel That Shall Not Be Named. Until I do name it, but I'm not telling you guys the title right now (it's one word and starts with P though) because what if I don't finish it and then people are excited for a project I never finish? Yikes.

I just finished editing the new edition of Shadows an hour ago, a full three months behind schedule, lol.

It was totally worth it to take my time with this project, though. I have a few more minor edits to do, then a final read-through, and then it should be good to publish later in the week. I've got financial stuff to take care of in a few days so once it's all done, the ball should get rolling on a few cool things! The new edition of Shadows + the new special edition of Shadows are both coming, and I'm super proud of the work I've done on the book. It's better than I ever thought it could be and it jumped up from 126k words to just over 150k words. So I added like 24k of new material, more or less, and I genuinely think all of it is gold. I have an outline for the short story I'll be including in the special edition and I'm really excited to write it soon!

Anyway, like I said; more ACTUAL blogs to come. I just wanted to post an explanation and excuse here for the fugly formatting on the past couple posts. I hate it more than any of you do, promise. >:O 

Catch me on Instagram @ApolloBlakeBooks

Iceblood (Cover Reveal)

Hi guys! I know I haven't been active a lot lately, but I have been writing. Obviously I'm always active on Twitter, but I like to keep this blog alive as often as possible.

Right now I'm gearing up to publish the solo edition of Iceblood, as well as editing a new draft for publication.

The deal with Iceblood is that I posted a couple months ago talking about how I was expanding it and adding in more of the world and expanding the plot. I did try that in several different ways, but eventually I realized it just wasn't working. I do want to tell those stories in Josmea, but I don't think they're Atka's story. I realized I like Iceblood as is; it feels like a complete, finished peace.

That said, I've shelved the expanded edition and any idea of a sequel. I'll probably use those plotlines and scenes in other books set in this world, and I'm sure I can squeeze Atka cameos into a few later titles.

That said, I'm just formatting the ebook now, so I thought I'd show the beautiful cover!

Is it not perfection?

I'm publishing the ebook edition tonight and formatting the paperback sometime this week! I'll post links when it's up on Amazon <3

What To Write?

No clue what to write today. I'll probably settle on starting my Evernight Falling Miniseries (Dru, Vincent, and Lucia as superheroes anyone?) but I have so many on the go it isn't even funny. I could start Iceblood or finish my novella Afterglow, but I'm not really feeling them.

So yeah, it's probably gonna be superheroes.

I really need to publish something that will make some money and I'm not sure if superheroes will do the trick, especially since these are both novellas and my novellas haven't sold as well as my other books. We'll try, though!

I feel bad always talking about money like it's my sole goal, but I am human, and I do need to eat, and if I'm being honest I barely have the funds to do that right now. If things could get a little easier financially, I don't think writing would be as hard as it is all the time - some of the pressure on my shoulders would be removed. Often when I sit down to write it's not just me thinking, "You love this and it's your dream." It's actually me thinking, "You love this and it's your dream, and also, you can't even afford instant coffee mix right now. You have to do this. Do you want to be poor forever?"

Which is kind of not getting me in the writing mood. However, this superhero tale (Hush) should be easy to write, since it's in my main genre (gay kidnap romance) and although it's a lot different, it does have similarities to Divinity, so I may do a few things here I wanted to do in that book but never had time to.

(Not to mention I am probably gonna add like 20 or 30 words to that before republishing it, when I get the chance :)

In the meantime here's an excerpt from Hush:

“Let me go!” I hiss.

“Nah,” he replies, a smile etched on his face. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I’m about to bite you!”

“Do it, cutie. I’m into that stuff.”

I scream and start wriggling again, trying to fight him off. His arms are like two cement beams wrapped around my shoulders.


“Calm down,” he whispers in my ear, voice brushed with influence. I go still, eyes widening at the sound of his deep hum. I can feel the haze descend over my brain, but I don’t try to fight it—nothing in my is willing to try. I relish his control.

Beacon Cover Reveal

I've been up for way too long, but I finally finished editing Beacon! I just compiled the ebook and I'm gonna read through it and check for any errors I missed in the line edits/formatting, but that's just to be safe - the book is done.

Which means I get to post the cover!

I'll be publishing it sometime this afternoon, so I'll post here & on social media when it goes live, but until then, here's the pretty new cover!

Lilac Xia Jones is a beacon. Supernatural beings are drawn to her like moths to a burning flame, and the only thing she can do is hold on for the ride and hope she survives. As extraordinary adventures bleed into her everyday norm, dark forces begin to gather at the edges of her consciousness. Malevolent covens, demon boys, spirits, and vengeful goddesses have all converged on Lilac’s life—but none of them can prepare her for what’s to come...

The Everlasting Weirdness of Self-Promo

I'm blogging two days in a row. Surprised? If not, you're probably new here...

I planned to do some promotional blogs for Dreamseeker this week, since, in case you didn't know, I just put out a new edition complete with a beautiful new cover:

Are you not in love with that?

Only when I sat down to write it, I remembered I hate self-promotion and decided to get out of my responsibilities by talking about how much I loathe them, instead.

I have an anxiety disorder and borderline personality disorder, and it's always made it hard for me to socialize. As a kid people thought I was really bossy and assertive, but as I got older that reckless, impulsive behavior become more dangerous and problematic, turning self-destructive, and it only got harder and harder for me to make friends among my peers or communicate with people in general.

When I'm talking to people outside my closest friends and family, I'm usually playing a character. I wake up for the day and, if it's a normal day where I get to stay home and sit around in my underwear writing, doing photo-manipulation, and burning chicken nuggets, then I'm my regular nerdy self. I don't filter, and I manage to do that mostly by just keeping silent. But if I have to go out and be in public, I put on a character or a mask.* I know everyone does this to some extent, but with me it's gotten to the point where it's like I'm shrugging armor on and off for battle, and as much as I hate it I know it will probably always be that way. Letting people in and making personal connections is something I want, but at the same time it's probably the thing I spend the most time in life avoiding.

(*I'm not like some kind of emotionally manipulative mastermind or master actor out here pulling multiple personalities out of a hat every day for the performance of my life or anything, so that sounds bad, but I switch between different personas based on who I'm with or where I'm at; my go-to is the sassy, flamboyant, funny gay friend, even though I'm way more low-key and introspective than that, because it serves the double purpose of matching what most people perceive me as (a funny, unserious, fairly confident cis male who can always make you laugh) and because if I'm busy being the funny gay sidekick who just cracks jokes, the laughter keeps people at arms-distance, emotionally, and things can't get serious and painful and I won't get invested or hurt, so everybody wins.

Over the past few years another direction that's emerged is the friendly, approachable local indie author hipster, which is where I go when I'm talking to someone about books or when I'm talking to people who are a lot older than me. It's my best public face, essentially. Sometimes it's the place I speak from when I'm writing these blogs. But not this particular post, obviously, since I'm in my underwear at 2 am drinking coffee and listening to Last Dinosaurs, and can't be bothered.

Yet another is more quiet, slightly bitchy, independent loner persona that I take on when I'm, say, on a night out with friends or in a situation where I need to feel stronger and more confident than I actually am. I think this one is closest to my actual identity/personality, but it's also probably the most anti-social, as well, so that's not great.

Basically the gist of it is that I feel very inadequate in social situations, so it's easier for me to slip into a 'character' either to handle things differently or just to keep the people around me emotionally distant for me own well-being, and theirs, because I'm pretty sure I'm cursed. I don't know if this is a symptom of my bpd or just part of my personality, or both. I do know that most people switch moods/actions/thought patterns when they're in different situations and with different people, because it is human nature, but I also know it's worse for me because of my mental illness.)

Which means self-promotion is pretty much torture for me. If I'm able to accomplish something, it's immediately knocked down a peg in my mind, because I suck, so if I can do it, how cool is it, really?

Before I was writing, books were these magical things, and authors were rock stars. When I finished my book and kept finishing others, I was like "Wait, is this it?" People tell me how impressive it is that I write books and I shrug and and don't care because I honestly don't think anything I do is impressive.

Self-promo kind of only works if you can really sell your book and how awesome it is. I get through it sometimes mostly just because of the enthusiasm I have for my work - but even Shadows, the best book I have or may ever write, got fucked over on publicity because I was going through a poor mental health phase when I put it out. That's why I'm not publishing books until the whole series is done, anymore; I just can't cope with the feeling of stage fright when people are waiting for books or the reader's voice is in my ear.

The point of all this downer shit is that putting myself or my work out there is a daily challenge for me, which is why often this blog is inactive; if I'm not in a black well of depression, I'm usually just not motivated to talk about myself or my work, because outside of the obvious factors of nerdiness and pop culture being awesome, I don't know if or why anybody would even care. So.

Actually, that's a lie. The point of this is that I hate self-promo so much I'd rather publicly air-out all my personal demons and embarrassing secrets than do that. So this is me procrastinating in the form of over-sharing while also talking down about something I hate.

Being an indie author is 99% stress, and for me most of it comes from the promo. Also formatting, but we're not going to talk about formatting right now, because if I bring it up for too long I start screaming, tearing at my hair, and climbing buildings to swat at planes like King Kong himself.

I can't talk to bloggers because it's excruciating trying to push my own books, which are not famous or widely-read or even have that many reviews, either positive or negative, because I feel like I look like one of those people parked on the side of a dirt road in their minivan, selling 'fresh' seafood and oysters out of the trucks of their vehicles. Except, it's worse, because you can't even eat my books.

Note To Self: Invest in chocolate books.

I don't know what it is, since when I was a blogger myself I loved all free books and I also loved approaching publishers despite my anxiety, because I thought the arcs were worth the mortification of sending letters asking for them. I also know I have books on the Kindle app on my phone right now that are self-pubbed by unknown authors and have few if any reviews, and I'm still so excited to read them it hurts my brain.

And that's what it boils down to: even when things AREN'T mortifying and they're really just everyday, normal, no-big-deal communications with other people, my brain freaks out for no reason and starts blaring sirens at me, and I'm smart enough to call its bullshit but not smart enough to figure out how to override the system, and the panic causes me to lash out and act recklessly, without thinking. It's probably why I cope with unhealthy amounts of weed and caffeine.

Anyway the long and short of it is, Dreamseeker is out, I can't do it dirty by not promoting it enough, and since I can't let this series flop because I am literally poor and scared about things like not having enough money to pay my bills or eat, you will all have to watch me shoot myself in the foot trying to get word about this ebook out there. Sorry in advance.

I'll probably be posting a self-interview centered around the book sometime tonight (if James Franco can interview himself, so can I, bite me) and more posts about it and the writing process this week/month! And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to write a promotional short story :)

Why This Blog Died

This blog is mostly dead because I use Twitter more. If you want to keep up with me, I post multiple times a day on Twitter, whereas I post once or twice a month here, at the moment - and that's if I'm lucky. If I've written enough for my actual books for the month and my mental illness isn't battering at the doors to my mind and the stars align in the right formations and all that good stuff.

I do plan to blog more in the future. I don't know that it gets the word out or sells more books, but it's fun, it helps me collect my thoughts, and it makes me feel more...author-y? Authorial? There we go.

Right now I'm working on several standalone books and novellas, then I'll be finishing a novella trilogy before finishing up the Deadheart Duology, and after that I'll be setting out to finish the series I've already started. Obviously that's a lot on my plate, so it's understandable why I don't always have the time/energy to blog.

I'm honestly only doing it right now because I feel guilty at the state of this blog, and because I'm trying to procrastinate starting my wip.

In that vein, although I can't really say much other than that it's a novella called Ironheart, what I can tell you is that it's super fun and cute and that all of the chapters are named after different minerals and gems and types of metal. Mostly because I just got a book on all that stuff with glossy pages and cool pictures, and I love using neat chapter names and framing devices like that. It plays into the storyline, too, in the sense that my heroine does metal magik.

This is set in the world of my book Shadows of Ourselves (though the two stories aren't connected at all) and if you haven't yet, you should check that out!

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.

Things I wish I Knew Before I Started Self-Publishing

There are plenty of posts like this out there, and plenty more that teach you how to self-publish piece by piece. I don't feel the need to make too many in-depth tutorials about that, because there are people who have already said those things better than I can.

There are also certainly authors who have been both writing and self-publishing for much longer than me. I've been writing for nearly nine years now, but I've only been publishing since 2014--first, writing erotic romance under a pen name, and later, the young adult and new adult books I write and publish now as Apollo Blake. On July 29th I'm putting out my first New Adult paranormal romance with erotic aspects in it as Cosmo Knox to separate it from the more tame books. So while I do feel confident giving publishing advice and guidance, I'm also aware that there are authors out there with much more in their repertoire to share than I have.

If anything, the most advice I have to offer is about graphic design (I do have some cover design tutorials planned for the future) but there are quite a few thing I wish I'd known when I started self-publishing, and I find it fascinating to hear about other writer's processes anyway, so I figured I would share them for any beginners out there.


Writing your next book is more important than any kind of social media marketing you can do.

Social media followers aren't necessarily book-buyers. Having a large number of followers doesn't guarantee success or sales, and relying on them too much as opposed to producing more product will hurt you in the long run. It's good to get the word out there, but another book that's produced with care and good craft has more push behind it at the end of the day than a tweet that gets 15 minutes of attention.

This isn't to say social media is useless; it can lead to increased sales, but it's much more common for a new book to spur on sales than it is for one of your tweets or blog posts to be one of the few that goes viral. Sure, a new social media post might get you some more sales, but a new book is almost guaranteed to.

You can make good book covers yourself, but you have to be honest with yourself.

Buy a graphics program like Photoshop or Paint Tool Sai. (I use Sai, because I like it best, but it's not really meant for photo-manipulation.) If you can afford it, a graphics tablet. (I like Wacom.)

Now learn to use them. Learn by doing. You can be surprised how purely awesome you can get at developing new skill-sets when you have the internet at your disposal. Learning new languages and instruments and stuff like graphic design or how to build furniture gets much easier. Develop an eye for good stock and look at photo-manipulation tutorials and learn how to create new effects. Improvise using the tools in the program you like and you'll develop both a style and a useful eye for aesthetic and emotion in imagery, over time. It helps to watch a lot of video tutorials and look at which kind of covers you like, observe how other editors place things and how they adjust colors. There is a wealth of both speedpaints and tutorials on Youtube that are not only amazing, but also entertaining as hell.

Eventually you'll be producing high-quality covers and saving costs on cover design by doing it yourself while getting just as good a product, but you have to be honest with yourself; evaluate your art and question how it stands up against other authors, compare it to the covers on bestselling books. Learn about what draws the reader eye and what people like in visual imagery, learn about colors and how certain aesthetics evoke a certain emotion, look at other covers in that genre. You can't learn design if you can't see where you error and learn to improve, but it is both fun and worth it.

I have never taken a professional design course, everything I know about image editing I learned myself, and (not to brag) I think I've created some very pretty book covers:

 

You can find good stock on Canva for a dollar an image, Pixabay and sites like it have free commercial-use stock, and you can even find cool textures and stock on DeviantArt that creators put out for free commercial use. (Always be sure to read stock and resource rules! I tend to use DA for textures and little else.)

Reviews aren't always an indication of sales.

I have some books that have four- and five-star reviews that don't sell as many copies as my books with zero. Publishing is a weird industry, and while reviews (both positive and negative) definitely help, they don't always have an affect, or, when they do, a large one. My title with the best sales has zero reviews and has still become my top earner. Don't sweat it if your book doesn't get reviews straight off the bat; a quality product will still draw sales regardless.

It's better to write the book only you can write than try to fit into genre norms. 

Genres are meant to indicate certain aspects of your work to readers and buyers, not to dictate every aspect of the content itself. Allowing genre or age group to force your writing into a box where you strive to hit genre trends will hurt you and your career. More importantly, it will usually negatively impact your creativity and take the fun out of writing. Don't sacrifice aspects of your art in order to turn your book into a clone of its peers. Allow your original voice to shine through. It's easy to start thinking of your books as solely commercial ventures once you become your own publisher, but don't lose sight of your unique artistic voice, because it will always strengthen the personality of your work. 

It's good to have a backlist, even if waiting to publish is painful.

Waiting to put out a book you know is ready sucks, but you will always draw more readers putting out the books in a series closer to each other than you would putting out one book at a time. Even unrelated novels are more beneficial financially if they're put out closer together--readers want to binge, just like TV audiences do. Content consumers have big appetites all around. If you want to be prolific but don't want to waste time building up a backlist of long novels or simply don't have it, novellas are a fun way to put out titles faster without sacrificing story and quality, sort of a showcase of what you can do as an author, and a fun little reading experience on its own. Be warned, though--novella readers and novel readers tend to run in different crowds, so you can't always be confident in them following you over to longer works. There is a decent market for novellas, though, and they're both fun to write and useful for developing a stronger writing skill-set, just like short stories, but with a bit more meat on their bones.

Other authors are your friends and you should be giving back.

The indie community has your back. Really, they do. For every author that seems like a living spam-bot just throwing their books at you, there are two more who are kind, thoughtful, talented, and creating good art. Give back. Spread the word, offer a helping hand, use word of mouth to help the careers of other indies. Put your money where your mouth is, so to speak.

Making good art is better than making acceptable art.

Good enough isn't good enough. You should be striving to make each book you put out better than the last and deliver the best product you can. Always be looking for ways to improve on all aspects of production, be it voice, cover design, formatting, marketing, or more. You owe it to people buying your books to work as hard as you can to create an enjoyable, riveting experience.

Authors like Jennifer Ellision, Leigh Ann Kopans, and Nenia Campbell make really good art and put out books with production value (editing, cover-quality, prose, and formatting) that matches their traditionally-published peers.

Be honest with yourself with what you're putting out and do your best to improve it. It's not uncommon for me to release new editions of old books that I've given a firmer editing or a new cover because of how much I've learned since its initial release. That's another thing: no book left behind. You might think its too late to save a title in your catalog that didn't have the best cover or had a few odd quirks in the formatting, but it's next to nothing to give a book a new, better cover or another editing pass and tweak it to improve the overall quality, and it can rejuvenate an old title and bring in new sales. You might not think it matters, but it matters to people who will read that book in the future, so don't just strive to improve with new books--apply what you learn as you go to the old ones, too.

Don't take yourself too seriously.

The number one cause of writer's block is putting too much weight on your own shoulders. Let's be honest for a minute, okay? You're not curing the zombie virus, you're not ending world violence, you're not building a helicopter or sailing across the ocean on a floating mattress--so take a deep breath and chill. At the end of the day no matter how much work goes into your book it isn't going to turn into some magic tome whose pages glow that cures diseases with just a touch and saves the world. You're just writing a book. Have fun with it, and try to make it fun for the reader. Accept that when it's done it's done, and move on to the next project.

Seriously, write the book only you can write.

You will always write faster when you're not writing something just because you feel like it's what you should be writing. What do you like in a story? If you love problematic kidnap romance (ahem, ahem) then don't force yourself to write worldly literary fiction, just 'cause it seems proper. If you like experimental lyrical prose, quit forcing yourself to slam out chick-lit novels that annoy you. If your favorite books are trashy paperback crime novels or formulaic fantasy romances that are fun to read at the laundromat, why are you writing dark magical realism and trying to be the next Neil Gaimon? It's not that hard to figure out that if you write what you love, you will love writing. Have fun and you'll get more done, that's my motto and I'm sticking to it.

To be clear, there can be a marked difference between reading tastes and writing tastes. I love reading memoirs, but whenever I try to write one of my own I cringe. I adore historical novels, but I think if I ever try to write one I'll rip my own hair out of my head. I like to read light, fluffy, breezy romance books to wind down after stressful work days, but whenever I try to write them I end up with really gritty, dark stories about, like, substance abuse and mental illness and abuse, but with werewolves and pixies running around in the background.

So, really, there's no accounting for your tastes as a writer--but you know you best. Do what you enjoy and leave the rest to other writers. Don't fight your voice, and you'll find writing regains its joy for you.

Also, read these books:

2k to 10k by Rachel Aaron, Let's Get Digital by David Gaughran, On Writing by Stephen King, Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine.

I will freely admit that I regularly reread sections of 2k to 10k every time I start drafting a new manuscript. The editing method she puts forth in that book also changed the way I edit forever, making it much more time-efficient and effective for strengthening my stories. And fun. I used it for Shadows of Ourselves and edited that book in record time, so I am never going back.

That's what I got, really. My other advice is basically drink lots of water and some coffee, take breaks from writing to walk around and breathe for a minute, and make lots of cool writing playlists on 8tracks to inspire you. Pinterest is also a life saver.

(You can see my endless pretty boards here, if you like nice pictures and magic and apartment porn!)

*Bonus; the best writing snacks you will ever discover!

Swiss Cheese Crackers:

I honestly don't know if these exist in the US or other countries, but if you live in Canada (at least on the East Coast) then you'll probably be able to find them, and let me tell you--I WOULD GIVE UP MY FIRSTBORN RAPUNZEL-STYLE FOR A LIFETIME SUPPLY OF THESE SWEET LITTLE MIRACLES. I can't tell you how many times I've crammed a box of these down my face while pulling off an eleven thousand words writing night. They never get old. These are the ones I pull out for long-haul, I'm gonna be here for twelve to fifteen hours writing fests.

PB & J on Toast.

I'm crying right now. The only thing better than pb & j is pb & j oN TOAST. Seriously, take a break to eat this and feel that godly peanut butter energy flow back through your body. Drink some water (or more coffee, if you roll like me) and hop back on the keyboard to watch the words fly.

Plain, Salted Crackers

Yeah, I admit it, sometimes I go two days without consuming anything but water, black coffee, and plain crackers. Am I a destitute London street urchin who sometimes steals away into the kitchen of a hipster cafe at night to get some brew? Does some tragic disease make it so I can only digest saltines? Nope and no way, my friend, it's just that sometimes the best thing to take the edge off is a crunchy cracker. And, also, sometimes, you work better when you're hungry. Obviously don't starve yourself, but it's okay to let yourself feel the edge of hunger sometimes, and you might just find it sharpens your mind for a bit and helps you get in touch with the psyche of your characters. Especially if you're writing like, angsty emotional scenes.

Plus, crackers are pretty good, either way.

Microwave Rice. (Bonus points if you also fry an egg or slice up cucumbers or mushrooms.)

  

If you want the warmth and heartiness of a big meal but not a lot of cooking time, because you've been running on fumes for hours and hours now and you just remembered you're a human being who needs food to survive, and not just words, then throw a cup of rice and a cup of cold water in a microwaveable dish with a teaspoon of butter and microwave it for 6 minutes, stirring at the 3 minute mark. 9 times out of 10 this makes perfect, delicious rice that's even better with a hot fried egg on top.

Water.

I'm not one of those people who thinks water is a cure-all, but get up right now and go take a drink of cold water and tell my it didn't clear your head and refresh you. I tend to keep a cup or bottle beside me as I'm writing, both because it's my favorite drink and because it's an excuse to get up and stretch my feet for a second. Most people don't consume enough water, so this one is really important to remember.

Raw Carrots.

You guys have no idea how much I love carrots. Seriously, grab one from the fridge, peel that shit with a peeler or a knife, and run it under cold water--tell me you don't feel like you just leveled up. They're just really refreshing, they perk you right up. They have the added benefit of being really crunchy.

Coffee.

I drink my coffee black. Am I a hipster? No, I am, sadly, just A Sucker With Bad Genes. For some reason if I put sugar and milk in my coffee I get really bad heartbearn and acid reflux. Sometimes I put cinnamon in there, though. Or ice cream. But usually it's black.

I will fully admit that I sometimes drink up to nine coffees a day. I will also freely admit that I added this to the list pure to add delicious coffee pictures.

...Now go make a coffee and get writing! (Or, if you like reading and wanna support me, you could check out my books, here!)

Publishing Questions + Answers

Alright. I realized I always have a lot of things/projects/series going on at once, and it might confuse a lot of potential readers, so I figured I'd make a post to talk about what's happening right now, as directly and clearly as I can. Here you go:

My next book, Shadows of Ourselves, is out May 27th. It's a new adult gay urban fantasy novel. It's the longest book I've written, and the best, in my opinion, and you can pre-order it here.

After that, my next publications will be the Dreamworld Duet - an urban fantasy duology comprised of the books Dreamwalker and Dreamkiller. The prequel novella is available now, here! They're inspired by magical girl animes, and they've got some epic action scenes.

I'm writing them both to completion before publishing them, so they can come out days within each other. Because having to wait for the next book in a series is the worst.

After that I'm putting out We Die Like Angels which is part sci-fi, part urban fantasy. It's set in Midnight City, so if you've read my horror anthology, you might have an idea of what's in store in this novel, which is queer romance. (Nb X M)

Then I'll be moving on to Maelstrom and Tears of Sunrise, before I finish up the Charmers series.

I know it's a lot (seriously, try juggling it all when you're the one who has to write it) but I tend to post updates about this stuff as it happens, and I'm always happy to answer questions and clear up misunderstandings or confusion!

Where Was I?

Wondering where I've been? Well, here's a list of things I've been doing in lieu of blogging:

• Editing Shadows of Ourselves and making it available for pre-order
• Giving Blood of Midnight a new editing pass
• Finishing up the paperback stuff for Souls of Salt & Seawater
• Drafting Dreamwalker, which you can find on Goodreads here
• Reading the new Sarah J. Maas book and crying
• Getting a new bedroom door (my old one was broken)
• Starting to take prozac
• Enjoying the fact that spring is here
• generally living life

I've gotten a bunch of work done in the past few weeks, but I've barely been blogging at all. I probably should've kept up with it better, but Shadows of Ourselves (pre-order it here!) was taking up all of my energy.

I also designed the cover for Tears of Sunrise, the sequel to Blood of Midnight. I really love it. Once the newly edited version of BOM is up, I'll be putting out a new cover for Scars of Dusk, too.

Right now I haven't finished the editing pass, yet. It's nothing major, just cleaning up grammatical and spelling errors that slipped by in previous edits and making a few things clearer. If you've already read it, the changes in the new edition won't be too big - there are new paragraphs, here and there, and new lines, but no new scenes or chapters. Just general confirmation of a few things I didn't make clear enough, and generally tightening the manuscript.

The blurb for the sequel is also up, and I want to start drafting it as soon as possible so I can share the covers. The verb tense in this one has changed, and so has the protagonist - though Dru and Lilac will be featured heavily, it's an anthology series, so the stories also stand on their own.

My word count goal for this one is around 35 to 40 thousand words, and my goal for Dreamwalker is roughly the same, so I'm going to try to make Dreamseeker the same length.

Anyway, if you'd like a review copy of Shadows of Ourselves, feel free to hit me up in the comments of at ApolloBlake@mail.com!

Shadows of Ourselves Character Spotlight: Jackson

Time for another character spotlight! Shadows of Ourselves is out May 27th, and it should be available for pre-order within the next two days! I really love this book. Edits took it from 73,000 to 120,000, and it's a much stronger, more nuanced book now.

I cringe to know there are a select few people who read the rougher drafts. The final one is a lot better than I imagined the book could be. I'm glad I let it sit for a decent chunk of time, before editing.

Today's character spotlight is for Jackson - who gets a bit more screen time now than he did in the original book.

Jackson is a stranger who comes into the picture with a job offer for Sky, but there's a lot more to him than meets the eye. He's still a bit of a goofball, though.

You can add the book on Goodreads here and, if you review books in any capacity and you're interested in an ARC, you can email me at ApolloBlake@mail.com, and I'll send you one!

Calling All Guest Bloggers

Hey there. If you like saying things and want another place to say said things, this might be that place!

If you're an indie author looking for some free promotion or exposure, or you have a new or upcoming release you'd like to talk about, feel free to shoot me an email at ApolloBlake@mail.com!

I love talking to fellow indies and helping out where I can, and if you write Young Adult or New Adult books, I'd probably love to feature you! Alternatively, if you're an indie author who wants to get interviewed for the blog, send me an email with the subject line interview and I'll send you a list of questions!

Too Much and Too Little

While going over SOSAS another time I've been listening to The Walk, by Imogen Heap, on repeat. I've also been stuffing my face with barbecue chips.

But I thought I would take a break from that to post a quote from the book really quickly:

You can buy the book here, or just wait until it's out in paperback. The new edition will have a map of the world in it. If I can figure out how to format that.

Or, you can request a free review copy by sending me an email, which I talked about in my last post. The gist of it is this: you like free books, I like honest reviews. And giving out free books.

So shoot me an email at ApolloBlake@mail.com for a free ebook if you're interested. Now, back to work!

Formatting and ARCS/Review Copies

Today I'm doing some editing and then hopping over to formatting work for paperbacks. I haven't put out any paperbacks yet because, frankly, I'm lazy. But I've had people tell me they want physical copies of the books, and I want them too, so I'm putting them all out through Createspace.

I've used them for paperbacks before, back when I wrote my first book, at seventeen (a novel that nobody but me is ever allowed to see, that will never see the light of day, because that's just how bad it was) and liked the finished product. So.

I'm making SOSAS my priority, and Rage and Frenzy will both be available only in the bundle edition because on their own I think they'd make too-small, floppy books. Plus they're better when read together.

I think I'm personally most excited for the Blood of Midnight paperback, though. It's going to contain Scars of Dusk, the short story, in the paperback edition, and I can't wait to see them in person. I have a feeling that cover is gonna be super pretty.

Aside from formatting paperbacks, though, I'm also looking to send out some review copies of the ebooks.

Particularly for Dreamseeker:

Dreamseeker is a novella I wrote with teenagers hunting monsters, kissing, and travelling to other worlds! It's urban fantasy with sci-fi elements, and here's a quote:

“I’m always going to be there to help you fight, Hugh.” Why were we whispering? Why was he so close? Why—

Whyishetouchingmelikethis?

Hugh’s fingers were tracing the bare skin of my forearms, fingertips smoothing over the cold of the room and destroying every thought that passed through my head. There was just the heat of him, the thrill of his touch that never got old.

“I know,” he said. “I know you will.”

So, there you have it. Romance and terrifying monsters! Plus, that's a pretty cover.

If you're interested in reading Dreamseeker (or any of my published titles!) and leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads, leave a comment below with your email, or email me at ApolloBlake@mail.com, and I'd be happy to send you an ebook of whichever title you're interested in.

Among other things, I'm reworking the Lilac Jones Adventures (going through and giving them a firmer editing, as well as writing another one or two stories to wrap up that series. Originally I was going to write a spin-off novel, called A Darkness So Divine, but the idea for that book was a loose, underdeveloped one, and although I'm probably use those characters someday, that project in and of itself is scrapped. At the same time, I need to end Lilac's story, because I think her stories and fun and cute and because I owe it to anybody who was invested in them.

I'm also giving Souls of Salt & Seawater a firmer editing, but that's honestly just grammar and formatting stuff where I've found tiny errors. Lots and lots of formatting, and it kills me every time.

So, yeah, that's what's up: I'll be posting links to paperbacks within the next week or so, and the new editions of SOSAS and TLJA should be out sometime soon, as well!

I'll probably be doing a rafflecopter giveaway for new Lilac Jones ebooks once they're out, so keep an eyes out for that. And, as always, thanks so much for reading guys!

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Blood of Midnight is free for the next two days!

Blood of Midnight is going to be free in the Kindle Store for the 24th and 25th! If you're looking for a fast read with some dark subject matter, intense action scenes, and vampire court intrigue, pick it up!

You can find the book here! And here's a quote;