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...

How The Moonlight Burns

It's 4am and I only just finished editing the third Lilac series, which means I basically want to cry. I still have to edit the final one before I go to sleep, and even after that I want to draft a couple chapters of something else. I'm taking a quick break before I dive into it, but I am going to edit it tonight, just so I can share the cover, 'cause that's how I roll.

I also have nothing else to do with my time or energy so it makes sense to just write until I drop. I spent most of today sleeping. My aunt and her boyfriend came over for a while and I had no energy to deal with people so I just stayed in bed, though I had to get up and open a window because they were smoking and the house reeked.

So now I'm up. Writing. Being productive.

I need to put out more titles because the few I have out aren't selling well, which means I have to keep trying new things. I think it's mainly because:

A) I don't do much marketing (I honestly don't have the energy for it and interacting with people makes me really anxious so it takes a lot of build-up to force myself to do it, even with people I like)

B) The books I have out are mostly ya, and ya readers don't really take as many chances on new or unpopular writers, especially indie ones

C) I don't have /that/ many books out.

It's important to me to be prolific - I want to be consistently putting out new releases, and I haven't been doing that because life and mental illness and a million other problems, barriers, and admittedly, a few excuses.

Tonight once I finish editing Beacon I'm probably going to start on a new edition of Iceblood, which will be longer and have expanded scenes and passages. Instead of writing the original idea I had for Anarchy, which just wasn't working out, I'm going to make it a direct sequel to Iceblood, continuing with Atka's pov and story as opposed to exploring a new character.

So that's where I'm at! I'm sorry this blog is a bit of a boring 'here's what I'm working on' piece, but I haven't done much in the past few days. I did walk around the woods and take photos and selfies, since it's finally spring and the snow has melted for the most part, but other than that...not much.

But if all goes according to plan, I may be posting a cover reveal before the night is out! :)

New Covers!

I updated the covers for SOSAS and TLJA:

                    

I love the new designs. I wanted them to be simple and aesthetically pleasing without losing the emotional vibes of either story, and I think they came out pretty great. SOSAS is my favorite, but I still enjoy the cheery new Lilac cover.

I'm hoping that these will increase reads, because they're sleeker and less cartoonish than the old covers. They're easier to take seriously.

They also match up a bit more, design-wise, with a new cover for a new title I have now, and I'm really excited to share it. All I'm willing to say now is that it's a new Midnight City story.

But I'm not talking about that today. I'm talking about these. So in honor of the new covers, I'll share a bit about the inspiration behind the writing of each:

TLJA: I was really driven by cartoons and anime while writing this. I would honestly recommend picturing it as an animation while reading, as opposed to a real life setting. I always wince at this when I reread it because it's so immature and campy compared to my other books, but I still love it and the writing process.

SOSAS: I love Josmea. I have so many more stories to tell in this world. That said, writing SOSAS was torture. I had a lot of expectations for this book that made it hard to not hate it during the work process, so the main burnt of it was getting in a positive headspace, but that said I love the finished book. I definitely won't be using the same POV in future works for a while, though.

So, yeah. The new covers should go live soon, if you're interested and haven't read the books yet. I'm also still working on Rage and hoping to publish that on the tenth, and that's urban fantasy with horror elements, about Myra - whom you may remember as Evelyn's love interest in Frenzy - except this is set a few months before the two of them meet. This one works both as a prequel to Frenzy and Maelstrom, or as a standalone. Although if it is read as a standalone, it doesn't have a happily ever after, which I know some people like.

I'm fairly sure this book is going to piss some people off. But I don't think a cheerful ending would be honest for this story. It's not even bittersweet - more like, I dunno, bleak? It's bleak.

And I'm really excited to share it. Will post more info as we creep towards the release!

Also, OMNIBUS!

So I know I teased you guys and said you would have to wait until next week for the omnibus cover and for some news, but hey, GOOD NEWS EVERYONE:

You actually only have to wait for the news. The cover was finished early and is literally, BEAUTIFUL, so since I love sharing pretty pictures and don't want to wait, HERE is the new cover for the omnibus of TLJA!

AHHH

Lilac is legit look goals, is she not? So there you have it: omnibus cover! As for the news, which is very, very, very exciting - you still have to wait. See you in a few days!

Lilac Reborn

So, today I have some Apollo Blake news!

What has my illustrious alter ego been up to lately, you ask? Well, he/I redesigned the covers for the Lilac Jones Adventures! The new designs show Lilac herself in all her glory, and I'm sooo in love with them! The new ebook editions will go live on Amazon in a few days, once the stories themselves get a new round of edits (mostly just corrected italics, formatting mistakes, and another round of line edits) although the omnibus cover won't be revealed until next week, and ditto for that going live itself!

I'll have some more Lilac news then, but for now, just have some beautiful covers!

AHHH! Aren't they great? I love the purple and the illustrations that accompany each story, and I'm more than excited to re-release the stories with these new designs. I'll be back tomorrow with a more regular, rant-y, in-the-life kind of post, and then I'll be posting the new omnibus cover along with a surprising bit of series news for Lilac, so check back then!

-Oliver