Indecision & Purple Hair & Talking Cats

I do not think I'm going to write more Lilac Jones Adventures stories. In fact, I think I'm going to unpublish them. At least on storefronts. The KDP term for those ends May 7th, and I've already unpublished them, so when their enrollment in that ends I'll be posting the first three stories on Wattpad as freebies.

I have more important/meaningful.developed projects to work on and Lilac herself will probably make an appearance in another book someday, so I'm not too worried about any of this.

In more positive news, the paperback designs I'm coming up with (wraparound covers) are very pretty. I like pretty.

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