New books are out!

I recovered the manuscript for Rage. I went through the editing process again because it was just the draft I managed to save, and it's out. I published it. It's out of my hands.

I also published both Rage and Frenzy in a collection, so if you want both at once, you can grab them and read in chronological order in one book.

Pretty, right? I haven't really started outlining We Die Like Angels, yet, but I plan to start tomorrow, after I've finished reading Lady Midnight. Because I can't put this book down. Cassandra Clare is an evil wizard, clearly.

Escaping the Rage Machine (And a Cover Reveal!)

Rage is gone. Like, totally lost. My laptop broke and I just lost the entire novella. So it won't be coming out.

Instead, I'm putting out a novella called We Die Like Angels, set in Midnight City - the same location as Things We Saw At Midnight. If you haven't read that, it doesn't really matter. This is its own thing.

And it's very romantic and funny and dark and very gay. So yeah.

Here's the cover:

I don't have a cover yet since I'm still outlining right now, but I'm estimating like, three or four days for drafting. Maybe five. And then around eight for editing - three days to let it sit and five days to actually edit. And then I can publish.

I dunno. I'm angry I lost an entire title I'd already drafted and was halfway done editing, but at the same time I wasn't in love with that story. I'll still publish it if I ever recover those files, but it seems unlikely.

This, though, I'm fascinated with. The idea of the main romance angle came to me in a dream, and I just knew it was a Midnight City kind of story.

The main character is a guy named Milo:

Who finds himself in a very bad situation, with a very antagonistic love interest. Who is a drug ring leader. And shameless flirt.

Other things? It's first person, present tense. It's edgy. It's really aesthetic. It's also super, super gay.

My Three Wishes

I'm reading the Fire Wish, by Amber Lough, and aside from making me drool over its beautiful cover, this book is making me wish I had a genie lamp so I could get my three wishes.

And they would be, in no particular order;

• The ability to shape-shift at my will.
• That every time I reached into my pocket I would find a crisp 100 dollar bill waiting for me, or the equivalent in the currency of whichever country I was currently in.
• A better singing voice.

I could wish for dead family members to come back, but I feel like the dead should stay dead. I could wish to run a country, but I would probably fuck it up. I could wish for world peace, but that's probably impossible and the genie would just slap me. I could wish to free the genie, but it would probably kill me or something, so I wouldn't.

And that's that. I like money and magical powers and, although I don't hate my singing voice, I'd like a better one.

What would you wish for? (You can't wish for more wishes. I see you bitch.)

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!

Write Novels Like Songs

It's nineteen days until I turn twenty, and that is freaking me out, so instead of writing about that, I'm going to write about the way songwriters inspire me.

I write novels, but I look to people like Lorde and Grimes for writing inspiration. The way other people work and weave words in fascinating to me. Carly Rae Jepsen scrapping albums and starting over with new concepts -something Grimes has done too- or Lorde creating each album as a quick snapshot of her life.

Drug-binge work sessions and caffeine-fueled bursts of word working, the places where people write and the things they surround themselves with, and why. I love hearing about that stuff. I love hearing people talk about their process.

So here's a quote about writing from from Grimes/Ella that I really like:

I often do my best work when I can be completely absorbed by it. It was the same thing in high school with math. It’s always been about losing myself and losing track of time. I remember meditating on a math problem for over four hours, and only snapping out of it when I had to go to the bathroom. Those were the times when I could really feel the progress. It’s always a good sign to realize that six hours just disappeared. To see how time dissolves can be a powerful experience, and it’s one I miss. Because it’s one thing to talk about stuff and it’s another to actually commit to doing it; to solve a math problem or make music. Not being too self-aware in the process is also really important. - Grimes

Feeding the Rage Machine

I am working. Because I am a strong-willed, uneasily distracted author who knows when it's time to put words on the page.

Ok, I wish. Mostly I'm trying not to tear my hair out.

Rage is finished, and I'm moving onto edits. But I don't think a lot of people are going to love, or even like, this book. Why? It doesn't have a happily ever after. The ending is, if not sad, at least bittersweet. Bleak.

It's supposed to work as a standalone, and it does, but Myra as a character isn't done her journey, and she appears in Frenzy after the ending of Rage, and she appears in Maelstrom after the ending of Frenzy. Her story isn't over by the end of this book. I think readers who don't read the other books will be mad about that. But I think people who do read those books will appreciate it for what it is; a glimpse at some of the side characters of this world and at the Big Bad from Maelstrom.

So. That's where my head is. I, personally, love the thing. It's little and bleak and wordy, which is how I like them. Now - back to work.

Grimes is Better Than You

I'm in love with Grimes' music right now. Also kind of in love with her brain.

I ended up listening to Kill V. Maim a few weeks ago, and falling in love with it, so the only thing I could do was listen to Art Angels a million times in a row. That album is amazing.

But I was reading a bunch of interviews with Grimes (who is Canadian!) about the making of it, how she creates every inch of the music herself, how she's a producer before she's a singer or an artist, and I was really thrown with her intelligence and how surprisingly self-aware she is.

So I went and listened to Visions, too. It also is amazing.

The thing I love about her and her art is how honest she is about it; she talks about how some of her work doesn't live up to her expectations, she's true to who she is and what her work is about. I enjoy that.

She's also kind of weird, which I like. Genuinely weird people are not appreciated enough. History and language nerds and people who really appreciate the technical sides of things. That's Claire.

And the fact that she taught herself how to play so many instruments is giving me guitar inspiration.

Anyway, back to writing Rage.