What's Coming Next

It's been a busy June!

The ebook version of A Question of Balance is available at Amazon. The proof copy of the paperback version is in the mail on its way as we as we speak. Once I've looked it over, it will go on sale at various online retailers. If you prefer to give your business to a local bookstore, the bookstore can order a copy through Ingrams (they're one of the largest paper book distributors, if not the largest, in the U.S.).

Which brings me to...

I'll be giving away copies of the paperback editions of my books as I get them published. So keep your eye out here for announcements. If you've signed up for my newsletter, you're already automatically entered.

In the meantime, I sent the files for Justice: The Beginning to my formatter Thursday night. I was late getting them to her, and she's getting hammered by other customers (writers) right now, so it might be another week or two before that volume is available. However, my lovely cover artist/designer sent me this gorgeous cover for the anthology!

In the meantime, I'll start working on the edits for Zombie Goddess while I finish Ravaged, which is Book 7 of Bloodlines. Though my Darling Husband is advocating that I write A Modicum of Truth (Justice #2) first.

I should never have introduced him to Game of Thrones. LOL

A Question of Balance Is Live!

Yes, I know it's my first new novel in nearly three years, but I'm feeling pretty darn good right now.

The e-book version of A Question of Balance will be available only at Amazon for the next three months. I'm testing a couple of their services, like Kindle Unlimited. However, you can read a sample right here by clicking on the preview button below the picture.

The paperback version is coming soon!

Blurb
From the pages of Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress comes Justice Anthea and Brother Luc’s first full-length adventure…

The Reverend Mother’s machinations left Anthea as the chief justice in her home city of Orrin, a post she despises. Even worse, a messenger from Duke Marco interrupts her breakfast. Again. This time, the duke’s retainers found a body in a wine barrel at the duke’s estate. The body of a priestess from the Temple of Love.

In trying to solve the bizarre murder, Anthea and Luc stumble across a massive conspiracy to eliminate the Twelve Temples, the only thing standing between the human race and another demon invasion.

Will swords, magic, and wits be enough to stop the renegades?

Or is a little faith needed?

Novel, approximately 96,000 words or 320 printed pages

Status Report - June 2016

After I got over the Flu from Hell, May turned into an amazing and productive month! Here's the highlights:

- A short story called "Pig-Headed" will appear in Sword and Sorceress 31, which tentatively will be released in early November. This involves brand-new characters.

- The characters of my previous Sword and Sorceress stories now star in their first full-length novel, A Question of Balance. I'm planning on releasing it June 20th.

- Justice Anthea and Brother Luc's first stories are collected in a new volume, Justice: The Beginning. It also contains a brand new story about their first year together. Unless Murphy completely screws me, it should be out around June 30th.

- The first draft of Zombie Goddess is done! I hope to release it next month, depending on my Murphy-cursed life. I'll give everyone a specific date in July.

- For the rest of the summer, I'll hopefully get out the rest of the Bloodlines series with their new covers and in paperback format. If that goes well, the Seasons of Magick series will also get a facelift and a paperback version.

And then?

Well, I'll try to buckle down and finish writing the last three Bloodlines books. Next up will be Ravaged (it's currently sitting at 18,000 words).

An Apology to Nook Users

I'd planned a much more positive post today, but certain things degenerated this week faster than I anticipated.

First of all, my sincere apologies to my readers who use Barnes & Noble to buy ebooks. Over the weekend, they failed to pay not just my royalties due, but several hundred other indie writers that I know of. Further, they waited over sixty hours before issuing any kind of a statement or explanation. Unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've had a problem with them.

When a company starts paying its vendors late, it's a clear sign that the company is in trouble. As I said, this isn't the first time. As a result, I pulled my books from Barnes & Noble yesterday.

For those of you who prefer the EPUB format, I'm looking into alternative ways/retailers for you to purchase my books in that format.

Again, I apologize for the lack of notice, but this is my career. My livelihood. I needed to cut my losses before things became worse. If you have any questions, post them in comments, or you can contact me privately.

Thank you for your support.

I'm Moving...

No, it's not a thousand-plus-mile move of the family again.

My webmistress for the last five years is retiring. So until I can get my shit together, i.e. get my current list of books out this year, this will be the temporary home of suzanharden.com until I can figure out what I want to do for an official website.

I'll have some announcements after the Memorial Day weekend about new stories.

So in the meantime, honor your dead and have a wonderful holiday!

Making Progress

The last three years have been rough. The only new thing that's been published under Suzan Harden since November of 2013 was "Diplomacy in the Dark" in Sword and Sorceress 30 (and that was November of 2015). The last new story Alter Ego published was in May of 2014. Some days, I wondered if I'd ever publish again.

I finally feel like I'm getting traction this year. Over the last week, I've

- hit the 46K mark on Zombie Goddess (Bloodlines #6)

- wrote the first 5K on Resurrected (Bloodlines #9)

- thought I'd be done with an Alter Ego novella, but it's turning itself into a short novel

- found an Alter Ego idea from four years ago, got caught up in the story again and wrote another 1K before I made myself stop

- shopped for pix and fonts for the cover of an Alter Ego short story I finished nearly two weeks ago

It sounds like I'm bouncing between the last four books of Bloodlines, and yes, I am in a way. But a lot of it has to do with linking, foreshadowing and consistency. The first draft of Book 6 should be done by the end of April.

However, I have a bad habit of typing so fast when I get caught up in a story that I leave out words, mainly articles and prepositions. By the time editing and proofing are done, I add 10-20K words. LOL

Now that things have settle down in my personal life (which is probably an invitation to Murphy to fuck me over), I need to prioritize projects based on how close they are to completion.

Today, my first task is getting the cover and formatting done for the AE short story and getting it published. Depending on how fast I get that done, and it may not be totally done today since I'm really out of practice and software has changed/upgraded, I'll finish the novella/short novel. The cover for it was finished back in 2012. That leaves the formatting.

The next step is to run through second-round edits for A Question of Balance, the first Justice novel, since that story is completed. The incredible Elaina at For the Muse Designs has already produced a lovely cover, so the last thing I need is to write the back cover blurb and to have the book formatted.

After that, I need to finish reviewing the proof paperback for Blood Magick (Bloodlines #1). I already found a couple of things that missed the mumble, mumble rounds of editing it's gone through.

Then hopefully, I'll spend Friday and Saturday hiding at Panera's to crank out some more of Zombie Goddess.

I can't do all NOW, but I can chip away at the mountain one grain at a time.

What's Happening?

This year didn't get off to the rousing start I wanted. As I said on my post from January 7th, we've had a lot of health issues with in-laws. Unfortunately, things haven't let up any.

On the down side, MIL ended back in the hospital for a week with breathing problems. While the docs were scanning FIL again for a possible source of the leg pain, they found a mass in his bladder. I'm driving him to Toledo for a second opinion next Monday.

On the plus side, MIL has improved greatly since the last scary stint in the hospital. She's still a little shaky when it comes to walking on her own, but she's off oxygen. We moved FIL into an assisted living apartment at the same complex where MIL is doing her rehab. Despite next week's consultation, he was in good spirits tonight and heading to the main dining room for dinner.

Why am I talking about all this?

The recent personal crises have definitely affected my productivity. I got A Question of Balance back from my beta reader some time ago, and still haven't had a chance to go through their notes. The proof copies for the paperback versions of Blood Magick and Zombie Love are still sitting on my desk. The good side is I'm fifty pages into the first book, but I still need to order the proofs for the next two books. Also, the file for Blood Sacrifice needs to be reviewed before going to the my paperback formatter.

Zombie Goddess is sitting at 40.5K, Ravaged at 18K, and Sacrificed at Murphy only knows because I'm writing it on an iPhone app while waiting in various places, and the app doesn't have a word counter.

Plus, I came up with a cool new idea for an urban fantasy series. I scribbled some notes, but trust me I won't write it until the Bloodlines series is done.

None of the above has anything to do with Alter Ego, who is also way behind on her work. LOL

I was so stressed last week that DH made me take Wednesday off. It's amazing how a few episodes of Agent Carter and The Librarians can brighten your perspective.

Once again, I am SOOO thankful that I'm an indie writer. If I were under contract with a trad publisher, I would be royally screwed right now. I may be super slow right now, but I will get something published this year!