#Beltane Blessings! #MayDay #celebration

Today is Beltane, a day to celebrate fertility, fire, and abundance. As a Leo (not that I'm really a follower of astrology) and a redhead, I have a strong kinship for all things fiery. I'll keep quiet about all the secret little fires I used to set as a child--hey, I never burnt anything down! Other than a few of my parents' flowerpots...
The first of May also marks the first anniversary of losing my main publisher as Breathless and Lycaon Press shut their doors and my publishing dream went down in flames. It was, however, also the day I decided to fully commit to being a self published author, partly to save myself more heartbreak at losing a publisher again. After all, it was my third experience of doing so in just three years as a published author. Over the past year I've seen more publishers closing - most shockingly Samhain - while others have cut their expenses and shifted their strategies in an attempt to remain viable. The early success of small presses pioneering ebooks has not been long lived. It just shows how changeable and unpredictable publishing can be, and why authors need to learn flexibility among our many other skills.
And in just over a month my final contract with a publisher will expire. It's a peculiar thought. Five years ago I had a very different view of my future, and it certainly didn't include being self published. In fact, I very much doubted I'd ever be published at all. I'd spent a year submitting to agents in the UK to no avail, and was in the process of submitting to various small digital-first presses in the US. I'd released a scifi short - The Bones of the Sea - on Smashwords, more as an experiment than as an official debut publication. How things change... A year later my debut novel Keir released via Lyrical Press.
So May is a month of special significance. I celebrate two anniversaries - my official debut as an author and my wedding. It was also the month my mum was born, now gone for 15 years. But I try to dwell on the positive. This year I will have been a published author for four years. This year I will have been married for 23 years - now more than half my lifetime - to a very wonderful man who has held my hand through highs and lows and all the bits in between.
Beltane marks an auspicious time and the beginning of summer. Here's hoping May will bring you good things too! And if you're setting fires, be safe and avoid the flowerpots. :P

Happy Beltane 2014!

Since today traditionally marks the beginning of summer, it seemed an appropriate point to sum up the year so far, and what lies ahead. After a tempestuous start, things turned around quite radically. 2014 has so far been the year of the edits, with me cranking up only around 15K on the new words side. However...

My YA paranormal romance Restless in Peaceville, and my SciFi romance Tethered have both been through copy edits, and are now in the queue for line edits. As yet I've no official release date (unofficially it could be any time from July), no cover art, and the blurbs still require edits. I can't wait to share these with you!

Keir is still being edited for re-release. I'm sorry - with everything else happening right now my personal deadline on this just keeps moving. All I can promise us that it *will* be this year, with book two releasing either late this year or early next. In the meantime, to celebrate what would have been Keir's second book birthday I'll be running a giveaway on Goodreads for my last two print editions. I believe you can still buy print editions on Amazon, although I don't think there's many left.

My decopunk superhero story Darkfall (working title) received a rejection as I wrote this post, but since I have a request on it elsewhere I'm not the slightest disheartened (well, maybe just a tiny bit. But rejection is part of the business. You accept it, you move on). I'm currently trying to write a separate superhero short for an anthology call from Breathless Press, although I'm not sure I'll make the word count or the deadline.

My Halloween-themed sweet paranormal romance short is still with my editor Dani. The title is a secret until the cover reveal, and the story will release in October.

Everything else is still a WIP.

On the other side...

The Brenda Novak Online Auction starts later today, and I have a special Keir gift set as part of the SFR Brigade sponsored category. You can check out all the space-related goodies HERE, or click on the button top right-hand side bar.

On the 8th May I'll be attending a Women in Scifi panel up in London, with two of my fave authors speaking - Jaine Fenn and Janet Edwards. The event is FREE to attend - you can read about the event and get tickets HERE (if there are any left). So excited!

And also on the 8th, I'll be celebrating 21 years of marriage to my first love (in spirit, at least. We have a day booked to celebrate properly). This means I will now have been married for half my lifetime. Wow!