Spring Update 2024

    01 Apr 2024

    Whole pile of news to get through (overdue, yet again! ^_^;) so let’s dive right in:

    • Short fiction is booming! I’ve got a first sale & reprint licensed to Pulphouse for their summer edition(s?), a flash to Lightspeed for later this year, and recent releases from Mysterion and The NoSleep Podcast. Plus a couple more honorable mentions from Writers of the Future Awards to round things out.

    • Long fiction is . . . stalled. Mainly because I have about 400% more demands on my time than waking hours (sigh.)

    • Teaching & events are also booming—had a great time talking all things short fiction for StoryStudio’s teen writers recently and I’m just headed back for the second half of this term’s creative writing workshop intensives, and will be presenting at the BC Library Association Conference and Surrey Teachers’ Association Convention in roughly a month, but had to turn down an invite to the Fraser Valley Young Authors’ Conference due to a scheduling conflict.

    • It’s that time again—IndieApril promos abound! Pricing (including free) confirmed on Kobo, Apple Books, & Google Books as of today. If you prefer a different storefront, do check back later in the week/month—it can take some time to price match across different storefronts:

    – (FREE) BOY WITH NO NAME: When the dreamwealking threadwitch the shadow prince of Refuge’s dissolute underground has been obsessed with since boyhood vanishes, he risks all the power he’s begged, borrowed, and stolen to get her back.

    – (FREE) LETTER FROM THE END OF THE WORLD: When a young mother’s mission to stop the end of the world is hijacked by tragedy, she signs on for an eternity of sacrifice in defiance of the monstrous intelligence possessing her dying city.

    – (FREE) THE UNSOUGHT LIGHT: Duty and desire collide in a war that threatens to bring down an unwilling bride-to-be’s family, clan, and village in ancient (gothic-fantasy) Japan.

    – ($0.99) BLIND THE EYES: When a young rebel offers a haunted outcast the chance to escape her rule-bound existence, he proves an even more deadly distraction than the monsters overrunning her drowned city.

    – ($0.99) MUD MONSTERS & REVELATIONS: A young dreamwalker and his comrades battle monsters, a toxic legacy, and a tainted future to bring back a long-lost friend (…or maybe more?) taken by the hungry shadows.

    • The awesome Kidlit4Ceasefire auction in support of Gaza, Sudan, Congo & The Little Miss Flint water filter fundraiser is already nearly halfway to its goal! I’ve donated a complete (paperback) set of the Threads of Dreams trilogy, a signed first edition of the Blind the Eyes hardcover, and an exclusive “ask me anything” (AMA) call—and there are over 350 (amazing!) auction items from other artists for readers, writers & art lovers to bid on here!

    The AMA could be great for anyone with questions related to:

    • Short fiction writing/revising/tracking/submissions/publishing (I’m multi-awarded, multi-published in pro-rate outlets & have given workshops on the topic!)

    • Any publishing-related questions, really, especially related to the kidlit world (I lead a 160+ member professional society of children’s authors & illustrators and speak widely at conferences, festivals & institutions on the topic!)

    • Creative writing/editing/plotting/structure (I’ve been teaching intensive workshops for years now, multi-published, multi-awarded, just might be able to offer the tips you need—I’m nonjudgmental and focused on centering your goals)

    • Happy to chat with readers/teachers/librarians/etc. too if the winning bid comes from a non-writer who wants to use it for something like a book club or classroom visit!

    This is the first time I’ve made this kind of access available to the public. Usually you’d need to attend a workshop or industry conference (or be part of CWILL, I try to carve out a little time for them too lol), so it’s a great opportunity to get your burning questions answered and support a fantastic cause at the same time. (& there are a number of other authors, artists & industry professionals offering AMAs if you’re seeking different expertise, too!)

    Browse the auction now!

    Author's Note on Flatliners

    28 Feb 2024

    Sometimes there are stories you just aren’t equipped to tell. The one that became “The Patron Saint of Flatliners” (published in Mysterion, Patreon exclusive until March 28, 2024) is one of them.

    I wrote the earliest version of it the summer after my best friend lost a young member of her extended family to the Vancouver drug toxicity crisis.

    It wasn’t really a story at that point—just anger and cursing and chaos on a page. Unpublishable. I never expected to come back to it. But in 2023, I encountered Seanan McGuire’s works and found in her Ghost Roads series a surprising parallel.

    Perhaps my strange, admittedly somewhat twisted form of processing/coping mechanism had produced something that would connect with readers after all . . .

    But in connecting with readers, in taking something that I wrote for my own reasons and offering it to the world, I find myself concerned that fiction may be mistaken for fact.

    So permit me the indulgence of straying into facts for a moment, starting with this:

    I never met the girl who died. I know her only through second-hand accounts.

    A scattering of stark snapshots of her life are here. Her truth is not.

    I can’t tell you what it was like to be her. What her hopes and dreams were, how she thought about the future, God, herself.

    I can tell you that, while she experienced hardship and betrayal, while she made choices you may not agree with and that she herself expressed uncertainty and regret over—according to my friend who was working to help her in her final days—I didn’t nearly capture her rage and desperation.

    Nor the fervour of her religious practice. In life, she was a devout Catholic.

    So, while this story does not, cannot, offer full and meaningful representation to that girl or the (many) other victims of the drug toxicity and opioid crises (please seek out survivors’ first-hand accounts and art for that!), it is perhaps in the area of faith that it falls most short.

    In portraying an angry, questioning, alienated protagonist railing against God for her isolation, I fear I have crafted an engaging fictional narrative, but reinforced popular, comfortable myths.

    There are convenient untruths that we all cling to at times. “Bad things don’t happen to good people.” “People get what they deserve.” “Overdoses happen to those people and we are not those people.”

    Popular myths, modern myths, religious myths, even, depending on the context. Nice people, nice families, educated people, professionals, women, students, children, good church-going folks, stable married couples, middle class households . . . immigrants. Believers. Catholics. Pentecostals. Baptists. And so on.

    Pick your label. It still won’t protect you and yours.

    The truth is that drug use, experimentation, dependency, addiction, poisoning, overdose, all of these can and do occur within the Church, to Christians, to nice people, to our loved ones, to us. They are not, in and of themselves, a mark of “godlessness.”

    This story—both the real life story behind the fiction, and the linked piece—also highlight intersecting marginalizations.

    While I think it’s important to take this moment—particularly as this piece was first published by a faith-affiliated market—to challenge Christians and religious communities, along with the “comfortable majority,” to recognize their own vulnerability, it’s also desperately important to stop judging and dismissing those who make different choices and/or come from different communities, backgrounds, and experiences.

    This is a story about the vulnerability of people of colour, of people from the Global South, of the harms of adoption practices (esp. in white Chrisitan communities), of the abuses of the patriarchy and toxic control within religious communities, of economic vulnerability and the way young people, especially women and girls, are more easily exploited (and trafficked) when they can’t access adequate housing, education, and employment.

    I wrote this story to transmute anger and grief and loss into hope (in my own twisted, strange way.)

    I couldn’t change the outcome for one girl, but I could give her a sense of purpose and a continuation past “The End”, at least in fiction.

    Since her death, the opioid and toxic supply epidemics have only worsened.

    I urge you to take action in whatever capacity you are able. Advocate for safe supply, low barrier housing, and best-available treatments as scientific recommendations evolve. Form, fund, engage in, and champion healthy, strong communities and societies that support human thriving. Get engaged with the political process and hold your representatives to account.

    And recognize that this isn’t only a “them” problem—we ourselves and our loved ones also may be vulnerable, if not in this moment, then in the future. Love and support starts at home.

    With hope amidst the darkness, —Kaie

    Twilight Zone Time

    04 Feb 2024

    Short, fun announcement that I’ve been waiting for ages to make—I’m The NoSleep Podcast official!

    Check out my eerie li’l Hollywood North x Twilight Zone x end stage capitalism flash/audio play short based on that very short window where I got convinced that being a background performer would be a great writers’ life side gig (spoiler: it was not) and ended up as a hilariously clueless but probably overpaid body double for a 12 year old boy.🫠

    Anyway, this is probably my most “straight horror” piece yet (not too much genre blending), more eerie and slow-burn than outright terrifying, with a weird Twilight Zone tilt. Available (only, at this point; licensing enquiries welcome!) as an audio performance by the illustrious NoSleep Podcast—give it a listen for free here!

    Awards Eligibility & Winter Update

    14 Dec 2023

    So, yeah, six+ months since the last update, probably a good moment to remind folks that my newsletter goes out every second Monday if y’all want to hear from me more often.😅

    Also, before I drop my release list, if you like speculative fiction but have limited reading time, Sonia Sulaiman has put together a great reading list of Palestinian spec-lit that’s really worth a look instead.

    Quick round-up of 2023 publications for awards’ eligibility & end of year reading list purposes:

    1. Children of Earth

    2,900 words in FANTASY MAGAZINE Issue 90 (April 2023)

    Eco-anxiety takes on a life of its own in a body-horror-riffic romcom about a goblin-mode girl, toenail cryptids & a shared compost bin.🌿 This one goes out to all the desperate Millennial renters~😘

    Read (or listen) free online here.

    2. Castoffs

    2,000 words in THERE’S NO PLACE (Renaissance Press, October 2023)

    A washed-up rockstar searches for home, hope & escape from fae-cursed hunger amidst the wreckage of the career she stole from under the hill and over the sea.

    My entry in this Canadian small press anthology on housing insecurity/homelessness is an alternate/experimental retelling of “A Song of Dark Things” and the upcoming SONGSTRESS WIP, which mash up Scottish Folklore “The Fiddlers of Tomnahurich” “Thomas the Rhymer” & “Tam Lin” with end stage capitalism, artistic angst & female rage.

    The full ebook/paperback just launched, but send me a message at [email protected] to request a review copy of the story.

    3. Spectres of the Old World “Micro-Trilogy”

    A fast-paced, time-skip NA/YA Dystopian Fantasy of loss, destiny & inter-generational trauma in an eco-punk, post-apocalyptic world overrun by monsters. Spinoff of/parallel timeline to the THREADS OF DREAMS series.

    This “micro-trilogy” of novelettes adds up to a novella (28,000 words) and is free to read in KU or send me a message at [email protected] to request a review copy.

    General Information:

    All releases lean more fantasy than horror (but generally crossover with dark fantasy/gothic or weird horror). “Children of Earth” and “Spectres” include SF elements. “Children of Earth” is the most accessible (& fun) of the lot, while also having the most body horror. (Funny how that works . . .) Wordcounts are given for each. I’m Canadian, so all works are eligible for the Auroras, as well as speculative awards like the Nebulas & Hugos (& Stoker? IDK if any are horror enough this year . . .) My work is NOT eligible for the Ignyte awards. Thanks for checking them out! :)

    That’s it for new releases from me this year (unless there are any late-breaking surprises👀) BUT you can find everything existing & announced on this site under the Available Now & Coming Soon sections of the home page—already three short pieces under contract or accepted for next year, with Submission Grinder stats looking promising for another few in short order~

    As a general recap, it’s been a weird year. Some high points—lots of new milestones in terms of short fiction publishing, speaking, etc.—but also it’s getting harder to stay focused and keep moving forward as the rest of the world unravels in spectacular fashion around us. So, yeah, no new novels this year! Better luck next year . . .😅

    Summer News Roundup

    01 Jun 2023

    It’s really turned into the year of workshops & short fiction around here—not making as much progress on launching the next series (yes there are now multiples waiting in the wings . . .) as I’d like, because there’s just too much going on between the different author societies, festivals, magazines, etc., but it’s not a bad problem to have!

    Coming up in the calendar (full event postings in the appropriate section below):

    And I’ll likely also be at Word Vancouver in September on Saturdays. Events earlier this year included presentations to the BC Librarians’ Youth Services Institute, Word Vancouver, and Abbotsford Arts Council, along with my usual Creative Writing for Children term-length workshops.

    In short fiction, “Children of Earth” was published (in both text and audio formats) in the April edition of Fantasy Magazine (and longlisted in the Commonwealth Short Story Prize), a spinoff “micro-trilogy” of novelettes, Spectres of the Old World, was published from January to February, two new short stories were accepted to a HWA-qualifying podcast and a SFWA-qualifying small press anthology and a third short was award awarded honourable mention in the Writers of the Future awards.

    My latest attempt at restocking my short story folder is going poorly—a really fun high fantasy concept absolutely ran away with the wordcount and is stubbornly turning into yet another novel (or new series), so at some point you all can look forward to a deluge of new releases. Another part of the holdup is that there has been a bit of traditional/legacy publishing interest in some of these works in progress. I like to use Twitter “pitch parties” to practice writing hooks and test market interest/create buzz, and happened to get an (agent) full request on CAVE STORY WIP (a MG Ghost Story) and interest from a (Harlequin romantic suspense?!!) editor on SONGSTRESS WIP (a Fae murder mystery/UF), so it’ll take a bit of time to chase down those leads and see if they’re worth pursuing further.

    All that said, I’m hoping there’ll be a bit of a slowdown over summer (though there is the possibility of some summer camp workshops . . . and maybe I should actually see my family at some point . . . ?) and ideally I might have a bit of time to get back into revisions/release planning/drafting on at least one (or all three!) of the novels on the go. I’m definitely not up to Kelley Armstrong/Seanan McGuire levels of productivity here, but it’d be cool to have a major release year with a whole bunch of fun reads all at once! Something to look forward to. :)

    Read Local! CWILL BC 2023 Spring Preview

    28 Apr 2023

    Special thanks to The British Columbia Library Association Young Adults and Children’s Section (YAACS) for the opportunity to pop into their 2023 Youth Services Institute day for a lightning talk!

    Watch the replay for a sneak peek at some of the 2023 new and upcoming BC kidlit releases we’re most excited for at CWILL BC, along with a quick overview of bringing BC kidlit authors, illustrators & books into libraries, schools and institutions!

    Fantasy Magazine

    11 Apr 2023

    Incredibly proud and excited to share “Children of Earth” with the world. 🎉

    Eco-anxiety takes on a life of its own 😏 in this laugh-out-loud climate fiction-meets-body horror-meets-rom com about the dangers of lusting after your neighbour(‘s laneway house) & the pursuit of eco-sainthood in Issue 90 (April 2023) of Fantasy Magazine.

    It features a goblin-mode Millennial, toenail cryptids, and a shared compost bin.

    You can read it (or listen to the podcast/audiobook version) for free online, buy the whole brilliant💅 April edition as an ebook for just $2.99, or subscribe for even more fantastic speculative lit for under $24/year!

    And don’t miss my author spotlight with Fantasy Magazine co-editor-in-chief Christie Yant while you’re there.

    Podcast/audiobook version narrated by Judy Young. Longlisted in the 2023 Commonwealth Short Story Prize. Honourable Mention in the 2022 Writers of the Future Awards.

    With thanks to Arley Sorg at Fantasy Magazine for hands-down the best editing experience I’ve ever had, Dean Wesley Smith at WMG Publishing/Pulphouse Fiction Magazine for the killer workshop that spawned this monstrosity, and Rebecca Schaeffer’s MARKET OF MONSTERS series for the twisted inspo (& Mirella’s name).

    And it’s kinda a deep cut, but for anyone who’s curious (mild spoiler alert? IDK?🤷), the thing Mirella orders to deal with her little problem was totally inspired by a Lomi machine, so if you guessed that, congrats. 😂

    The Astonishing Case of the Zombie Sub

    30 Mar 2023

    I’ve got some amazing news, but first: a quick heads-up on a super short #IndieApril Sale April 1-3 at Narratess!

    And, in other news, I’m excited to have just been accepted into The Writers’ Union of Canada! Check out my new speaker’s profile here. I’ll be eligible for funding going forward under the Ontario Writers-In-The-Schools and the National Public Readings programs, so schools and organizations interested in booking an author visit, presentation, or workshop, please get in touch!

    And finally, the contract isn’t actually signed yet, but I’ve just had an offer on a short story I never thought would actually find a home, so buckle up for . . .

    The Astonishing Case of the Zombie Sub

    If you’ve ever tried to create something, you’ve probably realized in pretty short order that a gap (ahem: yawning chasm, void, black hole, unscalable cliff of doom) exists between what you envision and what you’re able to create.

    This is true regardless of the form your creation takes and, to some extent, regardless of skill level, experience, talent, etc.

    That’s not to say that you can’t get better at narrowing the gap. A baby artist takes time to gain mastery over her tools. But even a master has that final thread of uncrossable, unscalable, ineffable something more to keep her awake at night.

    Every story is, at some level, a battle to translate as clearly and completely that perfect, unattainable vision into imperfect words on a page.

    Case in point: in 2019 I set out to capture an idea about a girl who chose to silence herself in order to win her heart’s desire.

    It was loosely inspired by Scottish folklore—Thomas the Rhymer, cursed to speak only the truth, The Fiddlers of Tomnahurich, lost from their own time and stranded in a future they didn’t choose or understand, Tam Lin, stolen away by the queen of fairies, or maybe the stealer of virtue himself, destined for sacrifice—and set in a remote corner of modern Scotland where slow decline and struggle for survival roils beneath an idyllic tourism-oriented veneer.

    My first attempt was the lyrical, folkloric “A Song of Dark Things,” a longish short story that sold immediately to Unknown Realms: A Fiction-Atlas Press Anthology.

    But it didn’t fully capture the depth of what I wanted, the underlying motivation and tension. So I tried again. And again.

    The third attempt was something new, something vital and alive and completely different from anything I’d written before. It switches perspectives, introducing an outsider’s view and voice, along with a whole new set of problems and possibilities. And it ended up being the start of something far bigger than I could finish back in 2019. You’ll get a look at it one of these days—it’s now the first chapter in the series I’ve been referring to as Songstress WIP.

    But let’s circle back to that second attempt. The weirdest one in the Songstress triptych of tales about fae and rockstars and tricksters breaking barbed promises.

    “Calloused” was the shortest, strangest, most difficult story of the three by far.

    It jitters between past and present from one scene to the next. It’s entirely narrated, the “action” hinging on quiet, fierce interiority of purpose. While it racked up its share of wonderfully encouraging comments (and took a Silver Honourable Mention in the Writers of the Future Awards last year), it was rejected so many times (59!) that I’d put it through over a dozen revisions and finally resigned myself to releasing it as a subscriber exclusive, or maybe as a launch bonus, when a submission I’d thought was dead came back to life.

    This is not an Easter metaphor in disguise, in case you were worried. Short fiction submissions usually have a projected response time. When you don’t hear back by that point, you can contact them for an update or assume (as I generally do) that they’ve either run out of time/money/interest, lost your work, folded, hated what you wrote, and/or all of the above. In this case, the zombie sub popped back up with a vengeance.

    The contract isn’t actually signed and there’s always the possibility of things falling apart in negotiations, so I’m not going to share the market yet, but I’m excited—at this point, astonished—to announce that a Canadian small press has accepted “Calloused” for a pro-rate themed anthology this fall.

    So this is a tale about persistence, and not self-rejecting, and putting weird stuff out into the world, and keeping at it whittling away at that gap between the thing you want to create and what you’re able to create. You never know what will happen. ^_^;

    WRAD2023 Plus A Not-Announcement

    25 Jan 2023

    Shoutout to the awesome team at Word Vancouver for the invitation to host their in-person World Read Aloud Day event this year!

    I’ll be chatting with CWILL BC member and recent debut Emily Seo as she presents a reading from her 2022 middle grade novel The Science of Boys and demonstrates some live science.

    Local schools will be joining us for this celebration of reading aloud at Surrey Library Central City Branch from 10-11 am on February 1, 2023.

    I do also still have availability open on the afternoon of Feb. 1 for schools or libraries who want to book a short, free virtual reading (or, locally, live reading).

    In other news, I’m very excited to not-yet-officially be able to announce my first audio adaptation has been licensed! Hollow will be coming to a horror podcast near you in the not-so-distant future.

    The market has requested the official announcement wait until the story goes live, so all I can really say now is that it’s an eerie, Twilight-zone-esque short story inspired by Hollywood North, a Horror Writers of America-qualifying sale, audio-only (first print rights still available), and despite the horror label, suitable for all ages.

    And, as a word of encouragement for the writers out there: don’t self reject! Getting into this market felt like a real stretch to me, the story is kind of a different direction from my usual (more “straight horror” than cross-genre? But not actually that scary? More unsettling/chilling than gory or bloody?), and I’d very nearly retired it from my submissions rotation when the license request came through on a long-dormant sub. You never know what will connect and with whom!

    Looking forward to seeing how they interpret this story to audio—so many fun opportunities with the sound design. Will keep you posted when it goes public!

    Want to Write a Book With Me?

    10 Jan 2023

    Need a plan to tackle that “finally write my book” New Year’s Resolution?

    Find yourself typing “the end” faster (or maybe for the first time ever!) with a structured, supportive 20-week (term-length) workshop starting January 28 (9 am for adults, 10:30 am for kids) on Zoom.

    Each weekly workshop includes live, interactive access over Zoom with short writing exercises and presentations on creative writing, storytelling, plotting & publishing, slide and video archives (for later review and/or if you miss a week), office hours, + individual feedback on up to 20 pages each week.

    These workshops are best suited for kids, teens, and adults looking for step-by-step guidance, accountability, and encouragement in starting (and finishing!) the first draft of a (fiction or narrative nonfiction) book.

    Class sizes are small due to the amount of individual attention, so don’t miss your chance to join!

    Learn more & apply now!

    Birth of a Micro-trilogy

    08 Jan 2023

    Escape the past. Save the girl. Take back the future.

    A century after Dreamfall scorched the earth and woke its merciless protectors, Spectre squad’s first unsupervised mission is boring as dirt. After all, they’re dream walkers—ecologists and healers, not soldiers.

    But when second-in-command Ghost saves a strange girl from sea monsters, they stumble across a secret that shatters the foundations of their society and will change all their lives—if they survive to tell the tale.

    The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of one boy desperate to escape his destiny.

    Spectres of the Old World Part 1: Mud Monsters & Revelations is a fast-paced YA Dystopian Fantasy of loss, destiny, and inter-generational trauma in an eco-punk, post-apocalyptic world overrun by monsters.

    This novelette-length adventure ends in a mild cliffhanger and kicks off a three-part YA Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic Romance “micro-trilogy” in the same world (parallel timeline) as the Threads of Dreams trilogy (featuring “Ash” as the crossover protagonist.) Spectres of the Old World stories can be read as a standalone series or, due to spoilers, following Burn the Skies.

    Spectres of the Old World are Kindle Unlimited (Amazon) exclusive releases:

    **Part 1: Mud Monsters & Revelations Part 2: Rattlesnakes & Nightmares (23/01/24 Part 3: Sedition & Sea Monsters (23/02/06)**

    _

    . . . Which begs the question “what is a micro-trilogy?”

    When I relaunched the Threads of Dreams series in 2021 with the fifth-anniversary edition covers, I missed two titles: Under and Spectres of the Old World

    Under was launched in 2019 as an exclusive novella release for my newsletter subscribers and is still available as a free download. (I’m working on a small glow-up and planning a wide release for later this year.)

    Spectres is brand new. The only completely new release in the Threads of Dreams extended story world since Burn the Skies wrapped up the main trilogy in 2020.

    I actually wrote Spectres a couple years ago and . . . just didn’t find the right moment to release it.

    Or maybe knew, at some level, that it wasn’t quite finished.

    Because it started as a short story that turned into a long short story—a novelette. And then hit a time-skip and turned into another novelette. And hopped past another chunk of time into the unwritten future of Cole and Ash and the gang where, you guessed it, another whole novelette’s-worth of adventures unfolded themselves.

    So I had a novella’s-worth of story on my hands, split into three roughly-even parts, two of which ended on mild cliffhangers, the second darker than the first . . .

    Sounds awfully like your classic three-act structure—or a fantasy trilogy.

    At the same time, I’d been meaning to play rapid release strategies and KU. So this is a bit of an experiment, allowing the story to follow it’s own natural structure while giving readers an episodic mini-series sort of reading experience. Hopefully it’s fun! And, at some point in the future, I’ll probably pull Spectres from KU and give it a more standard wide-release in novella form. :)

    Achievement Unlocked!

    16 Dec 2022

    Very excited to sneak some (slightly nerdy?) author news in before the end of the year: Fantasy Magazine just licensed first English world rights to “Children of Earth”(!!!)

    Skip this next bit if you’re not into geeky publishing insider talk, but: this news is kind of a big deal because, for writers, short fiction markets operate on a scale from “for the love” (unpaid/for exposure) through various token (small money) and semi-pro rates (little bit more money) up to “pro-market” rates. While I love every story I’ve put out into the world and support and appreciate every publisher and market that I’ve worked with, Fantasy Magazine is my first “pro-market” sale. In real terms, it means (a little) more money, the potential for more exposure and recognition, and it’s also a qualifying step toward membership in professional organizations like the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association. So it’s a real milestone!

    There’s a bit of fun backstory to how this all came about. Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s weekly business-for-writers blog is a must-read for anyone in publishing or thinking about/moving toward publishing, and her weekly free short stories were also instrumental in nudging me (back) into writing short fiction. She’s an amazing, prolific writer with enormous range, who just so happens to be married to another amazing writer, Dean Wesley Smith. Together, they own WMG Publishing. Which, in addition to putting out great books, does some really fun stuff in terms of Kickstarter projects & author education workshops. (One of my “when I grow up” big deal/pro author dreams is to actually do a workshop with them in person one day when I have the money/time, lol.) Definitely recommend their online or live workshops if you’re able/interested. In the meantime, I sneak in the occasional virtual workshop when I can.

    In Fall 2021, I did a virtual workshop with WMG Publishing called “Writing a Pulphouse Story.” Pulphouse Fiction Magazine is a cross-genre quarterly that publishes “strange” lit. I’d already written “Castoffs” (the body-horror meets humour short story in It Was Only A Dream: An Anthology of Bad Horror Tropes Done Right) by then, so I thought it might be my kind of thing. I blew it so hard on the week 1 assignment. Week 2 wasn’t great either. But for week 3, I wrote “Children of Earth.” Dean, who edits Pulphouse, offered to buy it for the magazine. Which was amazing. But, even better, he said I could shop it around first & he’d still be interested in reprint rights. Solid dude. So I entered it in the Writers of the Future contest and (for the first time) placed, with an honourable mention in Q1 of this year (I later received a silver honourable mention in Q3 on a different short story that I’m still shopping around).

    Anyway, a big shoutout goes out to Dean Wesley Smith of Pulphouse, Smith’s Monthly & WMG Publishing for pushing me to get as unhinged as possible and not edit my voice into oblivion before submitting. I also just so happened to be reading Rebecca Schaeffer’s (fantastic, twisted, dark, violent, complex) Market of Monsters series when I wrote “Children of Earth.” So the viewpoint character, “Mirella,” is an homage to Schaeffer’s series, and I suspect the body horror aspect owes a debt to her series as well. A true CanLit horror queen~

    Finally, I don’t actually know the launch date or which edition of Fantasy Magazine the story will drop in yet, but I’ll be sure to shout about it when it does. One of the cool things (among so, so many) about placing a story with them is you all get to read it for free when it comes out! They also sell digital (only) subscriptions if you prefer ebook format, want to support the fantastic work they do, or are looking for a unique gift idea for a fantasy lover in your life.

    So, if you loved “Castoffs” in It Was All A Dream: An Anthology of Bad Horror Tropes Done Right (Hungry Shadow Press, 2022) but thought it could’ve used more body horror, MORE eco-anxiety and a dash of romance, keep your eyes peeled for “Children of Earth” coming soon from Fantasy Magazine!

    Fall 2022

    28 Nov 2022

    Yet again I’m waaay behind with updates (join my Twitter or newsletter if you want news while it’s still news, I guess), but here’s some of the cool stuff that’s been going on:

    Congrats to CWILL BC Nikki Bergstresser, who just took home the Literary Arts Award in front of a sold-out crowd at the Abbotsford Arts Council’s 18th Annual Arty Awards. As last year’s recipient, I was honoured to have the opportunity to present. :D

    BC Teacher-Librarians’ Conference was a blast! I had a great time presenting (over 50!) new releases by BC authors and illustrators of books for kids and talking about collaboration opportunities between school librarians and local authors. CWILL BC will plan on making this an annual event going forward. Word Vancouver Festival was also super fun, with two jam-packed live days plus the virtual/school presentation programming to moderate.

    It’s also been a strong year for short fiction:

    • CASTOFFS in It Was Only A Dream: Bad Horror Tropes Done Right (Hungry Shadow Press, 2022) has done amazing. Cannot believe how much buzz this antho has got!

    • THE UNSOUGHT LIGHT was licensed to be reprinted in Seasons Unceasing (Worldsmyths Publishing, 2022) and is 2/3 of the way through edits, scheduled for re-release before the end of the year

    • A pre-published speculative short, CALLOUSED, recieved Silver Honourable Mention in Writers of the Future Awards 2022 Q3

    • A pre-published speculative short, CHILDREN OF EARTH, recieved Honourable Mention in Writers of the Future Awards 2022 Q1 and has been shortlisted in a keystone speculative professional market

    On that note, longer releases will be the focus for 2023, including a new novella and a novella rerelease in the Threads of Dreams series, a spooky middle grade/junior teen novel, and a new adult speculative series. And it looks like my spring creative writing workshop will be mostly middle schoolers, which is going to be super fun. Can’t wait!

    Finally, World Read Aloud Day is coming up. I’m happy to volunteer a short reading from an upcoming middle grade novel, YA novels, or short fiction, or from works that inspired me for interested classrooms ranging from grade four through high school. Shoot me a message at [email protected] to book a free 10-20 minute reading + author visit on February 1, 2022!

    The Horror Anthology of 2022

    12 Sep 2022

    Preorders Are Open!

    I’ve just seen the print proofs for It Was All A Dream: An Anthology of Bad Horror Tropes Done Right and this is one you won’t want to miss!

    The star-studded lineup alone makes it one of the most exciting anthologies of Spooky Season 2022(TM), but the creepy/schlocky, retro-horror-movie black-and-white interior illustrations for each story make this not only an incredible read for horror lovers, but a real show-stopper for your shelves.

    Swing by the publisher’s site to grab your copy (drops October 18, 2022/preorders open now).

    Brandon at Hungry Shadow Press has really been working overtime making this an exciting launch. Here’s a bunch of us chatting horror and weird fiction on Bonehead Weekly’s Show and watch this space for art reveals and interviews with many of the authors about their inspiration and insights into each trope-story pairing (mine drops October 12!)

    Content note: while I write for middle grade, young adult, and all-ages audiences and my story in this anthology is suitable for my regular audience, the anthology as a whole is recommended for adult horror fans.

    Speaking of my weird-horror-humour short in this anthology, “Castoffs”, it went through five versions and amassed almost 40 rejections before finding its home (all it takes is one ‘yes’—hang in there, writers!)

    Here are some of my favourite rejection notes:

    • “This is extravagantly bizarre, and I mean that as the highest compliment. The “deal with the devil” scenario has been done so often that it’s difficult to make that scenario seem new and imaginative, but you manage to do just that. The mixture of lavish, mouth-watering food descriptions with the macabre scenario and the pound of flesh is equal parts tantalizing and perverse—I love it. Best of luck getting this published.”

    • “It was funny – truly. Referring to the female character as dinner was hilarious (…) The journey of the demon putting out the candles is nice – especially because the candle names and scents themselves evoke an aura of middle-class blandness that becomes vivid for the reader. We also thought the bit about the publishing contract would resonate with many. The end was hilarious. Both characters ending up happy is rare and added much humour to the piece.”

    • “Fun in its own insane, visceral way.”

    And from Hungry Shadow Press’s very own Brandon Applegate: “It’s exactly the kind of bonkers, inside-baseball, disgustingly great spin on a well worn trope I was looking for when I started putting this together.”

    Don’t miss this insane, funny, and somehow happy (?!) gross-out horror comedy and a truly awesome linup of other horror stories! Preorder now at hungryshadowpress.com

    Awards News!

    27 Jun 2022

    Celebrating Five Years

    26 May 2022

    My debut novel, Blind the Eyes, dropped June 1, 2018. It’s been an absolute whirlwind of a ride ever since. Some things I’d hoped for never turned out; other things I’d never even dreamed of came out of the woodwork.

    I’d planned to mark the occasion with something small—a new cover for Under, my subscriber-exclusive series prequel novella. Maybe a little giveaway.

    But the redesign looked so awesome, I couldn’t help myself:

    So, yeah, buckle up for a complete series relaunch:

    • A brand-new trilogy collection “box set” ebook drops June 1. (Get the collection here)
    • The new edition of Blind the Eyes launches the same day. (Get the new BTE edition here.)
    • Black the Tides is scheduled for July 6. (Preorder here.)
    • Burn the Skies will relaunch in August (Links coming soon.)
    • and the short fiction titles will hit stores throughout the fall (but newsletter subscribers can grab their copies now!) (Subscribe here.)

    Thanks for your patience as I work through these updates—pages and links might be a little wonky in the transition (and the reason everything doesn’t drop June 1 is there’s a ton of work on the backend to get all the pieces in play.)

    Also, don’t miss the giveaway!

    Enter to Win!

    Surprise TOC Announcement

    15 May 2022

    Check out this star-studded line up!

    The results are in from the Writers of the Future awards (which is HUGE). Children of Earth got an honourable mention!

    But that nice little accolade is overshadowed by the sudden and star-studded Table of Contents drop of It Was All A Dream: An Anthology of Bad Horror Tropes Done Right:

    Art by Evangeline Gallagher

    Why, yes, that is THE Wendy N. Wagner’s name just above mine! AND Gabino Iglesias to the left of hers! In fact, please, go ahead and just take a moment to absorb that fantastic lineup!

    No release date yet because the publisher is commissioning interior artwork for the stories, but I’ll keep you posted.

    This is really exciting for me because my twisted little story, Castoffs, has been one of my most popular AND most rejected. It features both a “deal with a devil” trope and a rather insider writers joke, which has made it a really hard sell.

    But editors LOVE it. Here’s some of my favourite rejection notes:

    • “This is extravagantly bizarre, and I mean that as the highest compliment. The “deal with the devil” scenario has been done so often that it’s difficult to make that scenario seem new and imaginative, but you manage to do just that. The mixture of lavish, mouth-watering food descriptions with the macabre scenario and the pound of flesh is equal parts tantalizing and perverse—I love it. Best of luck getting this published.”

    • “It was funny – truly. Referring to the female character as dinner was hilarious (…) The journey of the demon putting out the candles is nice – especially because the candle names and scents themselves evoke an aura of middle-class blandness that becomes vivid for the reader. We also thought the bit about the publishing contract would resonate with many. The end was hilarious. Both characters ending up happy is rare and added much humour to the piece.”

    • “It’s fun in its own insane, visceral way.”

    And from Hungry Shadow Press’s very own Brandon Applegate: “It’s exactly the kind of bonkers, inside-baseball, disgustingly great spin on a well worn trope I was looking for when I started putting this together.” (!!) Seriously, just absolutely glowing over here! And can’t wait to see what else made it in (28 stories total~)

    So, look forward to this insane, funny, and somehow happy (?!) gross-out horror comedy and a truly awesome linup of other horror stories one day soon!

    Award Finalist

    09 Mar 2022

    Update:

    Original Post: Feb 28, 2022

    So this just happened:

    Story Studio

    24 Feb 2022

    It’s been another few whirlwind months in writing land and, uh, the rest of the world, too. Wild times!

    Popping in today to say I’m excited to be leading a discussion on writing YA speculative (/fantasy) for the teen writers group of Story Studio tonight! I LOVE chatting with teen writers, and so rarely get the chance (so much programming is targeted for younger age groups, for some reason.)

    In the spirit of transparency, ease of access, and making life easier for all of us, here are my slides/notes: Students, access slides/notes here!

    If you’re not familiar with Story Studio, they’re a Victoria (BC)-based charity that provides free and low cost writing programming, resources, and contests for kids and teens across Canada. Check out their site for all the awesome details!

    Also: I filmed a mini preview for TikTok if anyone’s interested in watching me be awkward on camera for three-ish minutes. :D

    In other news:

    • I’m teaching a term-length (remote) “novel”-writing workshop for kids in Korea this spring + a week long writing (remote) spring break writing “magic-house-sitting adventure” camp for kids in White Rock using Diana Wynne Jones’s House of Many Ways and now all I want to do is write about wizards and magical buildings . . .

    • I’m speaking at the BC Library Association’s Youth Services divisions mini conference in April on collaborations between librarians and local children’s authors

    • I’m chasing down some leads on behalf of CWILL BC around potentially creating books for kids with language-based learning difficulties

    • I’ll be at the Vancouver Children’s Literature Roundtable (VCLR)’s Mad Hatter Tea Party next month—join VCLR to get in on this fun event for free!

    • Cave Story WIP is coming along well in the sense that it’s fun, complete, and off to beta readers. Do I have time to revise and submit or set up for preorders? hahahAHAHAHahahahahaNo, but maybe one day . . .

    So, yeah, busy-busy-busy as usual, with more, very fun, upcoming news that I can’t quite share yet, but stay tuned!

    Blog Tour & NaNoWriMo

    29 Oct 2021

    Just a quick heads-up on two new developments before I retreat into heavy-duty drafting mode!

    1. Blog Tour

    UPDATE

    You can enter the giveaway on any of those blogs or by clicking here until 11:59 PM EST on Dec. 24, 2021.

    And here come the blogs! I’ll link to the ones with custom content (guest blog or interview) below.

    OP: Oct. 29

    I’ve got a blog tour coming up for Blind the Eyes (as a result of winning the Page Turner Awards tour prize last year) so I’ll have a bunch of interviews and blogs for you to check out in late November to early December.

    I also just wanted to offer, if there are any bloggers among my readers who want to get in on the fun (and take advantage of the free content), you can check out all the details and sign up here.

    And there’ll be another chance to win a special edition hardcover coming as part of the tour!

    2. #NaNoWriMo2021

    UPDATE

    So, uh, this went shockingly well? About 55k words in the first 11 days of the month over 45-50 hours and a messy zero draft is born! In unrelated news, why do my hands hurt???

    OP: Oct. 29

    If you’ve never stumbled across National Novel Writing Month before, it’s a now-international challenge to write a novel (or rather, 50,000 words of one) in the month of November. I tried it out way back in the dark days of 2020 and produced most of Burn the Skies, wrapping up the Threads of Dreams series.

    This year I’ve got something a little different in mind . . .

    Shop Early

    27 Sep 2021

    So last week was a little crazy. CBC news caught onto a situation that’s been developing in the publishing world. The tl;dr is that a combination of pandemic and shipping-related issues is making books more expensive and making it hard to stock and nearly impossible to restock physical copies of books on any kind of reasonable timeline.

    Spent a few days on correspondence, recorded print/blog & tv interviews and a live radio piece on behalf of CWILL BC members. Decided it might be clearer to just lay things out in my own words. If you want the deep dive, it’s posted over on Medium.

    The upshot of all this is that it gave us the kick in the pants we needed to finally launch our (CWILL BC) planned giveaway! If you live in British Columbia, click here to enter to win a stack of kids books in time for the holidays OR a free author or illustrator visit via Zoom.

    2021 Arty Awards

    25 Sep 2021

    UPDATE Cannot believe I won!! Thanks to my mystery nominator and the whole council team, volunteers, and supporters!

    Original Post: September 9:

    This was a definite higlight of my summer: someone nominated me in the annual Abbotsford Arts Club Arty Awards!

    Congrations to my fellow nominees in the literature category, local authors David Tickner, Julia Rohan, Emily Isaacson, and Lauralee Sí:tel Á:la Kelly! The awards ceremony will be held remotely on September 25 at 7 pm.

    If you’re a visiting and looking to check out my work in hardcopy, you can find paperbacks locally to borrow through the Fraser Valley Regional Library, or for sale at The Bookman or Hemingways Books and Records. Thanks for reading and shopping local!

    News Round-Up

    29 Aug 2021

    Aaand just like that, summer’s over! As usual, I’ve been too busy to share updates as they happen, so here’s a quick rundown of what you may have missed:

    Threads of Dreams Complete

    Burn the Skies launched on July 6, completing the trilogy. Binge the whole series today!

    Elections

    The Children’s Writers and Illustrators of British Columbia society elected me as president on June 30. If you’re a published (or professionally indie publishing) illustrator or author of books for the under-18 crowd living in British Columbia, please join us at cwillbc.org. We’re doing a ton of cool stuff!.

    Awards

    Not sure I’m allowed to share the news yet, but there’s a super fun awards nomination in the works that I’ll be able to shout about soon. Thanks to whoever nominated me, btw!

    Instagram Catastrophe UPDATE: It’s back!

    On the not-so-fun news side, my Instagram (@kaie.space) got unexpectedly shut down. Not sure if I got hacked or flagged by bots or something else, but it doesn’t appear to be recoverable. Sad to lose 3,000+ connections and 5+ years of work, but moving on and starting over with a new handle. Join me @kaiewiggins for pretty(?) book photos and book recs featuring YA fantasy and Canadian authors! Main account @kaie.space was reinstated (after a month . . . ) with their apologies, so we’re back up and running!

    Student Showcase & Recommended Resources

    Just launched two new website sections to feature creative projects by emerging writers I’ve had the privilege to teach and compile writing and publishing resources. Between teaching and leading CWILL, I’ve been getting an increasing number of questions about where to start with x or y, so while I’m no publishing guru, hopefully this provides a helpful starting point to refer questions to. It’ll likely grow as I have time and questions increase. Students of past workshops or who I’ve connected with at presentations are welcome to get in touch at any time with a creative project they’d like featured on the showcase page.

    Up Next

    I’m still dithering about what project to dive into next on the writing front, but I’ll be teaching two anthology workshops with Creative Writing for Children in the fall term, growing CWILL BC’s reach and effectiveness, and taking a continuing ed workshop on short fiction with WMG Publishing. Somewhere in all that, I need to plot and draft the next release, genre and title TBD. Stay in touch via the newsletter or social for all the details as they drop!

    Preorder Bonus

    30 Jun 2021

    It’s just SEVEN DAYS to Burn the Skies launch day, so I guess I better hurry up and tell you about the preorder bonuses!

    All eBook preorders of Burn the Skies (on any storefront) OR library requests are eligible for a FREE digital bonus pack. 🔥

    It includes a exclusive ebook special edition of Boy With No Name (the Ravel antihero side story formerly only available as part of The Devil You Know anthology), plus 6+ sheets of printables featuring adorable nature sprites (debuting in Burn the Skies, because this book needed a little cute-and-cuddly to balance out all the explosive tension!) for custom DIY magnetic bookmarks, stickers and more. 🎨

    To get your bonuses:

    1. Preorder Burn the Skies on any storefront OR submit a new book request at your local library before launch day (July 7, 2021).

    2. Screenshot or snap a pic of the order confirmation/receipt/library request.

    3. Fill out this Google Form and submit your receipt. Your bonuses will be sent to the email you provide by the end of launch week!🔥

    Sneak Peek and Series Wrap-Up Giveaway

    21 May 2021

    That’s right, the epic finale to the award-winning Threads of Dreams series is finally (nearly) here! (Scroll to the end for a celebratory giveaway.)

    In Blind the Eyes . . .

    Haunted 17-year-old shut-in Cole knows she’s missing out on something—maybe a whole lot of somethings—but she’s not quite sure if the cost of finding out is worth the risk of getting thrown to the eldritch horrors infesting her drowned city.

    When a suspiciously charming stranger and his dangerously tempting offer drive her into a chance encounter with one of the monster-taken dead, she stumbles across a shocking and grisly conspiracy between the nightmares and the authorities.

    Now she and her disembodied best-frenemy are on the run from enforcers, dreamjacking ghosts & soul-sucking monsters in a quest to expose the lies and take back their lives that takes them from the sterile authoritarian heights of Refuge to the glittering hedonistic underground club hidden beneath the floodwaters.

    But Cole hasn’t yet uncovered the biggest secret of all—and it might just have something to do with the invisible threads that keep tangling around her fingers and the silver-lit boy from her dreams . . .

    Can she take back her stolen-and-once-forgotten powers and expose the web of lies before she’s the next to die?

    Find out in the 2020 Page Turner Awards Book Spotlight Prize-winning and Barnes & Noble Press “20 Favorite Indie Books of 2018” first book of the Threads of Dreams series.

    Shop Blind the Eyes

    In Black the Tides . . .

    Cole’s life has never been better. She’s reconciled with not-so-ghostly-after-all bestie Cadence, rescued dreamwalker and childhood friend Ash, and even managing to suppress (most of) her jealousy about their shared history—a past she still can’t remember. But it turns out being a city-saving hero is pretty cool, even if she hasn’t quite won the war yet.

    That’s a problem she’s eager to solve. But when she dives back into battle with the nightmarish Mara too soon, her newfound powers fail to show up for the fight. Narrowly saved by a still-injured Ash, Cole is devastated. And determined to get her magic back, whatever the cost.

    Ash has a plan. And she hates it. But when he kidnaps her, Cole has no choice but to brave sea monsters and the haunted wilds in a perilous journey through the monster-infested wilds.

    Will she reach the dreamwalker homeland, recover her magic, and save her city before it’s too late for the friends she left behind?

    Find out in the twisty, cinematic, and devastatingly cliff-hanger-serving second book of the series.

    Shop Black the Tides

    In Burn the Skies . . .

    There’s only so much betrayal a girl can take. But Cole has come way too far to give up now, even if she’s never been more powerless and the stakes have never been higher. The clock is ticking on not only the survival of her friends and the city she’s sacrificed so much to save but the survival of the world.

    But disaster isn’t through with her yet. When her quest to muster a dreamwalker army founders, she’s left with one option: turn on the former friend and ally who betrayed her trust and stole her body. But she can’t bring herself to sacrifice the life of a delusional and homicidal child, not even to save all of humanity.

    As her pool of friends and potential allies shrinks and resistance mounts, Cole pushes through grief and fear to find ever more desperate ways to fight back, holding back the monsters at the cost of her rapidly-draining life force.

    Will her refusal to pay the ultimate cost end with her trapped in an eternal wasteland after everyone she’s ever cared about goes down in flames?

    Find out in the breathless conclusion to the series, coming to a storefront near you on July 7, 2021.

    Add on Goodreads & Preorder Burn the Skies

    Cover design credit on all three covers goes to the fantastic Christian Bentulan of CoversByChristian.com with modifications added.

    Enter the Giveaway

    Here for the prizes? This giveaway launches May 31, 2021 and ends at 12:00 am PST July 31, 2021.

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

    Get Ready for IReadCanadian Day

    26 Jan 2021

    World Read Aloud Day is a “celebration of the power of reading aloud to create community, to amplify new stories, and to advocate for literacy as a foundational human right.”

    If you’re building your #IReadCanadian day TBR, my books qualify—and so do all of these. (Picture books up through YA!)

    As creators of books for young readers, many members of CWILL BC are offering free 10-20 min. virtual readings in support of this wonderful cause.

    While I’m more than happy to present to classrooms, library groups or book clubs of all ages, my fiction currently targets ages 14+, so for readings at elementary or middle school groups I can instead present an age-appropriate Canadian children’s book that inspires me.

    Shoot me a message at [email protected] to book a free 10-20 minute reading, workshop, or author visit on February 13 or the week of February17, 2021!

    Title Reveal

    04 Jan 2021

    Good news: I wrapped up the zero draft of the third and final Threads of Dreams book in early December, which means it’s time for a #TitleReveal:

    In the city of nightmares, death is far from the end.

    Who knew a ghost could get up to so much trouble? Cole’s never been in a worse bind. But her continued existence, such as it is, is far from the only thing at risk.

    If she can’t find a way to keep the Mara from being unleashed by the one person she never could have imagined, not only her city, but the whole world will be devoured.

    In this thrilling conclusion to the Threads of Dreams trilogy, the spark of revolution is lit—and even a drowned city can burn.

    Look for the #CoverReveal in early June & a midsummer launch date. You can also preorder now! or add on Goodreads.

    (Preorders default to Dec. 2021 until production delivery dates confirmed.)

    Page Turner Awards!

    28 Oct 2020

    Update: Results!

    Very excited to have won the eBook Award “Book Spotlight” prize and looking forward to working with iRead Book Tours in the coming months to reach new readers!

    Press Coverage:

    As an aside, an Author Media Kit is available to any members of the press seeking readily-available resources.

    Update, 2020-10-02

    Super random that this just so happens to fall at the end of another launch week, but I’m honoured and amazed to learn Blind the Eyes has been shortlisted in the eBook Awards 2020 category of the Page Turner Awards alongside some wonderful titles!

    Very excited to (remotely) attend the awards ceremony on October 20—though a little bummed it’s a plague year and therefore impossible to pop over to the UK for the party.😢

    Congrats to all the shortlisted eBook and Writing award category entrants (check out their stories here!)

    Original Post, 2020-08-29:

    This is just such an awesome way to cap off launch week: Blind the Eyes is a Page Turner Awards finalist in the 2020 ebook awards category! Always awesome to see my creepy lil murderbabies getting the love~ ^_^;

    Check out the finalists’ profile and excerpt here!

    New Paperbacks!!

    26 Oct 2020

    Paperbacks are finally here!! 🎉

    Pandemic-induced publishing & shipping woes plus a very stupid mistake on my part 😅 delayed the matching covers by a couple months, but you can finally order the horror-variant covers on Amazon if paper copies are your thing. 👍

    Original cover BTE ppb & hardcover will remain available as “special editions” but that artist’s rates keep going up 😭 so the series will continue with these new designs. Additional hardcover editions aren’t currently in the pipeline.

    **Shop the new editions on Amazon (other storefronts coming soon): **

    Blind the Eyes (book one) & Black the Tides (book 2)

    Finding the Daydreamer

    15 Oct 2020

    I’m hosting Day 4 of Finding the Daydreamer’s book tour—one of my favourite new reads of 2020!

    Check it out on bookstagram below, read an expanded review on Goodreads, and get your copy here!

    BookLife Feature

    14 Oct 2020
    Today in randomly fun news: Blind the Eyes got picked up for the spooky season Indie Spotlight feature in Publishers Weekly’s BookLife magazine! Catch it in the October 12, 2020 edition (magazine format blog format).

    Celebrate The Devil You Know

    30 Sep 2020

    It’s launch day! Get the inside scoop on Threads of Dreams series antagonist(?) Ravel in Boy With No Name plus ELEVEN other villain, anti-hero & morally-grey character adventures in The Devil You Know: A Fiction-Atlas Anti-Hero Anthology.

    Pick up your copy here (ebooks out now, paperbacks on their way!) & celebrate with us all day with gifs, games & giveaways at the launch party on Facebook.

    Anti-Hero Giveaway

    27 Sep 2020

    The authors of The Devil You Know anthology are sponsoring an anti-hero themed giveaway to celebrate the launch! Enter at bit.ly/dykgiveaway

    Release Blitz

    14 Sep 2020

    Calling all book bloggers, bookstagrammers & booktubers: the anthology publisher is organizing a release blitz for The Devil You Know!

    Can you share a premade P.R. post with the book’s blurb, buy link, cover, and release giveaway some time during release week? (September 30th - October 7th) Every participant will receive one entry for every place they share in a draw for a $10 Amazon gift card!

    Sign up here!

    Boy With No Name ARCs

    12 Sep 2020

    This one’s for all the Ravel fans in the crowd: Boy With No Name review copies are now available in advance of its debut in The Devil You Know: A Fiction-Atlas Anti-Hero Anthology.

    Apply now to review via StoryOrigin

    Black the Tides is Here!!

    26 Aug 2020

    BLACK THE TIDES IS (FINALLY) HERE!! 🎉

    More ghosts. More monsters. More existential angst.

    Now with bonus nature walks & next-level torment & suffering (mosquito bites! blisters! attack of the snapping turtles!) 😂

    In all seriousness, I’m super excited for you all to read it. But just a heads-up: the twist in this one is KILLER. Don’t hate me~ 😈

    Buy Black the Tides today from your favourite online bookstore: Choose Your Store

    I’ll be posting quotes and featured content to celebrate all day on Twitter, so if you’ve got time, come hang out and share the excitement!

    Haven’t read book 1 yet?

    Blind the Eyes is on $0.99 special to make it easy to get started with the series! Grab your copy here: Choose Your Store

    Surprise! ANOTHER New Release

    24 Aug 2020

    There’s been an unexpected wave of excellent news, most of which I can’t share (yet) BUT I am very excited to announce a story in Fiction-Atlas Press’s next anthology:

    The Devil You Know: A Fiction-Atlas Press Anti-Hero Anthology

    These heroes might not be angels, but you know what they say—it’s always better to trust the devil you know…

    Looking for a typical hero tale? Keep looking. These twelve tales explore the grittier side of what it means to make life’s hardest choices, and let your reputation pay the price. From back-alleys and ancient cities to graveyards and castle walls, these trouble-makers are out for themselves…or are they?

    Fiction-Atlas Press is proud to present, The Devil You Know featuring stories by: USA Today Bestselling Author C.L. Cannon, USA Today Bestselling Author Lily Luchesi, Zoey Xolton, K.A. Wiggins, K Matt, K.R.S. McEntire, Scott Moore, J.M. Rhineheart, Angela Kulig, Kat Parrish, Amber Morant, and Nick Edinger!

    Boy With No Name

    When you’re nothing, you have to grab everything you can and hang onto it with everything you’ve got.

    Ravel clawed his way up from failed test subject to master of the decadent underground club Freedom—not to mention shadow prince of the Towers of Refuge—and his ambition is far from sated.

    He knows everyone’s secrets, holds all the keys, and his hand is in every deal worth making. Even the recent, catastrophic invasion of the nightmarish Mara hasn’t shaken his confidence.

    When human sacrifice is the price of power, a small massacre is nothing more than a setback.

    But when the dreamwalker Ravel’s been obsessed with since childhood vanishes from his monster-infested city, he risks everything he’s built and become to chase her down.

    Cut off from everything he knows, can this master manipulator find the right thread to pull and win back his love?

    Or will the conscience he’s been running from all his life finally take him down?

    Tragic pasts and twisted futures collide in Boy With No Name, a standalone-ready companion story to Threads of Dreams book 2, Black the Tides, available exclusively in Fiction-Atlas Press anti-hero anthology The Devil You Know coming September 30

    Preorder at: books2read.com/devilyouknowfa

    Black the Tides Cover Reveal & New Date

    17 Aug 2020

    UPDATE:

    The release date for BLACK THE TIDES has just been pushed up from September to August 26, 2020

    Click here to preorder for only 99c—until Aug. 26.

    Matching paperbacks coming soon.

    Original Post: COVER REVEAL. August 11, 2020

    ARCs Are Here

    04 Aug 2020

    Get ready for an epic cover reveal (hint: 🐉🐙), a new launch date announcement (maybe more than 1…?) annnd—ARCs are here!

    Can’t wait to read Black the Tides? Apply to review now via StoryOrigin

    Still haven’t read book 1? I’m releasing a limited number of Blind the Eyes review copies to established bloggers/bookstagrammers/reviewers—message me to apply📚🎉

    Handy links to popular review sites for Black the Tides:

    Books in the Wild

    01 Aug 2020

    Looking for my books IRL? Here’s an (incomplete) listing of known bookstores and libraries where you can find them:

    Stores

    Hemingway’s Books & Records

    33765 Essendene Ave, Abbotsford, BC

    2 signed paperback copies of Blind the Eyes

    The Bookman

    45939 Wellington Ave, Chilliwack, BC

    2 signed paperback copies of Blind the Eyes

    Quincy Books

    3734 W. Broadway Street, Quincy, IL

    1 paperback copy of Blind the Eyes

    Libraries

    Fraser Valley Regional Library

    multiple locations in BC, Canada

    2 paperback copies of Blind the Eyes

    Vancouver Public Library

    multiple locations in Vancouver, BC

    2 paperback copies of Blind the Eyes

    1 ebook copy of Blind the Eyes

    Surrey Public Library

    multiple locations in Surrey, BC

    1 paperback copy of Blind the Eyes

    Patagonia Public Library

    346 Duquesne, Patagonia, AZ

    1 paperback copy of Blind the Eyes

    Cleveland Public Library

    multiple locations in Cleveland, OH

    2 paperback copies of Blind the Eyes

    King County Library System

    multiple locations in King County, WA

    4 paperback copies of Blind the Eyes

    Watch this space; I update as more locations get added! Also, I’d love it if you’d take a moment to let me know if you spot any of my titles in any other retail or library locations so I can add them to the list!

    If you want to request one of my books (or any book, really) at a local indie bookshop, chain bookstore, or library, all you have to do is give them the author, title, and, if you can, ISBN number.

    For Blind the Eyes, the ISBNs are:

    • ISBN 978-1-7751627-8-0 (paperback)
    • ISBN 978-1-7751627-7-3 (ebook)

    For the Black the Tides, the ISBNs are:

    • ISBN 978-1-7751627-3-5 (paperback)
    • ISBN 978-1-7751627-2-8 (ebook)
    • ISBN 978-1-7751627-0-4 (hardcover)

    For the Unknown Realms paperback: ISBN 978-1-7323406-6-4

    Black Lives Matter and so do Black Stories

    12 Jun 2020

    You probably didn’t stop by today for political commentary and, in general, I prefer to make my arguments in fiction (and fantasy at that . . .), but this is also a historic moment. A turning point that will go down in history.

    Or, at least, that’s what we need it to be. What we need to make of it.

    There’s a lot of wrong in the world. It’s easy to get overwhelmed, to lose hope, to say it has always been broken and will always be broken. To try to find stability and comfort and safety each in our little corner and ignore the fires raging outside.

    But we’re all fantasy readers here. We’ve spent years reading our fairytales and dystopias and urban or gothic or paranormal or supernatural or science fantasies.

    And, in all our beloved stories of resistance and revolution, there’s that pivotal moment.

    It’s not the moment the bomb goes off or the assassin shoots or the capitol burns. It’s not a grand set piece of clashing armies or duelling generals, of kings losing their heads or thrones tumbling, of corrupt regimes imploding or the great nameless evil erased once and for all.

    It’s that quiet moment between one heartbeat and the next that a decision is made, once and for all: no more.

    That’s the birth of power. Magic. The force to turn the tidal wave and put an end to the darkness. That’s where the protagonist of her or his story steps up and commits to the challenge that will either destroy them or change the world.

    So, here’s the question before each one of us: what’s your pivotal moment?

    What’s going to be (or has been) your “hero origin story,” the turning point where you chose to take action and work to set things right?

    You’re probably not going to rally an army (uh, I hope . . .) or unlock ancient powers or wield lost artifacts of magic, and you probably won’t even be at the center of the action when it comes right down to it, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have a role to play in changing the world.

    On that topic, there are far more insightful, educated, and valuable voices than mine you should be listening to right now when it comes to what to do and how to help. Here are a few I’ve come across:

    . . . and just in case you’re getting fired up about being Katniss in the Hunger Games, a timely reminder that, while we need to change the world, we need to do so without causing more harm to the most vulnerable: a thread on revolutions

    I want to live in a world where we get all the amazing stories and hear all the beautiful, challenging, original voices without a filter of race, sex, or privilege. That world is more interesting, more fun, and more equitable. It’s also better for us.

    But until that world is ours, and for the record because apparently it still needs to be said: Black Lives Matter, and so do Black Stories.

    I’m highlighting Dhonielle Clayton’s stunning YA Dystopian Fantasy The Belles in particular today, because yes, we need stories with both real life and fantasy, lived experience and imagined, interrogation and extrapolation and, at times, just straight up escapism in speculative fiction. And sometimes an author wants or needs to write about race in a contemporary or historical setting, but that should never be demanded or expected of them. (a.k.a. give us more Black fantasy!)

    Anyway, this book (series) in particular stood out to me because Dhonielle told a gripping story of stunning beauty and devastating dystopian horror and I’ve very rarely seen glitter and misery combined with such excellence.

    I’ll be incorporating regular titles by Black authors (trad & indie) into future editions of this newsletter, as well as highlighting indigenous and POC stories.

    And if you’re a writer of YA or teen-friendly speculative fiction and Black, indigenous, or otherwise POC, please reach out with a link to one of your books so I can share it with everyone. 💖

    MORE Book Recs

    28 May 2020

    Local author Lois Peterson was kind enough to interview me and a bunch of other CWILL BC authors on her blog.

    Check it out for bite-sized facts, book recommendations and more at: loispetersonwriter.ca

    A Sequel is Born

    23 May 2020

    I’m just gonna leave this here . . .

    COVID-19 Response

    27 Mar 2020

    TBH it’s hard to know what to say or how best to respond. As a writer and freelancer, my lifestyle already looked a lot like self-isolation, except for creative writing workshops and speaking engagements, so for the moment, it’s (almost) business-as-usual. I’ll be working on sequel rewrites, keeping up newsletters and book marketing efforts, and priotizing freelancing a little more than I had been to make up shortfalls.

    But I know a ton of people are going through a tough time financially or have lost their jobs entirely, at least during the regional lockdowns. I don’t have enough of a backlist built up to offer much for free, but here’s a list of libraries and subscription services where you can find ebooks of Blind the Eyes:

    I’m also offering coupons on ebooks to try to keep reading material accessible for those who don’t use library or subscription services.

    -Use AGB60 to get 60% off at Smashwords until the end of May -Use BNPESCAPE75 to get 75% off at Barnes & Noble until the end of May

    And, for those of you who’ve suddenly become homeschoolers (especially you BC parents without school support!), I’m open-sourcing some teaching materials from my creative writing workshops. They’re tested on ages 8-12, but you could easily scale up or down a few years for maybe a couple hours of edutainment. ;D

    Learning Resources

    20 Mar 2020

    Since school suddenly got cancelled this spring, I’ve reworked some materials from my creative writing workshops for home use.

    Here’s what I’ve got so far!

    If you’re looking for more free home learning resources, TeachBC is well stocked, and TeachersPayTeachers also has massive amounts of free (and paid) material.

    Alternate Cover Launch

    14 Feb 2020

    Field testing an alternate cover design for Blind the Eyes by Christian Bentulan with animation by Morgan Wright.

    This will be an Amazon exclusive until I figure out which version performs better with readers.

    Kicking Off 2020

    09 Jan 2020

    SO MUCH going on as we head into a new year (could it because it’s been six months since I last updated you? Maybe? Who really knows??)

    Anyway, here’s the rundown:

    Sequel

    The next installment of Threads of Dreams didn’t make it for 2019, but it did get written.

    Look forward to more hauntings, more monsters, more revelations, and a bonus roadtrip to the BC interior.

    Revisions, a lot of research as the adventure heads out of the city, and a few rounds of editing lie ahead, but I hope to keep things moving and work on book 3 when book 2’s off for editing this year because y’all are gonna hate me if I leave you hanging with its ending for another two years.

    Events

    I’ll be getting out of the house more in 2020, with several IRL events already on the book (here’s a page where you can keep track of them all!). Briefly:

    • Writing & Illustrating Kids Books: The Inside Story. Vancouver, Feb. 3, 2020. More details here.

    • World Read Aloud Day Live Readings. Burnaby, Feb. 5, 2020. More details to come.

    Aaand speaking of getting out of the house:

    Coaching

    My head is still spinning, this got arranged so fast . . . but I’m officially the newest storytelling mentor with Creative Writing for Children Society!

    They’re a local nonprofit that runs after-school/weekend creative writing workshops for ages 8 and up all around the Greater Vancouver/Lower Mainland region (and, occasionally, overseas.) Term-length workshops end with the kids self-publishing a short book or anthology.

    I’ll be running a creativity-in-storytelling anthology workshop in White Rock starting next week (😱) so that’s going to be busy for a bit until I get it sorted. If you have kids interested in doing more creative writing, definitely get in touch with them to see if there’s an upcoming workshop in your area!

    Actual Publishing News (?)

    You’ll see some familiar stories popping up later this year with a new look.

    I did a little clean-up on both On the Edge and A Song of Dark Things and they’re pending consideration for a magazine and anthology project respectively.

    A few other short stories, new and old, are under submission as well, and I got the news just last night that Castoffs is pending consideration for a magazine that does print/ebook/audio. Can’t wait for you guys to read it (hope it finally sells!) since it’s so utterly unlike anything I’ve put out before. Kind of weird horror, if that’s a genre? Or dark comedy-fantasy?

    An alternate cover for Blind the Eyes is also underway. It’s an experiment to see what a less-creative-more-genre-aligned cover might do on digital storefronts (which are a bit of their own beast when it comes to such things), so look forward to a new/old cover reveal in the next edition!

    Stores

    Just added a new IRL retail location, if you’re into supporting indie bookstores and/or shopping local.

    You can now find signed paperbacks of Blind the Eyes at Hemingway’s Books & Records** in Abbotsford, BC.

    That seems like more than enough for now! As always, you’ll get news a little faster if you join me on social or sign up to the newsletter! :)

    First Anthology

    13 Aug 2019

    Surprise! One of my stories got picked up for an anthology by Fiction-Atlas Press (coming out next month already!!! 😱)

    A Song of Dark Things is a contemporary dark fantasy inspired by the Scottish fairytales Thomas the Rhymer & The Fiddlers of Tomnahurich and my own travels at the edge of the (old) world. ✨

    Blurb “A Highland teen desperate to escape her smalltown existence makes a deal with the fae to achieve her dreams of stardom, only to discover her heart’s desire comes at an unexpected cost.”

    I’m super excited about this story—it’s especially perfect for all of you who loved On the Edge; unsettling and creepy and gorgeous. 💖💖💖

    But because it’s an anthology, you don’t just get my weird take on devil’s bargains, you get another NINE amazing speculative stories about stepping into other worlds! 🎉

    You can preorder Unknown Worlds now at any online bookstore and your ebook will be automatically delivered on October 28th!

    Not into ebooks? Paperbacks should hit stores soon (I’ll update with links when I have ‘em!)

    Expanded blurb:

    Lee would sell her soul to be a rockstar, but no one’s buying. Well, no one around here, anyways. There’s little trade on the Morar Peninsula, and the holiday goers cluttering up the view show precious little interest in her soul. They’re more interested in a romantic highland getaway, clean rooms, and a view of the sea.

    Doesn’t matter. She has a plan, and a prospective buyer lined up. Though, if everything goes right, the Folk will deliver her heart’s desire at a much better price. She hopes to trade a night at best, a year at a bargain, and if it takes a century, well. That can be arranged.

    Two Kinds of Audio

    25 Jun 2019

    With huge thanks to the Vancouver Public Library’s free creator spaces, I was able to spend a week recording Blind the Eyes in Vancouver. 20 hours later, I have raw files and a mountain of audio editing ahead, but audiobooks are finally underway!

    Also: I’ve been accepted as a member and registered as a speaker with the Children’s Writers and Illustrators of British Columbia Society (CWILL BC). Looking forward to learning, building connections, giving back to the community, and hopefully getting out to see more awesome readers and the next generation of writers!

    If you’re an event organizer or a reader lobbying local events to bring in more authors you like, here’s my speaker profile on CWILL BC for reference. I’d love to meet you!

    First Magazine

    24 Jun 2019

    UPDATED June 24, 2019

    Read On the Edge for FREE courtesy of Enchanted Conversation Magazine!

    ORIGINAL POST May 5, 2019

    Just a quick update today: one of my stories got accepted by a literary magazine! Okay, it’s really more of a genre ‘zine, but either way!

    It might seem like a weird thing to get excited about at this point in my career, but it’s actually a first for me. I’ve had short stories win contests, indie-published, and licensed for translation (and published long-form fiction), but I’ve never actually submitted to a publication before.

    Even more excitingly, the story was picked up by the very first place I submitted to! (They called it “exceptional and lyrically beautiful!!”)

    You can read On The Edge in Enchanted Magazine’s June 2019 edition. It’s an NA horror/dark fantasy faery story about walking on water, adulthood & escaping reality in the Scottish Highlands and the ending is possibly my favourite thing written to date.

    Hidden paths and ancient ruins! Creatures beneath the waves! ALLLL the millennial angst. Very On Brand #monstersandmagic ✨

    Also, it’s inspired by my actual adventures in the UK. Up to you to guess which parts~

    Happy Book Birthday & Giveaway

    05 Jun 2019

    I can’t believe it’s been a year already!

    Blind the Eyes came out on June 1, 2018, and in a weird and totally-unplanned-for twist of fate, it was three years to the day since I first sat down to write it, making this officially my fourth year as an author (shock).

    To celebrate, here’s a look back at one year of awesome milestones and a fun bookbox giveaway:

    May 2018: First Copy Sold!!

    When I talk about how much I love international readers, this is one of the reasons why. The first ever copy of one of my books to sell was a preorder of the BTE ebook, and it went to a reader in the Philippines.

    To be entirely honest, I would have been thrilled just to sell a copy to someone I wasn’t related to, but it’s super cool to know exactly who gave me that first vote of confidence. :)

    June 13, 2018: First Press Feature

    It was almost two weeks after launch, blogger reviews were slowly filtering in and I was still wrestling with KDP to get the paperbacks posted when I got the email.

    BTE was selected to be featured in the Summer 2018 Barnes & Noble Press Presents promotion. In case you’re not up on current trends in bookselling, B&N is one of the curated storefronts where human beings (instead of just algorithms) select books to be featured.

    After two weeks of book launch madness, this was definitely a welcome development!

    June 19, 2018: Paperbacks

    Almost three weeks post-launch, but better late than never (sob) Ingram Spark came through with gorgeous paperback proofs. I’d spend the next six+ months wrestling with KDP support to get cheaper versions out to stores, but yay, pretty books!

    July 2018: Prequel Finished

    A second Camp NaNoWriMo saw the end of the first draft of Beneath the Surface—now available to newsletter subscribers as the prequel novella Under.

    I’d like to circle back and rework this story into a full novel with some tweaks, but y’all are waiting on the sequels, so . . . some day. (shrugs)

    November 2018: Hardcovers

    BTE was finally available in three (out of four) formats—and man, those hardcovers look good. Audiobooks are still to come . . . whenever I get free from this #$%^ sequel, lol.

    Also in November, Regina Wamba’s gorgeous cover design for BTE was shortlisted as one of the top 10 Science Fiction & Fantasy covers of 2018 by the rad team at Kobo.

    December 2018: Best-Of Book

    Another best-of list! Just before Christmas the Barnes & Noble Press team let me know they’d selected BTE as one of their “Top 20 Favorite Indie Books of 2018” and called it:

    “A unique twist on the YA-dystopian genre, Wiggins weaves a complex tale that unfolds like a dream itself — mystical, and sometimes odd, but always captivating.”

    Thanks so much for the kind words, B&N Press!

    January 2019: Paperbacks Part 2

    Yes, finally the long-awaited KDP paperbacks finally got unstuck from the bowels of the internet and appeared in stores. Rejoice!

    I also kicked off a year of releases with Letter From the End of the World on January 31.

    I don’t believe in New Years Resolutions, so let’s call it a quiet scheme to release a story a month (mostly to make up for being s l o w getting that sequel out to you).

    February-March 2019: Releases 2-4

    Letter is a super-short epistolary second-person villain origin story in the Threads of Dreams world.

    I basically just recycled some of my worldbuilding and backstory notes into a side story to explore the possibilities of Kindle Unlimited, so I was frankly shocked to hear from a small international publisher asking about translation rights.

    A couple rounds of successful negotiations later and *Lettera dalla fine del mondo” is now available in Italian from Virgibooks, Inc. First translation deal!

    Somewhere in between, the 30,000 word prequel novella Under launched to newsletter subscribers.

    The Unsought Light debuted as a Valentines Day free read before getting reworked for KU. First story outside of the Threads of Dreams series!

    Also in February: first interview, thanks to Mary Bernal of My Books My World

    And ALSO, this funny little email about some event in India . . . which brings us to:

    April 2019: My New Favourite Thing!!!

    I was invited to speak at a children’s literature festival in Mumbai. Even more unexpectedly, I said yes—and loved it! Turns out I love talking about books and encouraging readers and writers—who knew?

    I had a great time at Creative Ink Festival closer to home in Burnaby a couple weeks before heading to India as a “practice run” too—great to meet some new friends and make a lot of really exciting connections at both events. Will definitely be on the lookout for more chance to get out and connect with y’all offline more often!

    May 2019: More Shorts

    Writers reading this might laugh, but it hadn’t really occurred to me to try to license short fiction—even after my first attempt getting snapped up for translation.

    But I kind of stumbled across an online call for submissions for speculative stories about water and . . . 1,600 words later a weird, creepy, delightfully dark faery story called On the Edge was snapped up the first place I submitted! They called it “exceptional and lyrically beautiful” so there’s that.

    Look forward to reading that later this week at Enchanted Conversations Magazine!

    Celebrate with me!

    Looking back, it’s hard to believe all the amazing things that have happened in just one year!

    So many of the things I expected didn’t happen and tons of things I never would never dreamed of have, so it’s very much been an exercise in adjusting expectations and getting excited about what is.

    And so many of those great things are because of the amazing readers, bloggers, bookstagrammers, and other supporters who have taken the time to write reviews, post pictures and, you know, buy books. So, thank you, everyone!

    To celebrate, I’ve put together a bookbox inspired by some of the highlights and events of the past year:

    • Signed paperback of the brilliant Kelley Armstrong’s terrifying YA paranormal thriller The Summoning from Creative Ink Festival

    • Paperback of local author J.M. Barrie’s faery fantasy Liminal Lights from Creative Ink Festival

    • Hand-bound copy of The Unsought Light with a matching (unlined) notebook

    • Gold elephant bookmark and shape notebook from Mumbai

    • “Read” pin

    • One bonus paperback from my collection! Choose from dystopian, dark fantasy, or a copy of Blind the Eyes

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

    My new favourite thing

    02 May 2019

    The Children’s Literature Fest in Mumbai was spectacular, guys—I wish you all could have been there!

    Huge shoutout to ORCHIDS The International School and the other sponsors, and Rupsa and her team for making it happen.

    (They also made this rad video—you can see they’re skilled by how they edited my barely-coherent flailing interview into something cool~)

    Apparently this was not only the first Children’s Lit Fest in Mumbai, but the largest anywhere? I think 10,000 guests over the course of the festival were anticipated. (So happy I don’t get stage fright!)

    The level of production was just unbelievable; they had this thing they called a “story street” that you can catch a glimpse of in that YouTube where they’d created like 10-foot high vinyl-printed illustrations and pop-up installations all along a corridor so you literally walked through stories to get to the festival.

    All the storytellers (guest speakers) had these personalized introduction videos (also: we got to walk on stage to epic film soundtracks.) Total celebrity moment! Plus the festival had its own theme song (and later, music video!)

    I was so busy connecting with everyone, I didn’t really get around to taking any decent pictures, but you can find some of the videos and images from the festival here.

    The team worked so hard—just nonstop running around to make it all happen (one even broke her leg and kept going!! Badass, Taniya!) and it was cool to hear how the whole thing came about because they’re encouraged to come up with creative, ambitious projects.

    Some sessions were standing-room only, but one of my favourites was near the end of the festival when only four kids showed up and we got to just circle up chairs and chat writing for a couple hours. Brilliant.

    Speaking of brilliant, these kids—wow. I was speaking to mostly 11-14 year olds, with some sessions attended by older teens and adults, and I was worried if they would be too young at first, but even the youngest ones were totally engaged. I wish I’d been half as confident and able to communicate effectively at their age!

    Another cool moment: because I mostly sell books online, I’ve only ever personalized books for friends, family, and reviewers. But one awesome dad who brought out his daughter to multiple days of the festival bought a copy as a surprise for her after her next exam. Such a cool moment for me (and I hope for her!)

    If you’ve been hanging out with me for a while, you’ll know that I almost didn’t go, but I’m so glad I did. It was amazing meeting all the brilliant guests, sharing stories, talking writing, and getting to spend time with so many great people.

    (I’ll be working on a series to introduce you to some of them in the newsletters and on social in coming weeks.)

    As a creative and business owner in the 21st century, I’ve really had a digital-first mentality. But now I’m absolutely going to be seeking out more chances to connect with readers and writers offline as well~

    Thanks to everyone who helped put on the event, taught, or attended a session—I can’t wait to do more events like this!

    A Villain Origin Story TRANSLATED

    31 Mar 2019

    Letter from the End of the World

    Before her deal with the devil, Maryam Ajera was . . . anything but ordinary. Read the letter she can never send to the son she can never acknowledge confessing the true story of their world before its fall.

    Brilliant academic, driven professional, cynical wife, and reluctant mother, Maryam Ajera’s ambition knows no bounds. She’ll sacrifice whatever it takes to rise to the top. But when her secret mission to stop the end of the world gets hijacked by tragedy, the monstrous intelligence possessing her dying city forces her to choose between surrendering her life or signing on for an eternity of sacrifice.

    In a city overrun by monsters, she’s not the only one who’ll pay the cost.

    Discover the unexpected villain origin story of the unearthly Mayor of the Towers of Refuge in this short spinoff to the Threads of Dreams series. Suggested as a companion read, this short story covers events leading up to Blind the Eyes and can also be enjoyed as a standalone.

    Letter from the End of the World launched on January 31, 2019 and it is a Kindle Unlimited exclusive short story/flash fiction title, so you can only get it on Amazon (at the moment).

    Short Story Letter from the End of the World/Lettera dalla fine del mondo by K.A. Wiggins

    Now Available in Italian

    I’m also very excited to announce that Italian language ebook rights for this title have been licensed to international publisher Virgibooks, Inc. The Italian translation, Lettera dalla fine del mondo, hits Amazon stores today!

    Since this is a short read, print editions are not planned at this time.

    A Standalone and a Prequel

    28 Mar 2019

    Two New Stories!!

    I’ve been aiming for one new story a month this year.

    First up was Letter from the End of the World, a Threads of Dreams flash fiction at the end of January. The translation, Lettera dalla fine del mondo, comes out at the end of March. I managed to wedge these two right in between:

    The Unsought Light: A Japanese Fairytale Retelling with a Gothic Twist

    Short Story The Unsought Light by K.A. Wiggins

    Daughters don’t get to choose their fate. But there’s one choice no one can deny her.

    Promised from birth to the son of the clan lord, Hana’s only joy is gazing out over the lake beyond her window. She dreams of floating away on the breeze like the cherry blossoms, but when an otherworldly stranger offers a chance at escape, duty and desire collide in a war that threatens to bring down her family, her clan, and her village.

    Freedom. Passion. Family. Fate. What do you do when there are no good choices left?

    A gothic retelling of the ancient Japanese folktale The Maiden of Unai, this short story explores the untold perspective of the “maiden” destined for an arranged political marriage in a time and place where family fortunes mattered more than individual happiness or choice. A historical romance in the vein of Rome & Juliet with a supernatural twist.

    Trigger warning for suicide.

    This is a standalone short story (the setting might have tipped you off?) and it is also, at least for the moment, exclusive to the Kindle Unlimited program, so you can get it on Amazon as of today.

    (Pro tip: Kindle Unlimited books are always free to KU subscribers, but one advantage of the program is the ability to do dramatically lower pricing or even price to free every so often, so you might want to follow me on Amazon to get alerts about sales.)

    Under

    Prequel Novella Under by K.A. Wiggins

    So, I’ve been promising you guys a prequel novella since last summer and it’s (past) time to deliver.

    The reason you didn’t get Under last July is that I finished drafting it, replotted it, and came up with a much bigger story to tell, and one which needed tweaks to fit properly into all the complexity of the Threads of Dreams series. That story is Below the Surface, and it’s going to have to wait its turn (lol).

    But Under is a fun, fast-paced little romantic thriller all on its own, so I cleaned it up a little and made it into a newsletter subscriber freebie!

    Sibling rivalry takes a new turn as sisters fight for love, identity, and survival in a monster-infested drowned city.

    The twins’ bond kept them together through everything the Towers of Refuge could throw at them. But when Ange fakes her own death in a rash attempt to protect her sister, her twin runs away to join a secret club in the abandoned levels of the tower below the floodwaters.

    Ange is determined to bring her sister back. But the secrets—and the strangers—they discover below the waterline could sever their bond for good.

    This SFF/spec-fic prequel story takes place less than a decade before Blind the Eyes and blends monsters and magic with near-future post-eco-disaster cityscapes for a fast-paced, genre-bending romantic thriller.

    Join the newsletter to download a free complete copy of Under and an extended preview of Blind the Eyes.

    Playing Catch Up

    23 Feb 2019

    Bear with me, guys. There’s been a ton going on this year (how is it almost March?!?) but between releasing new stories, writing newsletters, book marketing, sublicensing, translations(!), international speaking invitations, and even a dash of actual writing in all that, I’ve fallen behind on updating this site.

    So . . . keep an eye out for all those things, I guess? And I’ll try to copy important news over here as soon as I get a chance.

    More Than You Ever Wanted to Know

    18 Feb 2019

    Amy Bernal of My Books-My World interviewed me on her blog.

    Check it out for awkward photos, way more than you ever wanted to know about my process, and a sneak peek excerpt!

    Wishing you hope this Christmas

    21 Dec 2018

    (first published in newsletter December 21 edition)

    Christmas is next week. How are you doing?

    I hope you’re having an awesome holiday season with not a cloud in the sky, but for many of us, Christmas is a tough time.

    And maybe it’s because New Years looms—with all of its pressure to look back, reevaluate, and set those dreaded resolutions—that it also tends to be a season that shines a harsh light on the gap between reality and our dreams.

    Christmas movies love diving into this stuff.

    The endless flood of holiday romances, with or without kids in the picture, unpack the longing for love (and freedom from family and societal expectations) and a desire to return to a childlike place of belief.

    We dream our prince will come . . .

    Or our dead-end career will be replaced by something we love—that also makes us super-successful . . .

    (The turkey will make itself . . . )

    We’ll save the farm/family business/small town/ . . .

    Estranged family members will reconcile . . .

    Our enemies will repent from their wicked ways . . .

    The ones we’ve lost will return to us . . .

    (Peace on Earth . . . )

    The true meaning of Christmas will transform our hearts . . .

    Magic will return to our world . . .

    It’s easy to read those lines with a cynical inner voice. How silly. How childish. We live in the real world.

    Geez, those fantasy writers, amirite?

    To be honest, I’m really not a fan of all those Hallmark-channel specials.

    I don’t believe a prince will come and transform my world.

    I already quit the terrible job, and while the new one is amazing, it’s still a tough slog and when it comes right down to it, work is still work.

    Family is complicated and magic is hard to hold on to.

    Peace on Earth and goodwill to men (& especially women) seems to get further away every year.

    So where does that leave us?

    While I’m all for escapist fantasies in whatever form of media you prefer, it’s also important to live in the real world at least some of the time.

    But almost every woman I know is on depression and/or anxiety medication. Suicide rates are skyrocketing.

    If right here, right now is all there is, people are opting out in droves.

    And, without discounting the value of medication, therapy, and other treatments, I think there’s something about Christmas that can help all of us, wherever we’re at.

    Before the song was the poem.

    It gets crowded out these days by endless renditions of Jingle Bells and the controversy swirling around Baby It’s Cold Outside, but perhaps you’re familiar with an old carol: I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.

    It’s a pretty tune, even if it doesn’t get that much radio play.

    But take a look at the original text:

    I heard the bells on Christmas Day

    Their old, familiar carols play,

    and wild and sweet

    The words repeat

    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    *

    And thought how, as the day had come,

    The belfries of all Christendom

    Had rolled along

    The unbroken song

    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    *

    Till ringing, singing on its way,

    The world revolved from night to day,

    A voice, a chime,

    A chant sublime

    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    *

    Then from each black, accursed mouth

    The cannon thundered in the South,

    And with the sound

    The carols drowned

    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    *

    It was as if an earthquake rent

    The hearth-stones of a continent,

    And made forlorn

    The households born

    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

    *

    And in despair I bowed my head;

    “There is no peace on earth,” I said;

    “For hate is strong,

    And mocks the song

    Of peace on earth, good-will to men!”

    It’s a poem about war and death and destruction.

    Cheery, right? So festive!

    Here’s the backstory:

    In the mid-1800s, the dress of an accomplished artist, academic, art critic, mother, and wife named “Fanny” (Frances) caught on fire while she was with her children.

    (Flammable women’s fabrics & dress designs were an epidemic of the time.)

    Though she ran to her husband for help (and presumably to spare her children) and he sustained severe injuries trying to save her, she died the next morning.

    Her husband had pursued her for over seven years prior to their marriage and would mourn her to the end of his days. Christmas was a particularly hard time after her death, as evidenced by his journal entries.

    But the story doesn’t end there.

    This widowed father of six was the famed American poet, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and his home was the headquarters for George Washington in the early days of the American Revolution.

    The year after Fanny Longfellow died, their eldest son ran away to join the Union Army during the American Civil War.

    The following year he was shot in The Battle of Mine Run.

    His father raced to his side in early December, learning that the bullet clipped his spine and paralysis was likely. Young Charley Longfellow survived, eventually recovering most of his mobility, but that moment had to have been devastating.

    Henry Longfellow was nearly 60, widowed twice over, with six children under the age of 20, the eldest of whom was likely to be paralyzed for life.

    And his country was ripping itself apart.

    Longfellow wrote the poem Christmas Bells that December—but there’s one more verse that I didn’t include above.

    He ends his lament against loss, death, and destruction like this:

    Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

    “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

    The Wrong shall fail,

    The Right prevail,

    With peace on earth, good-will to men.”

    Hope.

    Do you hear the triumph in that final stanza?

    “The Wrong shall fail, The Right prevail . . .”

    What an absurd perspective. The world was a scary place in the mid-1800s.

    It still is today.

    There’s pain, loss, the small deaths of day-to-day miseries and the greater deaths of the ones we love.

    War continues on, unrelenting. Oh, and we’re probably ruining the planet.

    But Christmas reminds us to find and hold on to hope in the darkness.

    It makes sense—the earliest baby-in-a-manger source of Christmas was about hope for a broken world.

    Along the way, it’s picked up on other influences. Winter solstice—light returning to a dark, cold world. Legends of spirits and saints bringing some comfort into the harsh realities of winter.

    Even the commercialistic modern Santa offers a kind of hope—if only for parents to be freed from shopping lists, for kids’ dreams to come true. For a last taste of magic in our prosaic, capitalist world.

    Hope can make a difference.

    It doesn’t deny or ignore yesterday’s mistakes and losses or today’s realities, but it validates dreams for a better future.

    It doesn’t tell you you’re wrong or weak or foolish for the longings of your heart, but encourages you to continue on through whatever today may hold for you.

    Hope frees you to keep living. To keep trying. To keep believing. To keep loving.

    So this Christmas my wish for all of you is that you find hope that sustains you through this season and all your tomorrows.

    Kaie

    BTE is a 2018 fave!

    18 Dec 2018

    So excited to announce that Barnes & Noble Press have just named Blind the Eyes as one of their top “20 Favourite Indie Books of 2018”!!

    Here’s what they had to say about it:

    “Why we loved it: A unique twist on the YA-dystopian genre, Wiggins weaves a complex tale that unfolds like a dream itself — mystical, and sometimes odd, but always captivating.”

    Thanks guys!

    Check out the other awesome titles on the list for more great indie book recommendations!

    All About Covers Part 3

    27 Nov 2018

    Welcome back to the book cover design miniseries! To recap:

    If you’ve been with us for a while, you might remember some of my (D.I.Y.) prelaunch covers, like this one:

    Pre-publication cover of Blind the Eyes The last version before the true cover reveal!

    I did try to get the design as close to story–accurate as possible, but the limitations of stock photos and my Photoshop skills are clear.

    Thankfully, superstar cover designer Regina Wamba’s mad skills and hyper–organized approach came together to create something both subtler and more specific, as well as, you know, gorgeous.

    I flooded her with 10 pages (!!) of notes about genre, setting, symbolism and visual elements, inspiration, characters, etc. plus an overstuffed Pinterest board of cover inspiration, and she came through with a stunning concept that made sense of the chaos I dumped on her:

    Final cover of Blind the Eyes

    Here’s how some of those themes, plot elements, worldbuilding details, etc. informed the visual design:

    The Tower

    For those of you who haven’t had a chance to read BTE yet, the entire book takes place in (and under) a single tower in a flooded and monster–overrun city. The tower is a place of both refuge and oppression, as is so often the case, and defines the limits of main character Cole’s worldview and identity for much of this first book.

    While technically fantasy, BTE also has a post–apocalyptic setting, and the Towers of Refuge are based on a real–world location: Bentall Centre, a series of integrated office towers built over an underground shopping mall in Vancouver, BC.

    I love the way this blends gothic fairytale castle with imposing corporate monolith. The tower looms and bisects the flow of the page. The textured gold fill is simultaneously enticing and tarnished. Perfection.

    Gold & Silver/Light & Darkness/Mist & Decay

    I wanted to get away from communicating in terms of white and black/light and dark, so in the book (/trilogy), silver and gold are the most important visual cues.

    Gold is extravagant, enticing, overwhelming, excessive, even menacing. It’s a glittering mask over reality. Silver is subtle, ephemeral, subversive, easily overshadowed, but also a bearer of light. It manifests in the margins with unexpected power (and readers may recognize a character–driven reason for the rooftop beam dominating the cover.

    Both are present throughout the design, pushing against one another, holding the tension. Mist/fog is part of the worldbuilding, trapping humanity, corroding the city, and hiding the nightmarish Mara, and adds visual texture. The negative space of the title speaks to hidden realities, both truth and lies that hide in the shadows, exposed not by their presence but by the weight of their absence.

    Threads/Networks

    Cole exists in a world that insists on isolation, and she starts from a place of embracing that value. She quickly starts to question her world, discover what lays beyond its borders, and find the power to change the world and her place in it.

    The interconnected threads/web visual elements speaks both to this theme of connection (both productive and destructive, illustrated by the gold and silver tones), as well as the powers that Cole begins to perceive and interact with.

    It also just looks wicked cool . . .

    Genre Crossover, Detail & Format

    Cover design needs to meet readers’ expectations for the genre and perform on a functional level. Genre is MUCH harder to pinpoint than you’d think. It incorporates age group (MG vs. YA vs. adult), subgenres (is it Gothic fantasy? Gaslamp? Dystopian fantasy? etc.), and there are even differences between indie vs. traditional cover design trends within the same subject matter/subgenre.

    In the case of Blind the Eyes, it hews closer to traditional/big publishing trends in YA fantasy (illustrated/graphic cover design) as opposed to indie trends (girls looking fierce with weapons and/or ball gowns), and I love it.

    On the functional side, the cover needs to be eye–catching in small, thumbnail sizes, but still work at full–size and, in my case, various formats of print. Tucking enough detail so it doesn’t look raw and unfinished at larger sizes without muddying the form so much that it looks like a mess at smaller sizes is no joke, and colour profiles vary widely between digital and print formats. (Things look brighter on a screen, since they’re backlit, for instance.)

    I’m in awe of how subtle, dynamic, and eloquent the design turned out, and I can’t wait to see how the designs for the sequel looks!

    All About Covers Part 2

    24 Nov 2018

    Welcome back to the book cover design miniseries! To recap:

    What it’s like working with a cover designer

    While designing my own covers was good practice and the outcome could have looked (much) worse, leaning too hard into a D.I.Y. ethos can be a mistake. I felt it was important to work with experts where appropriate—and design work (like editing) is one of those areas where it makes sense to recognize your own limitations and invest.

    In this case, those limitations were both creative and technical. My artistic and Photoshop skills aren’t that finely honed, and light alterations to stock photos were about all I can manage. All my attempts at cover designs were only as strong as the stock photos. I could have flailed around for a few hundred more hours and hoped to hack my way into a reasonable layout, decent photo, and genre-appropriate outcome . . . or I could work with a professional.

    I started looking for a cover designer WAY early (mostly because I originally planned to publish about a year before my actual launch date.) Many of the character traits, themes, and worldbuilding elements were already established, but some things did change considerably. It all worked out, as you’ll see, but I’d recommend caution if you’re a pre-published author eager to get your cover ordered.

    That said, there’s usually a waitlist involved. I’d been keeping an eye out for cover artists and enquired with Regina Wamba in early March after seeing her work on Instagram. She has her business very well organized, which was helpful in quickly getting a sense of whether we could work together or not.

    Specifically, I sent a sort of preliminary enquiry clarifying what I was looking for and asking about rates. She confirmed that she’d be interested in the project, sent over a “menu” of services, and set the timeline.

    Because Regina’s also a superstar photographer, her offerings ranged from ebook-only cover design (using purchased/3rd–party stock photos) all the way up to custom photography shoots to capture the exact look of the story.

    Once a design package was agreed upon, there was a contract to sign, a 50% deposit to pay, and lots of homework. Depending on what you select and who you work with, these terms could vary, but creative work tends to take time, and freelancers have to schedule projects (and therefore often can’t do things immediately/last minute).

    In this case, the designer asked for 4-6 weeks minimum to process design inspiration, and I ended up letting her know that there was no rush on the design (because I got held up on the editing side) so it was a few months between drafts.

    Design homework on the author’s end can look like anything from some quick notes about design ideas to a collection of images or comparable covers. In this case, Regina had a sort of survey for me to fill out that asked about everything from technical requirements (who’s your printer? what are the dimensions?) to setting, characters, theme, and visual elements to the story.

    Given my (obvious) inability to be concise and restrained when it comes to wording, I flooded her with ten pages of chaotic scribbles. And a Pinterest cover inspiration board with over a hundred covers to sort through. So, yeah, you can see why designers ask for several weeks to let it all sink in!

    That was the main effort on my end. There were a few small back–and–forths with the draft, but it was over 90% there from the beginning. (The first round had a flowery, more “fairytale”–looking border, and no beam of light.) Deciding on cover text was also surprisingly difficult and made for extra work for the designer; I change up my hooks and blurbs too often, lol.

    Design drafts are low-res screencaps, so once a design was finalized, I got a dropbox link to full-size covers. In my case, I hadn’t anticipated all the design resources I needed in the initial order, so that added a few steps. Since the overall concept was there, though, and the cover art was graphic not photo–based, ordering larger–format covers (i.e. the square–shaped audiobook cover and the extended artwork for the hardcover) wasn’t a matter of redesigning so much as simply specifying the dimensions and any new cover text. And then, every new format goes into a work queue, so that takes some time as well.

    So, that’s pretty much the process from my end! If you’re a first–time author or indie–publisher getting ready to order your first cover, the steps are roughly:

    • Decide vision (will the D.I.Y. or premade approach work for you? how are you positioning this book?)
    • Check budget (and revise vision or postpone and start saving!)
    • Research cover designers, maybe check in with authors/publishers to see what their experience was like
    • Initiate contact, communicate goals/vision, and ask for quote/timeline
    • Sign contract/pay deposit/schedule cover design
    • Send design reference material (instructions/specifications/subgenre, design inspiration, cover text, etc.)
    • Review artwork & approve or specify changes
    • Pay remaining fees, securely download/save full resolution artwork
    • Plan a cover reveal!!
    • Launch book

    Part 3, how the design of BLIND THE EYES is informed by worldbuilding and thematic visual elements, is in the Nov. 27 newsletter.

    All About Covers Part 1

    23 Nov 2018

    Thanks to the team of lovely human beings at Kobo for shortlisting Blind the Eyes as one of this year’s top 10 Science Fiction & Fantasy covers!

    You can check out the full list and vote in the public voting round until Nov. 30.

    I started drafting a special cover edition of the newsletter and realized there was WAY too much content, so I’m breaking it out into a blog series instead!

    First of all: shoutout to my amazing cover designer Regina Wamba who designed the published covers for the Blind the Eyes ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook editions. I’ll link out to some of her content within this series to bring in the designer’s perspective, but mostly this will be from the author/publisher’s perspective.

    As promised: all about cover design (from an author’s perspective)

    Okay, here we go. Let’s start with an overview of the options, starting with D.I.Y.

    A great cover can have a huge impact on the success of a book, which is why it’s one of the most important outsourcing choices and biggest expenses after your editor (and, y’know, the author’s time).

    If you’ve been with us for a while, you might remember some of my prelaunch covers:

    Prelaunch D.I.Y. covers of Blind the Eyes Prelaunch D.I.Y. covers of Blind the Eyes

    For those of you aspiring authors: yes, it’s entirely possible to make your own and spend . . . well not quite zero dollars, but very little.

    When I worked in corporate marketing, I used Photoshop and did a certain amount of design, so I wasn’t completely without skills. As an early publicity stunt (& just for the practice), I actually released the first beta readers editions in five–chapter segments and created a unique cover for each one. I paid for some stock photos, but the total cost was fairly minimal. I also had an old version of Photoshop to use, but you can subscribe for a month at a time or use other desktop, app-based, or online design programs (like Canva) with varying levels of sophistication.

    For instance, the two Wattpad story covers (on the homepage) were made in the Typorama app with (free) built-in images and fonts, so obviously your mileage varies in terms of outcome. Are they the worst thing in the world? No—especially not for free or very low cost. But they’re also limited by a LOT of factors, including technical specs, imagination, design sense, understanding of genre trends, etc.

    The next level up when it comes to cover design options are premades.

    Designers sometimes sell covers with placeholder text, and you can get a great deal if there’s one that matches your book, as long as you don’t need any changes. (Shoot me a message if you’d like some suggestions of where to look if you need one!)

    And then there’s custom design.

    This is a pretty broad category, which could include everything from photomanip (Photoshopping stock images) to dedicated, exclusive photo shoots, to graphic or fine artists producing original works of art and then converting these into a cover or working with a design team to create the finished product.

    On the low end of custom design, you might work with a less experienced or polished designer for under a hundred dollars to a couple hundred. On the high end, you’re talking thousands or tens of thousands (e.g. for a photoshoot—possibly with paid models and on location—or an original work of art).

    That can sound breathtakingly expensive (especially when placed against the likelihood of actual earnings from your book), but it takes time, skills, and experience to produce professional quality work, and the best designers are in high demand.

    Cost will also be impacted by formats. An ebook cover is the least expensive option: you just need a rectangular .jpg that looks okay in thumbnail format and on a screen. But a paperback cover is more work for the designer—they have to produce a print–ready PDF and make the design wrap around the spine and back. A hardcover dust-jacket is even more work (you need to continue the design further into the flaps), and even an audiobook cover may be a challenge if your design was originally meant for portrait mode, not square format.

    Then there’s the marketing extras. Some cover designers offer additional services like graphics for social media, cinemagraphs or gifs (motion versions) of your cover, book trailers, “making–of” or behind–the–scenes videos, etc.

    If you’re an author pricing out covers, always check what’s included in a price against what your actual needs will be (and consider bundling formats at the start for a discount.)

    Part 2: What it’s like working with a professional cover designer.

    Overdue Update

    22 Nov 2018

    So, clearly I don’t update the site often enough. Just a heads-up if you dropped in looking for more interaction: I’m on social media at least weekly and even the newsletter goes out more often than I post here, so stalk accordingly. (links in the sidebar)

    That said, I’m going to try to get a little more content up on here. Some stuff you mighta missed over the last 4 (!!) months:

    • Hardcovers are OUT!! They look rad, and you can request paperbacks or hardcovers from your local library, indie bookseller, trade bookseller, or shop online at your preferred bookstore.

    • The next release (Under the Surface) has been delayed, but it’s still coming! It’s a prequel novella (assuming I can keep the wordcount under control) and newsletter subscribers at the time of release will get it in ebook format for FREE because y’all are amazing. But it won’t stay free forever, so def. get those subscriptions in!

    • I’m trying out a weekly newsletter format with feature content, some of which may make its way over to this blog space eventually. Planned topics include the recap edition (photojournal/apology for where I’ve been for the last few months), the cover edition, the library edition, the plotting edition, and the character edition (and maybe one on worldbuilding? or edition? who knows!)

    • Also re: the newsletter, I do featured reviews and bookish shoutouts with every edition, so if you want to recommend a book to the other subscribers or feature your feed, sign up & give me a shout.

    I try not to spam the NL list all the time, so if you’re really keen on hearing about sales, follow me on social media or on a specific bookstore for alerts.

    Paperback Proofs are HERE

    19 Jun 2018

    They’re so pretty!!!

    The first proofs just arrived and they look great! I’m celebrating with a giveaway on Instagram, check it out here.

    Blind the Eyes first proofs and giveaway

    And if you’re not on IG, you might want to head on over to the newsletter! 99% chance there’s gonna be a paperback giveaway in subscribers’ future~ ;D

    Achievement Unlocked!!

    13 Jun 2018

    B&N Press Presents

    I’m super excited to announce that Blind the Eyes has been handpicked by the Barnes & Noble Press team for the Summer 2018 B&N Press Presents list!

    As a creator, it’s always awesome to get a vote of confidence from a respected source like this. Blind the Eyes is on a special sale to celebrate, and it’s in some great company, so why not head over to check out the list and pick up a few summer reads while you’re at it?

    Here are a few I’m most excited for:

    Running with the Wolves by J.E. Reed

    Another dystopian fantasy crossover with nightmare monsters–it’s this summer’s epidemic!

    Chronopoint was only meant to be a game, but Kiuno finds herself trapped in that world.

    As hideous, twisted monsters only seen in nightmares plague her every move, will she find allies in time or discover death has taken far more than she’d ever imagined?

    Stolen Enchantress by Amber Argyle

    A monsters and magic-infused sister story with a fairytale sensibility.

    Any girl who goes into the Forbidden Forest never comes out again. Except the one who did. Beauty and the Beast meets The Pied Piper.

    Larkin should have been watching her sister. She goes after her into the woods and even manages to escape again, but not before discovering the truth lurking beneath the wicked boughs.

    Larkin may have evaded the beast once, but with the full force of his magic now fixated on her, she isn’t sure how much longer she can resist.

    The Illusion Queen by T.E. Dickason

    A dystopian fantasy featuring a brainwashed girl who learns to see past the lies of her homeland and fight for what matters.

    Aleja is the most celebrated young woman on Corazon, an ancient and mystical island where laws and traditions are carved in stone.

    Every generation one Daughter is chosen to be the Vessel. Aleja accepts the honor willingly–until she discovers her sacrifice only serves a lie that enslaves her people.

    In order to survive, Aleja must reject the world she thought she knew and learn that even rules in stone can be broken.

    So Many Giveaways

    12 Jun 2018

    There are seven (and counting) (currently one, with another coming next week) for fantasy readers, paranormal readers, dystopian readers, YA readers, horror readers . . . just go enter already!

    Dystopian Giveaway

    • Kindle Fire
    • Any 2 dystopian novels for your new ereader

    Enter here by July 2.

    Coming soon: Mortal Instruments Urban Fantasy Giveaway!

    Fantasy Bookcrate Giveaway (ended May 26, 2018)

    Fantasy Paperbacks Giveaway (ended May 26, 2018)

    Ultimate Twilight Giveaway (ended May 30, 2018)

    For the Love of YA Giveaway (ended May 30, 2018)

    SFF & Horror Ebook Instafreebie Giveaway (ended May 31, 2018)

    Bookbub Giveaway (ended June 2, 2018)

    YA Fantasy Giveaway (Ended June 11, 2018)

    Launch Day

    01 Jun 2018

    It’s finally here!!

    Three years ago today, I was sitting in so-hip-it-hurts Vancouver standby Brassneck Brewery with a tasting flight, an iPad mini, and a bluetooth keyboard in front of me.

    Actually, I totally didn’t plan it this way. Facebook very helpfully reminded me this morning with this photo!

    Photographic proof that I was typing the first lines of what would eventually become Blind the Eyes on June 1, 2015.

    It went on sale today. Three years to the day. I mean, I wish I’d been on it enough to plan it that way, but, um. Total coincidence. ANYWAYS.

    Super thanks to my amazing Beta readers who slogged through the many, many drafts over the last three years and to my awesome ARC readers who are already posting reviews!! All-stars, all of you!

    Updates, ARCs, and Giveaways!

    23 Apr 2018

    Reminder: join the newsletter to be the first get content like this and more exclusives. Here’s a quick list of what’s going on:

    • Kindle Scout update
    • ARCs are coming~
    • Giveaways

    So, about that Kindle Scout campaign . . .

    First off, thanks for all your nominations! You pushed BLIND THE EYES to the trending list on Kindle Scout!

    . . . Unfortunately, they announced their plans to cancel the whole program on the last day of its campaign, so . . . yeah.

    Corporations . . . mumble grumble

    Just wanted to say how much I appreciate your support in this prelaunch phase. It’s been a long wait, but we’re finally nearing the end – aaand, on that note:

    ARCS are coming!!

    . . . for real this time!

    I’m not quite ready to announce preorder and on-sale dates for BLIND THE EYES, but plans are well underway. There are a few extra hoops to jump through in order to get print editions, but digital Advanced Reading Copies/Review Galleys/Digital Proofs (whatever you want to call them) are nearly ready to head out into the world.

    If you’re a book blogger, reviewer, #bookstagrammer, etc. and would like an early review copy of the ebook, get in touch!

    The prequel you didn’t know you needed

    Um, yeah. It sort of just snuck up on me?

    I mean, there I was, minding my own business, racing to get BLIND THE EYES out to you and the sequel underway and . . . BELOW THE SURFACE pulled a JAWS on me and dragged me under.

    What it is: a spinoff short that takes place ~6 years before the events of BLIND THE EYES and the main THREADS OF DREAMS trilogy.

    Blurb: The twins’ bond kept them together through their parents’ murder, the memory wipe, and assignment to separate work divisions in the Towers of Refuge, the only surviving habitat in their flooded city.

    But when protective older sister Ange follows carefree Amy into the abandoned lower reaches of the towers, the secrets they discover below the waterline could sever their bond for good.

    A dystopian dark fantasy that ranges from the sterile Towers of Refuge to glittering clubs and abandoned tunnels, BELOW THE SURFACE is a prequel to the Threads of Dreams trilogy and blends monsters and magic with near-future post eco-disaster cityscapes and a splash of romance.

    I’m doing this for Camp NaNoWriMo, which is a spinoff version of National Novel Writing Month where you set your own goals and pick a writing target for the months of April and July. The idea is for this to be a long short story or short novella, in the 20-30k word range, that I can release as a free newsletter exclusive in the next couple months.

    So in other words, sorry that you’re going to have to wait longer for a sequel, but on the flip side, there’ll be something cool to read in the meantime~

    Fantasy Giveaways~~

    I’m ramping up marketing in advance of the BLIND THE EYES book launch and I’ve got a bunch of giveaways planned over the coming months. Some of them are multi-author team-ups, while others will be exclusive to my followers.

    You just missed the Ultimate Harry Potter Giveaway. Follow me on Twitter for giveaway news, since some of them will only run for a short time.

    You can still enter the Fantasy Bookcrate Giveaway until May 26, 2018 to win a book box with surprise fantasy-themed content worth up to $600.

    In the past, these have included books, gear or swag, and a high-value gift (like a Kindle or an Amazon gift card).

    This is a multi-author collaboration giveaway and you can get entries by joining mailing lists.

    I’ve also planned collaborative giveaways with dystopian and paranormal themes for those of you who like your fiction with extra bite. Again, you can follow me on Twitter to make sure you don’t miss any opportunities.

    And while I’m at it, if you have any ideas for giveaway items or themes (like your favourite author/series/genre) for prizes you’d love to have a chance at winning, feel free to shoot me a message and let me know what those are!

    Thanks for being on this journey with me; I can’t wait for you to read BLIND THE EYES! You can’t preorder it (yet), but you can Add it on Goodreads.

    And don’t forget to enter those giveaways!

    Camp NaNoWriMo

    29 Mar 2018

    I tend to have too many projects on the go at one time. My plan is to solve that by . . . yup, adding another one! Yaaaay~~

    Quick pause for a commercial: Blind the Eyes is down to its final days in Kindle Scout! If you haven’t already, you can go to Kindle Scout and nominate Blind the Eyes as a book you want to read. If it wins, you get a free copy before its release date!

    ‘Kay, back to the new news. :) So I’ve entered Camp NaNoWriMo to push myself to make more progress writing a prequel to Blind the Eyes that will sit outside of the Threads of Dreams Trilogy and may be a serial, short story, or novella. It shouldn’t be all that long, maybe 10-20,000 words (contrast with BtE at 97k), and it’s not going to go through the same level of production.

    The idea is that this could be some sort of incentive/newsletter exclusive or “reader magnet” - in other words, a freebie writing sample that lets me explore some of the world-building backstory, try out some different pacing and structures, and take a different sort of story for a spin while getting over my anxiety about writing book 2 in the trilogy (lol). But my projects have a tendancy to balloon in size and scope, so we’ll see - there’s a chance it could spin off into a full book/series if I don’t watch it like a hawk!

    Camp NaNoWriMo runs in April and July, and it’s a sort of “choose your own adventure” version of National Novel Writing Month where you set your own goal (regular NaNoWriMo is a minimum of 50,000 words). I’m hoping the peer pressure/defined timeline/deadline helps me dig in and get my word counts back up and running!

    To boost my motivation, I even made it a cover! Check out the synopsis, excerpt and cover on the campsite or scroll on for more:

    Synopsis

    The twins’ bond kept them together through the death of their parents, the memory wipe, and assignment to separate work divisions in the Towers of Refuge, the only surviving habitat in their flooded post eco-disaster city.

    But when protective older sister Ange follows carefree Amy into the abandoned lower reaches of the towers, the secrets they discover below the waterline could sever their bond for good.

    A dystopian dark fantasy that ranges from sterile towers to glittering clubs and abandoned tunnels, BELOW THE SURFACE is a prequel to the THREADS OF DREAMS trilogy and blends monsters and magic with near-future post eco-disaster cityscapes.

    Excerpt

    “I’m tired. Aren’t you tired? Maybe we should go back and do this another night.” Or not at all.

    Amy hooked her arm through Ange’s and bumped heads. “I’m not tired, and I’m not letting you off the hook, either. This’ll be fun. It’s something different. Something new.”

    “I like routine. It’s safe.”

    Amy paused, their linked arms dragging Ange off balance. “Nothing’s safe. Nothing’s allowed. Which just makes it all more interesting, don’t you think?”

    “You won’t be saying that when the Mara take you.”

    Amy snorted and tugged on Ange’s arm to get her moving again. “The Mara are a myth created by Refuge. They’re nothing more than the Bakunawa, the Aswang, the Batibat, the—“

    “Stop! Don’t. They’ll come for you.”

    “Ange, come on. I haven’t performed submission for months and nothing’s happened to me. Refuge’s just making up monsters to scare us. To control us.”

    The metallic tang of fear weighed down Ange’s tongue as she hurriedly muttered submission for the both of them: “I call upon the Mara to eat my dreams.” She repeated it three times while Amy threw up her arms and pressed on down the stairs.

    Ritual complete, Ange hurried after her. “It’s not a lie. Our mother believed in the multo, the ghost-monsters, or don’t you remember? Our father told stories about the Nightmare, and the Each Uisge. Refuge protects us from the Mara.”

    “Believe what you want. Anyway, if I’m going to get eaten by the boogeyman, I’m at least having some fun before I go.”

    Preview Cover

    BELOW THE SURFACE preview cover, prequel novella to the THREADS OF DREAMS trilogy

    One Week Left

    22 Mar 2018

    Blind the Eyes is down to its final week in Kindle Scout! It’s been a great learning experience, and I’m excited to finish up the competition and get on with sharing this book with all of you.

    If you haven’t already, you can go to Kindle Scout and nominate Blind the Eyes as a book you want to read. If it wins, you get a free copy before its release date!

    When I first started researching Kindle Scout, there wasn’t a lot of information online from people who had recently gone through the competition, so for those of you who are interested (& for posterity), here’s what I’ve learned so far. I’ll also update after the competition closes with a retrospective.

    What is it?

    • Kindle Scout is the American Idol of publishing
    • Readers vote on pre-published books during a 30 day period
    • Editors read the manuscripts at the end of voting
    • Amazon publishes the best of the combined editor- and fan-approved books in ebook format
    • Amazon sends a free ebook to everyone who voted for (“nominated”) a book that gets published!

    That’s it in a nutshell, but of course it’s more complicated behind the scenes. Visit Kindle Scout for their current prerequisites and contract.

    The best resources I’ve found with the freshest information are this board, this board & this compilation of blog links so check those out if you’re researching for your own campaign.

    To apply for your first campaign, you need:

    • Amazon account
    • Complete, finished, edited, and proofread manuscript
    • Cover image
    • 45 character one-liner
    • 500 character description
    • 500 character author bio
    • 500 character Thank you note to be sent to nominators at the end of the campaign

    You can also add social media links and a few short Q&A style statements about your work. You’ll choose up to four categories (genres) for your book.

    In case you’re not used to thinking in terms of character (not word) counts, this is all REALLY short and limited. Spend some time browsing on the KS site before campaigning. You’ll see that the first thing nominators see is your cover, title and tagline, so those have to pop. If they draw nominators in, they can hover over the cover to read the first half or so of your description, and click to see your campaign page, which includes the cover and tagline, full description, first few chapters of your book, and author bio, links, and any other information you shared. Keep in mind, there are less people looking at your material with each step.

    The most important things are: cover, title, and one-liner.

    These will automatically be seen by the most people and they’re your chance to draw readers/nominators in. Next most important is your description, then your first lines/first chapters (expect to start losing people after 5-10 words if the opening isn’t strong).

    In my campaign, I think choosing a weak one-liner was my biggest mistake. That, and not writing a more popular genre to begin with! At only 45 characters, you’re hard pressed to cover setting, character, and stakes. Same with the description; there’s just not a lot to work with, so your choices have huges impacts.

    It’s important to research data that’s as recent as possible; the KS program seems to be growing, and the effort-to-outcome ratio has changed considerably since the early days, and even within the last few months. A lot of early advice emphasized a professional cover and properly edited work would get you noticed. Based on the current stats being shared, you need a way to drive traffic to your campaign. Authors with books that hit and/or stay on the “Hot and Trending” board mostly have large mailing lists and author platforms and/or have paid for third-party marketing to advertise their campaign. That’s not to say that you don’t get organic traffic, and a cover/title/one-liner that really hits a hook or genre tropes that people love could theoretically rise to the top if it’s lucky enough to stay visible long enough, but a well-produced publication-ready book is no longer enough to get noticed on the site.

    Why do Kindle Scout at all?

    Indie authors in particular may not want to wait the 30-45 days it takes to be released from the Kindle Scout exclusivity period. I chose to participate because it’s free marketing. I was definitely too cocky about my ability to rise to the top without outside marketing efforts (I’ll dive into the data at the end of the campaign), but even without hitting the leaderboard, I was able to get 1k+ new eyeballs on my work at a minimal cost, take the book for a test-run to gauge response, and trial some marketing techniques.

    Other benefits: at the end of your campaign, that 500 character “thank you” message you wrote at the beginning gets sent to everyone who nominated you, whether or not you win, so that’s a chance for some list building (I directed people to my newsletter) or asking for ARC readers or whatever other marketing effort you want to do. Additionally, other authors have noted that KS sends an email to your nominators if/when you publish that title to Amazon as a Kindle Edition - so you get another free boost in publicity.

    In my case, I entered Blind the Eyes because I felt like it was a win-win whether or not the book gets picked up by Kindle Press. On the one hand, KS/KP gives you a trivial amount of cash upfront ($1.5k: yay - pay for production on the next book!) and may give it a bit of a marketing advantage you win and they publish your ebook. On the other hand, they only pick up books that fit their list closely, like with any traditional publisher, so the chances of actually getting caught in that contract (which isn’t bad by traditional standards, but which is still a bit restrictive) are minimal and you’re really more likely not to win.

    On to my experience:

    I built up my campaign materials and did some last minute research over the course of a couple days and submitted the application late in the week (Wed/Thurs). It took about two days to hear back that it was approved, and the launch date was two days after that (so, 4 days from upload to public).

    My campaign launched at midnight eastern time on a Sunday (Saturday my time). It turns out that launching on a Sunday is ideal, because no new campaigns are posted on Mondays or Tuesdays, so you get an extra couple days of free visibility before newer campaigns bump you off the front page.

    If you go to the Kindle Scout website, the landing page has sliders for the following categories:

    • Hot & Trending (top 20 books on the site)
    • Recently Added
    • Ending Soon
    • By Genre (so one each for mystery, romance, YA, etc.)

    So you get front-page visibility if you reach Hot & Trending, when your campaign is about to end, and when you’re brand new (under both Recently Added and your genre). Here’s the catch: only four books are visible in the sliders at any given time. So, even if you’re in one of those categories, you may not have at-a-glance visibility the whole time. They seem to auto-rotate the ones posted on the same date for more visibility.

    The number of new campaigns and total campaigns on the site will limit your organic reach (how many people see your campaign without you sending them there).

    Kindle Scout did a promotion for NaNoWriMo people in February and gave free editorial advice on submissions, so that blew up the number of campaigns and made it super hard to get seen in the crowd. If you can, try not to be like me and launch at the busiest time! Ideally you want no more than four new campaigns a day for best visibility and lower competition. Right now (March 2018) there seem to be around 300 campaigns running at any given time, and about 20 spots on the Hot & Trending list available.

    When you’re an author in the program, you get a campaign stats page that shows three main metrics:

    • Hours in Hot & Trending (aggregate and by day)
    • Campaign views (aggregate and by day)
    • Traffic sources (percentage and source)

    It also shows what other books your nominators have chosen. Mine were all over the map, so people don’t necessarily stick to one genre. What it never tells you is how many people nominate your book vs. view its campaign, or how they rated different aspects of your book incl. cover, tagline, PV, blurb. Which kinda sucks, since the only way you really know if people like your book is if it hits H&T.

    I was super lucky to have three days before any new books were posted (because it launched on a Sunday), so I got front page visibility for those three days (and didn’t do any off-site promotions to drive traffic.) I got 272 campaign views the first day, 370 the next day, and 435 the third day (total: 1,077).

    My strategy was to take advantage of free visibility for the first few days and do a social media push later in the campaign when things got quieter. Don’t be like me, lol. I was super cocky about my chances because I’d invested a lot in a professional, custom cover and well developed work, and other books in same categories had less polished materials, but the materials I had in my campaign weren’t enough to push me to the Hot & Trending list. It could just be that people didn’t like something about the submission (I regret my one-liner), but if you look at the stories of people who had more success reaching the H&T list, they did an upfront push with social media and paid campaigns to reach it. Once you’re on it, you get more organic views and are more likely to stay on it.

    I’d recommending doing a burst of newsletter and social media marketing within the first 24-48 hours of the campaign for best results.

    In terms of paid promotions, I did experiment with a few outlets and saw a bit more outside traffic, but not enough to make a difference. I’ll update with complete stats at the end of the campaign, but right now I’m sitting at just under 1.7k views and zero hours on H&T with an ad spend of around USD$50. My rationale: it’s worth a few dollars in marketing to try to get higher visibility, but reaching H&T isn’t a guarantee of a contract, so it’s not worth spending too much on. Kindle Scout doesn’t just publish the most popular books; they’re looking for a book they think they can sell to Kindle Press readers, so there’s absolutely some editorial intervention, but not making the H&T list at all is a sign that it’s not a match for their regular readers.

    As with all books, genre matters in terms of audience.

    Romance and Mystery writers have the best shot of getting noticed, and stand alone or first in series books tend to get preference.

    Verdict: I’d recommend entering.

    After all, nearly 2k people just got exposed to my book on a new platform, which is like free advertising. OTOH, they’re people that have a thing for free books, so idk. It sounds like it’ll still take around four months to publish after the campaign if you win, so it’s slow by indie standards, but lightning fast by trad pub standards, and authors seem to be happy with it. I’ve heard a lot of authors saying they try to publish as soon as possible after they hear back if they’re rejected, to take advantage of whatever momentum the campaign has built. Seems like an ok indie author tool to me :)

    If you’re thinking of entering, you might want to sit on the site and watch to see if there’s a slowdown in new campaigns you can take advantage of - I think it’d be a lot easier to get votes if you could hold onto your front page visibility longer!

    Cover Reveal

    07 Mar 2018

    It’s finally time for the long promised cover reveal!

    If you’re subscribed to the newsletter, you already got your sneak peek yesterday. For everyone else, surprise! In addition to a brand-new, professionally-designed cover, I’ve got some other exciting news: Blind the Eyes is competing in Kindle Scout!

    What does that mean?

    • Kindle Scout is the American Idol of publishing
    • Readers vote on pre-published books during a 30 day period
    • Editors read the manuscripts at the end of voting
    • Amazon publishes the best of the combined editor- and fan-approved books in ebook format
    • Amazon sends a free ebook to everyone who voted for (“nominated”) a book that gets published!

    So if you want a chance to get a free copy of BTE, head on over to the Kindle Scout website, nominate it and hope it wins!

    And hey, why not vote for some other faves while you’re at it? You get up to three nominations at a time.

    What happens if it doesn’t get chosen for publishing?

    You have to have a fully edited, finished book to compete in Kindle Scout. If BTE isn’t chosen for a publishing contract, that just means I’ll be able to indie publish it even faster because it’s already complete and ready to go out the door!

    Look for the release date announcement by mid-April. It’ll come out by May 30 or earlier. And for those of you who aren’t fans of e-reading, yes, I’ll be putting out a bound paperback either way (and an audiobook as soon as possible afterwards). Plus, since I’ve already hashed out the plot of the next Threads of Dreams trilogy book with my awesome editor Lisa Poisso, you can look forward to the sequel coming in 2019!

    What happened to all that querying you were doing?

    Wow, it’s been over half a year and there are still some outstanding queries! There’ve also been several agents requesting the book, so that’s a great sign that it’s a good quality read. The thing is, I’m just not ready to spend another year or more (at least!) working on connecting with traditional publishing, and it’s not the right choice for every book or every author, either.

    I’ve done a lot of research on the writing business and what’s best for books, for authors, and for readers. I’m confident that the indie path is right for me and Blind the Eyes. So, sorry for the long-ish wait while I sorted that out!

    Cover Reveal:

    Blind the Eyes, Threads of Dreams Book One Cover by Regina Wamba, MaeIDesign

    Isn’t it amazing?! Feel free to share across social media and blogs, but please be sure to credit my incredible cover artist, Regina Wamba, at Mae I Design (http://www.maeidesign.com/) when you do. :)

    And don’t forget to nominate Blind the Eyes on Kindle Scout for your chance at the free ebook!

    Turtletime

    06 Feb 2018

    Official announcements plus some updates for the new year! Where things are at:

    • I just pulled all the preview editions from ebookstores. The three chapter special preview edition of Blind the Eyes has done really well on Amazon and the other usual suspects, but it’s also been up for half a year longer than I expected, since I pivoted from indie publishing to querying. It’s a little hard to continuously build momentum while also pushing the release date further and further into the future, so for the moment I’m pressing pause on all book marketing initiatives. However, I’ll still be present and active on social media, and the onsite and newsletter-exclusive extended downloadables will remain available!

    • & on that note, yes, Blind the Eyes is still under query until at least March 2018. There’s been some good feedback and several agents have asked for additional materials to review. I’ll review opportunities in March and update you all accordingly! I’ve been eyeing the Kindle Scout program, so if I do go indie, that’ll be my first stop (after the cover reveal! You guys, it’s SO GOOD and I’ve been waiting over half a year to show you!)

    • but the other reason I’m turtling into my introvert shell for the rest of winter, besides, y’know, just straight up waiting for tradpublishing to get a move on, is because I just finished developmental consultation on book 2 with my awesome editor last week! Friends, it’s gonna be good! Blind the Eyes is just the tip of the iceburg, and things get crazy FAST in book 2 . . . at least, that’s the plan. I start writing this month.

    • Speaking of book 2, it doesn’t have a name yet because I finally clued in that you can’t just “borrow” song lyrics for titles. Oops! Which means the trilogy needs a new name. I was thinking “Threads of Dreams” would be a good one. What d’you all think?

    • Other stories are still on hiatus too, but hey, I managed to word-vomit one short story. No you can’t read it (yet). I took a shot at writing a topical contemporary piece, and instead it turned into a weird, profane, and decidedly paranormal take on the Fentanyl crisis in Vancouver. So . . . yeah, I’m thinking I should take some time cleaning that up before sharing. But yay accomplishments - anytime I finish something with a beginning, middle, and end, it’s a good thing!

    • Freelance writing and consulting work is picking up for the new year, which is another reason to pull back. Find me at Business Writing Solutions for website, technical, and copywriting, among other stuff.

    • Still in the Pacific Northwest - I totally had a trip back to the UK planned, and then realized I’d double booked over my nephew’s first birthday! But hey, I’m more likely to get that book in your hands sooner if I’m not digital-nomadding my way around the world anyways, right?

    • Thanks for sticking around for this (looong) journey! If you haven’t already, sign up for the newsletter for freebies, previews, and news when books are available, or follow me on social media, Goodreads, or BookLikes for reviews of recent and upcoming YA fantasy. Links on your left.

    Booktree 2017

    20 Dec 2017

    Microupdate plus #booktree end of year shout outs to everyone who sent me books this year!

    Where things are at:

    • Blind the Eyes (G&S book 1) is still under query, so the tentative indie release date has been bumped to March 2018. There’s been some good feedback and it may still get picked up by tradpub, thus the long runway. :)

    • G&S2 plot is mapped out and undergoes developmental consultation on Jan. 10, so hopefully I’ll be at least mid-draft by the time book 1 comes out! Currently expecting G&S will be a trilogy.

    • Serial fiction Things Got Out of Hand is finally getting a proper plot map! I haven’t decided whether to continue its draft zero as a serial or take it down yet, so keep an eye on Wattpad in the new year just in case :)

    • Tiptoeing into some short story writing, since the serials are necessarily on hold for a while yet. The zero drafts need some polishing, but expect some short reads in the new year in a wider variety of genres (I tried for contemporary, but so far I can’t help sneaking in some fantasy or supernatural elements into every story)

    • Been rounding out my freelance portfolio and recently launched Business Writing Solutions in beta on the boring grown-up side of my life. The part of me that isn’t compelled to write about monsters and magic tends to geek out over template automation and well-crafted copy, lol.

    • Still in the Pacific Northwest for the foreseeable future. Travel’s on the radar, but there’re just too many bullet points to tick off to make #digitalnomad-ing practical right now!

    So! On to the shout-outs. Special thanks to Goodreads, 49th Shelf and artist & book blogger Iryna Khymych who have taken the trouble and expense to send me books this year!

    As promised in the social media posts that you probably followed to get here, here’s the full list of books with review and shopping links.

    Kidlit

    Mr. Crum’s Potato Predicament by Anne Renaud & Felicita Sala (Canadian Read) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    Dragonfly Song by Wendy Orr (Canadian Read) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    YA Reads

    Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson (Giller Prize Shortlist, Canadian Read) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    Daughters of the Storm by Kim Wilkins Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    Riven by Jane Alvey Harris (Indie Read) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    Enough Space for Everyone Else edited by J.N. Monk and Lee Black (Comics Anthology) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    Adult Reads*

    Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill (Giller Prize Shortlist, Canadian Read) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    Minds of Winter by Ed O’Loughlin (Giller Prize Shortlist, Canadian Read) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    Transit by Rachel Cusk (Giller Prize Shortlist, Canadian Read) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    I am a Truck by Michelle Winters (Giller Prize Shortlist, Canadian Read) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    The Felix Chronicles: Freshman by R.T. Lowe (Indie Read) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA | UK

    Floating City by Kerri Sakamoto (Canadian Read) Goodreads | Amazon US | CA

    Books to check out NL3

    04 Dec 2017

    This edition of book recommendations first appeared in Newsletter October 2017 (creepy reads) edition.

    The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff

    The Replacement by Brenna Yovanoff:For those who prefer their fae bloodthirsty and horrific instead of sparkly and romantic. This was a rare 5 star read for me. Excellent character development, worldbuilding, and storytelling.

    Also check out The Space Between for demonic thrills and chills, Fiendish for Southern Gothic-horror…yeah, just go ahead and add all her books to your TBR.

    Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake

    Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake: Ghost hunter. Ghost girl bent on bloody revenge. Who wouldn’t fall in love with a girl ready to rip your heart out? Think Supernatural with teens.

    Also check out another skilled WA-based author, Lili St. Crow’s Strange Angels for a super dark gender-swapped take on monster hunting.

    The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

    The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong: Classic teens-with-powers, but one happens to be a necromancer. The only thing worse than being trapped in a spider-infested, lightless underground crawlspace is knowing something’s clawing its way up from below.

    Also check out her YA thrillers Missing and The Masked Truth for horror sans paranormal.

    The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

    The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab: Seems like this is the least-hyped of Schwab’s work, but IMHO definitely the creepiest. Seriously. Classic fantasy with a terrifyingly tangible setting and evil at every turn out to get you.

    Also check out The Archived for even more ghost hunting.

    The Diviners by Libba Bray

    The Diviners by Libba Bray: Left this one for last because it seriously pushes the limits of my horror tolerance - like, don’t-read-at-home-alone level scary.

    The Roaring 20s historical fiction setting and over-the-top characters are lots of fun, but the monsters are… yikes. Make sure you have a buddy to check under the bed for you.

    Books to check out NL2

    27 Nov 2017

    This edition of book recommendations first appeared in Newsletter August 2017 edition.

    Best of Summer

    A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN by Laurie R. King

    A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN by Laurie R. King: I can’t believe I’m giving top billing to a non-YA, non-fantasy read, but this book honestly takes top prize for my summer reads. All of King’s books seem to be excellent quality, and I’m still working my way through the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series, but if you can only read one King book, make it this one. Adult historical fiction/mystery with a feminist twist.  

    Best Indie

    THE WAY WE FALL by Megan Crewe

    GIVE UP THE GHOST & The Way We Fall by Megan Crewe: Canadian Indie author bonus points! Crewe writes disarmingly authentic teens with complex and conflicted motivations, awkward, slow-moving romances and a touch of the creepy. The Way We Fall is first in a trilogy of excellent and very Hollywood-esque plague’pocalypse thrillers. Give Up the Ghost is contemporary-paranormal, and it’s FREE to Crewe’s newsletter subscribers.  

    Best Canadian

    Missing by Kelley Armstrong:

    Missing by Kelley Armstrong: The best thrillers aren’t just action-action-action. This tense, surprising read has a lot of heart. The slow-burn romance and challenging, complex characters were incredibly compelling. Armstrong also has a gift for making remote locations sound appealing. Love all her YA books. Add to your list for Halloween spine-tingling horror-lite (no paranormal, just human creepiness!) 

    Bonus Round

    Lockdown by Laurie R. King

    Lockdown by Laurie R. King: I really don’t tend to recommend novels about school shootings . . . or contemporary novels, period, but this is a must-read. The level of craft alone - King writes in a dozen distinct voices, each with character development arcs and backstories - mind-blowing literary skill. But what makes this story readable is that it brings a distinct sense of hope to the otherwise traumatic subject matter.

    Books to check out NL1

    20 Nov 2017

    This edition of book recommendations first appeared in Newsletter June 2017 edition

    Best of the Best:

    • Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor: you need to read this. Seriously. Beautiful writing. Gorgeous language. Classic, epic storytelling. The richest worldbuilding you can imagine.

    • Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake best YA dark fantasy all year. Three competing protagonists with their own cast and setting. Plus, Kendare’s one of my fave writers who inspired the style and content of Blind the Eyes. PNW writers unite!

    • A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: and the sequel is even better, an incredible accomplishment when most second books are the weakest of a trilogy. Mature content warning.

    Canadian reads to check out:

    • Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E.K. Johnston: a strangely uplifting tale of teen rape. Non-explicit trigger warning for trauma, but an incredibly hopeful and instructive read of how to help in the aftermath, and how stepping in changes everything.

    • Missing by Kelley Armstrong: best YA thriller I’ve read in ages (well, since the last one she wrote, probably, lol.) Just the right balance of compelling romance between complex, relatable and flawed people in a high-stakes fast-paced setting.

    Book blog

    13 Nov 2017

    So, I read a ton. Like, well over 150 books a year. And now that I’ve discovered Goodreads, I also rate and review most of those books, and then feature them with dubious quality photography on Instagram.

    What I haven’t done is launched a book blog/reviews section here, because let’s be real; how often do I get around to updating? And how many of you hang out here on a regular basis? So.

    However, just last month I discovered Booklikes, which not only shares reviews on-platform and pushes reviews to Goodreads, it collects them in a custom blog. Update one place with automatic syndication to all useful platforms? Yes please!

    All that to say: Check out my book blog for (mostly) YA Fantasy recommendations!

    I also do bimonthly book recommendations and “best-of” lists in my newsletter, and those I will to take the time to host on this site (eventually), so look forward to it!

    BTE Targeting 2018

    04 Nov 2017

    So there’s good news and there’s bad news.

    The good news is, all that querying attracted some attention after all, literary agents do like Blind the Eyes, and the full manuscript has been requested. It’s not a publishing deal (yet, lol), but it’s actually pretty rare to get that far and it took less than 50 queries (many books take over 100 to even get that sort of response), so it’s definitely cause for celebration!

    …The bad news is, now I can’t publish BTE in November like I was hinting at, which is super sad because my proofreader did an amazing job AND turned the project around in half the time I’d had scheduled, so it should have been right on target for a pre-holidays release.

    Back to good news: this means I can (ahem, should) get the sequel(s) plotted out and written for fast, consecutive releases when BTE does come out. But, yet again, sorry to make you all wait longer and thanks for your patience!

    While I’m at it, huge shout out to my awesome team:

    • Lisa Poisso did a spectacular job helping me work through the multiple rounds of develoid a pmental and line editing to make BTE a book worth reading
    • Catherine Milos caught the embarassingly obvious logic errors, typos and generally polished everything to a shine
    • Regina Wamba of MaeIDesign crafted a gorgeously artistic and iconic cover design (that one of these days I will finally get the chance to unveil, I hope!)

    I highly recommend these guys if any of you are looking to form a publishing team of your own!

    So what comes next? Well, there’s a lot of waiting. The waiting period for the querying stage wouldn’t have closed until this December (yeah, I was jumping the gun with a November release no matter how you sliced it) and, for a full mansucript request, you normally add at least six months. If an agent offers representation, that’s another week or so to alert any outstanding queried agents that they need to throw their hats in the ring, then paperwork to hire the agent, then they go to work selling the manuscript to editors. So, more waiting. Years of waiting. And at any point in that, potentially more edits and rewrites.

    But, as I’ve said all along, traditional publishing isn’t right for every book and every author, so while it’s very exciting to see a positive response from the establishment, given the current market and opportunities, BTE may do better as an indie book, and as new information comes to light, I’ll be making a judgment call on whether to release it sooner. Again, all the pieces are in place except for final layout design, and I’ll probably book that and get it ready in the coming month or so too, so an independent release could happen fast.

    For those of you book bloggers/reviewers who’ve gotten in touch, and those who are thinking about it, feel free to keep signing up, just know the timeline’s been pushed out to next year. I’m keeping a database of everyone who’s shown interest for when the ARCs are ready to go.

    Until next time, K.

    Almost there

    21 Sep 2017

    I should get the next newsletter out in a couple weeks, but since I’m past due for an update, thought I’d pop in and share the progress!

    BLIND THE EYES is out for query with a number of literary agents. For the uninitiated, to get a book published in the traditional manner, you send a sort of formal application letter to literary agents, who ask for more information on your book (or decline). If they love the story and think they can sell it to a publisher, they offer to represent you. Then they contact editors and try to sell the manuscript. Then a publishing house responds with an offer (and if you’re really lucky, you get a few of these to choose from). Then you get assigned an editor and work with that publisher and editor to adapt the book, which can mean more editing, rewrites, proofreading, cover designs etc. Then the book comes out in stores, 1-3 years later. And at every step of the process, it’s super competitive and subject to both market demand and the relevant professionals falling in love with your work.

    I’ve had some really encouraging responses from agents, but nothing to tempt me away from indie publishing so far. That said, the publishing world moves super slowly, so I’ve only heard back from a quarter of the queries I’ve sent out so far.

    So here’s the plan: there’s only a couple steps left to produce BLIND THE EYES as an independent publisher. It still needs a final proofread, final back cover copy and interior layout/design. I’m getting in touch with a proofreader this week to line that up for late October - it’s a minor cost and worth risking to set up. My cover artist can do interior design, but I still need to talk to her about a schedule. If she’s available, I think everything could be done for as early as the middle of November. So… no promises guys, but I’m thinking a holiday release could be a great idea!

    Keep an eye out for preorders, and I’ve already had some enquiries from book bloggers and ARC reviewers, so feel free to get in touch at any time if you’d like to be added to that list. We’re nearly there!

    In other news, I’m looking at local jobs, overseas jobs and more long-term remote/freelance work, so another round of travel may or may not be in my future. More news on that soon!

    Confessions, retractions and other wafflings

    27 Aug 2017

    …I know I’ve been babbling about it all over the place lately and I’ve only just finished switching over graphics and web presence to the new subgenre, but I’m seriously considering changing everything back to the previous (non) subgenre for BLIND THE EYES of “dystopian dark fantasy”. Which isn’t an official thing, and I know you’re not supposed to genre-blend, but… it just kind of is. The setting’s pretty dystopian. And it’s definitely future and sort of post-apocalyptic. And dark. And there’s fantasy and supernatural stuff going on. It’s also not a bad fit for urban fantasy, other than the future setting. So I dunno. Waffle waffle waffle. Angst angst angst. lol.

    On thing in its favour, the freebie preview ebooks on Amazon got quite a bit stronger downloads when listed as dystopian. So I figure for querying, it should read urban fantasy, and if I end up going indie, dystopian dark fantasy.

    But don’t hold me to that, because apparently continuously changing my mind and making work for myself is what I do…

    On Monsters, Boundaries and Inspiration

    26 Aug 2017

    While I love research in a general sense, I more or less refuse to do it while drafting a book. I’m too addicted to that archaeological sense of uncovering another world to allow this one to consciously intrude. However, at some point I generally do have to pull out the books (hi Google) and go hunting for real world equivalencies, or at least reference points.

    Enter the Mara. The story that has become BLIND THE EYES emerged out of an image or a scene wherein a girl is saved from monster attack by a hero. And diverged dramatically from there - the Wattpad story-in-progress THINGS GOT OUT OF HAND is closer to the original intent. All that to say, my sense of what the monsters in question were was vague to say the least.

    But successive drafts did serve to nudge things along. Fairly early on, I knew the monsters were a waking nightmare, a concrete manifestation of a victim’s fears, though I intended this literally as depicted in TGOOH. Later, with the addition of THE FIRST DREAM (BTE Chapter 8), the nightmare-monsters were found inhabiting a separate plane of consciousness, killing victims in a sort of dreamscape, with only gradual crossover into the waking world.

    Around the same time, I realized the monsters, the dream-eaters, had their source in the paranormal world of ghosts or malevolent spirits. Obsessed with mist, fog and boundaries, I envisioned them as hungry spirits of the dead, trapped within a closed city and cannibalizing the living inhabitants. Amorphously inhabiting and twisting victims’ desires or longings to attack, they manifest in the real world with considerably less clarity, little more than a sickly yellow mist.

    But dancing around their identity, both named and visual, was adding confusion to an already vague and dreamy draft, and I hated every time I had to write “dream-death” or “nightmare”, feeling it too clunky.

    More drafts, more careful excavating of a story world that I could envision but wasn’t making plain enough for readers. My monsters were hemmed in by a literal boundary, a city cut off by environmental as well as spiritual damage. The ocean had risen, flooding the edges of the city, and opening up identities for the monsters in the pantheon of water-monsters that I was most familiar with from Celtic legend. Time to pull out the books.

    I started with a survey of aquatic monsters, with a quick turn through dream-eating and nightmare beasts, scanning through familiar Celtic sources as well as Japanese monsters and a brief, not particularly successful survey of Canadian and American First Nations spirits, legends and monsters, and came up with surprising results.

    As it turns out, there wasn’t a single likely culprit that blended aquatic and dream attributes, but a Japanese dream-eating monster called the baku came awfully close to meeting my dream-eater needs. It seems to function in a mostly positive way, eating nightmares, but it has a darker side where it can go too far and eat the hopes and desires of a dreamer as well, leaving them hollowed out and empty…

    …which as I write this, brings up some interesting implications for a historical angle on the story world’s current troubles. I chose to integrate the aquatic or marine element of BTE’s dream-eating monsters by calling them the Mara. In various Celtic/European languages, this ties in nicely to night’mares’ or nightmara, with, at least in my mind, some shadings of Kelpie and other water horses as well, but functions more like the Japanese Baku.

    And there you have it, the not-so-well-researched anatomy of a monster, in which my imaginary demons turned out to have surprisingly connected real-world counterparts, confirming once again that human imagination has its limits. I think I’ll do a feature on the world monsters and their traits in my next newsletter (October) - keep an eye out for it!

    Fresh Newsletter and New Freebies

    20 Aug 2017

    The August newsletter is out! Musings on the finer points of genre, book reviews (still debating whether to add that as a website feature - thoughts?) and a fresh downloadable for this round.

    If you haven’t already, sign up for access to the freebie content, which is currently an extended preview ebook or audiobook of the first five chapters of BLIND THE EYES and an ebook-format downloadable preview of THE FIRST DREAM (currently chapter 8 of the manuscript), which is the first instance of supernatural goings-on in the draft and also the bit where I realized I was writing horror and not just fantasy, lol. I do newsletters roughly every two months with updates, insider content and book reviews. I promise not to spam your inbox endlessly!

    In other news, I’ve been dreadfully sick for the last week and therefore have gotten a bit behind again, but I’m planning to pick up with the final nitpicky little changes next week and start the querying process. There’ll probably be an update to the preview freebies following this round, as the first chapters continue to tighten up bit by bit; keep an eye out for it! Also, enjoy the Instagram feed I finally figured out how to embed! Turned out to be way less complicated that posting journal entries with individual IG shots, and innit pretty? ;D

    Book Geek Time - Queries Round 3

    05 Aug 2017

    Last query round for now. For the super publishing geeks in the audience, here’s the final Query I went with for Pitch Wars! If any of the mentors send back notes, I’ll be sure to post them for reference!

    Dear Mentor,

    I’m pleased to introduce my YA novel, BLIND THE EYES, in which a not-quite alive girl and her not-quite dead ghost discover that authorities lie, allies have their own agendas and all monsters wear masks.

    In a world where hope kills and dreams are deadly, obedience is the only way to survive. But when one girl learns her society’s absolute control and guarantee of safety are both illusions, she must figure out who to trust to bring down the state and stop the dying before the nightmares eat her alive.

    BLIND THE EYES is a stand-alone YA urban fantasy novel for ages 14 and up, complete at 100,000 words, with series potential. A dark and dangerous journey of discovery fraught with monsters both traditional and of the human persuasion, BLIND THE EYES evokes STRANGE THE DREAMER and THIS SAVAGE SONG with the flawed, challenging voices of PLACES NO ONE KNOWS.

    Thanks for your consideration.

    K.A. Wiggins [+contact deets!]

    Book Geek Time - Queries Round 2

    04 Aug 2017

    I may have used up all my luck before the submission window launched, but I was fortunate enough to win a query and first chapter critique from the awesome Lindsey Frydman. I’ve included the query with her markup/revisions for the writing/publishing geeks out there plus anyone thinking of subbing to Lindsey who really wants to do their research!

    Lindsey’s the author of YA contemporary romances with a twist THE HEARTBEAT HYPOTHESIS, TO WHATEVER END, and PROJECT A.I.D.E.N..

    Find her on Twitter or online.

    Lindsey’s comments are marked ( LF ).

    In a world where hope kills and dreams are deadly, obedience is the only way to survive. (LF: A query really should start with the character, so I’d put her name in the sentence. “obedience is the only way for Cole to survive. When she learns her…” ) But when one girl learns her society’s absolute control and guarantee of safety are both illusions, she must figure out who to trust to bring down the state and stop the dying before the nightmares eat her alive. (LF: I think this should actually go at the end…after reading the whole query a couple times, I think it definitely belongs down there. )

    All desires and distractions are forbidden in authoritarian tower-state Refuge. That doesn’t stop 17-year-old failed trainee (LF: Trainee for what? I think you should add that in here. Round it all out. ) Cole from longing to be accepted as a full worker. But, secretly obsessed with the dead and haunted by the ghost of a child, Cole’s one step away from being abandoned to the Mara, nightmares that devour souls. (LF: This should come after your very first sentence – in my opinion. Tell us about her, who she is, what she wants. 😊 I do love the creepy feel to this story! )

    A surprise assignment offers Cole a shot at promotion, but when she succumbs to temptation and reaches out to a corpse, she learns her world is a lie and obedience to the state is no guarantee of survival. Shocked and angry at Refuge’s (LF: I don’t know who this is. It sort of pops up out of nowhere, so maybe a short explanation of them here? ) betrayal and the futility of trying to live up to its rules, Cole vows to expose its lies and sets off to find the allies she needs to take revenge and end the suffering.

    BLIND THE EYES is a YA Urban Fantasy complete at 113,000 words. STRANGE THE DREAMER meets THIS SAVAGE SONG with the flawed, challenging voices of PLACES NO ONE KNOWS. It is one girl’s journey through a world of dreams and ghosts, monsters and magic as she learns to own her choices and transform weaknesses into power. BLIND THE EYES is a standalone with series potential.

    I’ve been a crusader against the evils of corporate entropy, a mercenary word-weaver and a guardian of empty spaces. I convinced my classmates there were witches in the back wood of our elementary and my sister that faeries lived in the snow melt (‘cause they do…) and dreamed of growing up to be Martin of Redwall (because small animals with swords and battlecries), Frodo of the Shire (because heroes can be small and still do great things), a Fantasy or Manga Editor (because languages are magic), and a rock star (done). Still waiting for a wardrobe to open, but in the meantime I create my own magical worlds at http://kaie.space (LF: As awesome as I think all this information is, I think you should cut it from your query. It’s just not relevant enough. And you really don’t need a bio if you have no credentials. Not unless an agent specifically states it on his/her submission rules. )

    (LF insertion: Thank you for your time and consideration.)

    Best,

    K.A. Wiggins

    Switching features

    29 Jul 2017

    I’m switching formats a bit to end the Journal segment and hopefully bring in Instagram and Goodreads feeds. When I started the journal, it was a great solution. It helped me frame my writing time, keep consistent records, continuously update with new content and hopefully provide value for writers and publishing geeks by chronicling in exhaustive detail the long slog of writing. Turns out I suck at updating the website and there’s more actual news these days, plus spending more time on Twitter lately has reminded me that transparency, while an important and meaningful value, is not good policy in today’s climate. So instead I’m planning to feature more pretty books. Journal archives are here for now.

    Pitch Wars Pimp My Bio

    23 Jul 2017

    So this is apparently a tradition within Pitch Wars, an awesome online contest to connect with publishing industry peeps and get a manuscript query-ready.

    I’ve been resisting making one of these because, really, who likes talking about themselves? But then I had to write an author paragraph for my query anyways, and… Here goes:

    I’ve been a crusader against the evils of corporate entropy, a mercenary word-weaver and a guardian of empty spaces. I convinced my classmates there were witches in the back wood of our elementary and my sister that faeries lived in the snow melt (‘cause they do…) and dreamed of growing up to be Martin of Redwall (because small animals with swords and battlecries), Frodo of the Shire (because heroes can be small and still do great things), a Fantasy or Manga Editor (because languages are magic), and a rock star (done).

    Still waiting for a wardrobe to open, but in the meantime I create my own magical worlds as (mostly) YA fiction and journal about it here.

    I read an insane amount and post to Goodreads & Instagram. Spectacular books I’ve read recently that I can’t shut up about are:

    • Laini Taylor’s STRANGE THE DREAMER. Seriously, there’s nothing closer to a perfect book.

    • Unless it’s Brianna Yovanoff’s equally amazing but totally different PLACES NO ONE KNOWS. Her MC is me, basically. SO, so jealous I didn’t write it first.

    • & Kendare Blake’s work is amazing, particularly the masterpiece that is THREE DARK CROWNS…

    …and I could go on like this all day, but to summarize, I wish I wrote thrillers as tight and creepy as Kelley Armstrong, dark fantasy as twisty as Holly Black and Melissa Marr, and worlds as big as Cassandra Clare and Scott Westerfeld. But instead I write like me, which means a lot of stuff about edges and boundaries and borders and about being not quite one thing or the other.

    I write Pacific Northwest stories. And Canadian stories. And magical crossover stories, because where I’m from, most people aren’t that clear about where they’ve come from or where they’re going. And sometimes moving forward is less about understanding it all, and more about just accepting it.

    So BLIND THE EYES is a Canadian story, and a Pacific Northwestern story, and a Vancouver story, and a blended-people-with-missing-identities story and a dark, broken future Urban Fantasy story that doesn’t know it’s any of these things (yet.)

    And at the heart of it is Cole, who still hasn’t really learned who she is or what she needs to do, but is scared to death of getting it all wrong. She’s part of a generation who have been taught not to want, instead of being taught how to understand what they want. She’s not a great hero, or even a strong female protagonist, because she’s more about avoiding difficult things and hiding from herself and everything around her than she is about confronting injustice and defeating evil. But she’s not alone, and she’s not as helpless as she thinks she is, and she’s about to find out that her fears and flaws and failure don’t define her, they fuel her.

    BLIND THE EYES has been about three years in the making, and for at least two of those I planned to release it as an indie publication, so it’s been through three rounds of editing and painful, painful rewrites to date. It’s not the first book I’ve written, but it is the first I’ve written properly and produced completely.

    Other stuff I do/love:

    • music. Specifically playing music in bands, ‘cause why just listen when you can do?

    • making craft gin. And, of course, drinking said gin. BTW, best group activity ever (premake half so you have something to drink, then let everyone make their own mix!)

    • Scotch. Drinking, not making. That’s not a DIY sort of activity. But mmm. This was totally my MS fuel of choice. My one regret in Scotland was that I didn’t live near any distilleries. Oh, and Islay fantatic, all the way. Talisker’s ok too.

    • thrift shopping, vintage fashion & hats. Not necessarily all together. Actually, I hate shopping, but I love that you can get cheap clothes and put together unique, functional outfits while protecting the environment and contributing toward something good. Plus I love history, museums and other times/places so it’s fun to use styles to access a fantasy of another place or era, like taking that feeling of being in a story world out into the real world with you. And hats are mostly about me and the sun not getting along, and partly about me and my hair not getting along, and mostly just a convenience thing TBH.

    • and on that note, I adore historic sites. And museums. Although I get annoyed when the crowds are too big because a) hyper introvert and b) I just want to soak in the atmosphere and pretend to be from whenever and wherever the site originated. I love aquariums for sort of the same reason. Zero desire to go in or on the water, but I love pretending to be underwater without getting wet. And also marine mammals are adorable. I want to write a YA were-seal fantasy. Well, actually I want to write an X-Men meets fairytale creatures fantasy with a selkie trying to survive high school, lol. But were-seal sounds cooler. ;D I mean, imagine being a 15-year-old girl whose super power involves being furry and large and awkward on land. You’d feel like the world’s biggest klutz, and everyone else would think you were adorable. Oh the drama.

    • hyper-emotive, over-the-top media like teen shows (Shadowhunters, Supernatural, Vampire Diaries), kid movies and anime/manga are so up my alley. I’m all about the escapism, but bonus points if it’s dark, or works in incisive social commentary without feeling depressing or breaking the story world. But, like, happy stuff’s ok too. Howl’s Moving Castle is the ultimate animated film of all time and I will brook no debate on this subject. Tarzan & Mulan do ok too ;D OK, tbh any Disney or Miyazaki show makes the cut, lol. I’m equally on board with demon hunting and shiny princesses on a mission. Speaking of which, I really want to do a Tarzan inspired Celtic princess crossover world-hopping quest fantasy. But like, with jungle cats instead of gorillas.

    • Buffy the Vampire Slayer gets its own bullet point b/c although it’s an over-the-top teen show, it’s also my go-to brain candy. I seriously run this in the background any time I get the chance. Buffy’s got me through hours of chores, programming and some of my more tedious freelancing. Firefly’s pretty great too.

    Book Geek Time aka Queries Round 1

    21 Jul 2017

    Geek writing/publishing craft time: basically my first day after deciding to join this year’s Pitchwars, I won a (luck-of-the-draw) query critique from the amazing Alicia Clancy! Alicia’s an Assistant Editor at St. Martin’s Press, Pitchwars mentor for the YA group and happens to be on my on my shortlist of mentors to sub to, so score! But then I had to scramble to actually write a query and synopsis lol. I’ll post Alicia’s version first, a few notes on how it works better, and then my original last for reference if anyone wants to get that geeky with it!

    In a world where hope kills and dreams are deadly, obedience is the only way to survive. But seventeen-year-old Cole isn’t like the rest of her authoritarian state Refuge’s citizens—no matter how hard she tries, she simply cannot follow the rules. being haunted by a ghost named Cadence certainly doesn’t help her situation.

    When Cole once again fails her probation, Refuge abandons her to the Mara—nightmares that devour the disobedient. But with Cadence on her side, Cole flees her oppressive state, and falls into the hands of a Freedom rebel group. Ravel, the group’s charismatic leader, brings Cole into their underground world and their mission to topple Refuge’s control.

    But Cole finds herself distracted by visions—visions of a silver-shrouded boy taking on the Mara. A boy that Cadence seems to know. And when people started dying in more than just her visions, Cole must risk her hard-won status, her home, and maybe even her life to expose the truth—that her society’s absolute control and guarantee of safety are both illusions—and that it’s up to them to defeat the Mara.

    Combining the flawed, challenging voice of PLACES NO ONE KNOWS with the supernatural chills of ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD and the dark fantasy dystopia of THIS SAVAGE SONG, my debut novel BLIND THE EYES is ultimately a story about a girl who’s terrified of never being good enough and the lengths she will go to overcome that fear.

    (Add in a 1-3 sentence author bio here)

    So. For one thing, I obviously forgot to put in wordcount (shame) and skipped the bio paragraph entirely.

    I’ve actually been using that first line forever, but one of the Pitchwars mentors made a point of saying how you should lead with the main character, so I pushed it to the extended syopsis. Love that Alicia brought it back to the forefront!

    Another thing she does is really bring a more colloquial (younger) voice to it. I was really focused on trying to write tight and brief, to the exclusion of voice, so while the tone feels a bit off to me (because now it’s someone else’s voice, lol), it definitely gives me a push to make sure not to strip out all the tone from my queries.

    And finally, Alicia really tweaked the focus on action and motivation. It got a little too far from the actual plot (which she’s never read, so of course,) but gives me a good push to both be clearer on what’s actually happening in the story and forefront motivation and stakes in my final query letter. Stay tuned for future updates, since I’m working with my editor on queries right now (see ‘hooks’ post) and will post further revisions/finals!

    & Here’s my rough first version for the super geeks in the room!

    Dear Alicia,

    Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this - I was so surprised to win the query critique after last night’s live video! It’s the first time I’ve really worked on query materials, so thanks for the motivation to get it together and start polishing.

    Seventeen-year-old Cole hides a dangerous obsession with death from the repressive, authoritarian tower-state Refuge and Cadence, the ghost who haunts her. Cole has failed to obey in the past; if she can’t pass probation this time, Refuge will abandon her to be devoured by the nightmarish Mara.When Cole flunks her trial, she discovers Refuge has been lying all along. Obedience to the state never guaranteed safety from the Mara.

    Fleeing, she finds an ally in the charismatic leader of the underground club and rebel enclave, Freedom. Ravel offers the power to expose Refuge’s lies - along with a hedonistic new way of life. But as Cole struggles to fit in and earn Ravel’s help, she finds herself drawn into visions of death - and to the silver-shrouded boy in them who fights back against the Mara, a boy Cadence claims to remember from her former life. In the waking world, Ravel is more focused on transforming Cole into his ideal consort than toppling Refuge’s control - and people are dying in more than just Cole’s visions.

    BLIND THE EYES combines the flawed and challenging voices of PLACES NO ONE KNOWS with the supernatural chills of ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD and the dark fantasy dystopia of THIS SAVAGE SONG in a debut novel about a girl who’s terrified of never being good enough.

    Best,

    K.A. Wiggins

    [email protected] https://kaie.space

    Synopsis follows:

    In a world where hope kills and dreams are deadly, obedience is the only way to survive. But when one girl learns her society’s absolute control and guarantee of safety are both illusions, she risks her hard-won status, her home and her life to rebel and expose its lies.

    Probationary surveillance technician Cole is determined to cast off her reputation as a failure and pass probation in the ascetic, totalitarian tower-state Refuge. If she fails, she’ll be abandoned to the Mara, the nightmares that devour disobedient workers. But to be accepted, she’ll have to suppress her forbidden obsession with the dead, hiding it even from the ghost who haunts her, Cadence.

    Cole’s fascination with death torpedoes her probationary trial when she touches a corpse and witnesses a vision of its final moments. Trying to hide her failure, she discovers Refuge has been lying; its endless regulations can’t protect anyone from the deadly Mara. Cole flees Refuge enforcers and follows the ghost Cadence to allies who will help her expose Refuge’s lies, recognizing that no one will ever listen to or follow a failure like Cole. But Cadence lied; there are no allies, and Cole is nearly taken by the Mara instead.

    Cole turns to Ravel, leader of an underground club and rebel movement. He teaches her to reject Refuge’s programming. She struggles to earn acceptance in his alien society while suffering visions of Mara attacks. She’s drawn to the silver boy who fights back in the visions, Ash. Cadence claims to know him. When Cole tells Ravel of the visions, and the ghost who haunts her, Ravel blames them on Cadence. But Cole discovers Ravel’s rebellion is restricted to preaching radical self-indulgence. He has no plan to expose Refuge’s lies and abuse. Worse, the illusion of safety Ravel provides is based on a tithe of human sacrifice to the Mara.

    Then the Mara attack in the waking world and Cole discovers Cadence isn’t the one lying; Ravel is. The visions are real. Cole finally chooses to stop looking for a leader to follow and fight on her own. She infiltrates Refuge to help Ash. Interrupted mid-mission by another Mara attack, Cole fights back with powers like Ash’s, powers Cadence claims Cole has been absorbing from her. Cole’s secret obsession with the dead has been a side effect of Cadence’s haunting and Cole’s growing powers. Captured by Refuge after the fight and high on her recent success, Cole tricks an enforcer, sneaks off and contacts Ash. She selfishly demands Ash join her mission instead of heading to his location. But the enforcer was watching all along, and shoots Ash on arrival. Ravel kidnaps Cole and drugs her to keep her docile. Cole realizes her priority has never really been on saving people, but rather taking revenge on the system that made her feel like a failure. Cole overcomes the drugs and her guilt-ridden despondency when she discovers Ash survived and sets off to rescue him from torture and execution.

    When Ash’s escape is threatened, Cole sacrifices her own safety and hopes for acceptance to turn back and distract the pursuing enforcer. She uses her newfound powers to catch the enforcer in a Mara attack. But the enforcer is possessed by the Mara and Cole loses control of the fight. Then Cadence reveals a truth she’s only just realized herself; the ghost Cadence is what remains of Cole’s own memories and identity before Refuge captured her and wiped them. Cadence helps Cole recognizes her past failures and flaws as strengths that keep the Mara from twisting her hopes and dreams and devouring her. Teaming up with this part of herself she never knew she’d lost and owning her desires and wants, Cole defeats the Mara.

    Cole is reunited with Ash, who helps her accept her fragmented self. He affirms her broken and flawed identity as Cole seeks healing and her lost memories while struggling with the implications of Cadence’s separate existence. Ash commits to partnering with Cole and breaking Refuge and Ravel’s abuses to free the people and save them from the Mara. Their journey isn’t over, but Cole has overcome her programming and learned to choose her own path and fight back. Series potential; could be tweaked to show an ultimate defeat of the Mara and destabilization of Ravel’s rule and Refuge’s supremacy for standalone publishing.

    Pitchwars 2017

    19 Jul 2017

    Oh man, news, news, and more news you guys! I was trying to save it all up to release by newsletter first ‘cause I need motivation to keep up with that, but the thing with news is that you’re too busy doing newsworthy things to have time to shout about it! …and THAT doesn’t sound arrogant at all, lol. But moving on…

    So I got final edits back from the amazing Lisa Poisso, which turned out to be a gracious and generous blend of Substantive and Line Edits ‘cause I couldn’t make up my mind about what I was asking for. Still some tuning up to do, but overall the manuscript is in amazing shape and I’m already working on the early stages of query materials with her… and then this happened.

    Pitchwars. It’s a (mostly) Twitter contest to polish and submit your manuscript. In the first round you submit to industry insiders like published authors, editorial assistants etc. If one picks you, you have two months to work with them on refining your book and query materials, and then there’s the agent round. If magic happens, you get an agent! At the very least, it’s a great way to make connections and learn a ton - which I have. For instance: apparently BLIND THE EYES is Urban Fantasy, not paranormal or horror or dystopian or dark fantasy or all the various other things I’ve stumbled around thinking it was. Who knew?

    Anyways, while it’s slowing down my final revisions (though, lol, we all knew they were going to take me longer than I expected because OF COURSE), I’m super excited to be participating in Pitchwars this year and getting BtE in even better shape for publication in whatever form that looks like! So, no newsletter this month, but I’m being hyperactive on Twitter & IG, so go ahead and follow me there instead. :)

    Pick a Story

    28 Jun 2017

    So I’ve been thinking about doing a prequel novella or short story to Blind the Eyes for the next round of newsletter bonuses. Which of these sound like something you’d like to read? Vote and comment on FB.

    1. Teen sisters sneak off from the Tower to the underground club Freedom in its early days and things go sideways. One runs away after a relationship turns dangerous; the other starts up a secret counter-rebellion and stays in Freedom as a spy to save future innocents and atone for ruining her sister’s life. YA urban contemporary w/ dystopian, supernatural & romance. ~10 years prev. to BtE book 1. Cast includes: Ange, Morristu, Ravel & Cass, possibly cameos by Serovate, Haynfyv & Sam.

    2. The future Mayor of the Tower was once an ambitious young professional climbing the ranks of corporate power with a jr. exec. husband, showcase baby and a secret mission. But when the rising fog threatens the safety of her family and she refuses to leave, she loses her child, her husband, and her chance at success. When she cuts a deal with the evil intelligence within the fog, she becomes a double agent, working on the side of evil for a shot at the power to keep it from swallowing everything. -New Adult urban thriller, tragedy. Antagonist/villain backstory. ~120+ years prior to BtE book 1. Cast incl. Maria Ashera, possibly cameos by Serovate, Ravel.

    3. Cadence & Ash as kids up north; dreamwalker training, learning to fight, faction politics between their respective camps (displaced First Nations & Roma Traveller). Or Cadence’s family’s failed mission to the city & her capture. Or Ash’s (off the page) journey during Blind the Eyes up to the point where he makes it to the Tower. This one would give a lot of world-building context and background, but is light on encapsulated storytelling/plot. Kids or YA fantasy/contemporary, possibly thriller/tragedy. 10 years prev., 5 yrs prev. or 4 weeks prev. to BtE book 1. Cast incl. Cadence, Ash (protagonists, Ash formerly Itri/Silver), possibly Sam & Lily.

    4. A young prince of the Tower as a preteen, coming to terms with his background and launching the rebel and counter-culture movement via the underground club Freedom. His rebellion against the Tower leader (/mom) & the deal he cuts with the enemy in unconscious imitation of his mother, gaining power at a terrible cost. YA dark fantasy, urban fantasy. 5+ years prev. to BtE book 1. Cast incl. Ravel, Maria, cameos by Serovate, maybe Ange, Morristu, Haynfyv, Cass.

    5. Tower Investigator Haynfyv geeking out and making a name for himself by being a bizarro luddite and digging into historic practices instead of using Tower surveillance for everything. Mostly just a chance to hang out with the weirdest side character. Mystery. 5-10 years prev. to BtE book 1. Cast incl. Haynfyv, Serovate, Maria, Ravel, cameos by Ange, Cass, Morristu.

    6. A Street survivor saving a refugee from the Tower & Freedom, helping her raise her child, forming a family with the child after the mother cuts a deal to be taken back into the relative safety of the Tower. Dystopian, romance, tragedy. 5 years prev. to BtE book 1. Cast incl. Sam, Morristu, Lily, cameo by Serovate.

    Ebook Freebies

    26 Jun 2017

    Freebies are live!

    You can now download the free Limited Preview Edition ebook of Blind the Eyes, a YA dystopian dark fantasy, at your ebook retailer of choice:

    OR, pro-tip, the Special Preview Edition ebook AND audiobook are over 20% longer and you can get them free by signing up for my newsletter

    Taking Over the 'Nets!

    25 Jun 2017

    So I must be overdue for an update; it’s been over a month! Cue gasp, nervous laughter.

    Aaaaanyways… It’s about two weeks before I get the (hopefully last!) round of editorial back, and it’s been a busy month of book promotions and getting back in the freelancing swing of things. US exchange sucks when I have to pay my consultants, but rocks when I’m the one benefitting from it, lol.

    Some cool stuff emerging on the book promo front; I’ve finally (!!) launched a newsletter. If you sign up you get the current freebie (extended preview of Blind the Eyes in Ebook or Audiobook formats), and any future freebies. I’ve got lots of ideas for supplementary novellas, so if I can keep those spoiler-free and under 80k words (lol), that’ll probably be the next freebie. Also doing extended updates and top recommended reads in the newsletter. A lot of indie authors in particular do cross-promotion or newsletter swaps, which is where you agree to promote someone else’s book in exchange for them putting it in their newsletter or on other platforms… which is nice and probably super effective, but I don’t like the idea of just upselling some product I don’t personally know much about, so I’m going to focus more on book reviews and if a handful of indies or Canadian authors make it into the mix, all the better. But no spam, I promise!

    And once I’d made up the pretty ebooks and audiobooks for my newsletter subscribers, I realized it would be super easy and a great trial run to make a shorter version and toss it up on all the major ebook stores, so you can now get a (just) 3 chapter Limited Preview Edition of Blind the Eyes on Amazon, iTunes, Nook and Kobo as well!

    So the other cool thing about doing that work, besides pretty, pretty files out there for you all, is that I was able to get all of it up on Goodreads, so you can now Follow me on Goodreads or on my Amazon author profile for notifications through those platforms whenever I publish something new. And, like, reviews n’stuff. Plus I’m pretty sure there’ll be some ARC copies coming along one of these days… So yeah, check it out ‘n give me a follow there!

    Kids' Fantasy Audiobooks Live

    25 May 2017

    The audiobook recordings of Book of Curses and The Book of Wishes by award-winning Irish author Conor Kostick are now complete and live on Audible, Amazon Whispersync and iTunes!

    The Book of Curses by Conor Kostick kids adventure fantasy with zombies! Get it on:

    The Book of Wishes by Conor Kostick kids fairytale fantasy with dragons! Get it on:

    Recording for Conor Kostick

    20 Apr 2017

    Quick news update; Blind the Eyes is still on hiatus while I wait for the next editorial report and the beta readers do their thing, but I finally got my ducks in a row (also known as my tech array implemented) for audiobook production!

    I’m recording The Book of Curses and The Book of Wishes for award-winning Irish author Conor Kostick! Coming soon to an Audible store near you ;D

    Predictably but disappointingly, it’s been a slow start getting all my freelancing up and running this month, so now that I’m nearly back into rewrites, of course there’s a wave of projects to finish, lol. I’m also doing some light business planning for that bookish chocolate store idea; seems like viable for producing my own swag, but I’m trying to figure out if there’s a larger market for pop-culture/book-themed chocolate products, perhaps for book boxes or other authors wanting a custom giveaway item… I’ll keep you posted, and people interested in custom artisan small-batch chocolate, drop me a line!

    Cover Designer

    10 Mar 2017

    Big news! I just hired a cover designer! There’s a contract signed and everything! Everyone, meet Maie I Design

    I’ve got to get some materials over to her next week, and then should see new cover art mid April. Time to start planning the big cover reveal!

    While I’m proud of what I’ve been able to pull together to market my book, serials and brand so far, part of being a professional is knowing when to bring in appropriate help to do the job right. Plus, I love that I can support other creatives and book lovers in the process.

    So while it was a hard decision not to do everything myself (because control freak + bootstrap = DIY), I’m incredibly excited to see how far this crazy little dream of mine can make it out into the world.

    Thanks for reading, following and supporting Indie, friends.

    Current Projects

    09 Dec 2016

    So, lot’s of big stuff going on:

    After a few awesome days in London (Camden Blues Kitchen - check it out!), I’m officially back in BC for Christmas… and a couple months thereafter.

    The first high-level edit of Blind the Eyes is in. I’ve read it and put it away for about a week to… process. Yes, rewrites will be significant - and need to be done for March. The short version is that I’m a better writer than I am storyteller, and it’s a weird little story that breaks all the rules and needs some big shifts to conform. Which I should make it do, but don’t quite know how to without losing things I’m not willing to give up on. Like a protagonist that lacks motivation. Lol… So that’ll be interesting.

    But in the meantime, I’ve been working on a couple other writing projects. I’m hoping to use web fiction/serialized writing platforms like Wattpad and Jukepop to get a better sense of what connects with readers, build a following and eventually market Blind the Eyes, while at the same time just getting in some more practice at different ways of storytelling. Providing free, value-added content is a major marketing move in self publishing these days, so I’m hoping to dovetail that somehow.

    So far, I’ve got two chapters each of Flame of the Connarii and Things get out of Hand. FotC actually has a full draft that I wrote as a teen and uni student. It’s terrible, of course, WAY too much sermonizing speeches, but there’s a full cast, a hack-job of a plot and everything. So I’m editing and rewriting that on a chapter-by-chapter basis for Tuesday each week, hoping it’ll come out to something reasonable. At the same time, I’m dealing with my disappointment with the directions things went in Blind the Eyes by relaunching the original story behind the novel and trying to take it in a closer direction to what I originally intended. TgooH is kind of a snarky romance with supernatural stuff in the background (so far), and is a true serial, written day-of for Friday releases.

    Of course, what I really need to do is sit down and plot out exciting scenes and character motiviations. Lol. Maybe one day.

    Thinking about a significant website overhaul to zero in on the writing more, since that’s the only thing I’ve been keeping up with. That, or I really need to write a bunch of blogs on all the travel… But I’ve got to dive in to the rewrites for real next week, so we’ll see if any of that actually gets done…

    Why

    11 Jul 2016

    Why I’m terrified to get on a plane in 7 days… and why I’m going anyways.

    First published on Medium

    I relocate from Canada to the UK in 150 hours. I have a work visa for 2 years starting July 28. I’ve been working on this plan for over a year…

    …and after an uncharacteristically emotional weekend, I’m realizing that it’s probably not hormones making me tear up at every little thing. As it turns out, grand adventure is all very well in theory, and stunningly intimidating from close up.

    A little background: I’m a compulsive control-freak of a perfectionist.

    A little more background: Just over a year ago, I’d worked my way up to business analyst in an international engineering firm. After years of scrambling to be taken seriously as a professional and valued for my work (female + working in marketing = basically a secretary, apparently), I was finally on my way to success and enough power to make a difference.

    Except not. Politics, power struggles, poor communication, burnout… on the verge of finally making it, I walked away. I was done. Done sticking around and trying to make the wrong place be the right one.

    It had been a decade of trying really hard to do all the right things in Vancouver. Get the education. Get the career. Get the money and the respect and the power. I’d been working away at doing all the right things so long, I’d lost sight of the fact that I’d never cared about any of it. And I was starting to realize that I’d become the sort of corporate drone of a grown-up that my 12-year-old self would have hated.

    So I decided to do something crazy. I would move to Scotland. Where companies were better run and housing was (hopefully) cheaper. Have adventures. Travel. Be recognized for my skills and stop being punished for being a woman and not a nurturer. Make way more money with less pressure and lower cost of living.

    And then someone asked me what I actually wanted to do.

    Want.

    Not what did I need to do, what did I have to do, what should I do. Not what was the next step on the road to more.

    And to my horror, I had absolutely no idea. But I did have time to figure it out.

    So I took a full year off from it all. I wrote a book. I obsessed. I read a lot of other books. I spent time with friends and family. I went for runs in the forest. I started to dream again. I got less desperate.

    But now, I’m scared.

    I’m scared to get on that plane next week. I’m scared that the real world, the grown-up, practical world will suck me in again. I’m scared that my book will never make it out into the world, and equally scared that it will have been a terrible waste of a year, and also afraid that I’ll never get to write again. I’m scared that I’ll run out of money and crash and burn. I’m scared to leave the comfortable, convenient little cocoon that I’ve been privileged to live in for the past year.

    And I’m scared to leave people behind, because in the end, those connections were the things that mattered out of the last decade, the things that made any and all of that misery worthwhile.

    But I’m not going to be that control-freak drone that takes all the right steps and hates every minute of it as all her dreams are lost and forgotten. I’m going to be the adventurer and artist and explorer and dreamer that I so admired. I’m going to publish a book and write, and publish more books, and live in beautiful places and take risks.

    So because I can be brave, and I can be strong, and I can take risks and I can keep dreaming and keep creating, I’ll get on that plane next week. And I’ll be the person that the 12-year-olds in my life can look up to and feel like it’s worth growing up to be.

    You can follow my journey of travel, writing, angst and indie publishing at kaie.space

    And the Votes Are In

    01 Jul 2016

    Thanks for voting! The results came in with a clear winner at 71.4%, so I’m moving forward with Blind the Eyes as the title, but keeping Gold as the webpage and series title (possibly ‘Gold & Silver’ as the series).

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