Sneak peek at the Bonedragon’s curse

On By MikaelaIn Writing

No matter where you are, if it is summer or winter, I hope you have a really nice holiday filled with good food, laughter and good memories.

I just finished wrapping the few gifts I have this year, so I am going to write until we are off to my brother’s in 3 hours or so.

Since it is Jul, I thought I would give you a sneak peek at the current opening for the Bonedragon’s curse.  (Which will probably be cut, because I want to start the book a smidge later.)

The sound of thumping footsteps approaching the burrow was almost masked by the rain pattering against the roof. Love inched over to the rowan staff, laying on a pair of pegs, just above the pile of grass and leaves were he slept. Part of him was whispering that he was overly cautious, that no one would hurt him.
He ignored it. Things were tense in the forest, tense enough that everyone was cautious.
”Love!” A familiar voice roared.
Love relaxed.
Ketor. What did the troll want now? The faun sighed. The only way to find out was to speak to his fried.
Love grumbled, but stood. He brushed off the leaves from his fur covered legs and poked his head out.
”What?”
”The warden want to see us.”
”Now?” Loke sputtered.
”Yes.”
”Why?”
”Dunno. Probably something about the feud between the dryads and the wolves.”
Loke grimaced. If the warden was summoning the rangers, things were getting to a head. He hoped it wouldn’t require Ketor bashing heads in with his stone club. Or him wacking dwellers with his staff.
”Let me get my cloak,” he muttered.
Ketor grunted.
Love grabbed the cloak his mother had woven from shed unicorn fur before he left her burrrow. He felt pang of nostalgia. He had a good life, but there were times when he wished fauns wasn’t so territorial. Love sighed. Maybe he could visit next summer.
He wrapped the cloak around him, and left.



Counting down the days

On By MikaelaIn Life

It is December 17th, and I am counting down the days to Thursday for two reasons. On Thursday I start my christmas break.  I don’t have to be back until January 7th. Sadly, it isn’t a paid vacation. (This year. If everything goes as planned, I should have paid vacations in 2019. Though considering how much has gone wrong with my dayjob, I am a bit pessimistic)

Normally, I would revise like the wind, but since I am getting the keys to my apartment on Friday, I, uh, will be busy packing. (Much to my brother’s annoyance I still haven’t booked movers. Ooops. In my defence I haven’t  decided which day I want to move…) 

It does mean I will have make a trip to Kungens kurva, since I am getting a new  kitchen table, sofa, desk and bed. Since my current ones are… shabby. 

I also, er, need hall furniture and more lamps and, and..  *flails* Moving to  a bigger flat is exciting, though.  (It is soo pretty! And just 5 minutes from the subway. And 20 minutes from dad.  And.. did I mention the subway? No more waiting for buses!)  

I suppose i should go to bed now, since it is getting late.




The joy of cooking

On By MikaelaIn Writing

I am packing up my apartment, since I am moving soon. And today I decided to pack my cookbooks.  I am the first to admit that I am lousy at using cookbooks.

Primarly because I don’t really have space for them in my kitchen, so they are in the bookshelf in the main room, and… I forget to look in them when I cook and bake things. 

The kitchen in my new apartment has bookshelves in the kitchen, so the cookbooks is going there. Hopefully I’ll be better at using them. 🙂

Anyway. I decided to leaf through one of the cookbooks that mum gave me years ago, since I like the author’s recipes.

And… I happened to stumble on a recipe where I had all the ingredients in the fridge.

So I had tasty mushroom pasta for lunch. (I did replace the cream with creme fraiche, since I had an opened beaker in the fridge and added some soy and white wine.)

Standing there, cooking and deciding to add a splash of this and splash of that and sprinkle of herbs and some salt, filled me with joy.  Which.. was a good reminder for me to have this week.  

Anyway. Now I am going to write, and then I am going to do laundry and then I am going to figure out what to make for dinner.

Exile is an Instafreebie Feature!

On By MikaelaIn news

So a couple of weeks ago, I got an e-mail from Instafreebie, informing me that Exile is one of three fantasy books selected to be featured on their blog 19/9 (yes, tomorrow! Eeep.) I will admit that I had to read it thrice, followed with pinching myself. I am really honored that they selected Exile,though.  If you haven’t downloaded Exile, you can do so here.

Gwyneth has no desire to devote the rest of her life to being a Priestess of Gwynfar, no matter what plans her mother has made. But as her birthday approaches, marking the moment when she becomes an adult – and must choose – another option suddenly appears. She can escape her mother – and her destiny – by stepping through the portal into another world…

Only to find that destiny has a tendency to follow.

 

 

If you already have downloaded Exile, you can buy Daughter of the Dark, the sequel,  at Amazon, Kobo, Ibooks and BN.

After more than a century of moving from realm to realm, one step ahead of the arch-priestess of Gwynfar’s thugs, Jenny is starting to worry that her enemies have found her. Her fear is confirmed when her daughter is kidnapped by Dhurian warriors in front of her.

Backed into a corner, Jenny teams up with the portal justicars. As she prepares for the return to Dhurig, she hopes things will go smoothly.

Maybe it would have, if not for a goddess taking an interest in her, a tangle of vampire intrigues, and her ex-lover demanding to be a part of the search party.

Suddenly, Jenny’s life is much more complicated than she  expected it to be.

It is hot

On By MikaelaIn Life, Writing

It is really, really hot right now (which it has been since May). And it is predicted to remain hot for the rest of July.  I am  hoping for rain. Lots of it, but I am at the same time  dreading when it starts to rain again, since it is so dry that I am not sure if the ground will be able to absorb the water. Yeah.  So I am staying at dad’s, since he has a beach 5 minutes away.

I am writing, though, no matter how hot it is. Even if is a bit slower than normal. I am almost that the halfway point, and if I keep up the pace, I should be done around my birthday. (I know, I probably jinxed it now.)

Once I am done with this book, I am going back  to the Portal Justicars. More specifically, the Shifter’s Justice. I am hoping it wont take me as long as Vanished did.  We will see.

Anyway, I am off to write now. I hope you are having a nice summer!

 

Hi Summer!

On By MikaelaIn Life

I think I am turning this into a monthly thing, since that seems to be how often I blog. Which is better than last year. But I have spare time now.  At least until I buy an apartment and has to, you know, move.. But let’s not think about that now.   May has been… unseasonally warm and sunny.   I have mostly enjoyed it, though I am sort of dreading how July and August will be.  They are saying cooler weather are coming. *hopes said cooler weather includes rain*

I have finished the first draft of the WIP, mostly because I figured out that I was floundering, and I had reached a good stopping point for the arc. It is a big mess, though, and I am not sure how much I will be able to keep. Ah well. Most of my drafts are super messy.  I have started outlining book 2, though, and I feel good about it right now. Ask me how I feel while I am writiing the rough draft.  Which I will spend June doing.  And then I will start revising The Shifter’s Justice, since I have figured out that I revise faster if I don’t have to go to work for a week or two. And since I am hoping to significantly cut down  the revising time… I mean, it isn’t the only thing that I’ll do to shorten the revision time, but it definitely wont hurt.

Beyond writing, I have been reading. I have been in the mood for funny books, so I have been some Tessa Dare and Patricia Rice books in my TBR pile, along with rereading books in my TBR pile, and bought some new ones too.

Beyond this, I went to London. I saw Hamilton (yaaay!) with my friend Sharpie, met my brother and his wonderful girlfriend and had a generally great time. I needed a weekend when I saw friends and did fun things. 🙂  I am planning to do it again, maybe,in July with other friends ( though not London!)..  I should probably follow up on those plans…

Anyway, that is what I have been up to in May!  In June I am going to Spain… which will be a lot of hotter than Sweden.  I am planning to spend my time reading in the shadow or in the water.  Well. And eating good food and probably seeing something moorish, though not Alhambra, since it was deemed to be too far away.

A writing update!

On By MikaelaIn Writing

Right now I am working on the first book in an historical fantasy series ( and before you ask: It has a title that I love, and a cover, but I am going to sit on them for awhile). The book takes place in Sweden, around the time they stopped executing witches. It filled with witches, and werewolves and vampires I am having a lot of fun, dumping the story on the page, without much revising and back tracking. Though I have had to back-track a couple of times, since I took a couple of wrong turns. At least I figured it out. I also tried to edit as I go at the beginning of the draft, but I figured out fast that it didn’t work.

This is why my rough drafts are a mess, but that is ok. I’ll fix it in the rewrite, which will happen sometime in 2019, cause I have other books I need to revise. Hopefully I’ll figure out a way to revise faster.

I am not sure what I’ll work on once I am done with this book. Either I tackle revising Shifters’ Justice or typing in Frosthold. Both have their possibilities. Though it is possible that I will try typing in Frosthold and writing something new at the same time. The worst thing that will happen is that I figure out it wont work…. Though maybe first I should see if I can find the notebooks containing the handwritten draft.

Anyway. I think I have rambled enough.

I am back!

On By MikaelaIn news

I am back! So the last 6 months have been filled with hard decisions. But mum’s house is sold, the keys are handed over to the new owners.  Which is huge relief.  I didn’t realise until the keys had been handed over how much energy and time it has swallowed.

A lot of things have slipped to the side. Like my webpage.  I have kept on writing, though.  Which means I have actually had a productive 12 months.  I finished the messy first draft of The Dragon’s Blade, book 3 in the Portal justicars, rewrote Vanished and started a new book in another series.

The plan is to revise The Shifters Justice, book 2 in the Portal Justicars, later this year and have it out around christmas. (Though release dates are always flexible.)

One thing I can say is that there will be print copies of Daughter of the Dark this year. It was on the to do list for last year, but I didn’t have time.

I need to protect the writing time

On By MikaelaIn Writing

 

I have a lot of flexibility in my day job, so I can basically set my own schedule (which is good and bad, since it means if I take time off, I don’t get paid). Most of the time, I work 6 hours per day with Friday off, but last week I worked 7 hours for two days. And.. I decided that even if the extra hours were nice, it wasn’t worth it. Mainly because of self-care reasons but partially because it cut into my writing time.

That, and a lunch with my brother where he sprouted nonsense like writing less and working more, made me think about protecting the writing. Or rather protecting the writing time. While I write everyday, or try to at least, Friday is my main writing day were my family is busy (=no social obligations, except maybe a dinner), so I can focus on the writing. Except… lately I have been using it to schedule meetings. Meet the real estate guy to get an estimate on mum’s house? Friday. Go to the bank? Friday. Go and check on mum’s house? Friday.

I am the first to admit that is convenient to do it, since I have time on Friday. Except… since I live 1 hour+ away from mum’s house, it means that I lose a lot of writing time when I go there.

And.. I cannot keep doing that. Writing is… a balance towards my dayjob, which can be pretty bleak sometimes. So cutting into the writing time is bad, in the long run. Doubly so when I do it while dealing with mum’s estate.
In fact, I think I will cut down on hours until the house is sold. I mean what’s the point of being able to set my own schedule if I don’t use it when I feel that I need it?

*blows away the dust*

On By MikaelaIn Writing

It has been a long time since I wrote something here, which has many reasons. Most of them life related, but things have calmed down now. (More or less.) While dealing with life I have been slowly working at The Dragon’s Blade, which is very messy but it is also at 26 000 words, so I am almost done.  Yay for slow and steady. 🙂

I have also been to Helsinki, which was so much fun! I got meet my friends and listen to people being smart. And I get to do it again in 2019 since Dublin won the Worldcon bid. (I might already have agreed to do a panel with my friends. Eeep.)

For the next month the plan is to wrap up the first draft of The Dragon’s Blade and then pick up Vanished again, since I put it aside when Life blew up. (I also needed the distance from it.)

If I was ambitious, I would aim to be done with Vanished before Octocon, but… I am going to be realistic and aim for Christmas instead. 🙂