Every book cover makes a promise. But sometimes, it takes five versions to make the right one. When I first published Dawn of the Lightbearer almost four years ago, I was driven by story, passion, and vision—less so by design experience. I have an eye and real-life artistic skills, but digitally producing a book coverContinue reading “Forging the Cover: The Evolution of Dawn of the Lightbearer”
Category Archives: Absolution updates
Before the Lightbearer: Why I Had to Write Koen
Now that Koen: Quills of the Raven’s Nest is back from the editor and getting all patched up (we’re almost there), I’ve fallen back in love with the book. I wasn’t supposed to write Koen. Not yet, anyway. When I began charting the course of the Absolution of the Morning Star series (AMS), I hadContinue reading “Before the Lightbearer: Why I Had to Write Koen”
One Step Closer: Koen is Home from the Editor
The line edits are in. After months of waiting, wondering, and second-guessing, Koen: Quills from the Raven’s Nest has come back to me from my savior with a red pen, the editor at Grendel Press, who heroically battled the creeping typo and the terrorizing grammatical error. This isn’t my first round of feedback, which cameContinue reading “One Step Closer: Koen is Home from the Editor”
Into the Abyss: Who Is the Dark Fantasy Reader?
Last time, I wrote about how I didn’t set out to write dark fantasy but found myself here all the same, drawn by the arcane, the spiritual, and the broken beauty of stories that don’t look away from pain. I’m still learning the boundaries of the genre (if there are any) and figuring out whereContinue reading “Into the Abyss: Who Is the Dark Fantasy Reader?”
Dark Fantasy: Rising from the Ashes
I never set out to follow trends, but now that I’m here, I’m curious. My love for the arcane, the spiritual, and the unsettling pulled me into dark fantasy long before I realized that was where I was heading. I’m ashamed to admit, I’m not well-read in it—at least not in the way others canContinue reading “Dark Fantasy: Rising from the Ashes”
Jezelle updates and Audio Books!
If you’ve been keeping your ear to the cobblestones, you know things have been stirring in the shadows. I’m still working away at Jezelle: Theif of Oaks. It is currently at 53,474 words or roughly 200 pages, and I’m in love with how it is unfolding thus far. Jezelle’s story—raw, bruised, and burning with defiance—hasContinue reading “Jezelle updates and Audio Books!”
A Gentle Invitation to Something Brutal and Beautiful
I don’t love selling. Never have. I’d rather write for weeks in the dark than shove a book into someone’s hand and say, “Hey, buy this. Please.” But I also didn’t spend years building Lucardia to watch it get buried beneath a mountain of AI-generated fantasy and flavor-of-the-month Kindle reads. So here I am, breakingContinue reading “A Gentle Invitation to Something Brutal and Beautiful”
Five Years Later: A Thank You, A Reflection, and a Celebration
Five years ago, I hit “publish” on a story I wasn’t sure anyone would read. It was called the Island of Stone, a quiet horror tale set deep in the woods where shadows whisper and the past never really dies. It wasn’t flashy. It didn’t come with a marketing team or a big budget. ItContinue reading “Five Years Later: A Thank You, A Reflection, and a Celebration”
Sample chapter, but first…
An Author’s Note What follows is a rough draft of the opening chapter of my current work-in-progress—a dark fantasy tale that offers Jezelle’s backstory. For those who haven’t yet stepped into Absolution of the Morning Star (AMS), Jezelle is one of its core viewpoint characters. In Dawn of the Lightbearer, she hints at her traumaticContinue reading “Sample chapter, but first…”
Another Dark Journey Begins
I was speeding along writing The Monk of Thanatos, book 2 of my Order of Thanatos series, when another project tapped me on the shoulder, and went, ahem. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that when this happens, you pay attention. So, I paused The Monk of Thanatos and listened to what theContinue reading “Another Dark Journey Begins”
