I’m back! No more traveling for a while. School starts today and I have books to write! But to catch up on the Summer, I’ll share a bit of our New Orleans vacation!

Ken Gunter, awesome friend and inspiration for Kyle (Ken also helped me with the first Zoe books!), joined me on my first venture into the Big Easy back in July. July is not a month I recommend spending in the south. Yes it’s easier to get a room somewhere, especially in the French Quarter, but you’ll melt your face off once you step outside. 

Damn it was hot! 

But it was sooooo awesome. I fell in love with roasted oysters, bbq shrimp, and hurricanes. (My waistline has suffered immensely). The first thing he and I did was grab a cocktail at the Bourbon House and started indulging right away. 

After that, he introduced me to Bourbon Street. Ken had visited back in the late 90s. Me? Never, though I’d always wanted to. But life…she throws in her obstacles. ;) 

I’m pretty sure I walked around with a goofy grin on my face. The architecture got me. And I started to really, really understand what it “might” be like to live there (it also helped meeting up with a mutual friend who moved to New Orleans). So as an added bonus, before we ventured down to Pat O’Briens for hurricanes and dinner, he and I went to see where Bell, Book and Candle would be located. 

So for now, because I don’t want to make this a rambling, pointless babble, I’ll tell you a little secret…the building at the top of this post is the inspiration for Sam’s store and apartment. The closed up building on the right I sort of saw as their private parking, but only accessible in the back. I plan on giving this to my cover artist to see if she can render me a store front. 

All photos courtesy of Ken Gunter © 2015

Here it is, the cover for Book 6 in the Eldritch files, ELEMENTAL STORM! (The newsletter got to see it first!) I never thought I’d come this far so quickly with this series. And I am truly thankful for the readers and supporters of Sam, Ivan, and Kyle. 

But with this reveal comes a delay as well. And as before with Elemental Soul’s delay, the reasons are strictly mine and not due to anything else. With the addition of MAGICIAN’S GAME, set to release on preorder August 13th, as well as a Shadowrun novel due the beginning of August, it became painfully clear that delivering a finished, edited version of CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT wasn’t going to happen for July. I can do 12K words a day for just so many days before my head explodes and I get a blister on my wrist. 

No joke. A real owy blister. 

I wiped my white board clean and started over with scheduling, moving the things I had control over. I can’t change the release of MAGICIAN’S GAME because Amazon penalizes you if you change a pre-order release date. The contracted SR book has to get to the editor ASAP (though I’d love to see a cover, John!) because…well…CONTRACT.  

I have an upcoming vacation with my real life Kyle Kendrick that I can’t miss. The two of us in New Orleans is gonna be fun \O/ and I have a daughter starting High School next month. That…just makes me blink when I type that. A kid in high school…wow. 

It’s time to update the free stuff on the newsletter. I like offering Grimoire as a freebie, but I think giving readers a more pertinent offering for them when they join is better. 

So… 

When this website goes back up, the newsletter will no longer offer GRIMOIRE, the origin story, but CHIMERA, a pre-Chronicles and Eldritch story on how Samantha and Grey hooked up. I’m working on it this week and getting it ready for the editor to run through it. I’m also very much aware no one can see this post yet since the site’s not live. But I want to have a few blog posts in the can when it does. 

Once I have a cover of CHIMERA, then I’ll post it up here. Also, when the switch happens, I’ll give newsletter members a link to download it on their own for a limited time. And if you don’t get the newsletter, as in you subscribed but that link didn’t come to you, re-subscribe again. If you get a warning that your address is already there, you won’t be subscribed twice. But if it goes through, then you’ll get the prompt to download the book like a new subscriber. 

If you get the warning, contact me off the website and I’ll send you the link to download.  ;) 

Now…back to the website and content.