Trusting the Process

Happy Tuesday, my friends. It’s our last one in April. Somehow. Life continues at break-neck speed and May is looking like it will be another busy month. That being said, I’m stopping in today, not with news as I don’t have any I haven’t already shared. Nah, today I’m going to talk a little about my writing process.

Why this topic in particular? Well, I recently had a non-writer friend make a comment to me that made me really think about how writers/authors are viewed from the outside. It wasn’t a bad comment, just a removed sort of perspective that made me pause.

I have mentioned somewhere in my recent posts that I’ve been working on revisions for Sevina Gate #2. The comment in question was in regards to that specific novella, but it really applies to any revisions. For Sevina Gate #2, the first draft is now a few years old, so the second draft has pretty much been completely rewritten up until the point where it stalled on me. I’m not changing the main plot points, but I am working to bring out the character’s voice and tighten the tension in the right places. My friend’s comment regarding this was basically, “But you wrote it how you wanted it the first time.”

It caught me off guard, although it probably shouldn’t have. I can relate, after all. A much younger me would have absolutely agreed with that sentiment. Why rewrite it when I meant what I wrote the first time? Are my words not good enough?

Well. Yes and no. I think every writer realizes at some point along their journey that the first draft should suck. It should. We hear it all the time, but that doesn’t mean we really internalize that truth. I think it’s one of the major milestones of the development of our craft. Sure, you might nail some really good lines in said first draft but, overall, the point of the first draft is not to be the final draft. First drafts are for plot points to present themselves, for characters to start feeling themselves and testing out their own styles, and for basic timeline. It’s the framework.

Eventually, we as writers accept that we learn to get the words out in the first draft, and then we learn to let them go. I have “let go” of some of my absolute favorite lines from drafts even when it silently killed me inside to do so. It’s not that the lines suddenly became worse, but no matter how awesome they are, sometimes they no longer work with second draft revisions. It stings, but it also makes the overall piece better. It’s worth it.

There’s always another side of the coin, too. Not every second draft has to be completely rewritten. There are times when you do get to keep the old words, and all they need is a little shine job. Something written more recently, for example, that is more in line with all the mistakes you’ve learned not to make the first time, will need less work than than the draft from three years ago. That’s not to say to get complacent with a piece of work just because it’s recent. Even if the words are good the first time, that doesn’t mean they can’t be better.

I will say here that it is my utmost opinion that you should always let the words sit for two weeks (or more) before jumping into edits and/or starting on a second draft. Trust me, here. Your brain needs the down time and your eyes will be fresh and sharper to catch what need to be fixed. It’s hard to do. I won’t lie. But it’s necessary.

I can’t speak for all writers. Everyone’s process is different. I’m just speaking from my own experience. I have been writing for a long time. I have learned a lot of my lessons the long and hard way. Even now, I’m not perfect. I still have to rewrite those first drafts. I just wanted to shed a little light for the folks who stop and say, “But you wrote it how you wanted it the first time.”

So, here’s to a positive and productive beginning of May. Hopefully, the universe will grant a bit of a reprieve and those revisions I mentioned will unstick themselves. In the meantime, I’ll be proofing one of the books I edited last year, which is a whole new and awesome venture in my editing world. Cheers!

What’s Next?

Well, my first event of the year has come and gone. I can’t lie and say the sales and the crowd were as good this year as they were last year, but with the economy in the shape it is, and the country in the shape it is … well, it is what it is. The event was still a success and some really cool connections were made. I actually had one person who remembered The Nameless from my table last year. That in itself made the effort worth it. Sometimes results seem like a slow trickle, and it’s a nice reminder that even when I think I’m not making progress, I usually am. It’s little things like that that make it worth carrying on. So what now?

As far as events go, I still only have one on the books. That’s not until July. Ideally, I’d like to get another one between now and then, but so far the stars have not aligned for it. Rather than trying to force my hand, I’m going to ride the current. I have mentioned that schedules and norms in the household have been changing (nothing bad), so I’ll be letting things play out as they will. Because of said changes, I don’t have the same amount of time to devote to Black Feather Press as I did at the same time last year. Again, this is nothing bad. It’s simply different.

As for non-event news, my revisions on Sevina Gate #2 have stalled out for now, so I’m giving Niko a break for a little while. That’s fine. There’s no set publication schedule for the novellas, and the art side has also stalled. Rather than push, I’m letting it all rest for a bit. That being said, I’ve 99% convinced myself to release a short history piece I wrote quite a while back for the Cadillac Payback duology. It will be ebook format only. The writing needs cleaned up a bit, since I wrote it with no intention of ever doing anything with it. But I figure why not? I don’t really have anything to lose by making it available. So once I get it in shape, I’ll share more news about it.

Other than that, it’s just the usual online grind of trying to maintain some visibility, the every day non-author life things, and the constant adjustments and adaptation to new horizons. Hopefully, I’ll have some good news to share some time soon. Until then, stay upright, my friends!

First Event of 2026

Y’all, it feels like it had been ages since my last book event. It has been about five months. Some of that was partially by my own design, as I chose to take November and December of last year off. Then the break just sort of extended through the beginning of this year as the Black Feather Press household went through a period of changes and adjustments. I’m definitely not complaining. Life has its way in the end. But I am excited to get back into live events.

This coming Saturday I will be here:

Last year’s Cocoa Village Book Fest was my first-ever event, so returning this year is pretty special to me. As the kids say, the vibes were immaculate. It was really incredible to see so many people turn out for the event, and I’m sure this year will be just as good, if not better.

Just this morning, I nailed down a spot at a local author night in July at Skull and Books VR over in Cocoa Beach. That will be a brand new experience and location for me. I’m excited to be included and I will share more details as that one gets closer.

I’m also proud to say my event table will be a little more crowded this year with three more titles that I’ve released since last August. Okay, maybe not literally crowded because that seems bad for business, but certainly more populated. Two of those titles are sequels, which are understandably harder to sell at events, but I’m quite interested to see how the Dirty Synth novella does in front of readers. One of my big hopes for the physical copies of the novella is to offer something at a lower price point than the novels, and hopefully give readers a little taste of my writing. Not to mention, it has awesome illustrations and I have like six more novellas already written (first drafts).

Anyway, that’s the word for now. If you’re local to me, tell your friends. If you’re not, send all the good vibes!

Oops, It’s April

Have I really not posted anything since March 20th? Geez, guys, it looks like what I said in that last post turned out to be all too true. Life has been in super life mode. Like on steroids mode. I’m not going to go into all those details, but damn, y’all.

Suffice it to say that my energy for socials and promotion has been low. I’ve been limping along with the bare minimum, which is probably not ideal when I just released the third Order of Crows book and, before that, the second Fae-Cursed book. The fun (?) thing about being indie and having published books is that they’ll still be there when I can fully come back around to my online presence. They may not be selling, but they’ll be there.

Speaking of selling, we have a little more than two weeks before the Cocoa Village Book Fest. It will be my first event of the year and is so far the only one I have scheduled. I feel like I should at least have another event lined up but, as mentioned above, the time and energy to devote to such events has changed this year compared to last year. The household as also been adjusting to a schedule change that has rearranged our day-to-day. So I also have to be more choosey about what events I can consider. Luckily, for the upcoming book fest, I have everything I need already, so it will just be a matter of packing it all up and getting it to the location. I’m pretty excited to be back at this event for a second year.

What else? I’ve been slowly working on Sevina Gate #2 rewrites/revisions. It has taken me like two weeks to rewrite four chapters. That’s 7,960 words. I’ve been getting in half-hour and hour long sessions when I could. It feels like it’s taking forever. The rewrites are good, though, so it’s worth the drawn out process of it. I also think that there are parts of the words that I won’t have to completely rewrite. Of course, I think I always say that and usually end up rewriting them anyway. But I mean it this time.

I’m going to shamelessly plug the first novella because I’ve done little to promote it since we released it back in December.

There we go. If you’re into fantasy races in unusual places, scrap punk vibes, dystopian vibes, moderate spice, illustrations, and character-driven narratives that all intertwine … this story might be for you. The project is completely homegrown, the printing and ebook distribution aside. The ebook is only a few dollars. It’s on KindleUnlimited, too. And we will have physical copies for sale at our table on April 18th in Cocoa Village. I would love for this little novella to gain some traction. Tell your friends.

Well, I think that’s all for now. Hopefully I can manage another post before the event. Hopefully I can register for another event. Who knows? Stay tuned to find out.

A Blessed Equinox

This is going to be a quick post, but I felt it was a worthy endeavor to wish you all blessings in the astrological new year. Today is the Spring Equinox, a day of balance between the dark and the light. And guess what else happens today? Mercury goes direct.

My friends, we have made it through the down time and rest period, the introspection, and the uphill trudge that is Retrograde. Now it’s time to buckle up because we crest the hill today, and the downward grade may be steep. Keep your hands inside the ride and tighten up your helmet. Momentum will be swift and if you catch the wave at the right time, it will also be beneficial.

For me, it has manifested in Sevina Gate #2 revisions, preparing for my first book event of the year, and a general lightening of the atmospheric crush that has been the winter. It might be hard to feel hope when we look around right now. Our country is a Dumpster fire. But there’s always a light, always a reason to create. The world needs that, so go forth and create. Something. Anything. Someone will hear the echoes.

Blessed be!

One Week Later

Well, my friends, it has been a week since A Place With No Dawn (Order of Crows book 3) released. You know, back when I made the decision to try to publish it so quickly on the heels of releasing The Stolen (Fae-Cursed book 2), I said it would be crazy. I was right. It was crazy. So when I say this past week has been spent on the verge of burnout, I guess it comes as no surprise. But that’s where I’ve been. Damn near burnt out, feeling the crush of Mercury Retrograde, and more or less taking it easy.

Huge thanks to everyone who has been there with the support, the shares and likes, the book purchases, and all the love! As always, I’d be nowhere without my support network. A book release looks a little different when it’s a sequel in a series. It narrows down readers who might catch the excitement, but it’s also a good reason to promote the first books in said series. With No Dawn, the sense of self-satisfaction means as much to me as selling a bunch of books on launch. I already went into why this release means to much to me, so I won’t go into it again, but I’m definitely feeling accomplished.

What now? Well, no more releases for a while, that’s for sure. Nope, now I’m turning my eyes to the Cocoa Village Book Fest on April 18th. I have author copies of A Place With No Dawn en route to me as I type this, along with a few restock copies of Cadillac Payback, and I’ll be event ready! The cool part about doing events last year is that I’m practically ready to show up already this year.

I haven’t managed to nail down a second event just yet. I don’t love that, but considering some schedule changes here for the Black Feather Press crew, it’s unavoidable at this point. I’ve already identified two events I won’t be repeating this year, so I’m hoping to add a few more book-centric dates. I will, of course, relay that information if and when it happens. Regardless of what the rest of the year looks like in that regard, I refuse to call it a loss. It will simply be different. As we see what the personal changes for us look like, we’ll adjust business stuff as we can.

In the meantime, it’s online promotion and me. That is, by far, the hardest part of this indie gig. Getting noticed in a whole sea of indie authors on various platforms is kind of like screaming in an excited crowd, but I’m still trying. Still grinding. I do have to say I’ve found a really awesome circle on TikTok and I appreciate them a lot. Funny, huh? When I dragged my feet for literal years on joining that platform. That’s not to underplay my awesome friends on the other socials. I really do love all of y’all.

I think that’s all for now. I just thought I’d drop in to say thanks and give a little update. I’ll be back soon, my friends.

A Place With No Dawn Release Day

Today is the day, my friends! Order of Crows book three releases today. This one is really special to me. The first book in this series is the first book I ever finished writing, the first to get published (which is another blog post if you haven’t followed me until now), and my first foray into building an imaginary world of my own. I wrote what eventually became The Murder Meets at Dusk back in 2009 and, now, seventeen years later, I’m independently releasing the third book.

It has been a journey. A good part of that journey was spent with books two and three existing in varying degrees of unfinished and, at times, forgotten. I can’t say I’ve consistently worked toward this day for all seventeen of those years. It might be sad if I had and it still took me this long. But even through my times of not writing, this story has been with me. It took me until 2022 to revamp the first book, retitle it, and release it indie-style.

So, a quick word about the series. Order of Crows is contemporary dark fantasy, a save-the-world tale at its heart that is somewhat subversive on the trope at times. The main cast, the nine members of the Order of Crows, feels like an extended D&D party who are not always super-shiny. In fact, the main character, Aleister, uses black magic and some questionable paths to his goals. The story is also low fantasy–mostly–in that pretty much any fantasy/supernatural race exists within the real world. Gods, vampires, fey … all of those and more are layered over our world. Also, there are planar walkers and Aleister is one of them. The rest is an epic war the current Order has never seen the likes of. The first two books, The Murder Meets at Dusk and The Song of the Sparrow, are available now on Amazon. Well, so is A Place With No Dawn.

“We Crows grow up knowing the realities of pantheons and lack of, but sometimes I still wonder how it’s all possible. You serve one god. Some serve many. I serve none. Johnny killed one and became him. Legba and Marisa inherited godhood.”

Casper says all of this with a deep-creased frown. He’s staring at his sleeve and rapping his fingers against the tabletop. He has been agitated since they left the circle and came to the diner. Santino studies the younger’s fidgeting for a stretch of seconds before formulating a reply.

He doesn’t answer until Casper looks him in the eye.

“In every religion, the story starts more or less the same way. Humans are the result of the gods, born of them in some way. Descended from them or created by them. Often there were even half-breeds. Even my God chose a human woman—his creation and chosen downfall of man—to bear his son.

“Our gods also descended from something. They were not the first. We, as children of the gods are as different and countless as snow at high altitudes. You say you have no god, but you’re wrong. Chaos is your god, who has existed since before there were names.

“Humans are far more advanced than the race has believed for ages. The gods gave their power to us and we don’t return it. The cycle is broken and the connection is weak. That much is easy to recognize.”

Casper releases a short huff and shakes his head. Rather than distance as he usually does, his features harden. He says, “But that doesn’t mean anything to me. Chaos is not a god, it simply is, there as a tool to be used. It allows me to say nothing is real and everything is permitted, and I can trust that it’s true. So I don’t actually need the gods.”

Santino wraps his hands around his coffee mug, enjoying the warmth against his fingers as he considers Casper’s words.

“I think you’re missing the point,” Santino says gently. “The gods need us, and if we move too far in the direction of not needing them, they’ll fade and everything we know as our world will change. That was what the previous Murder was trying to prevent. How they did so was extreme, but ultimately it was a sacrifice to the powers that be.”

Casper’s eyes rim with tears. The sight gives Santino pause. This is a new level of familiarity to have Casper so up-front with his emotions. Something has definitely needled under his usually-quiet resolve.

“At the expense of their children,” he says with an edge.

“Yes, that’s true, but also to allow us the time and space to grow into our own roles,” Santino answers. He considers reaching across the table to put a comforting touch to Casper’s arm, but he also doesn’t think the gesture would be as comforting to Casper as it might at some other time. It’s obvious Casper needs to work something out so maybe Santino’s legendary patience might do him better than anything just now.

“Right. Our roles, and then the gods would deny us certain things,” Casper says and looks away.

Surprise flickers through the air and Santino’s breath hangs in his chest as he realizes what might be driving Casper’s anger. It’s big and unexpected … to a degree. Santino has seen the fascination in Casper’s gaze, the curiosity, but he maybe didn’t know that it ran as deep as it seems to now. It puts Santino behind a fence he doesn’t see a way to remove without compromising himself.

“Casper …”

“Don’t.”

One Week

Hello, friends! I’m dropping in with a little news and some excitement on my end. In one week, A Place With No Dawn launches and I’ll be published yet again. I know that has been the plan basically since I released The Stolen back in August, but now we’re almost there and it has started to feel surreal. There’s something to be said about the phases of indie publishing, and one of those things is that even after spending months, sometimes years, working on a book, once you get so close to it being a reality it stops feeling real at all.

I also know I said from the start it was a crazy plan. That’s still true. I’m staring at hindsight now, thinking . . . I really did release a book in August, release a joint-venture novella in December, and am dropping another book at the top of March. That’s not to say I wrote any of them that quickly. No, it took much longer and their completion just happened to line up in a way that I could do that. It’s still a lot. I can at least say I doubt you’ll see another release from me for a while after March 2nd. That’s fair, right?

I did register the other day for the Cocoa Village Book Fest. It was my first-ever event last year and, though I had hoped to have an earlier event lined up this year, things have played out so that the Book Fest on April 18th will again be the first of the year. That’s okay. I’m learning to trust the universe in things like this. Also, Mercury Retrograde is in full effect and I’m leaning into the downtime, other than promotion.

I’m going to try to drop another excerpt or character feature some time this week, but I’m not even promising that much. I’m finding the third book hard to feature because there are a ton of spoilers for the first two books throughout it. I do have an idea of my release day sample and I’ll say this. Though Casper is not the main character, No Dawn is making him seem that way. He insists he should get his own book eventually, which I may do, but it would be after I finish writing Crows 4. So, way in the future.

Anyway, I think that’s all the rambling for now. If I don’t see you before then, I’ll definitely be back on March 2nd to celebrate the release of A Place With No Dawn, Order of Crows book three. Happy Sunday, my friends!

A Place With No Dawn Cover Reveal!

It’s time, my friends! Order of Crows book three is just around the corner. I am extremely excited to have made it to this phase of this book. As I’ve mentioned before, there were plenty of times I didn’t believe a third book would ever happen in this series. Now, I’m staring down actual release.

A quick note before we get to the fun stuff. I mentioned in my last post that I’d be vending at the Brevard Library Con on March 1st, but the universe pretty quickly said, “No, you’re not.” So, due to unavoidable circumstances, I had to cancel on the Library Con. I’m sad it turned out that way but at this point I feel it’s wiser not to try to fight the whole universe. Trust that I will update about live events as soon as I have one to update about.

Second order of business, less sad, is A Place With No Dawn will release on March 2nd. I have a few last tweaks for the interior files–because of course I do–then the ebook preorder will go live and the book will be officially scheduled for release. True to life, my days have been fairly busy lately so it’s taking me a little longer than I wanted to have the final files in place. That being said, I want to have everything ready before Mercury hits retrograde on the 20th, because…buckle up.

Alright, with no further wait, I want to thank The Illustrated Author Design Services for once again giving me an amazing cover. Mel, you’re the absolute best! Y’all, go follow her on all the socials and give her some love! Because look at this…

Quick Update

Happy Monday, my friends! Sooooo…I got my cover for A Place With No Dawn and…good gods. I’m in love! Do I want to share it now? Yes. Am I going to? It pains me to say no. BUT it won’t be long. I’ve been eyeballing the calendar and also the encroaching Mercury Retrograde and I think I’ve settled on some dates. I’m currently awaiting the final final proof (because of course I ordered another one with all my changes and the actual cover). I’m also working on formatting the ebook, which shouldn’t take me much longer. So, look for a cover reveal on February 15th and probably release the book on March 2nd.

There’s no avoiding Retrograde for this timeline, so I’m embracing it. And I’ll be releasing during it. I’ve also nailed down my first event of the year, the Brevard Library Con in Melbourne, Florida on March 1st. Did I just cram my schedule full? Yes. Yes, I did. Zero to sixty, as the saying goes. Well, not exactly zero. I have been working on getting Dawn ready, but that’s pretty much all I’ve done this year. Although, if I think about it, I haven’t been counting Dirty Synth, and that’s not right. We put a lot of work into that novella. And, by the way, the physical copy finally went live after some rather annoying cover issues we had.

Buckle up. I’m back in the game. One more week and I get to show you the cover for A Place With No Dawn, Order of Crows Book Three! I’m excited!

That’s all the news for now. Check back on the 15th and share the love!