New Cover Direction for Senyaza Series

I have loved the Sean Dietrich covers for the Senyaza Series. They’re inspired works of art that usually touch on the very core of the stories and if I could have continued using him for new books, I would have.

But that wasn’t happening. I had to switch artists for the new books and I decided to listen to all the feedback I’ve been getting and switch up the old covers, too. The Dietrich covers were sharp and striking and didn’t tell potential readers who were scanning a list of thumbnails a damn thing about the books. They were so confusing that even after reading the blurb and being informed the books were for adults, one noted reviewer said she wasn’t certain they weren’t Middle Grade novels. Covers have that much influence.

I know many of my current readers have loved the old covers. Believe me, I have too. But I also love the new covers and I hope you’ll be willing to give them a chance. My new artist is Ravven, who also did the Citadel of the Sky cover. The new covers will be available on the ebooks going forward. Print books with the new covers will become available perhaps within a month–and for a while yet the old covers will also be available. It’ll be a Pick Your Favorite Cover situation.

So… presenting the revised Senyaza Series covers:

And introducing the cover for the forthcoming collection of short stories, Etiquette of Exiles. It mostly covers the first year after Infinity Key ends, and features stories about Penny, William, the Queen of Stone, Severin, and the twins– among many others.

Some Bits Make A Post

I’ll be at Norwescon this year, as a member. No table or pamphlets or panels or anything. I should be spending part of the time in the bar and part of the time attending panels and part of the time huddled over my laptop trying to get some pages of GREEN WILD revised. And I’ll be paying attention to my phone so, hey, let me know if you’re around and want to say hi!

The Renton community garden opened on Saturday and I spent about five hours there this past weekend. It turns out I really don’t like dirt. Compost & potting soil? Those things are fine. Sunbaked tractor-plowed clod-filled dirt? Ergh. I flailed at my plot for a while and put out all of the spring starts I’ve been cultivating at home. I was so overwhelmed by the hard clods of dirt that that I was really lazy on how I set out the seeds and plants. We’ll see if any of them survive. I hope it rains today, and I should probably check in tomorrow to see if anything has withered already.

I also up-potted my tomato seedlings, putting them in their third container so far. I handled them kind of roughly but I think that’s the point: stress them so they grow up strong. They look really good; far better than the seedlings I’ve been getting from Territorial Seed the past couple of years. I’m still planning on buying some grafted tomatoes from Costco if they show up again but I have (hopefully) 10 seedlings already, far more tomatoes than I’ve ever tried growing before.

GREEN WILD, sequel to CITADEL OF THE SKY, which is due from Harlequin Digital First…. someday… goes along well. I was convinced a month ago it was the worst thing I’ve ever written. I’m no longer as certain. But I’m looking forward to getting it into submission-shape because then I’m going to move on to more SENYAZA short stories. I’ve been working on a long list of ideas about events that occur post INFINITY KEY. I should maybe make a dedicated post about this, but I’ve found that the keystone of turning an ‘idea’ into a ‘story’ is figuring out the point of view– not first or third or whatever but simply who the story is happening to and what their relationship is with the events. Once I have that, I still have to do the work of creating a story but I’m no longer flailing in the dark.

Speaking of SENYAZA, I hope to have news soon regarding WOLF INTERVAL, the third book in that series… I will say that if GREEN WILD felt like my worst book for a while, WOLF INTERVAL currently feels like my best. I may be calling in every connection I have to get it noticed by a broader audience.

That’s enough for now, I guess 🙂