Sometimes I like to begin a newsletter referencing my location, because some people (myself included) like having a visual that grounds the writer in the real world. Often mine are some reference to DC area, or "the DMV" (DC, Maryland, Virginia) as the locals typically refer to it. But now, for a little while at least, that location will be a bit more random.

At present, I am writing this at my cousin's house, sitting on a deck overlooking Cold Spring Harbor. It's a beautiful, sunny spring morning, with a bright salt breeze filled with birdsong. A timid (but increasingly less so) Great Dane slumbers nearby.

So far, the empty nest life ain't so bad.

But enough bragging about my current (and very temporary) luxuries! Far more important is the announcement of my next kids horror novel for Scholastic, No Filter.

I had hoped to send this out before the end of September, but there were a few deadlines that needed my attention, including my next Scholastic horror novel, which I hope I can start talking about in a few months time.

Anyway, to round out my rapid fire (for me) series on The Ghost of Drowned Meadow, I though I’d end on a more lighthearted note: manga and anime!

Most of the time when I begin a novel, the protagonist comes before anything else. Whether it’s Hope or Sonya, Jael or Boy, I find their voice, and everything comes from that. But with this book, I stumbled across the history of Camp Siegfried, and felt like I just had to write about it. One problem, who was the protagonist?

It felt a bit strange, coming at it from the opposite side. I needed a hook into the character. Something fun to at least somewhat balance out the absolute darkness of a real life Nazi summer camp in Long Island. Ultimately, the inspiration came from my son, who is such an ardent manga and anime fan that he’s actually turned me into one as well. Even though he’s 18, off in college and doing his own thing, we still chat every week about the latest episode of That Time I Got Reincarnated Into a Slime, or whatever the latest show is that we both fancy. At an age when it’s a real challenge for a parent and their adult offspring to find common ground, we still have this, and I am grateful for it.

In the last newsletter, I gave you the big picture for the American Nazi movement during the 1930's. But while I was researching, I stumbled across a very personal historical narrative at Camp Siegfried. It's so dark that I was only able to include some of it in a kids book, so I thought, without getting too specific, I'd go into a little more detail here.

Previously, I referred to the Special Committee on Un-American Activities in the US House of Representatives, also sometimes referred to as the Dies Committee, after its chairman, Rep Martin Dies of Texas. The Dies Committee is probably best known for going after communists during the Red Scare of the 1950's. But in the late 1930's and early 1940's, it was more concerned with ridding the country of Nazis. One of their primary targets, of course, was the German American Bund, which they finally disbanded in 1939.

A large part of the success for that operation came from the hearings they conducted in August of that year. I was trying to get a sense of the daily life at Camp Siegfried, but there was little of the granular detail I was looking for in the nonfiction books I read. I started digging through the end notes and found multiple references to transcripts for the hearings. So I decided to see if I could find something useful there.

Boy did I.

Early in my research for The Ghost of Drowned Meadow, I asked my teenagers whether they knew who Charles Lindbergh was. Somewhat to my surprise, they did not. Back when I was in school, we were taught that Lindbergh was a great American aviator hero who made the first solo transatlantic flight, from New York to Paris. I can still picture the black and white photo in my textbook showing him standing gallantly beside his airplane. We also learned about the tragic kidnapping and death of his child, which was dubbed by the media of the day as the "Crime of the Century." But nowadays it seems that, at least where I live, he's no longer in the history books.

Why? Perhaps because his full impact on American history was...complicated, to say the least. While he never formally declared his sympathies for the Nazi party, he did adopt some of their talking points, including those about eugenics, antisemitism, and race. He was fervently against American's involvement in World War II, at least until Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. And he was a big supporter of the America First Committee, which was launched in 1940 and, much like its current iteration in present day, was anti-interventionist, anti-immigration, antisemitic, and pro-fascist.

Lindbergh and the AFC were the less extreme examples of what some historians have called the American Nazi movement of the 1930's. Both Lindbergh and the AFC carefully (some might say artfully) skirted around anything that resembled outright allegiance to Hitler's Germany, and mostly seemed interested in adopting some of their policies.

Hello, all. Summer is apparently just about over? I spent most of it writing like mad, although I did get a nice break at the end visiting family up in Long Island. Now my eldest has gone off to college to seek new adventures, and even though he was never a particularly talkative fellow, the house is somehow seems quieter, and perhaps a bit chillier. He and I did play a few rounds on Yu-gi-oh Master Duel last Sunday, so at least we still have that. And one match, I nearly beat him!

Anyway, the second GI Joe book is mostly finished. These books are always such fun. Like playing in someone else's toy box for a bit. Speaking of, the good folks at Hasbro are currently looking it over. Once they've given us the stamp of approval, we can start announcing things like titles and covers. After that I'll need to put together my proposal for the third and final volume for approval.

Right now I'm putting the finishing touches on my next Scholastic horror novel after The Ghost of Drowned Meadow. It's been a real gut punch of a book, I must say. I'm looking forward to sharing more about it, but that's a ways off.

So let's focus on what I can talk about! Like this wonderful review of The Wizard of Eventide from Booklist. Here's a brief excerpt:

Hello, dear readers.

I am in the middle of deadline madness, with two different projects back-to-back, plus two books launching within the next month, and my father's memorial service. I came up for air for a moment and realized it had been a while since my last newsletter. Alas, I don't have the time right now to write up some of things I want to start talking about for The Ghost of Drowned Meadow just yet. But since The Wizard of Eventide comes out in less than a month (July 12th!), I thought it might be nice to share something from it. This short passage will actually appear in the acknowledgements section at the end of the book, so think of it as an unconventional preview (and light spoiler):

The end of a trilogy is always special, but this one perhaps more than most. Those who have read my previous trilogy, The Empire of Storms, know that we have now come full circle back to my beloved hero, Bleak Hope, whose tragic origins inspired me to begin this long and satisfying foray into epic fantasy in the first place. So much has changed since I urgently scrawled that first chapter in a MUJI notebook all those years ago. For the world and for myself.

The Goddess War is, among other things, about the human capacity for transformation, both gradual and sudden. So it seems appropriate to me that the final book of this trilogy should be the last that ever bears the name “Jon Skovron”—a name that was never truly mine, but acted almost as a protective cocoon during my own very slow and meandering transformation. Although if I’m being honest, it feels less like a transformation and more like a long-overdue acceptance of something that had always been there. Regardless, I find a great deal of value in marking out moments in my life that I define as important and worth remembering. The completion of this story is one of them.

So, yes, for you Hope and Red fans, The Goddess War trilogy does directly and explicitly connect to The Empire of Storms. Surprise!

The Ghost of Drowned Meadow

Coming this September:

From Kelley Skovron comes a ghostly mystery that explores the little-known history of Nazi indoctrination camps in the United States.

"It started off small. Just a dripping outside my window."

When Morgan witnesses some eerie happenings in her family’s new house, at first she shrugs them off. But as the unsettling dripping noises―and the sounds of someone crying―become more frequent, she starts to get nervous. Then a neighbor asks Morgan a blood-chilling question: What’s it like to live in a haunted house?

It seems Morgan’s new home is notorious in the town of Port Jefferson, all because of Joseph Klaus, a boy who drowned in the 1930s after vanishing from his summer camp. Morgan begins learning all she can about the Klaus boy and uncovers the little-known history of the German American Bund, a Fascist organization that indoctrinated children and forced them into labor. Klaus wasn’t just escaping from any old summer camp―he was fleeing American Nazis. As Morgan discovers the heartbreaking history of her new town, she’ll have to do everything she can to protect her family from the spirits it left behind. Because the ghost of Joseph Klaus is still trying to get home―even if he drowns the people living there.

I was so pleased to see the positive response for my upcoming G.I. Joe Classified series. But I suspect some of my long time readers might be scratching their heads and wondering why I, of all people, wanted so badly to write a G.I. Joe series. Or as my brother so charmingly put it, “I didn’t peg you for a fan of the military industrial complex.”

I suppose it’s a reasonable reaction. I remember even as a child that my mother, who came of age in the 60’s with strong hippie leanings, expressed misgivings about my passion for “those army toys”. Why would I, an author who has just wrapped up an epic fantasy trilogy that, among other things, is about the terrible costs of war, want to celebrate something like G.I. Joe?

To explain the seeming contraction, I’d like to give you a peak at the afterward of the the book, which comes out this July:

I owe a great deal to Larry Hama. When he was working at Marvel back in the early 80's, he was given a bunch of character designs and told to write a comic based on them. Much of what people now think of as the core elements of G.I. Joe sprang from his imagination. Many writers, artists, and creators have contributed wonderful things to the franchise in the decades since, but a G.I. Joe without Snake-Eyes or the villainous Cobra? Would it even be G.I. Joe? I think it's safe to say that this book would not have been impossible without Larry Hama.

A book for readers young and old, coming this July from Amulet Books, Hasbro Inc… and me!

When Stan’s mom gets the job offer of a lifetime at a cutting-edge tech company, Stan packs his bags and exchanges Chicago for Springfield, home to the secretive tech behemoth, DeCobray Industries . . .

It's been unusually cold in the DC area this month. We're far enough south that the temperature rarely dips below the twenties, but lately it's been in the teens at night, and taking the dog for a walk has been something of an endurance test.

Not a lot of writing news I can share at the moment. Many interesting things taking place, but none of it concrete enough at this point to tell you about. I hope to be able to show you the covers for my next two middle grade novels, G.I. Joe Classified, which comes out in July, and The Ghost of Drowned Meadow, which comes out in September. I've seen early versions of both and they look very cool, albeit in very different ways.

But that's not what this issue of the newsletter is about! Oh no! As promised, here is my annual music round up! I've already given my list to David Levithan, who compiles lists from a great many people, but I didn't really go into details for him. Instead, I thought I might do that here.

I had hoped to send out a "Favorite Music of 2021" before the end of the year, but then my father fell ill. He'd been diagnosed with liver cancer on November 14th. The doctor was quite clear that there was no chance of sending it into remission, yet they said there were treatments that could give him months, or even years. But things progressed far more rapidly than anyone expected.

Once it became clear to me just how bad things had gotten, the teenagers and I canceled our holiday plans and drove like mad to Ohio. Thankfully we arrived in time to say goodbye. Then I dropped the boys off at a hotel near the hospital and sat with him and my stepmother until he passed away about twelve hours later. In the end, it was peaceful. He died at 6:30am on December 22nd, three days before Christmas.

It's now about two weeks later. We're back in DC. I'm listening to a gentle new EP by mydreamfever and watching the snow fall outside my window. The teens are at their mother's house, and the dog is snoozing on the couch. I am grateful for this moment of tranquility. I wish it could last forever.

The end of the year crept up on me! Oh sure, I went to my son's holiday winter concert—his last one, in fact, since he graduates in the spring. And yes, I did force both my teenagers to help decorate the house while listening to classic Christmas music (did you know I have Robert Goulet and Tony Bennett on vinyl??). And naturally I spent more money than I can comfortably afford on presents for loved ones, per usual. Yet somehow, the big picture escaped me: it's nearly the end of 2021!

In my defense, I have been rather busy. For the second year in a row, I had two books published. Last year in 2020 was the release of The Ranger of Marzanna, the first volume in my epic fantasy trilogy The Goddess War, which was published by Orbit Books. That same year, my first middle grade novel, The Hacker's Key was published by Scholastic Books. In 2021, the second Goddess War novel, The Queen of Izmoroz, was published by Orbit in the spring. Then my fantasy noir novel Gutter Mage, written under the name J.S. Kelley, was published in the fall.

Whew, that's a lot, right?

But hey, why have two books published in a single year when you can have three???

I've gone and changed the newsletter again! Can you believe it? I'm so fickle...

I do have a reason, though! Initially I envisioned juggling two newsletters, one for Skovron and one for J.S. Kelley. But honestly, that just isn't feasible for me. So now I've wrapped it all up into this shiny new idea that I think can incorporate everything.

I named it "A Bleak Hope" partly in homage to one of my favorite characters, Bleak Hope from my Empire of Storms trilogy. Is that a little self-aggrandizing? Possibly. But it also encapsulates the struggle between my skepticism and sentimentality, which shows up in my writing quite a bit.

Anyway, on to the important stuff!

Surprise! I have a novel coming out later this month! And it’s under a pseudonym!

Every writer has pet peeves, and I’m no exception. For me, it’s lack of character growth. I won’t say a story is bad if the characters don’t change markedly in some way, but I will say it is not a story I am likely to find satisfying.

When I began writing The Goddess War trilogy, one thing I really wanted to accomplish was to present profound, yet convincing character growth. I wanted my protagonists, Sonya and Sebastian, to experience dynamic change from the first book to the third. I wanted the reader to look at these two character at the end of the story and find them barely recognizable from the people they met at the beginning. And yet I wanted that transformation to be authentic to the character’s experience from one chapter to the next so that it never felt forced. In other words, they had to earn it.

Hello newsletter folks, both longstanding and new! The Queen of Izmoroz comes out later this month, so I thought it would be cool to send out a couple of newsletters this month that talk about some of the elements that influenced the book.

The first book of The Goddess War trilogy, , takes place almost entirely in the fictional country of Izmoroz. I’ve mentioned, both in this newsletter and in the acknowledgements for the book, that Izmoroz was inspired heavily by both my ancestral Poland, and Russia, in terms of history, politics, and culture. There are a few other fictional countries that show up on the map for . We get a brief glimpse of Uaine, for which I drew largely on Celtic culture. But the others, Aureum, Kante, Victasha, and Raíz, we only about. 

Hello all. I hope this finds you still healthy and well.

So far, Subtstack seems to be working fairly well for the newsletter. At least judging by responses, it seems to have made it to a lot more inboxes than in the past. Although apparently, I need to apologize…

In my last newsletter, I made some disparaging remarks regarding both Microsoft Word and Mail Chimp. I knew people use these services, of course. But I genuinely had no idea people actually liked them. I am passionate about my writing software, and try to support small and independent developers, primarily by volunteering as a beta tester. Developers quickly discover that having an epic fantasy novelist on your testing team is an excellent way to really put your writing software through its paces, and since I used to work in the tech industry, I like to think my bug reports are more helpful than not.

Anyway, it pains me to think that I offended someone who is just as passionate about their choice of a word processors, and I am deeply sorry for that. In the future, I will try to be less of an indie software snob.

I hope this finds you all healthy and well, never a given these days. Especially for my West Coast folks. A friend of mine has been sending me pictures of what LA looks like, and while the dark fantasy author in me is deeply impressed with the grandiose hellscape, my concern for the poor abused respiratory systems of my friends is a little stronger.

I’m trying out Substack as a newsletter service because as much as I like Tinyletter’s minimalist design, they keep getting caught in spam filters, including my own. Finger’s crossed this service works better, otherwise I may have to use *shudder* Mailchimp, which I view as the newsletter equivalent of resorting to writing novels in Microsoft Word.

Hacker’s Key

Welcome to The Eye of the Storm by me, Jon Skovron. Author of fantasy and adventure books like THE RANGER OF MARZANNA, HOPE AND RED, THE HACKER'S KEY, and so much more! 🤤

Sign up now so you don’t miss the first issue.

Somehow summer is nearly over despite the fact that the boys and I did none of the things we normally do during summer.

It also means that the release of my debut Middle Grade novel, The Hacker’s Key, is just around the corner. It comes out in the US on Sept 1st from Scholastic Books. It will also be supported by Scholastic’s formidable school channel and appear in the Scholastic Book Fair. That will no doubt be hampered this year by the fact that schools are still trying how to figure out how to teach students during a global pandemic. But it’s still thrilling to have a book so accessible to so many kids.

The grand experiment has begun! After a bit of a bumpy start, the Hope and Red serial podcast has officially launched with episode 1, “Murder and Abduction”. As I mentioned in the previous newsletter, you can search for it on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen, and subscribe for free. A new episode (usually two chapters) drops every Friday.

This whole serialized podcast idea is completely new for my publisher, and in the beginning there was a bit of a learning curve. But I’m really happy with the final result. If you agree, please rate and comment on the podcast. It would not only help me out, but also encourage my publisher to embark on similar projects in the future.

In other news, I just got the Chinese cover for book three of the trilogy, . As always, my publisher Chongqing made a stunningly beautiful cover. ​

Hello all. I have some very exciting Hope and Red news, but first, like so many others, I wanted to take a moment to talk about race.

There is so much going on in the world right now. You don’t need me to tell you. And I won’t belabor it too much here, but to be clear, I support Black Lives Matter, and if you’ve read any of my books, my anti-racist views should be obvious.

When I wrote , I admit that I did not set out specifically to write a book with a person of color as the protagonist. It simply made sense to me that if Jael Thompson’s mother was an ancient Sumerian goddess, then Jael must be at least partly Sumerian, i.e. of Middle Eastern descent. From there I merely asked myself what challenges a young biracial woman might face in a predominately white Seattle suburb. It seemed an obvious question to ask, since I have two biracial siblings and know something of their experiences.

I hope this finds everyone well. After my hectic launch week, the boys went to their moms’ for a bit and I spend a glorious two days doing nothing but re-reading Le Guin’s Earthsea books and starting yet another character in Skyrim (a Breton ronin samurai vampire!). Basically I indulged in completely unproductive media comfort food. Although I must say, it had been a long time since I’d read A Wizard of Earthsea and certain moments really struck me this time that I hadn’t even remembered reading before. Like this line when Vetch is saying farewell to Ged at the wizard school on Roke:

It’s come at last. Launch week for The Ranger of Marzanna! Of course all the in-person events have been canceled, but Orbit Books as been wonderfully adept at setting up online events. I still prefer in-person events, of course, but the great thing about virtual events is that all of you who might have wanted to attend an event but don’t live near DC can now do so easily from the “comfort” of your home. If so, here are your options:

Tuesday, April 21st @ 6-7pm

A livestream video conversation between me and fellow Orbit author Melissa Caruso. Though neither of us realized it at the time, we actually cross-blurbed each other’s books, so naturally our director of publicity thought we would be a good match.

Well hello. I hope you’re all holding up. Staying healthy physically and emotionally. Not contemplating the murder of the other people in your home. That sort of thing. Maryland is officially on “stay at home”, but they haven’t closed off the path around the lake yet, so we still have that.

The launch for The Ranger of Marzanna is only a few weeks away. Obviously all the in-person events that I was going to tell you about have been canceled, but my publisher is setting up some live-streaming events. I’ll probably have more info on those soon.

But for now, is already starting to show up on a few April SF&F lists, including , , , and . I also did an interview for the podcast , which you can download directly from iTunes, Spotify, or your podcasting device of choice. The interviewer has a policy of not editing the conversation at all, so it’s a solid hour and forty minutes of me talking about everything from slavic folklore, to epic fantasy, to Tolstoy, to Animal Crossing, and much much more. It is…um, , which if you’ve ever seen me live, you know how that is.

Well. Here we are in the middle of a pandemic. I hope you’re hanging in there. As someone with hermetic tendencies, I’m weathering it fairly well, but there are a lot of people I care about who are either deeply extroverted or have jobs/careers that require direct human contact, and they are struggling right now. I normally don’t send out a newsletter this often, but I thought perhaps I could offer up some things I do to occupy myself in the hopes that at least one of them might give you some comfort.

Streaming TV/movies

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way. Everyone is doing this. Most probably have a long queue to work through. But in case you’re looking for suggestions, here are a few:

Netflix

Hello all. Winter is still being coy here in the greater DC area, but I went on a short trip to Columbus, Ohio to visit family and got to experience a proper snowfall.

Anyway, I’m burying the lead here. So soon after my Ranger of Marzanna announcement, I’m pleased to share more good news, which recently appeared in Publisher’s Weekly:

Hello all. DC seems to be leaning into spring already, but I’m not buying it. Experience has taught me that we’ll have one more big freeze before winter properly comes to an end. The boys have both been cast in an original musical being produced by the local teen community center, which warms my battered old theater heart. I swear I’m trying my best not to be a Stage Dad. Mostly.

My agency and I are having a lot of cool discussions about various potential side projects for me right now. The brainstorming stage is always exciting because everything seems possible. Of course, many of these things don’t pan out, but every once in a while, one pulls through. For example, I hope I’ll soon be able to start talking about my first middle grade book, to be published by Scholastic in the fall. I had a blast writing it, especially after a few years away from the “kid lit” scene. It was such a delightful change of pace from the massive, sweeping epic of The Goddess War that occupies my brain most of the time these days.

Speaking of , we’re less than three months from the release of the first book, , and reviews are starting to come in. I generally don’t go out of my way to look for reviews because by and large, reviews are intended for potential readers, not the authors who wrote the book. But I’m also not one of those writers who avoid reading reviews either. Sometimes a person will tag me on social media when they post a review and I’m always appreciative. There are a lot of books out there, after all, and even if the reviewer took issue with certain aspects of the book, anything that gets people to notice my book could potentially lead to new readers.

My humble apologies for not including this in yesterday's newsletter. I'm afraid I'm still not as good with the promotional stuff as I should be...

Anyway, I thought of all people, it would be my loyal newsletter subscribers who would want to know that starting today until January 13th, you can enter to win a free ebook of The Ranger of Marzanna from Goodreads. They're giving away a total of 100 copies. I believe US residents only (sorry international readers! I don't make the rules!) Here's the link: Good luck! _j

Another holiday season has passed and if you’re reading this, that means you survived. So well done. Those of you not interested in music (surely there must be some, right?), you need read no further, because this newsletter will not about writing, The Ranger of Marzanna, or any of my other forthcoming books I’m not allowed to talk about yet. This one is just about the music.

It was…an interesting year in music. Rarely do the zeitgeists of Top 40 radio intrude on my awareness, but I was astonished to find that one of my favorite albums of the year is also one of those mainstream, best-selling, Grammy-award winning albums. I don’t think that’s happened since the 90’s when Grunge was a thing.

It’s particularly confusing to me since it seems that, generally speaking, my tastes have actually gotten stranger and more esoteric as I’ve gotten older. Perhaps it’s a fluke, or perhaps having a teenage son who is equally passionate about music is exposing me to a host of new sounds. We shall see. But that’s enough preamble. Here we have some music that I found particularly notable this year, organized by genre for your convenience:

Well, hello. I hope all my fellow Americans had an enjoyable Thanksgiving, and the rest of you weren’t too inconvenienced by our absence. The boys were with their moms this year for Thanksgiving, so I spent mine with friends in New Hampshire at a lovely old farmhouse that they have been slowly preparing for the eventual climate change apocalypse. I’ve been trying to sell them on the idea that it would be handy to have a writer/story teller around when they can no longer count on Netflix for entertainment, and I think I’ve got them more or less convinced now. So that’s my End of the World plans sorted.

Once a manuscript had gone through revisions, copyediting, and design, it’s sent on to be printed. That’s usually when my agency begins submitting it to foreign markets. Hope and Red saw thrilling success overseas, and I’m hoping to see similar enthusiasm for The Ranger of Marzanna, particularly in one market we didn’t crack last time: Eastern Europe. Since is heavily inspired by eastern European culture, my agent suggested I write a personal note to publishers in eastern Europe, explaining why I made that choice. I thought you might enjoy reading it:

At long last, I finally have news I can share. The newsletters had tapered off for a while because most of the things I wanted to talk about were related to my next epic fantasy trilogy, which I couldn’t talk about. Until today.

My next epic fantasy trilogy from Orbit books is The Goddess War. The first book, The Ranger of Marzanna, will be published in late April. Here's the :

In a previous newsletter, while talking about waiting patiently for a bunch of work to come in, I wrote the following:

”And so I wait, poised to spring into “action”, ever alert for the ding on my phone that informs me one of my VIP contacts has emailed me. Once I get that ding, there will be no leisure for…I’m not sure how long. Probably until the next Winter. Well, unless some other things come through, in which case probably not until 2023.”

So…one of the big “other things” came through a couple weeks ago. And it comes with a very tight deadline. I’m really excited to share it with you…once I can. The good news is that, because of the tight deadline, I shouldn’t have to wait too long.

Ah, DC’s summer has descended in its sluggish, swampy way to squat over us until late September. It has taken more than a decade, but I believe I’ve acclimated. The trick, or at least one of them, is to slow down one’s internal rhythm to match it. I am convinced this is why the stereotype of the slow-moving southerner exists. Cold showers and gallons of iced green tea are also helpful. And of course simply accepting that no matter what, you will always feel at least slightly damp at all times.

Most of my focus this month has been on revisions for book 1 of the next trilogy. The book does have a title now, but they probably want to announce it along with the cover. I should ask about that…Anyway, as I said, I’ve been focused on revisions, which are due very soon. I don’t normally butt up against deadlines like this. In fact, I’m generally known to deliver manuscripts early. But I somehow managed to get an abrasion on my eyeball and as you might imagine, that hampered my writing somewhat. I did get to wear an eyepatch for a little while, which was cool.

Now I’m trying to make up for lost time on revisions for what is easily my largest, most ambitious project to date. That isn’t a bad thing on its own, but it makes it hard for my brain to think about…anything else, really. And as a single parent, that is not great. So I muddle on as best I can, try to forgive myself when I stumble in my parenting duties, and perhaps put some money aside for my children’s therapy bills...

I’m trying to stay on a regular monthly schedule with this newsletter, so I’m writing this a few days before I actually send it because any minute (or day) now I will need to go from zero to 1000mph.

Currently, I’ve done just about everything I can conceivably do on every project that is currently either under contract, or might soon be. So I’m languidly indulging in commercially unviable story ideas, reading for hours at a time, and playing more Dark Souls than is good for me.

And yet, I received word the other day that I will soon be getting revisions notes back on book one of my new trilogy with Orbit Books. Once I get those notes, my deplorable, guilt-inducing leisure will end because I will need to address any notes my editor has on Book 1 and return the revised manuscript quickly so that I don’t delay the publishing schedule. Once that’s done, I’ll need to immediately begin writing Book 2, which I have roughly outlined, but have not started in case there are major changes that need to be addressed in Book 1.

Well hello there. It’s been a while. I hope you’re well. I haven’t sent the newsletter in a while because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, and I wasn't really enjoying writing them anymore. I think I was feeling too constrained by the self-imposed format I put on it, so I’m going to try a looser format for a while and see if I like that better.

#

The German audio book of Hope and Red debuted in the top 50, which I thought was cool. The publisher even made a nice trailer to go with the launch, which you can see on the .

Now and then, I’d like to share some of my thoughts on how stories are told in various mediums, and how it might or might not translate to a prose book form. In keeping with my previous declaration to show my geeky side more often, I thought I’d start off with a video game!

This may shock some of you, but writing fantasy novels doesn’t pay a lot. And it takes a lot of time. As such, the likelihood of me ever having the money and time to buy and play video games frequently enough to justify reviewing them on even a semi-regular basis is nill. The upshot is that when I do get a game, I play it until I have explored every single aspect of it. It is my preferred way to unwind and turn off my brain for a little while.

Believe it or not, I have some actual news for the newsletter! Er…sort of. I can tell you that my publisher and I have agreed upon my next project, the contract details have all been hashed out, and I’m just waiting to sign. It’s been over a year since I delivered the final book of the previous contract and I don’t mind telling you that this has been a very stressful year for me. Especially considering this is how I feed my children. And while the thrilling nature of the freelance life suggests this will not be the last time I wrestle with such anxiety, it has at least been put off for a few years, and for that I am very grateful.

Of course I would love to tell you about this shiny new project, but alas, I cannot do that yet. If my publisher allows it, I hope to announce it here before anywhere else, so there’s that at least. In the mean time, I’m afraid you’ll just have to content yourself with the knowledge that something is in fact coming.

Reading

Some of you know this, but some of you may not: I am a huge nerd. I tend to be somewhat reserved about my nerdier inclinations (gaming, anime, etc) and until now have limited my recommendations to things like books and music, because if you don’t like books, you’ve probably subscribed to this newsletter by accident, and I can’t not talk about music.

But while I was at Phoenix Comic-Fest last month to speak on some book panels, I was encouraged by my friend Victoria (aka V.E. Schwab) to let my nerd flag fly a bit more in this newsletter, and that if I did, I might find people who appreciate my books also appreciate other things I like. So I’m going to dabble a bit more in those topics starting with this newsletter. If I see a sudden drop in subscribers, I suppose I’ll know why.

But before I get to that, here is the Dutch cover for Blood and Tempest!

Yes, well, it's been a while since I've sent out a newsletter, primarily because I didn’t have any news to share. And I still don’t, actually. There are lots of potential things swirling around, but somewhat maddeningly, nothing has firmed up enough yet that I can officially announce it.

And of course, there have been a lot of non-writing things going on. Remember when I said I was recovering from that back injury? Ha. Turns out, that was entirely wishful thinking on my part. After several more months of physical therapy, and a few very painful procedures that involved someone burning out nerves on my spine, I am now feeling much better. Except of course when I look at the bills that my garbage freelancer health insurance refuses to cover despite doubling my monthly payments this year because healthcare in America is now stunningly broken.

Speed and Efficiency

I’ve been thinking about the pace of writing lately. Not the pacing within a story, but how quickly I actually compose the words.

When I first began “seriously” writing, way back in ’99, I was terribly indulgent with my time. I had to get in the mood and . Often it would take me half an hour before I’d even begun to put words together.

Life, the Universe, and Everything

Just kidding. This issue of the newsletter is not about life, the universe, and everything. But as any Douglas Adams fan knows, you can’t just number something forty-two and not acknowledge the answer to the ultimate question. And for those if you who somehow don’t know what I’m talking about, consider that my book recommendation for the month: hie thee to thy usual purveyor of books, be it brick or virtual, and purchase/borrow a copy of Hitchihiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, posthaste.

I just got back from the vet, where my cat is currently recovering from surgery after ingesting not only metallic thread from a Christmas ornament, but apparently also some plastic Easter grass she found in the closet for good measure. I look forward to an evening of nursing the most truculent cat I’ve ever owned back to health, hoping that she allows me to give her the medication she needs without it turning into a wrestling match that will leave me with several new claw and bite marks.

So, remember how I screwed up my back? Turns out, it was more serious than I’d thought. A CAT scan revealed that I have a bulging disk, and so began my first adventure in the world of physical therapy. My orthopedic surgeon hopes that with some aggressive (and expensive!) physical therapy over a six week period, I can correct the issue without surgery.

On the first day of treatment, I told my physical therapist I am willing to do whatever it takes to make that happen. My physical therapist has taken up the challenge with an alarming enthusiasm. Most sessions she puts me in traction (which is kind of like a modern version of the medieval torture device, the rack). She always puts a bell by my head I could ring, if necessary. A sort of panic button, I suppose. Then she left for about twenty minutes while the top half of my body was slowly pulled from the bottom half.

We’re finally getting some proper crisp fall weather here in the greater DC area. I remember autumn
being satisfyingly long in other places I’ve lived, like Ohio, Pittsburgh, and New York. I’m not sure if it’s the region I live in now, or the result of climate change in recent years, but it seems like fall takes a long time to come these days, and too swiftly turns to winter. I’ll hold on to it as long as I can.

At the behest of my editor, agent, and publicist, I’ve been trying to go to more conventions lately. Recently I went to the Baltimore Book Festival, and Capclave, both more or less local to me. I’ve put in bids to go to ConFusion in Michigan, ComicCon Phoenix, and ReaderCon in Massachusetts, but none are confirmed yet. I'll let you know as I do.

I also managed to screw up my back royally, so most of my writing over the last three weeks has been done on my stomach on the floor with a heating pad and a dose of prescription-strength anti-inflammatory drugs. It is that I have extended my own suffering by doing some home improvement projects when I thought I was on the mend, only to regret that a day later. But now I’m starting to wonder how long I can be on these meds before they start eating a hole in the lining of my stomach…

From the Eye of the Storm #39

When I was a kid, the end of summer meant the end of freedom. As a parent who works from home, it means quite the opposite. The boys went to various cool camps (theater camp, architecture camp, sewing camp), but there was only one week all summer long where both boys were at camp at the same time, and they were at their mom’s house that week. So I was lucky if I could squeeze in a couple of hours writing a day. We also went to visit my aunt and uncle in New York for a week, and my parents in Arizona for a week. It was all a lot of fun, but I got no writing done on those trips.

I think the break did me a lot of good, though. I had adventures, read a lot, dreamed a lot—filling the well, as they say. And now that the boys are back to their schedule, I’m eager to get back to mine.

The next project after comes out in November is still TBD, so no news on that front yet (though hopefully soon!). But I am happy to announce that Italian publisher Armenia will be translating the entire trilogy. So add Italy to Hope and Red’s world tour! I believe that brings the grand total up to nine languages, which is really cool.

From the Eye of the Storm #38

Hello from America's political capital (and these days, drama capital as well). I haven't sent out a newsletter in a while. Mostly because I don't have any news. Blood and Tempest is finished on my end, and going through the slow, careful production process, and on schedule to be published in November. I'm working on what will probably be the next project, and while I'm feeling pretty confident about it, I don't have anything definite to report yet, and probably won't for at least a month. Maybe two.

From the Eye of the Storm #37

Hello, everyone. I’m back from my Irish road trip. Those of you who follow me on social media probably caught at least some of the onslaught of pictures I posted. I met my friend Darren, who’s been living in London for the last two years, in Dublin. Naturally, we went to the Guinness Storehouse, among other things. Then we rented a car, drove out to the west coast, and made our way slowly down over the course of several days, stopping frequently, until we reached the Skelligs, which some of you might know as that remote island chain where Rey finds Luke Skywalker at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The weather was freakishly perfect for almost the entire trip, and the only regret I have is that I didn’t take pictures of all the warm, friendly, and fascinating people we met along the way (also, there was that time I almost accidentally started a bar fight in Dublin, but I don’t actually regret that).

Anyway, here’s a picture of me contemplating life or something while looking out over the Cliffs of Moher.

From the Eye of the Storm #36

I have been struck with some sort of plague for the last week. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had the flu for this long of a stretch. I guess this is what happens these days in the age of flu shots to people who don’t get flu shots. I always argued that by getting flu shots, we were making the viruses stronger. Now I have proof. Unfortunately. Welp, if you can’t beat ‘em, join em! Guess who will pony up for a flu shot next season!

Around the same time I got sick, I also got revision notes for Blood and Tempest. So I’ve been dragging my hacking, phlegm-spewing self to the keyboard every day anyway. While I wouldn’t want to write a rough draft while being this sick, there is a sort of merciless, cold eye that being sick brings that I find is actually helpful at this stage in the revision process.

From the Eye of the Storm #35

Well, Bane and Shadow has been out in the world for a bit, and the response has been gratifying. Here are a couple of review excerpts:

From the Eye of the Storm #34

Here we are at the launch of Bane and Shadow, the second book in the trilogy.