Category: Updates

Updates

Merry Midwinter!

Becca Lusher

Okay, so that was yesterday, but picky, picky. Merry Mid-December, everyone! However you happen to celebrate it, if you do at all, then I wish you all the joy of the season.

I also need to make some apologies, because Sisters of Icarus isn’t out. Nor is it going to be for the foreseeable future. I’m shelving it for the moment because I’m not that happy with it as it stands, and I’d also like to finish all three books before I release any of them. My lovely beta readers agree with me, so sorry if you were waiting for it. If you’d like to read it as it stands, and don’t mind helping me make it better, by all means leave me a comment or email me. I’m always looking for more betas, though I’m pretty sure it’s a thankless task with the amount of stuff I write.

So no new book before 2015, sorry about that. I might, however, have a short story – it all depends on how much free time I get between now and Jan 1st. It’ll be Shaiel and Demero if it does materialise, but if it doesn’t then it’s because I’ve been hijacked by an Anglo-Saxon rebel. Actually he’s not Anglo-Saxon at all, that’s where the trouble starts, but more of that in the New Year.

Speaking of which, next year looks to be interesting in terms of releases from me. Not only do I plan to keep on releasing the Tales of the Aekhartain, as well as the Icarus Child trilogy, but with any lucky I’ll be unleashing the Overworld too. More things with wings, but this time set on another world. Fantasy, giant eagles, skyships and an elite fighting band – sound like fun? Look out for updates on Wingborn, coming soon!

In the meantime, happy holidays!

Updates

Quick Update

Becca Lusher

Sister of Icarus is finished! First draft, anyway. I already know certain places where I need to change things or explain more, but I don’t care.

First draft is done!

Now I can go play with Tobi and Faron for a bit, riding around waving a sword and making pretty swirls with magic. Yay!

(More Good Company tomorrow, for anyone who’s interested. And thanks to Sisters, my current NaNo total is 16K. Whoo!)

(Oh, and I took Be With Me down from Amazon, because it wasn’t price matching and it was annoying me. I might put it up again some time, but it’s always been free on Smashwords.)

Updates

Kalan Gawv Lowen!

Becca Lusher

Happy First Day of Winter! Or Merry Samhain, or Happy Hallowe’en, or Yes! It’s Friday! Whatever today means to you, I hope you’re having a good day.

Now for a quick update of what’s going on around Beccaland right now.

Writing: I’m currently finishing up the next Aekhartain book, Sisters of Icarus, which is the first of a trilogy telling of Shaiel’s origins, how the Aekhartain were formed, and explains more about that pesky island. As with everything Aekhartain it’s an awkward thing to describe, because the first book is a romance, but the ones that follow aren’t. Oh well, more on that later.

NaNoWriMo: Anyone taking part? I’ve never been an official participant, since I spend too many months writing novels as it is ;) but I sometimes like to set myself an unofficial challenge. This year I want to write something that isn’t Aekh-related, so I’ll be trying to finish an old story I’ve had lying around for a few years. It’s a M/M tale about a healer mage student and a squire, and is a much more traditional fantasy than the Aekhs. I’ll be posting bits and pieces as I go, if anyone is interested in reading along, and maybe encouraging me to finish it, that would be great. I already have a fair chunk, which is handy since I want to finish Sisters first. If there’s anyone out there who wants a cheerleader to help them through the month, let me know. I wave a mean pom-pom!

Reading: I have read some amazing books over the last few months, so I’ll have to find time to make a few recommendations. My current favourite thing is Rebel Wing by Tracy Banghart, YA Sci-Fi at it’s absolute best. Read anything good lately?

And that’s about all I can think of for the moment. Hope all’s well in your own worlds and that life is treating you kind. Have an apple of good fortune from me.

 

 

Aekhartain, Books, Updates

Coming Soon!

Becca Lusher

Coming on Wednesday (1st October) a whole new free novella!

This might not be the final cover. I haven't decided yet.
This might not be the final cover. I haven’t decided yet, but isn’t South Devon pretty when looking from one high point to another? ;) As for the dandelions… they seemed a good idea at the time.

This is a 50,000 word romance that takes place in the middle of Demero’s book, involving two of the minor characters. If you haven’t read Unbound and Free, don’t worry, I’ve tried to keep spoilers to a minimum (though there’s a couple of things I couldn’t avoid). If you have read U&F then this story is about how Elisud and Briallen met and married, with lots of Demairo and Ceri moments along the way. There’s a moment with crows and some obligatory drooling over Dartmoor, but mostly it’s about adjusting to life on a farm after a lifetime by the sea. I’ll put up a blurb when I write one.

Oh, it’s also set in the 3rd century AD, in south-west Roman Britain, where Roman influence was barely felt, leaving it with more of an Iron Age feel. If the historical aspect of U&F put you off before, why not try this? It’s free and it’ll give you a fair idea of just how historical I go. (I try to be as accurate as I can, without having a degree in ancient history or archeology, but likewise I try not to lay out all my research just to prove I did it – even though I sometimes really want to.)

Also happening on Wednesday: I’m taking Orion’s Kiss down from Smashwords, and all its associated sellers (B&N, ibooks, Kobo, etc), and making it an Amazon exclusive. It’ll be a three-month trial, so it might well go back up on the other sites after that, but for the moment all sales of that book are coming from Az, so it seems silly to let them keep more of my royalties than I need to. All my future releases will still go out to Smashwords and everywhere else, but if this works then I’ll probably move them all to Amazon after six months or so. This won’t affect my freebies.

Other than that I’ve already started on my next Aekh tale, a proper novel this time, and I’m considering what to play with for NaNo this year (anything but Aekhartain). I’m also reviewing books like mad, for no other reason than when my life gets busy I tend to read more, so joining NetGalley was a way of getting new books without playing for them ;) If you have a book you’d like me to review, send me an email and we’ll talk.

In the meantime, merry Friday, everyone!

Aekhartain, Books, Updates

Orion’s Kiss Update

Becca Lusher

New updated version of Orion’s Kiss is now available!

Mostly it involved tidying up typos and stupid mistakes (like missing words *facepalm*), but the biggest changes are:

Orion's Kiss

 

  • New Cover
  • An adjustment of the Aekhartain language used to bring it into line with my new verb rules
  • Replaced the old ‘About Aekhartain’ section with the expanded version from Unbound and Free
  • Added blurbs from Sing to Me and Unbound and Free to the back

 

 

 

 

If you bought it from Kindle it should either update automatically, or you’ll get email about the updates. If you bought it from Smashwords then you can download it again (you’ll get a list, but please pick the one at the top, or else you’ll get all the mistakes that I’ve been arguing with Smashwords’ Meat Grinder about over the last few days – I am mystified as to how the same file can be fine one moment, then riddled with errors a few minutes later).

If you have the Kindle version, and you want to use the ToC to go to a certain chapter then click the number rather than Chapter because my links have fragmented. I know why, and I will fix it, but I want to finish fighting with Smashwords first before I make any more adjustments.

Speaking of Smashwords, if you’re about to re-download from there, you might want to leave it a few days while I iron out the last few bugs. (Right now we’re fighting over why it didn’t just convert it to the Sony Reader LRF version – oh, no, it’s just gone through again without issue. I shall now cautiously start checking it for any unseen errors…)

Ah, the joys of epublishing, right? ^__^

Updates

What’s Becca Up To Now?

Becca Lusher

Since I’m currently running around busy with Real Life things at the moment, I thought I should stop by and give a brief update on what’s going on in my writing life right now.

Firstly, the new Freyda and Dóma short story (Sweetness and Shadows) is about to go through some edits, before being posted very soon. I’d love to say this Saturday (9th), but as time is currently messing me about, I’ll say definitely no later than the 13th August. As it turned out a little longer than I anticipated (when don’t my stories do that these days?) I’ll possibly need to split into a couple of entries. Don’t worry, though, I’ll add it all at once so you don’t have to wait.

Secondly, I’m also about to start work on re-editing Orion’s Kiss. I already have a new cover for it, to match Unbound and Free, so all it needs is a quick polish and it’ll go live everywhere. I know Kindle automatically updates (unless you’ve switched off that setting), but I think if you bought it through Smashwords you’ll possibly need to redownload it. As for everywhere else, I’ve no clue. I shall investigate before I post it and get back to you on that.

Thirdly, writing-wise I have this week just started my next story. This’ll be a freebie ebook (like Sing to Me) and it’ll focus on two characters from the Demero tales. It’ll be another romance, but M/F this time, and still set in the way-back-when.

Other than that I’m mostly mulling over ideas. I’ll see how the first of the Freyda/Dóma freebie tales goes, then I might write a couple more. I could probably add some drabbles while I’m about it, and I’d like to write a few “Further Adventures of Shaiel and Demero” at some point too. I’ve also got a photo post I want to make about a couple of the locations that cropped up in Unbound and Free, as well as a new author photo to add somewhere, somewhen. So many ideas, so little time.

As always, got anything to ask, say, add etc, then comment away, my lovelies! (Or if you’re shy, email me instead.)

ETA: New photo on the About page and at Smashwords. I’ve also finally got around to building author pages on Amazon.com and co.uk. Yeah, yeah, I’m so quick at these things…

Aekhartain, Updates

Demero Update and What’s Next

Becca Lusher
Merrivale Dartmoor -- February 2011
Merrivale
Dartmoor — February 2011

I’ve finally finished all the original writing on Demero’s book – Unbound and Free – which has proved to be so much longer than I anticipated. All in, it’ll be over 110K words, which is over 400 pages in standard book form. Phew.

However, as happy as this makes me (and it really does), I’ve still got to go back and do some major rewriting on Story 1: Jealousy’s Shadow and coax some of my lovely, ever-so-helpful reading friends to look over Story 3: Unbound and Free and the newly (as of early this morning) finished Story 4: (title not quite decided). So nearly there, but not so nearly after all.

But it’s progress, it is coming, and hopefully I’ll get it out before July ends. Huzzah!

After that there are a few romantic stories I want to tell from this book (one from before it starts, two right in the middle), and I’ll probably want to write something with some of these non-Aekhartain characters again, but I’ll see what happens. I also want to write a little short story with Freyda and Dóma, so I’m thinking up ideas for that.

Then it’ll be a Book 1 rewrite for Shaiel’s big tale – Icarus Child. I’ve been wanting to put that off until I’ve established the Aekhartain a bit more (it certainly wasn’t anywhere near the first Aekh tale I ever wrote), but some of the things that happen in Demero’s tale are forcing my hand. Blame the island, I always do. Unfortunately this means I have to put off Nawaquí’s tale, which means I also have to put off everything that comes after.

I HAVE TOO MANY STORIES! But I know this, I have known it for years, and these are only the Aekhartain section of my private library.

So, the revised release schedule now reads something like this:

  • Unbound and Free: Demero’s Tale (Historical 3rd century AD) — July 2014
  • A free U&F related novella, plus a handful of short stories on the blog — Aug/Sept 2014
  • A Freyda/Dóma short on the blog — Aug 2014
  • Sisters of Icarus: Icarus Child Book I: Shaiel’s story (Historical – 3rd-2nd century BC) — Winter 2014/5
  • Fighting the Dark/Crusades of Darkness (A something with Dark in the title): Nawaquí’s Tale (Historical – 8th century AD) — Spring 2015 (or earlier if I can manage it. His only biggest fan’s birthday is in February.)
  • The Crying Child: Icarus Child Book II: Shaiel’s story (Historical – 2nd century BC) — Summer-ish 2015
  • Winter’s Child: Issie and Eddie’s stories (Contemporary – 1990s/2000s) — Autumn/Winter 2015
  • The Icarus Child: Icarus Child Book III: Shaiel’s story (Historical – 2nd century) — 2016 (which is a depressing thought)

As always with me, all of the above is kind of fluid and subject to change. At some point I’ll probably have had my absolute fill of all things Aekhartain and run off for a few months to play with my other stories (Overworld tales, I miss you!), but I promise I will always come back. The Aekhartain have been luring me back for a decade now, I’m not about to abandon them any time soon.

As always, any questions, please feel free to ask!