This update is a little late this month—sorry! But I do have lots to share. The next Tournai book, The Dragon's Devotion, was sent off to the copy editor at the beginning of June after I worked through the rest of the edits last month. It's still on track to be published in September. Yay! I'm excited for you to read it. I think you'll enjoy Bastien and Corentin's story (If you've read the previous books in the series, you've met both of them, but if not, you can always start here or catch up before September). It has romance, magic, political intrigue, family drama, mystery, and a dragon, of course. I'll keep you updated as I have more information.

I've also been working on another project about Edmund and Arden, my two princes (one transgender, one cis and demisexual) who fall in love even though they really shouldn't. There's an arranged marriage, an assassination attempt and a plot to frame Edmund, an escape from a dungeon, and all sorts of other good stuff, along with the romance. I've finished revisions based on reader feedback and written the (dreaded) synopsis. Now it's time to start submitting. I love these character and this story so much, and I'm really hoping to see it as a book. Fingers crossed, everyone! 

I've also started writing the Tournai book that will follow The Dragon's Devotion. Returning to Tournai is like coming home after working on something else for the last several months. I'm only about 10k in so I can't tell you too much, because I figure out a lot as I go along, but I'm enjoying spending time with so many favorite characters again, and getting to know my new main characters better. If you've read The Scholar's Heart, you've met one of them: Maxen, Tristan's younger brother. You'll meet the other in The Dragon's Devotion. As with any new story, I have a new notebook to write in, and there's a picture of it for you below.

Now, for the news. First, the Tournai books are 30% off at Dreamspinner through June 24th, along with the rest of the store, so you can stock up on all your summer reading. Second, I'll be attending the NJ Romance Writers Hearts & Sparks Reader/Blogger Appreciation brunch in October. Registration is open now, and if you're in the area, I would love to see you there. Find out more information over here. Finally, if you're an unpublished romance writer, the NJ Romance Writers annual Put Your Heart in a Book contest is open for entries. It's a great way to get feedback on your writing and get your work in front of editors and agents. Winners are announced at the NJRW conference in October. More information about entering is here.

​I think that's all for this month. Back to writing for me!

Some days the world kind of feels like it's burning down around us, but I'm trying to keep myself writing anyway. Mostly because I know escaping to my own little fantasy world and creating stories where everything ends happily ever after keeps me sane, and hopefully helps you a little when you read them too. And also because there are deadlines and this is a job. But really, the other stuff.

So, let's see. Since my last update, I've finished writing and revising the fantasy romance I've been telling you about the last couple of months, about my two princes Edmund and Arden who fall in love when they absolutely shouldn't and have to escape from a dungeon and go on the run and prevent a war. (And there's romance and happily ever after in there too.) It probably needs another read through to proof it and I have to do a synopsis (the dreaded synopsis) and come up with a title (I'm so bad at those!), but I'm happy anyway.

I'm also working on the first round of edits for The Dragon's Devotion, the next Tournai book. I'll be buried under those for a bit, but at least at the moment, I feel like it sounds pretty good, and I'm happy to be back in Tournai. Exciting too that we're getting farther into the process. The Dragon's Devotion should be out in September, and I'll keep you updated as I get more information. For now, I just need to get through these edits.

Next up to be written is the Tournai book that follows The Dragon's Devotion. I have the perfect notebook all picked out and ready.

We're well into April now (somehow!), so it seems to be time for a update. First, an exciting thing: I finished the draft that I've been working on! It's untitled (of course—I'm so bad at titles!), but this is the fantasy romance between two princes, Edmund and Arden, who should not fall in love with one another but do, while trying to avert war and catastrophe and uncover a plot. I'm revising it now, and trying to keep myself on track. For some reason, I always slow down during revisions, but I'm really trying to push through and get this all finished. February and March were productive writing months for me, and I need to keep that going in April's revisions. I really like Edmund and Arden and their world, and I hope you will too when you meet them. It's been fun exploring and creating someplace new. I can't talk too much about other characters at this point because no one has a definite name other than Edmund and Arden. I have so many names to decide on! Which is actually kind of fun. I've always loved names, and I have a stack of name books I'm going to comb through to find the perfect ones. 

Once the revisions are done, I plan on writing Tournai 6 (which also, of course, is untitled). I'm excited to get back to Tournai, and I have all sorts of ideas running around in my head for what comes next. You haven't met one of the main characters in Tournai 6 yet, but the other is Maxen, Tristan's brother, whom you met in The Scholar's Heart. After that, I guess we'll see. I still have a contemporary I'd like to finish, and the current project is the first in a duology so at some point I'll start on that as well. Edits for The Dragon's Devotion, the fifth Tournai book, should be starting soon too.

In other news, I'll be at Rainbow Book Fair in New York City on April 29th, so if you're in the area, come see me! I'd love to see you. I'll be selling books, as will many other authors of LGBT books. And lastly, the Tournai books are 25% off at Dreamspinner through April 17th.

I hit my 30K in NJRW's JeRoWriMo Challenge this week. Yay! I've said it before, but I really do love this challenge, and I look forward to it every year. This wonderful group of writers supporting and motivating each other to write never fails to get me excited and writing (and my natural competitiveness doesn't hurt!). I wrote more words in the first week of the challenge than I did in all of January. I've had some bad, bad writing months lately, but it looks like February is a good one.

Even though I completed the challenge, I'm not going to to stop. I'm hoping to make at least 40K by the end of the month, and then to keep the momentum going into March to finish this book. So I should get back to writing...

Today starts the New Jersey Romance Writers' writing challenge month, JeRoWriMo, in which participants have a goal of writing 30,000 words in the month of February. I'm excited for JeRoWriMo. I've participated the past few years, and I've always gotten a lot written. The writers who participate cheer each other's accomplishments and encourage each other every day. The group is a wonderful one each year. 

This year, I'm shooting for more than 30,000 words. I've done it the last couple of years, but this year is a bit different, and I've had a difficult time getting my head in a place where I can write lately. I'm hoping that JeRoWriMo will help me. I know that the encouragement, accountability, and my own sense of competition always have in the past. I'm working on the fantasy romance I mentioned in my last update post, and I'm hoping to add a lot of words this words this month. I'll keep you updated on my progress. Here we go! 30K, write away!

It's been a while (too long!) since I posted any updates for you, partly, at least, because the last couple months of 2016 were not particularly productive writing months. You can probably guess at least some of the reasons for that. This month I've been forcing myself back into writing. Not only because I want to write more stories for all of you, but also because I feel better when I'm writing. It's been a bit slow going, but I'm getting back into it, and I'm hoping that February, and its JeRoWriMo writing challenge, will give me some good progress.

What am I writing? The contemporary I was working on at the end of last year stalled on me again, so I put it aside. I'll come back to it, but I need to figure out why it isn't working at the moment. Instead I started the new year with a new story. (And a new journal for it! I have to have a new journal to make notes and scribble in and sometimes write in for each story. The journal I'm using now is in the photo.) It's a fantasy romance, but not part of the Tournai series. So it's a whole new world to create and explore and all new characters to get to know. Exciting and a little daunting, but I'm enjoying it. No title yet, because I'm horrible with titles, but our main characters are Edmund and Arden. They're princes from neighboring countries, and they should not be falling in love with each other for many, many reasons. Of course that won't stop them (eventually).

After this, I'll have to see how the year goes. I'd love to get back to writing Tournai. There are some characters there (some you've met, some you haven't yet) that are yelling for their stories. Or politely reminding me, depending on their personalities. I'll keep you posted on that. I'd also love to finish writing the contemporary I started. Then, of course, I already know there has to be a second book after the fantasy I've just started. Lots of plans and ideas on the horizon.

I've been busy with writing and edits and a bunch of other things I can hardly remember right now, and this post is a bit later than usual this month for which I'm sorry. But I have lots of news for you!

The Sorcerer's Guardian is done with edits, and I turned in my proofreading last week so we're getting so close! Exciting! I don't have an exact release date yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I do. And if you want to catch up on the Tournai books before it comes out, and you like paperbacks, the Tournai paperbacks (and all other paperbacks!) are 30% off at Dreamspinner this week.

The fifth Tournai book is coming along. I'm over 100,000 words and winding towards the end. I just have to get Bastien out of danger (because I had to toss him into danger, of course) and get him back together with Corentin. I'm hoping to finish writing and start revising in the next week, and then I can get Tournai 5 (must think of a title!) all ready to send to Dreamspinner.

In other book news, a charity anthology that I was asked to contribute a story to several months ago is available for preorder at Amazon and will be out October 7th at Amazon and other retailers. You can find out more about the Turn the Page... anthology here. I was honored to be asked to participate, and I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the stories in this anthology.

Finally, I thought I'd share a picture of my workspace with you. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably remember the fiasco that was the ant invasion of my office last month. There were ants everywhere and on everything and it was absolutely disgusting (I never want to see ants crawling over my keyboard again!), and I had to tear the whole room apart. The silver lining is that I got a chance to reorganize some, but my desk will probably never be so neat again!

First off, I apologize there wasn't a Rainbow Snippet over the weekend. The week was busy, and I just didn't get it prepared in time. Rainbow Snippets will resume next weekend, though, so look out for that. (Also be on the look out for something fun on Wednesday!)

Now, for some updates. Part of what made last week so busy was that I was working on the third and final edit for The Sorcerer's Guardian. I finished and turned that in to my editor at Dreamspinner on Sunday. Yay! I can't believe the last edit is finished. We're getting toward the end with this one. Only proofing left to do!

Writing slowed down a bit last week too because of edits, but I'm eager to dive back in. I had finally built up some momentum with the fifth Tournai book recently after a slow start, and I'm hoping I can get that back this week and push through the draft. I'm at about 75,000 words, so it's coming along. Well past the halfway point! I'm hoping to finish soon and revise and submit.

Somehow half of 2016 is gone, and I'm not really sure how that happened. But I promised you updates, not complaining how fast the year is going by. First off, the first round of edits for The Sorcerer's Guardian landed in my inbox late last week, and I've spent the time since working on them. I'm excited to work on these, and looking forward to sharing the story with you. As I get a little farther into the editing process, I'll share a few snippets with you. For now, you can find some info about the book here.

I had to take a little break from writing while I worked through the biggest part of the edits, but I'm diving back into that now. I'm over 30,000 words in on the fifth Tournai book (no title yet!). I'd hoped for more by now, but as always seems to happen, getting into the story took me longer than I thought it would. Time to push to get more words down! 

The Scholar's Heart is out in the world, and the blog tour has ended. I have to say a big thank you to everyone who hosted me on the tour: Thianna Durston, MM Good Book Reviews, Anne Barwell, Aisling Mancy, Anna Butler, Oh My Shelves, The Novel Approach, Divine Magazine, the Purple Rose Teahouse, Love Bytes, Prism Book Alliance, House Millar, and Brynn Stein. I so appreciate your letting me visit to talk about The Scholar's Heart. Thank you to all of you who followed the tour too! I hope you had fun learning more about The Scholar's Heart and the Chronicles of Tournai series along the way. And a huge thank you to all of you who are buying and reading and reviewing The Scholar's Heart! I know that many of you were waiting for it, and I hope you're enjoying Etan and Tristan's story.

I also have a winner to announce. The winner of the blog tour giveaway is Wax Applelover! Congratulations!

And now for some exciting news and some updates for you. First, the news: I've just signed a contract with Dreamspinner for book 4 in the Chronicles of Tournai series, The Sorcerer's Guardian. Editing is set to begin next month for a release date sometime in November or December. So you should have another Tournai book by the end of the year. I'll keep you updated as the process gets started.

As for writing updates, I'm hard at work writing book 5 in the series too, and my brain is spinning with ideas for what comes after that. (I keep having to tell characters to wait their turns! They're not patient.) I'm also working on my other project as well, something contemporary that takes place in Savannah, Georgia. Though I've been concentrating a bit more on the Tournai book lately, I'm excited about this project too and looking forward to seeing where those characters take me.

Finally, I'll be selling and signing books at RWA-NYC's Romance Festival at the Morris-Jumel House in New York City on June 25th. The event is free and will include book discussions and lots of authors to meet. It's my first time attending as an author or a reader, and I'm excited. If you're in the area, I hope to see you there.