Blood Debt:
Release dates for the two books above? Not confirmed yet... but soon :)
From the cutting room floor, background info and more
So, my next two releases will be (in still not confirmed order) Blood Debt (Witch's Heir #2) and The Reaper's Soul (Reaper's Heart #3). And both of these now have covers. Blood Debt: The Reaper's Soul: And in related news, I always planned for The Reaper's Heart to be a trilogy... but there will be a fourth component - not necessarily novel length. It's tentatively titled The Reaper's Curse.
Release dates for the two books above? Not confirmed yet... but soon :)
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Royal Blood is out now! Grab your copy here or read for free with KU. Royal Blood is the first book in a spin off series (trilogy?) from the Innocence Cooper series. A lot of your favourite characters pop in from time to time, but if you haven't read the Innocence Cooper series, you can start here. As a member of witch royalty, Melanie Cooper should be one of the most powerful and respected witches of her time. But Melanie was born without an active power - half a witch as they say at her school. Weak. And that's exactly how Melanie feels. The only way to fix it is to seek out the dark masters - powerful, ancient beings who could give her what she wants, for a price. With Melanie's bloodline coming under attack, she can't afford to be vulnerable. But what if there was a good reason she was never granted an active power? Royal Blood is on sale for US 99c for the first week of January. This is a worldwide sale, with other-currency prices set to the equivalent of US 99c plus any local taxes. What's next? The plan is to get The Reaper's Soul and the next Witch's Heir book (Blood Debt) out in the first half of 2019. I'll keep you posted. Royal Blood (the first in an Innocence Cooper spin off trilogy) is almost here. Almost enough to have its very own cover, and, finally, a series title - The Witch's Heir. Leave your comments below, and look for Royal Blood in the next month or so.
"This" being write from Jamie's point of view. So much of the fun with writing him is in how hard to read he is - how you don't know what's going on under the surface, but in the end I just couldn't get this story out of my head, and he was the right one to tell it. So here it is - an Innocence Cooper short story set after book 5, but before 'Ghosts of Innocence' (bonus story included with book 5)
So this is the part where I talk about the story - if you're not a fan of spoilers, I suggest you read the story first then come back here.
There were several things I wanted to do with this story. One was have Elliot trust Innocence - I felt like their trust issues weren't totally dealt with in book 5. Another was give a little hint of Cinder and Jamie. And I kind of did want one last kiss for Innocence and Jamie - even if it wasn't much of one. So, if you've been paying attention, you'll know there's an Innocence Cooper series spinoff (trilogy?) in the works.
The series/trilogy title is yet to be confirmed, but the first book is called Royal Blood - blurb below. As a member of witch royalty, Melanie Cooper should be one of the most powerful and respected witches of her time. But Melanie was born without an active power - half a witch as they say at her school. Weak. And that's exactly how Melanie feels. The only way to fix it is to seek out the dark masters - powerful, ancient beings who could give her what she wants, for a price. With Melanie's bloodline coming under attack, she can't afford to be vulnerable. But what if there was a good reason she was never granted an active power? Basically, it's set twenty something years after the Innocence Cooper series. Melanie is Innocence's daughter, and - as revealed in the blurb - she was born without an active power. Naturally, as a Cooper, she finds this completely unacceptable. There are a lot of characters from the first series that pop up throughout the story - some just for brief scenes, but some as fairly main characters. In my tradition of vague release dates, let's just say 'this year'... The Reaper's Heart finally has a cover - see below. At its heart, this book is a romance... I think of it as a romantic comedy, but that probably understates the drama and (obvious) paranormal elements. It definitely gets more light-hearted than some of my other works, but it would be a mistake to think it didn't have some dark moments too.
As mentioned before, this book will be out October 31 at the latest. I'm hoping for before, but books really just have to come out when they're ready to. In other news, the boxset of books 1-3 of the Innocence Cooper series is available now. Check it out here. So, in a way this is cheating, because my next release is nothing new. My next release is a boxset of the first three Innocence Cooper books (ebook release only.) That's Confessions of Innocence, Redefining Innocence and Trials of Innocence, all in one - cover art below. Expect this out in the next couple of weeks. If you happen to be on the mailing list, there won't be an email about this one just because it's not new... If you are on the mailing list, there's a good chance you've already read it.
Now, to be clear, there is no bonus content of any kind in this collection. It is simply the first three books bundled together. I did consider writing a bonus scene or adding a deleted scene in there somewhere, but I don't really think that's fair to people who might have wanted to read the bonus scene and had already paid for the books. So if you have already read the first 3 books, you can safely give this one a miss (perhaps after admiring the different cover style above?) This set will also be in KU, at least initially. Why is it the first 3 books and not all 5? A couple of reasons - with the way Amazon pays royalties, I'd end up with less money from a book that cost $10 than I would for one that cost $9.99 - and all 5 books together would be over $9.99. The other reason is sell-through. A lot of the time someone buys a book, and that's the end of it. There's no way for me to know if they even read it, let alone liked it or finished it. Unless there's a book that comes after. If 3 people buy book 1, and 2 people buy book 2, I still don't know about person 3, but I do know that 2 people liked the book enough to keep going - which is a nice (and useful) thing to know. Anyway, for those of you who have already read the first 3 books, here's what you can expect coming to this blog soon for you: - The Reaper's Heart cover reveal - A short story set between Age of Innocence (bk 5) and Ghosts of Innocence (bonus story that comes with bk 5) I feel like I've been hinting this book is coming on this blog forever, and yet you still know nothing about it... Let's fix that.
We'll start with the blurb: After years of loving Johnny from afar, Cassie is finally going to make a move. She times her day so she can walk him home after his basketball game and talk to him alone. But on that walk the two of them witness a car crash, and Johnny unwittingly reveals his secret: he's a reaper, charged with collecting the souls of the dead. Cassie doesn't know what to think about the boy who she's had a crush on for so long. Her best friend, Kara, urges her to stay away, insisting he's dangerous. But, with no one else he can confide in, Cassie sees it as her chance to get close to him. Will the reaper claim her soul before she can claim his heart? Basically, there's Cassie, hopeless romantic who has finally decided to make a move on Johnny, and Johnny, who happens to secretly be a reaper. And he plays basketball and takes science tests. Both are seventeen at the start of the book. It's your basic girl meets boy, boy turns out to be a potentially dangerous mythical creature scenario. In terms of genre, somewhere in the YA paranormal romance/romantic comedy area. It's more light-hearted than my other stuff, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to murder your favourite character when you least expect it. (And if that reminds you of anything - sorry not sorry.) I've already given Oct 31st as my absolute, release no later than date, but I'm hoping for sooner. If you have any questions about The Reaper's Heart, feel free to ask below. Chapter one either comes out perfect first time, or it takes months - and dozens of revisions - to get right. As you might have guessed from the time it took to release, the fifth Innocence book went through more revisions than most of what I write. I have several very different 'chapter one's lying around. So here's one of them. Just FYI, this does contain spoilers for Innocence #5. Even though it is a version of chapter one, some things that aren't mentioned until later in the actual book are referenced here, and it might constitute a spoiler. Only mild spoilers for past chapter one in the actual book, though. Please also note that the vast majority of blog content has not been through the editing process, so may not be mistake-free. You can download a PDF of the alternate first chapter below.
I still don't have anything nailed down as far as what will be released next. The best I can offer in terms of concrete dates is this: The Reaper's Heart will be out Oct 31st if not before. I'm hoping for before. The aim is to follow it up reasonably quickly with its sequel, tentatively titled 'The Reaper's Soul'.
I am expecting that TRH and TRS will be the first two books of a trilogy. |
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