This month has been crazy-busy with the launch of Azuri Fae, a new cover art commission, outlining the next Caledonia Fae book, an editing project, and a couple of guest appearances on other blogs! I have hardly had time even to lay out my plan for 2012. Maybe that’s for the best though… I find plans often don’t go the way I intend anyway!

But I do have news!

Blood Faerie and Azuri Fae have been enrolled in the Kindle Select programme. This means that if you are an Amazon Prime member, you can borrow them free on your Kindle! I know there’s been a lot of debate from authors about this scheme and the fact that they only accept digital books exclusive to Amazon, but I have found sales increasing since becoming a Kindle Select author, plus I get paid for every borrow, and borrows seem to count towards improving my sales rank as well, so don’t hesitate to borrow my books if you’re eligible for it! For me, there just isn’t a downside!

For a very limited time (like, a few more days), Ordinary Angels is on sale for 99¢ on Amazon. (It’s also at a reduced price in Amazon’s UK, DE, IT, ES, and FR stores, so check out your local Amazon site if you’re in Europe.) If you haven’t read it yet, this is your chance to get it on sale now!

Azuri Fae has been formatted for print now, and is working its way through the channels. I expect it to be available in January (assuming the proof comes out looking fab), for those who still prefer books made from trees. I’ll be sure and make an announcement on Twitter and my Facebook author page when it’s up, so watch the social networks! Also, you can read an excerpt of Azuri Fae now.

And lasty, I have final cover art for Enemy of the Fae, the now-fully-outlined finale to the Caledonia Fae trilogy.

I’m really excited about this one. Each book in this series shows the stakes rising, the decisions getting tougher, and the action more intense. I had always planned for this series to be a trilogy, but I have to confess that I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop after just three. I’ll probably have a better idea after I write the first draft of Enemy of the Fae and see how things are left. I know it sounds crazy, especially considering I have the book planned, but sometimes things just don’t go according to plan. Sometimes they go even better!

The plan was simple. The simplicity of it brought on mostly by my panicked rush to get the details nailed down, to not skip any steps, to put out the best, cleanest book I could, and do it right after a major computer meltdown sent me into a tailspin. So, I intended to slip Azuri Fae onto Amazon ASAP, and then on December 1st, I’d make the big announcements, do my social networking rounds, etc. This would give me time to breathe and to make sure everything looked right with the new book. Accidents, delays, oversights… they can all happen with a book release.

And then this weird thing happened.

I followed through on the first part of the plan–snuck the book onto Amazon. But then you readers out there did something that caught me by surprise, and sent my whole sneaky plan out the window. You started buying it. Like, lots of you. Like, lots and lots of you. Enough to put Azuri Fae on two bestseller lists over the weekend. All before I’d told a soul, sent out my newsletter, made one tweet! Which left me wanting to post something saying, “Who are you people, and why are you buying my book?!?!?” (I’ve been told that wouldn’t be very professional though.)

I hadn’t expected anyone to discover the book was available yet. After all, it’s not even in Amazon’s search system, it hasn’t been tagged, it has only one review up, and it is too new to appear on the “also-boughts” (That takes at least two weeks). So, because no one would know the book was available, I’d dismissed the idea of any sales for November. When I read my sales reports Sunday morning, I quite literally thought it had to be a reporting error by Amazon. But no, the ranking just hovered, readers kept picking up their copy, and Amazon never wrote correcting their “mistake”. (Who are you people? And why are you buying my book?)

So I’m stunned. And delighted! And overwhelmed. I was feeling quite emotional about it yesterday, and to celebrate, I took the day off. After all, I’ve not had a day off since the Great ‘Puter Explosion of 2011.

Today, I’m here saying a very humble THANK YOU to my readers. I’ve never done anything so fulfilling in my life. No other job has given me what writing and publishing have. I am working harder, longer hours, pushing myself every day, and yet…I’ve never been happier. It’s not about the money (although getting paid to write feels incredible after years of collecting rejection letters), but rather, that sense of elation comes from feeling like I’ve found my spot in the world. I’m telling stories, and people want to hear them. It fills me with all kinds of warmness. =)

Thank you, readers! ♥

Azuri Fae is Book 2 in the Caledonia Fae series.

A faerie prince disappears in the borderlands, and his father enlists the help of outcast Eilidh and her bonded druid, Quinton Munro. Tantalised with hints of a lost and ancient magic, they learn that time is working against them every step of the way. Is the prince’s disappearance related to the vanishing of an entire Scottish village?

Faced with deception, assassination attempts, and a mad queen who would sacrifice her own child to keep a dreaded secret, Eilidh struggles with an impossible situation. Her people demand she commit treason and betray the man she loves. Will she do what duty requires, or throw away the chance to reunite the kingdom in exchange for the life she hadn’t dared hope for?

Caledonia Fae:
Book 1: Blood Faerie
Book 2: Azuri Fae
Book 3: Enemy of the Fae (Coming 2012)

And just in case you haven’t gotten your copy of Azuri Fae yet, you can find it here:

Amazon USA
Amazon UK

Print edition to follow in early 2012.

My computer exploded. Died in most spectacular way. With a hideous screetching death rattle. If you’re a writer, artist, or really anyone who relies on your computer for work, you’ll be experiencing a sinking feeling just reading this and thinking about it.

I’ll spare you the description of the hideous week I had, the headaches, the sleepless nights, the stress. Of course it had to happen a week before a book was due! It wouldn’t be a true catastrophe if it happened at a time when nothing was at stake, right?

So, a few things that are important for you to know:

1. If you wrote me an email last week, and I haven’t responded, you should send it again. I lost (forever) two days worth of emails that can’t be recovered. I’d rather hear from you twice than not at all, so please don’t hesitate to drop me a note.
2. The release of Azuri Fae has been delayed by a week. I had originally hoped to be getting it out to reviewers this week, but the final edits couldn’t be completed last week, since I wasn’t sure until yesterday exactly how much I’d lost. I lost two days worth of edits, a week of time, and ten years off my life in stress. It will absolutely be ready before the end of this month, and likely sooner. If you want to be notified on the release date, sign up for my newsletter.
3. Back your work up EVERY day. I backed mine up Sunday night, but forgot Monday night. Tuesday just after dinner, my hard drive gave up the ghost. I feel so lucky that I didn’t lose more. When I’m writing or working on an art project, I back up my work nightly. I don’t know why I forgot Monday. I use Acronis for backups. Although it wasn’t the one-click, ten minute recovery I’d fantasized about, it DID save my bacon, and I got everything important back (minus the days after the last backup, of course.)

I have more to tell you about… for example, last week an article I wrote well before the disaster appeared on Lindsay Below’s blog, in which I wrote about the specific issues involved in creating a series. You can also get an early preview of the cover for Book 3 in the Caledonia Fae series. I haven’t shown that cover anywhere else yet (was waiting for the release of Azuri Fae first), but if you sneak over there, you can see the cover art for Enemy of the Fae.

Also, my friend Jessica Bell released her debut novel, String Bridge. I had planned a post for her release date, but alas, I was coping with the Internet via my iPod Touch that day! But do go check it out!

I’ve also completed another cover art project, but I’ll save that announcement for another day. Right now, it’s time to dig in and put the stresses of last week behind me while I edit (once again) Azuri Fae for the last time and prepare it for final formatting.

Thanks for your patience while I’ve been on radio silence. Do get in touch if we’ve missed a connection recently! I’m still feeling a bit discombobulated after my computer disaster, so I might need a nudge!

I find myself constantly surprised at how time keeps ticking by so quickly. I don’t think I’ve had a “this day is never going to end” day since high school, and I seem to be gaining momentum and days whirl by.

I also notice that the older I get, the more impatient I get with the silly things. I’m all for silly things like wearing purple hats. Not so much in favour of silly things like correcting typos in other people’s chat messages. In fact, I’ve had to step away from twitter or the blogosphere a couple of times to keep myself from commenting on other people getting crabby about things that are un-crab-worthy. (Plus, I think I may be the only person out there who likes the new facebook changes!)

It seems that there are a lot of folks out there in a tizzy lately. Not sure why. Maybe I’m logging in at just the wrong times every day. Maybe it’s because a lot of my friends are authors, and it’s such a crazy time in the industry, that all the contradictory predictions out there are a bit crazy-making. Or maybe I’m crabby, and anyone else’s crabby puts me in overload. (I don’t think that one’s it…I think I’m just low on tolerance for tizzy these days.)

So, rather than spend my usual amount of time socialising in the online stream of consciousness, I’ve been working (surprise, surprise). Here’s the run-down of what’s new…

Azuri Fae is nearly READY!!! I couldn’t be happier with the response from my beta readers, although I’m feeling somewhat shocked that they didn’t tear it apart. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop. But they all loved it. One even said it was better than the first one, which made me grin from ear to ear. So, after a week of letting it sit in a cool, dark place, I’m taking the manuscript and using their notes for one more pass through before it goes to edits. If my editor feels the same way my beta readers did, the book might be out even earlier than expected. (touch wood)

The Ordinary Angels re-launch has gone incredibly well. It’s doing so well, in fact, that I’m starting to tell people that I wouldn’t recommend going with a small press at all. This has just proven to me that not only was my small publisher not helping me, their tactics were hurting sales. (It only took days on my own to equal the number of sales they got me in ten weeks.) And the truth is, with all the problems I had, that particular press was one of the more forward-thinking, author-friendly small publishers out there. At least when things didn’t go well, they released me from my contract. I know of many others who weren’t so lucky, who lost the rights to their own books for years when things went sour (some even after being told their books wouldn’t be published–You heard that right. They lose their rights AND the publisher decided not to put their books out). I see it time and time again… an author friend will post on Facebook, ecstatic that they’ve been offered a contract, dancing and happy and squeeing their hearts out. Then suddenly six months or a year later, they’re writing to me privately to ask how I managed to get my rights back, because things aren’t going so well.

I also took on a freelance cover art project this month. Someone saw my covers for Ordinary Angels and Haywire Witch as well as the one I did for Talli Roland for her upcoming book Build a Man (on her blog’s left sidebar), and wondered if I’d be interested in doing one for her amateur sleuth mystery novel. I had thought about doing freelance covers before, but then decided that I didn’t really have time to market a graphic arts business on top of writing and publishing and marketing my books. I can’t show the cover I did for her yet, because we’re still doing the final tweaks and I want her to get to announce it to her readers first. I enjoyed it so much, that I think I will at least consider doing covers from time to time, if people approach me. So watch this space, and I’ll soon be sharing the final version. I don’t know why people say ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover.’ If a cover is done right, it can be the absolute best (and fastest and easiest) way to judge a book!

So that’s it for my latest news! I hope you all are doing great. I’ll keep you all posted on the progress of Azuri Fae, coming (at the latest) in early December… but maybe sooner! Woohoo!

Last May I wrote an article with tips for naming characters. It’s not an easy process, and most of my characters go through at least one name change in the course of my writing the first draft.

But when employing my usual name hunt techniques for my new book, I ran across something I just had to share: the Cornwall Record Office “silly names list.” If you haven’t seen it before, you’re in for a treat. I don’t know what some of these parents were thinking, but it would make me feel a whole lot better about naming a character something like Heloise Smudge, because I would always know, in the back of my mind, that there are real-life examples out there that are so much worse.

My favourites from the list (all real names from the 17-1800′s):

SHADRACH MESBACH ABEDNEGO CLARK
EMILY GRACE PYNE COFFIN
FREKE DOROTHY FLUCK LANE
ALFRED FRANK SARAH PRETTYMAN

There’s another list on the same site that has some priceless names on marriage records:

RICHARD DINNER married MARY COOK

HUGH HUNNY married SUSANNA BEAR

RUBEY ODGER married BLANCH WIDGER

CHARLES SWINE married JANE HAM

I guess the parents of the above children figured their kid would just be so pretty, so special, so above-average, that they had to throw some challenges in to make life interesting.

And if your name happens to be Blanch Widger-Odger, remember, it could always be worse, I suppose. You could be named The Love Symbol.

Contrary to popular belief, I have not fallen off the edge of the planet, although apparently it seems like that to some! (Thanks for asking though! It’s nice to know folks care.) No, I’ve had my head down, and have been writing my heart out on Azuri Fae. I’ve now finished 16 out of a planned 20 chapters, so I’m in the home stretch. I know there are some things I have to tweak about the story before I can send it out to my trusty beta readers, but I’m really pleased with how it’s going. So, this is why my blog and other social networking have been so neglected.

But, I did have to stick my head up for a minute to announce that Ordinary Angels is available again! I couldn’t be more excited. It went live yesterday, and I was stunned to see it’s already selling. It made me feel warm and happy inside to know there were people waiting for another title from me, and I appreciate how patient you guys have been while the book was in limbo.

And, a note to everyone who read the original version. The tweaks I’ve made to the manuscript are small, as I said in my announcement post last week. I changed the spelling of ‘Zoe’ to the proper Zoë and changed other words that require accents and the like, such as señora, décor, naïve, café, and blasé. For some reason I still do not understand, my old publisher made me remove all of those ‘special characters.’ I’ve tweaked a word or two, and corrected two typos that somehow survived the bazilliondy rounds of editing we did. So, if you’ve bought the old version, but are curious about the new one, I don’t want you forking out your hard-earned dosh just to get the new cover or to see if maybe I added some new twist to the ending (I didn’t…but I could have. Heh.)

So, for the entire month of September, I’m extending this offer. If you bought the original version of Ordinary Angels, I will send you either an .epub or a .mobi (Kindle) copy of the new edition at no charge. Simply email me with a screenshot of your receipt. Blank out anything private like your credit card details, of course, then pop it in an email to author-AT-indiadrummond.com. (replace -AT- with @). It’s just a small thank you for being one of my very first readers.

If you haven’t read it yet, it’s available on Amazon USA for $2.99 and Amazon UK for £2.10 and next week it will be available in print on Amazon US. (Unfortunately, it takes about six weeks for the print version to become available worldwide, but never fear, I’ll keep you posted.) I LOVE how the new cover looks on the print edition.

Thank you to everyone who writes and reads, who comment about my books, my wacky posts, my guest bloggers, or just to ask if everything is okay since I haven’t been on twitter as much as usual. It’s great to feel loved, and you guys are the petrol in my writing engine. <3

So, after teasing a bit lately, telling you I’d soon have some news about Ordinary Angels, I am finally ready to spill the beans!

Bear with me as I give you some behind-the-scenes backstory (and never-before revealed details). Ordinary Angels was released last April through a small press publisher. If I close my eyes, I can still feel the heart-thumping thrill of reading that ‘we want to sign you’ email. The day I signed that contract was thrilling. My editor and I worked for a year. There were ups and downs, and it was a tough job. Not just because of the work involved, but also the realisation that I was going to have to concede some things I didn’t want to, make changes I didn’t necessarily agree with, and rely on people (there were many involved in the process) who didn’t always have the same goals and values I did. I was never truly happy with the cover art either. Oh sure, I put a brave face on it. The photo they chose had a stunning model that many oohed and ahhed over, but it didn’t reflect the genre or storyline of my book, and it worried me from a marketing perspective. The woman didn’t look anything like my vision of Zoë, but I had zero say on it and was told “we use stock photos, so you aren’t going to get what you want.”  Despite all of that, when publication day rolled around, I had a book I was proud of, and all the struggle to get there seemed well worth it. Sure, I’d compromised, but they were the professionals, I told myself, and I was lucky to get published. I have never forgotten what it feels like (angsty) to be an aspiring author, and so I wasn’t about to complain about any of it.

During this time, I learned more about the industry, and news of wildly successful indie authors started popping up. I remember how disheartening it was when I realised how few published authors actually make a living at it (and by learning how to analyse amazon rankings, I had an idea of how few books some of the other authors at my publisher were selling), so this was a ray of hope. All I needed to give it a try was the drive to run my own business (check), the willingness to obsess over the details (check), a head-full of stories (check), and to put the time in (will always be work in progress, but I’m chugging right along, so check!)

Since the editing process with my publisher was so slow (a round of edits would take sometimes more than a month to get back to me), I started planning a new series. I did the cover art myself, hired an editor, bought my own ISBNs, learned how to format for digital release, and by the time Ordinary Angels came out, it was nearly ready to go. (It’s easy to work fast when you’re in control, plus, as my own publisher, I only had to focus on putting out one title, instead of the dozens my publisher had going at any one time.)

I snuck my indie title, Blood Faerie, onto Amazon on May 15th (to give me time to deal with any issues), with an ‘official’ launch date of June 1st. Within a month, I’d sold 100 copies, and half of that time, no one even knew it was for sale! Compare that to the sales of Ordinary Angels, and it was no contest. Ordinary Angels, while selling well in comparison to some other titles at that same publisher, wasn’t going to pay for my Kindle habit, much less my mortgage. (Which is what I had hoped my book sales would eventually do!) This was discouraging, considering the vast work I’d done on promotion and getting reviews, all of which were very positive! So, people liked the book, but not as many as I’d hoped were buying it.

I talked to my publisher about lowering the price. It was selling for $5.50, which is high for an ebook. I felt that was depressing the sales figures, but I got nowhere with the argument. Other plans and promises evaporated, leaving me with an overpriced book that wasn’t making headway, no matter how hard I worked. Considering I had another book that was, in my mind, doing quite well (likely due to hitting the right note with cover, blurb and price), not to mention great response to Ordinary Angels from book bloggers, I knew it wasn’t the book itself that was causing low sales figures and therefore miniscule royalties.

However, I had a contract, and I was grateful for the opportunity the publisher had given me. As much as I don’t like to admit it, I don’t know if I would have had the confidence to strike out on my own without the validation of a publisher saying ‘we think your stuff is good.’ It never even occured to me to try to get my digital rights back…not until my publisher wrote to me, saying that because sales had been less than stellar, they weren’t going to release the book in print. Attached was a document giving me permission to find a new home for the print version of Ordinary Angels. I’d heard of other authors getting their digital rights back, and so I thought, what the hell? It was worth a shot. So I just dropped in the conversation that I had considered asking for my digital rights back, and even offered to pay a kill-fee. My editor had worked hard, and I know her payment was tied to the book’s sales, so I didn’t want to wrangle her out of future earnings. (This offer was declined by my publisher, something I still feel a little bad about. My editor deserved more for her hard work. On the other hand, I would never do editing work in exchange for royalties, so I’m surprised when anyone else will.) I won’t go into the messy detail, but in the end, I had not only my print rights, but a letter releasing my digital rights. All I had to do was wait until September to release it. (The publisher immediately removed Ordinary Angels from all outlets, which is why some readers have been disappointed not to find it. So I had a gap of availability, but in the long run, this is better for everyone involved.)

I debated about telling this story. My blog is for readers more than other writers, but in the end, I realised that if I rolled back the clock two years, I would have loved to have read this post before I signed with a publisher. Times are changing, and in my opinion, ePublishers are quickly becoming unecessary, especially when they aren’t doing anything for me that I can’t do faster, cheaper, and sometimes better myself.

Blood Faerie sales are gaining momentum. Recently, in one day, I made more money on Blood Faerie than I did on Ordinary Angels the entire ten weeks it was available from my publisher. I have every confidence in the world that with the new, more appropriate cover, a lower price point of $2.99 (which will still earn me more per book), and a stack of great reviews behind it, it has the potential to be as successful as Blood Faerie, and who knows, maybe even more so.

We’ve been taught, as authors, that unless you’re selling millions of copies, it’s tacky to reveal the numbers. I hope you don’t find it so, but if you do, please know that I debated quite a bit over this. I’m aware that some might look at my numbers and laugh, thinking, “You’re excited over a few hundred Blood Faerie sales over three months when Amanda Hocking is selling more than that many per day?” Well, yeah, I am.

And this isn’t going to become Joe Konrath’s blog, where I talk about sales numbers all the time. This is really just a chance to do two things…one, to let aspiring authors know that they don’t have to aspire any longer. Read my second paragraph again. If you can do those things, you can be a successful indie author. Also, you don’t have to settle for the 40% of net that ePubs are offering. In fact, I would encourage you not to.

The second purpose is to share my new Ordinary Angels cover. You know what a cover tart I am, and I’m really happy with this one! It reflects the story, the genre, the tone… so here it is:

So! Ordinary Angels! Coming in September in a slightly altered version! (Unlike my publisher, I know how to handle special marks in digital formatting, and therefore I can publish a book that includes a name like Zoë and use the proper spelling of words like résumé, café and décor, and I’m also not afraid to have characters use name brand products, like Coke, Mini Cooper, and Starbucks, not to mention a silly argument–that I lost, by the way–over whether having a character have a fantasy about her transformed dragon-like angel boyfriend constitutes beastiality, but I digress…)

It will be available in roughly two weeks! In digital and in print! Watch this space for the actual release announcements, or sign up for my author newsletter where I’ll tell you the moment it’s up again.

I’m excited, people! Times are changing…and for once, the change is in our favour.

Hello! I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted and I’ve been letting my guests do the heavy lifting on the blog, but I’ve been crazy-mad busy. I’m neck-deep in writing Azuri Fae, to the point that I’m exhausting myself with it. Someday, I should learn how to show a bit of self-restraint, but when I am in the zone, it’s a miracle I remember to eat. Oh wait, I don’t always. That’s what husbands are for. A Certain Highlander will stick his head into the room and say, “Have you eaten today?” Me: “What? No, I’m not hungry yet. After I finish this paragraph maybe.” Him: “It’s 3 p.m.” Me: “Oh, um, yeah. Really? How did that happen anyway?” When I’m writing, time freezes in my brain, and I’m always a little surprised to find it hasn’t stopped for everyone else too.

Azuri Fae is coming along well. I’m enjoying the story, and a plot-point that was worrying me has fixed itself (don’t ask me how–this one honestly wasn’t my doing. It just sorta happened.) I have had to go back and rework some things, because I moved it from one week after the end of Blood Faerie to six months later. I’m still tidying the aftermath of that decision, but it’s made a huge difference and settled some of the problems I had with the early chapters. It reminds me that one of the great things about gaining some experience as a writer (and I suppose this is true for any skill one is trying to learn) is that it gives us more tools. I now regret having spent 10 years worrying one book to death, when I could have gained so much more experience by starting something new. But then again, that’s another lesson learned that has turned out to be valuable! I just wish I wasn’t so determined to learn everything the hard way!

Anyway, so that’s it for the excuses as to why I haven’t taken the time to write much on the blog. (I only have so much brain power, and if I have a story going, I do like to put my energy into a book rather than on social networking–is the short answer.) BUT, I have a bit of news…

Blood Faerie is now available in print!

I’m surprised at how quickly it’s all come together, but I couldn’t be happier about it. It’s now available on Amazon USA, but the listing is so new, that this is the only place I’ve found that it’s showing up, and it’s not even fully linked to the Kindle version yet. (Amazon says it’ll take another few days. No clue why.) I’ve also heard it may take a week or two more for it to filter to all the other online outlets that it’s going to, but I can tell you it will be available a LOT of places worldwide. Since this is my first print book, I don’t know how some things work, but I will post about other outlets as soon as I have the information. I have gotten emails from a lot of folks who wanted the book in print, so, I just wanted to let you know I’m listening and I’ll get you the info as soon as I have it.

Also, I have news about Ordinary Angels, but I’m going to have to hold off on that for about a week. (I’m such a tease, I know.) But exciting things are happening and time just keeps whirring by without so much as a by-your-leave. So, thank you for your patience with my lack of blogginess, your support for my writing, and for hanging in with me when I seem to drop of the map for a week or two. I’m writing as fast as I can!

One last note… you all know what a social-networking addict I am, and I’ve recently created a couple new profiles.

You can now find me on:

Kindle

and

Google Plus

(If you aren’t on G+ yet, but you would like to be, let me know in the comments. I’ll send a G+ invite ASAP.)

I’m a tart for cover art. It’s true. I don’t like admitting it, because, well, I’m a writer. I’m supposed to tell people that the words in a book are the most important thing. And they are, but only after you buy the book. Before you buy the book, the cover art is half the thing, at least to me. The other half is the blurb, of course, and somewhere in there is the price. With so many books available on the Kindle for $2.99, it’s hard for me to want to pay much more than that. It’s not that I wouldn’t pay more, it’s that I don’t have to pay more…not when there are thousands of books out there beckoning to me, many of which are super cheap.

And the thing is, these cheap eBooks are actually good for authors. Why? Because on a $2.99 ebook, an independantly published author is making $2.10 of that. An author with a decent eBook contract will get anywhere between $0.84 to $1.25.  Compare that to a $7.99 traditionally published paperback, where an author is lucky to make $0.65 per copy sold! That will be even less if they have to give 15% to their literary agent. So, when I buy eBooks, I have the smug satisfaction of feeling like I’m helping authors too.

Oh! I digressed there. Cover art. That’s what you’re here for. Don’t pretend it isn’t. You’re as big an art tart as I am! Well, the finishing touches have been put on the cover art for Azuri Fae, the sequel to Blood Faerie. There may be a tweak here and there before the actual book is released, but I couldn’t resist showing you:

I have to admit that I’m very excited! I love the way it coordinates with the Blood Faerie cover, but still has its own flavour. This cover shows a new character, but I’m not saying anything more than that. Well, you guys know me… I’ll say a lot more than that, but not today!

And my latest news is that I decided a week or so ago to rearrange my publishing schedule to make Azuri Fae my next release. (Hence the cover art being done!) I have just gotten such good feedback from Blood Faerie. The response has been really overwhelming. Here are just a couple of snippets of feedback I’ve gotten:

“If you like a little magic with your murder, Blood Faerie will keep you turning the pages.” –L.J. Sellers, author of the bestselling Detective Jackson series

“…from page one I was pretty much hooked like a carp.” –Mark Everett Stone, author of Things to Do in Denver When You’re Undead

“If you’re looking for a compelling, well written mystery with a touch of romance, I highly recommend this book.” –Talli Roland, author of The Hating Game

“…by far one of the best books I have read with regards to the realm of the Fae.” –WitchoftheMists – Darkissreads.com

“This novel has a lot going for it. There is tension and evident culture clashes with a splash of romance thrown in for good measure.” –ForBooksSake.net

“All in all, this is hands down one of the most unique Fae stories I have ever read before- India Drummond has truly created a beautiful world.” –Avery’s Book Nook

So, although my witch lit™ book, Haywire Witch, is still in the pipeline, I’ve decided to focus on the Caledonia Fae series, possibly until I have a full trilogy. I know that I like reading series books myself, so it hardly seems fair to keep folks waiting and to spread myself over several series, rather than putting my energy into one. Don’t worry…random changes of mind will be announced here. But as I’ve actually been making serious progress on Azuri Fae lately, you can bank on it being the next release.

Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement and inspiration!

Coming this Thursday is a guest post from author Jack Blaine. Same bat time, same bat blog!

As you can probably tell from the number of exclamation points I’ve used already today on Twitter and Facebook (!!!) I’m very excited about the launch of Blood Faerie today.

And you’re probably wondering who won the five free copies I gave away as part of my launch day celebrations. By the way, I was absolutely floored that nearly 75 people signed up to win a copy! I am so thrilled at the positive response. Warmed my heart. And I also want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who blogged, tweeted, and shared the contest.

The (randomly selected) winners are:

Jack S.
Lauralynn E.
Andrea T.
Pippa J.
Vampyr M.

Congratulations to the five of you! Check your inbox for your prizes now! Woohoo! (Lots of exclamations today!)

And if you aren’t one of the lucky winners above, you can still have your very own Kindle copy of Blood Faerie for only $2.99. Heck, it costs ten bucks to go to the movies, and that only lasts two hours! (If that.) And that doesn’t even count M&Ms. Oh wait. My book doesn’t come with M&Ms either. I wish it did. How awesome would that be if books came with snacks?  (I’m gaining weight just thinking about it.)

So, to get your copy of Blood Faerie today, go to:

Amazon USA, Amazon UK, and Amazon DE (Germany)

And you can read and post reviews on:

Goodreads, Shelfari, and Library Thing

And for those who usually follow this blog, you may have noticed that I haven’t posted as much in the past couple of weeks. I’ve been writing feverishly on new projects, and when the spirit takes me, well, I tend to hide away and just go with it. I’ve had some marvellous writing days, and this means I’m well on track with my publishing schedule! (I do love it when a schedule works out.)

I have been saving a ton of funny little things I’ve seen on the web recently, so I’ll try to keep the blog chugging along better. It’s just so easy to get swept away when scenes are flowing well.

Thanks so much, everyone, for the support and the interest in my books. Although I can’t imagine anything that would stop me writing, it does make it so fulfilling when I get emails, comments, replies, tweets, and reviews. I do love hearing from you, and I’m so pleased that so many of you have been enjoying my books.

Happy June, everyone!