These past few weeks have been pretty busy for me, which is why I'm yet again slacking on the blogging. Hard to balance a lot of things in my life and this is one of those activities that gets neglected. I'll figure it out one of these days.
But during this busy time I had the joy of working with two amazing people. One is a good friend and follow author, F.P. Spirit. He an I have only known each other for a little under a year but have quickly become good friends and have helped each other on our paths of becoming great authors. Recently I was honored with the request to help him out with improving his latest release, The Serpent Cult, prior to publication and then asked to help with his next up and coming novel in his series, The Dark Monolith, that is hoped to be out in late spring/early summer. Why do I say that I'm honored? Because I love his work and it's been a very long time since I've been able to enjoy a YA book, let alone several in a series. YA just doesn't appeal to me as most out there have the same boring tropes. Not these books. And it's so refreshing and so enjoyable. You all should really check out his series, The Heroes of Ravenford (available on nook, kindle, ibooks, and in paperback).
When I haven't been helping F.P. Spirit I've been diligently working on the Experimental Heart trilogy. Book two and three are shaping out very well. Book three's first draft is nearing completion and book two is going through a rigorous round of edits thanks to my amazing alpha/beta readers.
Some of you might be wondering, "Shannon, when will we be able to read book two?" and my answer several months ago would have been Late November, early December, but unfortunately life gets in the way and thing get turned upside down every now and then. Besides the major issues that had been found in book two funding has become a problem. I had everything all set up so that I could get some promotional work out to get everyone excited and be able to fund the editing and cover making of book two, but due to unforeseen circumstances I had to take from that fund to take care of some important and unfortunate matters. So where does that leave the answer to you question? It's become hopefully by the end of winter. Unfortunately this is one of the major drawbacks to being an indie author. As much freedom as I have, I also have to worry more about funding the books I write.
But don't fret. I'll work out and the book will be out before you all know it. In the mean time, I'm working really hard to make it the best it can be for everyone (or close to everyone) to enjoy.
And this leads me into the fun exciting bit of this blog. I commissioned my amazingly talented artist (prior to the financial snag) to create some character art. Why? Because 1. I really wanted to see my characters come to life, and 2. I'm going to be using these pieces of art for promotional work and...BOOKMARKS! Yep. I'm getting more bookmarks out. I don't know when the bookmarks will be finished and ready to be handed out, but I that doesn't mean you won't see the images until then. Nope! You're going to see them right now and they'll be uploaded to the character page....which is still under construction. Sorry about that guys. It just hasn't been a main priority when it probably should be.
So without any further delay, here are the four images!
Here we have lovable, antisocial, "former" assassin Eira! Yes, she is wearing a different necklace than described in book one. Why? Well, you'll find out why in book 2 ;)
And here we have our very lovely, slightly ditzy, brute, Ryoko!
Next, we have our lovable, talented but slightly dimwitted, sniper/musician, Rylan!
And lastly, our favorite, mysterious dragon, Raikidan! I think we can see why he makes women, except crazy Eira, weak in the knees ;)
