Maggie's January Update

It's 2019! Welcome it with open arms!

With the new year, I received back a very special story. I wrote it many moons back, when I was a big fan of the TV Show, Charmed. I loved the show, but I hated its inaccuracies about Witchcraft. So I was inspired to write a story about a real Witch getting hired by a hit TV show about Witches, to help them get their Witch-facts straight.

Magically, that story was reverted back to me by the publisher just as the new Charmed TV series came out! I love it just like I loved the original, maybe even more. I no longer criticize its inaccuracies, because Sabrina is so much worse. And yet so good!

Spellbound

It was originally titled “Under Her Spell” and released in a St. Martin's Press anthology called Midnight Pleasures. But it's back now, and I took time off from the final polish of another book to pretty her up. As we were dressing Spellbound up for public, I thought, novellas are the perfect length for when you just don't want to commit to a full novel. Vacation reads. Beach reads. Long flight reads, and yeah, long winter nights in front of the fire reads, too. And I thought, they're like candy. That's how I should approach them.

Fun-Sized Reads

I decided to repackage all my existing novellas as fun-sized reads and price them at a ridiculous 99¢, so you can devour them like candy. Right now my 4 other novellas are being buffed up and priced down, and we'll have a Fun-Size Reads page here on the site as soon as they're ready. I've written a lot of novellas for a lot of publishers, though, and I'm actively asking the rights. We might end up with a dozen or more in this little candy shop before we're done.

I so need a cool candy logo for these!

Why A Pre-Order?

I want you to pre-order Spellbound for a few reasons, most of which are entirely selfish. But the one generous reason is that I might not be able to sustain this price point for long, and I want you to get it before it goes up to $1.99 or more. I hope to add many more titles to this program, and I hope the 99¢ price point can stay.

The selfish reason is that all the pre-orders count at the same time, on release day, which can boost the book up to bestseller status. Its appearance on the bestseller lists means it's seen by more readers, and that leads to more sales. The momentum this sort of thing creates is an absolute roller coaster ride for the author, and it's always thrilling, no matter how far it goes. But there's a certain point one can cross that can make things get magical.

So that's my honest answer.

Pre-ordering is a way to vote your favorite authors to the top.

Thank you!

Oklahoma Sunshine Update

We are on schedule for a February 5th release date, which makes my heart happy. February is my favorite month. I was born in it. It usually brings chocolate. And my anniversary is Valentine's Day. So I've got a soft spot in my heart for books that come out during it.

It's also a tough month to get through if you live where I do, in the northeastern United States, Cortland County New York, to be exact. It's still such a long time until spring, and it's been such a long time since autumn. I think they made it the shortest month because it's the coldest, darkest feeling (if not actual darkest) month. But at the same time, March is within reach. And from March, you can smell spring.

Oklahoma Sunshine is a book about darkness giving way to light. It's about the inevitable expansion of goodness and love. That's what I believe in, for all of us.

So I'm now into the final polish, third draft. It's had its first edit. I'm honing the rough edges and polishing the facets. The editor gets it back the 11th, and from there it's just once more, for typos. She's been as hard for me as February, this book, but she's almost ready for you. It won't be long now.

Fiona

After Oklahoma Sunshine is finally put to bed, I'm looking forward to writing the next part of Fiona Fairweather's unfolding story. She's heading back to Loch Ness, where there's something deadly haunting the waters. The locals think Nessie's turned feral. Fiona's not so sure.

I know readers want more Wings in the Night and more Brown and de Luca. I get shouted at about those most of all, but only because I'm writing other things at the moment. If I were writing Rhiannon and Rachel stories, I'd be getting yelled at for more Big Falls and Fiona books. My only resolution of the new year is to write what my muse gives me, when she gives it to me, and trust that my higher power is guiding me. When a story is burning in me, I write it. When it's not, forcing it is next to impossible. I have tried this past year and it's been sheer hell on me and on my craft. So we're going to do this more wisely. When the next Brown and de Luca book is bubbling up inside me, I'll write it. It's just not there yet. And so we wait.

So that's the update, the first update of the newborn year. Those are the two big things I'm working on at the moment. Fun Sized Reads, getting rights back for more stories, releasing Spellbound, and polishing Oklahoma Sunshine.

Happy, happy 2019. May you thrive, and may you love.