Writing Updates (as much daily as I can handle) and Snippets

Cover Reveal!

While I was out with my sister, enjoying an awesome day in the snow, my cover designer finalized the design, and now I'm sharing the cover with you.

I love Fred and Mark. Love how sweet they look, love the background and the fact that she incorporated one of my very own images in it (of the tower with the city gate in it).

Enjoy the Wolves!

I did it!

I just wrote The End under the Epilogue of the Wolves, after a thorough edit.

Tomorrow, I'll do a final, final read-through and plonk the file into Atticus. Tomorrow evening, I'll have the epub and the print PDF, and can tell my cover designer about the page numbers.

I saw the final cover just now, and it looks awesome! I hope can find the time to do a quick cover reveal. Will upload to all stores on Thursday.

I've done this so many times. And yet, it's still exciting!

Woke up early today with a very fun scene for my vampires in mind.

This book is clearly refusing to be written in order. So be it. This is from much later in the story, after [spoilers]. But it shows a playful side of Leander that we rarely see.

In other news, my new Wolf book is finally also up on Apple. They took their sweet time.

Not much else happening, I'm on a recovery day after the intense weekend with my sister. (It was good, don't get me wrong, just a lot of things and me going into overwhelm.)

Anyway. Have some Melody and Leander.

---

“Ma’am, we have a report about a, ahem, corpse being brought into this house.”

That bloody caddie. He’d tattled on her, after all, despite the generous tip. If she ever saw him again, he’d rue his deed.

“Well,” she said, putting her hand on her chest, trying to sound as exasperated as she could. “That is certainly an interesting turn of events.”

“My apologies, Ma’am, but we do need to investigate this report. I am very sorry. The… err, witness said that you… err… carried it into the house.”

She managed a tinkling laugh. “Someone is certainly prone to exaggeration. Do I look as if I can carry a person?”

“No, Ma’am, you don’t, and I’m not implying…”

“But you are, Detective.” No, Melody would not let him off the hook.

A sound behind her made her turn, carefully moving as slowly as a human would. Leander was leaning against the doorjamb, saucer in one hand, cup of tea in the other, looking as posh as anyone of the British upper class.

“That corpse, Constable, would be me.” He sounded British, as well.

Guten Morgen.

Here's the promised post with a snippet of what I wrote yesterday. (It is getting harder to find passages that do not contain spoilers... but I doubt that what I'm sharing is a huge spoiler, especially if you read my series.)

Writer Brain also ambushed me again at night, and I have another new series idea, this time Vampires with a twist. Not quite the never-ending series that the Shifters offer, but similar. A bit darker than my usual stuff, maybe, with a romance subplot and happy for now endings.

Yes, I have an ideas folder. I truly need to live a few hundred years to write all the books I want to write. (Does anyone know a friendly vampire or demigod who could grant me a nice extension of my lifetime?)

Have some Wolf:

---

It was a relief to have Mark sitting next to me. He still looked like hell and he carried himself as if in great pain, but he was alive and, well, going to be fine.

That kiss kept playing out in my memory.

I knew what it meant. Every Wolf girl did.

It was a surprise and yet it wasn’t.

Being with Mark had always been fun and easy. He treated me like an equal, he celebrated my successes and commiserated with me when I messed up. And I did the same for him.

Playing dog for him was just as much fun.

Day 18 of NaNoWriMo, and suddenly, the Wolf Novella is almost done. Wrote 1500 words today.

The showdown happened a lot faster than I expected, but Mark had no patience left, and the villain lost his nerves anyway.

Now I have one really sweet chapter left to write and decided that the Epilogue will be Christmas Eve. Looks like the story will clock in a little under 40k.

Day was weird. I did quite a few chores while waiting for our janitor. He never came, and I hate that. I would have liked to go on a long walk... I also had a lovely chat with my sister and then a Zoom with a friend. Good for the soul.

Have some Wolves:

---

It took ages for the police to sort through everything. Fred was an absolute star and handled all the officials with skill and calm. Alex and I got away with pretending to be dogs, and none of the police even questioned our presence. One of them even patted my head and praised me for defending Maria. I wagged my tail for her, but we spent most of the time lazing around in the kitchen.

I need to find a word for those days that feel as if I'm locked in a dark cave or something. No writing. Lots of reading and playing Titan Quest.

In good news, I managed to order the cover for A Wolf's Christmas today, so that's a huge step forward. Should have it next weekend. I'm quite excited about that, because the cover designer has always managed to pick faces that work really well with my characters.

I also set up my video channel on PeerTube, which is the Fediversion of YouTube, just without ads, algorithms and spying on people. It's part of my move away from the TechBro internet, at least much as possible. You can actually subscribe to it! And there is an RSS feed, not that it's worth it for my rare video.

https://makertube.net/c/hannahs_words_and_more/videos

So some stuff happened, just no writing. I'm trying to be okay with that.

Wrote 700 words for the Vampires - a new beginning for the story as the plot comes together.

A bit of a traumatic start, but it explains Leander much more. And Melody is tearing her hair out.

I also scheduled an author interview for February, read a new vampire book (might become a comfort book), and cooked a meal, which is big for me. In other news, it's been snowing all day. And I have to slog through it all tomorrow because it's an office day at work. grumbles

Going to share some Melody tonight.

---

“Are you even listening to me?”

“Of course.” Which was a lie, she was so tired. Her body ached all over, but worse was the sense of failure. Again and again they had failed to reach targets in time, failed to keep the Shades in check. It was beginning to wear her down, and that had never happened in her long existence. What had changed?

“Winston, we need to find another angle. A better way to protect those souls. Just fighting off the Shades and burning nests is not cutting it. We’re losing ground, you know that just as well as I do.”

Day 20 of NaNoWriMo, and I feel like I'm done. Didn't write again.

I know what I need to do to finish the story: One more sweet chapter and the epilogue (which will be Christmas Eve). And then I need to go through the thing and sprinkle Christmas stuff all over it. Plus add more emotions and heartbreak just before the showdown.

It's all very doable, but today I went and hibernated again... well, not quite. I sent out an invoice for my proofreading and added a video to my new FediChannel.

So it's not a lost day at all.

Instead of a snippet, would you help me find a better name for the Villain? Can you pick a German name that you'd love to hate?

Day 21 of NaNoWriMo (not making the full 50k, no chance).

But I wrote the final chapter, which is a bedscene, basically, just skipping the actual deed. The Epilogue will be Christmas Eve, with the presents and everything.

And I'm stuck on presents? Who gets what? I need presents for Mark, Fred, Alex, Maria (Alex' mom) and Luka (Alex' friend).

Ideas? Please help me out!

Day... never mind. NaNo is basically done.

Didn't write today, but I survived the office day, an unexpected change of plans, had a loooong and very good phone call with an old friend and former colleague and found an awesome new review for West Flows on Amazon DE.

In addition, I got a preview of the cover for A Wolf's Christmas and it's already looking amazing. It needs a tweak or two, and then it'll be brilliant. I'll probably show it off in a couple of days.

I have most of the Christmas presents sorted. Yes, there will be two ugly Christmas Sweaters. I just had to... chocolate, maple syrup, and possibly a book (still have to figure out which one).

Even so, let me hear your brilliant ideas about more presents!

(Oh, and I just got my nephew to send me pics of Frankfurt Airport so I can get the Christmas deco right. That will make the editing so much more fun!)

Have today's sunrise in lieu of a snippet.

Not sure what happened to the day.

I ended up writing about 500 words for a prequel for a new vampire series Writer Brain keeps pushing at me. I hope I can keep it to a short novella. Title is "Penumbra". Yes, it makes sense.

I read a comfort book or two, played Spider Solitaire, cooked food (need to improve my sauce-fu) and kind of lost myself.

Let me share the beginning of "Penumbra". (My character kept surprising me, such fun!):

---

It was raining.

Of course, it was raining. This was bloody New York, after all, and at this time of the year, it was just as likely to snow as it was to rain.

Leander flipped up the collar of his coat for a little more protection before stepping out from under the eaves and onto the sidewalk. He walked fast, with the stride of a man who knew exactly where he was going and why.

In truth, he was just trying to put distance between himself and the body. Discovering it had been a little shock, but he’d grabbed what he had been sent to find and hurried to get away, leaving no trace of his presence.

Leander kept walking, keeping his stride, slipping out of the neighborhood, making sure to shake any tail, ignoring the rain. Something had not been right, something was bothering him, and it wasn’t the body.

It certainly wasn’t the first one he had seen, and more than likely also wasn’t the last. At least this time, there hadn’t been much blood. It was always easier without the blood. Something about that always made his stomach queasy. Not that he would admit that to anyone. He was a damn P.I., and he was good at what he did. Nobody needed to know about his reaction to blood.

Not a lot of writing - I do need to think about the next chapter of the Penumbra Prequel. There is a side character I need to develop more. (And knowing me, that side char might well become a main char in a sequel.)

On the other hand, I did edit (clean up) about half of the Wolf story. Added footnotes for the German sentences and marked them as German (I hope that will help with the audiobook).

Nothing new from the cover designer yet. I hope I can do a cover reveal tomorrow or Wednesday. Still planning to release on Thursday, but Friday would also be just fine.

So no snippet today, sorry. But help me find a good place to share my Penumbra work... would appreciate pointers.

Feeling hugely accomplished: I just formatted A Wolf's Christmas and gave the cover designer the number of pages in the PDF.

Now we wait for the finalized cover. I'm fairly confident I can upload both versions tomorrow.

Phew.

Okay, so no uploading today. sigh

Cover designer hasn't finished the cover yet, which is fine. But it also means no cover reveal. I do hope I can get all of it done tomorrow, but it will be a close thing.

You see, my sister comes over for the weekend, arriving around noon tomorrow, and while she knows I might have to take time out of the visit for my book, she also has PLANS.

I'm writing a little for Penumbra. Still need a good title for that little prequel (and all the others that might follow).

---

“Winston. We have at least one Shade in this town, and we really must stop it. We need better leads. I’m sure it has already killed, and I know it’ll kill again.”

“Well, why don’t you go and explain all this to the good detective? I’m sure he’ll hurry up just for you.” Yes, Winston was good at sarcasm. He had plenty of time to perfect it.

“You know we can’t do that.” Melody whirled and stalked away, unable to face that man any longer. Unfortunately, she needed him. Nobody was better than Winston at digging up lost information.

Wrote about 500 words for the Penumbra tale. Skipped ahead to a scene that was occupying my mind.

Still no Wolf cover. Apologies. Still hoping for a weekend release.

Sister is here, and it's good. We're also getting a LOT of snow, so walking will be fun tomorrow. Definitely Lake Effect at work here.

I'll share a bit of Leander. Have fun:

---

The woman sighed. “There’s a lot to explain, and I don’t want to do that here and now. You’ll find clothes on the dresser. Meet me in the sitting room.”

He stared after her when she simply marched out of the room. After a while, he shrugged, slipped out of bed and dressed in the clothes she had laid out for him. They were a shockingly good fit and of a much better quality than he was used to. Strange, really. What was going on here?

There was only one way to find answers, so he went in search of Melody. Walking down the stairs to the first floor, he realized that he felt just fine. Maybe even a little stronger than he was used to, and there was a bounce in his steps that he rarely felt. A single day after almost dying?

Just wrote a few words for Sun because today, I spent my energy and brain power on finishing setting up my new store. Yes, you can now buy books directly from me - well, almost.

It's a store through PayHip, with the fulfillment through BookFunnel. That helps both me with my bookkeeping, and it helps you, because BookFunnel makes it very easy to get your ebook into whatever reading app you use.

Hannah's Book Store

I'm also going through yet another iteration of cover creation for Zell, and I actually made a sketch today to show the layout I have in mind. Find that below.

And well, have all the words I wrote for Sun today. shrug

---

It took them two nights of walking south, keeping the mountains to their right, until they found a sizable stream that flowed east. They stayed an extra day, washing their clothes and themselves.

Laisal also dug up some thick roots from the ground that she claimed were edible, wrapping them in her spare shirt.

I surprised myself by writing 1100 words today. And that despite watching a BookFunnel webinar. I didn't fiddle with my store today however. But that's all good. I needed a break from store-fiddling. :)

Even so, taking steps to improve my marketing feels really, really good.

Have some Sun:

---

Sunrise was spectacular. He actually walked out of the small wood to watch it. First, the sky in the east turned purple and turquoise before the rising sun lit the clouds crossing the mountain range. Sun watched them for a long time, how they crawled across the tops and floated through the valleys, only to thin out and disappear high above him.

It was fascinating, because he didn’t know why they did that.

Wrote 700 words for Sun in the morning. And now I have plans for him. He would not like them, of course.

In the afternoon, I wrote a difficult email, and that just threw me for the rest of the day. Comfort book helped, but I didn't get anything else done from my todo-list. Even self-care was hard.

It happens.

Have some Sun:

---

Laisal sighed. “I have not prepared as well as I should have. That was a grave error and it brings great danger to us. I apologize.”

Sun stared at her in shock. Priests never admitted mistakes. And yes, maybe it had been a mistake not to bring as many provisions as they needed if they had to cross a dry region, but neither of them had known.

“It will be fine,” he said, simply because Laisal looked so small and worried. “I can’t bring us water like Moon would, but maybe I can discover a few tricks. If I dream of him again.”

600 words for Sun tonight, writing through brain fog. But it's more words than I had this morning.

Also ran my Mastermind and had plenty of awesome marketing ideas. As always, the trick is to actually turn them into action.

Still stuck on the store - brain has no capacity for tricky stuff at the moment. I'm hoping for tomorrow, because I really want to share that with you.

Also still in discussions with the cover designer about Zell covers. He shot down my latest idea and I'm feeling rather down about the whole thing. I just want my series to start selling. sigh

Have some Sun. He's not having a good day.

---

Oh, how he hoped he’d dream of Moon again!

At that moment, he missed Moon’s arm around his shoulder, his hugs, his voice in his ear and mind, and he felt as if his heart would burst with the pain of it all.

Moon had been his other half.

He bowed his head under the grief, doing his best not to fall to his knees and wail.

Second office day today, I've been taking it easy. However, I managed 400 words for the Vampires, and I'm finding out more and more things about the story. Loving it.

Have a sneaky lesbian couple. (This is set in the 1930s.)

---

This was the third cheating case in as many weeks, and Leander was heartily sick of the whole topic. Emotions always ran high and the results generally weren’t pretty. At least this one seemed completely harmless. The woman he was being paid to follow around did not meet with another man. No, she just spent a lot of time with another woman, clearly a best friend and nothing more.

That meant he could write up his report and tell the suspicious husband that he had nothing to worry about.

Not an easy day today.

My Wolf novella is not doing well. Not sure how to market it better. Of course, Google has stopped reporting sales, they are getting worse that way.

In good news, I sent off email with answers for an author interview, I hope that'll get posted. I promoted South in it. Will share if and when it gets published.

Wrote 250 words for the Vampires and I'm finally wrapping my mind around what is going to happen in the upcoming fight. I also swapped out one Greek hero name for another one (want to use the Pegasus tamer for my Mustang series, because of the irony). snicker

Winter Solstice is in two weeks, and really, I'm so fed up with the dark and the cold... but have some Melody and enjoy that.

---

For now, Melody had to draw as many of them away from the nest as she could.

But maybe, killing one would make the others angry enough to swarm her. That might hurt, but it might also be fun. Melody allowed a feral grin to steal over her face, hidden underneath the balaclava hood, just before she lifted the talisman and thumbed the trigger.

A beam of bright, white light shot out from the talisman, and she heard the unmistakable scream of a disintegrating shade. Before it had even faded in the wind, several more shades hissed in fury.

“Come and get me!” Melody sang out, turned and ran.

Words flowed today, after I took the time to imagine the fight scene. Hurt poor Winston a lot but decided not to dwell on his injuries much.

This fight and the conclusions they draw from it will put them on the path to meet with Leander and his siblings. Which is a very good thing.

I also ran errands today, took care of a tax issue, and was hit on on my way to the grocery store. (THAT was a surprise, and I couldn't properly respond because mind was frazzled from earlier errands.)

Anyway, send Winston some commiseration.

---

She gripped her victim’s wrist, slashed it open with her fangs and let the blood drop into Winston’s mouth. As soon as her friend moved, she pressed the sailor’s wrist to Winston’s lips.

He drank the blood, and Melody sighed in relief.

Winston would need more than what this sailor could safely provide, but this first feeding would buy him time and ease much of the pain. “Enough,” she whispered and pushed the man’s arm back. Winston gave a pitiful whine, but she patted his arm at a place where the sleeve wasn’t burned. “We’ll get more. Just wait for me.”

It took most of the rest of the night, but when Melody and Winston returned to their home just before dawn, he was walking on his own and looking much less dreadful.

Slow day today, and I like that. Read a book, cooked a meal, chatted with my sister and wrote almost 600 words for the Vampires.

Right now, Leander is on his next job, trying to catch a thief. He has no time for a strange, cold something in a hidden corner. Nasty, nasty thing...

Have some fun:

---

The door opened, silently, but Leander saw the reflection of a light outside in the glass. It closed just as quietly, with the slightest sound of rustling clothes.

This person knew how to sneak.

Obviously not an amateur.

Leander knew better than to hold his breath. Instead, he breathed carefully, filling his body with the oxygen he’d need for the impending fight. The person moved through the store, softly enough, clearly familiar with the premises. The thief slipped through the door to the back, where the jewelers worked. Leander followed.

So far, the intruder had not done anything illegal. He had a key, he had not broken anything, not taken anything out of the store that would constitute a theft.

Which meant that Leander had to wait.

Not a good day today. Actually not a good night leading up to today.

You see, I gave myself quite a dose of histamine yesterday, and that built up to nasty reactions. Finally realized and took an antihistamine on top of cutting back everything. Yes, that gave me a nice Brain Fog.

Wrote 275 words through it. Leander caught the thief. I know who will appear next (client), but not sure what will happen with the thief just yet. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow.

Have some Leander:

---

Leander threw a black bag over the thief’s head, grabbed one of his hands and twisted him around, pulling the arm up his back.

A choked scream told him he’d achieved the level of surprise he wanted.

Except the voice was higher than he expected. No matter, maybe it was a young thief. Twisting his arm relentlessly, he marched his captive to the back door, unlocked it and dragged the thief into the boss’s office. Once there, he used handcuffs to fasten the man’s hands to one of the pipes of the building’s central heating. Only then did he retraced his steps, locked up the back door and finally the office door from the inside. Settling into the visitor’s chair, he smiled at the thief, even though the man couldn’t see him.

“And now we wait, my friend,” he said quietly.

A very slow day. I really needed that. Wrote 90 words, and I think I now know who the thief is. Leander will be hired to investigate the background, and that... will not be good for him.

In fact, it will be very bad.

(Just figuring this out as I type this, thanks, Writer Brain.)

So I can only give you a teeny tiny snippet because I really don't want to spoil this.

---

Leander looked up when a key scraped in the lock and the office door opened. By the time Clive Rider was walking in, he had jumped to his feet.

“Close the door. We have a thief.”

“Oh, you caught him?”

Leander gestured to the form huddled on the ground next to the heating pipes.

“Well done.”

Rider dropped his satchel onto his desk, strode over to the thief and yanked the bag off his…

Leander stared.

Today was office day AND newsletter day. It went rather well, today, for which I'm glad. Wrote 900 words for the Progress Report blog post and updated my website with the new Wolf book (which also meant making and gathering more links).

Also wrote about 100 words for the Vampires. Very little I can share, would be a rather big spoiler.

Instead, I'll share a bit about one of my backburner stories. (Let me know if you want more of that, and I'll slide it in between all the other books.)

---

Lit RPG Progress Report

Yes, that’s one of those series I’ve kept hidden on my backburner. It’s called The Mengarian Conspiracy and it’s pretty much a tale of a party of adventurers having, well, adventures, doing good and eventually (no idea how long or how many books that’ll take) uncovering a conspiracy to murder the current king and queen. I have three finished books, but I’m being held back by the (always rather stressful) search for a cover designer I can actually afford.

In very good news, I have a beta-reader for book 1 (who already told me they like it), so maybe I can figure out the cover problem.

Today started out really well. I wrote before my morning started (240 words for the Vampires), walked to the office and felt really good.

Ran errands after that (stressful, had to pick up a package from a location I'd never been to before), and then found an official letter that added another mountain of stress.

So not much else happened today, except comfort books and stress eating.

Can't share much, either, sorry. So I'll pull a snippet from Sky Falls, for a change. (This is not "our" West, it's "his" West.) I'll edit his story over Christmas and get it published in January or so.

---

“Just relax, West. This shouldn’t hurt.”

Sky Falcon was reasonably sure it wouldn’t. He had watched the lightning everyone had in their bodies for months. He had played with it in the plants that their North was growing. The plants had never complained.

“Shouldn’t?” West rolled her lovely eyes.

“I’m not damaging anything. I’m just going to slow it down.”

“Slowing what down?”

“The lightning in your arm. I want you to tell me how that feels.”

No writing today.

Mind was going through Christmas scenarios for me. Final decision next week. It's nerve-racking.

Even so, I had a lovely chat with an old writing friend about the vampires and the setting. I don't really know enough about the 1930s to feel comfortable with it, to be honest.

Writer Brain jumped to setting it into a slightly noir near future where the villains thrive in the chaos resulting from climate change and epidemics. It will mean revisiting what I have written, but it could be easier on me. (Does that make my tale solarpunk?)

Anyway, that was... a very slow day today.

I'm back.

First, apologies for the loooong silence. The instance was offline for a few days, and then I left to visit family and didn't bring all the links. Also, I really went into hibernation with family, and I will admit to enjoying shrugging off daily chores for a while.

I'm still on vacation and will only have to return to my day job on Monday. That feels great.

Today was a game of catching up and getting things sorted after being away for two weeks. Plants are fine. In a big surprise, new neighbors are already moving in below my apartment. I had been expecting an extended period of renovations. I'm a little excited to get to know them.

Also gave my direct neighbor the chocolate I bought for him, because I appreciate it so much that he keeps an eye on my apartment.

Picked up the package that arrived while I was gone. Grabbed some groceries. Caught up on emails (dear gods, so MUCH email!).

Wrote out a lot of the world-building I have been doing for Penumbra, my modern vampires. Feels great. I don't really want to go into any detail just yet, because I don't want to spoil any of the story, and I also don't know how much of it will actually make it into the tale. But it's been great fun to rearrange the world for the next twenty years. (Yes, mayhem and upheaval.)

I promise, you'll hear more about Penumbra - hope you won't get sick of it.

Oh, and I'm getting Sky back from my beta-reader tomorrow... that is a scary thought.

Today, I finally received the cover for "Sky Falls", Book 2 in the Pillars of the Empire series. And let me tell you, it looks gorgeous.

It took me a while to gather enough energy, but I finally uploaded the ebook to Amazon, Google Play Store and Draft2Digital (which distributes to a huge bunch of other bookstores, including Apple and Kobo). Also uploaded the print files to Amazon. Right now, the book is wending its way through all the servers. I hope I can create a Books2Read link tomorrow, which is a very neat universal link where you can pick where you want to buy the book from.

I'll also share the cover here, but I will post about the release in the other thread about new books tomorrow.

I'm also quite wiped today, and very glad it's almost the weekend. Hope I can focus on writing soon.

Enjoy the cover!

So life has been throwing me one curve-ball after the other. Petty things, little things, but they burn my autistic mind to the point where I soothe myself as best I can.

Sadly, that means little to no writing or editing, and trust me, I feel the minutes ticking by, knowing I should be working on Sky. I really hope to get a few things cleared up soon (took care of a some things today, like fighting DHL for shipping labels and emailing my landlord about water damage and mold - not inside my apartment, fortunately). Will probably need to change my mobile phone provider to take care of yet another issue. And that's not half of what my list says.

In turn, all of this means I have little brainspace for coming here and chatting with you all. Or even have some nice WiP quotes to share with you. I'm sorry.

I didn't put words into any WiP today, but I did write the blurb for Sky and picked the graphic for his chapter headers (you might have seen that).

This feels like amazing progress. I will definitely commission the cover tomorrow.

I also fixed something else that bothered me (replaced the batteries in the temperature sensor of my weather station) and that gave me another mental boost. Frankly, it's a miracle that thing is still working. It was half submerged in (dirty) water, one of the batteries had rusted, and I'm pretty sure it had been partially frozen more than once. But I cleaned it out, dried it and as soon as the new batteries were in, it fired up and started sending. I'll take that as a sign for my own life. 😀

Feeling much more centered and calm tonight. Tomorrow, I'll tackle one more frazzling thing, and then I'm mostly back on track.

I plan to finish editing Sky and formatting the book this weekend. Depending on how fast my cover designer is, I can publish Sky Falls soon. Can't wait, to be honest.

Have the blurb:

A daring escape. An unlikely ally. A wicked betrayal.

When the day of his sacrifice draws near, Sky Falcon has nothing left to lose. Daring the wrath of the Priests, he escapes through a clever application of his magic, taking the love of his life with him.

Together, they hatch a desperate and daring plan: After escaping the Holy Empire through different routes, they vow to reunite near Jungle Fortress in the south.

On his own, Sky makes an unfortunate mistake which leads him down the road to doom. Can he escape once more or will he find himself bound on top of a Pyramid, after all?

“Sky Falls” takes you on yet another intense and fast-paced ride through the world of the Winds and Pillars, with familiar characters lending a hand.

If you adore being sucked into a tale of magic, adventure, love and battle, you will devour the second book of the Pillars of the Empire by Hannah Steenbock.

No writing today, either.

Ran my Author Mastermind group (love my friends), edited Sky some more and updated the backmatter for one of my Dragon books. That matters, as I added my new books (just remembered I missed one or two), and created a page to point readers to the next series in the same world. With a bit of luck, I'll get more read-through that way. It's often the simple things that matter in marketing.

Other than that, I survived five hours of massive honking and rumbling as another farmers' protest ran back and forth along the street where I live. Disgusting. (That does me in because I'm autistic, and all that noise just upsets my brain. I can't cut it out either, though, because not knowing what is going on makes me feel unsafe.)

Anyway, it passed, and I have recovered, mostly. More chores tomorrow. It's also Newsletter Day, so if you want to learn more about my writing, grab some free books and read a cute little tale about my red dragon familiar, you can sign up here:

https://www.hannah-steenbock.de/newsletter-signup/

Finished the fixing for Sky (shoot, just remembered a plot hole that needs a couple of sentences to fix), think I can format the book tomorrow. Cover has been commissioned, waiting for a response from the designer. Hope we can finalize that by the end of the month. So looking forward to publishing Sky.

No writing. Just don't have the brainspace.

Struggled with my Kindle for a while, until a website suggested rebooting it. That finally made it possible to download the book I wanted to read tonight - and then didn't.

See you all tomorrow!

Today was quite an exciting day.

After uploading all the files yesterday, I was hoping I could celebrate the release of Sky Falls today. And so I posted about it on Mastodon - which met with a wonderful and immediate response - my first sale to a lovely fan.

But then I had to work in my day job, then I met a friend in video chat, and then... I found email from Amazon with a problem in the print file. sigh It wasn't difficult to fix, but it was something I had checked yesterday before grabbing the print file, and it still went wrong. Ah, well.

Then I went out to participate in a march against fascism. (We are doing this in Germany right now, because a fascist party is on the rise, and the "silent" majority is no longer taking it in silence.)

Anyway, I came home to a couple more sales (I don't have that many fans) and a wonderful message by my first reader who had already finished the book! (And loved it!)

What a day! 😍

Yesterday, my sister came for a very short visit, on her way back from Aarhus in Denmark.

I cleaned, and then I spent a wonderful afternoon with her walking town, and a chilled evening watching Mando and Boba Fett. It was great and I totally enjoyed it.

This morning, I was wiped. Which turned today into a recovery day, at least after I went to the train station with her to send her off. (She got home well.)

I wrote all of 50 words, but I wrote! (For the spicy shifters.) Played Titan Quest, read a comfort book, spent quite some time snuggled in a blanket. Tonight, the brain fog finally lifted.

So I plan to format Sky tomorrow, which involves creating the actual chapter graphic and then dumping it all into Atticus. Then I'll be able to tell my cover designer how many pages the book has.

We'll see how that works out.

The Indie Ink Awards have declared the finalists for this year. And well, Dragon Prey is out of the running.

Even so, I want to thank everyone who voted for my book. You believed in me and that tale, and that means a lot to me.

If you can, spread the word about my books, help me find more fans - and I promise, I'll write more tales. Of dragons, mages, shifters... all of them feel-good stories.

Not really focusing on what I should be doing. Instead, I ran the first two Zell books through Atticus and gave them a new interior look. Will do the rest soon, as well. (The Franssisi Four Chronicles, Zell is the name of the MC.)

I also added some words of warning to Decoy, so people know what they are getting into...

Most of all, however, I fixed the sketchy layout of the backmatter and updated the graphics with the new Wolf book. That was very satisfying.

Have a screenshot of the new Zell look.

Tired today, so it'll be an early bedtime again.

However! I bought three covers for my vampire series Penumbra (premades, so I can't show them off just yet). And my designer showed me a preview of the cover for Sky and I totally love it!

So there will be cover reveals quite soon, and that makes me rather happy.

Also did some proofreading, will finish that tomorrow. Fascinating read.

It's been a good day.

Another rather frazzling day, including a visit from a Telekom press gan... information team. They almost managed to make me sign up for a provider change. Remembered just in time to ask for a break so I could think it through.

Nice guys, though, and they totally lost it when they saw my sword and dagger, and took my author business cards. With a bit of luck, I'll end up selling books to them.

In much nicer news, I have received the first three covers for Penumbra, and they look awesome. I just need to put them into a good thing to share here.

Also, saw the first draft of the new Sky cover, and it's just awesome and perfect and beautiful. Will also share asap.

Oh, and I wrote 700 words for my spicy shifters this morning. Yay.

For now, I'll curl up with a comfort book and hope I can actually sleep this night...

Today was mostly a recovery day after the insanity that was yesterday.

Yesterday, I did my day job, had a meeting in the afternoon, was accosted by salesguys, and finally watched a presentation on climate change and fake news by one of the most eminent climate scientists in Germany, Mojib Lativ. That was utterly fascinating.

Writer Brain then proceeded to make my life hell with worst-case scenarios about the sales thing, keeping me awake for a large part of the night. I made phone calls this morning and got it sorted.

Tiny bit of editing done for the spicy shifters. I'm still really liking the story, but next is a bed scene, and right now I just can't... Maybe I'll just leave the reminder there for now.

But! I can share the three covers for the Vampire series that I'm currently (not) writing. They are so awesome, they motivate me.

(If you read this on Mastodon, I hope you can click through to Lemmy to see it.)

Today was definitely more productive. Took care of one other frazzling thing (which means there is one big one left, I'll tackle that tomorrow). I read through my spicy shifters, and though I already have 45k in that story, it's not even near being finished. I have to fill in a LOT of plot, probably another 20k words.

So I might just shove it back on the backburner and look at the Vampires and Sun next.

I did go and formatted Sky, because I promised that on Mastodon. Now I just have to get the cover, and I can finalize and upload. Getting rather excited about it all!

No writing today, but some plotting. I know more about the second Penumbra book now, and more about Dio (the Warrior).

Biggest task was migrating my MailerLite account, so I can keep sending email through the system. It looks fairly good, but I'm still struggling a little with the new authentication thingie that Google created.

I dug deep into the DNS settings of my domain, that was scary. I'm almost there, at least, so that's something, especially considering I'm not an IT specialist.

I'm gradually working my way out of Frazzletown, and I can tell you, I'm much relieved.

Now wish me and my cover designer luck, so I can publish Sky in the next few days.

Finally wrote a few hundred words for Sun. I really hope I can get back into the story now.

Not much else today, I'm tired and had quite a bit of brainfog. Read yet another romance novel.

Have some Sun:

---

This cave was small. He had to stoop to duck through the entrance, and while there was enough room for a camp, it was a close fit. They might have been able to add two or three mules, Sun thought, squinting a little, but that was all.

Oh, and it had a little spring at the back, the water forming a small pool before draining away to the side. He couldn’t be certain, since he really didn’t know how these things worked, but it felt like a Moon had created it together with an Earth. Somehow, that thought made the cave much more comfortable.

Finally wrote today. 1k words for Sun.

Also fixed the most of the MailerLite thing, I'm almost done with that. The rest will have to wait after tomorrow, because that's when a newsletter will go out.

Read a comfort book. And solved a tricky problem for work, so it was a good day. Have some Sun:

---

And because the cold of the ground was still seeping through his bedroll, he simply kept pushing warmth, not heat, warmth, further down, through his bedroll and into the ground. The packed dirt soaked up his warmth, and he pushed even further until he reached solid rock.

When he shoved power into that, something broke inside him, unleashing emotions he didn’t even understand, and he pushed hard. A few heartbeats later, warmth pooled in the cave, and Laisal lifted her head in a swift movement to stare at him.

“No!” she mouthed, and Sun froze, cutting off his power instantly.

He had offended a Priest.

No writing yesterday (or very little) because I had to set up my newsletter. That went well, but took all my brain power.

Today, I'm back to writing. Managed 1k again, trying to make that into a habit, with one writing time in the morning, and one in the evening.

Have some Sun:

---

“Do it now.”

“Really?”

“Yes. What do you need me to do?”

“Well, maybe it’ll be better if we both sit.” Laisal chewed on her lower lip again. It was endearing, really, but… Sun forced his thoughts away from that.

Instead, he sat where he stood, folding his legs the way he had always done in the House. It felt good to sit that way, deep down. Laisal knelt before him and lifted one hand. “Just watch my finger,” she instructed him.

Sun did just that, and moments later, the world fell away.

Another 1k day, and that makes me happy. I'm moving Sun out of the mountains in the east, and need to start making his life miserable. (Mwuahahahah.)

For how, he and the Priestess he escaped with are trying to make plans. Not very successfully, I might add.

Have a snippet:

---

“Now, we still need to decide what to do. We’re almost out of the mountains. Do you know what’s east?”

He shrugged. “We haven’t been out here often. I know there are some plains. That’s where I have seen the travelers.”

“Do you think they’d be around now?”

Sun shrugged again. “I don’t know much about them. But it’s winter. I would assume they are where it’s warmer.”

“That makes sense.” She sighed. “I was hoping we could ask someone for directions.”

I did write, but ran into a bit of a slog. Writer Brain will need time to come up with a nice new little plot adventure. However, I have Sun stewing on something that will come to a head a few chapters down the road. (Quite literally.)

It's still 400 more words than I had this morning.

Have a snippet:

---

“Let’s get out of these mountains. And while we do, think of a way those Houses won’t be able to find us. You have been hunting before, right?”

“Yes.” Sun wished he could undo the times they had done anything outside of the Empire. None of those people had deserved their fate.

“So you know what to look for.”

He nodded, thinking hard. “But we only looked during the day. So maybe, if we hide during the day and walk at night, we’d be safer. I can light our way with a flame…”

Another day with 400 words - not what I'm aiming for, but it's okay.

You see, I read a romance today that totally shattered me. Autistic MC, lots of assumptions, and of course, a happy ending. But all of it so sweet, so beautiful and heartbreaking, it's truly a piece of art.

So it took me a while to put myself together before I could do anything for Sun. And today's writing wasn't exactly good. But they will start moving any time now.

---

“Do you know how to send out your awareness, to look at something? Like their power or energy?”

Laisal frowned at him. “I… think I do. I haven’t done that often, at least not very far. I mean, I can see you and your power. Although it’s still very much hidden.”

Sun nodded, not even trying to sort that out. “But you know how to send it out?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Now try to keep it open and just let it sense energy from outside of you.”