WE ARE LAUNCHED!

Guess what? The Kickstarter just launched! Learn more about the campaign, harangue me with questions or chip in if you like.

About Me

Having traditionally published in the past, I am well aware of the trials, tribulations and time it can take to get a book ready for print. Luckily, I've got the books written so now it's just a matter of editing, formatting and all of that laborious stuff that makes sure the book is as good as it can be.
My goal is to independently publish the first two books in what I intend to be a trilogy. I'm planning on an e-book release in all formats as well as a small run of one hundred for both books in paperback. I'm the one in charge of the cover art and I've contracted a wonderful editor.
I'm hoping you folks will help me with that. Of course, now you want to know what these books are about.
So find out here!

Inspiring Author of the Day: Ellen Kushner

Now here's one where our fearless lady doesn't hide her gender. Ellen Kushner started this world with Swordspoint, but The Privilege of the Sword was the first book I read.

Katherine is thrown into a world she doesn't quite understand, with her uncle up to who-knows-what. His ultimate plan eventually unfolds to give Katherine what she really desires.

To say that this book had an influence of Rule of Sword would be an understatement, though I went a different way with Charlie. My love of fencing came from this book, and it led me to pursue an unseemly amount of research that should culminate in my taking lessons of my own.

If you haven't read Swordspoint or Privilege, I urge you to do so.

THE Inspiration: Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

As Directed by Kenneth Branagh

Around the time I was unemployed, car-less, residing on the couch of a friend post-grad school, I found myself with a great deal of free time and a library card. The library had DVD's and I got curious and checked out Twelfth Night. I'd read the play, and seen other adaptations, but it was this film that drew out the spirit of the thing for me.

I immediately went and checked out As You Like It and Much Ado About Nothing, as I have not taste for his tragedies, I stuck with the comedies. His thread of lady pretending to be a man reminded me that I had once wished to write such a story. In fact, I had attempted to write iterations on the theme many times over the years.

Except this time, Charlotte was born. It was the beginning of Twelfth Night that had me. That terrible storm and siblings torn apart. It's echoed clearly in the beginning of Rule of Sword, but Charlotte's journey is not Viola's.

Inspiring Author of the Day: Maria V. Snyder

Yelena doesn't count as a lady with a sword, but that's okay because she has a bow staff. Yelena is an amazing character. She's so convinced that her life is plotted out in front of her, and so broken in the beginning that you just want things to work out for her.

In fact, her arc is very similar to many male characters I've seen before. Except Yelena is of course female.

Now, one could argue that these books follow the trope of tortured women make heroes, but we get tortured male heroes all the time so I'd call bull shit. Yelena doesn't let her past define who she is, who she wants to be.

Yelena is part of a very rigid society. Everyone wears a uniform. Everyone has a job. If you kill someone--well, you die. Except Yelena doesn't. That's not really a spoiler as it's in the first five pages.

I just re-read the three novels (though I know Assassin Study is coming out?is out?) so I'll get to that one eventually as well. My favorite thing about Yelena is that once she sees an opportunity, she takes it. She fights back. She sets the rules and the boundaries in her world in any way she can.

And she is so bad-ass.

I feel like I never hear people talking about these books, or Yelena, but trust me--you need to read them.

A Bit More About the Kickstarter

Coming November First the Rules of Engagement Kickstarter Campaign!

An orphaned girl takes her supposedly dead brother's place to become an officer in the Queen's army, only to end up a spy instead. Fourteen-year-old  Charlotte Ridley is shipwrecked, and while she loses her last surviving relative, elder brother Edmund, she gains the chance of a lifetime. Washed ashore on the island of Lochlan, home to the Crown's Lochlan Officer Academy, Charlotte takes on a new identity as the last male heir of the Ridley line.

As Charles, she trains hard to become the officer she always wanted to be--and the spy she never dreamed she could be. With war on the horizon the pressure mounts, Charlotte is going to have to decide if she will take to the field of battle or step into a world filled with shadows.

For a sneak peek at Chapter One of Rule of Sword, click away!

Inspiring Books of the Day: The Harper Series

Okay, let's talk about The Harpers books! Goodness there are so many badass ladies to talk about. We'll go around the way clockwise.

First of we have Alias who I believe first appeared in Azure Bonds and is a super amazing red head with sword skills. I was deep into D&D at the time and I read FIFTEEN Harper novels in like...a week. I kept the stack next to my pillow and devoured them. Just couldn't stop.

Then there's Storm, who I adored so much I based EVERY D&D character for like three years off of her and still have several old stories with characters called Storm in them. It left me with a penchant for silver-haired ladies in my books...

RUHA! Ruha is an amazing lady. She withstands being ostracized, she takes charge and in the end she is the master of her own fate. I wish we would have seen more of her passed The Veiled Dragon (And maybe there is another one, but I haven't read anything post-2003?).
Arilyn, you inspired my naming everyone with a color in their last name for about five years and my thing for orphans and misfits and asshole families. (I was having issues with my own parents at the time, I was in middle school).

I read these before I even got to Kel and Harry. (See my previous posts tagged #ladies with swords). While the authors never seemed to matter much to me at the time, I can point to Elaine Cunningham, Ed Greenwood, Kate Novak, Jeff Grubb and Troy Denning now as my favorite authors in the Harpers series. Well, other than R.A. Salvatore because speaking of outcasts I will always love Drizzt...

Inspiring Author of the Day: Tamora Pierce

Ah, Tamora Pierce. You gave me not one, not two, but a whole bevy of amazing ladies to look up to. I first found Sandry's book at a school book fair. I had five dollars saved up and I bought that book.
I devoured that book. The opening pages of Sandry's fight against despair struck a chord in me. I read every book I could find (as they came out mostly) and then I found Kel. Kel reminded me of Harry (The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley) and she reminded me of the knights I loved in stories.
Knights who were typically male, but not always.

Kel was a fighter, fair and steady. She put her faith in her friends. It was that steadfastness that I wished I could instill in myself. I wished I could be as passionate and certain--I wished I could control my temper.

We each find different things to connect with. I had a harder time connecting with Alanna, and I see that reflected in my difficulty connecting with another fiery redhead (Aerin The Hero and the Crown). They were both just too big. They were too magical, too fated.
I suppose it's just in me to fall for the characters who struggle with uncertainty, the ones with their feet firmly on the ground.

And yet it is Alanna's circumstance of woman pretending to be a man (and a heavy influence of Shakespeare) that I have kept returning to in themes throughout my writing.

Inspiring Author of the Day: Robin McKinley

Robin McKinley has a place of honor on my tattoo and this book is the reason. I read Harry before Alanna, before Kel. I read her story and I was in love. Here was girl who found herself in a world she didn't understand and yet with every passing moment felt an abiding love for that world. Found a skill she never thought she would possess.

Harry set me on a path in my writing to strive for a female protagonist that was worthy of being compared to her. It also had me naming all of my ladies in masculine fashion (I can't help it). I read The Blue Sword before The Hero and the Crown, and to be honest it's my preferred book over the latter.

If you're looking for an uplifting story about a woman who doesn't have to hide who she is, who takes her destiny in her own hands--this is a book you have to read.
It is a book that will never leave my heart.