Want to write a novel?

 

I've talked to a lot of people who've said they wished they could write a book, but didn't know how to go about it. I've talked to a few more who enjoy writing books but didn't know how to outline to make the process easier, less time-consuming, and more satisfying. Well, I turned my answer to those people into a book. Maybe it'll help you too.

Novel By Me is a guide that lets you fill out the pages, from drawing the cover to brainstorming ideas to crafting a structured plot. Fill in the lines on each page to create your novel. You'll brainstorm ideas, and then describe your characters, setting, plot, and more. You can use this book however you like. Feel free to write in the lines. Scribble notes in the blank spots. Draw or paste pictures—and don’t forget to design the cover!

Children can use it to practice making their own story. Teachers can use it to teach the parts of a story and get students excited about writing. Beginning writers can use it to get started and learn how to turn ideas into words. And established writers can use it as an outline for crafting a longer novel. Novel by Me is currently on amazon in paperback only. Check it out if you or someone you know would like help writing a story!

Body counts

 We all know, right, that not all characters survive their fantasy books?

The Spectra Books aren't graphic, but some of them do have a body count--the no-longer-living type, I mean. The romance goes to chaste kisses at the most (and one married couple walks off "to spend time alone").

I made up a little system to classify these books. Books can get an X for:

• Someone (or many someones) pass away in backstory
• Bad guy(s) don't survive the book
• Unnamed people are lost in battle, not graphic
• A named character (non-villain) passes away
• The point-of-view character actively ends someone.

So that's a maximum rating of 5 Xs. 

Let's see how The Spectra Books rate:

The Keita's Wings series is a YA fantasy about an exiled princess uniting six kingdoms. It's closer to a traditional epic fantasy than my other books, including battles and villains who meet sticky ends. Score: 4/5 for most volumes, 5/5 for the fifth book (of six).

Two species try to subjugate each other in this standalone novel, but Mira and her best friend, a griffin called Freko, actively choose nonviolence and try to end the conflict. 3/5 Xs

This adult trilogy deals with persecution and follows an exiled found family. It's inspired by real life pioneers and includes grief, loss, guilt, and sometimes violence. 3/5 Xs.

Somehow, my sweet romance got the maximum Xs. It is a Shakespeare retelling (of one comedy and one tragedy mashed together) with a pirate battle and a heroine sailor who can outshoot her peers, so the Xs rack up. It's still cute and funny, I promise. 5/5 Xs

This dual point-of-view romance circles around themes of recovering from grief and navigating different cultures, which tend to clash violently. 3/5 Xs.

I have to calculate the Spectra Crown Tales separately because each has a different main character and plot, even though some overlap. 

3/5 Xs:

The Seventh Clan, set in a fantasy version of the American Revolutionary War.

The Dream Realm, a sleeping beauty retelling with an especially nasty villain.

The Sunken Oath: the love interest is a pirate. Enough said?

2/5 Xs:

The Tiny Wings: an orphan has loss in the backstory, and a villain meets a sticky end.

1/5 Xs:

The Cousin Pact and The Seven Sages each have main characters overcoming loss in their backstories.

The Cousin Curse has a single battle scene, where afterwards the characters learn that there were casualties.

0/5:

The Masters of Wishes has no casualties. None. At all. I'm going soft or something.

So, if you need trigger warnings or aren't sure which books would be best for which readers, now you know. I do read all of my books out loud to all of my children, ages 17 to 3, so I don't put anything too awful in there.

As an aside, I linked each book to its amazon page, but you can find the paperbacks on Barnes&Noble and many other book sellers. You can also find the ebooks in many library apps including One Drive and Hoopla. 

Princess Viola sneak peek

Originally, I wrote The Cousin Curse directly after The Seven Sages, in The Spectra Crown Tales. However, I'm now going back and inserting another book in between the two. This means I have to tweak the ending of The Seven Sages. This snippet originally came at the end of The Seven Sages to help the reader bridge over, but it's probably going to be cut. 

So, here's the deleted scene, an introduction to Princess Viola (the mute sister of the Six Swans):

 If the kingdom of Castalia was asked which royal sibling was the least likely to cause trouble, Viola was certain that she’d be, if not the winner, at least very close to the top. Yet when had her wild younger siblings ever been dragged into the throne room by security?  

Not that she’d done anything wrong. She’d been minding her own business in the castle gardens. The new security guards thought she was trespassing. This was one of those many situations where a small conversation could fix everything. Unfortunately, she needed an interpreter for conversations of any size. 

She shouldn’t say they were dragging her. She walked between the two men, one small young woman dwarfed by their huge statures and even bigger muscles. She could harness her Sprite strength and throw them both across the room if she wanted to. But that wouldn’t fix up this misunderstanding. 

Her mother, the queen, stood up immediately when they entered. “Let her go at once!” she ordered. 

The security guards glanced at one another. Viola slipped past them, found a bag of wool that she’d hidden behind one of the fancy chairs, and began shaping it into a shirt for her brother. Her hands worked automatically so that she could watch the guards’ faces. This would be entertaining. 

“This child was trespassing,” one of the guards said hesitantly. 

Being called a child would be slightly less annoying if people made the same mistake about Viola’s twin. They were the same age and the same height. But Lilac wore fancy clothes and a tiara and carried herself with confidence. Well, why not? If someone challenged her, she could actually answer. 

Her mother, not much taller than Viola, stormed toward them with the ferocity of a bear. “My daughter lives here! How could she possibly be trespassing?” 

“That’s a princess?” one stammered. 

Her mother’s vivid green eyes flashed. “Why wouldn’t she be? Because she’s a Sprite? Because she’s not wearing fancy clothes?” 

Mother wore traditional leafskin exactly like Viola’s own. To be fair, though, she also wore a thin golden circlet over her dark hair. 

Stammering their apologies, the guards retreated. Viola shook her head and returned to her wool. 

Her mother turned on her. “Viola, you could have solved that problem by yourself.” 

Viola raised her hands in a questioning gesture. 

“You could have escaped them. You could have summoned one of your siblings. You could have carried your slate with you.” 

Viola shuddered. The slate required chalk, and she hated chalk. The grating sound made her want to pull her teeth out. It left a dusty film on her hands that interfered with her cloth-shaping. And it smelled bad. 

Anyway, she had solved the problem. She’d let the guards take her back to her family so that one of her parents could explain. That wasn’t cowardice or laziness or whatever her mother was implying. It was being smart and working as a team with her family. Who could complain about that? 

“You’re going up to the Lakewood in a few days,” her mother went on. “We’ll send a few guards and one of your siblings to interpret, but you’re going to need to handle problems on your own.” 

Viola frowned. Going up to Lakewood was not her idea. Her sisters had been extra giggly, predicting that she’d fall madly in love with a handsome stranger. That was dumb. It would mostly be other Sprites in Lakewood. Viola needed to marry a Muse like her father, someone who could speak mind-to-mind with her. Then she’d always have an interpreter. What kind of relationship would that be if she could never talk to the man? 

The numbering may have changed, but you can still find The Cousin Curse here.

The Cousin Curse: a retelling of The Six Swans and Paul Bunyan, available now!

 

The Spectra Crown Tales just got a little bigger!

When I started to work on this book, I knew only a few things: the fairytale (the Six Swans), the location, and a few of the characters.   Viola is the main character. She's a princess with Sprite abilities (life magic) including shaping fibers and shifting into a bison-like animal. She was born without vocal cords, so in this version, she never had a voice.   Only one of the swans is her brother, 10-year-old Beck. The other five are her cousins, with a variety of abilities. You might recognize Perrin, the human with Spectra abilities, from book 1, The Seventh Clan (which incidentally is only 99 cents). The last character that I knew for sure was another cousin, Kelda Sage, who has the ability to change other people into animals. She's been isolated for most of her life and never developed a sense of empathy. Kelda will be the protagonist of the next book, The Songbird's Hearth. Viola's twin sister Lilac makes a few appearances in this book. You might remember her from her own Crown Tale, The Dream Realm, which is this month's free book! Grab the ebook on amazon for free from March 1-5th, 2025.

I knew that this story takes place in a wild forest contested between kingdoms which is often used for logging. That's what led to the main love interest, who is inspired by Paul Bunyan. He's big but still a regular human and uses an ax to chop trees. He's also a gentle giant who is kind and supportive, and who came from a village where everyone speaks sign language, inspired by a real-life location called Martha's Vineyard. I have a BS degree in Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation, so I have taken forestry classes, and a little of that seeps into the story as well.   The next story chronologically will be The Songbird's Hearth, as mentioned, but it won't be the next book released. That's because I'm pausing to write a prequel. The Masters of Wishes is a mashup of Cinderella and Aladdin. You haven't met any of the major characters yet, but some familiar names will appear.

Introduction to The Sunken Oath

 You might remember that I'm working on a sprawling series of fairytale retellings. Each follows a different royal in their own story. Well, the fourth tale, The Sunken Oath, is now on preorder, with a release date of March 1st!

I'm excited to introduce you to Dylan, the prince of Merlandia. He has no tail and he's not a maid, but he's representing The Little Mermaid in this collection. He's fun and improper, ready to experience the world.

Here's the official blurb:
Dylan never wanted to be king, but he’ll have to accept his title to get his voice back. The rest of the royal family hate humans, who don’t have water abilities like the Mer, but he’s fascinated, especially by an ocean-eyed pirate girl. The rift between humans and Mers grows almost as fast as the one between Dylan and his mother, the ruling queen. How much would he sacrifice to control his own voice?

I had a lot of fun writing Bianca, the pirate girl, who is sweet and quiet in temperament, yet can endure anything without batting an eye and has no qualms about using a pistol. 

Old readers will enjoy the return of Innis and Alvis from the previous book, The Cousin Pact. If you haven't read that one, you might want to finish it before starting The Sunken Oath, since Cousin Pact's mystery will be spoiled in this book.

Try out a sneak peek here.

Welcome, The Cousin Pact! Book 14 of The Spectra Books

 Today is the day!

The Cousin Pact is now officially published!

At one point, The Cousin Pact was going to be the first Spectra Crown Tale because it introduces you to so many of the other characters. The original idea of the Spectra Crown Tales was that different fairytale characters would interact with one another, often as siblings or cousins. Each book focuses on one or two, but they all interact and move in and out of each others' story. The Cousin Pact ended up being third in the series, but you'll have fun meeting the twelve (dancing) princesses, including:

Beauty and the Beast and Sleeping Beauty, the main characters of the previous two books

Sleeping Beauty's sisters: Snow White, The Six Swans' sister (or cousin, in this case), The Tinderbox's princess, and Puss in Boots.

As for the others... well, I won't spoil all of them, but Little Red Riding Hood gets her red cloak in The Cousin Pact, and the princess from The Boy Who Kept a Secret meets her love interest.

Bonus points if you can spot all of them on this cover!



The Cousin Pact, book 3 in this series, focuses on a new character, a soldier who hates violence. One of the twelve dancing princesses stole the royal scepter and is kidnapping the others, and our soldier must discover who it is... but his heart keeps getting in the way. This story was inspired by my sister-in-law, who challenged our family to write a mystery!

All formats (paperback, ebook, and kindle vella) are now published!


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Introducing The Tournament of Princes

 

Hello, everyone. I'm having an interesting year as I learn to balance my writing schedule with caring for a baby. I've been releasing one chapter each week of The Spectra Crown Tales in kindle vella, which means one full book every six months or so. In quieter moments (I love naptime!), I build up episodes for a second project. Since The Captain's Dowry is now out in the world, it's time to start a new second project. So, I would like to introduce you to... The Tournament of Princes

Impersonate a prince. Win a crown. Stop an Empire. If Collis can enter the emperor's tournament to become his heir, he could create his own legend and stop the war for good. But the legends he loves never mentioned dust or blood, and the heroes had useful companions, not a child without fire abilities, an escaped slave, or his mother. Yet Collis will need them to cross the desert, survive the tournament, and beyond. The Tournament of Princes started, as most of my stories do, as a daydream--or rather, a series of daydreams. The Vliek Empire is harsh, inside a harsh desert world, and I've set many of my own private stories there. When I first began planning to write it down, I knew that my favorite main character, Trissali, would be the mother of the YA hero of this story, and that she would play a major role (forget damsels in distress, mothers have it even worse, narratively speaking). It may be a bit grittier than my fairytale retellings, but I'm still aiming for a PG-13 rating, if it were a movie. Inspirations for this story include everything from Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors to Avatar: The Last Airbender (more for plot and pacing than worldbuilding). In the Spectra world, this story takes place between Mira's Griffin and DreamRovers. Some of the six kingdoms have been fully established, but people are still learning and defining their abilities, so some of the politics and magic terminology are different than later books. The Tournament of Princes could be seen as a origin story for the Cole Kingdom. You can read the first chapter completely free here (though you do have to sign in to your amazon account), and I'll also include the beginning below. The Tournament of Princes is currently exclusive to kindle vella, though I will probably publish it as a full book at some point. I'll be uploading one short episode every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I hope to see you there!

Sneak Peek:

As promised, here is the opening of The Tournament of Princes: Dust rose over the desert. From the hills, Trissali saw it coming, and knew what it meant. At long last, the Vlieks had come for her tiny village.   She could have stayed where she was, hidden in the rocky hills in the desert, but Trissali could not abandon her people.   She raced down cliffs so quickly she seemed to fly. The cloud of dust spread across the entire sky behind her. The first stone houses came into view. Trissali rushed straight to the village center and rang their warning bell, again and again, until the whole village had gathered.  Her father was the first to come running, holding two spears. He handed her one of them. “The innocents can escape into the hills,” he said, “but they need time.”  Trissali accepted the spear, and she and her father alone charged the oncoming horde.  *   *  *  Collis let the dramatic pause linger. His audience, all children, waited eagerly. He’d loved these stories at their age too, but now they were the ones who needed protected, and he was old enough to help—as long as they were sufficiently distracted. He lifted a toy wooden spear and, for good measure, summoned a ball of fire. The tip of the spear burst into flames.   Twelve-year-old Tuya bounced where she stood. The girl’s pale hair, so different than the black and brown of the others, flipped into her eyes. “Awesome!”  “I can’t wait ‘til I learn fire-shaping,” a little boy said.  Collis grinned and swung the spear. The fire danced, creating glowing orange light on the drab stone walls of the schoolhouse, a major improvement. The kids laughed and cheered.  The next oldest after Collis, a fourteen-year-old baker's daughter, glared at the spear, and the fire went out.  “Really, Collis? You’d tell them a story like that at a time like this?”  He hesitated. “They’re having fun.”  She pointed to the back wall. Some of the children gathered there, pressed close together. “Our parents are going to fight a real battle.”  “Some of us don’t have any,” Tuya said. She swallowed her sadness and looked desperately up at Collis. “What happened next?”  The distraction clearly helped some of the kids. Collis edged further from the ones cowering in the back while the baker’s daughter hurried to them. She was only a year younger, but a lot better than he was at minding the younger ones.  Collis pulled out the box he’d brought with him and opened the lid. Eleven carved weapons, with details outlined in black, charred wood. “I made you something.” He chose a sword and handed it to Tuya. “Why don’t you act it out and see who won?”  With whoops and cheers, the small horde descended on the box.  His collection might not survive, but Collis had bigger priorities. The baker’s daughter had everything in hand. There was no reason he couldn’t slip out.