Happy Halloween! Trick or treat! I very much prefer treats over tricks, so here's one from me. My new release! Last year on Halloween, I published Helix, my spooky season short story from the Galactic Explorers universe. This year, I give you... my summer book. *snort laugh* Hey. The books are done when they're done. I had to give up on the idea of releasing my seasonal books in the correct season with Rimehollow. At least I'm halfway through the series now. Ready for the next adventure? Then come with me!

I will admit that I didn't expect this one to be as long as it is. But as with all of my stories, it took on a life of its own and evolved well beyond my initial boundaries. As I get ready to outline my next book (more on that in a moment), I marvel at just how much evolution my plans undergo from outline to finished product. With almost thirty titles under my belt, you'd think I'd be used to this by now, but no. It still amazes me every time.

I did a lot of artwork for this book. There were so many scenes which stuck in my brain with such vivid visuals. It certainly helps when I have beautiful subjects to work with, but the beachy setting and palatial location practically demanded I spend time rendering them out. Plus, I mean, come on... Blond, tan Haruma on a sunset beach? Yes, please.

Ah, my complicated little vulpine prince. Minoru was one of the most demanding characters I've ever written. He outrightly defied so much of my outline and is a big part of the reason why Emberport is significantly longer than I'd planned.

Minoru went through a lot of stuff in this book. But he also learned a lot too. This is from the very first scene and from here to the end of the story he matured in so many ways. I'm really glad he allowed me to explore his personality.

Here's a better look at what Minoru looks like in his shifted form. This is the version of himself that he chooses to show to the world. As far as alter egos go, I have to hand it to the guy for choosing an illusion which looks incredibly royal, but we all just want you to be yourself, sweetie.

Okay a couple more... I truly regret what I did to Junnosuke. The way his role in this book unfolded is pretty much exactly how I intended it to. Reading through everything during my edits, my heart ached for poor Jun. He deserved a lot better than I gave him. I hope I can redeem myself with him later. His story isn't over yet.

I had this one in my head almost from the moment I started writing Emberport. The funny part about this one is that I had originally chosen different outfits for both of them. Haru's didn't play nicely with me while posing it, though, so I picked something else. And then Minoru's outfit didn't look right, so I had to change his too. Naturally, that led to me having to change the descriptions in the book. So, it's not always the words determining the images. Sometimes, it's the other way around.

So... About the post title and the mention of my next book above... As I was finishing Emberport, three books were fighting for space in my head. And none of them were the book I was intending to write next. *sigh* My muse is stubborn to the point of blocking things in favor of what it demands. I know (broadly) what the other two Vulpine Tales books will be about and whose stories they'll be. But what I'm writing next is Galactic Explorers Book Five. That's what's speaking to me the loudest right now.

And when I say it's not what I intended, I mean I was going to write a completely different story for Book Five. But I did a little soul searching and decided I needed to remain true to my own voice and write the story that wants to be written. I've already started planning it, outlining it, and playing with artwork for it. The other story will eventually be written, but I think it will need to be a side story to the main series. I've always believed that you can't force inspiration. It's either there or it isn't. And I have to go with what's inspiring me right now. So, I'll take a little break from Vulpine Tales to finish up Galactic Explorers. Don't worry, though. I still have plenty of ideas and more stories to write.

At the time of posting, most vendor links for Emberport are live. As usual, the paperback will take a little more time to format. I should have it submitted for review this weekend, though.

I really appreciate you taking this journey with me. It's never boring, is it? Thank you for your attention and thank you so much for reading!

Update 11/1: The Barnes & Noble link went live overnight, so the book page has all active vendor links now. Check back for the paperback link soon!

So... Yeah, it's been six months since the last update. Heh. Rest assured that I've just been busy; I haven't fallen off the planet or anything. I wish the preoccupation had everything to do with my writing projects, but alas, real life has been keeping me busy too. And yes, I am aware that it's spring now (in the northern hemisphere, at least), which belies the wintery scene above, but I'm launching a new series, and the first book is set in wintertime. Yay! Let's get the show on the road!

Happy Earth Day! I thought today was rather apropos to release my new book, since one of its themes deals with earth-based magic. That, plus the fact that I'm a huge supporter of environmentalism makes this the perfect date for my new book.

This series came a little out of left field for me. I had every intention of continuing with the next book of Galactic Explorers after Rasalas was done, but you know what people say about intentions. Don't worry, though! GE Book Five is still in the pipeline; I just need to get Book Two of this series out of my system first. It's the one demanding my attention the most right now and filling my head with plot ideas.

Rimehollow is Book One of my new Vulpine Tales series, which is loosely based on some of the legend and lore of Japanese kitsune mythology. Each book will be themed to a different season of the year, with the first taking place in winter. I've created eight different clans for my vulpine folk, based on eight species of fox known to humans, and the main characters of each book will represent two of them.

Kitaru is a member of the Yuki clan and represents the real-world species of arctic fox. His clan is descended from the gods of winter, and they thrive in the cold, snowy regions of their world. Yuki are also natural magic users, with some of them, like Kitaru, training intensively enough to earn the rank of mage.

Ryota hails from the Akai clan, representing the human equivalent of the red fox species. Akai are not magically gifted but are inherent warriors, their ranks comprising the strongest army of the vulpine world.

These two spend many hours basking in the warmth of the fire, reading, playing music, and talking about whatever. I created this piece as a representation of several scenes from the book, rather than a direct analog. I even put Mochi in there, curled up on Ryota's shoulder, doing what pampered, spoiled animal companions do best--not much of anything.

This one was fun to create. I had this image in my head for a long time before I wrote the scene it depicts. That happens often for me, though. So much of my content begins as a snippet of conversation floating around in my head or a vivid mental image.

One last image to round out the post. This is from a book scene too and I love it. The lighting just worked out so nicely. Sorry for the lack of context and details, but you know... I don't want to give too much of the book away.

​This is what's been keeping me busy for the last several months. The book is now published, with all vendor links live on the book page. The paperback will be live soon. I'm still working on formatting it, but I'll submit it for publication in the next day or two. I'll add the link to it when I have it.

Oh! Also... I wanted to mention that 2025 is the tenth anniversary of the start of my journey into self-publishing. Ten years and twenty-six books so far! Wow. Here's to the next decade!

​Thanks for joining me on my adventure, no matter how long you've been with me, or which book brought you here. And, as always, thanks for reading!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Here we are, at the end of October again already. Mother Nature finally allowed autumn to arrive in Colorado and the weather feels like it should, rather than eternal summer. Don't get me wrong, I like things about all the seasons (and I live someplace where I'm lucky enough to get all four of them), but fall is my absolute favorite. Time to break out the cozy sweaters and hot cocoa! Yay! And in the spirit of Halloween, I've brought you all a treat.

Trust me when I say I desperately wanted to get this out before today. But with life being as it is, I simply ran out of time. I spent the whole month writing this story and got it out to all the vendors this morning. It's a delightful little (angsty) Halloween tale from the Galactic Explorers universe, told from the perspectives of Liam, Skylar, and Aitana. It was fun to write and discover the surprises along the way. I hope you enjoy it too.

With the release of this short story, I decided to revamp how I'm making my free reads available. I'll still make them free, but I'll be publishing them through my vendor sites rather than posting the files here. I want to make it as easy as possible for people to read my stories, which is why I'm making them available via whatever app readers prefer most. I will offer one tiny caveat, however. Making titles free at Amazon requires a little extra effort and time, so it may take a couple days for stories to flip to free there. For all other vendors, I can set the price as free upon publishing.

Speaking of upcoming projects, I can say for certain that there are currently six books queued up in my brain. I've outlined and started the first book of a new series which I've planned to be a little less... epic than my last couple of series. There will be four books in that one. And then two more books for Galactic Explorers. I already mentioned book five, but I also know I'll be writing an epilogue for the series as well. I cannot get that one out of my head. I have to write it.

So, that's what's happening in Leah's world at the moment. Keep an eye on the free reads page for the short stories as I get them posted. I'll also announce them here on the blog when I do.

​I hope everyone has a happy and safe Halloween and I'll see you again soon! Thanks for your support and thanks for reading!

OMG... I feel like I've been working on this book forever. Maybe that's because this is a truly epic-length story. Seriously. This is my 25th book, and the length is second only to The Warrior King, the final installment of the Knights of Sehaann series. I remember telling my family about the beginning of Rasalas at Christmas last year, and now here it is, published and released for your enjoyment. My sister always tells me I write too fast for her to keep up with my books, but it doesn't feel that way most of the time. Especially when I see in my vendor dashboards that Nashira, book three of Galactic Explorers,​ was released almost exactly a year ago. Well, here's book four. If you like lengthy reads, this one's for you.

I find it amazing how my artwork has evolved, even over the course of a few months. I went into that a bit in my last post, but I really do love the lighting and realism I've been able to achieve lately. The ebook and paperback covers for Rasalas are my favorites so far. I hope you enjoy them too.

If you've read the other books in the series, then you know a little about Uri, since he was a secondary character in Nashira. Caz has been mentioned before as well, but this book was really an opportunity to get to know him. I'm not sure how many people realize it, but I rarely know everything about my characters when I write about them for the first time. In fact, I almost never have more than their basic appearance and personality traits figured out. I learn about them over the course of their story, just like you do. The adventure is one of the things that makes writing so enjoyable for me.

I've got this one as a computer desktop background right now because Uri's just so damn pretty. This image was inspired by the scene where Uri takes Caz into the prayer chapel in the ruined palace. The Nih'lai are a very spiritual people and even though Caz is not religiously inclined, Uri finds value in sharing that part of himself with him. With his prayer orb in hand, Uri is asking the gods to protect the ones he loves. I think this is quite evocative of the mood of that scene in the book.

I think it's obvious at this point that I had a hard time stopping myself from creating art with Uri in it. Like certain other characters, he's very expressive and doesn't hide his emotions. Since so much of the book deals with his feelings about the situations he needs to navigate, I suppose it's only fair to capture some of them. Here we see Uri's determination to prevail in the arena, ready to prove himself worthy of his fighting skill. I'm not spoiling anything here, but suffice it to say that the scenes behind this image were intense and absolutely fun to write.

I'm going to post these two together, since they're inspired by the same chapter. On the one hand, we have Caz glaring down on the ballroom scene, jealous and disgusted by the ones taking advantage of what he wants most. It's absolutely fair to say that Caspian Sheridan wears his emotions out in the open, just like his Nih'laiian hosts. On the other hand is a fun one I did of Uri in his ballroom finest. I confess that I picked the outfit before I wrote it into the book, so the description of it is exactly what you see here. Those platforms, man... No one but Uri could rock this ensemble so hard.

See? Cazzie, come on... Your friends can see the longing in your eyes from the Eltanin, mate. The scene setup of this one actually has Caz standing a step above Uri on the stairs. Otherwise, he's too short for Uri in those killer shoes. I wanted to highlight Uri's jewelry in this one, and while it's gorgeous, the mutual desire is even better. Chapter 19, people. Seriously. Chock full of goodness.

This one was entirely too much fun to recreate. As soon as I wrote the swimming scene, I knew I wanted to do a piece of art for it. You know, the romantic pairing is something I always have figured out before the first words are written, but my characters have a great deal of influence over how they meet and interact. For Caz and Uri, it was instantaneous. I know there are people who roll their eyes at insta-love, but sometimes it just happens. The chemistry just works, and two souls connect. These two were meant to be together and I'm so happy to have the opportunity to write their story.

I'll end this post with a clean version of the paperback cover. As I've done with all of the main Galactic Explorers books, I used the same couple pose for both the ebook and the print covers. This one isn't exactly the same, though. I moved Uri's right hand to show the entire length of his spear, and the camera angle is slightly different. I also added the orange glow on their faces and quite like how it turned out. I can't wait to see how this looks in real life when I receive my paperback copy in the mail.

So, that's a wrap for this one. Check out the Rasalas page for all the vendor links to grab a copy. I've decided that I will be writing book five of this series, though it'll be a slight departure from the others. More on that later. I'm also pretty sure I'll be writing an epilogue book as well. Beyond that, I have some ideas (but there are always ideas in my brain). As always, thank you so much for your support and joining me on my fantastical journeys. Hit me up if there are any questions or comments.

Thanks for reading, everyone!

Yeah, so... I'm still here. Pay no attention to the fact that my last post was six months ago. I'm probably the only one who notices anyway. But... Life, man. Busy with work, seeing a bit of the world, enjoying some live music, and oh yeah--finishing a book. As you can see by the site updates, Rasalas, book four of the Galactic Explorers series, is going through final edits and will be published very soon. I'll share plot-specific artwork and all the info with the official release post, as I always do, but I wanted to post up something fun for now. Just because it's my site, my blog, and I want to. The world needs a little more brightness and color.

First of all, I need to make my usual design disclaimer. Nothing I create is ever truly finished. Character designs and preview images are never final until publication, and even then, I reserve the right to change things. That has never been truer than with my Rasalas characters. I don't think any of my character designs have undergone such drastic changes as Caz and Uri have from my first preview images to now. But I must say that I'm absolutely thrilled with how they turned out.

I admit that some of it is my own inability to stop tinkering and making things better, but it's also because the program I use for my artwork--Daz 3D--is always evolving and offering new tools to play with. Since I started playing with character concepts for Rasalas, Daz has released a new software version and a new figure generation. My earliest versions of Caz were upgraded some time ago, but--of course--I had to get a new version of Uri's base figure just before releasing this book, so the last few weeks have been a flurry of art-making activity while I updated Uri's character design as well. I'm not sorry about it, though. Uri's looking just as gorgeous as Caz now, so I thought I'd offer up a few comparison shots to illustrate the differences.

I love the colors in this one. This was inspired by the scene in chapter three where Caz and Uri meet for the first time. It's nice, it represents the scene well, but looking at it now, I can see where improvements can be made. Both characters are Daz Generation 8, which I've never been able to get emotions just right on, and the background is stealing too much focus. Still, it's pretty.

And here's the updated version. Same background but with the scene lights turned down and a lower camera angle. I shortened the depth of field to concentrate the focus on the characters. I also started using a more complicated lighting rig in the last couple of months and while I'm still figuring out how to get everything the way I want it, I'm much happier with the way the images are turning out with it. Both characters are now Daz Generation 9, which has more realistic textures and more finely-tuned facial expressions. I'm much happier with Caz's look of rapt interest and Uri's friendly yet gently guarded smile. The way I was able to customize Uri's new look was a game changer for me. Every piece of art I make with him now just turns out so pretty...

I've shared this one in a prior blog post as a teaser for Rasalas,​ and it's a very good example of how my art always evolves as my tools and resources do. I still like this one a lot. The lighting is dramatic, and it totally captures Uri's warrior attitude. Had I not updated his design, I would have kept this as a lovely promo shot.

But, I mean, come on... Still gorgeously lethal but upgraded in almost every way. The suit is the same one (with the white materials instead of black to fit better with the book), but I acquired a new set of blades and poses that I like much better. It's the same background as well at a different angle. The floor is completely different, though. I know you can't see the floor in the first shot, but trust me, it's different. I nearly rewrote the part of the scene this comes from to include this really cool floor and how Uri would use it to train, but I decided against it because I really like the interaction between Uri and his father and that was more important than the cool tech. Just imagine Uri dodging these obstacles and using the platforms to attack his opponent and that's pretty much what I would have done with it.

Heh. I haven't shared this pic before because it was mostly a reference image for my core friend group of the Galactic Explorers series. This is definitely a throwback to the oldest depths of my series graphics folder. Yikes. So much has changed since I made this one. There's not even any depth of field on the camera, and the lighting is... not great. You can see that the designs of Ethan, Noa, and Skylar haven't really changed, though I have updated their textures and materials over time. The rest of them, though... Ren hasn't changed that much. Caz is completely different, obviously. And don't get the designs of Kat and Aitana too far into your brain. I'm redesigning them entirely. Well... Hair and eye colors won't change but the rest is all up in the air. I'm still acquiring assets to build them. I'll be needing them soon, after all.

And with that little tease... Stay tuned for release day coming up soon! I better get back to proofreading so you all can read the newest drama-filled installment.

​Thanks for reading!

Not a lot of people who know me in real life know I write books. Far more of them know I create digital art, but I've actually been writing for longer than I've been using a computer to make pretty pictures. It's so incredibly satisfying to be able to do both now and illustrate my stories with the visions I get in my head as I write the words. My family occasionally asks me how my books are doing and if I'm still writing. And while I smile and answer the questions as I inwardly lament the fact that they seem to forget my website exists, I remind myself every time that it doesn't matter. The stories and characters are in my head anyway and I write them because I have to. I don't have to share them with the world but I do, just in case someone else might enjoy them. Creativity is a need for me, a way to feed my soul and manifest happiness. Releasing my creations is like putting little pieces of myself out in the cosmos for others to discover. It's accomplishing something, sharing my art with the universe. For anyone out there who might read this... Thanks. Just like Tsubasa up there, it makes me happy to think my art might connect with others' emotions and allow us to share something special. I create because I love it, and that's what keeps me going. And for my next labor of angst...

For anyone keeping track, Hinode is my twenty-fourth published title. It's a story I was itching to write after my trip to Japan last spring and which now functions as a de facto prologue to the Galactic Explorers series. That's why I've called it both a companion story and labeled it as Book #0. Nothing in this book should spoil any plotlines of the series, but I very much wanted to explore the complicated relationship between Ren and Ethan which is alluded to in the primary books.

As I've done for the last few releases, I'm sharing some of the art I've created to go with the book. If you want to read about a few of the places which inspired this story, you can find that and several of my trip photos in my last blog post.

Hinode is a story told entirely from Ethan's point of view and, as he is a young man driven by intense emotion, this one is a roller coaster, so be forewarned. As someone who's become rather familiar with the inner workings of that character's mind, and him having taken up residence in my head in turn, I can tell you that my heart aches for him constantly. He's so plagued by doubt and uncertainty that he sabotages his own happiness at every opportunity and honestly finds little inside himself that he thinks is worthy of love. He's entirely wrong about that, of course, but that's why this story is so important for his personal growth. My poor, angsty Ethan needs to endure some necessary self-discovery to realize his true potential. I'm just the narrator of his emotional journey.

The image above is the one I did of Ethan's rainy hike to the summit of Fushimi Inari shrine. I tried to recreate the site as faithfully as I could, but ultimately, I was trying to capture the emotion of the moment.

Following the trend I established about a year or so ago, Hinode features a unique cover image for the paperback version, which is the nighttime scene above with the floating lanterns. Before I started working on this piece, I wasn't sure what I wanted to do for the print cover, but I already had an idea in my head inspired by the wishing lantern scene in the book. I liked how this turned out, so it got to be the print cover.

I actually did this one while I was still writing the book (which, honestly, is how most of these pieces happen anyway). I get these vivid images in my head that I need to create. They don't always turn out the way I pictured them, but this one definitely did. In fact, the descriptions of Ren and Ethan's club attire in the book came from this, and not the other way around. I did the art first in this case. I'm really pleased with the lighting in particular. So, yeah. From Ren's electric blue hair to Ethan's glowing body piercings to the ever-so-subtle wandering of Ren's fingers... This was the image which spawned the Shibuya clubbing scene.

Incidentally, I did create Tsubasa's setlist from their show at the club. I spent some time selecting and ordering songs into a Spotify playlist, which you can listen to here. For a more DJ-like experience, I experimented with the crossfade setting and found that a crossfade of 8 seconds gave a nice transition between songs. It's not at all what a DJ set would sound like in real life, but I gotta work with what I've got.

*sniff* This one makes my soft heart weep. Ethan and Ren love each other so much that them having to say goodbye will never be an easy thing to do. You might think that after writing so many books, I wouldn't be so affected by my characters' heartache, but I still am. Every time. They all deserve happiness and love, and it genuinely pains me to witness their torment. As much as I love these two, though, they were never meant to be together. Sometimes, I wish they could have been.

So, let's end on a happy note. This piece makes me extremely happy because it shows Ren and Ethan's relationship the way it should always be--filled with laughter and acceptance. This image has been inside my head for months and I finally was able to render it out just yesterday. I don't have much else to say about it except that it came out even better than how I'd pictured it. I love this one so much.

All the vendor links on the Hinode page are now live. I hope everyone enjoys this one and, in the meantime, I need to get back to the next book. If you thought Nashira was long... Yeah. Book four will take a bit longer to finish, I think.

For now, though, stay safe, happy Valentine's Day, and thanks for reading!

Wow. Almost February already. Welcome to 2024, everyone! I didn't want to let January pass me by without posting something, so I figured this would be a great time to share some relevant backstory to my next release, which is coming in a couple weeks. So, let's jump right in!

My new book is titled Hinode and, just like all my other books, there's a specific meaning behind what I chose. Hinode is the Japanese word for sunrise, and it fits in with the other books in the series by referencing the setting of the story, along with the rest. While the main books are all named after a ship or base central to the plot, the companion books don't have that. Summit takes place in Breckenridge, CO, which is in Summit County, so that's where it got its title. Hinode was a bit tougher to pin down, since the events take place all over the island of Honshu in Japan. So, I chose something which references Japan itself--hinode, sunrise, or the Land of the Rising Sun. The photo above is from my family's trip to Japan in June 2023. We got so lucky to see Mt. Fuji unobstructed by clouds, especially since it had rained for the few days before our visit to the Fuji area.

I simply adore Japan. I've been twice now, and it was just as awe-inspiring last year as it was on my first visit. Everything is clean, the people are amazing, the food is spectacular, and no matter where you want to go, there's a train, a bus, or a sidewalk to get you there. Tokyo is the only big city I've been to where I feel completely safe wandering around and exploring. I can't even say that about Denver. There's just something about that endless metropolis which makes my heart sing with happiness, and I don't even consider myself to be a city girl. I could live there easily, I think, and never see everything it has to offer.

One of the things I love most about Tokyo is that it's not just densely packed buildings and crowds of people. In the nighttime city shot above, you can see that the streets are mostly deserted. Granted, our hotel was in a business district, and it was after working hours, but the tranquility which can be found everywhere in the city is an unexpected surprise to those who are more familiar with places like New York and Los Angeles. The park in the photo is nestled in the heart of a Tokyo neighborhood, lush and green and quiet. We had tea at the house pictured in the back and enjoyed a lovely walk around the pond, watching koi and turtles. The city has countless places just like this.

Many of the things I wrote about in Hinode are places and activities I actually experienced during my visits to Japan. My Japanese language skills are about on par with Ethan's in the story. When he says that he knows enough to get himself in trouble but not nearly enough to get back out, that's pretty much my skill level as well. I mention Shibuya Scramble in the book, and this is it. This infamous intersection in the Shibuya ward of Tokyo is exactly as chaotic as it looks. When the lights change and the traffic stops, all the pedestrians flood the street to cross to the other side. And trust me when I say that the crossing allowance isn't nearly enough time to swim like a salmon upstream. Crossing that intersection was a thrill I'm glad I experienced, but I'm not eager to do it again.

In the book, I also have Ethan and Ren ascend to the top of Tokyo Tower. Before the taller Tokyo Skytree was built, this was where most visitors went to get a bird's eye view of the city. Tokyo Tower's reputation as a date night spot is still renowned, though, and it still sees plenty of visitors. There were certainly lots of others at the top when I was there.

This is one of my favorite photos from the trip--the view of Tokyo from the top of Tokyo Tower. The city just goes on and on as far as you can see in all directions. It feels a bit like staring up at the stars and definitely makes a person feel small.

Another event taken almost directly from my trip for the book was the hike Ethan took to the summit of Fushimi Inari shrine. My husband and I did it. My daughter was the one who didn't want to go with us, so she waited at the little cafe for us, like Ren does in the book. Yes, it was raining that day. And we did meet a few friendly cats along the way. My husband was the one who got the lucky fortune at the summit. I created a rendered image of Ethan at the summit--as close as I could get it to the real thing--and I'll share that in the next post.

By far, the most emotional part of my trip to Japan was our visit to Hiroshima. It was a part of the country I hadn't experienced before and I was a little nervous, given the history involved. I won't go into all of my thoughts here, but the way Ethan feels in Hinode captures it pretty well. I'm very glad we took the opportunity to visit such a thriving, resilient, and beautiful city and I highly recommend it to anyone thinking of going. The whole area around Peace Memorial Park is serene and offers many chances for reflection. I found it to be very worth the trip.

The text on the sign above reads:

A lot of what Ethan and Ren do in Hiroshima were things my family and I did in the city as well. There actually was a festival being held in Peace Memorial Park on the day we arrived in the city, and we took the chance to wander around it. I especially enjoyed the taiko drumming performance. The whole wishing lantern thing in the book is purely fictional, but it was great to stumble upon something so iconic as a Japanese matsuri. We also walked to Hiroshima Castle (pictured above), though couldn't go in because it was already closed for the day.

The Children's Peace Monument commemorates the children lost to the atomic bomb and is the part of Peace Memorial Park with which most people are probably familiar. It also memorializes Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died of leukemia from the radiation she sustained in the attack. She's known for folding one thousand origami cranes, which is a Japanese tradition for making a wish. She wished for world peace and a world without nuclear war, and now the monument accepts paper cranes and other paper gifts from around the world in solidarity for that wish. The artwork pictured above was only one of the beautifully handcrafted pieces on display when I was there. It was amazing to see all the colorful donations. I'll never forget it.

Something I did not recount in Hinode was my experience in the Peace Memorial Museum, part of which can be seen above the monument pictured. It was very important to me to visit the museum, even though I knew how the exhibits would likely affect me. Some of the things I saw in there still occupy my mind and the pain and suffering depicted still makes my heart ache. It's a humbling, sobering experience, but one that I think is necessary for anyone wanting to truly understand such a pivotal period of history. It's also a very personal experience and everyone will take something different away from it. I saw what I needed to see and I'm glad I got to visit, but I'm not sure I could handle going again. My heart is too soft and bleeds for every single life lost to such violence. Reliving the experience wasn't something I wanted to do in my writing, and I certainly don't want to predispose anyone to my opinions. See it for yourself if you have the chance, or at least visit the park. It's worth the trip to Hiroshima if you're in Japan.

I'll close this (rather lengthy) post with the message which is at the heart of Hinode. This book is ultimately about love. Love through heartbreak, love through perseverance, and love through discovering inner strength. I love Japan and I love my characters, and I hope that comes through in my words. As much crap as I put my poor boys through, I still want to see them happy, so I'll always find a way for them to find love.

By the way, yes, that is a replica of the Statue of Liberty, standing by Tokyo Bay in the Odaiba area of Tokyo. We were in Japan during pride month, and this was a rather popular installation. It was cute to see people taking selfies with heart hands and big smiles. I loved it.

This post has been on my mind since I got back from Japan and began writing Hinode. I wrote the book with my own experiences in mind, and I'm thrilled to now be able to share them with whoever wants to read them. I hope you all enjoyed my photos and the explanation behind some of the things I wrote about. The book is releasing soon, and I'll share some of the pretty artwork with the publishing announcement.

Until then, I wish everyone a very happy new year. Thanks for joining me on my adventure and thank you very much for reading!

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope you're all enjoying the season, indulging in your favorite traditions, and taking some time to relax, refresh, and take care of yourselves. The end of the year is a time to reflect on what happened over the past months, but it's also an opportunity to look forward to a fresh start in the new year. As usual, I've already started looking ahead, and 2024 has some good stuff already!

Wrapping up 2023, though, means another chance to grab many of my books for free or at a substantial discount. That's right! It's time for the Smashwords End of Year Sale and almost my entire catalog is participating once again. From today (December 15, 2023) through January 1, 2024, every first book in all of my series is free. Fragments of Forever and The Forgotten Squire are free. The entire Legend of the Grimoire series is free. And the rest of my back catalog (anything published before 2023) is 75% off. If you'd like to try out one of my series but haven't jumped in yet, now's the time! Or if you'd just like to share something you've already enjoyed, books make wonderful gifts. This sale is a small token of my appreciation for supporting me and my work all year, so thank you to everyone and enjoy some quiet reading time this holiday season on me. I hope you find something new you like.

I love sharing new art with my posts, so this time, I thought I'd share my holiday images. The lead image is Ethan (of course), enjoying some hot chocolate after finishing his gingerbread house by the Christmas tree. I wanted to bring some holiday traditions into the future, and I like the juxtaposition of this one, with the ringed planet and vastness of space out the window, the familiar seasonal treats, and the thoroughly modern tree. This could be one of the lounges on the Eltanin. If you want to know all about Ethan's hot chocolate ritual, though, you'll have to check out Summit. I swear, it makes me crave a mug every time!

I did a Christmas image for each of my published Galactic Explorers couples, and here's the one for Ren and Tali. Taaranth doesn't have Christmas, naturally, being a non-Earth planet, but Ren wanted to share the holiday with Tali anyway. Without traditional wrapping supplies, Ren had to improvise with Tali's gift, but it looks like he managed to find a pretty box and a suitable swatch of fabric. In case you're wondering, yes, there is actually something inside the box. Ren gave Tali a beautiful little notebook that he can attach to his belt and one of the light orbs he took from the Asteria. Very thoughtful, Ren.

This one was a lot of fun to do. I've spent almost my whole life enjoying Christmas in the wintertime, with most years being snowy and cold. The idea of a tropical Christmas fascinates me. Granted, I did have the chance to spend two Christmases in Australia and as someone not used to the holiday being in the summer, that was more than a little weird. If you've read Nashira, then you know Skylar is from Australia, so he's definitely used to holiday barbecues on the beach. And with Noa being Hawaiian, he's no stranger to warm Christmases either. So, here we find them stringing holiday lights on a palm tree in their festive board shorts. It looks like Skylar found something else to decorate, though. I wonder where he found the mistletoe...

And finally, Ethan and Liam. Traditional Christmas all the way. Liam's very much enjoying learning everything about the holiday, especially how to tease Ethan every chance he gets. Seriously, Ethan's fanatical about his hot chocolate. Good thing he has Liam to keep things fun. There are all kinds of holiday shenanigans in Summit with these two, so I definitely recommend you check it out.

I love this time of year, with the decorations and food and time spent with family. It's fun to extend what I love about the holiday season to my characters and imagine how they would do these things. It's a little bit like how it was to introduce my daughter to all of it. Seeing people enjoy the season in their own ways makes me happy. That's what this time of year is all about.

So, like I said at the beginning of the post, I wish you and your loved ones a very happy holiday--whichever one(s) it might be. I hope we can all take some time to just enjoy it.

Thanks for reading and for your support! I'll see you in 2024!

Welcome to November! Yesterday was about all things spooky and now we've fallen straight into the holiday season. Christmas ads have started popping up everywhere, and it seems like every coffee chain is hyping their seasonal menu today. And while pumpkin- and peppermint-flavored food items are certainly part of my holiday indulgences, there are many other traditions my family and I have cultivated over several years.

I don't know if releasing a holiday story will ever become one of my traditions, but I have written a few over the past several years. The free reads page features the ones I wrote which are connected to my Firebend Chronicles steampunk series. The Thanksgiving and Christmas stories were freshly updated last year, so if you want some more holiday fluff, please check those out. This year, however, I'm releasing something a little meatier. Summit is now live and is considerably longer than any of my other holiday stories. I even decided to release a paperback version of this one and the image above is the cover for that. I've had the privilege to be able to visit the mountains during the holiday season and that snowy, fairy-lit landscape is truly magical. Just don't think about the traffic you'll have to fight to get there...

Fun fact: I didn't really learn how to ice skate properly until I lived in Minnesota for a few years. It's just such a part of the culture there that it's easy to pick it up and there are ample opportunities to practice. Of course, I also haven't been on my skates in a few years either. Winter traditions for my family included sledding, tubing, building snowmen, and my siblings and friends and I pelting each other with snowballs. And if you're wondering--since I live in ski country and all that--if I ski or board, I'll have to say no. My father did teach me to ski when I was a kid, and I tried to pick up snowboarding because my husband loves it, but I just never found sliding down a slippery hill on laminated boards to be fun. My fear of heights might have something to do with that, but I learned a long time ago to not torture myself with a hobby I don't enjoy. I like ice skating much better. So, Liam's experience with his snowboarding lesson and discovering his love of skating? Yeah. He got that from me. He's a much better skater than I am, though.

One of the things I love to do in the mountains during the holidays is wander down the streets of the towns, especially at night when all the lights and decorations are glittering in all directions. Hot drinks are mandatory. For several years, my family would rent a condo in downtown Keystone, where my dad, husband, and siblings could hit the slopes while my mom and I stayed warm by the fire. There are so many cute little shops and cafes at the base of the slopes there. I have lots of great memories of those trips. Breckenridge, which is the ski town I used for Summit, is gorgeous in the winter too. Artistic liberty has been taken, of course, and my Galactic Explorers stories are set in the future, so anything could have changed by then, but I tried to keep the charm of the town alive. Oh, and the crepe stand? It's real. Breck has a well-known crepe business that used to have a front range location in the mall where I used to live. That location is no longer in business, but the original still is! Do NOT click on this link if you're hungry. You've been warned. And yes, they are as delicious as they look.

One of my favorite holiday mountain trip memories was the time my family and I went skating on one of the ponds outside the large hotels in Keystone. My nephews were little and wanted everyone to pull them around on the ice and when we couldn't feel our fingers anymore, we'd go warm up by one of the fire pits. It was like a fairy tale to skate around under the clear (COLD!) night sky, with a massive amount of stars overhead and the pond surrounded by huge evergreens simply covered with lights. I made the image above with that memory in mind.

I really hope everyone enjoys this new story. Ethan gets his love of Colorado directly from me, so I filled this book with the things we both cherish about our home and the family traditions we think are worth passing down. Just thinking about these things makes me excited to see my family this year so I can get a hefty dose of the nostalgia I've been missing. Whatever your holiday traditions are, I hope you find joy in them too.

​Until next time, enjoy the season, and thanks for reading.

I love this time of year. For one thing, autumn is my favorite season. For another, it's this wonderful clashing of seasons and holidays when no one seems to know where to focus their attention and Halloween decorations compete for retail space with all things Christmas. To celebrate that whirlwind of seasonal chaos, I'm doing my part to blur the lines too.

Yeah, I know. It's the end of October and I haven't posted anything for almost two months. That's because I've been busy! New art, new stories, so many goodies to share! And this time, I promise I'll post another update next week. Why? Because Summit is coming! As you can see from the updated site content, I'm in the final preparation stage of releasing my lovely little Christmas story that I've been teasing for a while. I've been mentioning it wherever I can, and I'll mention it here too... Summit is pretty much book 2.5 of the Galactic Explorers series. It takes place directly after Eltanin and directly before Nashira. If you read it without having read Eltanin first, you're going to get some spoilers, so be forewarned. And while I'm addressing the Christmas story, let's talk about the Halloween image above. I honestly don't know how big a thing Halloween might be in a few hundred years, but let's pretend the holiday is still around and that Ren introduced Tali to it. I wanted to do some fun autumn art with my characters, so there you go. Jack-o-lanterns on an empyrean planet in the Theta octant. Why not?

While we're on the topic of implausible holiday portraits, how about Noa and Skylar's visit to a pumpkin patch? Cute as hell, but I very much doubt it's something either of them did when they were kids. Especially since they essentially grew up on Mars and both are from places with seasons that don't conform to the ones I'm used to. Like I said, these are fun pieces of art, not necessarily canon compliant. But, I mean, come on... How adorable are these two?

If anyone needs even more evidence of how fickle my aesthetics are and just what an insufferable perfectionist I am, here are the two images I'd previously used as the cover of my latest release. The first was the cover when the story had a different name, and the second was the cover I'd shared before. Obviously, I settled on neither one. The image I did use just felt more Christmassy to me, and I'm happy with it. Though, I see now with the images together that I gave Ethan's original outfit to Liam for the second one, then swapped them for the final one. That's funny... It's just how I am, I guess. There's always something to improve and tinker with and that's how I end up here.

That's it for now. I wanted to share my autumn art while it was still seasonally appropriate, since we all know that as soon as the calendar switches to November 1, it's nothing but Christmas until the new year. Happy Halloween to everyone celebrating and I'll be back next week with all the release details for Summit.

​Thanks for reading!