So, over the next 24 hours Born a Queen will be released worldwide. In fact, I believe it’s already available in Australia! Regardless of that, there’s a part of me that’s worried about releasing a new series. Another part of me is excited, but we’ll see how things go.
For myself, I’m going to try to keep my head down and write some other stuff along the way. Marin’s Codex is coming along, not as well as I hoped, but at a reasonable pace. I’m trying to get it right, after all!
Ancient Dreams 
Don’t rush Marin’s codex, I personal would rather that you took your time and made a master piece.
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Doing my best! The story is… odd. And may end up being far more than the 40,000-50,000 words I anticipated. >_>
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Born a Queen was a great read. Took me all night to finish – but it was worth it. Well done, especially with the slow build of the plot and promising foreshadowing.
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I’m glad you enjoyed it! For me it was odd, since the first version was done long before Ancient Ruins. It’s definitely a slower-moving storyline, though, and I hope to keep things interesting. ^_^
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Well I’m hooked on Born a Queen as much as I love the Ancient Dreams series, going to reserve a credit on audible if you decide to realise it in audio :D
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I have a narrator lined up for Born a Queen, Sarah Goer. She’s expecting to have it done in December, so anticipate the audiobook in late December to early January.
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Enjoyed Born a Queen a lot. Can’t wait fort the next book.
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Glad to hear it! After Before the Godsrage, promise.
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Thanks for Born a Queen. I finally had the time to read it.
It is a good and nice story, but lacking a bit in excitement. I would also say that Acient Dreams is at its core a fantasy story with a strong romance sub-plot. Born a Queen instead is a romance story with a few elements of a superhero story.
In my opinion the beginning of Born a Queen is also too fast paced and didn’t give enough time to develop Lilith as an independent character, before involving her with Gina and Rachel. In fact, I would be really curious to read a series of you, which doesn’t focus so much on the romance part early on. For example, the first book only introduces the main character and at the end she meets a possible romantic interest(s). The second book is developing their relationship(s) slowly and only at the end of the second maybe even at the third book they come together.
In Born a Queen but also Acient Dreams the main characters almost instantly fall in love with each other, without really developing a relationship beforehand.
One thing which was annoying was the amount of blushing Gina and Rachel did. Their age was never exactly stated but I got the impressions that they are at least in their mid to late twenties and they already were in relationships. They are also superheroes who fight regularly villains, which should give them quite a lot of self-confidence. Still, both of them blush and are embarrassed so often, that I sometimes thought they are fifteen year old virgin teenage girls with their first crush for someone.
A few questions:
1. What happened with Circe? Didn’t Lilith want to upgrade her so that she can become fully conscious?
2. At the end of Born a Queen Gina and Rachel are now in a relationship with Lilith. Are Gina and Rachel also in a romantic (sexual) relationship with each other, or still “only” friends?
3. Ever thought about making your stories a bit more “sexy”? ^^ (Similar to “Good Intentions” from Elliot Kay).
Looking forward to Down with the Queen and Through the Fire afterwards.
PS: Your new covers are much better than the old ones.
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Hey Darkpoint!
So, looking back on BaQ, there are a great many things which I’ve decided could have been done better. It’s something which what fueled me deciding to discard the drafts I’ve written of Sisters of Radiance and Through the Fire, even though both stories have over 80,000 words between them.
The simple truth is that Born a Queen was written a year before Ancient Ruins, and what I did was re-write the story to update the writing style and make it more palatable to a public audience. At its core, it was supposed to be a romance/slice of life story. But the fact I didn’t completely re-write it, plot and all, was to the story’s detriment in my opinion. I could’ve done better.
As for the romance… the problem is that I’m the writer, and even now I’m the type to blush more easily and I’m in my thirties. My point of view for Gina and Rachel is that while they’ve been in relationships before, they’ve never been serious relationships. This is something that’s supposed to be new to them. Just because a character is used to fighting supervillains doesn’t mean that they’re as used to relationships. Mostly, I think it’s an artifact of me being me. I’m a hopeless romantic in some ways. Now, let’s answer your questions before I add something else.
1) Circe is more heavily involved in Down with the Queen. While Lilith is smart, she doesn’t know how to upgrade Circe yet, the AI is far more advanced than anything Lilith has learned to build.
2) Addressed somewhat in DwtQ again. I will state that Gina, Lilith, and Rachel are currently exploring their relationship, and that they’re still trying to figure out how things will work. Gina and Rachel… tend to focus on Lilith because they’re afraid of hurting their own relationship. It’s awkward.
3) The original version of BaQ was ‘sexy’, but not necessarily in a good way. I would daresay in an unpublishable way, in fact. However, I’ve come to the determination that writing sex scenes bores me, so I’m not tempted by doing them. Beyond that, I know my mother buys my books, and since I grew up Mormon, let’s just say I’m a touch gunshy on that part. I’m not saying that I WON’T write stories like that at some point, but not right now.
Now, finally. You asked if I was going to try writing something with a slower romance, and the answer is yes. I intend for Through the Fire, and possibly Sisters of Radiance, to be slower. In the case of the first, that’s in part because the character that the MC has feelings for was kidnapped, but I don’t know who she’ll end up with. We’ll see. ^_^
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Thanks for the explanation. Yeah, if your mother is reading your books I understand that this would be awkward ^^. Looking forward to Through the Fire since I am more of a fantasy fan.
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Not a problem, as I find explaining things to be easier. I’m hoping that Through the Fire comes out as well as I’m hoping! Fantasy is far easier for me to write than semi-modern material, I find.
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