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I was double checking some historical references to King Arthur for extra content I included in my newly released . (It contains Enthroned, Enchanted, Embittered, a short story about Sir Kay, and some extra content, so if you haven’t picked up any of the King Arthur books but you are interested in them I recommend you get this volume for maximum content.) In my research/wanderings I stumbled upon several paintings/pictures of Merlin.

What surprised me was that in these pictures Merlin was young and handsome. Now I know my idea to make Merlin a hot younger guy is creative, but not necessarily original. There are a few books–even a few series–that take a look at Merlin’s life when he was younger. Typically most people don’t make Merlin so handsome/young for a King Arthur story, but there was even a TV show that starred a young Merlin.

But these paintings�.they were old. We’re talking illustrations from the 1800s all the way to 1600s or 1500s. Can I please get a “Whaaaaaaat?� Mind you, about 95% of King Arthur illustrations show Merlin as an old guy with a long white beard, but I never knew that readers, authors, and illustrators–people who heard the original legends–even thought a young Merlin was a possibility. It just goes to show how we modern readers make assumptions about books and stories in the past and we think modern authors are the only writers who dare to reject common held beliefs, when they aren’t!

My shock aside, I would like to celebrate my three-pack’s release! Myrrhlynn did up another fantastic cover for it.

When Myrrhlynn said she would make a new cover for the three pack, I assumed she would mash all three covers together. Instead she decided to make a new cover entirely–sort of how the image on a box set of dvds is different from the individual dvd cases. The ebook still contains all three covers, so the idea of a whole new cover for the set is pretty awesome. Thanks Myrrhlynn! (Did you notice the signature pink crown? I also love how Myrrhlynn used feminine, swirly font for the her part of the title.)

That’s all for today, Champions. I will have a Wild Swan update for you this Wednesday. Until then!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY! May you eat a lot of chocolate and enjoy the day! (I’m such a juvenile, I still pass out Valentine cards to my friends. Typically I use Disney Princess themed ones.)

Moving on to more book-ish news� Since Embittered has been out for a week, I’ve been getting lots of emails wondering when Wild Swans will be available. If writing goes as well as it has been, you can expect Wild Swans to be released at the end of March. I’m going to be reaaalllyyy close to finishing it this month, but then I have to edit it, my test reader has to peek at it, Myrrhlynn has to work on the cover art, and I have a brand new editor who will be taking a whack at it.

Editing is a collaborative process, which is why it adds on almost another month. Editing is also what takes the story from “Meh� to “Ooooh.� I’m just under halfway through Wild Swans, and I’ve already gone back once to add two new characters and several new scenes. (By the time I’m done writing I will probably have gone back and cut one character and taken away a scene or two, hah-hah.) The edits help me solidify main themes of the story (For example, lying in B&B.) and go back and add hints of what doom is about to befall our poor characters next.

SO, what I’m trying to say is I swear the wait for all the extra editing will be worth it. Thanks for reading, Champions. I will see you on Monday for some more discussion!

Good day to you, Champions! I apologize if some of you tried to reach me over the weekend. Yahoo email went down on me and I suspect I  lost some of your emails. If I haven’t gotten back to you and you are reading this, please send your message again because I think I am caught up by this point.

Email woes aside, it’s time for me to have Embittered-spoiler-cover fun! If you haven’t read Embittered and you don’t want any spoilers, you had best skip reading this post.

So here’s the thing. Do you remember Britt beating the snot out of Maleagant with a joust? Merlin and Co. then tricked the foul duke into thinking there was a large army surrounding Camelgrance, which is why he left so swiftly. Myrrhlynn very thoughtfully chose to portray this in the cover. If you look at the cover after reading the book you probably assume it symbolizes the forest around Camelgrance. WRONG! Well, you are right, but not totally right. It does portray that forest, but it specifically portrays that forest when Merlin and Britt are pulling their heist/scare tactics against Maleagant. How? Myrrhlynn added pieces of armor into the trees, which you can see if you zoom waaaaaaay in!

I couldn’t include the entire stretch of armor because the image would be huge, but the pink arrows point out three shields that are on the left edge of the forest. Isn’t that awesome? I’m such a detail geek, things like this really make my day. The super fun thing was that Myrrhlynn presented me with an armor-less cover, as well as this armor cover I used. Comparing the covers side by side you see the glints of armor through the trees–although the trees are so thick and far away you can’t really tell exactly what it is when the image is viewed at a normal size. In other words, the cover pulls the exact same trick Merlin and Britt played on Maleagant!

Thanks again, Myrrhlynn, for this fantastic cover. I cannot stress how lucky I am to have a cover artist who reads my books–She produces the most fantastic, detailed covers! I think Life Reader is my favorite, with B&B in a close second, but I’m pretty prejudice all around towards Life Reader. What do you guys think?

That’s right, Amazon churned through Embittered in record time, so it’s ! Remember I’ll be offering it for free on Friday, February 7.

So. I’m having a really hard time keeping myself from blurting out potential spoilers. I figure I can’t even think about posting any Embittered related content until next week Monday, but know that I cannot wait to hear what you think of Lancelot! (Feel free to email me your thoughts!)

It’s a short update today, but that’s about all I can muster or I’m going to get myself in trouble with spoilers. Until Friday, Champions!

This is the week! Embittered should be up on Amazon by Thursday. Can you feel the magic, Champions?

In all seriousness I’m very anxious to find out what you King Arthur and Her Knights readers have to say about Lancelot, and I urge you not to judge Lancelot until you read the whole book! *insert evil laughter here*

As we dwell on releases, I want to take this chance to announce the release of a King Arthur and Her Knights three pack. For $2.99 Enthroned, Enchanted, and Embittered will be bundled together with a short story (On the Musings of Sir Kay) and some extra content for Embittered. It will also have a brief companion article for each book that talks about the legends and stories Britt’s adventure follows. I will try to get the three pack up ASAP after Embittered is released, but it might not be out until next week since I’m determined to get at least 20 pages of The Wild Swans written this week and the three pack still needs a bit of formatting.

That is all the news I have to share today, Champions. Until Wednesday, be merry and eat chocolate!

So I was scrolling through youtube, looking for clips of swans as part of my research for The Wild Swans. (Yes, I use Youtube for research. It’s actually pretty helpful in that it gives me a way to look up clips of specific animals so I can see how they move and/or sound. The Squirrel Attack scene in B&B was based largely off Youtube clips.) Somehow this hysterical gem popped up while I was sifting through the search results.

Thank you, BBC. And thank you, Youtube. My life is now complete as I have witnessed talking, British animals. They actually have a series of these, so if you need a good laugh I recommend checking out the BBC Youtube channel.

I hope you are all amused, Champions. In the meantime I will be editing and prepping Embittered for its release next week! Have a great weekend, and be well.

I have the fantastic cover art for Embittered! Champions, please give a big thank you to Myrrhlynn for once again doing a bang up job in cover creation.

I love the font Myrrhlynn used and the way it really makes the blue of the sky pop. It’s gorgeous. Again, Myrrhlynn sunk a lot of book foreshadowing into the cover. The majority of Embittered takes place in/around Camelgrance, the castle and home of King Leodegrance. King Leodegrance, as you may or may not remember, is Britt’s ally and more importantly, the father of Guinevere. Camelgrance is located in the center of a vast field and is mostly surrounded by a forest. The physical landscape plays an important role in the climax of the book, which is why Myrhlynn chose this particular image. Also, if you could zoom waaaaaay in on the forest you can see a secret, which I’m going to reveal a few weeks after the book is out because if I did it now it would be a major spoiler and the King Arthur and Her Knights Champions might pelt me with rotten fruit. A fun fact for those Champions, a pink crown has appeared on every King Arthur cover and is something of the series� calling card.

In more great news, I got a decent start on The Wild Swans today. I had a few false starts last week, but I’m finally pleased and happy with the first five pages, so the race is on! Thanks for reading, Champions, and another big thank you to Myrrhlynn for another meaningful and equally beautiful cover.

I finally feel comfortable selecting a release date for Embittered, so I chose Thursday, February 6, as the official launch date. Embittered will be offered for free for one day, Friday, February 7. If something happens and I’m unable to release Embittered on those days I will be sure to let you know, Champions.

Also I will be releasing Enthroned, Enchanted, and Embittered with some extra content (2 short stories and some background information) as a three pack for $2.99. I’m not certain what day I’ll be able to release the three pack on, but I will try to release it as close to Embittered‘s release date as possible.

I’m really anxious to see how you all will like Lancelot. I spent quite a bit of time crafting his interactions with Britt. It was challenging because this book was going to lack the witty banter between Morgause and Merlin, so I needed to provide humor without letting Britt go totally wild and punching Lancelot in the face–which is something she would dearly love to do.

I didn’t get to bring one of my favorite characters into this story–Nymue, the Lady of the Lake–but she’ll be popping up a lot more starting in the next book so I can forgive myself.

So yes. Two weeks, Champions. Let the countdown begin!

I finished editing Embittered today, and I started doing the more serious legwork for The Wild Swans. It’s been a lot of fun, and I hope you guys fall in love with the Wild Swans crew like I am.

Speaking of fun, Buzzfeed recently posted an article, 16 books to read before they hit theaters this year. The article is , which shows the official book covers and movie trailers, but I copied the titles for the sake of discussion. So, here they are!

1. Labor Day

2. The Monuments Men

3. Winter’s Tale*

4. Vampire Academy

5. A Long Way Down

6. Divergent*

7. The Fault in Our Stars

8. The Hundred Foot Journey

9. The Giver

10. Dark Places

11. This is Where I Leave You

12. The Maze Runner*

13. Gone Girl

14. Unbroken

15. Wild

16. Serena

The book/movies with *s are ones I am particularly looking forward to. I Haven’t read “The Fault in Our Stars,� but it is a John Green book so I’m looking forward to it even though I will probably bawl my eyes out. I read The Giver when I was in middle school, so my recollection is a little fuzzy, but I thought the ending was incredibly depressing. Then again that was the first dystopian book I ever read. Dystopian books either seem to be mushy romantic, or absolutely depressing.

Any thoughts, Champions? (And we’re going to ignore the fact that this list failed to acknowledge the release of MOCKING JAY PART I!!!)

OK, I need to get jumping on editing today, so I’m pinch hitting with a quip from someecard. (Could be worse, it could be a bad poetry day.)

Today I’m taking a stab at my first edit of Embittered. I just finished reading/editing Enthroned and Enchanted last week–I needed to brush up on the stories and fix a few errors some of you lovely Champions pointed out. After I edit a bit today I will be diving into writing The Wild Swans AKA the next fairy tale I’m releasing. I’m actually pretty excited about the editing, I’m going to try a new way of line editing that I read about on another blog. I will give you a full report on Wednesday! Until then, be merry and eat fruit, Champions!