One Week

“You know,” Val continued, “the worst part is that I still love you. You will always be my big brother, and I’ll always want to please you.” He offered a smile. “But you won’t let me help you, will you?”

Vlad stared at him a long moment. Val thought he almost – but, no. There was no love there. He supposed there never had been. 

You guys. We are one week away.

Commence countdown. 

Dragon Slayer drops next Tuesday. It's actually already out in paperback on Amazon, but if you want a steal, be sure to grab it for Kindle before the release day, after which the price will go up to $4.99. You can pre-order it here. 

It's one week to go, and I'm giddy. Excitement always manifests itself as nerves for me, so that means I'm nervous as a fractious racehorse waiting for the bell. I've talked at length here, and on Facebook, and on Instagram, about the journey of this book. About how much it's meant to me to have the chance to write it, and publish it independently like this, so I could do it exactly how I wanted. Now it's almost here and I can't quite believe it. There was a moment in the middle of last summer, working on it, when I wondered if I could finish. It seemed like it would never be done. So many scenes to go, so much tweaking to do. This whole series is so incredibly daunting that sometimes I can't wrap my head around it. There's still so much story left to go. So much to tell. 

But all journeys progress the same way: one step at a time. Slowly, methodically, you keep plodding along. And now this leg of our trek - all 791 pages of it - is ready. 

I wrote the book a little out of order. I wrote the beginning and ending first, all the present day content. Then I went back and wrote the middle. Val surrending - and you'll see to whom - was the last line of the novel I wrote, and then I just...sort of slumped. It was over. And I knew I shouldn't have felt so deeply sad for people who've been dead six-hundred years...but I did.

But then I remembered I'd already written the real ending. That they aren't dead at all. But off on a new adventure, live and kicking in this century. Even though I'm a little bit exhausted, I can't wait to keep going. To chase these characters through the next book, and the next...

In a few weeks, I'll do some official debriefing posts, and we can talk in earnest about what happens in this book. But for now, I want to say thank you. And I want to wish you happy reading; I hope you'll enjoy this one. I don't say it often, but I'm immensely proud of this book, and I'm thrilled I get to share it with you all. 

ONE WEEK!!