A Walk Through the Backlist: The Drakes

I'm working away on Lord Have Mercy Part Four, and the nearly-complete College Town novella, A Cure for Recovery, both of which will be available soon. But while we wait for those releases, I thought it would be fun to make Throwback Thursdays a little more organized for the next few weeks, and take the time to reflect on the backlist. The world moves so fast, is so social media driven, and is so focused on new/now/next, but an author's backlist is, pun intended, the backbone of her writing career. I'm very familiar with the sensation of having not done enough, but when I pause, and reflect, it's startling to realize that there are forty-one books in my catalogue. If you haven't read them all, they might be a nice little distraction until LHM 4 drops. 

I have so many impulse-started WIPs, and the Drake Chronicles began that way in 2020, during the height of the pandemic lockdown. I was working on Lone Star, but wanted a side project to dabble with another genre, and started Heart of Winter on a whim. Within a few chapters, it had become a whole series in my mind, and by the time I'd completed book one, I'd decided that this, finally, was the epic fantasy I'd been wanting to write for years. I'd always wanted to write a sword-and-sorcery, dragons-and-magic fantasy series, but always got stymied by the sheer scale of such a project. Beginning Heart of Winter without any internal pressure or expectations, and focusing initially on the romantic relationships, helped me ease into the process, and then organically fill in all the cultural and dramatic blanks in a way that felt organic. 

Here's a secret: the first three books - Heart of Winter, The Edge of the Wild, and Blood of Wolves - were all supposed to be one book. My original vision was of a trilogy of fat books. The defeat of the Sels at Aeres was supposed to be the climax of book one, rather than book three. Ultimately, though, I decided that since this was a) a new genre for me, and b) a total departure from the real world, it was too risky to spend months and months writing an 800 page book. Smaller books seem to perform better in general, so I split book one into three, and so on and so forth. The result is a series with smaller, more manageable books as opposed to my usual, monoliths, but with none of the story or character development sacrificed. This means the series as a whole reads as slower paced, but that's my brand, essentially. Slow, and steady, and rich in characterization. 

When I finish my two current projects, the plan is to tackle book 6, Avarice of the Empire, and while I don't have any sort of release date in mind for that, you can read the first five books in the series now. It's got:

• Romance: m/m and m/f
• Motley, ensemble cast
• fantasy realm 
• dragons
• dragon-riding 
• magic
• necromancy
• courtly drama
• political intrigue 
• sword fights
• sabotage and subterfuge 
• redemption arcs
• shapeshifting 
• Viking-inspired clothes and customs
• invading armies 
• cannibals 
• assassination attempts

I'm sure I'm leaving something out, because there's so very much going on in this series! It's available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. 

I look forward to diving back into it soon. 🐉