The Tainted City is on its way...

To press!  That's right, The Tainted City is finished.  For real.  Revised, copy-edited, vetted, and out of my hands, coming soon to yours.  I feel like this:

Celebrating reaching the summit of Mt. Sneffels

But also like I'm about to do this:

Cliff jumping in Elves Chasm in the Grand Canyon

In other words, I'm more than a little nervous!  As we've all been talking about over at Authorpalooza, the second novel feels far more like a test of authorial skill than the first.  I like the book, but will anyone else?  I will soon find out!

It also feels weird yet wonderfully freeing to no longer be on deadline.  (There are 3 books in the Shattered Sigil series, but while Night Shade has an option on the 3rd, it's not yet contracted.)  For two years now, I've had this little voice in my head muttering whenever I had a spare second: you need to be writing! Your deadline is coming! You have so little spare time you can't afford to waste a second of it!  But now...ahhhhh.  No more niggling voices!  I can read and hike and hang out with friends, guilt-free.  That said, I'll soon be starting the as-yet-unnamed-and-uncontracted book 3, because I'm still head-over-heels in love with my characters and story.  (I intend to write the novel no matter what; I'll put it out myself if necessary.)  But before I plunge ahead, I'll take a nice little breather and let the well of creativity fill back up to the brim.

And in the meantime, if you'd like a signed advance copy of The Tainted City, you've got two chances to win one! 

1. The giveaway over at Staffer's Book Review is open through August 12 (and all entries to any of the Authorpalooza giveaways get automatically entered into the grand prize giveaway, which has a ton of cool stuff for one lucky winner!) 
2. I've also set up a giveaway on Goodreads that runs through August 31.