State of the Schafer: All good news

 Very happy to report that all is well with me! I had my big surgery back in August and my recovery is going along fine. It was indeed a major surgery - 11 hours on the table, and many weeks stuck in bed afterward waiting for the incisions to heal - but I didn't have any serious complications. (Just some minor ones. For example, I've never had trouble with surgical tape before, but in the aftermath of this surgery, my skin suddenly decided that all types of adhesive were the work of the devil. I was blistering up under most types of tape like a vampire exposed to holy water. This was decidedly not awesome, especially with a huge hip to hip abdominal incision that needed dressings on it to stay protected and closed. But! With some creativity on the part of the medical team, I made it through without any infection or other more serious trouble.)

A certain bed hog dog kept thinking the comfy pillows were all for him

Now my incisions are finally healed over, I'm back at work, and in another week, I get to start on rebuilding my core muscles and regaining fitness. Can't wait to get out on trails again. Best of all, the pathology report on removed tissue and lymph nodes showed no sign of any higher stage cancer, whew. I'm in the clear until my next follow up scan, which will be early next year. I'm delighted to not have to think about it anymore until then. 

Enjoying some winter sunshine with my husband at a beach near Dunedin

Thanks so much to all of you who messaged me with book and TV show recommendations. That definitely helped keep me happy and distracted during the long recovery. Now that I've got some energy and mental focus back, I've started writing again, and I'm finally getting off my butt to seek a cover artist for The White Serpent. I'm also exploring the possibility of finally getting an audiobook made for The Labyrinth of Flame. I've always felt bad when audiobook fans email me asking why the final volume of the series isn't available. It would be cool to fix that. 

2016 in review

Well, it was a hell of a year. But right now I don't want to focus on the dark parts of 2016, whether personal or global. I've spent more than enough time thinking about those. I want to remember the bright spots, so I can go into 2017 with some joy in my heart. As Edward Abbey once said, "Where there is no joy there can be no courage; and without courage all other virtues are useless."

And really, I had many wonderful moments in 2016. It's funny how hard it can be to remember the good things, sometimes. Thank goodness for pictures (and friends and loved ones) to remind us. So what'd I find, looking back through the year?

Writing-wise, not only did I finish all the mailing for The Labyrinth of Flame's Kickstarter, and work out a deal with the printing company to make the illustrated edition available to the general public, but the book won an award! The denizens of r/Fantasy voted Labyrinth of Flame the Best Self-Published/Independent novel of 2015, and I got this very cool dagger as a result:

Oh, how I wish I could say I'd finished the Shattered Sigil short stories as well. Yet here it is, 2017, and I'm still only 20,000 words and 2/3 of the way into the Cara novella The White Serpent, 1/3 of the way through the story of Dev escaping an assassin on his first convoy trip (this one's for one of the Ultimate Fan backers), and I have the Ruslan story and a Lena story plotted out but not yet written.

I did complete and turn in a 8,000-word Lizaveta story called A Game of Mages for the forthcoming Evil is a Matter of Perspective anthology--and boy was that completion a struggle, as the story required three rewrites. On the non-fiction side, I wrote three pieces for Lady Business's Readers of the Lost Arc feature, covering under-read books of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s (that last post is turned in but not yet up on the blog). Still, I'm terribly ashamed to admit A Game of Mages is the only piece of fiction I finished all year.

The simple truth is that I didn't make writing a priority in 2016 the way I did in previous years. Some of that was by design: I wanted to put my husband and son first for a while, and reduce stress by enjoying more of the activities I'd put on hold while trying to finish The Labyrinth of Flame and run the kickstarter. But I think I let the pendulum swing a little too far over to the non-writing side.

For 2017 I'm resolving to adjust yet again and find a better balance: one that lets me finish all the Shattered Sigil short stories and finally start work on the new fantasy novel I'd like to write. (Still untitled, but this is the one with deadly sea magic, tropical islands and coral reefs, freediving, and a team of spies.) My ultimate goal would be to finish all the stories by summer and complete a rough draft of the new book by the end of the year. That may be too ambitious for a slow writer like me. We'll see.

So what did I do in 2016 instead of writing? Apart from the usual day jobbing...

1) I skied many excellent runs with my kiddo, who just this year got skilled enough to handle black diamonds and trees (woo hoo!):

Powder day at Winter Park

The snow's always best in the trees

Winter wonderland at Steamboat

2) I spent more glorious days hiking in Colorado's mountains. In the words of John Muir, "Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike."

Lovely day at Andrews Tarn in Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain panorama

Nothing like climbing a nice cold glacier on a hot summer day

Indian Peaks wilderness

Pointing the way toward 14,309-ft Uncompahgre Peak, highest in the San Juans

On top of Uncompahgre--my first new 14er in many years!

3) We returned to our favorite haunts around Moab and the San Rafael Swell and explored some new-to-us areas, like Behind the Rocks, Medieval Chamber and Morning Glory Arch, the Goblin's Lair, and some off-the-beaten-ranger-path parts of the Fiery Furnace. One thing I love about canyon country is how you can visit the same areas again and again and discover new amazing things every time. (As Mary Hunter Austin said, "This is the sense of the desert hills, that there is room enough and time enough.")

"Behind the Rocks" wilderness area

Desert flowers

The kiddo tackles his first major rappel (into Medieval Chamber)

On rappel beside Morning Glory Arch (technically a natural bridge rather than an arch, but hey)

Exploring the hoodoo canyons of Goblin Valley

At the entrance to the Goblin's Lair (a.k.a. the Chamber of the Basilisk)

Inside the Goblin's Lair

The Fiery Furnace: so many enticing routes to explore

4) I smile every time I think of our June trip to visit family in Australia. We had plenty of fun in and around Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and enjoyed a 3-day sailing adventure in the gorgeous Whitsunday Islands (our first time there, but hopefully not our last!).

The Vivid festival lived up to its name: constantly changing projections of color decorated the Opera House and many other buildings near Sydney Harbour

Avast me hearties, yo ho! The Schafers sail the Whitsundays

Catseye Beach on Hamilton Island

Hiking in the Blue Mountains

Rainbow view from the Ruined Castle

4) I didn't go to many cons this year apart from WorldCon in Kansas City, which was awesome. Yet I was lucky enough to spend time with some wonderful authors and SFF folk:

In May I got to hang out with Janny Wurts for a few days: definitely a highlight of my year!

Another highlight was getting to meet New Zealand author Helen Lowe while I was in Sydney

And having a lovely lunch with Pellinor author Alison Croggon while in Melbourne

Yet another was a summer hike with blogger/reviewer/all-around awesome guy Paul Weimer and author Alex Acks in the Indian Peaks

5) I read a lot of excellent books. I had plans to do a whole big long "reading review" post with cover pics and mini-reviews, but in all honesty I prefer to focus on short-story writing right now. So instead I'll do a quick list of the reads that stood out most to me this year:

• Janny Wurts's Wars of Light and Shadow series--I just recently finished book 8, Stormed Fortress, and I continue to be hugely impressed with the careful plotting and layered reveals
• Helen Lowe's Daughter of Blood--book 3 in her excellent Wall of Night epic fantasy series. Her world is rich and fascinating, and I love what she's doing with the story and characters.
• Mark Lawrence's Wheel of Osheim--final book of his Red Queen's War trilogy. Mark really knows how to stick a landing. Tons of great action, character work, and sly humor.
• Teresa Frohock's Los Nefilim--her three excellent dark fantasy novellas featuring half-daimon, half-angel Diago, all collected into one volume. My God, these are good. Terrific characters and atmosphere.
• Jeff Salyards's Chains of the Heretic--another great trilogy-ender. If you love military fantasy, you've got to read this series.
• Kate Elliott's Poisoned Blade--2nd in her YA Court of Fives series. I'd liked the first one well enough, but this one I thought took the series to a whole new level.
• Laura Ruby's Bone Gap--magical realism done right. Powerful and beautiful.
• Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree and Cuckoo Song--I'd seen lots of people raving about Hardinge but the first book I tried by her (A Face Like Glass) didn't entirely work for me. These two did, big time, and I'm now a convert. Her imagination is amazing.
• Megan O'Keefe's Steal the Sky and Break the Chains--oh, how I loved these, because they pushed a lot of my personal buttons as a reader. Addictive yet dangerous psychic-power-style magic, strong bonds of friendship, scoundrels with hidden depths...yes, please. 
• Alison Croggon's The Bone Queen--a haunting, lovely prequel to her epic Pellinor series. Tied for my favorite Pellinor book with the 3rd of the main series, The Crow.
• Ben Peek's The Godless and Leviathan's blood--beautifully written literary epic fantasy, thoughtful and weird and unique in all the best ways
• Scott Hawkins's The Library at Mount Char--dark and imaginative and compelling. 

So, yeah. 2016 definitely wasn't all suck, by a long shot. I hope 2017 will likewise have some victories and joys, not just for me, but for everyone who fears the path the world is taking. Hope and kindness and courage and compassion still matter, now more than ever, and it's not all darkness out there. So many people are trying in whatever ways they can to make the world just that little bit better. For one small example, check out this currently running charity fundraiser from Booknest.eu, where 100 SFF authors (including me) donated signed books for a prize lottery; all money raised through ticket sales will be given to Doctors Without Borders.

Sometimes everything we do, whether donating or writing letters or volunteering or simply offering kindness to a stranger, feels negligible in impact. But as Mark Helprin wrote in his sublime fantasy Winter's Tale, "No one ever said that you would live to see the repercussions of everything you do, or that you have guarantees, or that you are not obliged to wander in the dark, or that everything will be proved to you and neatly verified like something in science. Nothing is: at least nothing that is worthwhile."

In 2017, my biggest goal is to focus on what's worthwhile, no matter how unimportant my actions may feel.

Want a recap of the prior 2 books before diving into Labyrinth of Flame? You're in luck...

So I had this grand plan before The Labyrinth of Flame came out that I was going to put up synopses of The Whitefire Crossing and The Tainted City on my web page, for readers that wanted a recap to refresh their memory before diving into book 3. I see people requesting these types of summaries for series books all the time on various fantasy forums, and I sympathize; when there's a long wait between books, details fade, and if you're not a fast reader, the thought of re-reading can be daunting. 

No problem, I thought. I've got synopses already! One for Whitefire Crossing that I used back when I was first querying the book, and one for Tainted City that I wrote for the cover artist. 

Yeah. Thing is, I forgot just how much the books had changed since I wrote those synopses. (For example, in the version of Whitefire that I first queried, Pello the spy didn't even exist. And in Tainted City's case, I wrote that original synopsis when I was only 1/3 of the way through a serious draft of the book. It's actually quite amusing to look at what I wrote then and compare it to the final product. Broad strokes of the plot are the same, but wow are the details different, including pretty much everything about the ending.)

Anyway, when I realized how much work was needed to update the synopses, right when I was in the throes of book production--I admit it, I chickened out. After all, I reasoned, I'd already done my best to write Labyrinth of Flame such that the reader is reminded of important events/characters when they become relevant (mostly through Dev or Kiran's personal take on the situation). That'd be good enough, right?

For most readers, it has been, or so people have told me. But when I saw someone post on r/Fantasy asking for a summary of Whitefire Crossing and Tainted City, well, I figured it was time to stop cringing from the task. (I find synopsis writing really hard. So hard that back when I'd finished my big revision of Whitefire Crossing and one agent asked for an exclusive, yet I had another agent interested, the tipping point in my decision to grant the exclusive was that agent #2 wanted a revised synopsis. I reasoned that if agent #1 read the revised manuscript & rejected it, THEN I'd go through all the pain of revising the synopsis. But then agent #1 loved it & offered representation, so I was spared! Until now.) 

But synopsis writing is an important skill for an author, and I do feel a tad more comfortable with it now than I did back then. So, behold:

• Synopsis/summary of The Whitefire Crossing
• Synopsis/summary of The Tainted City

Hope this helps out anyone who needs a refresher! At the very least, it was good practice for me. These are a bit longer than I would do if I was writing for an editor/agent and not readers (Tainted City's in particular covers more details than would be necessary in that case), which made the writing a bit easier. (Condensing is the hard part of synopsis writing.) But I admit I am awfully glad to return to plain old story writing--after a synopsis, even first-drafting seems easy and fun!

Announcing The Labyrinth of Flame's release in print!

Great news! The Labyrinth of Flame's beautiful illustrated physical edition is now available to buy at Seattle Book Company and on Amazon, courtesy of the same company that did the print run for my Kickstarter (Thomson-Shore). I'm really pleased about this, because I thought the quality of their print copies was excellent:

So if you're one of those readers who missed the Kickstarter and have been waiting patiently, go forth! Buy! (I get a slightly better deal from Seattle Book Company purchases, in case that matters to anyone. But honestly I don't care where you buy it as long as you enjoy it. :)

You'll note the book is being sold through Amazon by Thomson-Shore, not direct by Amazon. This is because I chose in the end not to go for wholesale trade distribution, where Thomson-Shore would have sold the book to the big distributors such as Baker & Taylor, Ingram, and Amazon, and then the distributors would fulfill orders from bookstores and vendors. To be honest, I don't expect to sell massive quantities of the print edition; so to cover the fees and costs of wholesale distribution, I would have had to make the book's list price so expensive I felt it wasn't reasonable. This way, the book is available at a decent price ($17.99) to those who wish to buy it, and I don't have to worry about ending up in the red.

Some folks have asked why I didn't go through CreateSpace or Ingram Spark as most self-publishers do, since both of those companies offer wholesale channels for very cheap cost. The biggest reason was quality: I've heard horror stories about CS's 10% defect rate. Ingram is said to be better, but apparently only if you already know what you're doing in terms of book production, as their interfaces are non-intuitive and their customer service apparently non-existent. One thing I've been very pleased with about Thomson-Shore is how responsive and helpful they are--I've had a great experience working with them. That said, if Labyrinth of Flame had not been illustrated, I might've risked CS or IS. But since the illustrations had to be printed on special insert paper for best quality, I wanted to go with a company I knew could offer that and do it well.

Interview, art prints, and buckling down to work

Today's news: I did an interview over at fellow writer Amanda McCrina's blog in which I talk about my influences, my favorite scenes in the Shattered Sigil books, my writing process, and whether or not fantasy has a responsibility to tackle real-world issues. Plus I share a bunch of the books I'm looking forward to in 2016--always one of my favorite discussion topics!

Life continues to be busy at Casa Schafer, but thankfully a little less busy than before. I'm still slowly making my way through the Kickstarter art print orders--turns out packing posters is even more time-consuming and finicky than packing books. But just look at these lovely prints:

When my six year old first saw the prints, he begged me for a set to put up in his room. I'm calling that a parental win. (I'm even more amused that his favorite is the Tainted City cover, because of the ward-lightning. Appropriate, since that's the book I dedicated to him. Not that I'll let him read it for a long, looooooong time. Like maybe when he's 30.)

The best part of life calming down a bit is that I finally feel ready to write seriously again. Oh, I've been mucking about with the short stories for the Kickstarter, laying out plot and writing the occasional few paragraphs here and there when I felt like it, but I hadn't been working with any real consistency. But now I'm rested and energized and ready to buckle down to proper work, not only on the stories, but on my next full-length book. I'm setting myself a nice attainable goal: 1K/day of first draft words, and it doesn't matter how awful and first-drafty the words are, or which project I choose to work on. Just gotta get 1K words and I can call it a good day. So, onward!

Reading round-up, and a note for German Shattered Sigil fans

Upon hearing that a snowstorm was bearing down on Colorado, I made a cunning plan: I'd clear my schedule of all appointments/meetings/etc, beg my husband to do both drop-off and pick-up of 6yo from school, and take Tuesday as a powder day.

It was going to be EPIC. I was sure of it when I woke. Just look at all the snow that accumulated overnight! The ski slopes would have even more.

Then I realized I'd forgotten one very important fact: schools close when it snows this much. But in Colorado, workplaces do not, which means my husband must wallow his way to his office in the 4wd, and I'm on kid duty. Other skiers will understand the agony: there is epic powder, but I cannot ski it! (I considered taking the 6yo up for a ski day...but he can't ski more than blue runs yet. It'd be EXTRA torture to be on the slopes yet unable to ski the steep & deep.)

The agony won't last long. 6yo and I will have a blast sledding and snowball-fighting and building igloos. But in the meantime, while he and my husband shovel our walk (not our driveway; in Colorado nobody bothers with that--that's what a 4wd car is for), I'm catching up on my neglected little blog to post a few tidbits of news:

1) Reading Round-up: January was a crazy busy/stressful month (thanks mostly to day job), but I got some good reading in while on a business trip. On tumblr I posted a summary of my thoughts on my reads; my favorites were books from Janny Wurts and Ilana C. Myer. 

2) Note for German readers: a lot of folks have been asking via email when a German translation of The Labyrinth of Flame will be available. Sadly, a German translation is not yet in the works, but if you'd like to see Labyrinth of Flame auf Deutsch, the best way to get the wheels turning is for German readers to tell all their friends about the series and encourage them to buy Die Chroniken von Ninavel. Nothing gets a publisher's attention like sales!

3) Update on Labyrinth of Flame's print edition: good news! I've worked out a distribution agreement with the company that printed Labyrinth of Flame for the Kickstarter, so a general-relase print edition is coming soon! I will announce the release once it's ready to buy.

4) Note for Kickstarter backers: as I said in my recent update, if your reward included trade paperbacks and you have NOT received them, please contact me at courtney (at) courtneyschafer (dot) com. For those waiting on art prints, I'm hoping to start shipping them this week.

5) Podcast incoming: I had a great time on Saturday recording a podcast with fellow authors Kate Elliott, Helen Lowe, and our excellent host Paul Weimer of the Skiffy & Fanty show. We talked about worldbuilding and characters and the craft of writing series and it was so much fun. Not sure yet when the podcast will air, but I'll announce it here when it does. (By the way, the latest book in Helen Lowe's Wall of Night series, Daughter of Blood, just released--if you are not reading this series, you really really should be! It's epic fantasy with a terrific female lead (and some wonderful secondary characters), plus plenty of magic and wonder and action. Basically, everything I like best in fantasy!)

The Labyrinth of Flame wins an award! Plus a short update on print release

The combo of business trip and cold recovery made last week less than stellar, but I came home to some truly excellent news: The Labyrinth of Flame won the r/Fantasy "Stabby" award for Best Self-Published/Independent Novel of 2015! I’ve been hanging out in r/Fantasy for several years now–it’s a terrific community, thanks to the tireless efforts of the mod team and the many awesome folks that post there–but I never expected to win one of the awesome Stabby daggers when there are so many talented authors, both indie and trad-pub, in the community. Such a wonderful surprise; I've been dancing on air since getting the news. (It's a measure of how busy/crazy this January has been for me that it's only now, days later, that I've had the chance to post here about it!)

Fellow author Mark Lawrence posted the top 5 finishers in the three novel categories, and I'm going to repost them too, because all these books are well worth checking out. (Also check out the full list of nominations in the voting thread!)

Best Novel:
Shadows of Self - Brandon Sanderson
The Liar's Key -  Mark Lawrence
Fool's Quest - Robin Hobb
The Autumn Republic - Brian McClellan
The Fifth Season - N.K Jemisin

(In addition to the above I particularly recommend Carol Berg's Ash & Silver, V.E. Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic, and Kate Elliott's Black Wolves, among the many great books nominated. Also Teresa Frohock's Los Nefilim novellas, which were nominated in the Best Serialized Fiction category.)

Best Debut:
The Traitor Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson
The Grace Of Kings - Ken Liu
Beyond Redemption - Michael R Fletcher
The Vagrant - Peter Newman
The Library At Mount Char - Scott Hawkins

Best Self-Published/Independent Novel:
The Labyrinth of Flame - Courtney Schafer
Forging Divinity - Andrew Rowe
Fae - The Sins of the Wyrde - Graham Austin-King
Bloodrush - Ben Galley
Malus Domestica - S.A Hunt

In other Labyrinth of Flame news, I've been getting emails from people wondering when the book will release to the general public in print. (It's already for sale in ebook on all the major retailers.) I'll be honest, the hold-up on the print version is that I'm still working to figure out a print & distribution option that will offer the same quality as the Kickstarter copies but not result in me coming out at a loss due to distributor fees. (I know everybody else just does CreateSpace or Ingram Spark, but I don't feel comfortable with their PoD print quality, especially for a book with illustrations.)

So I apologize that I don't have any definite print release date yet, but rest assured, I won't give up, and as soon as I decide on the best path and get a release date, I will announce it here. In the meantime, I do have a few extra copies from the Kickstarter print run that I'm willing to sell direct--contact me at courtney (at) courtneyschafer (dot) com if you're interested.

Looking back and looking forward

2016 is not exactly off to the greatest of starts for me. Woke up today with the sort of cold that makes you feel absolutely miserable from the neck up, which means I'm sitting here moping at home while my husband and son are off skiing. For extra fun, I have to leave for Albuquerque for a work trip on Monday, so I'm frantically chugging vitamin C and throat-soothing drops and praying I can get better before then.

On the up side, sitting around a silent house means I've had time to reflect a bit on 2015, which had more than enough high points to lift me right out of moping. First and foremost this one:

The full trilogy, together at last!

My biggest goal for the year was to finish The Labyrinth of Flame and get it out to readers, and no matter how sick I feel at the moment I still want to do a happy dance every time I think: ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED. There's still some work left to do on the Kickstarter--I need to mail out art prints, and finish the short stories, and I'm sure there'll be a few packages that forever vanish into the maw of the post office and need to be resent, and I still need to finish working out the arrangement for a general print release of the book...but the vast bulk of the work is done, and that feels awesome. Especially seeing reviews like these:

Bibliotropic: "The ending of The Labyrinth of Flame is quite possibly the most satisfying ending to a series I've ever read."

Nathan Barnhart at the Speculative Herald: "It is truly one of those series with a little something for everyone; a bloody dark setting, world shaking events driving the plot, and a whole lot of heart."

Paul Weimer at SF Signal: "Strong central characters, inventive worldbuilding, satisfying conclusion."

Plus the emails and tweets and such that readers have sent me to tell me how much they enjoyed the book--I can't even tell you how much that kind of thing means after pouring your heart and soul into a series. I know not everybody's going to like it, and that's okay--but it's absolutely wonderful to know that so many people do. Some authors hunger for sales and awards, but I will be dead honest, it's the intangibles that I yearn for--the knowledge that something I wrote gave someone else joy. So to me, in every way that matters, the Shattered Sigil series has been an enormous success, and I thank every one of you that loved the books for making it one.

2015 wasn't ALL about The Labyrinth of Flame, though, even if sometimes it felt that way. I managed to get away from the computer on occasion for some beautiful hikes:

Lake Isabelle in the Indian Peaks Wilderness

Sharkstooth on the Andrews Glacier trail in Rocky Mountain National Park

Negotiating Kelso Ridge on Torreys Peak

My son was finally old enough to come along sometimes:

Hiking the Mt. Sanitas trail 

And we enjoyed some quality ski days together:

Skiing a little fresh powder at Telluride

Our ancient but faithful Subaru Outback died, leaving us awkwardly carless for a while, but then we got our very first real 4WD vehicle, which we promptly used on Utah adventures:

Driving the slickrock

We visited new trailheads:

Having fun at Tusher Tunnel near Moab

And took our son on his first trip to the San Rafael Swell for his first slot canyon adventure:

Little Wild Horse Canyon

Not to mention our first stint of sandboarding (at Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado):

Boy, it's windy on those sand dunes. We should have brought goggles.

The year wasn't all fun, though. I'd been so excited to start training seriously for figure skating again after finishing The Labyrinth of Flame, but my back had other ideas. After multiple doctor visits and x-rays and even a steroid shot to the piriformis muscle, I am still not sure if I will ever be able to jump again, or if my aging back simply is no longer capable of handling the intense forces of free skating. I have one last hope: I'm currently undergoing a grueling round of physical therapy in hopes I can get my core muscles strong enough to hold my sciatic vertebrae stable while landing. If this doesn't work, it's likely I'll give up skating. I could still ice dance, yes, but it's always the jumps and spins I loved best. I think it'd be too frustrating to be on the ice and unable to do what I truly love.

There were other low points: intensely stressful times at work, arguments at home, all the parts of life that you don't see on a "highlight" reel. But I'm intensely aware of how fortunate I am in so many ways. And going into 2016, my biggest goal is to take more time to appreciate all the little happinesses of life. A moment laughing with my husband, a beautiful flower beside the trail, the intense blue of a Colorado sky, a hug from my son, the pleasure of a good book, all the things I so often take for granted. (Speaking of good books, I read some great ones in December - check out my reading round-up over on tumblr if you're looking for new reads.)

And what lies ahead for me writing-wise in 2016? Well, first I'll finish the four short stories from the Kickstarter. I'm having so much fun with them that I even considered writing a couple more and eventually putting out a Shattered Sigil collection, but we'll see. Depends on how the writing goes, because I also want to start a wholly new book this year. It's both a heady and terrifying thought, to start all over from scratch after so long spent working with familiar characters! But I'm always game for a challenge (that's what keeps life fun).

So I'll take 2016 as it comes, trying to embrace every bit of joy, and I hope you all find many moments to savor in the coming year, too. Wishing you health and happiness and plenty of great reads,

-Courtney

The Labyrinth of Flame is out in ebook!

Today marks the release of The Labyrinth of Flame in ebook: it's now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Itunes, and more. If you're one of the Kickstarter backers patiently awaiting a trade paperback copy, I have more good news: I heard this morning from the printing company that the print run is complete and the books are shipping out to me today. Soon as I get them, I'll be signing and shipping as fast as I can!

In the meantime, if you're looking for more awesome books to read, here's a few other excellent choices that released today:

Carol Berg's Ash and Silver, 2nd in her Sanctuary duology. I read this book in draft form (Carol's a critique partner of mine) and I can assure you it is awesome. Tons of magic and action and plot twists combined with Carol's signature depth of characterization.

Ian Tregillis's The Rising, 2nd in his Alchemy Wars series. I haven't read this yet but based on the excellence of Ian's other books, I'm confident it's a great read.

Unbound anothology - short stories from an impressive lineup of fantasy authors, including Mazarkis Williams, Mark Lawrence, Mary Robinette Kowal, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Joe Abercrombie, Seanan McGuire, Brian Staveley, Tim Marquitz, and a whole lot more.

If that's not enough, over on my brand-new tumblr account I discuss the many good books I read in November. (So many good books! It was a great month.)

And for anybody who's been missing the wilderness pic posts here, I've got yet more good news: after a terrific Thanksgiving week spent scrambling through the slickrock canyons of Utah, I now have a ton of new pics to show off. I'm thinking I'll do a series of posts talking about Utah locations that inspired various spots in The Labyrinth of Flame...stay tuned.

Update on Labyrinth of Flame's Release

I love ebooks, but speaking as an author, there's nothing quite like holding the physical edition of your book in your hands. For me, that's when it really hits home that the story is no longer a work in progress, but a real, honest-to-gosh book. Something that people can put on their shelves and share with their friends and curl up in a favorite chair with and lose themselves in, the way I've done with so many books in my life. In this case, the realization is particularly weighty, as it's not just this one book finished and ready for readers. The entire Shattered Sigil trilogy is complete--something I can still hardly believe, after so many years spent with Dev and Kiran!

But here is the proof (in more ways than one, heh):

One lovely copy of The Labyrinth of Flame! This after three rounds of proofs and a whole lot of emails with the printing company--turns out illustrations make the printing process a lot more complicated, plus there were some issues with spine width and cover font transparency that had to be fixed. But I'm very happy with the final product! I ended up having the illustrations printed on special insert paper, and they look great:

Books for my Kickstarter backers are being printed now, and should be shipped to me after Thanksgiving. Soon as I get them I'll be signing and mailing them out. It's my hope that all the books will be in backers' hands before Christmas.

If you missed the Kickstarter, Dec 1 is the release date on Amazon, B&N, Kobo, and other online retailers for the ebook of The Labyrinth of Flame. Pre-order links are live on Amazon, Kobo, and iBooks, and should soon be live at Barnes & Noble.

Due to the delay from getting print issues sorted out, it'll be a few weeks after Dec 1 before a physical edition becomes available to the general public. As soon as I have a firm date, I'll announce it here.

In the meantime, I'm off to celebrate Thanksgiving properly: by spending the week in the wilds of Utah, scrambling over the slickrock that inspired the scenery of The Labyrinth of Flame. Talk about a perfect way to mark the book's completion. May you have an equally excellent end to your November!

Labyrinth of Flame's Illustrations

Sigh, I heard from the printing company that there's been a delay and it'll be a few more days before I get my hardcopy proof of The Labyrinth of Flame. It's so hard to wait! I'm really eager to get the books printed, but I've got to check that proof first to make sure the cover and illustrations and everything look just right.

In the meantime, some folks have asked if I could put up the images of the illustrations so they can look at them properly instead of on a tiny e-reader screen. I am happy to oblige! So here are the five illustrations that the talented Kristina Carroll did for the book, complete with a few words from me about each one. (Kristina was wonderful to work with, by the way. Organized, responsive, and patient when I dithered over which of her concept sketches to choose for an illustration!)

If you haven't read the book yet, beware spoilers... 

MileHiCon schedule

So, the life craziness continues...but one thing that has done wonders for my stress is getting emails from various readers telling me how much they're enjoying The Labyrinth of Flame. (Thank you thank you thank you!!! There is no better way to cheer up an author.)  Plus soon I'll have the joy of holding the book in my hands - the files are at the printing company, and they tell me a hardcopy proof should arrive mid next week. YAY.

But I've been so busy with day job and everything that I only today realized that MileHiCon is THIS WEEKEND, holy hell, where did this month go? So now I'm scrambling to prepare for panels - I've got three this year, and they all sound fun:

Friday Oct 23, 2pm: Ten Mistakes Writers Make

A look at some common mistakes writers make, and perhaps some ways to prevent them… or at least stop making them more quickly!

(My take: I'm not sure if this panel is supposed to be about craft mistakes or business mistakes or both, but I've certainly made enough mistakes to have plenty of advice to share.)

Friday Oct 23, 4pm: Five Fantasy Worlds You Wouldn't Want to Visit

The Shire might be nice (but does Bag End have flush toilets?), but lots of fantasy worlds would be no fun to be in. Our panelists count down the five fantasy worlds they’d least like to visit … let alone set up house in.

(My take: Oh yeah, I can think of plenty of awful worlds, especially among the modern grimdark novels. I'll try and go some fun/unusual ones.)

Saturday Oct 24, 10am: SF Primer: From Isaac Asimov to Timothy Zahn

If someone is just getting into reading science fiction, what books do you recommend and why?

(My take: I LOVE recommending books! And you can bet I'll be including plenty of the awesome female authors I loved growing up - ladies who cemented my love for SF, who nobody seems to talk about anymore. The trouble will be in limiting myself so I don't try to mention 300 names at once!)

I'm only at the con on Friday and Saturday, since I promised my husband I wouldn't stick him with solo parent duty for yet another entire weekend. For anyone else attending, I hope you'll say hello! Panels are fun, but talking to fellow readers and fans is even more so.

The Labyrinth of Flame is out in the world!

The Labyrinth of Flame is really, finally, completely, utterly done - and in readers' hands! I sent out ebooks and maps to Kickstarter backers on Sunday night. (This after a week that involved my son getting sick, me getting sick, and then a tree falling on our neighborhood power lines right when I was trying to do final ebook conversions - gaaaah!)

Honestly I still can't quite believe the book is done. I don't think it'll sink in until the physical copies arrive and I hold one in my hands (which should be in another 2 weeks or so). I've been working on the story for so long that my brain hasn't quite adjusted to the idea that not only is The Labyrinth of Flame done, but other people can now READ IT. (Oh gosh. That's somewhat terrifying, but mostly I can't wait to see what people think of the book.)

Of course, I'm not yet done with the Shattered Sigil world and characters. I still have four short stories to write for Kickstarter backers. I'm looking forward to working on those! And I still have plenty of production and Kickstarter-related tasks to handle. But the biggest part of the mountain has been climbed, and once I come out of my hypoxic daze, I'll be jumping about with joy.

For anyone who missed the Kickstarter, fear not! I'll be doing a general release of the book through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc in both ebook and print on Dec 1. (I just today set up the Amazon preorder page. I think as a self-pub person, Amazon only allows me to set up a pre-order for ebooks, not print, but rest assured the book will be available in both when the time comes.)

Oh yes, and while I was in my final push to the finish, Grimdark Magazine reviewed The Whitefire Crossing and The Tainted City, and posted an interview with me (in which I share my favorite grimdark author, among other things.)

And now, it is a beautiful day, and I am going to the mountains!

Last call for Labyrinth of Flame pre-orders (the book is in copy edits!)

So yesterday I sent The Labyrinth of Flame to the copy editor, after spending the last few weeks entering all the line edit fixes and rewriting some scenes. (Which I did in between day job deadlines, a family trip to Moab, presenting a workshop at the RMFW Colorado Gold writing conference, and taking the winner of my Ultimate Fan reward raffle up two 14K peaks. That ascent was awesome, by the way. I'll be sharing tons of pics this Thursday.)

Going to copy edits means The Labyrinth of Flame is almost done. ALMOST. Hopefully just typos and other small errors left to fix. (Oh, how I hope!) I can't quite believe the story is really all there on the page. I've been working on this book for so long it's hard to imagine not working on it! But that day is coming soon. As is the day when all you lovely patient people will at last have the chance to read it. (The closer that day comes, the more my excitement grows...and yes, so do my nerves! I love this book so much. I know it's statistically impossible for everyone to love it. But I hope a whole lot of you do.)

I've been letting people who missed the Kickstarter do "late pledges" for either ebooks or signed trade paperbacks, but now the book is so close to production, I'm going to have to cut those off. Deadline for pre-orders/late pledges is this Friday, September 18th. After that point, anyone who'd like the book will have to wait for the general release at online retailers, which will happen after I ship all the Kickstarter rewards.

And now, I'm going to collapse. (Sleep has not been a priority the last month or so. Or actually, the last six years.)

How to get The Labyrinth of Flame if you missed the Kickstarter

A quickie post today since I've got a super busy week ahead! Since the Labyrinth of Flame Kickstarter ended, I've gotten a steady trickle of emails from folks who missed the Kickstarter but are eager to get the book. I've decided I'll continue taking "late pledges" for ebooks and trade paperbacks until September 18th, 2015. The process is simple:

$8 USD gets you a DRM-free copy of the ebook plus high-res images of maps

$26 USD gets you a signed trade paperback plus DRM-free ebook and map images. (US shipping included, add $15 for shipping to Canada, $20 for the rest of the world). 

You can use Paypal or (if you live in the US) send me a check. Email me at courtney (at) courtneyschafer (dot) com to let me know which you prefer, and I'll send you back my Paypal account name or mailing address. Once I get the money, I'll add you to my backer spreadsheets, and you'll receive your book(s) at the same time as regular Kickstarter backers. 

Alternatively, you can wait for me to do a general release of the book through online retailers. That'll happen after I send out all the Kickstarter rewards - so likely this winter. I'll announce the general release here and to my mailing list (email me at courtney (at) courtneyschafer (dot) com to join).