Silver Queens

New Book Day: Amelia Sand and the Silver Queens

::Dusts off the blog::

Hello, all! Long time no posts, I know. Life has been pretty busy, and I’ve been cutting back on my online time. But today is the release day for my new middle-grade fantasy Amelia Sand and the Silver Queens, which means it’s time to do the announcement and promotion thing.

Amelia Sand and the Silver Queens Cover Art by Leanna Crossan

Some of you have already seen and read this one through the Kickstarter earlier this year. (Thank you!) For those who haven’t, or for anyone who needs a refresher, this is a standalone book that plays with portal fantasy tropes. Here’s the official description.

Amelia Sand is a student at Ainsworth Academy, where nonhumans are taught to be “civilized.” But for the rulers of Umbra—humans who came through a world-gate from Earth and now sit upon the thrones—that’s not enough. When Amelia discovers their plans to use magic to force her and her fellow monsters into blind obedience, she sets out to stop them.

Everyone knows goblins can’t be heroes, so Amelia visits a world-gate to find human champions of her own. But instead of mighty young heroes, she gets stuck with two old women who have no interest in magic or fighting.

With her friend Boa (a talking ribbon-snake), Amelia joins former teacher Ruth and absent-minded Lily on a quest to save the “uncivilized” peoples of Umbra.

Amelia Sand and the Silver Queens is a story about finding unexpected family and learning to trust in your own power.

You can read the first chapter if you want to get a taste for the story. It doesn’t directly tie into my goblin series or any of my other books, but Amelia is definitely a Jim Hines Goblin 🙂

It’s available just in time for the holidays as an e-book and a trade paperback.

Thank you as always for all of your enthusiasm and support. I hope you love this one as much as I do.

Silver Queens Cover Art

Yesterday I received the final files from Leanna Crossan for the Amelia Sand and the Silver Queens cover.

Short version: I love it, and I’ve been happily tweaking away at text and layout. I’m now to the point where I can’t really see it anymore, which means it’s time to share and see what you think.

Here’s the full layout, which will be used for the paperback. (And as I upload the image, I can already see that I want to move that quote from Tobias Buckell a tiny bit higher so it will be centered between the bar code and the text block.)

The price is not final. That’s going to depend on what the costs are. I’m not going for a huge royalty on the print copies, but I do need to be able to feed the cat and the dog. Oh, and the kids too, I suppose.

Here’s the front cover, give or take a few pixels on the dimensions, that will be used for the ebooks and online.

So… What do you think? Any suggestions before I finalize this sucker?

Final Hours of the Amelia Sand Kickstarter

First of all, thank you to everyone who got us past the goal line for the Amelia Sand and the Silver Queens Kickstarter. We also hit the first stretch goal, which means everyone who gets a physical book will get an autographed Amelia Sand bookmark to go with it.

The Kickstarter wraps up at 9 a.m. eastern time tomorrow, August 14. So if you’ve been thinking about supporting or you wanted to adjust your support or add the Goblin Queens add-on this is your last chance.

And if you’re not up for Kickstarter, that’s okay too. The book will be published on December 12, and is already up for pre-order at Amazon and Kobo. (Other pre-order links will be coming soon.)

Leanna Crossan is in the final round of working on the cover art, and I love it so much. This is a not final version of the artwork with me playing around with potential cover text and layout.

 

Amelia Sand and the Silver Queens - draft cover art

For supporters, the goal is to have rewards sent out by some time in October. I’ve got most of the files prepped, but I still need to do things like add in the supporter list and do a final check. And there will be at least one or two rounds of getting test copies of the physical book printed to make sure nothing gets lost in translation.

Today though, I intend to enjoy the last hours of a successful Kickstarter and the excitement of getting to put out a new book that I think (I hope!) people will really enjoy.

Thanks again!!!