Mech and Magic pre-ordering

There is some important publishing news below, but first: Mech and Magic is officially in the final stages of editing! These Knack books are big. Epic stories, far flung landscapes, many characters and many, many words. They take a lot out of me, and there is nothing more satisfying than sending one off to my editor. 
 
Below is a tiny snippet of what's to come for Rowan. Mech and Magic will release in December and ebooks are now pre-ordering at special pre-release prices. Lock yours in now because the price goes up on release day!

Excerpt from Mech and Magic, The Knack Book 2
 

Rowan kept her expression neutral as she watched Chancellor Olan March, who in turn studied her. Weathered skin and deep wrinkles showed his age, and keen intelligence shone from his eyes. With finger and thumb, he smoothed down his drooping mustache, pulling his lips into a frown. They were seated on opposite sides of a desk in the chancellor’s office, a place Rowan knew well. She’d read most of the books on the shelves behind the desk. On the other side of the room a fire burned in the hearth. It was flanked by two ancient chairs whose cushions held the impressions of ghosts from the past. The rug before the hearth was still the same, if a little more worn.

 
A lifetime ago, her father and Olan had spent many evenings in those chairs, talking politics and playing cards. Rowan would would sit on the floor by the fire, sorting through a box of old mech bits and building great towers and fortresses. Now that she thought of it, Olan had probably kept that box around just for her.
 
She breathed in the scent of old cigars and was hit by a sharp pang of longing. Olan smoked the same cigars as her father. A mech timepiece on the wall clicked the passing seconds with a long brass arm. It was the only sound in the room until Phalian shifted on her shoulder with a shuffle of his metal wings.
 
And still Olan March watched her. She tried not to squirm like a child while he made up his mind.
 
Princess Rowan Elizabeth Cecilia Andula, only daughter of the late King Reynar Andula and sister of the heir of the New Torwood City throne, had just laid out her plans to overthrow the government.
 
She hadn’t sugar-coated it. She wanted to oust Faustus Atherton and take take over as regent, and she needed allies on the Council.
 
Dale Shannock, the current regent’s secretary and her childhood friend, was already quietly polling ministers’ aides to see which ones might fall on her side of the sword, but they’d both agreed that Olan would be the most likely to offer his support. He’d been her father’s most loyal advisor, but a lot had changed since Faustus Atherton became regent. Alliances had shifted. New cliques among the nobles had formed. The old king and his conservative ways were forgotten.
 
She held her breath while she waited for Olan’s answer. It occurred to her—perhaps too late—that he could side with Atherton and have her thrown in prison for treason.
 
“Well, it’s about time.” Olan let a breath and it ruffled his mustache.
Rowan was so fixated on the fluttering whiskers, she didn’t register his words right away. The old chancellor leaned back in his chair and laughed. It was a rough soldier’s laugh, but the sparkle in his eye was full of mischief.
 
“I thought you’d never take your rightful place as queen.”
 
“Regent,” Rowan corrected.
 
Olan laid a finger against his nose and winked. “For now.” 

 
Anthropic Class Action Suit
 
For those who haven’t been following this case, Anthropic is an AI company that pirated thousands of books and used them to train their AI model. They claimed that buying the books would have been too expensive. Now they are settling a class action suit to the tune of 1.5 billion. The judge in the case took a hard stance, and believes (rightly) that these pirated books also represent a loss of income to authors since the AI will be used to generate content that will compete with them.
 
This is an on issue because many other AI companies are doing the same as Anthropic. So, I’m hopeful this settlement will be a wake up call (looking at you Meta).
 
And yes, 16 of my titles are included on the list of books that Anthropic stole. We’ll see what comes of it. I’m not hopeful about receiving any significant compensation. I have a feeling there will be a lot red tape around the settlement. I'll keep you updated on the progress of this suit.
 
Kindle Unlimited Chillaxes
 
Finally! The folks behind Kindle Unlimited at Amazon have relaxed the exclusivity rules for books in the KU library. Until now, an  ebook registered with KU had to be exclusive to Amazon. It could not be sold anywhere else. Note, this is just for ebooks, not audiobooks, paperbacks or hardcovers. But as of this month, Amazon has changed this rule to allow distribution of KU titles to public libraries. Yay! If you like to download ebooks via your library this means you will soon have a lot more titles to choose from.
 
This roll out will take some time, however. Like thousands of other authors, I have started to load my KU books to libraries, but the roll out will be slow with so many titles being loaded at once. Also, Hoopla (one of the biggest library distributers) is notoriously slow for onboarding new books. In the past, it has taken up to a year and half to get by books listed there. So be patient, but more books are coming!
 
Dragons Don’t Eat Meat Audiobook Sale
 
Valkyrie Bestiary Book 1 is currently on sale at Audiobooks.com for only $6 USD. If you’ve read the books and want to experience the audiobook, this is a great time to start. Sale ends October 11, 2025, and the download includes the prequel short, Three Half Goats Gruff (Hunter’s origin story)

ARC Teams
 
There's still time to join the Audiobook ARC Team. A Knack for Metal and Bone will be coming out in audiobook soon. Also, with book 2 coming soon, I will be looking for more ebook ARC Team members.
 
There are some restrictions to joining the teams, so please fill out the registration form below, and I will get back to you.

 

I feel like getting ready to hibernate with some good books and pumpkin spice. Here's a selection of books to get you started on fall reading.