A.J. Maguire

Category: Self-Publishing

  • A Candid Conversation about Spice (Yes, Book Spice)

    Warning, this conversation may make some uncomfortable. But you know what, sometimes the hardest conversations to have are the ones that help us grow the most, so let us go ahead and dive in.

    Let me start by stating that not all books are for all audiences. Only you can decide what you like and dislike, so my job here is not to sway you one way or another in that argument.

    If you like spice, good for you.

    If you DON’T like spice, also good for you.

    You know yourself and that is a great place to begin.

    Now then, do you know what ELSE is not my job? Judging other people for what they like to read.

    The beautiful thing about humanity is that we are all different. Our tastes sometimes align, but then vary in the next instant, and that’s GOOD. What isn’t so good is deciding that because someone’s tastes are different from yours, that they are somehow lesser human beings and unworthy of respect and space.

    I beg of you, stop doing this.

    You breathe, you live, you laugh, you matter. And so does everyone else. Give people the space to live differently from you because, at the end of the day, the only choices you are held accountable for are your own.

    Now that we’re on the same page, I am going to admit that Blood of the Witch Heir gets a little racy. I still close the door/fade to black, but the intimate scenes are more noticeable in this book than in many of my other works, and this was on purpose.

    Trigger Warning – The book does deal with SA. The actual event is not shown on the page, but it is relevant to the characters and has to be dealt with, which means that the intimacy between our two main characters was as much a part of the story as the grander plot.

    Why?

    Because intimacy after SA is difficult. It can also be either a detriment or a healing moment for the survivor. This is a sensitive subject, I know, and I suppose I am risking a lot in how I have done things in the book, but I believe the message is important.

    Spice in books is not inherently bad. You either enjoy it, or you don’t, but please don’t shame the people around you who do because, quite frankly, it is none of your business. Not to mention the fact that books are a safe space where survivors often find healing.

    No, sincerely, this is a thing.

    Books permit us to explore in a safe, private manner and (at least one hopes) showcases healthy relationships on the page. I know that often there are unhealthy relationships (codependency/ jealousy/ etcetera) in these books and we end up swooning anyway but they are FICTION and still a safe space.

    So whether you want no spice, low spice, closed door, open door, or the spiciest of the spice, please respect the rights of other readers to be different from you.

    Read responsibly. Read often. Read Happy.

  • Calendar of Doom

    SO!

    I did my Calendar of Doom this week, trying to make sure all of my deadlines are still going to be met. Life often gets in the way of these deadlines, but they are doubly important this year because of the tight publication schedule.

    For example, the release of Blood of the Witch Heir is exactly 45 days away! That’s… really not that long. Especially since I am still refining it. Reminder that this is a RE-RELEASE. The original title was Witch Born and it was put out by Double Dragon Publishing an embarrassing number of years ago.

    Sadly, Double Dragon sold to a new company and I decided to get the publishing rights back to it, thinking a re-release would be super easy.

    (Insert maniacal laughter here.)

    Safe to say I was wrong. There’s nothing easy about this.

    However, I still love the story. I love the characters and the world and want to give it a decent chance out in the wild. To do so, that means editing.

    A whole lot of editing.

    But what about Nora’s final book?

    Nora and the Vampire Court is set to release in 170 days!

    And yes, that is a VERY short amount of time for a brand new book.

    It’s a panic-inducing deadline, but it is one I will keep because of the (spoiler) cliffhanger at the end of Nora and the Siren Song. I simply refuse to leave you beautiful, amazing, lovely readers hanging for longer than six months.

    Rest assured, this will be released on time. I have hit the mark in the novel where I had to re-read everything already written. (Why yes, this includes books 1-3, in case you were wondering) This is so that I do not miss anything, and so that I can add things into the early parts of the book that I have learned during the drafting process.

    This means that, by the end of May, I will have a completed draft for the editor and Alpha Readers.

    Also, in case anyone was keeping count, I have read 15 of the 50 novels I wanted to read this year. Which means I’m behind by 2 books. But I refuse to feel bad since I literally just spent a week re-reading my own novels for Nora’s series.

    I’ll catch up, I’m sure.

  • Alterations, Updates, & Fun

    With Nora and the Siren Song about to be released, I’m doing my usual brushing up of the website, book covers, and general marketing upkeep.

    Those who frequent this site are no doubt noticing it is shiny and pretty, with a new theme that I have to admit I love. Depending on what device you’re using, you’ll find my new LinkTree either at the bottom (phone devices) or at the side (computer) of the screen.

    I am new to LinkTree. I only discovered it thanks to Threads, where I’ve had the joy of connecting with Indie authors I had never met before. I do still have an account on X, for those of you who linger over there, but sometime over the course of the last couple years X took away the ability to auto-link my posts to its site, so it is not as up to date as Threads or Facebook.

    I’m sure there’s a way I can pay for that function, but quite frankly, I’m tired of every site known to man charging a fee for being ‘verified’ or whatever. I’m on a budget, guys. If I’m going to spend money, it’s going toward actual publishing costs. Or, shock of all shocks, trying to get author copies of my own books.

    Nora’s books got new covers. Again. Yes, this is in preparation for the series being competed this year. They have a matching theme and yes, one day when I can afford an artist who can do all four of them at once, then these covers will change yet again.

    And finally, to the last announcement, Torven & Tales from the Wood has been published through Draft2Digital. This is an experiment on my part to see how that publishing program works.

    For those who don’t remember, Torven is my Fairytale Novelette written several years ago for my son, who told me he hated reading and broke my heart. I wrote the little volume FOR him and read it to him every night over the course of eight days, and he admitted he actually liked that story.

    It must have been the right move because he’s a storyteller himself now.

    Anyway, Torven was taken off virtual shelves a couple years ago because it was too small to be worth printing anymore. I’ve been gathering some short stories to add to its volume and while I still think I should have added one or two more, I’m simply too busy to know when I’ll get around to writing another such tale, so it seemed a good trial book for the Draft2Digital site.

    When I figure out how to sell physical copies through this site, this will be the first one available. Since, you know, it is my test subject.

    That’s it. Those are my current updates!

  • Countdown to Siren Songs!

    As of today, we have 66 days before Nora and the Siren Song hits the virtual shelves.

    I am so very excited for everyone to get a chance to read the next step in Nora’s journey. The early reviews have been excellent. You can check them out on Goodreads if you don’t believe me. Or Bookbub, if you would rather.

    I know there are several other review sites out there, but Goodreads still tends to garner the most reviews and ratings for me.

    So what is this new adventure about?

    Well, it’s a romance.

    As in, the other books the romance tends to hide in the background, but in this next volume it takes center stage. I know this might annoy some people who prefer their romances in the light version, but Nora is growing and as such, she has reached a point of crisis where she must confront what she truly wants out of life.

    Which includes knowing what she wants out of a partner.

    I thoroughly enjoyed writing this book. It is a huge journey for Nora, not only because she must come to some decisions about who she is and what she wants, but because the world around her is getting far more dangerous.

    I can’t say much more than that without spoiling the book for you, so I will leave you with the current Book Blurb (subject to change between now and Publication Date.)

    Nora Grayson never meant to be a criminal.

    Raised by the very people who murdered her parents, Nora’s memory has been shrouded by spell-work and heavy drugs. Sensing that something terrible is in the works, Nora is desperate to uncover the truth of what her caretakers forced her to do, but there are other powers at play both Earthside and in Fairy. When the Vampire Court demands Nora be shackled from her power, she and Constable Elliot Cade must flee. Her only hope rests with the last known Great Wizard, Lady Helle, but reaching the wizard’s tower proves more difficult than either of them imagined.

    Boxed in on all sides, ancient rivalries rush to the surface, and the ocean powers Cade has been hiding from set out to prove that there is nothing more treacherous than the sea in a storm. With options and allies dwindling, and the wizard’s tower far out of reach, Nora faces an impossible choice: clear her own name or save the man she loves.

    Pre-Order Here!

  • Tips and Tricks – Writer’s Edition

    I am in the thick of things where it comes to completing the Nora Grayson series, and because writing is a constant learning process I thought I would share some things that are helping me get through this final book.

    For those just joining us, the Nora Grayson series is my urban fantasy/paranormal/fantasy mystery series that follows Miss Nora Grayson, an empathic wizard living in Boston. It is honestly difficult to place in a single genre here, which I know will have professionals screaming at me that I just don’t know my market the way I should and that I should study it more, but if you read the books you’re going to see why I am so fickle.

    Suffice, sometimes you’re on Earth and sometimes you’re in Fairy. Magic is hidden in plain sight of humanity, but I don’t have any fully human characters on the page, and the ties that bind Fairy to Earth are very, very important. Especially in this last book.

    It’s weird. I know. But so far readers seem to be enjoying the books so I’m just going to keep trucking along with it.

    Nora and the Siren Song will be released in April. That’s the third novel in the series. You can snag Werewolf Wedding and Duke of Autumn right now through Amazon. (Yes, I do little Kindle sales throughout the year so those of you readers who are on a tight budget, don’t fret. Follow my Facebook/X/Threads/Instagram and you’ll see when they’re on sale.)

    As we speak, I am working on the 4th and final book in the Nora Grayson series, which brings me to the point of this Blog Entry.

    Ending a series is far more difficult than beginning one. Or even continuing one.

    All of those BIG questions that I have left hanging in the air for Nora need to come to a satisfying conclusion. And I need to do it in such a way that I don’t sacrifice the main theme of the series. AND all the characters on the page need to feel like they have come to a place of resolution somehow, not just Nora but the team/family she has managed to grow over the past three books.

    So, what are some of the things I’ve learned during this process?

    Tip #1 – Record your books

    This is just for you. You don’t need to sell it. The sound quality doesn’t have to be amazing. You can do it on a shoddy little voice recorder you got for five bucks at a secondhand store, but record your books. The physical act of doing this will remind you what you’ve written, keeping the larger narrative alive in your head. AND, you can listen to the books while you do all the other necessary things of life like cooking dinner, washing dishes, or folding laundry.

    Again, this is to keep the narrative alive in your head. It might feel funny at first. I know I felt weird, like it was a sort of vanity to listen to my own work, but at the end of the day it had practical applications. Characters I had forgotten about from the first book suddenly answered a major plot issue in the fourth.

    Tip #2 – Story Bibles

    Yes, I’ve mentioned these before. This is where you have written down characters and their rough descriptions in case they show back up because you don’t want a character to go from having green eyes to blue in the last few pages of the series. I use Scrivener for this, and I have pasted pictures to go along with said descriptions for these characters, because it’s fun and it makes me smile.

    Tip #3 – Trust your instincts

    If you aren’t satisfied with something on the page, then you can be certain that your readers won’t be either. I can tell you that I was stuck in November/December, so I went ahead and took a break. Something wasn’t working on the page, so I went back and reviewed and read the other books and poured over my plot notes. Granted, it took COVID forcing me into a hazy dream state for two weeks for me to really pinpoint what was wrong, but I’m confident I would have come to the right conclusion even without the illness.

    The point is, my instincts were telling me it was off and I needed to listen to them. Sure, I kept shoving words on the page because no forward momentum = nothing ever gets done, but the struggle was important.

    Which brings me to the fourth and final tip…

    Tip #4 – Don’t be afraid to revise

    Take this with a grain of salt. A lot of people can’t finish a book if they keep going back and revising. PLEASE USE THIS WITH CAUTION. If you know that you are one of those who will get hung up on making that first chapter perfect, then DON’T DO THIS. Just make a note of the changes you want to make on the next pass of the manuscript and move on.

    For me, however, I literally cannot move on with the story if I know a major thing needs to change. In this case it WAS a major thing, it altered the course of the book in several ways, and I needed to make the words on the page match the story in my head before I could move on. I recognize the danger of constant revision for that first chapter, so please hear me when I say that I did this with my eyes open, I know that chapter is still not perfect, but now that it fits the rest of the narrative my internal Muse is happy and ready to continue the book.

    That’s it. That’s what I’ve learned so far.

    For those interested, we are sitting at 15k on the final novel, which isn’t where I wanted to be but I really did have COVID and was miserably tossing and turning in bed for nearly two weeks. Don’t worry, though. I’ll meet the deadline.

    Happy Writing!

  • Happy Holidays 2024 & The Yearly Wrap-Up

    We’ve made it to the end of 2024!

    It was a rough ride, but we’re here and we’re still kicking.

    What did I get done in 2024?

    Available Now!

    Well, first we had Nora and the Duke of Autumn come out for sale. It came out staggered, with the paperback in April and the digital rights in August, and I learned valuable lessons in this. Basically, you won’t see me do that again. There’s a weirdness in how the publishing dates work with the platform I use, but I’ve adapted and I know how to do it better in 2025.

    Second, I completed Nora and the Siren Song. It is scheduled for release in April 2025 (both paperback & digital) and is already generating reviews with advanced readers.

    Third, I began drafting Nora and the Vampire Court. This book is also scheduled for a 2025 release, but you won’t be seeing it until October. It has several drafts yet to go, and I am nervous as a cat in a tree about making sure all the little plotlines come together in the end.

    Fourth, I began edits for a re-release of previously titled Witch-Born. I still quite love this book, but its publisher sold to another publisher and long story short, I’m getting publishing rights back to it. This is also in the running for 2025 publishing release sometime over the summer. When I know more, you’ll know more.

    Fifth, The Last Child of Winter saw its final revision pass and has been on query for some time now. The querying trenches are brutal and frightening, with long stretches of nothing as you await word from various agents and sudden barrages of rejections that seem to come in rapid succession. I still have hope for this one, but if my next attempt at querying is unsuccessful, I may bring it back to the drafting table.

    All in all, not a bad year.

    I’m excited to say that insofar as orders go for my books, there have been over 500 more orders this year than what I managed to do last year. Which is exciting. Especially since my holiday sale of Nora’s current books won’t hit virtual shelves until the 9th, so that number is bound to go up before the end of the year.

    I am sincerely grateful to everyone who has picked up my books. Whether you liked them or not, I appreciate the time it took. I hope every Reader has a book fort made of their TBR piles, the cozy drink of their choice, and maybe a fuzzy pet to curl up with them as they read.

    Most of all, I hope everyone has a warm, safe holiday and I will see you all in January.

  • The Importance of Having Fun (With Writing)

    Nora and the Werewolf Wedding will be out for sale on WEDNESDAY the 9th of August!

    Hurray and happy days!

    I absolutely love Nora and her books. She is a lot of fun. And the world she is in is a lot of fun to write. Writing her first book took longest because I was worldbuilding a lot, but her second book took me 4 months to draft. And because I’m editing in preparation for next year’s publication date, I just re-read it and still love it.

    These books are like Jim Butcher’s Dresden files meets Sarah J Maas’s Court of Thorns and Roses and I really am having a blast writing them. And it’s showing in the work. I know because of the feedback I have been getting from readers. They are having fun reading Nora, which tells me I’m doing something right.

    I don’t know how other writer’s work but for me, if I’m not having fun then the work crawls along and I often don’t finish. I move on to something else that is fun and then I dissect the old book and implement the elements I enjoyed into the new work. Which is a legitimate means of morphing your craft, but the point still stands — You have got to be having fun.

    If you’re not having fun, if you’re not engaged and lying awake at night wondering how your character is going to make it through the obstacles in front of them, then I can guarantee that your readers won’t be either.

    This isn’t to say there have been no roadblocks.

    I spent four days grouching about a menu because I had no idea what to serve on board a dirigible.

    I spent a week trying to figure out the ending of Werewolf Wedding. (My husband helped me brainstorm during one of our drives. You guys can thank him for like… everything that happens there.)

    I spent two months revising Werewolf Wedding to make it steampunk 1890’s, and then another 4 months returning it to contemporary urban fantasy.

    But from start to finish, I have been having fun with the story. Even in the middle of the roadblocks. And I am excited to see what comes next, which motivates me to be at the computer long after I should have closed it for the day.

    There are some books that I’ve written that were a grind from the mid-point to the end. Some halted completely for months. In these cases, I have to start from the beginning, remind myself why I started the story in the first place, and ignite that joy again before I start writing. Because readers can sense when you’ve lost your way too and no amount of professionalism is going to cover that.

    So here is me, diving back into Nora’s world to get Book #3 Drafted. In the meantime, the first book is out August 9th! And here’s the placeholder cover for Book #2.

  • Mostly Mid-Year Check Up

    I finished Last Child of Winter last week! Confetti is still flying around the house and I continue to nurse my celebratory bottle of wine in the evenings.

    Now I get to take a peek at what I meant to have done this year and… have a mild panic attack about how little has been completed. Last Child of Winter was supposed to be completed back at the end of March? Sweet Bananas on Toast, how did we stretch it to July??

    Well, that’s easy to explain.

    And I suppose it’s time to fess up.

    Those who have been following along will remember that I said “Life Happened” some time ago that derailed several things. Now that we have come to the other side of it, I will admit that I had a bit of a cancer scare. Long story short, my schedule was interrupted by a biopsy and then a surgery and my mind was just not in the right space to get more than 100-500 words done daily.

    Which is significantly less than my 1k-3k normal workday.

    So, my panic attack is short lived today because, quite frankly, I’m still alive to work and that’s good enough for me.

    But how shall I spend the rest of this year?

    So glad you asked!

    This week I am building a book (ie: outlining / character sheets / charts) for the next project that I will begin next week. But I am ALSO going to take 2-3 days this week to write a short story for Nora.

    It’s been stuck in my head so I want to do it while it’s there.

    Nora and the Minotaur’s Husband will, hopefully , star in a Fantasy Anthology that I want to release in December. I have several fantasy short stories that have not found homes and, as you will recall, Torven is no longer available in paperback form because it is too short. So I will have it in the anthology so that people who don’t like digital versions can still read it.

    These projects should last me until the beginning of October (new book / Fantasy Anthology) and then I will pick up Nora’s second book (tentatively titled Nora and the Autumn Duke) for editing straight through National Novel Writing Month in November. If this goes the way it normally does when I put an editing project in NaNo instead of a fresh novel, I will probably be picking up Last Child of Winter and doing its third round of edits straight through December.

    Everything else I put on my plate for this year can simmer in the background until next year.

    Because, hey, I’m alive. And barring any freak accidents, I should be alive next year too.

    All that said, take time today to breathe and enjoy something. Life really is short and the minutes/hours/days that pass by will never come back.

    P.S. Nora and the Werewolf Wedding comes out August 9th! Advanced reviews have been spectacular and I cannot wait for everyone to get to read this one!

  • When Social Media Goes Right

    I am not awesome with social media.

    But other platforms are used for my professional self – Twitter, Instagram, etc. – and unless the weekend trip included a eureka moment for a work in progress then, quite frankly, I doubt anyone truly cares. Everyone has struggles. Everyone has opinions. NOT everyone wants to hear about my struggles and my opinions.

    Side note: Opinions change as new information is absorbed and thus I find it rather silly to blast what I think at any given moment. Often I am wrong. Often that opinion changes drastically. I would prefer to give myself the grace of being able to change in private rather than get strangled by society.

    All of that said… I have one moment when social media went right for me.

    We were having a weird chat about mashups that we would love to see. I believe the conversation derived from the Lucifer television show and how amusing it was that the devil had a therapist. And then, somehow, we wound up with supernatural creatures needing a marital counselor. And Nora Grayson was born in my head. She just showed up.

    Gentle. Quirky. A little lost. Chocolate loving. Sassy. And an empath.

    Because I love Deanna Troi from Star Trek and I did, in fact, wish to see her in a story of her own. So I snagged the empath ability and shoved it into Nora’s already mildly neurotic mess and wham!

    I had a story.

    Now, I will admit that the original intent was straight murder-mystery with supernatural creatures. In my head it was Clue meets Fairy creatures, but what ended up on paper was a little bigger. Because… c’mon. If Fairy creatures are living next door, wouldn’t you want to investigate a little more than one book would permit?

    So now I’m sitting with two books written and a third getting outlined and I owe it all to that original conversation on social media. I have to put a major shout to the writing community on the Twitter platform. Whatever your opinions are about the swap of ownership, the writing community got me to Nora and for that I am grateful.

    Pre-Orders Available for Kindle, or you can snag the book in Hardback or Paperback from Amazon!

  • The Media Kit and Me

    I’m a little late in the game here.

    Blame good books keeping my occupied.

    Or parenthood.

    Maybe even my fur-babies.

    Whatever the reason, I am late to the game of Media Kits, which are apparently something I should have been doing this whole time with my novels. I might have done something smallish for Paw Prints on the Wall last year, but it was nothing like what I have discovered is customary for a new book release.

    I’ve had a Bio for ages that I quite like, but it has been… you know… ages. So I thought to freshen it up some for this new book. But, you know, I prefer to talk about fake people and fictional scenarios. It’s gross to talk about myself. I feel so… weird.

    100-200 words about me?

    Ugh.

    Fiiiiiiiine.

    BIO:

    A.J. (Aimee Jean) Maguire has been writing about women rescuing their men since 2008. She loves stories in all shapes and sizes, which means her novels tend to run the full spectrum of fiction, but her favorites tend to be fantasy and science fiction. She is currently living her own happily ever after in Central Massachusetts with her husband and son, where they are surrounded by far too many pets. On the weekends she enjoys exploring the many historical sites peppering New England or hunting for lighthouses on the coast.

    So that’s just shy of 100 words, but it’s a work in progress and it’ll fit nicely on the back end of a book.

    But you know what else is supposed to be in a Media Kit?

    A Q&A Tip Sheet.

    Yes, that means I ask myself 10 questions and then answer those 10 questions for people to use as an easy cut and paste for their blogs and things.

    I’m still working on this one.

    And for the record… there’s a ton more on the list. Some of it is already done, such as book information with the synopsis, cover image, contact information and book details, but it can be more than a little overwhelming to look at on the surface.

    For those curious, I got most of this information from Reedsy, which has some invaluable information in it for authors. You should check them out CLICK HERE.