A.J. Maguire

Tag: Authors

  • 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!

  • February 2025 Round Robin – All Things Romance

    There is romance in all of my books, even the ones that don’t have the label attached to them, but they would not be considered Romance Novels. They are Fantasy Romances, not Romantasy or Romantic Fantasy.

    The general distinction here is that the Fantasy comes before the Romance, at least in my novels. The romance is not the driving force of the plot, the characters can take or leave one another in the end and still win the day, and I don’ t really write spicey scenes.

    I’ve tried, I’m just no good at it.

    And I know – have met, have heard, have politely just nodded along – to those who cringe at the idea of a book having romance in it. As though any sort of romance will ruin the plot. As though having a romantic interest waters things down and makes the work somehow LESS than it could have been without it.

    It has taken me a long time to decide that these naysayers simply have no bearing over me anymore. They can cringe all they like. They are allowed their opinions and if that means my books aren’t for them then that’s alright.

    There are millions and millions of books out there. There’s room for romance to exist without their approval. (Also, and with the utmost sincerity, if you are shaming anyone for what they like to read, then kindly scroll your digital devices past me. Their personal life choices have nothing to do with you. Go read the stuff you like to read and for the love of all that is good and right in this world, leave everyone else alone.)

    There. I’ll step off that particular soap box now. Where were we?

    Why do I love writing romance into my books?

    Honestly, because I feel like the more we showcase healthy romantic relationships on the page, the more we can hope to see it in real life. Let’s normalize the man who protects AND respects his woman. Let’s normalize communication between partners. Let’s normalize a fulfilling, respectful relationship both in and out of the bedroom.

    The stories that really grab me by the boo-boo and hold onto me from start to finish are the ones that showcase how complicated relationships really are, and also how WORTHWHILE it is to work through those complications. That’s what I love about romance. I can take or leave the spice, but give me a couple who are fighting to stay together amidst world-shattering events and you’ll hook me start to finish.

    Better yet, give me a couple who stride hand-in-hand toward doom together, because neither will let the other face it alone.

    See what my fellow authors have to say in this month’s Round Robin!

    Bob Rich   https://wp.me/p3Xihq-3pV

    A.J. Maguire https://ajmaguire.wordpress.com/ (YOU ARE HERE)

    Victoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.com

    Belinda Edwards https://booksbybelinda.com/blog/

    Helena Fairfax http://www.helenafairfax.com/blog

    Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/

    Diane Bator https://escapewithawriter.wordpress.com/

    Sally Odgers https://behindsallysbooks.blogspot.com/2025/02/romance.html

    Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_sea

    Anne Stenhouse https://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/

  • 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!

  • Welcome to 2025!

    It’s time for new challenges!

    2025 READING CHALLENGE

    Last year I managed to read 36 books in total. That’s not including DNF’s that I do not talk about because… My Mom taught me that if you don’t have anything nice to say, you don’t say anything at all.

    Fairly, it takes a lot to get me to DNF a book.

    ANYWAY!

    I want to read 50 books this year. I don’t know that I’ll manage it, but I’m going to give it my best shot.

    2025 WRITING CHALLENGE

    Last year I managed to write, revise, and edit Nora and the Siren Song to its completion. I also managed to edit and publish Nora and the Autumn Duke.

    I am still tickled by the response I have gotten to Nora’s second book and I thank everyone who has taken the time to grab the book. You’ll be glad to know that the conclusion to her main story line is on its way. (More on that later.)

    In addition to that, I managed to review/revise the outlines for two additional books that you won’t get to see until 2026. For reasons.

    THIS YEAR…

    I will be publishing two books.

    Nora and the Siren Song will be out in April in all formats. (If you are interested in reviewing the book beforehand, I can send digital copies. Please just let me know if this interests you.)

    Nora and the Vampire Court, the conclusion to this major story arc for Nora Grayson, will be out in October 2025.

    Because my writing process requires downtime from a project, I will also be editing/revising other projects due out in 2026 in between the Nora books.

    VARIOUS 2025 GOALS

    I want to resume gardening work. Make more candles. And learn this new epoxy resin jewelry stuff I got for Christmas.

    That’s it.

    That’s my 2025.

    Bring it on!

  • 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.

  • Thoughts on Indie Publishing – 2024 Edition

    We are preparing to close out the year on 2024. I am preparing my end-of-year summary and planning ahead for 2025, but in the midst of this preparation comes some larger conversations going on in the publishing world right now.

    I already touched on a couple of the BookTok controversies that I spotted in a previous post but some other aspects of the conversation have been nagging at me and I am going to take my, admittedly quite small, blog here and unpack them a bit.

    First, let us admit that Indie Publishing has become a massive money-maker for quite a few people, and quite often these are NOT the writer. And no, I am not talking about Vanity Presses. Those still exist, of course, and you should avoid them. Suffice, if the publishing house requires you to pay money to get that book onto shelves, then you should walk away.

    You can quite literally go into debt to publish a book and never see that money fully returned. From editors to cover artists to marketing, we funnel money out to see this work put into the world because – for me anyway – it is my craft and I love telling stories.

    I mention this because I have seen an alarming influx of emails and DM’s on various social media sites targeting me for services. I am promised X amount of people will see their marketing posts if I pay them Y amount of dollars. I am guaranteed reviews on Amazon. I am told, for the low price of five-hundred-bucks, I can get my manuscript edited and professionally formatted.

    Given that five-hundred-dollars is actually on the extreme low-end for a professional editor, please hear me when I say that it feels like we have come to a place where only the extremely privileged can truly move forward in this business. Sure, anybody can make a social media account of their choice and start throwing themselves out there, but the chances of that truly making an impact are so slim it’s painful. AND, let us be honest, if that person hasn’t edited their work a dozen times over and hired an editor… Well. It’s dead on arrival, really.

    So where does this leave us?

    I promise I am not all doom and gloom here. I’m not throwing in the towel or anything like that. I am merely expressing some displeasure at all the noise, really. For those of you professional editors/ cover artists/ vocal artists out there trying to make a living in this business too, I’m afraid your voices are being swallowed up. My kneejerk reaction any time I get a new email or DM is to cast some serious salt and ignore it, which isn’t terribly fair to all of you and I know it.

    The question comes down to… how do we cut out all the noise?

    For me, I use Writer Beware a lot. Is there anyone who has something else they use? If so, I would love to learn of it.

  • Novel News – September 2024

    For those who may check my Amazon account you might have noticed that Witch-Born and Deviation are no longer available in Kindle. Long story short, something went down between the publisher and Amazon and they are no longer able to sell any of their books on Amazon’s site. There are paperback copies still available on the site, but insofar as I understand it, any purchases made from this point out are not going to be reflected in royalties.

    Leastwise, that’s what the publisher announced when they sent the email.

    I don’t know why. I don’t know what’s going on over there. To be frank, I had already contacted this publisher to request a termination of the contracts so that I could get the publishing rights back to all books under their label. They were very professional and agreed to the termination and we had set things up to be official in February 2025.

    In the meantime, I have been going through a brand new edit of Witch-Born that I intend to release in the Spring. This includes new cover art and, after much deliberation on my part, a whole new title.

    For funsies, it’s good to know that titles are not really under copywrite. I did not know this until recently, but there you have it.

    I digress.

    The current circumstances that the publisher finds themselves in with Amazon has pushed the timetable up for announcements and what have you. I hadn’t intended to announce the switch until January, with a publication release in May or June . Because this is a re-release, I felt it would not overshadow Nora and the Siren Song, which is still due to release in April.

    Now, it should be noted that Witch-Born is not the only title I have under this publisher. And really, the original publisher was Double Dragon Publishing but they sold to this newest publisher several years ago. I feel like that’s an important detail. I stuck with them because at the time I could not conceive of seeking out a new book cover, and there are some sticking points about material that has been edited by in-house editors at a publishing company.

    It’s a weird gray area, but suffice… the book would require both new edits AND a new cover because the publisher paid for both, and Past Aimee was too busy to do either.

    Present Aimee, on the other hand, has rolled up her sleeves and is getting the work done.

    The other two books under this publisher are Deviation and Dead Magic and yes, I have plans for these as well. I know more about the business now than I did back when they were first sold to Double Dragon, and I am a better writer today than I was yesterday, so you can safely assume I’m working on them.

    Bottom line… If you have a copy of any of these books, they are about to be Out of Print. Everything is OK. We’ve got a handle on it.

    Happy Reading!

  • Controversies on BookTok – 2024 Edition

    While I do not post videos on TikTok, I do follow the #booktok conversations going on over there. I do this for a number of reasons, not the least of which is to discover what readers are enjoying and get some book recommendations for my reading pile. I’ve gotten several books from these videos and many of them are quite delightful.

    Maybe one day I will post a video of my own highlighting a review or two.

    Big Maybe.

    The other reason I follow BookTok is to keep myself abreast of the current goings on and wider impact that novels are having on society. Which is good because writing is a very lonely venture most days and if I don’t pay attention then I could write something that people would consider blind to current events. Such as the current issues revolving around National Novel Writing Month, which has saddened me to no end.

    If you’re not familiar with what’s going on with National Novel Writing Month, suffice to say that I hope they tighten their security for the youth who may still frequent that site. I find that error from 2023 far more egregious than the AI conversation they’re in now, but I do have thoughts on the use of AI insofar as the creation of written works goes.

    I try not to judge other people for their choices. Lord knows that’s not my job. I’ve got enough to deal with for myself without judging anyone else, so let’s put that out there first, alright? So everything I’m about to say, know that it comes from a place of honest self-reflection as to why I personally won’t use AI in writing.

    Any writer will tell you that writing is hard.

    It’s really hard.

    Most days I feel like a complete nincompoop and illiterate when staring at the blank page before me. But the truth is, I will never get better as a writer if I don’t do the work. If I am not brainstorming my own creations, then my imagination will stop developing on its own. If am not putting the hours in with words on the page, then my use of language will never develop.

    For me, AI cuts a creative corner that will severely hinder my ability to craft my works.

    That’s not even getting into the conversation about where AI learns to “write” too.

    Reminder, this is not coming from a place of judgement, but those are my two cents on the matter.

    There are other controversies swinging around BookTok that I’ve taken note of, such as the concept of Booktok and the books popular therein somehow not being intellectual enough and contributing to a lesser quality of writing/reading. Honestly, that controversy is nothing new. They have just relabeled it to encompass BookTok instead of merely genre fiction.

    To that controversy I have one thing to say: Leave people alone.

    Of the myriad ways we can entertain ourselves in this year of our Lord 2024, the fact that they’re picking up a book instead of video gaming, staring at their phone, or watching movies/shows , is amazing. Do you know how many people in my own social circle shrug and admit they don’t like reading or don’t have the time for reading or… whatever the reason they have for not picking up a book?

    Leave people alone. There is space enough in this wide world for you to let them have their own tastes and preferences. It really has nothing to do with you.

  • Limbo Week – May 2024

    For those just joining us, I finished a manuscript at the end of April and have since been in what I like to call Limbo.

    Limbo is where I get to consume all the fiction I possibly can.

    Books. Movies. Video games. If it has a story, I’ll consume it.

    That’s not to say I’m not reading books during other weeks of the year. This is just the week where I get to spoil myself rotten with it.

    Reading and experiencing stories is so very important for writers. I know there are some out there who claim they are too busy writing to read, and I have to admit this makes me cringe. Because if you’re not reading then you have no idea what is being said out in society. Sure, you might get the highlights from the news, but there’s a deeper conversation happening in society and the only way you can access it is by reading.

    This is why I have been focused on bouncing Book Reviews up here lately. It’s not just because I enjoyed a book, it’s because I’m joining that deeper conversation.

    Even if that deeper conversation happens to be Romantasy novels with Vikings and Fae creatures running about.

    As I head into this next week, Limbo is officially over and work is beginning for Nora and the Winter King. I’m still hopeful that this is the final full length novel for Nora’s storyline, and that I will be able to deliver both Siren Song and Winter King within a couple months of each other.

    This is because Siren Song ends on a bit of a cliffhanger.

    My first ever cliffhanger, guys. I’m not sure if I’m excited or worried.

    Anyway, Limbo is closing out and I have some more reading to do.

    Happy Writing, everyone.