A.J. Maguire

Tag: New Release

  • Release Shenanigans – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

    I try to alternate weeks between writing posts and book review posts buuuuuut….

    But this week the paperback edition of Nora and the Duke of Autumn was released and so I am going to steal today for shouting my excitement from the rooftops.

    Mood Board – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

    For those just joining us, Nora’s story sparked with a X (then Twitter) conversation about how I loved the concept of Lucifer having a therapist in the show of the same name. Another writer and I were chitchatting about how the characters in our novels all deserved some therapy after what we put them through, and I made the offhand comment about how a lot of the romance couples needed this too.

    Bam.

    Nora’s story was born.

    An empathic wizard living in Boston who provides counseling to the supernatural living amongst us? The possibilities were endless.

    Mood Board – Nora and the Werewolf Wedding

    In the first book, I had a lot of fun introducing the world(s) where Fairy and Earthside coexist and teasing at the deeper lore hidden behind Nora’s ignorance.

    I knew a couple of things walking in. First, I knew I wanted relationships to be highlighted. In Nora and the Werewolf Wedding, we saw several relationships throughout. We saw a bride and her mother, a bride and her groom, a son and his mother, and a grandson and his grandfather, all of which played significant roles in the story.

    In Nora and the Duke of Autumn, we see Nora struggling with her personal relationships, and we see a young son rebelling against his parents, as well as a broken mother and daughter relationship. I don’t want to spoil anything here, so I’m going to be purposefully vague. There are brothers and lovers and friendships throughout the book that Nora is able to influence in some way.

    The second thing I knew walking into this series was that I wanted magic to be hidden in plain sight of humanity. Don’t ask me why, but this story can only exist with the parallel between Earth and Fairy. In Nora and the Werewolf Wedding, we stuck real close to Earthside, but in Duke of Autumn we take that major plunge into the Fairy. Sixty percent of the novel is traipsing through my steampunk version of Fairy, and I had a blast writing it.

    Everything else about the books has grown over time and will likely continue to grow as I delve deeper into the series.

    Mood Board – Nora and the Siren Song

    SPEAKING OF WHICH…

    I am excited to announce that by the end of April, I will have a completed draft of Nora and the Siren Song. (Yes, that’s only a couple of days away. Yes, I am THAT close. Currently I am sitting on the final chapter and the epilogue.)

    So here is me, throwing confetti for the paperback release of Nora and the Duke of Autumn AND finishing the draft of Nora and the Siren Song.

    Come on, 2024, let’s see what else we can get done.

    PURCHASE LINK – Nora and the Duke of Autumn

    PURCHASE LINK – Nora and the Werewolf Wedding

  • The Haunting of Tessa Pines – Release Shenanigans

    September 25th is fast approaching!

    Available September 25th!

    In case you were wondering, that’s the official release date for my newest novel The Haunting of Tessa Pines. Which is perfect because as the title suggests, there are ghosts in it, making this time of year ideal for reading.

    I love autumn. I love the smells, the colors, the brisk air.

    And corn mazes.

    I rarely make it through an entire corn maze, but I have great fun trying, which is something I have in common with the main character of the novel. Tessa finds herself in the middle of a corn maze during the course of the story and I admit to taking a good deal of pleasure writing the scene.

    There’s more going on in it, of course. The poor woman is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and finds herself in a bit of a mental maze as well. Add to that the presence of her ex-husband, an overbearing father intent on making his daughter well again, and a nosy roommate, and we have the makings of a very frustrating evening.

    I’d like to say I wrote the scene directly after visiting a corn maze, but this novel was written during National Novel Writing Month in November 2017, so all the mazes were already closed. At least in Idaho they were.

    Still, it was the right time of year.

  • Book Release Mayhem!

    UC front cover-sample-2Usurper has made its way to virtual shelves! You can find it on Amazon in both eBook and paperback.

    This is the third installment in the Sedition series that follows Trenna Dyngannon and her husband Nelek as they struggle to find peace between humankind and the Eldur nation.

    Fans of the novels – who may or may not have threatened to hunt me down if I didn’t stop writing other things and finish this book – will be pleased to find Nelek and Trenna in fighting shape. The quirky pair were left in exile in the second book (Saboteur) so I know a lot of you were left hanging.

    In my defense, the reason this book took so long was because I discovered that I was Saboteur-WEBtrying to fit two books into one.

    Why yes, this means there is a fourth book.

    And yes, that book is already underway. It is in the outlining phase and I’ll be rolling up my sleeves to work on it later this year.

    Sedition was my first published work so it holds a special place in my heart. I remember floundering with that first draft, trying to piece together things on 3×5 cards and make a sensible plot out of the personalities on the page.

    Sedition-WEBWell, I remember coming to terms with what a plot was in general. When I started it was just a bunch of characters doing different things that occasionally intersected. It wasn’t until I joined a writers group (The Dreamers from the Forward Motion for Writers website) that I was able to see the work as a bigger picture.

    At the time I had no idea there would be more books coming. Now, as I begin the process of ending this series, there is a part of me that dreads coming to the last page. Trenna and Nelek, and now their children, have become a part of my daily life.

    As strange as it sounds, it will be difficult to say goodbye, no matter how the story ends.

     

  • Self-Publishing Journal Entry #4 (I think?) — AKA, “DANGIT, HYDRA!”

    Dear Diary,

    I spent New Years Eve sick on my couch. I did not have the joy of watching the infamous “potato drop” in my home town. I could not smell the glorious turkey breast as it was cooking in my crockpot (Thank you to my Grandmother and to my Aunt Debbie for passing along that recipe, it was good even though I couldn’t taste everything.) And in my NyQuil induced haze I decided it would be a perfect moment to get some final tweaks done to Tapped before my January 13th deadline …

    The Big Orange Beast warned me not to do this. He meowed and jumped onto the back of my chair andIMG_0238 bopped my head a few times and I, still in a medicated stupor, did not pay him any mind. I imagine he would be snickering at me but he’s too annoyed that the child has a friend over and is currently hiding under my desk.

    I know because he keeps chewing on my toes.

    After many a night pondering and working and trying things out I opted to use CreateSpace to help launch Tapped into the world. It was very easy to use.

    Too easy to use.

    I went through the Proof Copy, understanding that this was the phase my publishers would have called the “Galley Proof” but not understanding that once I approved said copy it would be IMMEDIATELY published to the CreateSpace store and … several hours later … to Amazon.

    I was 99% certain I had given a publication date of January 13th earlier in the process but it seems I missed something. I’m blaming the NyQuil on that one.

    After much scrambling and panicking and trying to figure out how to take down the novels suddenly out for sale I finally decided to roll with it.

    So this is me mimicking Marvel after the Avenger’s trailer was released … “Dangit, Hydra!”

    Tapped is on Amazon. You can find it in two different paperback sizes, the 6×9 (which is cheaper and Scornedlarger) or the 5.2×8 (which is two bucks more and smaller because I wanted something purse-size because I am totally the book-in-the-purse type … when I carry a purse.)

    And, of course, you can find it for Kindle.

    I recognize that this has the potential to hurt sales. Everything I’ve read about publishing and such says that the week before the book goes up (which should have been next week) I’m supposed to be running about cheerfully telling people about the upcoming release and building all the happy-vibes so that people will buy it and stuff.

    “Dangit, Hydra!”

    Now I’m on to Battle Plan Bravo.

    Why no, I did not have a plan B in place for this. But I’m like MacGyver and can figure a way through almost anything if I have a paperclip and a gum wrapper. (I really don’t care if I just dated myself either. MacGyver was totally my hero growing up and I maintain that he’s swoon-able.)

    Excuse me while I go make Battle Plan Bravo for next week. In the meantime, my very first ever self-published novel is up for sale. I’m sure I made every mistake known to the publishing world in it and apologize in advance.