by Martha Carr
Thinking about how she’d start this kind of message, she paused when R’leer stepped closer and leaned toward her. “You know, I am looking forward to meeting your mother.”
She burst out laughing. “Why the hell would you say something like that right now?”
“Because she’ll be there with us, will she not?”
“Yeah. She’ll be there.”
Cheyenne ran a finger along the edge of the message box. Bianca Summerlin in the woods, surrounded by hundreds of drow trying to heal a bunch of Nimlothar as she zaps the blight out of existence. L’zar’s gonna lose his shit when he hears about this one.
The story isn’t over quite yet. Join Cheyenne and her friends in the epic conclusion to the Goth Drow Series in The Drow Will Leave
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Waking Magic
Solve a murder, save her mother, and stop the apocalypse?
What would you do when elves ask you to investigate a prince’s murder and you didn’t even know elves, or magic, was real?
Meet Leira Berens, Austin homicide detective who’s good at what she does – track down the bad guys and lock them away.
Which is why the elves want her to solve this murder – fast. It’s not just about tracking down the killer and bringing them to justice. It’s about saving the world!
If you’re looking for a heroine who prefers fighting to flirting, check out The Leira Chronicles today!
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON AND IN KINDLE UNLIMITED!
The Magic Compass
If smart phones and GPS rule the world - why am I hunting a magic compass to save the planet?
Austin Detective Maggie Parker has seen some weird things in her day, but finding a surly gnome rooting through her garage beats all.
Her world is about to be turned upside down in a frantic search for 4 Elementals.
Each one has an artifact that can keep the Earth humming along, but they need her to unite them first.
Unless the forces against her get there first.
AVAILABLE ON AMAZON AND IN KINDLE UNLIMITED!
Author Notes - Martha Carr
September 9, 2020
Have you ever heard of the 10Q project? It’s free and was started by a non-profit to celebrate the Jewish New Year and everyone is welcome to take part.
I’ve been doing it for about five years now. Each year in early September, I get one question a day that asks me to think about who I want to be in the coming year. It’s not like resolutions, which often have to do with outer goals. Lose weight, earn more money, clean out closets.
These questions are designed to get us to look at the inner workings.
Well, it’s about that time and because this is 2020, they’re adding 10 additional questions that are related to what’s happening this year.
For example, describe an experience from before the COVID-19 pandemic that may now feel like it belongs to another world entirely. When you think about it, how do you feel?
Or, as society reopens and you reemerge, how would you like to see society shifting in the coming months? Or would you like it simply to go back to the way it was pre-COVID-19 pandemic?
Those are great questions. There’s still nine days till the vault opens on September 18th and I think it’s going to take me all that time to know the answer. Till then I’ll contemplate some thoughts when I take my morning runs.
There are no wrong answers because they’re all yours and no one else will see them except you – one year from now. Ten days after the experiment begins anew, the thousands of answers that are collected from thousands of people are stored away until one year later. Then they will all be returned to us to give us a brief glimpse backward into who we thought we were and where we thought we were going.
Provocative even in normal times and kind of fun.
But add in the year 2020 and it rises to something completely different, weird and maybe even better. I know I’ve lost a lot of the distractions I used to have that made it easier not to think too hard about a lot of things. Over the six months (I know… six months) that we’ve been struggling with everything I haven’t been trying to find answers so much as relaxing into it and letting answers find me. I’ve become more willing to listen and to change.
And something has changed.
I’m less fearful in general and believe more easily that things will work out. Not only work out but grow and thrive. I’m more willing to stand out front and lead, instead of follow and see where the journey takes me. I’ve learned that leading doesn’t mean you have all the answers. It means being willing to go and get up the next day and go again without waiting for permission from someone else.
A lot of low-level anger has burned off. Anger I didn’t even know I possessed but was there. It was like I was mad at myself for not just doing what I wanted to be doing. Hard to explain if you’re not in my skin.
So, back to the questions. I can’t wait to see what I wrote last year before this year began. Maybe some general optimism and hopes and dreams. This year, it will all be replaced with a more grounded sense that all I’ve ever been asked to do by that inner voice was try and then I’ll hang on to see where I just know I will soar. More adventures to follow.
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
October 13, 2020
Thank you for not only reading this story (technically three stories) but also to our Author Notes in the back!
So, in 2019 I started an effort to test whether putting out three books as one (basically a box set) first was a better choice than releasing them as regular-sized books and eventually boxing them up.
The short answer is, “it depends.”
For some of you, super-long books are fantastic. You felt like you really got into the meat of each story as we moved along instead of the short (60-70k) books we usually release.
However, some never started the books because they want to be into it and finished (or they read slower) and feel that 500+ pages is a bit much for them.
Finally, what happened to the company (that I have to admit I didn’t foresee) is what happens when you commit to six megabooks. It takes forever to finish the series!
Six megabooks (like Goth Drow) are actually eighteen regular books. For normal release schedules, that is over four years of releases at four books a year.
Well, I got ahead of myself and LMBPN was doing a few of these types of series such that many of them were finishing in September of 2020—and all of a sudden, we had NO new series coming online.
Oops.
Actually, the answer was “Oh, crap” when our Editing Guru Walking™ Lynne mentioned it to me. I might have actually said, “Oh @#%@!#!!!.” But you know, I don’t remember.
(Editor’s Note: He did.)
So, now we aim for books in the 80-120k range (occasionally going under or over that), but we have eighteen books for Goth Drow that will start releasing next year, after the megabook Goth Drow 6 is released on or about December 16th, 2020.
Which means we have eighteen covers to create. Nothing like knocking on our cover artists’ virtual doors and asking, “So, got room for eighteen covers?”
They love it. Trust me. Kelly (who handles the author management for LMBPN), maybe not so much.
Because it wasn’t just Goth Drow, but also Witch of the Federation and Steel Dragon and S. Beaufont and…. (Actually, I forget this one.)
Something like 80+ covers we dropped on our artists in a couple of days.
SIGH… So, that’s a moment in Indie Publishing. Nothing like lining up that many covers and then thinking…
Wow, those are going to be hella-large invoices!
I’ll talk later. For now, I think I need to go take some TUMS.
Ad Aeternitatem,
M
ichael Anderle
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Other Books By Martha Carr
Series in the Oriceran Universe:
THE LEIRA CHRONICLES
THE FAIRHAVEN CHRONICLES
MIDWEST MAGIC CHRONICLES
SOUL STONE MAGE
THE KACY CHRONICLES
THE DANIEL CODEX SERIES
I FEAR NO EVIL
SCHOOL OF NECESSARY MAGIC
THE UNBELIEVABLE MR. BROWNSTONE
SCHOOL OF NECESSARY MAGIC: RAINE CAMPBELL
ALISON BROWNSTONE
FEDERAL AGENTS OF MAGIC
SCIONS OF MAGIC
Series in The Terranavis Universe:
The Adventures of Maggie Parker Series
The Witches of Pressler Street
The Adventures of Finnegan Dragonbender
OTHER BOOKS BY JUDITH BERENS
OTHER BOOKS BY MARTHA CARR
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Books By Michael Anderle
For a complete list of books by Michael Anderle, please visit:
www.lmbpn.com/ma-books/