Reflecting on 2023

This year feels like nothing short of a whirlwind—the last half in particular. But let’s start from the beginning.

I spent most of January and February editing The Caein Legacy, followed by a first pass of Serpentus. It was a ton of work, but completely worth it (and necessary) before I started publishing them. Five books in succession left my brain feeling like mush for a while, and it left me questioning my sanity.

I was doing all the editing in preparation to publish a series that means more to me than I can adequately express. And I really didn’t know how it would be received. It’s a very different world than my other series, a different story with an older main character. As I’ve mentioned before, I had been querying The Caein Legacy for a time, and that process left me feeling both inadequate and frustrated. I have always believed—and still do—that Exile would be the book that would make me known as an author.

I didn’t publish Exile first when I started indie publishing because I still clung to the hope I could get it into the trad market. I started indie publishing with my other stories instead—Hunted, and The Relics of War—more as an experiment than anything. It was the launch of The Relics of War that proved to me that I was capable of doing this on my own, that I could find the right audience for my books, and that maybe—just maybe—Exile would become what I’d always believed it could. And that’s when I decided to commission the cover artwork and publish it myself.

But all of that’s old history, and this is about 2023.

After the editing marathon and before Exile officially released, I wrote book 5 in The Mage War Chronicles, Catalyst of the Storm. (I still don’t know exactly when I’ll publish that series, but I’m working on book 6 at the time of this writing. And the series won’t be finished there. It’s…big.)

I finally published Exile on May 24 (the anniversary of the date I first started writing it, and the date I consider Andrew’s birthday.) I’ve mentioned this before, but I was terrified. Exile isn’t your typical fantasy story. Would people like it? Would it flop? Was all my time even worth it?

But, it turned out to be my most successful book release at the time, with around 25 preorders across platforms. Yes, I know it’s a small number compared to some, but it was a milestone for me. And it was only the beginning…

Exile took off further when I landed a BookBub deal in August. It was the second one of the year, the first for The Moon’s Eye in April, which paid for itself but netted me almost nothing in terms of ratings or reviews, although I have seen some readthrough of the series, which is pretty cool.

But the August deal for Exile? WOW. Not only did I get some reviews and ratings for Exile, almost all of them were great. And I got a significant number of preorders for Guardian afterwards too. It was incredible. And here I’d like to pause and thank my UK and Aussie readers, as you’ve made up the bulk of those sales. Thank you for giving this book a shot. It means everything to know I was right and that this story was worth all the time and energy I put into it.

Over the summer I wrote a standalone sci-fi novel, Wraith and the Revolution, which I am beyond excited to start sharing more of. The main character is a cyborg, there’s a plant-evolved alien species, a corporation that controls the galaxy, fight scenes, a prison stint, and more. And it was so much fun to write! (If you missed my What to Expect from me in 2024 post, I talk a little more about this project there.)

Then I did more editing once the sci-fi draft was done. Another pass on Serpentus, followed by books 4 and 5 in The Mage War Chronicles. Serpentus went to the proofreader, and the other two books went to my beta readers, who are enjoying the series so far. They’d been waiting for over a year for book 4, so I was a little overdue on that one… (If you’re reading this, sorry! But at least you have it now. And I am currently writing book 6.)

And then came November. Holy hell, what a month it wound up to be. I went on a long awaited scuba trip with my brother, and we had a ton of fun. And there was the release of Guardian.

But wait, there’s more…

In the last week of November and first week of December, my writing world sort of…blew up, in a really good way. And it was all completely unexpected.

November 27: FanFiAddict released its “Most Anticipated Reads of 2024” list. They named Serpentus. I’ve never had a book labeled as most anticipated of anything. And for it to be a standalone that I haven’t really said much about yet, well… I have to give most of the credit to this particular honor to Jamie Noble’s cover artwork. Without it, I don’t think Serpentus would have been noticed at all.

November 28: Guardian released! It was a great day, and my best book launch to date. I had 42 preorders across platforms, but by the end of the day, 53 copies had sold. And I was already getting preorders for Harbinger. This is the dream I’ve been striving toward all these years. And to know people are loving book 2 just as much as book 1 is the best feeling in the world. THANK YOU to everyone who has read the series so far. I am forever grateful.

Later the same day, I got an unexpected email from Barnes and Noble Press that left me literally shaking. They picked Exile as one of their 10 favorite Indie books of the year. Even writing this now, I’m still having trouble processing it. This is the biggest honor I’ve had for any of my books ever. I’m not sure if I’ll ever top it, either. That’s one email that will live in my inbox for eternity.

I’m still not sure what criteria they used to select these books, but it certainly wasn’t sales volume. Barnes & Noble is one of my lowest sales platforms, and I’ve only had a handful of sales there all year. I’d like to think someone on their team read Exile and it was chosen based on that, but I really have no idea. It’s still such an honor, though!

Then December hit, and I started working through my end-of-year posts like this one. I started seeing a lot of chatter about the Indie Ink Awards, people posting screenshots of their nomination notifications. I noticed some discussion about it while I was on vacation in November, and it pretty much disappeared from my mind until I started seeing all the screenshots. I wasn’t even entirely sure what it was. So I looked into it and assumed that since I hadn’t received an email, my book had not been nominated for anything.

Then someone told me otherwise. There were some hidden “rules” to the contest that I wasn’t aware of. You had to sign up to their website and verify your books as the author in order to receive the instant notifications (I say instant, because authors did not have to be signed up or verified prior to the nomination phase, but it was more difficult for the contest organizers to contact those who weren’t signed up.)

Anyway, with the initial day of excitement and my own empty inbox, I was pretty sure it was yet another contest opportunity I’d missed out on, and while disappointing, I moved on. I’m planning to enter Exile into SPFBOX in May, anyway (as long as I can get my stuff entered in the fabled 37 seconds, that is. Or 42, whatever the math is predicting.)

But the next day, I got an email through my website from the Indie Ink Awards and learned Exile had been nominated in 5 categories.

With everything that has happened since November 27, I’m stunned. I’m humbled that people enjoyed Exile enough for it to be nominated in for awards and named to B&N’s 10 favorite list. And I would not have seen any of this happen without the support of readers like you.

So I’ll say it again. THANK YOU.

And I hope you have a fantastic New Year.