Hello? Is this thing on?

Hello! I know my blog has been seriously neglected (2 years?!), but it occurred to me that it's a good alternative to social media.

As some readers may have noticed, I'm not on Facebook much anymore (if ever). I'm one of those people who values her privacy, and I resent what that company has done to me and my personal data. While this blog isn't the same, it's more private, or so I presume.

So, if you're looking for updates from me on my writing, the best places to go are my newsletter (sign up at https://www.kcmay.com) and this blog. I'll try to post here more often going forward. :)

Newsletter News

I wasn’t really digging the newsletter software I’d been using (something of my own creation), and so I decided to rewrite it. Again! Yes, this is about the third iteration of my mailing list management software, but you know what they say about the third time.

If all goes according to plan, most people won’t notice much of a difference except for maybe actually getting the newsletters. Quite a few emails were bouncing because of server issues beyond my control. My fingers are crossed that this time, the charm time, will be the ticket.

Story Time!

Last time, I mentioned working on some short stories about things that happened in the Mindstream world after the end of book 6 (Aria of the Awakened). The stories are actually novellas, since they are each (so far) around 20,000 words long. I’m planning three stories in the first batch—roughly 60,000 words, the length of a short novel.

I’m happy to say one of those stories is available for my subscribers to download FREE! If you're a subscriber and you didn't get the email link, go to
https://news.kcmay.com/download?book=YDL9Q77XU2FVXF9
(you'll need to enter the email address you used to subscribe).

Meanwhile, I've been working on the next novel, the first in a "stand-alone series" tentatively called the Mindstream Adventures. I plan to make them serial but not reliant on the previous books. At first, I thought I'd keep it short so I could finish it sooner, but I'm not sure how well that's going to turn out. It keeps stretching. :)

Aria of the Awakened (The Mindstream Chronicles book 6)

I'm writing to let you know that the official release date for Aria of the Awakened will be

☆☆☆  Friday, September 29, 2017  ☆☆☆

Here's a short blurb:

When Gatekeeper Jora Lanseri learns the princess has been convicted by a vengeful enemy of terrible crimes, she must free the delegates trapped in gold statues on the Isle of Shess to trade for the captured princess. Now, with the enemy warships on her heels, Jora must protect the king while negotiating the princess's freedom... and keep the monster inside her from destroying them all.

This exciting final chapter in the Mindstream Chronicles will have you on the edge of your seat, cringing one minute and cheering the next. 

Song of the Sea Spirit for free?

Now that book 5 is on the shelves, I spent some time making a few adjustments to the cover for Song of the Sea Spirit. I think the dolphin figurine looks more like a figurine now and not a tiny albino dolphin (or a little decorative soap!). And the flute is an actual flute, not a recorder. :) I might tinker with it a little more down the road but I'm happy with it for now.

Want to know how to get a free copy of the book?

It's easy! Just sign up at InstaFreebie and start reading the book readers call "delightfully NOT just another version of a story we already know."

Book 5 in The Mindstream Chronicles

The official release date for Dirge of the Dormant is Tuesday, Aug 23.

The book should be available on that date at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, and Kobo. Sometimes books take longer than expected to go through the publishing process at B&N and Kobo, but I'll do my best to submit them in plenty of time.

And of course, it'll be 99¢ on release day ONLY, so mark your calendar! I'll send another email on the 23rd as a reminder that will include the links. My web site will also be updated with the links.
If you haven't started the series yet, you're in luck because from Aug 23 through Aug 29, the Mindstream Chronicles box set volume 1 (containing the first three books) will also be on sale for 99¢!

Crazy, right?

So if you're planning to start the series, or if you've read books 1 & 2 but haven't yet bought book 3, hang on until the 23rd and get the box set for 99¢. You'll save big bucks that way!

Aria of the Awakened will be the 6th and final book of the series. I expect to begin working on it early next year. (India and I are planning to write the final Dragons of Kudare book first. Timing it so we're both available at the same time can be tricky, so we must take advantage when we can!)

Requiem of Reprisal

I'm super excited to announce the imminent release of my newest book!

Requiem of Reprisal (Book 4 of The Mindstream Chronicles) will be on sale for 99¢ on release day ONLY, Thursday, Feb 25.



Books 1-3 will also be on sale from Feb 20-25. Because that's how I roll.

You can always find purchase links on my web site at kcmay.com/mindstream.html

Taking a hiatus from writing

on this blog.

No, no! NOT from writing books. I could never! haha

But I realized that it's been MONTHS since I last wrote a blog post. Usually, I post updates on Facebook and send them to my newsletter subscribers. It's tough to keep up with so many different social media accounts. And so I've decided to put this blog on hold (for a while, anyway).

If you normally look here for updates about my writing venture, you can find them instead at:

On Facebook
Via my email newsletter

You can also check out my web site at kcmay.com for links and so forth for the books that are already out.

Hope to see you "out there" in internet-land!

15 free fantasy books

A brand new blog has launched intended to help guide readers to free fantasy novels they might be interested in.

Check it out at http://freefantasygenrebooks.wordpress.com/

One of those books might look familiar. :)

It's Release Day!

The Secrets Dragons Keep is now available!

For the past couple weeks, India Drummond and I have been sharing excerpts, artwork, and teases on Facebook about Book 2 of The Dragons of Kudare, but the wait is over -- The Secrets Dragons Keep is now available!

Outcast from the temple, brothers Caden and Deshic journey with their family to the Plains of Fire to seek absolution for their crimes. There they endure cruel punishments under the unrelenting eye of the woman who rules over every soul at the temple compound.

When the faithful's true plans for their sister, Rane, come to light, she and Caden flee to dragon territory for help. They must act before time runs out to save Deshic and their parents from unthinkable horrors. But the elder dragon lord has troubles of his own that could unbalance the races and spell the end to a peace accord that has lasted for centuries.

You can get The Secrets Dragons Keep at these retailers:

Amazon: http://hyperurl.co/TSDK
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-secrets-dragons-keep/id1041105349?ls=1&mt=11
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/the-secrets-dragons-keep
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/2940151155229

Don't Forget

Book 1, The Lies Dragons Tell, is on sale!

If you haven't started the series yet, you can get it for 99¢ until Sept 30, 2015. If you have read it, please consider sharing the links below with your friends and family. We just released the new and improved second edition with simplified dragon names.

Where the story begins...

A mysterious illness strikes down a young woman pledged to the god of the Blessed Empire. Two brothers, as helpless as the healers who say there's nothing more they can do, watch while their sister fades away.

Determined to save her, they approach a dragonborn alchemist who promises help but leads them along a path of hardship, darkness, sacrilege, and death. Impossible choices divide the brothers as their love and loyalty are tested. What price is too high to save someone you love?

Amazon: http://smarturl.it/TLDT
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-lies-dragons-tell/id915345863?ls=1&mt=11
Kobo:http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/the-lies-dragons-tell
B&N (US): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-lies-dragons-tell-india-drummond/1120328827?ean=2940150626850
B&N (UK): http://www.nook.com/gb/ebooks/the-lies-dragons-tell-by-india-drummond/2940150626850

Thank you!

The Secrets Dragons Keep is our longest book ever! To compare, the Kinshield Legacy was 121,000 words. The Secrets Dragons Keep clocks in at just shy of 135,000 words, making it about 25% longer than The Lies Dragons Tell. The end result, polished to a mirrored finish (like the scales of the elder dragon lord!) came about with the help of our extraordinary beta readers:  Jennifer Hill, Kirk Hudson, Lorie Humpherys, Matteo Michelotti, Marsha Moore, Ed Nelson, and Ray Nicholson. Thanks, too, to our editor, Susan Helene Gottfried, for her flexibility and dedication to helping make this book the best it could be.

India and I truly appreciate your support and encouragement, and we hope you'll join us in celebrating the release of our new book. We're super excited about this story because we've been having so much fun writing it. We hope you enjoy it!

~KC

The Secrets Dragons Keep

The first revision pass for The Secrets Dragons Keep is DONE!! India Drummond and I are so happy and excited about the second book in The Dragons of Kudare series. That means we're on track for a mid-September release.

We also plan to put book 1, The Lies Dragons Tell, on sale for 99c close to release day. For details, sign up for my newsletter. I'll announce the dates to my subscribers first.

Upcoming Changes

As a reader, you may or may not know how books are made available to borrow for Amazon Prime members and those who subscribe to Amazon Unlimited. Many big-name publishers get special access through special deals, because they're special. We indie authors (and those published through small presses) who distribute through Amazon's KDP program are given the option to participate by way of what's called Amazon Select.

Opting into Amazon Select requires exclusivity to Amazon. That is, authors who put their books into Select cannot also sell them at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes, or any other retailer. If books are selling at other retailers, it's a huge risk to pull them out and hand over the keys to Amazon.

I've tried Amazon Select because, let's face it, I have to eat. I have a mortgage to pay, an electric bill to power the computer with which I write books, internet bill, phone bill... in other words, I'm a person without a deep pocketed spouse to pay my way through life. 100% of my income is through my writing, and sometimes that income is less than what I need to pay all the bills.

Generally speaking, I want my books to be available to anyone who wants to read them. I want to log into my account at Nook Press or iTunes or Kobo and see people buying them and enjoying them and wanting more! But... that's really only happening for my Kinshield series. It's my bread and butter, so I probably won't try Select for that series again (unless the exclusivity requirement is lifted).

The Mindstream series, on the other hand, is not getting much traction at other locations. So far, for the month of June, I've sold six copies of those books outside of Amazon. SIX. I can't live on that! And so the Mindstream Chronicles will be removed from sale at all retailers except Amazon so that I can try them in Select until the end of July.

You see, Amazon is making a change to the way authors are paid for borrows in the Select program. Rather than pay all authors the same for each book borrowed, they're going to pay for each page read. This means that authors of epic sagas who hold a reader's attention will earn more than someone who puts up a 2500-word short story. That's great for writers of sagas, assuming the work is compelling enough to hold the readers' attention.

If participation in the Select program still turns out to be a dud for me, I'll opt back out at the end of July and return the books to the other stores. It's not that I want to give non-Kindle readers the big middle finger. It's more that I need food in my belly if I'm to continue writing full time and not have to go back to a 9-5 job. :)

Mobile friendly web site

After doing a crash learning session on Twitter Bootstrap, I've converted my web site to a mobile-friendly design. If you haven't seen it yet, it's at kcmay.com. I tried to keep it more or less the same as it was, but there are a few minor differences. The carousel "slider" on the home page isn't as slick, but I think most people aren't there to watch it change to all its varied images anyway, so I kept it to three.

What I like best about the bootstrap structure is that it's easy to incorporate existing HTML. I didn't have to change a whole lot. The menus are the same, the text is the same, but it's actually a lot easier to get everything to line up right on any size screen or browser.

Now, back to my revisions of Verse of the Vanguard...

The Kinshield Legacy as an audiobook

If you've downloaded the FREE Kindle edition of The Kinshield Legacy and haven't started reading it yet (or even if you have), I have great news! You can get the Audible audiobook edition to listen to it on your phone, tablet, computer, or Kindle (those models with audio capabilities) for $1.99!! The performance by Lee Alan is brilliant. Check it out! http://www.amazon.com/Kinshield-Legacy-Saga-Book/dp/B00QFPS6N2/?tag=kcmaybooks-20

It's so close, I can smell it

I sent the manuscript for Call of the Colossus (The Mindstream Chronicles book 2) off to the editor today! I'm really excited about this. It's the continuation of a story dear to me, and I hope everyone else likes it as much as I do.

Once I get the marked-up manuscript back, I'll enter the changes into my source file, do one final check-through, and then format and upload it. If all goes as planned, it'll be ready for sale on Friday, Dec. 26, 2014.

Usually, I put my new books on sale for release day, and that'll be no different this time. Book 1, Song of the Sea Spirit, will also be on sale, starting Dec. 19 and ending on Dec. 26. So here's the planned schedule:

Friday, 19 Dec 2014 - Friday, 26 Dec 2014: Song of the Sea Spirit on sale for 99c.
Friday, 26 Dec 2014: Call of the Colossus on sale for 99c.

(Is this not an awesome cover?)

She has one brother left...

    Jora's mouth watered, and her stomach churned. Though she had to know what happened to her brother, she needed a minute to get a hold of herself first. She dabbed at the sweat on her brow, took a long drink of water, and continued.

    The two enforcers left the room. Finn struggled to get free, but it was no use. The straps were secure. After a few minutes, the big, ugly enforcer they called Gruesome entered, dressed in an apron stained with blood. Finn's face contorted into an expression of fearful disgust. He tried to say something, but the gag muffled his words beyond recognition.
    "Good afternoon," Gruesome said with a smile. He was missing the first two molars behind his long eyeteeth on the top, and the two center teeth were chipped and ragged. "I'm Gruesome, but you can call me Grue if you want." He checked the tightness of the straps holding Finn into the chair. "I'll try to make this as painless as possible. Apparently, your sister has threatened my boss with bodily harm if I hurt you too badly."
    "Jora?" Finn asked.
    "Around here, she's called the Gatekeeper. So sensitive, like a delicate flower. We have to tiptoe around her until we figure out how to harness her like a draft horse. You might just be the bit in her mouth, the yoke on her shoulders, the whip on her ass." Gruesome chuckled as he sauntered around behind the chair. "For that reason, we'll keep you alive as long as possible…"

Excerpt from Call of the Colossus, coming December 2014!

Kindle Countdown Sale

If you've been waiting for the books in The Kinshield Saga to go on sale, mark your calendars. I've got a Kindle Countdown Deal going on for each book. The initial price for each book during the countdown sale is 99c. It goes up to $1.99 halfway through, then returns to its usual price of $3.97 at the end of the sale. Here are the dates:

Book 2, The Wayfarer King: Begins Nov 1, ends Nov 7

Book 3, Well of the Damned: Begins Nov 8, ends Nov 14

Book 4, Kinshield's Redemption: Begins Nov 15, ends Nov 21.

My science fiction-thriller, Inhuman Salvation, is also participating: Begins Nov 22, ends Nov 28.

Remember, The Kinshield Saga Book 1, The Kinshield Legacy, is currently free at Amazon, B&N, iTunes, Kobo, and Smashwords.