Works in Progress

Unfortunately the deadline for the ABNA closed before I could get my entry in this year, but I guess that's okay. One of my really good friends, who is also an author, put one of her novels in and we would have been the same genre, so in a way I'm glad that 10,000 entries were entered before I got mine polished to where I wanted it. Still, I'm not going to just throw away the work I've done. The ABNA made me create a 300 word pitch for Soul-Bound and that is progress I hadn't really expected.

Right now, I'm searching for a good company for me to submit to for publication. Most of the companies I've looked at in the past want romance to be one of the strong elements, and though Soul-Bound does have some romance in it, it is very slow and sort of creeps up at the end. The main story is living with the bond and how that and the other external issues affect the two main characters.

I'm sort of making my plan for which books/series I like to submit to which company for hopeful publication. I guess right now my absolute main focus should be on getting Project Death: Resurrection up via CreateSpace because that has been a goal for a while now. Then I'd like to make sure it follows the format necessary for Smashwords. CreateSpace covers the paperback version and can do the e-book if you want Kindle only. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate that? When a book is only available through Amazon/Kindle? I have a NOOK. I would like to read some of those books too. If I do Smashwords then the book can be available for NOOK, Kindle, Kobo, Sony Reader, etc., etc.

In the meantime, I'm bouncing ideas off which writing project would best fit with the companies I've most been looking into. I'm trying to find homes for my Amaranth trilogy, the yet to be named Holy Water trilogy, the Hunter Academy series, the Bound duology, and the Souls trilogy first. I basically know that the Project Death series will stay with self-publication, and it may be that the Souls trilogy also goes that route. The other four projects...well, I'm looking into three or four publishing houses and hopefully I'll get lucky. I will be sure to keep everyone updated with how it's going.

But, for now, I guess I'll just share my 300 word summary for Soul-Bound. Let me know what you think.

Life for Casey Kilgour was perfectly simple until the day Lord Gould’s men arrived in her small village of Nebia searching for the latest crop in the country’s largest revenue source. After watching and feeling the murders of her father and brother, Casey is taken away from her home to begin a life as a bond-slave.

In the land of Lierra, a small number of the population can have their souls bound to other people, an ability in which Casey is unfortunately highly skilled. The types of bonds vary, but those with enough money to pay can have a servant who will obey every order and fulfill even the most unspoken of desires. Her fate seems even worse when she is selected as Lord Anthony Gould’s newest bond-slave and has the bond to him forced upon her.

But there are dark plots against her new master and Casey is trapped in the middle. More than that, the Lieutenant who found Casey is determined to have her for himself, no matter the cost. As the bond between Casey and Anthony grows and changes, they learn more about each other, including a secret Anthony has kept his entire life, one that can either save them or endanger them even farther.

On the run from those who want Anthony dead, the two find that there is more to their bond than that of servant and master. It leads Anthony to settle down, imagining a life free of the burdens of being in charge, though Casey knows that Lierra needs its true ruler. In a choice between building a new life and fighting for the old one, the only real answer lies in their uniquely strong bond.