June: An Author's Guide to Setting Design eBooks Available Now

Plus, bookshop news, a Fable book club pick, Dragonsteel, and more!

Greetings! 👋 It’s been an eventful couple of weeks since we last spoke. I attended an event in New Hampshire, and nearly sold out of copies of Copper Skin, Oaken Lungs. I thought that I might sell out at another event a week after… But I wound up getting sick and couldn’t make it. I spent most of June nursing myself back to health. That was not how I hoped to spend it, but c’est la vie. 😅

Around the same time I got some unfortunate news regarding my career. I won’t go into detail here, but I will say it won’t impact An Author’s Guide to Setting Design’s release (ebook or print). However, it may slow me down on Copper & Ash Book 2. I’m still moving forward with that, but I’d be lying if I said my current plans weren’t impacted. I’ll talk more about where that’s at toward the end of the update—because I do have some progress to share!

That said, there are also a lot of exciting things to celebrate this month, like my partnership with a new indie bookstore, the public eBook launch of An Author’s Guide to Setting Design, and an upcoming sale!

Now Available at Imaginary Adventures Bookshop

An author friend of mine has opened her own online bookstore! I’m so excited for Eliza and I’m thrilled that she’s brought my books onto her shelves.

Imaginary Adventures Bookshop offers shipping to the 🇺🇸 US and 🇨🇦 Canada (contact the shop to special order internationally)! You’ll find all of my fiction there, as well as fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and more by other authors.

An Author’s Guide to Setting Design eBook Available Now

An Author’s Guide to Setting Design eBooks are out now! You can pick it up wherever you read. If you’d like to support an independent bookseller, I recommend ordering the eBook from Lunar Books.

And in case you’ve missed it, here’s a bit about the book:

A map at the beginning of a book is a sure sign of adventure, discovery, and a story to get lost in. This reference book helps you bring fictional settings to life, whether you’re trying to improve your story’s worldbuilding or illustrating a map for it.

To do this, we must ask how the story affects the map. What cultures, magic, advanced technology, or alien life might play a role in shaping the world? The story and map should be intricately connected.

This reference book includes 130 illustrated examples of maps both real and fictional. It is a love letter to science fiction & fantasy, and a guidebook for authors who seek to immerse readers in their own worlds.

This book was made possible in part thanks to my fellow authors and cartographers who lent me their time and thoughts: Aaron Koelker, Adrian M. Gibson, Aiden Chan, A.J. Calvin, Amber Toro, Ben Galley, B.H. Pierce, Blake Penn, Cartographybird, Daniël Hasenbos, Darby Harn, Dave Lawson, Dewi Hargreaves, Eliza Leone, Emory Glass, Isaac Stewart, Jack Shepherd, Janice E. Sheen, J.L. Odom, Kate Korsak, Kiersten Michele, K.M. Alexander, Konstance, Lamia N. Bayen, Michael R. Fletcher, MistyBeee, Natalie Wright, N.J. Alexander, Philip Chase, P.L. Stuart, Raven Penn, Rob J. Hayes, Robyn Dabney, Salinee Goldenberg, S.J. Lee, Steven Raaymakers, Ryan Cahill, Taylor Frymier, Timothy Hickson, Tori Tecken, and Z.S. Diamanti.

I cannot express my thanks to you all enough. The book would be much worse if not for your illustrations, your input, and all the support you’ve shown me along the way.

And of course, thanks to the Kickstarter backers, who gave their support to this book last year to help fund and add even more art to it. I’m so excited that we all get to share it with you now.

Hardcover Version Coming Soon

I’ve mentioned before that I’m having another group, Simons & Glade Book Design, handle the interior of the print version of this book. That’s been a slow-moving process, but recently I had a chance to review their work. It’s mostly done, and while there’s more to finish for the hardcover version, I’m hopeful that it will still arrive before this winter. I’ll keep you all updated as we go.

The hardcover version is currently available for preorder from my shop and from The Crafty Bookstore. Other retailers will be available later.

Learn More About the Book!

Want to learn more about An Author’s Guide to Setting Design? I recently joined a few folks to chat about it (and other tangents) on their podcasts and YouTube channels. Check them out below!

• The Dad Lit Podcast episode 84 (Spotify).

• Six Elementals Interview with P.L. Stuart (YouTube)

• Between the Edits Interview with Adam Bassett (Spotify, YouTube).

Two More Events!

I’ve got two more events on the calendar! First, I’ve been invited to attend an open house at The Eloquent Page in St. Albans, Vermont from 10am–4pm on Saturday, July 11th! If you’re in the area, swing on by!

Secondly, I’ll be a vendor at Dragonsteel in December this year! If you’re not familiar, this is Brandon Sanderson’s convention. It’s his show, but the exhibitor hall is packed full of awesome authors, artists, and other things to see. The event will be at the Salt Palace Convention center in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I’m still working out all the details, but I’ve been wanting to go back to Dragonsteel for a while, and I can’t wait to see everyone there.

Copper Skin, Oaken Lungs Sale & Book Club

Also, I’m thrilled to share that Copper Skin, Oaken Lungs has been selected for Lunar Books’ Fable book club! Join it and read along with them. Not only that, the book will be on sale at Lunar Books all month!

Tomorrow, July 1st, you’ll be able to pick up the eBook 50% off (international). Australian and New Zealand readers can also pick up the paperback 20% off in July!

If you’d like a paperback copy and you’re not able to get it delivered from Lunar Books, you can browse other storefronts on my website (international)—or order it from me (US only)!

An Update on Copper & Ash II

Earlier this month, I finished my latest revisions of Copper & Ash II and passed it over to my editor, Qilanna Quinn. She’s already handed back her notes, so I’m back to work on revisions!

However, due to the issues I mentioned at the top of this update, I haven’t had much time to work on them. I don’t think this will have a major impact on my 2027 release plans for the book, but some of the short-term milestones could be delayed. For example, I’d hoped to share a ton about the story with you all next month and get it out to beta readers—I will probably have to push that back.

While I’m personally disappointed about that, it’s really fine. I’d rather take the time to make sure the story is as good as it can be, not rush it out the door just because I’m excited to share it.

That said, revisions have started and they’re going well. I knocked out a bunch of the easy changes first and now I’m re-reading the whole manuscript with Qilanna’s notes in mind. The large-scale events of the story won’t change, but there are some details and the way some characters are written that I do need to fine-tune.

Once I am ready to share more, it’ll be here first! Probably in the next few months, so you’ll want to make sure you’re subscribed. You won’t want to miss that, or the art that’ll come along with it… I might have some more character art to reveal still, and I’m currently working on the cover art with Silvia Gorchakova (the same artist who illustrated the cover of book 1). You guys, it looks so good so far.

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