Redemption for a Discarded Title: Lost Serenity (Cover Reveal) #redemption #scifi

Once upon a time...I wrote a story. It came from a dream and I scribbled it down the next day, then it sat in a folder for years, forgotten. Scroll on a decade and my third child had reached the stage where he was old enough to play outside with his siblings. I sat at my computer, bored, possibly depressed, and wondered what to do with myself. That forgotten short story called to me. I put on some music, and a few weeks later that short had become...somewhat longer. In 2012, it became my debut published novel.

original cover

current cover

Book two had some serious issues. I learned a helluva lot going through edits with book one and knew the sequel wouldn't pass. At the time its working title was Lost Serenity, but after a major rework 'Serenity' was no longer lost and I couldn't just call it Serenity. Instead, I completely binned the title and book two became Keir's Fall.

Book three had similar issues, with a completely unrealistic plot line that needed ripping out and reworking. In 2017 I sent it to my editor for assessment. She liked it, but not the fact that it was set a decade after book two. After repeated comments on where this missing book was between two and three prompted me to dig out an old collection of notes basically covering that missing decade - never intended as more than a guide book for me about that missing time. Not for the first time, the random collection of information for my eyes only was going to go public, and with a curiously familiar title...

How could a moment's anger destroy so much happiness? 

It is a question that will haunt him. When an old enemy comes to Kasha-Asor to kidnap their daughter, armed with a weapon that could end everything, Keir is forced to leave an injured Quin on Lyagnius. But his quest for a cure and their missing daughter will come at a terrible cost.

You can find the details up at Goodreads. I don't yet have a release date as I have two more pieces set for edits next month, one of which is a winter solstice story that I'd like to release in time to coincide with the time it's set. so I'll have to let you know. In the meantime, I'm happy to have been able to give a discarded title a second shot at its own bit of limelight. 

Writing Update

Lost Serenity is currently with me for one last round of edits (hopefully). An angel short and a scifi mystery novella will be off to my amazing editor and cover designer Dani next month (Hades knows how she's put up with me all these years now). These three pieces will be all my releases for 2020/21, so don't go holding your breath for Redemption book three until 2022...

Kitty Update

My girls are both indoor cats - for their own safety, and that of the already under pressure wildlife - but during the pandemic I managed to put together a cattio for them to give them some outdoor space, to which they have free access via a cat flap. They are loving it!

Chook Update

Sadly I had to take two of my girls to live with a friend yesterday. Unfortunately their squawkiness was aggravating my SO's anxiety (in overdrive now thanks to the pandemic), and one had decided she liked to crow of a morning, something I'm not willing to subject my near neighbours to. I know they'll love the extra freedom my friend's chooks enjoy even though I will miss them deeply. In the meantime, my remaining seven girls are a lot quieter with my two top hens out the way, and hopefully it will give the more timid ones a bit more freedom to find the best tidbits without getting ambushed and robbed. Got to find the silver lining somewhere...

On a more personal note, my eldest has just turned eighteen and is off to university in less than a month. I'm so proud, and so terrified! But I know she'll work hard to achieve her dreams, and I'm not going to get in her way.

Her 'The Babe with the Power' unicorn birthday cake