News and Updates

Archive

March 7, 2025

BIG NEWS!!!!! The Canadian Edition of The Maker of Spells is available for pre-order at DoronosPublishing.myshopify.com. Barring some catastrophes, pre-ordered copies will ship before the end of March.

The month of February was an adventure. I was struggling with health issues (I have chronic migraines, and in February I also came down with strep, and had an allergic reaction to antibiotics, so... fun times)... But even more crucially, the whole tariff thing got started. My book was only for sale on Amazon, and a lot of Canadians (and for that matter Americans) started aggressively boycotting Amazon. I can't blame anyone! But the boycotts have put indie authors like me, especially Canadian indie authors, in a tough spot.

So I pivoted.

Sadly, this meant setting aside work on Dragon Eye, which I'm desperate to get back to. I had always intended to pull The Maker of Spells from Kindle Unlimited after one enrollment period, so I knew I would be setting up a KOBO edition. And I had always planned to release a Canadian-printed special edition at some point. I set everything else aside to focus on that during February and the first week of March.

I now own a one-person publishing company, Doronos Publishing. It's a registered business with the Province of Manitoba. I have a logo (that's the black and white image of the dragon, ahove), which I designed myself. I sell using Shopify, a Canadian company (based in Ottawa). My books will be printed by PrintPro, a local printer here in Winnipeg. They will ship via Canada Post. Even KOBO is headquartered in Toronto, although they're owned by a Japanese company. It's all just as Canadian as it could possibly be.

As of now, you can pre-order the Canadian Edition directly from Doronos Publishing. I've re-done the cover and all the interior graphics (chapter headings, map, etc.). I've included two full-cover artworks on the inside covers, which are not available anywhere else, and a preface talking about the significance of the images I chose to paint. I'm really, really proud of this edition, and excited to get my hands on the physical copies.

And even more excited to get back to writing Dragon Eye.

Jan. 30, 2025

I'm still very much in the planning phase of my work in progress, which I'm now calling Dragon Eye. I've been essentially brainstorming for the last three weeks: writing out deranged rough notes for a whole bunch of sub-plots. Today I started to arrange the derangement. Of course I still don't know quite how this denouement is going to shake out. But boy are the character arcs in the first 2/3 of the story getting good.

Meanwhile, I've had some exciting times on Instagram: a thoughtful and detailed review from Ariadne at @bound.in.starlight, and a Canadian-author-of-the-week feature from Tiffany at @bergamotbookreviews! I celebrated by having custom bookmarks printed. I'm planning on leaving stacks of them in any establishment I can find that a) seems like a good reading spot and b) will agree to hand them out.

Jan. 13, 2025

We didn't get much sleep last night, and kiddo woke up sneezing. That bodes badly! She'll probably be home from preschool (and cranky) all week.

I'm still working on the outline phase of The Eye of a Dragon. I've managed to tee up most of the plot points for the first 2/3 of the story, but I can't go any further until I've made some choices about the denouement. I'm hoping that my subconscious mind can work through the tough questions while I'm reading The Paper Bag Princess out loud seventeen times in a row.

Jan. 9, 2025

Happy New Year! My kiddo's preschool starts at 9. The nearby library opens at 10. The consequence? I write in my car for an hour every morning. So thankful to have a car! And a warm coat and boots. And several blankets. And a thermos.

Currently working on an outline / proof of concept for a sequel to The Maker of Spells, tentatively titled The Eye of a Dragon.