I love the freebies that Karen gives away all the time. I consider her Q&A documents to be just another peek of having an author who values her readers in addition to honoring her characters. All that being said… Here’s the link to her latest Q&A…
BUT WAIT… before you read this you must have read Ride the Storm or spoilers will abound and some of it won’t make sense…Here’s a link to buy the book too!
So, I’m supposed to be finishing up “Lover’s Knot”, a freebie Dory novella, only Penguin needs the fourth Dory novel in earlier than expected, and you know, I have to eat. So, in the meantime, I thought I’d do a couple of things to keep you guys busy. First, about the next Dory book, tentatively entitled Shadow’s Bane. That title hasn’t been approved yet, by the way, so may end up changing. Call it a working title for now. Anyway, you can find the first few chapters on the Books page, under the not-a-cover I’ve got there as a placeholder until the real one is finished. Enjoy!
Secondly, since I have a lot of “Lover’s Knot” already written, I thought I’d post a chapter a week of the finished stuff (unedited) for anybody who wants it now. The first post will go up late today. It’ll be on the Freebies page as usual. For those of you who’d prefer to wait and read the whole, edited, spit and polished version, just avoid the weekly posts. I’ll make a note on the blog and FB etc. when the finished novella is up on Amazon and Smashwords, and you can download the whole thing then. Okay? Okay. I gotta go write; you guys have a nice week. 🙂
So, here’s the thing. I am a reader. And with the advent of new technology, I can have my phone read to me while I do a gazillion other things…So, due to the fact that I had a speed reading class in high school and …well I consume books. And quickly. It makes Tuesdays my favorite day. And I have a lot of series I follow. So Karen Chance is one among the many for me. And at first I was Seriously mad at the delays and changing publication dates.
But in the last year, I have come to realize that my book’s are a coping mechanism. They give me something to hold on to. Something to talk about. Something to occupy the 60% of my brain that keeps screaming this can’t be my life. And to let me be somewhat calm, and positive. At least I’m not being chased by monsters, only creditors! And yes, I am a widow with two beautiful teenage daughters. Which means that I am scared to bring any man home because I am very careful about my blue eyed, blonde haired beautiful brilliant children are exposed to. And I had a great husband which means I am not willing to settle for anything else. So I read a lot of very explicit series cause that’s my only sexual release.
So I read Laurell K Hamilton and lots of others. But here’s the thing. We have to support our authors. The publishing business is hard. And they create these amazing worlds and characters we all.love. And for them the creation process is amazingly complex with first drafts and then edit after edit. Some people get really nasty about these amazing works of creation. And I understand that, too. I love the main characters in my books. They are like friends who I visit with every time I read the book. And I hate some of the things that happen. In a way even the violently negative feedback is a compliment to the author. But why should they keep spending 6-8 hours a day writing for us if we just bitch about it. Why do the work of edit after edit?
I am making a stand. Laurell K Hamilton won’t publish when her next book will be out or which series it will be. Why should she? Her fans will wail and whimper. If she just publishes it and tells us after the last draft is finalized, she gets to bypass all the people mad when she misses a date! And poor Karen Chance, who keeps trying to put out book 8-but the book is too long for paperback. And then there’s the other stuff she writes. Freebie’s that are hard work for her but taken as though they are due to the readers. Ever since Karen published Book 7, with delays, she has been working hard to give us a good book 8. And what do the readers do? Some of us go back and reread. Look for all the nuances we keep missing in the race to find out what happened. And then another group gets vocal-and trashes Karen Chance for missing publicized release dates. Rather than doing that, I’m doing the opposite.
I am going to support my favorite authors. I don’t care how long I have to wait for the next installment. I’m going to send them messages, asking questions about the books I have. I’m going to reread, and laugh and cry and scream and yell. I’m going to write new reviews, new FAQs, new posts. I’m going to do whatever the hell I can to make sure I get to know how the stories end. I will write petitions. I will beg, plead and cajole. I will help the next Kit Colbana book be made by sending money on Patreon. And I will appreciate the freebies, the alternate POV, the deleted scenes. I am doubly supportive of the authors I love who have prepublished schedules and put out surprise books too! I love Jenna Black and Lauren Dane and Seanan Mcguire and Kelley Armstrong and Christine Feehan. But I will keep on supporting everyone…
Just an FYI–Karen Chance does things a little differently. She writes awesome books for her publisher and she also writes free stories that bridge the gap between novels. Karen Chance actually writes these novellas and works just as hard on them as the novels. While some authors might have a deleted scene or two, Karen has scenes from different POV’s and the free stories are important! She writes them as a thank you to her loyal fans and it makes her a spectacular author to interact with
