Hail, adventurers! It has been quite a while since the last blog. There have been a few little updates here and there, but not as many developments as I’d hoped. Here’s just a little update of all the things.

Wheel of Fate

There’s currently two progress paths with Wheel of Fate. Where the cover is concerned, as we are easing into winter the cover artist has been able to get started on the layout. She had various color schemes and reference photos before now, and she compiled a catalog of various angles a couple weeks ago. Last week and this week have been for blocking the layout. We’ve planned out the design and blocked in the shapes of the characters. She is hoping to have the whole thing actually sketched out in the next few weeks. This will be the last of the covers that is front and back. I wanted the series to all match, and I would have loved to have all the books be front and back, but especially with the ambition of two releases each year, I have to make sure the artist has the time (and energy) to continue to complete the cover art. I should have a teaser for the WoF cover very soon!

As far as the writing goes, there continue to be minor setbacks. Issues with my wrist have prevented me from working effectively in general. I am hoping to finally have at least some answer for that issue next month. Until then, I am doing my best to work as I can and trying not to get too far behind my intended schedule. I had hoped to have the first draft finished by tomorrow, but that’s for sure not going to happen. I would still like to have it finished by the time I go back to work on Monday, but we’ll see how things go. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow were intended as full writing days, and I wrote one whole paragraph yesterday before both my computers were trapped in various update cycles, and today I have been distracted by the need to have our puppy monitored in the house longer than intended due to an unexpected issue. I decided because I am already so very far behind schedule today, I was going to work on another book project and write a blog update.

Aside from that whole cyclical mess, I have the entire rest of WoF blocked out scene-by-scene. I am so excited about some of the things that will be happening in upcoming chapters and I’m ready for Mara’s journey to come full circle.

General Tales of Ambergrove

There have been various little updates with Ranger’s Odyssey and Realm of Chaos this past month. Realm of Chaos stayed under 1000 in the bestseller list on Amazon for its main category for over a week after release and is currently resting in the low thousands. The public library copies have been handed out and should be added to the collections before the end of the year—-including Hoopla!

I have my first author event this Saturday. It is a local event a library is hosting for Small Business Saturday. I have a few copies of RoC, a lot of copies of the first edition of RO, and various props and things for my table. I had a runner made, I’ve printed off copies of the Ambergrove map on parchment paper, I have bookmarks from both books, I’m bringing my shield, my husband fixed my prop axe (with a wooden handle this time), and I have a Square account and card reader! I’m pretty excited for the event, and even if there’s a small turnout, it will be the first time I’ve been able to put myself out there as an author—-aside from when I ran into the fairy at the RenFest who purchased a copy of RO. I’m super excited for it. Plus, I’ll have all the things I need for a cool author table when I go to other events.

In additional local news, an independent bookstore recently reopened nearby. Large chains came in and drove them out when they were last open, but those chains have since closed and the bookstore came back this year. Man, is it a magical, wonderous place. It’s the absolute best bookstore I’ve ever been to. And, I spoke with the owner and they may be purchasing my books for the store! To my knowledge, my books have yet to be in a brick-and-mortar bookstore, and to have them in a bookstore like this one is a tremendous opportunity. The curator and fantasy specialist will read both Ranger’s Odyssey and Realm of Chaos and give the owner his feedback, and that feedback will determine if they purchase my books or not. I have had impartial feedback on Ranger’s Odyssey but no real feedback on Realm of Chaos. I’ve also not yet been in the position where someone’s experienced assessment of my books holds such sway. I’m excited for his decision but also so petrifyingly nervous. I hope to hear back from them by the end of the year. I would think that they may continue to purchase later books in the series if these first two are approved, but I’ll have to see how things go.

Finally, there will be a minor update to the website soon. I haven’t decided how I want to do it yet to avoid spoilers, but I will be adding a pronunciation guide (or guides, probably). Either I will create a new thread that is pronunciation by series, since most of the time characters won’t carry over series to series, or I will add individual guides to the end of each book page. I’ll have to think about it. I’d like to finish the WoF First draft before working on that, but it should hopefully be before the end of the year.

Anyway, chugging along with book and cover of WoF and big things keep coming for Ambergrove. I hope to provide another update in the next few weeks regarding the completed first drafts of WoF book and cover, availability in libraries and magic bookstore, and projections for 2022.

Until next time, adventurers!

This was an exciting week for Ambergrove! Big, big news!

Realm of Chaos

Realm of Chaos is now available from affiliated retailers in paperback and hardback formats! Purchase links may be found on the Realm of Chaos page. Kindle, Nook, and other ebook formats should be available next week sometime.

The listings on Amazon and Barnes & Noble are pretty bare at this time. The hardback formats are missing the cover image, Amazon’s hardback listing has some formatting issues in the description, and Amazon doesn’t currently have a specific audience listed, and B&N is missing descriptions for both formats. I intend to follow up with them if those things aren’t corrected when the ebook version becomes available.

Further on the Amazon audience listing: These books are intended to be listed as “Teen.” The previous issue with the Ranger’s Odyssey listing was that it was listed as for grades 10 to 12. The listing was corrected to grades 7 to 12 and ages 13 and up. The same is the case for this one—although it does have much darker elements than the first one does, it would still be considered PG or PG-13 if it were a movie. Know that these dark moments are not for the sake of darkness; there is a reason to them. Some will be realized later in Realm of Chaos, some in Wheel of Fate, and some will be realized in the first standalone book (to be released after the Hammer and Flame trilogy).

An additional note on the Amazon availability: Retailers only keep books in stock if they think there is a great chance of selling them. They have to buy the book from the publisher first, and they won’t do that unless it will be worth it to them. Ranger’s Odyssey began to be kept in stock a few months after publication. Paperback copies of Realm of Chaos are in stock now.

This means that because Ranger’s Odyssey was purchased enough to keep in stock, they expected to have a demand for Realm of Chaos and pre-ordered copies! It’s the paperback only that’s already in stock, but it’s also already eligible for Prime shipping. This means I ordered a tester copy yesterday afternoon and it arrived on my doorstep a couple hours ago! It is so wonderful to hold the two copies next to each other, and it also means that readers will be receiving copies to read as early as today!

This demand also means that, due to the influx of orders typical of a new release, I am temporarily relatively high on Amazon’s bestseller list! As of this morning, Realm of Chaos was listed as number 503 in one of its categories. While 500 may not seem that high, that is out of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of books. That’s absolutely amazing. I know that it will slowly go down from there over time (Ranger’s Odyssey settled in the 4000s—which is also quite high—and has remained there for many months), but for now it is at least unbelievably wonderful, humbling, and exhilarating.

In other news, my author copies should be arriving in the next couple weeks, and I will be donating copies to the same libraries that received Ranger’s Odyssey last year. There is also a hardback copy for the winner of the Terrible Typos Tournament.

Finally, I have ordered the bookmark set, and those should be arriving before the end of this month. I will be keeping some of those to give out with my copies, but most of them will go to libraries along with the donated books. I’m trying to figure out a fair way to do it so people don’t just take one of each to collect them all. We’ll see how that works out.

Otherwise, we’re just waiting on the ebook copies and I’m waiting to see (and hoping) that you enjoy Realm of Chaos as much as you seemed to enjoy Ranger’s Odyssey. If you do enjoy it, please consider writing a short review or rating the book on your purchasing platform or the Goodreads page. Happy adventuring!

Wheel of Fate

I have been working as much as I can on Wheel of Fate the past couple months, and I have been making steady progress. So much that I’m nearly halfway through the first draft! I’m working on chapter 10 this weekend, despite all the exciting and distracting developments with Realm of Chaos.

Part of the reason I am making great efforts to maintain a certain schedule with the draft of Wheel of Fate is that there has been an exciting development with its publication. Wheel of Fate will not be released next October as initially slated. Book one of the Hammer and Flame trilogy will be released in the later part of next year, likely in November.

Wheel of Fate will now be released in late spring! At this point, we’re looking at May or June. It depends on the final completion time of the book and the cover art. The artist will have a lot more on her plate between now and then, as will I as my wrist issue is being resolved and winter increases the amount of time Rune is in the house during planned working times, but I’ll certainly provide updates as things develop!

I hope you enjoy Realm of Chaos. When you get to the end, just know that there is a plan and a reason for everything, and it will all come to fruition in Wheel of Fate.

Until next time, adventurers!

The publishing process is wrapping up for Realm of Chaos! At this time, we’re just waiting for the LCCN approval. It should just take a few more days. After that, the files will be finalized and the book will go live in waves like it did last year.

Selecting a specific publication date last year turned out to be quite the process (and I made a little mess), so this year it’s just going to come out as soon as it’s ready. And it’s almost ready!

So, what’s about to happen?

1. In the next few days, likely by Monday, the LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number) will be approved and added to the copyright page in the final, designed book.
2. The book will undergo a final design QA (quality assurance review), and the final, high resolution files will be uploaded to their system.
3. The book will go live on the AuthorHouse website, likely sometime next week.
4. The book will go live on Amazon, likely a few days after that.
5. The book will go live on Barnes & Noble online shortly after.
6. The ebook version will be available on all platforms, typically within a week of initial publication.
7. Independent bookstores will be able to add the book to their collection once all versions are live in all publisher-affiliated systems.
8. It will also be available in the same libraries as Ranger’s Odyssey within the next few months (and that includes three new libraries Ranger’s Odyssey is about to be added to—in Michigan, North Carolina, and Tennessee!).

As with last year, as the book becomes available in these places (all the ones I’m aware of), I will be announcing it on the Tales of Ambergrove Facebook page and updating the Realm of Chaos page with the links. Keep an eye out for its release sometime next week!

For now, here’s a teaser of the low resolution hardcover!

I also have big, big news about Wheel of Fate—and other upcoming books—but that should wait a few months until I am absolutely sure it’s going to work. I’m still having issues with my wrist that are causing delays in working on WoF, and a current adorable obstacle is also shortening my potential working time, but I think I’ve figured out a good way to get things moving again.

The adorable obstacle? A new addition to the Martineau family! Her name is Rune, and she’s a monster. I mean, just look at that monster face.

Anyway, I’m off to prep some things for continued work on WoF before the monster comes inside. Keep an eye out for the RoC release very soon! I am so beyond excited for you to read this one. (I’m sure I’ll say that every time.) I had a big moment planned for this book before I had written half of Ranger’s Odyssey, and it has been killing me to keep it quiet for so long! I hope you enjoy this installment in Mara’s journey and are excited to come back for the final piece of her story in Wheel of Fate next year!

Until next time, adventurers!

September (SeptAmber) this year brings Ambergrove adventures! We’re going to the Renaissance festival this weekend, and the only costumes I have that fit me are giant, flowery, many-layered dresses (a family friend used to make them, and her husband gave them all to me when she passed away).

Those are not great all day walking around clothes, especially when the Mudde Show is involved, so I got affordable, simple costume clothes. Because my favorite color is green, I ended up with a couple outfits similar to what the forest dwarves wear. I decided to do a few extra, small things to make it a Mara cosplay.

I have a small, blue-handled dagger, a vest meant to mimic the leather jerkin Mara wears before she gets the chainmail, a cheap and absolutely awful wig, and Mara’s battle axe. I got a ten-dollar plastic axe last year so I had an idea of the mobility of the axe, so I used that as a base. I drew a stencil on hard plastic, my husband cut it to shape for me, and I taped the new head over the base with aluminum tape and taped the shaft with woodgrain tape. It’s slightly off from the drawing on the Realm of Chaos cover, because I had to account for the base size and shape, but I’m pretty happy with it.

Realm of Chaos is completely ready for the publisher, and that process begins the week after next! I’ll provide publishing and availability updates as soon as I have them. I have a possible giveaway in the works, so stay tuned for more about that later!

The preorders are currently live as well. This is an experiment so see if there’s a demand for this sort of thing, and so far it seems like there isn’t, but the preorders are open until the 25th. If you’re interested, head over to the Realm of Chaos page for more information.

Finally, as you may have noticed in the picture above, I have a brace and kinesiology tape under my bracer. I currently have some medical issues with my wrist, and this has significantly slowed work on Wheel of Fate, as typing exacerbates the issue. I am working on getting it taken care of, and I’ve done a little here and there in the meantime.

Wheel of Fate is still ahead of schedule, using the previous books for reference, and I hope to be hard at work on it at least by the vacation season at the end of the year.

The wheel is still turning, however slowly that may be, and I am so excited for what September has in store for Ambergrove! The next blog post should be information about the final publication of Realm of Chaos, so check back in a few weeks!

Until next time, adventurers.

I’m pleased to announce that, after a long and tedious process, the Ranger’s Odyssey reprint is complete! What does this mean? The first edition is no longer being printed. Retailers can still sell remaining copies of the first addition, and I have some copies of it myself, but it is otherwise no longer available. Listings have been updated online. The way to tell if it has been updated is by checking the page numbers in the listing. The first edition was logged at 234 pages, and the reprint is 230 pages, because some of the corrections were to remove formatting errors that left large spaces at the end of some pages.

Printed copies at Amazon and Barnes and Noble have both been updated. You will need to check your favorite retailer to see when they will be updating their listings. The Kindle/Nook/other ebook version will take a little longer to update. I’ve been given an estimate of up to about four weeks. If you have already purchased the ebook version, Kindle does allow you to update your version for free by going to the “Manage Content and Devices” section. I’m not sure about other formats.

If you purchase a copy of Ranger’s Odyssey after the reprint is released, you can quickly distinguish which copy you have by checking the copyright page. The reprint shows the updated date, as below:

I also completed the audiobook reading of Realm of Chaos this weekend. I do still have to lightly edit the audiobook (it also won’t be released until the book is published), and no one has purchased the Ranger’s Odyssey audiobook, so I don’t think there’s really a demand for it. However, this also means that I’ve completed my last review!

Based on typos I found during my read, a last run-through to make sure that global things were taken care of, and the insertion of my final notes for the book designers, I’ve made 408 final revisions! The final word count, not including design notes, is 85,973!

Realm of Chaos is officially complete! Everything is ready for my final submission, just about six weeks away. All that is left is audiobook editing, setting up the preorder system later this month, and submitting the final bookmark design once I have the final file. Everything is moving along well! I’ll be back to work on Wheel of Fate this week. Realm of Chaos will be out before we know it!

Until next time, adventurers!

Just a short update on the current status of a few things…

Website

It has been almost a year since the Tales of Ambergrove website went live. Because Realm of Chaos will be coming out in about three months, I’d been looking into making some revisions to the website. When I looked over this, mainly to figure out how to add a dropdown menu, I discovered that the theme I selected last year had expired.

Rather than just adding a dropdown menu, I ended up changing the theme altogether. There are new restrictions with this new theme (the most irritating being that I can’t reposition or resize the title image, so the desktop version looks a little weird), but there are more benefits.

We now have a dropdown menu! The navigation is still the same as it was before. The only difference is that in addition to being able to reach individual books by selecting the covers on the Tales page, you may also select the Tales dropdown and pick the book individually. Further down the line, when I move forward to the Hammer and Flame Trilogy, I’ll add an additional break in the dropdown (Tales>Series>Books instead of Tales>Books).

Accessibility is paramount, but I’ve also been able to make a few unique visual changes, such as creating a Tales of Ambergrove image with the Ambergrove logo as the A. I was able to use Paint 3D to thread the leaf from the logo around the m in Ambergrove. I love the way it looks that way.

I changed the colors to a scheme that matched Ambergrove, but I couldn’t change the main background from white. Instead, I was able to change the background of that background—from a pale grey to the night forest from the Realm of Chaos book cover. It gave a darker theme and it also added a touch of magic. (Full image at the bottom of the blog.)

Ranger’s Odyssey Update—Reprint!

In addition to this overhaul to the website, there’s also been a development with Ranger’s Odyssey. Although there wasn’t really participation in the giveaway, I’ve been very bothered by some of the typos that made their way through to the published work. This week, I was able to begin the process to correct these!

What does this mean? Well, I spoke with the publisher and paid for a resubmission for reprint. Yesterday, they got my list of corrections, and the process began. There were little things like comma placement that we didn’t bother with (the amount of allowed corrections is limited), but all the typos are being corrected, and some minor grammatical fumbles are being addressed. Thirty-six minor revisions in total.

The first edition will no longer be printed. Once the resubmission corrections process has been completed and the revisions finalized, the reprint will be released. This should be completed sometime next week! Retailers can still sell the copies of the first edition they’ve already purchased, but once all printed copies have been sold, only the new edition will be available. While the first edition had these unfortunate errors, I do hope that those who have this copy will consider it to be a rare collectible of sorts as time goes on and more tales are released.

Everything else is moving along as it should. I’m chugging along with Wheel of Fate, making other personal developments, and an ARC reader (one I do know) has posted a review of Realm of Chaos on Goodreads. I hope you enjoy the new updates to the website, and I’m excited for the reprint of the revised edition of Ranger’s Odyssey. The wheel keeps turning.

Until next time, adventurers!

Exciting news from Ambergrove the past couple weeks! I was able to find a way to digitize the Realm of Chaos cover! When I went to Staples with the cover artist last month, the scans were streaky when run through the roller scanner. We went to Office Depot and had the same issue—only there, we were also able to get a scan that was streakless but way too dark.

I spent weeks looking for another way to get it scanned. The office stores suggested finding an oversized flatbed scanner. I checked with different office and printing stores, sign and banner shops, and even the various facilities at may alma mater. The last place I tried said that they had never heard of an oversized scanner being as large as what I needed, and they suggested finding a fine art photographer.

I found someone local. Unfortunately, for my own privacy purposes, I cannot list her wonderful business, but she spent so much time and effort getting the cover right for me, as shown below:

I was also able to review the full-size character art for my bookmarks and come up with drafts for later this fall. They won’t be finalized and produced until I have the final, formatted cover from the publisher to put on the back with the book information, but I’m happy with the way they look.

I was able to use the artist tablet I got a few months ago to take the character art and give it a transparent background I could use to add colored backgrounds and shadowing to make them look professional. It’s a sort of unspoken standard for bookmarks to be right facing (so the characters aren’t facing the crease of the spine), so I flipped the images this way.

It does create an issue with Mara: flipping the art makes it look like Mara’s bracer is on her left arm and her bracelets are on her right wrists. However, I do think that it would be a bigger issue to have any of the characters facing the “wrong” direction. The sizing may change before they’re finalized, but here’s what they look like for now:

Everything for Realm of Chaos is completed now until it is finalized in the fall! I was going to take a break before beginning Wheel of Fate, but I decided to go ahead and start on it last week. I have the first draft formatted with my initially-blocked chapters, chapter titles, a placeholder dedication, and now about half of the first chapter written! I also made up my calendar for this first draft, and I’m ready to dive in further.

I feel a lot more confident with Wheel of Fate than I felt starting on Realm of Chaos. When I started on Realm of Chaos, I was so afraid of messing up or not meeting the standards set in Ranger’s Odyssey, I didn’t really write much until the start of this year. I felt like Ranger’s Odyssey must have been a fluke.

But I’ve finished Realm of Chaos. The advance readers so far have loved it even more than Ranger’s Odyssey. With my second book nearly ready to publish, and Mara’s series nearly completed, the dream of writing the entire saga has become tangible. I know that I can do it, because I’ve written more than one now. I’m so excited to keep going.

I’ll leave you with this today: my placeholder dedication for Wheel of Fate. I’ll probably replace it with something more serious sometime in the next year, but it should be good for a chuckle now.

Until next time, adventurers.

Hello, adventurers! There’s been a lot of progress with Realm of Chaos the past few weeks (and a little with Ranger’s Odyssey), and I’m so excited to share it with you!

Ranger’s Odyssey first, because it’s shorter. I have forty-eight copies in a tub right now for my library campaign (is that the right term here?), and things are moving along! I haven’t heard from many libraries, but a library in Kentucky is considering adding Ranger’s Odyssey to their collection, and a library in Tennessee is adding it to their collection! I’m going to keep on reaching out to other libraries in the hopes that these other forty-eight books will find homes in different states. It’s definitely a lofty dream, but I’m so excited to try it out!

Regarding Realm of Chaos, I’ve finished my near-final review! This review wasn’t finished until AUGUST last year! What does this mean? Well, I’ve completed three full rounds of revisions based on my own desired changes, feedback from others, and necessary editing. The first draft was about 75,500 words long, and this near-final draft ended up at 86,000! I made 11,000 revisions to Ranger’s Odyssey over the course of the revision period. With nearly that much added to Realm of Chaos just in the word count, it’s hard to tell how many changes I made this time. (Actually, it’s impossible. I tried to pull that information, and it froze the computer.)

I just uploaded Realm of Chaos to Booksprout for the ARC reading program. This means that there are now 50 copies available for advance reading! If you’d like to sign up, you can read Realm of Chaos RIGHT NOW instead of waiting until October! In exchange for this free advance copy, you are agreeing to leave an honest review when the book comes out in the fall—it’s a win for everyone! You may find the ARC copy here.

If you choose to participate in the ARC program, what you’ll read is almost the final version. Because I found the typos in Ranger’s Odyssey after a read-aloud for the informal audiobook, before I consider it finished, I’m going to do an oral read of Realm of Chaos probably around August. Final minor revisions will be made at that time, and then the book will go to the publisher. It’s good to leave some time between revisions, because it allows time to forget the little details of the story. I’m sure it’s egotistical to think, but there were quite a few moments that made me laugh when doing this last round of revisions, just because I forgot I was the one who wrote it.

Anyway, this means that Realm of Chaos is basically finished! I just have a few more little things to do for it, and then later on this summer I’ll begin writing the first draft of Wheel of Fate! Mara’s saga is nearly over, but I’m just as excited to bring you the stories of Ember in the next series.

For Realm of Chaos, there are two other things left to do. First, bookmarks for libraries and preorders. I have full-size art of each individual companion from the front cover, and there will be four collectible bookmarks for this one! (Or you could just pick your favorite.) Those will be available earlier this year as well, because they will be included in preordered copies in the fall. Keep an eye out for the final designs!

Otherwise, we’re having some difficulties with the final cover art. The type of scanner the artist used for Ranger’s Odyssey isn’t working this time, so we’re looking into other options. That’s the downside of having a poster-size cover, though it does look great on my wall next to the other one, is that it’s really difficult to find the one we need.

The good news is that the cover is FINISHED—also months early! I even got together with the artist a couple weeks ago and hashed out the details for Wheel of Fate. We did the color studies, and she did the first sketches. She’ll be taking a break before delving into the cover in full.

Big things for Ambergrove! I’m so excited to be where I am with this series, and I’m so excited for you to read Realm of Chaos, the conclusion to Mara’s story in Wheel of Fate, and all the other tales of Ambergrove I have planned, for that matter. I’ll leave you with one of the scans we were able to get—the current choice is between too dark or striped, until we are able to scan it properly, so here’s the too-dark one.

Until next time, adventurers!

The past couple weeks have been eventful for Realm of Chaos! On Memorial Day, I met up with the cover artist, and we finalized the front cover! The colors are washed-out in pictures, but I’ll reveal the final cover art by the end of the month, because … we expect the full cover to be completed by Father’s Day!

For now, here’s a peek of part of the back cover progress:

Realm of Chaos came back after the first review this week as well! After some reviewing and discussion, I made another round of revisions, and now we’re at the near-final draft!! Yesterday, I sent it out for the second round of reviews. One is another writer who also beta read Ranger’s Odyssey, and she “beast mode” powered through the entire book in five hours last night! We were able to discuss the book this morning—well, 2:00am when she finished reading, before she fell into bed.

I am so beyond excited at this feedback! I’ve been so worried about Realm of Chaos. Part of this is because that fear of setting too high an expectation with Ranger’s Odyssey and just disappointing the readers with further books has not gone away. It’s also a legitimate worry that the middle book in a series will be the worst one. There’s a forced timeline to stick to, in order to maintain the structure that will be completed in the last book, and the middle book typically is just the least interesting because it’s the bridge to the last book. I put a lot of time into making sure this wasn’t / didn’t feel like filler just as a stepping stone to the end.

It is such a relief to learn that this was successful! From this review, it seems like all the emotions and reactions I was trying to achieve throughout the book have hit the mark! I cannot wait for it to be out and available for you all to read!

I expect the other reviewers to have it back by the end of next weekend, and then I will make my second-to-last revisions and post Realm of Chaos to Booksprout for ARC reading! Around the start of August, I’ll have a final round of revisions for any necessary small changes, read aloud to check for any remaining typos or awkward phrasing, and then it’s ready for submission time in September! The final review of the cover art will be Father’s Day weekend in a couple weeks, and then Realm of Chaos is ready to go!

For now, I’ll leave you with this: the chapter titles for Realm of Chaos. We’re in the home stretch now!

Until next time, adventurers!

Things are kind of slow on my end right now, but I do have some exciting news!

Foremost, I have updated the Ranger’s Odyssey page to include the links to the Indiana libraries it can be borrowed from. In addition to physical copies in three Indiana Evergreen libraries and Lawrenceburg Public Library, I discovered yesterday the the ebook version is also available on Hoopla!

Hoopla is available from a lot of different libraries. All you need to start borrowing ebooks for FREE from Hoopla is an affiliated library card. If you have a library card, and you have never used Hoopla, you can enter in your card information here to see if your library is affiliated.

I’m so excited to discover that Ranger’s Odyssey is available through Hoopla! It opens so many doors for readers, even if your local library doesn’t have a physical copy. However, I will soon be reaching out to more libraries to see if I can extend its availability. Stay tuned! If you would like to see if Ranger’s Odyssey is for you, but you’re unable to/unsure about purchasing it and would like to first read it from the library, and it’s unavailable at your library, reach out to me directly, and I’ll see if I can get it in your library!

In other news, I also discovered that Ranger’s Odyssey is available from so many more retailers! There are now two retailers I’m aware of where you may be able to use a gift card to purchase: Barnes & Noble and now Target! Check your favorite retailer to see if it’s available there. Be sure to check the price before purchasing; some retailers appear to have raised it significantly. If it’s much over $3.99 ebook, $13.99 paperback, and $26.99 hardback, you may consider a different retailer.

UNLESS you would like to support small bookstores! I’m not sure if I’m allowed to identify the smaller bookstores, because I don’t know what sorts of regulations there are, but Ranger’s Odyssey is available from a few non-chain bookstores! The ones I’ve found are in California, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts!

Finally, I’ve signed up Ranger’s Odyssey for an ARC reading program. It’s a little strange, because ARC means advance review copy, and Ranger’s Odyssey has been available for months now, but I made it available in preparation for the release of Realm of Chaos. If you are interested in being an ARC reader, Realm of Chaos should be available next month!

What is ARC reading? ARC readers are individuals who claim a near-final copy of the book prior to publication. The version they read may have very minor differences from the final published copy, but they are by-and-large the same. In exchange for this advance review copy, ARC readers agree to leave an honest review of the book on their chosen platform when it is released. My books will be on Booksprout.

I am so glad to have received so much direct feedback about Ranger’s Odyssey, but if this feedback were in review form, it would help other potential readers decide if they would like to borrow it from the library (or even purchase it!). There has been such a positive reaction to Mara and the experiences she has at the start of her adventure. I hope that release of further books and extensions in availability will help more readers to experience the adventures and step into the world of Ambergrove!

As far as Realm of Chaos is concerned, the front cover is nearly finished! I’ll be riding out to review it and make final adjustments sometime next month. It’s coming along so well! I can’t wait for you to see it, but for now, a sneak peek. The colors are washed out in this version, but it still looks amazing. I cannot wait to see the original!

Until next time, adventurers!