Editing is done. Typeset is done. I’VE APPROVED THE PRINT PROOF. It’s a real book!
WHICH MEANS…
It’s time for me to start yabbering about how great this one is, and encourage you wonderful readers to pre-order. I’m running a sale through April 25; the book goes live on April 26. AND! AND!!! You can AVOID PAYING SHIPPING if you’re attending Ravencon in Richmond, VA, because I will not only be there, but I will be holding a book launch party!
NOTE THAT SUPERCEDES THE NOTE BELOW:
Orielis Books has been kind enough to offer us consignment space for RavenCon. While we DO still need as many preorders as possible, you WILL be able to buy the book AT RAVENCON 2024. Thank you, Orielis, for being so excellent!
(Note: The Scribbling Lion will not have a table at Ravencon!! If you want to preorder for delivery at RC, you HAVE to preorder !!! The full preorder window is through April 25, yes, but I have to place the ACTUAL order for books in hand much sooner for deliveries at Ravencon — by April 5, ideally.)
Lies of Stone has a HISTORY, which I’ve talked about for years now. It started with a writing group and a sarcastic critique, spun through a pettiness-fueled revision or twelve, went into the holding pen while I wrote the Children of the Desert series, got revised a dozen or so more times along the way, finally hit a point where I thought I could publish it …
… went to a couple editor friends of mine, and …
….yeeeeeahhhhh, it wasn’t ready. Cue a frantic overhaul (because I’d already scheduled a January launch date and the feedback hit my inbox in late October). I basically shoved everything non essential aside, realized that wouldn’t be enough, gave up on the January launch idea and aimed for April instead.
Content finally stabilized (I thought), it was time for typeset. Then came the discovery that the content was not, in fact, stable at all. I found a couple of small but plot-relevant mistakes that were important enough to absolutely need correction.
Never, never, NEVER make content changes during typeset, and especially not IN THE TYPESET PROGRAM DIRECTLY. Yes, I smashed that rule. Thus I can say, with strong confidence: DON’T DO IT.
I smacked the DONE sticker on the project and sent it off to the final pre-publication process just last week. That’s a bit of a tight timeline; given the state of the mail these days, I’m nervous that I won’t get print copies in hand before RavenCon. But I’m gonna do my best.
Did I mention you can PREORDER? Yeah. That’s kind of important this time around, for multiple reasons.
(By the way, the working title for this book, for many years, was “Kingdom of Salt”. Feedback informed me that title didn’t fit the final product, so it became the series title instead. So if I slip and call this book the wrong name, now you know why.)
Even with all the scrambling and stress on the backend, I have loved working on this book. It has held a very special place in my heart for twenty years now, and I’m proud of what my vastly improved writing skills turned it into. I am so very grateful to everyone for the years of support, and I’m almost desperate to dig into the sequel, as soon as I can carve out time.
I’ll have the first chapter sample up within the week. For anyone who’s been on the fence about picking up a copy of Nothing Changes, the collection of Kingdom short stories I released last year: it has two stories that introduce Lia and Tank. Those tales offer useful background detail that, while not necessary to enjoy Lies of Stone, do add context to several scenes.
See you at RavenCon!