Wild Times Square Exposure (the good kind! 😏) and the Ink Awards!

First and foremost - Happy Friday!!! 🥳 It's been a full 48 hours but I am still glowing from Wednesday's awesome news! In case you missed it, Inked was featured in New York Time's Square on Wednesday for winning the gold medal for Women's Fantasy Fiction in the 2023 BookFest awards!

Seeing my book featured in Time's Square was truly a dream come true and I couldn't have done it without all of your incredible support this past year. Thank you not just from the bottom, but from the top and both sides of my heart as well! 🥰

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Speaking of awards, Inked was recently nominated for the 2023 Indie Ink Awards for not just one but FIVE categories:

• Best book cover and cover artist

• Best light read

• Best use of tropes

• Prettiest book interior, AND(!!!)

• Side Character MVP

Now that voting is officially open, it would mean the world to me if you would consider voting for Inked in any or all of the above categories!

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Lastly, keep an eye on your inboxes in the next few days, since we're finishing up the final illustration of the Gilded Blood Complete Series Omnibus and will be showcasing all 13 of them before sending the project over to our printer. I know I might be biased, but these last two paintings might just be my favorite to date! 😍

Thanks again for all you do and have a wonderful weekend ahead!

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Free Book Alert!

Long ago I accepted that I was different, and that the fae would never see me as their equal because of the tainted blood running through my veins.

What I didn’t expect? That when my brother and his friends went to the Royal Fae Academy, they’d abandon me too.

Except when my brother’s friends return years later, we’ve all changed, as have our feelings for each other. But if they think I’m going to suddenly start acting like the innocent girl they left behind, they have another thing coming.

My powers are dark and sexy, and if they have a problem with it, they can go screw themselves!

Only, what if it’s me they want to screw?

REVERE is a short prequel to the Royal Fae Academy. Our heroine is tough, uses her dark powers shamelessly, and her guys have eyes for her and only her. Read now!

I'm a ghost whisperer, not a catacomb crawler. But when you live in Paris, sometimes you end up being both.

Hi, I’m Alix. During the day, I’m a history student at the time-honoured Sorbonne University. After class, I hang out with the ghosts of the revolution, the many undead misunderstood Parisian artists, and adventurous scientists that glow in the dark. None of them are alive, but they come to me to solve their problems with the living.

When a recently deceased catacomb tour guide asks me to retrieve a mysterious personal item from the underground, things take a turn for the weird. Suddenly, I find myself in a city of ghosts, hunted by murderous cave crawlers, and stumbling across haunting secrets.

If I’m not careful now, I might end up a ghost myself.

Urban Fantasy with a French twist. If you like cave-crawling adventures, hopeless romantics, and ghosts, you'll enjoy Ghosts of the Catacomb, the first instalment of the Parisian Ghosts series. Travel to Paris today to embark on your catacomb adventure.

Read now!

Sand serpents and gold dragons and Ink Awards... Oh my!



Happy Friday, everyone! 🌞

I have a couple of exciting announcements for you today, including two more stunning Gilded Blood Omnibus illustrations (bringing us up to 11 out of 13 total!!!)

Announcement #1: Awards!

I just found out that Inked was nominated for the 2023 Indie Ink Awards for not just one but FIVE categories:

• Best book cover and cover artist

• Best light read

• Best use of tropes

• Prettiest book interior, AND

• Side Character MVP!!!

The Indie Ink Awards is trope- and diversity- focused rather than focused on genre, and designed to showcase all the amazing indie books out there. The reader-nominations phase has apparently just ended, and they're about to go into the next phase of the contest, the voting phase. It would mean the world to me if you would consider voting for Inked in any or all of the above categories!

Voting opens December 15 so I'll be sure to send out another reminder then!

Thank you so much in advance for your time and support! 🙏

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Announcement #2: Brand-new omnibus artwork!!

Illustration #10: Talia, Zayn, and "Sandy" the Sand Serpent

“You spit out that elf right now, you hear me?” I yelled.

The sand serpent stiffened.

“I mean it! Because if you don’t, you are going to be gutted right down the middle, and I think we can agree that nobody here wants that. So, I’m going to give you ‘til the count of three to spit her out, or else!”

The serpent – Sandy, we’ll call him – froze, his three sets of eyes moving between me and the gleaming stabby objects the elves were wielding.

“One...!”

 He made a petulant grunt.

“Two…!” I crossed my arms impatiently. “If I get to three, you are going to be in so much trouble, buster! Two and a half…”

Sandy’s head reared back as though he might argue, all six of his eyes narrowing…and then abruptly started bobbing like a cat retching up a hairball. After making a series of unappetizing gags and retches, he finally horked up a curled-up, slime-covered elf, who toppled onto the sand with a breathless thud.

Illustration #11: A Dragon Reborn

 Snatching Biscuit away from the strengthening blaze, I staggered to my feet alongside Zayn. The three of us backed away as the obsidian fire exploded into dazzling gold flames that were so hot and bright, we had to shield our faces from the intensity. The flames grew higher and higher, towering above our heads like a coruscating tractor beam that melted every last drop of snow within a twenty-foot radius. A bowel-shaking roar erupted from behind the curtain of golden fire, ricocheting through the snowy trees and sending a tremor through the earth itself. My hand reached out instinctively, clutching Zayn’s cloak.

And then, all at once, the flames disappeared.

In their place, a colossal gold dragon loomed above us, with shimmering waves of heat radiating off its metallic body. Ribbons of fire and smoke curled from its glittering jowls, while its gilded scales gleamed like polished bullion.

With 11 illustrations done, we are just 2 illustrations away from sending this baby off to production! In the meantime, I'm just putting the finishing touches on the Dee Dee and Bisskiss short story that will be published at the back of the omnibus. Which obviously means I HAVE to share an early snippet! (Minor spoiler: the story is told not from Talia's POV but from Dee Dee's!!😂 )

If you've got omnibus FOMO, never fear! You can still secure a copy of the Gilded Blood Omnibus by heading over to PledgeBox today!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful week ahead!❤️

Gilded Blood Omnibus Illustrations 8 AND 9! (Plus some awesome holiday goodies!)

Happy Monday, everyone! I am SO excited to share not one but TWO more Gilded Blood Omnibus illustrations with you today! TBH, I'm still struggling to pick my jaw up off the floor!

Illustration #8: The Great Phoenix Tree

(or, as Biscuit calls it, the "Biiiiiiiig Pen*s Tree" 😂)

“With a trunk as tall and wide as a New York City skyscraper, the colossal tree towered hundreds of feet above the tallest evergreens, its highest branches practically caressing the underside of low-hanging clouds. But what made it even more magnificent is that every single one of its leaves twinkled and glowed, as though the branches were covered in hundreds of thousands of green fireflies.”

Illustration #9: The Ancient Crystal Caverns



"The narrow tunnel we’d been walking through abruptly ended, dumping us into an enormous cavern that was as wide as it was tall, at least three football fields on all sides. Colossal, water-clear crystals, some nearly scraping the thousand-foot-high ceiling, towered above us like redwood trees. They sprouted from the ground, the walls, and the ceiling at every angle, crisscrossing over one another and throwing prismatic rainbow reflections all over the cave."



If you haven't ordered a Gilded Blood Complete Series Omnibus and still want one, we've got you! Head on over to PledgeBox where you'll be able to late pledge for a limited time!

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Cheap Smut!

I was so lucky to have been invited on SmutCo Industries' Cheap Smut Podcast earlier this month, where we talked about smut, sexy incubi, and snarts. Yes, snarts. You can check out the full episode here!



If you're looking for something slightly more edifying, I also joined authors Megan Haskell and Greta Boris on their podcast, The Author Wheel, to chat about publishing, Kickstarters, the pros and cons of Kindle Unlimited, and more. That educational episode can be found here :)

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Fancy Embossers and Holiday Deals!

I just got the fanciest, most wonderful embossing tool, which means, moving forward, all signed books purchased from my shop will now come with this beautiful new insignia embossed inside the title page:

The Latin reads: THE WRITTEN WORD REMAINS

😍

Don't forget, you can get 25% off ALL signed books (minus special editions) now through Christmas with promo code WINTER25.

Have a wonderful week ahead!❤️

Rachel