June 22nd, 2025

​Well, it’s a surprise. But it’s like a big old surprise birthday party! It’s a good surprise! 
 
A bit of background first. I was told in early 2025 that readers these days like series released close together. So, although we were planning to release To Walk into the Sands next (Book 1 in a new desert-based fantasy, the Sands of Nanterac), 4HorsemenPublishing wanted a different series to go first so they could do get the whole lot out quickly because Book 2 of Sands of Nanterac wasn’t finished. They asked what else I had. I showed them Lione and Corelands. 
 
But then I got word that To Walk into the Sands was coming out September 25th, 2025! Great! I’m super excited about this new series, as it was what caught the attention of the publisher in the first place. It’s an adult otherworld fantasy with a mature near-retirement character and strong female leads that is very dear to me! 
 
At that point, I was told Lione and Corelands (which the editor had) were slated for February and March 2026, which made sense to me. I can only promote one thing at a time. 
 
But last week I got Lione’s release date. October 25th, 2025. Which is neither February, nor 2026. 
 
So since it’s now imminent, let’s talk about the Falling City for a second. This is such an old story for me, I don’t know where to start! 
 
The first thing to realize is that the order in which I published my books is not the order in which I wrote them. In fact, the first book released (Dragon’s Voice) was the LATEST book I had written at the time of its release. I followed it with Dragon’s Talon and SoulBurner, which were actually some of the oldest books. 
 
(Fun fact; the more recent the writing of the book, the less editing it required and the sooner I have been able to release them! Makes sense when you think about all I learned on my earlier works!)
 
Now the first book I finished is the Story that refuses to be written (not its real name). After that, came Dragon’s Voice. Then I was writing SoulBurner and, believe it or not, I got stuck. It wasn’t the story it is now (neither was Dragon’s Voice!) but I was writing and learning, and the characters were engaging and the story was fun! But I got stuck, even though I knew where the story needed to go. 
 
That is when my muse hit me with a (sigh… I know….) dream about a set of twins. They seemed much like my sister and I (we aren’t twins but are close). One is physically strong and tough, the other emotional and intuitive. But they were tied together by a single soul, and they were meant to change the world. 
 
I sketched them. And so I met Lania and Akara. 
 
Trouble was, it came together as a single novel at first, and whoo boy was it a doozy! I had to figure out how to split it, but for years, it just wouldn’t work. I had four uneven Acts in it, a large cast, and an immense world! I loved it for the flawed characters! It had so much more depth than anything I had written at that time. 
 
It also taught me a few important lessons that went on to influence my later writing. One was to try to write from another character’s POV. I’d gotten stuck on SoulBurner, but when I came to the part where Cairon and Gensiana meet Lania in the new book, it flowed. I learned so much more about the dynamic between the other characters, I was able to go back and finish SoulBurner! 
 
However, it was a good number of years later when I finally figured out how to adjust the enormous book that was then just called Lione. I was working through a new edit with the feedback sessions of the Sooke Writers’ Collective when it hit me. Cancel one Sovereign, fuse the character to another, and so simplify the flow between acts 2 and 3… and boom: Lione and Corelands (Book 1 and 2 of the Falling City) were finally done.
 
How long did it take? From 2001 to 2025. 
 
I write faster now. Dragon’s Voice only took 16 months from conception to completion (including professional edit) and then publication. But there is far less to fix. Lione and Corelands were the books that showed me what I wanted to do as a writer. They gave me the ‘voice’ of author-self. For that, they will always hold a special place in my heart.

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