Author: skaeth

Newsletter Archive — January 2023

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Newsletter Archive — December 2022

Newsletter Archive — November 2022

Newsletter Archive — October 2022

It’s Indie August and my TBR list somehow continues to grow. I don’t have a ton of writing progress I can share yet, as the Indie Ink Awards have kept me busy. Still, I wanted to make sure you knew about some incredible book opportunities coming up this weekend!

What have I been reading?


I read Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen and it was brilliant exploration of found family, the dark side of revenge, and how much we have to lose especially when grief blinds us to what all we still have. Highly recommended!

I followed it up with The Last Gifts of the Universe by Rory August, which has to be one of my favorite books this year. Brilliantly done, it’s a tale of grief and life and what it all means when we’re up against the vast emptiness of space.

Look out for full reviews of each of these to come!

I’m currently reading Bonds of Promise (Kallattian Cycle #1) by Andrew D. Meredith but I think I’ll have to abandon it. It’s a story focused on mercenary siblings and their adventures day-to-day in a second-world setting complete with its own ecology and original races. However, it’s just not for me–if it sounds interesting though, definitely give it a try!

I also picked up
The Eternal Muse: Desecration by Rick Waugh, which I am enjoying. It’s a bit distant in narrative terms for my taste, and it’s set in a familiar vaguely medieval-Europe world, but the magic system is a soft magic system built off sound, and I really love that idea.

Indie Ink Awards


The Indie Ink Awards have been going astoundingly well– I never guessed we’d get so many nominations our very first year. Over 5,000 nominations were logged across 367 books. Tomorrow, voting begins, so definitely check it out and vote for your favorite in each category! 

We’re still looking for reader-judges for the final stage of the contest, too, so if you’re interested in that, you can fill out the application here.

Newsletter freebie


Today’s freebie is …. a flash fiction story! I won a flash fiction prompt contest over on the SFF Oasis Discord, and wanted to share it with you all.

The prompt was “Smoke hung so thick in the library’s rafters that she could read words in it.”

Stay hidden 

Bode stared at the words the billowing smoke had formed. The smoke stung her eyes and made them water. When she blinked, the words had gone. She glanced around at the Library, torn by indecision. 

Every Librarian was taught the dangers of fire. That was why only the orbs could be used for illumination. No heat, no flame, no chance of damage to the books. Bode hadn’t even actually seen fire for over twenty years now, since she was Selected by the Library. Not since she began seeing the spirit-words. But smoke meant fire, meant that someone had been careless, and all these books would die. 

Smoke also meant she had to get out, or she would die. 

But “stay hidden.” That was the message. And the last time she’d disobeyed a message… Well, she wasn’t doing that again. 

The smoke swirled ominously, and Bode scrambled into action. Somewhere to hide… somewhere she wouldn’t also die of smoke inhalation. But hide from what? From whom? 

How could she hide when she didn’t even know the basics of the test? 

Bode’s bare feet lead her to the 201020 block, and she sped into the stacks there. The smoke was less thick here—the poor 304627 block was getting the worst of it. If those books didn’t die, they’d be sick of smoke inhalation for sure, and she pitied the poor interns who would have to clean the smoke they belched out and wipe their soot-stained pages. Her chest tightened, and she pressed one long-fingered green hand to her heart. Please, please, let the books survive.

 

The stacks of the 201020 block were like home, and the books rustled their pages at her, like wings of startled birds, unsure where to fly. Bode crooned to them, until another swirl of smoke whisked past: Hide!

Punctuation only appeared in 0.03% of the ghost-writing. Dropping her voice to the barest whisper, she did her best to comfort the books she passed, crawling on her belly along the carpeted floor. The soot-stained carpet had eaten the sounds of the intruders, but as she pressed herself to the floor, she could feel the vibrations of footsteps, carried to her by the underflooring. 

Right turn 

The words appeared in the grain of the wooden sign proclaiming the origin of these books: Sector 49731.67, Time Index 2301.84.

Claws scrambling for purchase on the once-lush flooring, Bode dove to her right at the gap between bookcases and pulled her tail in after her, tucking herself into a tiny ball barely taller than the words of the spines next to her. She longed to press her face into her knees, but if she did that, she wouldn’t be able to read. So she gripped all twelve of her legs until her knuckles turned pink with the pressure, and stubbornly kept all four eyes wide open.

Across the Library, books wailed and wept, screamed and cursed as they died. Block 205111. The religious books were always particularly creative in their curses, and Bode bared her teeth in a vengeful smile. Creative curses were the best kind—so long as you were observing, not receiving. 

Block 410411 was pleading for help. Books of millions of languages alive and dead from all sectors and time indices exerted the effort to make their printed words sound, carried by the arches of the Library to her ears. The anger in them chilled Bode—she was glad she was a day’s walk from that block. The sound must be enough to burst organic eardrums. Still, she longed to go to them and soothe them.

Nearby pages fluttered. Her sharp triangular ears pivoted to hone in. Two bookcases from her, footsteps creaked across the floor. They paced closer, and Bode hardly dared breathe. 

“I don’t see any more.” The voice was high-pitched, melodic.

“We have to get all the Librarians. Otherwise, the Library will just begin anew.” Another light, bell-like voice tinkled into being. 

“Once these books are gone, Exalted Klshfi will sleep easier, without having to fight for his every stance.”

Bode’s ears flattened. So this wasn’t an accident. There wasn’t much she hated more than people in power destroying inconvenient knowledge. And yet it happened, again and again, books falling ill or in the worst cases dying, from all sectors and time indices, from the plague of willful ignorance. It was part of the reason they had Librarians.

Eight steps away. Six. 

“What about the other sections?” The voice belonged to a blue-feathered biped, walking in a half crouch. 

“Let them burn.” Its companion, a bolder blue in color, trailed a half-step behind, beak swiveling as it looked around. 

Bode stifled her hiss. Her muscles tensed to spring, but she held herself back. The words had said to stay hidden. But the intruders had said they were looking for Librarians. Was she the only one left?

Stay

The words shimmered on the covers beside her. Bode obeyed, but her purple eyes remained fixed on the feathered bipeds. Heads swiveling, they passed by. Bode leaned forward, craning her long neck to see them turn the corner. Maybe she could find the other Librarians. Maybe she could free them. 

The spirit-words didn’t forbid her. The intruders turned a corner, and Bode crawled, belly low, out of her hiding place. She froze in indecision. This was a test—she could tell by the itching of the back of her neck.

What did the Library want of her? She listened to the wailing of the dramas and tragedies, the giggles of the humor block, the detached objectivity of the logic block. She was only one Librarian, but she might be all that was left. The words had been taught to her since she came to the Library. Knowledge must survive. 

The portal to the Library closed. Bode stared around her, then got to work.

Sometimes survival was the hardest choice of all. But without her, the rest of the books would die. 

The Library must live on.

Coming up: Some incredible sales!!
The Narratess #IndieAugust Sale!

This selection is fantasy, science fiction, and mixed speculative fiction books, all priced $1.99 or less (including free) for two days only! There are so many fantastic books in this collection, too. It’s always fun to browse through and see books I recognize.

Windward and Between Starfalls are both in this sale for 99cents, so if you’ve been looking at reading them, now’s the time to grab them!

Begins tomorrow (running August 6th to 7th)!

#IndieAugust Sale

Sword and Sorcery in Kindle Unlimited Promo

Looking for some Sword & Sorcery books that you can read in Kindle Unlimited? This promo’s for you!

This promo begins tomorrow, the 6th of August, and runs till the 6th of September.

Kindle Unlimited Sword and Sorcery

Sword and Sorcery Book Promo

Looking to scratch the sword and sorcery itch with even more books? If you want mighty heroes going up against bad guy vibes, check out this collection of books.

This promo goes for the entire month of August.

Sword and Sorcery Promo

Other Places, Other Times Book Promo

It’s the last two weeks for the Other Places, Other Times Promo! Grab these FREE science fiction and fantasy books with incredible worldbuilding before September 15th.

Yes to Free Books!

Powerful, flawed characters. Organic magic. Immersive worlds.

Welcome to the works of S. Kaeth
Already read them? Reviews help other readers find books they’ll love!
 
Here are some handy links if you want to review Windward on:
  or
Here are some handy links if you want to review Between Starfalls on:
  or
Here are some handy links if you want to review Let Loose the Fallen on:
  or
Copyright © 2022 S. Kaeth, All rights reserved.


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Hello all! It’s a rainy morning here and I love the cozy feeling that comes along with those–except that part of me simply wants to go back to bed and sleep all day! It’s been busy like usual here, but there are a lot of exciting things happening!

Progress Updates


I am working on re-drafting Book Four and am currently a tenth of the way through the story. It’s gotten really dark, but there are some bright moments. That “Nobledark” term really seems to apply to my books.

Meanwhile I’m letting my subconscious chew over the edits I know I need to make in Book Three. I’m really proud of the pacing there though–things keep whipping along, and so far Book Four is continuing that pace. Enough threads have been brought into play from the first two books that there’s just a lot to do, and I love Palon and Windward’s occasional cameos.

Speaking of Palon and Windward, if you missed out on beta-reading their prequel, no need to worry! Simply click on the link below for your own beta copy. Your comments will help me strengthen the story and polish it up for release!
Get Palon’s novella

What have I been reading?


I’ve finally finished the nonfiction book on Self-compassion and it was quite interesting. I took my time to digest it and I don’t know that I agree with everything, but even so I think it’ll be a useful tool for me (and it gave me some further insight into how Kaemada would think).

I’m now eager to start Nophek Gloss by Essa Hansen. It looks really good, so I can’t wait to dig in!

I finally dropped a bunch of mini-reviews from last year’s r/Fantasy Bingo board, so if you’re interested in those you can check that out, too.

Indie Ink Awards


The Indie Ink Awards are open for nominations! I’m really excited to be working with this. All self-published and small press books are eligible (except mine because, obviously, conflict of interest). It’s been incredible to watch the nominations roll in– we’re up to nearly 2,000 nominations across over 200 books.

Feel free to pop over to IndieStoryGeek.com and nominate your favorites! We’re still looking for reader-judges for the final stage of the contest, too, so if you’re interested in that, you can fill out the application here.

Newsletter freebie


I thought today I would give you a sneak peek into part of Book Three. There may be mild spoilers, but nothing huge.


“Alright, Galod,” Umril said. “Promise you won’t infect us, and we’ll help you heal. I will of course scan you for truth.”
Kaemada groaned. “Can’t you trust him?”
Umril looked down at her. “We must protect ourselves.”
Takiyah scowled. “This is foolish. If you can’t trust him, why trust the rest of us? What are you going to do if you decide not to trust him, just leave him to suffer?”
“I swear on my life and the lives of my students, I will not infect you purposefully,” Galod said.
Takiyah folded her arms, glaring at him. Using her as collateral to his word was bad enough, but not even being asked first if she was all right with that was even worse.
“I’ll send you my memory of how careful he was not to infect me, if that’ll help,” Kaemada said.
Galod gave her a sharp look, while Umril smiled. “Unfortunately, you are someone he cares for, while we do not have that luxury.”
“He’s not a monster,” Kaemada insisted.
“Fine,” Umril said abruptly. “The others of the Stand accept your condition. On your life, Galod, and the lives of your students.”
Wariness instantly leaped to Kaemada’s face, and Takiyah narrowed her eyes. “Didn’t you just say you’re pacifists?”
“Oh, no, we wouldn’t hurt you. We would just have your life.”
Takiyah glanced at Kaemada. “Are you alright with this?”
“I don’t like it, but Galod won’t infect them.”
“Such trust you have in him,” Umril said, that fondness creeping back into his voice before it was replaced with iron as he turned his gaze to Galod. “I only hope he’s worthy of it.”
Galod mumbled something in reply. Whatever it was, Umril laughed, and beckoned them after him as he walked across the clearing. Galod hobbled after, and Kaemada and Takiyah trailed.
“Umril, we have questions,” Kaemada said.
“You always have questions,” Umril said.
Takiyah love gathering more information at the best of times, but answers were sorely needed now. If the elves had answers about any of the issues facing them, it was time to bring them to light. So much was rooted in the past, and neither she nor the Rinaryn had the lifespan to see it. No wonder the fae seemed all powerful, all knowing, or at least, extraordinarily wise. And yet, it was the elves that people went to when they needed healing, not the fae. That should have been their first clue.
“What do the fae have against Eian?” Kaemada asked.
“And against us?” Takiyah asked.
“Oh, we’re going to be in for a long night.” Umril chuckled, shaking his head. “Let’s plant your technomage and I’ll have some tea and refreshments brought out.”
Looking for more to read?

Dragons, Fantasy Riders, and Epic Adventures Promo

If you’re like me and there’s just no such thing as too many dragons, check out this promo. This one is all dragons, dragon riders, or riders of other fantasy creatures in epic/high fantasy or sword & sorcery genres. None of these books focus on romance, though it might be there in the background.

This promo is only available for 4 more days!

Gimme Dragons!

They’re Here Promo

Check out this selection of free fantasy and sci-fi stories. Some contain elements of mystery, paranormal, romance, coming-of-age, horror, dystopian, aliens, mythology, and more. Some are full books, others are short stories, but they’re all middle-grade on up

They’re Here Collection

Powerful, flawed characters. Organic magic. Immersive worlds.

Welcome to the works of S. Kaeth
Already read them? Reviews help other readers find books they’ll love!
Here are some handy links if you want to review Windward on:

Amazon
Goodreads
Storygraph
or Indie Story Geek.
Here are some handy links if you want to review Between Starfalls on:

Amazon
Goodreads
Storygraph
or Indie Story Geek.
Here are some handy links if you want to review Let Loose the Fallen on:

Amazon
Goodreads
Storygraph
or Indie Story Geek.
Copyright © 2022 S. Kaeth, All rights reserved.


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Palon’s prequel novella!


Palon’s novella is ready for more beta readers! I’m still sending it through my writing critique group due to too many busy weekends, but I’ve addressed most of the large scale changes and strengthened the core of the story. If you’d like to be one of the first readers and have your feedback incorporated into the finished product, feel free to sign up for beta reading!

You don’t need any previous experience with beta reading or with my novels, since this is designed to introduce readers to Windward’s world (and, by association, the world of the Children of the Nexus series). All you need is some time to read about 100 pages or so, and to let me know your honest thoughts on how the reading experience was for you. I’ll have questions for readers to fill out at the end so I know what to improve.

If you’d like to beta read, sign up here! I’ll send out emails within the next week or two with a secure download link for you to grab a copy in the format of your choice. If you signed up to beta read last time but something came up and you never had a chance to grab your copy, you can sign up again this time!

Contests and Cons


Speaking of Windward, I submitted Windward for consideration for the Book Blogger’s Novel of the Year Award and I submitted Between Starfalls for consideration for the Indie Author Project this year, too. Hopefully they enjoy them!

I spent last weekend at WriteHive‘s annual writing convention, and it was absolutely packed full of learning as usual! It helped me figure out an issue I was grappling with in thinking about Book Four and so I’m really excited to begin my re-draft of it (WIP name Songs). I know where I’m going now for Books Four and Five– how it’ll change from the first draft of both of those books.

For those of you who are writers, we announced at WriteHive a new mentorship program! If you have been interested in mentorship (either as a mentor or a mentee), check it out.

And for readers and writers alike, WriteHive will also be holding the first annual Indie Ink Awards as a collaborative project with Inked In Gray Publishing and Indie Story Geek. More details will be released soon with the first phase of the contest starting on IndieStoryGeek.com at the beginning of July.

Newsletter freebie


This month’s freebie is some more information on a worldbuilding detail that appears in Books Two and Three of the Children of the Nexus epic fantasy series:

The birds and butterflies of the Rinaran elves

The pacifist elves protect their homes (Stands) with a network of birds and butterflies who are specially engineered and trained for this purpose.

The elves wear leather circlets on their heads from which dangle elf charms, and when they send others into the forest for any reason, they will loan them a head circlet, though they won’t say why. The circlet is a sign to the birds and butterflies that this person may pass without harm. Any Rinaryn can walk toward the elves (it’s more complicated for other peoples), though they will certainly encounter flocks of birds and kaleidoscopes (or flights, if you prefer) of butterflies (all presenting no harm) as they approach. However, only those wearing the circlet or in the company of an elf of that Stand can walk outward from a Stand without the birds and butterflies pecking at them.

Rinaryn people who are sick or injured can come to the elves for care, but must give up some number of years of their life in service in return. Those who try to run will encounter the birds and butterflies, who will peck and slash at them with razor-sharp wings. These injuries won’t severly injure them, but the wounds tend to get infected and leave white-lined red scars, marking them as oathbreakers to the rest of their people. Many communities will endeavor to convince them to return to the elves for the sake of honor (and so future generations of Rinaryn may have the option of going to the elves), and if that doesn’t work, they may shun the oathbreaker.

This has let to the Rinaryn children’s song, well known among all Rinaryn communities:

“Tíkoowinn utan choewinn
Tíkoowinn utan choewinn
Wei pen woawetaeche’itsa kubiyubiroken ro
Bihaeoeitedei wale, Bihaeoeitedei bae
Lurone fahunlaeych’yil
Lootaecheitsa zahn nlaeyr zuken”

Translated to Traveller’s, that becomes:

“Pierces and slashes, pierces and slashes
White points marked with red rashes
Oathbreakers far, oathbreakers near
Run as you wish, you’re marked all your days”
Looking for more to read?

Winged Creatures Promo

This promo contains a collection of books featuring creatures with wings, obviously, in paranormal or fantasy genres. They might be faeries or angels or dragons or something else entirely. Some of these are romance with high heat levels, while others (like Windward) are no/low heat novels not centering a romantic aspect.

Winged Creatures!

Dragons, Fantasy Riders, and Epic Adventures Promo

If you’re like me and there’s just no such thing as too many dragons, check out this promo. This one is all dragons, dragon riders, or riders of other fantasy creatures in epic/high fantasy or sword & sorcery genres. None of these books focus on romance, though it might be there in the background.

Gimme Dragons!

Powerful, flawed characters. Organic magic. Immersive worlds.

Welcome to the works of S. Kaeth
Already read them? Reviews help other readers find books they’ll love!
Here are some handy links if you want to review Windward on:

Amazon
Goodreads
Storygraph
or Indie Story Geek.
Here are some handy links if you want to review Between Starfalls on:

Amazon
Goodreads
Storygraph
or Indie Story Geek.
Here are some handy links if you want to review Let Loose the Fallen on:

Amazon
Goodreads
Storygraph
or Indie Story Geek.
Copyright © 2022 S. Kaeth, All rights reserved.


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

On deep PoV and internals

I’ve learned so much about deep PoV in the past three years, thanks in no small part to Jeni Chappelle and Maria Tureaud for sharing their wisdom. As it’s something I’ve passed on to my writing group so we’re all constantly poking at each other about it, and as it’s something I noticed when going through WriteMentor submissions, I thought I would write a blog post about it to give my two cents on deep PoV, internals, and how they can elevate your manuscript.

First off, what actually is deep PoV and why should you use it? Or should you even use it? I don’t subscribe to very many “you should always do X” thoughts on writing, because I think so many of the rules of writing are really more like guidelines. (Yes, I know it shocks absolutely nobody that I’m a pirate at heart.)

Deep PoV is popular right now for great reasons–it’s doable in any PoV except omni (and even then we can bring the omni in close with it), and it naturally creates tension and shows change. It creates a scenario that puts the reader in the point-of-view character’s head, riding along with everything they’re thinking, feeling, etc. It just takes a little practice to really get the hang of.

As such, I heartily recommend Rivet Your Readers with Deep Point of View by Jill Elizabeth Nelson especially if you’re struggling with it but even if you have a grasp of the basics and just need another handhold up. I skimmed the beginning because I was familiar with the basics when my critique partner KJ Harrowick recommended this book to me, but then by the end I had so many Aha! moments. It’s really become something that fundamentally changed my writing outlook, and as such, I recommend this book to tons of writers because it has so much knowledge packed in such a short book with exercises that actually make sense and don’t feel like busywork.

So how do we do deep PoV in a nutshell? First, get rid of all that filtering that’s not necessary anyway–you’re gonna need those words for your internals. So all those times your character looks, sees, hears, feels, smells, etc? More than likely they’re unnecessary because you can just describe what the character is sensing, since we’re in their head.

Second (for me–remember, this is deep PoV in a nutshell, not the whole bag of peanuts), pay attention to your internals and use them wisely. Internals are just those responses and reactions that are inside the character–you can’t necessarily see them from outside (though when we use body language we can then infer emotions). So, emotions get put here, especially if you’re naming them, and so do thoughts, viscerals, and body language cues.

When working with emotions, keep in mind the character’s age. It’s not that you get more emotions in younger characters, but their reactions to the emotions change. So a frustrated toddler might faceplant in the middle of the store aisle and wail, while an older child might cross their arms and stomp their feet, and a teenager sigh. An adult might keep that frustration entirely internal, so then you’d use thoughts/emotions/viscerals to show that in deep PoV.

The characters’ reactions should also change as the character develops, so keep in mind where they are in their development arc when you’re adding reactions. You might have the same visceral reactions or reflexes, but the thoughts should change and eventually, their decisions. This was huge when I learned it. There’ll be more about this in a bit.

One thing I did, since I tend to work best when I can see everything at once, is color-coded all my internals so I could weave them in best. The internals are all coded to the PoV character because their perspective is the only one that matters for this. They’re the only one who can give internals in deep PoV.

You can see most of my writing here is green–those are descriptions, other characters, and things that can be seen. If it were a tv show or movie, much of the green would still come through (blue and orange, however, would be lost). Internals naturally slow down the pace of the scene, because much of the pacing comes through from the green. So rather than clump up the internals, I started learning to sprinkle them in like seasoning–or commas! Because everyone knows commas are seasoning, right? XD

Ok but seriously, if you have too big a chunk of blue or orange, it’s going to feel slow and like nothing’s happening. Spicing it up with yellow helps, especially if you can’t do much green due to the scene’s constraints (maybe your character is tied up and can’t move. They can try to move though, giving you some green, even if they don’t succeed, but you’ll still want to break up any thoughts with action or other internals so you don’t have pages of naval-gazing bogging down your plot. This was a bit time-consuming, but once I got a feel for it, I started to just be able to guesstimate where the next internal should be and no longer needed to color code.

I highly recommend taking the time to color code, especially if you’re having trouble balancing emotions and plot! Sometimes it’s true that your writing is feeling too emotional, but other times it might be that your writing’s emotions are simply too repetitive or not expressed in a way that feels age-appropriate.

The internals will help to really show your characters’ movement along their arc, too. Even if their choices are the same through the first half of the story, if the reasoning changes that can still feel like movement. And then eventually the reasoning no longer matches the choice and you get a new choice made– ta-da! Growth!

MRUs are Motivation-Reaction-Units and I learned about these from both my Writer In Motion friends and from my critique partner R. Lee Fryar. They’re input/output cycles, or external-internal-external cycles, as I think of them, and they were first described by Dwight Swain in 1981 in Techniques of the Selling Writer. It took me a little bit to work them out, but I’m starting to feel like I have a handle on them. KM Weiland’s blog post really helped me make progress in understanding them, so definitely check that out. This blog post also made its way into my resources! And so did this one!

For MRUs, in short, you have an action–something that happens to your character or around them. That action/event sparks a reaction–and often this reaction is really a chain of reactions. If the chain doesn’t occur in the right order, it can feel overdone, like you’re hammering on emotions, or like your character is over-reacting or reacting in a delayed manner. Feelings and visceral reactions (including reflexes) happen first. Then thoughts. Then actions, then speech. So we have internals leading us into rationalizing a course of action, and then carrying it out. If you think back to the last time you were surprised, speech tends to be one of the last things that come back to us (because the speech centers involve the cortex, while the limbic system drives emotion-field reactions). When I’m talking speech here, I don’t mean shouts of surprise or swearing–of course that can happen right away. But here, I mean rational speech (which can be merely rationalizing the decision already made/action already taken).

Sometimes it helps me to write things out multiple times, so here’s three different ways I wrote it for myself:

Motivation – Visceral/Body Language/Feeling – Thought – Physical Action – Speech

Action-Reaction-Processing-Decision-Action

Stimulus (action), reflex reaction, processing (longest, emotions in there), decision making, new action.

So MRUs actually demonstrate the importance of where you put what type of internal. If you put a reaction after reflection, it’s going to feel off to your reader. Maybe it’ll just be confusing, or maybe your character will seem a little unhinged. You don’t want your reader confused because that hinders their emotional involvement, and we really want to capitalize on that in deep PoV. That’ll help us to keep the tension strong and keep the reader turning the page, unable to put the book down.

Hopefully some of this makes some sort of sense and helps you grow your craft!

It’s basically summer already here! Or at least it feels like it–we were able to open up the house for a whole four hours yesterday before it got too hot. I’ve been spending my time catching up on things, preparing for the WriteHive conference in June, and working with my incredible mentee on her story, as well as doing all those little housekeeping things that get swept to the side until there’s time to address them–by which time they’ve become a mountain, more often than not! So I’ll keep this short and sweet today.

I love hearing from you, so if there’s anything in particular you’d love to see in these newsletters, just reach out and let me know!

Reading

I recently finished Thiago Abdalla’s A Touch of Light, and it was fantastic. Intriguing worldbuilding, a soft magic system that nonetheless feels rational behind the scenes, multiple points of view from various locations and parts of society, and politics–lots of politics. I’m not actually sure I followed all the politics but I enjoyed it immensely nonetheless. Pick it up–I highly recommend it!

I’m currently reading Justine Manzano’s The Skeleton Key and I love it, too! It’s a perfect complement to The Order of the Key, continuing the series a year down the road, and oh, the characters. The depth of the writing is tearing my heart apart for Kyp and Jacklyn. Definitely check it out as well if you’re in the mood for YA superhero-style contemporary fantasy with kick-butt, mouthy characters!
Looking for more to read?

The Hatching by Liesel K Hill

What if a dragon looked into your eyes…and saw into your soul?

Wenlyn dreams of seeing one of the legendary Harpy’s Servants up close. As a poor village boy, he can’t help but dream of the adventures the dragon-riding protectors of the realm must have. Now one of them has come to Tranquil village.

With the Servant’s arrival, Wenlyn’s entire world falls away. He’s about to embark on an adventure of his own that even his wildest dreams couldn’t have conjured up.

Soar the skies with Wenlyn in this short prequel to Dragon Magic, an epic fantasy series. First volume to be released in 2020.

Get The Hatching

Stranger in a Strange Land Sale

This is a collection of books where the main character travels to a strange new world. Maybe they’re a foreigner or immigrant of some kind, whether an alien or even a dwarf living in elvish lands. Regardless, these characters must meet difficulties to understand and fit in with the local society. Adaptation, culture shock, and differences abound. Check them out and get whisked away!

Stranger in a Strange Land

Dreaming of a Place Sale

Continuing this theme of travel and discovery, there’s also the Dreaming of a Place sale, whisking the reader away to even more incredible worlds.
Dreaming of a Place

Newsletter freebie


Today’s freebie is …. a character quiz!
I made a quiz for all the main characters and some of the side characters of both Windward and the Children of the Nexus series. If you’re someone who enjoys being sorted with these personality quizzes, this is for you! Feel free to take it multiple times to see who you get, and share your results with friends!
Which Character Are You?

Powerful, flawed characters. Organic magic. Immersive worlds.

Welcome to the works of S. Kaeth
Already read them? Reviews help other readers find books they’ll love!
Here are some handy links if you want to review Windward on:

Amazon
Goodreads
Storygraph
or Indie Story Geek.
Here are some handy links if you want to review Between Starfalls on:

Amazon
Goodreads
Storygraph
or Indie Story Geek.
Here are some handy links if you want to review Let Loose the Fallen on:

Amazon
Goodreads
Storygraph
or Indie Story Geek.
Copyright © 2022 S. Kaeth, All rights reserved.


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