Then this is the Kickstarter project for you.

Here, in a nutshell, is what it is:

Socks & Sorcery will have four themed collector’s boxes, each delivered three times over the course of a year. Every box contains:

•  A Surprise fantasy novel in the format of your choice (ebook, paperback or audiobook)
•  100g skein of exclusively dyed fingering weight yarn inspired by something from the book
• A 20g contrasting mini skein perfect for crafting heels and toes
• Delightful surprises to enhance your reading and crafting journey. 

Mix and match any of the four themes—Dragons, Familiars, Witches and Vampires, or Faeries—or get them all for a box delivered each month for a year!

There are lots of great writers contributing books to this project including T. Thorn Coyle, Anthea Sharp, Leslie Claire Walker, and Thomas K. Carpenter. The first book in my Fey series, Sacrifice, is also a part of the project.

This project is a lot of fun, and I’m pleased to take part in it. I hope you join us!

You should be getting surveys soon. Fill them out so that we can send everyone their books!

Thanks again!

Here’s the book’s blurb:

THE FEY ATTACK

A grisly ambush at Serebro Academy starts a race to uncover secrets that might save the Academy or destroy it entirely.

Magical maps, Fey spies, treachery and dangerous secrets. A stunning fantasy—impossible to put down.

This thrilling page-turner continues Rusch’s masterful melding of epic fantasy and steampunk while demonstrating once again her place as one of the greatest storytellers of our time.

The book was fun to write, and it’s beautifully designed. Each chapter has art, which shows where on the map the action takes place.

So click on over to the Kickstarter and explore. You might find something just for you.

You see, most of the books in the Qavnerian Protectorate series (which is a side series off the main Fey) happen at the same time. So, you can read these next three books in any order you want. (I prefer my order, but hey, I’m just the writer.)

Here’s the blurb for The Incident at Serebro Academy:

THE FEY ATTACK

A grisly ambush at Serebro Academy starts a race to uncover secrets that might save the Academy or destroy it entirely.

Magical maps, Fey spies, treachery and dangerous secrets. A stunning fantasy—impossible to put down.

This thrilling page-turner continues Rusch’s masterful melding of epic fantasy and steampunk while demonstrating once again her place as one of the greatest storytellers of our time.

The Kickstarter contains all of these books and a lot more, like the map and mugs and even more books. So head on over and get a copy of The Incident at Serebro Academy before anyone else.

Don’t Like Kickstarter?

And for those of you who aren’t Kickstarter fans, but want to order the book, it’s up for preorder on your favorite stores. My favorite is World of the Fey, which also has a lot of the goodies that are in the Kickstarter. So here’s the link to the store. After you’ve ordered The Incident at Serebro Academy, poke around. You’ll find all kinds of fun stuff.

Lots to enjoy here! I hope you will.

If you go to WMG’s Teachable page, you’ll find all kinds of workshops and opportunities. Add FeySale at checkout, and you’ll get each workshop for 50% off.

Don’t know what to take? Dean did an entire series of posts about the kinds of classes available. Click here, and then scroll through his website to find all the different posts.

Also, the opportunity that I’m the most excited about is this: You can attend (virtually) the Licensing Expo later in this month with me and Dean. We will be taking videos of our tour of licensing, our discussions and things we learn. The videos will go up in real time during the event. Learn more here. And yes, this is also 50% until Wednesday night.

The reason we’re having the sale is the same reason we usually do. We’ve opened a lovely new online store, this one for the Fey. Take a look. This store is going to grow exponentially this year, so join us on the ground floor…

Lots more news soon!

I appreciate it!

For everyone else, you can preorder the book at your favorite stores…or at the new Fey store, which goes live later today.

Again, backers! Thank you so much!

We’ve hit four stretch goals…

Which means that for as little as $5, you’ll get:

• BARKSON’S JOURNEY ebook
  
• Four of my fantasy stories
• Two online writing workshops ($150 value each, that you can give to friends if you want).

All of this will disappear tomorrow (Wednesday) at 7 pm, so act quickly!

We’re launching the book with a Kickstarter, which is what we do these days. So those of you who love the Fey can get the book early. (Actual release will be in the late summer.) If you click here right now, you will be reminded when the Kickstarter goes live…which is on Tuesday.

I have completed two other books in the series and am nearly done with yet another. I think there’s one more after that, but since this started with a novella, I can’t even trust myself on how many books it’ll take to complete this saga. I’m having a lot of fun writing it and learning about the continent of Dorovich, which the Fey tried to capture once centuries ago, and failed.

Now I know why.

Barkson won’t tell you why, but the later books will. Barkson is a literal race against time. I had fun writing it. I suspect you’ll have fun reading it.

Or, at least, I hope you will!

The upshot of all of this is that with a little over two days left, I’m going to do a series of posts, telling you about the Hearts Collide books.

For the past few years, we’ve joined Kickstarter’s Make 100 program that they do every January. This has inspired us to do big collections of books by genre. We’ve done a fantasy make 100, a mystery make 100 and so on. (You can see them in this current Kickstarter. They’re part of the rewards or add-ons.) Each Make 100 collection series that we have done has 100 stories, half by me and half by Dean Wesley Smith. We divide the books by subgenre.

This year, we chose romance. Most of the stories are traditional romance…kinda. Ninety percent have that happily ever after ending, but a handful do not. That’s why we had the subtitle “Strange Romance.”

Allyson Longuiera designed the covers, and I think they’re so lovely. They especially suit the first volume, Romantic Suspense.

Take a look at that cover. That’s what romantic suspense books looked like when I was grabbing them by the dozens in the mass market book rack at the local pharmacy. (Yep, our local pharmacy had a bigger book collection than most bookstores do now.) Whenever I see art like this, I get inspired.

My stories in this volume include some of my personal favorites, including “Scars,” “Models,” and “Her Mother’s Secrets.” If you’re familiar with those stories, you’ll recognize that these are a true blend of suspense and romance. Dean’s stories are just as intriguing.

As I type this, the Kickstarter has only 57 hours to go, so click on over and take a look. There’s a lot of fun short fiction here, sure to brighten your mid-winter blues.

Surprisingly to me, the challenge is really working for me. I’m getting a lot done, and I’m working on two projects at once, something I never used to be able to do. So…Fey fans: I’m on the fourth book of the side series. I will have all kinds of cool things for you in 2024.

And I’m also writing short fiction. I wrote and sold one story last week (surprising me with the quickness of the response). Then I wrote another. I’m working on a “novella” (which just might be a novel) that you will hear more about, and I’m nearly done with that.

I feel like I’m back to my old production levels, and it feels really good. I’ll be updating you here whenever I have something new, which is one of the many things that fell by the wayside over the past few years. So expect to see more from me in the next months.

That said, here’s my first publication of 2024. (Look at the date on the cover.) A standalone novella for Asimov’s. This novella is dark but I love it. Sheila Williams, the editor of Asimov’s, calls this an sf/mystery, but it might just be sf/noir. I think you’ll like it. You can pick up a copy here.

Because the challenge is really working for me, I found myself worrying about January 1. It takes three weeks minimum for a habit to become ingrained, and I could see myself slacking off. (Especially since I have an in-person workshop coming up mid-month.) So I decided to issue another formal challenge for January only. Dean does these yearly challenges, but I can’t keep that kind of time in my head.

So same rules:

Write more consumable words than I do, and you will receive a free online writing workshop (worth $300) as your reward. That’s in addition to the online workshop that everyone who joins the challenge gets at the end of January.

So people who write more than I do will get $600 in workshops; people who write less will get $300 in workshops. And…it costs $300 to join the challenge. So essentially, you’re going to write to see if you can score one more workshop than you would otherwise—and you’ll get lots of writing done.

Consumable words are:

— Any fiction of any type (no requirement to publish during the challenge time)

— Any nonfiction that others will consume such as blogs, introductions to collections things like that.

— emails and comments on Facebook or blogs do NOT count.

No genre limitations.

You have until January 3 to sign up, but I figure most of you want to be onboard by Monday. So I’m posting this now.

Fingers crossed that 2024 is a more productive year. (Note that I did not say better. I’m still a bit shellshocked from 2023 and not willing to issue that challenge to the universe.)

I wish you all the best in the year to come!