Hi Reader,

I hope you had happy holidays!

You have been great, supporting me on social media, and posting reviews, and generally telling folks about my books, and I wanted to say thanks and do something nice back for you.

Short Story

So, I put this short story, Ariadne and the Prince, on BookFunnel: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/gm88mks3rr​

Click the link and enjoy the story. Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Good Yule, Happy New Year, and Thanks!

I had intended to write you a brand new story for the holiday, but life has hit me a few times the last few weeks, and I didn't get a chance. I started a new day job recently, and have been working late hours, which eats into my writing time. Plus, I had a tragedy hit. Lost my adorable little ball of fluff and attitude who has been a constant companion for 14 years. That one hit hard and my husband and I are still reeling.

However, as I was feeling frustrated about not having written a story for you like I planned, I realized I didn't have to write a brand new story. I had a fun story you might enjoy already written. I polished it up, and voila! It's a silly little tale about a shy spider seer who might seem a bit familiar, even though her name is Ariadne, not Liliana.

There is a story behind this story. Before I published the Liliana and the Fae of Fayetteville books, I created the character of Liliana in a fanfic world. It was on fanfiction.net, not AO3. If you read fanfic, that tells you how long ago I originally invented the character. Everyone who read the fanfic stories way back then loved Liliana and told me how cool she was. So, I decided to give her a world of her own, and the Liliana and the Fae of Fayetteville books were the eventual result. But creating a world that was right for Liliana was easier said than done. I did multiple re-writes, and considered a lot of different options.

One idea I briefly toyed with was an epic fantasy style medievalish setting with dragons and such, but I didn't want to write yet another Tolkien clone. I played with the idea of turning all the usual fantasy concepts on their heads. This story was my experiment with that. The story turned out to be a ton of fun, but I didn't end up going with this idea. So, Ariadne and the Prince has just been sitting around on my hard drive for several years.

Now, you'll get to enjoy it.

Writing News

And, I'm hard at work writing book 4 of Liliana and the Fae of Fayetteville. I've got a synopsis and first draft of the first few chapters, and am polishing them up to submit to the publisher. This book will probably be named Chosen Rose, and take place during the 48 hours right after the end of Obsidian Prince. I had intended the next book to be Spider's Pride, and have a very different plot and take place about 6 months later, but well, Liliana and Alexander had other ideas. Spider's Pride will probably be book 5.

My publisher got a different print distribution recently, which is wonderful in that it will be far more likely for my future books to show up in brick and mortar stores. But it may delay the next book by a bit. I'll do my best to keep you supplied with good reading material until the next Liliana book hits the literal and virtual shelves.

How to Spread the Word

I've been trying to spread the word about the Liliana books in various ways. Last year, I hired a PR firm and got spots on radio and TV and guest blog posts and such, but that didn't work as well as I thought it would. Now, I'm starting to experiment with ads. I created this one for BookBub. (By the way, if you can put reviews on BookBub, it would be a huge help.) This is my current ad:

Since you like my books, you're someone I'd want to click the ad. Let me know if there's anything you'd suggest that would make it better. I've also been sending the ad to folks who are fans of similar authors. Let me know if you think of a good author. If you like this author, you'd like my books kind of person.

Book Trailers!

I had a book trailer made for Precise Oaths ages ago, one for Obsidian Prince recently, an now am getting one for Explosive Chemistry made. Literary Titan is creating them, and hosting them on their Youtube channel. If you'd like to have a look, Precise Oaths is here:

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I posted the Obsidian Prince trailer on Instagram here:

​https://www.instagram.com/p/DDVMuXCsWPW/

The Explosive Chemistry one is almost done. Will post it on Instagram probably when it finishes.

And just because, here's a random pic of a painted patch butterfly sitting on my finger.

I hope the new year is kind to you and yours.

Cheers,

Paige

Alis volat propriis