NOVEL NEXT I Survived Book 1, But Did the Earth? (Also, I Made a Thing for RR Authors, Again)
Well, my delightfully chaotic dark readers, we've reached the end of Book 1 of The Dark Lady's Guide to Villainy!
Can you believe we've gone from "reluctant barista hiding from her heritage" to "Dark Lady with a goblin union, a portal-anchor consumption scandal, and friends who may or may not forgive her for various emotional manipulation incidents"? Because honestly, some days I still can't believe it myself.
First, the practical stuff: I'm taking a brief two-week pause to recover from the Umbra Academy Ball (and by "recover," I mean "figure out how to clean rainbow blood stains from my PJs without using magic that might accidentally summon something, because the scene was so dramatic, it splashed out through my laptop's screen"). But don't worry—Book 2 launches on June 19th with our first chapter. And it will probably be available to paying patrons on Patreon in just a few days.
And don't forget to subscribe to my newsletter! Or is it Mo's newsletter? Whatever. Doesn't matter. Subscribe to it anyway! I may drop some fun tidbits there from time to time. But not too often. I don't want to spam anyone!
Speaking of creative ideas, I have to mention something that I've been working on when I'm not busy describing Mo's adventures. So, to complement my Genre RS Checker tool, I created this delightfully obsessive thing for Royal Road authors called the Book Performance Analyzer.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
You can compare your book's performance against others with similar page counts, and apparently, there are plans for more metrics. So, if you're an author with opinions about book analytics (or just someone who enjoys refreshing pages obsessively), go forth and analyze!
But here's the really exciting news: Even during our two-week pause, I've got some bonus content coming your way. Think of it as... supplementary materials for understanding the psychological complexities of your favorite magically-enhanced disaster trio.
Plus, I'm excited to share the first chapter of my spin-off series: [Systemic] Side Effects—a cozy therapy comedy-drama set in post-Integration Bath (that's where Mo's bookstore had been, I never mentioned that before!). Dr. Chen and her colleagues deal with the psychological fallout of Julian's reality-altering ritual. Because apparently, when you give magical abilities to an entire planet of humans, they need a lot of therapy.
I won't put the book on Royal Road, because I'm not ready to work through all the drama with followers, Rising Stars, etc., with another project right now. But maybe, after I've gotten a few novellas finished in this spin-off series, I'll return to the idea of sharing them here. For now, in the first few days after the book is published on Amazon, you'll be able to get it for free. So, stay tuned!
Thank you for following this journey so far. Your comments, reviews, and general enthusiasm for found family dynamics, goblin rights, and coffee-related metaphors have made this entire experience delightful. Watching Mo grow from someone hiding from her power to someone learning to wield it responsibly has been as rewarding for me to write as I hope it's been for you to read.
See you on June 19th for some Earth madness and exciting Umbra Tournament events. And keep an eye out for those bonus chapters in the meantime!
P.S. Grimz wanted me to mention that the "Deceptive Exploitation Via Illusory Opportunities Underpinning Servitude" framework is still available for licensing. Apparently, several other Dark Lords are interested in implementing more sustainable exploitation methods. Who knew that treating workers with basic dignity could be such a revolutionary business model?
P.P.S. Mo says hi!