The stories begin here.
Tomorrow morning, birght and early, I will be loading all of my kit into my car and heading to Brockville for Readers Harvest, which I know is going to be a lovely time. If you’re in the neighbourhood on October 4th, you can find me here:
Reminder: this event is in support of Interval House, and donations are encouraged. Please consult this web site to find the list of needed items.
See you tomorrow!
I can’t believe it’s only 30 days until Readers Harvest. Holy crap! I’ve got lots to do, and a full schedule (plus, a day job and a family that deserve my love and attention, but I digress). Watch this space as I will try to post my preparations for the event. For those just tuning in, here are the details:
Readers Harvest is in the charming city of Brockville, Ontario, on Saturday October 4, 2025
Admission is free as this is a charity event. Donations are encouraged. The charity in question is Leeds & Grenville Interval House. There is a list of items needed by the charity here.
Lots to do, so I’ll keep this short.
So there have been some shufflings around here. It’s been so exciting that I’ve been neglecting my poor blog.
First of all, the pulpy sci-fi adventure is done! It’s up for pre-order, and will be launching on June 21, 2025. The first hot-off-the-press copies will be available at Rose City Romance (yes, I’m doing that). Here is my silly promo video ad for it:
Is it eye-catching enough? Will it sell?
No idea, but I’m going for it. The book is up for pre-order on all the digital platforms I can think of, and a UK-based online bookshop (I’ll explain in a minute).
For context, I am Canadian. Between the trade war shenanigans and some of the alarming censorship laws being bandied about to the south of me, I have been trying to bring my works into a Canadian self-published market. The extra wrinkle is that, for my own morals, I’ve also chosen not to continue selling physical books with Amazon. To my detriment, there aren’t any Canadian platforms that do print-on-demand and online distribution. There are “publication services”, but those charge a king’s ransom and take a cut of the royalties on top.
I found a UK-based service that fits the bill: prints within Canada, has online distribution, and a feature that I intend to explore is an interface with an online store of my own. So I’m going to explore that. Stay tuned, folks. This will get interesting.
I will be an attending author at Rose City Romance! The conference is in June 2025, and tickets are on-sale now. Details are available here: https://rosecityromance.ca/
The latter-half of 2024 was a rough one for me, so first an apology (note that I am a Canadian, and so an apology is not an admission of guilt): I have not yet managed to complete the revisions for the sci-fi romp. The plan is to make progress on that (ideally today!). Then it’s off to an editor for that all-important polish! I assure you, it’s coming. I just don’t really know when.
Be not alarmed if you see changes in my web site, or my Amazon stuff. I’m trying to shift the print version of Spellweaver to a new wholesale distributor. Amazon is a wonderful place to learn, and I want to spread my wings further now that I have a better sense of what I’m doing. Links in the Books section will be updated to reflect these changes.
I also learned some things about my website which mean I can save some money, by trimming out some unnecessary services that I didn’t realize I wasn’t using.
In addition to the sequel to Spellweaver, I’ve started working on a fun little portal-fantasy romance. It is shaping up to be lighter in tone, and it’s a lot of fun. There will be a companion short story in an upcoming anthology (shhh, it’s a surprise!).
In terms of public appearances, I’ve signed up to a couple of writers’ cons. So far, there is Rose City Romance in June, and CanCon in October. I’m going to try for a third con if I can as well. More on those when I can devote a post exclusively to them (coming soon, I promise!).
That’s all the new info I have for the moment. Stay tuned here and on my socials (however improperly I use those). Cheers!
So… Napanee didn’t end up doing so well. The event started at 10 am, and we gave it our best, but there really weren’t that many people who came. Ahh well, better luck next time. In this context, my next scheduled public appearance will be at CanCon in Ottawa. That’s the first week of November. Fingers crossed that one goes better.
In other news, I’m on Facebook now, for those that are into that sort of thing. I don’t know that I’ll be much better at that than I am at Instagram, but I’m trying.
Getting my book a little wider is… going? I think…? The digital reach has definitely expanded now, but the print version is still being a bugbear. I’m determined to persevere. Be patient, folks. I’m hopeful I’ll have Spellweaver fully wide just in time to put the next thing out, which should be the fall.
So here I am, on the eve of the Relax into Reading bookfair, nestled into a pleasantly spacious hotel room in Kingston. I decided to come up a day early for one main reason: I am NOT an early riser, least of all on a Sunday. Thanks to the assorted smaller mammals under my charge, 7:30 am is doable. 6:00 am on a Sunday does not exist in my realm of possibilities. So here I am in Kingston, settling in, getting some serious writing done. I’m looking forward to the book fair tomorrow, and I likely overpacked, but there are some goodies.
As I mentioned on my Instagram, I waxed a bit crafty for this event, so I’ve got my logo on some swag, including something sparkly for the first three people to purchase a book from me. Want to know more? Track me down and the event, and we’ll see what’s on offer…
As for the books themselves, the Roxane of Mars adventure has been given over to the care of my lovely and talented Beta-readers. There’s still a deal of padding left to be done to that one, but I was getting too bogged down with what could be, that I thought it best to see what others want it to be first. At the risk of invoking the dreaded Mr. Murphy, and his infamous law, this book seems to be on-track to release sometime in the fall.
As for Shadowmaster, well, there is some good progress happening now, finally. In a bus-ride of inspiration, I managed to tease out all the bits that are left in the political side of the plot. Once those are down, I can use that as foundation on which to guide my protagonists to their well-earned happily-ever-after. If all goes well, that one might be ready this time next year — which would be nice, because I’m angling to be at a con at around then too. The possibilities are bubbling, and it is both thrilling and terrifying.
Non-plot spoilers: I’ve taken some steps to take Spellweaver wider, but the changes haven’t all worked themselves through the intertubes yet. Once I’ve confirmed things, expect to see some changes around here.
Greetings denizens of the blog-o-sphere!
I mentioned it on Instagram, so it’s only fair that I tell it here too. On June 30th, I will be at the Lion’s Hall in Napanee Ontario for the “Relax into Reading” book event.
In other news, I will be tapping my lovely and talented Beta readers for my Science Fiction novel. At the risk of invoking Mr. Murphy, I seem to be on track to keep a release deadline for a change! Huzzah for me!
The sequel to Spellweaver is drafting along about as well as a cardboard barge stuck in permafrost, but I’m still at it, and it will be awesome once I get it there.
Two months since the last update, and I do have some news!
First, the science fiction adventure is in revisions, so I guess it’s time to actually try building some hype…? The prospect of letting everyone down has been a little crippling, but here we are. BEHOLD!
My hope is to have this particular book out in time for CanCon in November. I will be at the event with other members of the Ottawa Romance Writers. Expect to see some swag!
Speaking of swag, I also came up with a little logo for myself. Once I figure some things out, I expect to start plastering this website with it, so as to build name-recognition. The practical reality is that I am an author who is straddling a few genres, while using the same name for each. As I am self-published, adding the logo will help folks know it’s from me.
What do you think?
So I bought some silly new luggage, and I’ve packed all the stuff, and my Square dealy is all charged up. My promotional materials are ready to go, and all that’s left is one sleep and a work-day. The Grand Author Takeover has begun…
Yep… you’re seeing the little tease of the limited-edition postcards that will be available at my table. See you at the Takeover!
Gayle Morrow's Books