Tag Archives: updates

Torn in Flames dragon map and character sheet

In anticipation of Torn in Flames releasing in a few weeks, I have a question for you all. I have a map of where all the pertinent dragon territories are in the U.S. My beta readers and editor found it helpful to keep track of clans in the story. There are more mentioned in this installment than previous ones.

Keep in mind, it is a generic map I altered with colors, name labels, and territorial lines for my purposes. It’s out of my price range to have a professional do it, unfortunately, but it does the job. I referred to it many times while writing the novel. I just can’t include it in the ebook because I got the country outline from a separate source. This map does not list every clan that exists because if they have no relevance to the story or my personal notes then I’m not taking the time to name or outline them. So a blank area does NOT mean it’s free of dragons. I already had this question and they know who they are, though in their case they were just messing with me. I will say the Cast by Flames (book 7) map has an even more comprehensive map because I did have to add a lot more clans for that due to the plot, but you won’t get to see that one yet.

Also considering creating a Torn in Flames character list explaining who is who if there are enough interested people. I make a spreadsheet for each novel I write, but those have a lot of details that are for me. This would be a cleaner version in a PDF document with a couple of details on who each person is for this installment to use as a quick reference for readers.

Please let me know in the comments below (or on Facebook) if you all would be interested. It would take extra work on my part, but I would be happy to do so if readers think they’d find the map and/or character list helpful.

If this does happen, I’ll let you all know when the document(s) are ready and email them to those who wants them prior to the book release.

Giveaway #2 and other news…

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The last couple of days have been interesting for me. We discovered the carpet was getting rather damp outside the closet in the spare bedroom. Upon closer inspection, we found out the hot water heater had been leaking. It’s at the back of a large walk-in closet where I store all the stuff I don’t use often. I probably hadn’t been in there in a week so I’ve got no idea when this leak first started. Most of the things on the floor were wet and after I began clearing it out I found fresh mold along one of the walls. Ugh.

My husband is going to school full-time right now with classes during the day and evenings. This left it up to me to pull everything out of the closet (throwing away anything damaged) and clear out half the spare bedroom where the water had infiltrated. Our place isn’t very big. I’ve now got stuff strewn across the living room and dining room or piled in the part of the spare bedroom that wasn’t affected. At least the water had the decency to stop just before the treadmill I get around to using about a dozen times per year.

The maintenance guys came and tore all the carpet out of the closet and removed the padding underneath part of the bedroom carpet. They also used a machine to suck up any remaining water. We’ve now got a super fan that is extremely loud blowing across everything to dry it out. They also bleached down the mold spot in the closet. The cats are unhappy because the super fan is too loud for them and they don’t like the disruptions going on in their home. They stayed with me last night in the master bedroom which is on the opposite end of our place from where the water damage occurred. We were at least lucky this didn’t happen in the parts of our apartment where we spend a lot of time.

Below are some pics with the super fan being the first. We had to lift the treadmill since the fan needed to be sitting in a dry place for it to blow onto the damp parts of the carpet. One of my cats (his name is Spock) helped me take some of the other photos. Last November, I found him crying his little head off underneath my car engine. At the time he was only six weeks old and it took me the better part of three hours, lying on the pavement in the pouring rain to coerce him out of there. He’s been rather attached to me ever since and follows me wherever I go.

Needless to say, it’s a little crazy in our home right now. Not a good time for water leaks . I’m probably going to surprise my aunt and uncle by going to work on Darkness Wanes at their place today. It’s a little too chaotic and loud for me here and the maintenance guys won’t be back until next week to put new flooring down, plus a new hot water heater.

GIVEAWAY

Now, for the second giveaway I promised would happen this week (thanks to everyone who participated last week!). I just received CD copies for the audio version of Stalked by Flames from my publisher. I’ve also got new tote bags I ordered with the Stalked by Flames cover on the side. The first three people who reply to this post will each get an audio CD set and a tote bag. This is open to international folks. If your comment doesn’t show up right away, not to worry, I will approve it as soon as I can and it will appear in the order it came in. Please be sure to leave a valid email address in the appropriate field so I can contact you if you’re a winner.

There will be a third giveaway next week with something different!

Series Updates…

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First off, thanks to everyone who has bought/read/reviewed Darkness Divides so far. Release day was a busy one, but really awesome. I truly appreciate it!

Next, those of you who follow me on Facebook or have visited the book page on this site have probably noticed I’ll be releasing a short story at the end of May. I’m going to try to avoid spoilers here for anyone who hasn’t read Darkness Divides yet, but if you’ve finished the book you’ll get what I mean despite my vagueness.

This story will cover Melena returning the device she was still holding onto at the end of book 3. Naturally, she’ll have her new “tag along” with her (as we like to refer to this person on Facebook to avoid spoilers) and that will cause some problems. Sable, the shape-shifter kitty, will also be joining Melena for different reasons.

I’ve said this is going to be a short story, but as I began plotting it out recently a few more characters insisted on taking part so it may be closer to the length of my story in the New Year’s anthology. That one was a little over 10k words. It’s not going to be as action-packed as the books, but you can expect a decent bit of humor and some adventure.

What is the title? I have no idea at this point, but I’m open to suggestions.

At this stage my plan is to provide free PDF copies of the story to anyone who emails me. I may also add it to Goodreads and make it available for download there. If by some crazy set of circumstances my muse makes me write something that goes beyond 15k words I may also put it up on the retailer sites for 99 cents. The main reason I’d charge even that much is because Amazon won’t let me set it at free and because if I publish it with the retailers I’m going to have to have a cover designed. That would at least help me recoup my costs with it. Since I’d promised to provide it for free, though, I will still offer it at no charge if you contact me (the same as the New Year’s story). You’ll be able to grab it whichever way you prefer and I’ll be happy so long as you enjoy it 🙂

For Goodreads users, I have added Darkness Clashes (book 4) onto the site. No cover or blurb yet, but I’ll release those sometime in late July. If you’d like to add it to your shelf this is the link:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21963515-darkness-clashes

Also, I’ve started a paperback giveaway for the first novel in the series, Darkness Haunts. Members of Goodreads can go there to enter.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Darkness Haunts

by Susan Illene

Giveaway ends May 07, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

I will have at least one other giveaway for series paperbacks here on my blog, and several on Facebook during the month of May. If you’re interested, be sure to be on the lookout!

If anyone has any other questions, feel free to ask them below.

Paperback versions of the Sensor Series are out!

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I know some people have been interested in getting paperback versions of the Sensor Series books that are out so far. While Darkness Haunts has been available for over a year, I sort of slacked off on getting the other books done. My apologies!

As of now, you can find all three books available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. They should be updating with other online retailers soon. I also just got the new cover for Darkness Haunts updated to replace the old one. For those who’d like to see what the full covers look like, I’m pasting them below:

Though it may not be until early next month, I will see about doing some giveaways for them. Be sure to follow me here and on Facebook for the best chance of winning signed copies!