Royce's Random Thoughts

So Nez was having a livestream session for a couple of days, and I scored a little fanart. :)

First Rolas tied to the mast (perhaps Melanie is playing a more old fashioned pirate today) and a request from moonshadowed for something based on the phrase "So Elven it hurts to look at him."



Finally, Maria at her easel.

Summary: A very good month, both in sales and the progress thus far on my Kickstarter campaign to fund an audiobook of CotRV. It’s been a success so far and we’re less than $50 away from the $600 funding goal, which I’m hoping to hit by this weekend.

Also someone in Germany decided to read through a lot of my collection (waves to Claudia).


Things to Do: Still waiting on the cover for Blooded with Nez getting some unfortunate delays due to creative burnout, other projects, and Ramadan. I also need to run through the manuscript for CotRV to get rid of some minor edits that need to be addressed before David Dorse starts reading through it.


Sales Report:


Captive of the Red Vixen: 10 (1 DE)

For Your Safety: 3 (1 AU)

Good Landing: 5*

I Fought the Claw & the Claw Won: 6 (1 DE)

Mimsey's Tale: 1

Prisoners of War: 2 (1 DE)

Shadow of Her Sins: 3 (1 DE)

Shadow of the Red Vixen: 4 (1 DE)

The Dragon's Companion: 2

Unexpected Diversions: 2 (1 DE)


Total Paid Sales: 33

* Free ebook

Summary: Sales slightly down from the previous month, but otherwise acceptable. More disturbing is the utter lack of sales so far for April. As in one for CotRV, and absolutely nothing else. WTF?


Things to Do: Writing a short piece with Alinadar back during her time aboard the Relentless. Gonna be heavy on the angst, but I need to get something out soon.



Sales Report:


Captive of the Red Vixen: 4 (1 DE)

For Your Safety: 3

Good Landing: 17 (1 CA) *

I Fought the Claw & the Claw Won: 3

Mimsey’s Tale: 2

Prisoners of War: 2

Shadow of Her Sins: 13 (1 CA, 1 DE)

Shadow of the Red Vixen: 3

Teal's Bargain: 1

Triumvirate: 1

Unexpected Diversions: 1 (1 UK)


Total Paid Sales: 33

* Free ebook

Summary: Good sales, though not as much as December. Best of all I finally finished the draft for Shadow of Her Sins, so I now can send it off to be beta read and massaged into a readable format.

Things to Do: Still need to write up some more For Your Safety stories to create an anthology or two. Now that SoHS is done I also want to work on Legacy of the Red Vixen again, probably starting with a page one rewrite.

After, more on Dragon Mom, Happily Ever After and Space Cinderella.



Sales Report:


Captive of the Red Vixen: 4 (2 UK)

Demon Eyes: 1

For Your Safety: 10 (1 UK)

Good Landing: 23 *

I Fought the Claw & the Claw Won: 6 (1 UK)

Mimsey’s Tale: 7 (1 CA)

Prisoners of War: 4 (1 IT)

Shadow of the Red Vixen: 3 (1 UK)

Teal's Bargain: 1

The Dragon's Companion: 5

Unexpected Diversions: 1


Total Paid Sales: 42

Summary: A definite WTF month. It seemed for a quite a while I was going to just get a single sale on everything except Mimsey's Tale, which I think got boosted a bit by Amazon's usual “If you bought this you might want to check out” spam mails. But things perked up a little in the last week with the usual furry suspects.

Things to Do: I Fought the Claw is done and at the beta-readers. Once it comes back it'll be published immediately. Got inspired to do a sequel to Shadow of the Red Vixen titled Shadow of Her Sins, focusing on Ali. Before that can be done I really need to finish the story I owe Waz for Mimsey's cover art.

Thought briefly about begging seawasp for a blurb to use for For Your Safety given he's complimented it in other journals, but decided that would be A) Tacky, B) Possibly put him in conflict with his publishers, which would not be good for a Real Author.

I suspect if I ever asked james_nicoll, his response would be along the lines of “If you want the existential despair of Jack Williamson's The Humanoids and the good natured recycling of Disney's Robin Hood this is the story for you.” ;p


Sales Report:


Captive of the Red Vixen: 3

For Your Safety: 2

Good Landing: 17 *

Mimsey’s Tale: 17

Prisoners of War: 1

Shadow of the Red Vixen: 3

Teal's Bargain: 1

Teal's War: 1

Teal's Choice: 1

Triumvirate: 1

Unexpected Diversions: 2


Total Paid Sales: 30

*Free ebook

For ankewehner: “Tez meeting (or thinking about) Swan after Maria's death.”

* * *

You have a great deal of nerve would have been the obvious thing to say. But then, Swan was his daughter. The observation would have been redundant. So Tez waited until she had bent her head over Maria's coffin, the prayers had been spoken, and they had all shuffled out of the temple to follow the hearse to the graveyard.

He fell in beside her as they walked behind it along the road, a little ahead of the other children. “Why?” he asked quietly. “You know I'm going to kill you.”

“You'll try,” she replied serenely. “But not today.”

“I could snap your neck right now.”

“Right in front of all the grandchildren? Yes, I'm sure Mother would appreciate that.”

“Like I care.”

“You do care, or I would have been dead the moment you caught sight of me. Half the others are wondering why you even let me in here. But you're not going to sully this day. Tomorrow perhaps I'll die, but not today.”

"Which still begs the question. Why?"

"She was my mother. Don't you think I had the right to see again?"

"You lost that right when you sold her to the dragons," he growled.

For ankewehner: "Trust issues"

* * *

Maria's fingers worked the buckle of the wrist strap, tightening it firmly. "This shouldn't make things easier," she said.

Tez gave it a tug. There was enough slack in the chain to allow him to struggle, nowhere near enough to escape easily. Good. “You have had many issues of personal control. At the moment, it’s better for you to have more control during lovemaking. This ensures it.”

“Are you going to keep lecturing when we’re supposed to be having sex, or am I going to have to gag you? Again.”

“If it pleases you.” He grinned at her, and she grinned back. A tall, horned, dark skinned beast-kin, who could crush him easily with her hands, and that he could crush just as easily with three words.

His fingers twitched as he grasped the chains, breathing softly as Maria rubbed warm oil into his chest, trying to ignore the voices that sent warnings to his reflexes.

She’s too close to your throat, bite her fingers.

She should be on her knees!

If you could get your ankle loose, a kick to her throat would kill her.

Fool, she’ll betray you in the end. They always do!

Trust… always took time.

For lilfluff: "€Anything based on any foolish questions you may have been asked about parenthood..."

Note: I thought you wanted a drabble, not a novella¦

* * *

Most of the folk of the town knew both he, Maria, and their ever growing brood. So he felt absolutely no compunction to be polite when a stranger€'s voice asked, "€Is that your child?"

Tez shifted his grip on Davin'€s legs. The brown skinned child with small horns growing out of his scalp looked at the stranger curiously from his perch on his father's shoulders. It was another elf speaking, of course, a maiden in a merchant's robes.

"€No,"€ he replied. "€I decided to steal another couple's child off the street, and I€'ve convinced the rest of the town to go along with it. Hence the lack of screaming and pursuit."

"That'€s not what I meant,"€ the elf said.

"€No,"€ Tez interrupted. "What you meant was '€I wonder what business you have thinning out our race'€s blood copulating with animals.'"€

"No," the maiden shot back hotly. "€I was going ask whether your child is a free birth or not."

Tez blinked. "€I'€m sorry?"€

She pointed to the collar around his neck. You â€re owned. I wanted to make sure your child wasn't"

"€I'€m free," Davin popped in. "Daddy isn'€t, but he doesn'€t mind."

"€No?"€

"You'€d have to meet Maria to understand."€

For avanti_90: "A human sacrifice goes horribly wrong">

Continued from all the way back here.

* * *

Tez pulled at the chains, riveted to his wrists, that pinned him to the stone altar in the Cave of Fire. The Burning Woman, which had been one his daughters a few centuries back, before he'd invited a sentient volcano to dine on her, had insisted on it. Which did show a good amount of foresight on her part. Well, mostly.

"You know this isn't going to work," he said mildly, wincing as he flexed his fingers.

YOU WILL BURN FOR YOUR SINS AGAINST US! THE WORLD WILL BURN! the Burning Woman said, flames spitting from her mouth, her veins pulsing lava.

"I don't suppose 'I'm sorry' would be helpful?"

BURN!

"Yes, you said that already."

BUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRNNNNNNNN!!!

The Burning Woman raised her hand, a ball of fire forming in her palm to set Tez alight.

Which was when the geyser of spring water popped through a crack that appeared in the floor, gushing up under the Burning Woman's feet. Cold water met superheated volcanic body, and physics did the rest, as her body suddenly exploded into a thousand shards, shotgunning the surrounding acolytes.

"Well," Tez said reflectively in the silence that followed. "Now how am I getting off this altar?"

Because they would inevitably end with Tez becoming a Pak Protector, and I don't even want to think about what he'd do in that state.