Braving Fate: A Fate of the Gods Novella and a COST OF LIVING/Patreon update!

Yes, yes I did write another Fate of the Gods novella, and it's releasing as a serial on Patreon beginning THIS WEEK!

Would you like a cover?

Have a cover!

 

 

BRAVING FATE takes place during the contemporary timeline of FORGED BY FATE--in fact, it's the events of that portion of the book from Thor's perspective!

 

Thor is Oathbound to protect the House of Lions as well as to keep Adam and Eve apart. When Adam finds the House of Lions at the very same moment Eve has returned to them, engaged to be married to its heir, Garrit DeLeon, Thor has no choice but to involve himself far more closely in her life than he'd prefer--as much as he loves her and desires her happiness, he never wished to endure a front-row seat to her marriage to another man. Particularly when he finds the man in question so unworthy of her.

 

Unlike WIELDING FATE, this novella is not nearly as spoileriffic for the entire rest of the series, and it's complete as is, so eventually I'll be releasing it wide--but it's been pushed back to 2025 at the earliest because, if you did not read my newsletter and already learn the news:

I'm taking a SABBATICAL from PUBLISHING!

This is not a sabbatical from writing. I'm just not going to be doing production and publishing work. I hate it and I am tired and I have 40+ individual titles in my backlist across three pen names now, and I just want to opt out of the content mill grind for a little bit, so I'm going to take some time to enjoy writing just for myself, rather than inside this "content creator" ecosystem we've built.

Which is all to say that everything that is currently Patreon Exclusive will be REMAINING Patreon exclusive that much longer! So if you want to read it, that's where you'll find it!

THIS INCLUDES:

• WIELDING FATE: Part One, A Fate of the Gods Novella (The beginning of Ra and Athena's book which was staying Patreon Exclusive for the foreseeable future anyway.)
  
  
• KING OF THE LAPITHS: A Helen of Sparta Side Story (Pirithous and Polypoetes's short story which takes place during the events of Helen of Sparta--I never made up my mind about releasing this wide but that can is getting kicked way down the road now!)
  
  
• BRAVING FATE: A Fate of the Gods Novella (which will wrap up in December as a serial for $1 and $2 patrons. Patrons at the $5 level will get a downloadable epub of the full novella mid-November!)
  
  
• OF GODS AND JOTUNS: A Collection of Short Stories (the paperback is available wide, but the ebook collection is Patron only, and I intend for it to stay that way, for everyone at the $5 and up level!)
  
  
• COST OF LIVING (my Ur-Novel, which is getting an extremely limited special edition physical release but otherwise will remain Patreon exclusive--but the serialized edition is coming down at the end of the year, and will be replaced by a downloadable epub edition of the full novel, available only to patrons at the $5 level or above. This epub will REMAIN patreon exclusive basically forever!)

 

THERE ARE EIGHT SIGNED AND NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVERS OF COST OF LIVING UP FOR GRABS FOR ANYONE WHO PATRONS UP AT THE $25 TIER EITHER IN OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER OR NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER! See this patreon post for more info!

 

Phew, okay. That's a lot of information. And let me drop a quick reminder that you can listen to the whole of A BROKEN HORSE, my Trojan War retelling PODCAST on Patreon right now, too! 

 

So there are plenty of reasons to Patron Up before the year ends! GO FORTH, FRIENDS!

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Revisiting Forged by Fate, and Show vs. Tell

I'm revising FORGED BY FATE right now, for... well... reasons, and this book--there is so much of this book that I still love desperately, but in coming back to it twenty years after I started writing it, I've noticed some things that my baby authorself was doing, thinking it was THE RIGHT WAY TO WRITE that, well. Were kind of the opposite of helpful in getting my points across.

Let's talk about Show vs. Tell.

As a baby author, I was clearly determined to show everything! Instead of telling people how a character was feeling, I used physical responses. He hesitated. She closed her eyes. He tightened his jaw. She shifted away.

Listen. These kinds of small physical movements are all well and good--but there's a problem with relying on them as the sole means by which you communicate emotion. And that problem is this: By themselves they don't actually communicate the underlying emotion at all.

In Chapter Eight of FORGED BY FATE, there's a moment when Eve is still new and still struggling to understand the world and the people around her. She's with Adam in a cave where he and the other residents of the Garden have taken shelter, and he is--well, imposing himself on her, really.

 Eve shivered at his touch, and that seemed to please him. He raised his hand to her face, cupping her cheek and drawing his thumb along her cheekbone. She forced herself not to look away. Not to move. But everything inside her twisted. She wanted to crawl away into the darkness, but there were no shadows now to hide her. His face was so close she could feel his breath on her lips.

“Lord Adam!” She jumped, though the voice was familiar. Reu.

Adam closed his eyes for a moment, then turned his head slowly. “What is it?”

Now, Eve is new, so there's a certain amount of grace I need to give myself here, because trying to write someone who literally was only just created and is still in the process of understanding literally everything around her is AN UNREAL CHALLENGE to start with. But. Read that last line again:

Adam closed his eyes for a moment, then turned his head slowly. 

What is it actually telling us about Adam's response, emotionally? I mean, we might guess, as readers, what past me was trying to convey. Maybe he's tired. Maybe he's annoyed by the interruption. Maybe he's actually angry. Maybe he's just power-tripping, making Reu wait on principle. You, the reader, cannot actually know. BUT. Eve does. And the reason she knows is that he's touching her, and we know already from the text that when Adam is touching her, whether he realizes it or not, his feelings and thoughts bleed through the contact.

So why was baby author me holding back? 

Because of the age old mantra: Show, don't tell, a rule I was foolishly trying to live by to my detriment.

But showing, by itself, is IMPRECISE. I'm not communicating effectively what's happening, I'm leaving my readers to guess. And while there's nothing wrong with that, in the right circumstances--when the point of view character is guessing too, for instance--in this one, I was letting a mantra get in the way of clarity.

Eve shivered at his touch, and that seemed to please him. He raised his hand to her face, cupping her cheek and drawing his thumb along her cheekbone. She forced herself not to look away. Not to move. But everything inside her twisted. She wanted to crawl away into the darkness, but there were no shadows now to hide her. 

His face was so close she could feel his breath on her lips.

“Lord Adam!” She startled, though the voice was familiar. Reu.

Adam closed his eyes for a moment, then turned his head slowly, his body stiff with impatience. “What is it?”

Impatience. Now you, the reader, know precisely what emotion is motivating Adam's physical response, just like Eve. His patience is reaching a limit. Time for her is running out. Am I telling, by including that word? A little bit. But in telling, in giving that word to the reader, I'm making the passage STRONGER. My writing is clearer and more effective and Eve's response afterward, is given more support.

(And yeah, I changed Eve's jump response, too, because she didn't jump. Her response was small, a start of surprise. But baby author me hated the word startle and bent over backward to avoid its usage--again, to the detriment of clarity.)

Show, don't tell is a valuable piece of advice for writers. ALL TELLING is boring as heck! We all know that! But it isn't a hard and fast rule that we need to contort ourselves to accommodate. Let it be a MODERATOR, sure, but when it gets in your way, like almost every other "Rule" of writing--it's okay to throw it out.

--

Glad Yule, friends!

Tune in next year for some fun announcements regarding what's coming down the pipe--or join me over on Patreon, and for as little as a dollar a month, you'll find out before the year is up :)

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Forged by Fate is FREE!

It's that time again!

FORGED BY FATE is now FREE in digital wide release--Nook, Kobo, Apple, Scribd, Kindle, go! I'm working on getting it price matched on the zon's international sites but for whatever reason, and despite the email telling me they've done it, the free pricing hasn't gone through yet, so--Fingers Crossed, I suppose?

And don't forget that:

1) FORGED BY FATE technically ends at Christmas so it COULD be a legit holiday read if you subscribe to the "anything that has a Christmas adjacent timeline is a Christmas story" school of holiday reading.

But!

2) I ALSO have an EXPLICITLY holiday themed historical fantasy romance installment in the Fate of the Gods series--the novella, TAMING FATE!

TAMING FATE primarily takes place during the ACTUAL twelve days of Christmas, as celebrated in 15thC France, and you can grab it either on its own, for kindle, or as part of the FACETS OF FATE collection also for kindle, AND in wide release everywhere else (plus paperback!) 

Honestly, I recommend just grabbing it as part of FACETS OF FATE because I still haven't spun out the bonus BEYOND FATE epilogue novella, FINDING FATE, that is exclusively available in that collection, so you're get 3 novellas, plus some short stories, all for the price of 2 if you bought them as independent titles, and it's nice to just have so many of the extra stories and novellas all collected that way, if you ask me--which I realize you didn't. 

With the new cover art, FACETS would also make a great paperback gift for the FATE OF THE GODS enthusiast in your life! (Though I'd order RIGHT NOW, if you want it to arrive in time for Christmas!)

And uh, as with any good Fate of the Gods post going forward, here's an obligatory link to the reading order for your reference.

If you've already caught up on all the Fate of the Gods content I've put out--you're fantastic and my hero--it might interest you to know that I am poking at a Roman Gaul Thor and Evaline House of Lions novella probably which would take place during the events of FATE FORGOTTEN, and yes, there still is a third of a book from Ra and Athena's PoV in a folder on my hard drive which I would like to continue writing when the time is right. 

I've shared tastes of both over on Patreon, I believe, which you can read for as little as a dollar a month, along with the entirety of SON OF ZEUS, Pirithous's modern day adventure, and the in-progress COST OF LIVING--my very first novel, brought back to life as a serial billionaire romance exclusively available to my Patreon patrons! (Long time readers of the blog will perhaps remember--this is Thairon and Setta's book which has aged very strangely as the genesis for a lot of other stories I went on to write, but was still delightful to me to revisit!)

Chapters 1 and 2 of COST OF LIVING are free to read, in case you need a little bit more encouragement to sign on as a patron! They were pretty long, so I broke each one up into two pieces--so it's four posts of free reading for you to get a sense of the characters and the story! I hope you'll come read along!

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, I have been dropping some extremely scandalous 🔥🔥🔥 teasers from my Amalia Theresa Playing to Win holiday special, WINTER GAMES over on instagram if that is your jam, so feel free to pop over and check those out! I had such a blast designing the stepback covers to save my family from the searing hot sexiness of it all. (The final one will drop tomorrrroooowwwww!)

And with that, I wish you a VERY GLAD YULE (which starts tomorrow for me!) and good health and happiness to you and yours in the new year!

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Fate of the Gods is Going Wide and FACETS Gets a Facelift!

This month, most of my Fate of the Gods titles are dropping out of Kindle Unlimited-- Concealing Fate, Enduring Fate, Fate Forgotten, and Beyond Fate already have, with Forged by Fate following on the 25th and Facets of Fate on April 1.

I'll be slowly updating the files and uploading them for distribution with kobo, nook, apple books, and more and you'll find the updated links on the Fate of the Gods series page as they go live!

To celebrate, with new distribution also comes new cover art for FACETS OF FATE, which I've been wanting to update for some time and bring in line with the new art for the novellas it collects--and because I'm impatient and anxious, I'm dropping the new cover here now so you can get hyped with me! You'll find it on the digital files after April 1, and also on the paperback edition, so this is your last chance to grab the paperback with the original art that matches the old original WWP series covers if that's how you roll!

Ready?

I only wish I could update my Goodreads icons to match--but alas they've been discontinued! Future Amalia will update her bottom of the blogpost signature images soon, I hope. (Present Amalia is in over her head with Print Proofs for Son of Zeus and updating the FOTG files for wide release. Concealing Fate is out there but somehow I ended up tackling FACETS next instead of Enduring Fate or Fate Forgotten. This pandemic brain, I'm telling you. What a mess.)

In other new cover art news, I recently revealed the updated cover designs for HONOR AMONG ORCS and BLOOD OF THE QUEEN over on Patreon. (They got to see the Facets of Fate cover first, too!) Right now my Patreon is paused, but you can still become a new patron and you'll pay only for this month's access to all the content that's accumulated over there--including the entirety of SON OF ZEUS in advance of its release this summer! 

(More details about SON OF ZEUS and also TAMER OF HORSES over on the Amalia Carosella blog, for those interested.)

I'm not sure yet when the new covers for the Orc Saga will be revealed elsewhere. I'm a little terrified that you'll all hate them, to be honest, or it will kill the pagereads and earnings, or, or, or. Welcome to my insecure author brain.

Anyway. That's what I've got! I hope you're all healthy and safe as you can be!

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2019 Releases

In case you missed anything, here's a complete list (with links!) of all my 2019 releases--a couple are Patreon exclusive, and while I've included a direct link, you'll still have to become a patron (for as little as a dollar a month) to get access!

Novels/Novellas

From Asgard, With Love (Wide Release Links; Amazon)

Enduring Fate

Concealing Fate

Faults of Fate (Paperback Collection)

By Amalia Carosella

The Siren's Song (Author's Edition)

Short Stories

Frost Bitten, Twice Shy (Wide Release Links; Kindle)

Favor of God (Wide Release Links; Kindle)

The Rule of Fate (Patreon Exclusive)

Refuge (Patreon Exclusive)

And currently releasing on Patreon in a serialized form:

Son of Zeus

I think that about covers it!

(Get it? Covers???? ahaha.)

Wishing you all a fabulous 2020!

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Concealing Fate has arrived! Faults of Fate is coming soon!

Amazon

So I missed Concealing Fate's release day but it's here! For Kindle and in Paperback, if that is your jam! Huzzah!

I'm pretty excited about this one, and I loved writing it, so I hope you'll enjoy reading it, too. And displaying it on your bookshelf, maybe, because I know I will be!

Anyway, the real impetus of this blogpost is that I wanted to offer some notes regarding the reading order now that there are I don't even know how many novellas in this series--5? Yeah. Maybe that's getting a smidge out of hand but I offer no apology because playing with this series and in this sandbox and with these characters is too much fun and I refuse to give it up, like it or lump it!

*cough*
Reading Order. Right.

So, Concealing Fate is technically a prequel to the present timeline of Forged by Fate, the first book in the Fate of the Gods trilogy. (And we've discussed how the present timeline is maybe not as present day as it could be at this point, but such is life and the lag between writing of publishing.) And if you're NEW to my Fate of the Gods trilogy, I would definitely say, go ahead and read Concealing Fate first!! It will give you a little bit more grounding for the relationship that you are dumped into the middle of in Forged by Fate's opening chapters, and a little bit more insight into the character of Garrit DeLeon--and getting the chance to write half of Concealing Fate from his point of view was at least 50% of the appeal of writing this novella at all.

BUT.

If you've already read the main trilogy, I think it makes more sense to read Enduring Fate first, before Concealing Fate, because as a PAIR, chronologically, that's how they work. The events of Enduring Fate take place in the life just before Eve's Present Timeline--and having that past fresh in your reader mind going into Concealing Fate gives added context for the choices she makes in how she engages with Garrit.

NB to New Readers: If you have not read Fate Forgotten (Fate of the Gods #2), Enduring Fate will spoil it!

Goodreads

Which brings me to Faults of Fate, the forthcoming novella paperback collection.

I'm assuming that those of you who are buying Faults of Fate are long time fans and readers. So I collected these two novellas in chronological order rather than New-Reader Reading Order. Enduring Fate, followed by a bonus scene that is kind of a peek at what inspired its events--which might otherwise feel spoilerish if read beforehand--and then Concealing Fate, which will lead you back into Forged by Fate, if you're that kind of re-reader (I know I am.)

It's quirky and weird, I know, and the way the timelines are all interwoven, it makes the reading order a little more dodgy than another series might be, but such is the nature of this particular beast, and I hope you'll all keep following along anyway, because it's been a wild, wonderful ride, and I don't think I'm done yet.

In Conclusion, a New Reader Reading Order:

    ↬ Concealing Fate (Prequel Novella, collected in Faults of Fate)
1) Forged by Fate
    ↪ Tempting Fate (collected in Facets of Fate)
2) Fate Forgotten
    ↪ Taming Fate (collected in Facets of Fate)
    ↪ Enduring Fate (collected in Faults of Fate)
3) Beyond Fate
    ↪ Finding Fate (Epilogue Novella, exclusively available in Facets of Fate, the first Fate of the Gods Collection.)

NB: you can buy Concealing Fate and Enduring Fate independently for kindle. At this time, I have no plans to make Faults of Fate a digital release--and it will be the only paperback edition of Enduring Fate I put out. If you'd like to read the bonus scene that is available in Faults of Fate's paperback, it's on Patreon, and it will only cost you a dollar a month to access it, PLUS you'll get to read a bunch of other fun stuff, too.

And for those of you RETURNING after already reading the primary trilogy:

1) Forged by Fate
2) Fate Forgotten
3) Beyond Fate
4) Facets of Fate (the first Fate of the Gods Novella Collection)
    ↪ Tempting Fate (Mia and Adam, Present Timeline)
    ↪ Taming Fate (Ryam DeLeon and Eve, 15th Century)
    ↪ Finding Fate (Marcus, Near Future Epilogue)
5) Faults of Fate (the forthcoming PAPERBACK Fate of the Gods Novella Collection)
    ↪ Enduring Fate (Eve and Thor, 1914-1920)
    ↪ Concealing Fate (Garrit DeLeon and Eve, Present Timeline Prequel)

Questions or Comments? Hit me up below! Or via email, even, I'm happy to chat!

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