From the Publisher's Desk

Our next release will be Fire's Tongue, the second book in the Element's Opening series. The first book in the series, Water's Eye, came out last year, and featured Maya San Lucas, the main character from the Doors of the Mind series. This new installment introduces Megana Hurley, a new character to the series. She works as a shop girl in the general store of the small town of Chicagorn, several days west of The Capital. Most of the people in Chicagorn know of her, but only her best friend Claire really knows her. Knows that she is secretly a mage, hiding her power in a world that would see her dead if they knew it. Only Claire has a secret of her own that Megana doesn't know about. Not until Megana's boyfriend heads off to join the trooper corps, leaving the two girls behind all on their own.

Did you know that we also have audiobooks? We're currently working through all our previous books, trying to include them in our current audiobook collection. But going forward, all books, including Fire's Tongue, will now be released with an audiobook. These are only available on Google Play at the moment, but we are still looking into other avenues as well. Check out our Audiobook page on the website for which titles are currently available.

From the Writer's Desk

The current book on my desk is Offbeat: A Musical. This book follows Celine Elliot and her MP3 player, as she is sent to the Crystal Kingdom and delves into her mysterious past, whether she wants to or not. Each chapter features a song, which the MP3 player plays upon the start of the chapter, and over the course of it. It was meant to be part silly, part fun, part adventurous, but it's not coming out as well as I had hoped. Most of the time, the song comes in as little more than background music, rather than pumping out a new hit each time that drives the story forward.

Still, the story itself is interesting. Celine is an orphan, left at the doorstep of a firehouse with nothing but her MP3 player. The controls on the player stopped working years ago, but Celine can't afford to replace it. Not to mention that it is the only thing she had of her parents. She secretly thinks that her birth parents are somehow controlling it remotely, but when she heads to the Crystal Kingdom, in a separate, magical world, she's too used to the player being weird to think much of the fact that it is still playing music.

The Crystal Kingdom was a once grand kingdom, built up from the ashes of the old empire and covers one of several continents on the world. The main feature of the kingdom is a crystal forest, full of trees that have crystals for leaves. The crystal trees are an important part to their society, providing them with food and a way to procreate with same gender couples, which are the norm for the world. More recently, however, the kingdom has been all but abandoned, plagued by beetles the size of buzzards.

From the Event Desk

This year's event schedule is a bit up in the air at the moment. Jersey Pride and Collingswood are definitely happening again, and I'll let you know when I have information on those. As for IABX, they changed this up a bit this year. Instead of a single event in the middle of August, when no one wants to be out in the sun, there's one in June for children's books and YA, and one in September that seems more for adult readers. I am considering going to the June event, though it is the weekend after Jersey Pride, so... Well, I might be sold out, and there's not enough time for re-ordering any books.