This past weekend, Octocon 2020 took place online. It was an opportunity to keep the convention running, even in the face of a global pandemic, spreading members’ attention across Zoom, Twitch and Discord for a free weekend celebrating fandom and genre fiction. I was fortunate to be offered a Dealer Room channel on the convention’s Discord, as well as one for Cupán Fae, where we could talk about our books.

New Editions of The Black Pages

In a pre-Covid world, new editions of The Black Pages would have debuted at the convention in physical form, rather than appearing as an Amazon link. Thankfully, even a global pandemic doesn’t stop authors like me releasing new editions of their books that tie together for the first time since they became a series in their own right.

The new editions – which I’ve been calling my Spellbook Editions – mark a change in the design for the series to keep it consistent and interesting, while also serving to reduce my stress levels when it comes to creating new covers!

The Magic Man: Book 2

On Twitter, I mentioned the cover reveal for my next book. I’m delighted to share it publicly for the first time: the cover, title and release date for the second book in the Magic Man arc of The Black Pages.

The book has some overlap with Second Sight for Sore Eyes in terms of its timeline, with the other side of Arnold and Gary’s story being told. I’ve been dying for the release of this book, which is nearing the point of formatting for publication.

New Cupán Fae titles!

It wouldn’t be Octocon without a Cupán Fae release. This year, thanks to the cancellation of physical events, we pushed our summer release out for a double-bill for Octocon.

I have stories in both anthologies. In Fierce & Proud, I tell a tale of discovering one’s sexuality later in life in Man in the Mirror. In our punk book, Fiercepunk, I have Biopunk and Flowerpunk stories, Accidents Happen and The Central Fae respectively.

Creating these books was a blast, and this time included three authors’ debuts with us!

Until next time…

I’ll have more updates soon, and a few extra bits and pieces as we near the launch of State of Despayre in November. In the meantime, I’ll be working on getting the book ready to go, and prepping for NaNoWriMo 2020. If you want to keep in touch, I’ll be starting my newsletter this month. You can sign up below and get your hands on a collection of stories from Tales of the Fantastical. I promise I won’t spam.

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