Blood and Motive Update

After thinking about it this past week and a half, I’ll be splitting the book into two parts. It’s killing my wrists scrolling through over four hundred pages, and I’m just not there healthwise to format it properly. My brain taps out from exhaustion at that point too because I just don’t have the spoons for it either. There’s a solid dividing point in the middle that was always a spot where I took an editing break, so that is now Book 1’s ending.

Book 2 will come out less than a month from Book 1 since it’s written and I just have to get the cover together for it. This also makes me happy because there was a theme I wanted to do with the covers that I couldn’t do with only two or three books, but it will work out nicely with the four books I expect the length of this series to be. Since these will run 70kish words a piece, that means I’ll price them cheaper too.

Of course this wasn’t easy either. Splitting the books was a chain reaction of little fixes. I forgot the ending is dependent on the title itself “Blood and Motive”, so I had to change the first book’s title. The second half of my blurb will also need to be tweaked, but I’ll work on that tomorrow.

So here’s the new book list for what has now been named the Knightmages Series:

Blood and Lies

Blood and Motive

Blood and Legacy

Blood and (I haven’t got that far)

And here’s your cover reveal for Blood and Lies:

“Loyalty is the only thing that matters in the Burroughs family who makes a living summoning demons for tyrants. When Alex’s father, Nicholas Burroughs, betrays them by not sacrificing his firstborn, they execute him. Unsurprisingly, Alex grows to hate everything about his family. His black hair, rare ice elemental ability, and the knowledge that his only future will be helping them bring more misery into the world.

This drives Alex to spite his family in a way no one else has dared before – he runs away.

Knightmages take him in and teach him that real family doesn’t stab you in the heart. These knightmages are fighting to reunite their country, Verlaia, torn apart by years of civil war. A war the Burroughs patriarch, Patrick, instigated to stay in business.

To survive, Alex hides his identity and his magic. He knows one day his family will come for him, so he secretly trains to protect the normal life he’s made. When a demon attacks Alex’s new home, his time is up. He has to reveal his lies to the knightmages, including the one he’s fallen in love with.

Even if the knightmages forgive Alex, their power combined might not be enough to stop Patrick and his demons. If he doesn’t want to lose everything, Alex must seek help from equally powerful elementals; the family who said nothing when his father was executed.”

Now I will go eat my weight in candy.