Sera James's Blog

A new short story, “The Forbidden Machine,” will be releasing soon! Stay tuned!

~*~Kaleidoscope~*~

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I spent the weekend re-reading The Virgin Sacrifice and just falling in love all over again, so I’ve decided to simultaneously write the sequel while editing and prepping the Rebel Hearts series. I’m very psyched about this. I’m outlining right now, and will honestly drop this book as soon as I have the cover finished, because I just can’t wait. I’m also going WIDE & in PRINT with all my books so you can read on any device!

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Would you like to be an advanced reader for this series, getting the books before release and having your opinion heard? Apply here!

It’s hard to find love in a world of polluted air cities, homicidal automata, and mandated mating… but Exa Massey finds it, anyway. 

“…tallying traits and probabilities as if she and he and everyone are just variables in an algorithm.”

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Steampunk City, by Nathan Barnes.

Some people just shouldn’t be allowed to have children.

Exa’s jaw clenches. She’s supposed to be clocking out and preparing for the Centennial Ball right now; there’s no time for a political debate.

Pierot waits patiently for her time card as the spokes of his irises churn back and forth. Pierot is a wind-up office assistant without the modesty of a porcelain coating. His machinations are fully visible, from the pulleys along his spine to the gears in his jaw. His copper ligaments gleam with grease. State-of-the-art. Government funded.

Her time card hangs in the air, never quite making it to the slot in his chest.

Exa glances over her shoulder. She recognizes the man speaking. He’s always bringing work orders to Cook’s Glass and Metal Fusion, which means he must work for the city. Middle-aged with slick, shaggy black hair and a hooked nose, he wears midnight blue spats and a matching top hat. An aristocrat.

It’s none of your business, she reminds herself stiffly. He can think whatever he wants to think. He works for the government; of course he supports the Companion laws. Just. Clock. Out.

“Groundtown residents should get special consideration for sterilization, too.” He chuckles pleasantly, and Ferguson Cook, Exa’s boss, joins in. Her heart pounds in her ears. “A crack on the day of the centennial! Have they no shame?”

“The labs don’t test for shame,” Exa hears her own voice rise. She doesn’t turn to face the men. “They don’t test for spinelessness, or hypocrisy, or—”

“Exa,” Ferguson mutters in a warning tone.

“That’s the beauty of the formula, isn’t it?” She places her time card on Pierot’s desk like it might shatter. “We’re boiled down to our tiniest degree.”

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Automaton Girl, by Ian Daniels.

The gentleman smiles uncomfortably. “I doubt you have anything to worry about,” he soothes. “You’re very pretty, in your own way.”

“I don’t have anything to worry about? I don’t have anything to worry about?”

Exa advances toward the gentleman, but Ferguson is already moving to intercept her. He crowds her out of the foyer and into the back of the workshop.

“Finish up,” he growls, pointing hastily toward her current project.

Exa’s brow knits. “But the centennial—”

“I changed my mind! You’re staying!” Ferguson barks, slamming the door behind himself and leaving her stranded in the back.

“I’m not worried, sir! I’m furious!” she yells through the closed door, standing on the tips of her toes to make eye contact with the gentleman, still staring at her through the glass like a dodo bird.

One hour later, Exa Massey’s soft-faced mallet rises and falls in a pleasant rhythm, clinking against a leaf of brass.

Work always calms her down.

This is nice.

Clink.

I don’t need anything else.

Clink.

I’ve already found the love of my life.

CLINK.

Finding something like Mom and Dad have.

CLINK.

It’s next to impossible.

CLINK!

They just got lucky.

CLINK!

Nobody lives like that!

CLINK!

Nobody is happy!

CRUNCH.

Exa’s glove travels up to her welding mask. The bolts whine as the visor flips from her dark gold eyes, and she paws the leaf into her mitt for examination.

Shit.

She cracked it.

Exa grimaces. This piece, albeit tiny, is the thirty-second she’s shattered. The project is three hundred parts in total. When it’s complete, it will comprise one clockwork tree.

“‘Ey Exa, git yer shit shelved,” Ferguson calls from the other side of the door. “Need ya at da Groundtown docks fer dat crack.”

“Oh, yeah?” Exa wonders, dropping the ruined leaf onto the floor with all the other scrap. She pries off her helmet and shakes out her silver-white dreadlocks. “I figured I’d be your last choice.”

“Ya are.”

With traffic on the narrow city streets too dense for a taxicab, Exa forces herself to run with her gear shoved under her arm. Groundtown stands out on the horizon like a scab, its buildings flaking with rust.

Icarus only has the illusion of square footage. Within ten minutes, she’s there.

Exa steps warily past the windows of The Electric Palace. Sleek, porcelain automata coo at her, winking and blowing kisses. They’re triggered by any motion at all; they’d wink and blow kisses at a butterfly, if there still were such things. One automaton is dressed like a maid in a frothy skirt that only hits upper-thigh. She bends at the waist, a movement that always seems severe and alarming on the ball-jointed models, and Exa can see the large brass key turning soundlessly in her back.

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Wind-Up Gynoid, by Scott Miron.

The outlet to the Groundtown aerial dock is in the back alley behind this place. Exa arrives at the locked gate and lets herself through with a key. There are normally sentries and a litany of questions to answer and documents to show, but no one guards the Groundtown exit. No one here can afford an airship; the aerial dock only exists for repairs to the south-eastern side of the dome. And, if you so like, for suicides.

Exa steps onto the aerial dock and the whole world changes. It opens up…

I know what you’re thinking. I subscribed to your newsletter. I joined your fan group! And you totally disappeared. 

That’s true. But, after a long hiatus to acclimate to my new job as a game writer, I’ve returned… with books. Not only am I going to complete The Everdark Oracle & Goddess Fracture series’, I’m also going to release a third series, Rebel Hearts.

Because most of Rebel Hearts is already finished, I’m going to release it first, but this is NOT going to be a string of first-in-series releases with no conclusion. I just have Rebel Hearts ready to go!

So thanks for sticking around, and I’ll be back soon with more goodies for you.

Hey, why is your name changed on some social media? 

That’s my real name you’re seeing, you lucky duck. “Sera James” is a combination of my children’s names, and it’s a pen name. (What can I say? I have a gift for choosing beautiful and romantic names.) It’s in the process of being reverted to Sera James again, but the process can be slow.

First of all, I got a new job as a game writer for a prestigious company I can’t mention by name. Because of this, my time as an indie writer has been cut way down. But I’m not going anywhere. Don’t unfollow me. Don’t unfriend me. I will produce multiple books this year, as soon as I get into a rhythm with this new job.

Second of all and most importantly, I’m taking a break from the #Everdark series, and I’m not sure if I’ll return to it or not. Reviews for both first-in-series were mixed, and I want a series that really knocks my audience out of their socks.

So, I’m going to take a -break- but not a -quit- and really absorb the criticisms I received, and think about myself as a writer. My Facebook mentions this more in depth, but let’s just say, I’m not sure where I’ve been going. The reverse harem element of #Everdark felt forced, and the style was mine, but… it was missing something.

Thanks for reading, and checking in with my blog. I still have a book about a dragon that I will be releasing soon, but the new job has come to the forefront of my focus and my cover artist is undergoing some health issues. We are on indefinite hold for what is technically book #3, but in some ways is book #1.

After receiving preliminary reviews from beta readers, I’ve decided to rewrite The Goddess Fracture #1. I’ve had this concept for a long time and want to make sure it is perfect. I’ll update with a new release date soon. My next book coming out is now a standalone called His Human Assistant, followed by the 2nd book of the Everdark Oracle series. Keep reading and know that The Goddess Fracture is only being taken away so it can be the absolute best on its release day!

Big news: I just got a job as a game writer for Pixelberry Studios. If you’ve never played one of their games, check them out, because they’re a lot of fun. It’s story-driven, decision-based gameplay, almost more like a graphic novel, with romances, horrors, and fantasies.

Now my writing time will be cut down and I’m releasing a dragon romance standalone, His Human Assistant, in March so that I have more time to write. (His Human Assistant is already written and ready to go.)

In the meantime, though, I’m going to publish a poll in my Facebook fan group, and see which series (Everdark or Goddess Fracture) has the strongest pull for a second book right tf now!

So come on down and sign up if you want to participate. You can always leave me comments and emails too. I love feedback. Thank you all so much for reading.

FB fan group –> https://www.facebook.com/groups/536749413355232/

All right, #TheGoddessFracture is running a week behind schedule for release, but its preorder is live and you can get your copy here –> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079Y8XP3H

This book is going to get print copies too!! I’d like to go wide with it when it exits Kindle Unlimited, too.

If there are any fans who are wondering why I’ve started two series’ simultaneously, I can say that #Everdark will be a long series and #TheGoddessFracture is an old idea that rolled around in my head for years before this point. What I mean is that neither series is going away! They’re just simultaneous.

Pick up your copy early and don’t forget to leave a review. My readers are my guides.

Ladies and gentlemen, drum roll please… the blurb for my next release!

Everyone says I make bad decisions, but falling in love with an escape artist was my worst.

Jules disappears all the time. So do I! It’s just the way we are. But this time, he doesn’t come back. I have to follow the clues to find him, and they lead me to a town where people are known to disappear—and I disappear too.

Now I’m regaining consciousness in a cage. In the stone ruins of a temple. Deep in the uncharted wilderness. Surrounded by some kind of primitive people. Oh, and there’s Julian.

Their leader says that “Ariann Dillinger” is dead, and I’m now the reincarnation of their goddess, Caz. Their goddess of life and death. I have to play along to stay alive long enough to escape, and it almost works. One morning I wake up unsupervised, unchained, no cage.

There’s only one problem: I wake up as Caz.

As reality dissolves beneath my feet, escape dissolves with it. What happens during my black-outs? Can I trust anyone–even myself? Are the things I’m seeing real? Have I stumbled onto some territory between the spirit and material world… or am I going mad?

THE GODDESS FRACTURE is a fantasy adventure series with a noir mystery twist. Follow Ariann through a deep, rich new world of mysticism, sabotage, and sacrifice.

DROPS 2/22 Y’ALL