Beth Alvarez's Blog

This is an ongoing companion piece to be read after completing the Snakesblood Saga. Because it takes place during the final chapter of the last book, it will be very full of spoilers. It’s also unedited first draft fluff… just for fun! Read at your own risk, and expect installments no closer together than once a month.

* * * * *

“Wait a moment, if you would?”

Rune fought the desire to grimace, though he halted in the hallway and waited for Redoram to catch up.

The old man took his time. Whatever he had to say, it struck him as less than urgent.

Eventually, the councilor stopped beside him and smoothed his robes. “I believe I’ve worked out His Majesty’s issue with the grate design. I’d be more than happy to draw it up before the next meeting of council, but I’ll need a copy of your schematic. Do you mean to take it with you, or…?”

Rune held out the rolled plans. “Having it out of my sight for a while might do me some good.”

Delight lit the councilor’s eyes as he took the paper. It disappeared into the folds of his rich blue velvet robes. “Yes, well, one might say the same about many things. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, hmm?”

Whatever the old man implied, Rune missed it. A faint crease etched itself between his brows.

Redoram cleared his throat. “You’ve been notably absent for the past several meetings. Vicamros is becoming cross.”

“Vicamros didn’t summon me for any of those meetings. He knows where I am.” Rune knew the king preferred it when he stayed in the Spiral Palace, but spending time at his own residence had never been a problem before.

The corners of the old man’s mouth twitched. “Is that so? Odd. He made it sound as if you ignored them.”

“I wouldn’t have—“ Rune started, only to cut himself short as a second possibility came to mind. He bit back the words and shut his mouth, knowing it made him look frustrated, then worked to smooth his expression. “Never mind. I’ll speak with him.” He wouldn’t go so far as to say he would apologize.

“Well, he hasn’t left the council chamber yet, so now would be a good time. Thank you for loaning me your work. I’ll bring this back with copies at the next meeting.” Redoram raised his hand and gave the rolled schematic a shake. If Rune hadn’t known any better, he might have thought it magic how quickly he made it vanish and reappear.

“Of course,” Rune said, though he doubted the copies produced by the councilor’s apprentices would be a good enough quality to build from. He’d have to insist on having the original back.

Satisfied, Redoram tucked away the roll of paper again and smoothed his robes as he carried on down the hall.

Rune waited until he was out of sight to return to the council chamber. It was rare to have the opportunity to speak with Vicamros alone, but the fewer eavesdroppers there were, the more comfortable he would be in addressing whatever new problem had arisen.

If it was a problem.

The wide room where the king’s council met was all but empty now. Rune stepped aside to let the few stragglers leave.

“Dinner tomorrow,” Garam remarked as he slid through the doorway.

Rune offered a nod. “As usual.”

The former captain nodded back and went on his way, unbothered, leaving only Vicamros and a woman Rune did not know well. She was not a usual part of the council, but a mage from the Grand College, sent to attend some business he hadn’t been privy to. She had not added anything to the meeting they’d just concluded, and had simply spent the entire time taking notes. Rune could only assume they were meant for Kytenia.

Of all the mages who could have taken control of the Grand College, he’d never expected she might be chosen.

The king glanced up from some paper the mage held before him. His gaze cooled.

That did not bode well.

“Forgive me for interrupting, Your Majesty.” For a fleeting moment, Rune considered that his choice of words might draw the king’s ire more, but he could not help the way the two of them related. For as long as he’d known the man, his approach had been to act first and ask forgiveness later. He was not likely to change now. “Do you have a moment?”

“That depends on why you need it.” Vicamros kept his voice low, but not flat.

Better than Rune hoped for, all things considered. “I just spoke with Councilor Parthanus, who made me aware of a… miscommunication. I thought I should apologize.”

The king’s eyes narrowed. “Since when?”

Rune’s brows twitched, but he kept them from drawing together. “What?”

“Since when do you apologize for anything? You’ve never been sorry a day in your life.”

For a moment, Rune didn’t know what to say. He stared, searching for some sort of defense or justification.

Then Vicamros shifted and instead of suspicion, he looked at Rune with concern. “Something’s wrong.”

“Maybe.” Rune kept his relief at the change of subject to himself, though the new one was no more comfortable. “I don’t know yet.”

The king stood straighter. “Leave us,” he ordered the mage.

The woman bowed her head and shuffled her papers into order before she obeyed, though she studied Rune from the corner of her eye as she departed. Sizing him up? Wondering why he deserved private audience with the king? There was something to her expression he did not like, though he couldn’t name what it was.

They waited in silence until the mage was gone, then Vicamros spoke, his tone low and urgent. “What’s happened? Should I be concerned?”

Rune motioned for him to settle. “Nothing that severe.” At least, he didn’t think it was. “How many meetings did I miss?”

“Four.”

More than he’d expected. Rune winced. “How did you summon me?”

A strange frown pulled at the corners of the king’s features. “The same as usual.”

That was what he’d feared. “I didn’t get it,” Rune said.

“What? That can’t be right. My mages—”

“I didn’t get it,” Rune repeated, stressing the first word. Claiming ownership of the problem. “I felt no Calling. My power has been inconsistent ever since…” He trailed off, unsure how to refer to the situation.

Since Elenhiise fell? Since he shattered the Gate-stone and left his sword fused into the ruins of the portal?

“Inconsistent?” Vicamros said, and this time, his face pinched with more than just concern.

Distress was out of place on the man, especially considering the news.

Rune was the one affected most. It was his burden to bear, no matter how distasteful he found the reality.

He wet his lips and then swallowed. “My magic’s failing, Cam.”

The post An Exercise in Frustration (Pt. 17) appeared first on The World of Ithilear - Home of author Beth Alvarez.

Book lovers have strong feelings about books that match. That’s why we’re heading back to get this series finished and ensure book 2 matches the beautiful hardcover edition I created for The Assassin’s Bride!

The Spymaster’s Prize is a story in the same vein – a stand-alone fantasy romance adventure with no spice and an ending of its own. The book follows the adventures of the sunshiny baker Elia and her reluctant companion Cass, the woodsman who saved her when she stumbled upon a friend in trouble.

But now her friend is missing, and it’s up to the two of them to rescue him… before a blizzard erases all hope of tracking down the strangers who took him.

Every physical copy of the book comes with a chibi sticker and a double-sided bookmark. And, just like the last hardcover project, all artwork has been drawn by me, with color assistance from my super-sweet sister.

And if you missed the upgraded version of the first book, good news: While the upgraded edition remains pretty exclusive, you can add it to your pledge to make sure your collection is complete.

Follow the campaign on Kickstarter now to see all the great things we’ll be unlocking! Some extra goals are already on the way.

The post The Spymaster’s Prize Kickstarter campaign is now live! appeared first on The World of Ithilear - Home of author Beth Alvarez.

Last year was meant to be the year where I buckled down on book marketing. It didn’t quite work out, but I did complete my epic fantasy series Spectrum Legacy, which means now is the perfect time to do a full series audit on the book series to make sure it’s the most presentable package it can be.

Getting in front of readers is always hard. It’s also normal to have books that don’t sell as well. You’re always going to have something that doesn’t land well, and then you have a few books that do great and are your leaders in profit. But this series suffered from a unique problem: It’s a long epic fantasy series in a world where readers have been burned by incomplete stories and often won’t begin a new story until the series is complete. I understand all too well, because that’s the main reason I prioritized finishing the series over marketing the series.

Now that it’s done, that barrier is removed, so the next step is ensuring the series gains visibility.

It has a few things going for it already. One is that the covers are gorgeous. They were all done by an incredible artist whose work I love, and I know the covers work for catching attention! At my last book signing, a gentleman walked past my table half a dozen times, then came over and said he couldn’t stop staring and knew he needed that book. He didn’t even care what the story was about. He just knew the cover spoke to him, and that’s exactly what I want.

But even though the packaging is excellent, I’ve had a lot of challenges with this series. I’ve always suspected part of the problem is that epic fantasy as a genre isn’t always very friendly to female writers. We see a lot of this with current series being squeezed out of the epic category and exclusively labeled romantasy, but in a derogatory way, as if romantasy isn’t as valid. And if not romantasy, it gets labeled YA, even though the book was clearly meant for a more mature audience.

Back when I was still pursuing traditional publishing with The Snakesblood Saga, I had a female agent tell me that women didn’t write epic fantasy for adult audiences, they wrote YA. It has always bothered me, and I know it’s untrue, but it is true that a lot of comparable titles by female authors have been shoved over into YA categories for this type of book. Since this series does feature characters in their late teens and the content isn’t risque, I can bill it as YA and I might have better luck marketing it that way. It’s a frustrating issue, because the story is modeled after all the adult epic fantasy I’ve read, where a young man who has just come of age is suddenly more than he bargained for. He sets off for the Hero’s Journey and the world changes along with him. If that’s not traditional epic fantasy, then what is?

But anything is worth a try, so categories were the first thing to change. I moved all the books out of the adult categories on Amazon and into the YA section. There aren’t as many subcategories for YA fiction, but they’re nicely organized. I chose epic fantasy and Arthurian fantasy for the first two, because following a mentor’s advice and seeking a legendary sword that can be used to unify kingdoms and save the world is a pretty solid fit for both of those. For the third category, I wasn’t sure if I should go with coming of age or sword and sorcery, because both fit. This series is heavily Legend of Zelda inspired, and as my friend Elaine said, because it leans more toward Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time, it’s definitely got sword and sorcery flavor. Ultimately, I chose to do a combination. Some of the books are in the sword and sorcery category as a chosen category and others are in coming of age, but I also used keywords that would ensure all the books would be found in either of those categories.

Revising the cover copy was the next step for my series audit. While the sales copy I had was okay, the blurb can always be better, and I wanted it to be as tight and impactful as possible. The only blurb I changed was for book one, because the ones that come later in the series matter less. That’s not to say that sales copy doesn’t matter at all for later books, just that spending tons of time obsessing over blurbs for later books isn’t going to make any difference at all if they didn’t enjoy book one.

So again, I got help from my friend Elaine. She suggested some revisions for the blurb I already had, and then I built off her suggestions to finish a new version. It removed anything that didn’t add value to the description, then ended with stronger wording than what I started with.  So of course, special thanks to Elaine Canyon for going over all of this with me!

Changing the keywords came next. As I mentioned previously, I used my keywords to help my books appear in other related categories, since you can only choose three, but they can appear in others. Writing “sword and sorcery” and “coming of age” as keywords means there’s a chance they can appear in those category groupings, regardless of the main categories you’ve chosen. Amazon likes it when keywords are given in an order readers might search for, so I kept those terms as phrases in the keyword boxes, then put all my other keywords into an arrangement that got me as close to using all 50 characters in a keyword slot as possible. You get seven keyword slots and it helps to stuff them full, because a line that says legendary sword, magical artifacts, chosen one, and magic will still allow Amazon to pick out those particular phrases, as long as they’re properly grouped.

There are tools available to do keyword research, but I just used a private browser window to visit Amazon and looked for books I thought were similar to mine. From there, I scanned their book descriptions and titles for keywords I thought might fit my book. You can’t use another book’s title as a keyword, but you can look for commonalities to give you ideas. A book titled Dragon Slayer? I have a dragon in my series, let’s use that as a keyword. This book has a magical sword? So does mine. Lastly, I checked my list against what I thought people might actually search for, like “YA epic fantasy with dragons” and built my keyword lists from that.

As the final step, I made sure my pricing was competitive within my genre. I only looked at indie authors for this part of the project. All my ebooks for this series are priced at $4.99, which I think is a great price point, because it’s easy to convince someone to try a new author for an investment of five bucks. Once they’re more established, epic fantasy authors tend to charge more, but there are enough similar titles available at the $5 price point that it’s still right for a series that has not yet gained traction.

Paperbacks skewed a lot higher in price. Both indie and trad pub epic fantasy books were a lot closer to a range of eighteen to twenty five dollars per book, which isn’t a surprise considering how much printing costs have risen in the past few years. All my paperbacks for this series are priced at eighteen dollars, keeping it in line with the rest of the genre. Pricing my books correctly means I won’t look suspiciously low-priced, which might make readers question a book’s quality.

So now this series is fully up to speed, polished and adjusted to fit the current market, and the next step is going to be exploring marketing options. Working with something in YA categories will be new to me, so I’ll have to experiment a bit before I’ll figure out a new rhythm, but this is a solid start that’s made my platform—and my presentation of this series—a lot stronger.

The post How I did a full series audit for my fantasy book series on Amazon appeared first on The World of Ithilear - Home of author Beth Alvarez.

This is an ongoing companion piece to be read after completing the Snakesblood Saga. Because it takes place during the final chapter of the last book, it will be very full of spoilers. It’s also unedited first draft fluff… just for fun! Read at your own risk, and expect installments no closer together than once a month.

* * * * *

“And then?”

Firal raised her hands in a helpless shrug. “And then we slept.”

Kytenia sat back. She’d spent most of the conversation all but laying across her desk, what with how far she leaned over it, yet there was no hint of disappointment in her face now. Instead, her eyes gleamed with… something. Firal didn’t know what the expression was. Amusement? At least someone found the situation entertaining.

When the Archmage said nothing, Firal heaved a sigh and rubbed her forehead as if she could smooth away her worries. “I don’t know what else to do.”

“You could always try what you did with Vahn,” Kytenia intoned.

Firal cast her a dirty look, but it melted into something miserable a moment later. “I fear I don’t even know if it would work on him. He’s so different, Kyt. It’s like trying to speak to a wall. Once upon a time, his eyes gave everything away. Now I can’t read him at all.”

“He is more level.” Kytenia reclined in her chair and tapped her chin in an exaggerated show of thoughtfulness. “I don’t deal with him directly, of course, but he is part of the king’s council. The mages apparently see him as one of the more reasonable councilors.”

Firal snorted.

“I know.” A soft smile curled the corners of Kytenia’s mouth. “It’s not how I would have imagined things might change, either. He was always so…”

“Passionate,” Firal finished for her.

Kytenia gave an odd, strangled laugh. “That wasn’t going to be my choice of words, but you would know better than I would.”

Heat rose into Firal’s cheeks and she shook her head. “But that’s just it. I see his enthusiasm for his work. It’s consumed him lately, he forgets his meals. But that same heat isn’t there in his dealings with me. He treats me as if… as if I’m…” Her hand grasped helplessly at the air, unable to draw the word from it.

“A bird,” Kytenia finished for her. “Like that ballad.”

Firal had tried not to think about that song. “I’m not a bird. I’m…”

“A fearless mage and mother. A queen without a crown, who doesn’t need to be handled with care.” Kytenia said it without contempt, though she batted her eyelashes. “Should I suggest he be fierce with you?”

“Kyt!”

“What? It’s obvious he wants you there. He asked you stay there. He holds you while you sleep. He might treat you like spun glass, but I don’t think you have to worry about catching his interest. He’s as smitten with you now as he was in our days at the temple. The whole Triad knows it.”

Yet Firal herself doubted. Her shoulders sagged and she stared at the desk. “What do you see that I don’t?”

“Me, personally? Nothing. I stay here.” Kytenia gestured around the office. “From the Grand College, I can’t see anything firsthand. But I hear things, and the way he looked at you during that party you attended together has the Triad’s nobles in quite a stir. People have come to speak to me, wanting to know your credentials as a mage.”

“Mine? Why?” Firal could not fathom what that had to do with their relationship.

Kytenia shrugged. “His power as a mage was noteworthy here. I don’t know where the rumor came from, but someone claimed you were the one who taught him, and it’s been spreading like wildfire.”

That much was true. Firal did not know how much she’d been able to help, but the long hours they’d spent practicing together were a memory she held dear. “And then you have to tell them I never progressed past green robes.”

“I’ve opted for the approach of explaining how mages with royal blood were forbidden from becoming Masters.”

“Diplomatic,” Firal said.

Kytenia fluttered her eyelashes again. “Incendiary. They hate that they can’t find out precisely how strong or qualified you are.”

Firal lowered her gaze. “Maybe I should have been one. A Master, I mean I wonder sometimes if they ever meant to tell me. Was I meant to pass the tests before they told me who I was? Or did they mean to deny me and keep it secret forever?”

“I don’t know. You know I didn’t reach Master white until…” Kytenia traced the edge of a paper on her desk with her fingertip as she trailed off.

“I know.” It came out sour, so Firal sat straighter and tried to look as if she deserved the station she once held. “I’m not unhappy with you. I’ve never been unhappy with you, or your rank, or with how you’ve handled things. I just wish I had answers for the things they did to us, that’s all. To me, and to him.”

“I never got to learn, you know. What they did. How they made him… what he was.” Even now, Kytenia winced at the subject. Few of the mages who had been involved in the process still lived. All of them were tight-lipped.

More than once, Firal had wondered if she should have demanded answers from the temple once she wore the crown. But the time had passed, and the window for such knowledge to be gleaned was closed.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter anymore.” She’d gain nothing by stewing over it. “He’s just like the rest of us now.”

“Is he?”

The question shouldn’t have given her such pause. “Well, no. Not like us. His power is all but gone now. There are some good days and some bad. Sometimes he’s more capable, but there’s no denying it’s gone. Burned right out of him.” And acknowledging it put an ache in her chest. Maybe that was part of what Firal missed. Without their lessons to bond over, what was there to draw them together?

Kytenia was less bothered. She shrugged as if it didn’t matter at all. “Considering what happened, that’s no surprise. It’s a miracle he lived at all.”

And had he been even a fraction less powerful than he was, Firal had no doubt he would not have survived.

Losing one husband to the event was enough.

She shook the thought from her head and sighed. “Well, in any event, it hasn’t affected his station, nor his ability to do his job. Everyone wants him involved in something.”

“Everyone wants to leverage him for something, you mean,” Kytenia said. “Don’t forget what that’s like.”

As if she could. Too much of Firal’s life had been punctuated with manipulation. “I’ve had enough of people trying to wield me as a tool.”

“I’m sure he feels the same.”

Firal twitched.

Minute as it was, Kytenia’s eyes sharpened and the weight of her gaze grew heavy.

It was too close to their argument. The accusation that all she wanted was convenience. Firal’s throat tightened, but she swallowed hard to force it loose and retained her composure. “Do you suppose that’s part of the problem? Does he think I’m using him?”

“Do you think you are?” The question was gentle, yet it prodded at uncomfortable bruises in her emotions.

“Maybe that’s something to discuss with the counselor.” Firal had decided she was grateful for Setta’s involvement, even if her questions were uncomfortable. Whatever discomfort this new concern brought, the counselor would likely prod it loose until it fell out.

“Maybe it’s something to discuss with your husband.”

Gentle as the reprimand was, it made Firal’s shoulders sag. “My husband,” she murmured. “What a thing to say.”

Kytenia cracked a smile and gathered a few papers, though they were already organized. “It shouldn’t be that strange, you’ve spent the last six pents married.”

“But not to him.”

The Archmage raised a brow. “Weren’t you?”

Were they? The question shouldn’t have given Firal pause, yet she sat back in her chair and puzzled over it as if it were a mystery to solve.

The mages had declared their union invalid, as it followed the rules of the ruin-folk and not those of Ilmenhith. But she’d become queen of both Ilmenhith and the ruin-folk. Their laws and observations had become part of her responsibilities.

Yet hadn’t Ilmenhith’s, too? She had been queen. Why had she allowed the mages to dictate the laws of her own country?

Maybe it had been easier. She’d been overwhelmed and adrift, and having someone else give her direction had been comforting in the wake of all she’d suffered. There had been Lulu to think of, too, and for all that some of the temple’s Masters had suggested she reconsider motherhood, she had not been swayed. There had been little she wanted more, and she’d been desperate to hold on to some shred of Rune after he was gone, too.

She scrubbed her face with both hands, as if she could wash away some of the frustration.

“Maybe you’re right,” Kytenia concluded. “Maybe you should speak to the counselor about this.”

“And what if I’m right? What if the reason he holds me at arm’s length is because of all he has to offer?” It wasn’t as if Firal meant to take advantage of him, but she could not deny how poor the situation must look from the outside, either.

She was lost, a woman with a child and no station, no prospects, and no home to go back to. He had forged wealth, rank, and power in the Triad on his own. From what she’d gathered, few knew of their history. How many of his peers must have expressed concern over the crownless queen who had attached herself to him and taken up residence in his home?

“Then you address that whenever it comes up.” Kytenia smiled so sweetly and reassuringly that for a moment, Firal believed the problem was not nearly so great as she’d let it become in her head.

Then she caught the rustle of movement in the hallway and caught herself probing for wards.

A hint of weariness pinched the corners of Kytenia’s eyes. “They’ve been trying to eavesdrop since you arrived. I wasn’t sure if it was better to ward for our privacy, or to let them listen so the gossip might tilt more favorably in your direction.”

There were wards in place. Privacy had won. “Thank you,” Firal said, though she was not sure she was grateful.

Would it be easier to let the rumor mill turn? To allow whispers of her lacking confidence and the troubles with her husband to brew in the shadows?

The moment the thought crossed her mind, she recalled the visiting princess—what had her name been?—and she discarded it like rubbish.

She would not allow anything to cast shadows of doubt over their marriage. Rune was her husband, had always been her husband, and she would not let any scheming nobles believe they could steal him away.

“Don’t thank me until you’ve had a chance to speak with your counselor,” Kyt said.

Firal pursed her lips. “On second thought, I think I’ll speak with my husband first.”

There would be more meetings with the counselor. More chances to correct any mistakes. But she would correct what she could on her own first, and now she knew exactly what to say.

The post An Exercise in Frustration (Pt. 16) appeared first on The World of Ithilear - Home of author Beth Alvarez.

Last week, I completed fulfillment for my first-ever Kickstarter campaign, which had the goal of making a pretty hardcover edition of my fantasy romance novel The Assassin’s Bride. Now that it’s done, I can finally sit down and share a look at everything I made.

The list of digital swag was much longer – there was a new novella, three bonus scenes, printable stickers, coloring pages, all sorts of stuff! But the physical swag that went with the book was pretty nice, too. And of course, the book itself turned out gorgeous.

The hardcover edition got a new cover, and a slightly different, simpler design underneath the dust jacket. Not only that, but the upgraded edition got improvements. I added luxe satin ribbon bookmarks to the binding by hand, and also hand-airbrushed solid-color sprayed edges that went with the oranges in the cover and really pop on the shelf.

Not everyone would enjoy the process of doing their own sprayed edges, but I had so much fun with it… and the extra swag was pretty fun, too.

From the beginning of the campaign, each book came with a double-sided bookmark that was drawn by me and colored by my sister, Lissie.

The print quality on these turned out fantastic, and I love the double-sided image!

Another extra made available from the beginning was a sticker of chibi versions of Gil and Thea, which was something I also drew and colored on my own.

I had them produced in weatherproof vinyl, so they can go on just about anything. I love how these turned out, and an alternate, magic-less version of the chibis where Gil is just himself and not half disguised was part of the digital swag pack.

Then we unlocked two bookish sticker designs, which I also drew and colored. One book and one leaf, both also made in weatherproof vinyl. Since the campaign happened in the fall and so does the book, it seemed like a perfect choice.

One of the first extras made was a color version of the map as a postcard… which doubles as an art print. It’s a bit smaller than the map in the book, but coloring the map was really fun, and it’s also a functional postcard with a stamp spot on the back and everything!

Then we have the vellum overlay, which I posted about recently, since getting that made was an entire ordeal… Out of everything done for this campaign, this is the one that gives me second thoughts the most. I am super hesitant to do it again. I love how it looks inside the book, though, so I guess it’s sort of worth it.

The last stretch goal was one we actually didn’t hit, but I was so sure we’d reach it that I’d already done a lot of the work to make it happen… so I added them to the digital swag pack, and then at the last minute, a printer came through for me and was able to produce the character portraits as trading cards. Hurrah!

They feature the character’s portrait and name on one side, and the series name and a callback to the book cover design on the other. Thea and Gil both got their own cards.

And while that’s all I made as far as physical goods for the campaign, that was enough to make it a huge ordeal, especially since I was hands-on with the art production. Lissie coloring the vellum overlay and the bookmark for me was a huge help, but the rest was all me, as was the formatting and production management, and in some cases, just… the production in general. But I as a reader love bookish swag, and I’m hoping to make even more exciting things in the future.

I’ll be running a campaign for the second book at the end of January, so I can ensure the hardcover editions match. I know that’s a big deal for readers, so I want to do right by them.

I don’t know how much swag we’ll get done for that one, but we’re working on bookmarks and stickers already… so you can at least count on those!

The post The book swag I made for The Assassin’s Bride appeared first on The World of Ithilear - Home of author Beth Alvarez.

Well, sort of. The ebook edition released today, so if you had it preordered, you can go ahead and start reading!

If you didn’t preorder, you can grab the book now or read it with Kindle Unlimited.

And if you’re waiting for a print edition… The paperback will be ready before Christmas, but printing delays always hit this time of year, so getting a proof copy is taking longer than I hoped. The hardcover… well, we’ll see. The printing delays for hardcovers has proven to be a problem for the hardcover edition of The Assassin’s Bride, as well.

The interior formatting took a little longer to get done the way I wanted, too, since I wanted the book to be similar in design to The Witch and the Wyrm. These two books are officially part of a series now, set in the same world and following the same rules, but taking place in different regions.

I shared the book’s description last time I spoke about it, so this time, we’ll discuss a few other things about the book!

The Cinders and the Crown is a fairy tale retelling, but instead of being a single fairy tale, it’s a Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty mash-up.

Some of the Cinderella elements were my favorites from the old fairy tale. In particular, the ball lasting 3 nights, with each dress being more splendid than the last, was a fun thing to include. But I’m a sucker for masquerades, so you know that had to be included, too.

Prince Corin is sort of different from the heroes I usually write: Elise is the brave one, while Corin is very reserved and a bit timid… although for good reasons.

Corin’s mask is dyed specifically to match his hair. It seems like it would sell the illusion better, don’t you think?

I wanted to do some art for this book, but all I had time for was a pair of chibis. Now that I have them on my desktop, the colors are pretty washed out on this monitor, so they’ll probably need some tweaking. I’d love to make them into stickers at some point, but fortunately I still have the file with separate layers in Procreate. I don’t always have them, since I use an iPad Air – it doesn’t have a ton of memory, so I can only have 17 layers at a time. Fun fact: My book cover designs (including the one for The Cinders and the Crown!) usually have at least 50 layers. So, working with very few is an interesting challenge.

I had hoped to complete a map for the book, but as I said above, I didn’t have time. It’ll end up being a printable instead, whenever it’s finished. It might be a long way off!

I’ll be sure to update you whenever the print editions are available. Since I don’t know when that will be, I’m not taking preorders at this time, but I will stock signed copies in my shop once they’re ready.

Until then, happy reading!

The post The Cinders and the Crown is out now! appeared first on The World of Ithilear - Home of author Beth Alvarez.

If you’ve been following along with the Kickstarter updates, you’ve already seen this, but I recently got the first proof copy for the hardcover version of The Assassin’s Bride.

This was the project launched by the campaign, with a goal of having the book available through retailers toward the end of spring in 2026. But campaign backers will be getting their books in the next 2-3 months, so they’ll be arriving soon. It’s amazing to finally have the hardcover edition in my hands!

This is the 16th time I’ve formatted a book for print with Ingram, and it’s also the first time the colors have turned out nothing like what I submitted. Printed covers always turn out darker than the files you submit, and for years, my go-to solution has been boosting the midtone levels by .15. Even for purple, what is notoriously the hardest color to print accurately, the covers have always turned out well. I ran dozens of test prints at home and then adjusted accordingly, knowing that Ingram prints even darker than that. So unlike other covers I’ve done, this one was actually adjusted layer-by-layer instead of overall, and despite ramping up the frame background to be 30% lighter than the original version… it still turned out too dark.

Such is life! The warm, orange-brown background in the middle almost completely disappeared, so we’re on to round 2 of proofs for the hardcovers.

All you can do is take things like this as a learning experience. All the practice I’ve already had didn’t save me this time, but it did make me very glad that this campaign funded as well as it did.  The Spymaster’s Prize will be released as a hardcover too, and because this one did well, I’ll be able to start the proofing process for TSP much sooner and will have photos of the actual hardcover book ready when it’s time for the campaign to launch. That will let me get colors on the graphics much closer to actuality, so I won’t be scrambling to fix it after the campaign is already over and shipping is supposed to begin.

When I have time to sit down and write it all out, I’ll share a look at all the awesome things I’ve made for this campaign, because it was unbelievably fun and I can’t wait to get to enjoy every little extra I created while packing up these rewards.

The post The Assassin’s Bride Hardcover is coming soon… appeared first on The World of Ithilear - Home of author Beth Alvarez.

I have a confession to make: Every time I see other authors getting cool book stuff made, I think to myself, I want that.

But, you know, for my own books.

I’m also a prolific crafter. Creative person. You know. I do a lot of stuff “in house” as it were–I have a grossly well-stocked craft room, a nice printer (that decided not to be nice this time) and decent proficiency with Photoshop.

I also draw a little, so most of the time, if there’s some kind of book swag I want? I can probably make it.

One of those things I saw and wanted was vellum overlays. If you haven’t seen overlays before, they’re an image printed on vellum paper, small enough to fit in the pages of your book. They’re often made with illustrations of specific scenes in a book. Vellum is semitransparent, so when you put the printed overlay in your book, you can (sort of) see the text through the image. They’re pretty neat.

So when the campaign for The Assassin’s Bride started, one of the stretch goals was a no-brainer: I’d finally get a chance to do a page overlay for a book. I knew of a local print shop that could handle vellum, which is great, since it’s hard to print on a regular inkjet printer, even if you have a really nice one like mine. The slick surface of vellum means the images often smudge as the paper moves through the print rollers. It can take up to 15 minutes for a vellum print to fully dry, which means if you want good results, you need a laser printer with good image quality. The print shop had one, the images were nice and clear, and the price per page was affordable. The only catch was I needed to get my own vellum.

So I got it, and a few days later, when I had a dentist appointment, I knew I’d be on that side of town and could stop by to get my vellum overlays printed. I’d illustrated a sweet (and heavily highlighted by readers) scene where Thea is mending Gil’s shirt while they have a heart to heart, discuss hard things, and he comforts her. It’s probably my favorite part of the whole book. My sister colored it for me, since I was really tight on time, and I pulled up to the shop with my flash drive in my pocket and my pack of vellum in the passenger seat.

Only one problem.

The print shop was gone.

They’d removed the flowers from the front garden. The windows were covered up. The sign was gone.

The print shop was closed.

I sat there panicking for a moment. There were other print shops, sure, but the pricing was well outside my budget, and I’d already paid for the vellum, and not everyone is willing to use papers brought in from outside. I knew of a few places online that could do the job, but the wait times were as painful as the price. I’d already run well over budget for the project due to a lot of dropped pledges that ultimately ate up whatever padding was left from previous goals, which was a hard learning experience that will help shape future campaigns. But the vellum overlays were already promised, so I sat in my car, racking my brain and trying to think of where on earth I could go that might have a nice printer.

That’s when I thought… you know what? Maybe the library.
The library has a lot of great services they offer, and a nice quality printer is one thing that’s available for public use, though they limit the number of pages one can print each day to ensure nobody can monopolize it for huge jobs. And as it happened, the library was just a few blocks away.

So I took my paper with me and went to the desk, explaining my plight. I need 60 overlays. I need them in color. I have the image on my phone and on my flash drive. Is there any chance your good color printer can handle vellum?
The librarian I spoke to first wasn’t sure what vellum was. I pulled out a sheet to show him, and the other librarians clustered around. Eventually they all concluded there was only one way to find out. The first printed page of the day is free, so they loaded it into the printer and asked me queue up a print job for my illustration.

And see, it’s funny–I felt really good about the drawing I’d done until this shirtless man in my art was displayed on a huge monitor in the middle of the entire library for everyone in the place to see.

All of a sudden, I was just a little self-conscious about my latest creative endeavor. And everyone was looking.

With a little help getting the printer loaded, we discovered it would print, and the image turned out beautifully. The only problem was the printer could only manage one page of vellum at a time, or it would jam. For a commercial grade printer designed for speed, that was a problem: Not only did we have to feed it one page at a time, we needed break points between each sheet so we could reload the tray.

Which meant queuing 60 vellum overlays, one at a time.

Loading the sheets of vellum in, one at a time.

Approving the prints, one at a time.

The task took two computers and multiple people manning the printer. But the system only lets library patrons use a computer for 60 minutes a day, so I had to get each page printed in less than a minute. And while I’m pretty long-legged and still sprightly enough to run across the library from computer A to computer B to keep the queue going, it was a lot.

Librarians stepped in to help. One to load the sheets of vellum. One to approve each print job at the second computer. Someone else had to constantly un-jam the printer, which proved to struggle with even one sheet of vellum. And I had to keep putting prints in the queue.

And so the library turned into a factory, pumping out page after page of my shirtless man drawings on ultra-thin paper while everyone stared.

I apologized to the nearest librarian. “I’m your weird one today, I guess,” I told him.
He sighed. “Not even in the top five.”

In the end, we finished within the hour allotted, but a system issue meant the print jobs hadn’t been logged and no receipt had been generated. So last of all, I toted my stack of overlays up to the circulation desk, where me and a librarian worked together to count all these slick pages with my shirtless man on them and confirm how much I owed.

They charged me a convenience fee.

By that point, I think it was more than fair.

Anyway, the overlays turned out great. But if I’m ever foolish enough to make them again, I’m buying my own printer and doing it at home.

Not pictured in The Assassin’s Bride this time, by the way. After all that, going upstairs to get a copy was asking too much.

Fall is the perfect time for fairy tales, and I’m glad to announce my next fairy tale story will be available November 6. Allow me to introduce The Cinders and the Crown!

Forget pumpkins. The clock just struck midnight, and the prince turned into a dragon.

Elise doesn’t care about the ball. All she wants is to protect those who raised her after her father died and her stepmother seized control of the estate that should have been hers. So when her stepmother proposes a deal, it’s all too easy to agree. In exchange for staging a theft for her sister to solve to win the prince’s favor, Elise will get her estate back—and with it, the safety of those she loves.

But safety isn’t so easily won.

Prince Corin’s fairy godmother couldn’t save him from his curse. All she could do was tame it with an enchanted amulet, one he must never remove. But when a masked princess of unrivaled beauty reels him in with her laugh at his birthday masquerade, the amulet is stolen and the curse is set free. Now trapped as a dragon from midnight until dawn, Corin must hunt down the thief and regain control of his curse before the monster he’s become lays waste to the kingdom he was meant to rule.

If only she hadn’t stolen his heart, too.

The Cinders and the Crown is a sweet, no-spice fairy tale adventure combining Cinderella with elements of Sleeping Beauty.

Preorder the book now!

This is an ongoing companion piece to be read after completing the Snakesblood Saga. Because it takes place during the final chapter of the last book, it will be very full of spoilers. It’s also unedited first draft fluff… just for fun! Read at your own risk, and expect installments no closer together than once a month.

* * * * *

Too much.

Too fast, and too soon.

Rune was not surprised to see his room empty when he emerged, but the disappointment was still there. He ran his fingers through his hair and stared at the simple tunic and trousers that waited at the foot of his bed, folded far more neatly than anything he ever did for himself.

He dressed in silence before he found a comb to drag through his hair. It had gotten long again, but he liked it that way and always had—first because it had irritated those who expected things from him, and later because it felt like freedom after years spent as part of the Triad’s army. They’d insisted he keep it short, lest an enemy catch hold of it on the battlefield, and while he could not say the fact he never felt like himself in those years had anything to do with appearances, it did not strike him as far-fetched.

Now, again, he found himself facing that same quandary.

His hands felt wrong when he took a stack of papers from his usual place at the window. The paper was too rough and his fingertips too sensitive.

There was discomfort, too. His claws and scales had been protection of a sort; without them, he had blisters on palms and the fleshy parts of fingers. He rubbed one with a thumb and wondered how much longer it would be before a decent callus formed.

But the blisters and tenderness did not affect his ability to write, and when he settled on the window seat with a thin board against his legs to support his notes, he grasped his pen the same way he always had. It settled between the terminal joints on his forefinger and middle finger, and while much had changed, his handwriting stayed the same—still loose and swirling, relaxed and smooth.

He’d etched notes into the margins of half the first page before the door creaked open and made him pause.

He had not expected Firal to return.

She lifted a tray in her hands, then ducked her eyes. “I thought you might want to eat something before you slept.”

“I should.” It was easy to forget, when he was invested in a project.

“And then you should sleep,” she added, almost scolding. “In your bed. Not at your desk.”

“I wasn’t planning to go back downstairs.” He had a desk in his private quarters, but it was so piled with notes and books that it wouldn’t have been usable, anyway. Sooner or later, he needed to make time to sort things out. It hadn’t bothered him when the house was his own and the only person there was Rhyllyn. Now, all of a sudden, someone else was in his private space and he found himself self-conscious about the mess.

Firal carried the tray to his bed. “No hunching over notes at the window, either. Come. Sit. Eat.”

He slid from his perch and carried his papers and pen with him. There would be no need to stay at the window if he could take his worth with him. His eyes flicked to his table. That, too, had somehow gotten covered in papers. Hadn’t it been clean yesterday?

The moment he sat, Firal settled next to him and filled his cup with water from the pitcher on the tray. “Your work can wait, you know.”

“I want to present this before Vicamros as soon as I can.” He ate something off his plate without looking to see what it was. His board balanced on his thigh well enough, and he kept writing.

She stared at his hand. “What is that?”

It took far too long for him to realize she meant the pen. He tilted it, letting the fine steel nib glint in the streaming moonlight. “Oh. It’s a capillary pen. The ink draws down from inside.”

Firal shook her head. “Being here is an experience, that’s for certain. Some advancements came to Elenhiise through trade, but it seems we missed a great deal of what the mainland has to offer.”

“One of the benefits of working with a lot of scholars is being first in line to test new inventions.” He cracked a smile and offered her the pen. “It’s far more convenient than ink wells.”

Her fingertips brushed his hand, the brush light as a feather and soft as down, yet it was enough to make his pulse quicken.

How desperately he wanted that—simple proximity and a tender touch. He swallowed against a thickness in his throat and stared at her hand as she drew an experimental squiggle across the top of his page. It folded itself into a star, and its looping tail twisted into a heart.

His chest tightened until he thought he might burst.

“It writes so smoothly. No one will want to use quills at all once these are in common production.” She offered it back.

Rune couldn’t make himself take it. “They’ll be in markets all over the Triad within a few months, most likely. More than a few innovators have come up with something like it, and they’ll be eager to be the first one to have something for sale.”

She smiled, a genuine spark of interest in her eyes. Those sort of smiles had been so rare since her arrival, he dared not look away. “Do you make things like this?”

Somehow, the question caught him off guard. He stared a moment, then shook his head as he finished a mouthful of food. “No. I don’t—I’m more…it’s…civil engineering, I suppose. Bridges. Water supply systems.” He spread a hand toward the papers on his lap and the faint etching of a scar on his palm made him pause.

Odd, how he’d never noticed the mark was on both sides of his hand until after the scales were gone. He’d spared it little thought. Its presence made sense, knowing how he’d gotten it. But in the feeble moonlight, the silvery lines struck him as more stark, and he ran the thumb of his other hand across them.

Firal touched his wrist and he grew still.

Her hand was soft, warm, and he found himself longing to feel it anywhere else. His arm, his shoulder, his back, his face—anything, just to have more contact.

“It’s a worthy purpose,” she said gently. “Peaceful service.”

And that was a harsh criticism, when his hands had only ever known cutting claws and the hard hilt of a blade.

He slid the tray aside, whatever appetite he’d remembered now gone. “Thank you. For the food.”

She withdrew and took the tray from the bed, only to move it to the top of the chest of drawers—one of few places where his books and scrolls and loose notes had note yet taken over. “I’ll leave it here, in case you want more. Don’t stay up too late.”

“You’re leaving?” In spite of how the words hurt, his voice stayed steady. Calm. All but disinterested.

She lingered. “Should I stay?”

Rune dared not move, lest she bound away like a deer frightened in the woods. Again, his hands drew together and he found himself rubbing the scar.

“Yes,” he said, and the single word made his mouth go dry.