Plus A Subscriber Exclusive Sneak Peek at The Book of Light
Author Spotlight: Kiersten Michele & A.J. Cerna!
I am so pleased to have an author-swap opportunity with Kiersten and A.J.! This husband-and-wife writing duo bring beautifully crafted YA fantasy stories to life. Read their bios below and check out their YA reads, and check them out online: magiabooks.com/ | youtube.com/@magiareads
- Kiersten Michele currently has two novels to her credit: City of Mages (YA Epic Fantasy) and The Shadow Weaver’s Gambit (YA Romantic Fantasy), both of which take place in their Latin-inspired Mage World. Her third book, Canyon of Crystal is the second book of the Mage War Chronicles, and her first sequel!
- A.J. Cerna currently has seven published books, reaching fans of YA fantasy with a diverse cast and epic adventures. A diverse author, A.J. strives to inject diversity into all of his stories. His current series consists of Djinn Tamer, Champions of MythRune, Spectral, and The Mage War Chronicles.
Series Progress: The Book of Light Update
The Book of Light is almost back from my beta reader, and I’m beyond excited to dig into the notes and edits before ordering the cover. In keeping with the series theme, the cover will have the same ornate style, but you, as a subscriber, get exclusive access to some of the design elements I’m going to send to my cover artist!
When I ordered the cover for book two, The Book of Dreams (shameless link alert: available now on Kindle Unlimited), I sent this image to my cover artist (along with all of the key details for the book, including title and size for the paperback):
And as you’ll see in the next image, she followed my points perfectly. Get ready for your sneak peek at the cover elements going into the cover for The Book of Light!
I cannot WAIT to order this cover and share it with you. And if you’ve noticed the choices in color palettes, each novel has its own mood board! Here’s another subscriber exclusive: You’re the first to learn about the newest page on my website!
Click here for The Reading Corner, a place for reading playlists, novel mood boards, and more!
Series Progress: Book Four
Book four is outlined, and I’m just over 10k into the draft! Confession: When I was fast-drafting books 1-3 during the summer of 2023, I halfway drafted book four. But my brain was a steaming bowl of mashed potatoes by that point, and I needed to escape out of the drafting space in favor of revision and editing. Going back to book four, I saw that I needed to completely overhaul the story, and I’m so glad I did. This iteration is much stronger and much more FUN. Without giving too much away too soon, the fairytale I’m retelling is beloved across the fairytale retelling fandom because it typically features a strong and fierce FMC. This retelling is no different, and the MMC loves that about her. (SWOON.)
Think you’ve figured out which retelling I’m covering in book four? Let me know your guess 😉.
This Month’s Dad Joke
What do you call a sheep who can sing and dance?
Lady Ba Ba.
MORGAN REILLY 
Leave a comment