Sarah Ettritch

Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Mystery Writer

Fate or Folly is Out

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Fate or Folly, the second book in the Daros Chronicles, is out. You can pick it up from your favourite online bookstore. Here’s the info:

Fate or Folly

Fate or Folly

Author:
Series: The Daros Chronicles, Book 2
Genre: Epic Fantasy
At the end of Pawns and Puzzles, Erryn comes face to face with a goddess, and Fi faces a life of humiliation and servitude. In Fate or Folly, both women must find a way to fulfill their destinies, but with Fi shackled and Erryn a hunted criminal, the fate of Daros and its people appears grim. More info →
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This book concludes the story that began in Pawns and Puzzles.

My next release will most likely be in February, 2018. It’ll be the standalone sci-fi novel I’ve mentioned. If you’re on my mailing list, I offered a few more details in the Fate or Folly announcement email.

I was hoping to write another holiday story, but I’m not going to have the time. I’m busy preparing Their Last Hope (the sci-fi novel) for my editor, I’m creating another programming course, and I’m sifting through the story ideas I’ve saved (so far) and deciding which ones I’d like to move forward with at some point. Related to the latter, I’m doing a couple of writing workshops.

I’ll continue to add story ideas to my file. I just want to sort out the ones I already have. There are so many that it’s difficult for me to see at a glance what’s there. Some have been in the file for 5, 6, 7 years. If I haven’t written them yet, I’m not likely to, though there may be a couple that survive the cut.

The author Jae posted on Facebook that a reader had contacted her at some point to say that s/he (the reader) had a story idea, and if Jae wrote her idea, the reader would split the book royalties with her.

But here’s the thing: the idea is the easy part when it comes to writing a book. Ideas come easily to fiction writers. I can take a walk around the block and come home with 20 story ideas. It’s the research, the preparation, the sitting down at the desk and spending months, sometimes years, to write the first draft, the editing, the re-editing, reviewing feedback from beta readers and an editor, and then revising and editing again…that’s the tough part.

Of course, Jae declined the offer.

Have a great weekend. For those who celebrate Labour Day, enjoy your long weekend!

Books about Lesbians in the 1960s

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I was the guest poster on Women and Words yesterday. I talked about what books said about lesbians in the 1960s. We’ve come incredibly far in the past fifty years, but as one comment said, we still have a ways to go. You can read the post here:

When Others Spoke for Us

In other news, I’m busy reading the Kindle version of Fate or Folly (Daros Chronicles Volume Two). I expect to release the book by the end of August. Print versions of Volumes One and Two should be available by the end of September.

After that, I’ll turn my attention to the standalone sci-fi novel that I’ll release early next year.

Just a quick update for this holiday Monday in Ontario.

Pawns and Puzzles is Available

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I would have announced this yesterday, but it was Canada Day. I was out on a Toronto Heritage tour, and then we had friends over.

Pawns and Puzzles is out. It’s the first volume in the Daros Chronicles and contains all the installments published so far.

Two friends learn how quickly life can change when they go from living lives of luxury to being the most wanted fugitives in the land.

When assassins threaten Princess Fi’s life, her foster sister Erryn summons cursed beasts to save her. Branded a heathen, Erryn escapes the guards ordered to kill her and flees for her life. When she hears about a faraway temple that may reveal why she has summoning powers, she sets out on the long journey to reach it. But Erryn’s pampered life doesn’t serve her well in the wild. Bounty hunters and guards become the least of her worries.

Back at the castle, Fi tries to carry on with her life. But then her father is assassinated, and Fi is framed for the crime. With the help of those loyal to her, she escapes from prison and searches for Erryn, hoping to enlist her aid in reclaiming the throne. But the outside world isn’t kind to treacherous princesses. Fi’s quest to prove her innocence leads to another cage, one that has her wishing she was back in a prison cell.

 

 

Click here for more info

Volume Two is with my editor and will be released in late August/early September.

If you liked The Salbine Sisters, this book is in the same genre.

Canada’s 150th Birthday

Yesterday Canada celebrated its 150th birthday. We started the day by going on a tour with Heritage Toronto. It focused on citizenship and stopped at a few places downtown.

Here’s the Toronto sign that was placed in front of city hall for the Pan Am games. It has changed a bit since then. The maple leaf is newish.

 

Here’s Jen and me at the end of the tour.

 

After the tour, we had a couple of friends over for lunch. One of them baked a birthday cake. Unfortunately it was raining, so we couldn’t sit outside, but we did go out for a few minutes to take photos. Here’s a festive corner of our back deck.

I hope my fellow Canadians had a great Canada Day, and if you’re American, an early Happy Fourth of July to you! 🙂

The Daros Chronicles – On Its Way

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The Daros Chronicles is on its way! I’m just finishing my review of the ebook version of Pawns and Puzzles (Daros Chronicles Volume One). If it doesn’t show up in bookstores this coming week, it will be there the week after.

Fate or Folly (Daros Chronicles Volume Two) is with my editor. Barring any unforeseen problems, it should be available in August (September at the latest).

Those dates are for the ebook versions. The print versions always follow a few weeks (or a couple of months) later.

Fate or Folly concludes the story.

The individual installments are still available, but I’ll take them down at the end of July. If you started the Daros Chronicles and put it aside, intending to come back and finish it later, make sure you pick up the remaining installments before then.

My last post was about release dates. Daros Volumes One and Two are on track. But I shouldn’t tweak my nose at the Universe by announcing release dates too soon. Pretty much within a week after posting, an opportunity came my way related to my other life, that of a software developer. I was asked whether I’d be interested in teaching a programming course at an online school. I said yes.

First, it’s income. Second, I enjoy programming. I’ve picked up several new skills since leaving my last job, because I’m constantly tinkering with programming languages and frameworks. Lastly, I’ve taken courses at this online school. Out of the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of programming courses they offer, I’ve only ever come across two taught by female instructors.

When I was doing my Computer Science degree in the 1980s, men vastly outnumbered women. There were a handful of women in the first-year classes. By the final year, I was the only woman in some classes. Most of the other women had dropped out or changed their field of study.

Unfortunately, things haven’t changed much in the almost 30 (eek!) years since I graduated with my degree. In fact, a few years ago, I read that the enrollment of women in computer programs had gone down!

This is a shame, because it’s a great area to work in. It pays well, it’s in demand and will continue to be in demand, and there’s very little sexism. I can count on one hand the number of times I felt I was being spoken to or treated differently because I was a woman. Yes, it happened, but not more than 3-4 times.

If a woman came to me and said, “I don’t know what to do with my life. I’m open to anything,” I’d tell her to try computer programming. I’d say that whether she was 20 or 60 years old. These days, you can get a decent job without getting a degree, because there’s a shortage of programmers.

So part of the reason I agreed to do the course was because the school needs more female instructors. The people there are quite excited that I’ll be teaching a course. They know they need more women teaching tech.

The first course I’ll teach (I may do more) has a release date in August, because we want to time its release with the release of Android O. Because of that, I’m on a really tight timeline to create the course material. I’ve had to put everything else aside except editing and publishing the Daros Chronicles.

I’ve changed the editing date I’d arranged with my editor for the standalone sci-fi novel. Instead of September, it will go to my editor at the end of November, meaning it will only be released in January/February 2018. I’ve also had to put the Deiform Fellowship Five aside. I was hoping to finish the first draft by the end of the year, but that’s not going to happen.

If I do teach more courses, I won’t be on as tight a schedule, so I’ll be able to get back to writing/editing sometime in August. I figured putting everything except the Daros Chronicles aside for 2-3 months wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it does delay the release dates for everything but the Daros Chronicles.

Later.

Tentative Release Dates for 2017

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I have a firmer idea of when I’ll release my next three books. Here goes:

Daros Chronicles (Volume One)

The text is ready, but the cover designer I’ll work with is busy, so we’ll work on the cover at the end of this month or early next month. I expect to release the book around the end of June/early July.

Daros Chronicles (Volume Two)

This will go to my editor at the end of June. Given the cover design situation, I might see if the cover designer will do both covers at the same time, rather than just doing the cover for Volume One and scheduling the second cover for later. Barring any unforeseen problems, I expect to release this one sometime in August.

Their Last Hope (standalone science fiction novel)

This will go to my editor in mid-September. I’ll get a cover done earlier than that, so I expect to release the book around the end of October/early November.

That Will Probably Be It

I was considering writing a short holiday story, like I did last year with The Perfect Christmas Gift, but as you can see, I’ll be publishing one book after the other until October/November, which won’t leave me enough time to write a story. But you never know. If I finish the first draft of Deiform Five early, I might be able to squeeze one in.

It’s pelting it down with rain here, but the grass is green, and I have a cat curled up on my lap as I type this, so life is good (plus, I’m one of those crazy people who likes rain—especially when I’m inside!).

Enjoy your weekend!  🙂

Writing Plans Gone Awry

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I think I’ll stop saying I’m going to focus on shorter work. After declaring this year would be the year, I’ve done nothing but work on novels. Part of the problem is time. When 2017 rolled around, I was still writing the second volume of the Daros Chronicles and preparing a standalone science fiction novel to go to a developmental editor.

If that wasn’t enough, I also published The Voice in My Head in February, and I’m in the midst of publishing the first seven installments of the Daros Chronicles as one volume. Then there’s the Deiform Fellowship Five. I’m writing that now.

In hindsight, I have to wonder how I thought I’d also have the time to write shorter work. Perhaps once I’ve cleared my publishing backlog, it’ll happen, but I think the process that works best for me is to write what’s grabbing me. If it ain’t a short story, it ain’t a short story.

If all goes to plan, I’ll release three novels this year (though Daros Volume One will consist of previously released material). I know some authors can write a novel every month or two, but as I’ve said previously, I’m not one of them. A short story and three novels will be a pretty good year for me, and I’ll also finish the first draft of Deiform Five before the end of the year.

It won’t help that we’re having work done in our backyard while the weather is nice. My writing space overlooks the yard, and in about two weeks, workmen will be just below the window, demolishing our rotting deck and working on the back wall of our foundation. Then they’ll build us a new deck. The guy leading the team likes to get an early start, so he’ll be on-site at 7:00 a.m. My best writing time is in the morning. If it’s too noisy, I’ll try writing somewhere else, but our laptop doesn’t have Word. I’ll see how it goes.

Raccoon
Once the deck is rebuilt, we won’t have any more raccoon visitors. The bottom of the deck will be fully enclosed.

I’m hoping it won’t be so noisy that I won’t be able to edit Daros Two and continue working on publishing Daros One. Those activities use a different part of my brain and don’t require as much concentration as writing a first draft.

So yeah, short stories won’t be happening anytime soon. I can’t force them, but they’ll occasionally happen naturally, as The Perfect Christmas Gift and The Voice in My Head did last year.

Talking about the Daros Chronicles, I had to decide whether to chunk the first volume up into traditional chapters, or keep it as seven installments, meaning it would go out like the Rymellan Series did. No chapters, but stories. I’ve decided to go with the latter.

I want Daros Two to go out the same way. I’ve split it into seven stories, to match the first. Here are the (tentative) titles I’ve assigned to each story:

  1. Caged and Free
  2. Friends Reunited
  3. Uneasy Alliances
  4. Snakes and Sycophants
  5. The Road to Darroth
  6. Some Live, Some Die
  7. Unforeseen Choices

I’ve titled Volume One Pawns and Puzzles, and Volume Two Fate or Folly.

I’m not sure when Volume One will go out, since it will depend on when I can get a cover done, which I haven’t scheduled yet. I want to finish typesetting the print version before I do that.

I’ll be removing the individual installments from sale, so if you started reading the Chronicles and then put it aside, intending to go back to it later, you’ll want to pick up the remaining installments soon. I’ll take them down about a week before I upload Volume One.

I’m focusing on Daros One and Two, and then I’ll go back to the sci-fi project (I have some revising to do, but not tons). Barring any curve balls from life, all three books should be available by the end of the year.

Have a great weekend!  🙂

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