Books by Laurel Mojica

Here in Michigan, our nights are getting cooler but our days are still quite hot. I’d say “unseasonably” hot but Michigan is known for having reasonable averages created out of crazy data points. Still, even for Michigan, this September has been unusual. I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve started hallucinating about moving back to Florida. But no, because the nights ARE cool and the breezes are refreshing and the humidity is…. Well, it’s enough to frizz my hair but not enough to feel like I’m walking through soup. It’s actually been quite lovely. (I prefer warm weather. I just also happen to love Michigan.)

But enough about the weather, what’s up with my books???

The audiobook version of Stranger to the Sea is officially available from this website. You can buy it here. (Yea!!!! I’m really excited! That was a lot of fun, a big learning curve, and a LOT of work.)

Whatever happened to Crossing the Reef, you ask? Well, not much, unfortunately. The drafts are done, have been for almost a year, though I’ve gone back and made additional tweaks occasionally that I think have continued to improve it. It took me a loooong time to give up on my original editor. I really had liked working with her, but for reasons beyond her control she just hasn’t been able to finish this one. Then I got busy finishing up grad school. Now I’m saving up to hire a new editor and buy the cover art. As soon as I can get those things accomplished, I promise I’ll get it out to you. Hopefully, it won’t be much longer.

As for Book Three, Enter the Afterlight, it’s been giving me fits, I’ll admit, but I like the way it’s matured. By the time I get it out to you, I think it will definitely be worth the wait.

In the meantime, check out my romantasy duology, Stronger Than Spells. Talk a walk in the sunshine. Enjoy the fall colors. I hope to have more news for you soon!

Stranger to the Sea has a beach, an ocean, alien sea life, and the start of a slow burn romance. What more could you ask for? (The sequel, I know. Still working on it!)

The audio version is coming along. I have the first seven chapters ready to go, so about halfway there. If you’d like to become a beta listener, let me know, or just stop by my Substack chat and click the links to get the first few. I’ll be posting more soon. (Yes, despite the fact that I said in the chat that I would wait.)

With less than a month until I finish my MBA program, I’m really getting impatient to check school off my list and focus more on my writing. Also, one of my bottlenecks (besides time!) may be loosened up as we’ve begun experimenting with AI. It’s giving us some interesting resources as we look at designing the cover for Crossing the Reef. We’ve also had fun designing some ads. We’ll be releasing those soon.

I know AI can be controversial, but I love computers and science fiction and all the possibilities that open up for entrepreneurs as new technology becomes more powerful. Like good digital cameras, animation engines, motion capture suits, and all of the other gear my husband and I have used to make movies, shorts, etc., AI is a tool that can be a game changer for tiny studios that are looking to grow. It can’t replace people, but it can help people do things they couldn’t (or couldn’t afford) to do previously.

Enjoy your summer! Hug your family. Laugh with your friends. Read a book (And, if you get a chance, write a review for it!)

FINALLY!!

Although I am still waiting on my new covers, I decided to release the revised versions of my romantasy duology Stronger Than Spells with revised versions of their original covers–it seems to go well with the revised versions of their original text 😉

You can find The Bronze Mage and The Green-Eyed Mage on Apple Books, Amazon, and Kobo.

If you want a free copy of The Bronze Mage, you can download it directly here and optionally sign up for my newsletter.

This is a great time to sign up, too, because we’re making excellent progress recording audio for Stranger to the Sea. Soon I’ll start making the preliminary recordings available to my newsletter subscribers. We’ve already recorded the first 12.5 chapters. Only 3.5 to go! (Though that’s just one step out of several, but we’ve edited a few chapters, too.)

Audio editing is SUPER time consuming. Probably a sign that I’m either not good at it yet, or that my workflow needs to be optimized. Likely both. But we have great equipment and tools, so that’s a huge help. If you were here early on and received audio for the Preface, you should be pleasantly surprised at the change in quality between that version and the new one. After we finish recording, I’ll start uploading a chapter each week. If I finish with the final editing before the 16 weeks are done, I’ll speed up the release schedule.

I’m taking another look at my draft for Crossing the Reef. I plan to send it out to a new editor at the beginning of June. Hoping to get it published this summer. I know I’d originally promised spring, but between my editor’s problems and my own, the deadline has moved back. Apologies!

I hope you’re enjoying your spring and looking forward to summer! I know I am!

I wasn’t able to launch/re-launch any of my books in February. No fear! Nothing has been forgotten or abandoned. Some of it was out of my control. Some wasn’t. I think a lot of it has been sorted out now. Soon Book 2 of The Chronicles of Vani: Crossing the Reef, and my renewed novels The Bronze Mage and The Green-Eyed Mage will become available. Hopefully in March!

By then, I may even have the ability to sell them to you directly. I’m hoping to have that set up soon. It will simplify the process of sending Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) of new books, giveaways of existing titles, etc. If you’re interested in receiving an ARC from either my science fiction series or my fantasy duology, please comment below and let me know!

In the meantime, I’m continuing to work on Entering the Afterlight (Book 3 of The Chronicles of Vāni) and ironing out details of the rest of the series. I’ve had some nice breakthroughs in focus and organizing, so it’s definitely been time well spent.

Looking forward to sharing more with you soon!

Hopefully before the end of February, I’ll have lots of news.

After a few false starts (due to circumstances beyond her control) my editor was finally able to start work on Crossing the Reef around the second week of January. She’s over half done now and I’m hopeful to get it back from her soonish.

While I was waiting, I decided to refresh my fantasy romance duology that I originally wrote over a decade ago. The text is done and I’m trying out a new artist for the covers. They are starting work this week and their original estimate was for three weeks, so…fingers crossed! I’d like to get the duology re-published sometime in February (because of Valentine’s Day and the fact that it’s a romance). It was fun going back over it. I have a few spin-off stories for that world that I never fully developed, but I think after the Chronicles of Vāni is complete I might go back and sort them out. I want to explore the relationships between some of the other characters, and visit some of the lands that are mentioned.

As for Chronicles of Vāni, Book Three, Entering the Afterlight, it’s also coming along. Of course, between the holidays and working on the older stories, I haven’t gotten as much done on it as I might have otherwise. But since the second book isn’t out yet, it’s harder to engage with this one. I have this dread of either: a) thinking it’s ready for the editor and then finding out that all the changes she’s suggested for Book Two make chunks of Book Three obsolete, or b) thinking it’s ready for the editor and then having to wait while I save up money to pay for the artwork and launch of Book Two before I can start saving money to pay for the editing and artwork for Book Three. Because the truth is, unless the romantasy book pair takes off and makes me some money, this long sci-fi series will be a serious investment (and risk). No one wants to buy a self-published “book one”. Book One is supposed to be free, so people have a chance to see whether you can write. Plus, they don’t really want to invest in characters until they’re sure you’ll follow through and complete the series. (At least that’s how I often feel.) Book Two can be 99 cents, but you can’t even ask for a few dollars until you have three books out. At 35% or even 70% e-book royalties, you have to sell a LOT of books at 99 cents to make back the costs of art and editing and ads—forget about profit until you have an actual catalog of titles. So, that’s what I’m working on: a catalog of titles. But they each cost money, and that’s honestly more of a bottleneck than even time right now. (Which is saying something considering my schedule. Trust me.)

Still, as my mom sometimes says, “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise” I’ll have two refreshed books re-launched, plus Book Two (Crossing the Reef) launched before we’re too far into spring. Maybe I’ll even get Book Three out by next fall. That would give me five. Five novels is “nothing to shake a stick at,” as my Grammy used to say. Maybe it will be enough. That would certainly be nice. If not, I’m going to continue collecting random family idioms and sharing them here with you. You’ve been warned.