Edith Pawlicki's Blog
March 9, 2023
A Magical Imperative is out now!
A Magical Imperative is the first book in an urban fantasy series called The Unseen. Taking place in 2021-2022, it's about an American professor who teaches at an university in Japan during the pandemic. The twist? She isn't human - and the magic of her species creates a mate-binding with one of her students. But if navigating an age-gap, culture-gap relationship that she wasn't looking for wasn't enough, there's also something lurking in the shadows...and its hungry.
This book was a real challenge to write - I actually gave my own struggles with anxiety and overthinking to multiple characters, and pushed myself to convey the feeling of a foreigner adjusting to life in Japan. It is far more intimate than anything I have written before, and, I hope, truer for it.
Find it on Amazon!
June 19, 2022
Trials of Fire and Rebirth 99¢ Sale
To celebrate launch week, the Kindle edition of Trials of Fire and Rebirth is on sale for 99 cents!
"A vibrant, elucidating LGBTQ+ fantasy." -Kirkus (Starred Review)
An immortal who can’t remember the past and a god who wants to forget it…
An Ning wakes in a male body with no memories. When she uses her immortal magic to feed refugees, they worship her as a god and call her Peace Bringer. Yet peace eludes An Ning.
Karana hates being the God of Destruction. He would happily abandon his role and leave ruling the universe to his relatives. Unfortunately, those relatives are insisting he deals with the Cult of Alag Karana and its new tendency to burn women alive.
When the cult leads Karana to An Ning’s village, he realizes his regrets are tied to An Ning’s mysteries.
But even if they face their dark history, can they build a brighter future?
See on Amazon
"A vibrant, elucidating LGBTQ+ fantasy." -Kirkus (Starred Review)
An immortal who can’t remember the past and a god who wants to forget it…
An Ning wakes in a male body with no memories. When she uses her immortal magic to feed refugees, they worship her as a god and call her Peace Bringer. Yet peace eludes An Ning.
Karana hates being the God of Destruction. He would happily abandon his role and leave ruling the universe to his relatives. Unfortunately, those relatives are insisting he deals with the Cult of Alag Karana and its new tendency to burn women alive.
When the cult leads Karana to An Ning’s village, he realizes his regrets are tied to An Ning’s mysteries.
But even if they face their dark history, can they build a brighter future?
See on Amazon
February 8, 2022
Trials of Fire and Rebirth is going on tour!
I'm currently doing some revisions for Trials of Fire and Rebirth, the third Immortal Beings book! Everything is falling into place for it's June release, and ARCs will be going out in May through ByTheBook Virtual Book Parties!
If you are interested in getting an ARC in exchange for posting an honest review in June, go sign-up with ByTheBook at https://bythebookvbp.com/reviewers/
Beth and Nicole are among the kindest and most organized people I've worked with, and they organize lots of virtual book tours! Their site does say US only, but feel free to sign-up if you are in the UK as well! We have made a plan for getting UK reviewers the same swag as well as paperback editions of Trials of Fire and Rebirth.
Take care, stay healthy and cozy!
September 1, 2021
Loves of Shadow and Power to be released Sept 14th!
It's still surreal to me to be writing this, but my third novel (and the sequel to Vows of Gold and Laughter), Loves of Shadow and Power, will be out September 14th! You can already pre-order Kindle edition, and if all goes well, both the audiobook and the paperback will be out as well. So here's the three covers, once again featuring beautiful art by Goldfinch1 of Fiverr:
KINDLE
AUDIOBOOK
PAPERBACK
Jin's transformation on the cover really shows how the story's intensity cranks up from Tale One!
If you want to read an excerpt now, you can on my site!
KINDLE
AUDIOBOOK
PAPERBACK
Jin's transformation on the cover really shows how the story's intensity cranks up from Tale One!
If you want to read an excerpt now, you can on my site!
May 16, 2021
Vows of Gold and Laughter is out!
Vows of Gold and Laughter is now available on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes!
The audiobook is narrated by Zachary Zaba, who really brought the characters to life, infusing both personality and emotion into the dialogue!
I absolutely fell in love with the xianxia inspired fantasy world; even though I intended this to be a standalone, I couldn't resist revisiting the world. Tale Two will be out in September, and I am currently drafting book three!
May your day be filled with adventure, wonder, and love!
The audiobook is narrated by Zachary Zaba, who really brought the characters to life, infusing both personality and emotion into the dialogue!
I absolutely fell in love with the xianxia inspired fantasy world; even though I intended this to be a standalone, I couldn't resist revisiting the world. Tale Two will be out in September, and I am currently drafting book three!
May your day be filled with adventure, wonder, and love!
March 25, 2021
Writing Update
It's quite the challenge to juggle multiple projects at once but also exciting! I feel like a "real" author.
Top priority is the audiobook of Vows of Gold and Laughter. The narrator, Zachary Zaba, is almost done with my suggested revisions, and I am listening to his already revised chapters. Then it will go off to ACX quality control; I expect it to be released the same day as the paperback and Kindle versions, May 11. Vows of Gold and Laughter is also currently in a Goodreads Giveaway.
Most fun right now is the plotting/drafting a third book in the Immortal Beings. This one can be read on its own, though I think it's best read after the duology. It's tentatively titled Trials of Death and Rebirth and I've written about 3% of the first draft.
Out of my hands, Loves of Shadow and Power, the conclusion of the Immortal Beings duology, is with its second reader. I already have a list of three things I'll be revisiting and looking forward to more critiques. I used to hate revising, but I really enjoy it now. Fingers crossed I'll be getting it back next week so I can dive in!
And I-need-to-stop-compulsively-checking-on-it, Minerva has been published. A few copies are with reviewers, and it's hard to be patient while I await their judgements! It seems to be well received by the few who have read it (4.38 stars here on Goodreads, 5 on Amazon), which has made me squirm with happiness and relief! Its audiobook has been delayed, but the half that I have listened to sounds wonderful (made me cry...awkward), so I'm looking forward to that getting done as well.
Top priority is the audiobook of Vows of Gold and Laughter. The narrator, Zachary Zaba, is almost done with my suggested revisions, and I am listening to his already revised chapters. Then it will go off to ACX quality control; I expect it to be released the same day as the paperback and Kindle versions, May 11. Vows of Gold and Laughter is also currently in a Goodreads Giveaway.
Most fun right now is the plotting/drafting a third book in the Immortal Beings. This one can be read on its own, though I think it's best read after the duology. It's tentatively titled Trials of Death and Rebirth and I've written about 3% of the first draft.
Out of my hands, Loves of Shadow and Power, the conclusion of the Immortal Beings duology, is with its second reader. I already have a list of three things I'll be revisiting and looking forward to more critiques. I used to hate revising, but I really enjoy it now. Fingers crossed I'll be getting it back next week so I can dive in!
And I-need-to-stop-compulsively-checking-on-it, Minerva has been published. A few copies are with reviewers, and it's hard to be patient while I await their judgements! It seems to be well received by the few who have read it (4.38 stars here on Goodreads, 5 on Amazon), which has made me squirm with happiness and relief! Its audiobook has been delayed, but the half that I have listened to sounds wonderful (made me cry...awkward), so I'm looking forward to that getting done as well.
March 16, 2021
Book Covers
I really like designing my own covers. I've probably done some sort of mockup for every manuscript I've written, but I only got serious about it last November, when I committed to self-publishing. Something I had never really thought about was different editions of the book need different covers. Digital books are just a front cover, paper backs are a continuous spread, and audiobooks have square covers!
Here's all three for my upcoming fantasy novel, Vows of Gold and Laughter, Tale One of the Immortal Beings:
The layout is inspired by covers of antique Chinese books (probably because I was watching In a Class of Her Own, a Chinese historical drama about a novelist). The background is Japanese rice paper and the frame is some origami paper that my grandmother bought in the 60s (when she lived in Japan).
Here's all three for my upcoming fantasy novel, Vows of Gold and Laughter, Tale One of the Immortal Beings:
The layout is inspired by covers of antique Chinese books (probably because I was watching In a Class of Her Own, a Chinese historical drama about a novelist). The background is Japanese rice paper and the frame is some origami paper that my grandmother bought in the 60s (when she lived in Japan).
January 5, 2021
Maps!
I received some fantastic maps from friend and artist Michael Engard for inclusion in Minerva, and they are officially in the advance Kindle copy that you can grab through the Goodreads Giveaway that ends tomorrow!
A Map of Churchill in the year 259 PNH:
The Gaurd Academy in the year 259 PNH:
Hope your 2021 is off to as a good a start as mine!
A Map of Churchill in the year 259 PNH:
The Gaurd Academy in the year 259 PNH:
Hope your 2021 is off to as a good a start as mine!
December 22, 2020
Novels and Grammar
We have a delightful amount of snow - though felt like too much during the three hours it took to shovel our driveway!
I've been working on proofing recently, and it's given me a new appreciation for editing software.
I like to write in Google Docs because it makes it easy to work on my novel wherever and whenever I think of something. However, one I decided to self-publish my novels, I invested in Microsoft Office in order to create the paperback proofs. With Minerva (coming out February 2021, giveaway open now, I was pretty surprised that Word's editing software was suggesting nearly 2,000 errors as the book had been proofed pretty thoroughly. Many of course were "misspellings" of words I invented for the setting; there were also many places were there were two spaces that I couldn't see with my eyes. The remaining errors were mostly about compound words (I swear, every time I thought a word should have a hyphen, it was supposed to be joined and every time I joined it, it was supposed to be a hyphen!) and commas. I followed most of Word's suggestions, but I did dig my heels on on some of the commas, especially in dialogue where I may have inserted some to show the speaker was pausing or hesitant even though grammatically speaking no pause was expected.
Last night and this morning, I was doing the same thing for my fantasy novel, Vows of Gold and Laughter (coming April 2021). I have not done a line edit yet, so I wasn't surprised when Word suggested 2788 errors when I opened it, but names and places accounted for over 2000 errors. The remaining were mostly commas.
It made me realize how differently - and more loosely - I view grammar when trying to convey a character's point of view or voice versus an essay or nonfiction piece. I have a lot of sentences which might be called run-on for there are three complete sentences joined by conjunctions, and when I do this, I usually only put a come splitting the longest of the three from the shorter two. For example, "I was foolish and I'll explain, but do you think we can get out of here first?"
Word didn't complain about the run-on, but it wanted a comma after "foolish." I disagree - I feel like the first two sentences, while having separate subjects, are so tightly joined that we shouldn't put in a comma. I think I feel that way especially when both compounds are very short (less than four words perhaps). Word didn't object to the many sentence fragments I used for dramatic or emotional effect, but it did complain about the many, many times I did not put a comma after a adverb at the beginning of a sentence ("Finally his eyes came back to her, probing deep." "Surely by the time one passed twenty millennia, one should know oneself. ") Now the grammar rule here is a little softer - the Internet says that adverbs are often, usually followed by commas. And I do sometimes use commas - but sometimes I really feel there shouldn't be one! I'm a little surprised how strong my feelings are on the subject...
Do you usually follow software's grammatical suggestions or do you have strong opinions of your own (that might defy conventions like mine)?
I've been working on proofing recently, and it's given me a new appreciation for editing software.
I like to write in Google Docs because it makes it easy to work on my novel wherever and whenever I think of something. However, one I decided to self-publish my novels, I invested in Microsoft Office in order to create the paperback proofs. With Minerva (coming out February 2021, giveaway open now, I was pretty surprised that Word's editing software was suggesting nearly 2,000 errors as the book had been proofed pretty thoroughly. Many of course were "misspellings" of words I invented for the setting; there were also many places were there were two spaces that I couldn't see with my eyes. The remaining errors were mostly about compound words (I swear, every time I thought a word should have a hyphen, it was supposed to be joined and every time I joined it, it was supposed to be a hyphen!) and commas. I followed most of Word's suggestions, but I did dig my heels on on some of the commas, especially in dialogue where I may have inserted some to show the speaker was pausing or hesitant even though grammatically speaking no pause was expected.
Last night and this morning, I was doing the same thing for my fantasy novel, Vows of Gold and Laughter (coming April 2021). I have not done a line edit yet, so I wasn't surprised when Word suggested 2788 errors when I opened it, but names and places accounted for over 2000 errors. The remaining were mostly commas.
It made me realize how differently - and more loosely - I view grammar when trying to convey a character's point of view or voice versus an essay or nonfiction piece. I have a lot of sentences which might be called run-on for there are three complete sentences joined by conjunctions, and when I do this, I usually only put a come splitting the longest of the three from the shorter two. For example, "I was foolish and I'll explain, but do you think we can get out of here first?"
Word didn't complain about the run-on, but it wanted a comma after "foolish." I disagree - I feel like the first two sentences, while having separate subjects, are so tightly joined that we shouldn't put in a comma. I think I feel that way especially when both compounds are very short (less than four words perhaps). Word didn't object to the many sentence fragments I used for dramatic or emotional effect, but it did complain about the many, many times I did not put a comma after a adverb at the beginning of a sentence ("Finally his eyes came back to her, probing deep." "Surely by the time one passed twenty millennia, one should know oneself. ") Now the grammar rule here is a little softer - the Internet says that adverbs are often, usually followed by commas. And I do sometimes use commas - but sometimes I really feel there shouldn't be one! I'm a little surprised how strong my feelings are on the subject...
Do you usually follow software's grammatical suggestions or do you have strong opinions of your own (that might defy conventions like mine)?
December 8, 2020
Minerva Giveaway
I got to hear the first chapter of the Minerva audiobook, read by the talented Ellora Sen-Gupta, and I got chills! It is embarrassing to confess I laughed aloud at one of the jokes? Her comedic timing is definitely better than my own! I am so excited to hear the rest in January. It might help that a nor'easter on Saturday has created the perfect background mood for Minerva, which takes places 279 years into a nuclear winter.
One hundred advance Kindle edition are now available through a Goodreads Giveaway - it ends January 6 and winners get the book on their Kindle device or app January 7th!
I'm posting an Instagram puzzle over the next three weeks to celebrate and promote the giveaway - if you want to see it appear, you can visit my Instagram profile on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. (You don't need an account as I have a public profile).
And since it's the holiday season, here's a short excerpt from Chapter 31: The Christmas Spirit:
As the winter solstice approached, the days grew ever shorter and many Espoiriens started gathering in the Great Hall each evening. Creating a circle around the coals, they would squeeze in next to each other, some on the floor, others on tables, children on laps, until the large room seemed small. Even then, not everyone who wished to join fit inside the Great Hall, so people would sit in the workrooms, the curtains pulled aside. And then they would sing. The recycled wax candles were lit, not for work, but for celebration. Between the flickering light of the candles and the bodies pressed close, the rooms felt warm.
People called out lines of songs and then Grrvais, who had a rich, deep voice that Minerva fancifully thought sounded like the Earth itself, would lead the song. As people remembered the tune they would join in - joyfully and unselfconsciously. Sometimes it sounded beautiful, two hundred voices in harmony with each other, and sometimes, when people forgot the words or melody, it was a terrible cacophony. But even then, Minerva felt drawn to it - when everyone was gathered together, singing, they gained an innocence that almost reminded Minerva of the rabbits.
Wishing you health, happiness, and a love-filled holiday season!
One hundred advance Kindle edition are now available through a Goodreads Giveaway - it ends January 6 and winners get the book on their Kindle device or app January 7th!
I'm posting an Instagram puzzle over the next three weeks to celebrate and promote the giveaway - if you want to see it appear, you can visit my Instagram profile on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. (You don't need an account as I have a public profile).
And since it's the holiday season, here's a short excerpt from Chapter 31: The Christmas Spirit:
As the winter solstice approached, the days grew ever shorter and many Espoiriens started gathering in the Great Hall each evening. Creating a circle around the coals, they would squeeze in next to each other, some on the floor, others on tables, children on laps, until the large room seemed small. Even then, not everyone who wished to join fit inside the Great Hall, so people would sit in the workrooms, the curtains pulled aside. And then they would sing. The recycled wax candles were lit, not for work, but for celebration. Between the flickering light of the candles and the bodies pressed close, the rooms felt warm.
People called out lines of songs and then Grrvais, who had a rich, deep voice that Minerva fancifully thought sounded like the Earth itself, would lead the song. As people remembered the tune they would join in - joyfully and unselfconsciously. Sometimes it sounded beautiful, two hundred voices in harmony with each other, and sometimes, when people forgot the words or melody, it was a terrible cacophony. But even then, Minerva felt drawn to it - when everyone was gathered together, singing, they gained an innocence that almost reminded Minerva of the rabbits.
Wishing you health, happiness, and a love-filled holiday season!
