Update

I'm nearing the end of the hard part of my breast cancer battle. I started six months of chemotherapy in early September, and I now have three weeks left. I think this has been the hardest battle of my life. The first three months were the most difficult with the harsh chemo, and the last three months were supposed to get easier. In some ways they are easier, but in other ways it is just as hard.

During this enforced down time I have had a lot of time to think about my writing. My brain is too scattered and fatigued to do any actual writing. Instead I've been posting something called the "WOW" at my Facebook page. Basically it's an expanded synopsis, only I'm not giving away endings. There have been a lot of excerpts though. I started with The King's Tale, and I am now working on The King's Heart. One decision I have made is that as soon as my head clears I intend to pick up work on the third book in The King's Trilogy, The King's Son. This is mainly because sales for "Blue Moon" and "Red Sunset" have fallen off. Unfortunately I've realized two things about those books, I should have waited and published them as a full-fledged novel (along with the planned third novella in that series "Purple Dawn"). "Blue Moon" seemed to be well received, but "Red Sunset" was born into chaos, and I believe it is completely misunderstood. So, the project is shelved for the time being.

While on the subject of chaos, I once stumbled over some discussion of my work on an Amazon discussion thread. I've fortunately never been able to find this discussion again because some fairly mean things were said about me, and my work. Primarily the one contributor seemed to think that The King's Tale was perfect the way it was, and I was purposely torturing my characters by continuing the saga of Christopher and Dafydd. Okay, that's one person's opinion, but I had always meant to continue the story, even as I toiled away on The King's Tale. In my mind it isn't torture at all. This contributor went on the say my contemporary work all sucks. Well, that hurt.

The King's Son will be the story of Anwyll, and Christopher and Dafydd will suffer no more torture at my hands. Or not much anyway. When I read my notes for how I intend to end the book I suppose it might come across as torturous...but that remains to be seen.

I sincerely hope to dive into my writing once summer comes. That is going to be my reward to myself for staying strong through this cancer turmoil.

News on Reviews...

First of all, let me share a terrific five star review for Red Sunset from Top2Bottom Reviews:

http://top2bottomreviews.wordpress.com/2013/05/01/red-sunset-by-rowena-sudbury/

And secondly, I was remiss in mentioning that The King's Tale & The King's Heart received a high honor from Two Lips reviews, both are marked as Recommended Reads!

http://www.twolipsreviews.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8896&Itemid=67

http://www.twolipsreviews.com/content/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8934&Itemid=67

Year End Reflections on Writing

As 2012 comes to a close, I spend a bit of time reflecting on writing here .

The King's Heart Reviewed!

Stop by to read about a fantastic review for The King's Heart! Here!

Historical Romances

Stop by to read some thoughts on The King's Tale as well as an excerpt of The King's Heart.

Click Here...

Happy Anniversary!

Today is the third anniversary of the release of the first edition of The King's Tale. I'm hosting a giveaway at GoodReads for an autographed copy of The King's Heart...and I will include a copy of The King's Tale when I send the book out to the winner. Stop by and read my meager thoughts on the day.

Third Anniversary thoughts on The King's Tale

Release Day!

It's release day for The King's Tale, edition two, and The King's Heart!

Stop by here for more information!

The King's Tale Fan Page

I have created a fan page on Facebook for The King's Tale series. Today I posted an excerpt from edition 2 of The King's Tale.

Please stop by and "like" the page if you're interested in reading further excerpts. I plan to post all excerpts on that page (for King's Tale books) from now on. Monday, the day The King's Heart releases, I will post an excerpt from that book.

Additionally, I plan to hold a giveaway on July 27, the third anniversary of the release of The King's Tale. Still working out the details, but the winner will be drawn from fans of the page.

http://www.facebook.com/TheKingsTale

Thanks!

The King's Tale, Edition Two

New for 2012, The King's Tale has been re-edited and revised to include a glossary and pronunciation guide for all the Welsh words used. Additionally, a few of the historical inaccuracies have been corrected -- "bed springs" are finally changed back to "bed strings" how I had originally written. I've also done some further research, and corrected some of the problems with the food mentioned. All in all, I'm quite pleased to have my first book go into its second edition!

It is now available for pre-order at Amazon, and it will release on Monday June 11, 2012. On that same day, the sequel, The King's Heart, will also be releasing.

In thirteenth century Cornwall, a fierce king must have a strong partner, and that is what King Christopher of Lysnowydh has in his handfasted mate. Or had before rival King Warin kidnapped and tortured Dafydd to the point that, months later, he is still afraid to leave the castle. Christopher longs for Dafydd to accompany him to the other strongholds in his kingdom and to London to pay tribute to Henry III, but Dafydd is not ready. Christopher begins to wonder if Dafydd will ever recover.

Dafydd hates to disappoint his lover, but he is not sure what to do. Since he will not leave the keep, he renounces his position as king's marshal, vowing to focus on the healing arts instead. Though Christopher continues to pressure him to travel, Dafydd staunchly stays at home—until his second sight shows him he could lose Christopher if he cannot face his fears. Determinedly, Dafydd sets out to prove he can master them.

When Christopher returns home to find Dafydd gone, he knows exactly what Dafydd must have seen. As he once promised he would, he follows his heart across his kingdom—but even if he finds Dafydd, he may not be able to heal the rift between them. 

A Timeless Dreams title: While reaction to same-sex relationships throughout time and across cultures has not always been positive, these stories celebrate M/M love in a manner that may address, minimize, or ignore historical stigma.

This book will be available at Amazon, but it is available for pre-order at Dreamspinner Press

The King's Heart

Coming from Dreamspinner Press on June 11, 2012: The King's Heart, sequel for The King's Tale.

Additionally, The King's Tale has been re-edited and revised to include a pronunciation guide and glossary, and it will also be available on June 11. Some of the historical inaccuracies have been corrected.

Use this link for The King's Heart. And if you're interested in reading my journey about this project, use this link.

Getting my groove back...

Stop by and read my thoughts on Getting My Groove Back ...

Sometime in the next month I will have good news regarding The King's Heart...and something else!

The King's Heart

The King's Heart has now entered the editing stage! Exciting news on the horizon!

This of course means Red Sunset has been moved to the back burner, but it's only seven weeks until Summer Vacation!

Picture courtesy of Free Digital Photos.

The King's Heart

Stop by and read about The King's Heart, sequel for The King's Tale.

This book is coming from Dreamspinner Press in May or June of this year!

Read about it here!

Great news!

Yesterday I received a contract from Dreamspinner Press for The King's Heart, sequel for The King's Tale. It is set to be published in May or June of 2012.

I consider this novel to be a bridge, tying The King's Tale to my planned final book in the series, The King's Son. Hopefully another 3 years will not pass before I complete that book.

I Just Don't Know What to do With Myself

I remember when I first submitted The King's Tale to Dreamspinner Press. I was a nervous wreck. Elizabeth North was so gracious and kind, and likened submitting your first story to sending your child off to school for the first time. How true that is.

I spent three years agonizing over The King's Tale. A year and a half with writing, a year with revising, and six months with convincing myself to go ahead and try to get it published. By the time I was ready to send it off, it did feel like sending my child off into the wild blue yonder. Waiting for it to come back was very difficult.

Yesterday, I sent The King's Heart to Dreamspinner Press. Slightly more confident this time, it only took one year to write, and two months to edit and revise. But hitting that "send" button was like sending a child off into the wild blue yonder, all over again. I expect to wait a lot longer than two weeks (the space of time I waited to hear about The King's Tale) because in the interim DSP has gotten a lot bigger.

Now comes the difficult part of figuring out what to do with myself whilst I wait. When I'm creating a novel, the thought of it takes up a lot of my waking hours. As I've said before, I don't have the luxury of sitting around writing all day, and there are many times when I have to content myself with writing notes, and hoping for a block of time to transfer those notes into solid work. While I'm waiting, it's hard to get started on the next project.

In case I haven't mentioned it before, the next project is what I'm projecting to be the final book in the trilogy. Yes, in my mind there is a great, dangling, loose end. I owe it to Dafydd to tie that loose end up. Besides, I can't wait to see the man that Anwyll turns out to be. ^^

When I get the word from DSP (because it's not a foregone conclusion that they will accept it) I will let you know.

A Writer's Tale

I finished the initial rough draft of The King's Heart on July 6th of this year. Over the past few days, I have finally had the opportunity to read through it, and tie up the inconsistencies. I have a tendency to keep copious notes. I haven't joined the modern age quite yet with this note-taking habit, I still jot them all down in a paper journal. I thought I would give a little bit of insight into why it takes so long to finish my novels. Of course, I do have a "day job", and a rather busy life, so that might explain these gaps. Here is a list of the days I worked on each chapter in this King's Tale sequel:

• Chapter One 7/15/10
• Chapter Two 7/15/10
• Chapter Three 7/15/10
• Chapter Four 7/16/10
• Chapter Five 7/18/10
• Chapter Six 7/31/10
• Chapter Seven 9/6/10
• Chapter Eight 9/9/10
• Chapter Nine 9/10/10
• Chapter Ten 9/12/10
• Chapter Eleven 10/2/10
• Chapter Twelve 10/30/10
• Chapter Thirteen 11/24/10
• Chapter Fourteen 12/27/10
• Chapter Fifteen 1/2/11
• Chapter Sixteen 2/20/11
• Chapter Seventeen 2/21/11
• Chapter Eighteen 3/5/11
• Chapter Nineteen 3/6/11
• Chapter Twenty 3/20/11
• Chapter Twenty One 4/2/11
• Chapter Twenty Two 4/3/11
• Chapter Twenty Three 4/17/11
• Chapter Twenty Four 4/19/11
• Chapter Twenty Five 4/30/11
• Chapter Twenty Six 5/26/11
• Chapter Twenty Seven 6/20/11
• Chapter Twenty Eight 6/21/11
• Chapter Twenty Nine 6/22/11
• Chapter Thirty 6/23/11
• Chapter Thirty One 6/25/11
• Chapter Thirty Two 7/6/11
• Epilogue 7/6/11

Many of these dates coincide with holidays, or breaks from school. I keep wishing I could set up a normal writing schedule, but clearly I lack the drive to actually do it.

Now that this initial pass through is completed, I have made notes of the areas that need strengthening. I also have to hand the manuscript off to my trusted beta reader. I have one week left of summer break, and I am hoping this process doesn't get too overly impacted by the school year starting in a few weeks.

A few pieces of news...

First of all, I received a contract for a novella, due to be published in early 2012. Stay tuned for more details.


Secondly, I finished the first (rough draft) manuscript for my sequel for The King's Tale yesterday. Entitled The King's Heart, it will follow Christopher and Dafydd as they come to terms with changes.

Feeling very optimistic, even though my garden is going through a huge change today.