I feel like the conspiracy theory meme trying to remember all of the plotlines and who is connected to what and what details I still have to write in. People who do this successfully just amaze me.
My cover was released and I posted it absolutely everywhere except for my blog, my now main source of news. I’m blaming exhaustion, since work and recovering from cellulitis/MRSA/a sinus infection for the last month (the sinus infection has only been less than a week, the others were a month long) and taking just about every antibiotic known to man has wiped me out. So let’s do this now! Here is the cover for Axis: Book Two of the Siren Tragedies—
This whole cover turned out even better than I expected, and I expected a really great cover, having worked with this artist and designer before. The bust is of Alexandros, the father of the main character, Telese, and the main antagonist of the story. For comparison, here is a picture of Hubris, with Telese as the focal point.
As you can see, there are quite a few differences in the presentation. Telese’s bust is broken, a reference to her broken life at the hands of her father. Meanwhile, Alexandros is whole, because he has always been able to determine his own life and the lives of his daughters and granddaughters. There is also the difference in lighting, with Telese’s being more subtle, not as harsh or striking as Alexandros’s. Of course, probably the most noticeable is the difference between the ivy growing around Telese—a feature I loved for the symbol of growth and stubborn resilience—and the brambles around Alexandros—a symbol of danger and the threat of pain.
I’ve been sick for a month with cellulitis and MRSA. I have been on so many different antibiotics, there should be nothing crawling around inside my body.
So HOW I managed to develop a sinus infection is beyond me.
Not ideal.
Anyway, I’ve been using HubSpot Academy for some ideas on how to successfully market both my books and help Balance of Seven Press in general. They are currently running an IndieGoGo to help cover the next round of books and recoup the cost for legal and moving fees to get out of Texas and into Vermont in light of anti-lgbtqia+ laws. (Campaign can be found here)
One thing I would love to do is talk to podcasts and vlogs about publishing with a small-press. A lot of people are intimidated by publishing because they feel their only two routes are traditional press—which is not author-friendly—or self-publishing—which is not always financially feasible for the everyday author. I, personally, love going through a small-press publisher, as the smaller release numbers mean more time spent on your book.
Speaking of which, I’m super excited to share my book cover with everybody on Monday! I don’t think I can put videos up here, so I can’t post the cute little video I made, but I’ll post the cover and commentary.
I’ve pinned a book excerpt post for book chapter videos that are completed. I’ve never really made videos before, so it’s a work in progress. I already have a sample chapter of Hubris posted. Next up is Axis.
I have not updated in over a year and, honestly, staying on social media has been a nightmare. I feel like it’s time to change up how I interact with the internet, so some things are going change:
This blog is going to be my main outlet for updates and thoughts. For the sake of my mental health, I’m going to stop spending time on most social media sites with the exception of mastodon.
More art! More writing! I need to get back to my hobbies.
Audio chapter previews for both Hubris and Axis will be available soon, along with (hopefully) other Balance of Seven published books! These will be made available through YouTube and the links pinned in a post here.
While I’m cutting back most of my social media, I’ll still be updating my author stuff with author news. If you want to follow that, the accounts are:
Facebook: facebook.com/svhines
Threads: sarahvhines
Instagram: sarahvhines
Mastodon: sarahvhines@writing.exchange
Tumblr: @sarahwritessirens
Discord: sarahvhines (This is where you can send me a dm if you want to say something about what you read here!)
In theory, you should be able to comment on these posts. I’m not sure how that works, but if you want to follow with this blog for updates, feel free to subscribe. It’s going to be much more active in the coming months.
On the news front, my cover reveal will be posted in 5 days! I made a little video for it, because I’m extra, so I have to see if that will post here. If not, you can always check it out on any of the above sites.
Thanks for reading! Have a picture of my character Roxias “Roxy” Zalabraxias from The Siren Tragedies as an apology for not keeping up with this blog.
If you haven’t been to www.w0rmh0le.net, you should! There are games streamed, summer interviews with artists and programmers, and a new story written by me. It’s a dystopian cyberpunk story, which is waaaaaay outside of my comfort zone, but both of which are genres/aesthetics that I enjoy.
Here is a snippet from the story. You can find the ongoing series at w0rmh0le Lore.
***
Pretending to be human always proved difficult for Wesley, no matter how often he had to do it.
Of course, nobody in the upper echelons was truly human anymore. Augmentation and redesign were the most lucrative markets, and everybody took advantage of summer sales on new limbs, sharper eyes and, of course, weaponized add-ons. To some extent, Wesley couldn’t blame them; the city was getting more dangerous as desperation rose in the face of the new mayor. He had given jobs to AI in order to save a dime for his important corporate backers, and the workers of Sodoria felt the strain.
Too bad it wasn’t the poorest of the city that could utilize new weapons to defend themselves. The imbalance between the two made it too easy for the richest of Sodoria to decide the fate of the poorest. Illicit markets were growing, and so was the population in the cellblocks.
After an extended leave of handling some personal crises, I am back! A couple of things will start happening:
I will be updating my stories. Check here for updates.
I will be updating w0rmh0le Lore regularly. The third chapter is already submitted for editing! If you like cyberpunk dystopian stories, check it out!
You will be hearing a lot more about Hubris. I have some events coming up in the D.C./Baltimore area, as well as an interview on w0rmh0le’s Summer Interview Series on Thursday, July 28th at 3 pm. Come join as I talk about writing, inspiration and being an author while navigating a mood disorder.
Those are the plans for now. Today, I officially submitted Hubris for copyright and also sent it off for a review by American Library Association’s publication, Booklist.
Exciting stuff happening all around! If you’re interested in grabbing a copy of the now-released Hubris, you can do so on Balance of Seven’s official site.
Revna waited every day for the mysterious stranger to reappear in her life. She couldn’t help but wonder if she had been speaking directly to a god, and if so, which one had graced her with their presence and help. She often gazed off toward the edge of the woods, lost in her daydreams, waiting to see the familiar figure outlined in the shadows.
A year passed by, however, and that day still had not come. There were no crunches of footfall through the fallen leaves of autumn, no footprints left in the snows of winters, no treaded grasses of spring. She casually asked about her in the nearby village when going to do business, but the description was often vague enough to be confused with many of the women; tall, strongly built, blond hair, blue eyes seemed to describe a good portion of the surrounding towns. While waiting for customers to visit her cart, Revna would scan the crowds looking for the woman, to no avail.
Revna longed to traipse through the woods again, despite her last experience. She felt a desperate pull toward the trees. It sometimes felt as though her feet longed to move despite her insistence that they stay put. One day, as the summer was transitioning to the autumn and the chill was back in the breeze as it had been on that fateful night, Revna could resist no longer.
“Father,” she called, pulling on the white cloak that she kept in her pile of outer layers, “I’m going to pick some mushrooms in the forest. I’ll be back in a couple of hours at the most.”
I have decided to post my Viking Siren story in its entirety here, as well as ko-fi. If you enjoy this story and want to leave a small donation, you can do so here.
Dusk was falling over the village. The nighttime predators would soon make their way out of the trees toward any unwatched cattle or sheep. Many villagers were making their way into their homes with their livestock.
One teenage girl, however, ran haphazardly around the grazing area, trying to wrangle one errant pig that evaded her grasp.
“Come on, you stupid beast!” she called after it. “Come on inside before the wolves find you!”
Sweat glistened on the girl’s brown skin even though the night had a chill in its breeze. She ran as fast as her legs would take her, diving toward the escapee. The pig veered to the left at the last minute and the girl fell into a patch of mud, streaking her thick blouse and skirt with black dirt.
“Revna!” she heard her father call. “I said catch the pig, not become one! He’s getting into the forest!”
Revna raised her head, her black braids falling over her narrowed brown eyes. She pushed herself up to her feet with a growl and took off toward the darkening trees. “I’ll get him, Father,” Revna called over her shoulder. “Don’t worry.”
The canopy of the forest hummed with the static from countless raindrops as the Warriors gathered together. The chilly afternoon near Lysefjord brought an eternity of memories flooding back to Hel, some bitter, some sweet, all crashing over her at once like the salty waves over the longboats that had helped define her bonded people so long ago. She had offered to have the ceremony in Australia for Roxy’s comfort, but the younger Siren had refused; it was often a move of respect among the Healers and Diplomats to hold the ceremony in the relinquisher’s bonded country, and Hel was happy Roxy had decided upon this route for the Warriors.
They were in the thick of the green forest, far from where any adventurous humans might hike by and find them. The smell of wet foliage invigorated Hel as she ran her hands over the sharp needles of a large spruce tree. She thought of the timber her bonded people used to make their homes, their boats and their tools. The fresh, clean scent of the spruce needles and the sound of footsteps across the blanketed forest ground almost made her forget where she was; she felt, for just a second, that she should pick up her spear and follow her bonded people to the boats.
She brought herself back to the present, tugging at one of her braids. The Warriors were trickling in, but there was still no sign of Roxy. Hel frowned, thinking of her sister’s hesitancy earlier. She had made peace with her own decision to retire from her position. She had gone through every meditation she knew of to ease her mind. If Roxy backed out now—
There was a hiss of whispers from the gathering crowd and Hel turned her attention to a large, sprawling oak tree. There stood Roxy, dressed in a red leather jacket with her favorite crimson lace tank top underneath. She had let her hair down, her black curls falling in cascades around her face and shoulders. Across her cheeks and forehead were dots of white paint and black eyeliner outlined her brown eyes.
