Writing a series is especially hard.

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.

Preorders are open for paperback copies of Axis here.

Hubris is available for print or e-book if you haven’t got your copy yet.

Discuss...

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.

Discuss...

Book Excerpts

Discuss...

• 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:

  1. Facebook: facebook.com/svhines

  2. Threads: sarahvhines

  3. Instagram: sarahvhines

  4. Mastodon: sarahvhines@writing.exchange

  5. Tumblr: @sarahwritessirens

  6. 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.

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.

As an AI, himself, Wesley was relegated to working and rebooting. If authorities knew what he was doing, they would disassemble and reprogram him before the morning. He couldn’t risk losing the empathy glitch in his most recent upgrade—having a purpose was almost addictive.

Wesley pulled the scarf and hat around his screen, covering everything but the space for his eyes, which he projected to look like any augmented eyes of the crowd. He moved slowly as to not draw attention to himself, avoiding making eye contact for too long. There was a jolt in his circuits as he made his way to the markets. The bright, neon screens advertising the newest models in augmentations or the newest smart device for the home lit up the nighttime pavilion, casting hues of pink or blue or green across the throngs of people. The hum of voices and movement echoed around him as the people, in their nicest clothes with their expensive jewelry and prosthetics, haggled for new parts or replacements, for fresh vegetables and fruits, for thick cuts of meat or for much-needed medicine. He placed his hand in his pocket, finding the parts he had taken from his shift in the AI hardware development sector.

He slid up to a usual customer; a thin man named Tess that never asked too many questions. Tess knew two things—that his clients needed their augmented limbs re-tightened and that they didn’t want the usual cheap materials that made up the commercial-grade quality. They desired government-quality parts, but these were scarce unless you paid exorbitant prices or, as in Tess’s case, knew somebody who could sell it at a discount.

“What you got today, Wes?” Tess asked, looking down at his tools as he readied them for the next client.

“Six titanium bolts, ready to go.”

“They aren’t categorized, eh?”

“Have I ever sold you categorized parts?” Wesley asked. “My contact and I would be in deep trouble if that happened.”

“Don’t know how you do it,” Tess said, not looking up at Wesley. “Don’t want to know how you do it, either. Your price is reasonable. Seven trendles still okay?”

“Still the going rate for this kind of haul, yes.”

“Great,” Tess said, wiping his brow and finally looking out of the side of his eye at Wesley. “You make a lot of clients happy, Wes. Lot of clients.”

“What can I say,” Wesley said, trying to keep the disdain he felt for Tess’s clients out of his voice, “I aim to please.”

1. I will be updating my stories. Check here for updates.

2. I will be updating w0rmh0le Lore regularly. The third chapter is already submitted for editing! If you like cyberpunk dystopian stories, check it out!

3. 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.

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.”

She heard heavy footsteps approaching until Njal entered the middle room of the longhouse and watched her sternly, hands balled on his hips. He was a tall figure, but much leaner than most of the Austmen. His skin was darker than Revna’s, having come from the lands of the south with the original traders and merchants that explored the seas. His dark brown eyes narrowed as he appraised her.

“You want to go out into those woods again?” he asked, his voice still carrying the notes of his original language, though the new one had replaced much of it. “Out where you told me just a year ago that you almost got eaten by a pack of wolves?”

“I won’t travel too deep into the woods this time, Father. I’ll be more careful. We’re out of mushrooms and there were none at the markets worth paying the merchants’ prices for. Not when I can find them myself for the price of a little digging.”

Njal walked toward Revna until he was right in front of her. He reached out and took the edge of the white cloak in one hand, examining it closely, and he ran his other hand over the fur. 

“I’ve never seen you wear this out,” he said, looking from the cloak to her, as though piecing together what was really happening. “Never have you wanted to risk sullying the gift from your strange friend.”

“You still don’t believe what I saw,” Revna accused, a warm blush spreading across her cheeks.

Njal considered for a moment, the corners of his mouth turned down into a scowl. “I’ve lived among many gods, Revna. I’ve heard the stories and I believe there are strange things in our world that we can’t understand. But sometimes I wonder if some of these things intend to do us harm, despite the stories we hear.”

He sighed as he looked his daughter over again. “Two hours. No more. Your mother will be back from town soon, and I want you here to help her with supper.”

“I promise,” Revna said. “Two hours.”

Without waiting for another word, she rose to her toes, kissed her father on the cheek and hurried outside. She took a quick turn to the tools, grabbed a small sickle, and made her way from the house.

She crossed the large grazing field to the trees, remembering the day that she chased the unruly pig. She stopped in her tracks, thinking of the large wolf that had snarled and stalked her. She wondered if she was making a mistake, being too foolhardy.

Then she thought of the woman who commanded the strange fire that had saved her. Her resolve strengthened, and she crossed the line from her safe fields to the unknown of the forest.

The sunlight filtered through the leaves and firs above her head as she scanned the woods. Fallen trees here and there made it difficult to discern a viable path. She took another step in and carefully scored the bark of one tree with her sickle. When she was done, she began walking deeper into the trees, stopping once in a while to score another tree. Whenever she found a patch of mushrooms, she would stop to dig them out of the dirt with her hands and put them in her pockets. Then she would stop to listen, only to hear the birds above her or the footfall of slow-moving animals in the brush.

When an hour had passed, Revna took a seat on the ground and took a deep breath. The air was perfumed with the scent of firs and leaves and dirt, warm and inviting. The songs of the birds echoed all around, and she noticed she felt a sense of peace wash over her. She felt her eyelids drooping as she leaned against a birch and yawned. She knew she shouldn’t fall asleep. If she were to stay out here too long, her father would not be pleased. 

“Please don’t tell me you’re lost again.”

A familiar voice made Revna jump to her feet, suddenly wide awake. In front of her stood the stranger, who looked no different or older than when she first appeared.No lines or age marks appeared on her face from the last time. Her blond hair was braided to one side once again, and her blue eyes narrowed at the teenager. This time, however, she wore armor under her furs. On her back was a large spear and in her hand was a shield.

Revna was stunned. She did not know that her stranger could be a warrior. She had a hard time finding her words at first.

“Well?” the stranger asked, tilting her head.

“No, no, not lost,” Revna said finally. “I was gathering mushrooms, and I just found this place to be very relaxing, so I took a break.”

She took a breath and tried to steady herself as the woman continued to watch her. Finally, the stranger looked around at the trees and up to the canopy.

“You’re correct about that,” the woman said at last, her voice pleasant and cheerful for a moment. “This area is quite lovely.”

“You can join me, if you’d like,” Revna said quickly, the words tumbling past her lips before she could stop them.

The woman turned her attention to Revna once again. Revna cleared her throat and added, “I mean, I understand if you’re too busy, and—”

The strange woman lowered her shield to the ground and sat down next to where Revna had been sitting. Revna watched her, shocked that she had taken up the offer.

“Are you going to sit with me or do you wish to continue staring?” the woman asked, looking into the woods.

“Oh,” Revna said, quickly lowering herself down to the ground.

They sat in silence for a moment. Revna examined the shield that lay just by her crossed knees. There were interesting symbols that Revna thought might be letters in a different language and the outline of a large black wolf. There were large dents across the face of the wooden shield. 

Revna couldn’t miss the crimson stains across the face of the shield. 

“Do you…do you sail with the Austmen?”

“Often,” the woman said, her voice now sounding strained and worn.

Revna was silent again, looking at the shield. The black wolves twisting around the edges of the shield sat uneasily with her. 

“Do you often come out here to scavenge for mushrooms?” the woman asked.

Revna looked back at her. “Rarely. Most of the time, I buy them from the merchants. They wanted more than I will pay, though.”

“So you will risk your skin for mushrooms, but no plans to go beyond your lands,” the woman said, and Revna saw her tilt her head and look out of the corner of her eyes.

“I’m not completely helpless this time,” Revna said, holding up her sickle. 

“A weapon like that requires close range. You should use something with a longer span.”

Revna looked down at her sickle, thinking about this point. Would she have been able to best a hungry wolf at such a close distance?

“What else should I use?” she asked.

The woman looked back out into the woods. “I suggest a spear. It’s my favorite.”

Revna scoffed. “I’ve never picked up a spear.”

The woman turned to her fully and surveyed her. “Would you like to try?”

Revna froze, staring at the woman. “You mean…with yours?” she finally asked.

The woman looked around them. “Do you see any other spears out here?”

Revna felt a rush of fear and excitement both competing for her body. She stood to her feet, not able to contain a nervous smile. 

The woman stood and unsheathed her spear. She stood next to Revna and nodded toward the tree that she had been leaning against.

“See that patch of white in the center? I want you to hit that.”

She gave Revna the spear. It was long and cumbersome in her hands and Revna had difficulty standing and holding it to position it to throw. She shifted the spear multiple times, trying to line the point up with the tree while also keeping the back straight.

Finally, she reared back and let go. The spear soared through the air and hit a nearby tree, nowhere even close to the spot. 

The woman clicked her tongue and retrieved the spear.

“You really never have touched a spear, have you?” she asked, looking at the point for any damage. She then looked at Revna, who felt awkward in her own skin.

“Come,” the woman said. “First, let’s correct your stance