Something ✨Special✨ This Way Comes…

Of Blood & Aether is getting her very first special edition!

Hello again, darling readers.

It’s been awhile. I know.

You’ll have to forgive me — the past few months post-release have been a whirlwind, both as a newly-published author, and simply as a human. Life in general has been… a bit much, as of late, but you, my loves, have kept me going. And I don’t even mean that as an empty platitude — there has been many a day over the last three months where the only thing standing between me and a mental breakdown is the kindness and enthusiasm of my growing readership, and I cannot even begin to tell y’all how much that means to me. But I digress, as I so often do.

The main reason I’m writing this eve is to share some incredibly exciting news:

An absolutely gorgeous new rendition of Of Blood & Aether will be featured in Fabled Co’s “Fabled Moonlight” Subscription Box for the month of August!

This special edition hardcover will feature stunning new designs for both the naked cover & dust jacket, as well as custom end papers and digital edges, all designed by the incredible catrina_paints — and every copy is hand-signed by yours truly 🖤

To say this is a dream come true is an understatement — it truly was one of my wildest little indie author dreams to get a special edition one day, and here we are. And yes, that was what I was being vague about on Insta a few weeks ago — I may or may not have given myself a blister signing several thousand tip-ins over the course of a week. Oopsie daisy. I’m a bit of an overachiever like that.

(So. Many. Tip-Ins.)

If you’re interested in snagging a copy, your best bet is to sign up for the wait list here. According to Fabled’s website, invitations to subscribe get sent out on the 20th of every month, so be sure to sign up before the weekend, and godspeed!

Some Writing Updates…

If you follow me on social media, you may have seen me gripe about the eternal struggle that is both writer’s block and the sophomore scaries. It’s also just admittedly difficult to get creative when I’m working long & stressful hours at ye olde day job. But I’ve been fighting like hell to get back into the swing of things — feeling rather desperate to claw my way back to drafting Harbingers, Book Two. I know y’all want that thing in your hands, and trust me — I want it out of my brain and on the page.

We’re getting there.

After taking a writing course (I cannot recommend Write Better, Faster by Becca Syme enough for any of you fellow authors out there), I learned quite a lot about myself and what sort of processes work best for me. This is all still fairly new to me — Of Blood & Aether is the first book I ever wrote. But putting some of those learnings into practice has already been paying off in droves.

I recently took two weeks off work, and decided to use a majority of that time to play around with a new project — flex those daily drafting muscles, get back on the horse, so to speak, after what has honestly been a months-long dry spell. Some of that dry spell was intentional: I needed to focus on getting Book One out the door. But much of it was not — I was simply strugglin’.

And then, as fate would have it, a burst of inspiration struck me in the form of a dream. How terribly cliche.

I dreamt up this idea about a dark-ish (dark-lite?), forbidden office romance. A contemporary romance, at that! Never thought I’d see the day where I got excited over the idea of writing something without a single drop of fantasy or paranormal, but I suppose stranger things have happened!

As it turns out, that was exactly what I needed. By letting myself play, explore, and create without limits, external pressures, or outlines — I remembered why I love to write. So shout out to Sascha and Cade, the protagonists of my newest side-hoe: Illicit Affairs.

I’ve written over 30k words in this thing — going on eleven consecutive chapters so far, and I’m having a blast. My plan is to continue to play around in this side project through the end of the month, at which point I’m hoping to switch gears and get back to my main squeeze with renewed vigor.

I’ve been missing Arken, Kieran and Viktor (who y’all haven’t met yet… but you will, soon enough) something fierce — and very much look forward to returning to Sophrosyne soon 🖤

And In Other News…

Next Friday, I’ll be joining the lovely MyLittleBookShelfCo on Instagram Live for a Q&A!

Please feel free to swing by, I’d love to chat!

We’ve also gotten a couple new pieces of Harbingers art to drool over since we last spoke! Behold:

by chelzd_art

by heavenlyystar

Last, but not least, the darling Lilia had her own piece of Arkieran fan art commissioned (and yes, I did have to go lay on the floor and cry about it for approximately three hours). This one is by queen_joey, and I am obsessed on so many levels.

That’s all for now, my little conduits of chaos. There are even more exciting things to come, and I can’t wait to tell you more.

With all the love in the aetherverse,
Harper