Raven’s story about the book she wrote when she was 7…

And the results are not only IN, but actually UNANIMOUS – you ALL chose Blood Eternal. I’ve never seen such an entirely undivided result before! When The People speak with such a United Voice, what can I do but go with it?

As some of you might know from social media, I was on vacation over the last two weeks. Well, kinda. I worked on a short story and did support on recording the next audiobook, and a whole bunch of other things. So there was slightly less work than normal. Which, I suppose, is what vacations look like for people who are trying to build their small business into something stable. If I’m lucky, I can take all two weeks off for real, next year!

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Oh, for those of you who were waiting for Blood Ex Libris to be sold in Apple Books, it took ages for it to get listed but here it finally is!

Upcoming newsletters are going to be chock full of exciting news, but in this one I’d like to ask each of you for a favor…

Libraries.

I profoundly believe in their necessity in for a strong society. On a less intense level, I just believe that everyone should be able to read a good book, even if it’s “just” for relaxation and diversion at the end of a long day. (Why we rate emotional self-care and actually getting to enjoy life so little as a society is a whole ‘nother rant entirely!)

When I was about age seven, I wrote my first book.

“The Firebird” was the story of the phoenix, and after the main action of the phoenix going up in flames, a beautiful golden egg was found in the nest of ashes. I wrote AND illustrated it, and it was probably the final period of my life in which I thought I could both write and draw—I eventually had to admit that my abilities in the visual arts were not ones involving a pencil or brush.

But for someone age seven, the art was not bad! And I put so much work into it.

And then, to my immense surprise, my mom told me the book was going to be featured in a display at the local library. (I was never sure how that came about, but I’m reasonably certain it involved my mom bringing my magnum opus in and showing it to the librarians…) There was a round table in a main part of the library, and books about the legend of the phoenix were all over it…my book in the dead center, raised on a clear plastic display stand.

Now, writing books is very hard. (I could have told you this at age seven! 😂) Most people who start writing that novel that’s in their heads never finish it. And of those who do actually finish their novel, a staggeringly small number of those people manage to get that book into print.

So if you don’t think that this early publishing triumph did not make a lasting impression and contribute to me having the strength, later in life, to believe in myself that despite everything the world throws against me that I can make it as an author, well, then I guess you must simply take my word for it. It meant everything to me at the time, and it’s a cherished memory. (And hey, it also provides me with the incentive that I don’t want to have peaked at age seven 😂)

So, libraries.

When it came to publishing the Blood & Ancient Scrolls series, I could have gone exclusively Amazon and Audible, and gotten a greater percentage of sales. I could have made life a lot easier for myself. But I went the route that ensured that libraries could access my books and provide them for people who want diversion at the end of a long hard day (or some people have read them beside pools on vacation, and I have to say that’s a very good idea) but the main point is, I’ve always wanted my books to be in your local public library, because I believe in libraries. Libraries are a safe place. A happy place. A clean, well-lighted place. A vital place.

However, libraries have to request my books. They don’t just magically fly there, or POOF into existence out of purple smoke.

That’s where YOU come in. IIP has been and will continue doing a big push to get my books into the wonderful hands of librarians, but the best way to get my books into libraries is for people to request that their local public library purchase the book for their shelves.

Your local library has a request form on their website. They will request some or all of the following information:

Basic bibliographic information about your book (title, author, ISBN, publisher, date of publication, number of pages, price)

A link to your book’s website and links to coverage in the news media (if available)

Information about how or where to buy it

If you could spare a moment of your extremely valuable time and request either Blood Ex Libris or Blood Triad from your local library, it would do significant and measurable good for the Blood & Ancient Scrolls series (and for me as a person, knowing that my books are catching new readers’ eyes from their happy homes on library shelves around the country. Here is an easy cut-n-paste to use for the request forms:

I leave you this week with one of the finest songs ever written about reading, books, and the library: Library Rap | MC Poindexter & The Study Crew

Until next newsletter, be good or be good at 😘