All posts by RFLong

Cover Reveal – The Mirror of Her Power by R. F. Long

New Books, New releases, , ,

I’ve been locked away in the editing cave but I’m just sneaking out into the sunshine for a moment to go …

Ta-DAH!

And reveal the cover for my new paranormal romance which comes out next week (NEXT WEEK! EEK!).

The Mirror of Her Power is being released from Taliesin Publishing on the 5th June. It’s my first full on paranormal romance since Soul Fire and I’m really excited about it. Magicians living amongst us, desire and magic going hand in hand, steamy encounters, ancient enemies and untold wonders.

And all quite over-18s only. (sorry under 18s but you only have to wait a few months for A Crack in Everything, promise. And it will be SO worth the wait!)

Are you ready?

The Mirror of Her Power

Magic and desire – the magicians are among us

Mia’s life as a bike messenger has a few perks, mostly the glimpses she gets of the hot and mysterious Balthazar. But while making a delivery to his home, a strange bracelet attaches itself to her arm and everything changes. Balthazar is a magician, and Mia is fated to be his apprentice.

Only Balthazar doesn’t want an apprentice. The last time he tried to share his life and his power with someone it ended in ruin. He won’t risk that again. But magic and lust are intricately connected, as are the fates of magicians and their apprentices. The desire that ignites between the two of them is more than he’s prepared for, and maybe it’s more than just desire.

When Balthazar’s former apprentice, a powerful and dangerous sorceress returns with vengeance on her mind, he’ll have to join forces with Mia, or risk losing her forever.

Along with his last chance of redemption.

I’ve always loved stories about magicians and magic and this particular story, characters and world just begged to be told. Even though I’ve been focusing on YA recently I simply could not shut Balthazar and Mia up.

Oh and Emrys.

Especially Emrys. Oh my goodness, he never shuts up! Wants his own book next. Cheeky boy.

The Mirror of Her Power will be available as an ebook from the 5th of June from Taliesin Publishing and all the other online retailers. As soon as I have the buy links, they’ll be up here 😀

Hope you love it as much as I do.

The Mirror of Her Power

Co Clare adventure

Life Happens, Photo Moments, travels

So I promised some people photos from our Easter trip to Co. Clare, Bunratty Folk Park, the Burren, the Cliffs of Moher etc etc.

Boy are you going to regret that request. Sit back, this may take some time… (hope it works!)

 

Any questions leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer. Yes, I’ve probably misspelled half the names. It was a beautiful place and such a special holiday. Lots of story inspiration and plotbunnies too!

Hope you enjoy.

Shoes, Ducks & Maids of the Sea – Free ebook

Free Read, Publications,

So here it is folks – the IBbY ebook for Children’s Book Day.

Shoes Ducks and Maids of the SeaShoes Ducks and Maids of the Sea is a collection of thirteen short stories retelling the classic tales of Hans Christian Anderson with an Irish eye. There are stories from Paula Leyden, Oisín McGann, David Rudden, Sheena Wilkinson, Deirdre Sullivan, Claire Hennessy, Paul Timoney, Anna Carey, Siobhán Parkinson, Sarah Webb, Darragh Martin and me!

You can download Shoes, Ducks and Maids of the Sea here and check out the awesome stuff on ImagineNations.ie, the new website for international Children’s books featuring articles, reviews and children’s lit from all around the world.

And come along to the launch tonight at 6.30pm in the Workmans Club, Wellington Quay, Dublin, if you can.

Backups and researchiness

WIP, Writing Craft, Writing Life, , ,

First of all I want to give thanks to Dropbox.

I work out of my dropbox folder these days and thank goodness I do. At the end of my last round of edits I decided to read through the completed file on my tablet, which in its infinite Androidy wisdom (NOT) decided it should strip out every quotation mark, apostrophe, dash and ellipsis from the entire file.

I’ll just give that a moment to sink in…

Every. Single. One.

I discovered it on Sunday morning. The edits were due on Monday.

Yes. There was screaming. There was crying. There was a bit of throwing myself about on the stairs and on the sofa. My children frantically made tea and brought me crisps and hot wings sauce to dip them in. The dog hid. I suspect my husband my have contemplated just staying upstairs and locking some doors. He didn’t. He’s good that way.

No, he was the one who kept the level head and pointed out that you can get the previous versions of files on the Dropbox website. Which I did. And all was good. All I lost were a couple of bookmarks I’d made on the errant tablet version of the document. It took about an hour to fix it. Once I’d calmed down.

So great was the relief, and what did we learn?

Always always always keep multiple backups, preferably with iterations of files. Whether you use something like Dropbox or not. Do not save anything on my tablet. Ever. (Yours might be perfectly well behaved). Keep a level head and remember what safeguards you have put in place. Dropbox.

And when I freak out bring me tea and crisps and hide. Blue cheese is also good.

Phew. It was a nightmare. But the edits went in on time. It’s only taken me about three weeks to recover and write this down. The next round are due next week.

Backups, kids. We love them!

I learned something else today. I say learned but I already knew it. It is this: I am not be trusted in the library with my library card and research books. Exhibit A

DSC_0587 (1024x768)

 

 

 

But um… yes… one of these things is not like the others…

Happy St Patrick’s Day

Uncategorized

It’s St Patrick’s Day, which generally means a weekend of rain. Luckily we didn’t get that (though there was a bit of drizzle through which we persevered). Instead there’s something of a feeling of spring out and about.

Native Woodlands Trust, Blessington
Native Woodlands Trust, Blessington

Yesterday we took ourselves off on a scavenger hunt with the Native Woodland Trust to Blessington, spotting wild primroses, frogspawn and learning about various native tree species, along with some which we thought were native but aren’t (looking at you Sycamore, Horse Chestnut and Beech). I’d never heard of the Wych Elm, for example, but now fully intend to put it in a book. And I was never sure which flowered first, the Hawthorn or the Blackthorn, but now I do — the Blackthorn flowers before its leaves come out, the Hawthorn the other way around. The Hawthorn waits for May. The Blackthorns are out now — pretty splashes of white against the bare branches. Who knows why they have such a dark reputation?

The first round of edits for A Crack in Everything have gone back so I took a week off and now can start looking at the next book until the next round come in. I think the Blackthorn is going to make an appearance now.

Perhaps you’ll see the first stirrings of Spring around you as well. It’s so heartening.

In the meantime, happy St. Patrick’s Day to one and all.

 

 

Frantic editing cave post – in which I made a library-related mistake

Awesome authors, Libraryland, Life Happens

I am back in the editing cave.

…

 

I know, I haven’t been out of it much of late. That’s what happens when you have two books due and are writing two more. So editing cave.

Unfortunately, I made the fatal mistake of going to the library with my kids today. One we don’t usually go to. Why a fatal mistake you ask? Because, I answer, pulling at my hair like a maniac, I found books… 3 books!.. that I have been dying to read.

Ash by James Herbert (I adored the previous David Ash books and didn’t know about this one until quite recently so am super psyched)

Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper. (I mean come ON. SUSAN COOPER!)

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness (because I’ve been meaning to read this one for a while and it ticks all the right boxes for me)

Soooooo I am making a deal with myself. For every chapter I get through on the edits (for which I have a deadline and I’ve kind of worked this out so bear with me*) I can read. I have three weeks. I have three books. The more chapters I get through and the shinier it becomes I can read more of the books. The lovely shiny books.

And this isn’t even taking into account that I got The Gutter Bookshop in Dalkey to order Liz de Jager’s Banished for me and it’s due in next week.  Squee.

Cue hysterical laughter. And editing. And hopefully reading!

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Oh and in a little bit of other news, my steamy paranormal romance The Mirror of Her Power is due out in April. It is so not YA, but it is fab and lovely. Edits for that are done. Yay! Thanks to my awesome editor Dayna!

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*I haven’t really worked any of this out at all. But anyway…