Hello Awesome Readers,

Thank you for sticking with my story, Sword and Mirror for so long! I hope you enjoyed the journey ^^

Only 2 more chapters left - I'll upload them tomorrow (Wednesday, that's already today for us in Europe and further East).

***

As you may know (because I've going on about this non-stop the past few weeks), I'm publishing Sword and Mirror on Amazon on 30th. Right now, you can pre-order the ebook with a discounted price (2.99), it'll go up to full-price (4.99) a couple of days after release, so if you want the final, edited shiny version, grab it as soon as you can. (Link in the author notes, because then you can just click.)

There will be a paperback version which might be slightly delayed after the ebook, but hopefully not by much. I'll let you know when it's available :)

So what does this mean? I will have to take down the first draft from here. You can read the book here until 27th. Read to your heart's content. I'll delete the chapters then and upload the first couple of chapters from the final version. I'm in Europe, btw, so 27th for me.

***

Book 2: Smoke & Jewel
(To be published on Leap Day! Woohoo!)

I don't have a blurb yet, but Juro is fulfilling his promise to try to get Karen (Ciara's cousin) to this time period. And then there's Taiki, the awesome ninja demoted to... a babysitter? Taiki is being hunted by ninjas and Karen wants to get to Ciara and then get the hell out of there. And they'll be stuck in a castle full of hanyous, with Juro as the leader. I wonder how will things end up?

As of right now, I don't plan on posting Smoke & Jewel on Tapas. However, I've already started working on it and I'll continue to post on Patreon. I know some people are averse to it, but you can read all the books for only 1 usd per month. And I'm going to post 3 new chapters per week, which means about 13-14 chapters per month, depending. Methinks it's awesome deal.

While we're at topic, the first chapter is already up, available for ninjas. Uhh... so how does this work? There are currently 3 tiers on my Patreon: Helpers, Castle guards and Ninjas.

Helpers ($1/mo) get access to chapters and side stories in advance. Plus, cover-reveals and blurbs and whatever additional info there is. And Patren-excusive content.

Castle guards ($5/mo): the same, but they're +1 chapter ahead of Helpers.

Ninjas ($10/mo): the same, but they're +3 chapters ahead of Helpers, PLUS they get the final ebook for free, 1 week before publication. This is not retroactive. (That's right, I've sent it to them yesterday - the offer is open until 27th if someone new joins the rank of ninjas until then, but after that, the next ebook they'll get will be Smoke & Jewel.)

I'm currently thinking of adding another tier which will offer a signed paperback. Still working out the details, though.

I'm sure you're wondering why I'm moving book 2 completely to Patreon and not post the chapters here. Because at this time, I can write full-time, but only for a limited period, I'm living up my savings. I can't pay bills with a smile and if this continues, I need to get an insufferable dayjob to stay afloat, which will mean less time to write; additionally, it'll certainly sap my creativity.

I don't want that. I've immensely enjoyed working on my novel full-time for the last couple of months and interacting with you guys. And when I see your likes and comments, it makes my day ^^

So, this is my plan and reasoning behind it. Thank you for your understanding.

In the meantime, we have these side stories available for free: Katsuo's side story and Ciara's side story. Links in the author note.

Thank you very much for your continued encouragement and support <3