I’m incredibly proud to announce that my third novel and the culmination of the Sekhmet’s Light Trilogy, Shomu, has gone live in Kindle format. For those of you that have been reading for the last couple years, it means finding out what I’ve been keeping to myself for a while now: how Nicole’s story ends. 

It’s kind of surreal knowing that her story has been told, but gratifying at the same time to know that I’ve actually completed the trilogy. I hope that you’ll agree that the ending fits nicely with the mythology I’ve established. 

As of right now, I’m looking forward to what comes next. There will be one last touch on the SL universe, possibly before the end of the year. A collection of stories that I’m titling The Days Upon the Year to continue the calendar theme of the titles.

As readers will know, Ancient Egyptians had a three-season calendar, each containing four 30-day months. That 360 day calendar, however, leaves us with 5 rogue days unaccounted for. These are the epagomenal days, or Days Upon the Year. Each of these days is said to be the ‘birthday’ of the most powerful gods in the panthon (Osiris, Horus the Elder, Isis, Set, and Nephthys). They’re also said to occur outside of normal time and people believe that strange things happen on them.

For my purposes, each “day” will present a story that ties in with the Sekhmet’s Light trilogy or was touched upon in the novels, but wasn’t shared in its entirety to avoid bogging down the main narrative. You’ll get to see things like the story of the first NuruSekhmet, Aramair’s story, and others. They’re things that add flavor to the universe, but aren’t absolutely necessary to Nicole’s story. 

I’ve also plotted out my next novel, the first in my as yet untitled supernatural thriller series and was blessed with the idea for the second of that one as well. I’m also producing some short stories for the next Talaria Press Founder’s Anthology which has a fairy tale theme to it which should be fun, in addition to helping with proof-reading/editing my husband’s second novel.

Factor in my efforts to find a new day job and I’m on massively busy girl!

Ahem.

So, I hope that you’ll pick up Shomu, if you’ve been reading along. If you haven’t, I have a treat for you. In celebration of the completion of the series, I’m offering the first novel, Akhet, for your kindle Sunday through Tuesday this week. This is a great opportunity to grab it and start on the series, knowing that the whole story is there just waiting to be read!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to break out the ‘tasty adult beverages’ to celebrate!

Hey, folks. I just wanted to pass along a couple of links about this weekend’s activities. My Talaria Press compatriots and I will be appearing at Emerald City ComiCon and there are lots of great things in store. Come on down and see us if you’re in the area. We’ll be in Artist’s Alley, Table C-22!

If you are on Twitter, follow us at @TalariaPress as we’ll be tweeting frequently throughout the weekend with all the cool haps at the convention.

Here are postings on the Talaria Press website with details of what you can expect:

Founder’s Anthology Free Download Weekend

Talaria & Operation Paperback Book Drive

Akhet Free Download Weekend

Happy Birthday to ME!

That’s right, tomorrow, March 21st, is my birthday, but I’m giving you guys the present this year! Tomorrow, you can download my first novel, Akhet, for your Kindle for the low, low, low price of… FREE!

Shelfari Review

A nice 4-star review of Akhet was posted on Shelfari earlier today. 

Akhet for Free?!

Yes, it’s true. As a KDP enrolled title, all Amazon Prime members have the option of ‘borrowing’ the book and reading it for free… However, that’s not what this post is actually about!

If, as a Kindle user, you’ve been pondering reading the first book of Sekhmet’s Light, or if you know someone who has, on February 1st, I’m offering Akhet for free! Yes, you can download it for yourself, or gift it to a friend for absolutely no money.

But why would you do this, Heather? Don’t you want to make money?! Well, yes, of course I do… believe me this is not something I’m doing purely out of the goodness of my heart. It’s my hope that when you’ve read the first novel, you’ll be willing to shell out the cash for Peret (book two) and Shomu (book three which will be available in the next couple of months!). So, please, if you’ve been on the fence or you know someone who’d like it, feel free to download it!

Thanks for reading! :D

Score: Four out of Five Stars

This is a well-researched book and you will learn some Egyptian words while reading it. I found this very interesting. 

The main character doesn’t look like me at all so I wasn’t able to imagine myself as her, but the author did a great job of in description.  All I can say is I’m not tall and lean with an angular face and dark hair long enough to brush the waistband of my pants when pulled back in a ponytail.  The research done shows in the work and was very thorough, while the descriptions are clear enough that this should be a graphic novel.  Even though the characters are adults, the way subject matter is handled well and this is safe for early teens. This story might help inspire a new generation of Indiana Jones wannabes.

I’ve been closely following the events surrounding the creation of Amazon’s KDP Select program. Because of my intense curiosity and my desire to embrace new tools and technologies to get my work noticed, I’ve decided to register my first novel, Akhet, for the program. 

What does this mean for you, the reader? Well, it means that in accordance with Amazon’s terms for the program, I’m pulling Akhet down from BN.com and Smashwords, at least until April 10, 2012 (the end of the three month period that Amazon wants).

Peret and Shomu (when it’s published in the next couple months) will still be available through these distributors. 

The hope of this experiment is, of course, that the ability to borrow the book for a month and read it will cause a nice spike in my sales and lead to more success. We shall see.

In the meantime, I appreciate your understanding and hope that you don’t hate me too much! :)

    I’ve recently shared the fact that I’m an author with my guild in Rift (it came up when I had to log early for a meeting with my editor and people asked about it). One of my friends commented that it sounded like my books would be right up his oldest daughter’s alley so he would suggest them to her.

    I spoke to him again day before yesterday and he told me that his daughter already owns my first book and that he was planning on picking up the second one for her for christmas! Of course, this had me utterly tickled pink, particularly when he asked how much I’d charge to sign them for her.

    I told him I don’t charge for signatures and that if he wants to send me the cover price via paypal I’ll be happy to sign a copy of Peret and send it to her since I still have one on-hand from the last shipment I received.

    Having the opportunity to interact with people who’ve read my book is a huge thrill to me and if it means getting a dad some extra kudos in the process, I’m totally down with that!

As an author, I’ve been asked on multiple occasions if I have a specific appearance in mind for various characters in the series. Generally speaking, I tend to have actors and/or models picked out for characters as I create them which is immensely helpful for me when it comes to visualizing them.

And so, without further ado, here are the major men and women of Akhet: Sekhmet’s Light, Book One, in alphabetical order:

Dr. Alexander Hodges - Bruce Campbell!

Amir Haad - Oded Fehr (Yes, the character himself is a very small role, but he’s a major catalyst to the story so I’m including him.)

Atif, High Priest of Apep - Faran Tahir

Haifa Haad - Serine Abed Alnour

Imanekhet, High Priest of Horus - Erick Avari

Kemsefet, Blade Master of Horus - Dwayen “The Rock” Johnson: This one, I think probably deserves some explanation. I’ve really tried to stay away from casting non-Middle Eastern actors/models as the Egyptian members of my cast, but Kemsefet is a special case. For me, there was never anyone but Dwayne for the role, but not for the reasons that people might think (his role in the Mummy and Scorpion King movies). The fact is that there’s a LOT of my husband in Kemsefet’s personality and Garth looks a lot like Dwayne… to the extent that people who have actually worked with Dwayne have remarked on it.

Dr. Marcus Wright - Kevin McKidd

Meshrew, High Priestess of Sekhmet - Wafaa Ibrahim

And finally, Dr. Nicole Salem / NuruSekhmet - Daniela Ruah

So, there you have it, the men and women that I envision when I think of the characters in Akhet. Keep an eye out for the men and women of Peret!

Interviewed by Ren Cummins

Ren asks some really fun questions during this interview. Check it out!

New review of Akhet!

A brand new review was just posted on Amazon.com of Akhet, book one!

So I was finally able to get the paperback edition of Peret into shape so it’s now up and available for purchase!

Currently, the Kindle edition is live on Amazon, and the Paperback is available through the Createspace store with Amazon picking it up in the next few days. Also, for those of you who love your Nooks, it’s available through BN.com.

Also, for those of you who regret that your kindle edition can’t be inscribed with a personal message like a paperback… well guess what! Now, it can! Both Akhet and Peret are available for service through KindleGraph.com!

Akhet Review on Red Adept Reviews

B. Tackitt gave Akhet 4.5 stars! Thank you for taking the time to read my book and write such a great review!

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