State of the Blain: April 29, 2025

Tomorrow, we turn in the keys for the old place. The nightmare is almost over, hooray! I really feel badly for the poor folks who end up renting that apartment. They cranked the price to over $3,600 a month base… and the utilities range, but can get up to $200. That apartment is not worth $3,800 a month to say the least.

… and they have zero intention of replacing the carpets that just turned five years old… (Yes, we were there for four complete years.)

But onto happier things. I have a fully functional and organized kitchen! This is very exciting. The old place made cooking very difficult, and it made me sad. This kitchen? Cooking is PLEASANT in this kitchen.

I CAN has a happy.

Here’s the full view. Is a big kitchen for an apartment!

Every house needs a kitchen moose. Those three lusterware pieces we’ve had for the vast majority of our marriage. The sugar container never had a lid, so I decided that would become the throne for the kitchen moose. Yes, the lusterware is used. My spouse just approved me purchasing a second full four piece set (I only ever had the three pieces) that I’ll get to put on display, and it has two extra cups and two extra salad plates, so those will join the kitchen pieces.

I love Japanese lusterware. Here is a mix and match set I have on display in our family room. It’s almost impossible to locate more of the original cups, and the bad movers from a previous move destroyed four of my cups.

My happiness level with those movers: 0%

The movers we hired for this move have been utterly fantastic. They’re coming to remove the debris tomorrow (boxes, packing supplies) so we have our patio back. We still have two rooms to unpack, but we have decided we are doing this leisurely, so the complex recycle bins can handle our removals. We’ll do one large box of recycling every few days. (Dumpsters are emptied twice a week.)

Anyway, back to my kitchen. Here is my other tea pot and two of my favorite cups on display with the kettle, the coffee maker, and my French press.

I need to give everything a rinse here. There was a soap-splosion yesterday and I didn’t get the sugar jar and the turtle cleaned lol (oops)

Last but not least, here are some of my kitchen sill decorations.

Now that I’ve given you a glimpse into my person life and containing the moving chaos, onto the book news!

Audiobooks

A Light in the Dark (audiobook edition) is currently being proof-listened. Once proof-listening is done, it will be on route to my Patreon store, where it will rule for two to three weeks before heading to all retail outlets.

As a reminder, Cindercorns and Spicy Ponies with Bite receive new audiobooks at the same time they are released to the Patreon store. Otters receive eBooks several days before the retail release. Sirens receive the eBooks plus they get to listen along with older audiobooks (and have access to download the files for future listening pleasure.) (Cindies and Spicies also receive the audiobook listen along files.)

Patreon is a monthly subscription service, and I use the money in three different ways:

• It helps pay my rent. (This is important.)
• It pays for production of all Royal States eBooks. (I retain approximately two thousand dollars a month for Royal States production; each Royal States book costs between $4,000 to $6,000 a piece.)
• It helps pay for audiobook production. (What isn’t used for Royal States goes towards the audiobook bills.)
• It helps cover taxes. (Boo, taxes.)

Please note that the success of series has Patreon included. I know precisely how many members are in each tier, and all members in the Otter+ tiers are counted towards each book’s performance. (It essentially balances out, since the subscribers add the same number of ‘sales’ to every book.) So yes, I DO factor Patreon in my business decisions.

What Patreon does do is give me some financial security. Unlike standard vendors, Patreon tends to be a fairly static amount that I can rely on each month, so Patreon has a fairly high priority in the grand scheme of things.

The reality is, as long as I can keep being able to pay my rent, cover my taxes, and handle my expenses, I’ll keep writing. When that changes, I’ll have to look at other ways of working. Patreon hugely relieves the general stress, because I can budget around it.

Novels are delivered in ePub format, and new releases are also delivered via Bookfunnel. Audiobooks are delivered in .mp3 format and can be played with any music player.

Life-Debt and Experimental Voyage have been sent to Keira Grace to be recorded. Expect 2-3 months, approximately, for Life-Debt to be ready and 3-6 months for Experimental Voyage. If it happens faster, great… this timeline may change dependent on Keira’s schedule.

Partner-in-Crime is currently being recorded by Cameron Hill. I have no ETA for completion. (He does this work in his spare time as he has spare time, and I’m hugely grateful he squeezes me in when he can.)

eBooks

I am actively working on the following titles:

• Failed Colony
• Death Dance
• Murder at River’s End
• Purple Stained Sky
• Dragon Her Heels
• Grave Intentions
• The Edge of Midnight

Per a vote on Patreon, I will be working on the next Agents of the Royal States novel as well. I will start conceptualizing and writing after The Prince of New York releases in May.

Patreon subscribers voted that I use a x2 Agents of the Royal States x1 Royal States methodology for writing Susan Copperfield books, as this results in the main series lasting just a little bit longer. (We are down to maybe five books left in the main series. I’d have to check my title count.)

I can tell you that the final book will be entitled Crossroads, so when you see Crossroads come up in the Royal States lineup, the series (both of them/the world) will be coming to a conclusion. (That is something like 15 books from now across both series, so please do not panic…)

This is where I intended to end the series, so there’s nothing amiss there.

After I finish Crossroads, I may or may not retire Susan Copperfield. It very much depends on if I can come up with a new world with a royalty theme I truly want to write. Currently, I don’t see this happening, as all my current royalty themed works are epic or high fantasy or romantasy, which goes under different pen names.

As such, while I’m not saying no to more Susan Copperfield after Crossroads, I’m also not saying yes.

Print Editions

I will be going through my eBook list and compiling which books are missing print editions at the end of May. As such, you can expect new print editions to start rolling in between June and August.

Reminder: 6x9s have priority, and they are printed through Amazon, due to the increasing price of print books. I am still doing Ingram for distribution of mass market books, but the prices have grown to be… unmanageable. (Upwards of $30 for a mass market novel??? It’s depressing!!)

I don’t want to end offering mass market, but the current economics of print books with Ingram is rapidly pricing me out of the market altogether. I’ll probably still do them at a loss so libraries can access the print books… but let’s face it, $30 for a mass market edition is fucking ridiculous.

Anyway, that’s it for now, folks. I must go do ALL the things today. I’m on a two week break (except little things, like updates and patreon posting) to recover from the move. World of Warcraft calls to me… and I shall answer.

FOR PONY!!!