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What I’m Reading (Fiction): The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastards, Book 3)
With what should have been the greatest heist of their career gone spectacularly sour, Locke and his trusted partner, Jean, have barely escaped with their lives. Or at least Jean has. But Locke is slowly succumbing to a deadly poison that no alchemist or physiker can cure. Yet just as the end is near, a mysterious Bondsmage offers Locke an opportunity that will either save him or finish him off once and for all.
Magi political elections are imminent, and the factions are in need of a pawn. If Locke agrees to play the role, sorcery will be used to purge the venom from his body—though the process will be so excruciating he may well wish for death. Locke is opposed, but two factors cause his will to crumble: Jean’s imploring—and the Bondsmage’s mention of a woman from Locke’s past: Sabetha. She is the love of his life, his equal in skill and wit, and now, his greatest rival.
Locke was smitten with Sabetha from his first glimpse of her as a young fellow orphan and thief-in-training. But after a tumultuous courtship, Sabetha broke away. Now they will reunite in yet another clash of wills. For faced with his one and only match in both love and trickery, Locke must choose whether to fight Sabetha—or to woo her. It is a decision on which both their lives may depend.
J.A. Sutherland – April Update: Mutineer Audiobook, Alexis Carew #3 Update, & More
I’m thrilled to announce that Elizabeth Klett, who did such a stellar job narrating Into the Dark, has agreed to narrate Mutineer as well. She’ll be working on it in June and July, so expect a late-Summer / early-Fall release.
Alexis Carew #3, The Little Ships, is on track and should release at about that same time, followed soon after by Planetfall, a novella prequel to the series that will tell Denholm Carew’s story and the founding of Dalthus — along with the root of that feud with the Coalsons.
Also releasing this year will be Of Dubious Intent, the first in a new series, Dark Artifice, which will be a slightly more traditional Steampunk series set at the very beginning of the steam era.
Cat has grown up as a cutpurse on London’s streets — pretending to be a boy to stay clear of the procurers, but that ruse is getting harder to maintain and she needs a new plan. One that will get her free of the streets and give her the hope of a new life. Then she finds that her plan was someone else’s all along.
As a thank you for following me, you can download a preview of Of Dubious Intent here. This is the first four chapters in rough, unedited form.
February Update: Mutineer Release and Into the Dark Audiobook
Mutineer releases tomorrow (2/14) and I see that Amazon has already started processing the UK presales. Thank you everyone who preordered it — I hope you enjoy reading the story as much as I enjoyed writing it. 🙂
Alexis Carew #3, The Little Ships, is well underway and being targeted at a Summer release.
I just approved the files for the audiobook of Into the Dark, so that should be available soon. It’s the first audiobook I’ve done, so I don’t know how long Audible’s review process will take. I’ve listened to the whole thing several times now to review it myself and I have to say that I’m really pleased with Elizabeth Klett’s narration. She did a spectacular job.
I’m sorry to announce that Mutineer will not be available under the Kindle Unlimited subscription service, and Into the Dark will no longer be in the program as of 2/17. This was a difficult decision, but it came down to Amazon’s requirement that a book be exclusive to Amazon in order to be included in the program. That means I couldn’t sell the books through Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iTunes … anywhere other than Amazon.
I know this may disappoint some readers who first read Into the Dark under Kindle Unlimited and were looking forward to doing the same with Mutineer. I hope you’ll understand the decision. If Amazon would allow me to place books in KU without being exclusive, I would — and they do allow this for the “big name” authors — but there are a lot of readers out there who buy through other stores and I’d like to be allowed to reach them.
J.A. Sutherland
Mutineer (Alexis Carew #2) is available for PreOrder and Cover Reveal
Yes, Mutineer is now available for preorder on Amazon and I’m happy to reveal the new cover!
Just as Midshipman Alexis Carew thinks she’s found a place in the Royal Navy, she’s transferred aboard H.M.S. Hermione. Her captain is a tartar, liberal with the cat, who thinks girls have no place aboard ship. The other midshipmen in the berth are no better. The only advice she’s offered is to keep her head down and mouth shut – things Alexis is rarely able to do.
September Update
With Into the Dark at the editors and available for preorder on Amazon, I’ve been hard at work on the second book in the series. Tentatively titled Mutineer, work on Book Two topped thirty thousand words today and it’s targeted for release in the first half of 2015.
Meanwhile, Into the Dark will release on 11/20/2014 in both Kindle and trade paperback editions. I’m also soliciting and reviewing auditions from narrators for an audio version. This is a much more involved and expensive undertaking than the book itself, as Into the Dark’s eighty thousand words comes out to between eight and ten hours of finished audio.
Into the Dark is now available for PRE-Order on Amazon
The manuscript has been sent to the editor and the editing date has been moved up to 9/8. With that milestone, the book’s been opened for pre-orders at Amazon (http://amzn.to/1pQjgOn) with an “official” release date of 11/20. 🙂
The editor and I will be working hard to get everything finished and move that date sooner, but as of right now you can pre-order Into the Dark and it’ll be delivered to your Kindle at midnight on the date of release.
August Update
The updates to the Into the Dark from beta-reader feedback are almost complete and it’s scheduled to go to the editor on September 15th. So I’m anticipating that it will be available for purchase in digital format sometime in October. The print version might take a couple weeks longer, as the formatting’s more complicated. 🙂
Call for Beta Readers!
Into the Dark is complete and ready for Beta Readers, so if you’d like to read the book before it’s published and have the opportunity to provide feedback, just email me at [email protected] and let me know what format you prefer (Mobi (Kindle), ePub, or PDF).
All Beta Readers will also receive a copy of the book in its published form, and you’re under no obligation to provide feedback — only if you feel like it. Also, please remember this draft is prior to copy-editing, so there will be typos, misspellings, and grammar errors — oh, my! Those will be taken care of by the editor, so I’m asking the Beta Readers to concentrate only on the story, and just let me know the things you like and don’t like about it.
Beta Readers will be selected and receive their copy of the book on June 1st.
Review–The Magic Underwear
I was skeptical, but the things actually work well. Twenty-nine days, through some of the hottest parts of the country at the hottest time of year. Vegas at 110-degrees and hiking the Grand Canyon were the biggest tests and the Magic Underwear performed flawlessly.
It took only a couple minutes each night to wash and rinse that day’s pair – I found that the hotel’s shampoo worked well for that. By the next morning, that pair was usually dry from hanging on the shower rod. If it wasn’t, a brief stint with the hair dryer provided by the hotel typically sufficed to put it right.
And if there was no hair dryer, then it would dry well if placed on top of things in my duffel bag for the days driving.
They’re extremely lightweight and roll up to practically nothing, but they’re quite comfortable, and feel fresh and clean the next day.
But, even though it’s only a few minutes each night, I probably won’t use them again for a roadtrip where I can easily pack more than two pair of underwear without a problem. Or, if I do bring them, they’ll be the emergency undies in case I run into a long stretch between washing machines. After ten or twelve hours of driving, even a few minutes feels like a lot of work.
Where space and weight are an issue, though, these’ll definitely be packed and put to use. Hiking, camping, multi-day kayaking trips … for those, the magic underwear will be along. Especially for kayaking, where I imagine an hour trailing behind the boat in a mesh bag will do the trick without any effort on my part.
Honestly, for those activities I can’t now even imagine using anything else, and I’d like to find other clothing that cleans as easily and dries as quickly. I’d pack nothing else. In fact, maybe the next trip will be done with only two outfits of similar fabrics. That could be interesting.
Review–Toyota Prius
Well … after driving over 9700 miles in 28 days, I think I can now offer an opinion about the Toyota Prius.
The gas mileage is obviously its most outstanding feature, averaging 46.8 mpg over the 9700 miles. This is lower than the advertised 50 mpg, but I didn’t baby the mileage. When the speed limit was 80 mph in Texas, I pushed the little car to 80. I’m sure if I’d kept my speed in the 55-60 mph range, the mileage would have been even better.
As it is, I’m quite happy with almost 47 mpg.
There were several segments where I averaged 60+ mpg over 100- and 200-mile stretches.
The Prius handled interstates and steep, windy, mountain roads equally well. The small size didn’t bother me on the interstates, even when surrounded by large trucks, and it was an advantage on the smaller roads. I’ve never been more comfortable driving in the mountains than in the Prius.
In fact, the Prius was pretty fun to drive down those roads, with the added thrill of seeing the mpg graph pegged at 100 for 20+ miles in some cases.
It was far more comfortable to drive over that distance than I expected. We went through some of the hottest areas of the country at the hottest time of year and the Prius’ air conditioner kept up with no problems. It cooled the car quickly and kept it that way, no matter 100+ temperatures outside.
Despite two people, luggage for a month, snacks, drinks, and purchases loaded into the car, there was no sense of crowding.
The driver’s seat, which I sat in for 9716 of the 9717 miles (Aryn drove for a mile before I realized I just can’t be a passenger), was very comfortable. I had no back or leg pain at all for the entire trip, despite some days where it was all driving for ten or twelve hours between destinations.
The only problem with the car was with the tire-pressure sensors and I’m still not sure what happened. Sometime after Albuquerque and the first (5000-mile) maintenance, the warning light began coming on intermittently.
I checked the pressure, but all four tires registered with 30+ pounds of pressure. It started in Grand Canyon, but the light went away between Grand Canyon and Vegas. It was off on the drive from Vegas to San Luis Obispo, but came back on for the drive to San Francisco. Every time I checked the pressure, it seemed okay, staying above 30-pounds – maybe a little low, but not too bad, and with no idea where a station with nitrogen might be in the rural areas we were traveling in.
When it was still on as we left San Francisco, I looked up the next dealer and made a stop. When I got out of the car in the dealer’s service line, the driver’s side front tire was completely flat. I’d just checked them when we got breakfast a few miles prior, and it had been, still, 30+ pounds.
So the dealer found a tear in the sidewall and I had to buy a new tire, which isn’t a defect in the Prius, but I’m still confused about the warning light (which never came on again), the consistently high pressure, even when the light was on, and the suddenly flat tire.
The second service of the trip (10,000 miles) came due in South Dakota, so I waited until the stay in Grand Forks to have it done. No trouble found and the tire pressure warning light didn’t come on after that service.
There was a single instance of freeway merging where I wished the Prius had just a bit more power than it does, and some of the uphill mountain driving and in San Francisco seemed to be a struggle, but the car did handle things without a problem.
So now that the Prius is all broken in, it’s time to start planning next summer’s trip:
