RELEASE DAY! - Hearts Forged in Dragon Fire

It's finally here. After over a year of work and anticipation... HEARTS FORGED IN DRAGON FIRE is now available.

The official synopsis:

For fans of Abigail Owen and Samantha Shannon comes a breathtaking, energetic novel where the only way to defeat a dragon is to outsmart it…

Most dragontongues don’t live long enough to learn from their mistakes. Lotte Meer is luckier than most, surviving long enough to communicate with the fierce, sullen, and temperamental dragons who are not above enjoying a human as a light snack. And she has the scars to prove it.

Now a massive, foul-tempered dragon has taken over the town of Morwassen's Pass, taking the citizens hostage. As long as they bring him their gold and treasure, he won’t reduce their city to a smoking heap of ash and death. Only, the treasure is running out and Lotte—with the help of sharp-tongued, unbelievably cute Maryse Basvaan—is their last and only hope.

But this dragon is more cunning—and more cruel—than any other. Not only is he holding Lotte’s estranged mom captive, but he has a taste for betrayal…and somehow he’s stricken some kind of secret deal with the girl who’s already gone and stolen Lotte’s heart.

Lotte won’t fail. She can’t.

Because if she does…everyone dies.

After so long of this book only existing either as an idea in my head, a draft on my laptop, or some files between me and the publisher, the fact that now just anyone can pick it up is both incredible and a liiiiiitle bit terrifying.

Thank you so, so much to anyone who decides to give me and my little book a chance, and thanks a million to the incredible team at Entangled Publishing for helping make this happen.

Buy the book here:

• Amazon
• Barnes and Noble
• iTunes
• Kobo

Revealing the cover for HEARTS FORGED IN DRAGON FIRE!

It's finally time!

Behold... the cover for HEARTS FORGED IN DRAGON FIRE, a lesbian fantasy romance coming out June 5, 2023 with Entangled Publishing!

I am so thrilled with how this came out, and I can't wait to share the book with all of you!

The story follows Lotte, a teenage girl with the gift to speak to dragons. When a massive dragon lays siege to the city of Morwassen's Pass, Lotte finds herself whisked away from her small village, dealing with far more than she ever bargained for. Can she and her new friends find a way to save the city? And why is Maryse, a beautiful thief Lotte to whom finds herself increasingly drawn, always close to wherever trouble breaks out?

Thank you so, SO much to the artists at Entangled who worked on this cover; I couldn't have asked for anything better.

Add the book to your Goodreads shelf HERE, and follow me on Twitter HERE. Looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks!

what I wish I knew before I started writing this book | 8 days til cover reveal

The journey from "idea I had on a random Tuesday" to "actual book someone will read" is a long one. During that journey, you will end up editing, revising, and rewriting... a lot. Inevitably, there are some mistakes you feel like you could've easily easily - if only you'd known!

Here are mine.

1. Don't have major characters with names that start with the wrong letter. You will have to change one of them, after you've been calling them by one name for months or even years, and you will take forever to remember what their new name is.
2. Once you're in proofreading mode, do a CRTL+F for the words "quite," "even," "very," "even," "like," "basically," "totally," "a bit," "a little," and "seriously." If you're like them, you use them WAY too much.
3. TEXT-TO-VOICE. USE IT. YOU WILL CATCH SO MANY MORE ERRORS THAT WAY. Shoutout to whoever it was on Twitter that talked about that and inspired me to try it.
4. Tragically, going to bed at a reasonable hour actually does help your productivity.
5. Posting your daily word count on Twitter is a great motivator. Alternatively, it might just make you sad.
6. Scratch that - Twitter is a great motivator, alternatively, it might just make you sad.
7. The authors who put out multiple books per year are magic and must be admired and feared from a safe distance.
8. Audiobooks are your friend, because after staring at Microsoft Word for hours every day, reading an actual physical book or e-book will just feel like more work.
9. Social media is vital to marketing, and a death knell to actual writing.
10. You probably don't know as much about commas as you think you do.
11. Worldbuilding is a lot of fun, and a bigger timesuck that Pinterest and Spotify combined.
12. Speaking of worldbuilding, expect a lot of it to get cut from the final project. Not that the work isn't important, or even vital - but too much on the page just slows down the action.
13. You are never going to be sure if the pacing is good. This is why books have editors.

I learned all this and more while writing HEARTS FORGED IN DRAGON FIRE, a young adult fantasy romance that comes out June 5, 2023. On February 24, I will be revealing the cover, so keep an eye out! You can add the book on Goodreads here, and follow me on Twitter here.

What do you wish you'd known before you started writing your current WIP? Let me know down in the comments!

new year's check-in | 9 days til cover reveal

It's a new year!

...Kind of!

Okay, so it's February 15. But, hey, everyone tries really, really hard to keep to their resolutions in January. Then February comes and we all sort of fall off. So, what better time to hold myself to account. Let's see how my resolutions are coming along!

RESOLUTION: Watch 52 new-to-me movies.

RESULTS: Hey, not bad so far! I'm already up to 7!

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RESOLUTION: Read 52 books.

RESULTS: ...Let's move on.

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RESOLUTION: Read 5 nonfiction books.

RESULTS: One fifth of the way there!

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RESOLUTION: Finish edits on HEARTS FORGED IN DRAGON FIRE.

RESULTS: Uh... done! The book's coming out in June! Go me!

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RESOLUTION: Finish first draft of next book.

RESULTS: AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. If Jen is reading this - I'm sorry, it's coming along, I swear!

Okay, so it could be worse! How are your New Year's Resolutions coming along? Let me know in the comments!

And be sure to keep an eye on this blog or my official Twitter for the cover of HEARTS FORGED IN DRAGON FIRE - that'll be posted for the world to see on February 24, 2023!

introductions + some shameless self-promo | 10 days til cover reveal

So I've never been great at keeping up with a blog, and I can make no guarantees I'll be posting here regularly. But, like any good writer, I'm big on the self-promotion.

Hello, everyone! I'm Erica, and I'm a YA author!

HEARTS FORGED IN DRAGON FIRE, my first fantasy romance, is coming out with Entangled Publishing on June 5, 2023. On February 24, I'll be revealing the cover. I'm so excited - it's absolutely gorgeous, and I like to think the book is pretty great, too.

You can add HEARTS FORGED to your Goodreads shelf here, and follow me on Twitter here.

Some things to expect from HEARTS FORGED:

• a race against the clock
• an intimidating villain
• dragons!!!
• mommy issues
• a soft and sweet romance between two young disaster lesbians

If that sounds up your alley... watch this space!