New look, new book

Alien's Host and Aliens' Vice paperback books

My brief to the designer was very hand-wavy. I wanted something that screamed science fiction, futurism, cyberpunk. Nothing too glittery, because I'm not a glittery person or a glittery writer. No pastels. But something that would convey the clash between hard and soft that I feel in all of my writing and in my person in general; something with rough edges that could still feel sexy.

I think my favorite part about this logo is the juxtaposition of the industrial-feeling sans-serif "Alexandra" with the script font of the "Norton". I think it captures my general "vibe" really well.

What do you think? Does this logo match the feel you get from my books?

The next book

Well, we know the next book coming out is going to be Aliens' Vice, the sequel to Alien's Host. It wraps up Layla's, Kuthil Ash Kharn's, and Kak's journey. Aliens' Vice will be released on March 11.

But what about the next book I'm writing?

I'm still getting into the swing of writing series, and realized that is one of my current points of improvement: I have so many ideas in my head, sticking with just one world is difficult. And I've had another idea banging around in my head ever since I took Linnea Sinclair's "character torture" course.

That is why I structured the first two books in Shards of Infinity as a duet. Alien's Host and Aliens' Vice present a complete story for this set of protagonists. Now, I'm taking a break to work on this other thing. This dark, character-torturey thing. And I'm into it. I wrote 10,000 words of the draft last Saturday. The draft is now up to 50,000 words, and it's... let's just say it's a slow, dark-leaning, furious burn.

The plan is to return to Shards of Infinity's next set of protagonists afterwards, with either a standalone part of the series or another self-contained duet.

Paperbacks

Okay so I didn't think many people would actually be interested in ordering paperbacks of my books. Most people read on their Kindle. But I did decide to publish a paperback of Aliens' Vice so that advance review readers could leave their reviews before the official ebook release date, and then I went ahead and published one for Alien's Host as well.

And let me tell you, when I found the author copies on my doorstep last weekend (I was not expecting a weekend delivery), it really hit me more than I expected. I mean... it's just a paperback. But they're beautiful, and physical, and I can hold them in my hands. And with Aliens' Vice being full novel length, it feels chunky. Like a proper book!

Surprisingly, several people also ended up actually ordering the paperbacks already, which I was not expecting. So I'll be producing paperback versions from now on.