1. Skye and Liza started writing it over Facebook Messenger before moving it to Google docs.

2. They did not plot it out before writing it (something that makes Liza VERY nervous, to the point where she turned into a clingy girlfriend and messaged Skye constantly with questions).

3. Lysander's name was Tyler until a third into writing the manuscript.

4. The legend of the Lorelei is a real legend, originating in Germany, and you can visit the statue.

5. While talking about the untitled work-in-progress, Liza called it "the Skyza book".

6. The book was finished before they realized Avery didn't have a last name. Liza picked Bennett because she's a Pride & Prejudice fan.

7. Charles was half elf before Skye and Liza decided he should be half faerie lord.

8. Keira Blackwood, another paranormal romance author (and Liza's other coauthor) designed the cover.

9. The "real" Song of Blood (lyrics to the tune of "My Favorite Things" that Liza wrote after reading one of Skye's battle scenes) was a random comment Liza threw into the margin of the manuscript as a joke.

10. Skye wrote the German words that Avery sings to heal Tasha.

11. A placeholder title on their Google doc read "Avery's Epic Vandemic Tale".

12. While writing and editing, Liza and Skye teased each other constantly about British English vs. American English.

I've got a new book for you! Song of Blood is co-written with the magnificent Liza Street and is a post-apocalyptic reverse harem with sirens, fae, shifters and vampires. Bit of everything, so to speak, set against the background of the Vandemic.

Empty supermarket shelves, mass panic, staying indoors.Sound familiar?
This is why. 

Back in March, when everything shut down for the first time, I wrote a few paragraphs about a woman having a bit of a nightmare finding toilet paper in the shops. I sent it to Liza and she added some more words and several months later, we have a full, long novel. I think it's been a bit therapeutic for both of us to write about a fictional, humorous vampire pandemic. Without toilet paper, obviously.

A few months ago, I randomly wrote a few paragraphs about a vampire pandemic which involved a shortage of toilet paper (guess what inspired me) and sent it to my friend Liza Street. She liked it and wrote a few more paragraphs. Back and forth we went until we suddenly had a full novel. We kept this secret because neither of us wanted to set a deadline - this was just our fun little project. Until now.

I present to you Song of Blood, a post-apocalyptic reverse harem full of vampires, werewolves, fae and sirens. It's set in London and Liza (who's American) had a lot of fun impressing me with her (mostly correct) British slang. The Queen's Knickers is probably my favourite expression she managed to sneak in there…
While Liza expanded her British swearword vocabulary, I added some German mythology centering around the Lorelei, a siren who used to terrorise sailors on the river Rhine. I've always wanted to write about her and finally had the chance with this series.

Anyway, the book releases on the 10th October and you can pre-order it already. And if you want to find out more about Liza, take a look at her website - trust me, her books are amazing and it's been an honour to write with her.

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Two years ago, I quit my job and became a full-time author. With no other income than my books, I’ve been working crazy hours ever since to realise my dreams. I make a good living and have built enough savings to get me through emergencies or bad months, but there’s always the worry that it’s not enough. And so I work. A lot. Every day, all day. Even when I still had my job, I’d use every lunch break, evening and of course the weekend to write and work on my author career.

Hobbies? Gone.
Free time? What’s that?
Holidays? Only with my laptop by my side.

Then, last winter, I came close to burnout. I could barely write. Getting out of bed felt as exhausting as running a marathon (not that I’ve ever done one of those). My emotions were all over the place. I found it hard to gather the creativity I need to write my books.
That was a wake-up call. I decided I needed to calm down, reduce my output, focus more on my backlist and repurpose my existing books through audiobooks and translations.
Then came the coronavirus and erased all my plans. The pandemic plus some events in my personal life meant I didn’t write much. This wasn’t the time to change my way of working; my routine was all that kept it together.

Now though, I finally decided to make a change. After reading an excellent report by Skye Warren (subscribe to her author newsletter, she's full of amazing advice) about how working only four hours a day can be just as effective as working long hours, I set myself that very challenge: a week of four hours a day or less. Not a minute more.

I split my four hours in half: two hours for writing, two hours for admin, marketing and whatever else needed doing. I printed off a time sheet to keep track of what I was doing in that limited time to hopefully learn if I did things that were unnecessary or repetitive.

I used a stopwatch to track the total time I spent working, pausing the timer whenever I got distracted or took a break.