The Writings of Z. M. Renick
“The Emotional Support Unicorn,” part of Raconteur Press’s Spurgle Chronicles, is loose in the world.
Spurgle himself only serves a minor role in my story, that of getting the title character into court so that havoc can be wreaked. Still, I thought it was a rather amusing piece, and I hope that others get a chuckle out of it.
Because I’ve been neglecting my blog for a while now (we won’t talk about just how long “a while” has been), I wanted to give a bit of an update on what I’ve published since the last time I’ve updated here and what my plans are for the next year or so.
I have published Books 1-5 of my Seelie Court series. My plan for that series is for it to be 12 books: a trilogy of trilogies about my main character Emma, as well as one book each featuring side characters Shane, Saoirse, and Kenneth. So, right now, we’ve just started the second four-book “trilogy.” In the first trilogy, Emma learned about the Fae and their world. Now that she’s passed the point of no return and can no longer go back to ignoring magic even if she wanted to, she needs to figure out her own powers and her plans for working through the challenges that are rapidly coming her way.
Book 6 is Saoirse’s book and will give us a closer look at the shapeshifter who serves as an investigator for the Seelie Court, what motivates her, and what she values—and what happens when it all ends up in jeopardy. Right now, I’m about halfway through the second draft of that one, and I’m hoping to get it finished by February.
Books 7 and 8 are about Emma learning what she needs to know, taking command of her powers, and being ready to champion all of humanity as we move towards the climax of the series. These books are still with beta readers, but I hope to get them back and revised soon.
My plan is to do all of the remaining revisions on these books and get them out in quick sequence, hopefully about a month between release dates. And I’d like that to happen before the end of the year. And then, we’ll have reached the 2/3rds point of The Seelie Court, with only Kenneth’s book and the finale left to go.
And then what?
Before I hit the end of The Seelie Court, I would like to some books published outside the series. I have my stand-alone The Little Mermaid retelling, but I also have a couple of other series in the works. One is an epic fantasy set in a world where magic and technology work together. The other is a steampunk fantasy that I don’t quite know what kind of series it will turn into yet; I just know that there are more stories about these characters.
I’ve also been working at writing short stories. I’m now in a bunch of anthologies with other authors, and I’ll admit, I’m excited about it. See the following:
“Once a Goddess”: A young Maltese girl flees from the Nazis, only to find an even darker secret hidden in the caverns underneath Malta.
“The Red Horse of War”: Zach Allen is a small-town cop doing his best to hold his jurisdiction together after it’s been devastated by disasters both natural and unnatural. But the borders of reality are collapsing, and the local biker gang has formed an alliance with a creature from another world. Zach must make a desperate gamble in hopes of saving his hometown. A story from the Seelie Court universe.
“The Key to the Phoenix”: A new professor at Phoenix Valley University must overcome her awkwardness and uncertainty in order to embrace the traditions of her new school and save her grad student.
“What Rory Learned”: When a telepathic cat and her telekinetic pet mouse set off in an alien space craft, they find more than they bargained for.
“You Belong to the City”: “From the moment I saw that dame, I knew she meant trouble….” But when the dame in question is a High Lady of the Fae, trouble takes on a whole new meaning. A story from the Seelie Court universe.
“A Song About Holly”: The fairy Aderyn is given the task of creating a holly plant that has both red berries and white blossoms at the same time. But she finds that even her magic can’t make this happen in within the confines of the Fae Realm. A story from the Seelie Court universe.
“The Texas Pterodons”: Early in 1976, several witnesses in the area south of San Antonio claimed to have seen pterodactyls. This story explores what might have been behind that incident.
Red Lights on Silver Mountain Road, the first book of my Seelie Court series, is now for sale on Amazon! It’s available in either ebook or paperback editions. That means that I’m now a published writer. Funny, I always thought that accomplishing a lifelong dream would come with fireworks, or at least balloons and streamers…
Emma Greer became a deputy in order to help people, so when a friend suspects that his brother’s fatal crash on Silver Mountain Road was no accident, she’s eager to come to his aid. Trouble is, Emma doesn’t believe that the accident was arranged or even that it would be humanly possible for it to have been so. But she soon learns that what’s humanly possible is only the beginning of what can happen on Silver Mountain Road. Creatures unlike any Emma has ever imagined lurk along its shoulders, and an ancient evil has discovered a new way of committing murder. Emma must find a way to vanquish that evil, or she might become its next victim.