books by s.r.

Happy Saturday, everyone! I haven’t done one of these in a while but I have some exciting news to share and figured it was time to bring it back!

Recent Publications

Just a reminder that book one in my dystopian Robin Hood retelling, THIEF, was published at the end of May! Reader reviews are flooding in on Goodreads and I’ve loved seeing the pictures readers have tagged me in on Instagram. I continue to be blessed by the reception and love for this book, and it fuels my desire to make the rest of the series just as good!

The synopsis, if you’re interested:

“The outlaw Robin Hood wreaks havoc on the industrial city of Nottingham, but he doesn’t just steal riches. Bit by bit he takes away the Sheriff’s power and control, and none of the Sheriff’s advisors can stop the thief.

As the daughter of a nobleman and one of the Sheriff’s colleagues, Marion has always known her place – be a great hostess, but let the men do the work. Until a chance encounter with Robin Hood makes the Sheriff realize the outlaw has a weakness for damsels in distress.

After a threat made against her Father’s life, Marion is forced to play a part in the Sheriff’s scheme to go undercover, find Robin Hood, and get rid of him. But the thief and his companions are not what she expects, and she begins to doubt her mission.

In the first story in the Tales of Nottingham, Marion finds herself trapped between duty and love, where one false move could end her Father’s life or destroy the people she cares about most.”

And, if you’d like to take a further look at it, I have it available in both e-book and paperback formats on my Shop page!

I also shared a prequel short story to THIEF on my blog! It takes place a few months prior to THIEF‘s story events, and it’s about two side characters who everyone has come to love — Jon and Ambrosia! Check out The Wedding Short Story if you haven’t already!

Current Works-In-Progress

The biggest news so far: I finished the rough draft of book 2 in my Tales of Nottingham series!!!

With all of the craziness of COVID-19 and having to move across the country abruptly and trying to get settled again, I honestly didn’t think it was going to get done. But we made it!

The draft was an incredibly rough one, I have to admit. It totaled at 37,000 words, which is more like a novella sized book than an actual full-length novel. The reasons for this were simply me being all over the place — not having time to write as much earlier in the year due to taking on too much editing work, then not feeling up to writing with COVID-19 hitting and all of the uncertainty there, and then just not being able to write once we had to move. The last two-thirds of this book was actually completed in the past month and a half, and I knew there were a lot of things that had been left out and a lot of plot discrepancies that would have to be worked through.

My editor and I hashed out a schedule for me to complete my round of self-edits and hand over the manuscript to her come July 20th. Because of that, I wasted no time going ahead and diving in! Normally I wait at least a weekend before beginning edits, but it had been so long since I’d read the first few chapters of this story that diving in immediately actually worked this time around. After all, the last time I’d written prior to moving in May was back in March. *hides*

My edits aren’t quite finished — I still have this week to continue adding and tweaking everything, which I’m thankful for. But just from a week’s worth of edits, I’ve added another 7,000 words to this manuscript and have hashed out most of the plot issues! Huzzah!

I’m not quite ready to share the title with anyone yet, but some further exciting news I have is that my cover artist is already hard at work coming up with concepts for this second installment in my Robin Hood trilogy. I’ve loved what she’s sent me so far and I can’t wait to see what else she does! Even though things have been crazy here, exciting things are on the horizon!

Finally, before we part, I did want to share with you one sneaky little aspect of book 2 that I find absolutely delightful…

For those of you that may not remember, my Tales of Nottingham series will not be the end of the stories in this dystopian-fantasy world I’ve created. I’ve had a sequel trilogy planned since the beginning that will deal with the more fantasy/magical aspects of the story world. The stories I plan on retelling in that spin-off series is Peter Pan, Cherry the Frog Bride, and Rapunzel, respectively. And what better way to hint at this future series than to let a character have a cameo in Tales of Nottingham? *gasps*

He flies, he’s mischievous, and he’s great with the ladies (mermaid, fairies, and human girls alike). Can you take a guess at who will be popping in, in book 2 of the Tales of Nottingham series? *winks*

How are your projects going, friends? I’d love to hear from you!