The Literary Diversions of K.T. Lazarus

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Dun’s new employer wants him dead. The feeling is mutual.

His Name and his Voice lost to the last war, all that remains for Dun is the job. When the job goes sideways, his team of criminal misfits must keep their wits about them to survive the deadliest con of their lives.

Sir Janus wants nothing more from his visit to Strata than the thrill of arena combat. But the political obligations he disdains pose a greater risk than any sword or spell, as forces beyond his power stir in the tiered city.

Whispers of war underpin polite laughter in sunlit salons. Tides of revolution swell through Foundation among the city’s downtrodden. Yet the elite forge onward with their machinations, ignorant of a long-forgotten truth: 

For a man who has lost everything, all that’s left is revenge.

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Big news, Readers,

My second novella, UMBRA, is live! At the time of this post, you can find Umbra listed almost everywhere e-books are sold online.

Gritty heist; Quest for vengeance; Journey through the dystopian side of Gaslamp fantasy – Umbra is all this, and more, delivered in a compact 21-thousand word sucker-punch.

In honor of it’s release, I’ll be running a 50% off promotion all through December on the Smashwords store, on both of my currently available titles. That means Umbra is on sale for $1. As for The Carver’s Gift, normally $.99, it can’t actually go any lower than that – so instead of 50% off, it’s FREE!

Please do note, this promotion is only available from the Smashwords store. Through December 15th, use coupon code:

SNJP7

This code will expire on 12/15 however, because…

Both of my books, as well as many thousands of titles by other fantastic authors, will be on sale during the Smashwords 2023 End-of-Year Sale, which runs from 12/15/23 – 1/1/24. Be sure to check out the sale for some last-minute digital stocking stuffers when it goes live!

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End-of-November Checkup

In my last post in October, I mentioned I was aiming to participate in NaNoWriMo ’23 under my own criteria: specifically, to expand a novel draft I’ve been working on for a bit by 30,000 words.

As predicted, this pace was not easy to meet, by any means, alongside the rest of my responsibilities as the parent of a 5 month old baby. There were many late nights, blearily trying to put down just the last 20 words of my daily quota, as well as early mornings, trying to juggle a sleeping baby in one arm and my tablet in the other. Probably 10-15k words were swiped or spoken into my phone (I’ve heard some other authors say this is their preferred way to write; I’m glad they’ve found their way, but as someone who’s spent decades at a keyboard, I can only recommend this as a last resort!)

I had nail-biting stretches of time looking at the negative number in the ‘Over/Under’ column of the spreadsheet I used to track my writing. But I’m thrilled to say, in the end I was successful and hit my goal – a whole two days early, in fact!

There’s a lot more to do before anything’s official of course, with a partial draft now sitting at ~44,000 words, and another 15-20 to go by my estimate. But what I can tell you is that this book is Case 1 of The Misanthrope Files, a hardboiled detective story set in an industrial-fantasy world. Is this Book 1/3? 5? Who can say as of yet – but I’m having a great time exploring this new world, and I’m thrilled for the opportunity to share it with all of you at some point in the future.

That’s all for now, I hope you swing by again sometime soon for more stories,

-KTL