“They should never have hurt you,” he said.
NOTE: AI images were used in this blog post, but I no longer support the use of AI, nor do I use it, because I don’t like the extractive direction big corporations are taking it and how they are trying to rob artists of work, and, also, people using AI only make generic things since they are derivative of what humans already created. And the data centers are terrible for the environment and anyone living nearby. AI is not at fault, but humans using it at the expense of other humans.
DUN DUN DUN…! All the drama! (also the dialogue in the images is illustrative; the book is MUCH more nuanced and subtle [I hope…], but you pretty much know from the get-go that the mage ain’t there for fun and games :-D)
Thrice the shadow. [No, I still do not know what this means.]
I hope this brought a little joy to your day! If you want all of Essence’s story, it’s on Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Apple iBooks, hoopla, Kobo, Palace Marketplace, Smashwords, Scribd, Vivlio, and Thalia. Also, Heiress of Magic actually follows multiple story lines, and this is only Essence’s. I’ll do a story in images for Lysium, too, but another week. I am already skimping on the dayjob which, yeaaaaaaah, BAD SONYA, BAD!
You know, though, generating and editing these images has been filling a small void inside me that must have appeared when I gave up drawing myself long ago (in order to focus on writing). Vicarious art, anyone? It’s a little bit wondrous to be able to create images for my stories again. And there is no way any artist other than me would invest time in creating images for these blog posts.
For anyone who has been enjoying my little book trailer videos, here are the two I did last week (turn on your sound or put your headphones on!):
Samorost (30 secs of uber-dramatic trailer!):
This is 54secs of Lysium & Loren from Heiress of Magic. It’s my favorite so far, but others seem to like my other videos more. Le sigh.
Anyway, all the love to you all 🙂 Be kind this week.
Aaaaand if you want to give me some love (or feed me 😀 since I’m always low on food [feeeed meeeeee]), you can ‘buy me a coffee’, that is, send $1 (or more) via buy me a coffee, or to support me regularly, you can join the patreon I’ve been seriously neglecting (but want to resume), or get daily snippets I have been failing to share on Facebook, check out my books I don’t want anyone to buy, or join the newsletter I haven’t been writing (but intend to). THANK YOU for any and all love!
When I was twenty-two, I ran away to Prague, where I now sing to my black cat (who collects dustballs in her whiskers), eat chocolate for breakfast, and have lemon tarts every Thursday.
Sonya Lano 
Oh boy, Lysium’s story… Not that it’s not burned into my very soul, but I wouldn’t dare go there again…