::Looking over massive amount of BDH suggestions and questions::

Mod R helpfully summarized some of them for us.

Roughly 1 in every 3 comments and most of the people who sent emails made the request for more fiction over any other topic. New serial, snippets, bonus scenes, alternate character POVs, deleted scenes, short stories. They explicitly miss having a new installment to anticipate every week, or even every month.

We are going to try to reinstate the Fiction Serial.

For the new members of the Horde, we will be posting a rough draft of a story. It will be posted once a week (sometimes twice, but usually once.) It will contain grammatical errors and other issues that occur in the rough draft.

Once finished, the posts will stay up for a couple of weeks to let everyone catch up and then will be archived. The story will be then edited and published. The final may vary significantly from what you read on the blog. We try to keep the plot and the main scenes the same, but the final book might have more scenes and edited dialogue, etc.

The fun of the serials is that people get something to look forward to, they can freely discuss it in the comments, and the likes and dislikes of the readers influence the flow. If BDH loves a particular character, they will get more page time. For example, in The Inheritance, Elias evolved into a full fledged character because BDH went, “Ooooo!”

The downside of the serials is that it is the first draft. A lot of times you will be reading something that was written that morning.

First drafts are kind of fragile and easily murdered by harsh feedback. That means that we ask you to not be overly critical in the comments. You can’t create and edit at the same time. Comments like, “This is a waste of time. I don’t know why anyone would like this. I hate it” will be removed. It’s counterproductive to making words go.

Also, we have a lot of irons in the fire. There will be times when we have to skip a week, so we want to be clear that everyone goes into this with the understanding that there can’t be a meltdown if the post doesn’t appear on schedule.

We are not yet sure which serial will be happening. We are going to try and sketch a few ideas in the next couple of weeks and see which one goes. The serial has to be fun and easy to write because it is a bonus project. As cheesy as it sounds, we need to be inspired.

Contractual work is not always inspired. Sometimes it’s written because it needs to be written. I know for a fact that the readers can’t tell when something is very difficult to write and when something just fell out of you, but the serial cannot feel like slogging through mud for us. It must come from a place of fun and be low pressure, or we will quit writing it.

We are going to try to begin the serial sometime in November. We need to write ahead enough to make sure the concept makes sense and leave ourselves some breathing room.

Gordon is strongly in favor of a sequel to Inheritance. My fear is that it will grow. If you are new to our blog, the veteran Horde members will explain it in the comments. When I say something is a short story, people start hysterically laughing. We don’t really have room in our schedule for something that is too long. So please understand that the serial may go on for months and may not have a firm publication date.

So I am off to try to write some opening chapters with Gordon.

Writing Together

On that note, we have gotten the perennial question of how do we write together. We sit at the same desk like so:

I dictate, Gordon types. He often alters what I dictate as it goes onto the page because sometimes I dictate nonsense. If you like writing fiction, try dictating a scene. It feels very different from writing it, and it’s kind of hard to do. It’s a whole different skillset.

Funny story: one time we were at a convention – I want to say NY Comicon, for some reason – and we were on a panel with several SF and Fantasy writers. They asked us to do a story, where everyone add a little bit as it goes. So people start.

“He took his sword.”

“He went outside.”

And it comes to me and I’m like, “The sunset bled crimson on the mountain, the glowing orbs of the twin suns shining like raw wounds in the fabric of the heavens…”

The looks I got, hehehe. It wasn’t because I was that high speed; it’s just because I’ve trained myself to dictate. It requires an adjustment.

We don’t write scenes separately. Everything that goes into our books is the result of a compromise and a joint effort.

Each of us has separate strengths. I’m better with description. Gordon is better with natural dialogue. The mannerisms and romantic lines from the male POV are almost always coming from Gordon. So when Everard says something like “Use me. Let me be your shield,” or Erodel puts on his glove before the fight, that is Gordon in action. I tend to do the majority of female character lines.

We do fight scenes together. It is a very slow process with much reenacting and video watching. It usually takes all day for a two page fight scene.

We also have assistants.

As you can see, Tubby’s level of the Bulldog Sadness is epic. Tuna is doing his trademark, ‘You have worked enough” move.

The other two, Nykie and Batty, are asleep, so I didn’t take pics.

This year took three elderly pets away from us. It’s been a little difficult. We are down to two dogs and two cats. And that is all I will say about that.

So back to the subject, we write side by side, but we edit separately. Each of us takes an editorial pass, because editing by committee is impossible.

We are boring. We rarely have dramatic fights about writing, although we do occasionally throw fits, when things aren’t going well and neither one of us is sure what the problem is. Usually one of us declares that they are just done for the day and we quit and do something else while the story sorts itself out in the background.

So that’s that. We will have more fun stuff for you this week as Halloween draws near.

The post The Horde Has Spoken first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Halloween is almost upon us, and we’re starting the celebrations early with a treat for the Book Devouring Horde!

One lucky US reader will win a hardcover copy of This Kingdom Will Not Kill Me, customised with gorgeous illustrated sprayed edges by Heirloom Books, together with a set of Maggie character vellum overlays.

The Heirloom edition features the original UK hardcover with custom artwork on the page edges. The interior is unchanged with no additional illustrations.

Trick or Treat?

You’re spending a weekend in a haunted house, and you can bring only ONE character from any Ilona Andrews book with you for defence (and company).

Who are you choosing? Let us know in the comments to enter the giveaway.

Giveaway Admin

This giveaway is open to US residents only. Unfortunately, this prize cannot be shipped internationally.

One entry per person, please. Only comments on this blog post count as entries; replies on social media or reader email do not. The comments are paginated, so please don’t worry if you don’t see yours when you check back.

The giveaway closes on Thursday, October 29. One winner will be selected at random from the eligible entries and announced on Friday, October 30th, just in time for Halloween.

If you’re reading this in the newsletter email, please visit the blog to enter.

Good luck, and keep an eye on the blog for more treats and surprises!

The post Trick or Treat Giveaway first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

“I love the crochet and yarn snippets. Maybe soap making too!“

“Since you’ve gotten at least some people started on soap making, do you have a favorite recipe/scent/technique for pouring?“

The last few days didn’t go as planned. My family taught me to respond to such times by cooking, but we are older now, and cooking is carefully curated.

(This alliteration is criminal, wow.)

Anyhow, instead of responding by cooking, I’ve responded by making way too much melt and pour soap. I didn’t trust myself with lye in my current emotionally compromised state.

Trauma soap. It smells like sandalwood and pumpkin. Well, some of it smells like oat milk and honey and some like autumn figs. I get my soap supplies from Bramble Berry.

Most of that is just therapy. I am reasonably sure that the bars in the first picture will hold up through use. Those molds are very deep. I’ve tested them and everything stays put. But some of the pumpkin bars will likely lose the leaves in the wash. They are not falling off on touch, but those molds needed to be a lot deeper so you can embed them better in the soap. I’d sprayed alcohol between layers, which helps them adhere, but I don’t think it will hold.

Oh well, it is pretty to look at.

I also made some Kair Toren bars again.

These start out as blue and once you use them for a bit, the shells start to show through. I cut this one to show the shell. It smells like Island Escape.

Because these are melt and pour, they should be shrink wrapped right away, but I left a few unwrapped, so Kid 1 can smell them before she picks out the ones she likes. Kid 2 had already taken hers.

I ran out of soap. I still have candle wax though. Food for thought.

Speaking of soap, I have gotten some complaints about This Kingdom’s soap making. Maggie is making hot process soap. She is making it in an iron pot over the fire, which would stay very hot. In my head, that would mimic the slow cooker. However, I didn’t explain it well. That scene was recut several times, because originally I went into too much detail, and we didn’t need a treatise on soap making.

(Originally, it had the whole thing about how she overmixed it, etc. Bottom line: we needed less soap, more story.)

I’ve reread it and I can see how it can be read as cold process soap. I will try to get this fixed in the next reprint.

If you’re interested, here is the video that shows the process.

Mod R will be sending me your questions, and we will kick new blog post round off tomorrow. Unless we do a giveaway. Stay tuned.

The post Trauma Soap first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Today, House Andrews have a tiny mission for you. Literally tiny. Cute, miniature mission with an oversized head, big eyes, and a tiny, stubby body.

We need your help finding an artist!

Ilona has been working on concepts for some character stickers, and is now looking for an illustrator who specialises in chibi art. Unfortunately, the original artist is unable to continue with the project for private reasons, so we’re turning to the collective wisdom of the Horde.

Chibi (pronounced chee-bee) is a super-deformed diminutive style of Japanese-influenced art, particularly popular in manga and anime, in which characters are drawn with comically exaggerated proportions. We’ve seen some of it in the Innkeeper graphic novel.

Basically, your favourite terrifying fantasy characters, but pocket-sized and infantilized. Chibi style is usually used in depicting scenes which are cute and/or humorous, implying a “hehehe” vibe to the dialogue.

Now, here’s where you come in!

Do you follow an illustrator who creates wonderful chibi art? Have you commissioned someone yourself? Do you know an artist who might be interested in creating character illustrations for stickers?

Or perhaps you’re an artist yourself?

We’re looking for someone who accepts paid commercial commissions and can bring beloved fictional characters to life in this particular style for Ilona Andrews merch, with the traditional illustrations of the characters already available as reference.

Please share your recommendations and links to artists’ portfolios or social media pages in the comments. We’d love to see their work!

And because I cannot resist asking (for rigorously scientific purposes, of course!): which House Andrews character do you think would be MOST offended at being turned into a tiny, adorable chibi?

And speaking of merch: The B. A. Bookish Boutique has announced a final sale of its remaining Ilona Andrews merchandise, including BDH, Hidden Legacy, and Beast Business items.

Quantities are limited, and once the remaining stock is sold, these designs will not be restocked.

You can browse the final-sale collection here. For questions about individual products, orders, or shipping, please contact the boutique directly.

A quick note to avoid any confusion: the B. A. Bookish Boutique are an independent business who currently have a merch licence from Ilona Andrews. They handle all sales, orders, and shipping independently. They are not associated with the official Ilona Andrews store.

Neither Ilona or I will be able to assist with purchases or order enquiries in the blog comments, reader email, or Ilona Andrews store contact.

The post The Great Chibi Hunt first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Happy Tuesday and spooky season, everyone!

Ilona and I started to plan the rest of the blog year yesterday, and I am happy to announce we have a lot of treats (and perhaps a few tricks!) in store for you. There will be giveaways, surprises, snippets, author interviews, spoilers and assorted bits of book-related mischief. Because this year has been A Lot for everyone, and the Book Devouring Horde deserves aaaall the nice things.

But we also want to hear from you!

What would you like to see on the blog?

Do you have questions about writing, publishing, or the mysterious inner workings of the creative process or author life? Do you want to hear about things that aren’t all related to books? Recommendations, weird and wonderful research, hobbies? We’re equal-opportunity curiosity enthusiasts around here.

We can’t promise every one will become a post, but we’d love to know what you’d enjoy reading about. Drop your questions, ideas, and suggestions in the comments, please. We’ll send the ferrets in to retrieve them.

The post The Horde Has the Floor first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Beast Business is available for preorder on Audible and Amazon. The publishing date is December 08, 2026. This audiobook will be exclusive to Audible and Amazon for several weeks, after which it will go into wide distribution.

Why are you doing it this way?

Audible implemented a new royalty model.

Whenever we do a post like this, people ask if they should stop Audible plans, etc. You should purchase the audiobook in whatever way you prefer to get your audiobooks. If Audible/Amazon is your preferred retailer, use it. The burden of choice here is on the author, not the reader. Meaning that if we have an issue with Audible, it is up to us to deal with that. We do not police, recommend, or worry about how you buy or rent our content. We only ask that you do not pirate.

Now then, back to the convoluted land of Audible royalties.

Old Legacy Royalty Model, straight from the horse’s mouth:

Royalty for Rights Holders under Pay-for-Production Deals (Audible Exclusive Distribution Rights)
Audible will pay the Rights Holder 40% of all A La Carte Net Sales Receipts and 40% of all Member Net Sales Receipts from sales of the Audiobook.

Royalty Calculation
During the Distribution Period, Audible will pay the Rights Holder the Royalty set above. For purposes of this agreement, Audible Net Sales Receipts consist of: (i) A La Carte Net Sales Receipts (as defined below) for all a la carte sales of the Audiobook, and (ii) Membership Net Sales Receipts (as defined below) for all sales of the Audiobook to customers who are members of one of Audible’s membership programs, in each case, during the immediately preceding monthly period. No Royalty will be paid on the transmission or distribution of downloads or other copies of the Audiobook distributed for free for purposes of review, sample, advertising, publicity or promotion.

• “A La Carte Net Sales Receipts” means the monetary amount received by Audible from a la carte sales of each Unit, less any cash incentives, promotional discounts, sales or use taxes, excise taxes, value-added taxes, duties, and returns.
• “Membership Net Sales Receipts” means, for each Unit, the monetary amount obtained by multiplying the AudibleListener Allocation Factor (as defined below) by Audible’s a la carte price for the Unit at the time the AudibleListener Allocation Factor is calculated.
• The “AudibleListener Allocation Factor” means the total of all membership sales receipts derived from sales of all content sold by Audible in the applicable accounting period, less any cash incentives, promotional discounts, device subsidies or rebates, sales or use taxes, excise taxes, value-added taxes, duties and returns, divided by the total a la carte value (as determined by Audible’s applicable a la carte price for the Audiobook at the time the AudibleListener Allocation Factor is calculated) of the membership sales of all content sold by Audible in the applicable accounting period.

New Royalty Model, again from Amazon:

• How does the new royalty model calculate royalties? In the new model, royalties for Audible’s membership offerings will equal Member Value multiplied by your contractual royalty rate. Member Value for each offering will be shared with you on your earnings statement.

• What is “Member Value”? How is it determined? Member Value is what’s net new in the updated royalty model. It represents the value of a member’s listening behavior.To determine Member Value, we first look at which plan a member is subscribed to in a given marketplace (e.g. Premium, Plus, Standard or monthly AYCL plan) and capture that monthly membership revenue minus discounts, taxes and fees. This amount is Member Value at the most basic level. We then look to see if the member used an additional credit on a title above their plan allowance, in which case the amount of Member Value will be increased. The total Member Value is then divided up and divided proportionally among each title the member engaged with, based on the a la carte price of those titles. This step ensures a fair share of Member Value is divided among each title before multiplying by your contractual royalty rate to get to royalties due.Once enrolled, you can reference your monthly earnings statements to view membership plan values or any adjustments to Member Value over a monthly period.

Yeah, clear as mud. There is a video at the second link and it is even more confusing. The way we understand it is that you, the consumer, are assigned a Member Value, which is the price of your plan minus fees and taxes. This Member Value is then divided over the number of titles you listened to.

So, if you Membership Value is $10 and you listen to 5 books a month, the percentage of that $10 is being split evenly across all 5 titles. The more you listen, the less each individual author gets.

Sigh.

We need to see what this looks like in practice, so we are sacrificing Beast Business Audio to test this scheme out. Once we have our numbers, it will be released into wider distribution.

The post Beast Business: Audio Preorder first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Last Christmas Kid 2 gifted me a 10 gallon fish tank. It’s been 30 years since I had one, so I was a bit dubious about it, but I read up on fish keeping, watched some videos, and set it up.

I wanted a planted tank, so I got some plants and some rocks and let it cycle. Look, my anubia is trying to flower.

And a tiny shrimp.

Shortly after, while I was deciding what I wanted to put into my tank, Kid 2 called with a report that she was in Petsmart and there was a male beta fish that had to be rescued from his confinement in a tiny jar.

The sad beta was purchased and name Blaze in hopes that he would one day feel better and be his beautiful self.

Blaze is a very lazy betta. He is well fed. He has a lot of leaves to lay on and a little plastic hammock to sleep in.

Shortly after Blaze arrived, I had gotten another tank because I wanted to have neocaridinia shrimp. I put a few of them in Blaze’s tank to help with algae. Bettas are predators, but I thought they were too large for him to hunt. The shrimps had promptly decided that this environment was great for spawning.

Blaze is so lazy, that he doesn’t even chase after tiny baby shrimp. He is so lazy that it took me 10 minutes to get the video below because he just could not be bothered to swim. But I persevered.

It’s been 8 months now. Behold, Blaze, the most beautiful fish in the universe.

I mentioned that I have gotten the second tank. For my shrimp. You can see how Blaze’s tank is a beautiful, orderly underwater spot? That’s because at some point I realized that I needed to actually aquascape and redid it. The shrimp tank is still in its original form.

This is Shrimperton.

It is a lawless place filled with probably about 80 shrimp at this point. I’ve made every mistake I could: I overplanted, I planted without a plan, I bought random shrimp colors and put them all together, which means they are crossbreeding and slowly turning brown… I am giving shrimp away at this point, because they keep spawning. You do not want to see what happens when they get broccoli.

I am going to remake Shrimperton. I am going to buy a bigger tank, I am going to figure out how to set it up, and yeah. I just have complete decision paralysis when it comes to figuring out how to set it up. I keep looking at pretty videos and changing my mind. Meanwhile, my shrimp are multiplying.

Do you keep fish?

The post Lazy Friday first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

Hehehe. We are returning the favor in Maggie#2.

Meanwhile, Ada has made it to Germany.

The German translation will be coming in paperback in February 2027. Gorgeous cover, right?

Questions

Where is Mod R? Has she quit/been fired?

Mod R took a few days off to deal with a home repair situation. She is back, so the comment space is once again safe from my moderation. I’m sure all of us will breathe a sigh of relief.

Beast Business Audio?

As you’ve probably read, Audible has unrolled a weird royalty scheme that nobody fully understands but all of us believe will result in less money for the authors. We looked at alternatives for releasing this audio and got some excellent offers from several publishing partners. However, we decided that we need a baseline to understand how exactly this royalty scheme will work. We are going to sacrifice Beast Business to test it out.

The preorder should go up early next week. The projected release date is December 12, I think. Same deal as before – it will be exclusive to Audible for several weeks and then go wide. We need to figure out what amount of money we will be getting. We will link the preorder as soon as we know it’s live.

Where do I pay for free fiction? What’s the catch?

Free fiction is available free of charge on the Free Fiction section of the site and in the app.

(Taking off official press release hat for a moment: I have gotten several of these, I suspect mostly from new readers, and the tone is slightly puzzled. There is no catch, guys. The Horde devours, and it must be fed. Help me out, what am I missing here? Do most authors not release free fiction?)

Maggie’s free fiction will be eventually edited and collected into an ebook. Possibly a print book, if there is a demand. However, some shorts will remain free here, on the site and in the app.

We should be enabling the Vault feature in the app shortly, which will allow you to save some free fiction, keeping it safe from archiving. Katorna’s short is marked as Vault, so you will be able to save it. It will not be removed from the site.

Speaking of apps, by the last report from the beginning of September, we were approaching 5,000 downloads. BDH is mighty! I will be emailing the android beta testers today to connect them with the developer.

The post Cameos, Covers, and Questions first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.