I used to find it kind of tacky when I saw authors reviewing their own books, but then I noticed a couple of friends using the review section to post updates, so that's what I'm doing here.

Today's big news is that The Defenders' Apprentice is live and on the ebook shelves today (except Nook, where it should be coming along shortly), with a special launch price of 99 cents.

This book has been a long time coming. I know that I started it in 2002, because I workshopped the opening chapters at Viable Paradise in 2003. At the time, I'd just gotten my sho dan in aikido, and was taking some time to do other things that I hadn't been able to make time for during my years of obsessive martial arts practice.

I did another draft or two of the book in the mid-2000s, then set it aside (and basically stopped practicing aikido) when I had children. Now, with both kids in school, I've gotten back enough mental space to work on this series again.

As for the book itself, it took on a life of its own quite independent of my original vision for it, which was that it would be a sort of kohai-sempai relationship story, modeled on romance but not a romance. That thread remains, but you'll have to read it to decide whether or not that's still the main story.

I hope you'll check it out.

Thanks!
--Amelia