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Wow -- this month is jam-packed -- both this newsletter and my writing schedule, which is completely outta control right now.

News for this month: Book two of The Perilous Gods, When the Winds Sing, releases today and you're in on the celebration!! I avoided the words "giveaway" and "free" in the subject line so emails wouldn't bounce, but YES a FREE ebook giveaway of When the Winds Sing to two newsletter winners -- find a link to the entry below. My Favorite Bit essay for book one is live on Mary Robinette Kowal's blog today! A promo with over 100 authors offering free reads! Plus audiobook news, Thanksgiving at an exotic animal rescue for the cute animal video, and more.

Book birthday for While the Gods Sleep! And a little more background...

YES, it's out today!!🥳

After book one, While the Gods Sleep, which I based on Greek mythology, I wanted to pivot to less-commonly used lore. The inherent problem with that, of course, was that the info is hard to find. My friend, Alex Shvartsman, addressed this in the wonderful foreword he wrote for When the Winds Sing. You can read his full foreword about those challenges and learn the interesting real story behind the chicken legs on Baba Yaga's hut in his blog post here: https://alexshvartsman.com/2025/11/11/when-the-winds-sing-l-d-colter/​

I gotta admit, my approach to learning for this book was pretty scattershot. I tried to mine for any characteristics of the gods and folklore creatures before the influence of Christianity that turned them into moral stories and demons, but obviously, that's pretty hard to find. I did get some interesting takes on Baba Yaga, though. The pantheons of gods also proved complicated to keep straight as they shift names, and sometimes qualities, with the various Slavic groups. I picked Stribog, in particular, as a main character precisely for being lesser known, and Morana, well...who can resist a goddess of winter and death. I also read a translation of "Viy" by Nikolai Gogol, a story first published in 1835, about Koschei the Deathless. My friend and sensitivity reader -- a SFF author born and raised in Siberia -- recommended it to show how Koschei is not just a sorcerer, but powerful enough to rule his own realm of enslaved souls. The really fun discovery, though, was Likho, the embodiment of misfortune.

Like each book in this set, I made my main character again an "everyman." However, pitting a mortal against a pantheon of gods was unfair to him and pretty impossible for me as an author, so I made Likho his personal antagonist. Granted, having misfortune incarnate deciding to target you with a campaign of misery is no cakewalk, but with three actual gods in the vicinity, it at least gave my tortured hero, Alex, a fighting chance.

As for picking the setting: My other two books (chronologically, When the Winds Sing was written last of the three) take place in other countries with settings and cultures that took a pretty overwhelming amount of research. For this book, I wanted an American protagonist (second-generation Russian) and a setting I was familiar with, so I placed the story on the coast in far Northern California, fifty miles north of an area where I lived for a dozen years. In my last newsletter I listed a few "cool or creepy" things about Crescent City. (Dead Lake, haunted lighthouse, giant redwoods...) If you missed it, you can read about those here: ​https://l-d-colter-speculations.kit.com/posts/the-halloween-edition-cool-or-creepy-crescent-city-stuff-free-ch-1-cute-animal-video​

In addition to the places in the book that are real, there's also one scene that uses something from my past. I've never shared this in a post before, and probably won't on public social media, 'cause, yeah, a real story about a real person, but it's one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" things that you just gotta tell someone.

When I was coming up with ideas for things Likho might do in the story, I couldn't resist adding one of the most unfortunate coincidences I've ever run across in my life. Many (many) years ago, I was a paramedic in a major city. I didn't personally go on this call, but heard about it from someone who did: A man had the misfortune to get a flat tire on a busy interstate. He was changing the rear tire when a semi truck carrying a load of... yes... tires passed him. Right as the truck went by, a tie-down came loose. One tire went flying off the stack and hit the man in the back of the head, killing him instantly.

Sad but true story. And, like myriad other snippets of things I've seen or done or heard across my life, it's made it at last into one of my books.

For even more background on writing this novel, author Myna Chang was good enough to interview me about When the Winds Sing here:

​ https://mynachang.com/2025/11/18/author-interview-l-d-colter/​

And another blog feature:

MRK's Favorite Bit Feature

Many thanks to Mary Robinette Kowal for featuring my essay on "my favorite bits" from book one, While the Gods Sleep!!

Click the link to read my thoughts on my literary influences for the book, my love of mythology, and Ty's two childhood near-death experiences, which were actually my own.

​ ​https://maryrobinettekowal.com/journal/my-favorite-bit/my-favorite-bit-l-d-colter-talks-about-while-the-gods-sleep/​

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It's happening -- Audiobooks are coming!!!

I hinted to y'all first before anyone else knew, and now the news is out. Recorded Books has just posted the preorder info! The link below goes to Audible, but you can order it through your favorite bookseller. Release date is Feb 3, 2026. Books two and three will follow. I don't have the schedule yet, but I'd guess a month or so apart.

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​https://www.audible.com/pd/While-the-Gods-Sleep-Audiobook/B0G26RK2K7​

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I promised you free stuff, so here you go!

First up, I'm giving away TWO free epub copies of When the Winds Sing 🎉

I had to get creative on this because, thanks to scammers multiplying exponentially with AI help, I have most of my sites shut down to contact or comments. (Sorry to those of you who might like to genuinely reach out. Bad people keeping us from having good things again.) SO, I have a Google Form you can go to. Just fill in your email and first name. (Things I have already, because you're getting this email newsletter. They won't be used in any way beyond the contest or shared ever.) I'll randomize the entries and pick two winners to email the ebooks to. I'll be collecting responses through Saturday and send the winners their books on Sunday. Click the link below to go to the entry form:

​https://forms.gle/FD2nSyaXxkzcbbkw5​

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Even more free stuff!!

Below are a few of over 100 free offers. Download only what you want by signing up for individual author's newsletters.

​https://books.bookfunnel.com/scififantasy202511/23myf2mpb8​

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Federal cuts in the US are making things tough in a lot of ways, including for libraries, who are buying fewer new books right now. Rebellion Publishing has made The Perilous Gods series available to libraries, though, in print or ebook, and I'm sure audiobooks will follow. Book one is already on Libby and Overdrive, but people need to request it from their library district to encourage individual districts to buy them. Whether you purchase a book or not, if you use your library system, please consider putting in a request for the books to be carried.

Also, if you read and enjoy a book, REVIEWS ARE SO APPRECIATED! It can be as short as "Good book." or "I enjoyed this." Spreading the word about a book you liked helps others to find it, both by endorsing it and by boosting those pesky algorithms.

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Cute Animal Video

It's Thanksgiving here in the US next week, so here's a Happy Thanksgiving video from an exotic animal rescue ranch.

Happy Day to all who celebrate!

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Until next time, happy reading!