AJ Lancaster

Category: Uncategorized

  • The Books They Can’t Burn Charity Auction

    The Books They Can’t Burn Charity Auction

    The Books They Can’t Burn charity auction is an amazing fantasy romance auction where you can get your hands on over a hundred signed special editions, series bundles, exclusive swag packs, and other bookish goodies! 100% of all proceeds will be donated to PEN America, a charity fighting book bans around the world.

    As authors, our freedom to publish — and your freedom to read! — is more and more under pressure. From political book bans to policy changes in big tech companies: the current powers that be don’t like spice, feminism, or marginalised people, and they know very well that they can fight ideas by fighting the books that spread them. The Books They Can’t Burn is one small way we’re fighting back.

    We’ve already raised an AMAZING $6.5k and there are still two more days left on this charity auction!

    My own contribution to the auction is a paperback of How to Find a Nameless Fae and How to Marry a Winged King + art swag + a signed bookplate. I am blown away by the generosity of the current bids for this item! You guysssss! ❤️

    If you’re looking for a steal, I can’t believe bidders have so far overlooked these gems from two of my friends:

    Zoom call & Patreon membership with Kate Healey

    I will never stop yelling about how much I enjoy Kate Healey’s books, and as one of her patreons, you get SO MUCH COOL THINGS. She is also a smart, interesting, cool human being and you will have THE MOST FUN if you win this zoom call.

    Special Edition Wrath Witch Wars

    I first saw this book in person at BABE and it was SO GLITTERY it drew me across the aisle to introduce myself to the author and as HOW it could be that glittery. I immediately bought a copy on my own shelf. IT IS SO GLITTERY. Cannot overstate that.

    The auction will be open until Feb 25th at 11:45pm ET, so make your bid before that time! And don’t forget to browse the list for other items you might like to grab, because there’s plenty of eye candy on there 👀

    Charity Auction

  • Cover Reveal: How to Find a Nameless Fae

    I can finally reveal this BEAUTIFUL cover, designed by Holly Dunn:

    The cover image of How to Find a Nameless Fae. It is green with a frame made of intertwining wildflowers. Two figures are featured, facing each other in an antagonistic pose. The woman is wearing a purple dress and holding a dagger threateningly. The man has cat ears and a tail and is in an apologetic pose. A ginger cat sits at his feet.

    BLURB:

    What happens when a first-born bargain goes wrong?

    Princess Gisele has spent her life preparing for an evil fae sorcerer to claim her. That was the bargain her mother was tricked into: one royal first-born in exchange for spinning straw into gold.


    But it’s been decades, and he still hasn’t shown up.


    The unfulfilled fairytale-debt, however, is refusing to lie quietly. When its chaotic magic reaches unbearable levels, Gisele takes matters into her own hands. Terrifying fae sorcerer or not, she’ll hunt him down and force him to stop ruining her life.


    But instead of an evil mastermind, she finds the scholarly, nameless lord of a magical house. He wants nothing to do with the angry knife-wielding spinster on his doorstep. Unfortunately, the fairytale-debt has other ideas.


    Now magically bound to her lifelong nemesis, the only way to break the magic between them is to work together to find the nameless fae’s lost name. Assuming they don’t strangle each other first.


    HOW TO FIND A NAMELESS FAE is a cozy romantasy retelling of Rumplestiltskin with spice, featuring a middle-aged heroine, a buttoned-up hero, and an interfering sentient house.

    Order now

    ARC Applications are also open!

    Can’t wait until release day in June? You can apply to join the ARC team for How to Find a Nameless Fae using this form:

    Apply for an ARC

    But wait, there’s more!

    Pre-order Nameless and Get A Bonus Novella

    How To Find A Nameless Fae is set in the same world as my novella How To Marry A Winged King, but they are each standalones that can be read in any order (though there is a small cameo of the Winged King characters in Nameless Fae).

    I originally wrote Winged King under a tight wordcount constraint for an anthology. Since then, I’ve re-edited and expanded it, giving it a bit more room to breathe. The new version is about twice as long as the original story (roughly 20k words total).

    I’ve decided to offer this new version as a pre-order reward for How To Find a Nameless Fae, which means that if you pre-order Nameless Fae, you can get the new version of Winged King to read right now, FREE.

    Just fill out this form with proof of your pre-order to claim the reward!

    Claim your pre-order bonus novella
  • A Tale of Many Manuscripts

    A Tale of Many Manuscripts

    I know I’ve been fairly quiet online for a while. One wants to write upbeat posts about progress and the next release and so on and so forth. One does not want to write posts admitting to all the projects added to the Pile Of Shameful Failures living on one’s hard drive – and there have been far too many of those for comfort over the last few years.

    We shall not talk about those dark times except to say thank you, dear readers, for continuing to show your love for my existing books even while I’ve been relatively absent.

    We shall instead talk about what is coming next!

    Is It More Stariel?

    No, I’m afraid it’s not. It makes me so happy that people love Stariel enough to want more! I do want to return to this world, and I had originally intended for a Stariel-shaped Thing to be my next project. However, the Creative Department does not always follow directions from their CEO, and in this case they rebelled completely after months of trying to force them to comply. Which is a roundabout way of saying that one of the items on The Pile of Shameful Failures is More Star More Riel, which is now officially On Indefinite Hold. Maybe down the track a way we will try again.

    (I can, however, offer you a tiny piece of More Stariel in the form of a bonus short story when you sign up to my newsletter).

    What Is Coming In 2025, Then?

    A standalone fantasy romance novel titled How To Find A Nameless Fae. It’s a fun, tropey retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, with a hero best described as “what if Howl had cat ears?” It’s ridiculous. I love it so much!

    It’s set in the same world as my award-winning novelette How To Marry A Winged King (currently out of print), which has been brushed up and slightly expanded and will be re-released alongside How To Find A Nameless Fae.