Chameleon Moon: Second Edition New Cover is Gorgeous! (Also, some Q&A – 2nd Edition, Not Q

Outstanding news today! Chameleon Moon Book 1: Second Edition’s Amazon page now displays its gorgeous new cover from talented artist and cover art contest winner Laya Rose! This amazing piece perfectly captures the intense atmosphere, colorful characters, and brightly burning hope this story has always embodied. The Second Edition will greatly expand the world, deepen the story, and introduce new characters, but like its beautiful cover reflects, the warmth and love that made it resonate so strongly before will remain the same.

CM1: 2nd Edition releases on October 11th – but you can still pre-order and receive short story “Runtime” for free with proof of purchase! eBook version also includes the Halloween-themed short story “Un-Dead” for free!

And one more piece of good news… Paperback formatting is in progress, so stay tuned for an announcement there very soon! Thank you all so much for making this pre-order event a success!

THANK YOU so much to everyone who participated in the cover art contest! (Click over here to see some amazing runners-up! <3) Every single entry was wonderful, and I can’t even say how much I appreciated seeing the gorgeous art, and feeling the love. It is returned a thousand times, let me tell you.

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AND NOW… Some bonus Q&A, because somebody actually asked me what this whole hullabaloo was about today!

The following contains some actual Explanation of what you can expect in the 2nd Edition, how it’ll be different from the 1st, and why it’s important (both to the story, to readers, and to me as the writer). Thanks again, so much!

 tinytardismilkshake asked: Amazon says that Chameleon Moon is releasing on Kindle October 11th, but I bought it on Kindle and read it months ago. Is this a new edition or something? I know it was your book.

To which I, thesylverlining answered:

LOL yes! xD I thought I’d been too annoying/bothering people yelling about this constantly, but apparently not enough. (It’s really okay, I understand missing things completely bc Tumblr is a weird animal of a blogging platform, no worries.) The super short version: My publisher closed and the book rights reverted back to me, so I am indeed re-releasingChameleon Moon. If anyone is seeing this for the first time, it’s a rly cool book about LGBT/polyromantic/ace/disabled/neurodiverse people with super-abilities surviving a nightmarish dystopian city precariously placed over a permanently burning lake of fire, which is terrifying, but I tried to make it chock full o’hope/love/rock n’roll (literally, this edition has songs I’m gonna do) and basically a rejection of grimdark/depressing trends and an affirmation that we can survive anything, and in fact, already are. It had a previous edition, but this new one has several updates – like Substantial; same basic plot, but a great deal of the book has been rewritten, but in very, very good ways I think – some of which are just because I’ve grown a lot as a writer in 3 years, but most of them are because I am a happier/braver/healthier person (emotionally and physically; I got several chronic illnesses treated. And wow, less pain = better writing!). These include (but aren’t limited to; there’s a lot) on-page #confirmed asexual main character, Even More Poly than before (and it already had a superheroine lesbian triad, so), another main character using they/them pronouns, and… just a lot more. The story is deeper, richer, more meaningful (to me personally, and those who have read it agree, if this means anything), and a lot more worldbuilding things/expanding/hinting at Book 2 (out in December!).  It also has Freaking Outstanding cover art by Laya Rose (SERIOUSLY, PLEASE just click and look at the cover alone; even if you don’t pre-order just look at the cover. You will judge the book by it, AND YOUR JUDGEMENT WILL BE “DAAAAMMN!”) and amazing graphic design/formatting, because I work with actual angels, and visually it just looks stunning, if I do say so myself, I do say so, some Good Shit. Like, I realize it’s weird to rave about book formatting, but Lyssa Chiavari is just that good. There’s also a brand-new short story out right now, which directly precedes CM Book 1, and starts to open up a lot more of these bigger-world things too. So yep. New edition, new start. I have a lot of plans. Just… so many plans, guys. I’m excited. It’s a good place to be. Thank you so much for asking. ❤

This, however… was not accurate enough for my partner-in-crime, Eri/death-star510:

Callout Post for @thesylverlining They are totally underestimating the amount that has changed. I am one of the ones who has read most of the new version and I will say that all of these changes are correct, however there is the important addition of: the emotional reasoning behind pretty much every decision has changed, majorly, the character relationships have changed majorly, the characterization itself is much steadier. In short?  If you have already read the first CM… consider buying the second edition and reading it again.  Everything is not only much better but if you go from CM1 into the rest of the story, I can guarantee you will be a little lost.  Major happenings stay the same but everything else about them is highly changed.  It’s a rewrite that’s well worth the 2.99!

All right.

Point taken.

I reply:

THANK YOU. Yes, Eri is correct, the rewrites were… substantial. (And the world is much bigger and more elaborate and connected, and I introduce a few new and very important characters, so I do recommend reading Runtime first. It will lead you in so much better, especially since it’s what happens immediately before CM1: 2nd Edition opens.) And CM1: Second Edition is kind of… yeah, I’ll say it. It’s a different book. A better one. It’s everything I wanted to say before but didn’t know how. Or didn’t have the skills for yet. Or the guts to. Now I can. Learning and growing and having amazing people around me made that possible. ❤ And yes, lemme say that tumblr user @death-star510 was absolutely f****ing instrumental in the formation of this book. so much so that I actually gave them a supplemental editor credit despite the fact that to my knowledge they’ve never actually done that before – WELL, THEY HAVE NOW, because we call that developmental editing. Just talking with me about possibilities and character motivations (AND. SHIPPING. MY GOSH) and leading to about a hundred incredible realizations that CONNECTED EVERYTHING; and just fending off my nervous/emotional/exhaustion breakdowns with a freaking stick. A substantial job. And when I hit an absolutely spoonless wall *three hours* before my deadline, they took over and plugged in their edits to the document itself while I worked on handwritten chapter titles. (Because yeah, the headers are my own handwriting. Perhaps TMI, but my literal blood – arm blisters from the desk with my dermo-fail skin – sweat, and MANY tears – went into this book.) So. Yeah. It’s… a big deal, kind of. I hope you guys like it.

#writing #Reading #ownvoices #lgbtlit #ChameleonMoon #bookrecs #goodreads #queerlit