Category Archives: Waterspell fantasy trilogy

December 17, 2024 · 7:00 am

Waterspell’s Winter Sale! 2024

My Black Friday sale was encouragingly successful, so I’m repeating it. Through 5 January 2025, every book in the Waterspell fantasy series is on sale. Book 1: The Warlock is free, and the five subsequent ebooks are $1.99 each, which means you get the entire six-book series for only $9.95.

But wait! There’s more! Save $1 if you purchase the boxed set for $4.99 and add the two linked sequels for $1.99 each.

Available for all ebook devices: Kindle, Kobo, Nook, Apple, Google Play, etc.

Universal Book Links:

“A must-read for fantasy enthusiasts who enjoy immersive world-building, well-developed characters, and a storyline that seamlessly blends magic and human emotion.” NetGalley

“In this saga, the author has created an epic fantasy world full of magic, danger, romance, and travel through time and space. The characters are vivid and complex, including a young woman on a hero’s quest, and a powerful warlock who isn’t sure whether to kill her or embrace her. This is a most enjoyable read for fans of fantasy and fine writing.” NetGalley

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Filed under Books and Readers, Discoverability, Waterspell fantasy trilogy

Tagged as book bargains, book sale, ebooks on sale, free ebooks

November 27, 2024 · 7:00 am

A Waterspell Black Friday Sale! 2024

My first-ever Black Friday Sale! Now through December 4, 2024.

Get the four-book Waterspell bundle plus the two linked sequels for only $8.97. That’s a savings of $7 off the regular list price of the ebook editions.

Quick Links to Retailers

“A must-read for fantasy enthusiasts who enjoy immersive world-building, well-developed characters, and a storyline that seamlessly blends magic and human emotion.” NetGalley

“In this saga, the author has created an epic fantasy world full of magic, danger, romance, and travel through time and space. The characters are vivid and complex, including a young woman on a hero’s quest, and a powerful warlock who isn’t sure whether to kill her or embrace her. This is a most enjoyable read for fans of fantasy and fine writing.” NetGalley

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Tagged as Black Friday sale, book bargains, book sale, ebooks on sale

November 19, 2024 · 4:08 pm

Release Day! The Fires of Farsinchia

The Fires of Farsinchia: A Waterspell Novel by Deborah J. Lightfoot

It’s finished! 🎉 With the November 2024 release of The Fires of Farsinchia, the Waterspell series is complete.

Fires (published 19 November 2024) picks up where The Karenina Chronicles left off. Nina doesn’t get to spend much time in her island world. She’s barely landed on those tropical shores before she’s called back to fight new fires in her native realm. Because let’s face it: For a storyteller, Ladrehdin is a more interesting place. Particularly down in the South Country, where magic is returning, but only in fits and starts, and with unpredictable results.

I’m grateful to every reader who has followed the Waterspell story since the first book came out in 2011. I’ve obsessed over these characters since about 1996. They’re completely real to me, they’re alive, and so is their world. I’ve loved tagging along on their adventures, but the time has come to let them go on about their lives without me looking over their shoulders.

What’s next? An old manuscript has been sitting in my files for about 20 years. Long dormant, it’s finally stirring, calling to me to pull it out of the dark drawer and let sunlight fall upon it. What I read in its pages may make me cringe. I’m a better writer now than I was 20 years ago. But then again, those mostly forgotten pages might hold pleasant surprises. Time will tell.

If you’ve got time for a six-book, 680,000-word fantasy series that reviewers say is “nearly impossible to put down” (bless you, Dear Readers 💙), then by all means, begin at the beginning with Waterspell Book 1: The Warlock. But if you’re not looking for a commitment of that size, might I recommend that you start with The Karenina Chronicles? It’s a linked sequel, but it IS a standalone. It’s fully accessible to readers who have no knowledge of the previous four books.

Waterspell Book 1-4 by Deborah J. Lightfoot

The Karenina Chronicles: A Waterspell Novel by Deborah J. Lightfoot

And when you’ve finished The Karenina Chronicles, you’ll be ready for The Fires of Farsinchia, the book that answers burning questions, including: Will Nina find love again after the death of her Earthly husband? Will she figure out where she belongs? Or is she doomed to remain a restless wanderer who finds no peace on either side of the Void?

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Filed under Books and Readers, Discoverability, Waterspell fantasy trilogy

Tagged as book discovery, fantasy, new book

August 1, 2024 · 12:32 pm

Karenina at Kobo and Audible

Such a busy week! And a busy month of August, from Day 1. The Karenina Chronicles (the newest book in the Waterspell series) is featured at Kobo all month in the category of “Science Fiction & Fantasy Under $5.99.”

Plus, The Karenina Chronicles audiobook is now available at Audible as well as all other major retailers.

🎉 I’m breathless with the speed of events. 🥳 If you’re looking for a good read for your August vacation, please check out The Karenina Chronicles: A Waterspell Novel in any format you like: print, ebook, or audiobook. Discover why readers call it “exceptionally vividly realized” and “engaging from page one.”

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Tagged as Audiobooks, book bargains, fantasy

January 16, 2024 · 12:37 pm

Book Promo Sites: Ranked and Updated

Here’s my annual analysis of my marketing efforts. This is pretty much all that I do in the way of marketing: I run a promo every month in a different email/newsletter.

The bar graph is screenshot from my Amazon KDP reports. Each blue bar is the total number of books that were ordered that month. Since I have a five-book series, the full-series promo at Written Word Media always brings in the most orders. People tend to buy every book in the Waterspell series. I love my readers. 💙

In 2023, I branched out a little from my regulars (Book Barbarian, Fussy Librarian, Written Word Media). I added Hello Books to the rotation, and will continue to use them. EReader News Today was also new on my list in 2023, and it did well. GoodKindles, however, was a complete bust. They’re off my list forever. With BookRaid, I have seen diminishing returns over the two or three years that I’ve been advertising there. Not sure they’re worth the money any more.

A full-series promo at Written Word Media continues to deliver the best results. It’s pricey at $170, but cost-effective for promoting the five books in the Waterspell series all at one time. Written Word Media offers several promo options. I tried their “Readers’ List” promo for the first time in August 2023, with disappointing results. Even combined with a concurrent Book Barbarian promo, the $125 “Readers’ List” email blast failed to produce the number of book orders that the $170 full-series promo brought me.

To summarize, this is how I’ll rank the effectiveness of these sites, in terms of the book orders they brought me at Amazon and how much I paid for each promo:

Written Word Media full-series (Fantasy/Paranormal Series Promotion)
EReader News Today
Hello Books
Book Barbarian
Fussy Librarian
Written Word Media “Readers’ List”
BookRaid
GoodKindles (a failure, so I’m not linking to it)

To see how my choices and experiences have evolved over time, you can look at my earlier posts on this subject — 2022’s Book Promotion Sites: Ranked, and back to 2021 when I was Focusing the Plan.

Since I hate marketing and I’m really bad at it, running promos this way is the easiest and the most effective approach I have found. Most of these promos cost $45 to $65. I budget to run one promo a month (rotating among these sites, and sometimes doubling up with less-expensive ads at BookDoggy and ManyBooks). Occasionally I splurge on a $170 Written Word Media full-series promo. I was an election clerk in November 2023 and got paid $188 for the day’s work. That will buy a promo. 😁

What promo sites do you recommend? What have your experiences been with pay-per-click ads at Amazon, BookBub, and Facebook? I tried those, but I found them to be way overpriced and ineffective for my books.

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Filed under Books and Readers, Discoverability, Waterspell fantasy trilogy, Writers

Tagged as advertising, book discovery, marketing, social media

December 3, 2023 · 10:37 am

Karenina Chronicles: Ebook Edition

Release Day Redux! Now it’s the ebook’s turn. The print edition came out November 17. On December 1, pre-orders of my newest book hit readers’ libraries and devices. I’ve been scrolling through it on my tablet, obsessively double-checking the table of contents and interior illustrations. Everything looks good!

Thanks to everyone who pre-ordered my latest. I’m hearing from my dearly beloved readers that some of you are rereading Waterspell Books 1-4 before starting in on the sequel, the newly published Karenina Chronicles. Bless you, dear friends! But for those who don’t have the time to reread four lengthy novels, please be assured that The Karenina Chronicles is pretty much a stand-alone. There ARE references to What Went Before, but I believe I’ve supplied enough backstory that any reader will be able to follow the new story (of The New Generation) without rereading (or reading for the first time) the previous quartet.

Example: It’s been YEARS since I read His Dark Materials. But I’ve recently listened to the audiobooks of Philip Pullman’s return to that world: The Book of Dust, volumes 1 and 2. Because of the little reminders that Pullman sprinkled through the sequels, I followed the story perfectly well, despite the many years that have elapsed since I read the Dark Materials trilogy.

So please do not feel that you must read Waterspell Books 1-4 before starting my new one. Though of course I love you for your willingness to do so!

Thanks to everyone for buying and reading. Please remember that books make great gifts! 😀

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Tagged as book discovery, fantasy, new book release

November 17, 2023 · 9:41 am

Release Day! The Karenina Chronicles

Release Day! The print edition of my latest book is now available at all of the booksellers. I’m excited about The Karenina Chronicles. There’s a strong streak of a woman’s simmering rage in this book.

Direct links to the major booksellers for the print edition:

The ebook will release on December 1. Find it anywhere ebooks are sold: books2read.com/waterspellbook5

Summary: In the grip of a grief-fueled wanderlust after the death of her Earthly husband, Lady Karenina of Ruain — Nina to family and friends — escapes into unfamiliar lands, a harsh and distant country peopled with enigmatic characters: the Leviathan, the Nomad, the Outcast, and the Wolf. In their company she finds adventure, danger, champions, and rogues — some of the latter worth killing, but at least one worth loving.

Continue the family saga that began in the WATERSPELL fantasy quartet (Warlock, Wysard, Wisewoman, Witch). Follow the further adventures of eldest daughter Nina in The Karenina Chronicles.

Thank you for your ongoing interest and support!

I’m proud of this installment in the series. It’s a journey tale that covers a lot of ground. Karenina (Nina) would not leave me alone until I’d consented to tell the story of her “grand tour.” She insisted that I slip inside her saddlebags and make the trip with her. I’m glad I did. It’s been a journey of self-discovery for myself as well as for Nina. This addition to the series might not be a true standalone novel, but I believe readers can connect with the characters and follow their stories even without having read the first four books. There’s enough backstory scattered through this book to give readers the necessary background.

If you’ve been thinking about dipping your toe into the Waterspell ocean, The Karenina Chronicles is the book to start you off. These books mean a lot to me, and this newest one has a special hold on my heart.

The Karenina Chronicles by Deborah J. Lightfoot

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Tagged as book discovery, fantasy, new book release

October 31, 2023 · 5:23 pm

New! The Karenina Chronicles

I’ve neglected my blog for months, for good reason. I’ve been totally absorbed with final edits to my new book, The Karenina Chronicles. Everything’s done now. Whee! The edits are finished, the cover is finished, the PDF of the cover and the book block have gone to Lightning Source for the print edition, and the ebook is loaded up at Amazon, Google Play Books, and (for distribution everywhere else) at Draft2Digital.

I’m pretty proud of this installment in the Waterspell fantasy series. I’ve worked on it for a year and a half. It’s a journey tale that covers a lot of ground. We get to know the children of Lord Verek and Lady Carin. The couple’s five offspring were introduced in Book 4 of the series, The Witch. Now we follow the eldest daughter, Nina, on her “grand tour” through the South Country of her homeworld. Much is revealed about her adult life, and the lives of her brothers: Dalton the weather-mage, Legary the wizard of stone, and Galen the firedrake. Nina simply would not leave me alone until I’d consented to tell the story of her journey. She insisted that I tuck myself into her saddlebags and make the trip with her. I’m glad I did. It’s been a journey of self-discovery for myself as well as for Nina.

The book blurb:

In the grip of a grief-fueled wanderlust after the death of her Earthly husband, Lady Karenina of Ruain—Nina to family and friends—escapes into unfamiliar lands, a harsh and distant country peopled with enigmatic characters: the Leviathan, the Nomad, the Outcast, and the Wolf. In their company she finds adventure, danger, champions, and rogues—some of the latter worth killing, but at least one worth loving.

I invite you to continue the family saga that began in the WATERSPELL fantasy quartet (Warlock, Wysard, Wisewoman, Witch). In the 400 pages of The Karenina Chronicles, you’ll follow the further adventures of Nina the firstborn, and discover that not all has been sunshine and roses, for either herself or her brothers.

While I won’t go so far as to claim that this installment in the series is a true standalone novel, I will say that I believe readers can connect with the characters and follow their stories even without having read the original quartet. There’s enough backstory scattered judiciously through this book to give readers the necessary background.

If you’ve been thinking about dipping your toe into the Waterspell ocean, The Karenina Chronicles is the book to start you off. I hope and trust that, when you’ve finished it, you’ll want to go back and pick up the previous books in the series.

Thank you so much for your interest and your support. These books mean a lot to me, and this newest one has a special hold on my heart. There’s a strong streak of a woman’s rage in this book.

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Filed under Books and Readers, On Writing, Waterspell fantasy trilogy

Tagged as family saga, new book, writing a sequel

March 16, 2023 · 10:14 am

Waterspell Audiobook on Spotify

The Waterspell audiobook is distributed by Findaway Voices, and Findaway now belongs to Spotify. Findaway has sent word that they are discontinuing their Authors Direct storefront and listening apps, and will move those services to Spotify.

This won’t affect many of my listeners. Happily, however, the relative handful who redeemed giveaway codes via Authors Direct will get to keep your Waterspell audiobook. Findaway promises to email you a redemption code to unlock each of your previous Authors Direct books on Spotify. Listeners can use Spotify Free and Premium accounts to access those books.

Please be aware that the Authors Direct listening apps (iOS, Android, and Web) will not be available after June 5, 2023.

Besides Spotify, many other audiobook retailers carry Waterspell, some at a discount off the $24.95 regular price. Audible offers the four-book boxed set (50 hours of audio) for a single credit. Such a deal!

For a complete list of retailers, please see the Audio page: https://www.waterspell.net/audio/

Thanks for listening!

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Tagged as Audiobooks, Redemption codes, spotify

December 4, 2022 · 4:17 pm

Work-In-Progress Update

Just a quick update on my work-in-progress: I’m at 101,000 words. And only about 2/3 of the way through the story. This will either be a long book, or four novellas. I haven’t quite decided.

The working title is The Karenina Chronicles: A Waterspell Novel. The subtitles of the four chronicles: The Leviathan, The Nomad, The Adept, and The Wolf. I hope to finish the first draft by January, and then let it sit for a month before I begin what will be a major effort of revising and editing. Themes emerged as I went along. They are much clearer to me at the two-thirds mark than they were at the beginning, so I must go back and clarify my somewhat muddled thinking in the opening third.