A little something new. Announcing Golden Eyes!

Now that the Clockwork Enterprises trilogy (now also available in audiobook) and the Forbidden Things trilogy are both complete, I thought it might be fun to do something that crosses over into both a little bit. Golden Eyes is a light reading young adult fantasy about a young woman who thinks her life is all planned out until she develops a bond with a gargoyle and unlocks an ancient magic that may be the key to saving her kingdom.

I was fortunate to get to work with the extremely talented Heather Hudson on cover art again and I'm very excited to share the final product with you!

Click here for purchase links or to read the first chapter.

Gargoyles don’t interact with people. So, when one visits Mira on the manor tower, she isn’t sure how to respond. There’s something comforting about its presence though, especially when it follows her on her way to meet her future husband.

At seventeen, she doesn’t feel ready to marry. A political marriage tearing her away from Captain Marikashi, whom she secretly loves, was once her greatest fear. Now the captain has been called to war, leaving her with the gargoyle and her husband-to-be.

Fearing for the captain and dreading her future, Mira turns to her unusual companion for support. As her bond with the gargoyle grows she begins discovering strange new powers granted to her by her beastly companion. But those powers come with a price that will make her marital woes look trivial. A price that she and the gargoyle will soon have to pay.

Happy reading!

Caught in the Crossfire! Clockwork Enterprises book 3 is here!

It's been a long time coming and I am so excited to finally announce the release of The Girl and the Clockwork Crossfire, the third book in the Clockwork Enterprises trilogy. Thanks to all the fans who patiently waited for this book and to the friends and family who encouraged me through some hard times along the way. You are all amazing.

If you'd like to pick up a signed copy, I'll be vending at Airship Pirates: Port Townsend Steam 2017, June 9th through the 11th. This is a fantastic steampunk event put on by The Brass Screw Confederacy in Port Townsend, WA. I'll also be doing a reading on Saturday at 1:30. For more information, visit one of the links above or my events page. 

Here is the fantastic cover art by Mark Reid and you can read the first chapter here.

Maeko only wants to protect the people she cares about. Somehow, that goal has taken her from living a life as a pickpocket on the streets of London trying to pay off her mum’s debt, to becoming deeply enmeshed in rising hostilities between the Pirates and the Literati.

Now she has offers from both sides to help protect her loved ones. But things have gotten more dangerous. All around her the Pirates and Lits are hard at work on ways to destroy each other. Meanwhile, things are spiraling out of control with Chaff and Ash.

With Macak as her one constant companion, Maeko is going to have to decide for herself who she will trust. She needs to be at her most clever to survive this and she’s going to need someone’s help to keep from getting caught in the crossfire.

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Clockwork Cat, New Beginnings, and Moving Forward

Today, I am happy to announce the re-release of The Girl and the Clockwork Cat, Clockwork Enterprises book one, in print and eBook editions. After much consideration, I decided to part ways with the original publisher, so now, with some errors corrected, it is back out and ready for the world.

But where is Clockwork Enterprises book three?

This has been a year of many changes for me. It started early in the year with the end of my marriage. I believe, based on the ways we both have changed, that this will be better for both of us in the long run. Believing that didn't make it easy to walk away from the life I had known for so many years. I moved into my own place and got a new day job while trying to keep up with writing and promoting my books. I have been rebuilding my life and that has taken the majority of my focus this year.

In the midst of all this change, I have managed to release Apostate, the final book in the Forbidden Things series, and The Keeper, the first book in The Endless Chronicles, as well as the audiobook edition of The Girl and the Clockwork Cat with the audiobook for book two in that series coming out soon. I also got the rights back for The Girl and the Clockwork Cat print and eBook editions that I released today.

One of the unfortunate victims of all of this is the third book in the Clockwork Enterprises series, which I had planned to release in September 2016. I am happy to say that it is progressing and I do hope to have it out by early next year at the latest. I apologize to any of the fans who have been waiting on this release. I will get it out soon, but will take the time necessary to make sure it is worthy of the time you put into reading it. Please bear with me.

When I look back at all I have accomplished over the year and all the incredibly hard things I have made it through, one thing stands out above all else. I didn't do it alone. I had an amazing group of people who stood by me, even when I was at my lowest and probably not that fun to be around, and helped me move forward. So, for everyone who, like me, has found it hard to get out of bed, hard to smile, hard to breathe, remember, this is when we need each other most. This is when we need to reach out to each other and come together. We are not alone and that is our power.

Happy reading!

GHOST HOPE Launch and Giveaway!

Olivia Black does not feel safe. Nightmares plague her sleep and haunt her days. If she has to endure one more minute stuck in a safe house in rainy Portland, she’s going to lose it. When Mike Palmer sneaks off to find her sister Kaylee without her, it’s the last straw. She has to do something.

Then Palmer’s hackers find the Dome on a satellite feed: dark, abandoned and smack in the middle of the Oregon desert three hundred miles from where it started. If they can reach it before anyone else, they can crack the computer systems and access every piece of information on PSS the CAMFers and The Hold have ever collected.

But in order to do that, Olivia must return to the origin of her fears in a race against all the forces that have ever pitted themselves against her. She must unravel decades of deceit to reveal the true origins of Psyche Sans Soma to the world at last.

(The first book of the series, Ghost Hand, is FREE, and the second and third are on sale for 99cents until the end of June.)

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Hope-PSS-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B01DFW9NZ2

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ghost-hope-ripley-patton/1123910943?ean=2940158423956

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/643486

Author Bio:

Ripley Patton lives in Portland, Oregon with one cat, two teenagers, and a man who wants to live on a boat. She doesn't smoke, or drink, or cuss as much as her characters. Her only real vices are writing, eating M&Ms, and watching reality television. 

Ripley is an award-winning short story writer and author of The PSS Chronicles, a young adult paranormal thriller series. The first book in the series, GHOST HAND, was a semi-finalist for The Kindle Book Review 2013 Best Indie Book Awards and a Cybil Award Nominee. 

You can find out more about Ripley and her fiction on her website at ripleypatton.com.

Author links:
http://www.ripleypatton.com/#sthash.XDWQT4it.dpbs
https://www.facebook.com/writerripleypatton
https://twitter.com/rippatton
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4340243.Ripley_Patton

Enter the Giveway to win the complete series in signed paperback or ebook (or one of NINE other awesome YA books including a copy of The Girl and the Clockwork Cat)!

Exile Release and Other Happy News!

As I was sitting down to write this blog post, I got a bit of happy news. My young adult novel, The Girl and the Clockwork Cat (the first book in the Clockwork Enterprises series), made the finalist list for the Dante Rossetti Awards. They're still judging for First in Category and Grand Prize. Congratulations to all the other finalists.

Ganbatte Clockwork Cat!

Now to the announcement of the official release of Exile, the second book in the Forbidden Things series. For links to order and a look at the first chapter, visit the Exile book page. Stay tuned for the blog tour January 4th through 8th, hosted by Masquerade Book Tours.

Yiloch, the newly crowned Emperor of Lyra, stands accused of arranging the assassination of the Caithin royal family. Torn between love for Yiloch and her close ties with the royal family, Indigo wants nothing more than to prove the accusation false, but the evidence puts the blood of the family on his hands.

Trying to protect the Lyran prince from the swift descent of Caithin justice, Indigo exposes the workings of an enemy who is willing to kill to protect his secrets. In desperation, she unleashes magic that sends Yiloch deep into the desert of Kudan before fleeing for her life. She must find him again to save his life as well as her own.

Betrayed by ally and by love, stranded by uncontrollable magic, Yiloch struggles to make his way back to the Lyran capital before Caithin can declare war, but standing between him and his empire is a lethal new enemy, wielding magic unlike anything his people have faced before.

Happy Holidays!!!

Clockwork Enterprises Book Two: The Girl and the Clockwork Conspiracy Grossly Under-hyped Cover Reveal

With all the craziness around getting The Girl and the Clockwork Conspiracy (book two in the Clockwork Enterprises series) ready for publication before Steamposium, there hasn't been time to set up fancy cover reveals and such, so I'm doing a little under-advertised cover reveal of my own for you here today. If the rest goes according to plan, the book will be available in print and ebook on September 14th. I will be signing copies of the first two Clockwork Enterprises books and doing a reading from both at Steamposium, September 25th through the 27th at Seattle’s waterfront Bell Harbor International conference center. Come join me if you're in the Seattle area. Copies of Forbidden Things: Dissident will also be available for purchase.

Once again, I must give thanks to my excellent cover artist Raquel Neira, and also to Michael McCormack for his photography, Ann Forseth of Romany Rapture for the lovely jacket on the model, and my cat Neko for his fantastic modelling work.

Feel free to comment below and let me know what you think!

Happy reading!