Celia

Celia Lake spends her days as a librarian in the Boston (MA) metro area, and her nights and weekends at home happily writing, reading, and researching for her books about magical Albion. Born and raised in Massachusetts to British parents, she naturally embraced British spelling, classic mysteries, and the Oxford comma before she learned there were any other options.

Do you get my newsletter?

/ Announcements

And if so, did you get a newsletter email from me today (Friday, January 27th, 2023)? If you didn’t, sign up for my newsletter here. (Again!) Read on for a bit of an explanation. And if you’re not on the newsletter, check out more below on why you might want to be. The explanation I’ve been working on moving to a newer version of my mailing list software. As part of that, I decided not to move people who hadn’t interacted with the list in any way for at least 9 months. (I sent out two reminders in hopes that people who do read but don’t click things would notice, and I’ve moved everyone who clicked on the link to stay on the list.) The problem with any kind of cleanup like this is that the “did you interact?” mechanisms are all sometimes inaccurate. If you got caught in this, I’m sorry! Signing up again will mean you’re all set. If you’d rather not get the introductory emails talking about my books, just reply to any of the intro emails welcoming you to the list, and I’ll move you out of that series. However, if you don’t have a copy of both Ancient Trust or Outcrossing, you might want to stick around. About my newsletter I send out a newsletter on most Fridays (I sometimes skip one if I don’t have anything at all to share). I talk about any news and upcoming events – things I’m doing, books coming […]

Idea to Book: Carry On

/ Ideas to books, Mysterious Powers

The next book in our Ideas to Books series is Carry On, set in 1915, almost entirely in the Temple of Healing in Trellech.  When I started thinking about the Mysterious Powers series as a way to look at what was going on with the various institutions of Albion during and in the aftermath of the Great War, I knew I needed to be a little more consistent about planning out my timeline. (Unlike the Mysterious Charm books, which bounce around the 1920s out of sequence.) 

Idea to Book: Forged in Combat

/ Ideas to books, Mysterious Powers, Novellas

Time for another in the ongoing Idea to Book series. This time, we’re starting with the prequel to the Mysterious Powers series, Forged in Combat. (Yes, even though it’s my most recent release as I write this.) Forged in Combat is the romance of Arthur and Melusina Gospatrick, the parents of Roland Gospatrick, hero of Carry On (the first book in the series.)

Come join the conversation!

/ Announcements

Starting today, we’ve got two great new places to chat, and for me to share more about my writing and Albion. I have the best readers, so I hope you’ll join me in one or more of these places, depending on your own preferences. (Extra thanks to everyone who responded to my survey in November 2022 for helping me figure out which options made the most sense to try out!) And a huge round of appreciation to Kiya, who has helped me get the Discord set up. (Kiya wears many hats – often literally – as well as being my editor, first reader, and other half of my brain.) Discord Discord offers a text-based chat server (you can share images and links, too). It’s a low-key way to hang out and connect without other people and have slower conversations without a social media algorithm deciding what you see. All sorts of topics are fair game! I’m glad to chat about books – mine and most all others – but also historical amusements, food and crafts, interesting astronomy, and whatever else seems interesting. Our server is called Albion’s Delights. It’s a private server just to keep it more manageable, so you’ll need an invite link. You can get one from any email newsletter I’ve sent since the start of 2023, or by becoming a Patron on Patreon. (And if either of those are a problem, drop me a note.) Curious? I’ve got a guide with more information about our Discord and

My plans for 2023

/ Announcements, Writing and publishing

Now that I’ve talked about what I got up to in 2022, it’s time to look forward into 2023. I’m incredibly excited about my plans for 2023. There’s quite a lot to come! Publication dates may shift a little, but I expect them to be fairly close to the following. Coming out in 2023 This year, I’m alternating between a series of 1920s books (Mysterious Arts) and books dealing with the Second World War (the Land Mysteries series).

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What I got up to in 2022

/ Land Mysteries, Mysterious Powers, Novellas

It is the time of year where a roundup of what I did seems useful for a variety of reasons. (Come back next week for what’s coming in 2023!) What came out in 2022 I put out four novels, two novellas, and a substantial extra in 2022. That’s a lot! Links here that aren’t the title (in the header) will take you to my public wiki. There you can see more details about people and places.

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Forged in Combat is out!

/ Announcements, Mysterious Powers, Novellas

I’m delighted to share Forged in Combat, a prequel novella for the Mysterious Powers series. It’s the romance of Arthur and Melusina, parents of Roland in Carry On. It takes place mostly in 1882 in the Viceroy’s Palace in Calcutta. Melusina is building her own career as mistress of warding and protection magics. Arthur is following the well-trod traditions of his family in the Army. When Melusina takes on an assignment to help with a tricky safe problem in the Viceroy’s office, they find themselves collaborating – and more than collaborating. Get a copy from your favourite ebook retailer!

Surprise! Giveaway

/ Announcements

(This giveaway is over! It ended on Tuesday, December 13th, 2022. Thank you so much for everyone who joined us!) Do you love jewellery? Do you know someone who does? My dear friend Elise Matthesen is an amazing jewellery maker – and also a lover of my books. She’s offered a delightful giveaway, with a short timeframe. One lucky person will win an item from Elise’s shop (based on your answers to question 2). [giveaway details removed] More about Elise Elise won the Hugo Award (a major award in the Science Fiction and Fantasy fandom community) as a Fan Artist in 2020. Her pieces are in the collections of quite a few authors, musicians, artists, and other creative folk. Many of us have a custom of picking up something from Elise for a major achievement in our creative lives. If you’re a fan of Lois McMaster Bujold, as I am, Elise both designed Lois’s award pin collar and makes planet pendants similar to those referenced in the Vorkosigan books at one point. Here’s a few samples of Elise’s previous work. Again, check out the shop for the current delights! I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Elise for more than 20 years, so as you might imagine, I have quite a few of her pieces by now! The necessary giveaway details By entering, you understand that if you are the winner, I will be sharing your email address with Elise to make arrangements about getting the piece you have won. Elise

The naming of characters is a difficult matter

/ Albion, Writing and publishing

(Look, I couldn’t resist the T.S. Eliot reference, I’m only human.) To be more serious, the names of characters are something I spend a lot of time thinking about. I got a great reader question about it this week, and that makes it a wonderful time to share some of how I do this. To be honest, there’s a lot of staring at my list of names and sighing a lot. But I also have established patterns that help me sort out what I’m doing with the names. (As a note, links to character names in this post will go to their WorldAnvil pages so you can see where they appear most easily.)

Where are you, online? (Looking at some social media options)

/ Announcements, Writing and publishing

Hello! Given the world (and especially the Internet at the moment), it seems a good time for me to look at where I’m spending my time online in the authorial sense. I’ve put together a survey form to ask some questions about what spaces you’d be interested in, so I can think about some options. I expect to get whatever new options I add set up by the end of December 2022 at the latest. (ETA, December 20th: Survey form now closed. Watch this blog space for an update on what we’re going to be trying!) It’s completely anonymous unless you give me your email address at the very end. You can also use the contact form or email me at celia@celialake.com if you’d rather do that. Where I am right now online I send out a newsletter on most Fridays. It has my latest news, a highlight of a book that’s been out for a bit, links to any blog posts I’ve made, and notes about the week’s writing. It also usually includes a couple of links I discovered while researching that week. Twitter is the place where I’ve shared more flippant commentary on the writing process, often with some back and forth with Kiya, my friend and editor (and other half of my brain who makes my books so much better.) If you haven’t been following this bit of the news, I’m not sure how much longer that’s going to be viable. I’ve also shared links to new

Best Foot Forward is out!

/ Announcements, Land Mysteries

Best Foot Forward is the one Kiya (my friend and editor) described as “M/M aroace/bi-allo-(incidentally polyam) enemies-to-it’s-complicated there-was-only-one-bed espionage and WWI trauma-healing romp”. Best Foot Forward also contains: Music turned out to be a big part of this book, so there’s an additional playlist and explanation of the music references. (It does contain spoilers for the book, but there’s a link in the author’s notes to remind you to go look and listen, or from the book page here on my website or on the authorial wiki.)

The Music of Best Foot Forward

/ Land Mysteries, Research adventures

Best Foot Forward is full of music. It’s not only full of music, but it gave me classical music back. There’s so much music that I’ve written a full explanation (complete with a playlist you can listen to). Learn more about the music in what I’ve been calling Best Ear Forward). Note that it does contain spoilers for the book!

The cover of Ancient Trust on a tablet, surrounded glasses, bottles of alcohol, and a man in a tailored suit. The cover shows a man with a monocle in silhouette, leaning on a table stacked with books.

Keeping research notes

/ Research adventures, Writing and publishing

In a recent newsletter, I mentioned that working on Old As The Hills had let me test a research note model for more research-demanding fiction that’s working pretty well. (This is also in service to my contemplating a 1480s series set around the time of the Pact sometime down the road. I have a ton of background reading to do before I can even think about it, so no time soon.)  As I suspected, more than one reader was interested in how I set that up, so here’s a glimpse into my research notes. (Click through on the screenshots to see a full size version, but I’ve also described the contents in the text.)

The cover of Ancient Trust on a tablet, surrounded glasses, bottles of alcohol, and a man in a tailored suit. The cover shows a man with a monocle in silhouette, leaning on a table stacked with books.

Lords & Ladies: A guide to the land magic

/ Albion, Novellas, Questions and answers

Are you curious about the land magic? Carillon’s background? What it means to be a Lord in Albion? Did you know there’s a new novella out? It’s my treat if you sign up for my newsletter. (Feel free to unsubscribe when you need to, of course. But I hope you’ll stick around, at least for an email or two that will let you get all the other treats I share with my newsletter subscribers.)  Ancient Trust is all about what happens when Geoffrey Carillon inherits the title on his brother’s death. It has quite a lot about the land magic customs at Ytene. It also led to some interesting questions from a reader.  (I love reader questions. Sometimes I haven’t settled on my final answer about something. But I’ll let you know if you ask something I can’t answer yet. Or if you ask something that’s too much of a spoiler for something that’s coming out in the future.)  The questions:  It got me thinking, how do the Lords of Albion engage with the House of Lords? Is attending Westminster an additional responsibility for Carillion? Do Albion peerages result in having the right to sit in the House? And what about the women? How does the Land Magic recognise women? These are great questions – and also some that I haven’t quite found the right place to get into text. Let’s take this one by one in an order that should help.

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