Don't Miss Out On Exciting News!

Subscribe to my newsletter and get a free copy of Andromeda's Tear!
* indicates required
/ ( mm / dd )

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Sweet Escape - Available Now! (plus some other updates)


My last post was about multitasking, and one would think I already had enough on my plate, but nope! One would be wrong. I decided to add more STUFF to my list. First and foremost, Sweet Escape, my latest short story, is available now. You *could* buy it from Amazon for $0.99, OR! if you subscribe to my monthly-ish newsletter, you can get a copy for free! Let's have a blurb, shall we?

A deadly disease has swept through Leila’s hometown, followed by the soldiers who unleashed it. When she attempts to escape from them, she’s rescued by Wes, a stranger fleeing a similar situation who shows no hesitation when killing her pursuers to save her life. Wes is a man of few words, though the little he shares and the skills he demonstrates make Leila believe joining him is her best chance at survival.

They travel together, evading their enemies and searching for fellow survivors. Their journey leads them to a deserted town, where Wes chooses an abandoned bakery to rest for the night. To Leila’s surprise, he reveals himself to be an accomplished baker, and prepares a chocolate cake for them to share out of the meager supplies he finds. The unexpected treat brings up wistful memories of the past, but as Wes begins to let his guard down around her, she realizes the future may not be as dismal as she expected…especially after he makes his attraction to her known.

Newsletter Signup (or you could just fill out the direct form over there in the sidebar)

Amazon

For the newsletter, I'll only pop up in your inbox when I have, well, news. To update part of the last post, I have seen the first draft of the new cover for Disintegration, and it's gonna be AWESOME! That cover reveal (along with other updates and events) will be happening sometime this summer, and newsletter subscribers will get all the good stuff first.

Next addition to my to-do list: To go along with my theme of rebooting older projects, after thinking it over, I've decided to reboot Trope-tastic Thursdays. The last post I did for it was eight years ago (WHAT.), and I've written a lot since then. I'll revisit some of the old posts, see if I used any of those tropes in my newer books and if there are any relevant newer pop culture references, and then discuss some different tropes. To differentiate from the older series and achieve better alliteration, the feature will now be Trope-tastic Tuesdays. I'm not going to commit to doing it every week, since life certainly hasn't gotten any less crazy in the past eight years (EIGHT YEARS. WHAT.), but keep an eye out for those posts to pop up again.

There's still a lot going on here, but it's always better than the alternative. Phew!

Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Multitasking

I'm pleased to say I've reached the home stretch of Surrendering the Skies. I have one more chapter to go, plus an epilogue. And honestly, I'm not crazy about where my word count is right now, so I might wind up going back and adding in a few more things, but we'll see where I wind up. Still, exciting!

As I started inching closer to the end, I also started thinking about what else I want to accomplish this year writing-wise. Regular readers will remember I have more older books that came back to me following a publisher shutting its doors, and I have to figure out what to do with them. It finally hit me that if I want to re-release any of them on my own, these things take time, and I should probably start making some sort of plan. (I know, it's obvious. Big derp on my part.) As I've been saying this past year or so, now that my kids are a little bit older, some of the brain fog is clearing, and I've been feeling more like my writerly self. So, let's attempt some multitasking!

I revisited my beloved Disintegration series to check out where it is now and how much work it would need. You know what? My love is not misplaced; those books are still fucking awesome, if I do say so myself. Really, some of my best writing is in there. They will need some editing, and I will probably sob to myself as I slash all the "thats" and "justs" and a whole bunch of adverbs, but otherwise, I don't think it'll be too painful.

Next, I realized if I want to do right by these books I love so much, I should invest in some kick-ass cover art. I've got tax return money coming. I've got stimulus money. LET'S STIMULATE THE ECONOMY AND SUPPORT ARTISTS! I put a call out on Twitter, reached out to some artists, and found someone I think will be a great match. Since I wasn't crazy about the original covers back in the day, I'm super excited about this part.

After/during cover art will come editing, which, again, I don't think will be too strenuous. And then after that...formatting. I've done e-books before, so I'm not too concerned there. It falls under the category of "time-consuming, but not terribly difficult." But I haven't done a paperback on my own yet, so I need to start doing research on that. I know there are ways to outsource this work, but since I'm spending money on the covers, I'll most likely handle the formatting myself.

So far, my plan is to finish up Surrendering the Skies, shop that series around, and then get to work on editing. As of right this second, I'm planning a release date for the first Disintegration book for September 1st of this year. It might be a wild ride, but I think it's doable. I'm also going to release the set of prequel short stories at the same time, but—BUT!—newsletter subscribers will get those for free, so make sure you're all signed up for that.

I'm voluntarily putting a lot on my plate, but as of right now, it's making me happy and motivated and all of that good stuff. Fingers crossed these plans work out (says the pantser)!