Happy September! 🍂☕️📕
It’s been a busy last few weeks for me. I’ve been banging away at my keyboard, because I’ve finally figured out how to write Sleeve of Hearts. I had to do a lot of things wrong first, but man am I proud of this version.
What I’m Writing
When I was writing the first draft of Sleeve of Hearts, I wanted Antoni to be that addictive bad boy hero, but I had too much fun and made him an asshole. It’s like accidentally adding too much salt. A little is just right, but too much and you’re parched. Seven drafts later, I feel confident unleashing Ant into Romancelandia. He’s always feeding Kinsley, supportive of her dreams and crazy ideas, and a total dirty talker.
I’ll be done with this draft soon, and then it’s off to my publisher. I’m hoping we won’t have too much to revise. Either way, it may be a while before it’s published.
This month I’m rewriting the ending to a horror novella 🐝 I wrote a few years ago. I got to the end and didn’t like what I’d planned anymore. It just didn’t work. So I put it aside and went back to my small town romances. Four years later, I’ve worked out the right ending, so I’ll be adding that, and I’m sure rewriting the rest so it works.
I’m also wrapping up the River Reapers summer bash miniseries from last year. I was writing episodes alongside my main WIP while juggling lupus things, and my hands got too full so I had to drop it. Sometimes life’s just like that. Anyway, I’m wrapping that up to warm up for my next project.
Pulling all my books from Kindle
Thank you so much for all the lovely comments on my open letter to Amazon! I’m really glad it’s not just me. I’m also really grateful for all your support. We can’t control what Amazon does. What I can control, though, is what I do, and I’m working on getting my store back up and running so that you can buy ebooks directly from me that will transfer between devices, as well as work with the Kindle ereader and app. If you’d like to help, you can become a sponsor for $5 a month.
Quitting social media
Earlier this month, I left Instagram for good. A few years ago, I deactivated my Facebook, then deleted Twitter. I’ll probably let my TikTok go, too. I’m feeling more and more disillusioned by social media, for a lot of reasons. Privacy, intellectual property, and algorithms, oh my—it’s much more complicated than I can get into in a newsletter, never mind one post. I forgot to mention in my goodbye IG post that I’m on Bluesky, a Twitter alternative. I’m also on Whatnot.
Livestream Friday, September 12th, @ 4 pm EST
Join me this afternoon for my first ever Whatnot show! I’ll be reading from A Disturbing Prospect, signing copies of the River Reapers MC series, and unveiling a secret project I’ve been working on since January.
I’m aiming to do these once a week, maybe themed. If you can’t make this one, follow me on Whatnot and let me know the best day/time for you.
Get in the mood for spooky season
It’s that time of year when I break out the spooky short stories! Over the next few weeks, I’ll be posting one from my horror anthology The Last Minute Before Midnight. This week’s story is “The Corpse in the Tree.”
The only constant is change, and the book industry is sure going through a lot of them. I can’t thank you all enough for your support over the past decade. There’s so much to look forward to, I feel like I’ve only gotten started.
Until next time, happy reading!
