News, Updates, and Minor (Major) Ramblings

I know. December is almost over, and I have been incognitus. For you Last Pureblood fans, you can blame your second book. That's right, it's your second book because I am completely through with it. Through. No major updates today, just thought I'd make a blog post for the month. I'm still elbow deep in typing up my edits for Fate Unseen . Next week will be beyond wonderful because I will have so much time to finish doing that. I might even make some hot cocoa to celebrate. As soon as the edits are typed up, it'll go to my editor. Also at that same time, I'll be doing a cover reveal, and I might have a ball park time frame for a release date. Keyword there is ball park. I know I said by the end of first quarter it would be out, but I'm sort of leaning for an April release just because that's when the first Avery Lawson book came out. So, it would be like, "Oh, here's the second book. Two. Years. Later." Y'know? I've been going...

I live! I live! I know it has been a long time since I put up a blog post. I'm so delayed with this that I'm only doing one post this month. I know I put out the newsletter, but I feel like blogging is more intimate. I can ramble a bit, and don't feel like I'm being annoying. With the newsletter I feel like I am even though it comes out once a month. But enough about me and my thoughts. I have the greatest news ever! I finished the first round of edits for Fate Unseen, which is book 2 of the Last Pureblood series. Next up for me is....more editing! Which is actually me typing up the edits from the first round since I do those by hand, but I also keep looking for ways to tweak the story, and make sure it's consistent and makes sense. But this second round of edits shouldn't be as strenuous as the first ones since I'm not taking a blob of story and turning it into something that you all would want to read. Because I feel confident that the second round of...

Just some quick announcements while I'm jotting them down on my notepad while listening to "We Don't Need Another Hero" by Tina Turner. First up, and I'm being so serious about this one right now that I've put on my serious face. Okay, here we go, you will want to sign-up for my newsletter . I have a surprise for my newsletter subscribers in November, and it comes in the form of a snippet from Fate Unseen, the next Last Pureblood book. I know some of you have been waiting anxiously for this book, so I'm throwing out a morsel while I continue to gut this story and transform it into something that isn't total shit. Oh, this also reminds me that the first Last Pureblood book, Avery Lawson: The Last Pureblood , is on sale where ever it's available . This sale will only last until the end of the month, so go get it while it's still cheap. Next up, is this month's giveaway. It's close to being the end of the month, and if you haven...

I failed in getting that last September blog post up. I had it drafted and everything, but I never got to posting it. Full stop, I've been in a meh mood lately. I'm not sure if it's because of the weather change or if I'm doing too much, but I think I am getting out of it, and I am making progress. Before I get into everything, a couple of announcements. First, because it's spooky month, Avery Lawson: The Last Pureblood on the sale the entire month. I know it's not really a scary book, but the themes of it go quite well with the month. Witches, vamps, werewolves....they own October. Go grab a copy if you haven't yet. Next order of business, I have enlisted Reappearance of Summer in a lesfic/wlw fiction giveaway . I think it is among some great company, and you should check out the other authors' books. Go get yourself a free book. This won't be the last time I mention it. Okay, I have been editing book 2 of the Last Pureblood series, also kno...

Is it just me, or does the last four months of the year seem to fly by? We are halfway through September, and this is my first blog post for the month. August ended so fast, I didn't get to post a second one, but I am on it this month. Maybe. I think. Anyways, despite my inability to grasp the concept of time, I have been busy editing Fate Unseen, the second book in the Last Pureblood series. I want to lock myself in a room until I have it done, but life and work have other plans for me. However, I'm going to focus a lot of my time on getting it done. It is shaping up to be an interesting read. When the second book starts, there really is no breather from the last one, so if you don't remember what happened in the last one then you'll need to re-read it because I don't do any recapping in the second book. I'm too busy trying to move the story forward lol. Expect teaser chapters for Fate Unseen in November, and hopefully by the time I start posting those, ...

The month has completely passed me by and I feel like September will do the same. Oh, boy. Thought I'd make a quick blog post before the month finishes out. Tomorrow, August 26th, Murderous Profession will be out on Kindle and Smashwords! I'm still working on the paperback formatting, but that should be out in a week or two. Between life and work, time just got away from me. Lame excuse, but it's surprising how busy I was in August. But anywhoo, grab yourself a copy of the book and tell me what you think about it. I found it to be a quick read and entertaining, as did my editor. Of all the characters, I have a fondness for Dax and Billy. I had a fun time writing them. I know some of you are waiting with bated breath for the next Avery Lawson book, and I am actively editing it as we speak, however, I'm taking the tortoise route with it--slowly but surely. I don't want to miss something that should have been mentioned in this one, or I mention something that shoul...

August is, literally, days away. Isn't that crazy? Hopefully everyone had a good July — ate some good food, went on vacation, and enjoyed the AC. With July ending it means the official countdown for the release of Murderous Profession begins. Pre-orders went on sale on the 7/24 at Amazon . The book is set to be released on the 8/26, so go pre-order your copy and you can have the book delivered to your device at the stroke of midnight. I'm going to redo my pinned tweet because I think it fell a little short. It's a learning process this self-promotion thing. Barring any major complications, like network failure and my computer shitting the bed, the book is set to be released on time. Which is a major thing for me since I have an issue with keeping realistic deadlines. Paperback copies of the book will probably come a week or two later. It depends on some formatting and printing issues. I always strive to get the best version of the book out to everyone, so I'm not g...

Who is excited? This guy, and hopefully the rest of you are as well. After several months of writing and editing, Murderous Profession has a release date. Insert drum roll gif... August 26th is the release date for Murderous Profession . Pre-sales for eBooks will being 7/22 on Smashwords and Amazon. Super excited for this book to come out. Now that we know when it will be coming out, I'll also let you know that there will be a series of standalone stories that to accompany the series on my Ko-Fi. The standalone stories, which I have been calling "Murderous Interludes," will be—for the most part—light and they'll tackle the in-between moments between books because my main characters are complex people, and I feel like there is much more delve into, but it's too much to put into a single book, hence, the standalone stories. The first story will be free and the subsequent ones will be available to those that buy me gummy bears. Yes, on my Ko-Fi I have ...

Here is June's second blog post of the month. Yes! I did it! This blog post, however, is going to be a little different because I updated you all a week ago on my writer and book things, and nothing has change there. I'll plug the usual bits at the end, but the meat of this post is something else. Today, I'm going to talk about the critiquing of fictional work that portrays marginalized communities that is written by a person from a marginalized community. This falls in the #ownvoices category of things if you follow the literary world of Twitter. The idea to write about this was sparked by a tweet I failed to capture, but it provoked an excellent question and I wanted to pose it to my readers as well as anyone else that happens to stumble upon my blog. I think I'll start this off with my own personal example, and go from there. In 2016, I entered a screenplay I had written into a diversity competition for screenwriters. I knew it was probably crap, but I wanted t...

This means I have to write two blog posts before it ends. Great. I hope everyone has had a wonderful pride month. Learned some queer history, celebrated yourself, and was defiant by being your beautiful queer self. We are definitely in a period of time where people's perception of the queer community is changing, but there are a lot of things we still need to work on, and we can only do that together. So, lift each other up and fight in memory of those that came before for us, those who are currently here, and those who can't fight for themselves. Sorry, I got in my solitary feel, but the state of the world got me feeling some type of way. Any-gays, this month has been a wonderful month of progress on book two of the Last Pureblood series. I am near the end, and once it is done, I'll take a break from it. By then my editor will be all set with Murderous Profession , but we shall see. I am at the point where I'm setting up some new plot elements for book three, and...

I guess that's what happens when you're having fun editing. I just wanted to get in a minor update before the month is out. I hope we're all ready for Summer vacation and the heat! I am not, and I wish I was in the Arctic, but even that is getting a little balmy these days. Moving on.... Who is excited for Murderous Profession ?!?!?! I know I am super excited for you guys to read it. My second round of edits will be done this weekend, and then I'll send it off to my editor. The story sort of achieves what I set out to do, which was write a romantic-comedy. But when you're dealing with murder, there is only so much room for humor, however, there are funny bits along with some angst, and a touch of romance. It has a happy for now ending. Will this be then end for Eliza? The answer is no. This is going to be an ongoing series, which will not have a set schedule. Unlike The Last Pureblood series, this one could end next year, it could end five years from now. It'...

All right, since I haven't finished editing chapter one of Murderous Profession like I wanted to (there was a massive scene rewrite, and this is after my handwritten edits), I'm going to treat you all to the first two scenes of chapter one. I should have chapter one fully edited on Monday or Tuesday. I'm not going to build it up. I'm just gonna give it to you. FYI this is after two rounds of editing, and it still needs to go to my editor, so it's still a little rough, but I couldn't wait to give you guys something. Content Warnings: Adult themes, sexual references, murdered sex workers, bad and crude language.

*Rises from the foggy sea like the kraken* Argggh...so it's time for an update. I really need to get that damn newsletter back. Twice a month blog posts seems really pointless when I'm just editing and plotting books and  doing publisher type things. Murderous Profession edits are going swimmingly, and the handwritten edits should be done next week then I move to updating the document and doing vague editing before sending it to my editor. Still on track for July I feel like, but who knows what could happen. Teaser chapters will be up on my website once I have the main copy updated. If you're interested in getting a paperback copy of Murderous Profession, you can go here to reserve your copy. FYI: physical copies are only being sold through my website for US based readers. International readers can still obtain physical copies through Amazon. I'm only doing this to test out a new book printer, and to see how this process works for me. Speaking of Murderous Profes...

The store is back up on my website. A couple of call outs; if you're an EU based reader, sorry, but VAT gave me a headache and you can't purchase from the site. However, you can still order through Amazon and Smashwords , and when I start up the serials, you can purchase those through my Gumroad store. Any tangible items, like signed copies, are only shipped to US readers, and if you try to purchase a signed copy, Paypal will say, "Sorry, but this seller doesn't ship outside the US." This may change, but the landscape of selling things online is changing, so who knows. I have thoughts on it, but they have nothing to do with this. We have a cover for Murderous Profession, and it is below. For those who voted for Cover B, a winner has been chosen and has been contacted. If they want me to announce their win publicly I will, but they will remain anonymous. The winner is getting a signed copy of the book that will be printed by the new book printing company I'm ...

I must be doing things if there is a second blog post this month. Hello all, I hope we've had a great month so far. I'm enjoying this little break before I start editing Murderous Profession . Trying to do take care of some updates on the website and preparing it to take orders, so I took down the store while that is going on. It'll be back on April 1st, and it is live once again you'll be able to purchase signed copies of Reappearance of Summer and start reserving your signed copy of Murderous Profession .  By then the cover finalized. If you want to try you hand at winning a free, signed copy of Murderous Profession you can vote on which of the covers you like here and if your cover wins you'll be entered in a drawing with everyone else who voted for the same cover. Voting ends on the 31st and is open to those in the US. In regards to book reservations, if you follow me on Twitter I said I was playing around with a new idea to have my books printed by a new co...

I blinked, and next thing I knew it was March 16th. Decided it would be a great time to do an update. I think the main reason why March flew by is because I was busy trying to obliterate the first draft of my next book, which as of 10:15pm of March 12th, is finished. I'm intrigued to see how this book will be received because this will be my first book where my main characters won't be two women who love women. This time I've got a cis, female, bisexual main character, and a trans, sexually fluid, main character who is a person of color. It'll be different, but I hope people will have an open mind about it. I mean you really need to because it's set in a world where sex work is legal, and Dax is a sex worker who loves his job. But all seriousness aside it's a fun book, and there are some serious moments, but overall it is a light read. My goal for it is to be a quick, fun read that also gives you some feels. I'll have more information about the release of...

Last week, or the week before last, I posted an update saying I would be publishing my standalone book before the second Last Pureblood book. The story isn't one I have talked about with really anyone. I think I've spoken with one person about it, and that is about it. Then I posted an excerpt of it on Twitter to give my followers a taste of it. In the excerpt one of my main characters is talking about my other one, and though it wasn't the best sample of the story, I'm sure it piqued everyone's curiosity. Especially since one of my main characters is a sex worker, so I'm going to go into it a little bit more here. The story is set in present day New York City, but in a universe where sex work has been legal for the last two years. Readers are first introduced to Detective Eliza Miller and her partner Billy Chilowski, and we dive head first into the murder of a sex worker. As Eliza and Billy work the case they discover a link between the victim and an indiv...

First and foremost happy February and happy black history month. May we all learn something this new. So, the reason for this post is because I'm changing things up. I originally wanted to release book two of the Pureblood Series the first half of the year, and my standalone book the second part of it. I've accepted that releasing three books in 2019 isn't going to happen, but I knew it was a lofty dream. Thechange in my releases is due to the second Avery Lawson book being more involved the further I get into it. When I started writing it I was using the"pantser" method, and it's gotten complicated. For those who don't know what the pantser method is, it is when you are flying by the seat of your pants while writing with little to no outline. In my case I know what points I want to include but the in-between bits are a little dicey, and it leads to me staring at a blank screen. I've got a decent amount of the story written, but I want to take som...

Sigh. Let's rap good people. It has been a craptacular January for me, but I think things are getting back on track, especially after that bout of the food poisoning. I'm waiting to receive my survey on it, would not recommend. Last Pureblood Book Two I honestly have been plugging away at it and there is a nice chunk of it done, but I'm finding myself at a point where I feel like the pacing is sluggish and there are some elements I am truly struggling with. I find myself growing frustrated with it, but at the same time I also haven't been able to give it the proper attention it needs. Between the holidays, work, and life in general it barely got my full attention. I'm getting a new work schedule, and life is becoming less intense, so hopefully I can focus on the story and give you all the proper book you deserve considering the first one. I think my lack of patience is the cause of my frustration because book two is like the second part of laying the foundati...