News, Updates, and Minor (Major) Ramblings

Found out the 15th is at the end of the week, and it blew my mind. March will be halfway over next week. Like damn, and I'll be going to Pittsburgh on the 16th to watch PWHL Toronto take on Montreal on the 17th. Hopefully their streak will be alive and well by then. Because of that, I have this month's newsletter rearing to go, and if you haven't signed up for it, well, you will get your chance to at the end of this post. If you haven't been lurking around on my Mastodon profile or Facebook page, the first two chapters of Outside The Game are available to read until the end of this month. So, if you want to see how E.J.'s story starts, head on over to Bookfunnel and read those first two chapters. I also encourage you to sign up for my newsletter while you're there because release date and pre-order information will be announced to newsletter subscribers first and everyone else a week later. Maybe later. I sometimes forget to do things. I'm 5 yards and goal ...

Greetings to one and all! We have made it to the end of January, and into February. Here in VA we had a wicked bad cold snap a couple weeks ago, and other than causing my electric bill to jump, I tried not to leave the house, but that thing I call a day job (insert depressed groan here) made me. Granted, there was one day where I had to work from home because the roads weren't the best. Looking forward to some warmer weather. Not Summer, but just mild weather. The kind of weather where you can open the house windows during the day, and burn a nice fire in the pit at night. That kind of weather. January also saw the return of my monthly newsletter. If you received it, what'd you think? It wasn't anything special, but I think it was a good way to re-introduce myself to my readers. If you haven't read it yet, you can head over to the archive on my website and read it. Do note, any freebies or coupon codes in archived newsletters have expired, so there's no point in cli...

That title is as far as I got in my Spanish Duolingo education, who I learned just laid off contractors to implement AI technology to do the work they were doing. While it's supposedly being framed as "no big deal" in this article, it's still something that goes against my morals. If the layoffs and AI integration meant an increase in wages for full-time and part-time employees without lowering the quality of the their software then I'd approve, but if neither of those are the case (which I'm certain it is), then I'll shame. Either way, I've cut ties with Duolingo because I don't like the taste this leaves in my mouth. That was not how I was supposed to open this post, but clearly I'm in my no-filter year--I did have a birthday in December--so I'm gonna go for it. On to business! Welp, I've just completed the final read through for my first newsletter of the year, which is also a dive back into sending it out. This January newsletter w...

Goodness, 2023 is coming to a close, which makes some people reflect on goals and hopes that we had wished to accomplish this year along with looking ahead to 2024 and figuring out new goals, hopes, and dreams as well as wanting to bring missed goals or hopes from 2023 to fruition. With all this being said, I hope we all accomplish what we want in 2024 and then some. With that out of the way, let me go into what I've accomplished writing and author-wise in 2023: Finished first-round of edits on the 1st book for my new short-novel/novella series. Started the 2nd book for that series. Moved my site from Wix to Webwave. Started editing Fate Unseen, the 2nd book for the Avery Lawson series. Outlined several new stories Went to The GCLS conference in June. And I'm sure I did other things, but I can't recall them. I'm thinking about picking up journaling in 2024 to help me keep track of things and feelings, but we'll see. It might help me when I'm in my pit of despai...

I know, I know. Black Friday isn't until next week, but I thought I'd get a jump on everything since I am off work the next few weeks. I tried to make everything align, but as usual, each platform does its own thing with Amazon being a pain in the ass. Sorry to say, there will be no sale on Amazon because none of my books are in their KDP select program. But do not despair, you can still get my books for cheap and they'll be compatible for whatever device you're reading on. If not, let me know and I'll rectify it. All right, onto the sales info. On Smashwords , all my ebooks are 99¢ with the exception of Pool of Lies, which is still pay what you want. The discount is public so no need to type in a coupon code. Over on Ko-Fi, all my ebooks are 50¢, with the exception of Pool of Lies, which is also pay what you on Ko-Fi. I wanted to make both sales match, but that required doing price changes, and this that and the other, so it's just 50¢ and bright reminder for m...

Hope we're all fattening up and getting ready for a long winter's nap. Ha! Wouldn't that be fantastic? Just be like a bear or a chipmunk and get fat over the course of fall then sleep my way through winter. Ugh. Such a good life. The closest thing humans get to hibernation is the food coma we fall into after a big meal. Speaking of big meals, Turkey Day is coming up for USians, so I'm excited to stuff my face and the 2 weeks I will be off during November. It's much needed. A couple of weeks ago, instead of editing the first book of my novella series, I read the second book in the Detective Miller series, which is titled Grisly Politics . I hadn't meant to do that, but I completely forgot how the story ended since it has been a year since I finished writing it. I opened it up, and I was cool with reading just the ending, but when I did that, I was like what happened here? So, I ended up reading the whole thing. I am really happy with how that story turned out. L...

Welp folx we are in that time of year where the next few months either blow by really fast or they go really slow, and you end up spiraling. No? Not you? Hmm. Maybe just me then. At least we're easing into my favorite season of the year. Anyway, on to why I'm here. Edits for the first book of my novella series are going fantastically. Fingers crossed that I will have them completed by the end of next month. After that, they'll be heading to my editor. Hopefully it will be a quick turnaround time frame from them. Doesn't look like it'll be ready in time for publishing this year, but I feel as long as I'm on the right path to publishing at the beginning of next year then I'm not going to sweat it. I've been enjoying editing this story and writing the next book for it, so I can't wait until I'm in a good place to finally talk about it. September is when people start looking to the dreaded holiday season, and I think this year, I will be doing sales ...