Today, I’m watching my younger offspring graduate from veterinary school! I am incredibly proud of them. This is a dream they’ve had since they were in preschool, and to see them having held onto that dream for over two decades, and now be making it a reality, is amazing!
This is a hectic week, but hectic in a good way.
Thursday is the official release day for A Fighting Chance! I put this book up for Kindle preorder on April 26, and on May 9 it will release for Kindle and paperback.
I’ve been making some tweaks to my release schedule going forward. Take Some Tahini (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 6) will release in July as scheduled; after that, my next release will be in October of this year. I’ve discovered, in trying to do 6 releases this year, that that pace isn’t exactly sustainable for me, especially since I’ll also be releasing some young adult fiction (under my Jo Ramsey pen name) starting in 2025. So I’m lowering that plan by one book for 2024, and will be releasing five books instead of six, and for 2025 I’m planning four releases. There might be an extra short story or two released over those couple of years, but I’m not currently *planning* those. So another part of the hecticness of this week is rearranging my release schedule and, by extension, my writing and editing schedule.
And I’m getting ready to take a trip to watch my younger kid graduate from veterinary school next week! Packing and coordinating travel plans with the others who are going is one of the most hectic things, but it is so amazingly worth it to watch my kid’s dream–almost literally a lifelong dream, they’ve wanted to be a veterinarian since they were about three years old–come true.
So that’s where I’m at this week. I’m also continuing to plan “wide” releases of my books (making them available through retailers in addition to Amazon) but have hit a minor snag with some of the existing books that is delaying getting those put out through other vendors. I am continuing to work on it.
A Fighting Chance (Chance Met 2) is now available for Kindle preorder! The book will release on May 9 in Kindle and paperback formats, and will be available through Kindle Unlimited.
This is a sequel to Chance Met, which was released in March 2023. I had hoped to have A Fighting Chance out in March of this year, but chose to spend additional time having it beta read and proofed, and then did some rewrites. But it is ready now, and you can preorder your Kindle copy on Amazon.
After going back and forth with myself about it, last Tuesday I started a new book.
Bring On the Broccoli (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 7) picks up about three months after Tempeh for Two and Take Some Tahini (both of those books take place in the same month). It’s in Kyle Slidell’s point of view and involves discovering that some alphas, including a Massachusetts one, are even less ethical and invested in their packs’ best interests than previously realized.
I haven’t gotten very far into the story yet, so there isn’t much to share at this point, but I’ll add updates here weekly until the book is done. Bring On the Broccoli is planned to release in January 2025.
Now that my newsletter subscribers have had the first look, I wanted to share the cover of A Fighting Chance with y’all. A Fighting Chance is the sequel to last year’s Chance Met, continuing the story of werewolf single father Trey Damone, psychic human Jeremiah Crawford, and Trey’s seven-year-old son Michael. A Fighting Chance will be available for Kindle preorder on April 25 and will release for Kindle and in paperback on May 9; I have plans to release it and Chance Met wide later this year.
A few weeks ago, I posted that I would be moving to a new apartment. That was happening in the middle of my husband and me both having and recovering from norovirus, me recovering from minor surgery, and me trying to release and promote Hooch and Howls.
Dang, March was a long month!
We are now mostly settled in our new apartment. I’m still waiting for hubby to purchase the kitchen island/cart/counter/whatever he promised, which he says might happen tomorrow. I also need to buy a new chair or two for the living room, which will happen… um, eventually.
But meanwhile, we’re here. A much quieter, larger, brighter apartment, with pretty much everything that’s here so far in its place. We have our own washer and dryer, which is incredible luxury after almost seven years of sharing two washing machines with 6 other units, and sharing a dryer with two of those other units. I recovered from norovirus only to have a reaction to a new antidepressant I was on (which I’ve since been weaned off), followed by catching a bad cold which, at least, was only a cold.
But on the plus side, in addition to getting through the move, I released Hooch and Howls on schedule, and it’s gotten a 4-star review! I’m feeling much better physically now, and hoping that I’ve gotten all of my illnesses for 2024 out of the way already so I can have a peaceful, healthy remainder of the year. We had a snowstorm on Wednesday and Thursday, but the snow from that has melted.
I hope y’all are doing well. Here’s a picture of part of the living room of the new place:
In three days, I’m moving to a new apartment. This is a good thing; the new place is larger, quieter, and in a much safer area than where I’m currently living.
But it is putting a bit of a cramp in my writing and promoting. Especially since in TWO days, Hooch and Howls officially releases!
I’m looking forward to being in the new apartment and having quiet, sunlit space to write and create. Moving is stressful, but it ultimately ends up being a good thing. I’ll share pictures of the new space once we’re settled a bit!
Meanwhile, Hooch and Howls is available for preorder through various retailers, and will release on Thursday (the 14th) in digital and paperback formats. https://books2read.com/hoochandhowls
On Leap Day, I put my historical M/M/M novella up for preorder! Hooch and Howls was originally published in 2012. When I looked through it with an eye toward rereleasing, I came across one scene that completely made me cringe. The original concept of the story was that the werewolf, Malachi Powers, was affected overly strongly by even the smell of alcohol, with the result that he joined in on sex with two humans without their consent. As originally written, consent was given retroactively (the humans said they were fine with what had happened), but given that I wanted Malachi to be a *heroic* character since he appears in the next Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat novel and is being spun off into his own novel and possibly series, I couldn’t leave that scene as written.
So for the rerelease, I did some major rewrites of that scene. While Malachi is still affected by the fumes of the hooch the humans spill, and he is admittedly spying on them when they start their sexual encounter, he quickly realizes he shouldn’t be there. And the humans *explicitly* call to him and invite him to join them before he does anything.
The rest of the book has been revised and re-edited, and it will be released wide on March 14 in digital versions. I’m also doing a paperback version of it because I like having physical books. You can find your retailer and preorder your copy at my universal book link. And here’s the cover!
Last week, I blogged about the book I was worried I wouldn’t be able to rewrite in time to release it in May.
I’m not quite sure how I pulled it off, but I did the necessary rewrites in one DAY this past week. An 11-hour day, but still, one day. So May’s release will be, as originally planned, A Fighting Chance, the follow-up to Chance Met. I need to do another round or two of editing on that book before it’s completely ready, but now I know I’ll be able to accomplish it.
Before that, on March 14, I’ll be rereleasing my novella Hooch and Howls, with some rewrites from the original version that was published in 2012. That will be up for Kindle preorder on February 29, and I’ll be sharing the cover art then.
In July, I’ll be releasing Take Some Tahini (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 6).
And in September, I’ll be rereleasing Dawn Over Dayfield, a suspense-with-romantic-elements novel originally published in 2016.
I’m planning to have a holiday story ready in November, but I haven’t completely planned that one yet.
Beyond that, I’m not stating definite plans yet, just in case things change. For 2025, I’m not entirely certain whether I’ll have 4 or 6 releases (or maybe just 5) in 2025, but I have a little while to figure that out.
I’m still fine-tuning things. The advantage of being a self-published author is the flexibility to change my release schedule as needed. The disadvantage of being a self-published author is that I’m the one who has to make those changes.
Hooch and Howls will be out on March 14, as previously announced. That book is nearly ready to go; another round of proofreading and the cover, and it will be complete. I’ll be putting it up for Kindle preorder on February 29, and it will be released wide on March 14 (meaning it will not be available through Kindle Unlimited).
Take Some Tahini (Real Werewolves Don’t Eat Meat 6) will be out on July 11, as previously announced. I’m working on edits for that one, but I’m confident it will be complete and ready to go in time for Kindle preorder on June 27 and release on July 11. (I have not yet decided whether it will be in Kindle Unlimited for 90 days, as I did with Tempeh for Two, or just go wide off the bat; stay tuned for more on that.)
On May 9… I’m not sure. Originally, that was going to be Hooch and Howls, and my novel A Fighting Chance (a follow-up to Chance Met) was supposed to be the March 14 release. I flipped those two because Hooch was closer to being ready than A Fighting Chance. I figured I could easily get Fighting ready for May.
That was until I got the notes back from my beta reader. I had known *something* was not working with Fighting, but I couldn’t figure out where the problems were. My beta reader pointed all of the issues out to me, which I greatly appreciate. With her notes, I can see exactly what she’s talking about, and now I understand why the story wasn’t resonating for me.
But… I am not completely sure I’ll be able to fix those problems in time for a May release of this book. And to be honest, between the depth of the issues and the fact that it’s a follow-up to a book that was released a year ago, I’m starting to wonder if I actually *want* to fix those problems and release this book.
When I was working on Chance Met in early 2023, I realized that expanding that book was going to take longer than I’d anticipated, especially since at the time, I was also dealing with the immediate aftermath of my mother’s passing and trying to help my dad cope with paperwork, cleaning out the house, and so on. I completely changed my 2023 release schedule with very little notice to readers, because there wasn’t much else I could do. And at the time, I committed to only stating my release schedule 6 months in advance. I thought that would give me enough time to solidify things while making it easier for me to tweak and change the schedule without having to backtrack on releases I’d already announced.
But this time, because of the need for more extensive rewrites on A Fighting Chance, I’m going to have to say “Please stay tuned.” The March and July releases for 2024 are definite. I have plans for September’s release. But for the time being, I’m going to have to start working on A Fighting Chance and see whether I can actually regain my joy with this story and whether I’m capable of getting it ready for May 9. I will know for certain what May’s release will be by the time I release Hooch and Howls.
Meanwhile, I’m going to spend part of today working on the Hooch and Howls cover art and giving myself compassion for the need to change… because change happens sometimes.
