In addition to the new book, we just bought a new house. This will mean major downsizing, as the new house is half the size of our current one. And we are closing in June. That’s right. I have to go through everything, get rid of half of it, and finish the book by the end of May. Because one incredibly difficult thing wasn’t enough. I like to challenge myself. (No I don’t. I really, really don’t.)

What I really want to talk about today is a romance I just finished. I’m going to complain about it, though, so I’m not going to tell you the name of the book or the author. Sorry! But I don’t like to call out books by name like that. It was a romcom. And I loved the first half! I laughed so hard I cried. And I was reading it at night before bed and I kept waking my husband up I was laughing so much. It was an enemies to lovers story line, but secretly they both wanted the other one. The banter, the ridiculous situations the author put the male main character in, absolutely hilarious. But then it took an unfortunate and clichéd turn.

Our lovers got together. Together so much that they were, in fact, a couple. Talking about the future, and it wasn’t fast because they had known one another for years. Honestly, the author sort of lost me there because, hey, they loved one another! They can overcome any obstacle. And then he did something—nothing unforgivable—and she refused to see him or talk to him afterwards. And—even though what happened was really not his fault—he was so overcome with guilt he refused to try to talk to her or see her because she told him not to. Yes, it was the old ‘if they actually had a conversation this whole situation would fix itself’ conflict. For like a third of the book. And while this was going on he turned into a sniveling, pathetic loser sleeping on his best friend’s couch crying everyday.

Yuck.

I want my MMC’s to have agency, even if they are a cinnamon roll. They need to have a core of strength, particularly when it comes to winning their true love. And I want a FMC who is so in love with the MMC that’s she’s devastated by his loss/betrayal, but can’t help but give him a second chance. The thing is, I want them to work it out themselves. In this book, someone else finally told her what happened, and that he had secretly set out to make things right, and that’s the only reason she finally gave him a chance. And while they were apart, she was fine. She shed a few tears and went back to life as normal. I was completely unconvinced of her love for him. I believed he loved her, but not vice versa. I thought, well, the first time he screws up again she’s out of there.

What had started as a great read, one I was going to recommend, turned into a disappointing hot mess. And as an author I could tell this author got them together and had a “what now?” crisis. And then went off the rails. It read almost like two different books. The second half of the book wasn’t even funny, and she eviscerated her characters. I guess there were parts that the author thought were going to be funny, but weren’t? Particularly his downward spiral, which didn’t read as funny so much as sad and pathetic, so you felt a little guilty witnessing it. This is not what I want in a romcom. Because the first half of the book was so good, I kept reading hoping it would redeem itself. It did not.

I learn a lot from reading other romances. This one taught me what not to do in a romcom, which is relevant since I’m writing one. Since I’m writing one with drama and trauma, I still need to make it funny because at its heart it’s a romcom. For instance, today my trio was making jokes over a dead body. (You’ll understand when you read it.) And because it’s one of my books, they are already having sex, but they are learning about themselves and each other through those encounters, and each of them is growing as a person and changing because of those relationships. That’s really important in my books. Sex is never a culmination of their love story, it’s part of the process, and not just because they’re crazy to get in each other’s pants, but because the things they want to do to each other, and do do to each other, is revelatory about who they are at their core, and what they are to each other.

My Favorite Things this Week:

• This simple color memory game. It is addictive, beware!

• The new Spiderman trailer.

• This* series. I’m on book three, audiobooks, and I love them! Funny, lighthearted, great MCs, just overall fun books.

*Amazon link. If you click and buy something I may get a commission.

Quote of the Week:

“Life is about using the whole box of crayons.”

RuPaul

Don’t forget to buy me a coffee at Ko-fi!!

Two of the speakers were amazing. I mean it. So inspirational! And fantastic public speakers, which, of course they are, it’s their job. But seriously, kudos to anyone who can do that. If you are looking for great speakers for an event I highly recommend Jes Averhart and LaTonya Denise Croney. They both made me seriously consider where I was going in my career and how I planned to achieve my goals. I tend to just meander through my business (I’ve talked about this here, too!) and I left with some actionable ideas, although I have to say that I had already taken next steps on most of them, so I was pretty proud of myself.

What are those next steps? I’m so glad you asked! I am working on putting together two workshops/webinars. One will be a practical guide to physically outlining your book, and the second will be an explainer on what a developmental edit is, and whether or not your book needs one. I’ve submitted both ideas to the upcoming Writer’s Digest Annual Conference in July, so fingers crossed at least one of them gets picked for the line-up. I’m also going to try to present them in person at my local library.

And, drumroll please, I will be attending AUTHOR NATION in Las Vegas in November and participating in the book signing there! I haven’t done a book signing in years. I’m also planning to have copies of my new dark rom-com, HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT, available at the signing in November! I would love to meet some of my subscribers in person if you can make it to the signing! I’ll have more information about my new book in the coming weeks, and a preorder link soon!

If you follow me on Pinterest, you can now shop my book catalog directly from my Pinterest page! I told y’all last year that this was on my to do list, and by golly I got it done! Right now I only have my ebooks available on Shopify and through Pinterest, but next up will be print books! I’ll be sure to let you all know when those are available.

Whew! A lot going on, lol. But for the next two months I have to put my nose to the grindstone and finish HIT ME, as well as get my promotional efforts off the ground for that. I recently read a big article about an author who has essentially stopped writing new books to focus on creating new revenue streams from her back list, like special editions, etc., and she claims to be making six figures a month just selling her backlist in new editions and through Kickstarter. I find this unbelievable. I firmly believe the best marketing is to continue to write new books. I know that’s rich coming from me considering I am a bit of a slow writer and I tend to take on too much at one time, but I’m curious what you all think. Poll time!!

My Favorite Things This Week:

• I made Banoffee Pie for Pie Day (3/14). I love Banoffee Pie. I’ve linked to a recipe, but they’re all pretty much the same. It’s graham cracker crust, a layer of dulce de leche, a layer of sliced bananas, and a layer of whipped cream. Chill. Eat. Also, take the shortcuts. Buy a premade graham cracker crust. Buy the canned dulce de leche. Use Cool Whip or RediWhip. This pie is a no brainer, and so good.

• The weather on the day I went to the summit was iffy. It started out warm, got cold and rainy, and then by late afternoon was warming up again. Welcome to a NC spring. What to wear? I am a lover of short sleeve sweaters. I wore this one and it was perfect. (You know I’m a Belks girl.)

• I have found a new romance author to love. And, honestly? She’s making me rethink my newest book. (More on that later!) I have finished the first two of her books in this series. Highly recommend! I listened to the audiobooks and loved them! (Amazon link! I may get a commission if you click and buy anything)

• I just watched Zootopia 2 last night. Heart eyes. Nick Wilde is my animated boyfriend.

• Lewis Hamilton got a podium yesterday in the Chinese Grand Prix!! I was on the edge of my seat as he battled it out with his Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc. But he won that battle for 3rd, decisively. I am going to love this F1 season! If you follow F1, I like the changes to the cars and what’s it’s done to the racing. It’s so much more exciting this year. I love seeing drivers who were mired in the back last year fighting for points this season.

Quote of the Week:

“In this world, one needs to be a little too good in order to be good enough.”

Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux

Don’t forget to buy me a coffee at Ko-fi!!

The past week has been busy. I edit a local magazine and I had a quick turnaround time on a proofread of the upcoming edition, so I was working on that most of the week. I also had my YA critique group meeting on Tuesday, and I’m happy to report that book is coming along nicely! Very happy with some recent plot epiphanies that are tying it all together beautifully, although it will require some revision. Mostly adding some elements here and there rather than rewrites, which is much easier. And my dark romcom is practically writing itself. I decided to change the name of one of the heroes based on the poll I did here in the newsletter. Truthfully the results were exactly 50-50 on whether to change his name (because I had given the same name to a hero in an earlier book and forgotten), but I figured that if 50 percent thought I should change it, then I should change it. I cycled through a few names, and my romance critique partner helped me come up with a good one. It’s satirically mafia-adjacent.

Lupus Update: (skip this if you’re not interested)

I started a new medication, a monthly infusion called Saphnelo. I’ve only had one infusion so far. I had a bit of an allergic reaction at the beginning, and we had to stop so they could give me some intravenous Benadryl first, but after that it was fine. Honestly, when I was doing the home injections of my previous med I had to take Benadryl first, too, or I’d get hives around the injection site. My body just doesn’t like any kind of medication. It’s a pain in the butt how long my medication allergy list is. But, I have high hopes this new med will help with the bad flares I’ve been having lately. Fingers crossed!

Favorite Things this Week: (many of which are time sucks, fyi, but I prefer “brain cleansers”)

• This wonderful short film about knitting. It’s only about 9 minutes long, but as a knitter, I thoroughly enjoyed it! The power of creativity in all forms.

• This article about different kinds of home libraries. Lots of inspiration here! Made me want to turn every empty space in the house into a library.

• This Garden Gnome game on Google is super fun! It’s seems to be inspired by Angry Birds, but it’s gnomes planting flowers! I mean, come on. I smiled the whole time I was playing it.

• Which leads me to this Substack. So many Google search shortcuts! I didn’t know half this stuff was possible on Google. Stuff you might think you need AI to do, but you don’t. Crazy useful information.

• And last, this soup recipe. We may be past cold and flu season (are we? I have no idea) but this soup is perfect even if you’re not sick.

Quote of the Week:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead

(NC state election primaries today!)

I’m writing this while watching the Canadian women’s hockey team battle the Swiss in the semi finals. I watched the U.S. women dominate Sweden this morning. I’m officially Olympics obsessed. I’m going on the record as calling gold for the U.S. women. They were so good against the boards, winning every puck battle, and their puck handling was the best I’ve seen in a long time.

I put off writing this newsletter today because I’ve had a migraine since yesterday afternoon. Ugh. No, I don’t need any remedies etc. I’ve been prone to headaches/migraines since I was a child, and I’ve tried every remedy there is. Honestly, it’s slightly better now thanks to the salt under the tongue trick, and a large Coke and fries from McDonald’s. The double whammy cure, lol.

It started as a tension headache yesterday, and overnight morphed into a migraine. I had a busy weekend, which is why I probably got it in the first place. My bestie came to visit for a couple of days. She had the gall to move to Florida, if you can believe it, so I don’t get to see her in person much. It was great to hang out, which is precisely what we did. We watched a lot of Olympic competition because she’s even more obsessed. She left on Sunday morning, and Sunday afternoon I had a birthday party for my husband and my sister, both of whom had big number important birthdays this week. That’s a lot of socializing for an introvert like me, even if it was with family and friends.

My bestie and I hit Barnes & Noble on Saturday and it was packed. Standing room only. I love to see that! (Side note: we don’t have a lot of bookstores around me. None in my town.) She wrote romance years ago and took a break to write mysteries, and is now going back to her romance roots. She just finished writing a dark paranormal romance which is awesome. I got to read it first because we’re also critique partners. So we went to scout out the store and see what was on the shelves, what books they were showcasing, and where both of our latest romances and the YA I’m writing would fit. When you pitch a book to agents or editors that’s part of your pitch, where booksellers would shelve it, what the audience is and how it fits in the current landscape. We ran into some dark romance lovers who were eager to talk about books and make recommendations. And I talked to a wonderful B&N bookseller who was very knowledgeable about the YA scene. No one is writing/publishing what I’m doing, and I’m not sure if that’s worrisome or if it’s an opportunity. We’ll see, I guess!

My favorite things this Week:

• This pasta recipe from the NYT. I’ve made it twice in the last week. Simple and soooo good.

• Snoop Dog’s outfits at the Olympics.

• I got my husband this official Team Canada gear for his birthday yesterday. He wore it today.

• This is the best chocolate cake recipe I’ve ever made or tasted. It’s that good. Also NYT.

Quote of the Week:

“Those who try to do something and fail are infinitely better than those who try to do nothing and succeed.”

Lloyd Jones

[Above: the massive icicles outside my bedroom window for the last two days. See snow in background.]

I spent a lot of my time preparing the script for my next audiobook project, Jacked Up*, book three of the Birmingham Rebels. I realized while listening to files for book two, Calling the Play, that I overused “he said”, “she said”. Like, a lot. And so at the beginning of sentence. So [← case in point] I’m going through and revising a bunch of those. Honestly, it sounds so much better I’m going to replace the current book file at retailers with this one. I’m not releasing any of the Rebels audiobooks until all four audiobooks are ready to go. I think there are a lot of readers who wait until a series is complete, whatever the format, so they don’t end up waiting endlessly for the next book. They should be ready by June, I hope. Below is a sample from Calling the Play, with narrator Aden Gray.

I’ve also been working on my Shopify store. It’s almost ready. I thought I might have it ready to debut today, but that didn’t happen. By the next newsletter, in two weeks, it will definitely be ready. I’m connecting my Shopify page to Bookfunnel for product delivery right now. At the moment it’s strictly ebooks. I’ll be adding audiobooks, as well. We’ll see in the future if I want the added burden of maintaining and shipping print books. Probably not.

And I’ve been writing! The rom-com is coming along nicely. I now have a firm deadline with my editor, and hope to release it at the end of the year, perhaps November. I should have a specific release date by the next newsletter, too. You’ll be able to preorder it soon. I’m so excited for this one! It’s an all new setting/world, and I’m having a lot of fun playing around with it. For those who missed what it is: a dark contemporary rom-com about hitmen. I struggled with whether to submit it to agents/editors or self-publish. Eventually I settled on self-publishing it because it’s a why choose/ménage like many of my backlist, and I thought I had the readership already established. Plus, if I send it to a publisher, it won’t come out for at least 3 years, and I don’t want to wait that long. Once the editing is done, I’ll be posting arc’s on Netgalley, and I’ll let you know when that happens.

I wrote my first non-fiction picture book last week, too. I really enjoyed it. It’s expository, which means it narrowly focuses on one topic and it can have stylistic elements, like lyrical/storylike qualities, as opposed to a traditional or browsable non-fiction, which is more like an extended encyclopedia entry. I think I’m going to go back and rewrite some of my previous picture books as expository non-fiction, which might be what they were all trying to be in the first place. We shall see how that turns out.

My Favorite Things This Week:

• I just finished my first book (audiobook) by Abby Jimenez, Part of Your World*. Guys, she is my new favorite, auto-buy author. I loved this book so much! Even when the heroine was pissing me off, I understood why she was making the choices she made. And the narration, particularly the male narrator, Zachary Webber, was exceptional. It made me cry! I can’t remember the last time a romance—not one of mine—made me cry. I can’t recommend it enough. I immediately scrolled through my Kindle library to discover I had another one by her just sitting there waiting for me to read it. That was The Fall Risk*, a short Amazon read, and I loved it just as much.

• 12 Distractions to Leave Behind in 2026—I am guilty of almost all of these, but especially 3 and 4.

• This art installation. It’s so imaginative and inventive. I wish seeing a dead tree made me this creative.

• I (finally!) started watching Our Flag Means Death and it is as amazing as everyone said it was when it came out years ago. I’m so far behind on getting to this one I’m embarrassed to put it here, but if anyone else has been putting off watching this series by Taika Waititi, jump on that ship. I am love with Rhys Darby, the actor who plays Stede Bonnet. Absolutely hilarious.

Quote of the Week:

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”

Carl Sagan

This morning I went to see the Buddhist monks walking for peace as they passed through my town. I thought it was auspicious that they were coming on MLK Day. I was shocked and amazed at how many people came out in my little city to see them. Thousands of people lined the streets and filled our professional baseball/soccer stadium. It sort of renewed my faith in humanity that so many people came to celebrate humans doing their best humaning. And it was pretty darn cold out this morning, FYI. And still they came. My two sons and a couple of their friends came, too. All young men in their early to mid twenties. They were thoughtful and grateful that I had let them know about it and that they came. We had coffee after and some really great conversation. All in all, it was a positive, humbling, empowering experience.

I’ve been writing like mad the last couple of weeks. I’m determined to finish both of these books in the next few months. I’ve almost decided to self-publish my new contemporary why choose romcom, and submit the middle grade to an agent. I’ll make a final decision in the next month or so. I’m considering a kickstarter for the romcom because my Shopify page is coming along nicely.

Here’s a little taste of what I’ve been writing: NSFW (also unedited)

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT

Tripp laughed as he got in the driver’s seat. Brooke was in the passenger seat and Mac climbed into the back. It was déjà vu, just like that first night he’d saved their asses.

“Drive,” Brooke said, clicking on her seatbelt.

“Go, dog, go,” he replied as he pulled out of the parking lot.

They drove for about twenty minutes, Brooke silently staring out the passenger window as Mac drummed his fingers on his thigh in the backseat. Tripp was so aware of them he had gooseflesh and a hard-on. They both had very distinct scents. He’d noticed that as soon as he sat down at the table in that bar. Brooke smelled like flowers and fresh rain. Mac smelled like pine and musk. Tripp was pretty high on the fact that his car was going to smell like that now. That fucking fight had turned him on so much. The two of them were fucking lethal. But he’d already made all the first moves. This one was up to them.

“Pull over,” Mac said sharply. He pointed through the gap in the front seats to a barely discernable side road just up ahead. “There.”

Tripp turned down the dirt road and drove a hundred feet or so before he pulled over to the side and parked the car. His heart was pounding. They were either going to kill him or fuck him. He was praying it was the second.

He turned the car off and sat there. The sound of all three of them breathing heavily echoed in the car. Finally, Brooke said, “Who’s going to start?”

“Start what?” Tripp asked, his fingers crossed.

“Don’t even with me, Fuckboy,” she snapped. “If one of you even breathes on me, I’m going to come, hand to God.”

“Me,” Mac said forcefully. “I’m starting.” He leaned over the seat and unsnapped Brooke’s seatbelt and dragged her over the console into the back seat. They were kissing before she got halfway there.

P.S. I picked a theme for the year! My theme is: organization. Not sure how that’s going to play out, but I’m game to give it a go!

My Favorite Things This Week:

• I’m super late to the party, but the husband and I have been watching Death By Lightning on Netflix, about the assassination of President Garfield, and it’s so good!! As a former history teacher (I’ve got an MA in American History) and a history nerd (naturally), I especially love people finding value in a forgotten aspect of U.S. History.

• Gap Factory store. I have found some of my favorite things here, both in the store and online, including my current favorite sweater (I wore it to greet the monks today.) They don’t have it online (I bought it in store) but here are some others for you. Extra 60% off clearance!

• The octopus ring my husband got me for Christmas. Not sure where he bought it, but this one is very similar.

• This soup recipe.

Quote of the Week:

“Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.”

Annie Lennox

Remember I said I was going to pick a theme for the year instead of a new year’s resolution? Yeah, I still haven’t figured out my theme. I was hoping it would just occur to me, like a big, fat epiphany before New Year’s Day. Alas, it did not. I feel this is problematic because 1) it does not bode well for the year that I can’t even decide what the year is supposed to be about, and 2) it’s indicative of my recent scatter-shot approach to getting anything done. Is getting shit done a theme? Inquiring minds want to know. Maybe that would make work my theme? Except some of the stuff I need to get done is personal. You see my dilemma.

Between the holidays and caring for my husband during his recovery from back surgery, I’ve been stealing a moment here and there to try and get some work done. The important word there is try. To quote Yoda, there is no try. There is do or do not. And in my case, it was mostly do not. I managed to review the files for the Calling the Play* audiobook as my narrator sent them. They are super good! I’m very excited about the project. And I’m going to ask him if he can do the other books* in the series, since I feel like he’s really gotten a feel for the books and characters. He said it was a fun project, too.

So I’m sure you all have heard the hoopla about the new HBO series, Heated Rivalry, right? Or as I read it referred to in the latest The Skimm newsletter, gay hockey smut. I loved what I’ve seen so far. It is the best translation of romance book to screen I’ve seen, just like reading the book, and the lead actors are perfect. The heated glances, the irresistible attraction. It’s great. But my intention here isn’t a review, it’s a question. I’m thinking of adding heated rivalry to the search terms on some of my books. I’d love to hear your feedback on that. Since I get a lot more interaction with polls than comments on posts, I’ll make it a poll.

What about my ménage/why choose books? They include mm romance and sex.

I have several books that are free right now. You can find them on my website. To be fair, at least two of them are always free. But two are not! They are not free on Amazon because Amazon. Also, I started creating my Shopify shop! Soon you will be able to buy books directly from my store. I’ll still have them listed at the same retailers, too, if that’s your preference. But if you buy them from my store I don’t have to give the retailers a percentage. Just saying. It’s a great way to support authors you love if they sell their books direct.

My Favorite Things This Week:

• One of my sisters gave me a brand new copy of my all time favorite romance, The Windflower*. I know I am not alone in loving this romance. It’s become iconic in the romance community.

• My husband and I are watching a new show on Hulu. Well, new to us. Rivals. It stars one of my major crushes, David Tennant. It takes place in the 80s, and it’s pretty much an English Dallas or Dynasty, except about tv networks. So much drama! So much sex! It’s super fun to watch.

• My son got me the 1 Pint Wonder Ice Cream Maker* from Cuisinart. I love it! Homemade ice cream so easily! I will never buy ice cream at the store again.

*Amazon links. If you click on them and buy something, I might get a commission.

Quote of the week:

How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.

Annie Dillard

I read a great article this morning about not making New Year’s resolutions. Instead, the author of the article picks a theme for the year. Past themes for her have included travel and work. That’s it. She didn’t set specific goals or anything like that, but when making decisions she just based it on that year’s theme. I think this is genius. I don’t know what next year’s theme is going to be—I’ll announce that in my first post of 2026 maybe?—but I’m going to try it.

I have to update my Goodreads 2025 Book Challenge. I know I hit my goal, but I haven’t put in books read for a couple of months. I put a link to it, but give me a few days to update it! I WILL have it done by the end of the year. I don’t know about you guys, but with work, kids, home, etc. I was having trouble actually sitting down and reading a book. (You’ll hear a lot of authors say this, I think.) This Goodreads Challenge the last couple of years has really motivated me, and I’ve read more books in the past two years than in the previous three I bet.

Speaking of work, my first children’s stories have been published! I have three stories in a fundraising volume from my Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators chapter. It was a juried selection, meaning unbiased judges picked the stories to include, so go me! You can find it here, on Lulu. They’re under my real name, not my pen name. Interesting to see if you guys can figure out which ones are mine if you don’t know my real name. (I know a lot of you do, I don’t really keep it a big secret.)

Lupus update (I did make lupus part of my Substack mission, but if you’re not interested, skip to the bottom): like I said above, been going through a flare for a while. It sucks. I’m getting lupus nails: weak, cracking, ridged nails that are pulling away from the nail beds. I’m using this* to moisturize and heal them, and it seems to be working. I think I’ve recommended it before. I also saw a specialist about my vertigo, and she determined it was NOT Meniére’s Disease, so yay! But it’s something, possibly back to vestibular migraines. So I’m doing very specialized physical therapy to learn how to reset my brain (!) when I get dizzy. Fingers crossed. For the most part, it’s just been a lot of joint pain, couple with the muscle pain from fibromyalgia. Winter is not so great for me, but then again, neither is summer. I’m a transitional season kind of gal.

*Amazon link. If you click it, I may get a commission if you buy anything.

Favorite things this week:

• My husband and I watched Caught Stealing this past weekend, and it was pretty good. I have yet to see Austin Butler in something he’s not great in, even if the movie itself is only so so. Same goes for this one, and not just because he’s a pretty face. Liev Schreiber and Vincent D’Onofrio are hilarious as psycho Jewish hitmen.

• It’s that time of year: Andes Chocolate Peppermint Crunch Season. Loooooove.

• Land’s End is having a ridiculously good sale right now. Go check it out. I’m a Land’s End, LL Bean kind of girl, fyi. Also Belk’s if having a great sale, if you live in the South, or I guess you can order it anywhere online?

• If, like me, you get raccoon eyes almost immediately after you put on mascara, try these. I saw a video…somewhere, can’t remember (think it was by this woman), about this new makeup aesthetic called Rich Resting Face, which is basically just makeup that looks completely natural. Anyway, she used these fan brushes to put mascara only on the base of her eyelashes. It works! And it keeps the raccoon eyes at bay for hours.

Quote of the week: (sorry if I’ve used this one before, I love it.)

“Not knowing when

the dawn will come,

I open every door.”

Emily Dickinson

So I forgot to write this Substack. A couple of weeks ago (?) I messed up my post release schedule by sending an extra one and now I can’t remember when I’m supposed to write one. I need to do better with my calendar and To Do List. I have so much going on I can’t keep my head in the game. I’m glad that I’m prioritizing my writing despite everything, however. I love having critique groups to keep me hitting word and page goals. Even so, it’s slow going because I do have a lot going on. I’m about to start creating my web store for my books and book merchandise, too. I’m going to use Shopify and Book Funnel, I think. So, a couple of polls.

Feel free to add any other information relating to the poll in the comments.

I’d love it if you’d tell me in the comments what kind of special editions and book merchandise you’ve purchased, or would be interested in purchasing. At one time I had t-shirts and hats and some other stuff with the Birmingham Rebels logo on them for sale at…oh, heck, I can’t remember where I had that store. It’s been a while. But they didn’t sell well, probably because they were quite removed from the books themselves.

I’ve put some books on sale for Christmas (FREE): Cherry Pie, and Hamish. As usual, they will be on sale on other platforms before they go on sale on Amazon. And because it’s so close to the holiday, it might take a few days for the price changes to take effect (especially on Amazon.) I meant to do this ages ago, but, you guessed it, forgot. Remember, I do have a permanently FREE Christmas story in an anthology I wrote with Kate Pearce, “The Gift” in Gift of Desire*.

*Amazon links. I might get a commission if you click on them and buy something.

My Favorite Things This Week:

• This website will recommend books based on titles you enter in the simple form it gives you. You just enter one of your favorite books and it will give you a list of books you might like. The first time I tried it, I had already read most of the books it suggested, so clearly it works!

• Shout out to Pinterest. If you’re not on there, you’re missing out. I have been on there constantly lately looking for new hairstyles I can try with my longer hair, book ads/lists, tattoos, quotes, recipes, and whatever surprises it wants to throw my way. I’ve mentioned before that Pinterest is my number one advertising platform, so I spend a lot of time on Pinterest Presents, which is their tutorial and webinar platform. In terms of what people are consuming these days, I think Pinterest is the best indicator.

• Kevin Hart’s new comedy special, Acting My Age. My husband and I both laughed until we cried. If you are someone of a certain age, this one will really resonate with you.

Quote of the Week:

“Not knowing when

the dawn will come,

I open every door.”

Emily Dickinson

My other favorite tradition is making a yearly to do list that’s too long. Realistically I know I can’t get all that stuff done, but I’m always overly optimistic in January. Not just when it comes to my work plans, but my personal plans. I set myself up to fail. Why do we do this? Next year, I’m going to be more realistic. As a matter of fact, instead of yearly plan I think I’m going to do quarterly plans. Keep them short and simple and check the items of my list as I go. I do that everyday. I write down a daily list of items to do and check them off as I go, and whatever I don’t get done gets moved to the next day. I’m going to give myself grace and keep my expectations realistic. You heard it here first. Hold me to it!

I think I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that my husband had his second back surgery. He’s been home recuperating and I’ve been playing nurse. Not in the sexy Halloween costume way, the real way. He’s on the mend, getting a little more independent each day, which means I can get back to my regular work schedule (which to be fair is not all that regular. I work for myself for a reason.) But naturally his surgery and convalescence cut into my plans as well, since we didn’t know this would happen this year. I’m trying to listen to all the self help newsletters and blogs and daily emails I get and just go with the flow and do what I can.

My eldest son, who is almost done with culinary school, is going to take point on Thanksgiving dinner. Parenthood perks finally coming into play! The other two kids have promised to help, so my husband and I won’t have much to do. At least that’s the plan. I will be doing all the shopping ahead of time, of course, but I don’t mind that. We don’t have turkey on Thanksgiving. I’m allergic to it. I know, it’s weird. But a side of anaphylactic shock to go with my dry turkey is not worth it. We’re having beef tenderloin. Everything else is pretty much the traditional route, though. My son makes an amazing Mac n’cheese. And I love a classic green bean casserole. (Do not judge. I will fight you.) We bought our pies from the culinary school, though. I read a whole bunch of articles this year that said skip the pie! Just buy it instead. I listened.

I hope everyone (in the U.S.) has a great Thanksgiving! I missed wishing my Canadian friends a happy Thanksgiving last month, so belated tidings to you, as well. And for the rest of the world, have a great week! Feel free to overeat and regret it along with us.

My Favorite Things This Week:

• Jane Friedman had this coloring book publisher in her latest newsletter. Adult coloring books, puzzle books etc. If like me, coloring is one of your relaxation techniques, check out this retailer. And by adult I simply mean meant for adults, not you must be over 18 adult. Sorry.

• Another new favorite is paint by number. I ordered this one a couple of days ago and can’t wait until it arrives. They have so many cool options! And they are having a big Black Friday sale.

• I like to drink coffee all day long, but I hate to have to keep a coffee pot on my counter. I have a small kitchen, so I need the counter space. Instead, I drink instant coffee. Don’t hate on me. I drink Nescafé decaf*. And it is genuinely good. My Austrian husband, who is an espresso snob, will actually have a cup now and then when he doesn’t want to brew an espresso. I’m going to try getting one of those little stovetop percolators (not an espresso pot. We already have one of those. I want one for regular coffee.) Anyway, if you just want a quick and easy cup of coffee, I recommend Nescafé.

• For the curly girls out there, I have started using cleaning conditioner exclusively on my curly hair. No more shampoo. It’s made a huge difference. My hair isn’t dry and nasty anymore. I use Ouidad Curl Shaper Double Duty Cleaning Conditioner*. Highly recommend!

*Amazon links. If you click on these and buy something I may get a commission.

Quote of the Week

“To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This story was originally written as part of an anthology of gay romances called Esprit de Corps*, from a now defunct publisher. You can still find the listing on Amazon, although you can’t buy the book. I loved this original cover so much! I do miss that.

I made my American hero a Navy Seabee because my father was in the Navy during WWII. He was just seventeen when he was shipped off to the Pacific, and he was a gunner on a Navy fighter plane at Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima. He even got a tattoo from Sailor Jerry in Honolulu, just like Gabe in Islands. And I made René a former French Legionnaire because one of my favorite movies is Beau Geste, 1939, with Gary Cooper, about three adoptive brothers who join the French Foreign Legion.

Two men, one island, and a world at war...

Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Conlan, United States Navy Seabees, knows he’s not in Kansas anymore when he steps off the launch at the small island of Ile Dore and sees gorgeous Frenchman Rene Dubois waiting for him on the dock. The year is 1943, the place is the Pacific and the world is at war. Free from the censure of the military, Gabe has an explosive affair with Rene. But when the world intrudes, Gabe denies Rene and tries to forget what they could have together.

The only westerner on his small Pacific island, Rene is desperately lonely. When the tall, lanky American steps onto his dock, Rene knows his life will never be the same. He teaches Gabe how to love a man and, unexpectedly falls in love. Rene will brave prejudice, Japanese Zeros and Gabe’s reluctance to find love at last.

*This story was previously published as an ebook, and in a print anthology titled Esprit de Corps.

Here’s a preview of the book:

Dedication

This story is dedicated to my father. At the age of seventeen he graduated early from high school and joined the United States Navy. The year was 1944 and he was shipped to the Pacific. He was a gunner in a three-man-crew Navy fighter plane. He fought at Leyte Gulf and Iwo Jima. He didn’t talk much about it when I was a kid. He was all, “Been there, done that, got the tattoo.” But I got him talking for this book. I picked his brain about his wartime experience. At one point I asked him if you could feel a bomb go off before you heard it. He laughed and said, “I don’t know from personal experience. I was never on board the two times my ship was hit, thank God.” Yep, I’m pretty happy about that too, Dad.

Chapter One
August 1943
Central Pacific, Île Dorée, southeast of the Ellice Islands

The boat came out of the sunset. He thought at first it was an illusion. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d conjured a ship from his imagination. He watched for almost an hour as it grew bigger and bigger. When it got close enough for him to determine it was indeed real and not an illusion created by his lonely, overactive imagination, René Dubois rose from the dock where he’d been sitting after his evening swim.

No ships other than canoes carrying information and refugees had stopped here at Île Dorée in over a year. There were no pleasure cruises going on in Polynesia in the spring of 1943. There was damn little business going on except that of warfare. So René thought it was safe to assume the boat was a military one. But whose military? It was small and came with very little fanfare.

Just as he was contemplating sounding an alarm, he saw the American flag painted on its side. Ah, Americans. René hadn’t met many, but those he had met he liked considerably. They were generally a loud, arrogant, healthy, entertaining lot. So different from the English and French. A bit similar to the Australians, however. New worlds make new men, René thought idly as he watched the boat slide into place beside the end of the dock.

Read more

One lucky winner will receive loads of eBooks and a brand new Kindle!

Join the giveaway now and cross your fingers for a chance to win. Thank you for your continued support!

Heads up that to enter you are agreeing to give your email to the participating authors for their newsletter lists. Some of you here joined my list as part of a similar giveaway.

Here’s the link to enter.

Good luck!! Giveaway ends on Dec. 31.

P.S. My husband is having back surgery on Friday—his second—so I may be offline for a week or two.

My Favorite Things This Week:

• I’ve been watching a not new documentary of George Washington* on Prime. It is so good! It’s from a few years ago, and it’s really well done. George is one of my favorite history boyfriends (don’t judge me), and he’s a central character in my in-progress middle grade novel.

• I thought this was interesting. If you want to delve deeper into deceptive advertising practices, visit this hall of shame.

• I know I’ve mentioned on here what a fan I am of Martha Wells Murderbot series. There’s a free short story over at Reactor Magazine. You have to sign up, but it’s free and you get a lot of great free short science fiction like this from well-known authors and debut authors. Highly recommend!

*Amazon link. I may get a commission if you click and buy anything.

Quote of the day: (this one really hit me yesterday)

“What will you do today, knowing that you are one of the rarest forms of life to ever walk the Earth?”

Mark Nepo

My Favorite Things This Week:

• I am currently listening to the Dark Olympus* series by Katee Roberts. I love it! The audiobooks are amazing. And imagine my surprise when I realized the male narrator is Alex Moorcock, who narrated my original Brothers in Arms books 1-7 for Audible when I was with a previous publisher! Those are no longer available, alas, but he is just as fabulous in this series. And they are on sale on Chirp for a better price than Audible!

• I’m trying diamond painting* for the first time. You can see the new canvas sitting on my puzzle table behind me in the video. Have any of you ever tried it? My daughter got it for me for a gift. You know I love my crafts! (I couldn’t find the one I have, but I really like this octopus one. I may get this next if I like it!)

• I got some beautiful jewelry from Beautiful Earth, including some Christmas gifts. But I’m really loving this ring. It’s perfect for my fingers that are always swelling from arthritis/lupus.

Quote of the Week:

“I make the most of all that comes and the least of all that goes.”

Sara Teasdale, poet

Most of you are probably aware I shy away from social media as a whole, and only use it to announce book and Substack post information, and to post the occasional affirming or encouraging meme. For many years I devoted a lot of time to social media and it depleted me emotionally and professionally, and I just decided it was better for me to cut my losses. I don’t have the apps on my phone, and I don’t follow what happens there. It has not affected my writing career in the slightest, because I was always chasing but never attained a large social media following. I do miss keeping up with some of my writing acquaintances, but overall it has been a healthy choice for me.

But between reading about people who can literally make a living from their Substack/blogs, and reading recent newsletters from Jane Friedman, I’m feeling mighty discouraged about making a living in a writing career. For those who don’t know, Jane Friedman is considered a bit of a publishing industry guru. Her newsletters all about the publishing industry, geared toward publishing professionals, have tens of thousands of subscribers and are very informative about what’s going on in publishing, including publishing house mergers/acquisitions, genre trends, agent moves, and craft workshops. But there has been a lot of doom and gloom (my interpretation if not precisely her take on it) about the ability of small publishers and indie authors to make a living nowadays. And she’s not wrong. Amazon has new royalty rates for Audible that are affecting Kindle Unlimited royalities, and royalties from other sources are drying up (except Apple Books, which has stayed steady if not stellar.) The number of published books keeps rising at an alarming rate, making it harder for any books to stand out. Did you know you can hit the best seller lists with as little as 3k sales? Trying to cut through all that noise to bring attention to your book is mind numbing. That’s why authors rely on readers like you, yes you, all of you who subscribe to this Substack, to get the word out about their books. More and more you hear publishing professionals tell you that a direct relationship with readers through things like this blog is so important.

The bottom line is, I’m wondering what to do with my current in progress books. Self pub? Again? Which is a gamble. Or try to agent up and go the way of traditional publishing, which is becoming harder and harder to break into (although I’ve already been there, it’s been almost a decade since my last Random House book came out). And if I go traditional, that means it could 2-3 years before the books come out, based on big pub schedules. Ultimately, I think my goal will have to move from trying to make money or reach for that elusive best seller, to just trying to connect with previous readers—and new ones—here and on Goodreads, and through a limited social media presence. I love, love, love the books I’m writing, and of course I want to share them with the widest audience possible. But it needs to be the widest possible audience for me and of which I’m capable with my limited marketing skills.

I’m still working on new audiobooks, and I’m still planning to set up a direct store on my website. As a matter of fact, I have someone working on the audiobook for Calling the Play right now. I expect the entire Birmingham Rebels series will be out on audio next spring. As for the fate of the books I’m writing right now, stay tuned.

My favorite things this week:

• Behr paint’s color of the year, Hidden Gem. I’m thinking of using this outside on my front porch and shutters. (My house is white painted brick.) I love the dark blue/green of this color.

• Tee shirt alert. I will always fall for a Godzilla tee.

• Briogio Don’t Despair Repair! hair products. I use the hair mask, shampoo, conditioner and leave-in treatment and my hair has never felt or looked so good! Highly recommend for people with dry, frizzy hair.

• My husband just started watching St. Denis Medical on Peacock. The whole first season is available, and it is hilarious. I think it’s from the same people who did The Office maybe? And it stars David Alan Grier, who I love.

• These are my favorite new pants. I have all four colors. And they’re on sale!

Quote of the Week:

“If you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.”

Wilson Mizner

(I have 11 books eligible for compensation in the Anthropic AI settlement.)

The one thing both books have in common is humor. Lately I’ve been leaning toward humor in my novels. Weirdly enough, not so much in my picture books. The picture books are kind of new for me, so I’m still discovering who I am as a picture book author, but the answer is increasingly lyrical, soothing bed time story sort of books. But my new novels, which have always contained some humor amid the drama, are firmly in the comedy arena. I think lately we are all in need of a daily dose of humor.

I am loving writing so much humor. And according to all my critique partners, the humor in both books is hitting. That was a huge relief, because I tend to have an esoteric sense of humor which most people do not get. So I’m being careful to root my humor in the storyline, and for the dark rom-com, also in the current cultural zeitgeist without making it divisive or confusing for anyone. Whew. Try that on a daily basis.

I actually spent a better part of today speaking with my critique partners, one for the dark rom-com, and a small critique group for the middle grade/young YA. It’s always great to get feedback on my works in progress from other writers who understand the process and what I’m trying to do. Sometimes it’s hard to step back from your work and view it from a distance when you’re in the thick of it. It’s super helpful—and results in fewer rewrites—to share and evaluate with others while you’re still deep in the process. It’s also very satisfying to find out I’m on the right track, and the books are reading exactly as I’d hoped they would. I also enjoy working on my partners books, helping them with their process and brainstorming with them. Writing can be a lonely journey, but it doesn’t have to be! Authors love talking to other authors about their books. Actually, we love talking to anyone about our books.

I’m thinking about writing a short Brothers in Arms Christmas story to share here for paid subscribers. What do you think? What throuple from previous books would you like to hear more from? Let me know in the comments!! (No guarantee they will be the ones in the final story, however!)

My favorite things this week:

• This absolutely fabulous Pixar short film.

• This bracelet, which will be on my wrist very soon. Do you wear jewelry with curse words on it? I do.

• I was visiting my daughter at school and took her shopping at Trader Joe’s and bought this Kringle. It was amazing. And they have a drawing every week on the website for a free Kringle! Seriously. Get one.

• I’m currently reading Rocky Start* by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer and loving it! Highly recommend. Fifty-something protagonists, lots of humor, exactly what I was looking for in a book. Five stars!

• The new season of Slow Horses is on AppleTV and if you’re not watching this series, you should be. Better than ever.

• I have lupus nails, which means weak, peeling, splitting, just gross. Gel nail polish just makes them worse. So I’ve started using Essie To the Rescue*, and Essie Hard to Resist*, and they are helping a bunch.

  *Amazon links. If you click on them and buy something, I may get a commission.

Quote of the Week:

Total absence of humor renders life impossible.

- Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

Tin Plague

He first appeared on the horizon as a black dot. It was an obvious speck, a small dark thing amidst the glaring whiteness of the snow and ice all around us. I immediately broke away from the others, motioning them to stay their course, and turned toward that black dot. Any change in our monotonous trek was a welcome prospect. At the very least I would find out what that mysterious, alluring black dot meant. Friend or foe? Monster or man?

As time passed, I grew disappointed. The speck grew larger, but it didn’t move. It was surely neither man nor beast. It must be large to be seen from so far away. But then, the snow and ice and glaring Arctic sun often played games with one’s perspective.

I should have been worried, veering so far off course, leaving my father and his followers further behind. I stopped to rest the sled dogs. If I pushed them until they perished my own demise would soon follow.

When I got close enough to determine it was, if not a man, man-shaped, he moved. He didn’t appear to be in any great hurry. He turned and began to glide across the snow. Only then did I realize he pulled a loaded sled behind him. He had no sled dogs. I increased my speed, urging the dogs onward.

He stayed just out of reach. I could tell nothing about him. He had a great height, which is why I’d seen him in the first place. But he wore a heavy, concealing parka, similar to mine. I purchased mine from the native Sámi in Norway. It was made of reindeer skin, blue wool, and fur, as were my mittens, leggings and boots. The cold had never bothered me, but I knew that it could kill me, and so I took precautions. I was not ready to die just yet. That was why I’d joined this foolish journey.

Samantha Kane Write Here is a reader-supported publication. To read the rest of this story, consider becoming a paid subscriber.

Read more

I got a Substack newsletter today from an author I follow, Tom Cox (His substack is called The Villager). I love his writing here, and lately he’s been posting excerpts from his upcoming rereleases. He went through the same thing I did—his publisher went belly up and left him hanging, no new book release, no royalties coming. He was smart and found another publisher to release the new book, and they also bought the rights to his previous books that had also been published by the defunct publisher, but it was a process. I chose to self-publish my back list books from my ex-publisher (after being forced to pay to get the rights back after they had stolen thousands of dollars from me in unpaid royalties) and every day I wonder if I made the right decision. Anyway, today I finally clicked on one of Tom’s links and bought his first book, which I read an excerpt from a couple of weeks ago and laughed out loud.

That is a long introduction to: I wonder if I need to start adding buy links to some of my books at the end of this newsletter? I’ve been so focused on writing for my established readers, and assuming they already own all my books. I haven’t really made allowances for any new readers on here, who may not have read a single one of my books! But I feel like there might a few of you. I will try it this week.

Later this week I’m going to be sending out another newsletter geared towards my paying subscribers. I’m finally going to let you read the monster romance I wrote earlier this year! I’ve been trying to find it a home, but length-wise it’s kind of awkward. It should be a short read for you all at only 6k words. Call it a Halloween celebration, because I’m feeling very Halloween these days and longing for true fall. (It’s 80F here today. Ick.)

I’m going to end with a brief excerpt from Broken Play: Birmingham Rebels Book One. I just got the audiobook back, completed, from my narrator! This isn’t an audio excerpt, though. I’m saving that for when the audiobooks go on sale. I think I mentioned last week that I’m going to wait until I have the whole series done before I release them.

Broken Play Excerpt

“Marian!” The call of several voices rang through the locker room and Cass grinned as he wiped the sweat off his face with a towel. They were all sitting around chugging some cold water and catching their breath after a hard day at mini-camp. Marian had just opened the locker room door and stood there, her shoulder against the doorframe. Today she was casual. A nice pair of light blue athletic shorts with the Rebels logo, and a white polo, also with the Rebels logo. The big red R rested on the upper curve of her left breast and Cass envied that damn stitched letter. She had one foot crossed over the other as she regarded them all with a cynical smile. Her white Nikes looked too damn clean. He wanted to dirty her up, but good.

“Nice job today, boys,” she said, “if we were playing high school ball.” The entire locker room erupted in boos and Marian laughed.

Between the offseason workouts and rookie minicamp, Cass had gotten to know Marian pretty well. She had a great sense of humor, high expectations, a hardcore work ethic, a sympathetic ear, and knew statistics about everything football related.

And she never, ever came into the locker room.

Beau had theories about that, theories that Cass didn’t even want to consider, but there was a voice in his head that kept arguing louder everyday that Beau was right. She didn’t like the locker room that was for sure. She hid it pretty well. She joked and leaned casually against the door like she was doing now. But if she miscalculated and arrived before all the players were inside, there was a moment of panic in her eyes as some big ass football player came up behind her. And even on the field she never let herself be surrounded by them. She’d stand back or just yell from the sidelines. So it wasn’t only football locker rooms that bothered her. It was football players.

Cass bit his tongue and said nothing. It wasn’t his place. Not yet, anyway. But the more he got to know Marian the more he wanted her. If what they suspected was true, then she had more guts than anyone he’d ever met. Football was her passion, anyone could see that, and she’d refused to give it up. She was living the dream, coaching for an NFL team.

What she didn’t realize was that she didn’t have to worry here. Cass and Beau had made it very clear that Marian was off limits. She was theirs, period. If anyone messed with her in any way, they’d have to deal with him and Beau. He hadn’t stood in the locker room and made an announcement, but he didn’t have to. He just stood a little too close to her, made her laugh, walked her to her car, and called her Mari, Mari Quite Contrary. Add a little touch here and there that was more than friendly, a few suggestive conversations, a heated look or two. He didn’t let anyone else take those liberties with her. And neither did she. Marian was resisting his slow seduction for all she was worth, but she wasn’t protesting. Which was why Cass was going to step up his game today.

His only worry was her obvious distrust of Beau. And Beau wasn’t really helping. He left Cass to do the courting and that just wasn’t going to work. Cass knew that once Marian really got to know Beau, once he opened up and let her in, she’d change her tune. Everyone loved Beau. Surely she could see that. And he was clean. It was the way Beau wanted it, and Cass helped him stay that way every day. So if it was Beau’s past that was holding her back Beau would have to make her see that it wasn’t an obstacle. Not at all. Cass wouldn’t let it be.

“Hey, Sugar, come here often?” Jo Jo Jones said to her as he came around from the showers wearing nothing but a towel, his dark cocoa skin starkly contrasting with the white terrycloth. Jo Jo was a great linebacker, but he had a death wish. He couldn’t stop smoking weed, and he liked to tease Marian. One of those was going to get him thrown out of the NFL, and the other was going to get him dead.

“Really?” Marian said with exaggerated disappointment. “You had the whole day to think of a come on line, and that’s the best you could come up with?”

The guys all laughed and Jo Jo got snapped with a few towels. He laughed, too, like he’d really been joking, which was good. Cass crossed beating him up off his to-do list.

“Okay, gentlemen, and I use the term loosely,” she teased. “Today is press day. You get to be smart and funny and irresistible for the press corp. Make yourselves pretty before you join us back on the sidelines.”

There were groans from all over the room. “Oh, man,” Tyler Oakes, team quarterback, said. “You have to, too, right?”

Marian frowned. “Hello? I’m already pretty.”

Cass laughed out loud with the rest of the team. “You sure are,” he said loud enough for her to hear him. Her gaze darted over to him, as if she’d been avoiding looking at him but couldn’t help herself now. He was sitting there in his shorts and nothing else, sweating. Beau was leaning on the locker in front of him similarly undressed. Cass looked at him, hoping to lead Marian’s eyes that way, too. Beau was sure enough pretty when his copper skin was all sweaty, his tatts gleaming black and slick.

Marian cleared her throat and Cass turned back to her. “Uh,” she said, blinking nervously as she backed up, holding the door with her hand. “Thanks. Hurry up. Down on the field. Press. Bye.” She turned and hurried off, letting the door swing closed.

“That girl got it bad,” Jo Jo said with a whistle. “You gonna put her out of her misery, or let me pick up the pieces of her broken heart?”

“Do you have a death wish?” Cass asked quietly, rearranging his to do list again. He took a sip of his water as he stared at Jo Jo over the top of the bottle. Jo Jo backed up, his hands in the air.

“No, sir,” he said, shaking his head. “Not me. I didn’t say anything.”

Beau laughed. “Chicken.”

Jo Jo grinned. “You got that right, my man. Smart chicken.” He laughed as he sat down and started to get dressed. “See, I’m gonna be the first one down there with Miss Marian, while you pigs still got to wash the dirt off.” He laughed again as he danced out of the way of Cass’s reaching hand. “None of that,” he chided. “Miss Marian would be very put out if I appeared all bloody for the press.”

“We’ll just make sure you don’t appear at all,” Beau said, which made Cass feel better. Beau may not be actively pursuing Marian, but he was definitely interested in her, thank God. Cass didn’t want to be with a woman without Beau. He hadn’t been for…hell, three years. There was something between Marian and Beau. He just had to push it past the edge of whatever it was and into sex. No, more than sex. He wanted more than sex with Marian and Beau. It was time for more.

Before he could digest that mind-boggling thought, Beau slapped his shoulder. “Come on, man,” he said. “We’ve got to shower and get down there before they miss us.”

“Coming,” Cass said. He put aside his confusing thoughts and focused on the upcoming interviews. He really hated the press.

---

Beau twisted his head and cracked his neck with a satisfying pop. He was so tense he was getting a headache. Even his eyelids felt tense, and he knew he was frowning. Most of the sports reporters were avoiding him like the plague. He felt diseased when he was around them. Like if they came too close his personal shit would infect them. But they made him feel that way with their questions. They didn’t ask him about the team’s chances this year, or how the rookies were playing. No, they asked him about his drug addiction and the sex tape. Always the drugs and the sex. He’d done that to himself, so he really had no cause to complain. But, Christ, you’d think no one had ever gotten clean and stayed that way. Cass was frowning from about ten feet away, watching him and picking up on his tension. Beau took a deep breath and blew it out, trying some of the breathing techniques he’d learned in rehab. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn’t.

“Beau,” a bright, happy voice said from beside him. He turned and Marian was standing there with a big, fake smile on her face as she led a reporter around. It was Stan Litchfield, one of the anchors of ESPN’s Football Junkies. Litchfield usually didn’t give him the time of day. “Stan, this is Beau Perez. I’m sure you two have met. Beau is one of the veteran players who anchor the Rebels. We’re thrilled with his performance at tight end.”

Well, that was a surprise. “Marian,” he said, politely returning her greeting. He held his hand out to Litchfield. “Stan. How are you?”

Litchfield looked unhappy. “Perez,” he grumbled, shaking his hand. “How are you doing?”

Beau gave him a crooked, cynical smile. “I’m clean and sober, thanks for asking.”

Marian’s eyes narrowed in warning, but Beau ignored her. He’d danced enough for these losers today.

Litchfield looked a little taken aback. “Are you? Good.” He grinned. “Feeling a little ornery today?”

“A little,” Beau said. “Take advantage. Ask me anything.”

Litchfield waved a hand at the cameraman, who hoisted the lens up and the green light came on. “Last year the Rebels had a less than stellar season. Can you diagnose the issues last year, and give us an idea of what the Rebels are doing this year to fix the team, particularly the offensive weakness on the outside and the lack of solid defense in the secondary?”

Bam. Litchfield was putting him on the spot, and he thought Beau would fail. Fuck him. “Sure, Stan. We sucked last year in the running game. Truth. So we’ve picked up some great running backs in Danny Smith and Tom Kelly, a rookie out of Nebraska that everyone else was too busy kissing ass to notice. As for the secondary, I’ve never seen Michael Swan running as fast as he is this year. Rasheed Davis moved into the Strong Safety position and his leadership on the Secondary is obvious even this early in the game. They are going to be a force this season.”

Marian was beaming like he’d taken his first steps under her watchful eye. Beau grinned at her. Litchfield looked a lot less bored.

“We all know Swan can run,” Litchfield agreed. “Let’s get back to Danny Smith. He’s not here. Why?”

“You want the party line?” Beau asked. Marian frowned again, and may even have gnashed her teeth a little. He ignored her.

Litchfield grinned. “Nope. I want the truth.”

“The truth is I don’t know.” Beau paused and Litchfield looked unhappy. “But he better get his ass down here.” Marian threw her hands in the air in disbelief behind the reporter. “I know from experience that you don’t want to fuck up your team’s confidence in you,” he went on, glad to finally be speaking his mind. “You don’t come back from that. And the longer Smith delays, the more the team questions his dedication here. We don’t need players who are going through the motions to earn endorsement deals. We need guys who are ready to play, who are passionate about the game, who want to be here and who want to win. I don’t give a fuck how great a player he is. If he doesn’t stop acting like a fucking prima donna, he can kiss the Rebels goodbye, because we don’t want him.”

Around him most of the other players and reporters had gone silent and Cass had walked over to stand slightly off to his side, as if to protect him. He didn’t need protection. He was over that.

“I see,” Litchfield said. He glanced around. “Do you speak for the team?”

Beau grinned. “Hell no. Do you think they’d give me that kind of power? But I do speak for myself, and a few others here. This is the Rebels, Stan. Let’s not dance around it. This is the last stop, the last chance saloon as Cass calls it.” He glanced at Cass, who was grinning. “If we don’t make it here, we don’t make it anywhere. We’re the red-headed stepchild of the NFL. The place trouble goes to either fade away or break out. I’m sick of fading away. I think this is the year we break out.” Around him there was a chorus of cheers from the other players. “So, how about this for a soundbite?” He turned to the camera and pointed at it. “You better watch out, cause the Rebels are bringing trouble right to your fucking door.” He saluted and turned away to face Marian. She was just staring at him in shock. “Sorry,” he mouthed, giving her a half smile. He took a deep breath and walked through the crowd, done for the day. A few of the players slapped him on the shoulder and gave him a fist bump. He wasn’t sure if he’d just made his career in Birmingham, or ended it.

I hope you enjoyed it! Below is the buy link. This one is exclusive to Amazon because it’s also on Kindle Unlimited.

Amazon

And here are some links to my small town Southern mm romance, Cherry Pie, which is one of my favorite books!

Amazon

Apple

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Everand

My Favorite Things This Week:

• The Halloween Baking Championship on Food Network. I’ve been looking forward to this for months! (Yes, I am that person.) For some reason, they didn’t have a Summer Baking Championship this year and I missed it. I’m not too sure about some of the format changes yet, but watching this is like getting a hug from Carla Hall. (IYKYK)

• Earl’s Trip by Jenny Holiday. This was the cutest historical romance. It’s been on my radar for about a year and I finally took the plunge because it was free through Prime Reading this month. I already bought the second book in the series, lol.

• Alien Earth. Holy hell, Batman, this series is creepy AF! So many jump scares, constant high tension, and Timothy Olyphant is soooo good as the creepy android. It definitely lives up to the original movies. Highly recommend!

Quote of the Week: (I felt this one! I keep finding old notes on new books that I’d forgotten about while searching for the notes on the current books I’m writing. lol)

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.

- A.A. Milne

P.S. I’m helping to build a house for Habitat for Humanity this weekend. My first time! Wish me luck.

I’ve been previewing the human narrated audiobook of Broken Play* for the past week. I think you guys are going to like it a lot! I’m not going to release it until the entire series is complete. My two stand alone audiobooks don’t get a lot of sales and I think it’s their stand alone nature. The same with the one Brothers in Arms audiobook I have, The Courage to Love*. So I’m going to see if having a complete series in audiobook helps sales. Have I mentioned how hard I find it to listen to my own books? It’s super weird, way weirder than reading them. I don’t know why.

I finished outlining my middle grade time travel adventure, which will now be known as my YA time travel adventure, lol. I’ve been trying to fit the story into a middle grade identity, but the reality the full outline exposed was that the themes are a little heavy for middle grade. Originally I made my protagonist fourteen, but was told I had to make her at the oldest thirteen to fit into the upper end of middle grade. But she just doesn’t read as thirteen, even knowing young teen girls can be mature beyond their years. I may even make her fifteen and a freshman. There’s no sex or profanity or anything like that, but the historical aspects and familial issues are addressed in a way that’s more YA than MG. I met with my MG critique group today and they love the story so far, but kind of agreed about the YA vs. MG question. I’m still going to work with them because it’s a young YA. Honestly, the group between 13-15 is one of the most underserved in MG-YA. Most MG is for under 13, and most YA is for 16+. So those kids end up reading up.

In the meantime, I’m also working on my dark rom-com. Both books are now fully outlined, and I’m heading into the word count stage. That means I write from the outline and hit a certain number of words each day. I’m hoping to have both books done by the end of the year, and hopefully also have started the submission process, although I know a lot of agents take December off from subs. Yes, I’m going to get an agent and try to sell these to a traditional publisher. Honestly, I’m tired of going it alone. I’m hoping to find an agent that can handle all my books: romance, YA, and picture books. I have a few in mind to query.

As usual my TBR pile is causing me anxiety. I’ve read a lot of books this year, and yet it seems like I still have so many staring at me from my shelves and my Kindle. I haven’t updated my Goodreads reading challenge in a while. I need to do that. I’d love to hear what you all are reading right now. I’m halfway through Twelfth Knight* by Alexene Farol Follmuth. Which doesn’t seem like a real name. I don’t know. Anyway, it’s pretty good. I’m enjoying it, especially because my family is all about Dungeons and Dragons and video games.

*Amazon links. I may get a commission if you click and buy something.

My Favorite Things This Week:

• This playlist creator. You put in a song, and it generates a playlist of similar songs. I have discovered a bunch of new artists and some great playlists! I got this through Recomendo.

• This random quote generator. I love quotes. I have books of them everywhere. I have stacks of paper where I’ve jotted down quotes that I like. So I can just click through this all day.

• This hand lotion. The scent is so delightful and soothing. I have it next to my computer. I’m already getting winter dry skin, and I don’t even know how. It’s still in the 70s here and humid as hell.

• I just made this spaghetti carbonara recipe from Martha Stewart over the weekend. It’s crazy good and not that hard. I used bacon instead of pancetta because I am not a pancetta fan.

Quote of the Week

Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

This was a book recommended by a friend. A romance. Wait. A “romance.” That’s better. Actually, dark romance, which is hot as hell right now. I’m not going to tell you the name of the book, for what will become obvious reasons. I have not hate read a book in…well, ever. I just stop reading them. But I hate read this. I RAGE read this book.

The book is incredibly popular. The author has a bunch of books out very similar to this one. It has tens of thousands of reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Average review is 4/5. I’m just setting the scene here.

I started the book and loved it. The FMC was 10/10 for me. Hilarious, fabulous dialogue, a really strong personality and character. Loved her from the minute she hit the page.

Then the MMC entered the story.

I hated his character immediately. Hated. Him. Wanted the FMC to run in the opposite direction. He’s creepy, a stalker, overbearing, arrogant, a complete asshole package. The works. But apparently he gets away with it because he’s so good looking? Like, really?! In 2025? What the actual fuck?

I stopped reading the book halfway through. Maybe even a little less than halfway through, when—in complete disregard of the FMC’s established personality—it became apparent she was going to cave. She was not only going to fuck this guy, she was going to let him totally fuck over her life. Willingly. Like a fucking Stepford wife. I felt the author’s abandonment of her character like a slap to the face. Such wasted potential. Such a betrayal of the character.

I talked to my friend who recommended the book at this point. I told her how much I loathed the MMC, and how the book filled me with rage. She said stop reading, it won’t get any better for you. She said the MMC was sort of redeemed later, but I couldn’t imagine how. I told her unless the FMC shot him for being an asshole, he lost all memory of his former self and had a complete personality transplant I could not see any way this author could redeem this character for me. She assured me that none of that was going to happen.

After our conversation, I decided to finish it. I gritted my teeth and skimmed it as quickly as possible. (My husband was watching me skim it, and he said I looked like I was smelling something really unpleasant the whole time.) My friend was indeed correct, in that it would not get any better for me. As a matter of fact, it got worse, because when the FMC and her friends found out about the MMC’s lies and despicable, stalker-y behavior, everyone around her was all oh, isn’t that romantic? He loves you so much! Um, no? Are you fucking insane?! He literally stalked her and destroyed her life because she said no to him the first time they met. That seems totally normal. Not.

And that’s when it became more than a bad book with a terrible MMC.

I realized that women were reading this book, marketed as a romance, in which the MMC stalks the FMC, ruins her life, forces her into a relationship (lots of dominance etc., of course), lies, steals, cheats, is abusive, completely subverts the FMC’s personality, personal life, friendships, home, job, workplace, you name it, this guy controls it, and women, young women in particular, are being sold this as romance. Dark romance, but still, this is love.

This is regression. This is abuse. He literally treated the FMC like a toddler who couldn’t make her own decisions, and “punished” her when she attempted to do so. And not decisions like “I’m going to go downstairs in the middle of the night by myself and investigate the noise I heard, when I know very well the gates of hell have opened in my basement and demons are trying to kill me.” No. Decisions like going to dinner with a friend. Or programming her own phone. And the “punishment” was not consensual. She did not agree to it.

Romance is meant as fantasy, yes, I’ll grant that. There always has to be a certain level of willing suspension of disbelief. But romance is also supposed to be empowering. Maybe women aren’t going to get the sensitive alpha werewolf of their dreams, but they can certainly hold themselves to a higher standard, to a man who is sensitive and strong at the same time, who appreciates who they are without feeling the need to change them, or own them, or control them. And men can also hold themselves to that same standard. But books like this are telling men that women secretly want the abuser, instead, and god knows there doesn’t need to be anything else out there encouraging this kind of behavior in men. Certainly not books written by women.

Apparently stalker romance is a thing now. Stalker romance. It’s an oxymoron. This kind of subversion of a woman’s right to choose, to exist in her own space without the ownership and abusive dominance of a man is horrifying, not romantic. And before you suggest that I simply don’t care for the dominance/submission storyline, I’ve read a lot of them and enjoyed them. I don’t even have a problem with dark romance if it’s written well and there’s a mutually satisfying conclusion, where all the characters get what they want and deserve. This was not one of those books.

My friend told me I shouldn’t mention how much I hated this book because I might alienate readers. But, honestly? Reading is subjective. You like what you like, and you don’t like what you don’t like. Obviously this book hit an extremely negative chord with me. And I didn’t even address the major plot holes, pacing issues, or lack of character continuity. I have to stop now because just thinking about it, just writing this post, has my blood pressure through the roof. Rage activated.

And worst of all, it’s ruined my reading streak. I’m so disgusted I can’t even get into another book right now.

My Favorite Things This Week:

• Hijack on AppleTV. I’m late to this party, but this series starring Idris Elba is so suspenseful and well written! My husband and I are really enjoying it. Highly recommend.

• I just listened to The Case of the Missing Maid* by Rob Osler. It’s set in Chicago in the turn of the 19th Century, and it’s about a woman who becomes a detective for a private agency. It’s a very good mystery, lots of Chicago historical detail, and it has LGBTQIA+ themes that are fascinating for the period.

• Chirp. If you’re not getting your audiobooks through Chirp, go there right now. I’ll wait.

• These baggy sweatpants jeans from Gap. People are going to get sick of seeing me in these this winter.

Quote of the day

Housework can’t kill you but why take a chance.

- Phyllis Diller

One reason I forgot about it is because I have vertigo. I’ve had it for four days. Tried meds, patches. I’ve been to the doc. I’ve had it before. I’m pretty sure it’s related to my lupus is some way. It’s making me nauseous. It’s like being on a constantly rocking boat. Ugh.

The other reason I forgot is because we are trying to get my daughter ready to head back to college. She’s moving into her new apartment this week. And she only got back from her camp counselor summer job Saturday afternoon. This is her first apartment. She has three roommates. And it’s going to rain all week. I feel like this scene from Blues Brothers:

I finished outing the book and successfully used AI in a noninvasive, useful way. I analyzed my outline for action, romance, and POV elements. It was amazing. I needed a cigarette after. Chat GPT told me the percentage of action scenes vs. emotional vs. mixed. According to GPT I have the perfect balance for a romantic suspense. It even graphed all the elements for me so I could see the rising action and romantic conflict together.

This is stuff I do as a writer, but when I’m doing it myself it takes a lot longer and it’s not nearly as detailed. It’s given me great confidence to keep on writing. I’m going to do this analysis on all my books from now on, based on genre and subgenera of course, including my picture books. I can see how it’s possible to overuse this tool. But I think using it for analysis is a great accompaniment to writing.

My Favorite Things This Week:

• The Literature Map. Look up your favorite writer (anyone I know?) and see what writers are generally considered similar to them. Gives you a great starting point if you’re looking for new writers in a similar vein.

• Chinchilla. One of my new favorite artists. My heroine’s theme song in the current wip.

• I switched my cats litter to this one*. I used to use Pretty Litter, but it still got all over the place and my vet said the changing color is useless. And it was super expensive for something my cats just shit in. This one has a great pine scent and is more than half the price for twice the amount. The link is Amazon, but it’s cheaper at Pet Smart.

• I may have mentioned these before, but there’s still so many people who don’t know Mosquito Dunks* are a thing. Kill the larvae before they hatch! I’ve been going through these like crazy with all the rain we’ve been having.

*amazon links. I may get a commission if you click and buy anything.

Quote of the day:

Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation.

- Rumi