Whew!

In my last newsletter, I asked you fill out a poll about Emil’s novella. This is a planned companion story to Book 9, Worlds Don’t Collide. VB Readers’ Group and newsletter subscribers will get it FREE. The poll was about how the novella would be delivered. 

The choices were:
1. Get your free Emil story starting in June with all the warts and pimples of a first draft, delivered weekly by email or blog. 
2. Wait 3-4 months to get the fully edited version delivered to you by email. 

Thank you to everyone who voted either using the poll link or by direct email. And the results are…with a nearly 2-1 margin… 

Choice #2—get the full novella delivered at once after editing. 

Whew. I think I dodged a bullet there. I’ll be honest, the idea of sending Emil’s story chapter by chapter scared the pants off me. I would have done it, as a way to flex my writing muscles, but you see, I’m a terrible rough drafter. 

I remember, years ago, reading a scandal about Stephanie Meyer of Twilight fame. Someone in her inner circle had released a first draft of one of her books, and it was being circulated with much negative criticism. She was devastated and then criticized even more for over-reacting to the breach. 

I completely understand her reaction. My first drafts are terrible. I wouldn’t inflict them on my best friends, let alone strangers. I rush to get down the story before my scattered brain forgets it. Rather than writing a linear story, I jump around the timeline, adding important conversations as they appear to me (usually this happens as I'm about to fall asleep). My drafts are full of adverbs and junk words, but spare on description and emotion. All that good stuff gets added during editing. 

And I love to edit! That might make me a bit of a unicorn as far as authors go, but I’m okay with that. Editing is where I shine. 

So, yeah. I breathed a big sigh of relief when I saw the poll results. 

What does it mean for you (and Emil)? It means that the companion novella will go on sale sometime in late June or early July. But I plan to send it to all current subscribers for free before that. So be sure to join the Readers' Group before then. You can sign up HERE.

And I have a title and a cover for it! Check it out and let me know what you think of the new cover.
 

You don’t have to do anything to get your free ebook. Just keep subscribing. 

But don’t forget to pre-order Worlds Don’t Collide. Right now, it’s priced at special pre-release pricing.

This is a fun little aside. As I get deeper into world building for 2 new series (Yes, 2!), I find my browser history is something that would frighten off most FBI investigators. Here’s just a few things I’ve been researching this week. Can you guess how they’ll come together in a new story?

    •    19 Best Human Placenta Ideas
    •    Beginner Blood Magic Do’s and Don’ts
    •    Fairy Butter
    •    Smudging herbs
    •    Ritual knives
    •    Top 12 Scary Fairy Monsters and Spirits

And in the "weird things I found while researching a book" category, I came across this quote:

You know you’re a redneck if…you confuse the squirrel in your freezer with your placenta…

I think that line is just begging to be a story!

 

 

Curse of the Fae Library: A Paranormal Women's Fiction Novel
(Magical Midlife Librarian Book 1)
DM Fike

A magical tree library. An angry dragon. A family secret. Rosalind’s ordinary life is about to get turned upside down!
After a bitter divorce and no job prospects, forty-year-old Rosalind Baldwin yearns for a fresh start. She gets her chance when her estranged grandmother Clio urges her to come for a visit. But Clio is no ordinary grandma. She’s the legendary Librarian of Atlantis, a powerful fae who guards the sentient ash tree that houses a magical library.

Then Clio dies under mysterious circumstances.

Now only Rosalind, Clio’s sole female heir, can keep the Library of Atlantis open. It won’t be an easy job. The fae don’t trust her. Her sasquatch bodyguard Henry wants her to quit. Oh, and there’s a fire-breathing dragon rampaging on the library grounds.

Can Rosalind really run the mythical Library of Atlantis? Or will the same killer catch her before she even has the chance to try?

Get Curse of the Fae Library Now

Good Bad Witch: A Feel Good Witchy Mystery
(Good Bad Magic Book 1)
Isa Medina

It's hard being a good witch when your clients want bad magic.

I'm a witch. Not a powerful witch, mind, but as Grandma liked to say, it’s all in the kindness, not the power. Grandma is gone now, but her dream of having a witch shop lives with me. So, when the opportunity to run my own shop presents itself, I move across the country to take it, no questions asked.

But maybe I should have.

The sexy local bounty hunter shifter thinks I’m up to no good, my clients keep asking me to use forbidden dark magic, and someone’s trying to sabotage my shop. Probably the same someone who reported me to the Witch Council and left a dead body in my bathtub.

Hah! Joke’s on them. As Grandma also used to say, it’s nothing a positive attitude, excellent cleaning supplies, and the complete annihilation of whoever has in it for me can’t fix.

Paraphrasing.

Get Good Bad Witch Now