I'm On A Boat. . .
(Actually, I was on a boat but that's not how the lyrics go.)
Queer Your Bookshelf day was pretty huge for me! It’s the first time I’ve had more sales across multiple days without a book launch. (BTW - I that sale is still on, so if you want to pick up Prince’s Tide (Gay Merfolk) or Rare Temptations (Sapphic Dragon), you have until the end of August to grab your copy for 0.99 USD. )
It’s also the first time I’ve gotten anywhere close to the top 100 on the Zon in several genre categories. One of them being Urban Fantasy which is a HUGE category! Here’s where I was at with Prince’s Tide as of August 17th:
I posted to a couple of socials about my initial numbers, and those weren’t as good as these. These final numbers definitely made me smile. I’m not a huge supporter of the Zon, but as the platform everyone is most familiar with at the moment, it’s nice to see that people were willing to take a chance on my book. AND for that - I thank you!
Next up, check out the rest of this newsletter for details about where I’ve been, where I’ll be at, what’s on sale, and what’s available to read now for everyone!
TL;DR - AUGUST Newsletter #2
The Rainbow Reader Cruise!
The Foreword - word counts and chapters for several projects.
Working on so much! It’s good to be busy, but also, I’m busy!
Giveaways & Sales
Next place to find me in-person
Smut Lovers Conference - Orlando, FL
Still need some preorders? Updated the form! It closes Sept 8th.
Are you a resident of Florida? Tickets for Author Signings for local folks are still available. Check out the shop and click on the Free Florida Resident Pass. Other passes are also still available, so check them out.
Wanna read the first two chapters of The Demon’s Thief? They are FREE to read, starting today. Links to Chapter 1 & Chapter 2.
Rainbow Reader Cruise - 2024
It was the inaugural year of this event. I was pretty excited to combine two things I love a lot - reading queer romance and a solid vacation!
It can be a little daunting to completely disconnect from the world and get on a boat that takes you out into open water. Thankfully, it wasn’t my first cruise, and I love boats <check out my little story from my last newsletter>.
While the Celebrity Reflection wasn’t a new boat, it had character and a lot of heart. The crew were great, and the speed and efficiency of handling every day life on a boat was top notch!
The convention itself was pretty good. It had a lot of authors I recognize from GayRomLit Retreat (GRL for short). While I read a lot of those authors, this was the first time seeing some of them in person. Great conversations were had at dinner, and the various panels were what you might expect attending GRL event.
If you’d like more info about next year, hit up the website.
The Foreword
Saint George Chronicles - Volume Four: While away from my computer, I had a lot of creative ideas and thankfully put some of them in notes on my phone, which includes the plot/outline for this book. I’m currently four chapters and 5900 words in. It’s less of a mess and I have a general idea how things will go. I’m looking forward to writing it! Oh, and fair warning, we’ll see how things turn out, but this might have the least amount of spice any SGC book currently has, but the spice will be good! :)
Vampire Accords - Book Two: First draft is mostly complete, and just needs a complete fleshing out. Currently, it’s sitting at 31k+ words and twenty-two chapters. The word count will definitely change as some of the chapters are notes and vibes rather than full chapters, but the number of chapters may not. Due to how the book is coming together, it will be my first experiment in non-linear writing.
New Series: The Elemental Phoenix - Book One - The Demon’s Thief - is going pretty well! It’s right at thirty chapters and 55k+ words. I will likely end up being around 75-85k long when everything is written. If you read the SCG series and remember Dawn being mentioned in a couple of the books, you’ll finally get her story and why she made it possible for SGC book three to happen. In the general timeline, this book happens around the same time as SGC Volume One. <Check out the first and second chapters available now>
Other projects in the works:
New short stories that can be downloaded if you subscribe. They should be available in September to download, and I’m also flirting with the idea of putting them in KU as well. One will be brand new, and one will be kinda new unless you picked up the Mythical Desires Short Story book. Newsletter subscribers can download both stories, of which one will be Sapphic and the other Achillean with a polyam twist.
Also working on my first shared world project. The first books will be published between 2026 and 2027. My book should be out around October 2026. I’ll start working on it next year as soon as I’ve published something already in my queue. Granted, I have the book currently outlined and I’m looking forward to writing this fluffy, sexy story about two unlikely individuals that become mates.
The second merfolk book is taking shape. I am still working on characters and an overall plot. However the main character will be Halic, and it will be somewhat of a redemption arch for him. I have ideas that haven’t quite formed yet, but I’m itching to clear some things on my plate and dive deep into this one.
Giveaways & Sales
Due to some promotional stuff I’m doing, I’m making both Prince’s Tide and Rare Temptations 0.99 USD across all platforms! You can check out your favorite platform via the blue buttons (or the first buttons) on my links page!
Next up - Year of Queer Lit - Stuff Your Kindle Day! Many genres of queer books on sale for 0.99 or free. The sale is ongoing until the end of August 26th! Grab them while you can!
In Person Events
If you’re in Austin, I’ll be at the ArmadilloCon which is our local sci-fi, fantasy and speculative fiction event. This event is what kicked my pants back in 2019 to start writing as an indie. It was a transformative moment for me and I am hoping to give back this year at the writer’s workshop.
If you’re in Orlando or plan to be during September, you’ll find me at Smut Lover’s! A conference for both authors and readers. I’m looking forward to this one, not only to meet other authors and learn more about topics I’m writing about, but also meet more readers! This is the second year for this event and I’m excited to see how it goes and meet folks.
After these two, I’ll be mostly at local events, so keep an eye out here on the newsletter for which ones and where.
More Free Stuff
Given that I like sharing, but I also like to keep my newsletters tidy, I’m including my first two chapters of The Demon’s Thief, for free, here on Substack.
From here on out, I’ll do a similar situation for various chapters from other projects. You’ll get to see the results here, and if you subscribe, you might be able to see them sooner! Just saying.
For now, I hope you enjoy the first two chapters of The Demon’s Thief.
Until next time - Enjoy!
