State of the Blain Address: What’s going on, coming up, and going down. Plus updated list of preorders.

Dear humans,

Tomorrow, the female leaves for 20 Books to 50k in Las Vegas. She’ll be on two panels, and she’s really looking forward to it. It should be a great deal of fun for her. If you’re attending, please keep an eye out for her. (But be aware she is not available immediately following her Researching History for Writing panel on Tuesday; she has a business date. She’s also not available at 7:30 on Tuesday for the same reason, and won’t be found near Sam’s Town on Wednesday, as she has dinner arrangements.)

Other than that, she can probably be found prowling through Sam’s Town. It’ll be like a game of Where’s Waldo, but it’s with RJ, who very probably won’t take a picture of herself to make things easier on you.

So, before she starts freaking out and resumes packing and preparing for tomorrow, we wanted to take a few minutes to talk books and things!

Current List of Preorders

2020’s release schedule has been set! Most of the books are locked for release dates, and this means you can preorder them! New preorders include Outfoxed (Fox Witch 1) and The Flame Game (Quinn & Bailey #3)

Note: yes, because the female is a career writer, she watches release week and preorder numbers to determine 2021’s schedule. If a series/etc just doesn’t do well, it becomes a ‘as time allows’ thing. She is a completionist. As such, things will be completed. But how long it takes her to complete it is up for debate. (In short, she can only afford to do so many labor of love or risk projects and still be able to keep writing.)

If she has a particularly good year, like last year, you get a lot of labor of love projects the next year because her savings account can afford to do them. But the year after will be much less up for fun, as the bills must be paid. (It sucks, but it is what it is.) (2020 is labor of love year, and 2021 will probably be recovering from the consequences of such a thing. Oops.)

At current estimate, the following books/series will probably not be pursued in 2021 because people just aren’t interested them so far. A lot could change between now and their releases, but we of the Furred & Frond Management like being upfront with you:

• Lowrance Vampires (Even with advertising and hustling, this one is just not performing. The female has paid for/is running promotions to try to help it out of the gate, but it’s not looking promising yet. By not promising, the female curled into the fetal position and whined. Oh, well.)
• Tales of Catalina de la Corona (hahahaha… guess this one is just a fail. It’s so bad, y’all. SO bad. But the female doesn’t care because she loves the story anyway.)
• Dae Portals (Exactly nobody is surprised by this.)

In good news, the following series will be remaking an appearance in 2021 because of how well they’re doing during preorders:

• The Fox Witch (HOORAY!! The female is SO! happy about this.)
• Magical Vigilante Librarians
• Magical Romantic Comedies (with a body count) (**likely no more than three, two of which will be Serial Killer Princess 2 and Ural Be Sorry.)
• Bernadette Franklin (primarily holiday themed but one non-holiday themed, too.)

So, without further delay, here’s the current list, their release dates, and links to vendors. Please note kobo links will be made available closer to release on all books.

November 26, 2019:

Water Witch: A Witch & Wolf World compilation primarily focused on Dustin Walker. Also includes short stories featuring Karma and Jake from Balancing the Scales, Richard and Frank from Winter Wolf/Tales of the Winter Wolf, Pedro from Tales of the Winter Wolf, and Kalen and Breton from Requiem for the Rift King. This also includes Double Trouble.

Price at Release: $6.99. Price immediately following release: $8.99.

Purchase links: Amazon | Other Vendors Available Soon (Female is lazy, we think.)

Double Trouble: a kleptomaniac woman is besieged by unicorns. One wants to take over the world. The other wants in her pants. Featuring a guest star appearance by another Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) character.

Price at release: $2.99. Price immediately following release: $4.99. (It turned out a lot longer than anticipated.)

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo Coming Soon

December 25, 2019:

Steel Heart: the second Jesse Alexander novel. Jesse’s adventure continues! And she’s back to getting into as much trouble as possible with her freaking insane family and friends.

Price: $5.99.

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo

January 28, 2020:

Blood Bound: a Lowrance Vampires novel. Intended as a test pilot for doing some fun vampire intrigue and other UF stuff. Kinda probably a miserable failure of a book right now, but that’s okay. The female still likes it. Ending that closes most threads will likely be used instead of promising a second novel. A few dangling threads may be left if the female feels better about it near end of production, but probably not. (Yes, it’s doing that poorly.))

P.S.: Don’t feel bad if this isn’t up your alley. It’s okay. The female does not want you to buy books you’re not interested. We’re just establishing that unless something majorly changes, there are no plans for a second book.

Price: $5.99.

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo

February 18, 2020:

Cold Flame: a Royal States Novel. A Susan Copperfield book. This features Rachel of New York. It features a lot of sensitive subject matter, so be aware. This one isn’t a bucket of laughs, though there are laughs (and animals) to be found within its pages.

Side note: The Royal States books are alive and well, so don’t worries. Taken (Pat & Jessica’s second story, a long novella) will be releasing at some point. It will be bundled in the Beginnings boxed set, which includes everything except Bonds and Cold Flame.

Price: $4.99.

Purchase links: Amazon | Other Vendors coming soon (Promise. Really.)

March 10, 2020:

The House Lost at Sea: Tales of Catalina de la Corona. The female laughs at how big of a flop this one is so far. That’s okay. It’s so much of a flop that she won’t continue this one for at least a few years, as she expects that is how long it will take to earn back its base publication fees. Flops happen.

Don’t buy it if you don’t want to read it. Really. Flops happen and 2020 is the labor of love year, and failure is always an option.

This one is light on the romantic elements, it is being heavily reworked to remove a lot of references from the kindle worlds it was originally in, and it will be an urban fantasy about pirates with light romantic elements. Includes a funny scene with an octopus. Has sharks.

Price $5.99

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo Coming Later

April 28, 2020:

The Run Around: A Bernadette Franklin book. Probably won’t have Juliette in it, and if she does show up, it will be for a brief passing line. It does have a very short mention/appearance by Alice from Shammed. (The old crew just doesn’t fit this story.) The female really, really likes this story. Squeeee.

Price: $4.99

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo

May 12, 2020:

Grave Humor: A Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count.) This one is pretty crazy. Includes some new additions into the Mag Rom Com world, including the ghost of a granny with a wicked sense of humor.

(Grave Humor starts showcasing the consequences of the events of Whatever for Hire for the curious.)

Price $5.99

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo

June & July 2020:

Dae Portals books will be releasing these two months. So far, Dawn of Dae is a complete and total flop. The female doesn’t really want to even deal with it right now. The third book will not be written until both prior books pay back their bills. At current estimate… 2025 or so. Maybe. (Yeah, it’s THAT much of a flop so far.)

Which is sad, because the female loves the fun cover, the story is fun, but it’s just not something that’ll sell. It’s too off in left field. Unawakened will release as a live drop in 2020, as the first order’s preorders are so poor it’s not worth the extra time investment to set up the files/track/etc. It’ll come as expected, just without preamble.

Price: Author’s Soul.

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo Coming Eventually

August 18, 2020:

Booked for Murder: Magical Vigilante Librarians. No other description needed. Expect shenanigans. And some romance. (Maybe a lot of romance.) As usual, no sex on the page because we don’t roll that way here.

You will make the female cry if you don’t adore this one, she’s a little bit invested. Just a little.

Price: $5.99

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo

September 1, 2020:

A Chip on her Shoulder: That book about Satin getting what he’s due, in form of a woman. A very sassy woman who will take over hell for the sake of her family. She totally bit off more than she could chew on this one. But, I guess… future Queen of Hell? We all know how this story ends, so be prepared to have the author severely fuck with you the entire time.

That’s what happens when you know how the story ends, humans. The female gets all cocky and screws around with you readers.

And makes you like it.

Just preorder this one if you like Satin. Admit it. You do. (Note to self: If you all somehow put this one on USA Today, the female will write a Satin POV novella or some form of story. Just to continue screwing with you.)

Price: $5.99

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo

October 27, 2020:

The Flame Game. Bailey & Quinn #3. Yes, it’s the final Bailey & Quinn story. Join them on their last adventure before they ride off happily into the sunset! With explosions lighting the horizon rather than good old sunshine. Because cindercorns.

Price: $5.99

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo

November 3, 2020:

Outfoxed: A whole new world. Foxes. Witches. Mages. Mayhem. Magic. Still some humor, but a harder, darker urban fantasy world. This is if you took the Witch & Wolf World, added a few Mag Rom Com Flares, and built it in trilogies of couples. (Sometimes quartets.) Expect 1-2 books a year in this world, but possibly more later down the road. ~21 books currently planned, and each one focuses on something Super Cool And Nifty.

The female likes this one A LOT.

Opening paragraphs:

I’d been in the Alley long enough to understand only one thing mattered when faced with yet another twister: survival. The swarm of them headed for Tulsa roared, warning all of their impending arrival. The incessant crash of thunder accompanied the lightning, which struck with such frequency the dark clouds glowed white. I decided to stopped counting after five funnels; one, five, ten—it didn’t matter how many of them snaked down from the sky. If one of them got a hold of me, I’d just be another corpse strewn over the Alley. A day didn’t go by when I didn’t cross a new skeleton in the outskirts.

Death was a way of life outside of the safety of Inner Tulsa.

Please note this unedited drivel was stolen from the female’s working files and has not been reviewed by an editor, AKA a sane person who helps make the words pretty for production.

Price: $5.99.

Purchase links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Kobo

Things that still need preorders: Those two Witch & Wolf books that are coming out in December. They’re not unlocked yet for preorders anywhere. They’ll be coming eventually, never fear. We’ll let you know when they are there.

In other news, the female is exhausted and must go pack and prepare for the convention.

We’re probably forgetting things to mention here but honestly, after going through the preorder list, we’re tired. We shall return with more updates… soon.