Greetings, folks. Buckle in, this post will be a bit long and all over the place. But first, a picture I took in Australia of a birb! I do quite love Australia’s birbs. So many, so nice! This birb was PINK. And we all know how I feel about pink.
Anyway, please do not edit, comment on editing, or do any editing type things in this post. Nothing here has been edited. And I mean NOTHING. This is out-of-the-box raw. If you don’t like that, look away.
You can preorder Old Secrets at the following retailers: Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Amazon
A mountain of paperwork, some dating to twenty to thirty years prior to my birth, took over the RV’s table and threatened to spill onto the floor. An amused Jake lounged on the couch and observed me face off against my foe. In his effort to combat the scorching heat and humidity of a Georgia summer, he’d removed his shirt. A rather enticing gleam of sweat proved difficult for me to ignore. If I wanted to get down to the bottom of the crime group after my dead head and why, I had to conquer the pages in front of me.
I needed to stop delaying my work to enjoy Jake and his bare chest.
The work might win at the rate it insisted on piling up.
Some were my adoption records, most of which had been flagged as forged. It’d taken the Inquisition and the black market working together to learn that very little of my documented life was real. The Inquisition suspected a kidnapping. The black market agreed, but they gave the idea of me being kidnapped as a baby a rather strange twist.
They suspected someone had taken me in an effort to hide me, likely from those behind the Greenwich case. Everyone associated with the files had died, and there was no information on my biological family. Nobody knew anything, not even in China or Tibet.
I questioned why everyone believed those behind the Greenwich case might want an infant from Tibet—or more accurately, why they might want something from my Tibetan parents.
I also questioned why I appeared to be American rather than Tibetan. My DNA didn’t lie, however.
There was nothing American about me.
Someone of good standing with China had inquired, and upon learning the background of the situation, China had given the Inquisition everything they knew about my situation.
On paper, I existed. My family did not. According to officials in China and Tibet, the town associated with my place of birth had been wiped out due to a natural disaster ten years before I’d been supposedly born, which had revealed my documents had been a clever forgery.
My supposed birthplace’s remote location had helped with the trick, but it had been a trick all the same, one designed to get me safely into the United States, where I’d been granted citizenship as an infant.
The United States, upon learning of the forgery and with a little prodding from the Inquisition, had issued me a new birth certificate and natural citizenship. China had done the same.
Both nations had opted to maintain the names on the original form at my request.
As long as my parents had names on a sheet of paper, they existed somewhere. I’d been give a promise if I found out they had different names, I could change my official records to match—if I wanted.
The fox in me wanted to scream over yet another abandonment. I withheld judgment. The Inquisition and the black market both made good points, and until I discovered the true story about my birth and life in the United States, I wouldn’t judge my mother and father.
Instead, I would cling to the thin hope I had a chance to experience what it was like to have parents who truly cared about me and wanted me to thrive and live.
Pa had.
Ma hadn’t.
The pile contained more about Ma’s story, too—and what had driven her to murder her baby and go on to try to kill me. Each fragmented piece of the puzzle added to my heartache. When everything came together, I feared the final story, one that told a tragedy of a father who’d suspected but couldn’t prove the fate of his child and of a mother so obsessed with perfection and religious adherence she would slaughter her children to preserve her soul’s sanctity.
I tried not to think about the matter of souls much. I couldn’t imagine anywhere other than some dark and terrible hell for a woman who’d destroyed her family over an infant’s illness and my refusal to become her version of perfection.
In a way, I resented that time did its work. I struggled to believe that last summer had slid into fall, we’d spent winter driving Mellisa and Amelia insane with our posturing, winter had faded to spring, and spring had once again bloomed into summer. According to Mellisa, we both had a way to go before either one of us counted as mentally and emotionally healthy, but I’d made good strides on the physical front.
Jake couldn’t count my ribs anymore. He tended to act like he still walked on thin ice, which annoyed me. The realization I’d recovered faster than he did kept me quiet and patient.
I’d come to terms with my ma’s betrayal in record time, focusing my efforts on learning about my past.
Jake struggled to find a balance between me, his future, and his parents, which slid further and further into the past category. The weekly calls had degraded to monthly, and it’d been three months since he’d considered initiating contact with his mother.
I gave it a few weeks before he decided to take the next step and find us a new pack, one where Mellisa and Amelia would enjoy unconditional welcome. In the year since we’d left from Baltimore, I’d grown more sensitive to the work he did to protect the women from the brewing resentment.
I considered the paperwork, my husband, and the problem of the wolves he needed as much as I did. My fox had come to understand she could thrive with only Jake, and she sought out the comforting presence of his wolf often. She’d also learned to distrust certain wolves although she adored others.
Jake’s father may as well have hung the moon in her sky, second only to Jake. Jake’s mother, on the other hand, reduced her to chitters of fury, which she sometimes expressed as screams of frustration in my head.
Some decisions were easier to make than others.
In case you missed it the thousand or so words above, you can preorder Old Secrets at the following retailers: Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Amazon
Now… onto Whiskers on Kittens (Preorder at Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Amazon) and some behind-the-scenes shenanigans.
It took me three tries to find the right starting spot for this book. Fortunately, I only made it 400-600ish words per failed attempt to realize it wasn’t right before finding the spot that works well for the character and the tone I’m after.
Here is the opening sentence of the book: When I became bored, trouble happened.
Like Double Trouble, the book starts with a character on the wrong side of the law coming onto the scene. Unlike Double Trouble, there’s nothing innocent about Kelsie. She’s a big furry ball of feline, and she wants to have a good time… and hates getting bored.
That poor cop I have saddled her with. He’s going to be taken on quite the ride.
Behind the failed attempts were even more failures at just starting this book. I’ll be honest, with how life has been lately, I have not been in the mood for Magical Romantic Comedies. I’ve been more in the mood for stuff like Dead Weight, mystery layered on more mystery with a fun cast of characters binding everything together.
I’m already itching to work on the next book in the Magic, Mayhem, and the Law in Precinct #153 series. And honestly, I’ll be starting it several months ahead of my normal cool down time. I have to reread Dead Weight to pluck out the stuff Jace got wrong, (yes, Jace is not correct about everything because nobody ever is) and make sure the right characters locate those issues.
I’m expecting another 150,000 word monster, and Partner-in-Crime will continue layering on more mystery upon more mystery upon more mystery while gradually moving the crazy train in the right direction.
This series definitely isn’t going to be for everybody, nor do I want it to be for everybody.
1: Trust nobody, especially me.
2: My characters are human, so they make mistakes. These mistakes will result in you thinking one thing but the reality is another, just like real life.
3: I recommend a little notebook if you like tracking clues. I have one, too. I am absolutely guilty of sliding in truth with falsehoods in a single line of text.
4: The real mystery is not necessarily the who of it, but the why, the how, and the future of the why and how. This may help redirect you to collect the correct clues regarding this series.
5: If you hear a muffled scream, my forensics sciences text books are starting to arrive. It’s just me being crushed by college non-fiction titles. Try not to worry about it.
I am so excited to write a mystery, because half the fun has been trying to figure out how investigations would work in a world of magic. It’s HARD.
Investigations is hard enough in a world WITHOUT magic.
I will make a little confession here… I really wish more readers were showing up to ENJOY the book rather than to criticize the book. It makes me sad to think about how much joy people rob themselves of simply because they have to hunt for mistakes, errors, or… remove their joy through their own will.
I spot a LOT of errors in books nowadays, even in traditionally published stuff. If the writing is otherwise good, I accept it, move on, and do my best to enjoy the book. If the book is so full of basic spelling errors that I want to scream, I quietly move on. Key here is quietly.
Anyway, moving on… if you are an author and are interested in participating in a book promotion for Whiskers on Kittens, please fill out this form. There are no strings attached, and while I would be very appreciative if you helped promo Whiskers on Kittens, it’s not necessary.
Onto Dragon*Con! I will be in attendance, and I have panels on the Friday, Sunday, and Monday. I will be doing short mentor groups 1-on-1 with some authors (8 total) who sign up via the Writing Track on Saturday and Sunday. I will be signing for one hour on Saturday, so bring your book or stickers then! I’m looking forward to meeting everyone there.
For my last bit of random business, I am trying to wean off social media, and will only be posting book news, some photos I take, and similar. If you want to interact with me directly, I recommend my discord server. The rules basically boil down to “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
I really enjoy your books. I often reread them. I do see errors, but they jump out at me. I don’t go looking for them. When I see them, I report them on your reporting tool. Then my slightly OCD brain can forget them.
I am reading a book by someone else. I have seen a lot (a lot of missing words, and typos) of errors. I think, ‘I need to report this. Oh no, they don’t have a reporting tool’. I keep going back so my brain can fix the error, but it doesn’t work.
I don’t know if it will help you, but they don’t have a reporting tool because that’s not the relationship they want with readers. Honestly, I don’t want that relationship with readers, either. I want people to just enjoy the books. But people get very upset if they can’t report it, so I have a form to deal with on my schedule rather than Amazon’s.
I would, honestly spoken, prefer that people enjoy the book rather than worry about mistakes humans made when writing the book.
But they don’t have a reporting tool because they don’t WANT you reporting the errors. The book is done, and they want to move on from the book to work on something else.
I have the form because I DO correct things as found, but it also keeps people who simply can’t maintain the boundary happy. (Like… we don’t want to be dealing with this. Nobody does. We want to be able to breathe after a release, not worry about how many people are coming for us because of human mistakes.)
I hope you are having a blessed day even if others people perceive to know how you write. I love your writing and will continue to follow you and read your work.
The pretty pink bird is either a Major Mitchell’s cockatoo (pink cockatoo instead of a sulphur crested) or a Galah. Given the beautiful pale colours, I’m leaning toward the Pink Cockatoo/Major Mitchell. Did you happen to see him or her raise their crest? I could tell you for sure if you did. Fantastic picture 😍. And, thank you for the lovely shot at reading the small bit of your work today! It brought some comfort to me on a very fraught day. Xx
That was supposed to be on the main thread. Sorry Ellen.
I love your books and reread often. I actually like some of the ones that others don’t. I think some errors make the book – not really mistakes but quirky oops for the character of the book.
Mistakes are how you tell real people wrote a book now. I’d rather have mistakes and people get upset because their $6.99 bought the result of a human’s love and passion for writing versus lifeless perfection.
And those people who need perfection can PLEASE go find someone else to read. I’m human, there will always be mistakes.
I do want to work hard to limit the number of mistakes in a book, but there will ALWAYS be mistakes.
Hugs! Glad you are back to writing. Seriously enjoyed the insanity of the white unicorn cop who shat diamonds & other gems (ok, so I’m a little jealous of that ability…). But honestly, you do you. You are an awesome writer whose books are a rollicking good time that also deal w real issues w grace, elan & humour. I can see your characters dealing w PTS w humour, deep breathing exercises- and that is REAL. If only ONE souls suffering w PTS gains a new way to cope, then you have given them the world. You do you. Let the crankies do the crankies.
My mom had an astounding inner editor. When she and my dad laid tile together, she could always spot the one on the transit station platform that was a thirty-second of an inch off. My inner editor was very useful for typesetting our fanzine in college and proofreading friends’ novels. [Far too many of my friends kept coming down with severe cases of trilogy.]
I used to wonder what publishers’ copyeditors were smoking when I found errors, until I heard from authors that publishers don’t really do that sort of thing much any more. Typos and malapropisms used to chafe and vex, albeit never enough to report [forward inertia for the win!]. Once I heard from you how obnoxious Amazon is, I’m extra glad to have never vexed authors thusly.
Now I’ve learned to savor the better malapropisms like good chocolate or bad puns. For example, in a medieval romance I read recently, the hero was gleeful to see his wife so “finely arraigned” [rather than “finely arrayed”]. I share the more amusing ones, so my spouse can savor them too.
I’m sorry for all the harassment you go through, but thank you for helping me be a better and more considerate reader.
note: “finely arraigned” is more descriptive of _Double Trouble_, which I’m now off to savor again.
Nowadays, most trad published authors are lucky to get ONE proofing and copy editor, and no one person, even those who think they get EVERYTHING… actually gets everything.
I’ve worked with many people who thought they had astounding inner editors, and no… they’re human like everyone else, and they missed just as much stuff as others did.
They’re just noticing *different* things. But there was a time where they had a team of 5+ people all working on the same book, and that results in a cleaner book. Those days are gone because those people are expensive to hire.
i have been amazed lately by the newest works of very long time authors and how poor the proof reading is. Reading through some series, i can see where there was either a change in proof reader or publisher, because the proofing will be awful for a book or two then return to more of what was normal. It is unfortunately, part and parcel of this culture of ‘big businesses with investors’. Very sad.
Loving it! I want these books, and everything else that’s coming. As an aside, the lack of nice things from me on Discord are only because Discord discombobulate me.
“I really wish more readers were showing up to ENJOY the book rather than to criticize the book.”
I HAVE BEEN FALLING DOWN ON MY JOB!! I have not done enough to get across to you (and others) just how much I enjoy your books, because I have been busy pre-ordering and buying and reading and re-reading your books.
In all seriousness, however, I do so enjoy your books. Thank you for your hard work and effort. And I’m sorry, I’m not the kind to carry a little notebook around to write down the clues. I’m the kind to say, “Oh, wow, so THAT’S why that happened” after the meaning of the clue becomes clear. But I’m glad YOU’RE the kind to carry around that little notebook so all the clues become obvious and make sense at the end!
Love all your stuff.
I read your books twice. I gobble the book to the end, wait a day or two then slowly reread. All of your different pseudonyms have a different voice and I love them all.
Thank you
Thank you for this post. I’m looking forward to seeing Karma’s and Jake’s successful resolution and appreciate the sneak peek.
I absolutely loved Dead Weight! And Partners in Crime sounds like even more fun.
I used to submit reports on your contact form in a misguided attempt to be helpful. There really never were many, but my brain insisted on pointing them out until I realized I was just causing you more stress, for which I sincerely apologize. Now I blitz through each book to enjoy it, then on a more careful reread for nuances I compile my list. And then I delete the list rather than send it. Mind games, but the errors don’t ping me after that so I can enjoy the plot and characters on subsequent rereads.
And I hope you have a great time at DragonCon!
Using the actual correction form is fine. That’s what it’s there for. I just address them when I have a reason to be going into the book to edit it / doing an update for another reason. 🙂
I really enjoy your books, can hardly wait for the next ones. Hope you have a great day. Love the pictures.
The sample of Old Secrets – ♥️♥️♥️
Insights into Whiskers on Kittens creation – always interesting to hear this kind of background.
News that we might get the next MMLP153 book a bit sooner than expected – you made my day, I loved the first book! 💕
Thank you!
I somehow managed to put this as an answer to someone else’s comment before.
The pretty pink bird is either a Major Mitchell’s cockatoo (pink cockatoo instead of a sulphur crested) or a Galah. Given the beautiful pale colours, I’m leaning toward the Pink Cockatoo/Major Mitchell. Did you happen to see him or her raise their crest? I could tell you for sure if you did. Fantastic picture 😍. And, thank you for the lovely shot at reading the small bit of your work today! It brought some comfort to me on a very fraught day. Xx
It is a Galah.
Ok. I’m glad you found such a pretty bird to take a picture of! Xx
This lovely little baby was in a bird conservatory in…. I believe Cairns. Most of the birds there had some form of problem that would not let them thrive in the wild, so it’s like a glorified bird rescue with a bonus of people being able to actually see the birds. Some of the problems were minor, like a broken toe or things like that, but some of the birds couldn’t fly. (And in the case of common species, some were totally fine but keeping some that *weren’t* fine companionship.)
It was really cool to be able to see and photo the birds up close, though.
Galahs crack me up, and are probably among my favorite of the Australian birbs. Dumber than fucking ROCKS.
Reading the sample of Old Secrets made me go buy the first Karma book! It’s going to be my next read. 🙂
Weaning yourself off of social media is probably a good thing. It gives pissy people less chance to get after you.
I REALLY enjoyed Dead Weight! I’ll have to read it again to pick up what I may have missed on the first go-round. Oh who am I kidding- I re-read all your books, many times each. I’m just sorry that you don’t make much money off of your fantastic writing. 🙁
i suspect that many of us who enjoy Dead Weight, and the rest of your books, are the type of people to just write 5 star reviews, love comment and forward on your Facebook ad and then just leave you personally alone so that you can continue writing! i do make comments here when i get your posts (here or on patreon), and that is simply to counter the vicious stupidity of people in general and to perhaps help you to be less bowed down about it.
It is unfortunate that bashing a person’s work anonymously on line and in reviews has become a pass time of current culture. More so, that you even have to say (In Your Own Newsletter!) that it’s just stream of conscience and has not been edited, is appalling commentary on the world today. It’s an fyi newsletter for the sake of all the gods and goddesses! Why in the name of heaven and hell Should you be bothered to spend time editing it when you can put that energy into book writing? smh If these people feel That strongly about your books, they should back off and let you write!
i’d say ‘don’t let the bastards get you down’ but as they affect the financial viability of being able to produce and distribute your work, you can’t help but be effected by them. Unfortunately, people who are unhappy with themselves now have all these places that they can anonymously dump on other people rather than trying to do better themselves. They somehow think that denigrating another in some way raises them up, but you and i both know that this isn’t the case. These are sad, pathetic people. There is no way to know what demons are eating away at them. And unfortunately for your own peace of mind, you have not left reading these things to someone who sees these people as they are (the ones that have invaded your personal email and life are a whole other abomination and i wish upon them only the same hell they have given you within the context of their world what they actually do).
Those of us who care about you as a person first and an author second, will be here to support you. Our voices may not seem as loud, but we are constant and true, where they are fleeting and false. It sounds counter intuitive, but perhaps, if you did not appear to react (i know this is very hard, and i know that you want to keep your readers appraised of what is going on), these morons would stop poking at you and go away… sighs… but they are true idjits (as the Irish would say), and there is no telling what stupidity they will next perpetrate. i am so sorry you are subjected to this simply for the “sin” of providing others with enjoyment. It is a damn shame and so unfair that you should be subjected to these cretins.
+1
Hear hear!
More books! Yeah!!!!! I’m turning imaginary cartwheels (I’m too old to do real ones 🙂 )
I was wondering if the occasional short story would help the financial crunch. I see other authors selling them for $0.99 each and since they are equivalent to a single chapter, the time cost is much lower. Maybe a way to continue the some of the financial benefits of the romantic comedy series without having to write a full book in a world that you are burnt out on?
No, not really. I will do rare anthologies with shorts, novellas, and maybe even short novels, but short stories does not help the problem at all.
I’ve spent thousands upon thousands upon thousands of hours in this world, and I’m just tired. But I’m not done the storyline I set out to finish, so… gotta keep truckin’.
Yay, more Karma & Jake
Loved Dead Weight. Looking forward to the next one. So thrilled with the sneak peek. Time for a reread!
Loved Dead Weight, read for the fun and the novelty of your work. So glad to see the next one coming down the pike soon! Got to go re-read Karma so I can enjoy the whole story again! Don’t late the haters get you down. 🤷♀️❤️
Love Magic and Mayhem! This was a great update, looking forward to the next books. Also, pretty birb! I was in Australia almost 10 years ago, still dream about it.
Hi, I tried to access your Discord site. My browser told me that page doesn’t exist. This is FYINonlu
It’s something wrong on your end. The discord server and link are confirmed to be working.
I love your books, I love your writing. I care not for typos or mistakes. If anything, they hone my editing skills when I find one in any book. But to be honest, my brain just autocorrects before I even notice more than half the time.
I love the worlds you create, the characters. The plot, the plot, I love plot lines. I want stories to loose myself in, and that’s what I find in your books. Your books are important to me. They are saving me when the real world has been too much. They have been the perfect balm for things I need to escape from. Your boooks are loved, your writing is important and truly save me from the blackness. Please keep writing, but put yourself first. We are owed nothing. You are a provider of dreams and magic, it is a gift you send into world. Thank you so much for your words that build such amazing new realities that I can visit through your pages and imaginations.
I’ll be honest, mistakes always are a part of printed life. Always. Why would anyone expect perfection? I have some fiction books from the turn of the 20th century, published by a major house, and they have a few errors. So what?! I cannot understand being so picayune as to bother reporting such. The only time I have ever even mentioned errors in a review was when they were so egregious that it honestly destroyed the book for me. When it’s obvious this self published author didn’t bother to even use spell check, well I’m outa there and I think giving others fair warning is acceptable. Even then, I try to find something nice to say about the characters or the plot. Just be a decent person and treat others as you would like to be treated!
I enjoy all your books! Don’t care about typos, in my mi d they are corrected and if I like the typo then I leave it… I will enjoy what you gift us readers with and just hope there is more to come!