What happened to April and half of May? Weren't we just in March? Good grief, I can't keep up! I'm sure many of you can relate. Time just keeps on steam-rolling right over us...LOL.
So, aside from my regular life, I've been busy, busy on the writing front. I've been spending a lot of time revising Mermaid Cove and working on writing the third book in the series. I've also contributed a short story to a contest and have been working on revisions for a short story anthology. Once I've finished writing book three for the Small Batch series, I'll either be working on revisions for two other books or writing the second book in the Widows & Shadows series. Meanwhile, my idea pile keeps stacking up. There are so many books I want to write, but can't get around to until at least one series is completed! Gah, the frustration!
Last night I was talking with my husband and realized I will have FOUR books coming out this year. FOUR! It's unbelievable! Here's what's coming up...
May 30, Mermaid Cove, book 2 in the Small Batch Series will release, continuing the adventures of Rook Campbell in Kentucky's bourbon community.
June 20, A Sampling of Sleuths, a mystery anthology, will release. I have a short story in it called "Killer Thanksgiving," featuring amateur sleuth Birdie Harper from the Hazardous Hoarding Series. Birdie is a middle-aged widowed hoarder who lives with her husband's ghost. It's a quirky tale where I was striving to write a cozy mystery with a hint of Southern Gothic.
But I have special news regarding Birdie...
Dumpster Dying, book 1 from the Hazardous Hoarding Series, was originally self-published in October 2022. I knew that it would be hard to place with a traditional publisher because of its quirky nature. Plus, I wanted to learn about self-publishing. Well, here's the reality: Self-publishing is an enormous amount of work. First off, there is so much to learn. And I only have limited time to learn it because I work full-time. So I was learning as I went, which isn't ideal. I still have a ton to learn about self-publishing, actually. I only hit the tip of the iceberg with my one book.
On top of it, I have to be in charge of every little thing and there's the added issue of contracting people to work on your projects and trusting they know what their doing. There's a glitch. A writer can dumps thousands of dollars into an editor and still come away with a book riddled with errors. I can't be happy with that.
So, all that to say, I just didn't have the time to do the self-publishing thing. Now, someday, if I can ever do writing full-time, I might consider going back into self-publishing, but for now, I'm content with traditional publishing and allowing someone else to manage all the tiny, tedious details.
Therefore, I went in search of a traditional publisher to take up the Hazardous Hoarding series, knowing that it's really hard to get a published book picked up and knowing that the blended genre series would be difficult to place. That's why I was over the moon to land a contract with Charade Media, LLC for the Hazardous Hoarding series! I'm not sure when it's going to release, but Dumpster Dying will be re-published at some point later this year with subsequent books to follow over the next two years.
Then, around October 10, Widow's Blush, book 1 from the Widows & Shadows Series will be the fourth book to release this year. Holy cow! I'm tired just writing about all this. This has definitely been a wild ride and it doesn't appear to be slowing down any time soon. But I'm learning a ton. I'm struggling, working hard, and I'm happy doing it.