It's My Favorite Time Of The Year!

It's November, which means food and it's also the point in the year where everyone at work starts disappearing for holiday festivities. I cannot wait for Turkey Day. The PWHL also returns this month, so you all need to mentally prepare for me to talk about hockey in future posts until about June or July.

New to the blog, TL:DR. Click the link and you'll jump to a summary of the blog post. Not AI-generated. Just me calling out the important things in the post. 

I don't plan for this to be a long post, just trying to get back into the habit of posting. Still working on Grisly Politics. I've only been able to work on this book in the mornings on the weekends due to the course I'm taking and work, but once I finish my course in the next week or so, I'll be able to dedicate more time to it. I'm actually getting close to the first inciting incident of the book. If you know me, I like to have a couple or a few of those depending on the book. This is excluding the Last Pureblood books. Those will vary in the number of inciting incidents due to the overall arching story. Gosh that series is such a behemoth. Clearly, I just distracted myself and I will be talking about that next because obviously my brain has some thoughts it'd like to get out, but let's get back to the topic at hand.

Full disclosure, and I'm going to have to mention this a few times before I release the book, but the first inciting incident is intense. It's emotional, it's messy, and it's human. With what we know about Dax and Eliza, how could it not be? But you have been warned, and I'm only going to give 3 of those. Possibly 4 if I can't stand the level of emotion I provoke with this incident. But yeah that's what's going on with Grisly Politics.

As soon as I pass my certification exam, I'm going dive head first into Fate Unseen and start re-familiarizing myself with whatever I was trying to get accomplished with that story. And since I can't remember what all I've revealed about this book, I'm going to remain silent.When I start my read of it, I'm sure it's all going to come rushing back. I hope with reading the story, it'll amp my brain up to edit it because that's what I had to do to get back into Grisly Politics. Gotta find the joy before I can do anything, which is a little nice. My brain only wants to do things that makes it happy. Aww.

I've been meaning to mention this, but I kept forgetting. However, now that I'm having multiple conversations a day or having this shit shoved down my throat, I felt the need to make a public announcement.

DJ SMALL HATES GENERATIVE AI.

DJ SMALL DOES NOT UTILIZE ANY TYPE OF GENERATIVE AI.

DJ SMALL DOES NOT WORK WITH PEOPLE WHO USE GENERATIVE AI. 

DJ SMALL BELIEVES WHOLEHEARTEDLY THAT GENERATIVE AI HAS NO PLACE IN CREATIVE WORK.*

(*Unless the creative work is some sort commentary on AI then in that case it's all right, but within reason.) 

If there are any questions about the above statements, please, reach out. I hate Gen AI with a passion and the fact that it's permeating almost every facet of life is just gross.I have no problem with assistive AI, such as spelling or grammar checks or AI used to adjust the volume on a TV when theme song is at 20 for volume, and the show is at a 3. That I'm fine with. Shitty art and books generated with the shit because someone couldn't take the time to try, fail, and then learn from their mistakes is not art. It's a shortcut and it's unsustainable because evil begets more evil. Like, I know I'm not the only one who knows that. I'm hoping Mr. Cory Doctorow is right in his assessment that the AI bubble is going to pop soon, and based on the facts he's provided, it's quite likely. This is all I have to say about Gen AI.

Here's a pallet cleanser:

 

 

  

There. Are we in a better headspace? If no, give it another listen. If yes, let's move on.

I am participating in SWAG4GCLS with five other fantastic authors, who I shouldn't even be on the same team with. At least from a writing standpoint. This is a fun little event The Golden Crown Literary Society is doing to raise some funds for the organization, which is non-profit, as well as having an event for writers to take part in during November so they can achieve their writing goals now that NaNoWriMo is an extinguished dumpster fire. At least one was put out. I'm being glib about it because I don't know the whole story, but from what I've read, it sounded like a dumpster fire.And it's tragic because a lot of authors use this month to really focus on their goals and what not because having others hold you accountable or at least to check-in with is definitely helpful for that process. 

For SWAG4GCLS, I will be focused on completing edits for Grisly Politics, so if you want to raise money for a great organization while giving me encouragement to stick with my editing, go ahead and donate.

Since we're ending on a giving note, if you are not aware or live outside the US, there is currently a government shutdown due to Republicans wanting to snatch healthcare from US citizens, and the Democrats are not rolling over and letting that happen. Because of this many people are going to be without food to feed their families due to them not getting paid or not being able to receive their government assistance. Either way, this is no longer about politics, and its about helping people. If you are able to put your politics aside, and donate to either your local food banks/pantries orgs or even national organizations like Feeding America, I urge you to do so. If you are not financially available to do that, then please promote them. With the holidays arriving, some people and families are going to be stretched financially, and not because of commercialism but due to the shutdown, and, unfortunately, some are not going to recover. So, put your politics, opinions, and whatever aside and help those in need.

And because I am on a soapbox about this, through the month of November if you donate to a local food bank/pantry or a national organization, and you send me proof, I will give you one of my books for free, and you can decide if you want a signed paperback or an ebook. There are some limitations: one (1) book per person. There are no multiple entries. If you enter more than twice for whatever reason, the first entry will be chosen. No payments for shipping. And you have to be 18+.

There, I feel like that sounds reasonable. To enter just fill out this form, which is going to capture your name, email, year of birth to make sure you over 18, and a place for you upload your proof of donation. If opting for a signed paperback, you'll also be asked for the mailing address you would like your book sent to because how else am I going to get it to you? For peace of mind, all books will come in a USPS or a UPS box or packaging. I haven't decided which shipper I'm going with.

So, that's that on that. I know there are a lot of asks in this post, but this is a cause and a org near and dear to my heart, which is saying a lot because I have many of those.

This ended up longer than anticipated, but yay! Main takeaways from this post:

•  Grisly Politics is still being worked on, and I'm hoping for a late winter, early-Spring release.

• Donate to my team, The Uncrustables, for SWAG4GCLS to support GCLS and motivate us to achieve our writing goals.

• Lastly, donate to either a local food bank/pantry or a national one and fill out this form, and I'll send you either a ebook of your choosing or a signed paperback of your choosing. You can only pick 1. Not both and all entries are limited to 1 book as well.

All right, time to end this. Remember to review the books you read especially those by indie authors. And until next time folks!

 

 -DJ Small  

Dammit! It's fricking October!

This post has gone through multiple iterations since I've come back from the GCLS conference back in July, and it's only because I'll think of something while typing, and I either get distracted or hold off on posting because my idea is a good one, thinking I would use the post to announce it because I'm always working on something. Usually that's not the case, but this time, I have a couple of things to announce lol.

Uh...since this is going to be a recap of my summer pretty much I'll put this under a cut so it's not a freakishly long post. I hope you all had an enjoyable summer, and I hope the next few months are a complete nightmare. Onto the good stuff!

The New Era Of DJ Small

Another blog post yay!!!! I've been bitten by the author/publisher bug, and I'm diving head first back into publishing. This was brought on by my recent therapy session and re-reading the fucking 2nd Detective Miller book. It really is such a great read. Like what Dax and Eliza go through is just....everything. I want to talk more about it, but I also don't want to give too much away. Here, let's see if I can write out a horrible, on-the-fly, blurb for it.

If there were two things Detective Eliza Miller can count on,the first would be murder happening in the city, and the second would be her inability to have a stable relationship.

Having just wrapped the case of a councilwoman with mayoral aspirations, Eliza wanted to spend an inordinate amount of time with her boyfriend, Dax Collins, and recover from spending every waking moment of the last week in trying to get justice for the councilwoman. Unfortunately, her big mouth and the city had other plans for her.

In the midst of what could possibly the end of her relationship, Dax is once again a suspect for murder, and because of their relationship, Eliza is not on the case. Not knowing the case's progress and what leads Detectives Chorpa and Oswald are investigating, Eliza does everything she can to prove Dax's innocence, again, while still hoping to repair the damage she has inflicted on their relationship. That's if she can get Dax to talk to her.

What do we think? Again, this is just an off the wall blurb that I tried not to put too much thought into. As you can tell things are going to get a little (a lot) angsty with Dax and Eliza, and honestly, it is a much needed development between them. They've been too cute and perfect, and that's not real life, is it?

Because of this burst of creative energy, and my brain's cooperation, I've actually started on book 3 of the Detective Miller series. It picks up a couple of weeks after book 2. It's only 500 words in, but it's something. Can't wait to get further into it, and throw some new curve balls at Dax and Eliza.

Oh! Before I leave the topic of the Detective Miller series, I wanted to let everyone know that Murderous Profession will be coming to paperback as a buy direct from me exclusive. I'm going to also include a cute standalone story as a bonus for the paperback release. Just a cute little slice of life short story that takes place between books 1 and 2. It would be considered the first story of the Murderous Interludes short story series. These will be stories that give a snapshot into Dax and Eliza's life. They'll be short and fluffy. But I just wanted to let everyone know about that before I forgot.

Changes are coming! They're coming in a big way too. Since I've pretty much neglected my author brand the last few years, I'm redoing everything. Social media, newsletter, website, and logo. All are getting a facelift. I've actually made a new logo. I think I'm going to keep it permanently.

 

What do we think? It's an improvement of my last one, and actually a more accurate representation of my writing and publishing persona. As you all can see, the logo is a phoenix. Unlike the old one, which was also a phoenix, but the style of it probably made it hard to discern. This one leaves no room for interpretation. It's a phoenix. Why the phoenix? I've never explained this, so I'll take the time to do so.

Every time I write a story I put all of myself into it and making sure the story is doing what I want it to, so by the time I finish it, I'm reaching pretty much the end of my metaphorical life for that story. Once it's out of the editing phase and into the publishing phase, I've pretty much died and am just putting it out in the world. However, death is not an end. Because either a thought or some rude bolt of inspiration strikes, and I'm reborn and investing every part of myself into another story. So, like the phoenix, I rise from the ashes of my old story, ready and excited to create another one. Hence, the phoenix as a logo. Plus, I love them.

I also mentioned the website getting a facelift. It's getting a major facelift. I'm changing platforms; bringing my online store to the website instead of Ko-Fi, which isn't a bad platform, but my end goal has always been to make my website the one-stop shop for all things DJ Small. So, by bringing my online store to my website, my readers won't have to go elsewhere and I can test out how I feel about doing this all myself. Lots of testing and seeing how it goes with this one folx. I apologize for any glitches and what the fuckery.

Newsletter...lmao. Goodness. I just don't know what to put in them. So, I'm only going to use them to announce new releases, goodies, and whatever else. They'll be inconsistent and there will be 0 method to my madness. It's all madness, all the time lol.

This brings me to social media. I am no longer on Facebook or Twitter. If you see anyone on there claiming to be me, it's not me. I'm only on Bluesky, Mastodon, and Tumblr. To be quite honest, if you just want to stay up to date on my new releases, goodies, and where to ambush me at, sign-up for the newsletter. Yeah there hasn't been one for a while, but I'm slowly coming back to it. Give me some time.

I have found a new book printer, and possibly a new distributor for my books. It's Lulu.com. I want to say a writer friend mentioned it to me, but I could be making that up. Either way, I did a test print of Murderous Profession, and it came out great, but I have some things I need to tweak because I used the same files I was going to use for KDP, but Lulu does things a little differently, so I'm going to fix those and hopefully have a paperback out for Murderous Profession by the end of summer.

Well, this certainly was a better blog post than I intended. I only wanted to announce that I was getting a new logo, but then more things happened, which is so exciting. I wanna say thanks to everyone for sticking with me, and I'm hoping to put a book out this year. It has been a while, but I've made some changes, 

All right, that is it for me. Remember to always rate and review your books, especially the ones from your favorite indie authors. Indies can't get popular without people talking about in some way, shape, or form. So, leaving a review is telling a stranger weather they should get the book or not, and don't you want to be a bad influence on people 😏.

Until next time folx....

 DJ Small 

*Waves From Under A Pile Of Blankets* Heyyyy........

It has been a while. I know it seems like I've vanished off the face of the Earth, but like most USians, I had a hard time processing the election, and that coupled with my normal depression and some family things, made existence painful. Now with the coming of Spring, well, Summer at this point, and a move, I'm hoping I'll be able to get back into the writing and publishing game.

Before I jump into what this post is truly about, I wanted to say I went to Queers and Quills over the Memorial Day weekend, and it was an interesting event to be at since the only writer events I've been to has been GCLS, which is about sapphic books and the authors that write them, who are primarily women identifying folx. So, going to an event where all of the queer community represented was interesting, but also a little refreshing. The queer community isn't a monolith, but sometimes we fall into the pit of putting ourselves in cliques, especially now and in the US. You can see it in the way people interact online, but if you go out in reality, the vibes are different and you forget how enjoyable it is being amongst other queers.

Anyway, it was a great event held in Portland, OR. It was my first time in the PNW and on the west coast so I was super excited. This was the first Queers and Quills event, and they did their best to include as much diversity as possible, but there were some areas where I thought they could do better, however, I also didn't attend many panels. I didn't like the scheduling of them. At most you got to go to 2 panels a day for 3 days, and that third day didn't have any panels. Maybe they'll evolve next year and figure it out, but outside of the event hanging out with some folx I know from the GCLS was a good time like always.

Anyway, want to find out what I've been up to before this weekend? Of course you do!

I would love to say that I've been working on Fate Unseen or Outside The Game, or even Grisly Politics during this time, but the sad fact of the matter is that I haven't. Listen, when I say it has been rough, I mean it has been rough. There was a full month where I came home from work, and went in my room and stayed in bed for hours on end, except to pee, which was infrequent because I wasn't taking care of myself. So, finding the headspace for writing has been such a back-burner of a want for me. And like every time I talk to my therapist, I'm like I want to get back into writing more than anything else. Not because I want to publish, but because that's my outlet, and not having it has me feeling listless.

Anyways, let's talk about the other side of this. As I said up top, I'm easing writing back into my routine. Current goal is to write at minimum a sentence It's about the small steps, and I think that's what my therapist has been trying to enforce in me, but I'm such a worldview kind of thinker and I get lost in the weeds. So, by taking it one sentence at time, I can re-kindle my love for writing. And being amongst my fellow writers this past weekend also helped reinvigorate me a bit because I want to be able to talk about my work. Like yes, I have four books out, but I would love to talk about my new stuff too. I have so much excitement about my forthcoming work, but I can only talk about it to a few people. So, we're going to take this a step at a time, and hell, if any of my readers want to hold me accountable, I'm all for it. You can now find me on Bsky.

Oh, one thing I've been thinking about while I haven't been actively writing is protecting myself as an author. Between the plagiarists, pirates, gen-AI, gen-AI sloop, and the capitalists publishing has become a bit of a nightmare. I've come to accept that the books I already have out in the ether have been pirated or scraped for LLMs what have you. That's how it goes. For future books though, I want to be more prudent, and more in control of how my books are distributed. Don't know how I'm going to do that, but I do know all future work won't be on Amazon. Except for the current series because that's not fair, so if you are a fan of The Last Pureblood or the Detective Miller series, the future releases for those series will be on Amazon.

 As for anything else, I'll be going through draft2digital, but excluding Amazon. If you are someone who uses Kobo or Scribd, my books are available on their subscription plans as well. I learned that the other day. Oh! And this also includes the Kobo app, so if you don't have a Kobo device, you can still get your books through there. I also want to say I have books through bookshop.org, but I can't be sure. However, if I do please get them through there. I'm actually going to sign up to become an affiliate because I love what they're doing, and they support indie bookstores. Print books for all published works will continue to be offered through Amazon, but I'm working on creating a store for you to purchase through so you don't have to purchase through those people.

Well, this got away from me, and it took almost two weeks to type up, but I've finally posted a fricking update. Maybe I'll do it again next month.

 Happy Pride!

 

-- DJ Small