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 

August Got Away From Me

No blog post or newsletter in August. Or maybe there was a newsletter. Hang tight. There was one! So I'm not doing tremendously horrible. There won't be one in September. I'm actually contemplating on shutting down my newsletter, and starting a Discord server to distribute news, new releases, and the like. It's much easier for me to maintain that, and I don't have to come up with content. I'm shit at coming up with content. I'll probably make a final decision on that at the end of the year.

Still chugging away at re-writes for Outside The Game. I lost all motivation to work on it or anything for that matter, but I'm going to get back into it this weekend, and try to get out of this fifth chapter and get into the sixth. A part of the lack of motivation is due to work. Going into the office 3 days a week and then staying until 5 or 6P and dealing with traffic is just exhausting. Miss the work from home days. With all this being said, will this book come out in 2024? Probably not. I want to have my editor go through it one more time. If anything, it will be a Q1 2025 release, which I am okay with. I've always given myself grace in that regard, but I also get mildly annoyed.

I started outlining a new story, but I'm not going to talk about it. I'm determined to put out a standalone novel after I publish Outside The Game and Grisly Politics. I've got all these series and my standalone offerings are pretty slim, so I'm going to try and beef them up. Actually, now that I'm thinking about, I should probably start writing my Scandal-esque story. It's in its "outlining" phase, but that's all right, I know where it's headed and where I need it to go.

Let me talk book distribution for hot second because it has gotten fcking wonky because of Smashwords being brought into the Draft2Digital fold. I'm not seeing a difference on which stores my books are available, but the thing that is rough is keeping track of reviews. Now, I do my best not to read them. They're not for me, however, I use to them go gauge how a book is performing, especially on sites outside of Amazon because I'm stepping away from them as a distributor. So, figuring out how to consolidate reviews across various platforms is a conundrum I need to brainstorm on. Other than that, if you find yourself at a lost on where to purchase my books, you can always head to my Ko-Fi shop and buy them directly from me, including signed autograph copies.

I don't think I have much else for this month. Everyone is gearing up for Spooky season to kick off the holiday season, so I hope you all enjoy it, and I will be back in October with a new blog post. Hopefully. Remember to rate and review the books you read, especially those by indie authors.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

No Blog Post In June and No Newsletter In July

I guess I could arrange to have a small newsletter sent out this month, but I still don't have much to put in it. So, blog post it is. I needed to do one anyways.

Got the edits back for Outside The Game, so I'm off to do some rewrites to address the issues my editor pointed out. Not sure how long it will take, but I'm going for it. This means the edits for Grisly Politics have been placed on hold for the moment. I also started another course for school, so my plate is looking a little full. But I'm going to manage by golly!

Lats weekend, I went to the Golden Crown Literary Society's conference, which was held in Downtown St. Paul, MN. The hotel was right next to the Mississippi River, which was nice and my friend and I had a great view of it from our room. The conference, like last year's, was fun. My friend and I actually went to the awards banquet this year. We went exploring in the mountains of Colorado last year and missed it. It was a good time and definitely not a sprint of an event. It was my first time going to an in-person awards for author like things, so definitely a lesson learned situation. I mean, I'll go to the ceremony again next year, but I'll probably take the occasional break from it because I don't have the attention span for that lol.

I was also on a panel at the conference. My friend asked, and I said, "Sure, why not?" Lol. That's my response to a lot of things these days. The panel was about trans and nonbinary authors in Sapphic fiction. It was a great panel, and definitely opened the door for a much needed discussion because it exposed the lack of recognition for trans and nonbinary authors in queer spaces. It also posed a question of how writers in the trans community should be recognized? Like a book is fine. You can nominate it for the category/genre it fits in and go for it, but what about those books that don't fit the realm of Sapphic fiction and the author themselves? Like for myself I'm a transmasculine genderqueer individual, who has written Sapphic fiction, but I also have a book where my main character's love interest is a trans man. What if I want to nominate that book? What category would it go in? None of my work is considered straight, but definitely nuanced. Like Dax isn't straight and Eliza is definitely not straight. So I wouldn't want to nominate Murderous Profession and it's subsequent books for something that would fall under that label, but it's an interesting thing to think about. Even more so for books with nonbinary characters.

I'm not sure if any of that made sense, and I edited this post to the best of my ability before posting, but this is something the panel and the trans and nonbinary meetup that happened at the conference triggered in my head. I've also got some other GCLS related news, but I'm waiting for the ball to get rolling on that one. I'm finding myself getting more involved with this organization, and it is all happening inadvertently, but I like the org and it's a welcoming community, which is something I was worried about when I went to my first conference last year. I'm a pretty masculine looking individual and get perceived as cis male consistently, so I had my reservations, but they were for naught and now I'm an enthusiastic supporter.

Anyways, moving on, made new friends at the conference and I might be at Charlottesville Pride selling my books with the Sapphic Lit Pop Up gang. Depends on how it all shakes out. While I feel like I don't have enough books to peddle, I've also realized I need to find alternatives in building up my readership since the old way of tweeting and just letting those posts do the work for me is no longer viable. Oh! I am now on Instagram. Apparently I've actually be on there since at least 2018. I completely forgot I had the account, but you can follow me on there now. It might be my new favorite way to interact with readers and fellow authors.

Let's see, I know I said I was going to have a reader magnet out, but I haven't been able to get it edited. Editing is such a fucking pain in my ass, but it needs to be done. I'm going try and do it in-between things, but we shall see. If worse comes to worse, I'll offer up one of my existing books for free and people can choose which one they want when they sign-up for my newsletter. Might go that route until I have this magnet finished.

Any who, hope we're all having an enjoyable summer and are staying cool. Be on the look out for a newsletter in August.

Until next time....

-DJ Small

Newlsetter Is Out On The 10th

(If you're reading this on Facebook or through my Goodreads page, I recommend visiting my actual blog so you have access to the links)

I have this issue where I do something, and another thing is effected by the thing I'm doing, but I don't realize the connection until it's too late or like minutes before the thing I'm doing takes effect. In this case I'm talking about my newsletter dropping on the 10th, and me needing to post a blog post before it does. Fortunately, math irritated me into doing something else and I realized I needed to make a blog post before it does come out.

Reason for the early newsletter is because I enrolled Murderous Profession into a group promotion event on Bookfunnel, and it doesn't go past my preferred newsletter sending date of the 15th. So it's coming out on May 10th. If you're in the market for a new book and/or looking for a new author to check out, click on this link to peruse some books featuring queer characters. Oh, and they're all FREE! I made sure this group promo was well rounded and wasn't inundated by MM fiction with hard-bodied half naked men on the cover. So go take a look.

Speaking of Murderous Profession, I've started edits on Grisly Politics the second book in the Detective Miller series. I am super excited to be back in Eliza and Dax's world. These two are just so much fun to write and develop. I'm also going to be working with the same editor, so hopefully the second book should flow seamlessly into the first one. At some point this week, I'll take a pause on editing it so I can edit the short story I've written as a freebie for my newsletter subscribers and exclusive on Ko-Fi. If you'd like to receive it once I've released it, you can sign up for my monthly newsletter or become a supporter of my Ko-Fi page.

Other than that it is going to be a mellow month, especially since the PWHL playoffs are happening and the championship game is going to be around the corner, so I am super distracted, especially if I'm entering the bloodbath that is going to be getting tickets for the championship game.

Before I end this just wanted to say I out out a call for pre-release readers. If you're interested in becoming an Alpha or Beta reader or want to join my ARC Team, go to this page and sign up. I figure I might get a few pre-release readers established since I'll have a couple of books ready for critiquing soon. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me or reach out to me on Facebook or Discord.

Until next time....

-DJ Small

This Is A Late Post....

This post is soooo late. I started writing it on the 8th, but now it's...whatever date I decided to post it, and boy is that a gap. I have no genuine concept of time. It's a social construct anyways.

Newsletter went out on the 15th, if you're not signed up for it, you missed out on my "interview" with fellow indie author, Luc Dreamer. I use the word interview loosely because I just sent him some questions and he answered them. The interview wasn't long, but I wanted to showcase another trans masculine author who writes in the realm of Sapphic fiction. He was a great sport about it, and I had fun doing it.

Will this be my only interview? Probably not. That newsletter needs something to go into it, and sometimes I run out of ideas. However, it's not going to be a monthly occurrence. I also have my question corner as well where people can email or submit questions to me. So, if you have any questions or comments for me, email me or you can submit one through the contact form on my website.

I also announced in this month's newsletter that I've finished my second round of edits and have found an editor. She won't start working on it until July because she has her own obligations and commitments, but I'm super excited to have my part of the edits for Outside The Game completed. Well, for a little while. Next up is going to be Dax and Eliza, and I'm super excited. However, I'm on a bit of a break due to education reasons lol. I'll jump into them as soon as I pass this damn final.

I'm hoping my new editing process will make things move along smoother, and my new editor also does things in chunks, so she'll edit a chunk and send it my way for review. Either way there will be a new book from me out by December. Hell, it might be out in time for football season.

Last thing, I put out a call to start building my ARC team and I'd like to gain some beta readers as well. If you're interested in getting a free book in exchange for a free review, sign-up here and choose "Join The ARC Team". If you want to read my book while it's in the final stages of editing and proofing, and would like to provide feedback on the overall story, you're going to sign up at the same link, but check beta reader on the form. Beta readers I'm capping to 3, but the ARC team is open to all who want to help me out in the review department.

I'm still in the process of writing my reader magnet, which is fancy author talk for a free short story, and it is close to being done. I did some things and I ran into a dilemma which required me to take a step back from it. I should have it done hopefully by the time I leave for GCLS in July. If you're a newsletter subscriber, it'll come directly to your inbox once I've finished, and if you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, sign up here and you'll also get my new short story directly. Or you can wait until later and get it when you sign-up. It's up to you.

All right, I think I am done on this one. Next month I'll have my shit together, and get the blog post out before the newsletter. Time really got away from me this month lol.

As always, review and rate the books you read, especially the ones published by indie and self-pubbed authors. Until next time peeps...

 

-DJ Small

The 15th Is At The End Of The Week!?!?

Found out the 15th is at the end of the week, and it blew my mind. March will be halfway over next week. Like damn, and I'll be going to Pittsburgh on the 16th to watch PWHL Toronto take on Montreal on the 17th. Hopefully their streak will be alive and well by then. Because of that, I have this month's newsletter rearing to go, and if you haven't signed up for it, well, you will get your chance to at the end of this post.

If you haven't been lurking around on my Mastodon profile or Facebook page, the first two chapters of Outside The Game are available to read until the end of this month. So, if you want to see how E.J.'s story starts, head on over to Bookfunnel and read those first two chapters. I also encourage you to sign up for my newsletter while you're there because release date and pre-order information will be announced to newsletter subscribers first and everyone else a week later. Maybe later. I sometimes forget to do things.

I'm 5 yards and goal to finishing my second round of edits. As soon as chapter fourteen is edited, I'm going to hit the ground running in finding an editor. There are a couple of editors I had my eye on, but I have completely forgotten their information. I'll put an APB out on Mastodon and also ask around. Being in this post-Twitter life is such a mess because I have to rebuild most of my connections. Just like I'm rebuilding my reader base. I know there are some people who are still aware of me as an author, but I also haven't published anything in six years. So, like a newborn foal, finding their legs, I'm going to have to put in the work and rebuild my little publishing fiefdom.

But fear not dear blog reader, I've got some things planned to get this ship back on course, and to be quiet honest, most of it is centered around just putting out the books, short stories, and serials that I have been working on these last few years.

Next up on the docket after Outside The Game is done will be Grisly Politics, which is book two of the Detective Miller series. In between, I'm going to type up a quick short story, which will be an exclusive for my newsletter peeps. If they want more of it, then it's going to become my first Ko-Fi exclusive. So, if you want to get your hands on this newsletter subscriber exclusive, then make sure you sign-up for my newsletter.

Speaking of my Ko-Fi, last month, I set up a goal on there to get a copy editor for Outside The Game to make sure it's as good as can be for publishing. If you want to help out with that, just go to my page, and donate. Easy peasy, and you don't have to sign up for anything I don't believe.

Lastly, I'm going to go on a quick Bookfunnel rant because I love the site. I do, but using it for self-promotion has left me a bit jaded. They have a features where you can sign up to join a group promo to giveaway books or do a book swap with another author, and I get a bit annoyed with it because I don't find categories that my books fit in, and when I create my own promos they get little attention, which I will take the blame for because I don't promote them as well as I can, however, at the same time they are listed on the public Bookfunnel promo page. I'm tempted to switch over to StoryOrign, and see if I have any luck there. I need to mull it over a bit more.

Oh! Before I end this if you're interested in becoming a beta reader for me, please fill out this form on my website, and I'll get in contact with you about being one.

 That's it for today's post. Sign up for my newsletter here. Contribute to my Ko-Fi goal here, and learn about pterodactylus here. Full disclosure, not my favorite dinosaur. That would be the stegosaurus, which you can learn about here.

March's newsletter will be out on the 15th folx! Remember to review and rate the books you read, especially those written by indie and self-published authors.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

Going All In On The Newsletter

Greetings to one and all! We have made it to the end of January, and into February. Here in VA we had a wicked bad cold snap a couple weeks ago, and other than causing my electric bill to jump, I tried not to leave the house, but that thing I call a day job (insert depressed groan here) made me. Granted, there was one day where I had to work from home because the roads weren't the best. Looking forward to some warmer weather. Not Summer, but just mild weather. The kind of weather where you can open the house windows during the day, and burn a nice fire in the pit at night. That kind of weather.

January also saw the return of my monthly newsletter. If you received it, what'd you think? It wasn't anything special, but I think it was a good way to re-introduce myself to my readers. If you haven't read it yet, you can head over to the archive on my website and read it. Do note, any freebies or coupon codes in archived newsletters have expired, so there's no point in clicking on them or trying to use them.

February's newsletter will be a lot more entertaining. As the title of this blog post implies, I'm going to be going all in on my newsletter because social media is a nightmare, and I'm leaning more towards it being my primary mode of interacting with readers and supporters of my work. I think it'll create some interesting interactions. So, to roll out this interactive newsletter I'm going to be accepting questions from people, and will be publishing my favorite questions in my March newsletter. If you have a question, you can send it to me via email or you can use the contact page on my website. I plan to publish all selected questions without names, but if you really want me to shout you out for the question just let me know.

Another thing, and you'll want to click on this link the moment you read this, but I'll be distributing a teaser of my next book Outside The Game in February's newsletter. If you don't want to miss out on this opportunity, go head and click that link I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph so you don't miss out. I'm almost done with the second pass through of the manuscript, so I feel really good about releasing this teaser.

The next newsletter is going to be released on February 15th just an FYI for those interested in getting that sneak peek of Outside The Game.

So, I've been reading Reappearance of Summer because I found myself wanting to revist it. And, to be quiet frank, while the story is good, there are some issues with it. I mean love the book, the characters, and the world I created within it, but one thing that annoys the piss out of me, are all the minor errors that I'm coming across while reading it. A lot of it is my fault because I didn't have a good grasp of stylistic choices vs. grammar rules, and clearly I have learned since then. I've actually taken time to study The Chicago Manual of Style on top of re-learning grammar rules, and so during my re-read of Reappearance of Summer, I've come to realize a lot of my mistakes could have been prevented by having a copy editor. This is probably true for most of my books, and I do plan to hire one for Outside The Game, but I'm going to need help getting one. 

I've set up a goal on my Ko-Fi page. It's a lofty one of 250 USD, but I'm curious to see how it goes. It'll probably be up for a while. If I don't make goal, I'll keep it up but change it to where I get a copy editor for one of my older books. Yep, that's right, I'm finally going to go through my backlist and re-do the editing on them, update the formatting, and possibly get new covers for them. I haven't decided on the cover thing yet. I want to commission someone to make art for them, but I also just want to refresh it on a basic level. Plus, I'm super finicky about my art. We'll see which way I land on that one.

Anywho, this blog post got away from me. Remember newsletter subscribers will be getting a sneak peek into Outside The Game, I've got a goal on my Ko-Fi page, and if you want to have a question featured in next month's newsletter, you can email me or do it on my contact page.

Don't forget to leave reviews of the books you read, especially the ones by indie publishers and self-published authors.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

That title is as far as I got in my Spanish Duolingo education, who I learned just laid off contractors to implement AI technology to do the work they were doing. While it's supposedly being framed as "no big deal" in this article, it's still something that goes against my morals. If the layoffs and AI integration meant an increase in wages for full-time and part-time employees without lowering the quality of the their software then I'd approve, but if neither of those are the case (which I'm certain it is), then I'll shame. Either way, I've cut ties with Duolingo because I don't like the taste this leaves in my mouth.

That was not how I was supposed to open this post, but clearly I'm in my no-filter year--I did have a birthday in December--so I'm gonna go for it. On to business!

Welp, I've just completed the final read through for my first newsletter of the year, which is also a dive back into sending it out. This January newsletter will be a re-introduction of myself, my work, and expanding on some things I've been kicking around the last few months. I'm already coming up with ideas for February's newsletter. I've come to realize that there is no reason why I can't make it a truly engaging newsletter, so I'm going to present a new idea in February and hopefully people will respond to it. I've got some other ideas bouncing around in the wide empty space known as my brain, but I need to really dwell on them before deciding.

Anywho, January's newsletter will hit inboxes on 01/15, and will be active on the archive on 01/24. If you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, you can sign up here.

As to what I've been working on, I started plotting another story. I had an idea, it dug it's talons deep into my brain, and now I have like a 6-page, single spaced outline in OneNote that's getting longer. It's a vampire story, and I'm hoping it won't span more than two books because I don't have the bandwidth for another series. I seriously need to learn how to write standalone books or something because jeepers.

I've also started the outline for the third book in the IFL series, which is weird because the second one hasn't even gotten off the ground quite yet. I mean, yeah, I've written six chapters of it, but I just got to the first major turning point in the story and there are like 6-7 more chapters to go before I can think about calling it done. Maybe there might be a few more chapters. We'll see what happens.

This brings me to the first IFL book, which hasn't even been released yet lol! With the long weekend, either ahead or behind me depending on when you're reading this, I'm dedicating all my time to it. I'll be committing the edits I made during my first pass through on top of adding some things to put it in alignment with the second IFL book. Once those are done, I'm off to find an editor. While I love my usual editor, I'm looking for someone who is well-versed in North American football stuff to catch things that might not be believable. A lot of web searching and liberties were taken with the football aspects of this book. A...lot! 

Oh! Before I forget, if you want to know more about the first book in the IFL series, I give a full synopsis and cover reveal in my January newsletter, so you should sign up for it.

All right, I think that is going to be it for this post. Remember newsletter is out on the 15th, or is already out depending on when you're reading this. Sign-up here to get it directly in your inbox, and if this you're reading this post after the 15th, the January newsletter will be live in the archive on January 24th. Full disclosure, any coupon codes or freebies mentioned in the newsletter will not be vaild if you're accessing them through the archive. So, I'd sign up if you want to get those goodies.

As always, do review and rate the books you read, especially those put out by independent authors and self-published ones.

Until next time....

-DJ Small

End Of Year Post

Goodness, 2023 is coming to a close, which makes some people reflect on goals and hopes that we had wished to accomplish this year along with looking ahead to 2024 and figuring out new goals, hopes, and dreams as well as wanting to bring missed goals or hopes from 2023 to fruition. With all this being said, I hope we all accomplish what we want in 2024 and then some.

With that out of the way, let me go into what I've accomplished writing and author-wise in 2023:

• Finished first-round of edits on the 1st book for my new short-novel/novella series.
• Started the 2nd book for that series.
• Moved my site from Wix to Webwave.
• Started editing Fate Unseen, the 2nd book for the Avery Lawson series.
• Outlined several new stories
• Went to The GCLS conference in June.

And I'm sure I did other things, but I can't recall them. I'm thinking about picking up journaling in 2024 to help me keep track of things and feelings, but we'll see. It might help me when I'm in my pit of despair. While the above list definitely isn't everything I've done in 2023, it does give me some perspective. A lot of what I did in 2023 has set me up to release a book or two in 2024. So, I'm super excited for that to happen.

Also happening in 2024 is my newsletter. Bringing that back because as I once said, the world of social media is such a shit show, so between blogging and putting out a newsletter, I'm hoping to establish a central location where people can get news and updates from me. Same goes with my website, but anything on it will be more of a high-level overview and nothing too in-depth.

My first newsletter will be pretty much a re-introduction of myself. Might do a giveaway, and this, that, and the other. Something new I want to implement is a coupon code in every newsletter. While most of my books are available for next to nothing, I'd like to implement coupon codes for my newsletter subscribers. Another reason for this is that with the exception of the Avery Lawson and Detective Miller series, all my future releases will be distributed through Smashwords or my Ko-Fi page, and not Amazon. I'm hoping by rolling out monthly coupons codes I'll be able to get some traffic to them. It'll be a surprise for how much the discounts will be.

Expect my first newsletter to be out at the end of January, and I'm hoping to stay with the same cadence for the rest of them.

First release of 2024 is going to be Outside The Game. I'm aiming for a Spring release. Fingers crossed. After that, I will more than likely release the second book of the Detective Miller series, which is titled Grisly Politics, late in 2024. It's an ambitious scheduled for me considering from 2020 to 2023 I didn't put anything out. Granted I should give myself a break since I've put out 4 books from 2016 to 2019. It's a roller coaster on how I feel about my level of releasing books.

That's where my thoughts are at the moment. Anywho, here are some useful links you should bookmark, favorite, or save on a notepad somewhere. My Ko-Fi page, sign-up for my newsletter, and My Smashwords page.

Hope everyone had a good holiday season, and y'all have a good new year, all right? Let's make 2024 our bench!

As always please review, rate, and recommend the books you read along, especially those books released by indie, self-pubbed, and niche authors. There are some good ones out there, and people aren't going to know about them until you let others know about it.

Until next time....

-DJ Small

Sale Season Is Upon Us!

I know, I know. Black Friday isn't until next week, but I thought I'd get a jump on everything since I am off work the next few weeks. I tried to make everything align, but as usual, each platform does its own thing with Amazon being a pain in the ass. Sorry to say, there will be no sale on Amazon because none of my books are in their KDP select program.

But do not despair, you can still get my books for cheap and they'll be compatible for whatever device you're reading on. If not, let me know and I'll rectify it. All right, onto the sales info.

On Smashwords, all my ebooks are 99¢ with the exception of Pool of Lies, which is still pay what you want. The discount is public so no need to type in a coupon code.

Over on Ko-Fi, all my ebooks are 50¢, with the exception of Pool of Lies, which is also pay what you on Ko-Fi. I wanted to make both sales match, but that required doing price changes, and this that and the other, so it's just 50¢ and bright reminder for me to tweak prices at the beginning of the year because that's annoying. Anyways, if you click this link the discount should be applied automatically, but if you get to my Ko-Fi store through other means, the coupon code is THANKS23 so you'll get the discount.

Another thing, ebooks purchased through Ko-Fi are distributed through BookFunnel. Also if you're not sure what book to get, you can read excerpts on my website.

Thank you to everyone who is still with me on this journey, especially since I haven't put out anything since 2018? 2019? I can't remember. But you all are the best, and I'm super excited to come out with new material in 2024, and I hope you will continue to stick me.

To my USians, enjoy the upcoming holiday and please stuff your face, and to everyone else I hope you get some time to chill and enjoy being.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

P.S. - As always please remember to rate and review the books you read, especially the ones put out by indie and self-pubbed authors. You opinion could be the thing to provoke someone else to buy a book.

Hibernation Season Is Upon Us

Hope we're all fattening up and getting ready for a long winter's nap. Ha! Wouldn't that be fantastic? Just be like a bear or a chipmunk and get fat over the course of fall then sleep my way through winter. Ugh. Such a good life. The closest thing humans get to hibernation is the food coma we fall into after a big meal. Speaking of big meals, Turkey Day is coming up for USians, so I'm excited to stuff my face and the 2 weeks I will be off during November. It's much needed.

A couple of weeks ago, instead of editing the first book of my novella series, I read the second book in the Detective Miller series, which is titled Grisly Politics. I hadn't meant to do that, but I completely forgot how the story ended since it has been a year since I finished writing it. I opened it up, and I was cool with reading just the ending, but when I did that, I was like what happened here? So, I ended up reading the whole thing. I am really happy with how that story turned out. Like Eliza and Dax's relationship gains so much depth, and we get more of Eliza dealing with her shit, and of course let's not forget the murder! The murder is an intriguing plot point, and definitely one that challenges Eliza. I have a feeling people are going to get frustrated with Eliza in this next book because I certainly did, but considering her history it sort of turns that frustration into a simmer instead of a full on boil.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading it, and as apparent from my weekend, I wasn't able to put it down. Hopefully I can get to editing it Summer of next year, but I've got to see what hell that albatross Fate Unseen is going to put me through. After reading it, I don't think it will be that much of a challenge editing wise, but there is a couple of things I do need to fix. Like me providing a more coherent path when Eliza is trying to solve the case, and some other things, but it's all pretty minor.

Okay, while I'm super excited about Grisly Politics, let's talk about Outside The Game the first book in my novella series centered around a fictional football league. This is US/Canada football for my global folks. First, I had to change the title because there are way to many books titled Beyond The Game. I think one of them was a Charles Barkley book. Second, I'm almost done with editing round one. I've got three chapters left then I've got to review my changes then I'll be done. You all can thank my therapist for this. She challenged me to have either my embroidery project done or my book edited. Clearly we see which one I have put my focus on.

During editing, the word count went up 7k words, and I can no longer call it a novella. This is why I struck through the word novella in my prior mentions of the series because I can't call it a novella series when the first book out the gate is probably going to end at 45k words. While it is no longer a novella series, I still plan to keep the word count for each book in the series under 50k words, so a novella will get tossed in the series at some point.

The increased word count is due to some added scenes and I'm going to rewrite the ending. I think. It's fine in its current iteration, but I feel like it falls flat. We'll see how I feel when I get to it.

In other news, during the week that I'm off in November and not around my family, I'll be running a sale on Ko-Fi and Smashwords. So, if you've been looking to get my books for free or at a cheaper price, that will be the time to do it. I'll announce when the sale is on my socials and website.

Speaking of my website, a couple of week's back, I changed who was hosting my site because I've been trying to get away from Wix forever. I just don't like the way they do things. They're more focused on e-commerce, and I'd just like my website to be more than that. It's my spokesperson for when I'm not available and gives people into a peek of who I am as a writer. I'm sure you're all thinking, but that's what social media is for, but 9 times out of 10, I can't be bothered with social media author wise because I feel like I need to be saying something exciting, and my life is pretty boring. So, that's why leaving Wix was important to me.

I eventually found Webwave, and while there is a bit of learning curve, I do like how everything is laid out and you can do absolutely everything you need to do with it. Not an ad, but I'm definitely glad that I found them. If you do go to my site and find something off, shoot me a message. I haven't looked at it in a while after I launched it, so I'm sure something is wrong with it.

Goodness, look at this post doing the most, but it's also been a while. Oh, newsletter will be launching 2024. Not sure what is going to be in it, but it's launching lol. Key takeaways from this post: there's a sale in November, I'm still editing, and the newsletter is launching. Sign up here to make sure you get the 1st edition.

Other than that, remember to rate and review the books you read, especially those written by self-published and indie authors because boy you're missing some gems there.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

Short September Update

Welp folx we are in that time of year where the next few months either blow by really fast or they go really slow, and you end up spiraling. No? Not you? Hmm. Maybe just me then. At least we're easing into my favorite season of the year. Anyway, on to why I'm here.

Edits for the first book of my novella series are going fantastically. Fingers crossed that I will have them completed by the end of next month. After that, they'll be heading to my editor. Hopefully it will be a quick turnaround time frame from them. Doesn't look like it'll be ready in time for publishing this year, but I feel as long as I'm on the right path to publishing at the beginning of next year then I'm not going to sweat it.

I've been enjoying editing this story and writing the next book for it, so I can't wait until I'm in a good place to finally talk about it.

September is when people start looking to the dreaded holiday season, and I think this year, I will be doing sales on my Ko-Fi page and Smashwords. Depending on where I am, I might even set up pre-orders for my novella. Mostly doing the sales to really get back into being in author mode when I'm not having an off day and not working my day job.

Other than that, I do have any further updates for the month. Just been editing and writing, which is all I can do. Once I'm done with my novella, I'll be hopping back into Fate Unseen, so expect me to start whining about it in a month or so.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

One More Test

 Another test. I'll delete it, but it'll be in RSS feeds forever lol. What's weird is no automation service is supporting Mastodon except Beehive.

Whoops!

August is almost over, and I had this post in my drafts since the beginning of the month and did not post it. Love how my brain operates.

Just a quick check in this time around. I have paused on my Fate Unseen edits to do the edits on the first book of my new novella series IFL Tales. I definitely just made that up since I don't have an official name for the series. I currently have a name for the book, but I might need to change it because there are a number of books titled with same thing, and that's a sure way for my lil ole novella to end up buried even though it's not going wide for awhile. Anyway, I created a cover few weekends ago, and got a two thumbs up from one of my favorite people who I can trust not to bullshit me, which is exciting.

I'm not sure if I've gone over what IFL Tales is about or what this first novella will be about, but I'll hold off on going into them because I want to be in my third round of edits before I do that. By that point, I know I'm pretty much one or two more edits away from releasing it. However, I will tell you all what the series is about. As we all know, well as you all are learning, I love a good series. I've got the Last Pureblood Series, The Detective Miller Series, and now this one. Avery Lawson has an end date, and Eliza and Dax will run for a minute, but I think that series will also have an end date. What I want do is pull of a series like J.D. Robb's In Death one. Like Nora Roberts has been writing those books since 1995, and is still going strong almost 30 years and 69 books later. Do I think I have that kind of staying power? No fricking clue. But what I do know is that the IFL Tales has the potential to be a number of books. Why do I think that? Because IFL Tales is going to be a set of books centered around the International Football League, which is a women's football league. The football in these books will be American football. Sorry to my non-US readers.

And while the primary bulk of the league is centered on women's football, there are offshoots of it for reasons I've planned out in other books, and you'll get a taste of in the first book. So with that in mind, I've got the makings of a decent series because the books can be centered on players of the game, coaching staff, administrative positions, and whatever else my brain develops a yen for. I've already started on the second book for this series, and I want to say I have four more stories partially outlined. Since these are novellas, they're not going to be daunting reads, but emotionally impactful. It's a bit of a challenge for myself considering my writing has taken a bit of weird turn here lately.

Anyway that's all I have to say about IFL Tales (definitely need a better name), but if you''re intrigued and want to be the first to have it, go to my Ko-Fi page and follow it, or you can sign-up for my newsletter.

Once I'm done with my novella edits, I'll get back to Avery Lawson and her wily ways. Before I started working on my novella, I got in a good place with it mentally, so I'm excited to get back to it and knock it out. Because while I know what's going on in the second book, I don't feel safe starting the third one until I get that under my belt. It's a nit-picky consistency thing with me. I don't want to include something in the third book from the second book, which I might have taken out in the 6th round of edits. It could change the whole vibe.

Anywho, I want to say that is it for now, but stay tuned because I actually have something coming out and hopefully this year. Depends on what my editor's schedule looks like. 

Remember to review the books you read, especially those from indie and self-published authors.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

In The Midst Of A Rebranding

Oooh a second blog post for the month. I really must be getting back into this author thing, huh? We'll see. This post is more of a housekeeping/update post. I realized there were a lot of inconsistencies with my branding, so I've decided to eliminate the DJ Small Books, and just be DJ Small - Author. For the most part, it doesn't really change anything. I'm going to be updating my logo and the titling on some of my pages, but there shouldn't be any disruptions. If you run into any issues, let me know and I'll get it fixed.

Work wise, Adventures of Swift will not be happening this year. While I was doing some editing, I realized I put myself in a hole with that one, and as I learned with Avery Lawson: The Last Pureblood, I don't want to leave things in a state where it sort of just ends and leaves people hanging. I got the message on that one lol. So, with that being said, I'm going to work on my novella, which I'm hoping to have out by the end of the year since it's only 32k words right now. I'm just waiting to hear from my friend, who I let read it before, but I asked to her to read it again because I lost her notes about it when I deleted my Twitter account. Which brings up another point, but I'll leave it for the end.

Next up....*looks around* Fate Unseen, the second book in the Last Pureblood series. I really need to find out what I officially titled this series as because some of y'all are probably like "whut?" Anyway, I'm almost done reading the first book and making my notes from it, and once I have done that, I'll be getting back to editing Fate Unseen. I'm not making any promises about it, but as Peggy's physical therapist said after she jumped out of the plane, "Drop by drop, Mrs. Flores." Sorry, not sorry for those who don't watch King of The Hill. But back to the topic at hand, let's just hope I keep the momentum, which is likely since I've remembered why I even started with this series. I love the characters and I love the tale they're going to tell as it all slowly comes out. I won't make any promises about Fate Unseen until I am in the last round of edits. How about that?

Now, onto the point I mentioned earlier. I announced I'm bringing back my newsletter since I am no longer on Twitter. To get people to sign-up, I'm going to be offering a different free book each month, so if you've been yearning to read one of my books, but haven't had the time or money to purchase it, this is a good time to do so. Reason why I'm bringing back the newsletter is that I'm trying to have a central place to make announcements and updates so the most eyes can see it. Email is the best place to do that, Facebook is second. With this being said, Pool of Lies is the first book that's being offered to those who sign-up for my newsletter. It's yours to grab until the 6th of August. Once that run is done, then Murderous Profession will be on the chopping block. It hasn't seen enough love, and I think that is a crime worse than the ones committed in the book. If you're wanting to sign-up for my newsletter and get yourself a free book, follow this link and do the dang thang. You also get a sample to preview to really make sure you want to make this commitment.

Welp, this turned out a lot longer than I anticipated, but thank you for time and patience with everything, and I hope 2023 is the year I get this ship back on track. In the meantime, don't forget to review your books (even the free ones), especially those by indie and self-published authors.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

I Live!

It's been 9 months since I've posted anything, and my goodness am I sorry. I've been in such a hole and have been trying so hard to dig myself out of it that I've completely let everything slip away from me. Which, in all honesty is a disservice to the people who are out there waiting for me to come out with something new or pick up on one of my series. While I know I have no obligation to put out stories and what not, it does make me feel shitty. At least from a reader's standpoint. As a writer, I know I can keep writing for myself because I've been doing that for decades now, but as a reader to get invested in an author and have them just vanish is a little upsetting. So, I want to apologize for the vanishing act and I will try to get better at it.

Let's talk about a huge thing though. I didn't realize how many people followed my author pages on Goodreads, Amazon, and Smashwords. It's not a big number or anything, but there are a number of people following me, which is good to know because I am no longer on Twitter. I can't condone whatever the hell is going on over there, so I left. I did join Mastodon, but not everyone is on there, so if you're looking for me, your best bet is on Facebook. Another tech cesspool, but everyone is there. Just click the link and you'll be taken to my page so like it! I also recommend that you sign up for my newsletter. Yes, it's still around. I'll probably send out a e-mail to current mailing list suscribers go check and see if people still want to receive it. If not, they can unsubscribe from it. I'm going to bring the newsletter back from the dead, and hopefully I'll have some friends with me to keep it going. Possibly. We'll see.

Work wise the world is imploding. Nothing has been edited. Nothing has been sent to my editor or any editor. I mean, I'm writing all the time, but editing is where everything comes to a grinding halt. I'm trying to overcome this mental block with it, but it's hard. I guess the big question is will there be anything coming out in 2023? What do Magic 8 Balls say? Unclear? Or unable to determine or something like that lol. I'm going to try, but we'll see what the fates have in hand for me.

In other news, I went to this year's GCLS conference in Denver, and had an amazing time. Like seeing the multitude of people who write Sapphic fiction sort of alleviated some of my apprehensions about being more involved in the community. It was such a fun and friendly environment to be in, and talking with other authors or hearing them talk about their journeys and experiences on panels was just insightful. I would go back and possibly do a panel or two, especially if it's a fun one like a fanficion one or something. One of the things that crossed my mind while I was there, was that as nice and welcoming the GCLS conference was, there needs to be space for trans and gender non-conforming individuals. Because Sapphic and Achillean fiction isn't strictly for those with binary gender identities, and sometimes those of us who write within those spaces in fiction don't have binary identities. Like the conference did well with giving trans and GNC authors aforum to speak about their works and process, but I think having a panel on what's like to be trans and writing such fiction would be an interesting subject, but that's me.

Either way, if you ever get the chance to head to the GCLS conference, I say go for it no matter if you're a writer, reader, or just a fan of Sapphic fiction.

I want to say that is all I have, and next time I will have some more exciting for you all.

Until next time...

DJ Small

P.S. - Don't forget to rate and review the books you read, especially the ones written by indie and self-published authors.

Oh, October Is On Her Way Out The Door

And here I am late with posting, but vibing out to Beyonce's "RENISSANCE" This is a no-skips album for me, but her last couple albums have also been that for me. I love me some Bey. I know you all didn't wander over to hear me talk about Beyonce. Anyways, this might be the last blog post of the year. Between real life obligation, holiday ruckus, and me plain old forgetting I might not update the blog. I'll try to, but just know it is a possibility.

Have you been to my site? Well, if you haven't, there isn't much happening there. In fact, it has been brought offline. I had originally taken it down to do some changes, but then I was like, "Y'know what? I'm just going to take it down for the rest of the year." It's one less thing I have to think about and I can do the updates and changes at my own pace without having an imaginary clock ticking in the back of my mind. I've provided a link on the landing page to buy books and to contact me, but there isn't much else there.

Why did I do such a thing? Firstly, I've changed how I'm going to do my serials and novellas. They're still exclusives, but they'll be exclusive to my Ko-Fi account. The change is for simplicity. There were too many moving parts for doing it through my site and I needed to cut back on some things. I'm also going to use their store feature to buying experience cleaner. So when the site comes live again, and you all go to purchase a book through it, you'll have Ko-Fi, Smashwords, and Amazon as buying options. Readers going through Ko-Fi will be directed to BookFunnel to download their book to their preferred device. It's pretty easy, but support is available through BookFunnel and me as well. Another change is samples through my site. First chapter for all my books will be available as samples on my site, another feature recently rolled out by BookFunnel, which had me going back to them.

Onto serials and novellas. Goodness figuring out how to distribute exclusive content has been the bane of my author-y existence, but I think I'm content with how I want everything to go for Ko-Fi. Firstly, you all will be able to be one-time supporters or monthly subscribers, and those who choose to subscribe monthly will have different tier levels. Level 1s will get access to all episodes of serials and full novellas along with some other perks. Level 2s will get everything on level 1 along with download capabilities. There are some other things too, but I can't recall them. Level 3s, everything in levels 1 and 2, and some other things. Oh! A free copy of either the novella or serial once they're released wide. If they get released wide. I'll let my level 3s know. I just had an idea.

Now, I know my one-time donators are like what about us? Listen, I love all who support me, so I'm going to give everyone who donates something. One-time supporters will have access to level 1 posts for 30 days from the day of their donation. I don't make the rules Ko-Fi did. Another perk is if you buy something from my Ko-Fi store, you'll get access to exclusive content. So there are multiple ways people can enjoy the exclusive stuff.

All right, since it has taken me forever to get this blog post written, the world of social media has changed--officially. Popular micro-blogging site, Twitter, was bought by a person I don't share the same view points with, and I know some people are leaving, some are staying to see what happens, and others don't care and it's business as usual with them. I am part of the leaving camp, but it's not that easy since the Twitter is so ingrained in advertising and exposure, especially for indie and self-published authors. I'm currently testing out Mastadon as a new home with the idea of cross-posting to Twitter for a little while before letting the account become dormant. I'm also thinking about setting up a Discord server. Once I've gotten everything figured out, I'll let everyone know.

Okay onto WIP updates. Nothing new to report. I started editing The Adventures of Swift, but I've been going into the office recently thanks to my new position (luckily it's only temporary), so mentally I am not ready to edit it, but I'm hoping to hop into it this week. I'm also writing fanfic at the same time, and one of my fics has gotten pretty fun so I've been focusing on it too. I know bad me, but I love writing fanfic. It's just fun playing with these characters I've got attachments to lol.

I think that is all for me. It has been a weird weekend for me, so my thoughts are all over the place. Anyway, I wish everyone a safe and fun Halloween, and for those who are like me, I'll see y'all at Target the day after Halloween buying the discounted candy.

Until next time...

-DJ Small