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 

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

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

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

Welcome To The 'Bers

We've hit the 'ber months (September, October, November, and December), which means there will be a crap ton of holidays coming our way annnnd my birth month! Even though the days are getting shorter and the weather will be colder it's still a great time of the year.

Anywho, it has been a minute! I honestly have no excuse or explanation for it. My mind was elsewhere and I didn't post anything in July or August. I was about to skip September, but then I saw how long it had been and decided against it. I'm certain some of you (maybe 5 people in total. I think mostly bots come to my blog wanting to spread their spam) are wondering what I've been up to. Well, I am proud to announce I've finished writing the second book in the Detective Miller series, Grisly Politics. The fact that it only took me nine months to write is actually a little surprising because, 1) it felt like it was taking forever to write, and 2) my drive has been complete shit the last few months, so I'm shooketh by this turn of events.

Since it's done, it will be going right to the bottom of my editing pile. A pile I'm going to start working on this weekend, beginning with The Adventures of Swift. Hypothetically, editing that story shouldn't take me long, but depending on mental health, work, and life, it could be a while. I'm actually excited to revisit this one since I need to start working on volume 2. Well, outlining it. I think I started outlining the second volume, but I need to find the notebook I started it in. 

I'm reviewing how I'll be distributing Adventures of Swift and my novella series since they're both going to be exclusive to my website. Currently, I'm set on paid posts through my site where people sign-up for a subscription and you'll get access to each episode of Adventures of Swift, my novella series, and any other bonus content I'm fiddling around with. However, on the flip side I'm also considering the option of a paid newsletter. BookFunnel has rolled out some solid features here recently, and I'm tempted to go back to them. This would also give me a reason to get back into my newsletter. Let me know how you feel. I've put a poll at the bottom of this post to capture all 5 of my readers thoughts on the matter. I know no one wants to sign up for another subscription service, but I'll try to make it worth your while.

So, do you all want me to talk about the elephant in the room or should we just ignore it and I'll go off on a tangent about what I'm cooking up? Ugh. At this point I feel like I'm contractually obligated to myself to mention the second book in the Avery Lawson series, Fate Unseen. As I once said, it's an albatross around my neck lol. Depending on how my edits for Adventure of Swift and my novella go, I'm looking at diving into it at the beginning of next year. I know I had started my edits for it, but considering how long it has been since I've last looked at it, I'll be starting at square one. The thing with this one, is momentum. I need not to lose momentum, so I'll have to create a schedule for it. Yeah, nothing new or different, but I wanted to make you all aware that the second book is coming and I haven't forgotten about it.

I think that is all I have for updates. For the one off updates and announcements, be sure to follow my Twitter because that's my go to for announcing things. Don't forget to rate and review the books you read especially the ones from indie and self-published authors.

 Until next time....

 -- DJ Small

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The Last Week of Pride!

Goodness it feels like June flew by, but not really. I think I owe it to those two weeks I had off from work. During one of those weeks, I went to Mass to visit some friends, and it was a bit of a culture shock. Back in 2016, Mass legalized marijuana and this is also the same year I happened to move out of the state. When my friend and I got into the Springfield area, there were cannabis dispensary billboards everywhere. It was SO wild, but like I loved it because I'm pro-marijuana.

Then on top of that Springfield got a casino, which I knew about, and when they announced it, I thought they were going to build some gigantic skyscraper thing and mess up all of Downtown Springfield, but nope. They actually didn't do a bad job. The building blends in with the other ones, which have been there since forever, and it's pretty nice. Honestly, if it weren't for the signage, you wouldn't know there was a casino there. I did do a bit of gambling. I had managed to break even, plus twenty, but then I got greedy and everything went down hill. Thankfully I'm not much of a gambler, so I was able to walk away with my tail between my legs.

I'll address the state of the U.S. before diving into WIPs and rambles. Uhhh...so the U.S. has turned into the land of the dumpster fire, and no one is safe from its disastrous flames. I could say vote and donate to candidates and politicians who can prevent us from going back to the days of McCarthyism, but let's face it, it'd be like putting lipstick on a pig at this point. Do what you need to to make your voice heard and get your point across because in the words of Twisted Sister, "We're not gonna take it!" One thing I do want to urge everyone to do is donate to abortion funds. That way those who are in states where they have outlawed such access can get the help and resources they need for a safe abortion. I recommend starting with https://abortionfunds.org/funds/ and finding a local fund to support.

Moving on before I get ragey, let's jump into my WIPs. I'm hoping to finish Grisly Politics, the second book in the The Detective Miller series finished by the end of summer. I was able to write out a good chunk of it during the last week of my vacation, but it's still not finished. Thanks to my poor plotting, I'm only getting into a groove where I've setup my murder-mystery elements. "Editing this story is going to be so much fun," he said with obvious sarcasm. I'm going to have re-write it, take out chunks, and add some things for it to make sense. Good thing that low on the editing docket. I'm still outlining my Scandal-esque story. I've got my cast of characters planned, both the main plot and sub-plot seem captivating enough, and the angst seems to be at the right level. I feel like this one will more than likely be a quick read, but that could definitely change once I start writing it.

The other day, I had a crazy thought, which was I miss writing smut. Before I continue, I would like to add that I think it is a pain in the ass to write a good, sensual, and erotic piece, but I also have fun writing it. Call me a masochist. Anyway, I've started writing a couple of smutty stories, and none of them have gone any further, but I've got a few ideas floating around that I want to flesh out. Once I've got a decent piece written out, I'll post it on my website as a subscriber only post. This is just me spitballing some things, but yeah, I'm going to bring the smut back at some point.

Smashwords's Summer/Winter sale will start on July 1st, and this year I'm going to do flash sales. Each week, one of my books will go on sale for 48 hours then go back to it's regular price. Just a little experiment I want to try out. This bookselling game is nothing but trial and error, even more so when you're doing all the things. 

Other than that, I hope everyone was able to enjoy Pride in their own way. Whether you went to a parade or event or not, just know Pride is what you make of it. I like to indulge on the history of our queer-cestors and just let the gratefulness wash over me. Like I know there are things that still need to be done, and with the recent Supreme Court ruling, we know they're coming after the LGBTQ+ community next; but that doesn't mean you can't pause and appreciate where we are now. Just take a moment, thank those who came before, then pick up the torch and continue on the fight. It's not over until everyone can live their truth without having some sort of ax hovering over their head.

All right, I'm done with my ramblings and my soapboxes. As always, make sure you rate and review the books you read, especially those from indie and self-pubbed authors. 

-DJ Small

It Has Been A Productive May

By productive I mean, I'm further along in the manuscript for the second Detective Miller book and I've been doing some work on my website. I hope May has been treating you all better than it has me. I got Covid the week before last—thanks to my sister's husband—so I've been in isolation for the last two weeks. It was a mild case and felt more like a head cold, but it left me super tired. Last Saturday, all I did was sleep and it was glorious.