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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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.

I Know. It's February.

January came and went. It was pretty wild. The Capitol was bumrushed by terrorist. We got a new president that doesn't look like a bottle of Sunkist gone wrong, and some other things happened, but I cannot recall them. We had some losses too. Larry King, who I didn't know voiced the bar wench in Shrek (thanks for that Tumblr). Cloris Leachman who was always a delight onscreen, and lastly, but certainly not least, the iconic Cicely Tyson. Her most memorable role for me, at least recently, is when she was on How To Get Away With Murder, but that woman was an icon who had bigger and more memorable roles than that.

I know I've been MIA for the last couple of months. I just didn't have it in me to do anything author related. Blogging, the newsletter, writing, editing....none of it appealed to me. Blame it on the holidays, or what, but I just wasn't feeling it, so my holiday break turned into something much longer. However, I did move into my own place at the end of December/beginning of January, so that took up a lot of my time and energy. Seriously the only things I had the drive for was Grey's Anatomy and Sims 4.

With me getting back on the high horse, I've done some author-like things. Website is down because I changed hosting services, but I should have it back up soon-ish. Depends on how much tweaking I need to do to the code. Newsletter is still once a month, but it's going to be used more for announcements and giveaways. My blog and website are going to be the main places to get information this year. It saves me from having to split my focus on a newsletter that usually doesn't have anything in it.

This now brings me to book distribution. Oh, how I would love to not be on Amazon, but it's the larger retailer so it's a necessary evil. I'm going to be doing more sales, giveaways, and name your own price events on my Smashwords and Gumroad pages. Sometimes they'll run concurrently, sometimes one will have something and the other won't. Either way, I would like them to be my primary distribution pages. Might have to come up with something bigger to gain some interest. These events probably won't start until March. I've still got to upload the electronic versions of my books on Gumroad.

I'm guessing it is time to address the elephant in them room...new releases. This year, is going to be the year of Fate Unseen, the second book in the Last Pureblood series. I've started editing again, right from the beginning, and I've decided it's going to be long book. There is no way I can cut out some of the details. If I can tweak something or remove it and put in a later book, then I will, but as for right now, we're looking at a long book. I hope you all enjoy that.

Once that is off my plate, I'm going to be focusing on The Adventures of Swift, which I started editing in December before I fell into a listless state. I know in prior posts I was saying it would be out the first quarter of this year, but since I've flipped my schedule around and decided to bring Fate Unseen to the first half of this year, Swift will be moving to the second half of the year for projected release.

Outside of that, let's just hope I continue on with this train of motivation and get something published this year.

I hope everyone had a safe and healthy start to the new year, and let's cross our fingers and hope we all get some semblance of a social life back this summer.

Remember to review the books you read. Until next time...

-DJ Small

I'm An Idiot

The heading of this post doesn't pertain to all of it, but I just realized something. I have my blog set up on the RSS feeds of my Amazon author and Goodreads pages. Why am I an idiot? Because I don't fcking post. All these people could be coming to the blog and all this jazz, but why come if I haven't posted since Obama was in office ( I miss him.). Any ways, I'm going to set up a schedule and blog more frequently. 

If you haven't read my prior post, Fate Unseen, the second book in The Last Pureblood series has been put on hold. I need to reevaluate my approach with it, or I need to do something differently. I won't go into it, but in my last post, everything has been explained. I'm hoping when I go back to it with fresh eyes the problem will jump out at me and I can fix it. We shall see.

In the meantime, I have been working on The Adventures of Swift, which is exclusively available on my Patreon page and Gumroad. I'm up to episode 11, and I've complied all the episodes into one document for editing. I say look for an updated chapter 1, and chapter 2 around the end of January or February. I've also begun developing a novella series centered around the world of professional women's football. How this happened I'm not 100% certain, but I'm sure boredom while being around my football watching family led to this. Anyways, it's just in development, but I'm excited to start working on it.

Oh, I've also continued my review of the physical copy of Murderous Profession. When I tried to put all my focus in Fate Unseen, everything else went to the wayside and this was one of those things. I'm going to be working on that over the next week or so. If I decide to do a small batch run of signed books, it will be a part of that.

Speaking of, I did a poll on Twitter asking if I should do a small batch run of signed books and all 5 participants said yes. I'm going to do another poll in my October newsletter to try and get a better read. If you're interested, sign-up for my newsletter, and you'll get it when I send out the October one on the 11th.

I did an author-y thing this week. Fellow lesfic author, KD Williamson, has a YouTube channel where she and other lesfic authors talk about their work and a variety of other subjects, including rating hot sauces. She had me on her channel this week, and it was a wicked good time! It was my first time doing something like this, and if I had PR people they'd be like, "We think you did good, but could your ass sit still next time?" My sauce was Marie Sharp's Pure Mango Habanero Pepper Sauce. It's a milder sauce because I am not one for anything spicy. I live my life at a 2. But other than discussing hot sauces, we talked about being queer and black, me being a trans man who writes lesfic, and a bunch of other things. If you want to take a look it's below.

Two more things then I will be done. First thing is, after being out for 4 years, I have made Pool of Lies 99¢ on all platforms it's available on. I'm not sure if this has expanded to Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and other platforms the book is distributed to thanks to Smashwords, but I know on Smashwords, it's 99¢. 

Lastly, Murderous Profession will be a part of Kindle Unlimited until the end of October, and is on sale for 99¢ until the end of the month. There will be a surprise free day on Amazon for Murderous Profession. How will you know when it is? Twitter and my newsletter. Newsletter subscribers will know the day before and the day of. 

All right, I actually didn't do too bad for this post. A reminder has been scheduled for 2 weeks from now to post again.

Remember to review the books you read, especially those written and published by indie and self-published authors. And please, please, please, PLEASE! Make sure you're registered to vote and remember to vote, if not early, then on November 3rd. It is crucial. Check your voter registration here. I also implore those who live in states where voter suppression is quite obvious to keep checking your voter registration frequently because things have happened.

Also thank you to the witches and Karma for the miracle you performed 😉

Until next time....

-DJ Small

June Got Away From Me

I was supposed to put up a true update on what I'm doing at the end of June, but then I quit being a human. Shout out to my depression and feeling 100% like crap for that one. I'm trying to work through it with my therapist so I can get back to something that look like a functional person, but it currently remains to be elusive.

Onto what you actually came here for....author ramblings!

Fate Unseen....Fate Unseesn...FATE UNSEEN! It's like Bloody Mary. Say it three times and it'll pop out of nowhere, or so I wished. Still editing it. My editing has been reduced to fits of trying to get it done because I have lost all motivation for it, so I'm doing what I can. What does that mean for the book coming out this year? A miracle. That's it. If I manage to publish it before the end of this year it will definitely be a miracle and I'm gonna have me some peach Jim Beam and tea to celebrate.

My struggle with editing has nothing to do with the story itself because once I'm in it, I'm in it and I'm engaged. The story is still wonderful, but with me being off kilter mentally, it really messes with my ability to focus. So again, the story is not shit. Or I don't think it's shit.

I've been outlining my next book and working on Adventures of Swift when I haven't been editing. Both of these projects are fun and light so they're a form of escapism for me on top of the fanfiction that I've read a million times...anyways...

The new book's working title is called "The Plumber's Daughter." A cute small-town romance about a former investigative journalist by the name of Carolyn Knox who buys a house in a small country town in Virginia as an attempt to escape the evil clutches of Washington D.C. The house of course needs a little love, and when her side lawn gets a sudden toxic pond thanks to her septic tank; she calls the local plumber, Tyler Meade. However, the person who ends up knocking on Carolyn's door is his daughter, Tyshell a.ka. Ty.

This story is going to be nothing but cuteness with a low level of tension. I'm refuse to even call it angst because I'm trying to minimize the angst. If you want angst go read Pool of Lies or Reappearance of Summer.

As for Adventures of Swift, I finished episode five and I'm writing episode 6. I may do a surprise drop on Patreon and post episode 2 since I can't work on what I need to. I fleshed out episode five wonderfully though last week, and I'm in love with the lore I've created for it. This means I'm anxious to share it with the world Squee. I'm also enjoying the fact that I'm keeping to my 10k words or less for each episode.

Oh, I completely forgot! There is a sale happening on Smashwords, and all my books are 50% off until the end of the month, and each week one of them is going to be free. This week it is Avery Lawson: The Last Pureblood. You call can acquire that one while I beat myself over the head and try to finish editing Fate Unseen.

Last thing I have is, put a poll in my July newsletter asking my readers which of my books they would like to see on Kindle Unlimited beginning August. I really don't like the Kindle Unlimited program because it means Amazon gets exclusivity for 3 months, but I'm willing to compromise by enrolling one book at a time in the progam. If you've been anxious to read one of my books and are a part of the KU program, click here to vote. A new window will open, taking you to the July newsletter where you can cast your vote.

I'll count up all the votes on July 31st, so anything that comes in after 12:00AM (EST) on July 30th, will not be counted for. And the book that gets the most votes will be announced on 8/1.

Heyyy, I think this was a decent sized post. I'm going to wrestle my brain and get something done, don't know what, but something. Remember to review the books you've read especially those written by indie and self-published authors. Side note: If you're reviewing my books, please leave a review on Smashwords. No one reviews there, and yeah, sure, Amazon is king, but I prefer Smashwords over them.

Until next time....

-DJ Small

3rd Time Is A Charm

Oh, man, trying to write a blog post has been a challenging thing for me this month. Hopefully this round will stick. I hope we're all doing okay and keeping safe out there. I know some states are opening up, and I hope those of you that are affected by that are doing the best you can to keep yourselves and your inner circle healthy and minimize your exposure. I'm not going to say anything further because if I do, it's not going to be nice and next thing I know the NSA is coming to me saying, "We just wanna talk to you."

In the last iteration of this post, I had no updates. That all changed on Monday. Fate Unseen was returned to me after being in my editor's very capable hands. Let's give a shout out to my editor who has worked tirelessly to get this back to me in a timely fashion despite everything going on personally and pandemically. She is a wonderful lady.

Now the ball is back in my court. Normally when my editor sends a manuscript back to me, I'm anxious to read her notes and comments, but lately I have been dreading getting Fate Unseen back, so when I got the email that she was done with it, I groaned a little. I still need to go through the doc and read her comments and notes. With that being said, May 4th begins the marathon sessions of me trying to get this thing knocked out. I've got my notes from my beta readers and editor, and I'm ready to clean this story up a bit more.

Fate Unseen will be hitting your eReaders/Kindles/tablets/phones this year, but when that will be exactly is up in the air. In fact, it's so up in the air that it's in the stratosphere. I honestly thought about shelving this project because of my feelings towards it, but I'm going to push through because it's not like I'm writing a whole new story. It's just editing, and I'm always whining about editing. So look forward to that.

I also have another piece of news. I've edited the first episode of Adventures of Swift, and by the time this posts, it'll probably be up. I'm taking a fanfic approach with this, which is edit it and post. The edits are a one time, maybe twice, edit by me. Depending on how the first episode is received, I'll see how I feel about posting the second episode. This is going to be posted on my Patreon, so the first episode will be free, but the ones after that, you'll have to subscribe to access. $1 gets you access to everything because I'm still working on things for the Patreon.

I had a Smashwords sale in April, and I thought all my books were on sale for 99¢, but that wasn't the case. Murderous Profession wasn't on sale, so during the month of May I'll be giving it way via BookFunnel promo. I'm trying to engage my readers more and I figured a giveaway would be the best way to do that. I'm also working on getting a paperback version of this book up. Should have happened a while ago, but man was motivation shit.

All right, I think that's all I have for an update. Thank you to everyone that has supported indie and self-published authors as well as independent bookstores during these "uncertain times" (I put that in quotes because it has become nothing but a marketing ploy). You're supporting a lot of people who are struggling right now and it means a lot. Even more so when you review books because it gets me and others authors exposed to other readers. Especially us queer writers who don't have a big readership. So thank you for that.

All right, I'm going to go open this Fate Unseen doc and see what mysteries await me. Stay safe, be vigilant, and I'm sending nothing but positive vibes to each and every one of you.

Until next time....

-DJ Small

How We All Doing?

The world is a little crazy right now, and times are super hectic, but I hope everyone that is reading this is doing their part and doing what they can to make sure we keep our fellow humans healthy and safe.

Because of the Covid-19, I'm now working from home, and I'm glad that decision was finally made Tuesday of last week. The weeks prior to that, when everything was really snowballing, all the uncertainty had me anxious. Now I can do my work without the anxiety and uncertainty.

As for my other work, my work of bringing you fine folks entertaining stories, I'm going to get episode one of Adventures of Swift up this week on my Patreon. It was supposed to be up on Saturday, but I decided to visit my sister and get the 411 on my older family members to make sure they're being isolated and taken care of. My grandpa is 90-something. This isn't how he's supposed to go out.

I'm still working on finishing the second half of season one for Adventures of Swift, but I'm hoping episode 2 will be ready for posting on April 11th, and the subsequent episodes will post every two weeks after that.

A paperback edition of Murderous Profession is on its way. I got my proof on Friday, and I'll be going through it this week as my bedtime reading to see what I needs to be fixed and get ideas for the one-shots that will be posted on my Patreon for it. I'm not sure when that will be live, but it will go up as soon as I'm satisfied with it.

Fate Unseen has gotten good feedback from my beta readers, but the consensus is that it's a long story with a lot of information, so once I get my editor's edits back we'll see what I can do with it. I'm hoping a mental breakdown does not occur, and that I don't put it on the shelf because it gives me migraines lol, but we shall see. Sometimes you got to put things to the side and come back to them later. It happens.

Other than that, I'm going to try and create some normalcy in the havoc, and I hope you all are able to do the same. If you need something to help distract you from the insanity all my books are a part of the Smashwords Authors Give Back sale, and they are free. Also you can email me if you don't have Smashwords and I'll send you a free copy of one of my books. Just one and one per person.

That's all I have, but before I go, be fantastic humans and review the books your read. It means a lot to authors, especially us indies, on so many levels.

Again, stay safe, wash your hands, and if possible, socially distance yourself so this thing can fade into the abyss or wherever viruses go.

Until next time....

-DJ Small

August is almost over...whoops.

The month has completely passed me by and I feel like September will do the same. Oh, boy. Thought I'd make a quick blog post before the month finishes out.

Tomorrow, August 26th, Murderous Profession will be out on Kindle and Smashwords! I'm still working on the paperback formatting, but that should be out in a week or two. Between life and work, time just got away from me. Lame excuse, but it's surprising how busy I was in August. But anywhoo, grab yourself a copy of the book and tell me what you think about it. I found it to be a quick read and entertaining, as did my editor. Of all the characters, I have a fondness for Dax and Billy. I had a fun time writing them.

I know some of you are waiting with bated breath for the next Avery Lawson book, and I am actively editing it as we speak, however, I'm taking the tortoise route with it--slowly but surely. I don't want to miss something that should have been mentioned in this one, or I mention something that shouldn't be in this book and is actually meant for the next one. Writing this story is funny because I'm working off of the original manuscript I had finished in 2015, but I'm basically re-writing the story and making it more involved as well as making sure it makes some kind of sense. I know we're working with supernatural creatures and magic and all, but I feel like there needs to be some logic to it.

With all this being said, I don't think I'm going to make the December deadline, but I'm confident in believing that the story should be set for a January release. Everything else has been taken care of. I made the cover a couple of months ago, finally figured out a title, and wrote up a blurb. All that's missing is the inside stuff.

As I'm editing the second book, I will be making my outline for the next book in the series with the hope that it will result in the third book coming out in the fall or winter of 2020. We shall see. I'm sort of getting to a place where I can balance multiple projects and put out two books a year. I failed this year because Murderous Profession was an unplanned project that came to me suddenly and took root, and I couldn't let it go.

I'm sure you all have this question floating around in your heads, which is: How long is the Pureblood series? Six or seven books, depending on where the story takes me. Material from the original manuscript is the blueprint for these first three books. After that, I have to look at my notes, but I can come up with fresh material for the series since I won't be working off of that source material anymore. The rest of the series will probably go pretty quick because this isn't supposed to be long and drawn out story. When I was young and foolish, and by young I mean like four or five years ago, I thought I could have the story told in three books, but the world of publishing works differently than the world of fanfiction.

This is where my head is at on the Last Pureblood series. I hope to have to some teaser chapters up on my Patreon in October.

Speaking of my Patreon, Fate Unseen, also known as the 3rd Avery Lawson book, will be the first book where I will start releasing four teaser chapters, but that 4th teaser will only be accessible by subscribers. Non-subscribers will have unlimited access to the first three like always. You can subscribe as much as a dollar on my Patreon.

This brings me to my next point, granted I'm busy with Fate Unseen, but I will be rolling out my first serial The Adventures of Swift in January on my Patreon. The first episode will be accessible by non-subscribers, and the ones after that will be accessible by subscribers. I'm counting this as my second project for 2020 since I plan to focus on book 3 of the Pureblood series.

The Adventures of Swift is a superhero serial with some fantasy elements. It follows Isabella Delgado, who is the vigilante known as Swift who protects the city of Whitevale from crime. When a jewel thief comes to the city, with some high-powered gadgets, Swift's life gets more interesting, and so does Isabella's, but her interesting comes in the form of the stunningly attractive Ainsley Breckenridge. How Isabella will balance Whitevale's newest villain and a new love interest who happens to be her boss's boss's ex-wife will be something you will have to find out in January. I highly recommend subscribing.

This blog post actually got away from me, and I'm glad it did. I hope we're all stoked for everything I have planned because I know I am. Either way I hope everyone enjoys getting back into the swing of things, may it be going back to school or getting the kids ready to go back. Don't forget to take some time out for a good book, and don't forget to leave a review for it.

Until next time....

-DJ Small