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

Whew! It has been a minute...

I live! I live! I know it has been a long time since I put up a blog post. I'm so delayed with this that I'm only doing one post this month. I know I put out the newsletter, but I feel like blogging is more intimate. I can ramble a bit, and don't feel like I'm being annoying. With the newsletter I feel like I am even though it comes out once a month.

But enough about me and my thoughts. I have the greatest news ever! I finished the first round of edits for Fate Unseen, which is book 2 of the Last Pureblood series. Next up for me is....more editing! Which is actually me typing up the edits from the first round since I do those by hand, but I also keep looking for ways to tweak the story, and make sure it's consistent and makes sense. But this second round of edits shouldn't be as strenuous as the first ones since I'm not taking a blob of story and turning it into something that you all would want to read.

Because I feel confident that the second round of edits should be quick, I'm hoping it won't take all of December to get through them. I've cleaned my desk off and everything, so I am ready to tackle this thing after turkey day. Once I'm through with the second round, I'll send it off to my editor so she can do her magic.

I'm going to be real with everyone, this second book kicked my ass. I've written series of stories before in fanfic world, but this one was messy, and you know what. It wasn't even regular messy. It was capital M.E.S.S.Y. There were details I had to cover, and when I missed something I had to go back and put it in. Seriously this book had me questioning my abilities as writer. I'm sure some of you know this if you follow me on Twitter.

Long story short, I have learned a valuable lesson with this second book, and I'm going to make sure I remember it for book three. Book three is going to be a late 2021 release. Avery and I need a break from each other before we can continue our journey.

With that said, book two will be done as soon as it is ready. I'm still banking on a release by the end of 2020's first quarter, but we shall see. In the mean time, I'm going to gear up my serials for 2020, and possibly a book release. I haven't decided yet. I was thinking about keeping it pretty low key for 2020, but I am coming up with this story and it has kept my attention, so it there is a chance it might find its way out in the world next year. It's not a story that is for the faint of heart, and it's not even romance. I'll toss it under thriller if I bump up the suspense and intrigue. A few months back I said that I wanted to write another dark and twisted story on Twitter, and guess what, here we are.

In other news, Reappearance of Summer is still on sale at Smashwords and Amazon. It will also be on sale during December along with Avery Lawson: The Last Pureblood, and Pool of Lies. Murderous Profession will see a price drop, so next month you'll be able to get all my books at ridiculously cheap prices.

That's all I have for this post, next month's newsletter will be out on 8th, and I'm kicking around an idea for newsletter subscribers, but I think I'm going to hold off on it. I'll see how I feel after turkey day. Speaking of my subscribers, did anyone check out the the teaser I put up for Fate Unseen a week or two ago? What did we think of it?

I've rambled long enough. Don't forget to review your books. Give an author the gift of reviewing their book this season.

Enjoy the rest of November!

-DJ Small

Ahhhh....November Is Upon Us

It has been awhile since I have done a blog post. Yikes! Between Reappearance of Summer and work I'm surprised I remember my name. I hope all those participating in NaNoWriMo are having productive and fun writing sessions, and I can't wait for the new books to come out. As for me, my writing life is dedicated to the next book in the Last Pureblood series, but before I get into that let's talk about my partially released book, Reappearance of Summer.

This book has taught me two things. One, I'm not doing pre-orders again. It just doesn't work out for a writer with a full-time job. You need to have more than four hours a day to be able to meet the deadlines. Second thing I learned is that I need to keep records of my ISBNs stored in several different locations. The one company in the US that sells ISBNs had a security breach and I couldn't access my ISBNs on the management site. I have them now and things with the physical copies of the book are moving along.

I just finished reading the proof to see what errors were in it, and that book is going to be my first magnum opus, at least to me. I feel it hits everything on the emotional scale without being too much or bogging down the story, and both main characters are likeable. Summer swears a lot, but I mean she's also been through a lot. Again, this is just my opinion. If you want to see if I'm wrong or right the book comes out on Smashwords and Amazon on 11/15, but if you truly can't wait, you can get on my Gumroad store where I released it on 10/29, the day it was supposed to come out, however, a pre-order snafu happened, and that ended with me having egg on my face.

Right, so with Reappearence of Summer under my belt I'm trying to get the momentum going on book two of the Last Pureblood series. I read a few of the reviews and everyone likes the story, but everyone hated the cliffhanger and I seem to repeat a lot of things. There is no cliffhanger in the second book—we got to get this thing going, and I'm being mindful of the repetition. I try to catch everything, but after four or five rounds of editing (1 of those done by my editor) it's hard to see the unnecessary filler. I'll recruit another editor if I need to.

What's exactly going to happen in book 2? Well we're two days out from Avery's first change and she's done killed a whole lot of people. Girl went from harmless park ranger to having a body count. So we got to address everything from the last book. We need to know what's going on with her and Rhea and if they make it official or if it's a dead fish in water. Also Avery isn't normal and we need to know why. There are a lot of things for me take hold of and run with them, and I'm going to, but I'm also going to be introducing elements to set us up for other parts of the series. We're still building this world, but I'm also going to give us some more action, feels, and murder. Maybe on the murder.

I have decided to switch up my book release strategy. Pre-orders are done, so I'm going to announce book releases the week before they come out, but only for Amazon and Smashwords. I don't know about physical copies. I've been thinking about not doing them, but I also know it's nice to have the actual book in your hand. I'm on the fence. Either way it goes I'm committed to releasing two books a year which is doable with my full time job.

This brings me to my standalone for 2019. I had everything planned out, but then I was hit with the mother of ideas and it will not go away. I was supposed to work on my first trans story, but this mother of ideas has me changing my schedule. But this idea has a title, plot points, a soundtrack, and a mother fricking ending. How can I ignore that? It's not to say my other story didn't have all of that, but this one is more captivating because it's going to be completely different for me.

Okay, so we have caught up on everything you missed in October. Oh, about the newsletter, I will be cancelling it. I don't have much to put in it, so yeah. If anything you can follow me on Goodreads and be notified of new blog posts since the blog is linked to it.

All right, this turned out to be a lot longer than I anticipated, but I'm glad it did. Again, Reappearance of Summer comes out on 11/15 on Amazon and Smashwords. So don't forget it to get and after you read it tell me what you think about it. Actually, if you've read any of my books you should review them or at least rate them on Goodreads. Look, I even provided a link 😏

I hope we've enjoyed the update and until next time...happy reading!

-DJ Small

My Metadata Is Going To Be All Screwed Up

I can't seem to spell the word reappearance and spell check on my browser seems to only want to work 75% of the time. Thus, screwing up my metadata because I have to go back and change everything which takes like 24-48 hours to switch over. Anyway....rant over.

Pre-order your copy of Reappearance of Summer today! Physical copies can be reserved on my Gumroad page. Digital copies can be reserved on Amazon, Gumroad, and Barnes and Noble.

This is me putting my foot in my mouth. I said I wasn't going to do Amazon pre-orders because of how they do them. Well, I figured out if I schedule the book release for two weeks later than the release date then I can compensate for any incidents which may arise and cause me to delay the release. This being said, the release date on Amazon says 11/15/2018, but it is actually 10/29/2018 barring any complications. So, no one is getting jipped. This is me trying to get around Amazon's tight policy in regards to delaying pre-orders.

Any questions let me know. I have updated everything with the correct spelling of the word "reappearance" and you should see the update in like 3 days because everything is sooooo slow.

Oh, small announcement. I am beginning a serial and it will be available on my website. I have decided not to do Patreon because I couldn't justify it. I've deleted my page and if you were really stoked about it, I'm sorry. Maybe I'll work something out in regards to giveaways and what not.

All right, this was a quick update and don't forget to pre-order your copy of Reappearance of Summer especially if you are wanting a signed copy because I'm only ordering enough to fulfill pre-order numbers. Just an FYI for you all.

I'm off to go see where else I need to go correct the spelling of my book. Until next time...

-DJ Small