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  

Site Has Been Launched!

 As of 9 something PM EST on 02/05/2022, my updated site has been live. I was hemming and hawing about it because I'm a nervous Ned, and I don't do well with these things. Anyway, the new site has a shop, great contact me page, a listing of books available and what's coming soon. Everything under coming soon is either being worked on or will be worked on. Seriously. I haven't started anything new, and I'm really trying to get at least a full length book out in 2022 along with either my serial or my new novella series.

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

Change Of Course

It has been a full month since I've posted a blog post. There also hasn’t been a newsletter in a hot minute, but despite my absence, I am alive and well. I hope everyone reading this can say the same, if not, I'm sending some positive vibes your way.

It has been a long weekend, but I saw some family I haven’t seen in eons which is a wonderful thing despite the reason why my family got together this weekend. We were missing a few members of the family, but all 10 of my grandpa's kids were there to give him a proper send off. I'm sure my grandma has some words for him since he had 2 girlfriends after her, but I'm sure he'll get back into her good graces.

I’ll get to the point of this post here in a minute, but being around my family, immediate and extended, is wild. A lot of my family hasn’t seen me since I transitioned so there is a lot of “who are you?” and “who do you belong to?" and you know, I’ve got to give props to my mom for how she handles it. She tells them I’m her oldest son and leaves it for the person to figure out. The woman runs hot and cold with the trans thing so it’s hard to see how it goes, but this weekend she was alright. She still sucks at the pronoun thing though.

All right, time for the reason that I’m here. 

For my Last Pureblood readers and those waiting for book two, I have nothing but tremendous love for you all, so this announcement is rather disheartening to make, but it's necessary. As we all know, I’ve spent the last year and some change, maybe longer, working on Fate Unseen. I approached it like I did all my usual writing projects, but for some reason getting through this editing process has been a challenge for me. Typically writing a book is like dominoes for me, and it's one process after another until the book is out,but this one it’s not happening. I refuse to blame 2020 for this because that would be giving this year too much power when it already has enough to light up a metropolitan city.

I think because I've been so focused on it, I've burned myself out with the story, which seems to jibe. I’ve been able to work on Adventures of Swift with no issue. With all that being said, I will be stepping back from Fate Unseen and it’s not going to be released this year. Trust me, I spent a lot of time thinking about this, and I even talked to my therapist about it. She told me to step away from it before making any big decisions like re-writing it.

I’ll probably return to it at the end of the year, or the beginning of next year. The reason for the long break is because I'm going to be involved with a project at work and it’s going to require more time from me, then once I’m finished with that, I’ll be training for a new position. So for the next five or six months all of my concentration is going to be centered on life things. I’m hoping once I return to it, I can bang out this round of editing and get it to my editor for a second review. Another thing I’m looking at is length. The word count for Fate Unseen is getting up there. To alleviate fears I’m not going to do another sudden cliffhanger or split the book up, but it’s something I’m going to be thinking about it when I get back into it.

I would like to stress that I am not abandoning the series or anything like that. I just need a breather. 

Even though I am taking a break from Fate Unseen it doesn’t mean I’m not going to be writing. In fact I’ve gotten through several episodes of my serial of Adventures of Swift, and I’m hoping to have episodes two and three up in October. I’m also going to finish outlining my next book and throw some ideas on the wall for book two of the Detective Miller series. I have two Murderous Interludes ready to be typed up so I might post those on my patreon as well.

An FYI, Adventures of Swift is a patreon and gumroad exclusive, and Murderous Interludes will only   be available on patreon. Since I know some people are going to ask, I’ll answer this question now. Murderous Interludes will not contain major plot points. They’re just slice of life short stories that add more depth to Eliza and Dax’s budding relationship, so you can skip them. Will they be mentioned in the other books? Yeah, but just in passing.

Adventures of Swift episodes will be available be on gumroad in a trailing fashion after they've been released on patreon. Probably a month after.

Though it'll be nice to focus on something new, Fate Unseen won’t be far from my mind. It's like an annoying gnat flying around my head until I get it released.

Anyways, that's all I have for the moment. Outside of that, remember to review the books you read and register to vote. Like for serious on that one. I cannot deal with four more years of the Orange Stain™. 

Until next time...

-DJ Small

*leans against wall, huffing and puffing* Goodness....January Is Almost Over

I would say happy New Year, but at this point, it would be supremely awkward.

I honestly have no idea where this month has gone, but here we are. Just a quick blog post to let everyone know I'm alive.

Fate Unseen is getting put out of its misery this weekend, if not the beginning of next week. I have taken some time off from work to dedicate my life to it, so that is exciting. Once I get it to my editor, I'll be doing a cover reveal. Newsletter subscribers will see it first, and a few days later, I'll make a blog post about it. I hope I don't forget to do that, but I'm sure someone will keep me on track. Teaser chapters will be posted on my Patreon once I review my editor's edits. If I'm happy with the chapter, it'll go up as soon as I'm done with my review. Remember, I only put out 3 teaser chapters.

For book release time frame, I am looking at April or May. Way later than I wanted it to be, but that's fine considering how much I was struggling to ge Fate Unseen edited. I'm surprised I'll get out in the first half of the year.

Once these edits are done, this thing is going to get going like a steam roller, which means I'm going to be gassing up the heavy machinery. I'm plotting a story currently, and I'm going to get the first five episodes of Adventure of Swift written and edited. That will probably be making an appearance around late summer. Since I don't have any big trips planned, I should be able to stick to that. This is a year of frugal living for me since I splurged all last year. Oooh chile!

In exciting news, I'll be doing my first "event." I won't be doing a panel or anything, but I will be at QFX East in May, peddling my hard written books. As we get closer, I'll be able to let everyone know what the exclusives will be and how you can get them. I'm excited and nervous about this, but I think it will be a good time, and I'm excited to meet everyone.

Oh, price drop announcement! All my books are available for $2.99 at all eBook retailers, or it should be. If there are any issues let me know. I'm working on getting Murderous Profession in paperback format. It'll probably come out the same time as Fate Unseen.

Going completely off-topic, I'm sure everyone as heard about a major writers' organization taking a hard nose dive and imploding on itself, and while absorbing the facts and tea spilling of this clusterfuck, it made me wonder why there isn't a dedicated queer writers organization. I know these things take time to get off the ground, but like queer writers have to exist as a subset of  these bigger organizations and fight twice as hard to get some kind of recognition. I know this is the same story with other marginalized groups, and that these bigger organizations have resources and whatnot, but at the same time, why the hell don't we give it the old college try?

I'm sure someone out there is grinding the gears for that, or I at least hope they are. I think my only criteria would be that the organization not be restricted to one genre, because I'm not exclusive to one genre, and secondly that it broadly covers the entire queer spectrum.

I have a lot of thoughts on that, and I'm not sure if I'm going to bite the bullet on that one. I would need a helping hand or two because I want to write, and y'know, do hood rat things with my friends.

This post has gotten away from me, but I actually had thoughts and news this time! Seriously though let's all get excited that Fate Unseen is getting closer to being out in the world, and I'm anxious to know how everyone feels about it. Things get a bit more supernaturally, and Avery faces a whole slew of obstacles.

Also get pumped for Adventures of Swift. This was almost a Swan Queen fanfic instead of being an original story, so there is a bit of a zeal in it because Swan Queen is one of my 5ever ships.

All right, I'm off to edit. Remember to review your books, especially for those written by indie authors like myself. Oh, and enjoy the rest of your January 😊

I have some announcements

Just some quick announcements while I'm jotting them down on my notepad while listening to "We Don't Need Another Hero" by Tina Turner.

First up, and I'm being so serious about this one right now that I've put on my serious face. Okay, here we go, you will want to sign-up for my newsletter. I have a surprise for my newsletter subscribers in November, and it comes in the form of a snippet from Fate Unseen, the next Last Pureblood book. I know some of you have been waiting anxiously for this book, so I'm throwing out a morsel while I continue to gut this story and transform it into something that isn't total shit.

Oh, this also reminds me that the first Last Pureblood book, Avery Lawson: The Last Pureblood, is on sale where ever it's available. This sale will only last until the end of the month, so go get it while it's still cheap.

Next up, is this month's giveaway. It's close to being the end of the month, and if you haven't checked out this free ebook giveaway, which include Reappearance of Summer, then you are missing out. It's features some great lesfic novels written by some awesome indie authors. Go peruse the offerings, and discover a new writer and book

In November there won't be a giveaway because I'm just not feeling any of them at the moment to join, but there will be a sale. To celebrate the first book birthday for Reappearance of Summer, it will be on sale the all month.

I just want to say huge thank you and give a big digital hug to those that have reviewed Murderous Profession. I know it isn't my usual type of writing, and a bit of a gamble, but I'm glad it's being received with open minds and genuine interest. Thank you all for the reviews and enjoying it. It's one of my favorites, and I can't wait to get back to Dax and Eliza, which will probably be sooner than we all realize.

I feel like I had something else I wanted to announce, but I'm not sure what it was. I'm trying to type this out quickly so I can get back to work on Fate Unseen. Such an evil ass story, not literally, but it's the bane of my existence at the moment. Doesn't help that I'm dreaming of other stories. I had a dream last night about a story I'm developing. It was....bizarre to say the least.

All right, I'm going. Remember to go look at the giveaway, grab Avery Lawson: The Last Pureblood while it's on sale, and sign-up for the newsletter; and you have to do it all in that order.

As usual, don't forget to leave a review for the books you read, especially for indie authors like myself.

-DJ Small