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

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

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

Happy Spooky Month 👻🎃

I failed in getting that last September blog post up. I had it drafted and everything, but I never got to posting it. Full stop, I've been in a meh mood lately. I'm not sure if it's because of the weather change or if I'm doing too much, but I think I am getting out of it, and I am making progress.

Before I get into everything, a couple of announcements. First, because it's spooky month, Avery Lawson: The Last Pureblood on the sale the entire month. I know it's not really a scary book, but the themes of it go quite well with the month. Witches, vamps, werewolves....they own October. Go grab a copy if you haven't yet.

Next order of business, I have enlisted Reappearance of Summer in a lesfic/wlw fiction giveaway. I think it is among some great company, and you should check out the other authors' books. Go get yourself a free book. This won't be the last time I mention it.

Okay, I have been editing book 2 of the Last Pureblood series, also known as Fate Unseen, and I am hitting that midway point. Now that I have my motivation back, I'm hoping that I can burn through it, but I have a trip in two weeks, and that might slow me down a bit, but I'm going to do my damnedest to burn through as much of it as I can.

I've been giving editing updates on Twitter. Last night, I tweeted out a line that gave me some feels, and I'm still feeling some kind of way about it, but I think tonight's editing session is going to cause some more excited tweets from me.

For the last couple of months, I have been wanting to write a dark and twisty story, full of irredeemable characters because I miss it. There's something about creating a fucked up situation and throwing equally fucked up characters into it that just takes me to my happy place. It's my own personal drug. Don't get me wrong everything else I write is great and fun, but there is something about a messed up story that really gets my imagination going. Anywho, I have come up with an idea, and I'm still fleshing it out a bit, but if I can get some solid traction on it, it may be a 2021 release. We'll see.

All right, just wanted to give a brief update on the haps and let you know how you can get two of my books for cheap or free.

As always don't forget to review, and enjoy your spooky month!

- DJ Small

The Plight of The Last Four Months of The Year

Is it just me, or does the last four months of the year seem to fly by? We are halfway through September, and this is my first blog post for the month. August ended so fast, I didn't get to post a second one, but I am on it this month. Maybe. I think.

Anyways, despite my inability to grasp the concept of time, I have been busy editing Fate Unseen, the second book in the Last Pureblood series. I want to lock myself in a room until I have it done, but life and work have other plans for me. However, I'm going to focus a lot of my time on getting it done. It is shaping up to be an interesting read.

When the second book starts, there really is no breather from the last one, so if you don't remember what happened in the last one then you'll need to re-read it because I don't do any recapping in the second book. I'm too busy trying to move the story forward lol.

Expect teaser chapters for Fate Unseen in November, and hopefully by the time I start posting those, I will have a release date. Just a friendly reminder, December is no longer the targeted release month. I'm aiming for January, maybe February depending on my edits.

I've officially dubbed 2020 the year of the serials, and all of mine will be available on my Patreon. Doing these will give me a breather from writing novels, and I can put a most of my focus into writing book 3 of the Lost Pureblood series. Also, the serials are supposed to be fun little escapes for me and my readers. They don't require too much thought and energy, and it's just an easy way for me to dabble in something different.

While I'm here, if you haven't seen my Twitter feed yet, there is a LGBT+ Romance Book giveaway going on. I looked through the ones that caught my fancy, and I've claimed them. Yes, Pool of Lies is a part of this book giveaway, but this is also about indie writer camaraderie and I want to support my fellow writers. So go take a look. All you have to do is sign-up for the writer's newsletter and you got yourself a new book. Painless.

Another fun fact, if you sign up for my newsletter through my website or through a random link like this one, you get a free book. However, if you sign up for my newsletter through the above mentioned giveaway, not only do you get Pool of Lies, but I'll also send you another free book of your choosing. I highly recommend signing up that way. Quick disclaimer, Murderous Profession isn't available as a free book, but I've got some plans for it during the Winter months.

Wow, for a blog post that I honestly didn't expect to go anywhere, this definitely got a little long. I guess I will go back to my editing. Before I skedaddle, a shout out to those who have read Murderous Profession, don't forget to review it when you have a chance. Also please review the other books that you have read in support of your favorite indie or mainstream author.

I'm off my soapbox now.

Until next time....


-DJ Small