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

Book Cover Reveal, Patreon, and Pre-Sales...Oh My!

Before I lock myself in my cave, to finish updating the digital copy of Reappearance of Summer, I've got a few thing to get out there.

To everyone who has read the teaser chapter of RoS, thank you so much! I'm just excited as you are to get to have you read the rest of the story. It is an intense one and you only got a taste of it. If you haven't read the teaser chapters got to my Wattpad and check them out.

Since I am on the subject of RoS, I also want to thank those who saw the many renditions of the cover and my newsletter subscribers for giving me input on it. I'm sorry you had to go through that, but it helped. Went back to the drawing board, stopped being a lazy git, and came back with a cover that does capture what I feel is the essence of the story. It's up on the Wattpad and on my Twitter header, but here it for you to see up close and personal. I feel like the font has a Law & Order feel, but I've come to appreciate it.

Next up, is pre-sales. Let me start by saying I honestly don't know when this book will be out. I'm aiming for late October, but being a realist mid-November will also be likely. There are too many variables involved, but it is what it is. Do know it will be out before December though. Okay, with that disclaimer out of the way pre-sales will go live September 15th. Pre-sales are going to be through my Gumroad store for EPUB, PDF, and physical copies. Pre-sales will also be taking place on Smashwords. Kindle pre-sales WILL NOT be happening. I only capitalized it to make sure it stood out. I've talked about my distaste for how Amazon does pre-sales, and I'm not going to get into it again. Pre-sales will go for probably a month, maybe later if it looks like the book is going to have a November release.

And lastly, and probably something that may intrigue you all, is my Patreon. I plan to launch it on September 1st. You're probably wondering what the hell is going to be on it and what I plan to give people. How about this, go to the preview site and check out the tiers. Some things may change prior to launch, but go look and get a feel of where I'm at. But this is where I'm going to be put my short stories and some of my other smaller projects. I can let you know the first thing I'm posting is episode one of my episodic story entitled The Trials of Swift and the Dark Queen. It's a superhero story. Anyway, I plan to link up with some great artists to get artwork done of my book characters so I can make posters part of the exclusive content. I've already got art of Avery from Avery Lawson: The Last Pureblood and I'm super stoked about it.


Okay, so I'm going to go lock myself in my cave to work on those edits and you all go click the links and have some fun. And before I go, here's the Avery Lawson artwork I was talking about. Done by the talented Nicole and you can find her on Twitter @tealideal. I am super geeked about it, and I do have a poster so I could see how it would look and it is frickin fantastic. I may give it away. Anyway here's the art and until next time....

-DJ Small

The Finish Line Is In Sight

 Yep, that's right. Reappearence of Summer is eight scenes and an epilogue from being done. I should have it done by the end of next week. Which means I can finish reading The Last Pureblood and get started on outlining book two. I started reading it last week, but I'm focused on getting ROS done.

First chapter of ROS will be posted on the blog and Wattpad next week. This also means I'm going to do the cover reveal the same day. Next week will be a big week if you have been anxiously waiting to hear more about this book.

Other than that, Avery Lawson: The Last Pureblood is on sale at Smashwords until the end of July. It is 75% off. An Amazon sale will happen in August, but definitely check out the Smashwords sale.

Update on the super secret project, everything is in line for it being announced in September. There is this and that, and more of this. Okay, I'll be unveiling a new story which will be released in a serial format. There I have said enough. When we get closer to me announcing, I'll release the cover for it.

Oh, I know a newsletter didn't come out this Sunday. I didn't have much to update, so there won't be one for July, but I compensate with more blog posts this month. However, I don't think it'll be much.