This Is A Late Post....

This post is soooo late. I started writing it on the 8th, but now it's...whatever date I decided to post it, and boy is that a gap. I have no genuine concept of time. It's a social construct anyways.

Newsletter went out on the 15th, if you're not signed up for it, you missed out on my "interview" with fellow indie author, Luc Dreamer. I use the word interview loosely because I just sent him some questions and he answered them. The interview wasn't long, but I wanted to showcase another trans masculine author who writes in the realm of Sapphic fiction. He was a great sport about it, and I had fun doing it.

Will this be my only interview? Probably not. That newsletter needs something to go into it, and sometimes I run out of ideas. However, it's not going to be a monthly occurrence. I also have my question corner as well where people can email or submit questions to me. So, if you have any questions or comments for me, email me or you can submit one through the contact form on my website.

I also announced in this month's newsletter that I've finished my second round of edits and have found an editor. She won't start working on it until July because she has her own obligations and commitments, but I'm super excited to have my part of the edits for Outside The Game completed. Well, for a little while. Next up is going to be Dax and Eliza, and I'm super excited. However, I'm on a bit of a break due to education reasons lol. I'll jump into them as soon as I pass this damn final.

I'm hoping my new editing process will make things move along smoother, and my new editor also does things in chunks, so she'll edit a chunk and send it my way for review. Either way there will be a new book from me out by December. Hell, it might be out in time for football season.

Last thing, I put out a call to start building my ARC team and I'd like to gain some beta readers as well. If you're interested in getting a free book in exchange for a free review, sign-up here and choose "Join The ARC Team". If you want to read my book while it's in the final stages of editing and proofing, and would like to provide feedback on the overall story, you're going to sign up at the same link, but check beta reader on the form. Beta readers I'm capping to 3, but the ARC team is open to all who want to help me out in the review department.

I'm still in the process of writing my reader magnet, which is fancy author talk for a free short story, and it is close to being done. I did some things and I ran into a dilemma which required me to take a step back from it. I should have it done hopefully by the time I leave for GCLS in July. If you're a newsletter subscriber, it'll come directly to your inbox once I've finished, and if you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, sign up here and you'll also get my new short story directly. Or you can wait until later and get it when you sign-up. It's up to you.

All right, I think I am done on this one. Next month I'll have my shit together, and get the blog post out before the newsletter. Time really got away from me this month lol.

As always, review and rate the books you read, especially the ones published by indie and self-pubbed authors. Until next time peeps...

 

-DJ Small

The 15th Is At The End Of The Week!?!?

Found out the 15th is at the end of the week, and it blew my mind. March will be halfway over next week. Like damn, and I'll be going to Pittsburgh on the 16th to watch PWHL Toronto take on Montreal on the 17th. Hopefully their streak will be alive and well by then. Because of that, I have this month's newsletter rearing to go, and if you haven't signed up for it, well, you will get your chance to at the end of this post.

If you haven't been lurking around on my Mastodon profile or Facebook page, the first two chapters of Outside The Game are available to read until the end of this month. So, if you want to see how E.J.'s story starts, head on over to Bookfunnel and read those first two chapters. I also encourage you to sign up for my newsletter while you're there because release date and pre-order information will be announced to newsletter subscribers first and everyone else a week later. Maybe later. I sometimes forget to do things.

I'm 5 yards and goal to finishing my second round of edits. As soon as chapter fourteen is edited, I'm going to hit the ground running in finding an editor. There are a couple of editors I had my eye on, but I have completely forgotten their information. I'll put an APB out on Mastodon and also ask around. Being in this post-Twitter life is such a mess because I have to rebuild most of my connections. Just like I'm rebuilding my reader base. I know there are some people who are still aware of me as an author, but I also haven't published anything in six years. So, like a newborn foal, finding their legs, I'm going to have to put in the work and rebuild my little publishing fiefdom.

But fear not dear blog reader, I've got some things planned to get this ship back on course, and to be quiet honest, most of it is centered around just putting out the books, short stories, and serials that I have been working on these last few years.

Next up on the docket after Outside The Game is done will be Grisly Politics, which is book two of the Detective Miller series. In between, I'm going to type up a quick short story, which will be an exclusive for my newsletter peeps. If they want more of it, then it's going to become my first Ko-Fi exclusive. So, if you want to get your hands on this newsletter subscriber exclusive, then make sure you sign-up for my newsletter.

Speaking of my Ko-Fi, last month, I set up a goal on there to get a copy editor for Outside The Game to make sure it's as good as can be for publishing. If you want to help out with that, just go to my page, and donate. Easy peasy, and you don't have to sign up for anything I don't believe.

Lastly, I'm going to go on a quick Bookfunnel rant because I love the site. I do, but using it for self-promotion has left me a bit jaded. They have a features where you can sign up to join a group promo to giveaway books or do a book swap with another author, and I get a bit annoyed with it because I don't find categories that my books fit in, and when I create my own promos they get little attention, which I will take the blame for because I don't promote them as well as I can, however, at the same time they are listed on the public Bookfunnel promo page. I'm tempted to switch over to StoryOrign, and see if I have any luck there. I need to mull it over a bit more.

Oh! Before I end this if you're interested in becoming a beta reader for me, please fill out this form on my website, and I'll get in contact with you about being one.

 That's it for today's post. Sign up for my newsletter here. Contribute to my Ko-Fi goal here, and learn about pterodactylus here. Full disclosure, not my favorite dinosaur. That would be the stegosaurus, which you can learn about here.

March's newsletter will be out on the 15th folx! Remember to review and rate the books you read, especially those written by indie and self-published authors.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

Going All In On The Newsletter

Greetings to one and all! We have made it to the end of January, and into February. Here in VA we had a wicked bad cold snap a couple weeks ago, and other than causing my electric bill to jump, I tried not to leave the house, but that thing I call a day job (insert depressed groan here) made me. Granted, there was one day where I had to work from home because the roads weren't the best. Looking forward to some warmer weather. Not Summer, but just mild weather. The kind of weather where you can open the house windows during the day, and burn a nice fire in the pit at night. That kind of weather.

January also saw the return of my monthly newsletter. If you received it, what'd you think? It wasn't anything special, but I think it was a good way to re-introduce myself to my readers. If you haven't read it yet, you can head over to the archive on my website and read it. Do note, any freebies or coupon codes in archived newsletters have expired, so there's no point in clicking on them or trying to use them.

February's newsletter will be a lot more entertaining. As the title of this blog post implies, I'm going to be going all in on my newsletter because social media is a nightmare, and I'm leaning more towards it being my primary mode of interacting with readers and supporters of my work. I think it'll create some interesting interactions. So, to roll out this interactive newsletter I'm going to be accepting questions from people, and will be publishing my favorite questions in my March newsletter. If you have a question, you can send it to me via email or you can use the contact page on my website. I plan to publish all selected questions without names, but if you really want me to shout you out for the question just let me know.

Another thing, and you'll want to click on this link the moment you read this, but I'll be distributing a teaser of my next book Outside The Game in February's newsletter. If you don't want to miss out on this opportunity, go head and click that link I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph so you don't miss out. I'm almost done with the second pass through of the manuscript, so I feel really good about releasing this teaser.

The next newsletter is going to be released on February 15th just an FYI for those interested in getting that sneak peek of Outside The Game.

So, I've been reading Reappearance of Summer because I found myself wanting to revist it. And, to be quiet frank, while the story is good, there are some issues with it. I mean love the book, the characters, and the world I created within it, but one thing that annoys the piss out of me, are all the minor errors that I'm coming across while reading it. A lot of it is my fault because I didn't have a good grasp of stylistic choices vs. grammar rules, and clearly I have learned since then. I've actually taken time to study The Chicago Manual of Style on top of re-learning grammar rules, and so during my re-read of Reappearance of Summer, I've come to realize a lot of my mistakes could have been prevented by having a copy editor. This is probably true for most of my books, and I do plan to hire one for Outside The Game, but I'm going to need help getting one. 

I've set up a goal on my Ko-Fi page. It's a lofty one of 250 USD, but I'm curious to see how it goes. It'll probably be up for a while. If I don't make goal, I'll keep it up but change it to where I get a copy editor for one of my older books. Yep, that's right, I'm finally going to go through my backlist and re-do the editing on them, update the formatting, and possibly get new covers for them. I haven't decided on the cover thing yet. I want to commission someone to make art for them, but I also just want to refresh it on a basic level. Plus, I'm super finicky about my art. We'll see which way I land on that one.

Anywho, this blog post got away from me. Remember newsletter subscribers will be getting a sneak peek into Outside The Game, I've got a goal on my Ko-Fi page, and if you want to have a question featured in next month's newsletter, you can email me or do it on my contact page.

Don't forget to leave reviews of the books you read, especially the ones by indie publishers and self-published authors.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

Feliz Ano Nuevo!

That title is as far as I got in my Spanish Duolingo education, who I learned just laid off contractors to implement AI technology to do the work they were doing. While it's supposedly being framed as "no big deal" in this article, it's still something that goes against my morals. If the layoffs and AI integration meant an increase in wages for full-time and part-time employees without lowering the quality of the their software then I'd approve, but if neither of those are the case (which I'm certain it is), then I'll shame. Either way, I've cut ties with Duolingo because I don't like the taste this leaves in my mouth.

That was not how I was supposed to open this post, but clearly I'm in my no-filter year--I did have a birthday in December--so I'm gonna go for it. On to business!

Welp, I've just completed the final read through for my first newsletter of the year, which is also a dive back into sending it out. This January newsletter will be a re-introduction of myself, my work, and expanding on some things I've been kicking around the last few months. I'm already coming up with ideas for February's newsletter. I've come to realize that there is no reason why I can't make it a truly engaging newsletter, so I'm going to present a new idea in February and hopefully people will respond to it. I've got some other ideas bouncing around in the wide empty space known as my brain, but I need to really dwell on them before deciding.

Anywho, January's newsletter will hit inboxes on 01/15, and will be active on the archive on 01/24. If you haven't signed up for my newsletter yet, you can sign up here.

As to what I've been working on, I started plotting another story. I had an idea, it dug it's talons deep into my brain, and now I have like a 6-page, single spaced outline in OneNote that's getting longer. It's a vampire story, and I'm hoping it won't span more than two books because I don't have the bandwidth for another series. I seriously need to learn how to write standalone books or something because jeepers.

I've also started the outline for the third book in the IFL series, which is weird because the second one hasn't even gotten off the ground quite yet. I mean, yeah, I've written six chapters of it, but I just got to the first major turning point in the story and there are like 6-7 more chapters to go before I can think about calling it done. Maybe there might be a few more chapters. We'll see what happens.

This brings me to the first IFL book, which hasn't even been released yet lol! With the long weekend, either ahead or behind me depending on when you're reading this, I'm dedicating all my time to it. I'll be committing the edits I made during my first pass through on top of adding some things to put it in alignment with the second IFL book. Once those are done, I'm off to find an editor. While I love my usual editor, I'm looking for someone who is well-versed in North American football stuff to catch things that might not be believable. A lot of web searching and liberties were taken with the football aspects of this book. A...lot! 

Oh! Before I forget, if you want to know more about the first book in the IFL series, I give a full synopsis and cover reveal in my January newsletter, so you should sign up for it.

All right, I think that is going to be it for this post. Remember newsletter is out on the 15th, or is already out depending on when you're reading this. Sign-up here to get it directly in your inbox, and if this you're reading this post after the 15th, the January newsletter will be live in the archive on January 24th. Full disclosure, any coupon codes or freebies mentioned in the newsletter will not be vaild if you're accessing them through the archive. So, I'd sign up if you want to get those goodies.

As always, do review and rate the books you read, especially those put out by independent authors and self-published ones.

Until next time....

-DJ Small

End Of Year Post

Goodness, 2023 is coming to a close, which makes some people reflect on goals and hopes that we had wished to accomplish this year along with looking ahead to 2024 and figuring out new goals, hopes, and dreams as well as wanting to bring missed goals or hopes from 2023 to fruition. With all this being said, I hope we all accomplish what we want in 2024 and then some.

With that out of the way, let me go into what I've accomplished writing and author-wise in 2023:

• Finished first-round of edits on the 1st book for my new short-novel/novella series.
• Started the 2nd book for that series.
• Moved my site from Wix to Webwave.
• Started editing Fate Unseen, the 2nd book for the Avery Lawson series.
• Outlined several new stories
• Went to The GCLS conference in June.

And I'm sure I did other things, but I can't recall them. I'm thinking about picking up journaling in 2024 to help me keep track of things and feelings, but we'll see. It might help me when I'm in my pit of despair. While the above list definitely isn't everything I've done in 2023, it does give me some perspective. A lot of what I did in 2023 has set me up to release a book or two in 2024. So, I'm super excited for that to happen.

Also happening in 2024 is my newsletter. Bringing that back because as I once said, the world of social media is such a shit show, so between blogging and putting out a newsletter, I'm hoping to establish a central location where people can get news and updates from me. Same goes with my website, but anything on it will be more of a high-level overview and nothing too in-depth.

My first newsletter will be pretty much a re-introduction of myself. Might do a giveaway, and this, that, and the other. Something new I want to implement is a coupon code in every newsletter. While most of my books are available for next to nothing, I'd like to implement coupon codes for my newsletter subscribers. Another reason for this is that with the exception of the Avery Lawson and Detective Miller series, all my future releases will be distributed through Smashwords or my Ko-Fi page, and not Amazon. I'm hoping by rolling out monthly coupons codes I'll be able to get some traffic to them. It'll be a surprise for how much the discounts will be.

Expect my first newsletter to be out at the end of January, and I'm hoping to stay with the same cadence for the rest of them.

First release of 2024 is going to be Outside The Game. I'm aiming for a Spring release. Fingers crossed. After that, I will more than likely release the second book of the Detective Miller series, which is titled Grisly Politics, late in 2024. It's an ambitious scheduled for me considering from 2020 to 2023 I didn't put anything out. Granted I should give myself a break since I've put out 4 books from 2016 to 2019. It's a roller coaster on how I feel about my level of releasing books.

That's where my thoughts are at the moment. Anywho, here are some useful links you should bookmark, favorite, or save on a notepad somewhere. My Ko-Fi page, sign-up for my newsletter, and My Smashwords page.

Hope everyone had a good holiday season, and y'all have a good new year, all right? Let's make 2024 our bench!

As always please review, rate, and recommend the books you read along, especially those books released by indie, self-pubbed, and niche authors. There are some good ones out there, and people aren't going to know about them until you let others know about it.

Until next time....

-DJ Small

Sale Season Is Upon Us!

I know, I know. Black Friday isn't until next week, but I thought I'd get a jump on everything since I am off work the next few weeks. I tried to make everything align, but as usual, each platform does its own thing with Amazon being a pain in the ass. Sorry to say, there will be no sale on Amazon because none of my books are in their KDP select program.

But do not despair, you can still get my books for cheap and they'll be compatible for whatever device you're reading on. If not, let me know and I'll rectify it. All right, onto the sales info.

On Smashwords, all my ebooks are 99¢ with the exception of Pool of Lies, which is still pay what you want. The discount is public so no need to type in a coupon code.

Over on Ko-Fi, all my ebooks are 50¢, with the exception of Pool of Lies, which is also pay what you on Ko-Fi. I wanted to make both sales match, but that required doing price changes, and this that and the other, so it's just 50¢ and bright reminder for me to tweak prices at the beginning of the year because that's annoying. Anyways, if you click this link the discount should be applied automatically, but if you get to my Ko-Fi store through other means, the coupon code is THANKS23 so you'll get the discount.

Another thing, ebooks purchased through Ko-Fi are distributed through BookFunnel. Also if you're not sure what book to get, you can read excerpts on my website.

Thank you to everyone who is still with me on this journey, especially since I haven't put out anything since 2018? 2019? I can't remember. But you all are the best, and I'm super excited to come out with new material in 2024, and I hope you will continue to stick me.

To my USians, enjoy the upcoming holiday and please stuff your face, and to everyone else I hope you get some time to chill and enjoy being.

Until next time...

-DJ Small

P.S. - As always please remember to rate and review the books you read, especially the ones put out by indie and self-pubbed authors. You opinion could be the thing to provoke someone else to buy a book.

Hibernation Season Is Upon Us

Hope we're all fattening up and getting ready for a long winter's nap. Ha! Wouldn't that be fantastic? Just be like a bear or a chipmunk and get fat over the course of fall then sleep my way through winter. Ugh. Such a good life. The closest thing humans get to hibernation is the food coma we fall into after a big meal. Speaking of big meals, Turkey Day is coming up for USians, so I'm excited to stuff my face and the 2 weeks I will be off during November. It's much needed.

A couple of weeks ago, instead of editing the first book of my novella series, I read the second book in the Detective Miller series, which is titled Grisly Politics. I hadn't meant to do that, but I completely forgot how the story ended since it has been a year since I finished writing it. I opened it up, and I was cool with reading just the ending, but when I did that, I was like what happened here? So, I ended up reading the whole thing. I am really happy with how that story turned out. Like Eliza and Dax's relationship gains so much depth, and we get more of Eliza dealing with her shit, and of course let's not forget the murder! The murder is an intriguing plot point, and definitely one that challenges Eliza. I have a feeling people are going to get frustrated with Eliza in this next book because I certainly did, but considering her history it sort of turns that frustration into a simmer instead of a full on boil.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading it, and as apparent from my weekend, I wasn't able to put it down. Hopefully I can get to editing it Summer of next year, but I've got to see what hell that albatross Fate Unseen is going to put me through. After reading it, I don't think it will be that much of a challenge editing wise, but there is a couple of things I do need to fix. Like me providing a more coherent path when Eliza is trying to solve the case, and some other things, but it's all pretty minor.

Okay, while I'm super excited about Grisly Politics, let's talk about Outside The Game the first book in my novella series centered around a fictional football league. This is US/Canada football for my global folks. First, I had to change the title because there are way to many books titled Beyond The Game. I think one of them was a Charles Barkley book. Second, I'm almost done with editing round one. I've got three chapters left then I've got to review my changes then I'll be done. You all can thank my therapist for this. She challenged me to have either my embroidery project done or my book edited. Clearly we see which one I have put my focus on.

During editing, the word count went up 7k words, and I can no longer call it a novella. This is why I struck through the word novella in my prior mentions of the series because I can't call it a novella series when the first book out the gate is probably going to end at 45k words. While it is no longer a novella series, I still plan to keep the word count for each book in the series under 50k words, so a novella will get tossed in the series at some point.

The increased word count is due to some added scenes and I'm going to rewrite the ending. I think. It's fine in its current iteration, but I feel like it falls flat. We'll see how I feel when I get to it.

In other news, during the week that I'm off in November and not around my family, I'll be running a sale on Ko-Fi and Smashwords. So, if you've been looking to get my books for free or at a cheaper price, that will be the time to do it. I'll announce when the sale is on my socials and website.

Speaking of my website, a couple of week's back, I changed who was hosting my site because I've been trying to get away from Wix forever. I just don't like the way they do things. They're more focused on e-commerce, and I'd just like my website to be more than that. It's my spokesperson for when I'm not available and gives people into a peek of who I am as a writer. I'm sure you're all thinking, but that's what social media is for, but 9 times out of 10, I can't be bothered with social media author wise because I feel like I need to be saying something exciting, and my life is pretty boring. So, that's why leaving Wix was important to me.

I eventually found Webwave, and while there is a bit of learning curve, I do like how everything is laid out and you can do absolutely everything you need to do with it. Not an ad, but I'm definitely glad that I found them. If you do go to my site and find something off, shoot me a message. I haven't looked at it in a while after I launched it, so I'm sure something is wrong with it.

Goodness, look at this post doing the most, but it's also been a while. Oh, newsletter will be launching 2024. Not sure what is going to be in it, but it's launching lol. Key takeaways from this post: there's a sale in November, I'm still editing, and the newsletter is launching. Sign up here to make sure you get the 1st edition.

Other than that, remember to rate and review the books you read, especially those written by self-published and indie authors because boy you're missing some gems there.

Until next time...

-DJ Small