Red Bulls & Moth's Wings

 It's honestly wild how fast this year is moving. I turned thirty a few days ago. I wanted to have this novella out already but I'm taking my sweet time with it because it's launching a new pen name and returning to publishing after a long time away and that's obviously been nerve-wracking.

I'm sure my own expectations for myself are much higher than other people's, to be fair. I have to remember it's not supposed to be the Best Book Ever Written. It's supposed to be silly, fun, and kinda sexy. And weird.

And hey! It is all those things!

I'm in the final stages of working on it so it will be announced and released soon but right now it's too soon to say anything other than it's the first in a series (duh) and it's supernatural (duh) and gay (duh).

Yes, Google Play Books, I Am Who I Say I Am

In case you all had missed it, a few days ago I published a new edition of Faces in Weeds on Kobo and Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, and a few others like Smashwords. I hope you'll check it out, it's got a pretty new cover and a fresh round of copy edits with maybe a hundred or so new words added. Just thought I'd tidy it up and get back to publishing for the first time in a long time, and of course, the world couldn't let that happen without a snag, so of course my new Google Play Books Publishing Partner account got suspended almost as soon as I published it, because they don't believe I own the copyright or that I am, indeed, who I say I am.

So let's clear this up: I'm Kyle Brittain, but I go by Kai Bishop publicly. I write and publish under the author names Apollo Blake and Cosmo Knox. I own everything I write and publish, I don't publish things I didn't write and don't own, and I certainly have never made any secret that these are my pen names.

My identity has never been a secret, because I'm not, despite many rumors circulating, a superhero. I don't work for the Daily Planet--but if I did I'd publish under Apollo Blake or Cosmo Knox, because those are my pen names.

Google's helpful email said they needed to see proof I am who I say I am which could include links to my official author website, so let's hope this post I made special just for them is helpful enough.

Here's the new cover for Faces in Weeds by the way:

As always keep an eye out on this space because it's where I'll post news and updates about new releases, even if I'm sometimes a few days late. (And being accused of being an imposter. How glamorous and scandalous for me.)

A Reminder For You (Writing Pep Talk)

So I've been hard at work on a few titles I'm going to launch on Kobo, including Leo & Declan 1 and 2 (Under His Touch, Under His Watch) and the drafting process was being difficult last night, so I opened my notes app and wrote this. I think it's gonna be something I need to return to again and again, so I'll share it here for you all too:

I am worried about so many things I cannot control but what I can control is writing my book and editing my short stories so that's what I'm going to focus on.

It's not up to me to be perfect or control the universe or every reaction to my books.

All I can do is write them, then publish them, then market them, to the degree that I want to. That's all. The rest of it is out of my hands. And I can't force it. But I can work with it, move with it, evolve with it, and take it all as it comes.

That's what I can do. So that's what I'll do.

I'll write my gay erotica romance stories and urban fantasies and sci-fi stuff even when it feels silly or stupid or it isn't as groundbreaking or intelligent or literary as everyone else's book. I'll do what I want, have fun, and hope someone wants to read what I wrote, but I can only write what I want to write, and if nobody else is along for the ride, I guess that's that.

The point of this is just to say all of that outside stuff is noise. And noise can be tuned out. All I can control is that I can write my book, even if it means learning again, for the millionth time, how to adapt and pivot. I can do that much, and probably so can you.

Anything That It Takes To Keep My Head Screwed On Straight

Title from Silence by Emmy Meli.

It's been slow-going trying to come out of my fog and embrace the new year. That doesn't mean it hasn't had its upsides, because it definitely has. The weather is getting fresher and warmer daily, the sun is showing his face more and more every day, and there's always something to do, which might be overwhelming, but still, at least there's always something to do, right?

For me, it means working on the new edition of Under His Touch. It's been a lot more of a project than I thought it would be, mostly because I was never planning to create a sequel but also because I've been in the mood to write, to draft, and now I have to hold myself down and engage the editing brain. I know I can do it.

I enjoy it. I know that too. I always have fun with editing, when it's developmental edits. But this, alas, is line edits. So it's a slow, tedious brand of work that is almost like writing, but much more agitating. And I'm not good at being agitated.

So I'm doing my best. But I'm also trying to read more: it's actually insane that this is the same brain that read an entire book a day in high school. I try now, but it takes me two to four days to get through books I'd read in one before.

Is it my brain aging? Is it from smoking too much weed? Is it just my natural pace slowing down? Or is it that I'm out of practice? I think it's a little bit of all these things, to be honest, but I'm doing my best. My reading goal for the year is only 80 books, which is 20 less than usual, but even with giving myself that break I've got six books behind somehow. I'm determined to catch up!

But first, I want to write. Like a lot. I don't know how I always put it off until it drives me insane, but then when I do it it's such a relief it makes up for it.

So, first, editing. Then do what I actually want to do.

Returning To Roots

 Oh look, it's another instalment in the endless saga of theme changes this blog has been through! Well don't worry, folks. I think this one is here to stay! I really enjoy it. I've neglected this blog for far too long because:

1) I figured Blogger was dying (and it kind of is, I guess, but I don't care anymore).

2) I figured nobody was reading it (which isn't totally true, but it wouldn't be a big deal if it was).

3) I am very intimidated by picking out a blog theme. It's hard. I've seen people call blogs just like mine ugly and clunky, but I don't care. This design/theme makes me nostalgic for a ton of other author blogs I used to follow.

Now I've just accepted this is what my blog looks like and this is what I want it to look like. It's nostalgic. It's retro. It's...very, like, 2009-2011 YA author vibes, and you know what? That's when I was in middle school dreaming of being an author, and the paranormal romance trend was at its peak, and I miss that. Plus I don't really like 'sleek' minimalist blogger themes. I need a good one-column text-based theme for my blog. Simple and clean.

Not, like, the Utada Hikaru song, either, although that is a bop.

My Kingdom Hearts nostalgia might be in overdrive right now because I've been playing through FF7 Remake - thanks, PS Plus! - and loving it. Cloud is such a nerdy twink and everybody is flirting with him, and Aerith is a queen! I figured she might be an overrated character, because I've only ever seen bits and pieces of her so I wasn't sure if she deserved her popularity, but she's so funny and full of personality. I worried she might just be a blank slate 'nice girl' for Cloud to mourn, but she's really cool and has more personality than he does, lol.

Anyway I just wanted to briefly pop in and announce the reasoning behind my reversion to this simple old theme and the black/purple color palette I used to use. It just feels right to me. I think it's nice. Even though it is slightly clunky, but I think that may be part of the charm.

And, since I am going to keep writing on here no matter what, I'll probably try to find a way to direct attention to this site on other social media platforms. My favorite authors all ditched blogger for like, Twitter, but Twitter makes me suicidal. And Instagram is cool but I don't feel like me or my surroundings are pretty enough to post there except on Stories. So I'm determined to make this blog come alive again.

Alexa Donne was saying in one of her newer videos about author branding and marketing and how to avoid burnout with both, that blogs might not be as popular as they used to be, but that the written word is just a more enjoyable format for some people, and I know that rings true for me. For some of us that just won't change.

Plus it's hard coming up with content ideas. I want to explore new mediums of content, but some of them are very intimidating, and you also have to figure out how to make them compatible with social media in order to actually share them and create interaction. So that's intimidating. But I like blogging. I'm good at it. Even if it isn't a hugely popular form of content anymore. I can't be the only one who still enjoys blogs, right?

Another really smart thing Alexa Donne said in that video is that mailing lists are kind of over (because everyone has one and they're all kind of the same and they're pretty much just blog posts in email format anyway) and I'm happy about it because I honestly never figured my mailing list out. Shit's a mess.

Anyway, that's all on my end. If you need me, I will be writing gay stuff, playing Final Fantasy, and eating directly from my shirt pocket which is currently full of a handful of loose jelly beans, because that's what a heathen I've become during this pandemic.

Xoxo, Gossip Girl :D Nah, just kidding...I wish, though.

Faces in Weeds: Short Story Announcement, Cover Reveal + Release & Links!

Surprise, I just put out a new short story! I'd like to say I'm craftier than I really am and that I've had this up my sleeve for a while now, but the truth is, I wasn't really planning this at all. I drafted this story a few days ago after a stroke of inspiration hit while I was playing video games. I wanted to build a story around a sense of rising dread and it was essentially structured around the opening and closing lines that came to me before anything else did. Before I knew it I had a draft and a cover! I listened to a lot of southern gothic music during this one, and I was flying high on some Stephen King bullshit, so those two vibes combined to inspire the atmosphere and tone.

The story, in case you were wondering at all, is called Faces in Weeds and you can get it here on Amazon US, or here on Amazon Canada if you'd like to read it. You can also hit me up on the comments of this blog or comment on my Goodreads review if you'd like a free ebook copy in exchange for an honest review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Here's the super pretty cover...

Soooo dark and mysterious and perfect. Neither a snake or pink flowers appear in the story, but it does kind of fit with the themes/who the narrator is and how she's perceived vs. who she actually is. It was such a fun, twisted project for me to work on and I really hope I can put out a lot more short stories this year, but in the meantime, please enjoy this crazy little slice of horror, if that's your kind of thing!

Night of The Dragon (Definitive Edition) & Where Six Souls Meet

So, the first Lilac Xia Jones story, Night of the Dragon, just got a new round of extensive editing and a new cover. The new, definitive edition of the story is out. I'm very happy I was able to go back and edit this, and I'm not going to lie, I edited...a lot. I added about 4k to 5k words of new material and rewrote a lot of the other material.

You can get the new edition here!

I'm much happier with this version of the story. I wrote this when I was about 17 and it probably wasn't ever ready to come out when I published it. I'm about to turn 24 so being able to go back and fix a lot of the stuff I didn't like or didn't have the technical skill to pull off the first time I wrote it was very satisfying.

I also love the stylish new cover, which is definitely more in line with the rest of my catalog:

 

I included the cover for the 5th story, which is coming out sometime mid-February! This week I'm focusing on editing and publishing new editions of volumes 2, 3, & 4, and then I'm going to get to work drafting Where Six Souls Meet, which is the first chapter of the 2nd act of the story. I'm really excited for this phase, and I'm glad to finally have an overarching plan and end-goal in place for this series and these characters. There will be 13 stories total, and then they'll all be bound up in a special omnibus.

I'm devoting the first half of 2020 to my three serials; Lilac Xia Jones, Superhero High, & Dark Territory (which I haven't talked about at all yet, but will have more details on later in the month!) and editing my previous novels (Shadows is already mostly done and on the way, and Blood of Midnight and Divinity are both next!) and the second half of the year to writing sequels for some of my novels, particularly for the Deadheart saga and Divinity.

I'm also devoted to writing a second Liesmith book this year if the stars align! I have a lot of ideas for it and I'm gearing up for it but I still have a lot of mental anxiety about it, because I'm stubborn and weird like that.

I actually had a lot of fun editing the first story this last week, even though I drank way too much coffee and beer. It doesn't count if it's after Christmas but before the New Year, though ;)

Anyway, you can check out Night of The Dragon here or add Where Six Souls Meet to your Goodreads shelves here!

I hope you all have a happy new year!

Superhero High Book 1: FORCE (Announcement, Cover Reveal & Release Date!)

So, in my last post I promised you all that I wouldn't blog again until I had some cool stuff to announce and share. And now I do! My next title, FORCE (Superhero High Book 1) is coming out on January 10th 2020!

Force is actually a novella, not a full book. It's the first in a series of five titles following the students of Southaven High, a school for teens with powers, who in this world are listed as C-Class Citizens in the new American social caste system.

I had a ton of fun writing this one!

I would describe this series as, like, Smallville meets Degrassi? I've never actually seen an episode of Degrassi, but I know it's about teens at a high school and there are a ton of different generations or classes or whatever. Each novella follows a different student at the school, although they're all part of the main roster of characters who will each play a big role as they go on. I mean, not all of them, some of them just die, but I can't talk about that, because spoilers...

If that sounds interesting to you, here's the cover and blurb!

Two years ago a meteor shower rained alien particles known as Gemblood over most of the planet Earth, resulting in those humans with no immunity developing…abnormalities.

In the United States of America, where individuals with powers are listed as C-Class citizens, teenagers with abnormalities are sent to special schools, where they can hone their talents without hurting any A-Class citizens, AKA normals.

Welcome to superhero high…

Kacey Print only wants to disappear. After unleashing the powers she spent two years trying to hide, she ended up killing nine of her classmates in a tragic accident. Now the only reason she hasn’t been carted off to a maximum security prison for freaks like her is because of the timely intervention of one Dr. Christian Howell, the principal of Southaven High School, a black hole they toss people like her into to keep everybody else safe. He’s given her a second chance, even though she doesn’t deserve it, but straight-edge punk girl Kacey is going to have to fight for redemption if it’s what she truly wants, because all of a sudden, the school is under attack by a giant tentacled monster and a group of mysterious faceless men.

Welcome to your first day at Southaven! The only rule of orientation is ‘Don’t Die!’

I will update this post and make another announcement with all the links once it's available for pre-order in a week or two, and I'll also be posting the first chapter as a tease, so be on the lookout! I'm already working on book 2, TORCH, for a February release and I can't wait to share it!

Blogger Hates Me

I'm aware my last couple blog posts look really messed up. I have no idea what to do about it because every time I try to edit them, Blogger just doesn't actually update the changes. I can't fix the font to match the rest of the blog (Helvetica is how I roll) and I tried making the fonts larger but it honestly made them smaller. I blame it on the fact that I originally wrote and posted them from my iPad. Ugh. If you can't zoom to read, you can skip 'em, because I didn't say anything too important.

A new edition of Iceblood and a new edition of Storm of Masks are both out, they have nice new covers, and that's about it. Iceblood got a new round of editing and I think it's a lot better now. You should go read it...

I'm also aware I haven't blogged since August. (Bad author!)

I did that because I've been writing/editing other stuff, and I replaced blogging with morning pages for a while there. I'm going to try to balance them out more now and blog a little even if I've already done morning pages. It's a lot of effort though. >.>

The truth is my main energy reserves are all going towards resisting shiny new ideas. I fell for one the other night and wrote the first chapter and now I guess I'm just writing a full novel. The Novel That Shall Not Be Named. Until I do name it, but I'm not telling you guys the title right now (it's one word and starts with P though) because what if I don't finish it and then people are excited for a project I never finish? Yikes.

I just finished editing the new edition of Shadows an hour ago, a full three months behind schedule, lol.

It was totally worth it to take my time with this project, though. I have a few more minor edits to do, then a final read-through, and then it should be good to publish later in the week. I've got financial stuff to take care of in a few days so once it's all done, the ball should get rolling on a few cool things! The new edition of Shadows + the new special edition of Shadows are both coming, and I'm super proud of the work I've done on the book. It's better than I ever thought it could be and it jumped up from 126k words to just over 150k words. So I added like 24k of new material, more or less, and I genuinely think all of it is gold. I have an outline for the short story I'll be including in the special edition and I'm really excited to write it soon!

Anyway, like I said; more ACTUAL blogs to come. I just wanted to post an explanation and excuse here for the fugly formatting on the past couple posts. I hate it more than any of you do, promise. >:O 

Catch me on Instagram @ApolloBlakeBooks

Paperback Problems & Other Misadventures

Today I woke up determined to get something done. I didn't care what as long as I accomplished something with my day. I kept thinking of Storm of Masks and what I could do for it... We have a complicated relationship, since it's my least popular book and totally flopped upon release, but I still have a soft spot for it and want it to find an audience even though I think it's kind of slow-paced and boring.

I decided I would revamp the cover yet again. I love the ghostly turquoise cover and I think it fits the mood of the novel really well, but I don't know if it communicates urban fantasy or paranormal romance. It looks like a horror story. I wanted something that would telegraph the genre immediately. I also decided to go ahead and rewrite the entire blurb. The new synopsis is much better so I'm glad I went for it. And the synopsis for book two might be one of the best blurbs/descriptions I've ever written. I'm super excited to share it!

Once I'd finished a new cover and synopsis I decided it would be cool if I could finally get around to creating paperbacks like I keep saying I will. I designed a simple, cute wraparound cover and downloaded a paperback template, formatted everything and converted it to PDF....only for Amazon to tell me the paperback would cost $53.00! Obviously that's not acceptable. I have to bring that cost down to $11.00 or something because I'm not rich and neither are my readers.

I'm pretty sure I chose the wrong size or trim. I guess I should go for something a little taller so it's using less paper? I'll experiment with it a bit this week but for now I published the expensive version because I'd already set it up and I was tired and frustrated. I do like the idea of having fat doorstopper copies of my books just to stroke my own ego, but it's probably not in the cards. Paperbacks and physical copies in general are the main part of being indie I dislike because they're so pesky and time-consuming.

This makes me nervous for the Shadows of Ourselves paperbacks coming up because that book is a beast even in ebook format. I may have to split it into two volumes for the paperback, like they do with A Song of Ice and Fire in France...it's an excuse to make more cute covers so I'll keep that in mind, lol. I have no idea where I would split that huge book in half though.

Aside from that I spent today lazing around and drinking too much coffee. I watched a few episodes of The 100 (I'm finally on season 6 and it's amazing) and listened to the new Trisha Paytas EP which is her best music yet. Advice has to be her best song so far, I'm in love with it!

Anyway, I'll leave you with the new cover for Storm of Masks:

Iceblood New Edition Cover Reveal + Sequel Announcement!

Earlier tonight I published a new edition of Iceblood, and it should be live in a few hours! I wanted to publish a new edition because I felt like more than any of my books Iceblood deserved an updated, more professional looking cover. I liked the old one but it felt both amateur and very dated.

The novella itself has been cleaned up quite a bit and I'm happy with the better round of editing and the few bits and pieces of new material it has. They've made it a much stronger story.

And the new cover? Beautiful.

However I also decided to write two sequels, rounding it into a trilogy. They'll both be a little longer than Iceblood, but I've got them both outlined and I'm drafting them once I'm done writing Glimpse and a story Deadly Divine. Glimpse has been tricky but I finally figured out what I need to change to make it feel right.

Iceblood is book one in the Thief Materials series and will be followed by Inheritance and Scoundrel, as well as a bindup of all three. It's set in the same world of Souls of Salt and Seawater and takes place step that book, but before it's upcoming sequel. Rayna and Alice will both appear in minor assisting roles.

I can't wait to show you their covers, but it will have to wait until they're done and ready to publish!

Motherboard Blues

Today was a little hellish. The power went out around 4am and was out for hours. Someone hit a power line with her car nearby, but from what I heard she was fine. Anyway my computer wouldn't turn back on after the outage, and I was afraid I'd lost everything, but I opened it up and shorted it with a screwdriver, so it's fine now, but the power button is done for good.

The tower looks like this right now:

I need a new computer really bad but I have no money, which is why it's so important for me to edit these stories and get them out already. I've been getting a lot of work done but it doesn't feel like it because I haven't shared any. I'm quitting pot because it freaks me out so I'll have the mind to write more, too.

Tonight I'm going to finish editing the second novella, pen a new short story, write a new chapter of the current book, and then edit more of Shadows New Edition. That sounds like a lot but it's not. Editing Shadows is hardest, even though it's a copy read to catch any final editing errors, and I'm not adding or changing anything substantial. It's hard reading my own books without judging them very harshly, and wanting to change stuff, but I can't because Shadows is done and published, and all I can do now is clean it up more and not totally rewrite lines.*

Anyway, I'm going to go eat something and play video games for an hour before I get to work, and maybe then I can figure out this whole author thing.

*Note Added Oct 12, 2019: I made myself laugh while rereading that. I definitely DID change a lot of lines and added 24k of new material, to a book that's already been published for 4 years now. I play by my own rules, lol.

Counting All The Starfish

Today's title comes from the new Kitty album Rose Gold, because it's amazing and basically all I've been listening to for days.

I've been thinking recently about how I want to finish or continue the Deadheart series. Storm of Masks really didn't sell well, and I've considered revamping it with a new title and cover, or rewriting it entirely, or adding 25k words onto it to wrap the story up and publishing that as a new edition. But I think I owe it to myself and the characters to finish the story, and even though I have my issues with the first book, I don't think it's a bad book, it's just not my best, which in a way is comforting because it means there's nowhere for the story to go but up.

Storm of Masks is quaint and charming but I feel like it's too slow at times and there's not enough action or enough at stake. It definitely feels like a prologue to a much larger story. And to be fair, it is. But I think I could have added a few sequences or scenarios to easily improve it that I just didn't see at the time, and I feel like Eric stood out a little more than Jen, which isn't that fair considering she's the main character.

So I'm writing the next three books. And they'll be better, and I'll give the characters more to do. I still love Storm of Masks, I just think it could do with a few thousand words being cut off, and a whole lot more added. I didn't explore certain things to their full potential, but going forward it will be more balanced and exciting. There are plenty of book series with slower starts though, so I think it's fine.

One thing I really want to do is develop the romance more. I feel like Jenna and Carter fell a little flat in the first book and I want people to care more about their romance and feel like it has actual stakes. The romance in this series is actually going to be pretty unconventional. It starts out as a love triangle but it's definitely not that, because Carter and Todd have as much romantic tension with each other as they do with Jen.

Carter is going to get some interesting storylines to say the least. I think book two will be a lot of fun to write because it's essentially a wham episode where a bunch of big, crazy things happen and people die and characters are gaining new powers and testing their relationships. Jen, Cayla, and Nora get more of a chance to shine, so Cayla feels like less of a token trans character and Nora feels like less of a crazy best friend cliche which I feel like there's too much of in YA, even though it's one of the tropes I love. Plus the new villain(s) will be borderline psychopathic.

So, there's that to look forward to. Oh. And the pretty covers. They're beautiful.

I'm gonna go play video games and drink another coffee to wake up before I start writing for the day, but I'll have a new post or two up tomorrow! As I'm finishing up this post a huge bolt of thunder struck and I think lightning just hit right outside my house, it's one of the loudest things I've ever heard and my dogs are spooked. It's raining pretty hard too, but the rain is nice.

Anyway. That's all I've got, folks!

Back on the Bandwagon

I'm hopping back into writing and being productive. I'm putting out the new edition of SOSAS in a few days so I'm trying to finish it tonight so I can write a short story before morning.

Today I'm recording a couple new tracks or even an entire EP. I'm slowly getting the hang of cutting and enhancing vocals, so that's nice, and I'd like to apply it and put out something that feels more professional than my last few EPS.

The other day I went wild and bought like 15 or 16 new stock images and made a bunch of new book covers and I'm in love with them, so I have to do something with them. 2018 has not been half as productive as I hoped it would, so, I have to do something about that...

Hopefully I can update later today and say the new edition of SOSAS is publishing!

Someone Free Grimes (Plus Adventures in Puppysitting.)

Remember when Grimes put out the best album ever? Remember how we've been waiting for new material ever since and it hasn't happened?  Remember a couple months ago when she posted shady Tweets about her label and gave us some tea?

The only new music she's put out since then is a snippet of a new bop in an Apple commercial:

It sounds like a bop for sure, but we need it now, not later. I'd love to hear the full version. I'm glad more artists are going independent. Even if it means lower budgets at least it minimizes situations like this with shitty labels. It happens in publishing too, people get fucked over by their labels and publishers and management all the time. There are shady business practices and betrayals and drama. It makes my head spin.

I was watching an Emma Blackery video (I'm waiting for her new album too!) earlier where she talked about a chain bookstore basically blacklisting her and refusing to list her book or promote it because she got mad at them on Twitter for violating a release embargo on the book. Since when is that okay?

It's wild to me that people's entire careers are subject to random whims like this on the part of people higher up in the chain. Or to bandwagon hate, because that happens and ruins careers too. It's also weird how so many artists in the past just couldn't put things out on their own, at least not if they wanted decent exposure.

Now we have the Internet and everyone is kind of enabled to build a brand and name for themselves off of nothing. 

I recently put out a new EP on my SoundCloud called Plucked From Orbit:

(Listen Here)

I don't really make music with the expectation of being known for it or it gaining a lot of attraction. I just like tooling around with synths and different sequencers, and I like making glitchy sounds and album arts. For me it's more about enjoyment and the concepts than making /actual/ bops.

Although I do want to learn to make more mainstream sounding pop bops eventually. Right now I'm basically creating ASMR sounds :P

I'm supposed to be working on a new edition of Shadows to put out next month. But I'm a serial procrastinator, so instead of writing the new novella Lovecursed or updating my notes, I'm planning a new edition of Souls of Salt & Seawater. And listening to lots of Billie Eilish. Not gonna lie.

I've also just been stewing over how many good movies are coming out.

Aquaman, The Nun, Godzilla, that new Bella Thorne movie with the ghosts (it looks cheesy as hell, but that's half the fun) and stuff like Darkest Minds, Glass, Mary Queen of Scotts. I'm really excited for Riverdale season 3. Cults and supernatural elements? Sign me up. I didn't expect them to go full supernatural until season 4, but I'm all here for it.

A couple weeks ago I spent an entire royalty check on vodka, 'cause that's the kind of irresponsible human I am, and got smashed. My parents were having a huge party with dozens of people milling around and bonfires and camping and stuff, so that was a mess, and I didn't want to be sober throughout it, and I'm guessing neither did Kuma. We also babysat my brother's wild dog during the whole ordeal, and the thing is vicious. Also, my selfie stick finally came! Here's some snaps from the weekend:

(Otis is cute but don't let it fool you! He bites! He still thinks he's a lap dog, too...)

(Me & Kuma!)

(Testing the selfie stick, lol)

Now the vodka is all gone and I'm left with an empty wallet. Next time I get paid I'm buying charcoal toothpaste to remove the coffee stains from my teeth, and some charcoal face masks to go with it. I need to do something about this breakout. Ugh. 

I've gotta go take the dog for a walk and then come back and hammer away at this new edition of Shadows so I can finally share the cover with you. I only made it yesterday so I can't act like I've been sitting on it long, but it feels like it. It's very Pirates of the Caribbean... And I really have to go finish it, so I'll leave you with this here:

Thanks for reading!

Buy my books here.

Book Reader Magazine Author Interview

Hey y'all! A while back an interview I did went live at Book Reader Magazine and I don't think I ever posted it! You can read it here!

I know in my last post I promised an update soon, and I will write one, but tonight I'd rather be working on a story I can publish soon. No offense or anything. :P I'll try to post info about my next project soon! I have a lot of things planned.

AwesomeGang Interview + House of Ink Cover Reveal!

I did an interview over at AwesomeGang the other day, and it's live :) You can check it out here!

I also just posted a new Cosmo Knox book for pre-order; House of Ink is the first book in a series of the same name, featuring erotic gay romance novellas with inked hunks and the twinks they love. :) I'll post links when it's live! It's out on March 5th, if this pre-order is approved!

Here's the cover:

Fury & Rage Repackage

As you can see, Rage & Frenzy are getting makeovers! This will be the new look of the Unbroken anthology series from now on! I'm in love with these designs and I think they fit the books much more than the old ones.

That's honestly all the news I have. Pretty covers. I'm sure you're all getting sick of that, because it's just covers and not new stories...which is why I'm hard at work on new material. And I'm gonna get back to that now. 

I'll post links in the next few days when these are live!

The new editions of Fierce Powers and Blood of Midnight are both live now, here! Thanks for all the support you guys <3

The Dru Frost Chronicles

Happy New Year everyone! I'm definitely ready to start a fresh year and wipe the slate clean; it's been a really long, distrestting, bleak year. I was stressed and didn't really confront my problems head-on the way I should have. Honestly I spent most of the last half of the year in a hibernation state. I feel a little like a zombie.

In 2018 I'm going to be much more goal-oriented and really throw everything back into my books. I wanna start working to get more titles out. I think if I publish five or six more books I'll finally get to a point where I can sit back and take a breath. My portfolio just doesn't feel big enough, and a few more full-length novels to pad out my catalogue would be nice.

Even though I've got plenty of books out, it feels as if I haven't shown off my true range or abilities as an author. I've been slacking for months so I'm taking the new year as an opportunity to cut it out.

In that vein, I'll be republishing Blood of Midnight with a new cover! The Evernight Falling Series is also being renamed The Dru Frost Chronicles. I feel like it suits the series better.

Here's the new cover:

 

I'm kinda in love with it! I know it's risky to publish a cover with no words, but I've seen it before and I like the vibes, even if it seems a little rebellious... (Besides, Dru would approve.)

I've been trying to redirect some excitement and attention in the direction of this series, because as much as I love Blood of Midnight, it's been the biggest flop out of all my full-length novels. I don't know if it's due to the lack of strong marketing presence, the presentation, the lack of reviews, or allo of the above. Probably all of the above.

Mostly I think it's because vampire books are so saturated.

It probably doesn't help that I wrote a kind of unconventional plot with an open-ending and that I stomped on the corpses of a bunch of popular genre tropes. Whatever... :)

Which is why I felt like it needed another makeover and the new series name. I'll be writing and publishing the second book soon--in Tears of Sunrise Dru will be a YouTube medium who spends her time offline exorcising evil spirits--and I wanted to really try and give the books a better online presence so that book two will have a warmer reception.

I'll be looking into sending BoM to a couple book bloggers in the next few weeks, but in the meantime if anyone would like a review copy of the beautiful new edition, copy below and I'll send you an ebook! :)

I'm also going to work to get paperbacks of this and all my other titles out before the halfway mark of the year. I've been slack with paperbacks because the formatting is such a pain, but I'll be fighting my way through it in the next few months!

I haven't really been doing much except sitting around getting stoned and listening to pop music for the last few weeks, which sounds like a dream but has honestly been really boring. Christmas vacation felt like purgatory, complete with really bad writers block I kept trying and failing to break through. I also got the flu a week before Christmas and spent days and days in pure hell. I got bronchitis during my bout of the flu so I couldn't breathe and I was bed-bound for days and days.

That experience was agony. Honestly, I got so restless. Sneezing so much also gives you a headache. I couldn't smoke any weed since I had the flu and bronchitis, obviously, and I couldn't drink coffee since caffeine aggravates the flu, so I was going into withdrawal and cravings from both because I'm so unused to not having them (seriously, my diet is 90% caffeine and smoke) that I started losing my mind.

At one point I had the worst migraines I've ever experienced, remembered caffeine withdrawal exists, and drank a small glass of Pepsi to stave off the symptoms. I felt like I was drinking a healing potion in a video game, I kid you not. The Pepsi saved me. (The Pepsi saved me may just be the most poignant thing I'll ever write, sorry not sorry.) I'm fully recovered now, but it still sucked.

In more positive news, Shadows of Ourselves has been rising more and more on Wattpad. It just broke 12k reads over there, which is the best X-mas gift I could ask for. I'm really proud of that book and the fact that it's my most popular feels really validating!

Aside from that, my only real publishing news is that I'll be slapping a new cover on my anthology Fierce Powers. I don't know how to market it because it's such a weird mix and match of stories, but it should at least look pretty, right?

I'm really only excited about the new Winchester movie (who doesn't love weird giant haunted houses?) and all the cool new music coming out in 2018...

Kimbra has a new album coming out, Ariana Grande has an album coming out, Melanie Martinez has an album coming out (which, despite the controversy surrounding her will still be full of bops) you know Troye Sivan won't put off his second album another year...it's just going to be a really good year for music. In all truth I hope Trisha Paytas puts out a couple new EPS this year.

We won't get any new Game of Thrones until next year, but you win some, you lose some. At least we still get the Tomb Raider movie, right?

Wordly Warfare

I'm stuck in editing hell again. I keep coming back here despite my best intentions to never write again, because it drives me up a tree, even when I feel like I'm having fun. Right now I'm polishing up the first chapters of Break This Gilded Cage (the first installment in my new vampire serial, I Am Your Fate) before I write the last three.

In non-writing related news, I've honestly just been watching zombie shows on Netflix and napping. I'm so exciting, huh?

I spent my Halloween night drinking spiked coffee and listening to Spotify, so nothing too special is happening. I think I may put out a new chapter of Fascination on Wattpad tonight, though. So, slowly, the ball is moving forward on a few different projects. I just put Shadows of Ourselves on Pronoun for free, so once it's live maybe Amazon will finally price match?

It's been a hell of a time trying to get them to do that--Shadows is on InstaFreebie and Wattpad, but Amazon doesn't really care about that. RoAnna Sylver said they finally price matched her book once she put it up on Pronoun though, so maybe it will work for me too. I hope so. Shadows needs the love, and I think if it goes permafree on Amazon it will start to get the hype it deserves.

I'll probably make Break This Gilded Cage free, too. Every other installment of the serial will be 99 cents, since each one is only 15 to 20 chapters.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. I'll have a better, less pointless blog post tomorrow or maybe even later tonight. Until then, here's some good music.