I hope everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a wonderful holiday! We stay home on Thanksgiving every year, and do the visiting on Christmas. Thanksgiving is (almost) always really relaxed for us.
This year was a bit more chaotic—all my fault, too. I had an accident last Friday and put off going to the urgent care until Wednesday. Now, thanks to the holiday weekend in between, and us being in a really rural, really small area,
I won’t get the X-ray results until Monday. But we’re 99% certain I’ve broken a rib or two—and my collarbone.
I landed on the shoulder that always hurts (the one I’m in long-term physical therapy for), and I just didn’t know I’d hurt it worse than I thought, until it wasn’t getting better.
Whoops. I guess I shouldn’t have tried to “fly” off the porch the way I did…
(For those that are wondering, I do have low vision, which in my case, impacts my balance and equilibrium. I fall more frequently than most people…It just happens…)
This fall derails my plans a tiny bit. Just a tiny bit…
Because…for the first time in years I’ve been able to get ahead on the schedule! (Thank goodness! I have two more books almost ready to go to the editor, they just need final edits. Which have been delayed because of this).
Now, I’m just waiting for a replacement voice recorder (mine walked away somewhere in my office and I can’t find it anywhere) so that I can dictate instead of type every day. Something I already do (until my recorder walked away, anyway), so I don’t anticipate too many delays for the next 6-12 weeks.
I’ve also been told by my kid that she’s getting me giant rolls of bubble wrap for Christmas, and is going to “mommify the mummy” (she’s very punny) every time I leave the house. And even when I am in the house, as she doesn’t trust me any longer…
She’s also taken it on herself to tie my shoes…in triple knots…
I am taking it easy this weekend and giving my body a chance to relax and giving my brain a break, too. (Aka, I’m reading! I just can’t get enough of memoirs and autobiographies lately. Especially of highly successful women. I find them fascinating.)
Right now, I’m working my way through Betty White’s books. I’m starting with Here We Go Again (https://books.apple.com/us/book/here-we-go-again/id381480746) , which covers her first five decades in television. It’s awesome! If there is any woman in the world I’d love to sit down and talk with, it would be Betty White.
I have a final release date for Shelby’s book, as well!
This book… it turned into something I never intended it, too. I knew that Shelby belonged with Jake and I knew there was a history for Shelby that she had hidden from Allen. The thing is…I didn’t know what her history was. I did know that Shelby struggled to connect with people—I just didn’t know why. I knew it wasn’t because of her speech impediment. It was something more. Something that brought her to W4HAV.
Shelby’s book took on a life of its own, one that I never imagined. For one thing, Shelby’s story started a full year after the storm!
For that reason, I am not putting her as part of the Finley Creek: Disaster miniseries, though she is connected to it.
Shelby won’t be a part of a mini-series. She’s my first stand-alone Finley novel! She’s also the longest book I have written. She just needed more room for her story to be told.
Jake, too, surprised me. He needed extra space for his story, as well. Jake takes a lot of his identity from the people he works with. His purpose and passion in life. That needed to be shown, as well. And to be honest, Jake’s sidekicks were a lot of fun to write!
Shelby and Jake’s book, Stand Next to Me, will be available as a preorder, starting on Dec. 16th and will release on Dec. 21st. From Dec. 16 through Dec. 26th, it will be available at $5.99, so grab your copy early.
I will post links when the preorder goes live!
On Dec. 27th, Stand Next to Me will move to its regular price of $7.49. At 100 pages+ longer than Nikkie Jean, Annie, and Izzie, there is a lot to sink your teeth into!
There will be at least one more stand-alone coming in the Finley Creek universe that I know of (Layla and Cage, sometime later down the road). The next Finley Creek miniseries will feature Powell Barratt, Haldyn Harris, Madison McAlister, and Charlotte Talley. I am really, really, really looking forward to those books, as all the characters (who appear in Shelby’s book) were so intriguing to write. After their series, it’ll be Layla and Cage, and then…if no one pops up in between…
It’ll be time for the final Beck sister and her friends to get their stories!
For the rest of this month and all of December, I’m finishing up a Masterson title (Nikki) and working on a few new, secret projects I’m not ready to talk about… I was going to have Nikki off to the editor by 12/4, but thanks to my solo flight off the porch, I’m pushing that back a few weeks. She’ll still release around Valentine’s Day, though!
After that, it’ll be Zoey Daviess’s turn (finally) to be written. I’ve been wanting to do another Small-Town Sheriff book for a long, long time! It’ll be in Zoey’s book that some questions about her mother and birth siblings will finally be answered. And just how there are at least 20 children of Denise Daviess out there will finally be revealed! Zoey will be an epic book, both to read and write.
I don’t know her release date yet, and there may be a few shorter books released between Nikki and Zoey’s books, but on Jan 2, I will finally get to start writing Zoey!
But now…kiddo and her daddy are at Grandma’s house today. I’m going to finish doing some shopping. (After I get the piece of tape out of Freyja’s mouth, anyway, and rescue Freyja’s kitten from the tablecloth that has currently mummified him). The fuzzballs are getting a bit riled up, apparently…
But for me…it’s shopping time! It is Black Friday after all!
Which brings me to one final thing:
Amazon. Those crazy people have discounted Buried Secrets’ paperback version to $6.16. (I am not sure how this came about). It is regularly $14.99…the ebook version is $4.99! So, if you do paperbacks and haven’t read Buried Secrets, grab a copy today before it goes up again!
Buried Secrets is the cross-over mystery/procedural that combines Finley Creek, PAVAD, and Masterson County series! It is also the prequel for later books to come in a brand new series, hopefully to launch in 2023.
And…because it’s leading into Christmas my favorite Christmas romantic suspense that I’ve written, is free until January. If you’ve not read Falling yet, grab a copy.
Falling is a girl-next-door, friends-to-lovers Christmas romantic suspense featuring assistant medical examiner Mia Ripley and Evan Stephenson—the son of the man who nearly killed Mia in Watching. Things got a bit…complicated…when Evan moved right into the condo next door!
Now Evan has to protect her from men who want to kill her…but he’s not the only one out there who is watching over Mia now!
(Stalking, a PAVAD novella, is also a “Christmas” time romantic suspense, though the holiday doesn’t feature as much as it does in Falling).
Current Calle freebies include: Beginning, Waiting, Watching, Second Chances, Stalking, and Falling (in the PAVAD series), Seeking the Sheriff (Masterson series), Her Best Friend’s Keeper and Lost in the Wind, as well as novellas Hope for Finley Creek and Before the Rain Breaks (Finley Creek series). (These can be found at ALL the major ebook retailers, not just Amazon!)
Plus, the first three stories in the paranormal relaunch series (Fated to her Vampire, Taken by the King, Stolen by the Warrior by C.J. Brookes).
Current sale titles at $0.99 for a limited time: Wanting (PAVAD), Discovering the Doctor (Masterson), and If the Dark Wins (Finley).
And, of course, that paperback Buried Secrets that’s sitting there at Amazon for $6.16 for now.
****These offers can (and will) change at any time, so if you still need to grab a copy of one of these titles do it quick! Several will be returning to full price very, very soon!***
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