Jessica Meigs's Blog

It’s official: I am crap at making the time to post updates over here.

In all fairness, there hasn’t been much going on on this end that was worth giving you guys a heads up about, but now that things are picking up again, I figured it’s about time I start writing some updates here once more.

So let’s take this in order, shall we?

First, the quick news.

Audiobooks! After way too long in the pipeline (which was totally my fault), the audiobook for Under Siege, the fourth book in The Becoming Series, is finally, finally available for purchase through Audible and Audiobooks.com! Like I said, these audiobooks have been a long time coming, and part of that was my fault: Tantor Media, who produces my audiobooks, tends to prefer to purchase the audiobook rights in batches of three, and the reason for the holdup in getting these released was basically my slow progress—or lack thereof—when I was writing Bloodlines; they wanted to wait until I had actually finished and released the book before they picked up the audiobook rights for books four, five, and six. But now that’s behind us, and Under Siege is out now, with Redemption coming on July 1st and Bloodlines on July 22nd! So keep an eye out for upcoming news for when those two books are ready to go, too!

In addition, Ground Zero is now currently on sale until June 15th! I decided to do a little $2.99 markdown until then because, well, why not? So right now, if you’ve never dived into The Becoming Series, you can get book one AND book two for the low, low price of $2.99! With summer coming up, you definitely want to get a nice vacation read for when you’re on the plane and/or on the beach!

Now that the housekeeping is out of the way, I’ve got a little bit of updating to do on the writing front, too.

First, The Unnaturals Series: For those of you who pay attention to this sort of thing, I’ve made some adjustments to the future/planned books in the series. For starters, I’ve pulled Demon Marked from the line-up completely. The plotline that I’d originally planned for that book just isn’t going to work and isn’t meshing well with the rest of the series like I thought it would, and as a result, I felt like it would be better to rework the series as a whole. So now, Babylon Rising is the fifth book in the series, and things are finally falling into place with it. I’m a small chunk of the way into writing it, and I think it’s going to bring the series into a really interesting place by the time I’m done with it.

As for The Becoming Series, I’m also currently working on the seventh book in that series, titled Retribution. For those who read Bloodlines and saw where I left all my poor characters at the end of that one, you’ll be pleased to know that Retribution literally picks up within minutes of the end of that book and is, so far, turning into a very interesting, wild ride. I’m about 10,000 words into what I call “draft zero,” which is basically a glorified, super-detailed outline written in paragraph form, and I expect to be done with draft zero by the end of June at the latest. Then I can start building on that into the actual book itself, which will be easier on me in order to make sure I tackle ALL of the plot lines and threads that have been introduced and left dangling in Bloodlines. I think overall you all will be pleased with the results once I’m actually done with it.

In addition, I’m ALSO working on building a whole new series that I’m hopeful you guys are going to like. I don’t want to say much about it at this point, since I’m just at the titling/vague, one-line outline stages, but I’m excited about getting to play in an entirely new world that I’ve never played in before, and I think you guys are going to love it once it starts releasing. (When will that be? Don’t know. But you know I’ll keep you updated!)

Which of my projects are you currently looking forward to the most? Drop a line in the comments and let me know!

Well, I guess it’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted on here, huh? I can’t believe my last post was almost two months ago already, which feels ridiculous, but 2024 is flying by. Literally, I feel like I blinked and missed the first half of the year, and I can’t believe it’s August already.

I’ve been pretty much off the map lately, both here and on social media. There are Reasons for this (partially business related, partially personal), but now that I’ve gotten my mess together, I knew I needed to get on here and do a few announcements / important notifications on a few things that have come up over the past couple of months since I sat down and wrote something up here.

I figure the easiest thing to do is make a list. So here we go!

(Note, there’s a TL;DR at the end of this post, since I know I tend to get wordy sometimes!)

1. The Becoming Series Audiobooks: I mentioned in my last post that I signed with Tantor Media for them to produce audiobooks for Under Siege, Redemption, and Bloodlines (plus the short story “The Night the Moon Died,” which I understand will be tagged on at the end of the Redemption audiobook). I’ve finally gotten all the details shook out and have received notification that the audiobooks will be released on the following dates:

Under Siege: 5/20/2025

Redemption: 7/1/2025

Bloodlines: 7/22/2025

These dates are obviously not in my control, so while they’re a bit further out than I’d personally prefer, it is what it is, and it’s not something I can change. At least it gives me time to figure out something special I can do around release time for them next year, though!

2. The Unnaturals Series E-Book Changes: I’m making some big changes in regards to this series. I’ve been doing a ton of assessments behind the scenes on sales figures and such, and between the two series I have out or in production, this one sells the least in most places. My read-through rate for this series is abysmal. (For those who are unaware, an author’s read-through rate on a book series is the percentage of readers who read book one, then continue on to the following books in the series.) At least, the read-through rate is abysmal everywhere except Amazon (comparably). I’m suspecting that many of the readers in this particular genre in general are more freebie hunters than anything else on a lot of retailers, just based on what I and other authors have seen. So after a bunch of hemming and hawing and after seeking some advice from a mentor of mine, I decide that The Unnaturals Series is going into Kindle Unlimited.

Why? Well, it’s purely for mercenary reasons. I’m trying to build my royalties up on my currently released books, mainly because I can’t afford to put books out as frequently as I’d like (since most of the expenses are not something I can regularly fit into my budget). This is part of the reason I publish so slowly—I kind of force myself to, since affording all the accoutrements that publishing involves is a hurdle I just can’t jump over frequently. But if I can get my royalties up…well, that means I can release more often. Since The Unnaturals Series does good on Amazon (compared to other retailers, where it barely moves), it seems like a smart financial move to shift that series into Kindle Unlimited.

This means that soon, the e-books for The Unnaturals, Hellforged, Wicked Creatures, Nightfall, and Reapers will disappear from Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Apple, and Kobo Books. Kindle Unlimited requires exclusivity for e-books, so I have to remove them in order to not put my Kindle publishing account at risk of deletion. However, the paperbacks will still be available on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and here on my site, since Amazon doesn’t require paperback exclusivity, just-ebook.

As for The Becoming Series, it sells well enough that I don’t think I’d ever shift that one into KU. I like having that series on “wide” release (non-exclusive, available everywhere), and it sells well enough with solid read-through on other retailers that I have no interest in messing with that. So it will remain wide, while The Unnaturals Series will soon shift into KU.

So if you’re reading The Unnaturals Series through any other retailers besides Amazon, and you don’t want to purchase the books through Amazon, I’d highly recommend you go ahead and purchase your e-book copies of any books in the series that you don’t already have, because within the next week or so, they’ll only be available on Amazon.

3. E-Book Availability on My Site’s Shop: Speaking of e-books and money, I’m also looking at cutting my writing business expenses as much as I can in order to increase the profit margin so I can afford those aforementioned more frequent future book releases. So one of the things I’m doing is ceasing the sale of e-books here on my website’s shop.

You see, I use WooCommerce on the backend to accept payments for my shop, which is fine and works well. The problem is, for digital products, WooCommerce isn’t really great about delivery; it doesn’t let me, say, upload an .epub format e-book to deliver to customers who purchase (which is the most common format for e-books out there). In order to facilitate e-book delivery, I have to pay a middleman to do it for me. That middleman is Book Funnel.

Don’t get me wrong—Book Funnel is great…when you have a need for it. They have lots of features for authors beyond just book delivery, and I highly recommend checking out their services if you are a publishing author. But right now, my sales aren’t exceeding the monthly fee I’m paying for Book Funnel to handle my e-book sales deliveries for me. So logically, it just doesn’t make sense to continue to pay the monthly fee for Book Funnel for that purpose. So shortly, I’ll be removing e-books from sale from my online shop.

Paperbacks will still be available, so those aren’t going anywhere. Since paperback delivery is seamless and doesn’t require me to pay a third party to handle everything for me, I’m going to continue to sell paperbacks on my site’s shop for the foreseeable future. Just not e-books for now.

I’ve got more to say, but that’s probably more than enough news to dump on you guys for this week! This post ended up being longer than I planned, and I don’t want to keep everyone from their busy lives.

TL;DR:

1. Audiobooks for books 4-6 in The Becoming Series (Under Siege, Redemption, and Bloodlines) now have release dates!

2. The Unnaturals Series e-books are going exclusive to Amazon / Kindle Unlimited. Paperbacks will still be available on Amazon, B&N, and my shop.

3. The e-books for all of my books will no longer be available for purchase on my direct shop but will still be available on all major retailers (save for The Unnaturals, which will be Amazon exclusive). Paperbacks for all of my books (including The Unnaturals Series) will still be available here on my shop.

I don’t have a ton of stuff to post about this week, but I do have a few tidbits of news for you guys, so I thought I’d go ahead and get it out there!

First up, the big news for this week: Under Siege, Redemption, and Bloodlines are coming soon in audiobook format courtesy of Tantor Media! The “ink,” so to speak, should now be dry on the contracts now, and while I don’t have release dates or anything yet, I’ll definitely be keeping you guys updated on their future availability!

Speaking of things releasing, Bloodlines is now available in paperback format on Amazon! If you don’t want to wait until the book is available here on my shop, you can pick up your copy on Amazon for $16.99 right here!

And, as a quick note, just in case you missed the news that I posted in my last post, I’ve got new payment options in my shop for paperback and ebook purchases—including Klarna and Afterpay! You can use these as payment options on both paperbacks and on ebooks to help spread out the cost of purchasing books so you’re not having to shell out all at once.

And lastly, I have a favor to ask you guys, if you don’t mind. I’ve been debating starting up a Patreon page, where I would basically be serializing all my upcoming releases (such as Retribution, the next book in The Becoming Series), plus giving readers a first-dibs on getting to read short stories and things like that, but I’m not sure if it’s something readers would be into. So I’ve created…a quick survey. There’s only four questions on it (five if you count the last one), so it should only take a few moments to take, and it’s totally anonymous. I want to gauge interest before putting too much effort into planning it out, so I come to you guys, hat in hand, asking that you please answer these few questions for me. All answers are anonymous, and your help is greatly appreciated!

Another Memorial Day is in the past—and I hope everyone had a great weekend with their families and friends while they commemorated our fallen military servicemembers. I actually spent most of my Memorial Day working on some book admin type things, primarily outlining and tinkering with stuff for future books!

That said, I do have a few really great updates this week, so keep reading for the latest news! I don’t predict this one will be particularly long, either.

Notes to Readers/A Few Quick Things

Just a few little reminders, plus some new things:

Bloodlines is, as it’s been for about a month now, available in e-book format. The paperback is coming shortly—I’m currently waiting on the paperback’s proof to arrive at my house so I can check it over before hitting the publish button. You can buy your e-book copy of the book by visiting its page right here on my website! (And maybe think about buying it from my shop rather than a big retailer? It’s the same price, but it supports me more, and it has super easy, step-by-step instructions on how to load the book on your e-reader of choice, too!)Speaking of Bloodlines, I’ve got the paperback page set up here on my shop for those of you who prefer to buy directly from me. It’s currently listed as a “backorder,” but you’re still able to go ahead and purchase it through my site if you want an autographed copy; I’m placing an order for paperbacks just as soon as I check over the proof copy, so if you order now, I’ll be able to throw yours into my order for regular book stock once I’m at the ordering stage of the process (which should likely be next week)!A friendly reminder: the audiobook edition of Revelations, the third book in The Becoming Series, is currently 60% off for a very limited time—as in, the sale ends next Monday! So if you haven’t gotten your audiobook copy of Revelations, I’d highly recommend grabbing your copy while it’s on sale!As a sort of aside, I’m aiming to start building up my YouTube channel here shortly, but I’d like to get more subscribers over there before I start doing so in earnest. If you’re so inclined, I’d appreciate a sub!And lastly, here on my shop, there are new payment options for purchasing books…including the ability to now pay for your purchases using Klarna and Afterpay! This even includes the e-books, in case you’re dying to buy, say, all of my e-books from me but don’t want to shell out all the cost up front all at once! So if you haven’t bought your books yet and want to support me without breaking the bank, that’s a great way to stretch out the total so you don’t have to shell out so much all at once!A Bit About My Writing

Most of my writing over the past week or so has primarily been focused on “administrative” stuff—as in, the fiddly things writers do behind the scenes that readers don’t normally see. In this case, I hit pause on the drafting of Retribution in order to take some time to better outline the book. I’m not quite done with the outline—I’m still tinkering with some stuff that I haven’t 100% sold myself on yet—but things will proceed as soon as I make up my mind with all of that.

I’ve also been working on the outline for the next book in The Unnaturals Series, Demon Marked. It’s going reasonably smoothly, though I’m having to backtrack and re-read a lot of the four books that are already out just to refresh my memory on what happened and what I’d planned to set up for the next book. That should hopefully be wrapped up over this next week, since I think I know what I’m going to do with it.

And then there’s the series that shall not be named yet (mainly because I haven’t actually settled on a name quite yet). I’ve mostly been working on the worldbuilding; I like my concept a lot, but it obviously needs a great deal of fleshing out before I can proceed with the actual drafting of that series, though I’m genuinely looking forward to getting started on that series, since it’s something a little different.

A Note to Authors

I don’t normally post about my editing work too much over here, but I know I have a lot of authors who follow me, too, so I thought it was worth mentioning something over here about it. For those of you who are in need of a line editor, copy editor, or proofreader (or maybe even a developmental editor, assuming the book fits in with the sort of thing that I’m always on the lookout for), I’m now taking new clients over at my editing business editsbyjessica.com. I’m also still offering monthly payment plans if you need to stretch out the costs of editing, plus my invoicing software is now allowing me to accept payments using Klarna, so there’s now that option, too.

So if you are an author (or you know an author) who is looking for an editor with reasonable pricing and would prefer a human being edit your books rather than an AI program that risks stripping out your voice from your book or introducing further errors into it, definitely get in touch with me and let me see what I can do for you!

Before I dip out for the week, I did want to take a second to thank everyone who has purchased copies of Bloodlines (and, for that matter, all my other books), has left reviews, and has recommended them to friends, family, and others that might be interested. Your continuing support genuinely means the world to me!

Hi, all! This is just a quick heads-up for those audiobook lovers out there that Tantor Media is having a 60% off sale on the audiobook for The Becoming: Revelations! This is the audiobook for the revised and expanded rerelease from 2021, so if you prefer audiobooks and have been wanting to check out the expanded edition of this book, now’s definitely a great time to pick up a copy for yourself and give it a listen!

You can grab your copy from Audiobooks.com by clicking right here!

What a couple of weeks it’s been! Things have been fairly hectic over here, and I started getting fussy with myself over not getting newsletters out over these past two Saturdays like I’d intended until I reminded myself that it wasn’t as big of a deal as I was making it out to be and to stop being so hard on myself (something I’m really bad about doing). So here it is, this week’s post/newsletter thing keeping you guys updated on what’s going on in my little writer world.

Notes to Readers

Just in case you somehow managed to miss it, consider this your friendly reminder that Bloodlines, the sixth book in The Becoming Series, is now available in ebook format at most major retailers and now, as of today, officially available for purchase directly through me on this website! I was super nervous about its release, because I hadn’t published anything new (that wasn’t a revised/expanded edition) in this series since 2015, so I had no idea how it was going to be received. So far, the feedback I’m getting is good, so I feel a lot less nervous and a lot more excited about its availability! (Paperbacks for this one will be coming soon, I promise!) You can grab your copy of Bloodlines today by CLICKING RIGHT HERE to check out its product page here on my site!

And if you’ve read the book, please make sure you leave a review on your preferred retailer of choice! Reviews help the algorithm, which helps the book be more visible, which in turn helps me sell more books (and be able to afford to release even more books)!

A Few Quick ThingsAs a friendly reminder and an additional note related to Bloodlines, I’d like to take a second to mention that you should consider picking up and reading the short story “The Night the Moon Died,” which takes place between books five and six of that series and sets up a premise that will be important to upcoming books.As another friendly reminder, don’t forget that you can still purchase e-books and autographed paperbacks directly from me via my shop right here on my website! If you’re interested in supporting me (and not handing cash to a big corporation), this is the best way to do so!A Bit About My Writing

Well, I haven’t gotten as much writing done as I would have preferred over the past few weeks. I got a little bit more drafted on Retribution, but then I spent roughly a week sick, so I had zero motivation to do much of anything and focused on getting my editing work done whenever I was feeling well enough to do so. So unfortunately, I didn’t get anywhere near where I wanted to be in it at this point–last time I updated, I was about 10,000 words in, and I should’ve been close to 20,000-25,000 words by this point and I’m very much not. But that happens sometimes. Such is the life of a writer!

Speaking of life of a writer, I’ve been involved in a mentorship program for the past several months (as a mentee, not a mentor), and it’s been super beneficial so far. We’re currently in the process of planning an entire series that I think you guys are going to love once it comes out. I’m super excited to get fully started on it–I’m very enthused about the concept and am looking forward to actually writing the books. I’ll hopefully be chronicling the writing process on this new series here as I go, and of course as things shake out, you’ll get plenty of updates on availability and such as it happens!

Also, I wanted to take a moment to strongly encourage folks to consider using my shop here on my site to purchase ebooks and paperbacks directly from me. You’re welcome, of course, to continue using your retailer of choice, but if you don’t have a strong preference for a specific retailer, I’d encourage you to use my shop to purchase and send ebooks to your device of choice (when you purchase, it gives you options to send the ebook to your Kindle account, Nook account, Apple Books, etc.). You see, from a purely practical, mercenary perspective, I get to keep more money when I sell a book through my site than when I do through any of the other retailers. Let’s take Bloodlines as an example. It’s currently priced $5.99 across the board. If I sell a copy on Amazon, Amazon takes 30% of that $5.99, then pays me the rest. Same with Barnes & Noble and the other retailers (though that percentage might vary a little bit; I think one retailer keeps 40%, but Lord knows I can’t remember which at this point). However, if you spend that same $5.99 buying the book directly from me, I get to keep something like 97% of the money (the back end that runs my store keeps a small percentage for transaction fees, and I think it’s right around 3%). Honestly, $5.81 per copy sounds a lot better than $4.19 per copy, and that extra $1.62 really does add up over time. So this is why I always remind folks that my store exists and encourage the use of it, just in case you were wondering why I keep mentioning it!

A Bit About My Life

Things have been going relatively smoothly over here in my daily life. The cats and I have spent the past week and a half chilling at home, mainly because of the aforementioned week-long illness (which was, apparently, caused by a combination of different medications that all had nausea/vomiting as a side effect. Yay me). My doctor is attempting to help me find a medication that works well for treating my recent ADHD diagnosis, and I can already tell there’s a difference when it comes to getting things done. I’m having to adjust a bit and re-adapt some of my previously created systems because they were a little slipshod, which is something I didn’t notice before I was medicated until I started trying to use them again. So that’s an ongoing project for me, basically just reordering and reorganizing my life now that I have the mental fortitude and medication to make it happen!

Things I’m Liking Right Now

I’ve got to take a few minutes to sing the praises of a couple of books I’ve read recently (well, one of them I read last year, the other I just finished recently). Anybody who knows me knows I’ve always been a bit of a fan of Edgar Allan Poe’s works, as the man was an absolute writing genius. I think I was about twelve when my parents gave me a lovely hardcover collection of his works for Christmas (I wish I could find my copy of it, as it’s been misplaced in a series of subsequent moves), and I read it cover to cover. So imagine my delight when I picked up What Moves the Dead by T. Kingfisher and realized that it was a retelling/reimagining of Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher.”

Now, retellings/reimaginings can be tricky things. It can be so hard to pull them off, and to do it well. I’ve read some reimaginings that have made me cringe at the terribleness of them, and then I’ve read some that have blown my socks off with how good they were. These two books are definitely of the latter variety. T. Kingfisher manages to keep the vibe and the atmosphere of Poe’s original work without sacrificing quality and while also bringing a new, interesting perspective to the story. (Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll look at mushrooms the same way again.) I had no idea there was even going to be a sequel, as I’m terrible about keeping up with new releases from most authors, something that probably afflicts all of us, but I stumbled across What Feasts at Night at Target, of all places, immediately recognized the style of the cover as fitting with What Moves the Dead, realized it was a sequel, gasped out loud, and bought it. So much for a Target run without me spending any money lol. It was money well spent, in my opinion, because the sequel is just as good and just as chilling and imaginative as the first. These aren’t very long books, either–both clock in at around 150 pages each–so if you’re looking for a quick “bite” of a book to read and want to get creeped out in a deliciously awesome way by two fantastically written, solidly Gothic tales, I definitely recommend checking out T. Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead and What Feasts at Night!

Don’t forget to pick up your copy of Bloodlines , and help me spread the word about the book and the series! Tell your friends, post about it on social media, whatever it is you’re comfortable with doing!And if you’ve already got your copy (or a copy of any of the books in the series), reviews on your retailer of choice are definitely appreciated. They help the algorithms at the stores pick up that there’s interest in my books, which helps increase the visibility of them, which in turn makes me more sales, brings in more money, and frees me up from editing a bit more so I can write and publish more books for your enjoyment!

Hi, everyone! It’s been a bit since I took a few minutes to stop and chat about everything going on over here—needless to say, I’ve been super busy, which is part of what this post is all about today—but I figured it was time I sat down and hammered out a few details of what’s going on and what to expect from me over the next month or so. And boy, there’s a lot to touch on!

A Special Note

First, though, before I really dive in on everything else, I had a special note I wanted to start with.

For those of you who’ve been around long enough, you know that in the past, I’ve run both my website and a newsletter to keep people up to date on what’s going on with my writing business. And for those of you who’ve been around long enough, you can count on one hand the number of newsletters that I’ve actually sent out. Part of the problem is just lack of bandwidth on my part: I just don’t have the time, the energy, or the attention span to focus on creating for both of them (especially since, when I did remember to send out a newsletter, it primarily featured just highlights straight from this website).

I’m getting away from using the newsletter, which I realize is probably heresy in the writer world, but honestly? I just don’t have the energy to split my attention between both the newsletter and this website. On top of that, Mailerlite (the newsletter host) has been making some changes behind the scenes that have done nothing but frustrate and overwhelm me, which has made me consider getting away from them. I thought about shifting everything to Substack, but there was another problem there: the issue of yet another new system to learn.

For a while, I’ve made it no secret that I’ve wanted to move as much of my contact with you readers onto my website so everything is in one place and is under my control. And that’s when I remembered/realized that WordPress (my website host) already has a Substack-like newsletter service, which is one that I’ve been using for a bit and encouraging people to sign up for. So I’ve done some behind-the-scenes work over here plotting and planning how I’m going to do this here on WordPress, and this post is the result!

My overall plans are to post a maximum of once a week here on the website, primarily on Saturdays, unless something major happens or there’s something time sensitive that needs to go out right then and there. Otherwise, everything will be compiled on one weekly post, which I think is something that will work better for everyone. If you want to receive the post via email as a newsletter, please feel free to sign up by filling in your email address in the subscribe block to the right or, if you’re on mobile, CLICK HERE to visit the page to sign up!

And if, for some reason, you want to unsubscribe (though I hope you stick around) or modify your subscription to ensure you only receive emails weekly, you can do that by clicking the “manage your subscription” option at the bottom of this newsletter to refine your preferences.

A Note to Readers

Just in case you missed it, I’m very, very excited to announce that Bloodlines, the next book in The Becoming Series—a book that is not a re-release and has never, in fact, been released before—is now up for preorder on all the major e-book retailers! (Paperback format announcement is going to be coming soon, I promise!) You can check out more details about the book and some of my thoughts on the writing process and preorder your copy by CLICKING RIGHT HERE! The book officially releases on April 30th!

A Few Quick ThingsAs I mentioned above, Bloodlines is now available for your preorder pleasure! Want to know what happens to the gang you’ve been following since The Becoming was originally released in 2011 (and then re-released in 2020)? This is definitely the book you’re going to want to read!As an additional note related to Bloodlines, since this is the sort of thing that’s probably pretty important to know: If you haven’t already read it yet, you’re definitely going to want to pick up a copy of “The Night the Moon Died”, which is a short story in The Becoming Universe that takes place just before Bloodlines, (re)introduces the character of Dez Ikeda and the new character Emma Hadley, and sets up a premise that will become very important to the plot as the series’ storyline moves forward. So be sure to grab your copy of that! It shouldn’t take too long to read.As a friendly reminder, don’t forget that you can still purchase e-books and autographed paperbacks directly from me via my shop right here on my website! If you’re interested in supporting me (and not handing cash to a big corporation), this is the best way to do so!A Bit About My Writing

There’s been quite a bit going on on the writing front over here! Most of it has been very behind-the-scenes sort of work, but I’m excited to get moving on some of it.

I’ve already started drafting the next book in The Becoming Series, which will be titled Retribution. It will literally pick up within minutes of the ending of Bloodlines—to say it’s a direct sequel would probably be an understatement—and certain new characters from Bloodlines will be taking much more prominent roles going forward. I’m having a lot of fun writing specific characters that I’m genuinely hoping you’re going to like as much as I do!

As another fun thing I’ve been working on: short stories! I’ve been doing a ton of reading and research on honing my craft when it comes to writing short stories. I’ve done a few here and there, but it’s not something I’ve ever considered myself to be particularly skilled at (believe it or not, it’s much easier to tell a story in 90,000 words than in 9,000). That’s something I decided I really wanted to change this year. Obviously, I haven’t published any of the stories I’ve been tinkering with, but I do have some ideas and plans for them that will be announced here eventually, so keep an eye out for further info on that!

A Bit About My Life

There hasn’t been much going on in my life lately, just the desperate scramble to get things done that I need to have done. I think the biggest news was my recent diagnosis with ADHD—and by recent, I mean this past Tuesday. Needless to say, it was A Revelation. It’s enlightened me a lot on why I do some of the things I do (or don’t do, as the case may be?), so it’s sparked me doing some research for compensation techniques while I try to decide what I want to do regarding medication or treatment. So that’s a thing that’s happening. I’m hoping getting this straightened out means I’ll be more productive when it comes to output on my writing and get things done in a more timely fashion so that you guys can have more books to read from me over the long term!

Things I’m Liking Right Now

This is normally the section where I’d include the books I’m currently reading or just read, what I’m watching, etc., but this newsletter is getting long enough, so I’m going to save those features to start up again in next week’s newsletter.

Don’t forget to preorder your copy of Bloodlines, and help me spread the word about the book and the series! Tell your friends, post about it on social media, whatever it is you’re comfortable with doing!I’m looking forward to hearing what you guys think about the book once it releases on April 30th!

Yes, you read that blog post title correctly! Bloodlines, which has admittedly been a long, LONG time coming, is finally completed, proofread, formatted, and up for preorder on all the major retailers in ebook format!

If you want to preorder the book, please click here to check out what the book is about and preorder it from the retailer of your preference.

For a few notes on the process, feel free to keep reading!

Bloodlines seriously felt like it was eternally in progress. The original draft for it was begun all the way back in 2016. Yes, that’s how long Bloodlines has been stirring around in my brain, much to my personal annoyance. (I don’t even want to imagine how you guys felt about the repeated delays.) Granted, to be at least a little fair to myself, I wasn’t working on the book straight through since then—I had two degrees to finish, plus a business that I later started focusing on in earnest, and life in general, along with other books, got in the way. But whenever I was working on it over those years, it felt like I was pulling teeth.

That’s because, I think, I wasn’t telling the story the way the characters wanted it to be told.

I also discovered that I had the setting completely wrong for the book. Originally, I’d intended for it to take place closer to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In fact, the opening scenes in the book originally were written as taking place off of I-20/59 outside Tuscaloosa. And it wouldn’t have been the first time I’d used Tuscaloosa in a book I’d written—that honor goes to Hellforged, the second in The Unnaturals Series—but writing those first few scenes made me realize that the location just didn’t work. So I let the book sit and languish for a while as I instead focused on problems that I felt were “easier” to tackle and solve. At least, much easier than figuring out the quandary I was in when it came to that book.

Fortunately, as fate would have it, one day in 2021, I was driving through the downtown area of my hometown on the way to the post office and had a sudden revelation as I sat at the redlight at Walnut and Capitol: this little spot would make a great setting for a zombie apocalypse story.

And thus the spark of the idea to set the next book in The Becoming Series in my hometown was born.

Granted, I took a lot of liberties with the setting. I wasn’t exactly trying to draw a detailed, down-to-the-nails-and-screws map of downtown Demopolis and the buildings there. I’m a writer, after all, not an architect. I basically used the external layout of the area I wanted to depict and then played with the interior of the buildings referenced to achieve the effect I wanted. In essence, I took creative license. As most writers do.

And I finally figured out what this book was even supposed to be about: a man struggling with his sense of self, all while the world throws problems at him that are difficult—if not impossible—to solve. Once I zeroed in on that, the story finally, finally let go and let me write it, and that’s when I was finally able to complete it.

And as an aside to people who are actually from Demopolis: no, the residents of the Demopolis community depicted in the book are not based on anyone real. So I don’t want people thinking I’m badmouthing specific people in town or that the people in the book are inspired by or modeled off of real people who live in our town. They’re not, I promise. So any “reading into” that you do on that front is wholly on you.

All that said, you can check out the book and what it’s about right here. Be sure to preorder your copy from the retailer you prefer! And if you haven’t read the rest of the series, you’ll definitely need to before you dive into this one, because there’s a good bit that might not make sense, especially since it’s a follow-on from the books before it. Fortunately, you can pick up the first book in the series for the low, low price of FREE at all the major retailers—you can check that out right here!

I’d also highly recommend reading the short story “The Night the Moon Died” before you proceed into Bloodlines, as a major plot point from that storyline begins to be explored in Bloodlines and serves as a catalyst for what will happen later on in the series!

Wow, Tantor Media is really rolling with the awesome audiobook sales here lately! In the spirit of the holiday season, they have marked the audiobook for Revelations, the third book in The Becoming Series, a whopping 75% off it’s normal retail price! Now is a great time to pick it up if you’ve been wanting to check out this audiobook but also need to save a little money. You can find out more details on purchasing your copy by clicking here and picking up your copy for only $6.25!

 

I wanted to drop in to let you guys know that I’ve been notified that there’s a sale going on with the audiobooks for Hellforged, the second book in The Unnaturals Series! Tantor Media is offering Hellforged for a whopping 60% off through Audiobooks.com! If you’ve been holding off getting the audiobook for this one and want to save a pretty penny (as in, the book is marked all the way down to $10), now is a great time to pick up your copy of this one! You can click RIGHT HERE for more information on how to get your copy! This is a limited-time promotion that ends soon, so get your copy while you can!

In addition, as a friendly reminder, you’re rapidly running out of time to request a free Christmas card from me this year! You have until December 15th to fill out the form to ask for one–I will be mailing all cards out the morning of December 16th in order to make sure you get yours by Christmas (per USPS). December 15th is also the last day to order any autographed physical books off of my website in order to receive them in time for Christmas. You can sign up for your Christmas card by clicking over to this page on my website for more information and the form to fill out to get yours!