Dear humans,
The partridge in a pear tree part of the subject is a complete and total lie. The female doesn’t have any tasty birds for me, nor does she have a pear tree. Don’t listen to her. Filthy female, getting my hopes up for delicious bird with a dessert of equally delicious fruit.
So cruel.
The book is Grace Draven’s Dragon Unleashed. The female loved this book. She read it a long time ago, as she was honored to be able to proofread it. We hope you enjoy it even half as much as the female did. (She dropped her entire life to read the book. She regrets nothing.)
The life updates portion of this post is a lot trickier. A while back, we posted our schedule for 2021. Well, things have changed. COVID did a lot of changing of things. Current events make some of the female’s choices no longer feasible.
The Seeking the Zodiacs series is being put on temporary hold due to COVID. The second book, Achlys, deals with the theme of poison, disease, and societal unrest.
Yeah. The female plotted this series several years ago. She is not changing the entire series concept to make it friendlier for society at this point in time. This is the official announcement that the female has removed Achlys from the schedule until the end of 2021 at the absolute earliest. We’re sorry.
It would be significantly irresponsible of her to write a Chinese-American lead character dealing with biological warfare dealing with disease, poison, and similar themes right now.
More unfortunately, one of the books in the series is titled Plaguebringer. The cover is gorgeous, and it deals with the sign of Cancer.
Yeah.
No reading between the lines required on this one.
So, we extend our apologies, humans. We do not wish to add difficulties to our Chinese and Chinese-American friends, and that means putting this series aside until people learn to calm the fuck down and stop being assholes to others. The female refuses to work on the series because of this.
Unfortunately, according to her most recently updated personal schedule, she had planned to write three books in this series next year.
Yeah. That’s some significant plan changing.
It gets worse.
She was also going to be starting two other trilogies, both of which involve African-American protagonists who deal with elements of racism in their societies. In one of the books, there are themes that just do not mesh well with the current societal situations.
It is one thing for a book to be written, but there is a point where an author must choose to be sensitive and caring towards the people included in the book.
The timing isn’t right for these books, either.
Truth be told, the one book is something the female could get away with; the underlying themes do not conflict with modern societal issues. She might push forward with that trilogy, as the heroine kicks ass, has amazing hair, and is, frankly, a fun role-model. She’s also a fox in space.
What? The female really likes foxes.
So far, these are the only confirmed novels for 2021:
Dirty Deeds: This collection contains the first 30-40,000 words of Doggone Mess, which is equivalent to the first major arc of the story. It will not be fully closed, although it will have some resolutions. The full release of Doggone Mess will be substantially longer, and there will be old friends in it. The female loves the beginning of Doggone Mess, and she’s super happy she doesn’t have to stop writing after the section for Dirty Deeds is finished. That said, if you opt not to purchase the complete book later, you’re still getting a full story. There are just a lot of unanswered questions because the book will be closer to 150,000 words when finished.
There will be a teaser of Doggone Mess at the end of this mess of a post.
Client from Hell: This is the first book of a three book Mag Rom Com spinoff trilogy. Yes, Satin is in it. Yes, there will be appearances by Satin’s little cupcake. Yes, Darlene will show up from time to time.
Catnapped: Next year’s birthday book. The description gives you all you need to know:
When someone steals Diana’s cat, a former lab animal rescued from death’s door, she calls on one of the most dangerous beings in the universe for help. Cutting a deal with the devil isn’t the smartest move, but there’s no way in hell she’ll abandon Mr. Flooferson the Magnificent to his fate.
Teaming up with the son of a demon, an angel, and one hell of a woman might push Diana to the limits of her courage and sanity. Unless she wants to sell her soul to the devil, she must cope with her new partner, make the most of a bad situation, and find out who stole her cat and why.
What she learns will forever change humanity–and lead to a battle destined to forever change the heavens and the devil’s many hells.
Yes, there are only three confirmed books for 2021 so far.
This is probably a good thing, because 2020? 2020 sucks.
Here is, after minimal thought on it, the stories she’s probably going to be working on, in clusters of relevant books:
- Leashed I Could Do (Sequel: Last but not Leashed.) The heart wants a novel. We don’t know if it will be a novel or novella.
- Ural Be Sorry (Sequel: Owl Be Yours) Unknown if this will be novella or novel.
- Maybe Sequel to Fowl Play. Novella style.
- Serial Killer Princess 2. Like with Leashed, the heart wants a novel. The female doesn’t know if it will be a novel or novella.
There’s a catch. She is thinking about writing these as anthology titles rather than solo titles. While she has the covers for both Leashed I Could Do and Ural Be Sorry, a collection of Mag Rom Com short stories and novellas would be a nice change of pace for her. It would be called the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) Expansion Pack (#1) and would give her the freedom to work on ‘catch up’ stories about previous characters.
So, you might get a Perky meets Perkette short story if the female ditches solo releases and does these as an all-original anthology collection, much like Water Witch explored the Witch & Wolf world.
That would also let her just toss stuff in randomly as she wants to work on things.
Unlike the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) Starter Pack, there would be no previously published titles in the first Expansion Pack.
Basically, the female would be a lot happier with the Expansion Pack than individual releases for the shorter things.
But four maybe novels, maybe novellas equals one really nice Expansion pack, and once short stories and other tidbits are tossed in, the $9.99 price tag will go far. Also, all-new material for the entire collection, which makes everybody happy.
- Silent Stalker
Currently, this series is on hold due to no cover art. It will be a while. The female really, really dislikes working on books she does not have covers for. It is very upsetting for her, and she has had books sit and rot for six months waiting for covers in the past. (and this is just a lot of lost money for her, along with lost time.)
She’s rebranding that specific series, and as such, Blood Bound will be getting a new cover. Since she’s rebranding anyway, and the ideas she has for Silent Stalker allow for it, there will be a third novel released in the Lowrance Vampires world. As the female is cruel, she is withholding the title. She is thinking about when she will be working on these stories, but due to the lack of cover art, late 2021 is the earliest it will be finished. No cover = no book.
That one is outside of our control, sorry. There were booking problems for the cover art, and it will be a while before a designer can get to that specific series. While the Blood Bound cover is beautiful and the female quite loves it, change is coming.
- Pack Justice sequel
- The Edge of Midnight
These two titles will finish off the main Witch & Wolf series novels. Witch Wolf, the second Dustin Walker anthology, will be the next anthology collection featuring Witch & Wolf characters. The Case Files of Karma Johnson will be picked at as time and motivation allow. Right now, License to Kill is attempting to murder the female. Poor female. Rest in pieces.
Peace.
Whoops.
- Up in Smoke is the second Fox Witch novel. Female will be working on it. It is unknown if the female will be finished with it in 2021.
That’s it. The rest of the planned books have all be ixnayed due to society. If you want to get mad, get mad in your own space and not ours. If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all–and we’ll figure out how to shut off comments and/or delete your vitriol if you bring it into our space. So just don’t.
Thank you for your understanding.
Here is the promised snippet of Doggone Mess. Be warned. It’s unedited drivel. If you find a typo, great. They’re there. Keep it to yourself. If you can’t stand typos, doesn’t read this. You’ll only have yourself to blame for your unhappiness over sneak peeks of upcoming books.
From Chapter One…
After a long week of work, I couldn’t really blame anyone for grabbing fast food on the way home, but did everyone in Long Island have to visit my specific branch of McDonald’s? From vanilla humans, lycanthropes, practitioners, and centaurs to devils, demons, and even an angel, everybody wanted a hit, and they wanted me to give it to them.
I questioned the angel. How could they eat? Did they eat? Why did an angel want nuggets? Why did everyone want nuggets today?
While all the lines were busy, mine had twice as many people, and I doubted I’d survive to the end of my shift in an hour.
I considered asking some divine for help, but I opted against the idea. With my luck, the devil would join the mayhem and give me one hell of an order.
The nuggets held the place as the day’s reigning champion of sales, with the smart people ordering twenty, as it was approximately fifty cents more expensive than ordering ten. Burgers took the second spot of the day, and the underdog salad came in a close third, resulting in general mayhem in the back, as we hadn’t prepared for a salad bender.
Oddly, the lycanthropes led the charge on the unexpected salad bender. Had someone slipped pixie dust into our dressing when I hadn’t been looking? While filling an insane order consisting of a hundred and sixty nuggets, ten fries, and enough soda to float a boat, I checked one of the labels to make sure.
Nope, no pixie dust.
I could’ve used a hit of pixie dust, but for some damned reason, the CDC got cranky when those infected with a contagious life-altering disease became snuggle fiends. My driver’s license specifically barred me from ingesting any pixie dust, the cruelest of blows in my life outside of my accidental infection with lycanthropy. Pixie dust turned me into a snuggle fiend out on a mission to love everyone, making me a high infection risk.
They would consider removing the flag after I mated, as they believed I would become a snuggle fiend with my mate, which they considered to be acceptable.
I hated the CDC, especially as my virus agreed with their idea. I bet my terrorist virus just wanted me to settle down and used pixie dust to its advantage, although I’d resisted its wicked ways thus far. Damn it, I needed a vacation.
I am cat, see me disrupt my momma’s ability to write. Go me!
Paula G
I’m sorry society is giving you problems writing. I understand why you can’t write those books. Doggone Mess is going to be goood!
Joyce
Thank you for the update
FranB
Dear Zazzle and crew : thank you for the updates and sharing your “ponderings/reasoning”. I very much appreciate your fun and “silly” stories and look forward to (and pre order) almost all of them. I also appreciate your candor, and kindness, and forethought , about how they may trigger uncomfortable emotions in some of your readers. I am a little sad at the delays of some titles you’ve mentioned, (Eg I really enjoyed Hypnos) but I totally understand and agree with your reasoning/planned precautions. I’m especially concerned about the follow up to Wolf Hunt (Declan et al). Did you change the title ( Wild Wolf to Pack Justice? ) what about prior Pack Justice? and possible sequel to Pack Justice? I’m very happy to hear more witch and wolf (and will continue to preorder as available) are still coming. I’m thrilled to hear more novella or novel anthologies may be coming too. Thank you again for the updates and wishing you and your sister (and humans) love and peace and healing.
The Sneaky Kitty Critic
Wild Wolf releases December 22, 2020, so as such, it’s not on the 2021 schedule! The Pack Justice reference refers to the sequel to that book. It has a title. I’m sure I even know what it is.
The Sneaky Kitty Critic
:whispers: i really don’t even remember the title right now. Brain is gone. It’s hard making words go.
Michele
I totally understand the change up. I appreciate your thoughtfulness. I love your books for the ability to take me away from reality and I can see why these are too close right now.
Mary
I’m currently listening to the audio of Hypnos and loving it. However, I totally understand why the next two books cannot be written at this point in time.
An anthology of the Rom-Com (with a body count) would be wonderful. Please consider going that route.
So sorry that society has gone totally off the rails and is interfering with the planned books. We will read whatever you choose to write for us.
Thank you.
Valerie
I try to wait patiently for your writings. I preorder when ever possible. I understand delaying writing trigger books. You write, I buy. More treats for the furry!
Pat
I was wondering if you are writing any more in The Royal States series? I really love those novels. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve read all of them. They have helped me get through the quarantine. Any chance you will write the Canadian Monarchs story? Or another story with McKenzie and William and Family? Thanks for a wonderful series.
The Sneaky Kitty Critic
In a word, yes.
Taken comes out next month. I’m working on the next one, but I have no ETA because it’s a play project right now. (I’m actually working on a few Royal States, but they’re all over the place. When I’m closer to being done them, I’ll announce date(s).)
deborah fort
yes would love a MCR short story collection and doggone mess and catnapped sound amazing. And while i love Hypnos the delay is understandable and a responsible move on your part so Kudos and keep up the amazing work God Bless
Barbara Mix
I like the idea of the expansion pack. Go for it. I recognize the cat in front of a monitor situation. I’m typing over my cat, who just helped me delete a bunch of emails that I needed to read, including this one. I don’t know how he did it but at least I found the errant emails.
Scott Ryan
Someone else with an email-deleting cat! I still have no idea how many she selected and permanently deleted. I agree wise to change writing order; hoping RL settles down. The humor helps, thank you so much.
Amy
I love the expansion pack idea too!
I loved the previous starter pack because it introduced me to many different characters and you could read the type of story you wanted to and it saved me money.
I hope that Zazzle and Princess may have a bunch of treats.
Judith
Please write and publish in any order you want. It is important to keep enjoying what you do. I’ll keep buying your books as they come out. I have all the books you published on kindle and have enjoyed them all more than once. I look forward to sequels in any order you wish to release them. Also enjoy any new series you start.
snapdragon
Do what you need to do right now. Every time I looked at your 2020/2021 calendar I got tired. So taking a break on a few books or doing the Expansion Pack sounds like the correct thing for you to do. I still have everything that is coming out on pre-order so I am looking forward to having something new to read.
Stephanie
I’m with Judith. Write what you want, when you want. I’ll just show up with the money.
Sarah
Total agreement.
Mary
Thank you for the snippet of ‘Doggone Mess’. I enjoyed it and am looking forward to more.
Susan
I think the idea of an expansion pack is a great idea. Truthfully, I will take any of your stories anyway you want to put them out so feel free to do what fits best. Just please keep putting them out.
Sharlene
I love all your books which I pretty much read in a binge last year when I discovered them. Blood Bound and House lost at Sea turned out to be favourites and I really love Requiem for the Rift King and am hoping that in your extremely busy schedule you will some how find a way to complete this series. In the meantime I look forward to your kindle publications as they are arrive and am just grateful you find the time to write as much as you do. Thankyou.
Marijke van Nieuwstadt
You write it, I’ll read it.