Hey, folks. Honestly, this is too important to put in the hands of the felines, who are recovering but are still a bit grumpy.
I will be moving all of my preorders out a month. So Booked for Kidnapping will be moving to October. Up in Smoke will be moving to December. Plaidypus will be moving to January, and Silent Stalker will be moving to March.
I need the breathing space. COVID has been hard, people bitching and moaning over how DARE I not write a standalone with the exact characters they want, with the exact endings they want, with the exact everything want is tiresome. (Like, seriously… go find some other author to read. If you can’t handle series or trilogies, my books were NEVER for you. Ever. Even from its conception, the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) SERIES was meant to be a SERIES.
I do not have a SINGLE actual true standalone in my arsenal of books. I DO have a bunch of books that CAN be read as standalones, but exactly ZERO of my books are true standalones.
I recommend you either get over it or find your entertainment elsewhere. All you do is annoy me. I’m not going to change what I write because you don’t like it. I enjoy making my readers happy and helping others laugh, but I’m not changing what or how I write because you would prefer a true standalone, something I have NEVER written.
The first novel I ever wrote? First in a trilogy. Second? First in a quartet. Third? First of a quartet. After that? Lost count of how many books. Not a single one was ever meant to stand alone.
Get. Over. It.
If you want standalones, you should be reading something like a contemporary romance or a mystery standalone, not my books.
I’m complicated, and my books are often too complicated for one volume. Or I am working on a thousand different threads, which are placed in books so I can use them later. Playing with Fire? Tons of those threads. Hoofin It? You’re starting to see those threads coming to life. Hearth, Home, and Havoc introduced an important concept most people don’t realize is an important foundation piece. Serial Killer Princess introduced racial elements of the various societies, but especially gorgon elements and how they can change genetics. (It was not a mistake for Tulip to have turned out as she did, and how that happened provides important clues for how other stuff works in the series.)
So, no. Enough, enough.
New dates will be posted once the date changes are finalized.
I’m fucking tired, and I’m especially tired of working myself to the bone.
Books take time to write. Deal with it.
Don’t like how long it takes for me to write a book? Seriously? Go write your own. If you think you can do better… go do better. Enjoy the fame and riches when you get there. Good luck! (And go burden somebody else. I’m too tired for that nonsense.)
If you’re not happy with how I write books… stop reading them. Go read some other author. There are a bazillion authors out there who’d love boosts to their paycheck.
I want people who will be happy reading my books to be reading and buying them.
If you aren’t happy reading my books, please go find somebody else to read. Nobody is forcing you to read anything I write. Seriously.
I write my books for the people who like the types of books I write, and I’m not a cardboard cutout. I am not going to write the exact same thing every time. Characters aren’t going to be the same exact kind every time. Some tropes I love, so you’ll see them often… but I’ll change it up.
If you don’t like it, the correct answer is to go find someone you love reading. You aren’t going to hurt my feelings.
It would be a great deal stranger if everyone loved my books.
I write books I want to read, and instead of putting them in a drawer and having a job doing something else, I polish them and share, opting to make my living sharing my books with people who want to read the stuff I write.
If I don’t write the stuff you want to read… don’t read it. Seriously.
Try Ilona Andrews. Try Faith Hunter. Try Diana Pharaoh Francis. Try Grace Draven. Try Cat Banks or Erin Hayes. Try somebody else.
Go read books you actually like.
So, that’s that. I’m not going to be grinding myself to the bone on a deadline hell and make myself sick. I want to be able to breathe for a change. So, the deadlines are being changed. Expect notices on Amazon and other vendors to be going out soon.
With much love,
Me.
Enjoy this picture of the orchid my spouse got for me the other day. It’s pink!
Thank you for your understanding.
Its ok ur need to breathe I still reread ur book ur books are good
Wow. People suck. Seriously. Please, take the time you need. I love your books. I got my mom and sister hooked on your books. I have been dealing with depression lately and it’s very hard for me to focus on reading, which sucks, because I love love love to read. Your books help keep me sane. I can read, reread and read again and still seriously enjoy your books. So, thank you for keeping me sane. Know that there are LOTS of people who love your books. Just as you write them… *hugs from FL*
Take care, stay well, and just keep doing what you do so well. Null and Void was perhaps the best book of its type I ever read. Thanks, seriously thanks for that work.
I love your books, standalone or ongoing series. There are plenty of other books to read while I’m waiting, so I’m not pressed, and I’m not going to press you or any other author. That is unconscionably rude.
RJ Blain, you ROCK! Your books ROCK! Thank you for writing what you do. You do what all GREAT authors do – you write what you know or what you like. That is what gives the books (and characters) life.
Although I watch for your new releases and pre-order as soon as I can, your physical health and mental wellness are MUCH more important than me getting your new releases immediately. (hey, I can re-read the titles I already have – what a concept).
Thank you for being so open and upfront with us, your faithful readers. We appreciate knowing what is coming and if there are any changes. Those who give you a hard time deserve the reprimand you have them. I would call them spoiled brats and think that your reminder of their place in the reading world is completely correct.
Please take care of you, your husband and the cats. They matter much more than getting your stories releases on a tight deadline. We will patiently wait for new additions to our libraries but you need to be healthy to write those new additions.
REST! You deliver great books for us. Do it on your time. Enjoy your husband and life in general. I, and a whole lot of other readers, will be here when the books arrive. BTW, The Client From Hell is a riot.
Thank you for what you do . I have loved most of your books, I won’t say all as I haven’t read them all. Anyway, keep up the good work.
I am sorry you had to say all of that, instead of just announcing Date changes. People are apparently greedy, entitled, and demanding, instead of appreciating and accepting the benefits of your creative processes.
Your work makes my days better, whether from new stories, or re-reads. Thank you, for continuing to create and share your brain and imagination with us!
Yep, and realistically, everyone can thank the entitled pricks who are mad they have to show a tiny amount of patience for me deciding to fuck it. They can wait longer now, because if they’d been a little kinder, I would have been more inclined to drag myself through the mud to make more people happy.
But, that’s not the case, so if they can’t be kind to me… I see no reason to cater to their desires. At all.
Nope, I’m going to give myself a kinder-to-me schedule, and screw it.
Kindness pays… being a jackass to somebody who works hard trying to write books they love?
Means EVERYBODY ends up waiting longer because my last fuck has flow off into the nether.
In a way that they didn’t intend the asshats have done you a favour – you’re taking better care of yourself because they pissed you off! The schedule change is something you needed to do a long time ago but you were too busy trying to make everyone happy to your own detriment. I miss getting your books quite so often but I’m a big girl who can look after herself and want you to be around for a long time, which won’t happen if you work yourself to the bone. I’m glad you are standing up to the jerks now, though – I may occasionally ASK an author for something but to DEMAND it? How stinking rude!!!
As an aside, do you like gamelit novels? If you do or you haven’t read them, I came across a few good ones in Kindle Unlimited that I ended up buying outright. Some of the authors I like are: Robyn Wideman, Rohan M Vider, Daniel Schinhofen, and Shirtaloon (who has quite the sense of humour). Whatever you want to read, I think you need to refresh yourself by reading more of other author’s works just for the fun of it rather than as research.
Rest and relax, and have some fun while you’re at it ?
Take care of yourself. I love your books, and when a new one comes out, it’s like a holiday!
Don’t need a holiday every month, so I wait. Sometimes I lash my tail, but I wait for the good stuff!
I love your books. Please don’t change a thing. You are awesome. I preorder every book. I recommend you to all my like minded friends. It makes me so sad that people can’t read and enjoy your brilliant stories. Thank you for everything and look forward to your future books when they arrive. You work so hard, and produce excellent characters and story lines. Take as long as you need. I’m a big fan and don’t see that changing if you need more time to feel more like you. Take care xx
Go you! Screw people they suck. Unicorns (and puppers) are better. Well, good husbands are ok. The kind that give pretty flowers. I’ve NEVER heard of an author who served readers like a menu where did they get the idea? Wow. Some people’s kids. I say take a year off (what am I saying) and piss them off even more, go on a romantic tropical getaway, then put out the best book in history and shame them.
You rock. I love your books and am happy when a new one is available, When ever that happy day is. I laugh out loud on the subway when reading the comedies, which either gets me more personal space 🙂 or I share the name of your books with those who ask. I wish for you and yours good health, peace, and happiness.
Good for you! Your health is way more important and that includes mental health as well as physical! Feel better and have a nice breather❤️
The orchid is beautiful (and your spouse is definitely a keeper!) and let the idiots stew in their own juices.
Your fans love your writing and will wait as patiently as they can manage for the next installment of the goodies you write. Those others – ignore them if at all possible. If you can’t ignore them, keep telling them the facts of your books (as above) and don’t even try to make sense of them.
Entitled idiots have sprung up like weeds after a rain. It isn’t like *anyone* needs them…
I have just finished “Client From Hell” and see threads all over the place! Enjoyed the heck out of it and will re-read soon.
Thank you for a great time!
I have never understood why people complain about the author’s style of writing. That is how that author tells their story. I was reading comments about a new author to me’s new thriller and the reader was complaining about the violence! It was a thriller about a nuclear war; of course there was violence. I love your books! I understand that I may have to wait for the next book to get resolution about different plot threads but that is expected in series books. I just read a series that was 4 books long and all 3 of the first books ended with unresolved issues. I knew that when I started the series, so I waited until the series was finished to read it.
Please ignore the “stupid “ people and keep writing your wonderful books!
I love your books and have no problem waiting for them. I also love how they interconnect. Take care of yourself and enjoy your new car!
You are amazing! I legit LOVE everything you write. Honestly anything that comes out when it does is worth the wait because the stories are awesome. You deserve to take that break and have you time. Anyone pressuring you for anything else needs to….well you know. I ❤️❤️❤️you!
First – thank you for CLIENT FROM HELL! I lost track of time and evidently had not pre-ordered as I thought, so I ordered and enjoyed it yesterday. Marvelous!
Second – the entitlement of some people appalls me. None of us need more grief or stress in our lives, especially now. We just had a geezer come into the library where I work and demand we give him our only copy of the yellow pages. “Well can’t you just bring in your own copy from home to replace it?” The only response is to stand firm, and I applaud you for doing so although I regret the necessity.
You do you. Love all your books and am happy to wait however long it takes to get the next one. Love the variety of the characters and the world building. If you need a break and time to relax, take it. life is for living. Not working until you are exhausted and unhappy. Hugs.
The orchid is beautiful, good job hubby! The last time my hubby gave me indoor flowers, I promptly killed them, poor African Violets. Just got Client From Hell and off to read!! YAY!!
A note of appreciation: your fabulous, funny, thought-provoking books got me through a year of Pandemic isolation.
Take time and breathe. Play with your cats, enjoy your new apartment and take long drives in your car.
There’s always going to be complainers, just try to ignore them. Your true fans love you and will patiently wait for your next book.
Thank you for the release updates. I keep a wish list on Amazon for fav. releasing authors. You are on that list! Big time!! Thank you for writing great stories about interesting people(?) and interesting ideas. Love the books, love rereading them. Stay safe!
Take time for yourself first. Ignore the haters. By the way, I just finished Client from Hell and love the way you pulled in characters from the other books. I like reading series!
We may have to wait a little longer but you are healthy so we will get releases from you for a longer period. That will work all of us greedy readers. Take care, rest, ignore the ignorant, enjoy the kitties, smell the flowers, take care trips, love your amazing hubby and love yourself!!!!
I don’t understand people…. I love ? your books and am thankful ? for whatever you produce! No time line or expectation should be demanded! Or grouched about! So if you only need a month extra for those books, that’s actually pretty amazing given what everyone has been going through. I listened to someone talking about going into our local hardware store, and realized that I seem to have turned into a hermit! Granted it’s on 10 acres, but even so… ! Please ignore these ignorant people and do what’s necessary for your health.
Wow. I am that clueless person who never knows what is going on because my face is in a book (mine, one or yours, or someone else’s). But I do understand where you are coming from. It is sad when people who just don’t understand how hard it is to write a book try to guilt you into writing faster or writing more.
No worries for the later dates — those of us who love you will just re-read your books already out. I was thinking how you did series and was wondering if I should start another because there are these other ones in my brain that want to get out into the world and I don’t want to wait and finish this whole series, that started as a trilogy, and now is looking much longer…because the characters won’t stop trying things…..
Take a mini-social media break, do what you love (cuddle kitties, take a bath, write, or just drive Demon Spawn around (I got the right one, right? Darn, and I just finished the Jesse Alexander books re-read!) There is a whole group of us who will wait right here for you, when the next book comes out.
Thank you the updates.
That is a beautiful orchid.
I do have one question, which I will tender someday if you do an ask me anything post: Do either you or Richard or Nicole like Mary Kay Cadillac pink?
Thank you for all your stories. They reread just great.
I never thought I would be saying this, but that pink is SO not pink enough. It needs more pink.
This is my first visit to your site. I came in concern that you might be very unwell.
I was glad to see that you are okay but just needed a beak. Who doesn’t need one occasionally? I was also glad to see so many positive posts telling you how much we enjoy your work, and more importantly that your health and happiness is above this in our priority. What do I love about your work? The obvious is the comic element but beneath this is the depth and many layers and the threads that weave from one book to another. Above all this however what drew me to your books was your enjoyment in gifting to others the story. I hope above all else you don’t loss your joy in giving us these beautiful stories. Just the thought you are not enjoying this anymore makes me very sad. I love all your works and when I am feeling down I revisit them to read again. I have not yet read ‘Client from Hell’ yet as I am saving it for my Birthday weekend.
Please forgive any spelling or grammatical errors as I have dyslexia (stupid word! Why do they give us something so hard to spell)
Please take note of and soak up all our best wishes for you
Will I be able to get a paperback or hardback of Booked for Kidnapping whan it is released in October?
Paperbacks will be available of all books. I can’t promise the paperbacks will release at same time of ebooks; it can take up to a month for the vendor to distribute the pbs. No hardcover; too expensive and not enough demand.
You go girl!
Tell it like it is.
And thank you for continuing to write what you want and like to write. I like to read them.
Thank you for the books you have written and those to come. Please do not do those 14+ hr days for months at a time! I can wait even though I may not want to.
I really ENJOY your books.
I love all the threads and connections and characters shared between the books in your series. I love that you write at all. Sure, I’d love it if you’d write faster, but I’d rather have you continue to write well than write more and make yourself sick, thereby cutting off my stream of New Books. Plus, you’re pretty quick anyway.
Haters gonna hate. F*ck them, they can go suck on a tailpipe. Please don’t feel bad about changing your publishing timeline. It’s totally ok. I will gladly wait for it, and like others in these comments have said, I will just simply re-read all the things in the meantime, and enjoy all over again the story tapestry you weave.
Thank you!
You do what you need to do. Sending hugs to the whole family.
I for one am glad you are continuing to write books at all. You were a new to me author during 16 months of staying home 100% and I have thoroughly enjoyed the romantic comedy series. Thank you. I am astonished that anyone thinks they can make demands of authors??? I will wait happily until you are ready and able to finish the next books. You are IMO providing generous amounts of information for readers.
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I love your “Magical Romantic Comedy (With a body count) series. I have read everyone twice And each time I find something I missed the first time I read them. Yes, I would love to have a new book every week to read but they wouldn’t mean as much to me then. The anticipation makes the book mean more when you finally get to read it. It’s like Christmas Eve and Christmas day you just can’t wait but you do and you enjoy it more then if it had been handed to you.
Love your work and take the time you need to get it the way you want the book to be.
I’ll wait and enjoy them later.
Thanks for hard work.
Kathy
As always, I adore you. Do your thing. I’ll be here, patiently waiting
We’re going to play a little “back in my day” even though I’m only 37 ?… Once upon a time there was no instant gratification. You actually had to keep track of release days (gasp), wait for the bookstore to unpack the shipment & stock the shelves the day of release (gasp again), then you had to go to the store, find your book, stand in line and pay for it. Then drive home before you could start reading (*gasp*). And even once pre-oredering was available, you would still have to wait until the afternoon of the day the book came out to get it from the desk at the store. No such thing as Prime. (I know, how primitive.) And if the series was popular and you didn’t want to shell out for hard back, it was another 6-9 months–at least–before paperback. (((GASP))) If you hit the Harry Potter midnight release party it was at least 30 minutes waiting in line to purchase. ? Plus expecting multiple books from the same author in the same year??? Um yeah no. Maybe 2 total, one of each series if you are lucky.
We are all spoiled rotten now and don’t anyone forget it. I love my e-reader and pre-ordering. Books showing up at midnight of the release day=much rejoicing and needing self control because I have to work the next day. Am I a little sad about dates getting pushed back? Sure, but it’s not the end of the world. Heck I get a short fuse working normal hours if I don’t get enough me time. 14 hour days for weeks on end? No. Just no. When the complainers start working that much with no guarantee of a paycheck (we’ll even let them not have health problems), then *maybe* their opinion will hold a little weight. Sadly the complainers always seem to be more vocal and nastier about things, so they end up drowning out the good.
So to all the entitled complainers out there: we are spoiled rotten and in all seriousness, RJ is still spoiling us if she does 3-4 books a year.
@RJ : I love your MagRomCom + offshoots, Fox Witch, Royal States, Zodiac, and Vigilante Librarians (what?!?!! such a funny concept). I will reiterate what has already been said: I would be much, MUCH sadder with no new books than with fewer new books.
Now off to re-read Client from Hell for probably the fourth time. ?
I am a hair older than you. I desperately miss that old school book release thing, the joy of going to the bookstore and that ONE book I so desperately wanted is there… I totally don’t mind the release day thing, but there was some form of beautiful magic about that anticipation.