Happy spring to all of you in the Northern hemisphere (are any of you in the Southern hemisphere? If so HI! And happy autumn!). My corvid friends are just as excited about the warmer, longer days as I am, and even stopped to pause for a picture. I have several murders along my walking route and they even have a name for me…I think.
This month’s update is later than planned. At least one person in my house has been sick since the holidays (sometimes more than one), or at least that’s how it feels. I’m recovering from a recent one-two punch of a sinus infection + bronchitis. As a result I’m behind on both of the novels I’m working on right now and all manner of administrative and marketing duties. But I did watch a lot of movies...so that’s something!
What I’m working on
I spent a couple weeks reading through the novel I’m co-authoring with the awesome August Niehaus, making notes and comments. Last week we had an amazing brain-storming session to figure out the ending of the book and where we need to add to the story and Y’ALL! There is just nothing like a meeting of the minds like we had. The ideas came faster than I could take notes. I cannot wait for you to get your hands on this book, hopefully later this year. August and I will coordinate a title and cover reveal + more details for you soon!
In Almost Like Magic news, I am diligently writing away on book 3! This story has been plagued with all manner of writers block…I started this book three times. THREE TIMES! And then I had a long, amazing talk with Eva—one of my long time critique partners—and I came to a realization of why nothing was working and why I couldn’t move the story forward. I WAS WORKING ON THE WRONG BOOK! I was writing book 5, not book 3. So while most of the 35,000 words I’d managed aren’t useable for book 3, I can save and use them later. Once I figured THAT out, and why (and OMG! Does knowing the why improve the overall structure of the series), I was able to write about 8,000 words before I got a nasty cold. It’s going to be another fun romp in and around Eight-Fold and should answer a question that more than one of you has asked me about!!! As a thank you for all your support, here’s a snippet from the first page (with the understanding that this is very much a rough work-in-progress and the opening may change considerably).
What I’m reading
I’m off-and-on reading an older urban fantasy novel, Heart of Stone, by CE Murphy. Off-and-on because I tend to take it with me when I leave the house and suspect I’ll have time to read it, so it’s slow going, but it’s a great story so far!
AND I just got All That Glitters, book 6 of The Queen Trials series, written by my friend Penelope Wright, and I suspect that will get utterly devoured over the weekend. And look at that cover!!! **swoon**
Personal stuff
I’m in the process of ordering Almost Like Magic swag and have book plates in my shopping cart. For those of you who haven’t heard the term before, book plates are large-ish stickers that I can autograph AND MAIL TO YOU!!! If this is something you’d be interested in, please reach out and once they come in, I can sign and get one (or two, because I’m sure you have both books!) in the mail to you. Then you can stick it in your paperback copy. Or, if you have a digital copy, you can put it wherever you want. Though I suppose that’s true no matter what version of the book(s) you have 😉
For anyone who wants to know what else you can do to help me—besides buying my books, of course!—word of mouth is one of the best things you can do! Tell all your friends who love urban fantasy stories. Beyond that, sharing my social media posts, including this newsletter, liking and commenting on my posts tells the algorithms to show it to others like you, and, of course, leaving reviews in your favorite reader spaces. This is going to be especially helpful for my upcoming releases later this year.
As always, thank you for your support. It really does mean a lot and keeps my morale up so I can keep writing. You really are the best!
Happy reading, 📚
Jill
WHAT A MEETING!!!! I legit can’t stop thinking about the climactic scene…