I’ve been reading a lot more the past few years, and I’ve created this new habit of getting involved with three or four books at a time, a sort of poly-bibliophile, so switching between books coupled with the fact I am a pretty slow reader (everyone gets a voice in my head, and if the line doesn’t come out right the first time, my brain-voice must repeat it with all the right pauses and inflections) means it takes me forever to finish any one of them. Right now, I’m enjoying:
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
The Blessing of Krozem: A Tale of Ziraf’s World by Lorinda J Taylor
and
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
Needless to say, things are heavy in my reading world right now (lots of death and mortality contemplation), and I need to commit to finishing one to slip something lighter in there, but I’m enjoying my slow meander through these pages so much that I don’t want any of them to end.
I’ve also got a metaphorical pile of new books I want to swipe open when these are finished which is sort of rare for me: I don’t usually hoard titles, I just look for what I might be interested in next when I’ve got an open spot, but that’s changed, and I’m interested in this new dragonesque tendency.
I’m also dropping Flynn’s Utopia series on my to-watch list alongside the rest of Schitt’s Creek, about 50+more episodes of Critical Role (and new ones just keep coming), The Umbrella Academy (if you know me you’re probably shocked I haven’t already absorbed the fuck out of this), and the What We Do in the Shadows series. There’s a ridiculous list of movies I want to watch as well (I did sneak in Knives Out one evening by myself on my phone in bed which was okay, though I missed the film being up on a bigger screen), but I need time to write too.
And speaking of, my cover artist, Anna from EerilyFairDesign, sent me the final version of The Association cover this week, and I’m glowing and vibrating and squealing with excitement about it! It’s so eye-catching and exactly what I imagined, but BETTER. Here’s a little sneaky peeky:
I’m deep in the BIG edit of The Association, the one after the read-through and the identification of all the problems where I gotta, ya know, fix those problems. It’s the hardest and worst one, where nothing seems like it’s working, and I get stuck every few paragraphs, but I still like the story, and I think I’m doubting it less than I doubted She’s All Thaumaturgy at this stage.
I know I’ve genre-hopped a bit, and I don’t know if it’s a great idea to drop all these one-offs in different genres if I’m not going back to them consistently–this murder mystery has been a load of fun, but doing more might feel repetitive in a way that other genres don’t for me–but this is what I’m producing. I dropped a Greek mythology romance, a traditional fantasy quest, this (supernatural) murder mystery, then I’ll be doing a whole urban fantasy trilogy, and after that another trilogy that jumps back into sword and sorcery territory. My backlog will be a little all over the place, but hopefully readers will appreciate that.
And one more thing, Dear Reader, the dreaded blurb:
Things around Avalon Estates aren’t natural—in fact, they’re supernatural—but getting in is worth it. Some would even say the place is to die for.
Ivy Sylvan thought after losing her job, her apartment, and her boyfriend, that having no other option but to move in with her flunkee brother would be the cherry on top of her bad luck sundae, but after finding a dead body, she realized things can always get worse.
New to the long-established community of Avalon Estates, Ivy soon finds herself wrapped up in the petty squabbles of the homeowners’ association whose president just gave up the ghost, and it doesn’t look like his death is an accident. Unsurprisingly, the odd neighborhood isn’t as virtuous as it appears, full of hardened grudges and secret affairs, but Ivy is shocked when she learns her new neighbors aren’t just lying about their exploits—they’re lying about being human. Teaming up with the interim president, a witch who can conjure fire, Ivy attempts to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding the association president’s demise. Things only become more complicated when the suspect list includes a vampire, a werewolf, and perhaps the most dangerous creature of all: a really cute guy.
Can Ivy successfully divine the murderer while hiding her humanity from the beings that call Avalon Estates their sanctuary from those that are just like her? Or will the murderer out her first, turning her back into a failure with nowhere to live, or worse, into another victim?
– The Association, coming October 2020 to ereaders and paperback on Amazon
A.K. Caggiano 