Well, we’re halfway through the year and it’s arguably been one of the worst ones for the US in a while. We’re utterly falling apart, treating our fellow humans like animals, and being “oligar-culled” as I’ve just started saying meaning a few really wealthy assholes are gleefully wishing many of us to our deaths so they can hoard a few more bucks and enslave the rest of us when the time comes.
Sorry, that was really gloomy, but it’s just the state of things. Please call your representatives and tell them to stop fucking around: https://5calls.org/
Okay, going to pivot to book stuff now not because I don’t care about the above but because my job is to dust a little joyful glitter into readers’ lives, so I’m going to do just that!
Table of Contents
- Faeted to Fall is here!
- Falling for Demons is extremely close!
- V&V will no longer be in my shop 7/31/25!
- I’m still really sick but a little better!
- What’s the future hold?
Faeted to Fall
eBook, Paperback, Audiobook, Kindle Unlimited
My cozy fae fantasy romance novella, Faeted to Fall, is finally here! Previously released in the Foes to Flames anthology, this version has been updated with a few new chapters and expanded content including some extra spice!
Ellen Quay and Seth Podowitz came together yet again and just made this story as magical as I always hoped it would be for the audio version! I love them and how they bring my characters to life!
Anna-Mariya Georgieva aka angeo.art once again crafted me a to-die-for cover as well that perfectly captures Roan’s sassiness and Maewyn’s unending glower. And pumpkins! Because they’re the best!
I had so much fun writing these two, and I would love to expand this universe with a story for each season, I just need to find the time! Aunyx and Jyny have a really special place in my heart, so I know someday their story will be told.
Falling for Demons
Coming July 24th and 31st!
How Not to Court Your Human Captive, FFD Book 1, will be here on July 24th in ebook, paperback, and in Kindle Unlimited, and the audio should be following in about two-ish months! How Not to Charm Your Human Colleague, FFD Book 2 by Laura Winter, will be here on July 31st in all the same formats with the same timeline! We’ve been working our tails and horns off on this series, and I think we’ve produced something really special.
I dropped an extra content warning page for Court not exactly because I think the book will be especially triggering but because it’s significantly different than anything I’ve written before. I usually touch on traumatic subjects, but I think they’re a little more visceral in this book, so I wanted readers who were already familiar with my work to be aware of what they’re getting into. Plus it’s just nice to be nice, I think, and if the warnings can help someone, then I’m glad they’re there.
This whole series is going to be on the significantly spicier end of things as both an experiment and a fun exercise. About a quarter of Court is spice, but the burn is still slow! The other books might burn a little faster, though, so be prepared.
My proof copy of Court just arrived, and it’s gorgeous! Laura formatted the interior, illustrated everything inside from the headers to the spreads, and created the covers! These paperbacks are truly crafted with so much love.
And check out this glorious character art by Britt Anderson of Ember and Severath from How Not to Court Your Human Captive! Ahh I love them so, so much, and I hope you will too!
PS: Books three and four are already up for preorder, but their release dates aren’t correct–they’ll actually be here sooner than that!
V&V Updates
As you probably know because I can’t shut up about it, Throne in the Dark is being republished traditionally! The ebook and audiobook will remain as is, but the existing self-published paperbacks will be going away on July 31st. You can still get them on Amazon and in my shop, but please note that shipping from my shop is verrrrrry slow because my author copies take forever to ship from the printer and also I have a bunch of orders to fulfill and I’m only one person! This applies to Throne in the Dark, Summoned to the Wilds, and Eclipse of the Crown (the main trilogy), but it does not apply to the two spin-offs Bound to Fall and Bound and Tide.
Summoned and Eclipse are also in the works, and I wish I could share the beautiful artwork, both internal and cover art, but for now it’s a secret! Just know, they’re going to be stunning! I’ve also seen the sprayed edges this one is getting and oh boy, they are absolutely gorgeous!
*cough cough*
This is personal stuff, skip it if you’re not interested!
I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me, but it’s probably my immune system being a bastard. I’ve felt increasingly blah since 2020, but in the last year it’s gotten nearly unbearable. I had a smattering of small-ish problems and then something overarching going on, and thankfully I’ve been able to address some of the “smaller” things including constant jaw pain (with minor surgery) and random hives (with medication), but all of my “small” issues are for sure flaring because of the underlying big ass issue.
I want to be clear here that I am a fan of science and medicine. I think they’re fucking great! I worked in healthcare administration for a few years, and I know how hard practitioners and staff work to help people, and I also know that, while imperfect, medicine as a scientific study has advanced significantly, is trustworthy, and is amazing. All that said, the state of healthcare in the US is abysmal. For-profit medicine is good for no one but big business, and most practitioners are so burnt out they just can’t help you. Ten minutes to learn someone’s entire health history and diagnose a patient who hasn’t been to the doctor in a decade because they haven’t had insurance, plus no time before or after an appointment to even chart let alone think about what to do, plus a roster of way sicker/older patients who are slightly more easily treatable in obvious ways all equates to poor care. Heap on the complexity of auto-immune diseases, environmental problems, the stress of life, and good ole misogyny, and it’s the perfect recipe for “just deal with it and be miserable til you die.”
I’ve been to a new primary care physician, though, and I have high hopes! I’m extremely lucky to be able to travel great distances to see specialists and to have access to health insurance that actually covers diagnostic tests and regular visits. But I’m still feeling awful. Some days are great, and my online persona is mostly the bubbly, happy, excited person I am deep on the inside, but day-to-day is a struggle. It would be easier to deal with if whatever’s going on didn’t affect my brain so much, but I’m unfortunately a lot slower than I was even two years ago (and I’m only 37 and 11/12th for goodness’s sake), and the creeping aphasia is terrifying. That’s not a great sentence to end on so let me try this instead:
Fuck you, body, I will triumph over you! That’s right, I’m going to exist and write and be happy regardless of what you try to do to me! So there!
Future Stuff
Tame and Mesmerize – Falling For Demons 4 & 6
Books four and six of Falling for Demons are being written now. They’ve been plotted forever, and I’ve got snippets of each in my giant Demon Scrivener project, but it’s time to get the rest of the words on the page! How Not to Tame Your Human Tease will easily be my spiciest, kinkiest book, and I’m really excited to just go nuts on that one. I’m playing around with a “lite” brat/dom dynamic in Tame (unshocking when you consider the title lol), and really upping the overall small town/cozy vibes with the FMC’s outlook which will be a major contrast to Ember in Court. How Not to Mesmerize Your Human Muse will be a little sweeter and softer, but will still emulate the cozy/spicy vibe we have going on with the whole series. Mesmerize will feature some fun fake dating and a MMC who is not a grump! And the FMC? Also not a grump! Can you imagine???
Taming Wyverns & Other Wild Beasts
This project is currently shelved, but not forgotten! I love this story quite a bit, it was just being drafted during a tumultuous time. I was under a lot of stress working on other things (contracts, other books, putting my shop together, just extending myself in too many directions), and being emotionally/mentally manipulated and abused by people in my real life, so unfortunately I associate the story with those stresses. Hopefully, when I have a little extra time, I’ll be able to pick this one up again, dust her off, and breathe new life into the story!
Secret Fairytale Project
This one you won’t officially hear about for a while because it’s going to come out traditionally, but I can confirm one thing for certain: there will be a happily ever after! This story has been really difficult because I’m holding myself to an insane standard with every word that ends up on the page, but that’s extremely detrimental to storytelling, so I’ve been in therapy (this is not a joke lol) to push past my block. Hopefully my accountant tells me the sessions can be written off (that would be my real happy ending haha).
Innkeepers & Imbeciles
I’ve got a page up for this, but no content yet! Eventually I’ll be posting short stories here, but they won’t be super clean (from an editing perspective). I&I is mostly just for me to burn off steam, and a way to give back to readers who have been supporting me. The world is rough, and we all could use a tiny free laugh, so I’m hoping this can be that for a few of you. As of writing this post, I’m about halfway through the first short story! I may bang out another 5k words in a day and post it, or it might take me 12 more weeks of a few hundred words at a time, it’s whatever my brain will allow!
The Cupid Story
I don’t know how much I’ve talked about this one, but it would be a companion to The Elven Days of Christmas meaning it would exist in the same world (Vacancy), and be holiday specific (Valentine’s Day), but it would also be a totally standalone novel. The story also doesn’t feature any humans, so it would be a change for me in that all the people exist solely within a magical city–a true urban fantasy! But obviously it’s intended to be a romance with some of my favorite tropes including a bodyguard, a murder mystery, and the sunshiniest lil cupid you’ve ever met!
More Fae Realm Tales
I’ve plotted a story for Spring, Summer, and Winter, but drafting them seems like it will be a long way off because I have so many other fun projects to do! I’d love Faeted to Fall to have companion books, and the fact I’ve only got one season out does offend my completionist compulsion, but I’m also learning how to embrace things as they are and remind myself that I have time. Everything doesn’t need to be done right now no matter how much the self publishing industry argues otherwise.
Dragon Race
Listen, this is the project I think about the most. It haunts me. I have a primal need to tell this story. The muse thwacks me in the head with this series’s unwritten pages morning, noon, and night. If I don’t write it soon, I will perish. I know all that is in stark contrast to the paragraph above, but that’s how it is in my brain: a cacophony of contradictions. The good news is, when I finally do get to this project (and I will) that will mean I’ve reached some sort of internal success and am truly happy. Universe, please get me there!
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