Tag: ARC

Burnt, Slim, and Writing

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I’m burnt.

I think that covers everything—my mental state and definitely my red, red skin which still hasn’t faded to an attractive brown tan. Give it a couple of days. I’ll be looking good.

I’ve been wanting to discuss the surprise party we’ve been planning for my wonderful sister’s birthday this past weekend. Coordinating something so large with people flying in, a restaurant catering manager with poor communication skills, and wishing items from Etsy weren’t so expensive…it’s been…a lot. But so, so worth it, and everything came together beautifully! Even these lovely red shoulders I got from an impromptu trip to the beach:

Work has also been crazy. And not the good crazy. The crazy-crazy that causes anxiety and stress and contributes to the BEST diet ever—the corporate America diet. Screw Slim Fast (I’ve tried) Jenny Craig (haven’t tried) and whatever new fad diet is popular. Want to shed some pounds? Get yourself a seat in corporate America and the weight will literally fall off. Tip from me to you 😉

Amidst the party and forced dieting—yes—I am still writing and yes—I’m wobbling along trying to keep to my schedule. Does it work? Eh. Half the time. But half the time is better than zero percent of the time…so I got that going for me.

If you haven’t heard me shouting it from the rooftops, A Royal Pairing in Perish is now available as an ARC! All I ask is an honest review on Amazon, Goodreads, the blimp outside your house—wherever. I’m also accepting beta responses for In The Moment During. I just need those back rather quickly as I need to get it over to the editor by 3/20.

That’s my news, folks. I’m burnt, slim, and writing.

Living the good life.

What about you?

~ LC

As Surprised As You

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Today’s post was definitely not going to happen, so I’m as surprised as you.

Last week was HECTIC with unnecessary drama (which I don’t do well with) and working toward finishing my ARC, so most of my measly marketing efforts took a backseat. By marketing efforts, I mean tiktock of course. And posting to my FB group. Because that is literally all I do.

For now…

So, note to alternate-universe Caitlin—don’t LEARN the business WHILE releasing multiple books in one year. It’s a lot. Maybe have the books already written (or something) so time isn’t divided between writing AND trying to learn ads, distributors, and that AI is trying to take over every creative endeavor.

Good stuff?

  • A Royal Pairing in Perish is available for ARC! Grab your FREE copy here for an exchange of an honest review. (Please. Pretty please.)
  • I’m off Thursday and Friday for a much-needed vacation to celebrate my sister’s birthday. Woot!
  • Bought two new dresses for said much-needed vacation!
  • I keep selling free books. I might not be getting any royalties, but people are buying. Possibly reading. Hopefully that leads to a sale tomorrow or next week. As Batman keeps saying “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Who knows? Maybe it takes a month.

Also (and this is important) we are at THREAT LEVEL MIDNIGHT, folks. My nail is about to break and it’s in the PINK PART. Prayers, positive vibes, spells, hexes—whatever works. I’ll take them all.

Onward and upward! The other direction is too depressing.

~LC

Only Asking Because of Desperation

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I’ve only got two things on today’s agenda:

I need BETA readers (In The Moment During)

I need ARC readers (A Royal Pairing in Perish)

I need Chris Pratt (figured I’d slip this one in there too…)

Only asking because of desperation. That’s all 😊

(Since my newsletter is out today with all the other updates…)

~ LC

P.S. Hope you had a lovely Valentine’s Day. Batman and I had sandwiches and relaxed on the couch. Only way to celebrate.

Only Mildly Panicking

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We started off the New Year with Appa acting weird. He’s fine…except he can’t fully shut his mouth, which makes it harder for him to eat and drink, which makes for many, many puddles of drool throughout the house. Now, he is my son, and I will do whatever I need to, to take care of him, but I was not expecting my Direwolf to transform into a big, slobbering foamy factory overnight.

*shudders*

We have an appointment with the neurologist tomorrow, so hopefully, we should know more. Our main vet was confused by his test results, and other than advising he was suffering from Slack Jaw, she wasn’t sure. Hence, the visit with the neurologist tomorrow. I’m a little more concerned because Appa already suffers from seizures. So, something funky and messed up is going on inside his brain. Figures. He is part of this family.

Also—our washing machine stopped working. Yeah! We waited until the last day of our three-day weekend to start on the laundry, so almost as inconvenient as when it stopped working when we had Covid (and thought we were cleaning our gross clothes…). Batman is outside tinkering with things and twisting knobs, so I really have no idea how this is going to go. And most of my clothes are in the heaping piles on our bedroom, so this week will be interesting.

Writing-wise, I’m only mildly panicking. I’m still writing the Reader Magnet for A Royal Pairing in Perish, and I need to have it to the editor by January 13th in time for her to do her thing, get it back to me, and allow me to implement the changes, all before it goes live on February 17th, which is when the ARC of ARPIP releases. So, yeah. Still writing it, but hopefully I’ll finish it in time by next Friday.

*panicked breathing*

I also need to implement the final edits for A Royal Pairing in Perish IN ADDITION TO finishing up the latest draft of In The Moment During, so I can get that to Beta Readers by February also. Seriously, can I stretch the month of January please? THERE’S NOT ENOUGH TIME.

Or maybe I haven’t discovered that I’m a magical time Lorddess and can control this?

*thinks*

Hmm.

Also! Executive decision made: whilst updating my website to be more user-friendly, I thought about when I’d be revealing the names of future books. I kind of held out on revealing that info for…I don’t know why. Stupid, nonsensical reasons, I suppose. Does it really matter when? Do you care? Maybe if there’s some reason for the build-up, it’d make sense, right? Yeah, I thought so too. Which is why you’re getting the name for the remaining series. Call it a happy 2023 gift?

The Coyote And The Claw

A Royal Pairing in Perish – Book 1

A Return of Ghosts – Book 2

A Battle of Champions – Book 3

The Coyote And The Claw Companion Series

In The Moment Before – Novella 1

In The Moment During – Novella 2

In The Moment After – Novella 3

See? I feel better already. Know you all know and I don’t have to feel pressured with some kind of big reveal. It’s exciting—sure—but so is this post. And again, now you all know. You’re welcome 😊

Alright, that’s all I’ve got for you this week (and it’s enough) but I hope to dazzle you next week some more. Please cross your fingers for me and Batman in our upcoming battles.

We need it.

~ LC

Doing This At My Pace

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It’s getting serious. It has to, right?

I could write and write and keep everything all to myself and my laptop (which I should name since I name most things and we’ve been through a lot together) and it could be a secret between only us. Pretty much what I’ve been doing with every other book I’ve published. It’s been me, the nameless laptop, and a handful of people (to whom I’ve mentioned its release) who know the story and that’s it. Hence zero sales. Hence limited *cough* no *cough* success.

NO MORE.

I’ve officially booked a date in early January for beta readers. This is through a service, and I feel better about letting them connect me with willing beta readers rather than politely tap on a friend’s shoulder and sorta kinda maybe see if they’d *possibly* be interested in reading this 110K book I wrote which could be complete garbage and is, by the way, super long. Course, if you’re out there in cyberspace and do want to beta read for me (and I know you in some way/know you won’t steal my work) then let me know. I’d love more feedback.

I ALSO BOOKED AN ARC DATE.

*mind exploding*

What does that mean and why is my mind exploding? Great questions. Well, basically, (sort of officially) it cements the fact that I’ll be publishing TCATC next year (woot!) because I’m asking people (again, through a service) to be an Advanced Reader and supplying them with a Copy of my book before it’s officially published. Basically, I’m asking people to review my book prior to its publication date, so it has reviews and isn’t sitting out there all lonely and cold and lame. Based on the ARC date that I selected, I’m publishing a week later which means, ladies and gentlemen, we’re looking at June 27th 2022 for this gal’s release of The Coyote and The Claw – A Royal Pairing in Perish.

*Tosses confetti*

*Carefully pops champagne bottle*

*Does adorable but very awkward dance moves*

Yes, I am still leaps and bounds behind where I should be (authors are advertising their second book in the backmatter of their first and I haven’t even written the second book…) but it’s all good. I’m doing this at my pace, and want to put out quality work so, I’m not rushing. But, it’s been the fear of doing it wrong that’s kept me from even trying. To quote a great woman despite the nonsensicalness I’ve seen around the interwebs lately:

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case, you fail by default.” ~ JK Rowling

Microphone drop.

Gotta do what I can, in the best way I can. And right now, that means releasing the first book in my next series in June, and hoping to have the second book out by the end of the year if not early 2023. Seems like a reasonable and attainable goal, and I am on board for both of those things.

Hoping you are having a fabulous week (and month and year and life cycle…) and that you’ve murdered zero people in response to any holiday stress. Go you!

Until our next date,

~ Lady Caitlin

So…What’s Next?

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(The short answer is: I have no idea. Making this up one day at a time.)

The LONG answer is that I didn’t really think about what came next until last Saturday when my silly brain was like, ‘you don’t have to think about the next book until late July. It’s not set to release until mid-August.’ Then the wine was gone and the rational, smart part of my brain came back. In addition to, you know, FINISHING the book, I have to get it edited, get a book cover done and do some possible advertising (maybe even a blog tour? Or some ARCs this time??) Yeah, I don’t know how I thought I’d be taking it easy for the next month and a half when I set this schedule for myself—unbeknownst to myself (by myself 😉)

When I say I have to ‘finish’ the book, I mean it’s pretty much done but I’m combing through it until there’s nothing left that I want to change. Then I’ll contact my BETAs and once I get the green light from them, it’s off to the editor. The thing about this series is: they’re shorter books, each clocking in at around 65K words, so they’re quick reads…and quick writes. I thought I was being stupid when I decided to release them three months apart, but I think it works for this series. It’s pretty much one giant story broken into three segments and I don’t want to make (potential) readers wait too long. Hell, I didn’t wait. I jumped into book three because I NEEDED to know what happened once I was done with a solid draft of book two. Why should I hoard the story if it’s ready to be shared (after proper editing, of course)? That’s why I have the last two installments coming out later this year—there seemed no point holding onto them if they’re ready to go.

Oh!

I’m going to try really, really, REALLY hard to understand Google Docs and make a signup sheet, but in the off-chance reality sets in and my stupidity gets a hold of me, you can always shoot me an email or leave a comment if you’re interested in getting an ARC (advanced reader copy) of Better Than Now. One of these days, I’m going to get me some advanced readers and it’s going to be GLORIOUS. Absolutely glorious. 🙂

Until then, I’m off to create some shit and do some work. And clean out my wine rack.

It’s going to be a good summer 🙂