Tag: new release

I’m Already Off Schedule

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I’m already off schedule. (Go figure)

Am I surprised? Nah. I think the word is expected. I should’ve expected to get bumped off my own schedule. It was only a matter of time. So what happened? Well, the goal is to have the ARC of A Royal Pairing in Perish done in time for its February 17th date. Of course, that date is arbitrary (no one is banging down my door asking for it) so I can push it back if need be. But stiiillllllll. I wanted to keep to my schedule. And no, it’s not Yellowstone this time. It’s the actual writing.

I’d just finished going through In The Moment During, and can’t decide if I’m missing the last chapter/a bonus chapter/something. So, I started writing it…which led to outlining In The Moment After which NEEDS TO HAPPEN, but I’d designated this time (officially the start of this week) to focusing on A Royal Pairing in Perish since it’s releasing right around the corner. I still need to:

  • Implement final edits
  • Work on backmatter (info at the end of book)
  • Finish up my Reader Magnet (part of backmatter)
  • Set up pre-order for In The Moment During (part of back matter)

Things. There are so many things to be done. And this is just the writing part. Not to mention any kind of advertising for any of the series/learning to do Facebook ads which I’M STILL GOING TO LEARN.

All I need is more time. Anywhere we can buy that? (Please let me know if you know).

…Maybe I will push the ARC date back to 2.24. That would be a solid month prior to the book’s actual release, and again, no one is holding me to it. I’m holding myself to these deadlines, but I also don’t want to rush and provide a subpar product. That simply won’t do either.

There. I feel better having talked it out. Thank you guys – you’re the best! 😊

Other than writing-stuff, life is good. Appa is still acting weird. He’s had a few accidents in the house, and is now starting to shake like he’s got Parkinson’s. I have no idea what’s going on with him, but hopefully it corrects itself. Or the drugs we’re buying him corrects it. Something has to give.

Batman is doing well. He’s working on his own stuff and it seems to be making him happy. Which makes me happy.

Alright…seems to be everything I’ve got. Recap: I’m:

  • Already behind schedule
  • Will update schedule
  • Still going to crush this year

At the end of the day, I’m still going to write you stories. Top priority. Feel safe and loved knowing that.

Second newsletter goes out on Monday (still need to write that…) and then I’m back here next Wednesday. Have a lovely, lovely day, guys.

Make that week.

Actually, make it month.

Ah, screw it. Life.

Have a lovely, lovely life, guys.

😊

~LC

Here I Was, Thinking I Was Coasting

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Here we go again.

I realized literally two days ago that not only did I want to include a bonus chapter for my March release, but I also want to include a Reader Magnet (free short story at the end) as well. Shouldn’t be too hard since this is releasing in three months, right? Yeah…but the ARC (advanced reader copy) will be available in mid-February which means I have to have the story back from the editor by early-February which means I need to have the work over to her around mid-January.

And…I still have to write the thing.

I also need a professional cover for the Reader Magnet in addition to the cover for In The Moment During, which will have pre-order information available as well. So, amidst all the holiday cheer and spirits and splendor, I realized I need to write two more pieces, get them edited, and get my covers ready all in the next couple of weeks. (I also need to finish implementing the final edits for the book itself. No pressure there). Sheesh. Guess this really taught me there is no slowing down once you release one book, especially with a continuing three-month-release schedule. Here I was, thinking I was coasting easy for a little bit but nah.

Let me repeat it for those in the back: NAH.

Alright, it’s officially been over a week since ITMB released and things have been…interesting. I’ve gotten some feedback that was slightly disappointing because there aren’t more paranormal aspects. I totally get that. Honestly, I was (and still am) a little hesitant about its category and if I’m misleading readers which is NOT MY INTENTION. But clearly, I’m a mess. All my genres kind of smear into another category because apparently, I like doing things the hard way. Probably why I took math honors classes when I clearly shouldn’t have.

But it’s all good. I’ll learn with each release and hopefully these kinds of things won’t occur to me a few weeks before they’re needed. I’ll get into a groove. A pattern. Some way to keep me sane through all this since—again, for those in the back—I’m on a three-month-release schedule all the way through 2024. I really hope I can stick to it. That’s where y’all come in. I need your help, your support, and your constant reminders that books are EXPECTED in March, June, September, and December.  Even if fans aren’t demanding them, I’m demanding them. And that’s good enough for me.

How was your Christmas? Hanukah? Kwanza? Festivus?? We’re all different and celebrate different things, so I hope whatever path you’re walking has led you to a fabulous holiday season. Mine was lovely, thanks for asking. I’ll probably touch base on it in this week’s newsletter (I’m doing two a month now, did you know?) So, if you’re interested in details, I’d crack that sucker open this Friday. Not subscribed? Here you go: SUBSCRIBE HERE. I’d sign up quickly because I’m including the FREE Short Story of Homecoming Night which is only available to my newsletter subscribers. (It’s exactly what you think it is. Literally the Homecoming Dance for Robin and Grayson. Curious what it’s like? Yeah. I was too. That’s why I wrote it).

Anyway, I’m off to go do all the things. Like write the Reader Magnet I need to have edited in a few weeks.

It’s all good; I got this.

~ LC

This is Getting Ridiculous

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Tell me if this is weird.

Batman and I (eating a very nutritious/delicious fast food meal) drove into a large empty space in a grocery store parking lot on Saturday night. (That’s not the weird part—I’m getting to it). So, we’re sitting in this large empty space with no one around us when this truck pulls up a couple spots over. Parks. Sits. The person isn’t directly across from us and maybe they’re enjoying their own fake food as well. Cool.

But then another truck shows up. Pulls right next to them so now there are two trucks sitting nearby in a giant empty parking lot on Saturday night. Okay. Whatever. Still a bit weird, but maybe this part of the parking lot is popular. But then another truck shows up. This one parks right next to us and I’m like wait. WTF is happening right now?

ANOTHER TRUCK came and that’s when I realized these teenybopper bitches decided to make our spot their spot for their Saturday night hang out (because that’s cool, right? *eyeroll*) Like, they literally parked around us because more vehicles were arriving as I told Batman it was getting too weird and I wanted to eat my fake food in privacy. So, we left.

But as we were leaving, I made sure to stare down the ringleader because he did this on purpose. Know how I know? He held my stare with a stupid little smile. He knew what he was doing. Batman said not to worry but this kid is a straight up psycho. Because, who does that? Psychos do.

Anyway, now that you know crazy kids are running the streets and grocery parking lots, I’ll jump to the highlight of the weekend—our lunch at the Columbia! Remember last week’s post (or was it on FB?) where I talked about how Batman and I are going for a lunch/dinner with every book release? It’s a new tradition we’re (I’m) starting and it’s really so I can celebrate me not completely giving up. Well, In The Moment Before earned us a swanky lunch at the Columbia Restaurant in St. Augustine. And it was…lovely. The food was great, the Christmas decorations were great. Everything was great…except that the first thing our server did was complain about how we were another two-top table, since that’s all she was getting.

*sigh*

She was fine after that, but I definitely felt like an inconvenience for only being a party of two. It’s like we’re cursed. Batman and I are either seated near the restroom, the kitchen, or in places where tables shouldn’t go. We’ve been ignored completely, made to feel rushed, and now made to feel bad for only being two people. What the hell, restaurant-God? You know Batman and I don’t cook a lot. We depend on other people. We depend on restaurants, but this is getting ridiculous.

pics of us at the Columbia Restaurant to prove we exist and we went!

So that’s what’s going on with me. I do still have that stye in my eye—which I’m only now realizing I haven’t mentioned yet. Long story short—I have a stye and it got really bad last week and I kept rubbing it because I have no self-control, and it got worse and puffy and it looked like I’d been hit. It doesn’t look like that anymore and it’s not bothering me, but I pulled down my eyelid and it definitely has NOT gone away. I showed Batman and he freaked out and said I need to go to the doctor. Still unsure if I’m going to ignore it completely and hope it goes away like usual.

We’ll see.

Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza, Festivus, whatever it is – I hope it’s wonderful and brings you much happiness! (And money too. Because inflation, am I right?)

~ LC

Competition With Myself

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I left the house on Sunday to do some errands. I’m not a fan of mirrors because they’re creepy and I heard something about a spirit living in them. I don’t know. Either way, I typically glance at myself on the way out of the house to make sure I’m like, decent. Nothing on my face. Shirt is on correctly. Everything in its place.

I forgot the customary check before I left on Sunday. I only went to the grocery store but when I got back in my car, I realized what I forgot to do—which was brush the other side of my head. You see, I brushed the right side of my hair but got distracted with the dogs (or something) and neglected to do the same thing on the left side. No look in the mirror to confirm tgat I was good to go—I just left.

Y’all – I walked around Walmart with the right side of my hair brushed and the left side in clumpy, post-shower waves. No idea. When I got back to the car to check my eye (as it had been bothering me) I lowered the visor to check and that’s when I discovered it (along with the sty in my eye…). I must’ve looked like some weird wild banshee with my faded Beatles sweatshirt and stained leggings. You know, how people typically look this time of year.

Other than that, I think I’m doing pretty well! Clothes are on, hair is washed and ALL brushed, and I’ve got a new release on Friday. Am I nervous about it? Hell yeah, but I’m also not. I know I’ve messed up some things. I know I should’ve done this or done that and definitely some of this over here, but you know what? It’s okay. I’ll learn with each release and implement new strategies as I go. I read a meme that said something like “I’m not in competition with others. I’m in competition with myself.”

I love that. Because I’m proud of myself. I’ve been working hard behind the scenes and while past Caitlin did the same with simply writing the books, present Caitlin is now implementing the business side of things and working even harder. I’m in competition with who I was last year and the year before that. I just got to keep kicking my old ass. 😉

 I’ll probably bounce back on here and shout again on Friday since it’s the official release.

*screams in excitement*

Also – did I mention we’re going to the Columbia for this release? I could only score us a lunch reservation since it’s December and people beat me to the dinner spots, but it’s all good. Celebrating in St. Augustine with Batman over a new book release? Life is good.

Until Friday…

~LC

A Lot of Content

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I’m keeping this one short because 1) I lost track of time again (yes with a three-day weekend, but I was busy and working on other stuff. Shut up) and 2) not a lot of updates with writing or life (also hence my absence last week).

Writing-wise, this is what I’m thinking:

Finish AT LEAST the first draft of book 2 before I start advertising/choose a release date for book 1.

Eh?

Good plan? Bad plan?

I hear a lot of arguments for both sides, but I feel like the more I write before I release book 1—the better. I wrote and published all three of the Better Than This series in 2018 and it was AWFUL. My job at the time didn’t help, but it was just too much going on at once (not to mention financially) and I don’t want to go through that again, which is why I’m considering having the second book written while I market and release the first. Maybe even have the third one written? I don’t know. But, just know I’m working on a lot of content coming your way!

Non-writing-wise, everything is pretty much the same. I haven’t won the lottery, I haven’t bumped into Chris Pratt (boo!) and I haven’t become the best-selling author you and I both know I will one day be. But it takes time with these things, you know? Until then, I’m being patient. Growing out my silver-unicorn hair and taking it one day at a time, like we’re supposed to.

Hopefully, I’ll spring back to life for next week’s post, but, that’s like seven days away, so who knows.

Guess we’ll see.

Let the suspense commence…

~

Lady Caitlin

Today Is The Day: Better Than You Release

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Well, here we go. The day we’ve all been waiting for. Today is the day that Crimes of Grindelwald comes out 😊

And also the last book in my series: Better Than You

I can’t believe today is here. I can’t believe I didn’t quit halfway in when I realized publishing three books three months apart was the opposite of smart. But hey, lesson learned, right? And I feel like I learned a lot this go-round. 😊

I most likely won’t publish a book next year, unless it’s late next year, because I haven’t started writing the fifth Arizal Wars yet, and those books are bigger and fatter than this skinny little series. And that one will be the last in the series which means even more needs to go into it. But that’s next year and today is all about Crimes of Grindelwald. And Better Than You. And it being a glorious Friday.

Have a great weekend! And if anyone (randomly) asks for a book recommendation, you should totally toss out the third book of a series they’ve never heard of:

And what’s it about again? Well…

Alex Wolf should be on top of the world. He’s engaged to a popular Supermodel, about to head off on a world tour with his band, Better Than Decent, and he makes more money than he can spend—but he can’t stop thinking about the girl who got away. It’s been eight years, and Autumn Sommers still haunts him. He’d give anything to see her again, but with no contact after so long, it feels hopeless—until Alex is surprised with some news.

Autumn Sommers wishes she could forget the past. She hasn’t seen Alex Wolf since high school, but she hears his voice all too often. It’s hard ignoring the lead singer of Better Than Decent, but being a waitress in a gossipy small-town diner doesn’t help. Autumn knows that what happened between her and her old boyfriend ended a long time ago—until he walks into her restaurant.

It doesn’t take Alex long to break off his engagement, but once news of the split is leaked, a media frenzy erupts. Determined to clear Autumn’s name, Alex brings her to L.A., but things don’t go as smoothly as he’d hoped. Not used to the demands of a celebrity life, Autumn struggles to find her ground, especially alongside a former foe. With the world watching, she’s forced to face how she became the iconic A.M.S.—and if her relationship with Alex is going to last this time.

Buy it here 🙂

Even The Small Victories

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So….last week you guys were awesome with reminding me that everyone feels insecure and bleh at times, and it made me feel better. Honestly. So, thank you 😊

I’m still cruising through this fog, and probably will be for a while, but that’s fine. I think everyone has their own fog because life is life and not a utopia (sadly). But at the end of last week, something pretty cool happened, and since life can be shitty sometimes, I like to celebrate even the small victories:

I got updated covers!

If you remember reading last week’s post, I settled for purple font for BTY and that made me sad 🙁 But then, awesome Loni Townsend jumped in with an outline suggestion, and, ta-da! Now I can have yellow! Now the books can pop. And this is just in time for Better Than You’s release on Friday. And since that’s happening, I have (yet more) stuff to work on. So, I’m going to go do that. BUT, this Friday…CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD BABY.

…and Better Than You 😊

I’ll Try Again Next Time

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I’m back to no bars on my sales graph again ☹

I’m bar-less ☹

You know what that means: I’ve done diddly when it comes to marketing. Less than diddly, and I’m not even sure that’s a thing. But it is for our purposes because seriously, my patient has flatlined. Not even a heartbeat since early September, and only two tiny blimps at that. I’m not surprised. I haven’t done any of the advertising earlier-this-year-me planned on doing which sucks, but it is what it is. And I’ve learned what I’ve learned. What’s that saying?

I never lose. Either I win or I learn.

Yeah, we’ll go ahead and apply that. I learned not to release books so close together, regardless of them being pretty much written (and regardless of my excitement as an author to have you read them!) because there is so, so much more that goes into a release day then just ‘releasing’ it. You have to let the whole friggin world know about it days, weeks, months in advance—and I definitely didn’t do that. At all. Not even close. Oh, well. I’ll try again next time. But what’s next time, you ask??

*********drrrrrruuuummmrrrrooollll*************

I’m happy to announce, that after BTY releases, I’m writing the FIFTH and FINAL book of Arizal Wars, so STOP ASKING ME, BATMAN.

To be honest, I needed a break from AZ since I started writing it in 2011. These last two years have been a nice vacation with Autumn and Alex, and I think the newness of their world has given me the rejuvenating boost I’ll need to face the final battle in AZ. Because oh yeah, shit goes down. It’s bittersweet to be finishing up my Better Than This series since I love my characters so much, but part of me is dying to get back into writing battle scenes. And prophecies. And alien races. And forbidden love and—ahh the goosebumps!

Anyway, that’s later this year. Or early next year. Not sure where I’m going with this post, but that’s a true panster at heart. Happy Wednesday 😊

Short and Sweet

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I’m going to keep this short and sweet (like me!) because I’m already behind as you might’ve read last week so every moment—EVERY PRECIOUS FREE MOMENT—is now dedicated to finishing BYY. But shouldn’t it be finished by now? Yes, it should. Shut up. It will definitely be ready for release on 11/16 (same day as The Crimes of Grindelwald!) but only if I use EVERY PRECIOUS FREE MOMENT to write and perfect and edit and re-perfect. Which means again, I’m keeping this short and sweet.

But why jump on if I have nothing to say? Two things:

  • We always have a date. Me and you. Wednesdays at that hot internet spot.
  • I saw A Star is Born

So……………I did like it, but it wasn’t the movie I thought it was going to be. Again, haven’t seen the first two, so I’m not sure if the plot is like, spot on, but it just…just kind of took me by surprise. With sadness. And I hate feeling sad because it pops up far too often in life and I wasn’t expecting it on my fun girl’s night out. Anyway, Bradley Cooper was hot. So, there’s that. 😊

Alright, off to write! Have a lovely hump day!

Until our next rendezvous – 😉

Oh, the Insecurities IWSG

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Actually, I am a little insecure this month. ☹

September—while awesome—flew by and stole with it all my time to write. I’m not making excuses for myself because I did write, just not as much as I’d like. Not as much as I needed to stay on my timeline, which means I’m thrown off, people. Which means I won’t be able to do a pre-order now ☹. My own fault. All the lessons are being learned, but it does still make me feel insecure. Will I finish in time? Will I make my promised release date? Will it all come together in the end? Will I finally take up drinking fulltime?

The comforting thing is that I’m feeling good about what I’m writing. I’ll finish a scene (knowing I’ll revisit it 1-2 more times) and think, ‘can’t wait for them to read it!’ That’s one of the best things as an author. Knowing you get to share something you’re excited about with everyone, hoping they’ll enjoy it as much as you do. It’s super scary, but worth it! So, yes, I’m insecure that I fucked up with how I decided to publish this whole thing, but beyond thrilled to be able to share it .

Also: have you seen the trailer for A Star is Born? I haven’t seen the other two, but this third version looks amazing. So amazing in fact that I’ve watched the trailer twice daily for the past few days. I’m like one of those fourteen year old girls who watched Titanic ten times in the movie theaters (I WASN’T—I only saw it once) but my love for this trailer seems on par with their intense feelings of Leo’s stirring performance. I don’t know what it is—the song, the movie clips, the actors? I don’t care. It looks amazing and I can’t wait to see Bradley Cooper & Lady Gaga this weekend 😊

Now that I think about it, maybe I’m so into this trailer because I’ve been writing about a musician in love. It’s kind of giving me that extra oomph to finish Better Than You because I see a finish line every time I watch it.

Anyway, I’m going to go watch it again because we talked about this. Then, more writing. Happy IWSG day! Try to rise above your insecurities and to make all your dreams come true. And try not to fuck up your timeline like I did. 😊

Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) is a monthly blog hop for writers at all levels to share their fears and insecurities in a safe and encouraging place. Please drop by and say hi to Alex Cavanaugh who started this nifty concept in bringing us all together.