Beautiful Readers,

I have good news, and I have... regular news.

For those of you just tuning in, Devil’s Call began its life as a novella, meaning it clocked in at fewer than 40,000 words and the ending was ambiguous and the antagonist, George Dalton, barely appeared in the story at all.

After some behind the scenes occurrences which I’m not at liberty to discuss yet, I decided to expand the story, flesh out the Dalton character, and make it a full-length novel, meaning its word count would double and I would have to, you know, actually do work.

The good news is, after a month or so of bitching and gnashing my teeth and Adam Gomolin yelling at me to not quit on him, I have finished a scene outline and a synopsis of what the completed novel will look like, so it has a proper ending and character arcs and themes and so on and so forth.

The regular news is, I now have to rewrite the hundred-something pages I’d already decided were the entirety of the original novella, and then actually write the rest of the draft, which won’t be as difficult as I’m making it sound. I made my bed today. I can do anything.

Within the next few weeks, y’all can expect a rewritten first chapter, which I’m about 90% sure will be about 30% different from the one that’s up now, and if I really throttle my keyboard I will have a completed draft by the end of September.

(And I shall throttle my keyboard. One thing this process has solidified for me is the fact that I produce pages, pardon my French, like a fucking maniac.)

That’s it. That’s the news. Expect the new Chapter 1 by the end of this upcoming week.

Smoke ’em if you got ’em,
J.

One Murder More is the winner of the 2016 Silver Falchion Award in the categories of Best First Novel, Best Political Thriller and Best Female Private Eye/Sleuth! 

I was nearly speechless at the podium all three times at the  award ceremony in Nashville last night, and haven’t improved much since!   

Thank you for your ongoing  kindness and support as readers and fellow writers, and to Inkshares for a terrific partnership that made my book a reality!

Kris  

24 days to go!  Hope you all are enjoying your ebook of Rise.  I’m told next week the physical copies arrive at Inkshares HQ and then they will begin shipping them out to you.  So exciting!

To have some fun with all of you reading Rise, I’m going to ask for pictures!  Usually authors ask for pictures of their book in the wild (which I will not turn down if you see it).  I also am interested in you the reader, though.  So, here’s the idea.  Send me a picture of you reading the book, either physical or on an e-reader device, in an unusual circumstance or place.  I’m going to save all of these and then pick one person to win an as yet undetermined prize.  I’m thinking maybe an early draft of Fall to read.  We’ll see.

As for the book release party at Dragoncon, it’s going to be Thursday night 1 Sept, location TBD, before Con begins so you don’t have to buy a badge to get in if we have it at one of the hotels (a possibility still in the works).  This is just a hangout kind of thing where you can come say hi if you’re able to come that evening, get your copy autographed, and just chit chat about the book or whatever you want to talk about.  I may have some hints to share about the sequel, Fall.