This will be a positive email!
Huzzah! I am feeling good, my friends. Yay! I got a chapter of Sebastian written, I successfully broke The Baby. It was a bloody good week for me! I suppose, as usual, I should save my news for the Cruise Control update.
For anyone who’s new to this newsletter, I always share some group giveaways from BookFunnel and StoryOrigin, tell you about a few books from other indie authors, then get into an (inevitably way too long) update on where I’m at with the Cruise Control series.
This week, there’s three giveaways and four books before the update…let’s go.
GIVEAWAYS
BookFunnel never fails to disappoint and this giveaway has 171 books in it. All are delightfully steamy, too.
It ends on July 31st, so you’ve got some time to check it out, but it’s definitely worth doing.
I got Sacked by Sloane Peterson which, of course, reminded me that I still have to read The Billionaire Bachelor from how many weeks ago? I just keep getting more books and I’m always writing my own stuff! I’m going to try to read at least one book in full, this week.
Click here to check out the books
This StoryOrigin giveaway has 33 books in it with lots of interesting books in it.
It ends on July 28th, so still a bit of time to get your hands on these books.
Last, but not least, another BookFunnel promotion. This one has 167 books in it that are all in Kindle Unlimited.
As always, you can also buy the books if you don’t have a KU subscription, and there’s lots of good books to check out here.
This one is running until July 30th, so still a couple of weeks to check these ones out, as well.
BOOKS
My brother’s best friend… He should be off-limits. Right?
Blaze is my brother’s best friend and teammate, playing professional soccer in Italy. One heated, passionate kiss makes me question whether it matters. When we have to spend Christmas weekend together in the romantic city of Venice, Italy, and at the most romantic time of year, can we forget that the kiss ever happened?
Get this story now to find out if he’s as good as her dreams… or will he be a dud in the sack?
At her older sister’s wedding, Lucy wants nothing but to relax in the corner and ignore the joy flowing from everyone. When Yvonne announced that she would be getting married to Nate the family had naturally become overjoyed. Lucy was thrilled at first and then filled with terror, she was barely older than 20 and still felt new to the dating scene.
Lucy is set on a journey of discovery when she meets a man at the end of the wedding and is taken on a trip that will see secrets revealed and challenges overcome. Her life of mundane study is turned upside down with nights of passion and flights of fancy.
Patti was tired of it all. Roger had gone to war. He left her as a loving, caring husband. But eighteen months later, when the Army returned him to her, they had broken him.
He was wrecked.
Patti thought divorce was the answer, but the divorce attorney, Ty, had other ideas. Given just half a chance, Ty was able to show Patti exactly what she was missing and how to save her marriage.
A bit unconventional in his methods, but effective nonetheless.
Would Patti discover that outside activities could bring the excitement back to her marriage?
I never expected to be stuck in lockdown with my soon-to-be ex-husband.
Considering that he loves to rile me up so we can fight, which inevitably leads to sex, I don’t know how I’ll survive the next thirty days. There’s no way I’ll admit that I still love him, not when I hate him in equal measure.
This is a short, steamy read meant to be enjoyed by adults in one sitting—unless you need to take a break for a cold shower.
Get Love & Hate Under Lockdown
CRUISE CONTROL
I felt like I had some general Cruise Control information this week, but I can’t think of what it was. I will say that I’ve got a Facebook group that you can find by clicking here.
We’re actually having a lot of fun in there. Lots of book-related discussions and memes, as well as more frequent updates from me on what’s happening with the Cruise Control stuff.
You should absolutely come join us if you like romance novels, books and, mostly, Sebastian Fox. 😉
THE ALBUM – ARIANA AND GABRIEL
So, no real update on The Album this week, except to say that as soon as I’m done with what I’m fondly referring to as The Breaking™ (read: the rewrite of The Baby), I’m finally going to get The Album sorted out.
I’ve actually had several people ask me this week about print copies of The Album and I’ve had to tell them that I’ve been a slacker and haven’t sorted out the formatting so that print copies can be sold again.
I also want to say that I love my characters so much. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to read reviews of The Album without getting defensive over Ariana. She’s just so absolutely and utterly amazing over the course of the series, but we see her at her absolute worst in this book.
Just…bear with her, okay. One of the alpha readers for The Baby told me that Ariana is now one of her favourite characters…and her initial review of The Album specifically mentioned how annoying she found her!
THE BABY – LITA AND SEBASTIAN
Alrighty, then…so, I’m skipping The Wedding because there’s nothing to say. Still no word on the audiobook for that, which means we might as well just get into news about The Breaking™. 😉
So, I just had a look to see what last week’s update told you and I’d just reached breaking point and figured out what I needed to do to the story.
For those who were subscribers back when I was writing the book, you might remember the…struggle I had with it. I really did struggle. I loved it, but I think that deep down I knew it was too happy.
I also worried that it was too long, but that was another issue. I really, really didn’t know what I was doing with it. When I first got feedback from the alpha readers, I rejected it even while knowing it was right.
For a hot minute, I literally thought that I should quit writing and give up the whole series because I’m a terrible writer and this book was going to kill my series, anyway (ask me, again, where I got my inspiration for Ariana’s mental health problems!).
Once I got past that, I knew exactly where The Breaking™ needed to occur. Even when I was writing it, it was clear that when this event happened, the book could go one of two ways.
Since I was, you know, fucking traumatised by writing The Wedding and couldn’t bear to torture anybody at the time, I went right ahead and wrote the happiest fucking book you’ve ever read. I even said several times that it felt like it simply told a series of events from Point A to Point B and meandered its way to a conclusion.
Don’t get me wrong, it was super lovely and enjoyable to read, but it was hardly going to keep you on the edge of your seat wondering if Lita and Sebastian could possibly ever get through it.
Rest assured, there is drama now. Oh, and it hurts to read. Oh, and I cry when I’m writing it. I sent a snippet to D the other day and her direct quote was:
“Awwww man. This is fucking painful. 😢”
But, I’m excited about the book again, guys. It feels like it’s going to be a good book, and I can’t wait for people to read it.
Mum hates it, but in a good way, because she misses the happy book and is sad for them that they don’t get the easy ride anymore (she really loves Seb and Lita and doesn’t want them to suffer!).
On that note, here’s a teaser that I made this week to share in the Facebook group (but, then I liked it so much that I shared it everywhere!). I love that when I shared it, someone immediately guessed who said it and who they were saying it to. 🤣
SEBASTIAN – YOUNG ADULT CRUISE CONTROL
Finally, the YA novel on Wattpad. Chapter 13 – Either Way, Someone Was Punched is up now. This chapter started at the 131 words I wrote last week and I really struggled to begin with, but it ended at 2,271 words.
I don’t know why, but a lot of the time when I’m writing, I hate it. I think it’s terrible and the worst thing I’ve ever written and I second-guess myself the whole way through…then I read it back and think, “Wow, I really loved that!”
That was definitely the case with this chapter. I read it back, afterward, and totally adored it. Although, I still couldn’t think of a better title for the chapter. It makes sense when you read it, but I am aware that it does make it seem like Seb and Gabe are about to come to fisticuffs, and they’re not. 😝
If you’re new and you don’t know what this is, it’s a free, serialised novel that I’m writing on Wattpad about the band when they first met, and you can find it here.
Anyway, it’s well past midnight and just secretly, I’m probably going to go and finish editing the current chapter of The Baby because I stopped at a super interesting point, earlier, to write that chapter of Sebastian!
I hope you enjoy the rermainder of your weekend and happy reading!
