Even before the election, you probably noticed I’d been slowly moving some of my books out of KU and putting them for sale on ALL platforms. (For those who don’t know, being in KU means a book can ONLY be in KU in ebook form; Amazon requires exclusivity.

I like KU. I read on KU a lot. I do make money on KU. However, being required to be exclusive means I’m putting all my eggs in one basket, and with the unknown of publishing queer romance thanks to the election results, it’s scary to think I could lose everything if Amazon pulls the plug. (Side note: Did you know that we as readers don’t really own any digital books we purchase from Amazon even if we paid money, not borrowed in KU? That’s right, unless you download each digital file to a separate location, if Amazon closed your (or my!) account tomorrow, all those books would be gone!)

So, my plan for a while has been to offer my books on early access FIRST, then release them into KU, then when they are no longer making a profit, I will move them wide. This means they’ll still be available to buy on Amazon, but they’ll also be on my webstore, Kobo, Apple, B&N, Google Play, and they can even be requested at libraries. (See below on how to request my books!)

What does this mean for you? If you’re willing to support my direct store, you’ll be able to get early access (usually at a discount and 1-2 weeks earlier than when I release on Amazon.) If you’re a KU only reader, you’ll want to grab them when they release on KU. If you read on other platforms, you won’t notice much difference. 

How can you help? It would be amazing to be able to make the same royalties or more without having to be reliant on Amazon. Readers can help by buying direct as much as possible. Buy on other platforms. Subscribe to Kobo’s Kobo Plus (it’s a subscription like KU but it doesn’t require exclusivity and it offers ebooks and audio both. Plus, it’s in Canada, so hopefully not facing as much uncertainty as we are here.)

Love KU and only want to read on KU? No worries. For the foreseeable future, I have no plans to abandon KU completely (unless it’s out of my control) so feel free to read my books through that program for as long as they remain in it (titles will be there for at least 90 days upon release).

Let me know if you have questions and I’ll do my best to answer. THANK YOU for reading (no matter which platform as long as it’s not an icky pirate site!)

Keep on reading and supporting queer authors and queer romance. 💙💜

My direct store is HERE. I *REALLY* want to see more sales on this site as time goes on.

The books leaving KU soon:

* Two Weeks in Paradise – leaves KU Dec. 11, 2024
* Forever Better Together – leaves KU Dec. 12, 2024
* Holly Hills Christmas – leaves KU Jan. 13, 2025
* The Heart of St. Nick – leaves KU Jan. 19, 2025
* Listen to Your Heart – leaves KU Feb. 12 (likely sooner)
* Wrapped Up in Love (box set of the three books listed above) – leaves KU Jan. 30, 2025 (and will likely only be available in a box set on my direct site)
* Adore, Crave, Desire, Yearn, and the Remington Place box set will all leave KU in Dec./Jan.

A Touch of Christmas Magic released yesterday! Don’t miss out on the FREE EXTRA SCENES which you can find HERE on my website or download from Bookfunnel HERE.

If you haven’t grabbed A Touch of Christmas Magic yet, it’s available on ebook, audio, and paperback on Amazon!

Peaches & Cream is coming soon and my very first BOOK BOX is available NOW!
Click HERE to see the options plus sneak peeks (if you want!) at the swag and hardback/paperbacks.

The site offers several options for you to check out. At this time, I plan to close the orders on May 28 due to a surgery I have coming up. If there are remaining swag materials, or if I can get more ordered, I may consider opening the orders back up. Find all the information HERE.

2023 is wrapping up and I’m seeing all the year-in-review posts on my timeline. I honestly thought about not doing a recap of 2023, but I decided to. And I’m glad I did. This will likely be a little long and very rambly, but I hope you’ll stick with me.

First, I was actually quite pleased to see my word count and book count for the year. Not because I had a goal or needed to prove anything, but because I truly thought it would be much lower. You see, 2023 felt like my worst year in publishing since the first couple years I put out books back in…well, quite a few years ago. But when I added things up, I realized that even with the struggles, physically and mentally, slow-and-steady still got me somewhere.

In the interest of transparency, let me make some notes about the image above:
– Lucas and Dean was already finished in 2022. I just held it until January 2023.
– Secrets, Lies, and Key Lime Pie was partially finished in 2022 and it’s a co-written book.
– Heatwave was started in late 2021/early 2022 and I just finished it in 2023.
– The two box sets aren’t “new” stories.
– The short story is like 15k. I still count it, but it wasn’t a lot of words.
– The audio is all on the narrator. All I did was listen to the files as he brought the story to life.
– The foreign translation was completely out of my hands.

Now, none of that is to downplay my year. I’m proud of all of it. Just pointing out that a lot of times things LOOK one way and are actually very different behind the scenes. Right now, I have a story 100% complete, but it won’t be published until February 2, 2024, so I’m not counting it in my 2023 (well, the words counted). I also started a series and then needed to put it aside for a bit; I plan to return to it in 2024. I wrote a short for a 2024 anthology, but no one will see it until the anthology goes live in April.

I’d like to take a moment to look at that word count. I had soooo many days in 2023 that I didn’t write a dang word. But by the end of 2023, I expect to have about 260,000 words recorded and that’s damn impressive. Maybe it’s more than others wrote. Maybe it’s nothing compared to how many words some people got down. But I’m not them, I’m not competing with them. For me, based on where I was in my head and heart a lot of 2023, 260k is f*cking amazing.

My 2023 included gaslighting by someone I considered a friend and that sent me into a tailspin and I’ve dealt with more depression for 3/4 of this year than I’ve ever dealt with. The drama with that former friend was very painful and had me in my head A LOT. But I’ve worked through it and come out wiser and stronger on the other side.

I watched my daughter graduate and take her next steps into adulthood. I’m dealing with the daily stress of having a son working towards his license. The fear and worry that comes with parenting is sometimes overwhelming- daughter drives 40 minutes to and from school each day; son is now riding with a friend who has his license. Just those two things has my head spinning most days.

Aside from the mental and emotional stuff, I’m dealing with some physical stuff that has progressively gotten worse during 2023. (I have an appointment on January 9, 2024! Surgery is likely the next step, but if it can get rid of the pain, I’m on board.) Between migraines and this other pain (and a full-time teaching job) there were sooo many days I just couldn’t pull myself out of bed at 3:15am to write. But I gave it my all on the days when I felt good, and it paid off with 260k words.

I don’t count 2023 as a loss or the worst year ever, not at all. I learned more about myself this year and I count that as a win. I know the real me better than I’ve ever known myself. I have true friends who love me for who I am, family who supports me, colleagues who like and respect me, fellow authors who I count as friends, and the best dang readers EVER.

Not to mention, I’ve still got these amazing characters in my head begging for their stories to be written. As long as their stories keep living in my head, I’ll keep putting them on paper. Will 2024 be better than 2023? Maybe. But 2023 wasn’t a bad year for me. It was maybe more overwhelming, slower in some ways, and forced me to pause and take care of ME a bit more, but I appreciate what 2023 brought to me and taught me.

In 2023, outside of writing (which I adore) I also got to:
* watch my daughter complete her senior year
* watch my daughter wrap up 4 years in show choir with the biggest wins of her career
* watch my son flourish in band
* watch my son make every single honor’s class look like cake
* spend a weekend with my mom just the two of us exploring Michigan
* enjoy some gorgeous nature
* go watch Hamilton with my work wife
* watch my daughter start school and become more and more an adult with each passing day
* watch my son be sweet as can be as he asked someone to homecoming
* start seeing glimpses of what my relationship may be like as the kids move on
* formed great friendships at school
* plan a trip to Europe with my family
* visit with friends – these people truly make my life so much better
* and so very much more…

So, see ya later 2023, and thank you. 2024, I hope you’re ready.