Speedbumps
Apr 05, 2025 5:01 pm
April is here and with it, hopefully, spring. The chilly weather has lingered here in Nova Scotia, but spring has to arrive eventually, right?
And it is also a good riddance to March. I was unfortunate enough to come down with the flu at the beginning of the month and was out of action for over a week, huddled on the couch playing dumb mobile games. So the last part of the month was easing back into work and playing catch up, yet somehow I finished the edits on my paranormal cozy mystery.
And speaking of...
Here is the title and cover reveal.
Murder, Magic, and Maple Fudge
(Sweet Spells Mysteries #1)
The book is now in the beta reading stage. If you would like to help out and be a beta reader, reply to this newsletter or send me a message and I'll send you the Story Origin access link.
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Other News
And with the cozy mystery editing done for now, I've moved on to writing the fifth Heyward and Andersen story and outlining Dark Beacon, my lighthouse ghost book. I've also done a bit of editing on the first book in my Obsidian Blade series.
In addition, my application for this year's Authortube Writing Conference was accepted, so I'll be presenting again on June 28th with the topic, How to Create Graphics on Canva—For Free.
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Sale
Book #1 in the Entangled Nightmares series, Visions and Nightmares, will be on sale for 99 cents from April 3rd-16th as part of Kobo's Spring Reading Event (but also on sale elsewhere).
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Inside the Book:
In case anyone is wondering how a horror fantasy/dark fiction author decided to write a paranormal cozy mystery, you can scroll up and blame the cover art. I was practicing my graphic skills, designing the first version of the cover. And while I was practicing, my muse whispered in my ear: write that story. (Personally, I think she was drunk that day). The urge wouldn't go away, so here we are, with a nearly finished book.
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The Shadows and Ink Podcast
March's podcast episode is all about Mental Health and Horror with guest author David Noone. Check it out at the link below.
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Also, I'll hosting a new show for the GoIndieNow network on April 9th, called Trope or Not to Trope. It will be a live discussion show, on you guessed it, tropes.
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Giveaways and Books To Browse
April Horror Sale
Ends May 2nd!
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HORROR
Depravity's Brother by Tim Enoch
A chemistry experiment gone very wrong introduces two couples. First Vic and then Po are put into comas that leave them in phantom out-of-body states of being.
Po is a cop investigating a homicide. He meets Mandy, a waitress in a strip club, and finds out she has, on her body, in a rather private location, evidence against his suspect. The relationship between them goes from dubious to an unquenchable roaring flame of passion.
Vic, the killer, has been a lone wolf. Raised in the studio of an illustrator of illicit books, he’s all about lust but has no interest in love. But Colbi is a chemist who shares his bloodlust, and she might be the love he’s always needed.
Each couple consists of a phantom and a woman devoted to him, doing all the work to help them survive. All four are bound by dark needs. Substance abuse. The need to consume the souls of the corporeal.
The darkness that Mandy accepts as her fate sickens Po, but it also makes his life worth living. The same darkness that Colbi thrives on makes Vic want to kill her, but he knows he couldn’t live without her.
Each couple finds a family to rely on and who depend on them—for survival, for love, for guidance. Brother and sister prostitutes, a couple of cops, a drug dealer, the district attorney, and a sculptor face off against a senator’s son and his little posse and an old nurse driven mad by the suffering she’s witnessed. Battlelines are drawn, but nobody has the time for concepts like good vs. evil.
Knights of the Crescent, Knights of the Cross
by Troy Young
Something lurks beneath Jerusalem.
What evil hides amongst us?
A small band of Crusader knights finds themselves alone on the streets of Jerusalem during the bloody siege of 1099. They discover a mosque, tucked away at the corner of a deserted market. What they find inside changes history forever.
A Lovecraftian cosmic horror short story.
FANTASY
The Rarkyn's Fall by Nikky Lee
They survived mancers. They survived monsters. They survived the Storm.
With the mountains behind them and Illredus on the horizon, they thought the hardest part of the journey over.
They were wrong.
Outlawed and on the run, Lyss struggles to control her new and volatile magic. A magic that will destroy her.
Her only hope: Find the last remaining witch to tame it.
Her only clue: Buried in Illredus. City of mancers. Capital of the Empire.
Together, she and Skaar descend into Illredus’ underbelly and discover a warren of illegal magics and the monstrous legacy Lyss’ father left behind.
As truth, loyalties, and magic clash, Lyss must decide how far she’ll go to exact justice in her father’s name…
And how far she’ll fall to rule the power inside her once and for all.
Like to like, blood to blood.
In The Woods of Waiting by Lou Yardley
A beautiful song leads them all into the menacing and mysterious Woods of Waiting. That song will set all three towards fates they could never imagine.
Dark paths and dangerous things await in the Woods of Waiting.
Prequel to The Volkdrow Chronicles.
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My Merch Stores:
Vintage and artsy designs on a variety of products
Scifi, fantasy, and horror designs on a variety of products
Writer and reader-based designs on a variety of products
(with new Canadian designs)
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Find me on:
Website | Facebook Group | YouTube | BookBub
Instagram | BlueSky | TikTok| My Amazon page
Lemon Squeezy Store | My Books on StoryOrigin
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That's it for this edition. And I'll return next month with more updates.
