G'day, ,

Welcome to 2023! I'm so glad you're still happy to receive my newsletter and I hope you know that I never take your support for granted.

How was your Christmas and New Year?

Our Christmas and New Year were rather quiet. We had plans to catch up with my husband's family on Christmas Day; however, his sister who was hosting dinner came down with Covid. So we thought we'd change the celebration to New Year's Day but his brother came down with Covid. Now we're hoping to catch up and celebrate Christmas on the national public holiday at the end of January. Fingers crossed everyone is Covid free and we can actually get together!

Did you set any goals for 2023?

I've promised myself that I'm going to take my author-ing to the next level. I just need to work out what that looks like. I'll keep you posted. I'm also planning to change the frequency of my newsletter to twice a month, starting next month. So keep your eye out on the 4th and the 19th of each month! Eeek!

I also intend to treat my body better. I've been very slack with exercise these past fifteen months or so and I plan to make some positive changes. Wish me luck!

We spent a week away as a family in a small beachside town 2.5 hours from Perth. It was all about spending time as a family, relaxing, and having some fun together. Our youngest was old enough to enjoy some alcoholic beverages and he took full advantage of the opportunities.

I was also lucky enough to celebrate my 54th birthday while we were away and I was thoroughly spoiled (as I always am)! I even sampled my very first honey mead. Don't tell anyone else, but it went straight to my head. haha

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On January 6th, I was excited to be a featured author on the Australian Romance Readers Association website in the lead-up to the ARR2023 signing event happing NEXT MONTH (eeek)! If you're interested you can read all about me here:

AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT | Debra St James

Tickets are still on sale here: https://www.trybooking.com/926300

GA ticket - $40 ($35 for ARRA members)

VIP ticket - $85 ($75 for ARRA members)

General admission = all-day entry

VIP ticket = general admission + goodie bag + souvenir booklet

I'd love to see you in PERTH on Sunday, 19 February!

I'm close to finishing Finn's story for the Falling for the Enemy anthology. Yay! I'm so in love with Finn and Harriet but I have struggled with this piece. It's difficult to go from writing 120K+ words for a story down to only 40K words for an anthology piece and feel like I've written a robust story but I'm getting there.

I shared this line from my draft in my Facebook group, giving my members a little giggle.

“𝘊𝘢𝘭𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯,” 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘩𝘦’𝘴 𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬. 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘳𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥-𝘶𝘱 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘮 𝘥𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘬𝘢𝘺. 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘨𝘶𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘦. ~ 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘁 𝗗𝘂𝗯𝗼𝗶𝘀

What do you think? Is Finn an idiot or an asshole?

You can preorder it for 99c here: www.books2read.com/FallingForTheEnemy

*Remember, all proceeds will go to the American Foundation for Suicide Awareness.*

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In the second half of December, after careful consideration, I made the difficult decision to withdraw my contribution from the Sinful Summer anthology. I no longer felt comfortable with the manner in which the coordinators were running the project and felt it best to step away.

I sincerely apologise for any inconvenience my withdrawal may cause you. If you preordered purely for my piece, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support. If you no longer want a copy, you can easily cancel your preorder in your Amazon account.

Once again, please accept my apologies.

I love to support my friends, so please click on each image to learn more.

You may just find your newest book boyfriend. 😉

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If you'd like somewhere to hang out and talk about my books, books in general, as well as our favourite book boyfriends, you may like to join my Facebook Group. Be sure to answer all of the questions because I'd love to see you there. Just click on the image below.

Happy reading,