Hey awesome,

How goes spring? We're at our new campground and have an adorable fenced in yard, so the dogs and I have spent a lot of time outside over the last few weeks. Turns out I might get a little too distracted by the birds and bees (literally, the carpenter bees here are enormous!!), so oftentimes I have to banish myself to my cave for editing.

a flower from our yard!

Bright side, editpalooza means Beyond Enemies is inching closer to being a book you can hold in your hands! It also means I get to start thinking of things like what incredible authors I get to ask to read my story and potentially blurb it. Who are the authors that if they say they loved a book, you'd seriously consider checking it out? I'd love to hear what makes a blurb work for you. Because I'm not going to lie, this one's been making the rounds lately and it genuinely made me laugh out loud.

It might be by current favorite. The fact that the author shared that with such humor made me put the book on my TBR list with a quickness! What's the best blurb you've ever read?

In other fun news, I've been guesting on some awesome podcasts – some that are new to me, and some that are fabulous favorites. I went Drinking With Authors, which was a delightful fest of questions and a fair amount of cackling (part one here and part two here, for the RSS feed that will take you to your preferred podcast location). I got to do 20 Questions with Your Favorite Author, answered some super fun questions and also cackled a bunch (hm, what could be the common denominator?). I've added both of these podcasts to my regular listening rotation, because the hosts are amazing, the conversations are both insightful and hilarious, and don't we all deserve a little more fun in our lives? Because of course when it comes to more fun in our lives, there's the crew at Super Geeked Up – I crashed their party late last night, so the link takes you to their youtube page rather than my specific episode. But you really can't go wrong cracking up alongside the nerdy, nerdy fabulousness of SGU.

That covers some fun things to watch. Who would I be if I didn't also share fun things to read?? I've got two for you this week from two different shared universes (note you don't have to read allllll the books in those universes to enjoy them, though you may want to after the fact...)

J.P Chandler has the third of his Fallen World trilogy out and rocking the bestseller charts.

Children of the Fall, from the cover copy:

Kelly Ansen—“Princess” to her friends—brokered an agreement to resolve the growing strife between factions competing for control of her beloved Eureka Bubble.

Before her plan could be implemented, though, her estranged father, Ansen Pringle, kidnapped her sisters, Chelsea and Nicole, to force Princess to join him on a trip to Hawaii. The voyage across the wild oceans is long, with little hope of making it there safely… and even less of returning. Kelly has no choice, though. To save her sisters, she must go.

Kelly’s friends and allies will stop at nothing to rescue her, especially her brother Scott and her boyfriend Morgan Campbell. While Morgan completes his mission at home, Scott goes to bring her back. Ansen Pringle and other dangers in this Fallen World must be reckoned with, but the question remains… are they ready for an angry Scott?

Then Mike Jack Stoumbos has his first Four Horseman Universe novel:

Defenders Rise, from the cover copy:

The once-prosperous Planet Haven has become a warship graveyard, its landscape littered with ship carcasses and craters. Though dangerous, these remains are worth fighting and dying for. And, for the employees of the Salvage Mill—toiling under the watchful gaze and disciplinary claws of the ruling Pushtal—dying is all too common.

Rev, an elSha engineer with no ties to the many species on the surface, works for his own survival and the opportunity to escape. Before he can put his plans into motion, though, an encounter with a ravenous predator forces Rev underground where he discovers a long-buried find: a crate of CASPers.

Though the suits of oversized armor might be better used as bargaining chips than weapons against the Salvage Mill, witnesses to the find have other ideas in mind, and to protect his interests, Rev enters a symbiotic arrangement with several past and current Mill workers. As Rev gathers more unlikely allies and learns to operate the machines, the new community grows stronger… strong enough to draw the notice of the Pushtal rulers.

And, for the first time in years, Rev has something other than salvage that’s worth fighting and dying for.

And of course for your additional reading pleasure, an excellent spread of free read options:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/talesfromthecave/ze7v8s30dh

https://books.bookfunnel.com/bookspry-freebies-scifi/3e5v4qkh45

That's probably all the fun I get to have today – back to my editing cave!

Til next time,

Marisa