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Hey, my favorite people!

Do you remember when Amazon did a pilot season for its original series? You could watch the pilots, vote for your favorite, and they'd take the votes into consideration when deciding which shows to pick up.

I love this idea, so I pulled some of the ideas I'm most excited about from my Chaotic Idea Folder (yes, that's its actual name). Maybe, if I was really committed to the pilot season concept, I would have written first chapters for all of them, but that just doesn't fit my process. Once I begin writing real words in a draft, I feel like I have to keep going until the end. Writing five first chapters and then setting them aside would kill my soul a little. What I can do is write blurbs and working titles, so I did that instead. Some of them even have covers! I'll leave the form up until the end of the month, and whichever one is the winner will be my next free newsletter serial.

Check out my pilot season and vote for your favorite! And if you really love one of them, I'd love to hear more via email. You can reply to this email, and I promise I'll respond to everyone.

What I’m writing

I have two May projects:

1. Finish planning Burning Season and start the first draft. Burning Season is the next book in the Wild Ones series. I'd originally hoped to release it this summer, but I'm trying to pace myself a little bit and spread out some of my publishing costs. I'm really, really excited about this book. I just finished a prequel short story, "Sweat, Leather, and Lipstick," that's going to be available in June. Hopefully once you read it you'll be just as infatuated with Dylan and Bo as I am.

2. Extend Jaywalking into a full-length novel. I have gone back and forth a dozen times on whether to revise Jaywalking. When I published this novella in August of 2020, it was on something of a whim. Honestly, I really like the story the way it is. But in hindsight I think that if it had been longer, readers could have seen Jay and Emile "earning" their happy ending and grown more invested in their relationship. I have a plan to write eight more chapters, which would make the book about twice its original length. I am fairly sure I can write all those words this month, then begin revising in June, in hopes that I can re-release a second edition in July.

Chapters 24 and 25 of Undertow

Oh, boy. When I emailed last week, I admitted I hadn't quite reached the end of Undertow yet, but anticipated finishing as the outline indicated with twenty-five chapters. But the ending from the outline didn't feel right as I was writing. That happens sometimes! In order for the ending to not feel too rushed, I wound up writing several thousand more words which will eventually become at least one more chapter, which I will deliver next week. Until then, you can read the two additional chapters, twenty-four and twenty-five, on my website.

What I've learned from writing this newsletter serial with you all is that it's hard to write a book when you can't go back and change earlier chapters in order to adjust the story's course! It's been a really interesting challenge, but I do think that Undertow will go through a significant structural revision after I share the ending of the first draft with you. The final version will be published in 2022, and might be different enough that you'll want to give it another read! But I hope to make the version that some of you have come to love satisfying, too, and it will wrap up in the next couple of weeks.

Reader survey

Thanks to everyone who filled out the reader survey! I drew three winners instead of one based on the really awesome response. Sara B, Ruth F, and Susan B, email me and let me know which book you'd like (there's a list at the bottom of this email) and I'll send it to you.

I had so much fun reviewing all the results and getting a better sense of all of your preferences. <3

Did you download "The Pool Boy"?

I finished my short story for a BDSM romance anthology last week. I have been glad to hear that so many of you fell for Elliott, an almost-forty rope bunny, and his pool boy Clay, who's been keeping a secret. If you haven't read it yet, get it now! If you have, what did you think?

Get The Pool Boy from BookFunnel

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books by Rachel Ember

Wild Ones | contemporary western romance | Long Winter | Signs of Spring

In Step | contemporary kinky romance | Jaywalking | Sleepwalker