WOOOOOOT! And Ramen Assassin’s Audiobook has DROPPED! Go check out the fabulous Kale Williams’ work and get settled for a great listening experience!

https://www.audible.com/pd/Ramen-Assassin-Audiobook/1644058103

Hellion drops on Sept 17th! God, hard to believe Ivo’s story is finally going to hit the shelves but it’s almost here. So of COURSE, there’s a blog tour.

Today’s (sorta) stop is an AMA at The Joyfully Jays Facebook Group.

Giveaways at the AMA will be THREE $20 gift certificates AND you becoming a character in either the next Kai book OR Saint, Luke’s book. The AMA goes until the 13th!

Be sure to hit up all of the blog stops for snippets from a young Ivo’s life with his brothers. Also, there’s giveaways at every stop so enter while you’re there! If you want to participate in the AMA at Joyfully Jays, be sure to join the group and answer the questions to be approved. It’s just a Captcha to make sure you’re… well, you know… not a robot.

Be sure to hit up every stop!

Sept
11        The Joyfully Jays Facebook Group
12         Joyfully Jay
13         Love Bytes
15         The Blogger Girls
16         Boy Meets Boy
17         It’s About the Book

Hellion by Rhys Ford
From the moment SFPD Detective Ruan Nicholls meets Ivo Rogers, he knows the tattoo artist is going to bring chaos to his neat, orderly life. A hellion down to the bone, Ivo is someone Ruan not only doesn’t understand, he’s not even sure he needs to. Everything about Ivo is vibrant, brash, cocky, and arrogant, and Ruan wants no part of him.

Or at least that’s the lie he tells himself when he damps down his desire for the social wild child life tosses into his path.

For Ivo Rogers, life revolves around two things—his family and 415 Ink, the tattoo shop he co-owns with his four brothers. His family might be stitched together by their battle scars from growing up in foster care, but their brotherhood is tight—and strong enough to hold Ivo together during the times when he falls apart.

Now Ivo faces a new challenge when he falls for a cop with an old-school mentality on how a man looks and acts. Ruan is the promise of a life Ivo thought he’d never have, but their clashing perspectives threaten any chance of a relationship. Being the family’s hellion makes it easy to be misunderstood, yet Ivo has faith Ruan will not only embrace who he is but love him as well.

Purchase Links
Dreamspinner https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/hellion-by-rhys-ford-10757-b

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RPVN5VR/

Kobo https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/hellion-5

** If you came here from the Writers’ Beware post, please keep in mind I am a DSP author and probably will remain one until I decide not to, hell freezes over or my cat finally picks up all of his toys. Here is a link to all of the DSP Author Updates that were sent by the company to every author, something I don’t think was included in the WB post.

I wanted to start off this post by saying thank you to everyone who has emailed or DMed me assuring me they support my writing and my books. And will continue to purchase my books.

Because here’s the thing in all of this, any author still with Dreamspinner is still an author trying to sell their books. Now, some people in the industry has weaponized the situation and advocated boycotting DSP authors or even in a lot of cases, turned DSP authors into the bad guys because they’ve stayed.

People leaving or staying is their choice. I keep saying that and it still remains true. The fact of the matter is leaving or staying doesn’t make the situation go away for anyone. We’re still all in the same boat of trying to be funded and in some cases, now have to learn how to self-pub and regroup.

I’ve lost a few people who I considered a friend. People I have supported during their hard times, including the tragedy of a loved one suffering a catastrophic illness and the deaths in the family. It has been a very soul-crushing time for a lot of people as suddenly authors are being made out to be complicit criminals with agendas or goose-stepping puppets of an evil empire.

Which is hilarious because who really has time for all of that? Ever try to write a book? It consumes so much of your life your cat has to come and turn off your laptop so you go to bed at night.

To say I am disappointed in people is an understatement but it is with the support and words from others that make things okay.

All authors are just trying to do their best and write the best book they can. That’s our job. If someone has an agenda to influence the masses, trust me, it’s not the person trying to get by and hit their deadline. We really don’t have time to rile up the masses and spend hours on social media stirring shit up. That’s a lot of words and energy that can go into a book so agenda spreading isn’t really on a real author’s schedule. Not that every sperm is sacred but every minute certainly is (I’m feeling guilty writing this instead of blog posts, to be honest).

Quite a few of us have deferred our payments so others who need theirs can be paid in full. I have done this myself because I feel this is the best way I can support my fellow authors. I stand by this decision, even though some could have demanded we be paid because we’re “top-earners” (true or not). That’s not how a decent human being is. It’s a shitty time and a lot of us are doing the best we can to help everyone in our “stable” out.  We just all hope it evens out soon.

Also the idea of being a “top-earner” is kind of funny because in my head, I’ve got like seven readers and I worry about each book. Regardless of where anyone is on the payment scale, there are those who badly need their money to survive and I appreciate everyone who has continued to support us, especially during these trying times.

If you have a review blog and still supporting all authors in the genre, thank you. We appreciate it. We hope our books and our tours brings you readers and I know I hope to continue to have a good relationship with all of the blogs I interact with. It’s key to reach out to people, especially when there’s a new book coming out and I know I speak for every author in saying thank you for giving us the chance to reach out to your audience. It’s a critical piece of exposure I am forever grateful for.

If you are a reader and have continued to purchase books from authors regardless of how and where they are published, thank you as well. There has been a lot of emotional terrorism (and yeah I know it’s a strong word but I’m going to use it) regarding this situation and the bottom line is, we won’t get paid if books aren’t purchased. Thank you for understanding the authors are still authors and we’re just trying to make a living and go forward.

I’m including the link to the DSP author updates because none of this is confidential and there appears to be a bunch of people who are not getting the newsletter or haven’t signed up for it. These are updated every Tues night and if you as a reader or author have any questions, there is a contact form there on the site or you can reach someone at the DSP office like always: https://dreamspinner.press/category/author-updates/

The rest of the site is in progress but the updates and contact form are active.

I actually wrote a long bit here about what I was angry about and what hurt the most from other authors and bloggers. Then common sense took over and I deleted it because honestly, it adds nothing to the narrative. Yes, I am disappointed in people and have been hurt deeply by former friends in this industry. Can I let that change who I am? I can’t. Not when I’ve worked so hard to become who I am now.

So I am going to end this as I started this… by saying thank you to everyone who continues to support me and all of their favourite authors. This is something we have to ride out and see where it goes. Hopefully it will turn out well regardless of what happens…and isn’t that what we are supposed to wish for anyway?

Much love.

One of the things we do in our house is armchair quarterback Food Network shows.

In a lot of ways, I feel like I’m like my great-grandmother screaming at the television while her soap opera is going on.

I don’t know what the problem is with chefs and frozen food. It’s like… dudes, for some people, that’s the only way they can get those veggies. You’ve got to know how to deal with foods the every day person has to deal with if you’re going to be a chef. Why? Because you never know. YOU NEVER KNOW!

They got served SPAM as one of their ingredients. Lots of moaning and whining.

Of course I also love SPAM and pineapple. So there you go.

Writing is a lot like cooking. Flavours. Character of heat and cold. Seasoned with different cultural influences. Since I’m writing Kai right now, I get to screw with so many of those. It’s really one of my favourite worlds to write in.

Yet, in my heart, I still love Spam and Rice. So that will always be that foundation.

So… I’ll be happy to own being a Spam musubi 😀 But damn if I’m not gonna add a few things to the plate.

It’s a rough brain weekend so one of the things that my therapist is always telling me is to focus on positive stuff. Kind of like the rubber band on the wrist thing. Snapping it to send a reminder to divert my thoughts elsewhere.

Food is always iffy when I’m worked into something and last night, sushi and noodles were ordered. The sushi was pretty awesome and I had a side of katsu over rice with teriyaki sauce. The noodles were for tonight. And so it’s yakisoba for dinner tonight.

I can eat yakisoba or pancit every day. Oddly enough, the Panda Express near here uses the thin noodles for their chow mein. It’s gotta be the thin noodles. I mean the thicker round ones are okay but I prefer the thinner ones. Or the thick rice noodles. Like chow fun.

Now it’s odd how Christmas — well, any holiday — is off without beef chow fun dry style. I love rice but noodles, those are just the awesome.

That said, there’s also nothing like a burnt grilled cheese sandwich. I had a small thread on my Facebook page about what grilled cheese is to everyone and there’s a bunch of opinions. Mostly because we all have such diverse tastes and well, there are things we grow up with. American cheese and white bread burnt to the edge of black is my choice for grilled cheese but, let’s face it… grilled cheese sandwiches! It’s never a bad thing.

Kinda like cinnamon toast. Mind you, I’ve had to teach a couple of UK friends about cinnamon toast. 😀 But see, those are the things that make us connected. Those comfort foods from other places that we learn from one another.

My main thing to teach is usually loco moco. It’s an odd thing but two scoops of rice, a hamburger, a fried egg and lots of brown gravy is possibly the most Best Thing From Hawai’i you can get… outside of a spam musubi.

Share a few of your bestest, home things and tell me what makes you feel good inside.

Worst part about being a writer is you’re not really in control of your brain. Sure, some people are all…. I can just sit and write without any fuss. Only the weak and bad writers can’t churn brilliant stuff out.

That’s a lie.

Everyone writes differently. Trust me on that.

I write point A to point Z. I don’t skip scenes and I write straight through. I edit sometimes on the fly if something didn’t sound right the first time or skim before I lock down a chapter but most of my editing is done at the end. I know people who write the “key scenes” then knit stuff together. Something I can’t do.

I keep one master document and write the book outside of that document… as individual chapters which I paste into the master once I’m done with each chapter. Others can’t write unless it’s all in one place.

Some people like to do boards and gather up inspirational material.

That would drive me fucking stark raving nuts.

But one thing I have noticed that if you’re fighting a book… fighting to write it, then it’s not the book you should be writing. Or at least, that’s it for me. If it takes me three weeks to write four chapters then it’s not working. Something’s wrong. Sometimes it’s the wrong direction… as in the case of Hellion which pivoted when I did the rewrite (this happened in Sinners too) and sometimes it’s just that my brain’s not in that space to write what I wanted.

So, I have to put aside my paranormal suspense and tackle a heavier book, Kai 4.

I’m not mad about that. I’ve got the plot outlined… something else people do differently. For me it’s at least 10 chapter breakdowns of a sentence or two, directing me to what needs to happen in that chapter. Other people wing it. That also would drive me stark raving mad because if I don’t at least put down some ley lines, god knows where I’m going to end up.

So… Kai 4. I’ve got a title, a bit of plot and one pissy elfin stalker with a hell of a chip on his shoulder to write.

Congrats to

Jennifer Saracino

Kari Lee

Debra Edwards

on winning the Hellion Giveaway!