Welcome to blog post 600 (six hundred!!!) on my blog! I can’t believe it! I looked it up and I’ve been blogging here for five years (I hit the mark in April and didn’t notice). I’d have a party, but I’m already celebrating over at Smart Girls Love SF (their five year anniversary) and excited over the release of Sucker Punch. That’s a lot of celebrating going on. So maybe in August, I’ll have a little party for No Reason At All.
In January of 2014, a year or so into my adventures in being an indie author, I realized that if I didn’t introduce at some planning into my writing, then, well, my it wasn’t going to be pretty. There is a certain security of writing for a publisher, in knowing that within certain time frames, your book will be published and then you go on to writing the next one.
But when you are your own publisher, your own boss, committing totally random acts of writing is not that great for your business. Actually, it probably wasn’t before. I just didn’t notice because the accounting happens months later. And when readers complain, well, you just blame your publisher. lol
So, I looked at my books. And I looked at my numbers, hoping that in there would be the Arrow pointing to a Plan. And I found something rather funny. My romantic suspense and my science fiction romance were about neck-and-neck in terms of sales.
If I wanted to “feed” both sets of readers, I needed to write something for both each year. This from the author of the BAB (big a** books) and the random writer. I’d started one series, as part of a plan to take my business partly indie, called The Big Uneasy. The series was set in New Orleans, a place we lived in for 18 years. I also had a leg up on that series, because I had a proposal I’d written for my then-agent, that had been meant to be the jumping off book for a series.
And, before my publisher closed, I’d finished a science fiction romance series called Project Enterprise. I’d completed the initial series, but wasn’t sure I was done with it and my readers didn’t seem to be either…
And then a friend mentioned something about “mystery science fiction” and I got to wondering if I could mesh my readership together by meshing my romantic suspense with my science fiction romance. So I created An Uneasy Future. It’s a mystery series set in future New Orleans and there is a very special guest appearance from some characters from Project Enterprise. So I wrote Core Punch and released it last summer, fully intending to release the second part, either by the end of 2014 or early in 2015.
But, um, Life Happened.
And I owed my Big Uneasy readers a new book first. They’d been waiting longer. So I wrote Dead Spaces early this year and released it (barely) by the end of May. Then launched into Sucker Punch, the book right after Core Punch. It’s releasing this week and the reason I wrote it was to keep a promise to my readers. And because Joe and Vi were like, what the what? Where’s our happy ending?
So Sucker Punch kind of “ends” the story started in Core Punch, while leaving the door wide open for more adventures. Here’s the blurb from Sucker Punch:
Vi never liked math and aftermath isn’t floating her boat either….
Hurricane Wu Tamika Felipe has moved north. Yeah, the storm almost killed Detective Violet Baker, but it also blew some romance her way. Her uptight partner, Dzholh “Joe” Ban!drn actually kissed her.
But there’s no time for any follow-up kissing, much to Vi’s regret. They are hunting something very bad. Something that tried to kill them while they were dirt side during the storm.
And has now escaped up into New Orleans New.
It’s not business as usual, though there is some deja vu in there, when Vi and Joe get sent to a FEMA camp to check out a dead body.
Until that body turns into a trail that might lead to the evil it. Or to its next victim.
Just when Vi thinks things are crapeau enough, the MITSC (Men In Top Secret Color) show up and take over their case. Are they after Joe or the evil it?
Before they can find out, the evil it lures them into a trap.
It’s it versus them and it hasn’t lost yet….
I apologize that my readers had to wait so long. And I sincerely hope it was worth the wait. I know I had a blast writing it (that feels so wrong to write, when I put my characters through SO much, but I DID have a blast). I love the characters, and I love visiting New Orleans, future or present.
After only releasing one book last year, 2015 should see me releasing four projects (if the Muses continue to be kind). I’m excited about that, while not promising to keep it up next year. Because, as you know, around here Life Happens. A lot.
So, were you waiting for this book? For one of my books? For someone else’s book? You know I love comments so much that I pick a favorite to receive my monthly AnaBanana gift basket ($25 value). Recipient is announced the first blog post of the new month.
Perilously yours,
Pauline