Hi Everyone!
I hope that your first quarter has been going well! Mine has felt like it passed in a whirlwind. Though to be fair Feb was a shorter month than most, even with our leap year day, and March has been an exciting lot with a new release!
In-Person Events
Just a reminder, I have some In-Person Events coming up. My plans are currently:
April 6, 2024 - Spring Book Festival, Kensington Mill Falls, Milford, MI (confirmed)
June 1-2, 2024 - St. Louis Pagan Picnic, in St. Louis (confirmed)
August 9-11, 2024 - Pan Pagan, in Bloomington-Normal, IL (confirmed, and running the event)
November 8-10, 2024 - WindyCon, in Oak Brook, IL (unconfirmed as yet, but planned)
My September Event was canceled because they’re adjusting organizational things this year so they can hit the ground running next year. I’m also still keeping an eye out for more shows in the Midwest to roll to.
New Release!!!!!
Did you see that mention of a new release in that first bit?
Among Thorns and Stardust is out! It was released on March 12th and is a SciFi fairy tale retelling anthology with six other wonderful ladies and myself. The anthology has seven short stories to dip your toes into. If you like SciFi, this is definitely for you. If you love fairy tale retellings, this is definitely for you!
The sky was never the limit.
What if Snow White lived in a virtual world where the lines of reality are too blurred? What if Cinderella's ugly step-sister was half made of metal and springs? What if Sleeping Beauty slipped into a hundred years of cryo sleep?
Seven authors join forces to reimagine your favorite fairy tales as new sci-fi adventures filled with space, tech, magic, charm, and of course: happily ever afters.
Book Cover Contest!
The Spring Book Festival I’m attending allowed us to enter a cover for their Book Cover Contest. I entered my newly recovered Treasure of the Deep, which made it through pre-round 2 into round 1 and is now up for voting on their website.
If you’d like to vote, round 1 voting is up through tomorrow on their website. (https://creativeslingersofink.com/bookcovercontest)
What Am I Reading?
Continuing my reading for this year, I’ve hit 19 books on my reading goals and we’re only halfway through March so far! My highlights from February and the beginning of March are:
In Charm’s Way by Lana Harper - In Charm’s Way is book 4 in The Witches of Thistle Grove series. I’ve loved all of the books of this series, and this book wasn’t any different. Book 4 picks up six months after book 3, and we follow Delilah as she deals with the repercussions of the last book. It was a fantastic ride, and I highly recommend the series if you enjoy witch energy in a small town, and don’t mind a shift in Point of View every book. I’m now waiting for book 5 to release so I can dive right into it.
Starfall Point series by Molly Harper - The Starfall Point series consists of book 1: Witches Get Stuff Done and book 2: Big Witch Energy. Again, we have witch energy in a small town, with the POV shifting to a different character of the town in book 2. This series also does multiple POV within each book. The first book starts with Riley as she comes to Starfall Point after she finds out she has an aunt her mother talked about. Once on Starfall Point, she learns about her family, things she never knew and didn’t expect, but also as she takes on the mantle her family holds in a house that keeps people safe from ghosts by holding haunted objects. Book two, we follow Caroline, a person who Riley quickly becomes close friends with. Book two dives into Caroline’s family, because as we find out in book one, Caroline’s family is cursed in that if they leave the island for more than 24 hours, they die. It’s been an interesting run of books and I’ve really enjoyed them.
Run Little Rabbit by Jenika Snow - I fell into a dark romance hole, and this was the start of it. Triggers are important with this genre, and this one (as well as my next read) are really dark. This one is focused on Harra attending a Halloween costume as a bunny (see what she did there with the title) and she ends up getting stalked, pinned, and claimed by a man in a skull mask. Like I said, triggers are important, it was also banned on amazon as an ebook, which is why it’s only linking to the paperback.
Sick Boys by Clarissa Wild - More read the triggers, triggers are important. Penelope enrolls in Spine Ridge University, after her sister throws herself off a cliff, with the full intention of finding out what caused her sister to go that far. Most of the reviews claim this is just a smut book, I actually really loved the mystery and puzzle of getting all the pieces to find out exactly what happened to Eve, because there is legitimately a plot under all the smut with her three bad boys that more or less rule the University. It’s dark romance, with mafia romance tones to it. Very alpha male, why choose because she ends up with the three together and they’re very happy to share.
What have you read this quarter? What are you planning to read in the next quarter? Leave me a comment and let me know!