So here we are on the other side of all the Christmas doings. I hope you enjoyed the holidays, and had some good times with family. This weekend I'll finish packing away all the decorations, which is a day long affair, but this week I settled back into a normal writing schedule, working on the free "revisit" vignette for you all, to help us all escape the January doldrums. I discuss "The Barbecue" under the "What I'm Working On Now" section later on in this newsletter.

However, before we get to that, thank you so much for the wonderful feedback on Submissive Angel, my expanded M/m Christmas story! Comments like these were posted by reviewers and readers:

"Hill's skill … is an amalgam of time spent growing in both writing craft, and, literally, careful expression, life experience, a palpable dedication to researching the hell out of every subject she writes about, and most importantly that fundamental part of her creativity, a deep understanding and acceptance of human nature with all its facets. Her writing is not ever simply arousing but always deeply touching and uplifting." --Gab W

"Robert and Ange - Submissive Angel, Marcus and Thomas - Rough Canvas, Des and Julie - Worth the Wait, Rory and Daralyn - In His Arms... Couples that forever live in my head and heart.....though they ripped my heart out before putting it back together. THANK YOU JOEY for continuing to bring us such amazing characters, real characters, amazing stories from the heart..." --Pat E

"I may feel wrecked and reformed when I'm done with your books, but always full...like my soul has expanded just a bit more. Thank you for the bits of your soul you share every time you give us another of your gifts. Merry Christmas!" - Christi H

Remember that the original 2012 story, plus 170 new pages of content to tell the rest of Robert and Ange's tale, is on sale for 99 cents until March!

Here are all the buy links:

Amazon / Amazon Worldwide / Amazon Print

Nook (code BNPJOEY66 for sale price - also at top of blurb at Nook)

iBooks

Kobo

Google

AND THE WINNER IS...

As you may remember, because Robert and Ange's story was coming out so close to the holidays, instead of release day parties and blog tours, I offered a big giveaway instead - up to FIFTY-TWO offers of swag packs, signed books AND the giant blanket pictured below. I won't list out all the winners of the books and swag packs, but I want to let you know who won the annual charity giveaway, the giant blanket, and whose quote on social media (all of which were fabulous) won the extra print book prize.

ANNUAL CHARITY WINNER: Since this year more are in need than ever, I upped my annual charity giveaway from $50 to $100. One of the things I really like about this contest is discovering the places that benefit from my readers' kindness and generosity. Those who sent me an email nominated some wonderful charities - food banks, animal shelters, service dogs for veterans, children of fallen soldiers, helping kids with trauma, AIDS orphan care, a local community support organization and LGBTQ crisis resources.

I'm always glad I choose this winner by random number generator, because it would be impossible for me to select one of these organizations over the others. And the winner is Rhonda G! Her charity is one that Des and Julie of Worth the Wait would approve of heartily, the Southern Colorado Theatre Company dba Steel City Theatre Company, which has been struggling due to the current state of things. They've had no indoor performances since March, and outdoor performances became limited once winter hit. We hope our donation will help in some small way to keep them going until things improve.

QUOTE WINNER - I appreciate the many amazing comments you all made on your social media about my work, but Lizbeth Ann especially touched me with this one, winning the extra signed print book. "Joey W. Hill is one of my favorite authors. Her characters are well rounded, real, flawed fictional people. (I added 'fictional' because, ya know, lol - for the record, Mac is MINE!!!! Violet said I could have him, in my imagination at least, LOL.) If you want a great story with some steam and spice, you can't go wrong." Thank you, Lizbeth Ann. Violet says she'll neither confirm nor deny that information (grin).

SO WHO WON THE BLANKET? You ALL deserve this blanket, but I'm happy to report Janet D is the randomly chosen winner from the contest entries. As a side note, Janet D is the member of a mothers' group that offers "best tips for survival as a first mom." She recently posted there, telling folks how my books have helped her survive the madness of twins, and recommended that anyone curious about the BDSM genre, or even interested in an amazing storyline, "to give Joey a whirl." Thank you, Janet!

All of the prize winners are currently being notified/awarded and will have their prize shipped to them shortly. Thank you SO much for helping me spread the word about my work on social media, not only through this contest, but throughout the year. Your recommendations make more impact on your fellow readers than a hundred well-placed ads. I know this for a fact, because as a reader myself, I will almost ALWAYS one-click a book when reader(s) who share my preferences declare, "You MUST buy this book!"

WHY THIS YEAR DIDN'T SUCK

Throughout 2020, I heard "I can't wait until this year is over" or "This year has been so awful." I had a somewhat different perspective on it. I laid it all out in my latest GoodReads blog, which you can find here. And no worries, my reasons aren't light and fluffy kumbaya stuff (grin).

GUEST AUTHOR OF THE MONTH

We're currently figuring out the types of things we want to do at the Facebook JWHMembersOnly page this year, and one of the things in the works is "Guest Author of the Month." We'll kick things off in January with Desiree Holt, who is already planning fun things for the group during her visit. These visits will happen on a weekend evening, for about 60-90 minutes, so we can get as much "live" participation as possible, though you'll also be able to drop in later and see the video and/or comments for the event, never fear. We're still hammering out Desiree's date/time, but I'll post her info on FB when we have it. I also hope to have more of the guest schedule for you by the next newsletter!

WHAT I'M WORKING ON NOW

"The Barbecue," a free revisit vignette with the Mistresses and Knights of the Board Room, is on schedule for release to you in January. Tomorrow I'll finish the first edit round and, barring any unexpected schedule disruptions, I hope to have it all polished and ready for publication by next Friday (Jan 15). Which means I'll turn it over to my husband for cover design, formatting and uploading onto BookFunnel, after which he'll list it on the Cantrips page. Keep your eye on the social media platforms, because I'll use those to let you know when it's live! If you're not on any social media, never fear. Just start checking that Cantrips page after the middle of the month, and I'll also of course have the links in the next monthly newsletter.

Just as a reminder of what this vignette is about, if you've read At Her Command, the first book in my Mistresses of the Board Room series, you know at the end there's a reference to a barbecue at Dale and Athena's home (hero/heroine of Unrestrained). The vignette IS that barbecue. In this short, you'll get a couple nice foreshadowing scenes between Neil and Abby. Theirs is the next book to be written in the MBR series, Fall 2021. You'll also be on the front row for an emotional re-connect between Rachel of Afterlife and Lawrence, since he was her late son's childhood friend.

But what will be our first full length book of the year? I've already started outlining and writing passages for the Spring 2021 addition to the Vampire Queen series. Our heroine will be Catriona, the Fae Lord Keldwyn's ward. We first met her in Bound by the Vampire Queen, a dryad that Jacob and Lyssa freed from her tree form. We saw her again in Night's Templar. Her hero is going to be Adan, the son of Mal and Elisa of Vampire Instinct.

The book starts in Club Atlantis, where Catriona is currently living, under the Fae and Council-sanctioned protection of Daegan and Anwyn. Adan has come to Club Atlantis for a specific purpose - a magical one. Both of his parents had bits of magic, and those bits have manifested in him in a unique way. When he crosses paths with Catriona, a different kind of magic happens. Since nothing about a Fae and vampire pairing is easy, look for sparks to fly!

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE - SASS 2021

Have you registered and made your hotel reservations for the next SASS conference? I hope so. I can't wait to see you all! Click on the link here or in the sidebar to find out more.

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CONTACTING/FOLLOWING ME

Remember, you can find me online through my website email contact link (little envelope under Follow Me on the right side of home page) or email me directly at storywitch@storywitch.com. You can also leave a question for me under my Author Profile on GoodReads. I'm on Twitter and Facebook (Author Page), and regularly stop in at the JWHMembersOnly fan group. I'm also on MeWe and Parler, so if you prefer either of those platforms to Facebook or Twitter, you can still come by and see me! If you'd like to see the pics that inspire my books, visit me on Pinterest.

Finally, I'd love it if you followed me on Bookbub, Amazon or both, since that helps my books get increased visibility and recommendations on the site. And in return, you get heads up about releases and sales!

• BookBub
• Amazon

HAVING PROBLEMS GETTING MY NEWSLETTER PAST YOUR SPAM FILTER? - Whenever I issue a newsletter, I will post about it on the social media platforms mentioned above, to ensure it reaches the widest number of people possible. So if you're following me on any of them, you'll get a heads up. Or you can put https://storywitch.com/newsletter/?latest as one of your Favorite links. You can click on it anytime to see if a new newsletter has been released. I try to get a new issue out during the first 7 days of every month.

DIDN'T GET A RESPONSE? Responding to my readers, and doing so in a very timely manner (within 24-48 hours), is extremely important to me. So if you have sent a communication to me in any medium - direct email, social media, etc - and have not received a response, a technical glitch has occurred. Either your communication did not get through to me, or my response did not reach you. If you suspect that's the case, use one of the alternative methods to send me a "Hey, Joey, I sent you a note through email (or social media platform, etc). Did you get it?" message, and we'll make sure we sort it out. I will never intentionally ignore my readers!

Thank you so much for your support of my work!