You know when you get a song in your head and you can’t get rid of it? I guess it’s the excitement of getting closer to the December 15 release of Vampire Master, but I’ve had Europe’s "The Final Countdown" playing in my mind today. As I’m typing, I’m chair dancing and feeling very athletically heroic. Like I can run a hundred steps to the top of a Philadelphia landmark and still have enough breath to do a victory dance (instead of collapsing and needing to call 911 for oxygen, lol).
This feeling could be because the edits to Vampire Master are going really well. Or it could be I’m just fueled by the manic energy that a surplus of leftover Halloween candy has given me. I’m going to say both are true, and leave it at that (grin). Hope you all had a lovely Samhain and enjoyed the holiday in whatever way suits you best (as long as it didn't involve human or animal sacrifice).
So, VAMPIRE MASTER IS ALMOST HERE! Wolf and Ella can't wait to share their story with you. And guess what? Vampire Mistress is being offered as a FREE ebook from now until December 15, in anticipation and celebration of Vampire Master’s release. Vampire Mistress, Vampire Trinity and the upcoming Vampire Master are somewhat of a standalone subset of the Vampire Queen series. They are considered the “Club Atlantis books.” So, for the next few weeks, the “first” of the Club Atlantis books, Vampire Mistress, will be available free on ebook. That Vampire Mistress link above gives you all the vendor links, if you can't find the book on your preferred vendor site.
For those of you who haven’t read Daegan, Anwyn and Gideon’s story in Vampire Mistress yet, I hope this will be the perfect opportunity to indulge. For those who have, please let your vampire-loving friends know – spread the word far and wide, and hopefully they’ll enjoy Vampire Mistress enough they’ll go looking for other Vampire Queen series books, like Vampire Trinity, which is part two of Daegan, Anwyn and Gideon’s love story. And they'll pre-order Vampire Master, of course!!
ARE YOU A REVIEWER OR BLOGGER? Would you like an ARC of Vampire Master? And/or would you like to participate in the release day or bookstagram blitz, or blog tour? You can sign up here. And thank you for supporting Vampire Master!
NEW VAMPIRE QUEEN SERIES BOOKMARKS - WANT ONE? I now have a gorgeous Vampire Queen series bookmark that reflects the new look of the series. Would you like one? With my Get One/Give One bookmark philosophy, you can email me at storywitch@storywitch.com with your mailing address (which I promise only to use to send you your bookmark), and I will send you two of these bookmarks – one to give and one to keep. Help me spread the word about my vampires AND get yourself a keepsake at the same time.
OTHER REMINDERS ABOUT VAMPIRE MASTER:
PRE-ORDER LINKS are live at all the vendor sites, but you can find them in one place here, at the book page on my website.
CHAPTER ONE PEEK! You can find that at the book page as well, but for convenience, you can also click the BookFunnel link here, to download it to your preferred ebook device.
PREQUEL VIGNETTE I wrote a short prequel about Wolf and Ella (it was a fun way to promo Vampire Embrace, which was releasing at the time, AND offer an early glimpse of these two characters). This prequel is available for download through BookFunnel here, or at the Cantrips (Vignettes) page on my website.
Throughout November and early December, I'll be doing a lot of promotion of Vampire Master with a variety of interviews, takeovers, release party appearances, giveaways etc. If you'd like to stop by and/or participate in any of that, just keep an eye on my Facebook or Twitter pages, because I'll give everyone a heads up when those things are occurring. On December 15, along with the admins, I'll be posting and doing giveaways from home base, the JWHMembersOnly Facebook page, so I hope you'll stop in at some point and enjoy the celebration. Unless you're too busy reading Vampire Master, of course. A totally acceptable excuse!
Once up past a certain number of followers, these sites offer those authors more options for bringing their work to readers' attention. For instance, once you're over 1,000 followers on Bookbub, they'll let you send out PreOrder notices to let your fans know when you have a book ready for sale. The more enthusiasm shown by readers at these sites, the more prominently the site is to feature them. And the cool thing is that it's a really easy way to support your favorite authors. Just click the follow button at their author pages. And thank you to those of you who do! Actually thank you to any of you who read or support my work in ways big or small - it is ALL appreciated!
Here's an update on the production schedule for the audio versions of Controlled Response and Honor Bound, Books 2 and 3 of the Knights of the Board Room series. The narrator assigned is none other than G. C. VonCloudts, who has already narrated other books in the Knights of the Board Room series. She's touched base with me for any guidance on the characters, and has begun the production process. I can't wait to hear the finished books. Maybe they'll be out before the end of the year, if we're lucky. Fingers crossed! These stories, as well as the rest of the Knights of the Board Room books, will be offered through the Audible Escape program, if you participate in that.
Just a reminder from the last newsletter: Neither Tantor nor Audible is interested at this time in offering the Vampire Queen series books in audio. However, if my current marketing strategies are successful, maybe we'll get more nibbles in the future. Or I'll be able to set enough aside to produce the audio versions myself. We'll see!
In honor of Halloween, I posted a Goodreads blog about my own personal encounters with ghosts and spirits. Maybe it will inspire you to share your own stories! Click here to read.
What will I write after Vampire Master? I'm still waffling. On the contemporary side, the one that keeps pulling at me is another Nature of Desire book, maybe Rory and Daralyn. James and Ellen is also a story I'd like to write, but the muse hasn't decided if their story will be more of a contemporary (Ellen comes from the Nature of Desire series, introduced in Rough Canvas and reappearing as Athena's secretary in Unrestrained) or paranormal (James is human, but he is the security chief at Club Atlantis). It's a given that the book will have elements of both, so it will be hard to classify. I have more paranormal secondary characters waiting for their stories than contemporary ones, but my last three books have been paranormals (even The Problem with Witches, which had a Knights of the Board Room tie-in, was still primarily paranormal). So we'll see. The Muse is on the fence at the moment.
I will admit, one story that keeps coming to mind involves Catriona, from the Fae world (Lord Keldwyn's ward from Bound by the Vampire Queen) and the son of Elisa and Malachi (Vampire Instinct).Though it's never been revealed formally in the books themselves, Mal and Elisa had twins, a boy and a girl. I've been considering their stories for awhile. I've even taken some notes and done a bit of outlining on them. It would be unusual for me to do two vampire books in a row, but if the Muse takes me in that direction, that's where I'll go. Since Catriona is staying at Club Atlantis under Anwyn's protection, it would be another "Club Atlantis" book, so that might figure well in the current promotional efforts for the series. Not that the Muse ever responds to marketing pressure, lol, but if for once a miracle happens and the two align, then that wouldn't be a bad thing.
And for those who've asked me about it after reading The Problem with Witches, yes, Ramona and Silas from the Arcane Shot series are a strong possibility sometime in 2020-2021. They made a prominent appearance in The Problem with Witches, which increased reader interest in seeing the Arcane Shot series finally completed as intended, with Ramona's story as the third book in the trilogy.
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 Facebook under Joey W. Hill, and you can visit the JWHMembersOnly FB fan forum group here. I'm @JoeyWHill on Twitter, and my Pinterest boards related to the books are here.
Thank you all so much for your support of my work!
DIDN'T GET A RESPONSE? It seems those darn online filters are becoming more and more aggressive. And don't get me started on the many ways Facebook plays tricks with my messages, lol. But 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 of the mediums I've mentioned - direct email, FB, GoodReads or Twitter - 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 communication methods to send me a "Hey, Joey, I sent you a note through email (or FB, or a tweet, etc). Did you get it?" message, and we'll make sure we sort it out. I will never intentionally ignore my readers!
While you can subscribe to the newsletter through my website, you may find your email host isn't letting it through, thanks to broad spam-blocking mechanisms that don't separate communications you've specifically requested to receive, from those you haven't. Regrettably, there's not a lot we can do on this side if the newsletter is hitting an email filter that is bouncing it without notifying either one of us. However, we do have some things you can try that seem to have worked for folks:
FIRST - make sure the newsletter email is part of your contact list: "newsletter@storywitch.com."
SECOND - Check whatever filters you do have for spam and the like and see what methods are available to you to ensure an email like this gets through.
THIRD - Contact me at newsletter@storywitch.com and ask to be unsubscribed. Once we confirm with you that has been done, rather than us sending you an invitation (which can bounce for the aforementioned reasons), we have you go in to the website newsletter link and subscribe yourself - here's the link to that. If it works, you'll get an automatic invitation to confirm, and then, fingers crossed, you should be set.
FOURTH - If none of this works or all of it is just too frustrating and you want to say "screw it!" (and I can hardly blame you, lol), then just make sure you've liked my FB page or are following me on Twitter. This is because whenever I issue a newsletter, I will post the updated link to it on both of those, to make sure it reaches the widest number of people possible! It's the same link monthly, so if you want, just put https://storywitch.com/newsletter/?latest as one of your Favorites. You can click on it anytime to see if an update has been posted. I try to post a new one every 30-45 days.
DECEMBER 15!! I promised you a December release for Wolf and Ella's story, and it looks like everything is cooperating! Happily, it's a standalone, so if you want to read it, but haven't read the other fifteen books in the Vampire Queen series, you won't be lost. But be warned - it may make you want to read the other two "Club Atlantis" Vampire Queen books, Vampire Mistress and Vampire Trinity. Yep, Wolf and Ella's story takes place at Club Atlantis, which we first visited for the two-part story of our beloved M/F/m trio, Daegan, Anwyn and Gideon.
So, the initial manuscript is written and I've started the first edit round. I can't believe I ever thought this would be a novella, because Wolf and Ella have had so much story to tell. Want to hear what the book's about?
BLURB...Big and bad enough to be any girl’s nightmare—or her best dream ever…
Beyond your grasp. Those are the three words that come to mind, every time Ella sees Wolf at Club Atlantis. He earns the term Master, in and out of scene, yet there is something deeper and darker about him. She wants to dive into that abyss.
Wolf sees the yearning. But the submissive he ultimately claims will become his servant, soul-bound to him for all eternity. Ella is a natural submissive, with an endless desire to please. She’s perfect for the role, really. Except Ella is a gift he doesn’t deserve.
However, vampires are wired one way—to take what they want, no matter what their conscience tells them. Even Wolf isn’t strong enough to resist his nature…or the salvation Ella’s love offers.
PRE-ORDER LINKS are live at all the vendor sites, but you can find them in one place here, at the book page on my website.
CHAPTER ONE PEEK! You can find that at the book page as well, but for convenience, you can also click the BookFunnel link here, to download it to your preferred ebook device.
PREQUEL VIGNETTE Don't forget, I wrote a short prequel about these two prior to the release of Vampire's Embrace (it was actually kind of a fun way to promo Vampire Embrace AND give you another glimpse of Wolf and Ella). This prequel is also available for download through BookFunnel here, or at the Cantrips (Vignettes) page on my website.
Stay tuned for more teasers and promotional events related to the December 15 release of Wolf and Ella's story!
We've finished the contract paperwork on an audio version of Controlled Response and Honor Bound, Books 2 and 3 of the Knights of the Board Room series, so if all goes well, I'm told it will be about 2-3 months from contract signing to audio-version release. Hooray! Lucas/Cass and Peter/Dana will soon join the rest of the characters in having their books available at Audible. These stories, as well as the rest of the Knights of the Board Room books, will be offered through the Audible Escape program, if you participate in that.
I did approach the other major audio book provider out there (Tantor) about the Vampire Queen series, and they, like Audible, are not interested at this time in offering our vampires in audio. Ah, well. If my current marketing strategies are successful, maybe we'll get more nibbles in the future. Or I'll be able to set enough aside to produce the audio versions myself. We'll see!
Many of you know I have a whole library of novellas and short stories revisiting my series characters. However, when you go to the Cantrip (Vignettes) page on my website, you'll notice now there is a BookFunnel link for each story. BookFunnel provides a much easier download experience for people wanting to put content on their ebook readers. So if you have had problems doing the straight Kindle or Epub downloads with the vignettes, click on the BookFunnel link under your preferred vignette and see if that works better for you!
My husband and I recently celebrated our thirtieth wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe it's been that long, because every day I wake up and see the twenty-four-year-old shy guy with the heart-winning smile. He proposed to me ten weeks after we met, when I was nineteen, and I have no regrets to this day. In fact, he's a big part of why I love to write love stories. Click here to read my latest GoodReads blog post, which discusses how our relationship directs and inspires my work.
Last month I mentioned I'm working with a publicist to reach new readers. Part of those efforts involved a rebranding of my covers for the Knights of the Board Room series, which I revealed last month. Now it's the Vampire Queen series. I unveiled them on my Author Page and the JWH Members Only site on Facebook the weekend of September 21-22, but you can view them all on my website under the series page. We kept the spirit of the original covers, with the exception of Vampire's Claim and Elusive Hero, which received entirely new covers. Hope you like them! The response to the rebrand on both series has been positive so far. We'll be doing a marketing relaunch of the VQ series in the coming weeks, in anticipation of the release of Vampire Master in December, so you'll likely see some buzz happening on the Internet about the books. If you're a reviewer, vlogger or blogger, and would like to be in on all the activities and fun, please contact me at storywitch@storywitch.com so I can give you the contact info for the publicist. She'll keep you tied in on what all is happening.
What will I write after Vampire Master? Wow, that's the question, isn't it? I'm still deep in the edit rounds, so it's a glimmer in the distance, but usually about this time I am giving it some thought. It's been awhile since I wrote a contemporary, so I'm leaning toward another Nature of Desire book, maybe Rory and Daralyn. James and Ellen is also a story I'd like to write, but the muse hasn't decided if their story will be more of a contemporary (Ellen comes from the Nature of Desire series, introduced in Rough Canvas and reappearing as Athena's secretary in Unrestrained) or paranormal (James is the security chief at Club Atlantis). It's a given that the book will have elements of both, so it will be hard to classify. Interestingly, at this point there are more paranormal secondary characters waiting for their stories than contemporary ones, and my last three books have been paranormals (even The Problem with Witches, which had a Knights of the Board Room tie-in, was still primarily paranormal). So we'll see. The Muse is on the fence at the moment.
I will admit, one story that keeps coming to mind involves Catriona, from the Fae world (Lord Keldwyn's ward from Bound by the Vampire Queen) and the son of Elisa and Malachi (Vampire Instinct).Though it's never been revealed formally in the books themselves, Mal and Elisa had twins, a boy and a girl. I've been considering their stories for awhile. I've even taken some notes and done a bit of outlining on them. It would be unusual for me to do two vampire books in a row, but if the Muse takes me in that direction, that's where I'll go. Since Catriona is staying at Club Atlantis under Anwyn's protection, it would be another "Club Atlantis" book, so that might figure well in the current promotional efforts for the series. Not that the Muse ever responds to marketing pressure, lol, but if for once a miracle happens and the two align, then that wouldn't be a bad thing.
So in short, the answer to the question is "I really have no idea what's next" (grin). I'll be cruising through my notes to see what grabs me. And for those who've asked me about it after reading The Problem with Witches, yes, Ramona and Silas from the Arcane Shot series are a strong possibility sometime in 2020-2021. For those who are wondering, they made a prominent appearance in The Problem with Witches, which increased reader interest in seeing the Arcane Shot series finally completed as intended, with Ramona's story as the third book in the trilogy. Hmm...so I will continue to mull. No matter what, as always, I'll look forward to wherever the Muse wants to take us together.
CONTACTING 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 Facebook under Joey W. Hill, and you can visit the JWHMembersOnly FB fan forum group here. I'm @JoeyWHill on Twitter, and my Pinterest boards related to the books are here.
Thank you all so much for your support of my work!
DIDN'T GET A RESPONSE? It seems those darn online filters are becoming more and more aggressive. And don't get me started on the many ways Facebook plays tricks with my messages, lol. But 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 of the mediums I've mentioned - direct email, FB, GoodReads or Twitter - 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 communication methods to send me a "Hey, Joey, I sent you a note through email (or FB, or a tweet, etc). Did you get it?" message, and we'll make sure we sort it out. I will never intentionally ignore my readers!
While you can subscribe to the newsletter through my website, you may find your email host isn't letting it through, thanks to broad spam-blocking mechanisms that don't separate communications you've specifically requested to receive, from those you haven't. Regrettably, there's not a lot we can do on this side if the newsletter is hitting an email filter that is bouncing it without notifying either one of us. However, we do have some things you can try that seem to have worked for folks:
FIRST - make sure the newsletter email is part of your contact list: "newsletter@storywitch.com."
SECOND - Check whatever filters you do have for spam and the like and see what methods are available to you to ensure an email like this gets through. My newsletters have a plethora of links in them to make it easy for you to find the things I'm talking about, but the flip side of that is it can get the newsletter tagged pretty quickly as spam.
THIRD - Contact me at newsletter@storywitch.com and ask to be unsubscribed. Once we confirm with you that has been done, rather than us sending you an invitation (which can bounce for the aforementioned reasons), we have you go in to the website newsletter link and subscribe yourself - here's the link to that. If it works, you'll get an automatic invitation to confirm, and then, fingers crossed, you should be set.
FOURTH - If none of this works or all of it is just too frustrating and you want to say "screw it!" (and I can hardly blame you, lol), then just make sure you've liked my FB page or are following me on Twitter. This is because whenever I issue a newsletter, I will post the updated link to it on both of those, to make sure it reaches the widest number of people possible! It's the same link monthly, so if you want, just put https://storywitch.com/newsletter/?latest as one of your Favorites. You can click on it anytime to see if an update has been posted. I try to post a new one every 30-45 days.
The summer is flying by! I had no idea that my last newsletter was out at the end of May. My apologies to you all! I'll do better getting back to monthly updates, never fear. But I have lots of fabulous things to tell you in this newsletter. A new release, updates on the work in process, audio book news and re-releases of some books at lower prices. Plus my first Facebook Live video! So let's get to it.
The Problem with Witches released June 30, and reader response to this crossover between the Knights of the Board Room and the Arcane Shot series characters has been great. An encouraging number of you were motivated to read the two books in the Arcane Shot series before or after they read The Problem with Witches, which was something I was hoping would happen. Not because I want to sell books (though paying my light bill is always nice). I simply love Derek/Ruby and Mikhael/Raina's stories, and would love more of my readers to fall in love with them too (beaming). So, if you haven't had a chance to read The Problem with Witches yet, here are some reminders about it:
The book is available from Amazon, Nook, iBooks and Kobo, and is available in ebook and print formats. If you have any difficulty finding the book at your preferred vendor site, the buy links are on the book page of my website, here. You'll also find an excerpt and blurb there, along with the lovely cover art.
Just as a refresher on the storyline, there's something seriously scary about to happen in New Orleans if Mikhael and Raina from In the Company of Witches can't stop it. But since they pull in Ben and Marcie of Hostile Takeover for help, as well as some other characters you know well from both series, the bad guys don't have a chance.
Nice things readers have been saying about the book:
"No matter the specific sub genre or setting, Joey W. Hill is always a must buy for my collection. In this novel she achieves a fabulous meld of the Arcane Shot and Knights of the Board Room series characters. As the combined group represent some of my most cherished characters in her lexicon, this was bound to please. That said, she knocked it out of the park!"
"I am finished — was soo hard to stop so I could sleep and go to work this week!! I should no longer be surprised by the emotional ride, nor by the full immersion into a world that is so real and not fiction. I know that is just how Hill’s stories are, and yet I am amazed and awed every single time."
As I noted above, this book has created new interest in the Arcane Shot series, and All About Romance resurrected their review of In the Company of Witches recently as a result. Rating it a "Desert Isle keeper", the AAR reviewer said: "Raina is hands-down one of the best female characters I have encountered in fiction. She is strong in witchcraft and in character and acts as a combination of mentor and mother for her succubi. She’s sharp, resourceful, and fiercely independent without ever crossing the line into foolish actions or general obnoxiousness. Mikhael makes the perfect foil for her by matching her in strength and allowing her to be vulnerable with him. Dominant to the core, he’s able to give Raina the boundaries she needs to feel truly secure."
Audible is going to be producing an audio version of Controlled Response and Honor Bound, Books 2 and 3 of the Knights of the Board Room series! We're dealing with contract stuff now, but once that's taken care of, my Audible contact said it's around 2-3 months from contract signing to audio-version release. Hooray! Lucas/Cass and Peter/Dana will soon join the rest of the characters in having their books available at Audible.
Now, for the less happy news. Audible is NOT currently interested in the Vampire Queen series. I know, I was very disappointed about this, too, but it doesn't mean it's a dead issue. Just dormant for now. My best window of opportunity was unfortunately a few years back, when the earlier books had their strongest sale numbers. At the time, the publisher holding the audio rights wouldn't utilize them or come to an agreement with Audible about them, so the window of opportunity was missed. Publishing can be a bit frustrating that way. We can make ourselves crazy over things like that, or we can focus on moving forward toward where we want to go (grin).
If the marketing efforts we'll be pursuing over the coming months succeed in increasing new reader interest in the earlier books, then the bump in sales may either 1) revive Audible's interest or 2) give me the capital to produce audio versions of the books myself and then contract them to places like Audible (production is the big up front cost for any audio book). So don't despair, and keep telling your reader friends how much you love the Vampire Queen series. If it's meant to be, we'll figure out a way to get there.
In the meantime, I look forward to announcing CR and HB's release in audio before the end of the year! The Knights of the Board Room series will also soon be offered through the Audible Escape program, if any of you participate in that.
I have a YouTube channel where I have Q and A sessions and fun video posts, but I hadn't yet tried the interactive Facebook Live chat option until recently. If you didn't get a chance to join in, don't worry - it was recorded. Go to my Joey W. Hill Author page on Facebook, where you can see it big and noticeable under the video options, since it's my one and only at this moment. Or you can just click this direct link. I started a bit slow, figuring things out, but once we got rolling into the questions, I think it turned out pretty well. I'll be doing more of these in the future, because it was so great to talk to you all "live!"
I am SO pleased to report that at long last ALL books in the Vampire Queen series are being offered by my self-published imprint, Story Witch Press. Vampire Queen's Servant, the first book in the series, was the final book returned to me by the original publisher. You can see the beautiful new cover on its book page here, as well as find the updated vendor buy links.
Now, on that same note, Naughty Bits is also back out, so you can get your hands on Logan and Madison's full story at the ebook $4.99 price, if you haven't yet had a chance to read it. A print version is also available, and Audible/Tantor offers it on audiobook. That graphic designer I sleep with (grin) did an excellent job honoring the spirit of the original cover with the gorgeous updated one! For those wondering about Naughty Wishes, when I finally get the rights back to that one, I'll offer all of Geoff, Chris and Samantha's story under one cover, the way we do with Naughty Bits - in print AND ebook.
Several months ago on my GoodReads blog, I started a four-part series about my personal 100-Book list; meaning, the books that have influenced me from childhood to current date. The final two parts have been posted: "The Husband and Writing Years" and "The Open-Ended End". I really enjoyed this walk down memory lane, examining the reading choices that shaped me as a writer and person, and recommend everyone do the same. It's interesting to consider the books you've read at different phases of your life!
In my continued attempt to reach new readers and navigate our brave new world of book marketing in the current day/age, I am going to be working with a publicist over the next few months. As a result, you may see some changes happen in the presentation of my books, and some different kinds of marketing efforts from what I've tried in the past. These changes will not impact the content of my existing books, just some of the packaging/presentation. For instance, my entire Knights of the Board Room has been reloaded with newly branded covers recently. Please don't hesitate to email or find me on FB or Twitter if you have any concerns or confusion about what is going on. Fingers crossed, the result will be that our cast of characters finds an expanded readership that enjoys them as much as you all have and do! [And my continuing quest to pay my light bill without resorting to pole dancing will prevail, lol.]
I was so thrilled to see those of you who were able to make it to the July SASS conference in Charlotte. I met up with some folks I hadn't seen in awhile, made some new friends and had a really nice time. The folks at the Charlotte downtown Sheraton were so helpful and kind, and the hardworking SASS staff and organizers took excellent care of us, beginning to end. The signing was a blast, and we stayed non-stop busy until end of the day, which always thrills an author. My wonderful sister-in-law was standing in for Scott to help me with money stuff. She is a natural born seller and all-round fun person to spend a day with, so I was very glad to have her there. She's not involved with the D/s lifestyle at all, so she said she turned "50 Shades of Red" at some of the conversations that happened at the table, but she handled herself very well for all that, lol. I knew the day was going to go well when the first person who came to my table was a Dom/sub couple where the Dom was wearing a golf shirt with some very special embroidery on it: the red M and M character dressed in bondage gear! They were a wonderful couple, as were so many who came to the table. You all have your own stories to tell, and I love to hear them. Thank you for stopping by to see me.
Want to join me at SASS next year? Tickets available NOW. I will definitely be attending the SASS con in Norfolk in 2020, barring any unforeseen catastrophes, so I would love to see you all there! You can click that SASS conference link above or in the sidebar to learn more, but tickets for the event just went live Friday, August 16. IMPORTANT NOTE: There will be only 94 VIP tickets offered (allowing early access to the big Saturday signing), so if you want one of those, act NOW. Here's the ticket link.
Vampire Master! I am roaring right along with Wolf and Ella's story. As often happens when I get deeper into who the characters are and where their story needs to go, I find I have to research new and different things. While their book is not a Daddy Dom story, Wolf and Elle conduct a workshop on the topic for the Club Atlantis membership. Like most people who are Doms/subs, I have my own particular preferences as a submissive. I don't have to practice an aspect of D/s for it to be part of an erotic scene or character dynamic in my story, but it does have to engage my interest enough for me to make it work.
Sooooo, I'll admit it - when it became clear that I'd need to learn more about the Daddy Dom/little girl play, I was a little unsure about it. I had some pre-conceived notions about it that did not initially make it an erotic premise to me. I assumed there was no overlap between that type of D/s and the Master/sub relationships I usually write. Of course, like most of my preconceived notions on things, I was wrong, lol. After researching online and reading some excellent examples of the genre, I've discovered this type of play has a much broader spectrum of expression than I expected. So again, Vampire Master is NOT a Daddy Dom story, but it provides a glimpse of the dynamic that I think will surprise some of my readers. I know it did me.
I'll keep giving you tidbits about the book's evolution in each newsletter and on the FB pages, but I am loving how the story is unfolding. I've hit 120,000 words this week and I anticipate finishing the first draft by the end of August. If all goes well in editing, I should be able to set a December release date. I'll keep you posted.
Reminder of where these characters have occurred before in the series: Ella is a submissive at Club Atlantis, introduced during Vampire Mistress/Trinity, and Wolf made his appearance in Vampire's Soul. A few months back, I gave you a little teaser story about these two in Dreams of a Vampire Master.
After I finish this one, next stop on my list will be a contemporary, likely a Nature of Desire series story. You can always see some of the ideas I'm playing with on my "In the Works" page on my website. We have plenty more adventures ahead, I hope!
CONTACTING ME - Remember, you can find me online through my website email contact link or email me directly at storywitch@PROTECTED. You can also leave a question for me under my Author Profile on GoodReads. I'm on Facebook under Joey W. Hill, and you can visit the JWHMembersOnly FB fan forum group here. I'm @JoeyWHill on Twitter, and my Pinterest boards related to the books are here.
Thank you all so much for your support of my work!
DIDN'T GET A RESPONSE? It seems those darn online filters are becoming more and more aggressive. And don't get me started on the many ways Facebook plays tricks with my messages, lol. But 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 of the mediums I've mentioned - direct email, FB, GoodReads or Twitter - 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 communication methods to send me a "Hey, Joey, I sent you a note through email (or FB, or a tweet, etc). Did you get it?" message, and we'll make sure we sort it out. I will never intentionally ignore my readers!
While you can subscribe to the newsletter through my website, you may find your email host isn't letting it through, thanks to broad spam-blocking mechanisms that don't separate communications you've specifically requested to receive, from those you haven't. Regrettably, there's not a lot we can do on this side if the newsletter is hitting an email filter that is bouncing it without notifying either one of us. However, we do have some things you can try that seem to have worked for folks:
FIRST - make sure the newsletter email is part of your contact list: "newsletter@PROTECTED."
SECOND - Check whatever filters you do have for spam and the like and see what methods are available to you to ensure an email like this gets through. My newsletters have a plethora of links in them to make it easy for you to find the things I'm talking about, but the flip side of that is it can get the newsletter tagged pretty quickly as spam.
THIRD - Contact me at newsletter@PROTECTED and ask to be unsubscribed. Once we confirm with you that has been done, rather than us sending you an invitation (which can bounce for the aforementioned reasons), we have you go in to the website newsletter link and subscribe yourself - here's the link to that. If it works, you'll get an automatic invitation to confirm, and then, fingers crossed, you should be set.
FOURTH - If none of this works or all of it is just too frustrating and you want to say "screw it!" (and I can hardly blame you, lol), then just make sure you've liked my FB page or are following me on Twitter. This is because whenever I issue a newsletter, I will post the updated link to it on both of those, to make sure it reaches the widest number of people possible! It's the same link monthly, so if you want, just put https://storywitch.com/newsletter/?latest as one of your Favorites. You can click on it anytime to see if an update has been posted. I try to post a new one every 30-45 days.
So sorry I didn't send you all an April newsletter, but there's a good reason, I promise. We now have a release date! Barring zombie apocalypse or natural catastrophe, The Problem with Witches will be in your hands on June 30. Initially, I'd thought it would be a novella, but the book finished out at about 100,000 words. So, though not quite as long as my normal novels (which are about 150k-200k), I am delighted to give you a full-length adventure with Ben, Marcie, Raina and Mikhael. Here's the relevant stuff about it:
ONE: Pre-order links for the ebook are already up for Amazon, iBooks, Kobo and Nook. Blurb, buy links AND Chapter One excerpt can all be found here.
TWO: Print Version - Since the print version doesn't accommodate pre-orders, we'll try to get it released just prior to the June 30 date. It will be eligible for the Kindle Match program, so if you elect for that, you can get the Kindle version free if you buy the print book from Amazon.
THREE: To celebrate this release, we're running a sale on the two books most connected to it! See the next section after this one, "In Honor of PWW," below.
FOUR: In early June, I'll offer a Chapter Two exclusive excerpt to the folks at the JWH Members Only FB page, so if you're not already on that, be sure and click that Join button. The members are always posting fun stuff related to the books, and I show up there regularly as well.
You can see the gorgeous cover for PWW in the sidebar of this newsletter AND on the website page. Click on it on the website page for an enlarged view. Now, just as a refresher, this is a crossover novel of the Arcane Shot and Knights of the Board Room characters. There's something seriously scary about to happen in New Orleans if Mikhael and Raina from In the Company of Witches can't stop it, but since they pull in Ben and Marcie of Hostile Takeover for help, as well as some other characters you know well from both series, the bad guys don't have a chance. We hope.
To those who have been after to me to tell Ramona's story to round out the Arcane Shot series into a trilogy: She's going to make a prominent appearance in this novel, which I hope will inspire the muse in that direction.
Since Ben and Marcie from the Knights of the Board Room series and Mikhael and Raina from the Arcane Shot series are the primary characters in The Problem with Witches, I wanted to give anyone who hasn't read either or both their stories to have an even better chance to do so. So, from now until the June 30 release date, Hostile Takeover and In the Company of Witches will be on sale for $2.99 each (usually $4.99). The price has already changed on Amazon, Kobo and iBooks. For my Nook readers, you will enter the promo code BNPJOEY40 at checkout. Since time zones can vary for the different vendors, I recommend not waiting until June 30 to buy the books, so that you won't miss your chance at the special prices.
IMPORTANT NOTE: You don't have to read In the Company of Witches to enjoy The Problem with Witches, but I would recommend Hostile Takeover since Ben and Marcie's background is pretty key to the story. And even if you don't opt to read ICOW first, you can download it for the lower price in June and read it later, because I'm betting (hoping) you'll want to read Mikhael and Raina's story after you get to know them in PWW (smile).
My request to have the rights of the last two VQS books belonging to the original publisher returned to me was 50% successful this round. Mark of the Vampire Queen officially became mine again in April, and it has been re-released as a Story Witch Press title with a fabulous new cover. Buy links have been updated on my website, and you can see that awesome cover there or at your favorite vendor site. I have my fingers crossed that on the next round of reversion requests, I'll get back Vampire Queen's Servant and Jacob and Lyssa's first two books will be reunited under the same publisher again. A reader recently re-read VQS and proclaimed, "This was my first vampire genre book series to read. I was scarred for life....[Lyssa] burnt me, twisted me, tore me apart....I was hooked forever. She pulls things out of me that I never knew were there. I devoured her series like a prime rib dinner at a Michelin star restaurant! It consumed me. I dreamed about it. It has been four yrs or so now, her stories still stick with me." I loved hearing that!
Note on Audio version: I know my audio readers always ask (thank you for that!), so here's the deal on the audio version. No plans for it yet, primarily because I don't have back the whole VQS series from the original publisher. My audio books do "okay," but they're not huge sellers, so in order to have any hope of interesting an audio publisher in VQS, I really need to have the first book in the series. Once that happens, we'll see how it goes. Nightfall (which is available in audio) was kind of a happy circumstance because at the time Audible picked it up, it was my one and only VQS book with Ellora's Cave, it was a complete standalone in the series, and Ellora's Cave had a very prolific relationship with Audible. Keep your fingers crossed for future good news on the audio front, and thanks for your support of my other audiobooks at Audible!
You know I'm a fan of movie storytelling, and a recent discovery is the Equalizer remake with Denzel Washington (the sequel's pretty good, too, and yes, I did watch the series all those years ago - grin). In the Denzel Washington version, his late wife was reading the "100 books everyone should read" list before she died of cancer, and she fell short a few books. So in the movie, he's always reading a book from the list. It had me thinking of what 100 books shaped me as a writer and a person, so my latest GoodReads blog post is a discussion about that. I hope you'll tell me what books would be on your own list. You can find the post here.
I'd love to see you all in Charlotte in July! If you haven't signed up for it yet and want to go, you can find out everything about it here. HAVE A BOOK YOU WANT TO BE SURE I BRING? Shoot me an email at storywitch@PROTECTED and give me a heads up, or use this pre-order form. With 46+ titles, there are only so many I can bring, and I want to be sure to have the ones you most want to purchase.
SWAG - Keep an eye on my FB page, because I'll be doing a little video showing off the awesome swag I'm bringing, as soon as I get the last bit of it in (smile). The fabulous Elizabeth SaFleur gave me the idea, because she did one about all the goodies she's bringing. It's going to be a fun weekend!
Vampire Master - I have been taking SO many notes for Wolf and Ella's story! The plot just took a really interesting turn in terms of Wolf's background, particularly on how he became a vampire. I don't know if the muse will stick with that direction, but if She does, it's going to make it a very challenging book emotionally to write. Yet I wouldn't have it any other way. You know if I'm not down in the darkest part of the human psyche, where the noblest parts of who we are get called forth, I'm not down deep enough to write the story the way I want to write it - ha! I sincerely hope to have this one out to you before the end of the year.
I won't share that "turn" yet, in case the muse tweaks it a bit, but just to give you a heads up on the general storyline, Ella is a submissive at Club Atlantis, introduced during Vampire Mistress/Trinity, and Wolf made his appearance in Vampire's Soul. A few months back, I gave you a little teaser story about these two in Dreams of a Vampire Master. For those who want to see me do something along a contemporary vein, don't worry. I'm sure after I finish this one, next stop on my list will be a contemporary, likely a Nature of Desire series story. You can always see some of the ideas I'm playing with on my "In the Works" page on my website. We have plenty more adventures ahead, I hope!
CONTACTING ME - Remember, you can find me online through my website email contact link or email me directly at storywitch@PROTECTED. You can also leave a question for me under my Author Profile on GoodReads. I'm on Facebook under Joey W. Hill, and you can visit the JWHMembersOnly FB fan forum group here. I'm @JoeyWHill on Twitter, and my Pinterest boards related to the books are here.
Thank you all so much for your support of my work!
DIDN'T GET A RESPONSE? It seems those darn online filters are becoming more and more aggressive. And don't get me started on the many ways Facebook plays tricks with my messages, lol. But 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 of the mediums I've mentioned - direct email, FB, GoodReads or Twitter - 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 communication methods to send me a "Hey, Joey, I sent you a note through email (or FB, or a tweet, etc). Did you get it?" message, and we'll make sure we sort it out. I will never intentionally ignore my readers!
While you can subscribe to the newsletter through my website, you may find your email host isn't letting it through, thanks to broad spam-blocking mechanisms that don't separate communications you've specifically requested to receive, from those you haven't. Regrettably, there's not a lot we can do on this side if the newsletter is hitting an email filter that is bouncing it without notifying either one of us. However, we do have some things you can try that seem to have worked for folks:
FIRST - make sure the newsletter email is part of your contact list: "newsletter@PROTECTED."
SECOND - Check whatever filters you do have for spam and the like and see what methods are available to you to ensure an email like this gets through. My newsletters have a plethora of links in them to make it easy for you to find the things I'm talking about, but the flip side of that is it can get the newsletter tagged pretty quickly as spam.
THIRD - Contact me at newsletter@PROTECTED and ask to be unsubscribed. Once we confirm with you that has been done, rather than us sending you an invitation (which can bounce for the aforementioned reasons), we have you go in to the website newsletter link and subscribe yourself - here's the link to that. If it works, you'll get an automatic invitation to confirm, and then, fingers crossed, you should be set.
FOURTH - If none of this works or all of it is just too frustrating and you want to say "screw it!" (and I can hardly blame you, lol), then just make sure you've liked my FB page or are following me on Twitter. This is because EVERY MONTH I will post the latest newsletter link on both of those, to make sure it reaches the widest number of people possible! It's the same link monthly, so if you want, just put https://storywitch.com/newsletter/?latest as one of your Favorites. You can click on it anytime to see if an update has been posted. I post a new one every 30-45 days, give or take a few days.
If anyone had told me that at this point in my career it would take me several freaking months to write a novella, I would have asked how many of my fingers had been broken, making me unable to type. But I am known for being blessed with some of the most loving and loyal readers in this crazy business for good reason. Almost without fail, each time I've had a despairing drama-queen day about figuring out how the heck to find the energy to write books the way I did fifteen years ago, when I had to do it as a second job as I'm doing now, I will get an email, tweet or FB comment from one of you, expressing your delight with my books, talking about an enjoyable re-read, or sharing your love of my work with others. Thank you SO much for that.
Because the best way I know to thank you all for that kindness and support is by giving you another story, I've put together a new freebie vignette. I've had Close Shave sitting on my computer for a few months. Completing it was derailed when I was working on the self-publish re-releases, noted further down in this newsletter. But now it's on my Cantrips page, where all my free short/novella revisits are. So what's it about? Lord Mason and Jessica of Beloved Vampire! This story was sparked by a reader talking about a "what if," as in, "what if a vampire could grow facial hair?" Because as you know, when I started my Vampire Queen series fifteen books ago, I made the incredibly short-sighted decision for my vampire males to have no facial or body hair (except eyebrows - grin). It's baffling why I did, because I've always loved a man with chest hair. Can't express how bloody tired I am of seeing grown, rugged men with all their chest hair waxed off in TV and movies - yuck!
Anyhow, in this little revisit, Mason decides to let himself be one of the first to try Lord Brian's idea for a treatment that will encourage the return of chest and beard hair. Since Lord Mason is already roll-your-tongue-back-into-your-mouth sexy, it just adds to the appeal. True to most of our revisit vignettes, we also learn a few things we didn't know before, like things about his and Lyssa's past together. We also get to hear from Gideon and his smart mouth, because he can't resist living dangerously and goading Mason about his decision, and the reasons he made it. So, go read it already, before I tell you everything, lol. One of my readers sent me a note after I released it, saying, "It’s such a pleasure to spend ever more precious moments with the characters that I love so much. Reading your words is like slipping into a hot bath when my muscles are really sore- Sheer heaven!" Hope you all have a similarly wonderful feeling about it!
Beloved Vampire, Vampire Mistress, Taken by a Vampire, Controlled Response and Honor Bound are all now available as self-published titles, with new covers and $4.99 or less pricing. I have my fingers crossed that several more books will be coming back to me in the next month or two. I'll keep you posted. If you haven't yet treated yourself to the lovely new covers, here are the links to their book pages on my website. If you click on the smaller version of the covers, they will blow up to a bigger size so you can see all the fabulous details.
Feel like posting a review? Technically, the reviews from the previous versions are supposed to repopulate the updated editions, but sometimes there's a lag. So if you've recently read one of these books and/or have never put up a review for one of them, and feel inspired to do so, I'd appreciate it greatly if you decided to put a rating or review at Amazon, Nook, iBooks or Kobo, your choice. It helps to position the book more favorably on the vendor sites, bringing them to the attention of new readers. Which is always a good thing, right?
Many of you have asked when the Vampire Queen series will be out on Audible. To date, only Nightfall has been offered in audiobook. Since I now have all but the first two books back, I have approached Audible to find out if they would have any interest in putting out any of them, and I'm waiting to hear back. I've also asked if they would be interested in Controlled Response and Honor Bound, since they already offer the rest of the Knights of the Board Room series. Keep your fingers crossed. My books aren't huge sellers for them, but I'm hoping they sell enough to make it worth their while to offer some of the more popular books in the VQS series and those two KBR books in audio format.
If you haven't signed up for it yet and want to go, NOW is the time. As we move toward April and May, we will get closer to the attendee limit, and the hotel rooms will start to get scarce. The organizers intentionally limit this con to a certain number of people to give it that intimate, cozy feel, letting readers and authors spend quality time together. You can find out everything about it here.
GIVEAWAY!! And if you are for sure going, and you email me to tell me that, I have a couple tickets to the Saturday signing ($25 savings!) to give away. Just shoot me a note at storywitch@PROTECTED, and I'll choose my couple of winners about a week after the newsletter comes out.
HAVE A BOOK YOU WANT TO BE SURE I BRING? If there's a particular book(s) you know you want me to have at the signing for you, shoot me an email and give me a heads up. With 46+ titles, there are only so many I can bring, and I want to be sure to have the ones you most want to purchase. You can email me at storywitch@PROTECTED (same as my Contact link on my website).
I think my latest blog topic has been inspired by thoughts I've been chewing over related to my love of the "rescue" scenario in romance. I'm sure the endless Captain Marvel controversy vlogs my husband has been watching have also goaded the topic into life, lol. See if you agree with me.
Don't forget, I recently released TWO Q and A videos, "Many Questions Part 1" and "Many Questions Part 2." They are now live on my You Tube Channel, Story Witch Press. And if you don't have time to watch all of them, the questions I'm answering are listed in the description, in the order that I answer them, with time stamps. So you can listen to the question and answer that interests you the most. While you're there, feel free to watch any of the other videos. I have a book trailer, a Christmas card video, another Q and A and a couple chapter readings. If you like these, be sure and subscribe to the channel so you'll get a heads up when a new one is out.
Don't you just love those titles that are like the beginning of a "Who's on first" joke, lol. Anyhow, as you know, I've been sharing a few little teasers along here. At this point, I'm getting close to finishing the first draft, maybe in a couple more weeks. Then I should be able to begin the editing process. I'm hoping I'll find that the book's in pretty good shape so that process will go quickly. If so, I can deliver on my tentative promise to have it out to you before spring ends. Just as a refresher, this is a crossover novella of the Arcane Shot and Knights of the Board Room characters. There's something seriously scary about to happen in New Orleans if Mikhael and Raina from In the Company of Witches can't stop it, but since they pull in Ben and Marcie of Hostile Takeover for help, as well as some other characters you know well from both series, the bad guys don't have a chance. We hope.
And just a reminder to those who have been after to me to tell Ramona's story to round out the Arcane Shot series into a trilogy. She's going to make a prominent appearance in this novella, which I hope will inspire the muse in that direction. I don't have an estimated release date yet on The Problem with Witches, but as soon as I figure it out, you'll be the first to know!
Vampire Master - I'm learning to write by recorder during the daily commute, so when I'm going through the day's audio notes, at least a good half of them are story arc ideas and scene snippets for Wolf and Ella's story. Remember, Ella is a submissive at Club Atlantis, introduced during Vampire Mistress/Trinity, and Wolf made his appearance in Vampire's Soul. A few months back, I gave you a little teaser story about these two in Dreams of a Vampire Master. For those who want to see me do something along a contemporary vein, don't worry. I'm sure after I finish these two books, next stop on my list will be a contemporary story, likely a Nature of Desire series story. You can see some of the ideas I'm playing with on my "In the Works" page on my website. Exciting stuff ahead!
CONTACTING ME - Remember, you can find me online through my website email contact link or email me directly at storywitch@PROTECTED. You can also leave a question for me under my Author Profile on GoodReads. I'm on Facebook under Joey W. Hill, and you can visit the JWHMembersOnly FB fan forum group here. I'm @JoeyWHill on Twitter, and my Pinterest boards related to the books are here.
Thank you all so much for your support of my work!
DIDN'T GET A RESPONSE? It seems those darn online filters are becoming more and more aggressive. And don't get me started on the many ways Facebook plays tricks with my messages, lol. But 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 of the mediums I've mentioned - direct email, FB, GoodReads or Twitter - 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 communication methods to send me a "Hey, Joey, I sent you a note through email (or FB, or a tweet, etc). Did you get it?" message, and we'll make sure we sort it out. I will never intentionally ignore my readers!
While you can subscribe to the newsletter through my website, you may find your email host isn't letting it through, thanks to broad spam-blocking mechanisms that don't separate communications you've specifically requested to receive, from those you haven't. Regrettably, there's not a lot we can do on this side if the newsletter is hitting an email filter that is bouncing it without notifying either one of us. However, we do have some things you can try that seem to have worked for folks:
FIRST - make sure the newsletter email is part of your contact list: "newsletter@PROTECTED."
SECOND - Check whatever filters you do have for spam and the like and see what methods are available to you to ensure an email like this gets through. My newsletters have a plethora of links in them to make it easy for you to find the things I'm talking about, but the flip side of that is it can get the newsletter tagged pretty quickly as spam.
THIRD - Contact me at newsletter@PROTECTED and ask to be unsubscribed. Once we confirm with you that has been done, rather than us sending you an invitation (which can bounce for the aforementioned reasons), we have you go in to the website newsletter link and subscribe yourself - here's the link to that. If it works, you'll get an automatic invitation to confirm, and then, fingers crossed, you should be set.
FOURTH - If none of this works or all of it is just too frustrating and you want to say "screw it!" (and I can hardly blame you, lol), then just make sure you've liked my FB page or are following me on Twitter. This is because EVERY MONTH I will post the latest newsletter link on both of those, to make sure it reaches the widest number of people possible! It's the same link monthly, so if you want, just put https://storywitch.com/newsletter/?latest as one of your Favorites. You can click on it anytime to see if an update has been posted. I post a new one every 30-45 days, give or take a few days.
"[Your books are] not just re-reads, but comfort re-reads... yes, I re-read just for fun or sometimes to get in the right headspace before I read a new book in the series, but the real magic is when I need to turn to something that I know will touch me and make me believe in love again. You're at the top of my go-to list for that."
Thank you, Donna, a long term reader who expressed that thought to me a couple months ago, and it meant so much to me. That's the experience I want to keep giving you all, over and over.
It has been a busy month! I've so much to tell you and share. First, if you haven't been on my FB pages or on Twitter, you may have been puzzled, noticing five of my books disappeared from Amazon and the other vendors, except for some remaining print stock. My apologies for that brief inconvenience. Beloved Vampire, Vampire Mistress, Taken by a Vampire, Controlled Response and Honor Bound are all back up! The rights to the books were returned to me by the publisher in late December, which meant they had to pull them down on their side of things, and I had to put them back up on mine. Fortunately, we had been anticipating this through the summer, and already had the books reviewed, formatted and ready to re-release them with new covers. And I LOVE these covers! I hope you will too. I've put Controlled Response up in this newsletter to give you a taste. All of them are up on a banner on my Author FB page and the Joey W Hill Members Only page, as well as on their specific book pages on my website. And of course you can see them if you go searching for them on your favorite online bookseller site.
Here's the link to their book pages on my website. If you click on the smaller version of the covers, they will blow up to a bigger size so you can see all the fabulous details. Kudos to my wonderful husband who did the design work on these. He just gets better and better!
Feel like posting a review? Technically, the reviews from the previous versions are supposed to repopulate the updated editions, but sometimes there's a lag. So if you've recently read one of these books and/or have never put up a review for one of them, and feel inspired to do so, I'd appreciate it greatly if you decided to put a rating or review at Amazon, Nook, iBooks or Kobo, your choice. It helps to position the book more favorably on the vendor sites, bringing them to the attention of new readers. Which is always a good thing, right?
In mid-December, I asked all of you to let me know of your latest burning questions for me, whether they concerned the latest release, Vampire's Embrace, the Vampire Queen series, or any topic at all. I'm not shy (at least online and in the pages of a book - grin). You all had 34 questions for me! So I ended up making you TWO Q and A videos, "Many Questions Part 1" and "Many Questions Part 2." They are now live on my You Tube Channel, Story Witch Press. As a new perk this time, all the questions are listed in the description, in the order that I answer them, with time stamps. So you can scroll through the video if you don't want to listen to to the whole thing, and find the answer to the questions that interest you the most.
I'm trying to do a new video of some sort at least once every 30-60 days, so if you like these, be sure and subscribe to the channel so you'll get a heads up when a new one is out. Right now, I have six. Yep, watch out major podcasters, I'm a total threat, lol. I have three Q and A videos, a Christmas card video with favorite author/book quotes (provided by you all - see next section!), a book trailer for Vampire's Soul, and two first chapter reads, from Vampire's Soul and Truly Helpless.
I was hoping to have this done when I sent out the December newsletter, but alas, it was completed and released the week between Christmas and New Year's. I'd asked my readers to give me favorite quotes from their favorite authors/books, as well as a handful of their favorites from my own, and we put it together as a Christmas carol card for you all. When you're out on that YouTube channel, you'll see it there, "A Reader Christmas Carol." Hope you enjoy it, even post-holiday!
I had a reader ask that question, inspired by a family member who felt that the drive to embrace Dominance/submission as one's sexual identity was a preference/choice, not a "born this way" compulsion like being gay, straight, etc. It resulted in this blog post from me, where I took a look at that issue and provided my own two cents on it. This is a question where I don't believe there are any wrong answers. Who we are is a personal thing, such that no one can say what is correct or incorrect for each individual, because it's the language of our hearts. But it's intriguing to explore the many different ways that language can be expressed - whether chosen, or such a part of our identity we can't see it as separate from ourselves, who we are.
Be sure and scroll through my different blog topics while you're on GoodReads if you'd like to see what I've discussed in other posts. I've well over fifty of them now!
"I'm always sad when I finish a Joey W. Hill book, because I just want to stay in her story worlds forever. Vampire's Embrace was everything I wanted and more." That came from the wonderful folks who run Infatuated podcast; they even plan on featuring the book on their Season 2, Episode 5 of the podcast, so tune in for that! I know I will. But don't wait for the episode. A podcast whose tagline is "Book Sluts welcome: The podcast for romance readers who just can't get enough," is one I think most of us would find worthwhile, lol.
Many thanks as well to author Kate Douglas, who read the book and had this to say in her Amazon review - "Stories by Joey W Hill are akin to an art form. She creates fully formed characters with all the flaws and insecurities of real people, and yet allows each of her leads to find meaning within their relationship that resonates with the reader as the only truth that could possibly work."
And you know it always gives me a thrill when folks discover my mermaids and angels, or my witches and sorcerers, since I love those books but they don't get as much attention as my vampires. So that made this review by author Elizabeth SaFleur even more of a thrill: "It's no secret I'm a huge Joey W. Hill fan. Every read is sure to please, but A Mermaid's Kiss had a little something special. Maybe it was the way she put me in the ocean, made me feel the cold and the swirl of water and waves. Or perhaps it was how the characters leaped off the page with such clarity and charm I just HAD to know what happened to Anna and Jonah. I particularly loved how sweet, loving Anna showed such fierce loyalty and strength. Or perhaps it was because this book paints such a vivid picture of a flawed yet beautiful world both under the seas and heaven above. How about all of the above? This is a story that will stay with you for a long time -- and perhaps have you gaze over the ocean or watch the skies with different eyes."
Haven't read my mermaid/angel books (Daughters of Arianne) or my witches/sorcerers (Arcane Shot series) stories? What are you waiting for? They're good, I promise. You know my books are character-driven, intense love stories, and it doesn't really matter if they're in a paranormal or contemporary vein - it's all about finding that forever love, and facing down the obstacles to get there. Oh, and the hot erotic Dom/sub dynamics. Have to have those, lol. Reward yourself. And if I've steered you wrong, you can pelt me with virtual rotten fruit. I won't even try to run away. Much.
Oh, and if you're wondering, while I do send out my books to a few official reviewers, I do not ever seek reviews from fellow authors. If one has decided to post about my book, it is because they read it on their own, for pleasure. Which makes positive reactions like this even more meaningful to me. Why don't I ask authors to review my books? At one time there was a glut of "you read my book and say something good, and I'll do the same with yours" or publishers getting their in-house authors to read new author books to give them a boost, and it came off as contrived as it sounded. Readers deserve better than that. It's not to say those authors who provided taglines didn't truly love the books; but being actively solicited as a marketing strategy shed doubt on the sincerity (IMO). It's part of why I don't review upon request, either. If I read an author's book and then say good things about it, it's "on my time and dime." I buy the book, read it when I'm ready and decide to review it the same way.
"LOL Quote of the Month" goes to this reader, Caroline: "I’ve got all yer books on me bookshelf. Wouldn’t part with em for even a butt plug and a scene." Really, that just says it all, doesn't it? Lol - thank you Caroline for the bark of laughter that scared my pets.
Okay, I made an executive decision. The title of the new book WILL be The Problem with Witches. In between the marketing and day job stuff, I've been scribbling away at this crossover novella of the Arcane Shot and Knights of the Board Room characters. I gave you a little bit of a dark clip from it last month, because there's something seriously scary about to happen in New Orleans if Mikhael and Raina from In the Company of Witches can't stop it, but since they pull in Ben O'Callahan of the Knights of the Board Room for help, there must be some repartee between him and the other guys as he brings them up to speed, right? Here they are in the infamous board room as he explains that magic stuff is real, particularly the dark witch in his past he's going to help Mikhael and Raina find...
* * *
Ben could tell Peter was still looking to make sense of it.
“So she’s a hypnotist of some kind,” the former National Guard captain said. “Like an illusionist.”
“No,” Ben said. “It would be a lot more reassuring if it was something like that. You know how you told us that being in combat means never fooling yourself about what your enemy is, or isn’t?”
Peter nodded, his jaw set.
“Then take what I say exactly at face value. She’s a witch. She knows how to do magic, the creepiest Harry Potter, Disney villain and Freddy Krueger rolled-into-one freaky shit you’ve seen. Only it’s not smoke and mirrors or Hollywood magic. It’s as real as that bad tequila you projectile vomited when we were in Mexico that one time. Only ten times as stomach-turning. Believe me, if I could talk myself into writing down directions, handing them over and forgetting these guys ever asked for them, I would. But one thing I learned about Elagra is when she shows up on your radar, you don’t turn your back. Until you’re sure she’s off screen again. And right now, she feels way too on-screen to me.”
Peter studied him for another long moment, then lifted a shoulder. “Fuck it. Can’t be any harder to swallow than any of the esoteric crap Jon feeds us about the connectivity of life energy in the universe, and how it fuels all worthy endeavors.”
“You were listening,” Jon said, his firm mouth quirking. “Glad I’m sitting down to handle that shock.”
“He pays attention only because you’re always threatening to give us a quiz on it," Ben informed him. "Captain America over there refuses to fail any test. I just ignore you.”
* * *
And just a reminder to those who have been after to me to tell Ramona's story to round out the Arcane Shot series into a trilogy. She's going to make a prominent appearance in this novella, which I hope will inspire the muse in that direction. I don't have an estimated release date yet on The Problem with Witches, but as soon as I figure it out, you'll be the first to know!
Vampire Master - This is likely the next book I'll be doing, featuring Wolf and Ella (yes, the same Wolf and Ella mentioned in the short story above). For a long time, I thought Ella and James, the head of Atlantis security, would end up being a couple, but James has made his decision, and it's Ellen (a character from the Nature of Desire series book Rough Canvas, and she is also in Unrestrained, as Athena's secretary). They'll meet when James takes a much needed vacation to New Orleans. And it's when James is on that vacation that Wolf and Ella's story takes off, because Gideon is up to his eyeballs handling James's security duties. Wolf ends up being the Dom keeping an extra eye on Ella, since she has a tendency to get in trouble. Now, if you're thinking that sounds like two books in one, you're right. James and Ellen will have their own book, too.
CONTACTING ME - Remember, you can find me online through my website email contact link or email me directly at storywitch@PROTECTED. You can also leave a question for me under my Author Profile on GoodReads. I'm on Facebook under Joey W. Hill, and you can visit the JWHMembersOnly FB fan forum group here. I'm @JoeyWHill on Twitter, and my Pinterest boards related to the books are here.
Thank you all so much for your support of my work!
DIDN'T GET A RESPONSE? It seems those darn online filters are becoming more and more aggressive. And don't get me started on the many ways Facebook plays tricks with my messages, lol. But 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 of the mediums I've mentioned - direct email, FB, GoodReads or Twitter - 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 communication methods to send me a "Hey, Joey, I sent you a note through email (or FB, or a tweet, etc). Did you get it?" message, and we'll make sure we sort it out. I will never intentionally ignore my readers!
While you can subscribe to the newsletter through my website, you may find your email host isn't letting it through, thanks to broad spam-blocking mechanisms that don't separate communications you've specifically requested to receive from those you haven't. Regrettably, there's not a lot we can do on this side if the newsletter is hitting an email filter that is bouncing it without notifying either one of us. However, we do have some things you can try that seem to have worked for folks:
FIRST - make sure the newsletter email is part of your contact list: "newsletter@PROTECTED."
SECOND - Check whatever filters you do have for spam and the like and see what methods are available to you to ensure an email like this gets through. My newsletters have a plethora of links in them to make it easy for you to find the things I'm talking about, but the flip side of that is it can get the newsletter tagged pretty quickly as spam.
THIRD - Contact me at newsletter@PROTECTED and ask to be unsubscribed. Once we confirm with you that has been done, rather than us sending you an invitation (which can bounce for the aforementioned reasons), we have you go in to the website newsletter link and subscribe yourself - here's the link to that. If it works, you'll get an automatic invitation to confirm, and then, fingers crossed, you should be set.
FOURTH - If none of this works or all of it is just too frustrating and you want to say "screw it!" (and I can hardly blame you, lol), then just make sure you've liked my FB page or are following me on Twitter. This is because EVERY MONTH I will post the latest newsletter link on both of those, to make sure it reaches the widest number of people possible! It's the same link monthly, so if you want, just put https://storywitch.com/newsletter/?latest as one of your Favorites. You can click on it anytime to see if an update has been posted. I post a new one every 30-45 days, give or take a few days.
“Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?" That's a quote from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Last night, we watched The Man Who Invented Christmas with Dan Stevens, which is a creative interpretation of how Charles Dickens created Scrooge and his famous tale. Regardless of profession, we all love a movie or TV show that depicts the job we know best, in ways that have us nodding vigorously or declaring, "Yes, exactly that!" during the course of the story. And it works out so nicely that this one has a Christmas theme. It may be my new favorite holiday movie. Every time Charles Dickens (who Dan was portraying) was in the midst of a writing epiphany, where the characters had appeared around him and the story arc was taking off, he'd be interrupted by some domestic issue or other crisis. My husband cocked his eyebrow at me while I was chortling through one of those parts and said dryly, "You're relating to this a little too well."
That aside, from beginning to end, it's a great movie to comprehend the truly crazy, wondrous process that happens in an author's brain, and how it connects to the people we are and the experiences that have shaped us. It also reminds me how lucky I am to have the chance to experience that journey with different sets of characters.
It's been an eventful year with a lot of changes for Scott and me, the kind of changes that make me think about and appreciate the blessings of my life. You all are a big part of that. Thank you so much for reading my work, for your kindness and support, for sharing the love of my books with others so I can continue to write more of them. I hope you and yours have many blessings at Christmas and during the new year. Can't wait to see where 2019 takes us all. Now, enough mushy stuff (grin). Want to talk about what's happening with the current and upcoming titles?
Last issue I mentioned that I would be doing something I've never really done before, at least not to the extent I should, and that is spend a couple months really working on marketing efforts related to my books. Always before, I have considered this as a distasteful necessity. I guess I've always viewed marketing as pushing my books on someone. I love my characters and stories, and I want readers to love them too, but it's difficult for me to "sell" them on the idea of reading the books without feeling that I'm being pushy, rude and intrusive. Something I never want to be to readers! But I recently came upon some marketing information that struck a chord. It suggested that every marketing effort should keep as its focus "what will this give my customer?" (aka my readers). In short, "value-given" marketing. And suddenly, when I'm creating social media posts, designing pretty graphics, etc, what I'm thinking is "will my readers like this, enjoy this, find this useful, want to share this with friends, etc etc etc." And it's sort of become...fun. Yeah, lesser miracles have happened. So here's an example. I was thinking about how crazy Christmas can get, and how often we get swept up in it and stressed out. So I thought about the things I do to de-stress and remember the joy of this season. The result of these thoughts? A blog post called Solo Indulgences at Christmas - What Are Yours? Hope you like it and it gives you ideas and/or reminds you of ways to enjoy the season.
"There is no question, that Hill knows how to bring the heat. But, she also has the unique ability to create characters that evoke emotion and seem all-too-real. She is a master at bringing a sense of humanity to the inhuman and infusing her story lines with just the right balance of desire, passion, sentiment and naughtily-delicious dollops of kink. In Vampire's Embrace, I found absolutely everything that I crave in an erotic, vampire fiction novel and then some. I was easily swept away by the familiarity and distinctive allure of her Vampire world and found myself wanting to stay inside the creative confines of that realm for as long as possible. Quite simply: Hill is always fangtastic and never disappoints!"
So, if you've had a chance to read Vampire's Embrace (or plan to do so in the future), I hope you enjoyed it as much as Tam of Booknerdia Blog did. I'm delighted by her reaction and that of the other readers and reviewers to Alistair and Nina's story. Thanks to you all, Vampire's Embrace made it to the top ten in three different Amazon categories and stayed there several days. I'm in the process of collecting questions for another Q and A video for my YouTube page. What? You didn't know I have a YouTube page? I do, and I have a whopping FOUR different video offerings there so far! If you have any questions you'd like me to answer about the book, be sure and go by the Joey W Hill Members Only Facebook page at this link and leave the question. Or you can email me directly at storywitch@PROTECTED.
Now, just a reminder of things you might want to know about the book:
Free Short Story! Did you know I wrote a fun little short featuring Wolf and Ella? Wolf is a vampire Dom at Club Atlantis, who made his first appearance in Vampire's Soul. He was only in one scene toward the end of the book, but he made a significant impression. There is a submissive on staff at Club Atlantis, Ella, who has caught his eye. If you drop down to the "What's Next" section of the newsletter, you'll see I hope to write their complete story sometime in 2019. After you read their short story, you can tell me if you like that idea! Anyhow, you can find "Dreams of A Vampire Master" here in all the popular download formats. And since I haven't written their story yet, there are no spoilers, so you can just introduce yourself to them in this little feature.
YouTube Video About the Creative Process - On that YouTube video page I mentioned above, I have posted a "Behind the Scenes: Editing Vampire's Embrace," where I explain my editing process AND let you sit on my shoulder as I edit ten pages. Titillating stuff, I know (grin). But I hope you like this glimpse of how it works, at least for me.
Buy Links - If you haven't already found them at your preferred vendor on your own, the book page on my website has direct links to Kindle, Nook, iBooks, Kobo and Print here, directly beneath the blurb. Don't forget, my books are eligible for the Kindle Match program, so when you buy the print version, you can get the Kindle copy as well!
Excerpts - You can find Chapter One on that same book page. If you belong to the JWHMembersOnly group, I also gave them the exclusive Chapter Two bonus excerpt not too long ago. The direct link to it is here. You can join the group here.
Pinterest Page - Want to see my vision of Nina, Alistair, and other elements of their story? There are some very cool secondary characters in this one! Here's my board.
Dark Knights (or The Problem with Witches - still playing with titles - grin): - In between the marketing and day job stuff, I've been scribbling away at this crossover novella between the Arcane Shot and Knights of the Board Room characters. Something seriously bad is about to bubble out of the Mississippi River, right on the banks of New Orleans, and Derek, Mikhael and Raina are in town to stop it. But they need Ben's help, because they have to locate a voodoo priestess who is hard to find. And Ben has an exceptional link to her from his youth. Here's a little early draft clip from the scene where they find Ben on the parking deck at Kensington and Associates, after work one night. He's meeting Mikhael and Derek, both Guardians (powerful sorcerers) for the first time...
* * *
The man dressed like a cowboy, but carrying a sorcerer's staff, had a face that was lined and rugged. Maybe forty-something, unless you got to the eyes, and then Ben thought he was looking at someone, or something, way beyond room for candles on his birthday cake. Unless the red velvet with buttercream was the size of a football field. The eyes were blue steel and the set of his mouth and jaw said cop to Ben, no matter the odd get-up.
Asshole number two stepped into the light a few feet away from Cowboy Gandalf. Also tall and broad-shouldered, but this one wore a black suit so well-tailored Ben was going to find out where he had it custom cut. No staff, but there was an odd energy vibrating around him. Hair was dark, thick and silky, enough to make Jon, their resident Kensington and Associates pretty boy, trade hair product recommendations with him. But like Jon, there was nothing pretty boy about the eyes. This guy’s were so dark Ben couldn’t detect pupil from iris, a late-night-vampire movie effect not so easy to laugh off in the middle of the night.
But he’d faced a lot scarier things.
“Getting bored,” he said sharply. “I do have office hours. What do you want?”
“A voodoo priestess named Elagra Bluebird Jones.”
Okay, that was one of the scarier things.
It was perhaps the last thing he’d expect someone to say to him. Though as soon as the name was spoken, he was aware he’d always known it would be something he’d have to deal with again. Out of all the disturbing things that woke him at 3am, one of them actually was a witch. The memory of Elagra Jones.
Drip, drip, drip. Just water from a distant pipe on the parking deck, punctuating the sudden silence between him and the two strangers. But when he’d been younger, the rust had turned it red, and when he woke with it staining his skin, she would say it was blood and smile. He could hear her voice, dragging up his spine like barbed fingernails.
“All the blood shed on a night in New Orleans, in dark places, where hope has never been allowed... It all flows to me, for there is a power in despair, the power to turn and twist a man’s heart, anyway I wish, make him abandon his soul, so he can never find it again. Even if he looks like the strongest man in the world to unseeing eyes, he is a naked, shivering thing, always."
* * *
Can't wait to see where this story takes us! And for those of you who have been jonesing for Ramona's story to be told to round out the Arcane Shot trilogy, she's going to make a prominent appearnace in this novella, which I hope will inspire the muse in that direction. I'm having to work on this novella in between learning how to balance a day job with the writing and domestic demands, so I don't have an estimated release date yet, but as soon as I figure it out, you'll be the first to know.
Vampire Master - This is likely the next book I'll be doing, featuring Wolf and Ella (yes, the same Wolf and Ella mentioned in the short story above). For a long time, I thought Ella and James, the head of Atlantis security, would end up being a couple, but James has made his decision, and it's Ellen (a character from the Nature of Desire series book Rough Canvas, and she is also in Unrestrained, as Athena's secretary). They'll meet when James takes a much needed vacation to New Orleans. And it's when James is on that vacation that Wolf and Ella's story takes off, because Gideon is up to his eyeballs handling James's security duties. Wolf ends up being the Dom keeping an extra eye on Ella, since she has a tendency to get in trouble. Now, if you're thinking that sounds like two books in one, you're right. James and Ellen will have their own book, too.
So I have three possibilities to feed my muse while I do the dreaded marketing. I'll keep you posted on how that's going.
CONTACTING ME - Remember, you can find me online through my website email contact link or email me directly at storywitch@PROTECTED. You can also leave a question for me under my Author Profile on GoodReads. I'm on Facebook under Joey W. Hill, and you can visit the JWHMembersOnly FB fan forum group here. I'm @JoeyWHill on Twitter, and my Pinterest boards related to the books are here.
Thank you all so much for your support of my work!
DIDN'T GET A RESPONSE? It seems those darn online filters are becoming more and more aggressive. And don't get me started on the many ways Facebook plays tricks with my messages, lol. But 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 of the mediums I've mentioned - direct email, FB, GoodReads or Twitter - 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 communication methods to send me a "Hey, Joey, I sent you a note through email (or FB, or a tweet, etc). Did you get it?" message, and we'll make sure we sort it out. I will never intentionally ignore my readers!
While you can subscribe to the newsletter through my website, you may find your email host isn't letting it through, thanks to broad spam-blocking mechanisms that don't separate communications you've specifically requested to receive from those you haven't. Regrettably, there's not a lot we can do on this side if the newsletter is hitting an email filter that is bouncing it without notifying either one of us. However, we do have some things you can try that seem to have worked for folks:
FIRST - make sure the newsletter email is part of your contact list: "newsletter@PROTECTED."
SECOND - Check whatever filters you do have for spam and the like and see what methods are available to you to ensure an email like this gets through. My newsletters have a plethora of links in them to make it easy for you to find the things I'm talking about, but the flip side of that is it can get the newsletter tagged pretty quickly as spam.
THIRD - Contact me at newsletter@PROTECTED and ask to be unsubscribed. Once we confirm with you that has been done, rather than us sending you an invitation (which can bounce for the aforementioned reasons), we have you go in to the website newsletter link and subscribe yourself - here's the link to that. If it works, you'll get an automatic invitation to confirm, and then, fingers crossed, you should be set.
FOURTH - If none of this works or all of it is just too frustrating and you want to say "screw it!" (and I can hardly blame you, lol), then just make sure you've liked my FB page or are following me on Twitter. This is because EVERY MONTH I will post the latest newsletter link on both of those, to make sure it reaches the widest number of people possible! It's the same link monthly, so if you want, just put https://storywitch.com/newsletter/?latest as one of your Favorites. You can click on it anytime to see if an update has been posted. I post a new one every 30-45 days, give or take a few days.
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