Spring has officially arrived in Minnesota!! For many states, this happened last month, but we don’t really take much stock in the snow melting until the temperatures reach the sixties and actually remain that way for more than a few days and the snow can no longer fly. I’ve broken out my flip flops and have gotten to a few baseball games. Both always bring a smile to my face.
What’s on everyone’s summer agenda? I had planned on doing a few signings, but as noted in last month's update, I’m no longer able to attend. If you want the long winded breakdown of why, please check out last month’s blog post. On the personal front, this summer I plan on working plenty of hours between my various jobs, hitting the golf course, watching plenty of baseball, walking the pups, heading to the lake when I can, and writing. I really like doing that outdoors and am working on getting the yard ready for me to plop down with my laptop and write in between watching Max and Maverick chase each other and a tennis ball around the yard.
How are my little freeloaders you ask? There’s never a dull moment at our house with those two pups, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Max has slowly begun to accept that Maverick is here to stay. I’m still not sure how he truly feels about him, but he’s an amazing big brother - just like Marley was to him. Max lets Maverick treat him like his own personal jungle gym and has the patience of a saint with him. Maverick loves to crawl all over Max when he’s trying to rest, provoke him to chase him all over the house and yard, and play tug with their endless amounts of toys. I’m really happy the weather has been nice so that I can get them outside a lot to walk. They both have a ton of energy and we walk several miles just to burn some of it off.
I won’t bore you with anymore personal stuff and move on to all the author updates. I’m happy to report that I picked up two permanent part-time jobs that will help to contribute to my author endeavors. I’ve waited until now to provide an official update because I wanted to get an idea of what my hours will be each month and the kind of funds I’ll be able to allocate toward all things book related. I'm really excited for both of these opportunities. It will definitely keep me busy, but I'll also be out in my community more and I hope that will help bring me even more inspiration when I write.
Taming J will be released August 29th! It’s so exciting to have an actual date set and a promotional slot booked with Grey’s Promotions. This will be our first time working together, but I feel that they will do Taming J justice with the cover reveal and release. If you're in my reading group, you've seen the cover, but the rest of the world will get to see it for the first time on July 18th. It's my goal o get the final draft formatted this weekend so that I can get all the pre-order links completed. I can't guarantee that Saving Us will be released this year, but it's important to me to get Taming J out in the world. It's sat on the sidelines for long enough. If you want to pre-order Taming J from Amazon, you can do so here --> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C64V6W92?ref_=pe_3052080_276849420
For those of you who don’t know what a labor of love this book has been for me, here’s the breakdown I gave last month and figured I’d include again this month. I began working on Taming J at the beginning 2016, but tragedy struck soon afterwards. I lost my job and ended up moving so I had to put it aside to get my personal life back on track. When I got back into a mindset to write again, Bri and Trey’s voices were much louder than Jackson and Jenn’s so I switched gears and wrote the Someday series. Throw in a pandemic and the world getting turned upside down and it took another two years before those three books were released and I was able to get back to Jackson and Jenn.
To mark the publiversary of Finding Our Someday on May 6th and to promote Mental Health Awareness, I’ve dropped the price of Waiting for Someday to 0.99 and made Finding Our Someday FREE. Fighting for Someday was just free so it’s a great time to grab the series for just a few bucks.
PURCHASE LINKS
Fighting for Someday (Someday Series #1)--> https://books2read.com/FightingforSomeday
Waiting for Someday (Someday Series #2) --> https://books2read.com/Waiting-for-Someday
Finding Our Someday (Someday Series #3) --> https://books2read.com/Finding-Our-Someday
The break in prices is always nice to give readers, but the main reason I made Waiting for Someday 0.99 again and Finding Our Someday free is to share Bri’s journey with anxiety and PTSD and to help people realize that they are not alone with their mental health struggles. Mental health is a big part of the Someday Series. I hope making Finding Our Someday free for readers helps raise more awareness on the traumas that affect our mental health and mental health diseases that people deal with everyday.
Writing some of the things that Bri went through broke my heart. Bri goes through a lot of unspeakable things throughout the Someday Series and it takes her a long time to reconcile some of them. She’s finally able to do so by realizing that it’s okay to not be okay and getting the help that she needs to start healing.
Mental health is a topic in our society that doesn’t get near enough discussion, research, or funding. This needs to change! According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in five Americans lives with a mental health condition. Experts continue to stress that we need to focus more time on healing, reaching out, and connecting in safe ways by acknowledging it’s okay to not be okay. You’re not alone!
If you or someone you know is struggling, please don’t hesitate to reach out for help! If you live in the United States, you can call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.
Be sure to check out my Facebook Group. I’ve got some giveaways going to celebrate two years of Finding Our Someday being out in the world and the release date announcement for Taming J so be sure to check them out for a chance to win.
Thank you for taking the time to read and your continued support!
MMK