February so far…
Hey, babes!
It’s been a hectic week. And not in a bad way, but—you know. Mom stuff, life stuff. Add book stuff on top of it? Woof.
Before I jump into the rest of the newsletter, I wanted to take a moment to introduce (or re-introduce) myself. My name is Mariah (hi!), I’m a mama, Army veteran, and avid traveler. When I get free time, I enjoy watercolor painting, motorcycles, and photography. I do have a day job, where I coordinate training and conduct briefs for a company that provides language instruction to adult students across 40 languages. I’m lucky to live close to both ocean beaches and mountains with national parks, and I get to enjoy all the beauty that the Pacific Northwest has to offer.
You may know me from the Blood Moon Riders MC series I am co-writing with K.O. Newman. But before that, I first published solo work back in 2019, and pulled all my books down to start all over at the beginning of last year. I am a coordinator for the Booktober PNR Charity anthology, which will be on its third year in 2023.
My books will not be in Kindle Unlimited due to concerns with the ‘Zon’s behavior toward indies—they’re all wide, and will soon be available for direct purchase from my website. I will run semifrequent sales for those who cannot afford to buy, and there are currently a few spots still available on my ARC team.
I appreciate each and every one of you who takes the time to open, read, and sticks around for this ride. Please feel free to comment or shoot a reply back to say hello any time! I’d love to hear from you.
What’s new in book world…
Defiance! She’s on the way! The release date is officially moved to Feb 14, 2023. Short notice? Sure. But I am ready to have this book out in the world, and I’m moving on to my next projects. Before I slam you with updates on what’s next, I wanted to talk a little about what the writing process for Defiance was like.
Defiance started as a piece of flash fiction which would later become the chapter titled “Illumination.” The original, of course, was saccharine and promised an HEA after little effort, but the threads of emotion—rejection, grief, shame—began to develop into something else, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to leave it there. I wrote Defiance as a short story for year one of the Booktober anthology. But even that didn’t hit the right notes, and I knew it was going to be a novel.
Extensive planning and creative sessions at my author bestie and former roommate Miri Stone’s kitchen table helped shape Defiance in 2020 and ‘21. Initially, I had a tentative 18-chapter outline with dual POV plotted out within each chapter. I quickly realized that wasn’t going to work out when I started putting down words, and 18 chapters were fleshed out into 30, and then later 33.
I had to claw out the first ten chapters. It took me over a year just to get through that much, and during that time I got sidetracked writing BMRMC (no regrets). Some of the emotional beats began to take shape, but much of the original short story wasn’t usable in the framework of the full novel, which was 4x the length and so much more complex.
This book took two years altogether to drag out of me, and there were moments I really wondered whether it would actually get done. A lot of deep emotional processing went into Defiance, and it wasn’t as simple as wham-bam-HEA-ma’am. Envisioning that forever love and paying it off after all the pain was a complicated thing to wrap my brain around.
Most of the actual writing was done between the hours of 11 pm and 2 am, while listening to one of my favorite Twitch streamers playing Red Dead Redemption. I guess I like listening to men yell at videogames? But it worked for me.
Once I got over the hump and found a source of dopamine, I started seeing real progress. By the end, I was able to complete a chapter a night, sometimes two, and Lord knows that was exhilarating. Words flying out, 3,000-7,000 per night, was a whole other kind of rush that served to give me my confidence back. I wasn’t creatively blocked. I just needed to find my feet again.
Right now, Defiance is in the hands of ARC readers. The ARC campaign went live on the 6th, and will end about a week after release. I’m waiting for the paperback proof to arrive (this is a process that Amazon loves to drag out) to see how she looks in print.
I don’t really have words to articulate how it feels to have this book as the first in my return to publishing. It’s been an emotional journey, and one I hope has paid off in bringing Nikki and Adam’s story to life in the way it deserves to be told. But even as I’m mooning over how good it feels to have Defiance in the bag, it’s time to keep moving.
If you’d like to pre-order your copy of Defiance before release, she’s currently priced at .99. At the end of the month (two weeks after release) her price will go up to 4.99. You can snag her here ←
Returning from the dead should have been a blessing for wolf shifter Nikki Hayes. Instead, it’s meant a life isolated from her own kind, carving out a place for herself with the most unusual company. She didn’t think the loss of a pack meant much to her until the day she met her soulmate, Adam Sorenson.
Meeting Adam only causes Nikki more heartache. His pack’s immediate rejection creates a harsh divide between the lovers. When Adam is unable to resist the pull of their bond but unwilling to fight for their future, Nikki must make an impossible choice.
Will she allow her fated mate to deepen the wounds in her heart, or cut him out of her life forever? And can the soulmates forgive each other—and themselves—for the mistakes that led them astray, and find their way back home?
My next solo work will be Deep Sea, inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen version of the Little Mermaid, and then Unsound, a supernatural thriller about a vampire navigating the war between monsters after a barely-averted apocalypse. Neither of these will have romantic elements, and hopefully, will scratch that dark urban fantasy itch.
What’s new in Life…
It’s almost Valentine’s Day! Trying to balance between making this holiday fun for my kiddo and avoiding the commercialism of the day has been interesting, as everywhere we go the world has turned pink and red. We’re making homemade crafts and cookies, and spending lots of time together. This weekend I’ll be taking her to some of my favorite spots in Tacoma, WA, and hitting the beach for some downtime and a nice sunset.
Had to get new tires and perform other routine maintenance on the car recently, and while it’s a relief to know it’s taken care of (shout out to my father for his help), MAN is that stuff ridiculously pricey! The benefit is, you know, safety and freedom to travel. But it’s stressful to have something we really can’t function without being so expensive, and I often think this adult thing is such a scam.
Am I wrong?
You gotta read this
Okay, so let’s talk about books I’ve read, edited, and loved recently.
I’ve had the pleasure of editing for Australian author Ebony Olson since 2021, and her world-building skills are second to none. I recently edited Wraith, the second in her Angelis series, and this book is both massive (106k words) and compelling as a sequel to Spectra. I recommend this (or anything that Ebony writes) for a unique take on vampires, shifters, magic, and the supernatural underbelly of the world.
Just this week, I completed an edit for Wicked Haunting by Raven Woodward. The characters from this book are intense, the world savage, and the romance wild. I adore Raven’s prose, and the way she deftly plunges the reader neck deep into a world where the FMC is very much out of her depth—but by the gods, does she learn to freaking swim. And then she becomes her own kind of shark in the water.
One thing both of these authors do well is their handling of dark, triggering material. I do not recommend Wicked Haunting for readers that are sensitive.
And for a Book by a Stranger that I’ve read just for fun, let’s talk Wretched Love by Anne Malcolm. Normally, I do not read contemporary romance. I’m a fantasy nerd, and if I’m reading a romance, it’s gotta be PNR. But it’s important to expand your horizons, and I love paranormal motorcycle club romance, so jumping into her books was a no-brainer. Wretched Love just did it for me. It’s everything I needed and wanted in a kinky MC romance, and the main character—a woman on the run from an abusive husband—was lovable, brave, and perfectly flawed. The steam was high, the romance was tender, and the conflict was gut-wrenching. I loved the setup for book two, and I’m looking forward to diving in to complete in time for book three, which releases on my birthday.
What’s next?
Next week I’ll be introducing you to some of the bigger projects I’m diving into—like an alien romance anthology I co-wrote for with K.O. Newman. I’m driving ahead into a secret project with author bestie T.K. Eldridge, and dreading the upcoming Valentine’s Day candy sales.
Hope these darker, colder months are treating you right. Feel free to hit reply or comment with your least favorite adulthood scam, or your most recent book recommendation. I look forward to hearing from you! As always, thanks for coming on this ride.
XOXO,
Mariah