Hey, babes.
A little early this week, but since today’s a big day, I wanted to drop in and wish you a happy Valentine’s Day.
Regardless of your relationship status, I hope that you take the time to appreciate yourself and your circle. I hope you stop and take a moment to put your hand over your heart, take some deep breaths, and feel that connection between yourself and everything that is.
Separation is an illusion. Love is an infinite resource. And you deserve your own love most of all.
I’ve got a couple of big items for you today.
What’s new in book world…
Today is release day! Defiance is now live, and I couldn’t be happier that she’s out in the world. ARC readers are saying that Defiance is not your typical shifter romance, and I like to think they’re absolutely right. She’s priced for a release sale at 99c, but that price will go up at the end of the month. You can grab your copy here ←
Today is also the first day of the Hooked on Love Valentine’s Day Giveaway. Get hooked on 9 delicious romance shorts this Valentine's Day in this free limited anthology. Everyone who participates will receive the Hooked on Love Anthology, absolutely free to your email!
You must sign up for all of the contributing authors' newsletters for a chance to win free books. A grand prize winner will receive paperbacks, and three second-place winners will receive free ebooks.
Fill your TBR list and find your next favorite romance read! Happy Valentine's Day!
And last, but not least, I have another novel dropping tomorrow, February 15. This is a republishing of my first published work, revised and re-proofed. Bune is book one of the Godhead Trilogy, a dark urban fantasy novel about one woman’s race against the clock to solve the mystery behind a gruesome death, and save her own life when she becomes the one hunted.
You can grab Bune here ← while you wait for book two, Thoth, which will go live in the fall.
Thanks so much to Sara (@LarksLiteraryNest on Instagram) for the beta read on Bune before the drop. And thank you so much for your DMs on Defiance, your commentary always gives me life. Sara is top on my list of bookstagrammers to follow, if you want a beta reader who provides honest, intelligent, and insightful feedback.
What’s new in life…
Being a mom has, up ‘til now, meant that I have gratefully avoided any sort of acknowledgment of Valentine’s Day as a holiday because my kiddo wasn’t old enough to understand it yet. Now, I’m not saying she gets it, but she’s definitely got the hype for the candy, cards, and flowers commercialism of the holiday everyone loves to hate. Her school’s definitely got her in the know about the expectations. They sent home a letter in advance, of course, informing parents they were going to do a Valentine’s Day exchange, and what we needed to make the whole thing work.
Let’s just say that this went horribly awry for three reasons. One, I have ADHD. I always think I have more time than I actually do to accomplish things. Two, my kid is four. This is my first year having to worry about providing any sort of treat or gift for her classmates. And three—I live in a town, apparently, where not one single store decided to stock up on boxes of Valentine’s Day cards for children to exchange.
Not. A. Single. Store.
So here I am, realizing all of a sudden the night before that I still need to provide a dozen cards for my kiddo to take to school for Valentine’s Day. I pack her into the car and we head out on the hunt.
You know what Walmart did have? Easter baskets. Plastic eggs. Egg dyeing kits. Giant stuffed animals for Easter.
My kid was more offended than I was. She was sure to let the Easter Lovers know that their holiday was encroaching on her search for valentines. Imagine this little curly-haired wild child telling the door greeter as we left all about how she thinks the Walmart supply gods are confused because it’s not even Valentine’s Day yet, where are all the red and pink things?
We went to three different stores. Nothing.
Finally, we stopped at the big Rite Aid. Our last hope. The cashier greeted us, and I asked her if they had Valentine’s Day cards.
“Like, in the box? For kids?” she asked, and her face fell. “Oh, no. No one in town has those!”
She felt bad, and seemed absolutely convinced they had nothing that could help us. But I was determined. I promised my kiddo some valentines. We’d make something work—and we had nowhere else to turn.
Our solution came in the form of the O.G. Valentine’s Day candy. Old school texting.
Conversation hearts. With a nice little “to/from” action on the box to write in a name. 49 cents apiece.
I grabbed 16 of those suckers and a package of dinosaur stickers, and we hollered and whooped all the way home.
Crisis averted.
My kid thinks I am a hero. I am saved (temporarily, until next time) from embarrassment.
What’s next?
Currently, I am working on Breaking News, my co-written paranormal romantic suspense series with T.K. Eldridge. We’re having a ton of fun so far, and Breaking News should be live early to mid-March. Can’t wait to share this one with you!
Death forever alters the lives of those left behind. For six individuals, surviving tragedy was only the beginning. Life goes on--and sometimes, what we think we've lost can linger. When true love never dies, the ghosts of our past can become companions in seizing our future.
You can pre-order Breaking News on any platform you buy your ebooks from—but I would encourage you to buy direct from T.K.’s website. The print quality of the paperbacks is superior, and the prices are cheaper than you will find on Amazon, or anywhere else. I’ll go into the benefits of buying directly from the author in a later newsletter.
Thanks, as always, for coming along on this ride with me. I hope you have a beautiful day, and if you wanna tell me all about your own Valentine’s Day mishap, hit the reply button, comment, or email me at mariahthayer@substack.com.
XOXO,
Mariah