Hey, loves!
It is that time of the week where you ask all your burning questions, and I try to answer them as best as I can.
Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered?
Drop it in to the AMA form HERE. I can only keep doing the AMA if I have questions to answer.
Okay, onto the questions this week, loves.
***
1. I'm excited for a book you haven't talked about much yet. Michel and Gabbie. When will they release? I can't wait for them! :) Can you tell me anything about them?
Hi there.
I am excited for these two as well. Once I finish Contempt, which is the third book in the Renzo + Lucia trilogy this month, Michel and Gabbie are my next project. I never actually intended for Michel to have his own book but he decided to get loud inside my head, and so here we are.
As it usually happens with my characters, ha.
So their book is titled Dirty Pool, as in ... to play a game of dirty pool with someone else. So, lots of underhanded dealings happening. I know some people probably think Michel lives a cleaner life than the rest of his family, but you'll actually get to see him as he is in his book, including the fact that no, he's just as dangerous and greedy and violent as the rest of the Marcellos, he simply does it in his own way. Which is one of the reasons why I love him so very much.
And Gabbie is great too--she's an Irish girl from a Detroit crime family. She's also had some medical issues over her lifetime that lead her to be a type-two diabetic. Some people think you can only get type 2 diabetes from simply being unhealthy, etc, but that isn't the case. There are circumstances that can lead people into it while still trying and doing their very best to live as healthy as possible. In Gabbie's case, it's that she was born insulin resistant, and it wasn't discovered until a little later. And it only got worse as the years went on.
So the majority of the book takes place in Detroit ... we get to see the Irish family pulling tricks. It should be an interesting book. That's all I wanna say on it lest I spoil too much.
*
2. When will Andinos and Havens first book be available? :D
Hi there!
It is available now!
*
3. If you could go back and tell anything to yourself when you first started publishing, what would it be?
Oh, wow. This is a great question, and not actually as easy as I thought it would be to answer when I first looked at it ...
Uh, I would probably tell myself not to sign with those publishers. That they really didn't do anything for me that I didn't do for myself. Except take over 70% of my profits, really. They didn't promote me - they didn't build my readership. They just hired editors I hated who ripped my books apart and brushed my concerns off. They ignored my emails, broke my contracts, yet still legally held me to them even when their breaks were pointed out.
And here I am, fifty books into this career, and the vast majority are published by me without a publisher. I did this - built this base and this readership. I kept my readers coming back, and grew the relationship into what it is. I branded my name and my books, not those publishers.
But at the time, I very much thought I was going to need those gatekeepers, so to speak, to get me anywhere in this business. And then the more I learned ... the less I gave a fuck about gatekeepers and how something should be done. I always did things my own way, after all. This was not going to be anything different.
So yes, if I could go back, I would tell myself not to sign those contracts. You sold your soul for pennies - it'll never be worth that, honestly. You're never gonna find worth in it because the only time those books ever made money was when YOU finally started indie publishing. They piggybacked off your success, they never gave you success.
*
4. America’s a mess. I’m looking at other options. How’s Canada? I love Kolden and Ana. That is all. Thank you!
Haha, hi there.
Yeah, America's in a row, ain't it?
Can't relate, sorry.
As it is, I am already trying to convince London Miller that I can sponsor her ass to get her into Canada ... kidding, kind of. Not really kidding, though, only a little.
Moving on.
I mean honestly, I don't wanna trash someone else's country. That's wrong of me to do, but it is honestly like watching a dumpster fire playing out day after day on the television. These last weeks have been particularly hard for me to watch as a survivor of sexual abuse because women have been put up as the sacrificial lamb for powerful men one too many times. And to see women constantly dismissed, looked over, or abused really hits me in a bad place. And frankly, puts me in a bad place.
I couldn't imagine being the citizen and having to handle that, too.
So to any woman who is seriously struggling right now over there for the same reasons or similar ones that I alluded to here, just know I feel you. Inbox is always open.
*
5. ALL THESE RENZO AND LUCIA TEASERS ARE KILLING ME. What are they like? Will they be like a slightly older Cross and Catherine with their first younger book? I know you want us to just wait for the books and read, but PLEASE. xoxo
Haha, hi there.
I'm glad the teasers are making you get excited for them - that's the whole point, haha. I'm not sure how much, if any, teasers I will be able to share from their third book, but I'll try. You know, as long as it doesn't spoil anything.
I do want you to just read the books and kind of fall in love with them as you go ... but I can a little bit more about them, I guess. I am two books deep into them now and working on their third. They are young, but no, they are not like a Cross + Catherine 2.0, of that, I can promise. I never write copycat clones of my characters, after all.
Lucia is probably the exact opposite of Catherine at her age. Catherine had a whole different set of issues that she had to handle in her life for herself and her mental health. Lucia is not in that place at all. She's doing something else, and handling other things.
Renzo is ... well, he's cocky and confident like Cross, but they have had entirely different lives. Cross was brought up respected and in a very privileged place. Whereas Renzo was not ... in any sense of the word. He's prideful like Cross is, but for entirely different reasons. He's dangerous like Cross is, but again, for entirely different reasons.
So no, they're not like Cross and Catherine at all, really.
They're just a boy and girl from two entirely different walks of life that come together, and make something amazing together. Or they find something amazing together. That's about all I can tell you for now.
It is that time of the week where you ask all your burning questions, and I try to answer them as best as I can.
Do you have a question for me that you'd like answered?
Drop it in to the AMA form HERE. I can only keep doing the AMA if I have questions to answer.
Okay, onto the questions this week, loves.
***
1. I'm excited for a book you haven't talked about much yet. Michel and Gabbie. When will they release? I can't wait for them! :) Can you tell me anything about them?
Hi there.
I am excited for these two as well. Once I finish Contempt, which is the third book in the Renzo + Lucia trilogy this month, Michel and Gabbie are my next project. I never actually intended for Michel to have his own book but he decided to get loud inside my head, and so here we are.
As it usually happens with my characters, ha.
So their book is titled Dirty Pool, as in ... to play a game of dirty pool with someone else. So, lots of underhanded dealings happening. I know some people probably think Michel lives a cleaner life than the rest of his family, but you'll actually get to see him as he is in his book, including the fact that no, he's just as dangerous and greedy and violent as the rest of the Marcellos, he simply does it in his own way. Which is one of the reasons why I love him so very much.
And Gabbie is great too--she's an Irish girl from a Detroit crime family. She's also had some medical issues over her lifetime that lead her to be a type-two diabetic. Some people think you can only get type 2 diabetes from simply being unhealthy, etc, but that isn't the case. There are circumstances that can lead people into it while still trying and doing their very best to live as healthy as possible. In Gabbie's case, it's that she was born insulin resistant, and it wasn't discovered until a little later. And it only got worse as the years went on.
So the majority of the book takes place in Detroit ... we get to see the Irish family pulling tricks. It should be an interesting book. That's all I wanna say on it lest I spoil too much.
*
2. When will Andinos and Havens first book be available? :D
Hi there!
It is available now!
*
3. If you could go back and tell anything to yourself when you first started publishing, what would it be?
Oh, wow. This is a great question, and not actually as easy as I thought it would be to answer when I first looked at it ...
Uh, I would probably tell myself not to sign with those publishers. That they really didn't do anything for me that I didn't do for myself. Except take over 70% of my profits, really. They didn't promote me - they didn't build my readership. They just hired editors I hated who ripped my books apart and brushed my concerns off. They ignored my emails, broke my contracts, yet still legally held me to them even when their breaks were pointed out.
And here I am, fifty books into this career, and the vast majority are published by me without a publisher. I did this - built this base and this readership. I kept my readers coming back, and grew the relationship into what it is. I branded my name and my books, not those publishers.
But at the time, I very much thought I was going to need those gatekeepers, so to speak, to get me anywhere in this business. And then the more I learned ... the less I gave a fuck about gatekeepers and how something should be done. I always did things my own way, after all. This was not going to be anything different.
So yes, if I could go back, I would tell myself not to sign those contracts. You sold your soul for pennies - it'll never be worth that, honestly. You're never gonna find worth in it because the only time those books ever made money was when YOU finally started indie publishing. They piggybacked off your success, they never gave you success.
*
4. America’s a mess. I’m looking at other options. How’s Canada? I love Kolden and Ana. That is all. Thank you!
Haha, hi there.
Yeah, America's in a row, ain't it?
Can't relate, sorry.
As it is, I am already trying to convince London Miller that I can sponsor her ass to get her into Canada ... kidding, kind of. Not really kidding, though, only a little.
Moving on.
I mean honestly, I don't wanna trash someone else's country. That's wrong of me to do, but it is honestly like watching a dumpster fire playing out day after day on the television. These last weeks have been particularly hard for me to watch as a survivor of sexual abuse because women have been put up as the sacrificial lamb for powerful men one too many times. And to see women constantly dismissed, looked over, or abused really hits me in a bad place. And frankly, puts me in a bad place.
I couldn't imagine being the citizen and having to handle that, too.
So to any woman who is seriously struggling right now over there for the same reasons or similar ones that I alluded to here, just know I feel you. Inbox is always open.
*
5. ALL THESE RENZO AND LUCIA TEASERS ARE KILLING ME. What are they like? Will they be like a slightly older Cross and Catherine with their first younger book? I know you want us to just wait for the books and read, but PLEASE. xoxo
Haha, hi there.
I'm glad the teasers are making you get excited for them - that's the whole point, haha. I'm not sure how much, if any, teasers I will be able to share from their third book, but I'll try. You know, as long as it doesn't spoil anything.
I do want you to just read the books and kind of fall in love with them as you go ... but I can a little bit more about them, I guess. I am two books deep into them now and working on their third. They are young, but no, they are not like a Cross + Catherine 2.0, of that, I can promise. I never write copycat clones of my characters, after all.
Lucia is probably the exact opposite of Catherine at her age. Catherine had a whole different set of issues that she had to handle in her life for herself and her mental health. Lucia is not in that place at all. She's doing something else, and handling other things.
Renzo is ... well, he's cocky and confident like Cross, but they have had entirely different lives. Cross was brought up respected and in a very privileged place. Whereas Renzo was not ... in any sense of the word. He's prideful like Cross is, but for entirely different reasons. He's dangerous like Cross is, but again, for entirely different reasons.
So no, they're not like Cross and Catherine at all, really.
They're just a boy and girl from two entirely different walks of life that come together, and make something amazing together. Or they find something amazing together. That's about all I can tell you for now.
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