Jennifer Ashley's Blog

(Well, new and new-ish.)

First: For Mystery fans: Next week I’m releasing The Bishop’s Lady (writing as Ashley Gardner), a novella in a mystery series I’ve been noodling with for years (but have not yet published).

The Émilie D’Armand Historical Mysteries are set in the time of Louis XIV, where Émilie is a lady-in-waiting to the queen of France. Left destitute when her husband is killed (he owed many debts), Émilie has to live by her wits, finagling a post with the queen via Madame de Monstepan, the king’s mistress.

In this brief introduction to Émilie’s character, she is visiting a friend in Paris where a cold case crime involving her friend’s family awaits her.

You learn a little bit about Émilie here and will more when I get the first novel finished and out!

The Bishop’s Lady is available immediately on my shop or you can pre-order from the other vendors for a release next week:

Ashley Gardner’s Web Store: https://geni.us/YNh3LPa

Kobo: https://geni.us/tvNqB

Amazon: https://geni.us/hZF7Uyk

Apple: https://geni.us/YcuVt

Nook: https://geni.us/IVbHQSm

Google: https://geni.us/GPVEEtl

Read Chapter One:  https://geni.us/4fyuPuL

Full disclosure: This story was previously published in the Murder Most Historical anthology (where it still is in print), so if you have that, you have the story. However, this version has a pretty, new cover!  (And if you want it in print, please see the Murder Most Historical anthology).

I hope you enjoy it!

More new stuff forthwith!

This has been a busy couple of months! We returned from our long vacation and moved into our mountain house, and since then I’ve been buried in deadlines (that is, after my husband went to the hospital for a day. He’s ok–it’s just life with MS). I’m happy to be in the cool pines now, but I haven’t been out of the house! Well, for errands and to eat a few times, and to drive my husband home from the ER.

Anne-Marie Piazza spent much of her spring and summer recording Kat Holloway audio books: Three novellas (Mrs. Holloway’s Christmas Pudding, The Price of Lemon Cake, and A Measure of Menace) are out now, and A Silence in Belgrave Square will be out in audio in a few weeks.

I have bundled the three audio novellas at my Web Store here: https://geni.us/qhUGp

They download to the Bookfunnel app, where you can listen to them.

Or, find each audiobook here:

Mrs. Holloway’s Christmas Pudding
Audible: https://geni.us/So9ZrXt
Kobo (and Kobo Plus): https://geni.us/sPJzL
Chirp: https://geni.us/BWHg9hq
My web store: https://geni.us/XZDmdv

A Measure of Menace
Audible: https://geni.us/H8dO
Kobo (and Kobo Plus): https://geni.us/JcawU8J
Chirp: https://geni.us/m9Y5x
My web store: https://geni.us/YANPZE4

The Price of Lemon Cake
Audible: https://geni.us/ok6V12
Kobo (and Kobo Plus): https://geni.us/cEu1
(Chirp to come)
My web store: https://geni.us/rtSGR

And of course, A Silence in Belgrave Square is now out in paperback and e-book! In bookstores everywhere or online:

Kobo: https://geni.us/ulZg8J7 
Google: https://geni.us/9ltb0
Amazon (print and ebook): https://geni.us/279dW
Barnes and Noble (print and ebook): https://geni.us/Dk4J
Apple: https://geni.us/1pokWvQ

The audio book is pre-orderable at Audible, Chirp, Kobo, Audiobooks.com and wherever you like to buy audio books.

I’m very fond of A Silence in Belgrave Square, and I hope you like it. I introduce the character of Hannah, whom Kat knew in her cooking past. I loved writing her! Also there are more developments in the Kat / Daniel relationship, but I won’t spoil it …

I am now writing Book 9 of this series: Murder in Blackfriars, which will be out next year. If I get it done! This is one of the deadlines that is making me insane. I will need to do nothing but type for the next couple of weeks to get it written.

After that, I’m taking a break. (For me, this means days to a week.)

Book 9 will be my last contracted book for the Below Stairs Mysteries series. I don’t know if I’ll go back to contract for another one. Publisher almost said no to Book 9, which shows me the writing on the wall. The books, in my opinion, are doing well, but publishers are saying historical mysteries aren’t the “thing” anymore. I totally disagree (Captain Lacey, for instance, is my bestselling series), but they like to chase the new shiny.

That does not mean I will end the series–I will continue it indie, but I’m ready to be finished with deadlines, contract clauses that try to stop me writing other things, and not being able to publish what I want when I want to. I have other series I need to catch up on, and one reason they are behind is contracts that restrict me from publishing other books within certain time parameters.

The thought of setting my own schedule and not having to change it (barring personal emergencies) is so freeing! So, I’ll let you know. After my week off once I turn this book in, I will be writing hard on my other mystery series, then the romance series (all of them), and also starting brand new series!

I get excited when I think about it, which tells me this is the right direction to go.

But first … I have a book to finish! Sunday is my day off, then Monday it’s back to work. I love writing Kat Holloway, so it’s only so daunting.

Have a good rest of your weekend! Hope you find a good book to read, no matter what.

A Moveable Feast (Below Stairs Mysteries) is officially out today! (at long last).

Find it here:

My Web store: https://geni.us/5Vh4N
Amazon: https://geni.us/JCKmoR
BN: https://geni.us/ZRcnekZ
Kobo: https://geni.us/1FOs3
Google: https://geni.us/HJDY
Apple: https://geni.us/WcQID

Excerpt: https://geni.us/wjHtYMB 
I’ve bundled A Moveable Feast with A Measure of Menace into an ebook and paperback as well: https://geni.us/QvRGb 

What it’s about: Kat Holloway is dismayed when her employer orders her to cook Easter dinner in a house in Portman Square at the very last minute. Things are chaos when she arrives, and only go from bad to worse when murder enters the house.

You’ll also find a sneak preview of A Silence in Belgrave Square (Below Stairs Mysteries, Book 8) at the end!

I recently took a trip to London and ended up in Iceland (highly recommend Iceland as a vacation destination, which is much easier to reach than it seems). This was partly a working vacation / writer’s retreat, which gave me time to finish A Moveable Feast and start on Book 9 of Below Stairs Mysteries.

The time also let me make some decisions, some of them painful, about my writing business, and what I will do next. These decisions will be good for readers and in the long run, for me, because it will free me to schedule my books when I want them to be scheduled, instead of having to change things up and work around publishers’ sometimes onerous contract restrictions. It was difficult to face these decisions, but the relief after I made them told me I was doing the right thing.

All this means more books are coming. I’m taking this summer to firm up a release schedule (while writing the books, of course), which will be posted on my website when I have more definite dates.

I do have more books coming up this year, which you can see on my “Upcoming” page on my website: https://jenniferashley.com/coming-soon/ Right now, it’s a lot of mysteries, but romances will return after that.

More about my wonderful trip to London and Iceland in another post! I also began the trip in Brooklyn, which was awesome, and ended it in Boston, another great city.

Until next time, take care!

Stray Cat (Shifters Unbound, Book 16) is out today on my web store:

Stray Cat on Jennifer’s Web Store

It will be out next week in paperback and e-book at the usual vendors:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Kobo

Google

Apple

Please note that the paperback is not pre-orderable at Amazon but will be available there on May 14. For some reason, they are allergic to pre-orders for print. The paperback is available for pre-order from Barnes and Noble (who are more sensible, so far). You can also order the paperback from my web store (now), but in all honesty, it will not get to you any faster, because I have to order it myself from the printer, and shipping will not be any cheaper.

For Audio: The lovely Cris Dukehart is working on it now, and I’ll announce when that book is ready.

I still have so many Shifters whose stories I want to tell: Neal and Kiera (you meet Kiera in Bear Facts). Brody and … (you’ll meet her in Stray Cat ). I’d also like to go back to the North Carolina Shiftertown and revisit a few Shifters there, like Kenzie’s fierce uncle, Jamie the cheetah, and Cade the grizzly (“Bears just wanna have fun”). All these characters were introduced in Mate Bond. Plus there are a few hanging around the Austin Shiftertown. I also have many requests for stories about the cubs when they get older.

However, I am thinking I’m next going to do the book I’ve long been pondering about Dylan (simply called Dylan). While it will be a romance with a HEA, it will also be a saga and Dylan’s history, how he came to be who he is, and where he’s going. More about Fae / Shifter history and settling those issues. Basically, all about Dylan! Plus his family, his loves, his losses, etc. It’s Time for this book.

I can’t guess how long it will take me to write it, but Dylan will be the next Shifter book I work on.

Before then:

I am now writing (about halfway done) A Moveable Feast (Kat Holloway novella), which I’d hoped to have out at Easter, but that wasn’t going to happen. It is still set at Easter, but it won’t be out until June. When I’m finished with the draft (next couple of weeks if all goes well), I’ll put it up for pre-order.

Then I’m contracted to write a new Kat Holloway novel (probably titled Murder in Blackfrairs) which will be out next year. (A Silence in Belgrave Square is this year’s Kat Holloway novel, out this August.)

Continuing with mysteries, I will then write Murder on the Rhône (Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries Book 18), and at long last another Leonidas the Gladiator mystery!

Then back to romances. I have a lot on my plate as usual, but I’m getting to all the series as I can.

I have some new things on the horizon as well, as my creative brain never ceases to bother me.

I hope you enjoy Stray Cat (if you’re a Shifters Unbound reader). Happy spring!

The other night, I had what I call a “story” dream. In these I’m either a character or an onlooker in some scenario. My husband and I were doing the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage … in the middle ages. We must have been a noble couple, because we had nice clothes and rode horses. We spent the night at a castle (as you do), and there, my husband and I ended up having to solve a murder mystery.

When I woke up, I wondered if I was replaying something I’d read or watched, then I realized–no, I made it up! (Not that there has never been this storyline in any mystery novel, ever, but not in any I’ve read at least.) Cool! I thought. Another story idea for the files.

Will I ever write this book? I don’t know, but I’d like to. I have numerous ideas in the folder marked “worth pursuing,” which I go through every once in a while. Sometimes those ideas are incorporated into ongoing series, and sometimes they begin a new series (e.g., Kat Holloway).

Likewise, the Nvengaria series, which combines fantasy and historical romance, started as a dream. In this dream, I was a young woman visiting a palace with my parents (who were not my real parents but ones a young woman in a Regency novel might have). We were in a fairy-tale like kingdom in eastern Europe, and the man who lived in this palace was a dashing, lonely, charming prince in search of a wife. Even in my dream, I knew the wife-to-be was not me, but I was interested in his plight.

I turned that snippet of a dream into Penelope and Prince Charming, which developed an entire a fantasy kingdom (juxtaposed with Regency-era England), with magic, shape-shifters, prophecies, love potions, quests, and the like. Penelope began a four-book series, which I recently have released as a complete boxed set. I’d love to do more in that world, but I’m already writing a ton of series, and getting back to it is difficult.

Another series came not so much from a dream but a daydream on a road trip. I travel often in northern Arizona (and live there part time now). We were driving back roads in that area, where the land is vast and wide open (if you have watched the TV series Dark Winds, you’ll see it. It’s real.) I pictured a young woman zooming down these roads on a motorcycle, free and wild. Who was she? And why was she being pursued by a pissed-off sheriff? And her bad-ass biker boyfriend, who was a magical creature in disguise … ?

The Stormwalker series, which is one of my very favorites, was born. I have so many more ideas for that series and even for spinoffs. Janet has many cousins, and I populated two towns full of imaginary people, who all have histories, not to mention all those dragons flying around.

I have also put the Stormwalker series into boxed sets (Volume 1, Volume 2), with more sets to come as the series grows.

One day I’ll tell the story of how Captain Lacey came to be, following a visit to a local library. I was terribly discouraged during this visit, but it turned out, in the long run, to be a wonderful thing! Serendipity.

I also have the ambition to walk the Camino de Santiago, though while you can do segments of it instead of the entire traditional way from Lyon, I’m trying to picture myself walking 10-15 miles a day. Not sure about that! I suppose training is the key. Have you done the Camino or know anyone who has?

Take care, and happy spring!

In the Shifters Unbound series, one of the characters is a haunted house outside of New Orleans. I introduce this house in Wild Things, and use it extensively in Red Wolf, The Last Warrior, and especially in A Shifter Christmas Carol. It’s not really “haunted” in the conventional sense, but is sentient, with its own personality.

My inspiration for that house came from the one I’m living in now. When I moved in the year I wrote Wild Things, I wondered if the house would like me. It’s an older home (mid-20th century and older than me), and I hoped I’d connect with it.

Good news is, I did. The moment I walked into it on a rainy November day when there was an open house–we were the only ones who came to see it–I immediately knew this was the place for me. The house has a simple design inside, long and narrow like a railroad car. Sounds a little weird, but it works for me. A plus, was there were plenty of nooks in which to put my miniatures (always important).

We bought it and then spent a month fixing it up, because it needed new bathroom fixtures and painting plus it had layers of old vinyl floors and very strange curtains that dragged across the worn-out carpet in the living room. I think the only flooring we kept intact was the ceramic tile in the kitchen and bathrooms.

I’m very sensitive atmosphere in buildings, and I felt welcome here from day one. I wasn’t afraid or creeped out to stay alone, and it seemed the house appreciated the TLC. Through the years, the bond has deepened.

UNTIL …

A few years ago, we decided to spend our very hot summers in a cooler area of the state. My husband has MS and extreme heat can flare up the symptoms (I believe extreme cold can too.)

Therefore, we spend a few months each year away from our main house.

And it gets mad at us.

This past October we returned to find water trickling from the roof in front of the house, nonstop. Turns out our solar water heater had sprung a leak on the roof. We had someone fix the pipe. Next day, the water was gushing from the roof instead of trickling.

Everyone we spoke to said, sorry can’t fix it. You’ll have to replace the whole system.

I bypassed the solar heating part of the cycle, and the water ceased flowing. We’ll have to deal with the solar later, but for now, everything is dry.

At least in the front of the house. Water was still dribbling off the back. We have a pool, which also has a solar heater. Well, one of the panels decided to give up the ghost and as soon as the water hit it–spew. And I couldn’t figure out for the life of me how to bypass that loop.

Again, we consulted several repair companies to come and take a look, none of which could fix it, but who still charged us the call out fee. It took nearly $1K to find a company who could actually repair it. They did, bless their hearts (and I have them bookmarked).

We also have ominous cracks in the ceiling of the garage, possibly water damage related, but I have no idea, because again, no one wants to investigate or fix it.

The faucet in the kitchen sink would not cease dripping, so we had to replace that too. There have been a few more minor mishaps and repairs that we’ve had to make as well, such as the latch to the screen door breaking off and falling inside the door frame. Irretrievable unless we take apart the entire door and frame. Though the screen door is relatively new, the company who custom made it is out of business, so I can’t call them to repair it. (We’re having it replaced.)

Now, the logical conclusion is that this is an old house and the plumbing is old, and the solar panels, exposed to blasting hot sun (110s F in the summer, which is why we seek cooler air) are wearing out and breaking. Other things age and break.

BUT. Nothing ever happens while we are here. Since October, we’ve been repairing all the things that broke in our absence, but otherwise, the house has been quiet and cozy, a happy place.

The minute we leave it for any length of time … It gets mad.

Hence, the growing personality of the haunted house in the Shifters books, with its many quirks and temper tantrums.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen when we depart again for the summer … (Shh. Don’t tell it.)

I didn’t want to say anything in my last post, because I wasn’t certain I’d finish, but I have a brand new book out for the New Year! It’s called A Matter at New Year’s and is a paranormal historical mystery (Regency) under my Ashley Gardner name.

Find it at

My web store: https://geni.us/0khJTk

Kindle: https://geni.us/N95X0Ka

Kobo (and Kobo Plus): https://geni.us/dubAS

Google: https://geni.us/2ZDnJjA

Apple: https://geni.us/2fkKrOk

Nook: https://geni.us/NFBy

Excerpt: https://geni.us/Dr6vY

If you prefer paperback, I am working on that edition, but my cover designer is on vacation and I can’t upload until she gets back and can do the print cover. Should be soon.

The novella features Robert Archer, a former lieutenant in the army who fought at Waterloo. Now he lives in London, where shape-shifters, vampires, and other magical beings walk. When Robert stumbles across three were-beasts in the wrong place as he walks home from New Year’s festivities in 1823, he’s thrown into more danger than he’d like.

I have plans to make this into a series, and I am pleased I could finish the story in time for New Year’s.

If you take a chance on it, I hope you enjoy it.

Currently I’m working on revisions to A Silence in Belgrave Square (Kat Holloway, Book 8), because who needs time off at the holidays?

Once I turn in that book, I can return to Shiftertown! Looking forward to that in a big way.

Hope your holidays have been good, and Happy New Year!

In October this year, my husband and I took a trip to Catalina Island off the coast of California. We are luckily close to this jewel–a short airplane hop and an hour on the ferry away.

We’d gone there the year before as well, to attend the annual jazz festival. Three days of concerts by very talented musicians was both restful and invigorating. There are no cars allowed on the island (or very few, anyway), which means I walked everywhere, so the trip was good for my physical as well as mental health.

As I sat in the beautiful ballroom of the casino, I realized that in this year, I’d healed in a big way. The year before (2023), I spent burned out, grieving, and seeming to make bad decision after bad decision. My mom had passed away in late 2022, after a long time of declining, with me there for every minute. It was a tough time, and once she was gone, though I was glad she was no longer miserable, I spent a long while numb and sad.

I had a very hard time writing in 2023. I managed to finish a couple of books and I think two novellas, but had to turn down offers to collaborate with other authors in anthologies (unless it was for a backlist story) or offers to do book signings or conferences.

The stories were there in my head, but getting myself to sit down and write a paragraph was almost impossible. I could manage maybe 500 words (about two pages) if I really pushed, and then I’d be done for the day.

I’d also contracted with Dragonblade Publishing right before my mom died to write some historical romances. I had to go back to them and admit that I couldn’t possibly produce the books in the time-frame I’d at first agreed on. (I am still working on book 1, which shows the extent of my troubles.)

It was very frustrating, and I was pretty sure I was witnessing the end of my writing career. I wasn’t certain how we’d make a living, because my husband is disabled, and I don’t have any other job skills.

To say that by the time I reached Catalina Island in Oct 2023, I was a mess, is an understatement.

But something happened to me there. I’m not sure exactly what. It could be that I’d had enough time to finish my first stage of grieving (it had been almost a year). Or maybe it was the first time in several years I’d been able to stop.

Somehow, in that art deco ballroom from 1929, listening to the amazing musicians play their hearts out, my creativity came back to me.

It was like a light in a dim room being turned up, showing everything in bright colors instead of subdued hues. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but I felt this relaxed glow, like everything was going to be all right.

By the time the concerts had finished, and we were winding down to go back home, I’d come up with an idea for a Christmas novella featuring Kat Holloway and a renewed determination to write my books.

I couldn’t start anything right away, because I’d booked a conference back to back with the vacation (one of those bad decisions), but once I finished that, I opened my laptop and started writing.

Mrs. Holloway’s Christmas Pudding came out, and then the final chapters of Bear Facts, which I had been struggling to write for about eight months (I never take that long on a book).

Not only could I write more than a page at a time, but I also did some useful planning. I marked out the year (2024) with books in series I needed to–and seriously wanted to–continue.

Once I finished Bear Facts, I dove into another Captain Lacey, and then Wing Dancer, the newest in the Stormwalker series (which I’d been trying to write for years). I managed to have a book out every couple of months in the first part of 2024, including Speculations in Sin, in the Kat Holloway mystery series (one of the few books I’d managed to write in 2023).

I then had to step back and write another Kat Holloway for Berkley (A Silence in Belgrave Square, which is being edited at the moment), and finish the dang book for Dragonblade! (I have about 10K words to go on that, yipee!)

In the second half of 2024, I had a novella out in October (A Measure of Menace, a Kat Holloway story). I’ll start publishing afresh early next year, starting with more Shifters.

I’m writing a lot more now, though my pace has slowed per book over what I used to do, and probably will not get any faster than that. However, I’m feeling good about where I am in my writing life. In October 2023 I was half-panicked, half resigned, thinking I’d have to give up writing for a living.

I’m in a good place to retreat to write books and make them the best they can be. I have French, German, and Italian editions consistently releasing, I’m having a blast fixing up my web store, finding the freedom there to set up things I can’t elsewhere, and I’m also having fun doing seasonal sales. Who knew I’d enjoy retail so much?

Anyway, when I was sitting in the art deco ballroom this year (2024), I realized that my comeback year had started there, in the very same seats we’d occupied in 2023.

Music, historic architecture, and the blue beauty of the Pacific Ocean had seeped into my soul and helped me heal.

Thank you for reading my tale. It’s been a hard road, and it’s not over (my husband has MS, which is a daily struggle, and we lost another of our beloved cats this year), but it’s a bit easier. I’d lost my confidence and any sort of serenity, but I am enjoying this calm while it lasts.

I wish everyone Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year!

Many more books to come!

I tried to do a new holiday story this year, but it’s been a full year, I’m working on several books right now, and I’m not sure if I can squeeze one in (if I do, I’ll let you know!).

I realized, though, that I do have a number of holiday novellas already, so I decided to bundle up the e-books on my web store. They are also available individually at all vendors (Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Google, Nook), but I’m able to give a bit of a discount on the bundles.

For Historical Romance lovers:

https://geni.us/U59W

Includes: Mrs. Holloway’s Christmas Pudding, A First-Footer for Lady Jane, A Mackenzie Family Christmas, Fiona and the Three Wise Highlanders, and The Longest Night.

For Contemporary / Paranormal Readers:

https://geni.us/tUcR

Includes: A Riverbend Christmas, A Shifter Christmas Carol, and Snowbound in Starlight Bend.

And a Complete Holiday Bundle with all of the above:

https://geni.us/PzWiHA8

Again, these books are available individually at my store plus Amazon, Kobo, Google, Apple, and Nook.

For info on the whole lot, I built a page on my website:

https://jenniferashley.com/holiday-reads/

Oh, and Highlander Ever After, a full-length novel in the Nvengaria series is also a holiday story! I always forget about that one.

I hope you find a holiday tale to enjoy. And who knows, I might get one written by New Year’s! (If not, I’ll put it out next year …)

I realized this summer that my publisher has scheduled the Below Stairs Mysteries books quite far apart (next one, A Silence in Belgrave Square, is August 2025), so I decided to write two new novellas to fill in the gap.

The first one: A Measure of Menace, is finished and ready for release over the next two weeks.

E-books ordered directly from my web store drop on September 23: https://geni.us/QUfeS9B

Print books (signed or unsigned) can also be ordered on my site (same link), but I can only ship those out as soon as they are shipped to me.

The book is out at all other vendors on September 30:

Amazon: https://geni.us/PX44WA (print and ebook)

Apple: https://geni.us/s5TZXl3

Google: https://geni.us/wQcSQ

Kobo: https://geni.us/Zmt8

B&N: https://geni.us/MD7F2 (print and ebook)

More about the book plus an excerpt on my website:

https://jenniferashley.com/jennifer-ashley-books/below-stairs-mysteries/a-measure-of-menace/

A Measure of Menace takes a closer look at Lady Cynthia and her family (mostly her father), when Lord Clifford is in danger of being framed for murder. A few nice Kat and Daniel moments as well.

The second novella will be A Moveable Feast, out in spring (probably April). As the name suggests, the story revolves around a disastrous Easter dinner.

Side note: I have to thank my husband for the title A Measure of Menace. I thought of A Moveable Feast first, but I couldn’t announce the two novellas until I had a title for the first one. I was considering all kinds of things cooking / measuring related, and my husband, standing in the hall outside the kitchen just says, “A Measure of Menace?”

“That’s brilliant!” I cry. “Do you mind if I use it?”

He shrugs in his typical, stoic manner, a bit bewildered by my enthusiasm. “Sure. Why not?”

So, he gets all the credit for the title, for better or worse.

I’ve decided to do a deeper dive into selling directly from my site, which is much easier these days, thanks to BookFunnel. When you buy any e-book, BookFunnel sends an email with a link that takes you right to the book. You can either read on the BookFunnel phone app (which I am loving! it’s a great app!), or sideload to your Kindle / Kobo / Nook. Or, you can read on the BookFunnel site under your (free) account. Any problems? Bookfunnel has a help email and a help page, and they are great at walking your though how to access the book

The pre-order of Wing Dancer on my site worked well, so I am going to offer pre-orders of all my books (except my Berkley ones) via my own site, having them drop a week earlier than on the other vendors.

The print pre-orders still have kinks on my end, but I am researching better shipping options, that won’t be too expensive either for me or you.

Why are authors suddenly obsessed with selling direct? Because all vendors take a chunk of the book’s price for hosting / selling / delivering the e-books. While better than the still more massive chunk traditional publishing takes, still we lose some, plus we can do things on our sites that vendors don’t allow (large book bundles, free books whenever we wish, pre-orders without penalties). There are fees involved in selling directly, but far lower ones (at least right now) than we deal with at vendors.

Now you know.

If you read this far, thank you! That’s the story of how A Measure of Menace came to be. If you choose to partake, I hope you enjoy it.

(BTW, I’m working on having all the Kat Holloway novellas put into audio, maybe as a collection. More on that when things progress.)