K.M. Alexander's Blog, page 21

The Stars Were Right 99¢ Give Back Promotion Ends Today!

It feels weird promoting this in light of everything that’s happened over the last few days, but here we are. Pretty much what the title says—today is the last day you can buy my weird little Lovecraftian urban fantasy novel, The Stars Were Right, for only 99¢—all the profits will be donated to the World Central Kitchen in their fight against food insecurity here in America and abroad. I’ll reveal the results tomorrow! (They’re quite exciting.)

Links to purchase the ebook are below. Already have a copy? Consider buying one for your friends or a family member who might want a little escapism right now.

Kindle  •  Kobo  •  Nook  •  Apple Books •  Google Play  •  Gumroad

I am also aware that many are facing severe economic instability. One in four Americans is out of work. For them, perhaps you, money is tight. If your interested in reading my book but can’t swing the 99¢, you can also download the book for free. (I’m serious.) Use the Gumroad link above and set the price at zero and bam, it’s yours. On me. Like the promotion, this will also end tonight. So don’t delay!

What if I want to help, but really don’t want an eBook?

No pressure! If you want to help but aren’t interested in my book, you can donate directly to the WCK by clicking the link below. They have options for a single donation, or you can become a monthly donor. It’s a phenomenal charity which I detailed in this post.

DONATE TODAY

Want to help in other ways? Follow the WCK on social media, they’re very active on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and you can get a glimpse at the noble work they’re doing. Want to volunteer? Details on how you can help are available here.

[image error] Photo via World Central Kitchen/WCK.org

The Language of the Unheard

“Certain conditions continue to exist in our society, which must be condemned as vigorously as we condemn riots. But in the final analysis, a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it that America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the Negro poor has worsened over the last few years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice, equality and humanity. And so in a real sense our nation’s summers of riots are caused by our nation’s winters of delay. And as long as America postpones justice, we stand in the position of having these recurrences of violence and riots over and over again.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

[image error] “Stop Police Killings, Selma March—Steve Shapiro, 1965”

Justice for Eric Garner. Justice for John Crawford III. Justice for Michael Brown. Justice for Ezell Ford. Justice for Dante Parker. Justice for Michelle Cusseaux. Justice for Laquan McDonald. Justice for Tanisha Anderson. Justice for Akai Gurley. Justice for Tami Rice. Justice for Rumain Brisbon. Justice for Jerame Reid. Justice for George Mann. Justice for Matthew Ajibade. Justice for Frank Smart. Justice for Natasha McKenna. Justice for Tony Robinson. Justice for Anthony Hill. Justice for Mya Hall. Justice for Phillip White. Justice for Eric Harris. Justice for Walter Scott. Justice for William Chapman II. Justice for Alexia Christian. Justice for Brendon Glenn. Justice for Victor Manuel Larosa. Justice for Jonathan Sanders. Justice for Freddie Blue. Justice for Joseph Mann. Justice for Salvado Ellswood. Justice for Sandra Bland. Justice for Albert Joseph Davis. Justice for Darrius Stewart. Justice for Billy Ray Davis. Justice for Samuel Dubose. Justice for Michael Sabbie. Justice for Brian Keith Day. Justice for Christian Taylor. Justice for Troy Robinson. Justice for Asshams Pharoah Manley. Justice for Felix Kumi. Justice for Keith Harrison McLeod. Justice for Junior Prosper. Justice for Lamontez Jones. Justice for Paterson Brown. Justice for Dominic Hutchinson. Justice for Anthony Ashford. Justice for Alonzo Smith. Justice for Tyree Crawford. Justice for India Kager. Justice for La’vante Biggs. Justice for Michael Lee Marshall. Justice for Jamar Clark. Justice for Richard Perkins. Justice for Nathaniel Harris Pickett. Justice for Benni Lee Tignor. Justice for Miguel Espinal. Justice for Michael Noel. Justice for Kevin Matthews. Justice for Bettie Jones. Justice for Quintonio Legrier. Justice for Keith Childress Junior. Justice for Janet Wilson. Justice for Randy Nelson. Justice for Antronie Scott. Justice for Wendell Celestine. Justice for David Joseph. Justice for Calin Roquemore. Justice for Dyzhawn Perkins. Justice for Christopher Davis. Justice for Marco Loud. Justice for Peter Gaines. Justice for Torrey Robinson. Justice for Darius Robinson. Justice for Kevin Hicks. Justice for Mary Truxillo. Justice for Demarcus Semer. Justice for Willie Tillman. Justice for Terrill Thomas. Justice for Sylville Smith. Justice for Alton Sterling. Justice for Philando Castile. Justice for Terence Crutcher. Justice for Paul O’Neal. Justice for Alteria Woods. Justice for Jordan Edwards. Justice for Aaron Bailey. Justice for Ronell Foster. Justice for Stephon Clark. Justice for Antwon Rose II. Justice for Botham Jean. Justice for Pamela Turner. Justice for Dominique Clayton. Justice for Atatiana Jefferson. Justice for Christopher Whitfield. Justice for Christopher McCorvey. Justice for Eric Reason. Justice for Michael Lorenzo Dean. Justice for Breonna Taylor. Justice for George Floyd. Justice for… Justice for… Justice for… Justice for… Justice for…

How long do we let this continue? How long do we allow society to choose tranquility over justice? How many people do you know, more outraged over property damage than they were over the murder of a black man? Racism has never gone away, we’re just able to record it now.

#BlackLivesMatter

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT:  AP Photo/Julio Cortez

 

Zatta: A Free 18th Century Cartography Brush Set for Fantasy Maps

Ever since launching Lehmann in 2018, I’ve wanted to revisit the era of the hachure map. The middle-19th century is easily my favorite era of cartography—a transition from rough representation towards accuracy had begun. Representing physical geography with flat top-down perspectives meant that maps would require a new way to display relief and hachures filled the transient space between hill profiles and the modern topographical maps we use today.

With that in mind, I’m excited to announce the launch of Zatta, my latest free hachure-focused brush set for you to create your own fantastical map for your books, games, or whatever creative cartographical project you want to tackle.

[image error]

Hachure maps didn’t really see popularity until the 19th century, so finding extensive use in a map from 1775 meant I was able to capture them in their early transitory stage. This set comes from L’Estremadura di Portogallo a 1775 map of southern Portugal created by Italian cartographer Antonio Zatta as part of his Atlante Novissimo. (Fun fact: large portions of the maps contained in this atlas still use hill-profiles.) It’s a beautiful map, and the set that emerged from it is perfect for flintlock fantasy, steampunk, or anything that sits on that edge between the 18th and 19th centuries.

I did my best to organize the hachures in a way that would make sense—in this case, I organized them in the cardinal and secondary-intercardinal directions they “pointed.” But! The best part is hachures don’t really care what direction they point, and you can easily rotate the brush to orientate your relief whatever direction you want. (Use the left and right arrow keys in Photoshop to turn them by a degree – or use shift-left and shift-right to rotate them by 15º increments.)

[image error]

You still find plenty of profile-style signs intermixed with the hachures. It creates a fantastic interplay between the symbols. Symbols for forests, towns, and villages all have a familiar look where the larger fortified settlements have opted for the top-down orientation to better fit within the contours suggested by the hachures.

Those little fortified settlements are interesting, as well—sometimes they were labeled as cities, and other times they bore the label “castel” and sometimes “villa.” Like the hachures themselves, I see these working as a bridge between historical symbols and modern top-down approaches to settlement boundaries. The distinctiveness between each of these signs allows for their use variety of applications—they can easily transition into whatever role you need them to play.

Zatta is a decent sized set, with over 500 brushes I’m sure you’ll find plenty here. The full set includes the following:

25 North Facing Hatchures
25 Northeast Facing Hatchures
35 East Facing
50 [image error] Southeast
60 South
25 Southwest
30 West
15 Northwest
10 Crowns
20 Small Settlements
10 Towers
30 Small Towns
30 Towns
70 Fortified Settlements (Castles? Forts? Cities? I provide! You decide!)
50 Trees
20 Unique
2 Cartouches

The button below links to a ZIP file that contains a Photoshop brush set (it’ll also work with GIMP and Affinity Photo) as well as a set of transparent PNGs in case you’re using a program that doesn’t support Adobe brush files. I’ve separated them by type: Landforms and Settlements and Flora. They’re black, and on a transparent background, so they’ll look broken if viewed in Chrome, but trust me, they’re all there.

DOWNLOAD ZATTA

As with all of my previous brush sets, Zatta is free for any use. I distribute my sets with a Creative Common, No Rights Reserved License (CC0), which means you can freely use this and any of my brushes in commercial work and distribute adaptations. (Details on this decision here.) No attribution is required. Easy peasy!

Enjoy Zarra? Feel free to show me what you created by sending me an email or finding me on Twitter. I love seeing how these brushes get used, and I’d be happy to share your work with my readers. Let me see what you make!

Raunch Review: True Blood

Raunch Reviews is a series about profanity. Not real profanity, but speculative swearing. Authors often try to incorporate original, innovative forms of profanity into our own fantastical works as a way to expand the worlds we build. Sometimes we’re successful. Often we’re not. In this series, I examine the faux-profanity from various works of sci-fi and fantasy, judge their effectiveness, and rate them on an unscientific and purely subjective scale. This is Raunch Reviews, welcome.

[image error] Raunch Review: True Blood
The Author: Charlaine Harris (Books), Alan Ball (HBO Show)
Work in Question: True Blood
The Profanity: “Fangbanger”

True Blood is the HBO series born from the pages of Charlene Harris’ The Southern Vampire Mysteries. The series follows the adventures and romances of Sookie Stackhouse. The story takes place in a Louisiana where, thanks to the invention of synthetic blood, everyone has recently discovered that vampires (among other things) are real, and they move freely among humans. As a result, awkward and sometimes violent situations arise from these two formerly adversarial communities now interacting.

In the novels, the term “fangbanger” comes across as a self-prescribed moniker, not unlike headbanger or hippie. Cult-like followers of people who allow vampires to drink from them. In the HBO series—which we’re focused on today—the term often used as a sort of derogatory expression calling out one’s proclivities regarding vampires. If you have sex with a vampire, you get called a “fangbanger” by those with an anti-vampire prejudice.

And look, I understand the intent here, but the term is just so downright ridiculous I can’t get behind it—especially in the intended use of the television series. I could see it being much stronger if “fang” was used as a slur, but it’s not. As a result, the phrase comes across as goofy and unintentionally injects odd comedic moments into dialog. It’s not the worst I’ve seen, but it ain’t great.

Score: [image error][image error][image error][image error][image error] (2.0)

Give Yourself Permission

It seems like every few months on Twitter there’s a pile-on, as one author dispenses what they feel is critical advice in the career of writing. Then, a multitude of other writers push back. It’s due to the nature of social media that the tones of these interactions tend to be combative; as such, the results are rarely positive, for both the dialog within the community and for human interaction in general. Indeed, the way advice is shared also plays into its impact. “Thou Shalls” aren’t generally well-received outside of the sanctuary. But this isn’t about our collective tone on Twitter. I want to talk about advice, its giving and receiving. 

Advice is a tricky thing. When it comes from someone we admire, we tend to key into it more. We’ll listen and reflect, perhaps even embrace it. Yet, upon receiving advice from an unknown, or someone you actively dislike, the reactions tend to flare in the opposite direction—regardless of what’s being said. Likewise, it’s not uncommon to want to share advice and help others avoid the mistakes and pitfalls we’ve faced ourselves.

Yet, for some reason, occasional opinions often blossom within the zeitgeist and they become commonly accepted rules. Current trends with dialog tags have gone this direction. Not a week goes past without someone echoing Stephen King’s famous “the road to hell is paved with adverbs,” advice that King himself rarely follows. And a few weeks ago, literary agent DongWon Song made a keen observation on a common adage among genre writers: “Start with the action!”

I think one of the most misunderstood pieces of writing advice is how writers are told to start with action or something exciting. So much of the time I read the first few pages and feel nothing but disorientation and impatience.

— dongwon (@dongwon) May 8, 2020

It’s a refrain I’m sure you’ve heard before, and it’s been repeated for many years. It’s crept into books on writing, I’ve heard my fellow authors mention it on panels, I’ve seen reviewers praise it, and some readers have come to expect it. New authors hear advice like this from someone they admire and then try to force their story into its narrow confines. That can lead to frustration; it’s disheartening when your story doesn’t want to “start with the action.”

It’s not that the advice itself is terrible. It’s the spirit in which it’s presented which implies that there is no other way. The disorientation DongWon mentions is the result of a story being forced. For some books, it might be perfectly acceptable to start with action. But every story is different. Every story has its own agenda. Often, breakout novels succeed because they shirk trends. They do something different and in doing so they stand out. And what are the trends, if not the agreed-upon rules for that particular moment in time?

If you’re new to writing, take heart. There are no hard-and-fast rules for how your story needs to be told. Even language and grammar are malleable. (Collective gasp from the English majors.) Approach writing advice as if you were shopping. Glean what inspires. Ignore what holds you back. No matter how it’s presented, advice is nothing more than someone sharing what worked for them. Let your story dictate its own rules. If starting with action is the right path, then follow it. If that sentence needs an adverb, then use one. Throw an expressive dialog tag into the mix! Give yourself permission to write your story the way it needs to be told. You’ll write a better story and be a happier author.

[image error]

EXTENDED—Helping the WCK Fight Hunger

I’ve seen a host of kind-hearted readers helping me raise money for the World Central Kitchen during the current COVID-19 crisis. Now more than ever it’s important to come together and help those facing food insecurity. To continue this fight, I’m going to extend my offer donating 100% of the profits of eBook copies of The Stars Were Right through June 1st. So there’s still time to help. Details about the WCK, the good work they’re doing, why I selected them, and how you can help are below.

I like food. I’m a food nerd. A “foodie.” I like to cook. I like to eat. I’ll try anything at least once. This isn’t a secret. So, it’ll come as no surprise that when I see a charity founded by a famous chef with the goal of helping the hungry during a time of crisis, it immediately piques my interest. It’s the sort of charity I’m glad to support.

Ten years ago, Chef José Andrés and his wife Patricia Fernández de la Cruz started the World Central Kitchen to prepare food for those in need following a devastating earthquake in Haiti. Since then, the organization has expanded and has continued working to solve the issues of hunger that always arrives alongside disaster. They’ve been everywhere and have helped in all sorts of emergencies, from hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornados, wildfires, to the U.S. government shutdown, or the refugee crisis along the Colombia/Venezuelan and U.S./Mexico borders. Where there are hungry people, World Central Kitchen is there to feed them.

[image error] Photo via World Central Kitchen/WCK.org

Since the rise of COVID-19 and its rampage across the globe, World Central Kitchen has stepped up yet again, organizing food relief for communities struggling in the crisis as well as helping to feed the first-responders working to save the sick. With their #ChefsForAmerica program, they’re also recruiting local restaurants putting them back to work and bringing them into their fight against hunger. They’re currently serving over 160,000 meals per day.

I can’t think of a more noble cause right now, and I want to help the WCK as they work to help others. You can join me in donating to the World Central Kitchen by clicking the link below.

DONATE TODAY

Follow the WCK on social media, they’re very active on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and you can get a glimpse at the noble work they’re doing. Want to volunteer? Details on how you can help are available here.

Need more incentive?

[image error]

A few weeks ago, I lowered the eBook price of my first novel, The Stars Were Right down to 99¢—it’s as low as retailers will let me go. Since then, 100% of the profits from any purchase of The Stars Were Right from any channel will be donated to the World Central Kitchen. No matter where you make your purchase, you get a bit of escapism, and together we’ll help feed those in need during this time of crisis. Not a bad deal, right?

You can buy the eBook from any of the retailers listed below. Want to help me give more to the World Central Kitchen? Use Gumroad and name your price—100% of the earnings will be donated at the end of the promotion.

Kindle • Kobo • Nook • Apple Books  • Google Play • Gumroad

Speaking of name your own price…

Don’t have 99¢? Get the book anyway. (Seriously.)

I realize as I put this book on sale, an astronomical number of people around the world have lost their jobs over the last few weeks. To those folks, even 99¢ can seem like a lot to swing for a piece of entertainment. So, if you can’t afford to buy the book right now, you can download it for free. Use the Gumroad link above and set the price at zero and bam, it’s yours.

As I said a few weeks ago, we’re all in this together. Stay home. Stay healthy. Stay safe. Let’s flatten the curve. We’ll get through this.

[image error] Photo via World Central Kitchen/WCK.org

Want to stay in touch with me? Sign up for Dead Drop, my rare and elusive newsletter. Subscribers get news, previews, and notices on my books before anyone else delivered directly to their inbox. I work hard to make sure it’s not spammy and full of interesting and relevant information.  SIGN UP TODAY →

As For Courage and Will

“As for courage and will – we cannot measure how much of each lies within us, we can only trust there will be sufficient to carry through trials which may lie ahead.”

―Andre Norton

FEATURED IMAGE CREDIT:  AP Images

Want to stay in touch with me? Sign up for Dead Drop, my rare and elusive newsletter. Subscribers get news, previews, and notices on my books before anyone else delivered directly to their inbox. I work hard to make sure it’s not spammy and full of interesting and relevant information.  SIGN UP TODAY →

Raunch Review: Stargate SG-1

Raunch Reviews is a series about profanity. Not real profanity, but speculative swearing. Authors often try to incorporate original, innovative forms of profanity into our own fantastical works as a way to expand the worlds we build. Sometimes we’re successful. Often we’re not. In this series, I examine the faux-profanity from various works of sci-fi and fantasy, judge their effectiveness, and rate them on an unscientific and purely subjective scale. This is Raunch Reviews, welcome.

[image error] Raunch Review: Stargate SG-1
The Author: Brad Wright & Jonathan Glassner
Work in Question: Stargate SG-1
The Profanity: “Mit’ka”

Science fiction television has always struggled with representing alien languages. Often times, we see the challenge of creating them subverted by a universal translator trope allowing the actors to speak so the audience can understand. It saves time and prevents every episode from becoming a rehash of Arrival. (And let’s face it, few shows can achieve a Darmok.) As a plot device, it’s handy. But the introduction of a translator always means there’s a bit of a plot hole, and it usually comes in the form of a faux-profanity.

Aris Boch: The System Lords think that you are a pain in the mit’ka.

Col. Jack O’Neill: Neck?

Teal’c: No.

Season 3, Episode 7, Dead Man’s Switch

Even played for laughs, it’s reasonably clear what “mit’ka” is replacing. As far as an alien language goes—in this case, Goa’uld—it’s a sufficiently decent direction feeling unique and obscure enough to come across as natural. But it’s not really accentuating parlance in any unique way—it’s a one-to-one replacement. And, since Goa’uld is supposed to be a precursor to Demotic/Coptic/Egyptian, that’s fine. It works even if it’s not doing something unique. Funny enough, Stargate SG-1 never thoroughly explains how all the aliens or ancient humans speak English, even taking this into account, I do find it interesting that the “universal translator” of SG-1 can transpose everything butt (

Janssonius: A Free 17th Century Cartography Brush Set for Fantasy Maps

If you’re like me most-likely you’re sheltering in place and doing your part to flatten the curve and keeping your loved ones, neighbors, and community healthy and safe. That comes with some downtime and that downtime is the perfect moment to dabble in cartography project! So, with that in mind, over the weekend I put together another free brush set for you to use in your projects.

[image error]

This is Janssonius, a topographical brush set with a nautical flair based on Johannes Janssonius’ 1650 nautical chart of the Bay of Bengal, and I could see it being excellent for a wide variety of projects.

Often historical cartographers would use symbols familiar to their viewers no matter where a map was set, hills and mountains were rendered similar in appearance to those at home. Here, however, Janssonius incorporated local floral and landforms giving his chart a more tropical flair. It sets the symbols on these charts apart from his contemporaries like Joan Blaeu, and it adds a nice touch to the overall map.

[image error]

I can’t wait to see what you create before now I haven’t based a set on nautical charts. So this round, I made sure to incorporate a whole host of maritime symbols—rocks, sounding marks, shallows, and a whole bunch more. This will be handy if you’re telling a tale set on the high seas or just want to add a flash of authenticity to the coasts of your maps. The full set has 275 brushes and includes the following:

5 Individual Tents
7 Grouped Tents
25 Towns
10 Cities
6 Forts [Note: These could be symbols for mills, but taking into consideration the nature of the map, I believe they’re most likely fortifications.]
25 Trees
25 Palm Trees
10 Palm Tree Groups
8 Forests
6 Fields
20 Hills
30 Mountains
10 Mountain Ranges
3 Anchorages
2 Shipwrecks
20 Rocks
4 Shallows with Rocks
10 Small Shallows
5 Shallow Textures
30 Sounding Marks
5 People Cartouches
3 Map Cartouches
6 Ship Cartouches

The button below links to a ZIP file that contains a Photoshop brush set (it’ll also work in GIMP and with Affinity Photo) as well as a set of transparent PNGs in case you’re using a program that doesn’t support Adobe brush files. I’ve separated them by type: Settlements, Flora, & Landforms, and Nautical Symbols & Cartouches. They’re black, and they’ll look broken if viewed in Chrome, but trust me, they’re all there.

DOWNLOAD JANSSONIUS

As with all of my previous brush sets, Janssonius is free for any use. I distribute my sets with a Creative Common, No Rights Reserved License (CC0), which means you can freely use this and any of my brushes in commercial work and distribute adaptations. (Details on this decision here.) No attribution is required. Easy peasy!

Enjoy Janssonius? Feel free to show me what you created by sending me an email or finding me on Twitter. I love seeing how these brushes get used, and I’d be happy to share your work with my readers. Let me see what you make!

Helping the World Central Kitchen Fight Hunger

I like food. I’m a food nerd. A “foodie.” I like to cook. I like to eat. I’ll try anything at least once. This isn’t a secret. So, it’ll come as no surprise that when I see a charity founded by a famous chef with the goal of helping the hungry during a time of crisis, it immediately piques my interest. It’s the sort of charity I’m glad to support.

Ten years ago, Chef José Andrés and his wife Patricia Fernández de la Cruz started the World Central Kitchen to prepare food for those in need following a devastating earthquake in Haiti. Since then, the organization has expanded and has continued working to solve the issues of hunger that always arrives alongside disaster. They’ve been everywhere and have helped in all sorts of emergencies, from hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, tornados, wildfires, to the U.S. government shutdown, or the refugee crisis along the Colombia/Venezuelan and U.S./Mexico borders. Where there are hungry people, World Central Kitchen is there to feed them.

[image error] Photo via World Central Kitchen/WCK.org

Since the rise of COVID-19 and its rampage across the globe, World Central Kitchen has stepped up yet again, organizing food relief for communities struggling in the crisis as well as helping to feed the first-responders working to save the sick. With their #ChefsForAmerica program, they’re also recruiting local restaurants putting them back to work and bringing them into their fight against hunger. They’re currently serving over 160,000 meals per day.

I can’t think of a more noble cause right now, and I want to help the WCK as they work to help others. You can join me in donating to the World Central Kitchen by clicking the link below.

DONATE TODAY

Follow the WCK on social media, they’re very active on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and you can get a glimpse at the noble work they’re doing. Want to volunteer? Details on how you can help are available here.

Need more incentive?

[image error]

A few weeks ago, I lowered the eBook price of my first novel, The Stars Were Right down to 99¢—it’s as low as retailers will let me go. Since then, 100% of the profits from any purchase of The Stars Were Right from any channel will be donated to the World Central Kitchen. No matter where you make your purchase, you get a bit of escapism, and together we’ll help feed those in need during this time of crisis. Not a bad deal, right?

You can buy the eBook from any of the retailers listed below. Want to help me give more to the World Central Kitchen? Use Gumroad and name your price—100% of the earnings will be donated at the end of the promotion.

Kindle • Kobo • Nook • Apple Books  • Google Play • Gumroad

Speaking of name your own price…

Don’t have 99¢? Get the book anyway. (Seriously.)

I realize as I put this book on sale, an astronomical number of people around the world have lost their jobs over the last few weeks. To those folks, even 99¢ can seem like a lot to swing for a piece of entertainment. So, if you can’t afford to buy the book right now, you can download it for free. Use the Gumroad link above and set the price at zero and bam, it’s yours.

As I said a few weeks ago, we’re all in this together. Stay home. Stay healthy. Stay safe. Let’s flatten the curve. We’ll get through this.

[image error] Photo via World Central Kitchen/WCK.org

Want to stay in touch with me? Sign up for Dead Drop, my rare and elusive newsletter. Subscribers get news, previews, and notices on my books before anyone else delivered directly to their inbox. I work hard to make sure it’s not spammy and full of interesting and relevant information.  SIGN UP TODAY →