R.J. Blain's Blog, page 18

You had questions! I have answers.

This post exists to answer questions I’ve received more than once recently… or once, but it was important enough it deserves an answer. There are a few questions nobody has asked yet, but I’m certain someone will be asking soon. (Albeit not many of those.)

Regarding Patreon:

Q: I have a cindercorn $5.99 membership; why can’t I see the read alongs?

A: That is the per novel Patreon perk. You need the monthly Patreon, which you can find here. Cindercorns and Spicy Ponies with Bite ($25, $1...

Last Call for Cindercorns and Spicy Ponies with Bite! (Plus some general updates)

I forgot (due to family illness from the convention) to remove the first chapter of Murder Floof. I will be zapping both the first chapter of Murder Floof and the first chapter of The Trickster King on Wednesday (when the next scene of the Trickster King is uploaded.)

If you want in on the action, now is the time to subscribe to the monthly patreon in either the Cindercorn of the Spicy Ponies with Bite tiers.

Some updates to Patreon:

The Patreon store works well for book delivery, so I ...

Using Photography to fund the Royal States Series…

Following the Vampire of Montana drama, I evaluated the Royal States series to rather unpleasantly discover the only person to not be paid for the books was me. (This is never a good situation to be in.) As such, I changed how I was working on my novels.

I have two funding lines for books: the future productions line and the Royal States series. The only place that is funding the Royal States series is my monthly patreon. After taxes and fees, 60% of my regular Patreon earnings (excluding...

Upcoming Sales Dates (Celebrating the release of Whiskers on Kittens!)

Behind on the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) series? While most of the books can be read as standalones, this will let you get a hefty chunk at the series at an affordable price!

Here is the schedule for the sale:

Playing with Fire: September 25 to October 1, 2023: $0.99. ($6.99 after sale.)Hoofin’ It: October 2 to October 8, 2023: $0.99. ($7.99 after sale.)Hearth, Home, and Havoc: October 9 to October 15, 2023: $0.99. ($3.99 after sale.)Serial Killer Princess: Oc...

There’s a Seanan McGuire Humble Bundle! (I paid $25 for the whole collection! Squee!)

You need a Kobo account to claim the books. You can get the collection here. Excess funds go to charity.

Last Call! Murder Floof Read Along begins on Cinder+ Monthly Patreon today!

Greetings, folks! In case you missed it, the new read along for a Bernadette Franklin novel (Murder Floof) begins today on the monthly Patreon. Cindercorns and Spicy Ponies with Bite are the ones who will be receiving the story scene by scene.

As a reminder, the scenes will only be on the site for one week. Patreon will email you the scene so you have a copy in your person records.

Otters will receive the book when it is ready for publication, as normal, several days before its official pu...

I’m sometimes dumb: minor change to what I said in last post.

After consideration, and realizing I can be a dumb-dumb sometimes, I’ll be distributing the original third-person Requiem for the Rift King and the Eye of God debut novel after I am done running all three through the Pixie Patron+ read alongs. (What does this mean? It means that if you are a Pixie, Otter, Cindercorn, or Spicy Pony with Bite, you will get an anthology version of the book file after all three conclude their time.)

I will distribute the link to the book via private message, so y...

How my Patreon (Monthly) will work moving forward… (plus schedule for upcoming read alongs.)

Greetings!

With the onslaught of AI books flooding Amazon (and other retailers) among other things, life has been hard as an author. For a very brief recap, essentially, people (who couldn’t actually write their own book to save their life), are feeding prompts into AI tools to write “stories” for them.

Essentially, a machine can write a “book” in like thirty minutes, where it takes me 300+ hours to produce something. Hip-hip-hooray.

So, I’m trying something a little different with my P...

One of my friends has a new book out today!

This looks like a fun romp, so I thought I’d share it with you. Note: I have not read the book. There will be adult-centric matter in this series, including adult fun sexytimes, so approach appropriately. There’s an excerpt at the bottom, which Deborah kindly provided.

You can purchase Big Demon Energy at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, and Kobo.

She’s just a demon, standing in front of a vampire, trying not to punch him. 

Aviva Fleischer has a secret life.

To all appearances she’s a ...

I guess it’s time to talk about AI Books…

I haven’t wanted to discuss this. AI is such a controversial subject, and I would rather not have any more drama than I already have, but the fact is… AI is here, and it’s infecting all digital bookstores (and print stores…) near you.

What is an AI book? An AI book is a story, informational piece, or any form of media that is created by a computer following a prompt from a human. So, someone can write a “book” by telling a piece of software to “tell a story about a dragon named Bob romancing ...