Kelly Apple's Blog, page 7
December 11, 2020
Heart of Stone: The Complete Series is now available!
Instead of my regular Feature Friday today, I get to feature my newest release! OMG!
That’s right, my friends, Heart of Stone: The Complete Series is live and kicking! And as with all the Monstrous books, it’s available to read free in Kindle Unlimited.
If you’ve read the individual installments (parts 1-8), this will be nothing new. Except, you know, it’s compiled together in one sweet, sweet 380 page book. (No lie, it always amazes me when I see how many pages I ended up writing for these books. A 50 page book doesn’t seem that long, but EIGHT 50 page parts add up. They add up so SO nicely.)
FYI, this is officially book 1 of the Monstrous World series. Book 2 will feature Lon and Ivy on their part of the road trip and is going to be called Wild at Heart. Probably. I mean, I’m like, 98% certain about that title. Maybe 99.4%. So chances are pretty good that one’s going to stick.
Anywho. NEW BOOK! ENJOY!
Heart of Stone: The Complete Series(Heart of Stone Complete Series #1, Monstrous World #1)
AmazonRelease Date: December 9, 2020
Pages: 380
When the gods wake, the impossible can happen…
For Cin Malone, wanting to know more about her gargoyle mate’s people seems like a no-brainer. Finding out Vane has a brother potentially living close by is the perfect opportunity for a road trip.
After all, spending time with her grumbly honey is no hardship and meeting family is part and parcel with the mate thing, right?
Who would have ever guessed that one innocent road trip would have the power to change the world. Plus, you know, there might be some curse breaking, some treasure finding, and the type of family reunion no one was expecting.
Warning: This book contains family. Not all of which is good. Fortunately for Vane, the good far outweighs the bad. Double fortunately, this road trip gives Vane and Cin the opportunity to connect in plenty of places, if you know what I mean.
<A Rock and a Hard Place
The post Heart of Stone: The Complete Series is now available! appeared first on Kelly Apple.
December 4, 2020
Feature Friday – Monstrous Matchmaker
Ahhh, yes. Ari’s second book. The book where the nymph gives her all to matching her supernatural friends up with the peeps of their dreams.
This book spring from my inability to let things go.
I’m only partially joking about that. I do have a hard time letting go (and basically have to tell myself I can always write another book with these characters when I get to the end), but I also wanted all Ari’s buddies to get their own HEA.
Thus, Ari’s matchmaking enterprise was born.
She kind of went about making those early matches a little haphazardly, but her friends ended up happy and that’s what counts, RIGHT? (I like to tell myself she refined her matchmaking procedures as time went on, but this IS Ari we’re talking about. She’s, like, 95% lack of impulse control and 5% a little voice in her head urging minor amounts of caution. So, you know, maybe she’ll always be haphazard and sort of flighty.)
This book was also the “finding her place in this new world she’s been thrust into” portion of Ari’s journey. She’d gorged herself on the supernatural buffet in Tales and loved it, but now she needed to find her niche so she could dispense all her hard-won nymphly advice to others.
Matchmaking, my friends. The lady is a natural. (most of the time!)
Monstrous Matchmaker: The Complete SeriesAmazonRelease Date: August 7, 2016
Pages: 347
Genre: Monster Erotica
The nymph with a plan has a gift for hooking couples up…and she’s determined to use it.
Ari Colton knows monsters. She’s made friends and found both her mate and herself among them. Wanting to give back to those who have accepted her so readily, she sets up a matchmaking service to bring her beloved supernaturals together.
A bunch of oversexed monsters led by a nymph who can’t keep her panties on—the possibilities for the future are endless…
Monstrous Matchmaker: The Complete Series contains:
Operation Werewolf
Operation Dragon
Operation Merman
Operation Naga
Operation Minotaur
Operation Gargoyle
Operation Sasquatch
Operation Date Night
<< Monstrous Tales: The Complete Series - Monstrous Revelations: The Complete Series >>
{Monstrous Matchmaker serial page}
The post Feature Friday – Monstrous Matchmaker appeared first on Kelly Apple.
December 1, 2020
Looking Back on November
November has…well, it went quickly. Between election stress (I became a champion Doom-Scroller in early November because of that stress, thankyouverymuch), pandemic stress (I really haven’t left my house for anything but grocery shopping since March…it’s a good thing I like my family since I see them so much, I guess!), and end of the year deadlines with my day job (hahahahahaha) things have been a little haphazard.
BUT…I did release the final installment of Heart of Stone in early November. Which gives me all sorts of happiness!
That’s right, A Rock and a Hard Place closes out Vane and Cin’s story and I really liked where they ended up. They gave us a little road tripping adventure, a lot of family (found and otherwise), a lesson or two in tolerance, and a few instances of road-side sexy times.
Because my monsters like to get frisky in semi-public places, apparently.
The complete series compilation will be released in early December. I’m just doing one last read-thru and finalizing the cover for that and then I’ll send that bad boy out into the world. YES!
On the writing front, I hit my writing goal with NaNoWriMo, but I didn’t get quite as far into Wild at Heart (Monstrous World #2!!!) as I hoped. You know how it is. Sometimes shiny new ideas pop into your head and you can’t shake them until you get the bare outline down on paper. So I wrote, but not always on what I had planned to write on.
That said, the writing doesn’t stop just because the month is over. I’ll continue working on Wild at Heart until I get that beast finished. JUST YOU WATCH ME!
So. Stay safe out there, my friends. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Do what you can to keep yourself and those around you from becoming a statistic.
Until next month!
PS: Amazon is DRRRRRAAAAAGGGGING their feet on creating the series page for Heart of Stone. That doesn’t mean much of anything, except I put the price on all the books down to .99 to celebrate it being complete and haven’t put them back to regular yet. If you can’t wait for the complete series to come out, you can grab each installment for under a buck. (The graphic below doesn’t even include part 8. Which just goes to show you how long I’ve been waiting for that series page to go live. LOL! Anyway. All parts are .99 even if they’re not on the graphic.)
The post Looking Back on November appeared first on Kelly Apple.
November 20, 2020
Feature Friday – Monstrous Tales
Since I’m prepping for the complete series release of Heart of Stone (it’s COMING!), I thought it would be fun to go back to the beginning to see how this entire monstrous world was born.
And it began with Arabella Colton. The human who found out she was a nymph. The nymph with a plan. The nymph with a whole lot of energy when it comes to sexin’ up monsters.
Why did I start writing that first little short that would morph into a multi-book saga? Ahh, well that’s a fun story. My BFF (and editor) Amanda and I were reviewing monster erotica for a small blog we used to have (as one does). At one point, ALL the books we were reading had the main female character being forced to bone monsters. ALL THE BOOKS. Seriously, literally every book we read in a concentrated stretch were full of reluctant consent or no consent at all.
I wasn’t keen on those rape-y overtones and I told Amanda I just wanted a book where the heroine was REALLY into doing the deed with monsters.
She told me to write what I wanted to read.
The beginning of Ari’s story sprang from that. Ari liked monsters. She wasn’t put off by the Guardian’s tentacles. She enjoyed sex in all its permutations.
And she was unabashed in her pursuit of pleasure. Like, the lady seriously went for it anywhere and everywhere she could. With a partner or solo. She just went for it.
Book 1 was fun to write. I wanted a heroine who was VERY into sex and a hero with tentacles. I also wanted to see if I could write a (more or less) complete story with a strict word count guideline. I aimed for 8-10K words and I did it. I DID IT.
Then I wanted to see if I could do it again.
The problem? I liked Liam (who at that point didn’t have a name and was just referred to as the Guardian) and I wanted him to end up with Ari. But I also wanted Ari to explore the various and sundry other supernaturals populating this world.
Because if there was a green, tentacled hunk of burning love hiding in the woods, there MUST be more monsters out there. RIGHT?!?!
So Liam was forced into a mating contract and Ari consoled herself by sampling the monstrous sexual buffet. Which, by the by, Liam absolutely wanted her to do. He didn’t want her to ever regret being with him because she hadn’t tried any of his fellow supernaturals out.
The world grew from there. Every monster brought another facet to the supernatural world (or at least that was my intention!) and Ari’s open sexual nature led to her recruiting allies to her cause even before she knew she had a cause to recruit them for.
The rest, as they say, is history. Ari saved her man. The monsters became a rowdy group of mismatched friends. Everyone lived happily ever after.
Well, eventually. But that’s another story for another book. AMIRITE?!?!
Monstrous Tales: The Complete SeriesAmazonRelease Date: November 9, 2014
Pages: 522
Genre: Monster Erotica, Paranormal Romance
Ari Colton’s always been a little different. She has a thing for monsters of all shapes and sizes, but she’s resigned herself to loving them only in her dreams. That is, until the day she’s abducted by one and finds an entire supernatural world right under her nose.
Now she has all the monsters she can handle and she’s loving every minute of it.
Monstrous Tales: The Complete Series contains:
The Wicked Woods
Wicked Games
The Wicked Wolf
The Wicked Dragon
The Wicked Merman
The Wicked Naga
Wicked Dreams
The Wicked Minotaur
The Wicked Gargoyle
The Wicked Sasquatch
The Wicked Lovers
The Wicked Ever After
Wicked Mating
Monstrous Matchmaker: The Complete Series >>
The post Feature Friday – Monstrous Tales appeared first on Kelly Apple.
November 18, 2020
Mid-Month NaNoWriMo Check In
After a looooong creative dry spell (seriously, my friends, the end of 2019 and most of 2020 can eat a bag of dicks for crapping on my creativity like it did), I decided to do what I needed to do to shake myself out of it.
So I signed up for NaNoWriMo (that’s Nation Novel Writing Month for those of us who don’t obsessively roll around in all things writing – you can find me here, if you’re so inclined.). Basically, I set out to write a novel (or the equivalent of one) in the month of November. Normally a person attempts to write 50K words in the month. I set my goal at 30K. Which translates to three-ish parts of a serialized novel.
Why 30K? Because it broke down to 1K a day. And 1K sounds doable to me. Especially when you’ve written minimal to nothing for most of the year.
1K? Yes. I can do that. Almost 2K a day? That…didn’t feel like I could work it into my schedule. And I didn’t want to fail myself out before I even started.
FYI, baby steps are still steps, people. Don’t ever let someone tell you you have to make big strides to get somewhere. All the big things in life are made up of little things. It might take me longer to reach the end, but I will get there. And I (hopefully) won’t sabotage myself along the way by getting down on myself for NOT hitting that bigger daily goal.
So where does that put me now? As of the writing of this blog post, I’ve crossed the 20K threshold on words for November. I’d started writing Wild at Heart (Lon and Ivy’s story in the Monstrous World series) before starting NaNo, so this puts me toward the middle/end of part 4 of the series.
The kicker, while I’d originally planned this to be an eight part series, it miiiiight be a little longer. Then again, it might not. I feel like there’s still a fair amount of story to tell and I’m almost at what I thought was the halfway point. As an aside, that really doesn’t mean anything because there’s a lot of word-ground left for me to play with and the story might surprise me with how it comes together. Then again, maybe this will end up being a super long story. WE’LL SEE!
(As another totally random aside, I am honestly amazed by authors who are all “Hey! I’m writing this book right this moment and I 100% know it will be finished in 2 weeks and you’ll have it in your hands on this specific date.” Like, whoa. WHOA. That’s some sort of black magic right there.)
To make a long story even longer, November has been good to me. I’ve got a chunk of writing under my belt over the first half of the month and I’m feeling good on where things are heading.
FYI, I’m tentatively eyeballing Wild at Heart as a Spring 2021 release. I have a book or two (or three) waiting in the wings for early 2021 and spring gives me plenty of time to finish writing, get edits done, and work on covers (GAH! Covers! I WILL NOT LET YOU DEFEAT ME!) without feeling rushed.
The post Mid-Month NaNoWriMo Check In appeared first on Kelly Apple.
November 13, 2020
Feature Friday – Echo
Ahh, yes. Thane and Zoe.
Fun fact, I ADORE stories where the main characters get snowed in or otherwise forced to spend time together and then end up falling for one another in a BIG way. ADORE THEM. Throw in some unresolved personal issues that get tackled and I’m a goner.
In other words, writing Thane and Zoe was fun for me. So much fun. I got to toss a siren in the mountains and give him a shy, tries-to-be-invisible neighbor who has a soft spot for animals.
Then I gave them a storm. OH YEAH.
Next thing you know they were getting nekkid and I was THRILLED.
In other words, if you like the neighbors-turned-lovers trope OR two people forced into close proximity by some ice and snow, I present Thane and Zoe, my friends!
(And, psst, Thane was the first siren introduced, but not the last. Heart of Stone has our road tripping group meeting a siren while on their journey. She’s sticking around for book 2 [Lon and Ivy’s story], so…now’s a great time to see what these supernaturals can do!)
EchoAmazonRelease Date: April 7, 2017
Pages: 71
Genre: Monster Erotica
When Thane Demarcos left home to travel the world, he never expected to end up stranded in a tiny mountain town so far from the water he can’t smell salt on the wind. For a Siren to be without the oceans close by is unheard of and he knows it’s only a matter of time before his family tracks him down to bring him home.
In the meantime, Thane’s stuck with a neighbor who takes in all the town’s strays and hardly remembers to care for herself. If Zoe Canton knew what was good for her, she’d stop spending all her money on dog food and start stocking up her pantry for the winter he can feel coming.
Fate being the tyrant she is, Thane and Zoe get unexpectedly snowed in and Thane finds himself grudgingly coming to understand the effervescent woman who cares too much. The more he learns about her, the more he comes to admire her.
Considering he’s bound to return to his watery home, this spells disaster for everyone.
Warning: This book contains a man who has exceptional allure and a woman who tries to live her life to the fullest. A round of drinks and karaoke for everyone. On the house.
<< Dream - Forgotten Monsters: The Lost and Found Collection >>
The post Feature Friday – Echo appeared first on Kelly Apple.
November 4, 2020
Heart of Stone 8 is LIVE!
It’s here! It’s here!
The conclusion to the Heart of Stone series has arrived!
Gods and monsters and treaties being born and magic abounding! And (of course) Vane and Cin having their private time in some not-so-private locations. (What can I say? Ari’s influence is mighty!)
This book was…I don’t know how to put this. The book itself wasn’t hard to write. I knew where it was going almost from the first (which doesn’t always happen, let me tell you!). I wrote it. I loved it. It tackled themes I hold near and dear.
And I had such a hard time putting it out into the world.
(Thanks, 2020.) (And, yes, I am TOTALLY blaming this turd of a year on how long the second half of this book took to come out. With everything going on, my concentration wasn’t worth anything. Throw in changing editors halfway through the book – nothing but love for both of them, btw, because they both rocked it! – and just being generally blah about everything slowed things down to a crawl.)
But here it is in all it’s rock hard glory.
Vane and Cin. A road trip. Family (both found and otherwise).
If you’re holding out for the complete series compilation, THAT should be here in early December.
Then…well, 2021 has some surprises in store. Think love in the stars and monsters finding their way. Not at the same time, though. Those are two separate entities.
Anywho. A Rock and a Hard Place is live and I am THRILLED with how it ended!
A Rock and a Hard PlaceAmazonRelease Date: November 1, 2020
Pages: 81
Genre: Monster Erotica, Paranormal Romance
Trekking through the heart of a mountain to find their lost sister is one thing. Teaming up with trolls to make the world a better place? Yeah, right. It’ll never happen.
You know what they say, though: When gods walk, nothing is out of reach.
Cin, Vane, and Cobalt have done the impossible already. What’s one more incredible feat before the sun rises?
Heck, why not just break that pesky curse the gargoyles have hanging over them while they’re at it?
Warning: This book contains happiness and curse-breaking and a whole lot of people finding their place in the world. And gods. What can we say about those guys? They just show up out of the blue sometimes.
<A Stone's Throw Away - Heart of Stone: The Complete Series >>
The post Heart of Stone 8 is LIVE! appeared first on Kelly Apple.
November 2, 2020
Looking Back on October
Ahh, October.
The weather got (a teeny-tiny bit) cooler. I got to decorate for my favorite spooky holiday. I released a book.
You know. All the regular stuff that happens in October.
You read that right, folks! October saw the release of part 7 of the Heart of Stone series. A Stone’s Throw Away is the set up for the finale, but THINGS HAPPEN! I swear! That’s right, magical things are lining up as our brave heroes get ready to knock this one out of the park.
Gods and monsters, my friends. LOVE THEM!
And to celebrate the release of the FINAL INSTALLMENT, books 1-7 are on sale for .99 each. NINETY NINE PENNIES, MY FRIENDS! You can follow along with Cin and Vane in all their technicolor glory.
SEXY ROAD TRIP SHENANIGANS!
For November, I’m jumping into NaNoWriMo with both feet. Sort of. I’m hoping to get a good portion of Wild at Heart (the second book in the Monstrous World series) completed. Which…sounds daunting right now. Mostly because 2020 has not been kind to my concentration or creativity.
But I’ve signed up. I’m committed. I’m going to work on that bad boy no matter what.
You can find me under Kelly Apple, if you’re so inclined. Watch me slay this beastly manuscript. Or die slowly on the vine. I’M SURE ONE OF THOSE WILL HAPPEN!
Until next month!
The post Looking Back on October appeared first on Kelly Apple.
October 27, 2020
Prepare Thyself for the Epic Conclusion!
Hello, my friends!
In honor of October (which is one of my favorite months since it has both my birthday – Happy Birthday, Me! – and Halloween!) AND that the final installment of Heart of Stone will be coming out soooooooon, I’ve put parts 1-7 on sale for .99 each.
NINETY-NINE PENNIES!
(Look! There’s a graphic for it and everything!)
This is the perfect time to catch up (or start it, if you haven’t already) since I’m eyeballing early November (OMG! NEXT WEEK!) for the release of part 8.
THE EPIC CONCLUSION IS COMING!
Heart of Stone tackles some of my favorite themes (found family, unconditional love, putting the past behind you) while letting one grumpy gargoyle and his human mate spend quality time together on a road trip. There also might be gods and various other monsters wandering across their path.
(Not going to lie, I do love my gods and monsters. They have a tendency to liven up the joint.)
As with all the Monstrous books, Heart of Stone is available to read free in Kindle Unlimited.
(And, psst, I’m working on book 2 of the Monstrous World series over November, so you’ll be seeing more of these crazy monsters in the future!)
Anywho. Handy links:
Rock Hard – https://amzn.to/2MROTdc
Grit and Bear It – https://amzn.to/31Ob884
Rock and Road – https://amzn.to/32VNoPR
Stone’s End – https://amzn.to/39Tbiy9
Gravel Bound – https://amzn.to/3gRTSq0
Best Laid Stones – https://amzn.to/2E0Fzku
A Stone’s Throw Away – https://amzn.to/34jS9oa
And don’t forget to mark your calendars because A Rock and a Hard Place is COMING SOON!
The post Prepare Thyself for the Epic Conclusion! appeared first on Kelly Apple.
October 23, 2020
Feature Friday – Dream
Book 3 in the Forgotten Monsters series features a nightmare who’s a little glitchy with his abilities.
He’s also trying to rule the world or something, so it’s probably good his abilities don’t work perfectly.
Ha! Man, I love it when power-mad monsters find their special someone and end up content with their lot in life.
Some totally random trivia: The names in this book actually have meaning. Cris Mara is named after Mare Crisium, the Sea of Crisis on the moon. Since, you know, nightmares come out at night and the moon rules the night sky, this grouchy nightmare got named after a celestial body. Or a crater on a celestial body. However you want to look at it.
As for Garnet…wellllll, I don’t actually remember what path I followed to link garnets to moon phases and all that, but there was a reason Cris’s special lady friend had that name. Maybe some day I’ll be able to recreate it and have a good story to tell.
Regardless, Cris and Garnet meet and clash and fall in lurve and there was a reason behind all of it!
DreamAmazonRelease Date: March 22, 2017
Pages: 63
Genre: Monster Erotica
Cris Mara is tired of hiding his true self. This disillusioned nightmare is ready to show the humans what he can do with the abilities he’s been born with. At least he will be once he masters the skill to walk the nightmare plane at will, not just when night closes over his part of the world.
Garnet Douglas can’t stop dreaming about the man she sees in a coffee shop near her college. He’s dangerous and fascinating and his darkness calls to her in ways she can’t explain. When an unexpected encounter reveals that Garnet’s dreams aren’t as random as she thought, she has to decide whether she’s ready to believe in the world Cris is part of or if she’d rather keep her head buried in the metaphorical sand.
The world is teetering on the brink of a revelation and Cris and Garnet are only the beginning.
Warning: This book contains one surly nightmare who can’t quite keep from going off prematurely. If only he could find a lady who complemented his darkness he might be able to figure things out.
The post Feature Friday – Dream appeared first on Kelly Apple.
