Cheryl Mahoney's Blog

Launch Day: Pesto and Potions

I’m finally back with a new book to share!  This is an especially exciting one, because it was a collaborative project with three of my closest writing friends – and we’ve been working on it since 2019!  I think you’re going to love Pesto and Potions, a paranormal lesbian romance featuring witches, parkour, recipes and vampires.  Buy your choice of ebook here, or buy a paperback copy.

Here’s more about the story:

With vampires on the rise and the city under threat, who would have thought love – ...

Launch Day: The Princess Beyond the Thorns

My newest book is launching! The Princess Beyond the Thorns, Book Two of the Thorns Saga, is now available as a Kindle, paperback, or hardback.

This has been a long time in the writing (since 2019!) and I’m excited to finally share this book. It continues the character and relationship arcs of the first book, exploring deeper into the world and the new challenges the characters are facing.

Here’s a little more about the story, from the back of the book:

What’s a princess to do when happily ever ...

Coming Soon: The Princess Beyond the Thorns

I’m so pleased to announce my next book will be out in March: The Princess Beyond the Thorns, Book Two of the Thorns Saga.  The Kindle edition is already available for pre-order, and the paperback and hardback will be available on launch day, March 12th.

As I’ve shared on the blog before, I’ve been working on this one for a very long time – since NaNoWriMo 2019!  That makes it especially exciting to finally be sharing it with all of you.  I hope you’ll enjoy reading the next installment in the s...

2023 Reading Round-Up

We’re entering into January, so it’s time to look back at my reading from 2023.  I read 120 books this year, which is a nice increase on recent years.  I’ve been trying to do more reading, less phone time, so maybe that’s why!  Here’s a look at the details…

1) Best of…
I’ve been splitting my “Best of” books for the past several years, so that I can highlight the ones that were best in very specific ways.

1A) Best Premise: After Anne by Logan Steiner – I loved the idea of a novel retelling the li...

What I’ve Been Reading Lately (November & December, 2023)

With all the writing focus on NaNoWriMo in November, I missed doing a reading update last month!  So now that the dust has settled on NaNo and on the holidays, I thought I’d hit the highlights today for the last couple months, before doing my annual Reading Round-up at the end of the year.

In the past two months, I read two more Terry Pratchett books, Interesting Times and The Last Continent, both wizards/Rincewind books.  Rincewind went first to Discworld Asia (with a surprise return of Twoflow...

NaNoWriMo 2023 – Day #30

It’s the last day of November, and that means the end of NaNoWriMo!  I’m happy to report a very successful NaNoWriMo this year.  I actually passed 50,000 words on November 26th, and managed to make it to 60,000 words today, for a final total of 60,417.

I really wanted to get as much of the story written as I could while I had good momentum going.  I probably need around 10,000 words more to get to the end of the story, so I plan to continue in the first part of December.  At a slower pace, thoug...

NaNoWriMo 2023 – Day #12

More than a third of the way through NaNoWriMo already!  It’s been going very well so far – I’ve built up a nice cushion of extra words, which may be helpful in the later part of the month, which I expect to be busier.

I’ve been really enjoying the writing this time around.  The story has been flowing very well, I think in part because I have a solid outline.  I don’t get stuck wondering where to go next, because I did that planning in October.  Though just yesterday I made some revisions to my ...

NaNoWriMo 2023 – Day #2

Another November and National Novel Writing Month is upon us!  I’ve been planning for this year’s NaNo for the past several weeks.  I’m working on drafting the fifth and final book of my Thorns saga, The Queen of Thorns.  I’ve had some vague ideas around this book for years – back when it was supposed to be Book 3, and I had no idea there’d be two other books in the series!

Since I did end up with two other books, with their own lead characters, I’m excited to use Book 5 to bring everything back...

What I’ve Been Reading Lately (October, 2023)

Happy almost-Halloween!  I think I’ll kick-off this month’s recap of reading with my one spooky book – Goosebumps: Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes by R. L. Stine.  My book club opted to go fun and nostalgic this month, and each of us picked a Goosebumps book to read.  I was actually never a fan back when I was the target age (although I later read Phantom of the Auditorium…of course) but this was a fun, silly read now.  It’s a basic enough premise of lawn gnomes who come to life, create mischief, and...

Writing Update (October, 2023)

It’s been a little while since I did a writing update – while projects were moving along, there wasn’t much new to report!  Drafts finally feel like they’re moving to a new stage though.

I made some revisions to Thorns 2, then sent that out for a second-round of beta reader feedback.  I received comments back without huge edits needed, so that’s always encouraging to see!  I made some final-ish revisions, then printed the draft out and have started reading it out loud to my husband, to find any ...