The Longest Night — Thank you!

by Cori Posted on June 5, 2018

It’s release day and, as usual, I am a mixture of excited and exhausted. I put less time into promoting this release than I usually do because Life but don’t mistake that for a lack of investment in this story, in these characters.

I freaking love Mary and Cairn, and I love visiting their world.

Before I get into telling you about this story and how to get your copy, though, I would first like to say a little something about pre-orders. I said this on my Twitter this morning and I’d like to share it again here too:

Before I get into a day filled with ‘Buy my book’ (which I’m totally going to do. Sorry, not sorry) I’d like to take a moment to thank everyone who pre-ordered this title. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

You know that saying, ‘It’s always darkest before the dawn’? Well, it’s also always darkest right before book release. That’s when my insecurities become bigger, the negative voice in my head becomes louder & my self-doubts grow teeth and start snarling.

That was especially true with this book because I was sick for several weeks which meant my promotion time was cut to basically nothing and I felt like I was floundering through life in general… and this release in particular.

Your pre-orders were lights in the darkness for me. That probably sounds hyperbolic, but it’s not. Every single one mattered.

Honestly? There weren’t many of them–I made less than $5 off pre-orders on this book–but pre-orders aren’t just about the money, or the algorithm or any of that.

To me each pre-order represented not only someone who wanted to know what happened next for Mary and Cairn, but potentially someone who wanted me to keep going. Keep writing. Keep trying. They mattered. Thank you. <3

Truly. Thank you so much!

If you pre-ordered your copy it should have downloaded to your devices this morning.

If you haven’t got your copy yet… there is no time like the present 😉

Mary wants her first Christmas with Cairn to be special, so in between practicing her magic, taking care of the farm and taking Cairn into her bed whenever possible, she’s making him a gift. 

Cairn knows exactly what he wants to give Mary for Christmas, but providing it will require a huge personal sacrifice. He likes to make Mary smile but is that reward enough to make it worth the price he’ll have to pay?

Available now

Amazon (US) (CA) (UK)

Kobo

Barnes & Noble

 

“Oh dear God … this book is HOT. My husband actually read one of the sex scenes and said, “All men should read this so they know what to do.” Bahaha!! I just love Mary as a fiery heroine, and Cairn is to die for. Both characters are beautiful, complex, and overflowing with sensuality. It’s a short read, so if you’re looking for an erotic pick-me-up, this is the book for you.”

— Sara Dobie Bauer author, Bite Somebody

 

“Undeniably sensual, full of heart, and with a healthy dose of darkness and magic, The Longest Night is the perfect little sexy snack! (Also, who knew horns could be so hot!)”

— Tiffany Michelle Brown author, Spin

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The Longest Wait

by Cori Posted on May 30, 2018

The Longest Night comes out in less than a week!

These next few days are going to feel the longest — I just can’t wait to finally get this story out and into the hands of my readers.

I started writing it like two Christmases ago. The idea was that I’d give away a short Christmasy story to my mailing list each year… which sounded awesome. I thought if I made the story feature characters from Circles in Circles it would not only reward my newsletter subscribers but provide an extra layer of reward to people who had read the first story.

So I decided to write about Mary and Cairn’s first Christmas together. The idea was that it was supposed to be a sort of paranormal erotic take on the O. Henry story, “The Gift of the Magi”. Short, sweet, and straight to the point.

That was the plan…

Then I started writing. And the story got longer and longer… and I was like, “Oh, I can use this thing to get a bit more about Cairn’s background in there, and this thing to give a hint about what’s going to happen in the next story…” and it sort of took on a life of it’s own.

Finding the connection between The Longest Night and “The Gift of the Magi” now is… well, pretty much impossible, though you might be able to find it if you look. But, on the upside, the sex is pretty hot and it’s a great bridge story between Circles Within Circles and the story that’s coming next. If you’ve read Circles Within Circles you’ll get more out of it, but my editor hadn’t read the first story and had no trouble keeping up with the second, so it stands on its own too.

Or that’s the hope, anyway LoL

Either way, it sure evolved a lot from my original plan… and waiting until release day is going to be hard.

Maybe I should have titled this one, “The Longest Wait”!

<3

Reserve your copy today for only a dollar!

Click here!

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Cocky Collaboration

by Cori Posted on May 19, 2018

So… I made all these plans, and schedules. And I shared them here to make me feel accountable… and then #Cockygate happened.

And Anna Kyle and I started working on a collaboration in response.

So now I have to add this* to the schedule AND bump it ahead of everything else to keep it relevant:

[mybookprogress book=”8″ simplesubscribe=”true” progress=”0.1281″ phase_name=”Exploratory Draft” deadline=”1527724800″ book_title=”Cocky” bar_color=”00b8cc”]

But the good news is that so far it’s been a lot of fun to write 🙂

*goal word count is an estimate

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Accountability, Progress and Organisation

by Cori Posted on April 30, 2018

The past few years–the last 18 months in particular–have been a blur of books. On one hand that is a great thing. On the other… most of those books were not my own. Between my authors books that I’ve edited, things I’ve published for Pen and Kink and, to a lesser extent, anthologies, I haven’t had a whole lot of time to work on my own writing. It’s time for that to change 🙂

I’m not ditching my authors or Pen and Kink Publishing by any means, but I am making time to spend on my own writing. In part that means taking on fewer editing projects, and publishing fewer new works through P&K, but in part it also means actually scheduling in time to write and establishing deadlines for myself rather than attempting to ‘fit it in’ where I can.

Between now and the end of next year my plans look something like this:

Pen and Kink Publishing
Transformed, edited by Charlie Watson (July 2018)
INKomplete series by Mara Malins (November 2018)
Haunted, edited by Trysh Thompson (2019)
Top Sekkrit Anthology, edited by me (2019)
My own works

Editing
INKomplete series
Top Sekkrit Anthology
Up to two WWP Titles

Writing
The Switch
She’s on the Bottom Bundle
Prairie Magic #3
Prairie Magic #4
Running on Empty #2
Paranormal Circus #1 (Ben and Maggie)
Paranormal Circles #2 (The one with the monkeys)
Paranormal Circles #3
Escapades #1 — The Manor
With Eyes to See #1
Gunpowder Girls #1

That looks like a lot, because it is a lot, but it’s not too much. At least, not if I stay focused, organised and feeling accountable.

The editing won’t take very long in actual work hours… the anthology might, because it’ll be open submissions, but it shouldn’t be too bad. And when it comes to publishing and promoting the P&K titles, Elesha and I have a pretty good system going now.

Writing will take up the bulk of my time, as it should, but all of those stories I’m planning to write are closer to novella length than novel, so in theory I should be able to write them pretty quickly once I get everything sorted in my head and actually get my butt in the chair to do them.

So, to help with that I’ve installed a handy dandy little widget. It’s called “My Book Progress” and you can see it on the left hand side of my blog… or here:

[mybookprogress simplesubscribe=”true”]

Dun da da duh!

I can use this to set deadlines and track my progress and you can follow along with me. Best of all, if you see that I’ve fallen behind on a deadline or you want me to speed up, you can press that ‘Nudge’ button and it will let me know that you’re feeling impatient and I should get my butt in gear.

I fully admit this is totally a toy, but I think it’ll be a helpful tool as well 🙂

I haven’t set all the deadlines yet–I have to sit down with some calendars and markers and do that sooner rather than later, but I’m starting to get things together and it feels pretty good. Pretty good, indeed.

Posted in Books, Goals, Just Stuff, Paranormal Circus, Pen and Kink Anthologies, Prairie Magic, Written | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Cover Reveal: Transformed

by Cori Posted on April 17, 2018

When I first conceived of the Triskaidekaphilia anthology series I knew I wasn’t going to be able to edit all thirteen volumes — there just aren’t enough hours in the day — and giving that up was kind of difficult because I sort of, maybe, might have control issues. But one of the awesome things that came with my getting over that speed bump and hiring different editors for each volume (so far) is that it creates a diversity of theme, mood, style and subject matter that never could have happened if I’d tried to edit them all.

Laura tackled a tricky subject matter in Legendary and found strong stories with a great mix of gay and straight pairings. In Ravenous, Ariel brought the heat out hard, but coupled that with stories that explored all sorts of different kinds of vampires, and what it means to be vampiric. Trysh took an angle for Haunted that I never would have thought of and I’m looking forward to seeing what she pulls together when submissions open this fall.

And, of course, there is Transformed.

When I first talked to Charlie about the anthology, I’ll admit I was thinking of the usual kind of mammal shapeshifters — you know, wolves, big cats, bears, that sort of thing — but Charlie was thinking way outside of that box. Don’t get me wrong, I love that box, but I also love that in Transformed Charlie has put together a collection that includes shifters from the mammalian world, but also birds, and reptiles and the fantastic.

And now it has a cover

Designed by Amanda C. Davis, I think this cover is awesome. Check it out:

Nothing is quite so deliciously freeing as caving to your instincts. For centuries, shapeshifters have personified our impulse to bow to our animalistic nature. From lycans to skin-walkers and everything in between, shapeshifters give us a chance to connect with our inner-selves and celebrate our intriguing differences, our passions, and ultimately our humanity through their necessity of striking a balance between their human selves and supernatural selves.

Transformed will be available July 13th, 2018 but if you reserve your copy now you’ll save because the price is going up on release day!

Amazon (US) (CA) (UK)

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