Update May 2024

Greetings and Salutations!

I've not posted here in a while, so I thought it might be time for a little update to let y'all know what's going on in Kelexville.

And lemme tell you... it's a lot.

First, PARIS! I was a signing author at RARE Paris on April 6th. My daughter and I were there a week, exploring Paris, doing a bit of research, and of course, the signing. Meeting my French readers was amazing and gave me a much-needed boost to the confidence. Imposter Syndrome is THE WORST.

Days after returning home, there was a medical emergency for my father-in-law in North Carolina, a few days before we were already supposed to arrive for my grandmother-in-law's 90th birthday celebration. So we ended up there a bit earlier and longer than planned.

We got home from that last week and have been playing catch up and recovering from jet lag.

Losing three weeks amidst everything I've got going on was not the greatest, but I'm very much recharged and excited with what's to come.

I'm going to break this update into three parts: New and interesting, upcoming appearances, and ending on the part you REALLY want to know about BOOKS.

NEW & INTERESTING

1. I have a new Patreon where I am offering early access to my work, artwork I've commissioned, and opportunities to connect in a new way. There is free membership and posts available to everyone, as well as paid tiers where you can have access to all kinds of goodies.  Check it out here. Chapter 9 of To Hell and Back just got posted yesterday.

2. Only Skin Deep is being produced into an audiobook through the Hoof and Fang Podcast. They're sharing in serial format, new chapters each week. Once it's complete, they will be offering it for sale on their store for a year, then it'll be available on Audible/Amazon for those of you who have credits burning their fingers.

3. I'm working on a storefront of my own with Kelex merch. I've commissioned some really amazing artwork in the last few months and after it's done a tour on my Patreon, I will be selling items in my shop. Coming soon!

UPCOMING APPEARANCES

Here is a list of all the events I plan to attend for the rest of 2024 and through 2026.

1. Rainbow Readers Cruise August 2024. I will be one of the signing authors taking the cruise from Ft. Lauderdale to KeyWest and Coco Bay, Bahamas. 

2. Read the Rainbow April 2025 One day signing in Havre de Grace, MD

3. Pride Lit Con June 2025 Virginia

4. ShiMMer UK June 2025  Due to a major health concern in my family, I've had to regretfully change my overseas plans for 2025; I can't be across the Atlantic if something were to occur. I hope to try again in the future!

4. RARE London July 2025 (Tickets are not on sale yet; you can follow the RARETTES HERE for more news)

5. Book Harvest October 2025 Chicago (Tickets are not on sale yet; you can follow the organizers HERE for more news)

6. RARE Berlin 2026

BOOOOOOOKS!

1. As mentioned above, To Hell and Back (Enchanted Ink, 3) is being made available chapter by chapter on my new Patreon. It's currently at 90,000 words, so the end is in sight! I hope to have it finished very soon and looking for a mid-to-late May release date.

2. As soon as I wrap that up, I'm returning to Omega Quadrant #3, already in progress.

3. I'm also working on a new co-written series with April Andrews. We begin work on that in a couple of weeks.

4. After OQ3 is complete, I'll have to take stock and figure out where my muse wants to go next. I have the following books on my to-write list for 2024, but I'm already VERY behind (per my usu) so not sure how many of these I will manage to finish this year:

• Omegawood (Valleywood) 3
• Mermen 2
• Enchanted Ink 5
• Western Alphas 4
• Secret Project
• Another Secret Project
• Another Secret Project

That about sums it up. I feel tired just thinking about it all! Time to go write. 

ttyl

-K

Bear Mountain Cometh...

I know I posted last week about the issues I was having with my muse... and how I was really struggling with life in general and the lack of stories circling in my brain...

BUT...

I feel like I might be crawling out of the black pit of despair, slowly but surely.

I actually finished an outline for ONE of the books I'd mentioned and I'm back to writing. I'd already had it partially written (some scenes here and there that had come to me), so now it's just a matter of putting them into place and connecting the dots; adding more flesh to the bones.

So what was that ONE book?

A Bear Mountain story.

I know I've told some of you guys that I was planning a Return to Bear Mountain/Next Generation series...

NO... this book is NOT in that series.... but YES, I still am planning to write RTBM.

But in my quest to get all my p's and q's in place, I re-read the entire Bear Mountain series, took copious notes, and let some ideas churn.

And I noticed I'd never told the story of Declan's YOUNGER brothers Kai and Landon.

They were mentioned at Gregor's funeral and then never showed up in the series again. In my mind, I knew where they were. I just forgot to tell you guys...

They aren't the next generation. They're about the same age as many of the McCreary boys.

So it didn't feel right to include them in a next generation series.

Kai and his brother bear Lane will be book 21. Landon and his brother bear, Chase, will be book 22.

Both of these stories will be post-Zed and a bit of a bridge between the stories that have already come and the new ones to come in the Return series.

Neither have firm titles yet, but I *HOPE* to have book 21 coming to you the end of October.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

 BREAKING NEWS!!!

Okay, so maybe not breaking, per se... BUT, I have big news about my release next week. As some of you know, I started in MM writing as Alex Bowman. My Kent Street series was one I was super excited about... but after the first book, life interfered and then I made a huge shift in my career that left the series in the lurch. 

 I am FINALLY returning to it. For those of you who have already read the first book -- MODELING CHOCOLATE -- it has had the title changed to EXPOSED, been DEEPLY edited to bring it up to date, and had more story added. A character from another one of my Kelex series makes a brief appearance (and *might* just finally get his story in this timeline)  

Next week, Exposed will release alongside Simmered -- book two in the Kent Street Tales. Exposed will be offered as a FREE READ on the TEP website, All Romance, Bookstrand, Smashwords, iTunes, and BN. 

 If you're an Amazon Kindle Reader -- no it won't be free on Amazon, but feel free to grab it at any of the above retailers when it becomes available. I'll post more details once the books are up.

Coming Soon to Bear Mountain

Mated to Two Bears, Bear Mountain 13 releases tomorrow -- and then I was coming to Ronan's story in book 14 next...

And then I thought that was where Bear Mountain was going to end.

I absolutely ADORE this series and have had so much fun writing it.  I've enjoyed the readers who've been along for this journey and said, if I could find a way to extend the story NATURALLY, I would.

But who wants to read a series that is just beaten and tired?  I wouldn't, so the hell if I'd deliver books to you guys I wouldn't want to read.

No new ideas were coming, so I really felt like the series was coming to a natural end with Ronan.

Mated to Two Bears went off script along the way.  It changed dramatically from the loose outline I'd written and ended up in a spot I hadn't imagined.  I really like where it headed.  Sometimes those tangents can be evil and lead you to a brick wall and I almost thought this one had at one point until I realized a timeline adjustment and the moving of many (many *sob*) chapters around would fix it all.

I was very happy with the final product.

Then, someone read an ARC (an advance reading copy) of Mated to Two Bears and asked a question about a mini plot hole I'd left dangling.

Oh no!  A mini-plot hole?  The fuckery of it all!

And then an answer slammed into my head that was so easy a fix and so right for the series and so, so very exciting for me as a writer.

The way I plugged that hole -- it opens the door for a whole new bunch of shifters to come to Bear Mountain... new potential obstacles... new potential villains... 

I can't say too much about the new idea without giving away a little bit of spoilage AND because the ideas are still fresh in my mind and in need of fleshing out.

For those of you about to read Mated to Two Bears, you'll get a hint of the new idea when you get near the end.  

I'm EXCITED by this turn and love that it just feels right to the series.  It keeps things fresh and new and interesting...  without beating a dead horse.

I can't say for certain how many books this will add to the series, but I am comfortable suggesting there could be upwards of at least three to four more on top of the original fourteen planned.

The only issue I have is this... these stories might bump Ronan's back.  But since his mates are off at med school, perhaps that fits, too -- but at the same time, I'm kind of ready for Ronan's HEA to happen and wrap up the McCreary stories.

So Ronan might NOT be book 14 after all.