Reflections on a plague year

Worry not, there’s no illness on my house or any of my family. In fact, the difficult year has been easy on me. Partly it’s because I live in Finland where the Covid situation has been relatively painless (there has been no lockdowns, for example, and we had a proper holiday, if isolated), and partly it’s because I’m reclusive by nature and haven’t found the restrictions on my life overly straining.

The situation has had some impact on my life, of course, though minor. I had to relinquish my study to my husband when he started working from home, as he makes a lot of conference calls and needs privacy. But the move to living room was good for me. I got a new desk, because the old one didn’t fit there, which turned out to be ergonomically better. My back pain hasn’t acted up since. And the change of scenery (a view from a different window) cheered me up. So far, spending all day, every day with my husband hasn’t put a strain on us. And as an added bonus, without a long daily commute, he’s been less tired.

However, just so working from home wouldn’t be too easy, there was a six month long façade renovation in our block of flats, which was noisy to say the least and included three months spent inside a plastic tent. But it’s over now and, in hindsight, went by fairly painlessly.

Professionally, the year has been good for me. I’m still far from making a living with my writing, but for the first time in three years, I’ll end up on black. This even after extra expenses, like spending more on advertising after Amazon started adding 24% VAT on it, and purchasing a new domain name after I changed all my social media under Susanna Shore. You can read more about it here.

My biggest success this year was P.I. Tracy Hayes series of cosy mysteries. It did especially well on Amazon, whereas the Two-Natured London paranormal romance series was more popular among the readers on iBooks. Both series had a new book published this year.

In April, I published Magic on the Highland Moor, Two-Natured London 6.5. It’s a shorter, in-between romance that bridges Crimson Warrior (TNL 6) and Wolf Moon (TNL 7), with characters and storylines in common in all three. And in July, I published Tracy Hayes, Valentine of a P.I., which is book seven in the series and sees, among other things, Tracy and Jackson trying to spend a Valentine’s Day together. I also published a new bundle edition called Starters, which combines four of my first books as a sample of my writing.

I also finished writing two books that will come out next year. Wolf Moon comes out in February, and Hexing the Ex, a start of a new paranormal mystery series, will come out in June. And I wrote two other books that I haven’t had time to finish, both completely different from what I usually write. Even though they remain incomplete—for now—writing them refreshed me, so I don’t consider them waste of time.

My other writing activities include two blogs, though this one didn’t see much action the entire year. I’ve only posted four times, not including this one, mostly because I didn’t seem to have energy for it. In contrast, my reading blog has been very active. I joined NetGalley in July, a site where one can request early review copies in exchange for reviews, and I’ve tried to diligently review everything I’ve been given. It’s been fun and educational. I have twenty or so books already lined up for the next year, so that’ll continue strong. I’ve also sent three newsletters this year; not much, but at least it’s a low commitment for the subscribers. You can join here.

In addition to writing, my publishing related activities included brushing up the covers of the Two-Natured London series. I’m not technically very skilled, but I’m happy with the results. And I can always redo them when my skills have improved. I like working on book covers; it refreshes my mind when writing gets stuck. I made several other covers too, for three different series that’ll see light in two or three years’ time.

I think that sums up my year. All in all, it was pretty good and hassle free, even if it was mostly spent cooped up at home. I hope that you’ve got through the year with good health too, and that the next year will be better for us all.

More new covers

As I promised last week, here are the new covers for Two-Natured London series. The changes aren’t drastic, but I found them necessary. Even though I’ve redesigned the covers regularly over the years, the title fonts were different sizes and not always aligned from book to book after the latest tweaking. That’s mostly because I’d wanted to have the titles of each main book with only one font, and some have longer titles than others. I gave up on that in this redesign and put a preposition here and there with a different font. I think it works better now.

Last week I revealed the new cover for Moonlight, Magic and Mistletoes (currently on sale), but I’ve since made some changes for that one too. The background was originally completely white, but I found that it was too different from the rest of the series, so I added a moon and some colour to it. It’s still snowy, but now it doesn’t stand out too much.

And finally, the cover of the upcoming Wolf Moon—although I’ve revealed it before too. It didn’t change much; the shade of red in the font and T-shirt mostly. If you’re interested, sample chapters are now up on my webpage.

For those curious about how many books there will be in the Two-Natured London series, I’ve already made covers for books 7.5, 8, 8.5, and 9. There will be books number 9.5 and 10 too, but those don’t have covers yet. And you’ll just have to wait for them to be revealed in due time too.

What do you think of the current covers? Let me know.

In other news: Smashwords is having End of Year Sale starting from December 18th. My Two-Natured London books will be discounted, as will be some other books, and Starters, an introductory bundle of my first books will be free. So don’t miss the opportunity.

 

Christmas sale (and a new cover)

It’s December, and so Moonlight, Magic and Mistletoes, Two-Natured London 5.6 is on sale. It’s only $0.99 (or the equivalent in your currency) until Christmas. Don’t miss the opportunity.

The book is a collection of Christmas themed short stories set in my Two-Natured London paranormal romance world. There are six stories in total, with both new characters and those you’ve met in the first five and a half books. All take place during Christmas and most have romance in them.

The first story, Escape on a Moonless Night, is a longer one. It’s set in the 1660s France and features Alexander Hamilton and his son Gabriel, the vampire warriors of the Crimson Circle. It tells the story of how Alexander met the mother of his second son, Zacharias. It’s an exciting story of a daring escape and falling in love.

The Christmas Miracle is about Tom and Laura, and Tom’s Clydesdale Amanda who is in a desperate need of a miracle. They are both new characters, but Tom is the brother of Gemma from A Wolf of Her Own—the one who is on his honeymoon…

Wintry Fairytale features Jack Thornton, Charly’s brother, introduced in The Wolf’s Call. His loveable Newfoundland Bob is responsible for bringing unexpected love to his life. It’s also a story of accepting a new future as a two-natured.

In Enchanted Evening, the main characters are humans working for the Crimson Circle. Amy and Theo inspire the vampire warriors to organise a huge Christmas party for the staff, and love blooms.

The next story, Magical Christmas, gives us a glimpse to the life of the couple that formed in Magic under the Witching Moon. Adrian and Raven are planning their first Christmas together and it’s not as easy as one might hope.

Finally, in Christmas at the Greenwood Manor, the wolf cub Vincent we’ve met in A Wolf of Her Own, gets Jamie, the clan alpha to organise a Christmas party for the wolf-shifter clan. There’s an unexpected gift for Vincent—and a surprise for Rafe and Charly too.

If you’re in a mood for sweet, romantic Christmas stories with a paranormal twist, this book is for you. And it’s a good preparation for Wolf Moon too, as some revelations play a small role there.

And as promised, the new cover. It’s more winter themed than the original, and definitely more light-hearted than the other covers in the series. But I find it wonderfully romantic.

Moonlight, Magic and Mistletoes

Other books in the Two-Natured London series have had their covers brushed up a little too. I’ll share those in the next post—although you can already catch them on my webpage.

You can purchase Moonlight, Magic and Mistletoes on Amazon, iBooks, B&N, Kobo and Smashwords, and read a sample chapter on my webpage.