September 2025

Six month recap.

Well, aren’t I charming?

Leaving you all without a blog update for six months has got to be a new record. In the courts a judge would chalk this up to gross negligence, but in a dizzying twist, I’m proclaiming myself not guilty. ‘Why?’ you ask. Because I’m holding Beta Reading in contempt. Okay, okay, enough of the judicial euphuisms.

After the Early Bird Alpha & Beta readings for The Cardinal Club ended I became CONSUMED with editing. I mean multiple re-reads, thousands of papers read, and shocking amounts of caffeine. Grabbing yet another notebook or two at the store in preparation for outlining book two (because the plot desperately needed solid direction at this point), I began pulling the threads that connect each character together to form the straight and narrow path the next few books find themselves on. When that was done, I spent hours on every chapter and adding what was requested to buff out the first manuscript in the series. I worked late into the night configuring god lore and how a Smith & Wesson’s bullets smoke after rapid priming. Every facet of how ships hulls are designed to brace against a variety of impacts. It was awesome. It was lengthy. After revising I’d find yet another rabbit hole and would proceed to research some more. As it turns out, I knew nothing about 1980s weaponry. Face Palm.

But that wasn’t the only thing holding me up; life sometimes hits you in the face.

HARD.

My fiancé was fired from his job for lateness during a snowstorm and our household began to flounder because of this one discrepancy on his attendance. We used every ounce of our savings and then some to keep us afloat. In the same few months of spiraling panic, I received my PCOS and pre-cancerous melanoma diagnosis the same time I found out my mother has a tumor on her brain. Yup. Her brain. What are the chances? According to Cancer.org, ‘Overall, the chance that a person will develop a malignant tumor of the brain or spinal cord in their lifetime is less than 1%’. Our family spent the next few months wondering if everything was going to change forever. It did. The book was immediately put on hold as I started searching for a full-time job straight away. I kept in close contact as much as I could the following weeks of her testing. We all were EXREMELY relieved to learn that she would be okay because—for now—the tumor is benign. She began treatments with her doctor, but with so much uncertainty about her condition, we were all shaken for months. Especially my mother. Shoutout to you, Mom! You’re amazing! <3. Fuck cancer.

WELL, following that, I needed a complete reboot. So what did I do? I took a break. Can you believe it? A BREAK. After my surgery removed all of my giant blobby mole and my future hubby got a great new job, I freed myself three weeks of avoiding absolutely anything to do with literary topics. Complete and utter convalescence. I was experiencing quite a bit of weird symptoms as my body tried to adjust to the new medications given to me. Newsflash, it didn’t. I got worse. Now, I’m on supplements for vitamin deficiencies so that I can live life like a (non-chronically-in-pain) normal person. So far, I think I’m alright? Aside from crippling flareup pain. I’m also cancer free. YIPPEEEE! But none of the positions I applied for accepted my application. I have two years of accounting & management, but okay, hire that 15 year old boy instead. I get it, I do. We all gotta make a living. Face Palm. Also my therapist decided to drop me as a client very, very suddenly. FACE PALM, FACE PALM. What kind of year is this???

Anyway, back to the book stuff.

I completed the edits and proceeded to do one last read-through. When that was done, I excitedly got everything set up for ARCs. Everything was going perfect until amazon decided to ping my account that they couldn’t complete my pre-order page because my book cover upload was 3.2mm too small THREE POINT TWO. Are you kidding me? Lol. I fixed it, but I still find it concerning that I was able to order a proof with the wrong cover size. What the heck Amazon? Besides that, everything is on track for launch day! Speaking of October 9th, October 11th (as you may have seen in my events page) I’m having a Meet The Author & Book Signing to celebrate the release of The Cardinal Club. You only get one debut, right? The Event Coordinators at GOART have been incredible in helping me plan. I can’t thank them enough for hosting and offering to assist in advertising this event.

Pre-orders for The Cardinal Club (gloss paperback) are available through Barnes & Noble while Hardcover + Dustjacket should be up on their site by the 25th of this month. The matte paperback will be ready to order on launch day, but the EBook is live now on Kindle Unlimited! I’m biting my tongue over here, but I’ll be able to share everything else with you all soon. For now, please stay tuned in for more updates!

—L.ove L.ottie