Nora Roberts once said that in life you have to juggle a lot of balls. Some of them are made of plastic and some of them are made of glass. It’s best to keep the ones made of glass in the air, but it’s not as much of a big deal if you lose your grip on one of the plastic balls and they hit the ground every once in a while. 

The last few weeks it’s felt like a number of my plastic balls have hit the ground while I work to keep juggling the glass balls. One of my goals for this year is to be very consistent in sending out newsletter updates and posting blog updates. I’ve managed to hit the newsletter part of that for the most part, but the blog side of that has been a little more difficult. I’m working on it, though. 

I don’t know about you, but it has been a crazy spring so far. Life in general has just been super busy, and adding to the general chaos has been the fact that we’ve been finishing up school. That’s always an adventure, but thankfully we’re done for the summer now. Everybody’s ready for a break, including me. *grin*

I’m also ready for the weather to settle down. We’ve had an unusually stormy spring, and any kind of weather tends to mess with our internet…which just adds to the general crazy. I’m grateful to have internet at all, but I can’t help but hope someday we have more reliable internet. 

In other news, my Kickstarter for A Tale of Star-Crossed Hearts did phenomenally well and fulfillment is underway. Currently all digital rewards have gone out, and approximately half of the physical rewards. Still waiting on the special editions proofs to print and ship so that I can review them before I fulfill those rewards as well.

Thank you all for your support of ATOSCH! I really appreciate it. And for those of you who’ve read the book already, I hope you enjoyed it!

And now for some exciting news…

Secret Book Project Announcement!

Despite the overall busyness, I’ve still managed to find time to write. (This is a good thing for everybody, trust me. LOL. I start going a little crazy when there is no writing time.) 

It feels like it’s taken forever for me to be able to say anything, but I am beyond excited to finally be able to announce that I am launching a new series!!!  Introducing Once Upon a Craft Shop, the first book in a brand-new cozy mystery fantasy series centered around a craft shop and featuring fairytale characters. 

And I have a cover! Isn’t it gorgeous?

I’ve mentioned before that I usually juggle a couple of projects. Well, while I was finishing A Tale of Star-Crossed Hearts, the idea for this book came out of nowhere and walloped me over the head.

Once I dusted myself off, I realized that it’s perfect for me. I grew up reading (and still read) cozy mysteries and fairytales. I loved Once Upon a Time’s premise of bringing fairytale characters to the real world, and I enjoyed the low-stakes vibes of Legends & Lattes. 

I am also an unabashed crafter. Knitting, crocheting, and quilting are three of my favorite pastimes, along with counted cross-stitching and a little beading. (If only there was more time in the day for everything I want to do! There are days I wish I could clone myself. Never mind the fact that in fiction that is always a bad idea…)
 
Anyway, the idea of the owner of a craft shop solving a mystery involving fairytale characters grabbed me and refused to let go. Not only that, but the first book immediately spawned a sequel, and thinking about that one spawned another sequel…and, well, now the Craft Shop Mysteries series has been born. *grin* 

I am so excited for this new book!

And, I am thrilled to announce that I will be launching a Kickstarter for it next week, on Tuesday, June 3rd, at 9AM EST. *grin* I absolutely adore launching (and buying) books on Kickstarter. I love being able to get them super early, or being able to get special editions you can’t get anywhere else.

If you would also like to read an illustrated, digitally signed version of Once Upon a Craft Shop months and months ahead of anybody else on the planet, you can follow the campaign here and Kickstarter will alert you as soon as we go live!

I’ll be back later with a sneak peek at the first two chapters!

^{Photo by Dulcey Lima on Unsplash}