I don’t know about you, but t’s been a year. Mostly good, but with a decided lack of sleep on my end. (My youngest has had a rough year, between teething and developmental growth spurts.) Hence the lack of updates here.
I’m trying to develop a better way of juggling everything so that nothing gets left behind. That said, writing new books is one of the most important bits, and that has definitely continued. *smile*
We had a great—if crazy—summer, and the fall has been lovely so far. Took all six children tent camping for fall break a few weeks ago. (Our trip coincided with two days of rain, amounting to 3+ inches, which was definitely an adventure, but we made it.)
I’m not a huge fan of cold weather, but I do love that the leaves are still hanging on. They’re gorgeous now, and I’m enjoying the view out of our living room windows.
Welp, I realize I dropped the ball on this one. Managed to update social media and keep up with newsletters, but I completely forgot to post this here. (It’s been a crazy two weeks–we had a stomach bug go through half the family and a bunch of important family things.)
Anyway, better an eleventh hour announcement than none at all, eh?
With that, let me introduce the Kickstarter for Once Upon a Craft Shop! The campaign is live now and you can preorder super early editions of the ebook, paperback, hardback, and autographed hardback!
Welcome to Once Upon a Craft Shop, the first book in my brand-new Craft Shop Mysteries series! I’m posting these first three chapters as a sneak peek.
If you like them and want more, I’m launching a Kickstarter campaign tomorrow at 9AM EST (Tuesday, June 3th, 2025) for a super early access to an illustrated, digitally signed version of the book. Ebooks, paperbacks, and hardbacks will all be available, along with some other cool stuff.
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!
Thank you to all of you who have supported the campaign so far! I am so thrilled to be able to share this book with you.
In addition, we’ve unlocked the first Stretch Goal! Two gorgeous black and white illustrations will now be included in every edition of the book!
This artist is amazing. You should have seen the stick figure sketch I sent him as the basis for the illustration on the left. LOL. It is very obvious I am an artist with words, not with drawing things.
There are more cool Stretch Goals to come, depending on how high this goes. I’m hoping we can get to the next few of them.
A Tale of Star-Crossed Heart‘s campaign will run until 10 PM March 20th. So there’s plenty of time to check it out if you’re interested.
Welcome to my brand-new novel, A Tale of Star-Crossed Hearts! I’m posting these first two chapters as a sneak peek.
If you like them and want more, I’m launching a Kickstarter campaign tomorrow at 9AM EST (Tuesday, March 4th, 2025) for a super early access to a brand-new Special Edition hardback and trade paperback. (Ebooks, and regular paperbacks and hardbacks will also be available, along with a bunch of other cool things.)
