Now Available: Sweet Child of Mine (Feathered Tartan 2)

 Sweet Child of Mine is now available at eXtasy Books!

The long-awaited sequel to Stricken, Sweet Child of Mine, has finally hit the shelves at eXtasy Books, and it’s a relief to see it out. I’ve been working on edits, promos, talking with the proofing department, and everything else entailed with publishing via a traditional house, and I am exhausted! This is the longest time I’ve had between contract signing and release date – five months, and that’s only because it was a holiday story – they are generally due no later than September or October at my publisher – and we had a *ton* of holiday and Thanksgiving stories released this year. The annual Twelve days of Christmas (4 weeks, three stories each week), several general holiday stories like The Last Christmas (Seelie Kay) and Her Naughty Secret (Cameron Allie – talk about HOT!), and three stocking stuffers (mine, Diana’s and Tim’s)…. Plus the usual amount of general stories.

Check it out: https://www.extasybooks.com/v-j-allison/978-1-4874-3069-6-sweet-child-of-mine/

I’ve been up to the eyeballs in promos too, and learning how to use Affinity Photo – more on that later.

I’d love to thank my dear friend MAGGIE BLACKBIRD for her stellar review of Sweet Child of Mine. Check it out: MAGGIE REVIEWS SWEET CHILD OF MINE.

Sweet Child of Mine should be WIDE (on most websites) either later this week or sometime next week. It will not be on POD paperback… Sorry to all who were hoping to get a copy that way. You see, eXtasy Books only does PODs for stories over 20K – and that’s a THIN book from what I’ve heard – and Sweet Child of Mine is only 11K. So it’s digital only. That said, it will still be available at Amazon (Kindle), Kobo/Indigo, B&N, and other sites that sell digital books.

As for its sequel, Feathered Tartan 3, that is still “under production”. I’m not sure when that will be finished, hopefully soon. I’m on hiatus due to an extra week being added to my son’s holiday break. No complaints. I get to sleep in! Woo hoo!

You still have a few days to get my back list books for 35% off at eXtasy Books site ONLY. Sale ends on December 31, 2020, so you’d better get over there and pick up any books of mine you don’t have yet!

 

Veridian Rose Designs

 

My graphics design company recently got an upgrade. Anyone who follows me on Twitter or has my public profile on Facebook on their friends list will know I have a new toy – Affinity Photo. It’s a graphics design program, and I heard about it from another contributor to the Together We Stand anthology.

Before I go any further, I want everyone to understand something.

I am not bashing GIMP. It’s fantastic software, but limited. I needed something a bit more powerful for my growing business, and unfortunately GIMP wasn’t able to handle it. It’s slow, clunky, and didn’t seem to like the huge photos I’ve been getting on deals via various sites. PLUS it doesn’t seem to care to erase things off a lot of things, including PNG files. It was either upgrade or stay stagnant.

I wasn’t sure if Affinity would work or not… Thankfully they do have a 10 day trial and I decided to check it out. It’s a LOT faster, and my computer seems to love it. I spent an afternoon cleaning up a few things that GIMP seemed to despise.

I purchased it that evening.

Since then, I’ve been busy cleaning up a number of files and playing around in it, to get used to its features. It’s a lot more powerful than GIMP, and can do more.

My only gripe is that I cannot do the extra-fine detailing at the moment, but that is easily fixed. I need a drawing tablet for the computer, and they’re quite easy to find - Hello Amazon! – plus they’re reasonably priced for the medium end ones. (I’d love an ultra high end one but can’t afford it now – SOME DAY!). I hope to have one sometime before March Break arrives.

This is a simple poster I did for the TRS Holiday party, as an intro:

I’m hoping to do more over the next week or so, including revamping a thing or two… Just what is my business, and I’ll say it when I’m ready.

There are a few more things on the go right now… It looks like January is booked solid for promos, writing and other things related to both of my businesses. Holy smokes.

I do have a bit of news but that can wait till another day. Hopefully all of you had a great holiday… Have a fantastic new year, and all the best in 2021 everyone!

I leave you with QUEEN and We are the Champions.