Updates from Inside the Hamster Ball, 05.07.15: Social Media, Release Dates, Cats & New Projects

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*tugs his glasses off, clears his throat* So. Things:

SOCIAL MEDIA

I know I haven’t been responding on social media lately despite sharing all these teasing little bitlets from The Lost and the exciting news about Winter Rain‘s IPPY Gold Medal Award. I’ve been finding that in my efforts to keep everyone happy and engage on a personal front, I’ve been making myself miserable. I’ve realized I can be everyone’s friend, or I can write. I can’t do both, even though some authors can and I admire them for that. I can’t, and I came here to write; it’s my job. It doesn’t mean I don’t adore you, or that I don’t see your tweets. I do. I just need to pull back and focus on what you followed me for: the books. If I’m not writing books, I’m no good to either of us. I’m here. I see you. I appreciate you. I’m just being a recluse so I can get the words out of my head and onto the page without feeling like I’m being pulled in a million directions at once. Call it part of my mystique or something. Insert image of a lean, brooding man hunching over a typewriter with crumpled wads of note paper everywhere and the walls scrawled with ink and his rockstar-unkempt hair straggling into his face and catching on his glasses. God, I need a fucking haircut.

THE LOST RELEASE DATE

On that note, The Lost has been pushed to August 25th while I catch up on…everything…after nearly two months of being completely blocked and hardly getting a word out besides the trigger warning foreword for the book, between Tybalt’s death and all the stress of more behind-the-scenes drama than I ever thought being an author would entail (you guys, having a legit honest-to-god needs-a-restraining-order holy-shite-so-many-troll-accounts stalker is at once exhausting and yet infinitely dull – especially one who really doesn’t realize her IP address follows her everywhere and pretty much everyone can see what she’s doing). Still working on getting my Entangled book out to my editor, too. Before she kills me. With much fire and murderlation.

BLOGGISH THINGS

Submissions are still open for Dammit, Cole and Seduce Me. I have two Dammit, Cole letters I’m sitting on, but will post soon. I found out the form doesn’t always work right, though; I fixed it, but if you sent in a letter a while back and haven’t gotten an answer, it might’ve been eaten. You can email it to me if you’re worried.

A SECOND CHANCE AT PARIS

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I’ll have fun things surrounding ASCAP in the next couple of months. Like Celeste’s necklace, which I’ve been hanging on to for an appropriate giveaway for some time. Also pretty pictures. And a deleted scene between Ion and Drake for the McCade’s Marauders street team. May also have some sketches from The Lost; we’ll see if I can find time around day job work + writing + editing + cover design.

FUCK YES CUTE KITTIES

Beni and Mercy are settling in wonderfully. Mercy’s no longer so skittish. Beni is an attention whore and does the strangest, cutest thing when you touch his belly: he flops on his side really hard and mooshes up against you. We had a huge scare with his health back in April (on our anniversary, that was a fun thing to share with Banfield staff), but a week of medication cleared it up and he’s fine.

NEW PROJECT

Over the next year I’ll be working on a top-secret NA project that still isn’t so secret that I can’t tell you the title:

The Girl with the Stars on Her Skin.

It’ll be huge, expansive, a labor of love and heartbreak, and while I’m keeping everything totally under wraps until it’s done, I’m already aching to share it with you guys even though I’ve only gotten two lines written so far. I just hope I can fit it in around writing the second Crow City book, and Third Time’s the Charm.

So. That’s the lay of things. I’m skulking on the sidelines in my hamster ball and avoiding mental clutter while I write, but sooner or later I’ll come up for air.

Be good to yourselves.

<3,

-C

LATEST NEWS

TheLost6x9NEW CROW CITY COVERS
The Crow City Series now has a new cover set – dark, sleek, and just in time for the latest book in the series. See the full series covers here.

deadpoolTWENTY NOTES TO THE ANXIOUS, MELANCHOLY WRITER
Judging yourself? Feeling down on your writing? Over-comparing until you work yourself into a hole and can’t get out? Here are a few reminders to help you breathe and refocus.

Autum6x9AUTUMN (CROW CITY #2.75)
The latest installment in the Crow City series is here – with series favorites Walford Gallifrey and Joseph Armitage returning in a poignant story of reconciliation and newfound love in the first contemporary M/M in the Crow City Series.



13 thoughts on “Updates from Inside the Hamster Ball, 05.07.15: Social Media, Release Dates, Cats & New Projects

    1. <3 I'll try to remember to do these when significant stuff comes up so I'm not being a complete mute wallflower hacking away at the keys.

  1. Sorry about the typo. I forgot to spellcheck the auto correct on my phone.

    1. I didn’t even notice/tend to tune it out. <3 I know the curse of auto-correct.

  2. Cole. Cole! This is an epic blog post!

    Social media isn’t as fun without you, but I’m so glad to hear you’re writing. Boo to stalkers and troll accounts, but IP addresses don’t lie.

    Looking forward to all the writing projects, especially The Lost. I love the snippets.

    Glad to hear the kitties are adjusting nicely. Good luck with all the things! I’ll be rooting for you. Always.

    Ps Tell me more about the long hair and the glasses.

    <3

    1. …the long hair is going to be about three feet longer very soon. Likely by the end of next week.

  3. Congrats again with Winter Rain! That’s really, really great.

    Between snippets (or bitlets as you call them, which is adorable by the way) and Pinterest, I am more than ready for The Lost! August is a good month, but if you want to release early I hear the tenth is a good day. Just saying.

    I’m glad to hear all these things, C. The kitties, the books, the everything. Be good to -yourself- too. Ready for your writing when it’s ready for your readers.

    Lubs and hugs. <3 T

    1. I’m still giddy about the award, and so proud of the amazing, talented authors involved in the antho. <3

      Bitlets. It's my new word. Bitlets! ...I had sugar. And Mountain Dew. Sorry.

      I'm more than ready for The Lost, too. *laughs* I wanted to be done months ago, but life had other plans for me. But. Onward, I say.

      I'm doing my best to be good to myself. And to Uber. And it's already showing when the words are flowing more freely than they have in a while. <3 I hope things are treating you well, too.

  4. Cole! So happy to hear you are still rolling around out there in that hamster ball. No worries from here on the home front. Every writer is different. You do what makes sense for you. The rest of us will continue pimping you out and wait as patiently as we can to read what all those voices in your head have been telling you.

    Love, love, love when you throw out those snippets! <3. Thank you for those. So excited to hear about new projects. All good things for you!

    Big squishy hugs to the whole fam damly! *throws catnip confetti*

    😎 Suzi

    1. …I saw those hamster balls on MM. Just trick mine out with a sound system with some rocking bass, and we’re good to go. Those look like heaven.

      And yeah, I was…I don’t know. I adore the people I get to meet on Twitter, but I was starting to feel like I was balancing too much, and that I was only posting to remind people “Hey, I’m here, I have books” when I’d really only rather post when I have something worth saying or sharing. So it was making me uncomfortable. I think pulling back a bit was the right choice, as suddenly the words are coming much more freely and I’m invested in these books again. Some authors can balance being everywhere at once. I’m just not one of them, and that’s okay. I just really appreciate that everyone understands and doesn’t really expect me to entertain all the time.

      …oh god. What are you doing with that catnip? Do you realize how hyper two teenage male cats are without artificial stimulation?! *dives for the bomb shelter*

    1. …because I don’t need one. It’s not that serious. I don’t mind posting to social media; I’m just not engaging in active conversation right now.

      You aren’t even close to the crazy stalker. o.O;; Not even sure why you’d think that. I’m not using stalker as a euphemism. I’m talking genuine illegal activity that could be prosecuted in a court of law, and certifiably insane obsessive behavior that’s left Uber entirely creeped out and feeling unsafe because of this person. Not something ordinary like poking around my website or social media accounts a few times to see what’s what.

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