There are writers out there who spent months drumming up attention for an upcoming release. They’ll have a perfectly planned and similarly executed marketing strategy, with blog tours, cover reveal, you name it, and they’ll have their ARCs sent out and a dozen reviews ready to go on publication day…
… and then there are writers who’ll fiddle ages over the final editing and proof-reading, get taken by surprise when they’re suddenly finished, curse a lot over the publishing process because the stupid cover size is still not right for Amazon despite five adjustments, get taken even more by surprise when the book appears on the sales pages, shoot out a panicky tweet to announce the new release and then log off to tend to the family who’ve all come down with a stomach bug.
I am firmly of the latter category.
Either way, No Place Like Home,
the fourth book of my Resident Witch series is out and available, Alice is taking a couple more stumbling steps in this world, and I’m quite relieved. Also because this one took me longer to write than expected. I blame circumstances, changes to my daily routine, like one kid moving on to secondary school and suddenly coming home two hours earlier, but also a sort of prolonged mental tiredness. Since publishing my first ever book in 2013, I lived for my stories, I tried to keep a broad social media presence, I pestered bloggers for reviews or interviews, I cooperated with other writers on various anthologies, I did what I could to help other writers, I never refused a beta read or other request for assistance, all while striving to live up to my own ridiculous standards of perfection and simultaneously battling severe impostor syndrom. It was a great time, brilliant and exciting, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss it, but it wasn’t healthy. I’ve taken a few steps now to avoid spreading myself so thin across everything ever again, and the drive is already coming back. I still raise my hand too often the instant someone whispers “Beta read for me?” but that’s probably me and I’m not complaining, I get to read a load of awesome stuff that way.
Anyway, new book. Three months have passed between the events in It Never Rains and this one. It’s spring break, graduation is around the corner for Alice and her gang, and they could have enjoyed their holidays, only I didn’t let them, because I had to go and throw up two basic questions:
How the hell did Pepper Burns manage to call Trouble Walker in for help in book one of the series when he was in another world and out of her reach? And: Why is there so much supernatural shit happening in such a small town? Spoiler: I answer both of them.
In case you’re curious now, here’s the link to the book’s Amazon page. Hope you’ll like it at least a bit. Leave a review if you can, tell your friends. I’m always happy to hear readers’ thoughts, and I’m also totally relying on word of mouth.
Angelika Rust 