June 2020 Reads

2020 has been a hell of a year so far, hasn't it? I'm just happy I'm getting any pleasure reading done at this point! Despite the pandemic, cancelled work conventions, and a delay in my own moving plans, I'm healthy and still going strong on my production schedule, so I really can't complain.

Below are the links to my BookBub reviews, but they're mirrored at Goodreads, if that's your platform of choice.

Criminal Past (Hazard and Somerset 6) by Gregory Ashe

Hazard and Somerset Off Duty (Off Duty 1) by Gregory Ashe

Publishing anniversary

June is a pretty terrific month for me, even with all the mud 2020 has been flinging. It's my birthday (I mean, I'm just showing up for the cupcakes), Pride month, celebration of marriage equality, and it's also my publishing anniversary—fifth year!

I shifted my business model to 100% self publishing this year too, which allowed me to look at every single project while I got them organized and re-published under my company, Emporium Press.

From 2015 - 2020:

6 short stories
4 novellas
7 novels
1 anthology
11 French translations
1 German translation
7 audiobooks
(+2 novels, 1 novella being written)

Some of these numbers are still projects in the production phase (edits, audio QC, mid-translation, etc.) but there's so much behind-the-scenes work that I'm counting them all, even if they're not quite live yet. Anyway, it's not that bad of a backlist! I'm a slow creator, but I think I'm getting better at streamlining, now that me, myself, and I are the boss.

Thank you to everyone who has ever read or listened to one of my books. I'm afforded the incredible opportunity to write full time because folks like you support indie authors and the gay fiction genre. I've got plenty more stories releasing throughout 2020 and 2021, including a trilogy spin-off featuring Neil Millett from Snow & Winter, an all-new NYPD mystery series, as well as the rest of Magic & Steam and The Silver Screen. Heck, I've even got more than that simmering, but a girl's gotta keep her secrets.

Thank you again for believing in these books.

cspoe.com

June 2020 Video Games

I used to be a huge video game fanatic when I was younger. I still am, I suppose, but I honestly haven't had the time to play anything in years. I love the classics, especially JRPGs. I still own all of my consoles, from the Super Nintendo to Dreamcast to Playstation 2. (I can't believe the PS5 is coming out this year!)

2020 has been wildly busy and stressful—even without the pandemic, cancelled research conferences, and the delay of personal plans (like moving), owning and operating a publishing company has been nuts. I absolutely love it, but wow there's so much happening all the time, and writing is such a teeny tiny portion of this 7 days a week job! So I decided to drag out some of my old video games as a way to completely turn my brain off from anything related to work, because even when I'm reading... there's an element of work attached.

This month's completed game was: Cooking Mama
Release Date: 2006
Platform: Nintendo DS

I didn't get gold on every recipe, but I did unlock all 76! It's still a fun and relaxing puzzle game—literally what the title suggests: cooking with mama. The recipes are varying combinations of easy, complex, tedious, and silly (like catching the raining hot dog ingredients!) But it's a terrific game for turning off the brain, and is set up in such a way that for those of us who can't do anything less than 100%, you're utterly determined to cook, bake, and create every single recipe for mama! And letting her down is simply unacceptable.

The Gangster cover art

I wanted to share the cover art for Book 2 in the Magic & Steam series, The Gangster. This was designed by none other than the very talented Reese Dante! No firm release date yet, although it should be late summer, 2020. Once there are official pre-order links and a blurb I will share that information.

The dangers of New York criminal undergrounds don't compare to the dangers of the heart. If Gillian Hamilton can't find a balance between his job in law enforcement and his affection for outlaw, Gunner the Deadly, he might ring in 1882 with neither.

You can add this book to your Goodreads shelf, or if you're new to this wild steampunk adventure, start with Book 1, The Engineer.

Audio: The Mystery of the Moving Image

At last, the long awaited audiobook for The Mystery of the Moving Image (Snow & Winter: Book Three) is live! Narrated by Wyatt Baker and available at Audible, Amazon, and iTunes.

Blurb: It’s summer in New York City, and antique shop owner Sebastian Snow is taking the next big step in his relationship with homicide detective, Calvin Winter: They’re moving in together. What should have been a wonderful week of playing house and celebrating Calvin’s birthday comes to an abrupt end when a mysterious package arrives at the Emporium. Inside is a Thomas Edison Kinetoscope, a movie viewer from the 19th century, invented by the grandfather of modern cinema, W. K. L. Dickson. And along with it, footage of a murder that took place over a hundred years ago.

Sebastian resists the urge to start sleuthing, even if the culprit is long dead and there’s no apparent danger. But break-ins at the Emporium, a robbery, and dead bodies aren’t as easy to ignore, and Sebastian soon realizes that the century-old murder will lead him to a modern-day killer.

Even with Sebastian’s vast knowledge of Victorian America and his unrelenting perseverance in the face of danger, this may be the one mystery he won’t survive.

Buy links for Snow & Winter:

The Mystery of Nevermore
The Mystery of the Curiosities
The Mystery of the Moving Image
The Mystery of the Bones

Interlude (Snow & Winter Collection: Volume One)

I'm very excited to announce a new Snow & Winter project—no, not a new mystery—but the collection of codas I've written over the years are now being compiled and published into ebook and paperback: Interlude (Snow & Winter Collection: Volume One.) I will also be including a few never-before-read codas to celebration the release!

This volume has also been contracted by Reines-Beaux (an imprint of MxM Bookmark) to be translated into French. Release dates for English and French are to be announced.

The Engineer audio & translations!

I am very excited to announce that The Engineer has been contracted into audio with an all-new narrator to the gay fiction genre—more to come on him shortly! Pending the Audible review system, this audiobook will be available in July/August, 2020.

The Magic & Steam series has also been contracted by Reines-Beaux (an imprint of MxM Bookmark) to be translated into French. Release dates to be announced.