We’re Back!

After the craziness of the first quarter, we’ve finally made it back, and we’re here to update you on where we’ve been and what’s new!

January

We released two new books in January, West By God by Tyler Bell, and Deadly Choices, Will You Survive? Camp Meltaway by Caitlyn and Tiffany Pace! We had the release party for West By God at the wonderful Foxing Books in Louisville, Kentucky, and are awaiting with bated breath to have our very own campout to celebrate Camp Meltaway! On top of the two new books, we also released our first ever yearly literary journal, Old Bones! And the fun didn’t stop there.

February

Thanks to the efforts of author Stephen Bias, we were able to host our very own indie writer’s convention to celebrate the release of Stephen’s newest novel 304 Monsters! This event saw 20 local vendors, over a dozen scheduled readings, and food donated by Oscar’s Burgers and Brews. This event wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our amazing volunteers who took time out of their Saturday and Sunday to help us put together our Sneak Preview night at Booktenders, and set up and tear down day of for Writers’ Block. We are incredibly blessed and thankful for everyone who supported us by attending, donating, and shopping local during this event. Thank you!

Writers’ Block was the first event to kick off our spring event season, and we’ve spent nearly every weekend since getting a chance to interact with all of you! And we couldn’t be happier for the opportunity!

March

In March, we found ourselves in several places!

During the first weekend, we helped our good friends at Adulting Axolotl vend at Lexington Comic Con!

The second weekend, we were in our hometown of Ashland at the First Annual Gobocon! And what a great show! We love seeing this sort of thing happening in our community!

The third weekend, we traveled to Bowling Green, Ohio, to see the wonderful Mike Hornyak and vend for the weekend at his and Courtney’s alma mater for Animarathon! We were so happy to see Mike since we don’t get to see him often!

In between events, we were working diligently with Tyler to produce and release the audiobook of West By God, which is now available for purchase on Audible!

April

The events slowed a little in April, but we released another book and had an awesome experience at the main branch of the Kanawha County Public Library! Shoutout to the South Charleston Public Library, who was originally supposed to host us, but unfortunately suffered terrible roof damage during the tornadoes that struck our area just three days before. The main branch of the Kanawha County Public Library was wonderful in allowing us to make the last minute switch to their children’s reading program on the first Saturday morning of the month, where author Joshua Taylor debuted his early reader The Wonderfully Wild Adventures of Kana and Charlie: Monstrous Mo and the Stolen Apples.

Our next event was the second weekend in April - Rathacon in Athens, Ohio!

The third weekend, we double dipped and sent our B Team to Record Store Day in Barboursville, while our main team went to Morehead Pride! Both of these events were outside and a little windy, but were a great time!

The last weekend in April, we got a break! Meanwhile, we launched a new Kickstarter for The Mother of Monsters! This fantasy lit-RPG style novel is still live on Kickstarter for the next 48 hours, and you can back it now to pre-order your copy of the book, and you might as well throw in the collector’s pin too!

At the end of the month, we officially closed our submission window for full-length works, and were overwhelmed by the 40 submissions we received while that window was open. We cannot wait to dive into and announce new projects for the year, and we’re so excited to share them with you!

May

We had our last conventions the first weekend of this month, and we sent the B Team to cover Eerie Oddities in Huntington, while the main team trekked to Rio Grande, Ohio, for Final Boss Con. If you missed us at either of these last events, don’t worry! We’ll be back on the road starting in August, and you’re sure to find us again soon! If you have an event that we should know about, please let us know by reaching out to us via Facebook, or you can click the button below to visit our website (also a good place to go if you just miss our faces and want some more delightful books in your life)!

In other news! Our wonderful intern Haydn Conner has decided to join us permanently as a Junior Bookcoach. He will be working closely with Bookcoach Shelly Jarvis, and the rest of our editing team to bring you new and exciting books this year!

We have been careful examining the submissions we have received, and are nearly ready to make our final selections for 2024. Keep checking back with us in our newsletters and by following us on Facebook to make sure you don’t miss a new project or release.

Perth Paranormal

On the horizon for our next Kickstarter campaign is the second installment of the Perth Paranormal Series, titled A Ghost of Spring, by A.B. Hooser. She has graciously sent us a short piece from this universe, so read on and enjoy! If you like what you read, you can find the first book, A Shade of Winter, on our website, Amazon, or wherever you like to purchase your books!

Jerkface

Lee and I made it back to Perth just as the final bell at Perth High School rang, which I thought was pretty impressive since ghosts don’t wear watches. The plan had been for the two of us to stake out a property in Trinidad and then meet up with Pansy and Bagel to report our findings before the PPS, the Perth Paranormal Society, investigated Saturday evening.  

I spotted my twin coming out the double doors of the red brick building, her waist length black hair covering her face as she practically ran down the wide concrete steps in front of the school. It looked like she was futzing around in her purse and as she came closer I could see she’d located her cell phone and had the antenna pulled out like she was going to make a call. I waved when she looked up, and she put the phone to her ear, pushing her hair over her shoulder and revealing a dark stain on her green silk shirt.

Oh no, not the silk.

As the crowd of students parted, I could see that the stain continued down one leg of her daisy embroidered jeans as a dark brownish red splash.  

Normally I would have made some comment on eating food instead of wearing it, but the redness around her eyes told me she’d been crying and the look on her face let me know the tears could come back with even the slightest of provocations. I kept my smart-aleck comments to myself for once.

“Hey Tiff, yeah, it’s been a really hard day and I don’t want to talk about it,” she said into the cell as she drew closer to us. I guess my name was Tiff today, but honestly, it’s not like she could say my name out loud - I’d been the only Gerri we knew.

“Um, noted, but are you still meeting Bagel at the Firefly? You look…a little messy,” I said, gesturing to the stains.

“At this point, I don’t even care, I just want cheese fries and a milkshake,” she said, still holding the cell up to her ear. She pulled a section of hair forward to cover most of the stain. Oh yeah, that’ll fix it.

“Here comes the pancake,” Lee said from behind me.

“Bagel,” I replied, drawing out each syllable for emphasis. “Or you could just call him Dario if his nickname bothers you that much.”

“What’s the fun in that?” Lee asked, one furry white brow arched. Now was not the time to let Lee know that my nickname for him had been Jerkface. No, my primary concern was for my sister right now.

Bagel’s long legs ate up the sidewalk, the wide legs of his jeans making furious swishing noises as he came bounding over. “Are you okay? Annie told me what happened at lunch with you and Danielle,” he paused to eyeball the stains. “Chili day, huh? Looks like she got you good.”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Pansy said, her dark brown eyes beginning to shimmer with unshed tears. “I just want a milkshake and to hear about the place we’re investigating this weekend.” She started across Main Street toward The Firefly Cafe with Bagel right behind her. I began floating after them  but Lee motioned for me to wait.

“Which one of these little twerps made her cry?” Lee asked, searching the crowd of teens still lingering on the sidewalks.

“Danielle? Umm… over there,” I gestured toward the school sign where she was talking with her friends. “Long blonde hair, with the purple book bag.”

Lee nodded, hands on his hips as he took note of the culprit. Posed like that, I imagined a breeze blowing his shabby brown bath robe behind him like a caped superhero and I suppressed a giggle as I followed Pansy and Bagel across the street.

We waited for the waitress to take their orders before Pansy put the cell back up to her ear. “Okay, Tiff. So what’s the deal with the house in Trinidad?”

I filled her in, pausing every other sentence as she relayed what “Tiff” was telling her to Bagel, and we were just getting to the part where the husband was secretly taking things out of the house to pawn because he had a gambling problem when Danielle and her BFF Aubrey strutted into the Firefly.

Danielle stared straight at Pansy as she leaned over, one hand over her mouth so as not to be overheard, and whispered something into Aubrey’s ear. The two collapsed into giggles as they made their way to the other side of the diner, shooting looks back to Pansy and Bagel’s booth as they went.

“Subtle as a freight train, aren’t they?” Lee sneered as the two settled into a booth of their own.

“Anyway,” Pansy continued, trying her best to ignore the distraction. “So, there were no PopTarts, right?” PopTarts was her new codeword for ghosts. After finding a dead body and being chased by some really bad dudes a few weeks ago, everyone in town knew her name. Talking about ghosts in public wouldn’t do her any favors.

“Yeah, no ghosts at all,” I confirmed. The waitress returned with their food and I waited for her to leave before resuming my report. “This dude is trying to convince the wife that she’s going crazy and that all of these missing things never existed in the first place. He’s moving things around and leaving cabinet doors open and now she’s convinced there’s a ghost.”

I hadn't noticed Lee floating off during my retelling of what we’d found, but the high-pitched squeal that came from the other side of the diner had me whipping around in time to see Danielle standing up, holding the bottom of her shirt away from her body. Chocolate milkshake was splattered across her shirt, a section of hair, and the majority of one arm.

The diner had gone completely silent as everyone stared, so I had no problem hearing Lee when he spoke. “I made sure to get some in her fancy little purse here, too.”

Oh no.

The waitress came running with a dish rag as everyone in the diner began talking at once, the commotion almost drowning out the sound of Pansy’s cackling laughter.

“Thank you, Lee,” Pansy said, plucking a napkin from the little dispenser on the table to wipe away a tear.

Lee shrugged, “What’s the point in being dead if you can’t have fun with it once in a while?”

I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help a chuckle of my own. Jerkface was slowly growing on me.

We look forward to checking in with you all next month! Remember to follow our socials to see the latest news!

Read indie. Stay awesome.