It’s September, which means I haven’t blogged since completing my second book. My absence wasn’t unfruitful. My sophomore release On the Other Side has been alpha’d, beta’d, edited, re-beta’d, formatted, and proofread. I sent out the first round of ARCs yesterday, and the final ebook and paperback are locked and loaded. So yeah…a lot has happened since my last blogpost, haha!

On the Other Side is about rising action movie starlet Shae Martin who has her world rocked when she is diagnosed with breast cancer—not once, but twice. When she feels that all hope is gone, she meets two people who will change her life. One of those folks is oncology nurse, Nate Thayer.

Not only is the book done, but so is the companion to the book. I wanted to make certain that nothing interfered with Shae’s voice. However, like I told the folks over at Cherryville, there is another side to On the Other Side, and it’s Nate’s.

Enter Nate’s Fate!

When you read On the Other Side, I’m sure you’ll be curious as to what Nate’s train of thought was at a given point in time. Nate’s Fate is 20k words of just Nate.

The best part of Nate’s Fate is that I’ll be offering it for FREE starting September 27th to all my Cherry Picking subscribers! Make sure you’re all signed up for my newsletter so you can be the first to download the companion book on the day it drops! Again, this is a “companion book”, which means you’ll need to read Shae’s side before you can see where Nate’s story fits in.

By the way, a portion of sales for On the Other Side will go towards breast cancer awareness and research efforts. I carry the banner for three individuals: my beloved mom who succumbed to the illness back in 2017, my longtime friend who passed away just this year, and my first cousin who is currently a breast cancer thriver.

My yearly mammogram is scheduled the day before the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Early detection is so important, so make sure you are having regular exams. Also, encourage your loved ones to do the same.

Alright…that’s all for now. Man oh man—I needed to blog about last month’s Book Bonanza event in Dallas! You can see my pics from the event on Instagram. I had the time of my life. If you haven’t gone to Book Bonanza, and you love to read romance, you NEED to go to this, without question. It is everything and more. I’m going back next year, no doubt!

Stay Sweet! – TK🍒

Hey y’all! It’s been a while since I’ve blogged.

I’ve been knee deep in this second book. I have four chapters and an epilogue to go. I’m also working on something extra special for my exclusive readers. I’ll have more details on that at a later date. 

I want to talk about life after A Nocturnal Rendezvous and how that feels. First of all, I want to thank those of you who have let me know how much you loved the book. Thanks so much for the outpouring of love on Facebook and in your reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. Your kind words and support mean more to me than you know. I truly mean that.

If anyone has ever had a baby, releasing a book that you’ve poured your all into is kinda similar to that. There are the pains of carrying that child. You don’t know how it’s going to turn out after it’s born, or whether or not the world will even receive it. At the very worst, it could end up being a book that only a mother can love, haha! 

That’s the thing with me; I write for me first. I write something that I want to read over and over again. The problem with that is not too many readers necessarily like what I like. Overall, I guess it’s good to stay true to yourself and write for you first. However, if you can find that middle ground and write for both you and your audience, that’s huge. I guess that’s where I am right now…trying to find that middle ground. It will take some time for me to get there. I will continue to evolve and hopefully increase my readership with each release. I love to write more than anything and my dream is to ultimately do it full-time. 

When you’re brand new on the scene, it can be a pretty lonely place. That’s when you have to just keep your eyes on the prize and press forward. There are some days when it’s okay to feel sad, but don’t remain there. Pull yourself out of that rut and write your ass off. There’s somebody out there who’s itching to read what you wrote. 

With that, on to the next thing. In the weeks to come, I will start introducing my readers to Shae. She’s the heroine in my upcoming release that’s set to drop this fall. Make sure you’ve signed up for my newsletter and you’re a member of my Cherryville reader group in order to see news and teasers before the masses do. I just got done last night writing a chapter that literally had me in tears. This story will put you through every emotion possible, but you will still get the happy ending that you deserve!

Alright, back to the writing cave I go! Stay sweet, everyone.—TK🍒

It’s been two insane days since the launch of my debut, A Nocturnal Rendezvous, and wow. Words absolutely can’t express how much I appreciate those of you who have told me how much you enjoyed the book.

So, Friday, June 7th was launch day. That night, I had a pretty successful takeover in the Red Hatter’s Book Hangout group.

Then, Saturday was my release takeover party in The Maze of Tangled Hearts group. There were still some open giveaways as of the time of this blog posting, so get on it before they close. I’d like to thank Anjelica Grace, Michelle Karise, Mary Dean, Stephanie Nichole, Christi Whitston, Eden Books, Helen Wilder, Q.B. Tyler, Erica Marselas, Harlow Layne, and Carmel Rhodes for coming through and making it a night to remember. Please make sure you show them some love and follow (LIKE) every one of their pages. They are all fabulous women in the indie romance community.

Tonight (Sunday 6/9), I’ll be taking over for one hour beginning 7p EST at the BestSellers & BestStellars Party Room. I’m giving away another signed copy of my debut book, so make sure to stop by.

After today, my plan is to finally take a deep breath and let everything sink in. I’m officially a published author, y’all! ☺️ Now, vacation season begins. I’ll be taking off to Vegas Wednesday night for a four-day weekend, so my hope is to start to process all that has been going on, and then get right back to business. I have two books to finish writing this year, and at least six on deck for next year.

It is only just the beginning, and I very much look forward to going on this wild and crazy ride with you. ❤️ — TK🍒

I just realized that I have yet to blog in May, and the month’s almost over! Wow. So, I am completing week #4 of my “7 Days of Giveaways”. Tonight before the final episode of Game of Thrones airs (YAY!), I’ll be giving away a $30 Amazon gift card to a lucky person who is a subscriber of my Cherry Picking newsletter.

After that it’s the home stretch for me. Last week, I received my first shipment of author copies. Let me tell you, it is so surreal to be holding your hard work in your very hands. I can’t even begin to put it into words (see gallery below).

What’s left to do? Well, I just realized that I’m about a week late in offering ARCs to the reader/reviewers out there (oops!), so I’ll be doing a couple of posts about that on social today. There’s a sign-up link on the home page if you’re interested. I’ll be leaving that open for just two weeks. I’ll also be setting my social media post schedule for the seven days leading up to the June 7th launch.

I have three more giveaways left. The last one is pretty big, so you don’t want to miss it. I’ve already let my Cherry Picking folks know exactly what I’m doing as far as giveaways, with the exception of the last one. That giveaway be announced on the day that the book launches.

Also, there’s some cool things that I’d like to do to tease the book. We’ll see if I have time for it in between writing, promoting, and working my full-time job. Or perhaps it’ll be something I’ll end up doing post-launch. I do have something planned as far as swag. Hint: It’s has something to do with the company that Blake works at in the book. I’m pretty stoked about that one!

Oh, I need to post the prologue on this site! I’ll jot that on my to-do list right now. 🙃

I didn’t realize how much effort it would take to promote this thing. I know that I could be doing much more. But the cool thing of it all is that this is my very first book. And because I believe in it so much, it’s never too late to push it. I figure as soon as I have a nice back list behind me, I can increase my efforts. The reading public just needs to get to know me and my work first before they are confident enough to get behind me. 😊

Anyway, I am still living and learning. I did join RWA (Romance Writers of America) a week ago. I’ve enrolled in some classes and I look forward to meeting other writers and learning more and more about the art of writing, as well as the business side of things.

On that note, I’m signing off to set-up some social posts and to get some writing in. But before I do that, I’d like to wish my son a happy birthday today. He’s past grown, but he’ll always be my baby. ☺️

Stay sweet, folks!—TK🍒

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We had a good time with friends. After that was episode #2 of the final season of Game of Thrones. I’m getting a little nervous as we near the big battle that everyone’s been waiting on for ten years. 😳

There are two more events that I’m equally nervous about this week. One of them is the outcome of The Avengers. I will be at the theater Thursday night gnawing my nails down to the quick 😆 The other event is the cover reveal of my very first published novel, “A Nocturnal Rendezvous,” which takes place Thursday as well.

Actually, my cover has been complete for quite some time…like months—so, I’ve had a long time to marinate on it. I remember when my designer Jeanette first showed it to me after I sent her some pitiful drafts that I’d done in PowerPoint. I screamed, “THAT’S IT!”

Prior to that moment of glee, I’d searched weeks for the perfect image that would tell my character(s) story. And for a long time, I wasn’t having any luck. You know, the crazy thing about getting started in this indie publishing biz is that many of us begin with a very small budget. Therefore, almost all of us go the paid stock image route. So, throughout my quest for the perfect photo, I ran across images that were used on many other wonderful indie book covers out there. It was surreal—almost kind of like seeing the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain, ya know? 😄

I guess the trick to using stock images on your cover is to be as creative with it as possible, and I hope that’s what we’ve done here. Stay tuned on my TK Cherry, Author Facebook Page as well as on Instagram and Twitter for the big reveal on Thursday morning at 7:30 EST!

Oh…by the way, if you are a member of Cherryville, my official reader’s group on Facebook, you’ll get to peep the cover a day early. 🤫

I hope you have an epic week. It is the last full week of April, after all. 😉 — TK 🍒

Hey everyone! I’m in this phase right now where I’m making a ton of mistakes—and as I do, I’m filing the incident under: “Remember when you tried this the first time?” 😆 Most of my screw-ups have occured on Instagram. The first time I posted a video on IG (my first teaser trailer), I forgot to scale it, so the subtitles were cut off. I quickly learned from that experience and did it right when I posted my second teaser trailer last weekend. Then on my birthday last week, I posted my cover teaser. Another oops moment. It cut off the bottom half of my page that stated it was available for pre-order on Amazon. So now I know that on April 25^th, I have to post my cover reveal on top of a blurred background. I also learned that if fancy Unicode font/art work nicely on Facebook, that doesn’t necessarily translate over to IG. The text that accompanied my collage reveal was all over the place. Yeesh!

One HUGE lesson I learned today is to never let strangers beta read for you. I had a very negative experience when I advertised for beta assistance in a very large group last weekend. One member answered the call and it became a total nightmare which included name-calling and making false accusations. Not cool. I’ve since removed myself from the group and will no longer be soliciting betas that I don’t know.

I’m certain that more mishaps will occur leading up to my June 7th release date, but I’m taking everything in stride. This is my very first rodeo in the world of indie publishing and self-promotion. And even though I’ve worked in marketing for ten years, it’s very difficult promoting yourself, especially when you’re a bona fide introvert, haha! But hey…I’m doing this! – TK 🍒

Yesterday, I tidied up the edits I received from my editor and formatted the outcome into an epub. I also sent a copy over to a good friend to read over the weekend. This is the final review phase before the manuscript for A Nocturnal Rendezvous goes out to the formatter for finishing. Once formatting is done, it’s ARC time!

I can’t wait to get this book into the hands of some of you wonderful bloggers out there. Hopefully this story is satisfying enough to get a little buzz going for my debut. After the bloggers get ARCs, I will open it up to readers who like posting reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, etc. Stay tuned here and on my social media forums for more information on these two special opportunities to read my new book before it comes out on June 7th. Also, if you subscribe to my newsletter, I’m about 99.99999% sure that you will be getting an exclusive look at chapter 1 way before ARCs come out! ☺️

Anywho, the photo is me going over the first few post-edited chapters this afternoon while watching the Twilight Zone marathon because I was too distracted to write. And now, I must get back to writing.

Until later! – TK 🍒

Hey! Looks like my upcoming debut novel is set up for preorder on Amazon! It’s also listed on Goodreads, so make sure you stop by and add it to your “Want to Read” list.

Excuse me? What’s that? You’re screaming, “What’s the title, woman?!” Oh, yes. I’m so sorry . The name of my upcoming book is titled “A Nocturnal Rendezvous” and will be the first of three tales about Nighttime Cravings. Each story will feature a unique craving.

For the first tale, here is Georgia’s…

Georgia is a young housewife who’s trapped in the mundane, until an old condition of hers rears its head. But this time it brings along a sinful friend.

Will Georgia’s insane appetite cost her her marriage? Find out on June 7th! – TK 🍒

Well, I’m here! I just uploaded my very first manuscript to Amazon yesterday for presale, and I’ve been in a whirlwind ever since.

This journey is something that you and I will be taking together. I’m thinking of ways on how to document my experience as an indie published author so I can come back in a year to two year’s time and see how naive I was, haha!

Stay tuned in the coming weeks where I will be telling you more about my first book! 😉