Happy New Year!
I feel like last year went by in the blink of an eye. I remember setting goals in January and crushing my first one by the end of the month. That led me to set even MORE goals to smash throughout 2018 and I’m happy to report I was able to do just that.
2018 was a busy, busy year for me. I wrote nine books last year and released eight books in a short six-month period. That’s something I will never do again as it stressed me out. I also attended two extremely fun events where I was able to meet and greet with readers. Hug some of my favorite people that I have known for years but had never met in person. And hang out with my tribe. Events can recharge your soul but they suck the energy out of you as well. I compare events to vacation. That feeling you have when you get home – you need a vacation from your vacation. That how I feel when I return from events but I wouldn’t trade that feeling for the world.
On top of that, my personal life was a bit crazy. I quit my day job of 17 years in May. (If you’ve followed me for a while you already know that I stepped down in 2015 to a less stressful, less responsibility position. Turns out, once you’re the boss you can’t seem to shake that mentality and after three years with no ability to fix/change/improve things, I couldn’t take it anymore.) Picked up a ‘summer job’ working nights and then found another day job in September when school started back up. Lots of changes but all for the best.
After we settled into a new routine with school back in session for the kiddo, we started to make some major decisions about our future. We’ve been in limbo for about 4.5 years, renting a house and trying to figure out where we want to be and where my husbands job is going to take us. With only 6 years until my son graduates (Class of 2025 😮) we decided we wanted to put down roots and the house search began…
Let me just say that I LOVE the community we live in. I LOVE our school. I don’t love our taxes. It made finding a house we loved hard because I refused to make a mortgage payment that is inflated by 40-50% because of property taxes. It was a huge kick in the pants and my emotions were all over the place. But there’s a happy ending, I promise.
The house we’ve been renting and calling home… turns out, it is home. We’ve spoken to our landlords and they’ve agreed to sell it to us. It needs a few cosmetic updates (every wall is the same shade of beige in the ENTIRE house) and we’d like to finish the basement, but otherwise, it’s perfect. So we’re staying. No packing boxes or renting a U-Haul. We’ve been home all along.
Now we’re just waiting on the governement to reopen… the VA won’t pay out our loan until it does. UGH!
Onto some book news…
First and foremost, I have a brand new look! I’m super excited to share it with you because after 5+ years in this business, it was time to refresh my image. My books have grown over the years, both in my writing and in content. I’m no longer a young-adult author but my logo and branding still gave off that impression.
So, thanks to the amazing talent of Marisa of Cover Me, Darling, I feel like I’ve become a more mature author… What do you think? Comment below!
A BIG part of the new look has to do with the type of books I’m releasing this year. They’re… sexier. In a HUGE way. If you’ve read anything I’ve released the last year, you could probably tell I was headed in this direction but these books are still WAY different than last year. We’re talking detailed sex scenes. LOTS of them.
I hope you take a chance on these books. I know some of you have been following me since the beginning when I was writing sweet, clean romance. If it’s not your style, I totally understand, but for me, this is something I have to do. It’s a challenge I’ve laid on the table for myself, to write what makes me uncomfortable. It’s not the act of sex that gets me, it’s the writing it to sound natural.
The first book I’ll be releasing is called Caught in the Storm. You can add it to your TBR list on GoodReads right now and if you follow me over there, I’m posting an excerpt every Friday. CITS is the first in a 2 book dark, dirty, romantic suspense series.
Caught in the Storm releases April 9th ← MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!! If you are a blogger and are interested in being a part of a blog tour or reading an ARC, please feel free to contact me.
Surviving the Storm releases in May 2019 (date TBA soon)
After the Storm series is complete I’ll be releasing a trilogy – the Heartbreaker Trilogy. AND, if there’s time this year, I may be doing a super secret project with a handful of other authors. Stay turned for more details on that as it unfolds.
For now… enjoy the rest of the first month of the new year. Make sure you live every day with the best of intentions and go read a book! Books are good for the soul.
XOXO, Rachael