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In Honor of April Fools’ Day… Let’s Play a Dangerous Little Game
It feels only appropriate, given my subject matter, to celebrate April Fools’ Day with a bit of deception. After all, if anyone appreciated a well-executed ruse, it was Catherine, the protagonist of my forthcoming novel, Countess of Cons. She was also my husband’s great-grandmother. Below are five “facts” drawn from her life. Some will sound…
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New Cover, New Format, Same Story That Refuses to Let Go
I redesigned the cover of Nothing Really Bad Will Happen—and yes, I did it for the most modern, unromantic reason possible: I want people to actually notice the book on Amazon. Not because the story needed a makeover. The story is the story. It’s lived in my family for generations, in silences and fragments and…
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Where I Am Now: Restructuring Countess of Cons After Beta Reader Feedback
It’s been almost a month since I received all my beta readers’ feedback on Countess of Cons. You know that moment when you realize you weren’t as close to the finish line as you thought? Not exactly a surprise, but still… The gist: readers needed neck collars to recover from the whiplash caused by too…
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Polished-but-Dead: Editing With AI (It’s Complicated)
Remember that song, “Video Killed the Radio Star?” (If you don’t then I’m pretty pleased—that means younger people are reading my blog!!) Lately, while editing Countess of Cons with Scripty McPromptface in the room, that song has been looping in my head. Because the way MTV changed music in the 1980s—suddenly it wasn’t just the…
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Gemini Is an Ass: The AI Hallucination That Invented ‘The Wickedness of Catherine Seeley’
I was driving home the other day—minding my own business and trying not to launch my car over our condo’s speed bumps—when my sister Jeanne left me a text. (Siri read it to me—I follow the laws!) “Have you ever published your book, Countess of Cons, under another title?” My brain immediately went to worst-case…
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