In this newsletter…
🧔♂️ Meet Reece O’Dell’s handsome partner!
🐉 Post-apocalyptic romantasy with dragons!
💀 Free fantasy with gorgeous covers!
Hey, before I get into it… I’ve noticed that my views have dropped recently, and I’m suspecting that Substack emails may be more aggressively filtered into Spam / Other / Newsletter tabs these. You can keep this from happening to my newsletter, should you so desire, by adding this email address to your contacts and/or moving this and other emails from me back to your main inbox. 💌
Now, let me tell you a bit about Devon Duluth.
When we started developing Reece O’Dell (the protagonist of the Chaos Caretakers series), Perry, Paige and I decided that Devon Duluth is the Good Guy™️ of the trilogy.
He had to be. Reece was just too much without a decent human being for a foil—someone who could show her a better way simply by existing.
And so, Devon shows up in Chapter 2 of MONSTER SITTER, working out in his old college gear in the basement gym of the Hunters, Inc., HQ, like the gym rat he is. While Reece assumes he’s wearing the Northwestern t-shirt because someone pressured them into accepting Devon on an athletic scholarship, in reality, he was there on academic merit and then some.
Devon’s got two major forces working against him: his addictive personality, which has given him grief at every stage of his life (ask him about Shadowbound Siege!); and his inner lie, “I’ll never amount to anything beyond my strength,” which has been proven true when his attempts to engage in academic activities got him rejected by peers and authorities alike.
Everyone in Devon’s life has only ever wanted him for his athletic abilities. Even his parents.
They meant well, of course. But his dad was the quarterback at the same high school, and his mom a track star… and they made every accommodation to be sure Devon could participate in whichever and all sports he wanted in his last four grade school years. (And all the sports he didn’t want, but was good at, anyway.)
Back then, Devon yelled and got angry and threw things, but he hurt someone once and that was plenty for him. So these days, after a few anger management classes, Devon gets in his own way—he keeps quiet, making choices he thinks others want him to make, even to his own detriment.
But at the end of the day, Devon knows what he cares about—and, more importantly, who he cares about.
He loves Maelie for her bravery, her optimism, and her idealism. He admires Reece for her iron will, her spine when it comes to authority, and her protective nature. (Okay… fine. He loves Reece for those things, too. 🤫) He loves the hardy residents of the Fire Oak Island commune for their resilience, their steadfastness, and their reliability.
When the worlds change around Devon, he stays the same, for better or worse. Those self-critical energies he turns on himself become deadly addictions… but even in the throes of his worst self, he manages to remind his adopted daughter and his co-parent why they matter more than anything.
And that’s what the second book in the Chaos Caretakers series, MONSTER TRAINER, is all about: stripping away the distractions until all that’s left is what really matters.
What really matters to Devon Duluth are his people.
Who are your favorite unexpectedly smart characters? Reply and tell me, they’re some of my faves!
👉 Join Devon, Maelie, Reece, and their friends and foes in the Chaos Caretakers series now! 👈
A recent reviewer of MONSTER SITTER says… “A gritty story in the vein (heh) of Buffy and Supernatural […] a fun, quick read that I do recommend.”
And here’s high praise from a happy reader of MONSTER TRAINER: “I cannot recommend this book or series enough. I love the world building, the characters and real life headaches that exist, with or without magic.”
The final book in the Chaos Caretakers trilogy, MONSTER MENTOR, will be available next month!
Now, on to other authors’ works… but before I introduce Dragon’s Watch, I have to say a few words about Skyrim.
I’m not someone who considers herself a “gamer.” Unfortunately, in my mid 20s, I developed motion sickness that prevents me from playing a lot of first-person games and even many third-person games.
Before that, though, I was really into Skyrim. What’s so funny to me is that I live in a place that’s not dissimilar from the biomes depicted in Skyrim. Yet for some reason, come the late fall and early winter, I crave the game and its dragon-y, magic-y fantasy vibes—even now, when I’m no longer able to indulge myself.
I very much get “Skyrim with sexy mods” vibes from Dragon’s Watch, a collection of steamy shorts from author Shelby Morgen.
Support an indie author with a paperback copy of your own or an ebook for cross-device reading! 🐉🌶️
The Free-zer
It’s another installment of THE FREE-ZER—the section where you’ll find something that will cost you zero monies. (That’s no dollars, cents, pounds, pesos, Republic credits, Monopoly money, latinum, or dubloons.)
👉 Visit the Golden Island and learn its ancient secrets in The Skull Collector by Jodi L. Milner. This free short story follows a shaman battling his conscience, sacrificing his youth for a promised paradise…
👉 You can still get loads of exciting free fiction from THE FICTION GIVEAWAY EXTRAVAGANZA bundle on Bookfunnel! What will find if you peer into The Vault and the Vixen? 🗺️ Who instigated The Cover-Up? 🏃♀️ And can you Escape From Austin? 🌆
👉 Plus, you’ve still got time to seize some FANTASTIC FREE FANTASY on StoryOrigin! Can you hear the Raven’s Song? 🐦⬛ Taste the redemption in the story of Mouna? 🦋 Tried Reading the Tea Leaves? 🍵
Talk soon!
August
Wait, are Reece and Devon the “He asked for no pickles” meme??
Okay, he's adorable and I cannot wait to dive into this series! Also that sketch (which is AWESOME--five stars to the illustrator) looks like the perfect combo of the 'Chrises' and I am DOWN for that!