Precious or precocious? 👧🐈⬛
Maelie Wallace is the kid character I never knew I needed to write...
In this newsletter…
🧚♀️ Meet the changeling child from MONSTER SITTER!
🌲 Cover reveal for MONSTER TRAINER!
🐲 A treasure trove of free fantasy and sci-fi!
OK, now that you know what MONSTER SITTER is all about… let me introduce you to another member of the cast.
Imagine the most precocious kid you know. Add in supernatural powers, neglectful foster parents, and a best friend named Aleister Meowly…
That’s Maelie Wallace.
She’s one of the three main characters in the Chaos Caretakers series (which I collaborated on alongside Paige Andrews and Percival Constantine). Maelie is the youngest of the cast, by far: she’s seven years old in MONSTER SITTER.
And, surprisingly, she’s the one I came to care for the most.
Don’t get me wrong—I love protagonist Reece O’Dell, and Devon has a soft spot in my heart for being the kind of guy that casual observers mistake for a himbo. But after MONSTER SITTER was finished and I started working on the outline for the sequel, MONSTER TRAINER, I quickly realized that the Chaos Carestakers series is really about Maelie and her coming-of-age story.
I’ve been a seven-year-old (and then a twelve-year-old, and then a seventeen-year-old) girl who doesn’t fit society’s mold. Reading books is what saved me from going down a dark path in childhood and gave me the skills to navigate the world (albeit with a dangerous amount of naïveté and optimism). Writing books is how I return energy to the collective life force that has always sustained me.
So, to me especially… Maelie’s journey matters.
She starts the series as an unusual foster kid who does really impressive celebrity impressions and sings like a little angel, garnering a huge following on social media. But, away from the online fame that her changeling talents bring, Maelie is a lonely youngster whose only friend is a black cat she named Aleister Meowly.
She and Devon Duluth (Reece’s new partner at Hunters, Inc.) bond over a mobile game, Shadowbound Siege—Maelie’s no stranger to technology, and enjoys an ongoing challenge. Meanwhile, her fae powers are out of control, manifesting in unpredictable, childlike ways.
Such as, you know, becoming absolutely fixated on McNuggets.
It makes sense, though, when you learn that Maelie’s foster parents had no interest in her beyond exploiting her for views and likes. Maelie grew up believing, Only when I’m performing will someone love me.
And it’s through the entirely unexpected love of Reece and Devon that Maelie starts to understand that she’s not cared for despite, but because—a lesson that I desperately needed when I was Maelie’s age.
So here I am, trying to catch a reader or two who needs to hear that and to see the lesson played out by a precocious kid… a kiddo who grows up in the course of a trilogy I had the privilege to help craft.
👉 Want to dive into Maelie’s story? Get MONSTER SITTER now! 👈
Who are your favorite kid characters in literature or other stories? Reply and let me know!
If you’ve already consumed MONSTER SITTER and can’t wait for the sequel, never fear—it’s here next week.
Feast your eyes on the delicious cover for MONSTER TRAINER!
I’ll let you know as soon as you can get your hands on it…
…like I did, IRL, with MONSTER SITTER!
This is my first physical copy of my own books. And it’s pretty incredible to hold it in my own two hands! Though I love seeing a cover and the blurb on the back, I think it’s the spine that has me giddiest.
It’s making me want to go back and publish paperback copies of all my books so I can have an entire shelf of these… 🤔📚
Would you buy paperback copies of my books? Reply to let me know—each eager customer carries a ton of weight!
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.)
👉 Super soldier Marci must find her own replacement parts on the distant city of EsoTerra, while she dodges the watchful eye of the Astrals as long as she can in Reclamation: Mind Jack, a Hybrid Genesis sequel by E.L. Strife. Claim your free copy now!
👉 Searching for your next hot weather read? Dive into the SUPERNATURAL SUMMER bundle on StoryOrigin to find tales like Out for Blood 💀, Lavender Eyes 🦋, and Vincent 🐉 along with my first short story collection, SPELLBREAKERS…
👉 Find your new favorite fantasy or sci-fi read in the JUNE FANTASY/SCI-FI FREEBIES bundle on Bookfunnel! Alongside SEEKER, you’ll find stories like Dreamfall ⚔️, Born of the Water 🌊, and Fates that Entwine Us 🐉…
👉 You can still get freebies from the YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?: AN ALL-GENRE GIVEAWAY FOR CHARACTERS WITH UNUSUAL JOBS bundle on StoryOrigin… from The Movie Star and the Spy to The Spectral Circus to Opie’s last-mile delivery service in SEEKER, tag along with these characters with offbeat employment!
I’ll see you again in one week with a special announcement…
August
I didn’t know she was an exploited mini-influencer 😭😭
Also HOW exciting is that feeling? (Re: holding books in your hands???)
You KNOW I'd be all over physical copies of your books!!!!