May 20, 2025

Happy May It's My Birthday Month!

Spring is in full swing here in New York and all the allergies are activated. LOL. There's also a lot of rain. Which is lovely except that it puts a damper on baseball season.

BUT! We have books. And reading. So that's good stuff.

I also celebrated a birthday this month! Had a lovely day and got some very sweet presents from my family. My whipped ganache for my brownie cake failed several times, though, so now I'm going to be making chocolate ganache and whipping it up until I cracked the issue and can make gorgeous ganache (I'm really bothered by the fact that it kept failing! LOL). So if anyone is wondering why I'm bouncing off the walls from a chocolate high over the next few weeks, that'll be the reason. Other than the failed ganache, though, I had a lovely birthday and am delighted to have made it one more time around the sun!

In the publishing arena this month, things are relatively quiet--specifically scheduled that way so I'd have plenty of time to do Kickstarter fulfillment. I do have a standalone short story from last year's Haunts and Howls collection out wide today. There is a fun angsty romance short story up at The Cafe now. And I have some look ahead news to let you all know about.

This month's release is THE TROLL AND THE DRESSMAKER, a fantasy fairytale with some unexpected heroes. This was originally published in HAUNTS AND HOWLS AND FAIRY DALES, so for my print readers, that's the way to get the story. But if you just want to read the standalone eBook for THE TROLL AND THE DRESSMAKER, now's the time to get it.


THE TROLL AND THE DRESSMAKER

A story for a stone. A stone to save her people…

The village life of a dressmaker comes with few surprises but a lot of activity. Just the way Erin likes it. She still has time to visit her best friend in the neighboring village, only has to travel to the castle occasionally, and generally enjoys her quiet life. Even when a troll takes up residence under the bridge leading out of the village, the only thing it requires to allow passage is a story. If the troll likes the story, it leaves the teller a stone.

Erin regales the troll with many stories as she crosses the bridge, but never receives a stone. She accepts her tales just don’t please the troll. Not everyone can spin stone-worthy stories. And at least the troll doesn’t otherwise bother her.

But when a mysterious threat starts to stalk the village, Erin learns just how valuable a good story can be. Because one story will be the difference between saving the lives of the people she loves, or the death of everything she holds dear.

Author’s Note: The Troll and the Dressmaker is also published in the contemporary fantasy collection HAUNTS AND HOWLS AND FAIRY DALES.

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THE CAFE AT KATSIMONSBOOKS

The latest Cafe story is available to read for free now! And SAM AND BECKY AT THE CAFE is a lovely angsty Romance with a "my best friend's sister" trope and a very guilty hero looking to make amends.

And with that, I've officially offered my 11th free short story at the Cafe. After June's two stories release, that will be six months and time for a collection! I've started to put that together. It'll be out in eBook and Print (Trade and Large Print) from KatSimonsBooks on July 23rd, and released everywhere else on the 30th of July.

I'll have the preorders for that up soon, so check back here or keep an eye out at KatSimonsBooks for those details.

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As I mentioned above, I've spent a lot of time in May working on the fulfillment for the Kickstarter for The Dragon Thief Series Omnibus. And I'd just like to once again say THANK YOU to the people who were able to back the Kickstarter. It's been really fun getting to make fancy editions of this book.

In addition to being able to do the fancy omnibus editions, I was also able to put the individual stories into their own individual print editions! Those books should be populating out now to the various vendors for a wide release on August 5th. The next day, August 6th, is the wide release of THE DRAGON THIEF SERIES, SEASON ONE, Omnibus in eBook and Trade paperback.


The eBook, Trade paperback editions of the individual book and the omnibus, and the fancy paperback, hardback, and slipcases will all be available through KatSimonsBooks in June. so look out for those! I'll have more the details next month, but the eBook is currently up for Preorder if you don't want to miss it.

Next month is actually another all Dragon Thief, all the Time sort of month, because I'll have a new Dragon Thief story releasing at KatSimonsBooks in the Second Season--book 9, THE PAYBACK JOB--and Book 8 in the series, THE GREEN SCROLL JOB releases wide! So more details on that next month as well.

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Okay, that's all for this month! I'll have all the Dragon Thief release details and links next month, as well as some look ahead news for July and August.

In the meantime, I hope the transition season, be it spring or autumn, is treating you well!
Happy Reading!

~Kat