Happy 2025!

Happy New Year! I hope the start of this new year is treating you kindly. I know it is not for some people (thinking about the massive wildfires in California as I write this), and my heart goes out to you. I hope you get support and healing, and the rest of the year is kinder.

For my part, January is its usual crazy start to the new year, but it's mostly good stuff, so I will take that!

This month, I have a new Joan of Kerry story out! And a short story from the last Haunts and Howls collection has released as a standalone story. The third Stories from the Café story is up at The Café now as well!

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JOAN AND THE GOBLINS is available now at my store and will be available at other vendors on March 18th. The preorder for wide purchases is up now, or you can pick the book up at KatSimonsBooks.com now, if you're the impatient type.

Also, for my print readers, I have enough Joan or Kerry stories now to put together a nice print collection, so look for that later in 2025.

JOAN AND THE GOBLINS

A Joan of Kerry Story

Buy Direct | AVAILABLE NOW
All other eBook vendors | PREORDER. OUT March 18th

Bogs, goblins, and a monster more ancient than a dragon…

Joan and her dragon companion Rory find themselves on the hunt. For goblins. A group of annoying goblins who have stolen something they shouldn’t have touched. Something that could raise a monster so deadly and so ancient, even Rory doesn’t have a name for the creature.

Goblins without a king are goblins causing trouble. Goblins trying to be the king cause chaos that could get the entire island of Ireland destroyed. Joan and Rory must stop the would-be king and his companions before it’s too late. Before the deadly monster comes looking for its stolen treasure.

Because even a hero, her dragon, and her legendary sword might not be enough to stop this ancient threat.

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Also new this month is the standalone eBook of Black Water Hawthorns, a creepy, weird fairy story from the 2024 Haunts and Howls collection HAUNTS AND HOWLS AND FAIRY DALES. If you're a print reader, I recommend picking up the collection, but if you'd just like one or two of the individual eBook stories from the collection, those are rolling out this year.

Black Water Hawthorns is available wherever eBooks are sold!

BLACK WATER HAWTHORNS

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Beware the darkest waters, for monsters lurk in their depths…

Ph.D. student Deirdre’s late nights of study have left her exhausted and punch drunk. But she’s so close to the end, so close to finishing her thesis she can taste it. Even the stories of missing people around the Dublin campus can’t deter her. Especially when those tales all have logical explanations. The nervous, jumpy energy on campus worries her a little. But she’s got too much to do to think about the mysteries.

Until a strange dizzy spell bends her world. When she recovers, everything still mostly looks like her college campus in Dublin Ireland. But everything has shifted a bit sideways. Everything looks a little strange. Threatening. And when the red-eyed creature out of myth and legend appears, Deirdre knows she’s either lost it…

Or she is no longer in the ordinary world.

Following a strange creature into a strange realm never ends well for hapless humans. Yet Deirdre finds herself doing just that. Hoping she can find her way home. Before the black water monster lurking among the hawthorns catches her. And traps her forever.

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Finally, be sure to check in at THE CAFE at KatSimonsBooks for the latest free reads! From the 15th, Agnes at the Café is available. And a new story will post on February 1st.

For those who'd like to catch up, I've decided (thanks to a recommendation by some fellow publishers) to make the individual stories available for sale from KatSimonsBooks. The full collection of short Café stories will still come out every six months with the previous six months worth of stories. And that collected edition will be available in eBook and Print editions. But if you've missed a story and don't want to wait, or prefer reading on a device of your choice rather than off the blog, or just like a particular story and want your own copy, you can purchase individual eBooks of the stories once they go live in The Café. 

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Next month, be sure to look out for another standalone eBook from last year's Haunts and Howls collection, as well as a new Dragon Thief story! AND news on the upcoming Dragon Thief Kickstarter!

More on all that in February.

Until then, Happy Reading!

Happy New Year 2024!

Someone mentioned in passing the other day that 2030 is now just six years away, and that can't be right at all because the year 2000 was just yesterday! LOL (Obviously, I'm an old.) But seriously, time is really weird and I can't believe we're nearly a quarter of the way into the first century of the 2000. I might catch up to all that by the time we hit the 2050s. *grin*

But in the meantime, I've been writing a lot of stories, and I have some fun stuff coming up this year which I'm really excited about!

For January, I have a brand new Joan of Kerry story out today! And at the end of the month, I have one of the stories from the last HAUNTS AND HOWLS collection (Haunts and Howls and Jesters Bells) releasing as a standalone eBook.

Then next month, I'm starting an all new series, novella length stories released every other month (for this year) in a whole new urban fantasy world, heavy on the romance side of things.

But more about the new series later. Here's the details for the new releases this month:

JOAN AND THE SELKIE
A Joan of Kerry Story

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No one visits a dragon’s island uninvited…

When Joan’s dragon companion, Rory, discovers a mysterious satchel on his secret island off the coast of Ireland, they both know something feels amiss. And since the satchel holds a carefully folded selkie skin, that something promises to be bad. Selkies never leave their skins unattended. Not on purpose.

Joan and Rory set out to uncover the secret of the abandoned selkie skin, a quest that brings them face to face with more of the mythical seal people. And a tragedy that has cost lives.

To save the day, Joan and Rory will have to face the dangers of the ocean deep. 

And they might just have to burn.

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BORED QUESTLESS

Out January 30th, Preorder Available Now!

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No one wants a bored dragon…

Leave a dragon bored, quests happen. Kaxem knows the inevitability of this. Especially with a best friend like Rebop. But when Rebop brings Kaxem news of a bespelled princess in need of waking, Kaxem, at first, passes on the adventure. He’d rather rearrange his books. Really. He would.

But disappointing his best friend proves impossible. Bored dragons are also nagging dragons. Kaxem agrees to the quest. One last quest.

And if they happen to save the world, and discover a really good library in the process…he won’t complain.

Author’s Note: This story is also published in the collection HAUNTS AND HOWLS AND JESTERS BELLS.

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NEWS AND UPDATES

So 2024 is going to be another big year for me, and I'm really excited about it all, even the things that I'm frankly terrified of doing.

I'm starting a new paranormal romance/urban fantasy series called THE DRAGON THIEF series. I talked a little about this last month as well. The first book will be out in February and I'll be doing a cover reveal for Book 1 and 2 on my newsletter this month! I'll roll out those covers to the general public at the end of January. These novellas will come out every other month in eBook for all of 2024. For my print readers, I'm looking into the feasibility of putting them into standalone print editions, but at the very least, I'll collect the whole first year into an omnibus print edition at the end of the year (look out for that in December).

Lots more on that series next month!

I'm also going to be running my very first Kickstarter to launch the brand new Cary Redmond novel that is out this year. The Kickstarter will allow readers to get the novel a whole two months before it's released wide and a month before it's available in my store! More on that next month as I get things set up. 

Look out for Cary's Book 8 Cover Reveal later in February (or on my newsletter by mid-February), too. My cover artist gave me a really fantastic cover for this one!

The fourth novel in the Angie Jordan DEMON WITCH series is still on the schedule for September 2024. And I have three of the stories already written for the next HAUNTS AND HOWLS collection, coming in October 2024. I'll also have a couple of more short story collections in the mystery genre, and a new contemporary romance release this summer.

So LOTS of good stories coming out, in a variety of genres, to suit your mood and reading preferences.

2024 will also be the year of expanding and prioritizing my store, KatSimonsBooks. There will be more paperbacks added (hopefully all of them), and I'll be starting to add products to the store very soon, with those rolling out over the year. As with the newest Cary Redmond novel, I'm also going to start releasing some of the bigger books early from the story. And 2025 might see everything released in the store first and then wide (if I can get that organized!). So watch for that if you're the impatient type.

I'd like to start moving the Isabo Kelly books over to the store, too. They're a lower priority move for me, but I'm hopefully I can have them there by the end of the year.

So that's the overview of what 2024 will bring. It's a lot. So long as things don't get turned upside down, it should be a fun year with some new ventures. That said, of course, keep watching this space every month for updates on all of this (especially if life intervenes and my plans have to change).

Or, if you want the news delivered directly to your inbox, consider joining my free author newsletter. It comes out monthly, I occasionally give away free reads, or coupons to the store, as well as include excerpts, cover reveals, and other fun stuff, depending on what's going on. I do write long newsletters most of the time, but I include links at the top so you can jump to what you're interested in if you have limited time to read.

As we roll into this brand new year, I hope it brings you good health, peace, kindness, and lots of good reading!

Happy New Year!

~Kat

First of 2 February Posts

Thanks to a bout of Covid for me and my youngest (sigh) I'm a little behind this month--for the record, we're both doing well, thanks be to vaxxes. He's fully recovered and I'm on the mend. Fingers crossed my oldest and husband don't get sick now. More sighing.

Anyway! Personal note added just so you know that I'll be posting a second update this month. I may have to push out the release of my second story for this month and the novel for next month by about a week each, since I lost a week of work. I will update here as soon as I know.

In the meantime, I did get the Valentine's Day release up and it's out now! Once again, it is not a Valentine's day story or a romance or anything like that. For some reason, I don't lean into publishing my romances on Valentine's Day LOL.

This story is a new Joan of Kerry novella. This time, Joan and Rory face a kraken and adventure ensues. Available in eBook from all vendors as well as available to buy direct from me now!

JOAN AND THE KRAKEN
A Joan of Kerry Story

BUY DIRECT
eBook all other vendors 

When an ancient monster arises from the deep…

Joan and her dragon fly to the rescue. Spotting a kraken wrapped around a spit of land off the west coast of Ireland, Joan knows time is against her. When the sun rises, the sea spray and mists won’t hide the mythical monster from human view, or protect humans from the creature’s deadly tentacles.

Getting the kraken away from human habitation proves challenging. And when Joan spots a grounded fishing boat, which the kraken refuses to release, Joan fears the creature has already claimed its first victim.

Facing a kraken, without getting killed, tests even an experienced hero and her dragon. But that’s the job. A job Joan was born to do.

Just her. Her sword. And her dragon.

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I'll have the release details for the newest Cary Redmond novella, Cary's Leprechaun Troubles, in a week or two! And I'll have an update for the release of REDEMPTION IN STONE in that post.

Thanks for your patience!

October Brings Cool Weather and Two New Releases!

For a paranormal fantasy fiction lover and all around Halloween fan, this is my favorite time of year! I can't help it. The weather (cooling down here), the fall leaves, the food, the spookiness. All of it.

So I supposed it's pretty cool I have two releases to add for this month. October deserves two releases.

The first I mentioned last month, and it technically released September 28, but why nitpick. Close enough to October to count. Haunts and Howls and Guardian Spells is a short story collection of contemporary fantasy stories, all on the them with a theme of protectors and guardians. Which means that of course there's a new Cary Redmond short story in the anthology--one not published anywhere else!--because she's my most on-the-nose Protector characters. Haunts and Howls and Guardian Spells is out in eBook, Trade paperback, and Large Print editions!

HAUNTS AND HOWLS AND GUARDIAN SPELLS

A Contemporary Fantasy Short Story Collection

EBook 

Trade Print: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Indie Bound 

Large Print: Amazon | B&N | Book Depository | Indie Bound 

Between haunts and howls…new guardians rise.

In mystical worlds of deadly magic and danger, the innocent need heroes, guardians, protectors to stand in the way of evil, to keep the world safe and balanced—even if the imperiled never realize trouble looms just out of sight.

Reluctant heroes strive to do whatever they must in these five short stories of contemporary fantasy, where nothing is as it seems. Where wizards and faeries lurk, and shapeshifters prowl. Where magic swells to both hurt and heal. And where destiny calls those fated to save the world.

For readers who love dark tales of mystery and magic, with heroes fated to keep innocent people safe, don’t miss this exciting collection from bestselling author Kat Simons. Including a brand new story in the action-packed urban fantasy Cary Redmond series.

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I enjoyed writing and putting this collection together so much I think I'll make it an annual thing. I even have a few themes for future collections in mind already--demons anyone? So look out for another Haunts and Howls collections next year right around this time!

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My other release this month is another Joan of Kerry short story! (Yes, I'm all about the short stories this month apparently. Quick reads so there's lots of time for other spooky things like...pumpkin spiced everything *grin*) Joan and the Leprechaun is out now!

JOAN AND THE LEPRECHAUN

A Joan of Kerry Story

EBook 

Monsters aren’t her only problem…

For Joan, having a dragon best friend and heroing buddy means dealing with sneaky leprechauns. All the time. Because her dragon’s scales are made of gold. And nothing calls to a leprechaun like gold.

So when one of cunning devils steals off with some of those golden scales, Joan rushes in to retrieve the valuable prize. Only to discover a predicament more complicated and deadly than she expects. A situation that requires a hero.

Joan takes up her sword, once again answering the call to protect innocent lives.

Another quest for a hero and her dragon.

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For the record, it took me ages to get the spelling of leprechaun right consistently. Something about that word makes my brain short circuit, and I kept wanting to add extra letters. LOL. I think I've got it now, though. My Irish husband would be proud.

Check back next month for a brand new Cary Redmond short story, this one a Christmas story! Because of course, Cary can't just have a normal, boring few days around Christmas, could she?

Until next month, I hope this finds you safe and healthy.

Happy Reading!

Kat