And Now We Come to the End of 2025

And boy what a whirlwind of chaos the end of this year has been (also flu sucks!) ANYWAY. I'm going to use the new year to reset a little and get going again with a schedule I hope will be a little less chaotic.

More on the year ahead below. I also have new books out this month to talk about!

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RELEASES

First up, the final Demon Witch series book APOCALYPSE WITCH is officially out everywhere now! The print and hardback editions should be available most places or will be available soon.

APOCALYPSE WITCH

A Demon Witch Novel

Demon Witch, Book 5

AVAILABLE NOW

The Apocalypse Witch… A disaster? A warning? Or a destiny…

With this new cursed power dangling a knife over her head and pinning a target to her back, witch Angie Jordan faces one last trial to find answers. Before the dark magic kills her. A journey that tests her control. Strains her bond with Sebastian. And reveals secrets that could devastate her realm. A quest that pits her and Sebastian against an enemy unlike anything they’ve encountered before.

As demons hunt them, and the dangers expand with every step, Angie’s powers grow more erratic. Uncertain who to trust, time becomes their enemy. Because if they fail, no one will be safe.

From the demons. Or from Angie.

Don’t miss this heart-pounding final book in the acclaimed Demon Witch series. With everything on the line, and the fate of Angie, Sebastian, and the entire human world hanging in the balance.

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The paperback and hardback editions of the other books in the series with the new covers are available some places but still populating out, so if you want the new covers, you can either order from my store, or give it another week or so for the updates to go through. Careful on Amazon. I've taken down the old versions of the books but the old covers are still showing so you might get directed to those editions.

Large Print editions of all the Demon Witch Books will be updated and rereleased in the new year. Ran out of time to get those sorted. So if you're a Large Print readers, be sure to check back here for updates.

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In addition to the new covers, there's also a new duology of the two shorter prequel stories. The eBook of HOWLING DREADFUL ON A MOONLIT STRANGE is only available in a few places so far, including my store. I'll be getting the eBook of the duology out in the new year as well.

But in the meantime, the paperback and hardback of this edition should be working its way out everywhere. And if you have the individual books for MOONLIT STRANGE and HOWLING DREADFUL, there's no big changes in the duology, so you don't need to buy that extra book.

HOWLING DREADFUL ON A MOONLIT STRANGE

A Demon Witch Prequel Duology

AVAILABLE NOW

When a witch enters the demon hunters’ world… Death and destruction follow.

Angela Jordan planned a future that fell apart one long-ago day in a church parking lot. Though she tries to follow her true path as a witch, fate and the demons pull her away. And when the demon hunter who saved her life knocks on her door, the hunter’s protégé in tow, looking for help, Angie answers the call.

Starting her down a path through a demonic world she hates. The only light…meeting the love of her life. But being in Sebastian’s world takes a toll on Angie. Forces her into her worst nightmares. Death always one mistake away.

To hold onto Sebastian, Angie lives and fights beside him. But the cost she pays might be too high. Even to keep the love of her life.

This prequel duology to the Demon Witch series takes readers on a dangerous meet cute, a beginning to a deep love, that could lead Angie and Sebastian into a bright future, or devastate them both. Don’t miss these darkly magical prequel stories to the Demon Witch series!

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AND in addition to the new Demon Witch books and editions, I'm SO excited to have out the latest HAUNTS AND HOWLS book! I'm kind of kicking myself for getting this one out so late in the year. I really do prefer to release the Haunts and Howls collections in October. But the last half of this year has just been crazy. BUT, it's out now! Available in eBook, Trade paperback, and Large Print editions!

HAUNTS AND HOWLS AND DRAGON TALES

A Haunts and Howls Collection

AVAILABLE NOW 

Follow, mere mortals, for here there be dragons…

Beyond the mists of time. Through the thin veil between realms. Enter a world of dragons both old and new. Mystic beings of power and magic. Danger and strength. Wisdom and violence.

Here, intrepid heroes venture into uncharted waters. Encountering creatures so powerful their legends span all of human history. Tread cautiously. For here there be dragons…

In this latest Haunts and Howls collection of seven new contemporary fantasy stories, bestselling author Kat Simons delivers dragon tales from the quiet to the epic. From the truly deadly, to the sublime. Don’t miss every delicious, dangerous adventure into the realms of dragons. Including a brand new Destiny Cats novella!

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I'm REALLY excited about this edition of the Haunts and Howls books. If you haven't guessed, I love dragons and have since I was a kid. My gateway into reading science fiction and fantasy was Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. So this collection is near and dear to me. And I just love the stories in it. I hope readers will enjoy it too!

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SALES

There are all sorts of seasonal sales going on this month as well, so be sure to check those out. I have a bunch of things on sale over at KatSimonsBooks.

AND most of my catalogue is in the Smashwords Annual Winter Sale! So be sure to check that out too. Lots of good books involved.

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NEWS AND A LOOK-AHEAD

So, as I mentioned above, the last part of the year got away from me and I feel like I'm ending on a chaotic note. I'm hoping to corral all that chaos going into the new year and settle on a more reasonable schedule given the stuff going on in my personal life in the upcoming year (all good stuff! Just a lot of Big Events that I want to make sure I'm present for and not stressed about the publishing stuff around those things).

I will continue with the twice a month Stories from the Cafe at KatSimonsBooks. Those will still
come out every 1st and 15th of the month for readers to enjoy for free, with collections of the previous six months of stories coming out...well, every six months. VOLUME TWO of the STORIES FROM THE CAFE will be out in January toward the end of the month. You can preorder the eBook from KatSimonsBooks now if you want to make sure to get it!

The next two installments of the Dragon Thief series are written and just waiting on edits and cover art. Those will be released early in the new year. I was hoping for January and February or March release, but at this stage, it's looking more like February and March or April. If things go better than I anticipate, I'll be sure to update here! But yeah, looking like February and April will be more reasonable release times.

I also have book 9 of the Cary Redmond series just waiting in the wings! That one does have a cover--or at least it's almost finished. Still working through edits--but there's still editing. So for this book, I'm going to celebrate a little by doing a Kickstarter for it! That will be either March or April and I will definitely update here as it approaches and the prelaunch page goes live.

I will also have a new Haunts and Howls Collection out in October 2026, this one with a ghost theme!! Perfect for spooky season. So look out for that one. (I may launch it with a Kickstarter!) It will have a new Cary Redmond novella in it, and I have a story about writing that story. But I'll talk more about that closer to the time. (tease LOL)

Around all of this, I have a few Percy James Mysteries releasing and a couple more collections to put together that I've had on the backburner for entirely too long now. Time to get them out! I also have a really fun collaborative thing I'm doing in August, but I'll tell you more about that in the new year.

Because 2026 is for catching up a little, I will have Dragon Thief on hiatus after the twelfth book comes out, but only for a short time. Except the new season of Dragon Thief to start up again in 2027!

So big plans for the upcoming year, but hopefully a more reasonable work schedule for me. LOL. Wish me luck!

And until next month, may your holiday season be lovely and full of light and peace and warmth and love. Happy Holidays!

Kat

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

Buy Direct 

All Other eBook Vendors 

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

BUY DIRECT

All Other eBook Vendors

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!

BUY DIRECT

All Other eBook Vendors

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