A Cover Reveal, Preorders, a Kickstarter, and the next READ THIS! BotM - Oh My!

Happy February! Hope the start of the year was good to you. This month we have Valentine's Day aka Singles Awareness Day aka Hallmark's First Holiday Bonanza of the Year coming up. But we have more than that, too! I have a reissue and a cover reveal, and they aren't from the same book! I'm much, much closer to having Aliens Like Us ready to go, and the yap runs deep but never silent. Plus we've got a twisty romantic suspense for this month's READ THIS! selection, so let's get to it all, shall we? We shall!

Read Out Loud! Do you have your copy of the Touched by an Alien audiobook yet? If not, don't wait! Grab yours today and start your year right!

Speaking of Reading Out Loud... Graphic Audio has renewed the contract for The Legend of Belladonna, Part 1: Natural Born Outlaws, by moi writing as A.E. Stanton. If you haven't grabbed this fantastic audiobook, don't delay, grab it today!

READ THIS! A Book Club by Moi for All Y'all Welcome to READ THIS! A Book Club by Gini Koch. This is my chance to introduce you to some great authors that I love and know you will, too. Every month I'll spotlight a book and, even better...every month I'll host a live discussion with the author, that all y'all can join! I know, it's too happy to be true, but true it is!

February 2024 READ THIS! Selection

The READ THIS! Selection for February 2024 is:  Reel to Real Love By Elle E. Ire Gini's Take: A traumatized widow who may or may not be being hunted by assassins and an extremely self-aware AI join forces in this fun, twisty, romantic suspense. About the Author: Goldie Award winner Elle Ire writes science fiction and paranormal romance featuring kickass women who fall in love with each other. When she isn't learning to use weapons ranging from pistols to axes to whips or paying someone to kidnap her to get the details right, Elle can be found attempting numerous escape room challenges or singing karaoke in the weirdest bar she can find. Elle has nine novels in print with DSP Publications.

February 2024 READ THIS! Author Q&A

So, you've read the READ THIS! selection and you want to share what you thought with the author, hang out with them and Gini, and generally talk books for an hour. Well, guess what? You can! The third Thursday of every month will be READ THIS! Author Q&A time. The event will be held utilizing Discord, and the invitation to Gini's READ THIS! room will come out in the week prior to the chat. And that's not all! Near the end of each Q&A session, we'll be doing a raffle and one lucky winner will get a copy of the next month's READ THIS! selection! (You must be present in the Q&A to win. Physical book prizes will be U.S. only. Ebook prizes will be worldwide.)

February's READ THIS! author Q&A  featuring Guest Author Elle E. Ire will be on Thursday, February 15, 2024 from 9pm-10pm Eastern. Access to Discord is available worldwide, and everyone is invited to attend!

March's READ THIS! Selection   And Remember: One Lucky Q&A Participant can win it early!

The READ THIS! Selection for March 2024 is:  The Song of Dreams and Shadows: an Urban Fantasy with Morgan and Sam By Catherine Kane

Speaking of Books...

The Re-Release Comes Out This Month! The re-release of Plush Life is coming February 13th, just in time for Valentine's Day. For those looking for romantic suspense, action, smexy times, and danger in and around New Orleans, pre-order your copy today from B&N or Amazon (and other outlets). For those who aren't in the mood for romance, read about the most evil of exes and rejoice that you're not dating anyone like that. And for those who are curious about what kind of epilogue I wrote for this re-release (spoiler alert: a long one), you can grab your revised and epilogue-filled copy, too!

It's Kickstarter Time! Zombies Need Brains is launching a Kickstarter for Year 3 of their magazine. In addition to all the usual greatness, one of the stories featured will be by moi writing with Bebe Bayliss. We'll be offering 2 tuckerizations and 2 town naming awards, so start your engines and take a look at all the great stuff right now!

More Yapping! That's right, more yapping from me and other awesome authors over at ConTinual. The latest offerings are ARC and Beta Readers, where we discuss how and why we utilize folks to ensure our books are the best they can be, Silent But Not Still, where we discuss silent and black & white SF/F/H classics, and Storm: Orphan, X-Man, and Queen, where talk about our favorite weather witch who's so much more. So head over and watch and have some fun along with the rest of us at ConTinual! Don't miss these other cool panels I've run the yap on this year: Stocking the Holiday Bar Captain America: WWII Hero for the Space Age And check out all the other cool panels I've run the yap on over the past years -- you can find them over on The Yap In Charge! Plus there's a whole lot more over at the ConTinual YouTube page, so browse around and get your panel fixes in!

It's a new year and a new "I'm not quite done" message. BUT, I'm so close to done that I'm willing to say that all y'all can start expecting the Official News Of Goodness much sooner than later. (And now I wince and duck, waiting for what 2024 will throw at me for my hubris in sharing that I'm excited to be this close to turning the book in.) So, watch this space, I have all the digits crossed that the information here is going to be new and different soon, quite soon...

IT'S COVER REVEAL TIME!   As many of you may know, mysteries are my first love. Every book in the Alien Series has at least one mystery Kitty has to figure out, most have many. And, as many of you also know, I've written short story mysteries. And pretty much everything I write has a mystery in it because, first love and all that. But now, finally, I can announce that my first full-fledged mystery novel, co-written with Bebe Bayliss, is coming out March 12, from Ginger Blue Publishing. And here's the awesome cover!

Meet Stacey... Stuntwoman Stacey Weir didn't intend to become an amateur detective. But when chaos on a set turns into multiple murder, and her adoptive father's being framed for the crimes, Stacey's the only one who has a hope of finding the answers...if the bad guys don't stop her, permanently, first. Pre-orders for ebooks are live at all the places and Print versions will be up for preorder at B&N.com soon and available at Amazon on release day, March 12, and after. As I say often, pre-orders matter to publishers (and authors), so please pre-order often and early! P.S. For those of you about to raise the roof shouting that THIS is why Aliens Like Us is so late...it's not. Writing other things is never the reason why I miss a deadline. What life's been throwing at me has been why I've missed deadlines. Stacey isn't holding me back from Kitty -- Stacey is helping me keep the flame going. And Kitty thinks Stacey's da bomb, so that helps, too. It is no coincidence that this book got picked up and I was then immediately able to figure out what I needed to do on Aliens Like Us. Because that's how my mind works, and creativity comes from being creative on whatever I can be creative on "today" and publishers being excited about your work makes you want to go create more works for them to be excited about.

So many bookie wookies, so much time to catch up on all of them while waiting for Aliens Like Us and the next READ THIS! selection. Check out my Bookstore for all the things!

That's it for today but, never fear, another Update, including the Discord Q&A chat invitation, will be arriving in a couple of weeks! In the meantime, stay safe and healthy, remember we're all in this together, be kind to one another, give love and support to all those who are on the front lines in any capacity, and let's be readers out there. Peace out, my li'l gangstas, and I'll catch you on the flip side! Love, Gini