Sunday, January 1, 2023

Year In Review and Beyond!

Happy 2023, folks! Since I don't do the traditional Best Of lists as far as favorite books and all that, I will say that I've enjoyed much of what I'd read. Some more than others but I'm pretty choosy in what I pick from my ever growing TBR mountain. 

2022 was a mixed bag for me. Easily the most challenging year for many reasons, mainly with my full-time job becoming much more demanding and leaving me both physically and mentally exhausted most days. But I still love what I do and enjoy interacting with my customers when it comes to recommending books by other authors. 

2022 started off in the most unexpected and lovely way for Casa Kosarich. We adopted a bonded pair of one year old cats, brother and sister, after a mutual friend who volunteers at a no-kill cat shelter gave us a heads up. We'd planned on adopting another cat after we lost our beloved 18 year old Mag the previous November but these two were too good to pass up. And once my wife and stepdaughter saw pictures of them online, it was pretty much a done deal. Prince and Salem took a little bit to acclimate to their new digs but they did so fairly quickly (Prince burrowed into the bottom shelf of my Stephen King bookshelf on the first day at his forever home). They fill our lives with much laughter and love daily and we are truly blessed to have these beautiful creatures in our lives. 

As I usually do, I'm always working on a new book/writing project and at some point editing a new one for upcoming or near future release. This past year should've seen the release of my 3rd and final Roseblood novel called Bloodlust. Originally it was supposed to be a late summer or early fall release. But because I also work with an editor and cover artist/book designer, I also have to adjust my schedule to gel with theirs, which I'm happy to do. Unfortunately, in late September and early October, my home state of Florida got hit by two hurricanes, one of which devastated a large portion of southwestern and central Florida, including where my folks live and the house where I more or less grew up in. Not going to lie, when you discover your elderly parents are riding out a Cat 5 hurricane, it leaves you feeling terribly helpless and scared as hell. You don't have to be a creative to conjure up worst-case scenarios but it doesn't help either. Needless to say, and thankfully, they survived but not unscathed. Ian tore up much of the overgrown jungle of a yard, knocking down several trees or damaging many that had to be taken down. Also the house suffered some water damage (limited to just one room, though) and roof damage that will require it to be replaced eventually. My brother in Tampa, plus 3 of his closest buddies, and myself, spent a day in mid-October with chainsaws and other tools cleaning up most of their yard and filled up the cul-de-sac with a small mountain of tree and plant debris. 
But I'd already decided to put off releasing Bloodlust until maybe by the holidays. Usually when I'm prepping to release a new book, I take some time off of work. That way, I have a week to get final edits done and coordinate any last minute details with my editor and or book designer. But being increasingly busy at work getting ready for the holidays, and being out of town helping out my folks made that too much. And it didn't take long for me to decide not to rush the new book during the hectic Crazy Season, and just push it back (or up) to early 2023. 

Anyway, so that's my year in review! Bloodlust is still slated for late February or early March. Then I'll focusing on finishing up a nasty little horror novella called Rebirth and starting my own edits on Island of Devils, my followup to The Ravening. Although I think I'll release Rebirth later this new year and will most likely push the latter to 2024. Island of Devils is the biggest/longest horror novel I've written to date (well over 500 pages) and was a blast to write, but it'll require some work to get it where I want it to be. Eventually, I still have plans to release two story collections. One will be called The Nightmare Season, collecting some of my previously published short stories and a few unpublished ones as well. Also I have a collection titled No Laughing Matter, which ties in my two ebook shorts Clowning Around and The Last Chord with several other original stories featuring the supernatural being known as Tricksy the Clown (or Mister Tricks) and Mister Black. 

As always, much thanks to anyone and everyone who's purchased, read, and reviewed my books. Can't thank you enough! 

To those new to my work, you can find my Kindle ebooks here, and my ebooks and trade paperbacks on BN.com here


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