Jumpin’ Jiminy, It’s January!

Hello everyone and Happy Middle of January! 

I hope you are all well and that those of you in the Northern Hemisphere are braving the winter elements the best you can. Here in the BC interior near Lawless, we have gone from bitter cold with lows around -20 Celsius (-4 Fahrenheit) and two feet of snow, to fog (of course) and a sloppy mess all over the ground with highs next week approaching +7 (45 Fahrenheit). Talk about your bipolar weather, sheesh! 

In today’s KBB Insider’s newsletter I have several announcements. The first is that, for those of you following the ABANDONED series of books, Book 4 is coming along nicely. And if you have finished Book 3 and are itching for some more Sinclair Hotel goodness (or badness, as the case may be), I will be sending out a link to email subscribers only with a download link to the entire first chapter of Book 4 in the next week or two. So, if you are not a Katie Berry Books Insider yet, now would be a great time to sign up! https://mailchi.mp/756d0cbb50ea/subscribe-page

In other news, I have been toying with the concept of starting up a Booktok channel on Tiktok. I like the idea of the short format video. With the number of things I have on the go, that is about all I would have time to produce. In it, I would discuss various books I have read over the years and the influences they’ve had on my writing. As part of this, I would also post a photo on Instagram with an abbreviated text version and link to the TikTok video. So, I suppose my question is, is this something that you folks would be interested in seeing? Please drop me a line and let me know.

And finally, a contest! For those of you unaware, in most of my novels, I try to throw a few ‘Easter eggs’ into the mix. This usually consists of movie or TV show titles, and sometimes a song or book title. Generally speaking, I try to write them into the text as part of the narrative flow. So, for those of you who’ve read Book 3 already, you might want to give it another go and see what you can spot. Some of the movie titles are easy to find, such as Stripes, Neighbors and the History of the World Part I. Those are out there in the open, but the question is, how many more can you find hidden amongst the novel’s text?

So, the contest is this: the reader who lists the most Easter eggs in ABANDONED Book 3 will win an autographed copy of the novel (once I receive my author copies in the next month). Send your entries to katie@katieberry.ca and put Easter Eggs in the title so I will know it is an entry). There will be two runners-up, and those with the second and third most eggs listed will receive audiobooks of ABANDONED Book 1&2 as their prizes. The contest winners will be announced alongside the usual end-of-the-month winners of an audiobook and autographed paperback.

Well, that is it for this newsletter. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on my little TikTok and Instagram idea. In the meantime, please stay warm (or cool, if you are closer to the equator or living in our planet’s Southern Hemisphere as I know some of my readers are).

Take care, my friends! Good health and great reads to you all,

-Katie Berry