Welcome to the jolly month of June!
I find it difficult to believe we’re almost halfway through the year, but there’s nothing I can do to stop the advance of time, so I’m just going to have to live with it.
Things are going well in the writing department, for those of you wondering. CLAW Resurrection is coming along very nicely. If you were hoping for a June release, I apologise most sincerely. I know I said I hoped to announce a release date in this newsletter, but I’ve still been dealing with the tail end of everything happening due to the death in my family just before Christmas last year. Those of you who have dealt with the probate process can understand what I am talking about. I’ve also been navigating it without a lawyer, so it’s been an eye-opening learning experience for me, to say the least. The way things are looking right now, I’m going to say CLAW Resurrection’s release in July is getting more probable with each passing day.
The story of CLAW Resurrection will be quite the adventure and is going to be a good-sized novel as well. I would say about the same size as the original CLAW in length (somewhere over 500 pages—so you’re going to get your money’s worth). Each chapter will be buckets of fun, just as I try to make each and every chapter of all my novels.
As I was mulling over a topic for the newsletter this month, funhouses came to mind. I like to think that my stories are a bit of a funhouse because you never know what’s around the next corner. It makes me think of the novelisation of the screenplay for the movie The Funhouse (1981), written by a young Dean Koontz under the pseudonym Owen West (one of his TEN nom de plumes, amazingly!).
Writing under other names is something I don’t have time for. Running a small craft novel business as I do, I’m kept busy enough writing novels under my own name. I am Chief Cook and Bottle Washer here at Katie Berry Books after all, and sometimes, things take more time (don’t make me use my wine analogy again!).
As I’ve said before, I do so appreciate your patience. For those of you who do pick Resurrection up on release (and I thank you if you do!), please be aware there will be another novel after CLAW Resurrection—CLAW Retribution. I mention this because I know some of my newer readers might get to the end of Resurrection and think, “Oh no! I still have questions! Has Katie Berry left us high and dry?” No, of course not. Longtime readers know I would never do that.
Recently, I had a reader leave an unhappy review of the CLAW Emergence series, saying that although they enjoyed it, there were some unanswered questions at the end of the novel, and thus, to them, it was a letdown. They lamented that they didn’t learn what else happens with Caleb, Kitty, Sandy, and the Doc. There is a good reason for that: because I haven’t written those novels yet. Rest assured, their stories are not over, and there will be several more novels with those characters (plus much, much more) in the future. Like a continuing series on television, you don’t get all the answers to every question at the end of every episode, or novel in this case. If you did, would you want to watch or read more? Though my novels could be read independently of each other, they’re all part of a greater universe as I’ve mentioned before, the Berryverse.
Since I need to get on with more post-production, I’ll end things here. But before I do, I will throw in a new cartoon that I created of the Boys for your enjoyment. Will their trials and tribulations ever end? Maybe, once I tire of making them. But for the moment I am still having way too much fun.
And that leaves us with the monthly draws! Due to possible postal disruptions, I won’t be doing an autographed paperback draw this month. Once the labour dispute is settled at Canada Post, I will resume that part of my draw. In the meantime, I will draw for TWO audiobooks this month instead of one! The winners of this month’s audiobooks of their choice go to May 31st: s.frosty64@XXXXXX.com and nhagerty214@XXXXXX.com. I hope you both enjoy your prizes!
Thank you all for being Katie Berry Books Insider subscribers. As always, if you didn’t win this month, there’s always a chance next month.
Take care, my friends. I hope you all have a very jaunty June, and I will be back again in July with more news—and hopefully a final release date.
Good health and great reads,
Katie Berry