Has it truly been since February since I’ve blogged here? I can’t believe it. I hope this finds you and yours well and happy. Chez ZAM, it has been a bit of a slog. We are all still working and studying from home and my DH had hip replacement surgery.

For the holidays this year it’s going to be quiet again. We don’t have a ton of family but since my son Xander married this year, we have a fabulous new daughter-in-law!

It’s almost time to cue up the Muppet Christmas Carol and carve the roast beast.

Wishing you the very best of winter season holidays, good health, wealth, and cheer throughout the year!

Best,

Z. A. Maxfield

How are you going to celebrate? Valentine dinner with your sweetheart? Galentine’s Day? Are you going to ignore it? Buy up all the leftover chocolate?

I’m going to do what I normally do. Walk, write, and try to take over the world. I have a new book coming out on Feb. 12th, The Vengeful Valentine Job. This is related to The Brothers Grime Biohazard cleaning company, which you read about in Jack, Grime and Punishment, Eddie, Grime Doesn’t Pay, and Gabe, Partners in Grime.

In this installment, we have a new Grime Brothers location – Rancho Cucamonga! Plus, a new set of workers, all under the management of Skippy, the colorful team leader from the first three novels. It was definitely time to give Skippy a promotion. Now he’s running his own franchise!

Here’s the blurb:

Can a minister with a moneyed background see past a blue collar worker’s muscled, tattooed bad boy persona to the gentle, caring soul that lies beneath?

When Stieg Winthrop returns from a business trip to find a bloodbath in his home, he’s only marginally appeased by the knowledge that animal blood was used to make a point, and no humans were harmed to create the mess. Since the scene seems to point to a jilted bride, he’s doubly confused because he’s never dated a woman, ever.

It doesn’t matter who created the disaster or why. That’s a job for the police. Stieg must have his home cleaned and sanitized and that means hiring a biohazard cleaning company to do the work. Enter The Brothers Grime, who have opened a new location in the Inland Empire city Stieg calls home.

Levi Bond is a cleaner at Brothers Grime, not a salesman, but he’s the only one available to meet the client when the call comes in. The minute he sees Stieg Winthrop, his heart melts for the sweet man. But the more he learns about the wealthy East Coast academic and man of the cloth, the more outclassed and unworthy he feels.

What could this intelligent, bougie homeowner who wears bespoke suits and carries expensive luggage ever see in an average guy like him?

This novella-length gay romance in the Brothers Grime universe between a millionaire trying to escape the overbearing snobbery of his family and the sweetly devoted blue collar man he falls for is everything you need in a Valentine’s tale. For a highly sensual, emotional read, buy The Vengeful Valentine Job today.

Available at Amazon. Read it with your Kindle Unlimited subscription!

You know what a writer like me used to do? She poured herself a cup of tea and wrote. She starved in a little garret and feverishly sweated over hand written manuscripts and when she was finished, she wrapped her work in brown paper, tied it with a string, and hoped to hear back in her lifetime whether she was successful or not. Then of course she poured herself a cup of tea and did it again and again and again.

These day, a writer–especially an indie published writer like me–has to put on her writerly hat in the morning and her publisher hat in the afternoon. She has to hire an editorial team and a cover artist and be a marketing wunderkind. She has to keep a visible online presence. She has to sell herself as well as her books, and make it all look easy.

Case in point: the cover for Winter Solstice in St. Nacho’s . The original title of the story was Christmas in St. Nacho’s. It was supposed to be a thirty thousand word novella that would make Hallmark proud. But you know me. As soon as I started to write, I ended up outlining a totally different book featuring the character Tug from A Much Younger Man, and his is a redemption arc as grim as my cover is sweet.

PLUS my cover had a typo.

Two typos if you count the missing apostrophe in Nacho’s. I honestly never even noticed, because deep down, I’m that lady writer drinking tea and staring out to sea and concentrating on story, not marketing or publishing and for that, I apologize.

After that wake up call, I showed the cover to the crit group I belong to, my Shenanigangsters: Sue Brown, Morticia Knight, LE Franks, and Belinda McBride. (We try to meet daily to cheer each other on, and I would not be able to do any of this without their support.) In thumbnail size, you can barely tell anything’s wrong with the cover. But you know what? I shared the full size and nobody noticed. (We’ll laugh about this later.) I had that cover fixed. I moved on.

Then I posed this question, “Does that happy, sappy cover still even fit the longer, grimmer book I’m writing?”

We all agreed,,.NOPE! OOPS!

Now, Garrett Leigh at Black Jazz Design will be creating an entirely new cover that more clearly represents the story set out in the blurb. One that will fit in well with the other St. Nacho’s books, so stay tuned for a new cover release on that later.

In the meantime, I’m keeping this first cover (corrected back to Christmas in St. Nacho’s) for something else, later. Maybe a sweet thirty thousand word novella for next year.