This is one I painted to donate to a dance studio, one of many that were struggling last year with forced shut downs. 

While it was frustrating to not have my stories come willingly over the past year, it was nice to find my art resurgence. Every down has an up. 

As of now, the new Songwriters book is zooming along (knock on wood) and I'm looking at a (hopeful) late summer release. This one is related to the first novella I had accepted to an anthology, A Melody in the Dark, one of five stories in Music of the Heart, a through 5 decades anthology with 5 different authors. The anthology will be pulled off the market this month. If you want to grab it before it goes, you can only find it HERE in eBook and print until sometime in April 2021, OR get it HERE in print from my local store that offers low cost shipping, even after April, since I will have them stocked there while my supplies last. If you scroll to the bottom of the check out screen to "special instructions" you can request a personally signed copy. It may take a bit longer to arrive, and be sure to mark how you want it signed, but I'll gladly go to the store and sign it for you. Again, while supplies last. I only have a handful of them left. When they're gone, they're gone. My other books are there, as well. Just search Ella M. Kaye.

As for how the new book is related to the novella, A Melody in the Dark features Meladee Dillon, a struggling songwriter with a young child she's raising alone in the 1970s, until she meets Niall Dillon, a general handyman/laborer born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. The new Songwriters novel features Meladee's granddaughter, Isabel, also a struggling songwriter who refuses to use her grandma's fame to launch herself, but can't resist when a local boy who knows a little something about music wants to help launch her career. Isabel's grandparents still live in Pittsburgh, but her favorite place in the world is Presque Isle in Erie, PA, so she lives in between the two. It features many towns in between the two cities, as well as the cities themselves.

This book will include original songs, and with any luck, a couple of them might get music added so you can hear them as well as reading them.

If you want a preview, grab the novella and get introduced to Isabel's grandparents. Then watch for the new release, tentatively titled "The Texture of Glass" based on the sea glass Isabel loves.

After a lot of updating and changing and formatting and designing... the first three Artists & Cottages books are in official print editions and available anywhere books are sold.

It's an amazing amount of work to put three books out at once, especially when you're doing every part of it yourself (with help with some amazing beta readers to catch things I didn't!). Of course the artistic part of writing isn't a simple task, by any means, but the technical details of formatting and the overwhelming details of marketing are seriously no joke. 

So, it's taken a while, but here they are. (The eBook versions have also been updated, to include pretty new covers.) If you read/have read any of these stories, let me, or others, know what you think, either here, my social media pages (found in the top right corner), or at your favorite book hangout.

A heartfelt thank you to all who spend any amount of time with my characters and stories.

The first three stories from the Dancers & Lighthouses series have been revamped, with new cover art and some content updates, and are now available in print from your favorite bookstore, globally. Pieces of Light was lengthened from a novella to a full length novel. The other two received minor additions and edits.

The Artists & Cottages series will also be getting face-lifts soon, and the first Singers & Songwriters novel is well underway, with an exciting project to go with it. More on that as it develops.

If you check out any or all books in the series, please consider leaving a review from wherever you purchased it, or at Goodreads.com. Reviews are an indie author's lifeblood and we appreciate every honest review you take the time to leave for us. Thank you!

Speaking of "check out," the book are available through Ingram and through Overdrive, so you can request it in print or electronic format from your local library. The ISBNs are listed with each book description.