Did you know you could break your toe by dropping a metal water bottle on it? Well, some of us can. I guess the good thing is that it's pushing me off my feet more than I have to be.

All writers have heard the old "butt in chair" adage that's so important in writing. In general, that's the hardest part for me. Staying put. I wander a lot in between writing. And it's very easy to find so many other things I need to do, or want to do, that missing a few days of work turns into a few weeks, into months, years... And then you wonder how it could have been so long since you kept your BIC and just wrote.

I got a bit of a shove in another way, too. Prices are rising. I know, we're all tired of hearing it. Unfortunately, that includes book production costs. Several of my books were only making a few cents per sale. One wasn't salable because it would have been losing money. I try hard to keep my sales price low. But a mandatory price raise meant a cover change. Since I was doing that, anyway, I decided to lighten the blue of my Artists & Cottages covers. And since I'm doing that, anyway, I'm giving them a quick update inside, as well. Nothing major. A bit of rephrasing, mainly. A couple of typos I missed the first time. 

And once I get the updated versions ready, I'll redo some marketing, as well.

I believe in these stories. I'd really like to see them out there further. If you enjoy them and would like to help, please consider a review or two or some feedback on social media. Thank you. <3 

The in-progress first book of the Singers & Songwriters series was set to be out last year. And then... life happened. I had no release last year. I didn't push for it, either, since the last thing I wanted to do at a time when so many were just trying to survive shut downs was to market a book. It was a big time for reading, and that's wonderful, but I also didn't market my books already out. It felt wrong. 

What I have done the past year is spend a lot of time with my grands, and I'm still cyber schooling two of them. 

I've heard from a lot of authors that their creativity sank to nothing last year. My writing was the same. I just ... couldn't. Except for bits and pieces. Instead, I returned heavily to my art (drawing and painting and some bits of sculpting). 

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.

Last year, inspired by the snowfall in the southeast, I began a short story based on that snow and revolving around Sandy, Caroline's coworker at DanceOtica, from Pier Lights. There was more to Sandy's story, and so I gave her a voice.

What was meant only as a short story, possibly a free read to go with the Dancers & Lighthouses series. It was not finished before last Christmas, so I put it off and went back to other projects. However, Sandy's voice was strong and needed to be heard, so I pulled her out again this fall to finish that story. 

The story grew too long to be called a short story, so, a novella. With life events, it was still not quite finished before Christmas. It was right there, though, and I hated to leave it until next year. Getting some input from fellow indies, I decided to do a short, soft release at the end of this year followed by a full release in July 2019.

So, until the end of the year, you can download the story free to read directly from my website. It will still be getting a few minor edits, plus cover art that's also in progress, before July. This is a not-for-sale version. Call it a 2018 Christmas gift to my readers. 

Here are the download links, in your choice of format:

A Charleston Christmas Miracle in EPUB

A Charleston Christmas Miracle in PDF

A Charleston Christmas Miracle in MOBI

I hope you all had a beautiful, hopeful, miraculous Christmas and I wish you a happy and creative 2019.

LK Hunsaker writing as Ella M. Kaye

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.

Shadows of Rust & Reels is now available! Go to the Artists & Cottages page for the info, including buy links, and read the first chapter here on the site. 

I'm so pleased with the book trailer made for the story by Ami Hawkins, who also created the music for it (her own version of one of the songs featured in the book). Here's the trailer. You can also go like it on Youtube, and share with your friends.
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Shadows of Blues & Echoes was released in ebook March 2016. It is now also at Lulu.com in print.

The second of the Artists & Cottages series, Blues & Echoes reflects depression, the mental health issue presented in this story, as well as the mountain setting of Durango, Colorado. Find info and buy links on the Artists & Cottages page.

The third story of the series is coming to the end of completion with an expected release of fall 2016. Meant to be a novella, the story of Holli, a bipolar pottery artist, and Isaac, a welder looking after his ailing father, grew to a full novel by necessity. I was fortunate enough to recently visit the story setting of Williamstown, West Virginia in order to add first-hand detail to Holli's hometown. Many thanks to Brenda Rainwater for suggesting the setting and assisting with details and info!

Bigger News: The first novella for the new and final EMK series has been contracted to Prairie Rose Publications to be part of a boxed set under the Fire Star Press imprint. More details to come.

In the meantime, there is a story line in development for the first novel of the Songwriters series. This book will begin during Nanowrimo 2016.

So far this year, I've had a major computer crash and various too-long illnesses (what would winter be without them?), but the second Artists & Cottages book will be released on March 17th! To find info, jump over to the series page and scroll down to the newly added cover and blurb.

I'm throwing a release party over on Facebook for anyone who's there, so come on over and win some goodies:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1575762149411804/

The second Artists & Cottages book is nearing completion, awaiting edits.

In the meantime, I'm working on something different, a for-submission novella that will mark a whole new EMK series. I don't want to release information until (and if) it gets accepted by the publisher doing a very cool new concept line. If it doesn't fit them well enough, it will still come out later.

Stay tuned!