Hattie Malloy is a boat-legger.

Not a bootlegger, but a boat-legger. She smuggles booze up and down the waterways of the Chesapeake Bay, using her illusion magic to keep the G-men from getting wise to her cargo.

Those who have never seen the Chesapeake Bay might not realize its grandeur. The Bay is the third largest estuary in the world, and the largest in the US. With it’s brackish mix of fresh and saltwater, the Bay is roughly 200 miles long with more than 150 major rivers and steams as well as over 100,000 smaller tributaries contributing to its waters.

Think about that from the perspective of a boat-legger for an instant – more than 100,000 little, marshy, out-of-the-way rivers and steams to duck into and hide from the feds when you’ve got ten barrels of moonshine that need to go from Havre de Grace down to a dimly lit slip in Virginia with only the moon and the stars to guide your way. The Bay’s width ranges from 4 to 30 miles, so if you hang close to the coastline, you can see that Treasury boat coming, and pull in to safety. And although there is a deep trough running down the middle of the Bay, its average depth is only 21 feet, making it ideal for smaller boats.

Forget about bootlegging booze in an old truck, racing down narrow dirt roads in the middle of the night to make a delivery. A boat and the Bay are the keys to your success— and to staying out of the hoosegow. Well, a boat, the Bay, and a gift for creating illusions.

Wooden Nickels – White Lightning Book 1 releases September 18. Take advantage of the special preorder pricing at the following retailers:

Time to give everyone an update of where things stand in my writing world.

1. Queen of the Damned should be out on audio ANY DAY NOW! It’s done and has been in Audible’s quality queue since the end of the month. It normally takes them a few weeks to review, so at the latest you should be listening to it next week some time.
2. The final Imp Series novel, The Morning Star, is on track to go to edit at the end of May and I’m planning a late June release. Because I want to get it to you as soon as possible, I won’t be doing a preorder on this one.
   For those of you who are lamenting the end of the Imp Series, please know that Sam isn’t going anywhere. She’ll have cameos in future Imp World series as well as the occasional short story or novella.  After The Morning Star releases I’ll be turning my attention to a few new things, as well as returning focus to my Templar Series, but all your Impish characters will return next year in a new series. I may even do a holiday Sam short to tide you over.
3. I’ve got an amazing project I’m working on with J.P. Sloan that’s got Moonshine, Mobsters, and Magic Users.  The White Lightning Series will kick off on September 18th with book 1—Wooden Nickels— and will continue with a monthly release schedule through the new year. Expect 6 books in this series, and possibly more as well as a spin-off series if things work out. For more information, check out the White Lightning page on my website.
4. I’ll be participating in a shared-theme project called Love Spells! These are laugh-out-loud paranormal romances, and I think you’re going to like these fun books! My contributions will be releasing early next year, so stay turned for covers and more information.
5. FOREIGN LANGUAGE EDITIONS – I know those of you who bought the German edition of A Demon Bound have been (im)patiently waiting for the rest of the series to be translated. I’m happy to announce that I have contracted with someone and hope to have Satan’s Sword completed and available in German around the end of the year. If that novel goes well, the rest of the series should follow in fairly quick succession. These translated editions will be exclusive to Amazon.
   I’m also in talks with someone to translate the series into Italian. If that happens, those novels should be out starting late this year. I’ll update everyone as soon as I have more information!

Some of you who follow me on social media know that I’ve been starting to amass my robot army. I have a Roomba. I have an Amazon Echo. I have this vision of myself as Judy Jetson, walking around in a dress while my robots take care of all the housework. So this year for Christmas (yes, I buy myself Christmas gifts) I got a Hue hub and a bunch of smart light bulbs. They connect to my WiFi, and my Alexa, so all I need to do is walk around the house and tell Alexa to turn various lights on and off.

Yeah. That’s the idea anyway.

The first box came and after installing all the bulbs, I plugged in the hub and discovered it wouldn’t power on. That meant I had to go around and change all the bulbs again, so I could box it all up and send it back as defective. The second set worked, and I spent hours connecting it all through the Hue App, creating lighting groups and naming individual lights. Then I activated the Hue skill in the smarthome part of my Alexa. Voila! Judy Jetson!

So here I am two months later having a bit of buyer’s remorse. Here are some of the issues with my not-so-smart home:

1. Sometimes the hub can’t find certain lights, and not matter how much I shout at Alexa, she calmly informs me the hub isn’t connected to that light. After a few tries, I have to get up off my butt and turn it off myself.
2. The names are EXACT. And my memory isn’t what it used to be. So when I tell Alexa to turn on the Boys’ Bedroom Light, she insists there’s nothing by that name. After a few tries I realize that I need to say “Boys’ Room Light