Whew, it's Been a Hot Minute...
It really has been a hot minute since my last blog post. I was a bit shocked at that. But here I am with some updates for you.
In all honesty, I sometimes forget to post here, because I tend to focus on my newsletter. If you're NOT signed up for my newsletter, you can do that HERE.
*Keep in mind that subscribers receive bookish news first.
Now, what have I been up to since my last post, you ask? Well...my last day of work was September 04. My husband and I celebrated 26 years of marriage in July, my 51st birthday was in August, and at the end of July, we sold off our cattle. Lots of changes...
So much so, that I completely spaced the 2nd birthday of Out of the Blue. Yep, I did. I forgot to celebrate the rerelease of my first book. I will forever love Kate's and Asher's story. Even though I wrote it, it makes me swoon. You can purchase it HERE if you've never read it.
If you've followed me for any length of time, you will have probably read or seen my stance on AI. That I do NOT use it at all in my writing and am incredibly leery of it (see Terminator, lol). That being said, I have used it to draw characters for when I want to share a scene. Below are what ChatGPT came up with based on the bookish description for both Kate and Asher. Tell me what you think.
Another change, more of a smaller addition, really. But I'd asked readers what they thought of me changing my tagline from, "Classy, Sassy, Steamy, and Clean" to "All of the heat and none of the spice."
And readers chimed in! I had several tell me they'd started following me from that first tagline, specifically the "Steamy, and Clean" part. Because they were intrigued about how that was even possible. So, based upon those responses, I decided to keep my original tagline, with one slight distinction. You might have noticed it on my homepage.
Now, I'm E.L. Irwin, Classy, Sassy, Steamy, and Clean, where you'll get all of the heat and none of the spice.
With all three of my first books, I had some of those digital character illustrations done for the MCs. But when I'd gone to the artist I'd used for both Written in the Deep and The Lost and Found, she'd declined to work with me as she felt doing so would give her followers a bad feeling about her because my latest book, Long Live the Rebel has a shirtless man on the cover. No matter that the book IS entirely closed door and the cover is shadowed in such a way that only his shoulders are really seen. But I digress. She's entitled to her opinion. At the time, the rejection was felt sharply and I'd decided to shelve the idea of having any art done for these two characters.
Then recently, I decided that no, these characters deserved their moment as well. Especially as readers were falling so in love with them. So, I hired a different artist. I'll share those with you probably next week; I'm going to share them with my subscribers first. But, I will share the ChatGPT sketches I did for these as well.
AJ and Ryler are from my latest release, Long Live the Rebel. You can purchase it HERE. This is an enemies to lovers, romantic suspense with hints of faith.
In other news, towards the end of next month, my husband and I are headed to Ireland and Scotland and I am beside myself with excitement. Seriously, I CANNOT wait. Ermegersh. We're going to have such a good time.
Well, I think we've covered a bit of ground in this post. Whew, again, it's been a hot minute, but I hope you've enjoyed the updates. Please, leave your comments below and I'll respond. As always, thanks for stopping by and for being a part of this journey with me.
Take care and God keep you,
Your Lady of Literature,
E.L. Irwin
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