Happy Friday! I hope you’re enjoying a long and sparkling Fourth of July weekend! It’s been a week of shocks for me (in a good way), starting with… cue drumroll and cheering… One Thing Better is now on Kindle Unlimited! 🎉🥳🥂
So, what does that really mean? If you’re one of the gazillions of KU subscribers, you can read One Thing Better for FREE! (Along with millions of other books for $12 a month, and the first 3 months free—a pretty good deal). So, if you or someone you know frequents KU for their reading pleasure like it’s the town pub for reading, please let them know One Thing Better is there, waiting to pull up a stool and buy them a drink.
Already one of my wonderful subscribers? (Gosh, I love you guys sooooo much). Yeah, you can read One Thing Better for free anyway, along with Sea-Devil, and exclusive bonus content (You’ve read all that by now, right?). Sign up here if you want to join the club (it’s fun, a little weird, mostly fun).
Enrolling One Thing Better in KU also means the ebook is exclusive to Amazon for the next three months. My nerves are aflutter, hoping it’ll find an audience among the voracious readers there in time for Every Good Thing. 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🫶🏻
Other shocking good news this week…
🦻🏻A twenty-eight-year-old from LA with a hearing impairment that’s grown progressively worse as he’s gotten older gets beautifully emotional when his hearing is restored, thanks to his new cochlear implant. He celebrated with a trip to Disneyland. Congrats, Aric!
Real life isn’t the same as a fictional world (right🤔?), but that one had me tearing up, thinking of Ben Wright from One Thing Better (now in Kindle Unlimited 😉) and its upcoming sequel, Every Good Thing. One Thing Better was Lena’s story, featuring her struggles with grief and anxiety. Every Good Thing is more about Ben and his hearing loss. I can’t wait to bring his story to the world, and it won’t be long because…
🤩 Every Good Thing has finally reached the red-pen-editing stage! The manuscript is a hunky 98,000 words—complete with the basics (a beginning, middle, and end)—plus what readers of One Thing Better (Kindle Unlimited) have requested… more Dot (keeping things real), more Lena (anxious always, but stronger than ever), and overwhelmingly, more BEN! It’s an exciting, nervous time for me because the REAL story emerges in the edits, and I love getting surgical with my stories. 🤓🔪🎬
🦾 More shocking good (?) news… I’m LOLing and SMH just telling you this—I joined a gym. 🥴 It sounds like the title of a hilarious fish out of water story—Jessica Joins a Gym. The hijinks alone—me trying to brain-work how to operate machinery, me looking around nervously to make sure no one is watching, me starting every weighted equipment at the lowest possible setting, me trying to wiggle out of an abrasive wedgie from the stationary bike… ugh, you get it.
But if you never try, you never succeed. And you kinda become a dullard. 🤷🏻♀️
Joe’s tried to get me to join a gym for YEARS, but I’ve always said, “No, I’m not a gym person.” But after moving our daughter into her third-floor apartment a few weeks ago and hurting like hell three days later, I accepted that something must change. Walking every day just isn’t enough (though we still do that, too). It’s muscle-building time. And I accomplished my first two goals: signing up and showing up.
That’s another thing that reminds me of Ben—he shows up. Ah, I’ve got that story on the brain. ❤️🩹🥹 P.S. I can’t think of fireworks without thinking of him, either. It’s like his holiday weekend. 🎆
I’ll keep you posted on my gym hijinks and sore muscles.
📚 For more on self-betterment, here’s a great article from my alma mater, Virginia Tech, about How to Crush your Summer Reading Goals. Summer is perfect for establishing good reading habits. Here’s my humble advice on How to Read More Books. In that spirit, I’ll send subscribers a Quick Sunday Edition of my newsletter featuring some bookish delights. So, watch for it. Want it? Sign Up!
“It’s never the right time, but right now is usually the best time.” – James Clear
That’s good advice for reading… for the gym… for getting Kindle Unlimited 😉
Until Next Time, Happy Reading and Many Fireworks!
Jessica
