Hello Precious Readers!

I’ve some good news and bad news. Since I always believe in ending on a high note, here’s the bad news:

My first book, Capture Me, was pirated by LibGen. If you haven’t heard, this last week all of the author world was abuzz over The Atlantic article that brought to light the massive META (Facebook/Zuck) data breach that was used to train AI programs. This included, 7.2 million authors’ hard work being stolen and used to populate the website LibGen, a place that allows people to download books for free. I spent an evening this week writing DCMA letters to the website from both the Author’s Guild template (which sends a template letter directly to the LibGen source), and a separate one from my email address.

I deeply ask for your support in not using LibGen to download books. They did not get permission from authors, and it leaves us smaller known authors out of our own income.

Plus, stealing is wrong.

The other bad news: There are a lot of Amazon boycotts happening. Believe me, I have thoughts about this. Since my books are still not available for purchase yet, it doesn’t directly affect me, but it affects so many other people. Without going into further detail, I simply highly recommend you purchase books directly from the author. It gives them more profit, you’re not susceptible to your license of the book being revoked by a big (virtual) box store, and you know that you’re supporting the author directly.

In some medium news: Pilot, Buddy Bacher, and I were super, super sick for the last two months straight. I’m not even kidding. Buddy Bacher started a half-kindergarten program this year and between him at school and Pilot in person at work, they both traded off bringing a bunch of viruses into our home. Pilot’s even descended into pneumonia (which, thank goodness is gone now).

We’re all still coughing a bit, but this last week was the first week all of us went back to our duties full time. I secured a new client for four drawings from my new illustration business, http://kawaiisublimestudios.com and have already delivered 1/4. Due to contract details, I cannot reveal the first work for a couple of months. In the meantime, I have some other drawings I’m working on to showcase on socials during the down time. If you’d like some art from me, check out my Kawaii Sublime Studios Instagram for samples, and check out my website. Contact me for any portraiture, memorialization, development of fan art or character design, book cover design, logo design, etc. The possibilities are endless!

NOW, THE GOOD NEWS!

I heard back from my Beta Readers for my first book Capture Me re-write, and now that I’m not down with the various plagues, I’m off to start re-editing book two: Crush On You while incorporating the feedback I received from Betas for book one.

Want to be a Beta Reader for Crush On You? Send me an email to KatherineBacher@gmail.com.

Admittedly, Crush On You was not my strongest work. I was crunched on a deadline and always wanted a chance to rewrite it. I’m deeply considering some major changes. I’m also considering changing the titles of the new books to make re-publishing easier for them. (No issues with copyright laws, even though the books are all mine again.) I’m still looking into how I can sell both print and e-books directly from my website to you as well. There’s a lot of tech work I’m unfamiliar with, and it also doesn’t come cheap if I can’t do it myself. I have a bit of a learning curve ahead of me right now.

With everything happening in America right now, I just want to wish you peace of mind and self-care during these times. If you haven’t figured out through my books and my blog, I’m grateful to be a blue dot in a blue county in a blue state. Many, many people are not so lucky.

Take care, know that you have my support, and keep an eye on my Instagram for more day-to-day updates.

Love and hugs,
KB