Jessica McCarty, Author

Champion's Sword releases July 16! The ebook is up for preorder. Paperbacks can be ordered on the publication date. Available on Amazon! It's both exciting and bittersweet to get the conclusion of this story into your hands. I've walked in the world of the Woodland elves for several years now. It feels a little strange to be letting these characters go. But I'm excited to dive into another story and new characters. In other news, A Desperate Love  has finished its journey with my publisher and, for the time being, will be out of print. I have the option to self-publish and am seriously considering doing so. Stay tuned for details! Reading . . . On a whim, I picked up Be More Unicorn  by Joanna Gray. I also read Some Like It Scot  by Pepper Basham. My feelings about this book? I think Larry the Cucumber summed it up best. "I laughed. I cried. It moved me, Bob." Touching, funny, heartwarming. I highly recommend and can't wait for Pepper's next book, espe...

 I'm roughly seventy percent of the way through this final pass of Champion's Sword ! Some chapters are taking a bit longer than others. But I'm confident I'll get through it all in the next week or two. The majority of formatting is finished. And I was so excited to add an "Also by Jessica McCarty" page to the beginning of the book.😭💖I still need to write the blurb. I like to wait until I've read the book for the final time before tackling that. That way I've got the story in its entirety fresh in my mind. There's just no easy way to condense a three-hundred-page book into three paragraphs. After that is cover design. Lastly, uploading and publishing! I'll be sure to keep you all posted. A cover reveal and publication date should be coming soon! Reading . . . This month, I read the last book in the Hawthorne Brothers series ( How to Kiss a Movie Star , Jenny Proctor). I'm really sad to be done with this series. They're just good clea...

  Guys, I have three chapters left! Theoretically, I should be able to tackle these last chapters next week. I will say, though, that I've learned things often take me longer than I expect, and chapter fifty-one is a behemoth . Seriously, it's double the size of a lot of my chapters. After I've finished with edits, I'll read through the entire book to check everything one final time (and fix em dashes in the first half😐) before moving on to formatting, cover design, and publication. Yay! Reading . . . This month, I read So That Happened  by Katie Bailey (Donovan Family, Bk. 1), a grumpy-sunshine romcom that was super cute. And I finally returned to the Hawthorne Brothers series (Jenny Proctor) and read How to Kiss Your Grumpy Boss  (Bk. 2) and How to Kiss Your Enemy (Bk. 3). Somehow, I unintentionally picked three workplace romances . . . and movie star ones for my upcoming blog🙈, with the exception of Beg, Borrow, or Steal by the amazing Sarah Adams. I'll be repe...

 Happy spring, friends!🌞🌱 We've had a lot of rain here in the Hoosier state. It's getting warmer, and things are greening up. I can't wait for sunny days when I can go for walks and start working on my garden. This year, I'm planning to try my hand at container gardening. My garden plot is pretty small to start with. I like things that are straightforward and practical. So, this seems like it might be a good fit. And less weeding! Which is good, because I'm continuing to work through final tweaks for Champion's Sword . I should be done by the end of April. Then I'll move on to formatting, followed by one final read to check for commas and such. I'm looking forward to refilling my creative well and returning to drafting after so long in editing land.😉 Reading . . . This month, I re-read Spells for Forgetting  by Adrienne Young. And I finally got my hands on Ignite  by Kara Swanson. If you've read Champion's Key , you'll understand why this ...

 Tomorrow, I'll begin reading through my entire manuscript, splitting it up into two days. As long as everything flows and sounds cohesive, I'll move on to formatting, spelling and punctuation, and the like. I can't wait to get the conclusion of my duology out into the world, and I'm excited to dive into a new story! However, rather than jump straight into my next book (a fantasy standalone), I'm considering taking some time to fill the creative well and absorb all I can on two of the aspects of the world. They say your second book is harder than your first, and I'm feeling fairly wrung out after this series. But I've learned some things, one being that I don't think I'm built for series. My creative soul wants to make art and then move on to the new, shiny thing.😂I'm also a pantser/discovery writer. I had to do more planning and plotting than I normally do for the sequel. While it was necessary, it sort of bogged down my process. I want to go i...

 We're getting closer, friends! I'm still on track to wrap up line edits by the end of the month. While I'd love to give a release date, I don't know how long my list of to-dos will take. My hope is to possibly release April 1. Stay tuned! Reading . . . Unfortunately, I only have one book to share this month due to starting a couple of books and then setting them aside for different reasons. Currently, I'm slowly working my way through a 500-page nonfiction.😕I did, however, finish a whimsical children's book called Library Girl  by Polly Horvath. It was quite cute & humorous and highly enjoyable. That said, the ending wasn't as light-hearted as I would've liked (although certainly realistic given her situation!). A word of caution, it's my personal opinion that this book should be given to older children and with a brief discussion on the topic of community helpers, namely police. Much of this story circles around the fact that several librarian...