Note #1: This post will also appear on Tuesday, July 5 at Magical Musings.

Note #2: I’m giving away 5 copies of Bitter Bite, Elemental Assassin #14, U.S. only. To enter, use the form at the bottom of this post.

Unwanted, e-novella #14.5 in my Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series, will be released on July 18. Woot!

I’ve written several e-novellas for this series — Thread of Death, Kiss of Venom, and now Unwanted — along with short stories like Carniepunk: Parlor Tricks. There are also several free short stories for this series on the Free Reads page of my website.

I enjoy writing the e-novellas and short stories — especially since many of them are from the secondary characters’ points of view.

Unwanted is an e-novella that takes place after the events of Bitter Bite, book #14. It is told from the point of view of Finnegan Lane, Gin’s foster brother. If you’ve read Bitter Bite, then you know that Finn definitely needed his own story after everything that happened in that book. And a hug. 🙂

Finn is one of the most popular characters in my Elemental Assassin series, and I’ve had many requests from readers over the years to write something from his point of view. After everything that happens to him in Bitter Bite, it seemed like the right time to finally give him a story. (And I also had time in my writing schedule to do it as well.)

Writing the e-novellas and short stories really lets me delve into my secondary characters and show their emotions and feelings about everything that’s going on around them. It also lets me expand my overall world building and show different parts of Ashland, my fictional city, that I might not get to visit in a regular Elemental Assassin book.

But I know that not everyone will read all the e-novellas and short stories, so I try to make each one of them almost like mini adventures for the secondary characters. That way, if you want to read the e-novellas and short stories, you are getting a complete story. But if you don’t want to read them, then you’re not going to miss out on anything that ties in to a major storyline in the main books.

To me, the e-novellas and short stories are just fun bonus material for fans of my series, like all those behind-the-scenes features that you see on so many movie and TV show DVDs these days. I hope to write more of e-novellas and short stories and explore some of my other secondary characters. Time and writing schedule permitting, of course.

What about you guys? Did you read e-novellas and short stories that tie into book series? Why or why not? What are some of your favorite book series?

UNWANTED INFO

Unwanted is about 20,000 words — around 75 pages — and will be available as an e-novella only. There will not be any print or audiobook versions at this time.

Unwanted is priced at $1.99, and it is up for pre-order at the following sites:

Amazon Kindle / Barnes & Noble / Books-A-Million / Google Play / iBooks / Kobo

And here is the e-novella description. This contains major spoilers for Bitter Bite. So if you absolutely do not want to be spoiled, skip reading the e-novella description.

The New York Times bestselling Elemental Assassin series continues with a new e-novella—from the point of view of Finnegan Lane, the foster brother of Gin Blanco, and a fan favorite of readers of the series.

The fallout from his disastrous “family reunion” in Bitter Bite has left Finn feeling hurt, angry, and depressed. He can barely stand to look at himself in the mirror, much less eat any of the delicious barbecue from Gin’s famed Pork Pit restaurant.

But when the funeral for a slain security guard at his bank turns into a showdown with some nasty underworld giants, Finn knows that he must act in order to protect an innocent family.

Finnegan Lane might be the most unwanted man in Ashland these days, but he’s determined to try to make amends for his past mistakes…

You can read an excerpt from the e-novella here. Scroll down, and click on the Read Excerpt tab.

I hope that everyone enjoys the e-novella when it is released. Happy reading!

BITTER BITE GIVEAWAY

To gear up for Unwanted, I’m giving away 5 copies of Bitter Bite, Elemental Assassin #14, U.S. only. To enter, use the form below. a Rafflecopter giveaway