Goodbye 2021, HELLO 2022!

Hello my reader friends,

As I reflect back on the projects I completed in 2021 and the up's and down's of the year behind us, I just wanted to give thanks to those who loyally stuck with me, joined me for the first time, or maybe just became aware of my books. None of this would be possible without YOU and your love of romance books.

Personally, it was a challenging year for me. I published more books than I ever have before in a single year (10!) but I also experienced the unexpected and sudden heart wrenching loss of my father in May, right in the midst of publishing my first K.C. Kassidy gay romance. If you've never lost a parent, you may not know the weird roller coaster of emotions it drags you through. I experienced a deep grief, extreme guilt and sadness, and fear for the first time in my life. This has lasted through the entire second half of the year. Somehow, though, I managed to channel my emotional upheaval into my writing, but not without difficulty. It's only thanks to the love and support of this reader community that I pushed through it all.

Despite the chaos, I ended the year with 10 new books, a new pen name, a book that was a Finalist in the Kindle Best Book Awards, my first co-written book, and two successful author collective projects, including my holiday sports anthology (Scoring Over the Holidays) and the All American Boy series collective. I'm still stunned by those accomplishments and again, thankful for everyone I worked with along the way.

Here's the full recap:

Change of Course (MM Book 3 Change of Hearts college campus series)

The Boy Next Door (All American Boy Series)

Above the Rim (Sports/interracial romance part of the Color Theory Charity Anthology)

Playmaker (Sarina Bowen's World of True North Moo U hockey)

C*ck Blocked (Blockers series - MM romance under K.C. Kassidy) - FEATURED as Big Gay Fiction Podcast's FAVORITE of 2021!)

Burned (Fanning the Flames Book 1) - co-written with SE Rose

The Girlfriend Game (Book 1 The Pilots series - new pro sports romance)

The Boyfriend Checklist (All American Boy Series)

Benny from the Block (Book 2 Blockers under K.C. Kassidy)

Scoring Over the Holidays (A 15-author holiday sports anthology)

And now...here's what's coming in 2022! First up is Ignited, Book 2 in my co-written series, Fanning the Flames.

If you enjoy hot, steamy military/grumpy vs. sunshine romance, this is perfect to add to your reading list. There will also be more K.C. Kassidy books, including the upcoming MM romance in the All American Boy series. Stay tuned...2022 is going to be one helluva year!

Be well. Be sweet. Love hard. Read Dirty.

xx, Sierra

Fall News and Recent Releases

It's September already and oh, how I love fall! The cooler temps and changing leaves are so wonderful, as is football on Sunday afternoons and turning on my oven to bake some goodies. The cooler weather brings out the baker in me. I love baking pies and cookies especially if they are pumpkin and spice. But don't get me started on pumpkin spice lattes - because yuck. How do people drink those?

What I also love about fall is snuggling under a cozy blanket and reading new books. I have to admit, I didn't get a lot of reading done this summer, instead I watched far too much television. So I'm getting back at it and fitting more time in my schedule to read.

But I did manage to read a few books over the past few months:

• Make Me Wilder by Serena Bell

• Waylaid by Sarina Bowen

• Exposed by Kristen Callihan

• Someday, Someday by Emma Scott

• Travis by Mia Sheridan

While I may not have read as much as I'd like, I did get a lot of writing done. Since July, I've written over 100k words! That's a ton of words for me. That includes my last two releases, Burned, my co-written book with S.E. Rose and my latest sports romance, The Girlfriend Game. Plus the second book in my co-written series and my upcoming November 3rd release, The Boyfriend Checklist, a small town sports romance part of the All American Boy series.

There's no rest for the weary! Maybe I should try a pumpkin spiced latte, after all. I might need the caffeine to keep me going with so many new books to come!

xx, Sierra

It's Not The Olympics But It Does Count As A Big Win For Me

Ask any Olympic athlete about what they had to do to get to where they are and they'll tell you that it takes not only physical and mental endurance, but the fortitude to get there. Goal setting is a must when you're working to achieve something great and working toward those goals makes you better practiced in whatever it is that you do.

For me, the goal I set for myself several years ago was to some day co-write a book with another romance author. That sounds easy enough, right?

Well, not so much.

After two failed attempts over the years (none of which was anyone's fault but rather due to timing and circumstances), I finally found the perfect "other half" to work with. In January of this year, after I attended a Romance Author Mastermind conference in December, I set out to make the goal a reality. I had become acquainted with S.E. Rose through a Facebook group I manage and we had many mutual friends. I sent her a message one day and asked her if she had any interest in possibly co-authoring a book and if so, perhaps she'd like to chat.

We met via video chat and got to know one another, each reading the other's books to determine whether our writing styles would mesh and I think we decided after our first conversation that we wanted to give it a go. Although most of our catalog and individual backlists are in different genres, with Sarah's being more romantic suspense and romantic comedy and mine focused around sports and college, we thought we could each bring a different perspective to the table.

We began working together in early February, hashing out the details for our book. It's the first firefighter romance that either of us had written so it was a fun experience to research and write realistic settings and background. (Side note: Sarah's mom is a retired fire safety specialist and gave us some great information to use!). As both of us are primarily pantsers when we write our own books (a writing term signifying that we fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants when we write), we did have to create a simple outline to determine where we wanted our story and characters to go.

Each of us took a character point-of-view and off we went! We ended up writing two chapters every week (one from each of us) and we successfully finished the book in May! It was such a great feeling to know we set out to accomplish a goal - much like Olympic athletes do - and we got there through commitment and dedication to our practice.

I'm so proud of our new book baby, Burned. Now that we know that we can do it and it worked out, we are already in the midst of writing book two in the small-town/firefighter/brothers series, Fanning the Flames. Book 2 (Ignited) is scheduled to release in January 2022.

I'm so excited to continue writing with Sarah and to realize one of my author goals. It may not be an Olympic sport, but I did achieve something that I set out to accomplish. And for that, I feel like I've won gold!