Dear Reader,

This is the email you've been waiting for. The one with cat pictures. You've endured, like, two emails from me with nary a picture of Nim, Taro, or Mochi. I'm surprised you're still here, frankly.

Above, you see the young gentlemen, looking very tough in their favorite sink. (There are no fewer than 8 sinks in the house. Which is their favorite? Mine. Mine where I'd like to brush my teeth.) Look at those eyes. Fierce. Stone cold killers. Don't mess with them; they'll cut you.

Except, they won't because they are twin marsh mellows. Allow me to give you a sugar headache. Here they are grooming each other in the same sink.

Immediately after that video, all the sugar dissolved into wrestling, whereupon Mochi claimed the coveted inner-sink position. You can only be sweet to your brother for so long. Then you just have to bite him. Or at least give him a really hard pinch on the haunch.

Nim will be 19 in August. He is extremely healthy for his age, but I am having a hard time getting his specialty cat food lately. It's been out of stock online for months, and I've been scouring the dusty back-shelves of pet stores ever further afield. Fingers crossed that supply chain shortages ease. It took a long time to identify a food that keeps weight on him that he can also keep down. This one also has joint supplements that keep him from creaking (joint supplements are also something he couldn't seem to keep down in other forms). I'm really hoping Royal Canin (12+) gets their act together soon. Here's my old man a few days ago, looking classy.

Audio Goodness

I sometimes joke that the defining feature of my books is that they all have cats in them. The cats in my stories are rarely well-behaved. (Why? I did say they are cats, didn't I?)

The Incubus series has a particularly naughty shape-shifting panther. Those books were my first attempt to write something more commercial than my Abigail Hilton titles. I partially succeeded, although I made some mistakes from a marketing standpoint (not sorry; all of my mistakes were fun).

Believe it or it, I was trying really hard in that first book to keep the romance straight. I was wildly unsuccessful. The series turned super gay by Book 2.

I was also trying to keep it light and saucy. Instead, PLOT quickly reared its head and snatched the reigns. The third book, in particular, is an absolute puzzle box of a novel.

They remain the most sex-drenched thing I've written. They've definitely got some elements that are more niche than I initially realized and occupy the venn diagram of stuff-Abbie-likes-to-write rather than stuff-a-whole-bunch-of-people-like-to-read. But they were still more successful than other things I'd written up to that date.

I learned from that series and when I came to write The Knight and the Necromancer in the same world, I doubled down on the gay, the plot, and the slow burn.

I did do one thing better in Incubus, though, and that's that each book is a self-contained story. Elements carry through the series, but I give you a solid ending with each book. I know I mucked that up with K&N. That's because K&N was never supposed to be 3 books and was only ever supposed to be a stand-alone, but you've all heard me tell that story.

I always intended to return to Incubus for at least 2 more books - Incubus Wolf (Tod and Yuli) and Incubus War (Jacob and Lucy) - both with heavy involvement from our title character/ very naughty panther shifter. I haven't written them yet, partially because there's a pretty steep drop-off in sales over the course of the series, and I'm not sure how many people really want to read them. That could be because people think Incubus Yule isn't really part of the series, though. Maybe people are perceiving it a trilogy and they would get on board again if I wrote a 5th book. IDK.

Anyway, like I said, I do give you a solid ending with each book in that series. I leave enough lose ends to tease the possibility of another story, but not so many that you don't feel the story is complete.

I say all this to say, Chirp is doing a promo of the Incubus audiobooks. If you like that platform, give them a try. The narrator is wonderfully. There's also a bonus short story, "Missed You," available only from me.

What else is going on?

• The Hunters Unlucky Marathon is now into the new stuff with "Lullaby." I've slowed the podcast down to once a week on Mondays. Rish did a phenomenal job with this recording. He will make you cry in the best way. Of note: I am going to take the first novel out of the feed at the end of this month (6 days hence). It's now or never if you want to join this marathon in its entirety. "Lullaby" will remain up for a while, so if you've already listened to the first novel and were waiting for the new stuff, jump on board for that.

• Thank you to everyone who ordered the new Knight and the Necromancer Complete series volume from my signed bookstore! If you ordered a paper version, it has shipped (and you should have gotten a notice with tracking). If you ordered a hardback, those are supposed to reach me by the first week of May. I've still got 3 unclaimed copies arriving in the current batch, so feel free to snag one if you want it.

Yours, An Author who has finally sent you cat pictures,
Abbie