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Hot Air Balloons, Fourteen Days, and a Phoenix Who’s About to Fly

/ Wendy Cheairs / Leave a comment
Hello Readers!

Every year, without fail, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the moment fall becomes real for me.
Not the calendar. Not the temperature. Not even the rain that soaked my entire state last week. The balloons.
This week the sky filled up with hundreds of hot air balloons at dawn and something in my chest just — settled. I grew up watching them. As a kid it meant either bundling up and heading to the Fiesta grounds or standing outside watching them drift overhead, enormous and colorful and impossibly quiet for something that size. Now I watch them from my balcony. Sometimes they drift low enough over the park behind my place that I get to watch them land.
Every single time it still gets me.
That is fall in New Mexico. That is what October feels like here. And this particular October has a lot going on — so let’s get into it.
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💨 Trial by Air — Fourteen Days
October 20th. Two weeks from now. I am not calm.
This is book four of the Richmond Academy series and the one I have been building toward since the very first page of book one. Shayla is a Phoenix — flying was always who she was meant to be. But the series needed her to earn it first. Fire, sea, earth — each element teaching her something she couldn’t have learned any other way — and now, finally, the air.
Fourteen days.
👉 Pre-order Trial by Air — October 20th
And everything leading up to it:
🔥 Trial by Fire — Book one. Where Shayla’s story begins. Available now and on Kindle Unlimited.
🌊 Trial by Sea — Book two. Deeper secrets, underwater trials, trust pushed to its limit. Out now and on Kindle Unlimited.
🌍 Trial by Earth — Book three. The pivot point. Darker, heavier, everything shifts. Out now and on Kindle Unlimited.
✨ Trial by Spirit — Book five. The finale. December 2026. Pre-order open now.
If you’ve been waiting to start the series — this is your window. By December, the whole arc is complete and ready to binge.
✨ Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl — Out Now
Wisteria Creed is still out there waiting for you.
Half-Pixie, half-Sidhe Fae, graveyard-shift radio host, firm policy against being anyone’s idea of harmless. Paranormal romance with urban fantasy bones. Slow-burn romance. Found family. A protagonist who refuses, at every turn, to be what the story expects her to be.
Book two — Not Your Book Boyfriend — is in writing and editing, coming later this year. And yes, I am already planning book three to close out the trilogy. Wisteria’s story is just getting started.
👉 Read Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl now
Anthologies — Still Worth Your Time
🌊 The Call of the Sea — Out now. My contribution: The Drowned Chorus — a marine bioacoustician, a remote North Atlantic island, a voice in the water calling her name, and the ancient impossible being behind it. A siren story that isn’t what you expect.
📖 Once Upon A Fairytale — Now Available! My contribution Half-Coin Promise — two best friends, a split coin, and a promise that carries them through labyrinths and fog-wrapped citadels all the way to their happily ever after.
☀️ Seasons of Magic: Summer — Out now. My story, The Flames of Lammas — emotional, transformative, the kind of magic that stays with you.
👉 Grab The Call of the Sea
👉 Once Upon A Fairytale
👉 Grab Seasons of Magic: Summer
From the Writing Cave
Getting back into normal writing life after vacation has been lovely — and also slightly complicated because all that beautiful rain we got last week left a few uninvited surprises in the house. Leaks. Oddities. The particular joy of discovering that your home has opinions about heavy precipitation, but declined to share them with you until after the fact.
Nothing catastrophic. Just the kind of thing you must deal with before it becomes the kind of thing that becomes catastrophic. The glamorous reality of home ownership, arriving right on schedule.
Writing life, at least, is settling back into its groove. The balloons are in the sky. Fall is officially here. October has a book dropping in fourteen days, and I am ready.
Thank you for being here. October is going to be a good one.
Happy Reading,
Wendy
P.S. Fourteen days until Trial by Air. Shayla has been through fire, sea, and earth — and she has earned every single moment of what comes next. Pre-order now so it lands on your Kindle the second it drops—October 20th. We’re almost there.

The Cats Are Hiding. The Rain Is Staying

/ Wendy Cheairs / Leave a comment
Hello Readers!

Welcome to October.
The month of cooler temperatures, spooky season energy, and — if you happen to live in my corner of New Mexico right now — an absolutely relentless amount of rain. We will get to that. First: Trial by Air is twenty days away and I cannot contain myself.
💨 Trial by Air — Twenty Days Out
October 20th. Mark it.
Book four of the Richmond Academy series is almost here — and this is the one I have been building toward since page one of book one. Shayla is a Phoenix. Flying was always part of who she is. But letting her get there too early wouldn’t have worked — she needed to earn it, element by element, trial by trial, through fire and sea and earth, until she was finally ready.
October 20th is when she gets there.
I cannot wait for you to read this one.
👉 Pre-order Trial by Air — October 20th
And here’s the rest of the series while you’re getting ready:
🔥 Trial by Fire — Book one. Where it all begins. Available now and on Kindle Unlimited.
🌊 Trial by Sea — Book two. Deeper secrets, underwater trials, trust pushed to its limit. Out now and on Kindle Unlimited.
🌍 Trial by Earth — Book three. The pivot point. Darker, heavier, everything shifts. Out now and on Kindle Unlimited.
✨ Trial by Spirit — Book five. The finale. December 2026. Pre-order open now.

🌊 The Call of the Sea — Still Available
Speaking of dark and atmospheric — this one could not have better timing.The Call of the Sea: A Collection of Dark Fantasy Tales is out now and my story The Drowned Chorus is inside. Mermaids and sirens torn between land and sea, stories of danger, betrayal, and love that cannot be. Dark fantasy that dives deep and does not come back up the same way it went in.
Maren Voss is a marine bioacoustician who arrives on a remote North Atlantic island expecting solitude, data, and silence. Instead she finds a voice in the water calling her name — and the ancient, impossible being behind it. Science meets magic. Grief meets wonder. A discovery that could change everything, and a presence that has finally taught her how to hear herself again.I wanted to write a siren story that wasn’t typical for the genre — and this one became one of my favorite things I’ve written all year.
👉 Grab The Call of the Sea.
More Anthologies
It has been an unusually anthology-heavy season for me — they all came together at the end of the year at once, which made for a busy few months but also meant I got to write in a lot of different directions. I am not complaining about any of it.
📖 Once Upon A Fairytale — Original dark fantasy fairytales, pre-order now at $0.99. My contribution Half-Coin Promise — two best friends, a split coin, a promise that holds through labyrinths and fog-wrapped citadels all the way to their happily ever after.
☀️ Seasons of Magic: Summer — Out now. My story The Flames of Lammas — emotional, transformative, the kind of magic that stays with you.
👉 Pre-order Once Upon A Fairytale for $0.99
👉 Grab Seasons of Magic: Summer
✨ Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl — Out Now
Wisteria Creed is still out there waiting for you if you haven’t met her yet.Half-Pixie, half-Sidhe Fae, graveyard-shift radio host, firm policy against being anyone’s idea of harmless. Paranormal romance with urban fantasy bones. Slow-burn romance. Found family. A protagonist who refuses at every turn to be what the story expected her to be.
Two years in the making. Worth every rewrite.
👉 Read Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl now
From the Writing Cave — Moody October Edition
October arrived with rain. A lot of rain.
Parts of New Mexico have flooded. Flash flood warnings have been everywhere. The cats — who have strong and well-documented opinions about thunder and lightning — have been hiding under furniture for days with the kind of betrayed expression that suggests they hold me personally responsible for the weather.
Here is what I did not expect: I love it.
I am a desert person. I write in sunshine and heat and the particular bright clarity of a New Mexico afternoon. But something about the rain on the windows and the gray sky outside has unlocked a completely different writing mode — darker, moodier, more atmospheric. It is genuinely a different vibe and I have been leaning into it fully.
Whether it lasts or not, I am writing while it does.
Thank you for being here at the start of what is shaping up to be a very full October. Twenty days until Trial by Air. I am ready. Are you?
Happy Reading,
Wendy
P.S. Twenty days. Trial by Air drops October 20th — the book I have been building toward since book one, the one where Shayla finally flies. If you haven’t pre-ordered yet, now is the time. It lands right on your Kindle the moment it drops and you won’t have to wait a single extra minute.

Fire, Sea, Earth, Air, or Spirit — Which One Are You?

/ Wendy Cheairs / Leave a comment
Hello Readers!
I am technically on vacation.
I say technically because the husband was called into work on day one — a “minor” work issue that took half a day — so I tagged along, sat there very helpfully, and at least got a free lunch out of it. Vacation: so far so good.We are now attempting to reset, tackle some house projects, and pretend that laundry and clearing out clutter count as relaxing. The rain has arrived in the desert — genuinely welcome, genuinely needed — and it is doing its level best to slow down every outdoor project involving anything that needs to dry. I need that stain to dry. The rain does not care. The desert needs the water more than I need a dry afternoon, and I know this; I accept this; I am fine with it.
Errands, at least, remain unaffected. Small victories.
Now. Let’s talk books.

The Richmond Academy Series — The Full PictureFive books. One year. All of them either in your hands or on the way.Before Trial by Air lands in October, this is the perfect moment to catch up, start fresh, or finally convince that friend who keeps saying they’ll read it someday that someday is now.
Here’s everything:
🔥 Trial by Fire — Book One
Available now and on Kindle Unlimited.Shayla arrives at Richmond Academy as the girl who can’t control her spark — a Phoenix Guardian in a school full of students who can. What follows is a story about finding your power, your people, and your place in a world that wasn’t built for you. Everything starts here.
🌊 Trial by Sea — Book Two
Available now and on Kindle Unlimited.The stakes are higher. The secrets are deeper. Georgios has a mermaid heritage with a very inconvenient price tag, and Shayla and Georgios are pulled into a series of deadly underwater trials that push their trust to the breaking point. Just when they think they understand what’s happening around them — the tides shift.
🌍 Trial by Earth — Book Three
Available now and on Kindle Unlimited.The pivot point of the series. Darker twists, earth powers, and Georgios’s Minotaur heritage stepping fully and finally into the light. This is the middle of a five-book arc — and if you know anything about what the middle means, you already know things get heavier before they get better. They do. Worth every page.
💨 Trial by Air — Book Four
October 2026. Pre-orders are open now.This is the one I have been waiting to write since the very beginning.From the moment I started building the Richmond Academy series, I knew I wanted Shayla to fly. She is a Phoenix. Flying was always part of who she is — but letting her get there too early wouldn’t have worked. The series needed her to earn it, element by element, trial by trial, until she was finally ready.Book four is where she gets there. And I cannot wait for you to read it.👉 Pre-order Trial by Air
✨ Trial by Spirit — Book Five
December 2026. Pre-orders are open now. The finale.Shayla’s ending. The conclusion of a five-book arc I have been living inside for over a year. I’m writing it now, and I have feelings about it that I don’t yet have words for.👉 Pre-order Trial by Spirit

A Question for You
If you were a student at Richmond Academy — which element would you want to master?
Fire. Sea. Earth. Air. Spirit.
Hit reply and tell me. I genuinely want to know. Bonus points if you tell me why — and bonus points if your answer changes depending on your mood.
✨ The Not As Written Series
Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl is out now, and Wisteria Creed is waiting to meet you.
Half-Pixie, half-Sidhe Fae, graveyard-shift radio host, firm policy against being anyone’s idea of harmless. A Wendigo situation in San Diego that turns out to be considerably more complicated than advertised. A reluctant partnership with the one detective in the city willing to take her seriously. A slow-burn romance and a found family built in the margins of a city that doesn’t know what it’s looking at.
👉 Read Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl now
And coming later this year — Not Your Book Boyfriend, book two of the Not As Written series. Wisteria has the life she fought for. New Avalon is about to send someone perfect to watch over her. Perfect is not what it looks like. More soon.
Anthologies Still Available
📖 Once Upon A Fairytale — Original dark fantasy fairytales, available for pre-order at $0.99. My contribution: Half-Coin Promise — two best friends, a split coin, and a promise that carries them through labyrinths, fog-wrapped citadels, and cursed valleys to their happily ever after.
☀️ Seasons of Magic: Summer — Out now. My story, The Flames of Lammas, is inside — emotional, transformative, and the kind of magic that stays with you.
👉 Pre-order Once Upon A Fairytale for $0.99
👉 Grab Seasons of Magic: Summer
Thank you for being here even on the quiet vacation weeks. You make every issue worth writing — even the ones written while waiting for stain to dry.Happy Reading,
Wendy
P.S. Trial by Air is the book I have been building toward since book one. Shayla is a Phoenix. She was always going to fly. October is almost here — and so is the moment she finally does. Pre-order so it lands right on your Kindle the day it drops.
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Earth Landed Yesterday. Wisteria Lands Next Week

/ Wendy Cheairs / Leave a comment
Hello Readers!
Yesterday, Trial by Earth walked out into the world.
Next week, Wisteria Creed does the same.
I am thrilled. I am exhausted. I am already writing the next thing. This is fine. Everything is fine. The writing cave is absolutely on fire — metaphorically, thankfully, given that I write paranormal romance and an actual fire would be on brand in a way I’d prefer to avoid.
Let’s talk about all of it.
 Trial by Earth — OUT NOW
It’s here. Book three of the Richmond Academy series is officially in the world, and I could not be more excited for you to read it.
Shayla’s earth powers. Georgios’s Minotaur heritage stepping fully into the light. Darker twists. Higher stakes. The pivot point of a five-book arc that has been one of the wildest, most rewarding things I’ve ever written.If you’ve been waiting — wait no longer.
 Grab Trial by Earth now
And if you’re joining us — here’s the full series so far:
 Trial by Fire — Book one. Available now and on Kindle Unlimited.
 Trial by Sea — Book two. Out now and on Kindle Unlimited.
 Trial by Earth — Book three. Out now and on Kindle Unlimited.
 Trial by Air — Book four. Pre-order open. End of October 2026.
 Trial by Spirit — Book five. The finale. December 2026.
Five books. One year. Three down, two to go.

 Next Week — Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl
One week. Seven days. I am not calm.
Wisteria Creed — half-Pixie, half-Sidhe Fae, graveyard-shift radio host, firm policy against being anyone’s idea of harmless — is almost ready to meet you properly. Book one of the Not As Written series lands next week, and I have been looking forward to this one for a long time.
Slow-burn romance. Found family. A protagonist who refuses at every turn to be what the story expected her to be. A Wendigo situation that turns out to be considerably more complicated than advertised.
If you haven’t pre-ordered yet — now is the time.
 Pre-order Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl
And already in progress — Not Your Book Boyfriend, book two of the Not As Written series, coming November 2026. Wisteria finally has the life she fought for. New Avalon is about to send someone perfect to watch over her. Perfect is not what it looks like. More on that soon.

Let Me Tell You What Two Simultaneous Series Actually Looks Like
People sometimes ask how I manage it. Two series. Multiple release dates. Editing one book while drafting another while a third is literally releasing this week.
Here is an honest answer: it looks like a lot of open tabs, a very strong coffee habit, and a writing cave that has started to feel less like a room and more like a permanent state of being.
Trial by Air is deep in editing right now — book four, out at the end of October — while I am simultaneously in the trenches of Trial by Spirit, the final book of the Richmond Academy series, targeting December. Meanwhile, Wisteria releases next week, and Not Your Book Boyfriend is due in November.It is a lot. It is genuinely, objectively a lot.
And I love every chaotic, deadline-stacked, manuscript-juggling minute of it. Something about having this many stories alive at once makes the writing cave feel electric. Every project feeds the others in ways I didn’t expect. Writing Wisteria’s found family in San Diego makes me think differently about Shayla’s found family at Richmond Academy. Drafting Trial by Spirit’s ending makes me more intentional about how I’m building the Not As Written arc.
Busy is good. This busy — the creative, deadline-driven, living inside-multiple-worlds kind — is the best kind there is.

Still Promoting — Anthologies Worth Your Time
 Once Upon A Fairytale — Pre-order now for $0.99. Dark fantasy fairytales, original stories, and my contribution Half-Coin Promise — two best friends, a split coin, and a promise that holds the whole story together.
 Seasons of Magic: Summer — Out now. My story The Flames of Lammas is inside — emotional, transformative, and the kind of magic that lingers.
 Pre-order Once Upon A Fairytale for $0.99
 Grab Seasons of Magic: Summer
From the Writing Cave — Home Improvement Edition
The shoulder is working well enough now that I have rediscovered an entirely new category of things that need doing around the house.
This week: a toilet. Next up: a bookshelf that needs a backing, probably this weekend. Normal household things. Mostly normal. The kind of things that pile up quietly while your arm is out of commission for several months and you’ve been pretending not to notice them.
The desert is still warm but there is a distinct feeling in the air that fall is negotiating its arrival. I am welcoming it. I have left the porch light on. Fall, whenever you are ready, the door is open.
Thank you for being here through the busiest summer of my writing life. It has been quite a ride. The best kind.Happy Reading,
Wendy
P.S. Trial by Spirit — the final book of the Richmond Academy series — is being written right now. I am in the trenches of Shayla’s ending. Five books, one year, one story that has meant more to me than I knew it would when I started. December is coming. I’m not ready and I’m writing it anyway.
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A Small Town Romance
I hope you enjoy this small-town sweet romance. When you’re finished, please leave a review. Reviews help other readers find the book.Nate Wilder comes home to Cedar Hollow ahead of schedule — his tour officially over, his war anything but.
Widowed and quietly unraveling, he carries a truth no one in town can see: that grief and guilt made him question his own readiness, and he walked away before hesitation could put someone else in the ground. No one knows. And he’d like to keep it that way.
When his sister — my best friend, Rachel — pulls me into the swirl of casseroles, pointed questions, and small-town speculation, I do what I’ve always done: I make lists. I manage chaos. I keep storms from taking people under.
But the storm that is Nate Wilder is harder to organize than I expected.
His late wife’s family is circling. The gossip is sharpening. And when the whispers about his loyalty, his stability, and what moving on is supposed to look like threaten to swallow him whole, Nate makes a proposition I never saw coming: a fake engagement — clean, practical, temporary — to quiet the rumors and prove he’s planting roots.
What starts as a contract quickly becomes the safest place either of us has had in years. As we plan a fundraiser that could rescue my struggling business and honor the past without being buried by it, the lines we drew begin to blur.
And somewhere between the lie we’re telling Cedar Hollow and the truth we’re afraid to say out loud, I stop being able to tell where the arrangement ends —and where real love begins.GET YOUR BOOK HEREImage descriptionGet your FREE copy of Darkness of My Soul Preview
Win the War.
Save your Soul.
Or Lose Everything Trying.

The world ending was the easy part, dealing with a demon cosplaying a human who thinks I’m going to be his queen, not so much.

Lynn The moment my mother died, he was haunting my dreams like some weird stalker. He claims there’s a tie between us, but all I know is that I need to take him out if I’m ever going to be free.

Kalerian She has no idea what she’s capable of. The power she has over this world and how I plan to use it. She’s been mine since the first life I saw her in. She just doesn’t know it yet. She thinks she can win, but I never lose.

Can I really save the world and fight my past or will I be consumed by it?
Spice Rating – 0GET FOR FREE HEREImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage descriptionImage description

 One Cover Away From Losing My Mind (In the Best Way)

/ Wendy Cheairs / Leave a comment

Hello Readers!

Not every week brings a launch. Sometimes it’s just a good week to catch up, stock up, and get ready for what’s coming.

And what’s coming? A lot.

The Richmond Academy Series — Where Are We?

If you’re just joining us, welcome. Here’s the quick version:

Trial by Fire is book one — still available, still on Kindle Unlimited, still the best place to start Shayla’s story. 🔥

Trial by Sea is book two — out now, also on Kindle Unlimited, and if you’ve read it you already know what I did to these characters,

and I’m not apologizing. 🌊

Trial by Earth is book three — available for pre-order right now, releasing August 25, 2026. The manuscript is with my editor. The cover exists. The blurb is written. I am sitting on all of it with the patience of someone who has absolutely no patience. Soon. 🌍

Five books. One year. Shayla deserves a nap and so do I.

👉 Start with Trial by Fire
👉 Continue with Trial by Sea
👉 Pre-order Trial by Earth

Seasons of Magic — Last Call for Spring

Seasons of Magic: Spring is leaving at the end of July. If it’s been sitting on your to-read list, this is your nudge. It’s still available and still on Kindle Unlimited — but not for much longer.

My story, Magical Matchmaking, is in there. Clumsy witch. Skeptical mundane man. A love spell that goes exactly as planned, which is to say, not at all.

And right behind it: Seasons of Magic: Summer — available for pre-order now, dropping August 1st. A whole new season, a whole new set of stories, including mine. Different tone this time — more emotional, more transformative. I’m really proud of it.

Grab Spring before it’s gone. Pre-order Summer while you’re at it.

👉 Grab Seasons of Magic: Spring
👉 Pre-order Seasons of Magic: Summer

Something’s Coming — And I Can’t Stop Thinking About It

Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl — my brand new paranormal romance series — is coming September 1, 2026, and the pre-order is nearly ready to go live.

I’m waiting on one thing: the cover.

The moment it lands in my inbox, I’m sharing it everywhere. This book has been living in my head for a long time, and Wisteria Creed — half-Pixie, half-Sidhe Fae, graveyard-shift radio host, absolutely nobody’s idea of harmless — is finally almost ready to meet you.

Watch this space. It’s going to be worth the wait.

From the Writing Cave (and the Backyard and Frontyard, Finally)

The desert is still doing what the desert does — which is to say, it is aggressively, unapologetically hot. For months the yard has been going feral while I watched from behind the glass with my frozen shoulder and my good intentions.

But here’s the thing about physical therapy finally working: eventually you get your arm back. And then you go outside and introduce yourself to the overgrown bushes that have been running the place unsupervised.

Progress has been made. The bushes have been reminded who’s in charge. I’m choosing to count this as a victory.

Grayson, my writing buddy and personal furnace, continues to be completely unbothered by any of this. He is in my lap. He is always in my lap. In January this is charming. In July, in New Mexico, at 100 degrees, it is a choice he is making — and I respect the commitment even as I suffer. The husband gets him at night. I have made my peace with this arrangement.

Thank you for being here, even in the quiet weeks. You’re the reason I keep showing up.

Happy Reading,
Wendy

P.S. Know someone who’d like this? Forward it their way. One referral keeps me writing. Seriously, that’s the deal.

July Is Bringing the Heat (So Are the Books)

/ Wendy Cheairs / Leave a comment

Hello Readers!

Welcome to July.

A new month, a stack of books, one very warm cat, and news I’ve been sitting on so long I may have pulled something. Let’s get into it.

Trial by Fire — Still Only $0.99

If you’ve been on the fence about starting the Richmond Academy series, the fence just got a lot cheaper to climb.

Trial by Fire is still on sale for $0.99 for a limited time — and it’s also available on Kindle Unlimited. This is book one of a five-book arc, all releasing this year, and it’s the best place to start.

Shayla’s story begins here. Don’t miss it.

👉 Grab Trial by Fire for $0.99

Trial by Sea — Out Now

She’s out in the world and I am still not over it.

Trial by Sea is available right now — on Amazon and on Kindle Unlimited — and if you’ve already read it, you know what Shayla and Georgios are up against. If you haven’t yet, what are you waiting for? The tide isn’t going to hold forever.

👉 Read Trial by Sea now

Trial by Earth — Available for Pre-Order

And here’s the news I’ve been barely containing.

Trial by Earth, book three in the Richmond Academy series, is officially available for pre-order. Release date: August 25, 2026.

I’m nearly done. The manuscript is so close to my editor’s hands I can feel it. The moment it’s out of mine, I get to share the cover and the blurb — and I cannot wait. Pre-order now so it lands right on your Kindle the day it drops.

👉 Pre-order Trial by Earth

Seasons of Magic — A Chapter Ending, A New One Beginning

Seasons of Magic: Spring is still available for $0.99 and on Kindle Unlimited, but it won’t be around much longer. If you haven’t grabbed it yet, now is the time.

My story in Spring — Magical Matchmaking — follows a clumsy witch whose very sincere attempt at finding true love goes exactly as sideways as you’d expect. It’s warm, it’s funny, and the mundane man who doesn’t believe in magic is absolutely going to regret that position.

And coming very soon: Seasons of Magic: Summer, available for pre-order now at $0.99.

My story this time is a different kind of magic entirely.

Lara fled to Oregon to escape a man who nearly destroyed her — but starting over isn’t as simple as running away. Welcomed into a warm and powerful coven, she begins learning witchcraft and the sacred rituals of Lammas, hoping to release the pain she left behind. But when her ex tracks her down and demands she return, Lara’s fragile peace shatters. With her coven beside her and the strength she’s fought to reclaim, she’ll face him under the rising flames of the Lammas bonfire. This time, she won’t run.

It’s more emotional than Magical Matchmaking, more transformative — and I’m really proud of it.

👉 Grab Spring for $0.99


👉 Pre-order Summer for $0.99

Something Entirely New — Coming September 1st

Okay. I’ve been keeping this one close to my chest, and I am done waiting to tell you.

I have a brand new series — paranormal romance with urban fantasy bones — and the first book is called Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl, available for pre-order now with a release date of September 1, 2026.

Meet Wisteria Creed: half-Pixie, half-Sidhe Fae, graveyard-shift radio host, and a woman with a very firm policy against being anyone’s idea of harmless. When a Wendigo tears through her San Diego neighborhood, she calls it in — and gets Detective Trevor Gibson, the one cop in the city willing to take her seriously.

What follows is a reluctant partnership, a slow-burn romance, and a case that keeps getting worse in exactly the ways she should have seen coming. Because the Wendigo wasn’t random. Someone has been capturing them. Studying them. And now he’s decided Wisteria herself is the most interesting thing he’s ever found.

She’s spent her whole life being told she’s not quite enough. San Diego was supposed to be the place where nobody knew enough about her to have an opinion.

She’s about to find out exactly how wrong that was.

👉 Pre-order Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl

From the Writing Cave (and the Thermostat)

The desert has fully committed to its bit. We’re talking high 90s to 100-degree days, and my household has reached unanimous consensus: we do not go outside. We live inside now. The A/C is not a luxury, it is a lifestyle.

The cats are in agreement — except for Grayson, my solo boy, who has apparently decided that the logical response to triple-digit heat is to climb directly into my lap while I write and radiate as much additional warmth onto me as physically possible. I ask him daily why he does this. He has no answer. He simply purrs and increases the temperature. Cat logic is a mystery I will never solve.

On a genuinely bright note: the frozen shoulder is thawing. Like, actually thawing. My PT said — and I quote — “looks like someone’s been doing their homework” — which is the most validation I have ever received from a medical professional and I am still thinking about it. I can move my arm properly again. I can write nearly a full day without my arm staging a protest. I am so happy about this that I wrote even more books, apparently.

[Your indie author book recommendations go here]

Thank you — truly — for being here, for reading, and for sharing these stories with the people in your life. This has been a big month and you’ve been a big part of it.

Happy Reading,
Wendy

P.S. Next month brings Trial by Earth, the Seasons of Magic: Summer release, and a new series dropping on September 1st. If you think this month was a lot — just wait.

So Many Books, So Little Desert Shade

/ Wendy Cheairs / Leave a comment

Hello Readers!

It’s here. It’s actually here.

Trial by Sea officially dropped this Tuesday, June 23rd, and I have been doing a very undignified happy dance about it ever since. Shayla and Georgios are back, the stakes are higher, the secrets are deeper, and I am so ready for you to read it.

👉 Grab Trial by Sea on Amazon | Read on Kindle Unlimited

But wait — a deal you don’t want to miss

Haven’t started the series yet? This week only, Trial by Fire is on sale for just $0.99.

That’s book one of a five-book arc, all releasing this year, for less than a cup of coffee. Shayla’s story starts here, and trust me — you’ll want to be caught up before the tides really turn.

👉 Grab Trial by Fire for $0.99 — this week only

From the writing cave

Trial by Earth — book three — is nearly done. I’m talking almost-ready-to-hand-off-to-my-editor nearly done, which means I am very close to being able to share the blurb and the cover with you. I’ve been sitting on both and it is taking every ounce of restraint I have.

August can’t come soon enough.

And speaking of things I’ve been sitting on… I have a surprise.

I’ve been quietly brewing a brand new trilogy. It’s Fae and human, it’s unexpected, and the first book is called Not Your Maniac Pixie Dream Girl. The series name is still coming together, but the book itself? Coming along beautifully. The moment the cover is finished, it’s going up on Amazon — and I cannot wait to drop this one on you. More details coming this fall.

Yes, I know. So many books. The writing cave has been running at full capacity.

Seasons of Magic — one ending, one beginning

Seasons of Magic: Spring is winding down, so if you’ve been meaning to grab it, now is the time. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.

The good news? Seasons of Magic: Summer is right around the corner — available August 1st, 2026, and available to pre-order right now. A whole new season, a whole new collection of magical stories, including a new one from me.

👉 Grab Spring while you still can


👉 Pre-order Summer now

On the home front

Physical therapy continues to be, as I’ve taken to calling it, an experience. The frozen shoulder is improving — slowly, stubbornly, on its own schedule and absolutely nobody else’s. I’ve made peace with the timeline. Mostly.

Meanwhile, the heat has fully arrived in the desert, and my household has made a unanimous executive decision to stay indoors with the A/C. The cats are in full agreement. We are all operating at minimum necessary movement until further notice.

Thank you for reading, for sharing, and for following along on this wild year of books. Truly — every one of you matters.

Happy Reading and the many books,
Wendy

Enter a Giveaway!

/ Wendy Cheairs / Leave a comment

Book Throne December $200 Social Media Giveaway

Enter to Win a $200 Amazon Gift Card. For your chance to win, please follow our authors on their social media platforms. 

The winner will be chosen randomly. Gain more entries by sharing the giveaway through the links below.

Entries must be received by midnight on January 10th, 2024 GMT.

The Winner will be contacted via email not more than 48hrs after the giveaway has ended.

(Beware of Scammers! Book Throne will never ask you to fill in a form or ask for any payment whatsoever when you win. We also DO NOT announce winners on Facebook or any social media platforms. Always refer to the giveaway page to check if you’ve won.)

My links are part of this giveaway, and look, even my newest book is on the main page! (Go Jason & Ariel Cover!!!) This is so awesome. I hope everyone can jump through and maybe someone I know wins!