Â
đ¨ Update! From Winter Renshaw’s Newsletter!đ¨
I’ve Got Good News … and Bad News.
Bad news firstâI’m going to have to postpone the release of WAR AND LOVE. Amazon KDP is experiencing a number of weird and random glitches right nowâsome of which I’ve never seen in my several years of doing this. When I called KDP Support this morning to find out why my dashboard said my book was live everywhere, but it was actually live everywhere except in the US … they said there are currently “widespread technical issues which they expect to resolve in 2-3 days.”
Next week is a holiday week (here in the US) and the week after that will be cutting it too close to Prime Day. As an author, I’ve experienced firsthand that Prime Day and holidays are the worst times to launch your book baby into the world.
If I release now, I’m going to be swimming upstream, and with the amount of time and energy that went into writing this and the amount of time and energy that goes into releasing a bookâmy sanity is putting her foot down and demanding that I wait out this digital maelstrom.
The new release date will be Wednesday, August 1st.Â
The good news though? The paperback is up and available if you absolutely do not want to wait five more weeks. đ
Amazon
My lies? Impeccable.
My heart? Cold as ice.
My only job? To convince her what we had was as real as the diamond I intended to place on her finger.
The battle was someone elseâs. I was merely a soldier, recruited by a wealthy stranger who made it unapologetically clear that my futureâand everything Iâve ever workedâfor depended on the successful completion of this mission.
I was prepared for war.
But I wasnât prepared for Love Aldridge âŚ
Jude
âYou know sheâs way too good for you, right?â Lo says, rocking Ellie on her hip as she stands in my kitchen.
âYep.â
âLike ⌠way.â She laughs through her nose, studying my outfit. âItâs weird seeing you like this.â
âLike what?â
Lo rolls her eyes. âYou know. No ripped jeans or vintage Ramones t-shirts. Hair actually combed for once.â
I know I look like a schmuck with my pressed slacks and cashmere sweater and shiny Italian loafers and hair parted on the side and slicked with brill cream, but this is all part of Hunterâs master plan.
âIf you want to hook Love, you have to use the right bait,â heâd said, comparing his ex-wife to a fucking fish.
âGod, this place is amazing,â Lo says, carrying Ellie from the kitchen to the living room, where she hones in on the kind of view we only ever dreamed of.
âSure beats our fourth floor walk-up.â
She smirks. âYeah. Just a little.â
âI Venmoâd you the rent money this morning,â I said. âNext six months are covered. Thereâs some extra for food and Piperâs meds.â
Lo turns to me, her smart-ass expression fading. Sheâs tough as rocks, but I swear I see a hint of tears brimming in her eyes. She doesnât have to say a word. I know what this means to her. After her deadbeat ex was hauled off to prison a couple years back for running drugs (unbeknownst to all of us), she found herself a twenty-three-year-old single mother with a toddler and a newborn, no job, and no way to feed them.
At the time, Iâd been out of the Army for a few years, had just finished my plumbing apprenticeship, and landed a decent job at Premier Plumb and Supply in Brooklyn. As soon as Lo finally admitted to me that she was struggling and about to become evicted, I found a hole-in-the-wall two-bedroom above a pizza shop and moved them in, vowing to help her get on her feet.
Now, during the day, Lo stays home with the girls. At night she waits tables at some exclusive restaurant on 67th Street, heading into the city shortly after the girls go down for the night. Tips are decent and the hours are shit, but she doesnât complain because this has always been temporary.
The plan was for her to start nursing school at Touro, and she was going to start this summer. But I lost my job a few months back due to cutbacks, and one of us had to make sure the rent was still being paid.
âYou sure you want to do this?â Lo asks, biting her lower lip as Ellie runs her chubby fingers through her hair.
Piper is seated in the cognac chair across from the TV, messing with a remote that Iâm pretty sure belongs to the fireplace.
âWhat choice do I have?â Iâd spent the last three months applying for jobs, but all the ones I could find had shitty pay, zero benefits, or shady reputations. I booked every music gig I could find, playing at any bar that would so much as take me for an hour or two at night, but it didnât make up for the lost wages, and most of it went toward Piperâs meds anyway.
âWe could always move,â she says.
âIt costs money to move, Lo. And we donât have that right now.â My tone is short and I donât mean to come at her that way, but I donât need to be reminded that what Iâm doing is nothing less than heartless. âAs soon as this is over, we can look into moving somewhere cheap and safe. With good people and even better schools. All this stress, this bullshit? Itâs about to end.â
Taking a seat at a kitchen bar stool, I slump my elbow on the counter and exhale.
âShe seems really nice,â Lo says. âSweet.â
âI know.â
âAnd she just went through a divorce,â she adds. âSheâs probably already heartbroken. And youâre just going to come in andââ
Fuck. âI know.â
Lo doesnât manage our finances. She doesnât see that weâre one rough month away from being out on the street, one unexpected bill away from Piper not having her EpiPen or inhaler when she needs it.
A million dollars and a record deal.
Thatâs what this deal is worth to Hunter LeGrand, thatâs what he laid on the table. And before I had a chance to so much as think it over, he was elaborating on the fact that heâs âwell connectedâ and he can âmake shit happenâ and he has no qualms about âblacklisting people like youâ should they deserve it. He also felt the need to remind me that singer-songwriters like me were on every street corner in Manhattan, that I could always make a living busking in the subways or singing covers on YouTube if this deal didnât pan out because heâd personally see to it that my name would never be in lights.
âThe girls are probably hungry,â I say to Lo, checking my watch. âLetâs grab something.â
My sister moves Ellie to her other hip, her eyes snapping to the floor. âItâs okay. We should get going so we can catch the five.â
âI thought I was taking you guys out for lunch ⌠made us reservations at Serendipity III.â
âIâm sorry, Jude. After seeing her ⌠it just doesnât feel right spending your blood money on frozen hot chocolate.â
My sister can be so fucking dramatic sometimes.
âItâs not blood money, Lo,â I say, half-chuckling. âNo oneâs getting offed.â
âYou know what I mean.â She speaks quickly and her gaze moves to mine. âCome on, Pipes. Letâs go.â
Piper places the fireplace remote on the table where she found it and slides off the leather chair, dashing across the living room toward her mother, her dark pigtails bouncing.
A second later, the three of them head to the door, only before they leave, Lo turns to me. âThe place is great and all, Jude, but donât get too comfortable in case this whole thing blows up in your face. Because it will. And when it does, donât say I didnât warn you.â
They leave before I have a chance to respond, and Iâm left with my kid sisterâs words echoing in my head, resonating off the deepest fragments of my conscience and all the parts of me that wish I never walked into Blue Stream Records that random Tuesday in May, flash drive demo in hand, and crossed paths with the CEO himself in the elevator lobby.
I shouldâve known when Hunter said, âI donât normally take unsolicited demos, but you seem like exactly the kind of act Iâm looking for right now,â that he wasnât talking about music.
Not at all.
Wall Street Journal and #1 Amazon bestselling author Winter Renshaw is a bona fide daydream believer. She lives somewhere in the middle of the USA and can rarely be seen without her trusty Mead notebook and ultra portable laptop. When sheâs not writing, sheâs living the American dream with her husband, three kids, and the laziest puggle this side of the Mississippi.
And if you’d like to be the first to know when a new book is coming out, please sign up for her private mailing list here —> http://eepurl.com/bfQU2j
Author Links