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Kelsey Josund

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COMING SOON

Cinderella’s Crimes, a new and improved version of Pretty Deadly, will be released on October 31, 2023.

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It’s here! The bellicose and bejeweled ending to

It’s here! The bellicose and bejeweled ending to the Deadly Ever After trilogy is out in the world.

🏰🔥⚓️🗡️💣💥🏯

Whew, what a relief this is 😅

When I decided last year to get this whole trilogy out within six months, I knew it was an ambitious goal — but I don’t think I fully appreciated just how ambitious! I had rough drafts for books 2 and 3 and a version of book 1 that had been good enough to publish (as Pretty Deadly with Darkstroke Books) in 2021, but about which I had lots of ideas. Since last summer, I rewrote all three books, hired a wonderful cover designer, and learned *a lot* about formatting and promoting self-published books. It’s been a journey! I also learned that my beta readers and (volunteer!) developmental editor and proof reader can’t comfortably keep up with this pace. Sorry, y’all! An unbelievable amount of thanks for pushing so hard with me to get these books out.

This book is the end of the trilogy, but it’s not the end of Cinna and Johan’s story. I can’t wait to hear what people think of how this wraps up — in keeping with my favorite books, it’s an ending, but definitely not *the* ending. Maybe I’ll revisit their world someday, but not right now.

And DM me if you order a copy this week — I have some shiny ✨secret bonus content✨for early readers!

Instagram post 18102456265379123

Instagram post 18102456265379123

Very soon the whole gang will be available 😍 I

Very soon the whole gang will be available 😍

I’m so excited to share the third and final book in the Deadly Ever After trilogy with the world! Here’s some fun tropes and contents in each of the three books.

🔥🔪🗡️💥💣🏴‍☠️⚓️👠🏯🏰

So excited to share the Deadly Ever After trilogy

So excited to share the Deadly Ever After trilogy map!! Cinderella’s Crimes has now been updated to include this, and the other two will both have it from the start. Thanks for @gawanfiore for making something so lovely that fits my imagination perfectly ❤️

Making you want to read Cinderella’s Crimes by r

Making you want to read Cinderella’s Crimes by reminding you that it’s the fairytale retelling with true crime vibes and just the right badass (brutal) heroine to start your week off right

Don’t tell me you haven’t dreamed of burning down your enemies and ensnaring the prince’s heart with your wits instead of a pretty face

Recent nonfiction reads!! I typically read more th

Recent nonfiction reads!! I typically read more than a dozen books a month and lately there has been a lot of nonfiction in the mix. I work at a tree startup (ask me about it sometime) and I’ve been big into books about trees and plants and nature lately!

The Botany of Desire is almost 20 years old but it had so many amazing facts about plants that absolutely blew my mind — especially apples! I eat an apple a day, but did you know that slogan came from a rebrand effort during Prohibition? Prior to that, apples were mostly used for cider, rarely eaten. Apples also don’t grow true from seed, which is why grafting is such a huge part of their cultivation.

The Wild Trees made this sport climber want desperately to become a tree climber. 🧗‍♂️The techniques involved with fidnding, scaling, and measuring the tallest trees in the world (pre-satellites, which make it much easier nowadays) are fascinating and inspiring. I need to get myself to the redwoods.

Suzanne Simard is a queer icon. Ok, so she’s mostly a women-in-STEM icon and climate change research icon, but she’s also a queer icon. This memoir about her life and research had me highlighting every other page. It’s dense on forest facts, but that’s what I like in a book.

Riverman tells the tale of someone who could not be more different from all the sciencey people in these other books — a vagabond with some wild adventures. It unfolds gradually after opening with his disappearance after his canoe journeys take him to Chesapeake Bay and an encounter with the author.

Some Deadly Ever After trilogy vibes pulled from T

Some Deadly Ever After trilogy vibes pulled from Tumblr and Twitter (continuing the hallowed trend of taking content from one website and sharing it on another, aka the best way of creating content).

These books are fully Women’s Wrongs. All I Can Make Him Worse. Completely Escalate the Violence. Have fun ❤️

Drumroll, please… CINDERELLA’S WAR, the blood

Drumroll, please…

CINDERELLA’S WAR, the bloody and conniving finale to the Deadly Ever After trilogy, is coming out on April 2! Check out this amazing cover 👀👀 Thanks to @markeebooks for the incredible design and to @bookofmatchesmedia for organizing the cover reveal.

Cinna is married to the king. Johann has fled the country. Ingrid has gone home to the Empire. And Cinna’s throne won’t be safe until everyone who could recognize that she is not the duchess is dead.

Grander in scope and bloodier than ever, Cinderella’s War watches as Cinna strives for what she’s wanted more than anything else — safety. And Johann is determined not to let her have it.

Romance isn’t dead, but a lot of my Deadly Ever

Romance isn’t dead, but a lot of my Deadly Ever After characters are!

For Valentine’s Day, I’m reading way too much into some of Taylor Swift’s beautifully romantic songs. So here’s six slides of love-filled lyrics twisted into violence and betrayal, as Cinna would have it.

May you all live deadly ever after!

#cinderella #cinderellascrimes #deadlyeverafter #taylorswift #valentinesday

Instagram post 18045764992553334

Instagram post 18045764992553334

It’s release day!! CINDERELLA’S CROWN is offic

It’s release day!! CINDERELLA’S CROWN is officially out in the world. In this sequel to CINDERELLA’S CRIMES, Cinna has achieved her wildest dreams: she has escaped her cruel family and married the prince, and so far no one has figured out that she killed a duchess in order to do it. But things won’t stay so easy: her old friend Johann is determined to break out of the prison she put him in and stop her before she kills anyone else.

And what good, really, is a princess’s tiara when someone else sits on the actual throne?

🔪🔥🏰👑🗡️

Reader’s note — like its predecessor, this book asks you to root for the villain. It’s violent and she’s brutal and there’s only the slightest hint of redemption. Buckle up.

This book has been a headache and a half to write—way harder than the first one!—but I’m so happy with how it turned out. Major thanks to @gawanfiore for dragging me through gnarly plot issues and continually insisting it could be better (even and especially when I just wanted to be done), to @markeebooks for the gorgeous cover, and to @bookofmatchesmedia for organizing the cover reveal and new release tour!

#booklaunch #bookrelease #newbook #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #booksofig #bookoftheday #releaseday #bookofmatchesmedia #booklover #cinderellascrown #cinderellascrimes #deadlyeverafter

Starting the new year off by trying to do somethin

Starting the new year off by trying to do something about my climate anxiety—reading books about approaching it with a better mindset and digging invasive species out of the ground so we can plant baby cedar trees on a reclaimed lot near my parents’ house.

Is it helping? Idk, I’ll tell you when I finish this book (and the stack of other climate-related books I have before me). But it’s definitely not hurting. In 2024, we are doing something about climate change! Right???

It’s 2024, and for the first time, I actually ac

It’s 2024, and for the first time, I actually achieved my top totally-not-a-resolution resolution: to get an agent for one of my “everybody’s queer, everybody’s neurodivergent” romances!

The manuscript wasn’t the one I was thinking of one year ago (when I posted a photo of myself wearing the same shirt as in this photo, at the same cabin in the mountains, but with very different hair that probably looks identical to everyone but me). But that’s ok! It’s just as close to my heart and deserving of the world. Manuscripts change, but super cute flannels stay the same, or whatever it is they say.

2023 was not a year of constant drafting, unlike 2021 and 2022. Hilariously, even though this year I made big strides in both my traditional and indie publishing journeys—I got an agent and self-published something for the first time—because I wrote fewer first drafts, sometimes I feel like I accomplished less. It’s really time to reassess what I’m using as a marker of success!

I’m making a point this year to make resolutions related to effort, not outcomes; quality, not quantity; and to leave space for taking advantage of opportunities as they arise. 2024 is going to be a doozy—I don’t need to add any self-imposed goal-related stress on top of that!

How do you feel about what you accomplished in 2023? Is that changing what you’re going to aim for in 2024?

Cover reveal!!! CINDERELLA’S CROWN, the sequel t

Cover reveal!!! CINDERELLA’S CROWN, the sequel to CINDERELLA’S CRIMES, is now available for preorder 🔥🗡️👑

What happens after “happily ever after”? For Cinna, a whole lot of murder.

She’s married to the prince and her rivals are in prison, but Cinna isn’t safe yet. Her past is haunting her qnd her husband’s position is anything but secure—if she doesn’t clear her path to the throne quickly, she could lose everything she’s fought for. Meanwhile, her old friend Johann is onto her. If he can escape from prison in time, maybe her tyrannical rule can still be stopped.

Recent reads 👀 I have of course read like thir

✨It’s happening ✨ I’m ecstatic to share t

✨It’s happening ✨

I’m ecstatic to share that my disaster romance has found a champion in @ericsmithrocks at @psliteraryagency — it feels like I’ve been querying my 🌈everybody’s queer, everybody’s neurodivergent 🌈 romances forever, but Eric was actually the very first query I sent for this manuscript!

If you’ve been following along for awhile, you’ll know most of my focus has been on the climbing partners fake dating manuscript. But in the past year I’ve written three other romcoms, including this one, which has the not-great working title of DISASTER ROMANTICISM (hmu if you have any better ideas!) and a wild story about estranged childhood best friends who reconnect against the backdrop of an earthquake, a wildfire, and a car crash (and then another earthquake). It’s the most ambitious concept among the romances I’ve attempted and I love it so much! I can’t wait to polish it with Eric’s help.

It’s here!! CINDERELLA’S CRIMES is now availa

It’s here!!

CINDERELLA’S CRIMES is now available as an ebook, audiobook, and paperback. Link in bio!

What if Cinderella wanted the throne and would let nothing stand in her way?

This is book one of the Deadly Ever After trilogy, in which a ruthless servant takes on a monarchy and aims for the top. It features none of the usual sweet Cinderella vibes, but still has really great shoes.

🔥⚔️🎇🗡️🧨

Cinna would kill for the throne.

For years, Cinna has been forced to serve her wealthy cousins rather than attend society events alongside them. She has waited for the chance to prove herself and exact revenge. When a ball at the castle is announced, promising to bring many powerful people to town, she seizes the opportunity to strike.

She bets her best friend, Johann, a small-time thief and con-man, that she can land a greater score the night of the ball than he can and they embark on parallel heists. But as their plots unfold, things begin to unravel: by the end of the night, the castle’s on lock down, a duchess is dead, a mansion has burnt to the ground — and Cinna hasn’t even stolen anything.

Or has she captured something far more valuable than gold and jewels?

💎✨🏰💋🧊

I first started working on Cinderella’s Crimes s

I first started working on Cinderella’s Crimes so long ago I truly don’t recall what inspired me, so I can’t point to stories I drew from (besides the obvious 😉. Here, though, are three books I’ve read since the first draft that felt like kindred spirits. They range in tone and theme quite a bit, but all feature characters doing bad things for their own reasons, downtrodden people turned a little (or a lot) monstrous, and fairytale vibes without a fairytale ending. Enjoy!

CINDERELLA’S CRIMES as @taylorswift lyrics, part

CINDERELLA’S CRIMES as @taylorswift lyrics, part two!

Cinna definitely does something bad (a lot of somethings, in fact!)

Do you have lyrics that represent your projects? Or any more suggestions for Cinna? I feel like the possibilities are truly endless.

A Halloween countdown, yes, but also a countdown t

A Halloween countdown, yes, but also a countdown to CINDERELLA’S CRIMES!

Get excited for murder and heists, the liars and the dirty, dirty cheats of the world.

Downtrodden servant Cinna bets her friend Johann that she can steal the bigger score the night of a major ball. But when the ball is over, a duchess is dead, a mansion has burned to the ground, and it looks like Cinna hasn’t stolen anything. But she seems to think she’s won.

The ball is over, but Cinna’s grand plans are just beginning to unfurl.

This is the first of three books in the DEADLY EVER AFTER series!

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