Announcement: Committed cover reveal!

Ever since Amazon announced Kindle serials, I've been intrigued. If you're unfamiliar with serials, think of television shows: though each episode contains a plot that's usually resolved by the end of the episode, there are overarching plots that are carried out over the course of the show's seasons.

I knew almost immediately that I wanted to give writing one a try, and an idea popped into my head that I thought would work well. If you've ever planned a wedding, I'm sure you can relate to the plot of Committed. As anyone who's ever planned a wedding knows, it's enough to make you crazy.

When Ella Mikowski decided to plan her dream wedding, she had no idea what she was getting herself into. As if juggling her career and the millions of wedding planning details isn’t enough, it seems that anything that can go wrong does go wrong. Will Ella manage to make it down the aisle with her sanity intact?

Episode 1: With only seven days to go until the wedding, Ella heads to the salon. But her visions of a head full of beautiful highlights setting off her exquisite headpiece is ruined when something in the solution causes her hair to fall off in clumps.

*****

Committed will be an eight episode serial, with episodes released every other week. Each episode will be around 12,000 words (approximately 40 pages), be priced at 99 cents, and will detail one day leading up to Ella's wedding. I'll release episode one on Thursday, February 28th.

I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of Committed. I've been having a lot of fun writing it, and I hope you'll find yourself as caught up in Ella's tale as I am.

Feature Fridays: Sneak peek at Committed

Wow, it's been a long time since I've done one of these! But it's not because I haven't been writing. In fact, I'm hard at work on Committed, my romantic dramedy serial. Things are going well and it looks like I'll start releasing episodes by the end of the month. The series will have a total of eight episodes, and I'll release them every other week.

What is Committed? Well, if you've ever planned a big wedding, you know how stressful it can be. Committed takes place starting the week before 27-year-old Ella Mikowski's wedding, and each day a disaster strikes. Mix this up with a little family drama and some misunderstandings between the bride-to-be and the groom-to-be, and you have some serious drama.

So how about a look at the first episode?

*****

Saturday, May 10: T minus seven day and counting…

10:00 AM

“Ugh, what is that smell?” Layla asked, wrinkling her perfect nose.

We’ll do the favors this afternoon, so that will be out of the way. We still have to put together the seating chart, but the place cards are done—I still need to check and make sure the name of that friend of Masato’s is spelled correctly. Did I remember to call and give the caterer the final dinner count?

“Smell?” Ella asked, tearing herself away from her mental checklist. Sniffing, she caught a strange, acrid odor that made her nose burn. “Oh my God, it’s awful.”

Pushing up the dryer hood, Layla leaned forward and sniffed again. Frowning, she leaned to her right and took another long whiff before leaning to her left—Ella’s direction—and inhaling deeply once more. Her gaze snapped to Ella, who felt a sudden, chilling sense of alarm.

“What is it?” Ella asked, scrambling up in her chair, the fashion magazine she’d been pretending to read tumbling from her lap and onto the floor, its pages a bright pool on the pale stone tile.

Without responding, Layla leaned closer to Ella and sniffed again. Her mouth opened and her eyes widened, her hands moving so fast they were a blur. It took Ella a minute to realize Layla had pushed her dryer hood away and was tugging frantically at the foil strips in Ella’s hair.

“What are you doing?” Ella squealed, trying to slap her friend’s hand away, but she underestimated Layla’s tenacity. Her friend continued to pull the foil strips from Ella’s hair while Ella protested. “It’s not done yet! You’ll ruin the color. Layla!”

But Layla’s eyes had widened, a look of horror creeping into them, and the alarm Ella had felt congealed and hardened into a lump in her stomach. “Oh, God, is it my hair?” Ella’s voice rose with each word until she sounded like a siren.

“Oh, Ella. Oh, no. Oh, oh, oh,” Layla babbled as she continued to strip Ella’s hair, her fingers moving faster than ever. Ella tried to lift a hand to her hair, but Layla knocked it aside with a forearm. Ella’s eyes landed on one of the strips in Layla’s hand, and what she saw horrified her.

“My hair! Is that my hair?” Ella shrieked, her voice taking on an hysterical edge.

They were causing a commotion, but Ella didn’t care. She was far more concerned about the sight of her reddish-blond locks dangling limply, obscenely from the bit of foil in Layla’s hand.

Announcement: Phoning It In is available in the Kindle store!

I'm really excited to announce that Phoning It In is now available for purchase in the Kindle store! Prime members can also borrow it for free from the Kindle Owner's Lending Library! I'm really looking forward to finding out what my readers think of it. I just love being ahead of schedule!

Melinda can summarize her life in a few words: dead-end job, nonexistent love life, and a contentious relationship with her older sister—not exactly the rosy picture she had of life at 25.

When Benoit enters the picture, she falls hard. Gorgeous, funny, and smart, he’s everything she’s ever wanted in a man and more, but she can’t fathom that he could possibly want a plus-sized girl like her.

Tired of going through the motions, Melinda tries to find the courage to pursue her dream career, but working for a publishing company would mean moving away from everyone and everything she knows and loves. Is she content to remain in her comfortable rut, or is it time to strike out on her own and seize her chance at getting what she’s always wanted?

Cover Reveal: Phoning It In

Way back in the late 90s, I took my first step into the work world: I accepted a job at a call center.  It was one of the most awful jobs I've ever had.  Fresh out of college and disillusioned with the necessity of paying my bills by doing a job that made me miserable, I started writing a novel inspired by my own experiences.

Life happened, and the manuscript sat partially finished on hard drive after hard drive until I rediscovered it earlier this year.  At first, I didn't think I could do much with it. The technology in the manuscript was so out of date it made me laugh out loud and the book was painfully overwritten.  But the more I read, the more I realized how much I loved the characters, especially Melinda. I had to save them from languishing on my hard drive, so I finished the novel and then started editing with extreme prejudice.

My novels are always near to my heart, but Phoning It In is special because I can identify so closely with the main character.  Melinda is not me, but she feels a lot of the same things I've felt--a lot of the same things many of us feel when life turns out to be not quite what we expected.  If you've ever been a twentysomething trying to figure out how to navigate your way through life--or if you're in that position now--I hope you'll enjoy Phoning It In.

Phoning It In (a romantic dramedy)

Melinda can summarize her life in a few words: dead-end job, nonexistent love life, and a contentious relationship with her older sister—not exactly the rosy picture she had of life at 25.

When Benoit walks into her life, she falls hard.  Gorgeous, funny, and smart, he’s everything she’s ever wanted in a man and more, but she can’t fathom that he could possibly want a plus-sized girl like her. 

Tired of going through the motions, Melinda tries to find the courage to pursue her dream career, but working for a publishing company would mean moving away from everyone and everything she knows and loves.  Is she content to remain in her comfortable rut, or is it time to strike out on her own and seize her chance at getting what she’s always wanted?

To be published:  December 22, 2012