Cover reveal: Infiltrator (Contributor trilogy, book 2)

First, I owe some of you an apology. Several amazing people have read and reviewed Contributor and reached out to me to tell me how much they liked it. You've been waiting anxiously for the second book, and I took my sweet time getting it out. Truth is, I was scared to write it, but I made myself conquer that fear, and I'm excited about this book. I hope you will be too. I'm also making you this solemn promise: you will not have to wait nearly as long for book three. The first book I publish in 2014 will be a new adult romance, and after that I will publish the last Contributor book, so plan on a release in the first half of 2014.

Without further ado, here is the cover and description for Infiltrator. (Warning: If you haven't read Contributor, the description of Infiltrator is a little spoilery. Sorry, but it was unavoidable!)

Infiltrator will be available for Kindle on December 20, 2013.

YA post-apocalyptic/dystopian

Surviving her apprenticeship was just the first step. Now that Dara has joined the Free Thinkers, her life is about to become much more dangerous.

Frustrated by her seemingly pointless efforts to prove her worth to the Free Thinkers, she wonders if she made the right choice. Yet she can’t go back to her old life, can’t forgive Magnum for what it did to her mother. Then she discovers a crucial piece of intelligence: Andersen has been hard at work on a clandestine project that’s caught the attention of the Creators.

At last Dara is made a Free Thinker operative, trained and taught the truth about the Great Famine and its aftermath, but she must conceal her knowledge at all cost. Andersen must believe she’s no more than the sacrificial lamb he thinks she is.

But as the Creators’ interest in the project deepens, Dara is placed under surveillance and cut off from her Free Thinker lifeline. When she makes one last, desperate attempt at exposing his secret project, the repercussions are enormous.

Click here to add Infiltrator to your to-read shelf on Goodreads! 


Haven't read book one, Contributor, yet? Get yourself a Kindle copy here! And click here to add it to your to-read shelf on Goodreads.

 YA post-apocalyptic/dystopian

When the Great Famine threatened the existence of mankind, the Creators saved humanity. Humanity has been their loyal subject ever since.

This history has been ingrained in seventeen-year-old Dara Morrow since her first day of Creator-sponsored school. Grateful for the life-giving necessities her Creator provides, Dara is thrilled to be one of three students chosen for an elite, year-long apprenticeship program. Now is her chance to prove herself a devoted Contributor.

But Dara’s competition is ruthless and will stop at nothing to win the competition. Worse yet, her exacting master has little patience for her.

Then Dara’s mother is seriously injured, and Dara realizes the price of being a Contributor: once you’ve outlived your usefulness, you’re discarded. Can Dara learn to manipulate the system to save not only herself, but everyone she loves? 

Read it already? What do you think of the new cover and revamped blurb?

Cover Reveal: Derailed

Round two of revisions on Derailed is officially underway, which means advance reader copies are only a week or two out. Subscribers to Nicole C's Book Babbles will be the first to get their hands on copies, which will then be made available on NetGalley. I'm targeting an early October release, but I'll post a firm date once the ARCs are ready, so stay tuned. How about adding the book to your Goodreads "to read" pile in the meantime? I'll send you loads of virtual chocolate!

Derailed combines many of my favorite things: France, pastry, travel, espresso, and sexy men with delicious accents. I'm looking forward to its release and hoping my readers will enjoy it. So, without further ado, here's the cover and the book description.

Louisa Carmichael has had it. After her boss stabs her in the back by giving the promotion he’d promised her to a less qualified co-worker, Lou quits. But she only makes it as far as her car before panic sets in. At twenty-eight, she has little to show for her life. Who is she without her job, and what will she do with herself if she’s not working? Has she destroyed all chance of ever attaining the career for which she’s sacrificed so much? Fortunately for Lou, she has the perfect excuse to avoid these hard questions: her trip to France for her best friend’s wedding celebration.

There she meets Yves Betancourt, a handsome French man who also happens to be the most off-putting person she’s ever encountered. Yet Yves has his good points, and Lou is fascinated by his passion for the work he does in a London lab, a job that sounds like something out of Lou’s dreams. One lonely night she takes him up on his offer to meet for a drink, confiding that she’s thinking of extending her trip to retrace the path her beloved grandfather took during his post-World War II tour of Normandy. When Yves offers to be her guide, Lou decides to throw caution to the wind and embrace life in a way she’s never before embraced it. The more time Lou spends with Yves, the more she begins to wonder why she’s so determined to deny herself a full life, romance, and the job she’s always wanted.

*************************************

In case you missed them, I posted uncorrected versions of chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3, and I have plans to post at least the next seven chapters, so stay tuned and happy reading!

Cover Reveal: New Design for Contributor

After a lot of consideration, I decided to give Contributor a new cover. I absolutely love the first cover, but I'm afraid it doesn't clearly brand the book as YA sci-fi, which was the reason behind my decision to change it. I worked with a very talented artist on the original cover, and think it would work well as an adult cover, but I'm not sure it connects with a YA-reading audience.

Original cover:

And the new cover:

To kick off the new cover, I've decided to make Contributor .99 cents through Friday, April 6. Fans of post-apocalyptic and/or dystopian YA fiction, here's your chance to grab a sale copy for Kindle, Nook, or Kobo!

One of only three students chosen for an elite, year-long apprenticeship, seventeen-year-old Dara Morrow is eager to excel in the high-stakes competition and prove herself a devoted Contributor to her Job Creator. Success means a prosperous future. Failure means losing her standing in society.

But Dara’s competition is ruthless, and her exacting master has little patience for her. When her mother is injured and Dara’s eyes are opened to the injustices of the system she trusted to care for her family, her prospects become even more uncertain. If she can’t learn to manipulate the system, she risks exile not only for herself, but for all those she loves.

Contributor is the first book in the YA Contributor trilogy.

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: Epic hair disasters and other pre-wedding annoyances

Today has been an excellent writing day for me, which is especially significant because my morning got off to a rough start. Just as I was thinking I should go back to bed and hide, I checked to see how things were going on Amazon and found two amazing reviews of Phoning It In.

I'm sure it goes without saying that reviews are a source of anxiety for most writers--and I salute those who don't get nervous about them. Negative reviews aren't easy to read, but can be a good source for learning how to improve my writing, which is something I never want to stop doing.

Good reviews, though, they can make your day. There's no better feeling than finding out that your book has touched a reader in some way, that the reader gets your book on a deeply personal level. I was so thrilled with these reviews that I teared up. I write for two reasons: for the sheer love and passion I feel for writing and because I want my writing to connect with readers. When those two things come together, well, that's my definition of perfection.

So thank you to those of you who take the time to write reviews for my books, whether you loved them or weren't very fond of them. Most of all, thank you for reading!

The first four episodes of Committed are just about finished, and I'm planning on releasing episode one on Thursday, February 28th. On Monday, February 18th, I'll do a cover reveal. I can hardly wait to share the series! In fact, I'm so anxious to share it, I'm just going to go ahead and leave an excerpt here, picking up from where I left off last week. I hope you enjoy it!

*****

“Can I get some help over here?” Layla shouted, her words jolting the stunned stylists into action.

Three women hurried over to them and, judging from the looks on their faces, Ella knew the news was not good.

Working faster than Ella would have thought possible, Layla and the stylists pulled the remaining foil strips from Ella’s hair. Ella watched with a sense of detached incredulity as tears filled the large, green eyes of her stylist, Crystal. Fat drops fell and spattered Crystal’s smock.

I’m getting married in one week, and I’m going to be bald, Ella thought. A laugh bubbled in her throat, and she kept her mouth clamped closed, afraid she’d cackle like a crazy person if she opened it.

“Oh, God, Ella. Oh my God. Oh, no. I don’t… How could this… Oh, God!” Crystal shouted the last word, and the salon owner ran over, flicking a nervous glance from side to side, surveying the crowd of women who seemed to have forgotten all about their highlights and their mani/pedis. By the time the salon owner reached Ella, she was in full damage-control mode.

“Let me see,” she said in a firm voice, pushing Layla and the stylists aside. Ella’s eyes fell to the floor, where she saw lots and lots of her hair laying on the ground. She stared at it, feeling as if she were staring at someone else’s hair. This could not possibly be happening, not now. Not one week before her wedding.

The other woman’s face grew increasingly grim as she examined Ella’s hair. “Come with me, sweetheart,” she said, taking Ella’s hand and leading her over to the sinks. Ella almost tripped over her own feet, she was still struck so dumb by what was happening.

Her sense of unreality was broken by warm water coursing over her scalp, and she closed her eyes. She thought she liked it better when she was too stunned to process what was happening.

The salon owner took great care as she shampooed and conditioned Ella’s hair. It might all have seemed normal, were it not for Layla and the stylists hovering over her, hands pressed to their mouths. Ella heard a dim hum in the room, and she realized it was the other salon patrons whispering about what they’d seen. As Ella sat up and the salon owner toweled her hair, Ella saw her swallow, hard. A woman sitting under the dryers gasped, then turned beet red and looked everywhere but at Ella’s face.

“Sweetheart, I’m going to make this right, I promise,” the owner said, her voice far too calm to be of any comfort to Ella.

“How bad is it?” Ella croaked, though she didn’t really need to ask. Judging by the amount of foil-wrapped hair scattered on the floor, she knew bad was far too mild a word. Catastrophic might be better. “Let me see it.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea. I’ll take you out and trim it, and then—”

“I want to see it!” Ella repeated, and the salon owner closed her mouth with an almost audible snap, biting her lower lip.

“Are you sure?”

Ella’s glare must have assured the woman of her sincerity, because the owner took a deep breath and held a mirror out to Ella. The mirror trembled as Ella took it, then shook violently as she raised it to eye level. For a second, as she saw the ruin of her hair, she thought she might pass out. The room spun a bit and the edges of her vision went dark.

“Breathe,” Layla commanded, as she shoved Ella’s head between her knees. “Breathe, Ella. It’s going to be okay.”

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

Monday Musings: NaNo angst and big news!

Well, tomorrow I will hit the 50k mark for NaNoWriMo, and I am overwhelmingly relieved about it.  I've been able to hit my target word count every day, but I'm feeling so insecure about this draft that it's making me a little nuts.  It doesn't help that I really, really want to get Phoning It In done and just haven't had the time to devote as much editing time to it as I'd like.  Once I hit the 50k mark tomorrow, I'm going to take a bit of a break from Asleep so I can get Phoning done, and hopefully I'll be a saner person for it!

I'm really starting to gear up for the Sci-Fi Spotlight promotion I'm participating in, in honor of Cyber Monday.  I'll be offering Contributor for 99 cents from November 26-30 as part of the promo.  If you're a fan of science fiction, you won't want to miss the promo because it's your chance to snap up 15 free books, as well as 15 books priced at 99 cents.  And, if you haven't already, be sure to enter the Sci-Fi Spotlight giveaway for your chance at $175 in Amazon gift cards, along with autographed books and swag!

In honor of Sci-Fi Spotlight, my blog theme for November 26-30 will be "Why Sci-Fi?"  Each day, I'll feature new indie authors participating in the promo.  They'll explain why they chose to write a sci-fi novel, and I'll include their book covers and blurbs.  Hopefully, this will help you discover some new favorites.

On Wednesday, December 5th, I'll be revealing the cover for Phoning It In here on the blog.  I'm very excited about releasing the novel, and plan on having it out before the end of the month, though I'll announce an actual publication date once the novel is ready.

And, somehow, in the middle of all this, I'll find time to plan birthday parties, spend time with my family, and just generally enjoy the crazy ride that is the holiday season each year.  I can almost taste the turkey now!

Monday Musings: My head is cluttered

This month, I feel like I have this nonstop shot of adrenaline coursing through my veins.  There's just so much going on, and it's tough to keep up with it.

My biggest source of anxiety is the fact that I'm juggling two novels right now.  While I'm very anxious to get Phoning It In out, it was also important to me to participate in NaNoWriMo this year, so Phoning has been shelved for the time being.  I will get it out by the end of the year, though, and I have a cover all ready to go.  I'm itching to do a cover reveal, so it's now just a question of deciding when, exactly to do that.  Feedback and suggestions on that front are very welcome!

As for NaNoWriMo, the manuscript is coming along nicely.  I made it over the 10k mark today, so I'm very pleased with my progress.  I set a goal of 3,500 words per day, five days a week.  Trying to write every day really stressed me out last year, and I've noticed that, lately, I get a bit twitchy when I don't write.  The problem with trying to make a career of being an author is I find it hard to just relax and unplug at times.  I always feel like I should be doing more work, so I'm making a conscious effort to treat this like a regular job, with certain hours being "work" hours while other hours are exclusively for family time, including weekends.  This does ease things for me.

That aside, I'm having a lot of fun with Asleep, though it is hard to drown out my inner editor at times.  I usually have a lot of anxiety when I write my first drafts, and I tend to think a lot of what I've written is bad.  This is why NaNoWriMo has been so invaluable to me.  It's taught me to push past those moments, get the words down, and then go back and polish things up later, and I think my writing is the better for it.  It's not always an easy thing to do, but it has definitely made me a much more productive writer. 

What's been really great about NaNo so far is feeling these characters come alive.  I had a pretty vague idea of what they would be like, and did a bit of planning the last few days of October, but I admit I'm mostly pantsing this one, and I'm really happy with the way things are working out.  I'm also developing a bit of a crush on my male lead, so hopefully I won't be the only one who finds him loveable!

I'm very excited to announce that, this Thursday, I'll have my very first post on YA Indie.  If you haven't taken a look at the blog yet, be sure to stop by.  A great variety of authors participates, and the blog features lots of great posts. 

That's it for me for now.  Stay tuned for details on the Phoning It In cover reveal, as well as details about a late November promo that's in the works.  I'm really excited about it as it'll not only help me reach out to a broader audience, it'll help introduce my readers to some other amazing authors.  Happy Monday!

Woo Hoo Wednesday: It's finally done!

Right now, the temptation is strong in this one (10 points to Gryffindor if you get that reference!) to run around in circles pumping my fists in the air.  Why?  Because I just finished hitting the button to upload Contributor to Amazon!  For some reason, I feel like I've been working on that book for the last three hundred years.  Then again, I guess I get like that with all of my books, when I've spent months doing copyedits.  I reach a point where every last word in the book looks like it's made up or misspelled.

So, now that I've put the book to bed, I'm pretty sure I'll go about twenty-four hours before I start feeling like I need to chain myself to my desk and finish the next book.  That's the sad thing about me as a writer--and I don't think I'm alone in that.  With my old, traditional jobs, there was a clear line between when work started and when it ended.  Not so much with writing, where I feel this compulsion to be doing it almost constantly.  Or maybe I'm just the world's most exacting boss, who knows?

Another big woo hoo goes to the fact that school is in session and the cleaning company is coming to clean the house this week.  While I had a fun summer, it'll be nice to have some time to buckle down and do some serious writing, particularly with NaNoWriMo beginning to appear on the horizon.  Ah, I can hear the siren's call of the annual November insanity already!  Soon I'll be snarfing bites of turkey while banging away at the keyboard.  Who's with me this year?  I need some more people to share in the pain joy!

Last but certainly not least, an absolutely ginormous woo hoo shall be shouted from the rooftops because of my August sales.  Seriously, my readers are awesome.  I still can't believe you're paying actual, real money for something I wrote.  I'm not exactly making a living wage at this point, but August has been my best month yet, and my sales have increased every month by at least 25%, so I'm definitely not complaining.  It feels absolutely amazing to make ANY money doing something I love so much.  I mean, I'm getting paid to play around in my imagination all day long.  How cool is that?

I'm just going to leave this here while Amazon is in the process of publishing Contributor:

As they say in Contributor-land: Have a productive day!

(Psssst: Don't forget that Creators will be free on Friday, September 7.)

Cover reveal: Reinventing Claire by Darian Wilk

I am really excited to be able to share a first glimpse of the cover for Darian Wilk's new novel, Reinventing Claire.  Darian's first novel, Love Unfinished, has received rave reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads, and Reinventing Claire sounds like a great book.  I know I'll be purchasing my copy once it's released! 

In addition to being a great author, Darian is also an all-around nice person who has been really helpful and willing to share her experiences.  I hope she'll get the recognition she deserves!  So, without further ado, here is Reinventing Claire:

People get divorced, but that's what happens to other people. That’s what Claire thought anyway, until her husband, Charlie, tells her he wants a divorce.

Claire has no choice but to take on the title of Divorced Woman, and face the question she has no idea how to answer. Who is Claire without Charlie? Her family believes her newly divorced woes can be cured by jumping back into the dating scene – and landing herself a boyfriend. With her dating dunce cap in hand, Claire stumbles her way through the foreign territory of online dating.

A teacher from hell, a stalker, and a softball coach later, Claire proclaims herself the dating idiot she thought she was, and fears she's doomed to be a lonely, crazy cat lady. But an accidental run-in with an old acquaintance might change everything. What starts by comparing dating battle wounds over a cup of coffee, quickly turns into something Claire thought she had given up on.

As Claire discovers maybe there is love after Charlie after all, Charlie realizes his mistake. He wants her back, and he'll do anything to prove it to her. Now Claire must choose who deserves her heart, and if she's really willing to give it away again.

*****

To learn more about Darian, follow her at:

Reinventing Claire on Goodreads 

Book trailer 

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