Book Launch Day: Committed, Episode 6 is now available!

 

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 6:Two days before the wedding, Masato gets into a fight with his Best Man, and Ella has an argument with her brother, the Man of Honor.

Committed, Episode 6 is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo!

Today marks my tenth release day, and I'm pretty excited about that. I've now been publishing for a year, and I'm very optimistic about what the future holds. This is a great time to be a writer, and I want to thank all of you who have read, reviewed, and/or contacted me to tell me how much you enjoyed one of my books. There aren't words to describe how exciting it is to hear from a reader. Whether it's a Tweet, a post on my FB page, or an e-mail, your kind words make my day every time.

I've been hard at work on Asleep, my next book under my Elizabeth Darcy pen name. It's inspired by the Sleeping Beauty tale, but with a twist.

This book has been rather challenging for me. I started it during NaNoWriMo 2012, and writing has gone well, but the timeline got away from me a bit. I've been wrestling with it for the last few days and had a breakthrough yesterday. If you're a fan of The Eye of the Beholder, I think you may enjoy this love story even more. Is it wrong of me to admit I have a mad crush on Prince Devaran, even if he is my own creation? ;)

I have a few other big things coming up. On Monday, May 13th, I'll be doing a cover reveal for Asleep, and I can hardly wait to share it as I think it's gorgeous! 

For the second year, I'll be participating in author Elle Casey's absolutely ginormous giveaway. Seriously, it's huge. I don't have all the details yet, but LOTS of books will be up for grabs from a broad spectrum of YA/NA authors, including yours truly. Stay tuned for more details about that one because you definitely don't want to miss it.

I have another exciting piece of news that I'll be sharing in the upcoming weeks, along with some more info about my post-Asleep release schedule plans and another cover reveal (hint: There just may be an NA romance coming your way!).

Lastly, once Asleep is ready to go, I'll be doing a LibraryThing giveaway for it, and I'm planning on doing some more Free Book Fridays, probably once a month. What are Free Book Fridays? Well, that's when the Free Book fairy waves her wand and gives free copies of my books to readers. I hear she's especially fond of finding people who have my books shelved on Goodreads, and she also like to drop in on my mailing list and my FB page.  And the best part? You don't even have to leave anything under your pillow for her!

Book Launch Day: Committed, Episode 5 is now available!

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 5: Masato makes a deal with Ella: one date, no talking about the wedding. But some bad sushi turns their relaxing evening into an unmitigated disaster.

Committed, Episode 5 is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.

Psst: My book, The Eye of the Beholder, is currently on sale for 99c on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo! It'll be back to regular price soon, so get your copy now!

If you're a fan of my Elizabeth Darcy novel, stay tuned. I'm hard at work on Asleep, which was inspired by Sleeping Beauty, and I plan on having it out by June!

Book Launch Day: Committed, Episode 1 is now available!

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?

Comitted is a serial, with episodes of approximately 12,000 words to be released every two weeks. There will be a total of eight episodes.

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, is available on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble! I'm very excited to hear what you all think of it. It's been a lot of fun to write, and is making me look at plotting in a whole new way.

If you haven't signed up for my mailing list yet, and would like to receive notification in your inbox whenever I have a new release, or if you'd like access to exclusive giveaways, members-only features like deleted scenes and extended excerpts, and more, you can sign up here. Personally, I hate spam, so I promise never to inflict it on you.

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.”

Announcement: General News

I've been really lax about my blog this week, which makes me feel badly but the truth is, though I enjoy the blogging, it always falls by the wayside when I'm really busy with other things. So what am I so busy with? Well, how about the following:

1. Creators is now available from other retailers! You can purchase it at Amazon, Kobo, or Barnes & Noble! For now, my other titles are still exclusive to Amazon, but that exclusivity expires on all three of them in March, so throughout that month I'll be adding the books one at a time to Kobo and B&N.

2. I'm working on a romantic dramedy serial called Committed, which will be released under my Anne Wentworth pen name. It'll be 8 episodes long, and it centers around Ella, who is a week away from her wedding day and busy dealing with a disaster each day leading up to her wedding. I'm working with the awesome Carrie at Cheeky Covers on the cover, so some of my time has been spent looking at designs and stock art for the perfect cover. I have a couple of advanced readers lined up, but I could use more eyes. If you're interested, let me know on my Facebook page.

3. I'm planning on releasing paperback copies of The Eye of the Beholder, and I've been tinkering with Createspace, trying to get a feel for it. I'm extremely happy to say that I'll be able to keep the original cover, but I'll need to give the designer some additional information about the size of the book, number of pages, etc. so that a print version of the cover can be created. Before I can do that, I have to nail down the formatting, so I'm planning on doing some tinkering with that over the next week or so. I'd like to have the paperback out by February.

4. Lot and lots of promotions. I was a part of Elle Casey's anniversary giveaway, and am in the process of contacting the winners of copies of Contributor and Creators. I have another promo coming up at the end of the month, this time for The Eye of the Beholder (be sure to check my giveaway page--more details will be coming soon). I've also been scheduling some promotions for Phoning It In.

5. Setting up my mailing list. It's ready to go at last! Subscribing to the mailing list will give you access to the following:

• Members-only giveaways
• Extended excerpts
• A quarterly newsletter
• Notification of new releases

There will be no spamming with my mailing list, just pure, awesome goodness. You'll receive less than 10 e-mails a year from it. I'll set up a separate mailing list for my serial so that I can let readers know as the episodes become available.

So, as you can see, my plate is pretty full of lots of good stuff.

One last note: I now have 11 reviews for The Eye of the Beholder on Amazon, and some of them have made me so happy. Last night, I saw this new one, and I am flying high. Disclaimer: I don't expect everyone to love my book, but every review I receive helps me to become a better writer. Plus, I can't say how much it means to me to see readers taking time out of their busy days to not only read one of my books, but write a review of it. You, dear readers, are awesome!

What's in Store for 2013

2012 was a great year for me, one that exceeded my wildest dreams. Confession time: I had this secret hope that I could sell 100 copies of my books in a year. Well, as of  December 29, 2012, I've hit 1,000 sales (and this doesn't include borrows) and counting! To say I'm happy and excited about this is the understatement of the century.

I've made some rookie mistakes and learned a lot in 2012, so I'm going into 2013 feeling like I finally have some idea of what I'm doing. That's been great, because it's helping me to focus and set some good, solid goals. So, here is what I'm looking to accomplish in 2013:

1. More books: First will be Asleep, book two in the Fairytale Collection., followed by Infiltrator, the second book in the Contributor series. I'm also going to try my hand at an 8-episode romantic comedy serial. I have most of it outlined and I'll share more details once I'm closer to having it ready for publication. Other possibilities: a companion book to Phoning It In that will focus on one of the secondary characters and another novella in the Creators sequence, which takes place prior to Contributor.

2. Expanded distribution: when my exclusivity period lapses with some of my works, I'm going to expand to other markets, such as Kobo and Barnes & Noble. I've had limited success with these in the past, but I want to give them another shot because I really dislike the idea of restricting the outlets where my readers can get my books.

3. Mailing list: I'm planning on quarterly newsletters with exclusives for members: giveaways, access to extended excerpts, etc. I'll also use the mailing list to alert readers of new releases. One thing I will never do: spam my readers. Ever.

4. Author website: This blog is limiting, and I'd like to have a central presence on the web for my bibliographies, blog posts, etc. I'm also the author of a fairly popular work of fanfic, and I think I'm going to out myself and host the fanfic on my site. In addition, I have ideas for some fun stuff: short daily stories, a forum for interacting with readers and getting feedback that will influence the way serials pan out, etc.

5. Social media presence: Though I'm still planning on Tweeting, pinning things that interest me on Pinterest, and posting to FB, I'm going to be devoting most of my efforts to Google+ and Goodreads, as I feel that these are the outlets that allow me to best interact with readers. I'm a big fan of Google+ Communities, and I'm thinking about dabbling in the Hangouts. As for Goodreads, well, I fell in love with that site a couple of years ago and use it daily as a reader, so it goes without saying that I love the idea of what I can do with it as an author.

6. Physical copies of my books: Several readers have expressed interest, and I'd love to offer the option to them. Since I already have covers for my books, I need to look into having these changed so they'll meet physical copy requirements. I've used several different cover designers, and I'm hoping to be able to negotiate with each of them so that I won't have to change any covers.

7. More group promotions: I love working with other authors and have found some amazing books thanks to my self-publishing journey. I already have one promo lined up for late January/early February, and I will try to participate in others throughout the year.

That's it for me! Thanks to all my readers for making 2012 such a memorable year for me. I wish you the best for health, happiness, and good fortune in 2013!