Giveaway Winner!

A big thanks goes out to everyone that entered the Birthday Celebration Giveaway!

Yesterday, I had a great writing day and pounded out a couple thousand words on PARADIGM. Most of of what I wrote up were Etta's birthday scenes (she had two different birthday celebrations, at different ages, in two different realities)! So announcing today's winner is the icing on the cake!

The winner of a signed paperback copy of their choosing is {drumroll please} TRELANE LAMB! I will send you an email to get your address so I can send you your copy.

And because the winner was chosen by a random number generator, I hate that all those who entered are left empty handed, so there will be party favors! Everyone that entered will get an email from me for a free ebook copy of PARALLEL and PARADOX (if you don't already own it) and some signed bookmarks!

For everyone else tuning in, have a great Memorial Day!

Updates!

Happy Sunday and Memorial Day weekend! I hope y'all are making the most out of the long weekend (for most of you I hope).

I'm sure most of you recall my post last week on the flooding in my basement. Well, we had a bit more flooding up until this past Wed, when the plumber finally came to install a new sump pump, so I've been a little busy with cleaning up the basement. The damage was minimal, the plumber's bill was surprisingly low, and all is well.

I didn't get much writing time in due to all that, but I did manage to write over 600 words yesterday. If you haven't already noticed, I added a cool word meter on my sidebar so you can check my word progress on PARADIGM.

And in case you missed it, I am hosting a GIVEAWAY (contest ends tonight at midnight) in honor of my main character's birthday to win a signed paperback copy of PARALLEL or PARADOX. Don't forget to enter! Details are in the post below.

I know I've mentioned this before, but next Saturday I'll be attending our 18th Annual Railway Festival! I know it's not Comic Con or anything, but the event brings in around 35,000 festival goers from around the DC metro area. Not bad for a small town festival! I will be sharing a table with a few local authors, representing our writer's group Write by the Rails. It's such a great group and I'm proud to be a member. Anyways, I finally got my books ordered for the event and they arrived Thursday!! I only hope I sell enough books so I can camp out in front of the food vendors!

That's all I got for today. Going to spend the day writing outside and try to enjoy the beautiful weather! Happy writing everyone! I'll be around tomorrow to announce the winner of the giveaway...

Celebrations All Around! {GIVEAWAY}

Happy Birthday Etta Fleming! You're officially 18 years old today!! I hope you have a fabulous day (in whatever reality you happen to be in at the moment).

A special birthday wish goes out to my sister, Laura. You are officially over 30 today! Welcome to my world.

Two birthdays...coincidence? I think not. 

And Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! My thoughts and prayers go out to all the families who have lost a loved one defending our country.

So, in honor of these special occasions, I will be giving away a free signed paperback copy of PARALLEL or PARADOX (your choice) and some signed bookmarks as part of this celebration bonanza. You only have to do two things to enter:

1. Leave a comment on this post with your email address (so I can contact the winner).
2. Sign up for my newsletter (upper right column). I promise I won't SPAM!

Contest is open to US residents only. However, if you are international and you desperately want to enter, I am happy to send you an ebook version of PARALLEL and/or PARADOX if you win.

Contest ends midnight (EST) May 27th. Winner will be chosen at random.

Flooded With News

It's update time already! I hope all my ROW80 peeps have had a great week so far! For some reason, my Wednesday updates aren't as moments as my Sunday ones, so hear goes:

On the writing front, I've added 550 words to PARADIGM and 400 words on my short story. 

My basement is flooded again...we had more rain Monday and Tuesday. The plumber is supposed to come today, but I haven't heard from him yet. 

But my best news of the day is that I have found a new editor! I have been super stressed about the editing for PARADIGM and it's so hard to find a great editor. Yay! Trying to find someone isn't something you hold off 'til the last minute, so I am thrilled to have nailed down an awesome editor at this point in time. 

This afternoon, I'll leave the basement mess in the capable hands of my hubby as I go to meet up with my local writers group at my favorite coffee shop. Very excited to meet up with them, as I've only gotten to know them via our Facebook page. 

Oh and my new bookmarks are supposed to arrive today! Super excited to see how they came out. I'll post some pics on FB when they come in. 

That's it for today amigos...gotta get some writing done! And don't forget to check back on Friday, as I have a super fun giveaway to announce! 

Writing Updates

I know! Two posts back to back! I can't believe it either, but here it is. Only this time, I'll be updating you on what's going on with my WIP's (not that there's much to report). If you missed yesterday's post, that's okay, it's still there, below this one.

PARADIGM is coming along and I managed to get 3k words in this week, which is pretty impressive considering I had a flooded basement to deal with this week. Word to the wise, if you know you have flooding issues, don't wait two days to check your basement!

I am almost done with my anthology, unDEAD DIXIE DEBS. I just need to iron out a few more details with the short story I'm adding to the collection and then it's off to get proofread and formatted!

And before I forget, I finally figured out how to organize my emails/contacts, so if you want to subscribe to my awesome new newsletter list, the sign-up is on the right column. I PROMISE I won't spam you with worthless emails...but I will send out an email whenever there's a new book out or really important news.

Now for more pressing matters...I'm really torn on how I want to spend my day today. The sun is out, it's a nice 79 degrees out....so, do I spend a few hours outside reading, be productive and write, or tackle the rest of the basement?

Have a happy writing week!

Indie News

I love pimpin' other indie authors, so today I am dedicating this post to the pimpage of others. Well, not before I do a little blatant self-promotion for myself.

I'm in the BLACK, y'all! Getting books to all you fabulous readers can cost some serious dough...cover art, proofing services, formatting, print books for giveaways, promotion materials, etc. Not that I'm complaining... But my point is...I am now making a profit from my books and do you know what that means? No, not that...it means, I have awesome readers out there. Sure, I'm looking forward to the very generous royalties from Amazon these next couple months, but just knowing I have *gasp* fans means the world to me. Besides, those upcoming royalties? Those go right back into my books...and readers are forever (I hope)!

And for those who just happened to stumble upon this post, PARALLEL, the first in the Travelers Series, is FREE on iTunes. It's been a few months since I've done a free promotion, so don't forget to get your free copy. I am sure Amazon will follow suit in a few days, so if you have a Kindle, it will be free sometime next week.

Now, if you remember my post from last week, I featured Shauna Granger's book EARTH and how much I enjoyed it. Today, I picked up a copy of AIR, book two. Well, yesterday, Shauna decided to run a Kickstarter campaign for the third book in the series, WATER. What's a Kickstarter campaign? Basically, it's a fundraising platform for creative projects (i.e. art, music, publishing, etc). As many of y'all know, being an indie writer comes with out-of-pocket expenses and this is a great way to get investors to back your project. But the best part about Kickstarter is, you get rewards (ebooks, signed books, swag, etc.) for your contribution...it's a win-win for both author and reader. Think of it like pre-ordering a book. I happily sent in a contribution and can't wait to get my copy of Water next month! If you'd like to check out her campaign, click on the video below or check out her Kickstarter site here.

In other indie news, do you also remember the same exact post where I told you to read the WOOL series by Hugh Howey because his series totally rocked (and he's such a terrific guy)? Well, how's this for a picture:

Photo by Hugh Howey

I hate to say I told you so, but I TOLD YOU SO. This was in this weeks Entertainment Weekly, shortly after Hugh announced this week that his book not only was optioned by 20th Century Fox, but also landed a sweet deal with Random House UK. He will remain an indie author here in the US, but folks in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand will be able to enjoy his work! So, if you know what's good for you...pick up your copy of WOOL Omnibus! And Hugh, if you're reading this, WordPress will NOT let me log on to comment on your blog and I have an account! 

Check back tomorrow where I'll have another ROW80 update on how I slacked on my writing to do this post for you today. 

Now, Where Was I?

Hola! Yes, I know... I've been a little lax on my post updates, but I've been a busy bee (but if you ask doing what, I have absolutely NO idea)!

On the writing front, I am still plugging away on the new story I am adding to my anthology. I really hope to have it done by the end of the week. Now, there's no deadline other than my own to get this done, but the sooner I wrap it up, the sooner I can get back to PARADIGM. Then again, if I don't finish my short story on time, no biggie. That's one of the wonderful things about being an indie writer...I can make or break the rules. I really want to have my anthology finished within the next week or two (all the other shorts are done and edited), but if it doesn't happen, well...

As for promotion, I am getting ready for two big events next month. June 2nd I am joining my fellow local authors promoting our books at one of our largest festivals (over 35,000 people attend this!). We'll have a joint booth set up and I'm super excited to hang out with other writers in my area. Oh yeah, and introduce readers to the Travelers Series! Then two weeks later, I'll have a book signing at my favorite local coffee shop (I'll be promoting my book signing event at the festival), being held during another festival. Which means, I gotta order books, order new bookmarks, etc. Yay!

Hope y'all have a great week!

Good Reads...

I don't have much of an update, as I spent the last few days averaging final grades.

So instead of posting on my writing progress today, I thought I'd share a couple of books I've read this past week. (Okay, I DID manage to find time this week for that)! 

If you like YA paranormal and are looking for something a bit different, check out Shauna Granger's Elemental Series. I finished the first book in the series, Earth, this weekend and loved it. It really is a great refreshing YA read and Steven, one of the characters, ranks high on favorite BBF's. 

Then on Monday, I discovered Hugh Howey's Wool series. They are a collection of 5 novellas, but I had faith and went ahead and purchased the Omnibus edition. If you like dystopian/science fiction. This is a MUST read! For two days, it was the last thing I read at night and first thing I picked up in the morning (if I hadn't started it a night, I would have read it in one day). I am about to download book 6, in the series (prequel) tonight!! 

Happy Reading!

Works in Progress

Happy Sunday! I hope everyone enjoyed the Cinco de Mayo celebration yesterday and/or the Kentucky Derby! I didn't do much celebrating as I spend the day writing. Gasp! I actually sat my behind and did some work!

I can't say that I got an overwhelming amount of writing done since my last post, but it's enough that I don't feel I wasted the last few days. I got somewhere around 2k on PARADIGM. I have been focused on getting my horror anthology out soon (in time for a festival I am attending in June), so that's been top priority this past week. While I have the collection pretty much done (since they are previously published), I did want to add one new story to the mix and so far I've gotten close to 2k down. I hope to finish it up by tomorrow.

Since I don't have any specific word counts as part of my ROW80 goal, I am keeping up with my goal to just write everyday. I only hope it's enough to get me on track will all my deadlines!

Yesterday, I worked on the cover for my anthology. I'm trying to keep my overhead low, so I decided to tackle the cover myself for this project. Let me know what you guys think! If you can't make out the tagline, it reads, "a collection of stories in the tradition of southern gothic horror." I decided it needed to be a southern gothic theme, since all my main characters are women and each story takes place in the south. I have no idea how all the shorts I've written these last couple of years end up with a southern backdrop, but it is what it is...

 

Gotta get back to writing! Hope you have a great writing week fellow ROW80'ers and y'all come back now, ya hear!

Write, Rights...and Joss Whedon!

Happy Hump Day! I hope everyone's had a great writing week so far!

If you didn't catch it yesterday, here's a post I did on the history of vampires in pop-culture over at Spellbound Scribes. If you love vampires, you might want to weigh in.

Also, for those who haven't had a chance to pick up PARALLEL (no pressure, really!), I have the first few chapters up on Wattpad. I will probably post the first 15 chapters for those who want to sample it before purchasing. For obvious reasons, I won't be posting up any sample chapters for PARADOX, as it will spoil the ending for those sampling book 1.

On the writing front, I got in another 1k words for PARADIGM yesterday. I wanted to get a more in, but then I got sidetracked with working on formatting/editing a collection of short stories. It appears that I have the rights back to some of my horror shorts that appeared in several anthologies and now that they're mine again, I'll be compiling them into a collection. It will be a southern theme (as most of the stories take place in the South) and it's just a fun project to work on. I'm already looking at cover art!

All that aside, I hope to get some more writing done in the next few days, but the hubby and I decided to do a Marvel Comic movie marathon today/tomorrow to get ready for The Avengers that premieres this Friday! I am so psyched to see it as it's written and directed by Joss Whedon!

That's it for today, amigos. I'm giving my last final of the semester this afternoon (if any of my students are reading this, I hope you studied and good luck)!