Two Books in the Works

Well, I've made a dent on my current WIP. Found a cover photo that has given me some inspiration, so I'm excited. (I will show you later, when the cover is completed) Still trying to come up with a title, but not in any hurry.

I am going to give you all a chance to get involved in this one. The whole story revovles around the characters involvement with paranormal activity. I've always been facinated with the subject myself and have had a few experiences myself that can't be explained away. Some of the events in it are inspired by things that actually happened to me in real life, so it's fun and a little crazy. (Bet you guys didn't know how exciting my life really was. Or perhaps I'm just a little crazy.) So if you've got any good ghost stories, share them with us. If I see something really interesting, I may use it. (with your permission of course)

I'm kind of excited about this book. It is one I've thought about for a long time but could never really put it together. It's one has a lot of meaning for me, because it's dedicated to my step-brother, who was always was an inspiration to me. This one is for him and for those who loved him and miss him as much as I do.

I will keep you guys updated as much as possible. I want this one and Bloodlines done in time for the Ren Fair in April. That's not that far away, so I will probably be burning the candle on both ends for the next two months. But if I get to present both of them at the fair, it will be totally worth it. So stay tuned for some updates on both.

Now on Nook!

Both Reining In and Phantom Rising are now available on Nook. It's taken me a while, but I finally broke down and listed it. Don't ask my why I didn't do it sooner. But I'm excited to finally have it up there. Now to get Phantom Rising on the B&N paperback side. Maybe this week.

More reviews?

I'm a little torn. Reining In has sat at 13 reviews for a long time now. Of course I want more reviews than that. But I'm wondering if the old adage "careful what you wish for" rings true here.
To start with, 13 is my lucky number. Really, it is. My wedding band has 13 stones. My name has 13 letters in it. My office is on 13th street. All but one of my children were born at 13 after the hour. It's a good number. I like it. But do I really want to be stuck at 13 reviews for the rest of my life?
On the other hand, they are all really great reviews. And the next one could be that one bad one that I've been waiting for. I do worry about it. I often wonder if all those people who bought it and read it hated it so much they couldn't even bother to put a review up. Or if people who actually review the books they read are really that rare?
I watched a video put together by R.J. Keller and Kristen Tsetsi. (Paper Rats Studios - These gals rock!!) At the time, I laughed. Funny stuff. That's great. Later I realized, Damn, it's true. We do that! Why do we do that? Hell, I don't know. What I do know is that I have to force myself to stay away from Amazon for more than a day at a time. Otherwise, I'd be checking DTP and the review count every 5 minutes. Seriously. I'm obsessessed some days.
Do you realize how much writing I could get done if I put together all the time I wasted on Amazon? Pretty sure I'd have more than 2 books by now.
So next time you hear me complain about reviews, or sales, or anything else that requires me to get on Amazon to check on it, please just tell me to shut up and go write something! Thanks!

THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMM...

Steve Alten. If you know me at all, by now you know he is by far my favorite author. He has several books under his belt, all wonderfully written, best-selling books. Meg was the first one I read. I picked it up at a garage sale, thought it looked interested, paid the quarter for it and took it home and read it that night. I was hooked. I immediately went out and found more books by Steve. All of which I have loved. Which is my favorite? To be honest, I couldn't tell you. They are all equally wondeful.
So you would think, me being his number one fan, I would run right out and leave a wonderful review for every one of his books. You would think. I mean, I harp on all of you all the time to go leave me reviews, right? So I should be leaving them myself, right? You would think. So today I decided I need to head over and do just that. You know what I found? This author, this wonderful, best-selling author, who writes these fabulous books and has been approached for movie deals has 1 and 2 star reviews.
I know in the group of authors in which I occasionally mingle, we constantly tell each other that you can't please everyone. There is always going to be someone who hates your book, no matter how good it is. Get past it and move on. We preach it all the time. But it still hurts when you get that not-so-good review. So to see someone who I rank right up there with Stephen King and Peter Benchley get all those bad reviews (on top all those AWESOME reviews, mind you) really makes a small time author like me feel much better.
I value those wonderful reviews I've recieved. I've been lucky to get great ones so far. But I've been waiting for that first bad one. I know it's going to be a hard pill to swallow. But, I am NOT going to let that first bad one get me down. Because this just proves to me you can write the best book out there and somebody out there is still going to hate it. As long as the majority says "It's all good!" I'll let those bad ones slide. For my fellow authors out there, let the good outweigh the bad!

BLOODLINES AND OTHER STUFF

No, I haven't started Bloodlines yet. But I've been brainstorming quite a bit the past few days. I think after the holidays are over I will sit down and start on this one. (After I have reformatted the paperback version of Phantom Rising)
I will be taking it slow, for two reasons. I don't want to do what I did with the last one and scrap the whole thing. Multiple times. So I want to think the whole thing through, have a good solid plan, and get it right the first time. Also, I plan on working on my short story for the Red Adept contest. I've done a lot of brainstorming on that one too, and I think I have what I need to turn it into a short story.
I'm excited about both projects and can't wait to get to work on them. Oh, wait. I forgot about the Eridhborn project. Gotta work on that too. And I have to work on the poetry book. If I ever figure out where I put all of my paperwork. (don't ask) I should probably stop coming up with new projects to work on.
I'm hoping to have some of this stuff done in time for the Ren Fair in the spring. It would be great to have some extra books to take with me.
In other news, I'm hoping to meet one of my fellow authors at the beginning of the year. I'm planning a trip to SD, and it just happens that J.C. Phelps, author of Color Me Grey, lives only a couple hours from where I'm going. So we are hoping to meet up. I'm excited. Not only is it fun to meet the other authors who've helped me out so much, but it is a real treat to meet someone from my home state. Yes, I'm proud of my little state, and I miss it every day. If you've never been there, you should go. You won't regret it.

WINNER WINNER!

I won! Author Debi Faulkner had a contest to name the city in her upcoming novel, and I won the contest. The city in her new novel will be named Gemini Falls. I'm so excited. Check out her blog.

Fun Stuff coming up!

Reining In will be featured on Daily Cheap Reads in late December or early January. Phantom Rising will be featured on Kindle Boards mid December. I've been notified of a few other places each book will be showing up. I'm so excited. I can hardly wait!