New Distribution Sites

Hey blogger buddies! Super excited and had to share.

Just heard from my publisher that their books have been added to a couple more distribution sites. Bonus is, these two sites sell books at discounted prices. GROOVY! GROOVY!

Here are the new sites with links to the books, if you're interested.

Google Books (priced at $4.61)
Duty and Devotion
Revelations of Tomorrow (Telomere Trilogy #1)
Echoes of Regret (Telomere Trilogy #2)

Books on Board (ranging in price from $3.59 to $4.49)

Duty and Devotion
Revelations of Tomorrow (Telomere Trilogy #1)
Echoes of Regret (Telomere Trilogy #2)

Two people, too many secrets. Can love flourish?

Echoes of Regret. Book 2 of The Telomere Trilogy

Yay! My SFR eBook is now available from Desert Breeze Publishing!

BLURB
Fredrica Casales, relieved her participation as an undercover agent for the Imperial Guardians is over, strives to rebuild the trust she's lost with Captain Noah Bonney. But the terrorist plot was only the start of their journey. Now the Daring Star and Lady Victory crews must rescue the scientist who holds the Telomere cure before the very stability of the Galaxy unravels.

If that wasn't enough, Fredrica must work with her former Imperial contact, Jace McCree. As for Jace, he tries to keep a promise he made long ago, but as his sister grows sicker he's conflicted as to what decision he needs to make, and what to reveal. As they cross the Galaxy, battle rogue Watchers, and fight soul sucking space creatures, both Fredrica and Jace must come to terms with their regrets and decide whether to open their hearts. But fate has its own timeline, and not always at the convenient time.

EXCERPT
Jace's trepidation increased as Lady Victory detached from the port's docking bay with Jetta aboard. From the Imperial space station's sky-bridge he observed the Port Launch Unit maneuver the large, squid-like vessel out to open space. Three guiding shuttles worked in unison to push the huge vessel as if it were a marshmallow floating in water. Helpless and adrift at the moment, he was unsure what to do or how to act. From behind him his father, Scott McCree, growled.

"We shouldn't have let her leave, Jace."

Without looking back at him Jace said, "We shouldn't have kept it a secret so long, Father." He turned. "She should have been told when she came of age."

Scott reared on him and clamped his jaw. Jace cocked his chin, to face his father's wrath for what he knew to be the truth. Scott's anger flashed and then settled. He knew the truth himself. The blood rose and then drained out of his face.

"How was I supposed to tell her?" he muttered after moment, the pain clear in his expression.

Jace's memories flashed to the long ago day, barely out of childhood. "It doesn't matter the how. She should've known. Now who knows what will happen or how she'll take it when she finds out." He checked the time. "I have to board Daring Star. Will you be joining the journey?"

"No. It would seem too conspicuous to follow now. How would I explain it?" He touched Jace's upper arm and squeezed. "I'm sorry to have this fall on you. I pray it is not what we think. I will head out to their lands and try to find out what has provoked this change. I'll send you communications as soon as I discover anything."

"I'll protect her as best I can. I'll find a way to tell her when we land on Stratlin."

Purchase Links
Purchase Links
Amazon, All Romance, Sony Reader, and soon to be on B&N and Kobo

Monday! Monday!...Oh, Wait..Well Crappola

I admit it, the song was stuck in my head and wanted to use it, actual day of the week be damned. But, can't beat a Friday, so I won't be too hard on myself over my mismatched song choice.

Now that I've wondered off into AR La-La Distraction Land, I'll try to get back on topic. What was my topic?

Oh yeah, blog posts and coming releases.

It is my monthly visit to Sandra Sookoo's Seeing is Believing blog for Fun Friday. I'm over there being a mooshy mom, blabbing over my memory lane trip, and sharing a spider story. Stop by and visit if you have a moment. http://sandrasookoo.wordpress.com/

When my calendar alerted to the Fun Friday post it hit me (the date...not actual domestic abuse via laptop). My heart actually dropped and then stuttered. Defib anyone? Other than the Friday the 13th thing - which, believe me, is creepy enough people - I realized it's 2 days until my latest release.

Hear that? Shhhh, listen...yup, that sound is a tsunami of butterflies stampeding through my stomach.

And don't tell me butterflies don't stampede. I'm not in the mood for rational observations. Plus, the visual of butterflies with large feet is humorous and I'm enjoying it too much.

Argh! Time Constraints

Why, oh why can't there be several more hours in a day? 24 hours...seriously? And 6-8 of those we're sleeping, unless we're insomniacs. I often only sleep 4-5 hours myself, but not consistently enough to consider thinking I'm an official insomniac...it's just Mommiac. Depending on the number of kids the acute Mommiac symptoms can last 18-25 years and then to some lesser extent forever.

Any-who.

I've hit a fork in the road. I know which path I have to take -- due to deadlines -- but it's frustrating. I have to sit NaNoWriMo aside for a week or so for manuscript edits.

I received the last response from my friends and beta readers on November 2. They were awesome to take the time out of their own busy 24 hours to read through and give feedback. I always do a quick look-see at the responses and then set it all aside for about a week or so. This gives me time to mentally prepare for the changes that need to be made.

So, starting tomorrow I will be diving into the final edits for Echoes of Regret. This time will be a bit harder. I'm coming into this a changed woman. There are disabilities I'm still trying to recover from as a result of the brain surgery in April. This edit will help me determine the extent of recovery I will have to do, which in turn might affect my publishing goals for the next year.

But enough of that depressing bit.

There's not too many changes I need to make to Echoes of Regret. Mostly it's weird grammar mistakes my brain doesn't compute these days (using he/she intermittently as one example). There are some subplots and gaps in my antagonist storyline that I need to beef up. And then some facts/story points I took for granted and carried over from book 1, Revelations of Tomorrow, that I didn't clarify enough.

Oh, and I have to finish my cover art input sheet so Desert Breeze's groovy artist can make yet another fantastic cover. She does a really great job tying the look and feel of series and trilogies so I'm excited to see how Revelations of Tomorrow compares to Echoes of Regret.

I knew this would happen at the same time as NaNoWriMo and prepared for it. It still sucks, but it is what it is. I'll be picking up my NaNoWriMo and catching up during the week of Thanksgiving, which I have off.

So wish me luck folks. (Don't worry, I have band aids and antiseptic on hand in case Captain Noah Bonney gets pissed off at the changes I'm making.)

Truckin' Along

Engines are revved and I'm trying to keep up. Thought I'd pause to lay out my progress.

Duty and Devotion (D&D)
All the prep work is done with this one. It only has to release on the 15th. My blog tour kicks off this Friday at TK Toppins blog. Submissions to review sites are in...that'll take at least a month of waiting.

The Telomere Trilogy Book One: Revelations of Tomorrow
Just got word from my editor and she's begun reading through and marking it up. I should receive first round edits by end of week. It was a relief to find out it's the same editor as with my last book. I'm used to her editing style and she's refreshing and honest to work with...so yay!!! I probably won't see my cover art for a couple more months yet, it's still early. I'm curious because this trilogy has a very different feel than D&D.

The Telomere Trilogy Book Two: Echoes of Regret
I just finished my editing rounds with this one. I've tucked it away for a couple weeks before I start checking and cleaning up for DB house style.

Duty and Devotion Sequel: Lasting Bonds
First draft of this short story is completed. I fell in love with these sisters all over again and can't wait to release this for the holiday free reads. It's now put away for a week, to stew, before I pick it back up and tear through the revision and editing phase.

So, what should I work on now?

I've got a few things in the wings. I've got the third installment of the Telomere trilogy, Ending Eternity, to finish. I also still have my pet novella, Lilly's Journey, I want to finish drafting up.

Hmmm...what to do? What to do?

Enjoying the Details

The last two weeks I've been wading in the Revision/Editing Phase...more the Revision and not yet the pure editing. Part of me would like to say that I'm battling it out and struggling with creative restraints, or otherwise not enjoying what some can see as the "boring" part of the writing process. True, it can be boring. This is especially true the more you get to the Edit side.

But, there's a creative skill that happens in this part of it too. Imagine the clay artist. He takes his chunk of clay and molds it into the general form of his vision. This to me is the straight writing phase. Getting it on paper. The Revision phase puts the details in. The curves, the depth, and the texture. No, it may not be that free, open session...but it refines the vision in a way only your creative mind can do. It add your writing "signature" that can only be you. Anyone can dump a rough draft if they have enough time and interest to do so. It takes a true artist to emote something from the basic form.

So, I'm busy refining my mold. I'm taking the dragging scenes and parring them with my molding knife to be the reflective moment of the character to his/her surroundings and journey. I'm taking the 4 chapters of straight action and adding depth to showcase the character dynamics and emotions developing through the chase. I'm taking that heated scene and adding texture to allow the characters to fall in love and not just lust.

Now, I'm not claiming to be a Salvador Dali...but I think I can be a pretty successful Street Artist. We'll have to wait and see what you all think in June when the debut novel comes out.

Good writing (and refining) all!

Argh!

I've hit that familiar wall and soooo at the wrong time.

I've committed myself to NanoWriMo. I'm 10K from finishing...and I've hit my last scenes of Echoes of Regret. Since I'm a layering writer, this happens to me every time. I get to the end and cannot write it out until the other layers are put on. This wouldn't be such a problem, if I hadn't already started the manuscript (about 15K in). Now, if I were to start my layering fills, part of my NaNoWriMo word count would be in word count I did before NaNoWriMo began.

What to do? What to do? I could force the end, but I know it won't work. I've got too many already identified plot holes I know will affect the ending too significantly. I hate inefficiency and wasted effort.

I guess I could put on track changes and copy/paste into a side document at the end of each writing session. It's cumbersome, but I think the most plausible plan that fits my writing style.

...Ugh...

Good writing all!

When No Progress Equals Progress

Okay, I'm coming up for air and catching up with my blogging buds. Progress is going very well with Echoes of Regret...okay, not so much the writing. I hit a big snag and now put myself in a tough corner.

So how can I say progress is going well? Because -- for me anyways -- I think snags make for a better story in the end. Doubts creep in when I breeze through a story with few to no bumps. Did I challenge myself enough? Did I challenge my characters enough? Did I push the boundaries of my themes? Did I give the depth the story needed to match my vision?

With a few exceptions, my doubts are usually validated when I've reopened manuscripts where the stories just"flowed out" with no major glitches. I found the wrong answers to those questions. And, I have to reopen the manuscripts because those stories were never accepted for publication, because in the end, they just weren't good enough.

So progress on Echoes of Regret is going well because I'm using the tools of my writing trade to work through some big barriers, which in the end will hopefully give a truer result to my vision.

Good writing (and progress) all!

(OH! And I gave my first interview over at my publisher's blog, Desert Breeze Blog. It was a lot of fun answering the questions. Feel free to drop by and snoop me out over there!)

Annnd Its Hit

Oh boy has it! I usually go through some sort of new date sort of thing with my stories. Because Echoes of Regret is a continuation in The Telomere Trilogy I got a heads up. Unfortunately, the new characters were a bit shy and the POVs were heavily on the Book 1 characters. Then it hit.

Driving towards the grocery store for the rest of the birthday supplies and Freddy started nagging about her guilt. Damani started crabbin' about the changing ways of his calling. Piper, well, piped in about her distant and cold relationship with her mother. And Jace. Okay, Jace has been easy-going, busy worrying about his sister.

Argh!!!

They got very loud in my head all through the aisles. I kept having to look at my list to make sure I wasn't missing anything...having to backtrack twice to go back for stuff. I argued yet again with the self checkout due to my lapse in attention.

Finally getting home my characters were near anarchy as they found out I had to bake cakes first. Now, finally I'm on my laptop. The boys are watching they're chill out show. I've opened my manuscript.

"See that characters? Happy now?!"

Good writing all! (And if anyone has virtual duct tape for times like these, let me know.)

Gone and Done It

Well, I've gone and done it. I've signed up for my first NaNoWriMo.

The whole month of November will be dedicated to completing 50,000 words of Echoes of Regret. I will have to complete an average of 1,667 words a day to meet this goal, which is 8,333 a week. I'm used to writing 6,000 a week, so this will be a nice challenge.

I think I'll be fine. I've got my outline pretty fleshed out and my characters well developed. The only downfall will be the month itself. November is the start of our family's "birthday season", my favorite holiday (Thanksgiving), and Xmas shopping time.

Of course, I'm the one who wanted to become a published author. No matter what the month, I have to be able to focus my writing energies and creative outputs to create a manuscript in a reasonable time frame. This will be a great method to continue that career development.

Any of you participating in the NaNoWriMo? Any tips from you NaNoWriMo veterans?

Good writing all!