What’s Next?


This is sort of my overdue update/New Year’s resolution post. Although I haven’t really made concrete resolutions so much as general goals. I don’t like making specific resolutions because then I feel guilty when I don’t actually do them, lol. In particular, I want to share with you my plans for upcoming projects. Relapse doesn’t so much end in a major cliffhanger, but it definitely has some loose ends, so you may be wondering: What’s next for the Reborn series?

The short answer is: Er, I dunno…..

But that’s not entirely true. Hence, the longer answer:

I have lots of ideas for future books (yay!). Right now most of them are still jumbled up in my head, so I have to put them down into a plan/outline. I’ve known almost since I started writing Reborn where the series was headed, especially as far as Siobhan’s story is concerned. But I’ve since realized that I also want to focus on some of the other characters. For instance, I really want to go into Anna’s story in more depth. She may just get her own book, or at least be the principle POV in the next book. I also left things hanging with Carly at the end of Relapse, so I want to pick up her story again. Siobhan’s story obviously isn’t over, either–I’ve hinted that she has some special abilities compared to the other halflings, but we still don’t know why. Well, I know why. 😉

I just can’t decide how I want to split all of this up. I could alternate a few POVs within one book, like I did in Relapse, or I might write the third book about Siobhan and then a few novellas focusing on these other characters…and then maybe release a few things around the same time. I just really don’t know how I want to do it right now. My goal over the next few months or so is to get my notes organized and do some outlining to figure all of this out.

But I’m not allowed to write anything yet, haha. I have to concentrate all of that brain power/energy on finishing up what I need to in order to graduate first. I’m so close. Between school stuff and putting the finishing touches on Relapse and promoting it, I got kind of burned out at the end of last semester. For some reason, I didn’t think I would–I guess because the editing and marketing stuff, even though it’s work in one way, it’s also a lot of fun, at least for me. But by the time winter break rolled around, I was just…done, haha. I didn’t do or think about anything over break. I had two weeks off this time, which was nice.

By the way, the reason I’m not allowing myself to do the actual writing yet is because once I get into the zone, it’s hard to get out. I get really obsessed with it. I’m obsessed with this whole thing, anyway…it’s hard for me to resist doing at least something related to it, whether it’s updating notes or the Facebook page or whatever. I also have a growing pile of awesome books to read and review for fellow indie authors, which I’m starting to make a dent in. I think one of the best parts of this has been helping fellow writers with their projects and reading incredible books I might not otherwise have gotten the chance to read. It’s also forced me to read outside of my YA/NA/paranormal romance/urban fantasy comfort zone, which is good, too.

I seem to be rambling a lot, but haven’t actually recorded any goals yet. So, here we go:

1. Finish dissertation.

2. Find a big kid job.

3. Get caught up on reviews.

4. Continue to update book-related notes and do some serious outlining.

5. Solidify details of next project. And then tell all of you about it!

I guess my point is, there is definitely more to come from the Reborn series, so stay tuned. In the coming months, I’ll have a better idea of installments and release dates and announce those when I have it all figured out. Thanks for being with me at the beginning of this journey, and for your patience. 🙂 And please feel free to share your thoughts or questions in the comments.

*****

Relapse on Amazon.

Relapse on Goodreads.

Relapse Cover Reveal and Blog Hop!


reborncoverbigReveal day is finally here!!! I get to show you the GORGEOUS cover art for Relapse, designed by the magnificent Heidi Sieverding!!! And yes, that’s Siobhan on the cover…of course! Relapse (Book 2 in the Reborn series) releases Tuesday, December 2, 2014!!!!!!

Summary:

Jasper might be gone for good, but Siobhan can’t escape the memory of him.

Or, rather, Psyche’s memories of him—memories of a kinder, gentler man, not the one who lied and manipulated her. She should have tried harder to reach him—to save Jasper from the darkness consuming him. Guilt—maybe that’s the reason why she still sees his face everywhere she turns. That, or she’s going crazy.

And Siobhan really doesn’t have time to lose her mind. Her best friend is in love with their enemy and is addicted to an alien drug. The Alpha Rhos blame her sorority for their sister’s death and take their quest for vengeance too far. Desperate, the Gamma Lambda Phis call on the help of the most deceitful Olympian of all, making her a promise they’re not even sure they can keep.

Once again, Siobhan finds herself not knowing who she can turn to or who she can trust. She comes to realize that her greatest enemy is the darkness within herself.

Fun Fact #1: One of the major themes in Relapse is addiction, especially addiction to love (hence the title).

Stop by all of these amazing blogs to read all of the fun facts about Relapse!

Inside the Mind of a Fantasy Writer

What a Nerd Girl Says

Shehanne Moore–Smexy Historical Romance

The Light-Bearer Series by Emily Guido

Book Junky Girls

Moonlight Reader

Shayna Varadeaux Books

Beckstar Reviews

Echoes of the Pen

Book Worm Brandy

It’s That Time Again


It’s that time again…time for an update, that is!

Some of you may have caught the Facebook status update a few days ago, but just in case you didn’t…I finally finished my first completish draft of Relapse! Yay! There was a time when I was seriously nervous that this book was never going to happen. Getting over writing Part One was the biggest hump because it set everything else up. It was really hard for me to start writing past that until I was happy with it. But now, suddenly, it’s all out of me. I have a list of things to go back and tweak before I give it to my beta readers. Of course, nothing’s final yet…lots of editing will happen, I’m sure. But it just feels really awesome to have it out of my brain. It’s a lot closer to what I envisioned.

It’s also quite a bit longer than Reborn, which is about 230 pages. I thought that was a decent size for a debut novel, especially since you’re just getting to know the characters. Now that you realize you LOVE my characters (lol), you get to see even more of them. Right now Relapse is about 97K (yikes), which comes out to 300+ pages. Somehow I’ve managed to write so many pages of book and zero pages of dissertation. (Which I’m planning to start writing in August. I swear.) Priorities…..

Relapse has turned out to be pretty dark. So I’m a little nervous for all of the reviewers who were all “Oh, Reborn is such a cool, fun read! Yay!” That they’re going to read Relapse and be like…erm, well, this is dark/depressing. The ending in particular. It’s not a cliffhanger…there are loose ends in the book (because, if all keeps going well, I’m going to write even MORE books!), but it ties things up somewhat at the end since the next book is most likely going to focus on a different set of characters. Now, although I envision a happier ending for the series (because, come on, who doesn’t like those?), the ending of every book isn’t going to be puppies, unicorns and rainbows. Sorry, I’m rambling. Siobhan is going to fall, perhaps more than once, before she gets her happy ending. I guess I’m just curious as to how people feel about darker endings. It’s something I like exploring, especially since most YA/NA books these days seem to have happy-for-now or neat-and-tidy endings. Also, this book is full of most of my characters being very, very naughty (yes, even the ones you probably thought were good).

Some more bad news/good news: The bad news is, someone gets off-ed in Relapse. The good news is…it probably isn’t anyone you were getting horribly attached to (we’ll hope not).

Let’s see, what else can I ramble about? Hmmmmm…I think I’ve mentioned this before in other posts, but Relapse has two major first person POVs: Siobhan and Carly (one of Siobhan’s sorority sisters). This was something else I was worried about going into writing it because it seemed a little risky, and I wasn’t sure if I would end up liking it or not. That being said…I personally think it works really well. (We’ll see what my betas think.) Carly’s story branches off because she gets trapped in the clutches of another sort of dark, mysterious, mischievous character, who’s of course not all that he seems to be (yeah, I know, I’m obsessed, what can I say?). I think it’s a cool subplot because you get to see a little more of Olympus and its culture this way…a little more strictly fantasy, rather than fantasy mixed with modern times, like it is in Siobhan’s world.

Have I confused you yet?

Anyway, I’m getting super excited about Relapse, and I hope you are, too! I’ll try to post a teaser in the upcoming weeks. I think I’m still on track for a fall release date. I did not feel that way about a month ago, haha, but I’m definitely more confident now.

I thought I’d have more to write tonight, but I guess that’s it, so toodles for now! Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments…or comment with your favorite character from Reborn! Just because I’m curious…(And, ladies, pick someone BESIDES Jasper, lol.)

WIP Wednesday: June 18, 2014


I haven’t done an update post in a while, but I’m sick and bored today, so here we go! First off, Reborn is now available on Smashwords and a few other places! Yay! If you’ve read it and would like to leave a review, you can find it on Smashwords here and Barnes and Noble here.

As you might remember, the purpose of Work-In-Progress (WIP) Wednesdays is so I can set personal writing goals. It also serves as a way to let you all know what I’m working on. I hope you’ll join me and link back to your own or share in the comments!

To play, just fill in the following:

1. What are you currently writing?

2. Inspirations:

3. Plan for the upcoming week:

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1. What are you currently writing?

I’m still slowly but surely writing Relapse, the sequel to Reborn. Although I’ve made a lot of progress on it, I never seem to get as far with it as I think I will. I thought I’d have a complete draft done by the end of May, but that totally didn’t happen, haha. I think I keep misjudging because I’m learning as I go along, and it takes a long time to write a book. Also, this one is turning out to be longer than the first one, so there’s that.

That all being said…when I checked it out a few days ago, I realized (happily) that I had made a lot more progress on it than I thought! Right now it sits at about 61K! Which is awesome especially compared to the progress I’ve made on my dissertation! So hopefully I’ll have a complete draft for betas to look at soon, because I’m definitely getting to that point where I’m just like…I need someone besides me to read this…

2. Inspirations:

I discovered a new/old(?) group! And I really like this song, although it’s really sinister sounding (but I think that’s why I like it). Also, another warning, the video is kind of creepy…

3. Plan for the upcoming week:

I don’t really have a concrete plan except to just continue chugging along. I do have some book reviews I need to get caught up. I recently re-read The Forbidden Game by L.J. Smith and wanted to write a little bit about that, but I also have some books I need to read/review for fellow authors that I just haven’t gotten around to yet. 😦 So, sorry for being slow, but I’ll get caught up with that!

Update Time!


Below is the video update I posted to my Facebook page last night! It’s my first vlog, so don’t judge. 😉 I used my phone (in retrospect, I should have turned it the other way, horizontally, lol)…so it’s REALLY upclose and personal, ha! But give it a watch for some exciting news and updates about my WIP!

[One correction: Towards the beginning I say it’s Reborn’s half-month birthday…I meant half-birthday.]

 

 

My Interview on Freshly Booked


“As soon as Jasper and I go inside his apartment, his lips find mine again, and he picks me up and carries me to his bed with ease. He sits on the edge of it with me straddling him, rocking myself against his erection. Breathing hard, he reluctantly breaks our kiss to ask me, “Are you sure you want to do this?…”

Want to hear the rest of this steamy excerpt? Then tune in to my interview on the internet radio show Freshly Booked. And hopefully, I’ll be able to read it without giggling. 😉

Every Wednesday, authors Tricia Andersen and Heidi Sieverding interview newly published authors who have turned their dream of becoming published into reality. I’m super excited and honored to be their guest tomorrow at 8 pm CST/9 pm EST. We’ll talk writing, influences, inspiration, and about my debut novel, Reborn. If you have a question for us, you can call in: (917)889-8080.

In the meantime, give them a like on Facebook!

Reborn is Live, Will be Free…Tomorrow


Reborn is available for download to Amazon Kindle today! Right now it’s only $2.99, but tomorrow will be even better–it will be free! The free day was originally supposed to be today, but it wouldn’t let me select the same day it went live (today). But tomorrow (Wednesday November 6) it will be free ALL DAY! After 11:59 pm it will go back to its original price of $2.99. You can purchase it here. Also right now it’s enrolled in KDP Select, so it will only be available in digital form from Amazon until that enrollment period ends. A print version will be available on a date TBD.

I’m super excited!!!

P. S. Don’t forget to add it to your Goodreads feed. 😉

Reflections


Reborn goes live tomorrow! As I announced earlier, it will be available as a free Kindle download all day tomorrow. (If you don’t have a Kindle, I’m also giving away free pdf copies through tomorrow!) Actually, the link on Amazon will probably be live around 11 pm EST – before I go to bed, haha – and will be free through 11:59 pm November 5. After that it will be $2.99.

I haven’t really written anything substantial on the good ol’ blog for a while because I’ve been focusing, of course, on self-publishing Reborn. But I’ve been thinking a lot about how far I’ve come since I started writing Reborn a little over a year ago. I started out posting the earliest version of Reborn (then called The Fallen) chapter-by-chapter on this blog. As I’ve mentioned before, that wasn’t the best plan – it’s definitely come a long way since then. But I can’t completely regret it because I was able to lay the foundation for what Reborn would come. As far as writing advice goes, one thing I’ve heard over and over again is, when you’re trying to get back into writing, just writing something – no matter how crap-tastic it is. That first version was 33,000 words – not a full-length book, obviously. Now Reborn is just over 68K.

When I started writing it, I knew I wanted to do something with it – whether that would be getting an agent or self-publishing or whatever. I did give the traditional route a shot and queried a handful of agents a few months ago, but nothing stuck. Not that I really tried that hard, to be honest – I’m sure people send out tons of queries. Once I was done with the second (or third? fourth?) draft of Reborn, I decided that I was going to aim for self-publishing and to see that goal through. I know there are publishing companies now that don’t require an agent and will publish it for you on all of the e-book retailer sites – and that’s awesome. I know a few fellow writers who have gone down that path. Maybe I’ll give that a shot for th sequel, but for now, I’m happy with my decision.

I know there’s stigma to self-publishing, but I’m working hard to rise above that. I feel pretty lucky that I know a lot of smart people who were willing to help me with my book. It’s been beta-tested, edited, and copy-edited. For now, it feels nice to have control, haha! I also feel so incredibly lucky that my family and friends have been so supportive. It makes me so sad when I hear about writers that don’t feel supported by their friends and family. I can’t say enough how lucky I am.

Me on Halloween

So, what exactly do I hope to get out of all this? Well, writing/publishing a novel has always been my biggest dream – and now it’s becoming a reality. Maybe not exactly in the way I’d first envisioned it, but I’m making it happen. I sort of feel like I’m stepping into the great unknown. My friends and family will read it, and that’s awesome. I know not everyone will like the book – that’s an unreasonable expectation for anyone to have – but I hope I can find an audience who loves this book, and the series (more about that in a second). I love that feeling you get after you read a good book. How the world and the characters get under your skin, how you can’t stop thinking about it for days, weeks after you’ve read it. I hope Reborn can be that book for even a few people. And, eventually, I would like to make some money from writing fiction. I’m not talking blockbuster fiction and Hollywood movies – I really don’t know why that happens for some authors and not others, and really it kind of seems like a fad. (I think it’d be cooler for a series to end up as an HBO show.) But I would like to be able to make some money doing this because I love it.

Reborn isn’t the end of my writing journey. I have a sequel planned in my mind. It’s probably going to be called Relapse, and it’s probably going to come out around this time next year. I think it will take 3-4 books to tell Siobhan’s story, but I have ideas for books in the same world focusing on some of the other characters you first meet in Reborn. So really what was once a one-book project has exploded. And at some point I should probably write a dissertation. And get married and have babies.

Finally, Reborn has a Goodreads page! So if you are planning on reading it, you can add it to your shelf and leave a brief rating and/or review! (If you want to help an author out, ratings and reviews are probably the most helpful!)

Okay, so, I don’t really like Katy Perry that much, and it’s not like her videos need help getting views. BUT this song is a really good motivational song, so for today I leave you with the Roar video:

P. S. I just re-remembered that Thor 2 comes out Friday and am getting unreasonably excited. So the question of the night is: Thor or Loki? Don’t get me wrong – Chris Hemsworth is hot, but I’m kind of a Hiddlestoner. 😛

Reborn Releases November 5!!!


Reborn FINALI announced this on the Facebook page and Twitter last week, so this is the official blog announcement: My debut novel Reborn releases Tuesday, November 5, 2013!!!!! (Speaking of the Facebook page…I’m two away from 40 likes…a nice round number. So scroll down a bit and give it a like if you haven’t!) I’m super excited to share my baby (my baby being the book, of course) with my family, friends, and strangers on the Internet!!! I started this blog a little over a year ago to get back into creative writing, and I’m proud of myself for actually sticking with it and following through with a project! This post has a lot of exclamation points!!!

The Amazon Kindle edition of Reborn will be FREE on release day. The Smashwords and print versions will be released on dates TBD. For now, I leave you with the “back cover” book synopsis, updated book trailer, and Heidi Sieverding’s beautiful cover art. Like what you see? You can read an excerpt from Chapter One here.

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Back in high school, Siobhan Elliot’s life was simple: Cheerleading, friends, and parties. But that all changed the night she and her friends investigated a mysterious light in the woods. There they found an injured man –an irresistible man with hypnotic blue eyes and magnificent black wings. A man Siobhan recognized.

He was the handsome dark angel from her dreams.

And with one touch of his hand, he left her with a special gift: A set of mythical wings that would change her life forever. Then he disappeared without a trace. Siobhan thought she would never see him again.

Now, six years later, her dark angel reappears –this time as a teaching assistant at her college. He calls himself Jasper. He challenges everything Siobhan thought she knew about herself and her world. And he’s come back for only one thing:

Her.

Or so he says. Siobhan is about to find out that nothing is what it seems in this strange, new world.

***