Looking Back at 2016

With the end of the year fast approaching, it seems like a good time to sit back and reflect on what I’ve accomplished so far. Here we go.

I kicked off the year by releasing Taking a Risk, the third book in my Taking on Love series, in January. Taking a Risk also added another milestone to my accomplishments as it was the first male/male romance novel that I’d ever written. I have to admit, I was a little nervous about how my readers would feel about a gay romance novel, but you all came through with flying colors. The book was as well received as the others in the series. The fourth book, Taking Another Shot, came out just a few months later to cap off the Taking on Love series.

In between the release of the third and fourth Taking on Love books, I released the ten year anniversary edition of Letters from Linc. This book came with added content as well as a new cover. It’s hard to believe that the first edition, which was also the first novel I published, came out ten years ago. Letters from Linc holds a special place in my heart both for its subject matter and the fact that it launched my writing career.

After finishing up the Taking on Love series, I moved on to the Kinkaid Brothers trilogy. This is actually a spinoff of the Taking on Love series. All five Kinkaid brothers made their first appearance in Taking a Risk, and they were so much fun to write that I decided to give the guys their own books. Austin Kinkaid was up first with my novel Change Up which came out in September.

Heading for Home, the second Kinkaid brothers novel, was planned for release this year. As you’re aware, that didn’t come to pass, but don’t worry. I haven’t forgotten about Reese, Marc and Max. In fact, I’ve already finished the first draft of Heading for Home.

It was a trip to Sapphire Falls that delayed the release of Heading for Home. When best-selling author Erin Nicholas invited me to write a Sapphire Falls Kindle World novella to be released in October, I jumped at the chance. I love all of Erin’s books and I was honored to share my Sapphire Falls story with her amazing readers. I knew when I accepted that I would be pushing back the Kinkaid Brothers, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be a part of the Sapphire Falls world. My novella, Going for Wilder, joined several others that came out in October.

There you have it. It’s been a fun year for my writing career, and I’m already looking forward to 2017.

This Writer's Holiday Wish List

Christmas is coming. Even though it falls on the same day every year, I have to admit that it snuck up on me this year. I’m not mentally prepared for the holiday, which means I don’t have an answer to the question of what I want for Christmas. While I can’t give my family a list of gifts they can either run out and buy or order online, I do have some things that would make this writer’s holiday merry and bright.

The one thing I want, no matter what time of year, is to be a best-selling author. That’s not something I can give to myself. I need all of you to help me make that dream come true. All you have to do is buy my books. All of them are under $5.00. I even have a few that are still priced at ninety-nine cents. That’s a pretty inexpensive gift that any writer would love.

Buying my books in general is a pretty awesome gift. I love it when people buy my books and not because I make money. Yes, it’s nice to make money, but you know what’s even better? Someone is paying me to do something I love, something I used to do for free! That in and of itself is a humbling gift.

If you have already bought my books and have done your part to make me a best seller, don’t despair. You can still give me an amazing gift. All you have to do is write a review of my book on Amazon. It doesn’t have to be a long review. A few kind words expressing your love of the book will be more than enough to get the job done. The more reviews a book gets on Amazon, the more it will be promoted by the retail giant, and I can use more promotion.

For those you who just can’t bring yourself to write a review, it would still mean a lot if you reached out to me to let me know how much you liked one of my books. You could accomplish that in any number of ways. Along with social media, there’s good old fashioned e-mail. Believe it or not, those contacts mean a great deal to me.

Speaking of social media, I would be ecstatic if I could get some more of you to follow me on Twitter and Instagram and like my Facebook author page. And when you do that, it would be great if you could like and share my photos and posts. Same goes for Twitter. I would love to see more favorites and retweets. I need all of you to help me spread the word.

Even better than liking and sharing what I post would be seeing you take the initiative to spread the word about me on your social media. I’m not just an author. I’m a reader. When I like a book, when a favorite author releases a new book, I take to my social media to share my feelings. Often, my fellow authors reply with their thanks. As a reader, that makes my day. If that happened to me as a writer, if someone was just so excited about my book that they shared it on social media, I would be on cloud nine.

As you can see, it doesn’t take much to make this writer’s holiday magical. That being said, whether I get these gifts or not, I owe you a debt of gratitude. Being one of my readers is a precious gift. It wasn’t that long ago, I was the only one reading my work.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Time to Say Thanks

Thanksgiving is this week. In fact, it's tomorrow. It's time for family, food and football. It's also a good time to let all of you know, from a writer's perspective, what I'm thankful for.

First, and most important, I'm thankful for my family. I spend a lot of time and money in pursuit of my writing, and they never complain. They're very supportive, and my husband takes that support to the extreme. The man is my web designer, cover artist and computer technician. He's even been known to proofread my romance novels. Now, that's some serious support!

I'm thankful for the readers. All of you who buy my books and take the time to review them mean more to me than I can say. Without you, I have no one to write for. It always makes my day when you reach out to me to tell me how much you've enjoyed my stories and ask for more. I hope you'll always feel that way.

I'm thankful for my fellow writers. Many of you make me a better writer. Some of you do it by sharing ideas with me. Some of you do it by inviting me to take part in your projects. Those of you I don't know make me a better writer by giving me such amazing stories to read. Most writers love to read. It's what motivated us to write in the first place and reading a great story from a fellow writer is often the best inspiration.

I'm thankful for all of you who follow me on social media. Those of you who read my blog, check out my pictures on Instagram and read my tweets give me a way to share my work with the rest of the world. When you like my photos or tweets or my Facebook page, you share it with others.

I'm thankful I'm still inspired to write every day. It's been almost eleven years since Letters from Linc was released. Since then, I've written a lot of books that all of you have embraced and there are still plenty more to go.

I'm thankful to get paid to do something I love. I went to the bank today to cash a royalty check, and I was giddy. Someone paid me to write. I got paid to do something that I used to do for free, and that's a feeling I will never tire of.

Finally, I'm thankful and excited for the upcoming year. There's going to be a lot going on with my writing in 2017, and I can't wait to share it with all of you. Until then, enjoy your turkey with your friends and family!

I Took a Trip to Sapphire Falls...And I liked It!

Earlier this year, best-selling contemporary romance author Erin Nicholas reached out to me to invite me to write a novella as part of her Sapphire Falls Kindle World release taking place in October of this year. Naturally, I said yes. I’m a huge Erin Nicholas fan, and I was (and still am) honored that she would allow me to be part of an amazing group of authors releasing books last month.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Sapphire Falls series, here is a description directly from Erin’s website: Sapphire Falls is the fictitious little town in Nebraska where the bestselling contemporary romance series, Sapphire Falls, takes place. Where people fall in love fast… and forever!

As soon as I accepted Erin’s offer, I was so excited that I immediately started a story and character outline. A day later, I met with my graphic artist who created the perfect cover for me within just a few days. Then I was off and running.

Many of you may not know this, but I started working on my Sapphire Falls novella in April. I threw everything I had into my novella, Going for Wilder. Erin Nicholas has a loyal and supportive fan base who loves Sapphire Falls as much as she does, and I didn’t want to let them down.

In the weeks leading up to the release of our Kindle World novellas, Erin and her team began to coordinate an online release party that would allow each of us an opportunity to showcase our book and meet her audience. Each of us also spent a lot of time on our social media accounts promoting our books as well as each other’s.

Finally, after months of waiting, the day of the release dawned and the excitement was running high. Since I have a day job, I was given a later time slot for the book release, which I decided to take full advantage of. Before my turn was up, I watched other authors interacting with fans so that I could see how it was done. When my time finally came up, it surpassed my expectations. I connected with some great readers and saw an increase in my social media followers. And, best of all, this book ranked higher in sales on its release than any of my other books to date.

I can’t say thank you enough to Erin Nicholas for having faith in me and for introducing me to her wonderful group of readers. I took a trip to Sapphire Falls, and I liked it so much that I will happily do it again.

The Great Book Cover Debate

Ask any book marketing expert what the key to good book sales is and they will tell you it’s having an eye catching cover. Of course, it goes without saying that the first thing you need is to have a well written book. The cover and the title are what draw potential readers to your book so both had better be top notch.

Last week, I happened on a discussion amongst authors on Twitter. Many of them were in an uproar over the fact that the cover of a fellow author’s upcoming book was virtually identical to that of an author whose book was already published. These people were blaming the second author for “ripping off” the first author, and it got me to thinking.

Cover art has changed a lot since I picked up my first book back in the 80’s. For a long time, book covers were hand drawn, which meant the chances of those covers being copied were pretty slim. From there, covers progressed to photographs of live models. Again, it was unlikely these photos would be duplicated as the photographers owned the copyrights to the photos and the publishers or authors usually handpicked the models.

In the last several years, there’s been a new trend in cover art, and it’s my opinion this is what’s causing the problem with multiple titles having the same cover. There are a number of websites that anyone can join that contain stock photos. As a member of these sites, you are entitled to download and license a specific number of photos each month to use any way you choose.

I’ve belonged to one of these sites for nearly two years. My cover artist uses photos I choose from the site to create my book covers. In an effort to minimize duplication, I try to take different photos and have him layer them together which also allows for more originality in the cover. 

I can always tell when my peers belong to the same website when I see photos I think of as mine being used by other authors. The problem is the photos aren’t mine. These websites don’t remove a photo once an author has licensed it. The same photo can be licensed as many times as the website wants by as many people as they want to license it to. With that policy in play, you can see where it’s difficult to have a unique cover for your book.

Why don’t authors and publishers hire photographers or artists to create their cover images? Simple, it all comes down to money. It costs me $120 a year to be a member of the stock photo website and I can license and download up to 10 photos per month. What I don’t use rolls over to the next month, but I can always pay an additional $1 per photo if I happen to need more pictures than my download amount allows.

While I would love, and I mean love, to hire models to pose for pictures I can use on my book covers, I am an independent author. Right now, I don’t make enough to afford that kind of luxury and neither do many of my peers. We make do with what we have. So, please, keep that in mind the next time you want to bash an author because you think she “stole” someone else’s cover. 

Kindle Worlds Here I Come

By now, most of you have already heard about the next book I have coming out.  For the last couple of months, I’d been hinting about something special coming up that I couldn’t reveal until I got the green light.

On 9/9/16, I made the announcement on my Facebook author page. My next book, Going for Wilder, is a Kindle World novella, and I can’t tell you how excited I am.

For those of you that don’t know, Kindle Worlds are defined as follows by Amazon: Kindle Worlds is a publication platform where you choose a licensed World, read the Content Guidelines for that World, write your story, upload that story, create a cover, and click through a publishing agreement with Amazon Publishing. Once published, every Kindle Worlds story will be featured on Amazon.com, as well as on Kindle devices and apps. 

Most authors create their own worlds, and the stories published in that world are often written by them. Some authors have been generous enough to open their worlds to other authors. In doing so, the authors that created that world allow their peers to write stories using their settings and even allow their characters to make an appearance in the guest author’s story.  I’m writing in one such world.

Going for Wilder is part of the Sapphire Falls Kindle World which was created by N.Y. Times, USA Today and Amazon best-selling author, Erin Nicholas. It features a group of characters born and raised in the small town of Sapphire Falls, Nebraska. There are a few transplants, but they’re welcomed to the fold with open arms. Erin’s contemporary, erotic romance novels were well written and such a big hit with fans that she thought it might be fun to bring other authors into the mix. I was one of the lucky authors she asked to participate.

I can’t tell you how honored I am. When Erin first reached out to me, I was so excited by the invitation I scared my husband with the loud squeal I let out. Even though I didn’t hesitate to say yes, I will admit that I have some reservations. I consider myself a decent writer, but I don’t know that I’m in Erin’s league. There’s a reason she has such a loyal and large fan base. Not only am I afraid of letting her down, but I fear disappointing her fans.

Despite my reservations, I’m going for it. I’m throwing my hat in the ring with a group of immensely talented authors. On October 18, 2016, my Sapphire Falls Kindle World novella, Going for Wilder, will appear alongside everyone else’s, and I can’t wait.

By the way, if you haven’t read an Erin Nicholas novel, and you like your contemporary romance with a lot of heat, then you don’t know what you're missing. You need to start reading Erin’s books today.

Where Have I Been?

You may have noticed that it’s been a while since I posted a new blog. You may also have noticed that my Twitter and Instagram accounts have been silent while my Facebook posts have been few and far between. If you have, I’m sure you’re wondering where I am.

Some of you already know the answer to that question.

Recently, I was diagnosed with having sludge in my gall bladder. Until I received the diagnosis, I’d never heard of such a thing, but it’s real. There is no treatment beyond having surgery to remove the gall bladder. Either that or live with the constant front to back pain and the inability to eat the foods I love.

I opted for surgery and was a little surprised when I learned I’d need two weeks to recover. The few people I know who have had their gall bladders removed told me they bounced back in a week. I expected to do the same. I honestly thought I’d spend the first few days feeling bad because of the surgery and then I’d get better each day. I expected that by week two, I’d be bored and would either be begging to go back to work or would spend the rest of my time off working on my second book in the Kinkaid Brothers trilogy.

I did spend a few days after surgery feeling bad, but the rest was far from what was expected. When my appetite returned, it was a fraction of what it was before. I suppose that’s lucky for me considering that eating was a risk. There were some days I would eat and within an hour I would be doubled over with stomach cramps and then become violently ill. Some days, I was just sick all day. In the two weeks since the surgery, I’ve had only one or two days that I did not get sick after eating one of my meals. Considering I’ve been eating a very bland, low fat diet, this is pretty disappointing.

Speed bumps in my recovery aside, I can say I have been getting better every day.  At least I’m getting hungry now. That didn’t happen for a few days. And I am obviously out of bed and have been in front of my computer a few times. I’ve even made it back to my regular day job.

I was down, but I’m never out. My social media accounts will be coming back to life with exciting news of my writing and announcements of fun giveaways among other things. Be sure you stay tuned!