Giving Thanks

I know, everyone's going to be doing Thanksgiving themed blog posts, but I'm really bad about updating so it gives me an excuse.

Here's an image of a homophobe getting a turkey dumped on her head from Home for the Holidays.  It's a funny movie, you should check it out.

Being an antisocial vegetarian, Thanksgiving has never been my favorite holiday (you could go so far as to say it's one of my least favorite holidays) but in the spirit of the season I would like to give thanks to my readers.  When I wrote Chance Assassin, I never imagined I'd actually publish it.  When I published it, I never imagined anyone would actually read it.  But from word of mouth alone (because let's face it, I'm worse at advertising than Frank and Vincent are at retirement...more on that later...) I was able to reach an audience.  For everyone who picked up a copy, wrote a review or gave a rating, told a friend, or just read it and kept it to themselves, thank you.  Thank you for your time, thank you for supporting me, and thank you for supporting self published authors.  I can't even begin to say how grateful I am to every single person who gave my book a chance.  No pun intended.  Honestly.  :)

Misery Loves...Family Flaws

Do you remember a time when vampires didn't sparkle?  Yeah, I do too.  Even though glittering in the sun took away some credibility (okay, okay, a TON of credibility...make that ALL credibility) at least it was something new in the vampire genre.  Ladies and gentlemen of the supernatural-loving variety, you are in for a bloody treat.
Family Flaws has got love and loss, vampires and demons, and enough twists and turns to make your head spin a la Linda Blair.  You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll hide under the bed with all the lights on.  And when the sun finally comes up and you think it's safe to venture out, you'll still be calling in to work with your best faux sick voice, so you can stay home and keep reading.  Under the bed.

Isn't it pretty?  Hewitt Photography strikes again

For the soldiers of SAINT, going to war is more than a struggle for land or power; it’s a fight between good and evil. Theirs is a life spent on the fringes of a society oblivious to the horrors of the darkness. With no family apart from their brothers and sisters borne of battle, their bonds are as indestructible as the blood ties they left behind.

On the night of the Ritz’ven Massacre, Peter Stone lost everything. The centuries-old spell should have granted the vampires in his Clan immunity from every weakness: sunlight, silver, and holy items. Instead it left him cursed to an eternity alone.

Aidan James has seen monsters. He was raised by one. Trying to survive is all he can manage for himself most days, but for the last of his family, for Cote, he cannot surrender. Little does he know, survival is about to get much more difficult for them both. And for everyone else around them.

Death is relative. Family is forever.

Family Flaws
 



Full disclosure, this is my sister's book.  However, even if we weren't related, I would still be raving about Family Flaws.  Growing up, she was always the writer in the family.  And for good reason.  I quite humbly bow down to her.  My book doesn't hold a tiny little half-melted tea candle to Family Flaws (and I don't just mean in length...this one is a bible, and every single page is delightful.)  If she wasn't my sister, I may have to save up my money and have her killed.

Outtakes!

I was on vacation in California last week, visiting my friends (and cover artists) Vita and Bryan Hewitt. Behold: Outtakes!

It's a nice reminder that work can occasionally be fun, especially since I'm back to work tomorrow.  Ugh.

30 Special

I know, I know, it's a .38 Special, but I'm not quite there yet.

I thought it would be a bit bigger...

It's my birthday next week.  You guessed it, I'm turning 29 (plus a year of experience.)  To celebrate, Chance Assassin will be $0.99 for the rest of the month of July.  You can pick up a copy at Amazon as well as Barnes and Noble.

Happy reading!

Author Interview

Writing is a process.  There's the initial inspiration, the hours spent at a computer (or if you write by hand, hours with a pencil before you even start typing it up), endless editing, formatting, and editing some more.  If you self-publish you don't have to wait for tons of rejection letters, but the one thing that all writers do have to consider, regardless of how they're published, is marketing.

I'm not good at marketing.  I'll be the first to admit it.  I'm not on many social media sites, I'm terrible at updating this blog, and I still have a hard time telling acquaintances that I write at all, much less what I write about.

But in this age of social media, I've been absolutely blessed by word of mouth from readers.  Through Goodreads I've been able to connect with people who love reading, and who are interested in my book.  Lisa T is a book reviewer who was kind enough to invite me to do an interview on her fabulous Attention is Arbitrary blog and help get word out.  You can read the full interview on her blog here.

A huge thanks again to Lisa and to everyone for reading, and if anyone visiting my blog hasn't joined Goodreads yet, I honestly can't recommend it enough.  You can connect with other readers (and writers) and get recommendations based on books you enjoy.

YES!

I am truly proud to be an American today.  What more can I say?  The Supreme Court made the right decision, the JUST decision on DOMA and Prop 8. 

The Fourth of July has never been my favorite holiday.  I hate the summer, and I'm not a fan of fireworks. But next week I'm going to celebrate the fuck out of Independence Day!  Happy Fourth everyone! 

Exclusivity

For those who aren't familiar with it, Amazon.com has a great program called KDP Select, where self-published authors can enroll their work in the Amazon lending library as well as give away copies for 5 days during the 90 day enrollment period.  Sounds great, right?  Yes, and no.  The main problem with KDP Select, is that in order to enroll you have to give exclusive rights to them for your ebook.  You can't sell your ebook anywhere else, and you can't even give it away outside of their site.

Amazon.com has their reasons for demanding exclusivity, and while I don't entirely agree with it, I have been extremely satisfied with them thus far.  That being said, I did not choose to re-enroll when the 90 day period ended.  I gave it a lot of thought, and I want to make it more widely available.  Starting today you can pick up a copy of Chance Assassin at Barnesandnoble.com.  You can also continue to buy it at Amazon.com, and the paperback version is still pending for those readers who prefer an old fashioned physical copy (myself included.)

Thanks again, and happy reading!