Category: Writing

Release Day: Simply the Best!

And now … it’s live! The big boxed set of IDA winners is available for purchase. Buy early! Buy often! Well, for a limited time anyway. This set won’t be around forever. Plus, the long Memorial Day weekend is right around the corner. You might need something to read. Just saying.

Boxed set cover

Six Award Winning Romance Novels

One Incredible Collection

This collection of multi-genre romances features winning novels from the International Digital Awards, including historical, suspense/thriller, short historical, contemporary, paranormal, and young adult. Simply the Best of all worlds!

Available at:

Amazon  Barnes and Noble  iTunes  Kobo

Only 99 cents!

Learn more about the collection here.

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the cover reveal

So while I’m not quite doing A Story a Day in May, I am writing and finishing stories (more or less). This week, I ended up with three short stories, each a bit longer than typical flash fiction. I also have one in progress, which will go into this coming week’s total.

But I’m pleased with the challenge so far. I love reading and writing short stories and this has been a great way to experiment and try new things.

Also? I’m just a little bit distracted by the upcoming release of Simply the Best. Short stories make it far easier to get my regular writing in.

Writing Work:

  • Writing: ~ 5,200 words in three short stories
  • Craft work (reading, video lectures, etc.)
  • Promo for Simply the Best

Submissions:

  • Gretel and Hansel
  • The Bargain
  • The Life Expectancy of Fireflies

Rejections:

  • None

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

Simply the best front coverNo publications, but one coming very soon!

Keep your eyes open this week for Simply the Best! You can read more about the boxed set here and here.

Cover reveal: Simply the Best!

So … I’ve been keeping this quiet (ha, a pun) for a while now, but The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet is included in this fabulous boxed set of other winning novels from the International Digital Awards. Read on to learn more. Then click that pre-order button. 99 cents? How can you go wrong?

Boxed set cover

Six Award Winning Romance Novels

One Incredible Collection

This collection of multi-genre romances features winning novels from the International Digital Awards, including historical, suspense/thriller, short historical, contemporary, paranormal, and young adult. Simply the Best of all worlds!

Available at:

Amazon  Barnes and Noble  iTunes  Kobo

Only 99 cents!

 

Haunted by Death ~ Dale Mayer

Death haunts anthropologist Meg Pearce…

In her last summer before college, an innocent camping trip ended in a friend’s disappearance…and destroyed her life.

 

Angel’s Assassin ~ Laurel O’Donnell

When Damien enters Aurora’s life, tempting her with promises of dark passion and forbidden lust, he threatens to tear her peaceful world apart with shadowy secrets of his own.

 

Be Mine This Christmas Night ~ L. A. Sartor

At Christmas, finding love and a family seems even more possible…unless you’re keeping a secret.

 

A Hunter 4 Rescue ~ Cynthia Clement

Worlds Apart. Joined by Love

A unit of elite alien warriors, known as Hunters, crash lands on earth and their leader is torn between getting his men to safety or protecting the human woman he has bonded with.

 

The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet ~ Charity Tahmaseb

Sometimes staying silent is the biggest lie of all

No one expects the girl who has mastered the art of keeping quiet to join the speech team. But Jolia does. When a crush-worthy rival offers to coach her in secret, she can’t say no. But secrets have a price, and this one might cost Jolia everything.

 

The Mapmaker’s Wife ~ Kathy L Wheeler

In the midst of his worn-torn country, love posed the greater danger.

A flippant proposal and an attack on her person finds one young woman married to the mapmaker who only needs someone to take control of his ungovernable child. Feelings quickly shift into something less platonic and when the enemy gains vital secrets, her suspicions land her in jail.

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the animals

Tortoise

For the second weekend in a row, we’ve done something fun with my daughter’s Girl Scout troop. This time, instead of volunteering at a walk, we raised money and completed the walk. Her troop raised ~1,500 dollars for the Animal Humane Society and we had a blast at the walk.

We also met this gal. She’s a youngster, only twenty years old.

The only thing left to do is bridge the girls to senior scouts (!) and eat some cake. Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s going to involve cake.

In the writing world this week, I’m doing something to shake things up a bit. I’m following along with A Story a Day in May. This week, I ended up with six short stories. I took one day off to work on edits for a story that’s in a forthcoming anthology, but otherwise, I got it done.

Now, granted, one story was a drabble (exactly 100 words), but those can take more time than you might imagine. I ended up with two stories that involve dragons, one that features a succubus, a vignette, one told entirely in text messages, and one that can only be described as crazy.

It was a good week.

Writing Work:

  • Writing: ~ 5,000 words in six short stories
  • Craft work (reading, video lectures, etc.)

Submissions:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Rejections:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the falls

falls

I’m blogging a bit late today. I spent the morning here (see picture to the left). That’s Minnehaha Falls, and my daughter’s Girl Scout Troop volunteered this morning to help out with registration for the local MS Walk.

My job was to stand in the shelter doorway and direct people. Never has one person uttered the phrase, “Did you register online?” more than I have. My throat hurts, and I nearly lost my voice. Plus, since I’m an introvert, I’ve used my allotment of words for the month. Yes, I realized that it’s the first. Simply put, I won’t be speaking again until June.

In writing news, I not only wrote 6,400 words this week, but the first episode of season three is done! Plus, I sent out two stories as well.

And now I’m going to go take a nap.

Writing Work:

  • Writing: ~ 6,400 words, Coffee & Ghosts, Season Three, episode one. Done, at 31,00 words!

Submissions:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt
  • Knight in the Royal Arms

Rejections:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

Weekly writing check-in: the one with chicken fat and whipped cream

So last week I did a topic chat at Writers Village University about how to go about submitting short work to markets. And then I followed that up by not submitting anything at all this week. Well played, right?

But! I have a publication this week. Chicken Fat and Whipped Cream is up at Easy Street.

Other than those two rejections, I had a good week with +6,000 words in season three of Coffee & Ghosts. I’m closing in on the end of the first episode (at least, I think I am), although it still doesn’t have a ghostly title.

Other than feeling sad about Prince–we’re all sad here in Minnesota–it was a pretty productive week.

Writing Work:

  • Writing: ~ 6,600 words, Coffee & Ghosts, Season Three
  • Craft work
  • Topic chat

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • Gretel and Hansel
  • A Most Marvelous Pair of Boots

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

Chicken Fat and Whipped Cream over at Easy Street.

Weekly writing check-in: the one with spring (for real this time)

So, the weather did a complete turnaround from last week and we now have a pollen alert–which is obvious every time I step outside. We have leaves and blossoms and spring has pretty much sprung around here.

In other news, I wrote another 6,000 words this week. It’s a nice pace and I’m having fun with Season Three of Coffee & Ghosts. No submissions this week, but hey, I didn’t get any rejections either, so there’s that.

And, of course, the Season Two series bundle for Coffee & Ghosts is in the wild, in Kindle and print.

Not a bad way to start spring.

Writing Work:

  • Writing: ~ 6,000 words, Coffee & Ghosts, Season Three
  • Craft work
  • Topic chat

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • None

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

Coffee and Ghosts 2 Ebook coverIn case you missed it yesterday, Season Two of Coffee & Ghosts is now available as a series bundle. Yes, that’s right. All your coffee and ghosts in one place.

Available in Kindle and print. Read more about it in my post from yesterday.

Coffee & Ghosts: the complete second season now available!

It’s here! The season two series bundle.

Get your coffee and ghosts in one volume.

Coffee and Ghosts 2 Ebook cover

When Christmas brings both strangers and ghosts of the past to Springside, ghost-catcher and expert coffee-brewer Katy Lindstrom fears her new business, new relationship, and quiet hometown will never be the same.

She’s right.

The ghost of a jealous dead husband. A sexy siren of a spirit who has a claim on Malcolm. It will take more than some excellent Kona blend to permanently rid Springside of both the unwanted ghosts and the necromancers who brought them to town.

But Katy harbors a secret, the sort more than one necromancer is willing to kill for, and this time, the stakes are higher than she ever imagined.

This time, to keep Malcolm, Springside, and even the world safe, Katy must do the one thing she vowed never to do.

And once she does, there’s no turning back.

Coffee & Ghosts is a cozy paranormal mystery/romance serial told over multiple episodes. This series bundle contains all three novella-length episodes of Season Two, in Kindle and print.

Episode 1: Ghosts of Christmas Past
Episode 2: The Ghost That Got Away
Episode 3: The Wedding Ghost

Weekly writing check-in: the one with April (snow) showers

aprilsnowSo, snow showers this week. They’re promising seventy degree weather here in a few days. I think we can all agree that April is drunk.

Two rejections this week that I haven’t turned around yet. I will, eventually.

I spent some time working on some promotional stuff for a thing, which is as precise as I can be about it right now. All will be revealed soon.

But! I also got +6,000 words in this week on Coffee & Ghosts, and that was fun.

Writing Work:

  • Writing: ~ 6,538 words, Coffee & Ghosts, Season Three
  • Promo stuff
  • Craft work

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • The Perfect Canvas
  • Knight in the Royal Arms

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

Weekly writing check-in: the one with 90 free fantasy and science fiction books

So, I turned around three rejections into submissions this week, wrote some words on season three of Coffee & Ghosts, and messed around a bit with the formatting of the series bundle for season two.

And … that’s about it for the week. Except you should really check out the link below. There are some seriously good books up for grabs.

  • Writing: ~ 3,324 words
  • Print formatting for Coffee & Ghosts, Season 2 series bundle

Submissions:

  • A Most Marvelous Pair of Boots
  • Like Bread Loves Salt
  • Knight in the Royal Arms

Rejections:

  • A Most Marvelous Pair of Boots
  • Like Bread Loves Salt
  • Knight in the Royal Arms

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

None, but look at what you can download! More than 90 books in this giveaway. But hurry! The promotion ends today!

AprilSFFFB