Category Archives: Publishing News

Chained by Darkness audio release today!

Tempting the Moon now available!

For those of you who missed it, Tempting the Moon is now out. Originally published in The Stroke of Midnight anthology in late 2013, it has since been revised (adding almost 2000 words to the story) and re-released on its own. With the new year here, it’s the perfect time to pick it up!

Journey back to when Melena was still separated from Lucas and struggling to find her way in the supernatural world. See what started the relationship between Emily and Hunter. At 12k words this might be one of the shorter installments in the series, but it’s a story that makes every moment count. Below is the summary and retailer links:

SUMMARY:

It’s New Year’s Eve and Melena Sanders is hoping she can survive the night without any more trouble in her life. But then her adopted teenage daughter, Emily, confesses to a prank gone wrong. Now her young werewolf admirer is caught in a trap on a full moon. Melena’s got to figure out fast how to rescue him without either of them getting bitten in the process. Of course, nothing ever goes quite how she plans…

It is now available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Germany
Amazon Australia
Amazon Canada

Barnes & Noble
Kobo
iTunes

Wishing everyone a happy new year!

Self-publishing and expectations…

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Recently I had a visitor to the website who asked several questions about my self-publishing experience. There wasn’t a good way to keep my responses short, though I tried at first. Instead I’m putting my answers in a regular post so that anyone else who is curious can read them as well. Here goes:

“Could you please talk about your experience?”

Publishing is a lot like riding a rollercoaster. Some days I’m on top of the world writing good stuff and hearing back from readers who enjoy my work. Thanks to all those awesome people who commented on my last post! Other days I might have trouble moving forward while working on a scene and/or catch some criticism of one of my books that makes me think I’m the most horrible writer in the world.

There are days I can’t imagine having any other job and that it’s the absolute best. Then I have days where I question why I released my stories for anyone else to read because, obviously, I completely suck. What was I thinking letting anyone see the crazy ideas that come into my head?

Writers have to be deeply in touch with their feelings in order to produce quality work. This is important, but can also make the whole experience more difficult from an emotional standpoint. If a reader is disappointed with your latest book you feel like you let them down though you honestly wrote it the way you believed it had to be written. I thank God for all my encouraging fans. They’re what has kept me releasing the next ones, though I’d probably never stop writing regardless.

“How you went about it. What was the process like? What pit falls did you encounter?”

For how I went about it, you must keep in mind I was writing for a few years before I published and that Darkness Haunts was not my first book. It was simply the first I thought worth sharing with the world. So when I made the big decision to publish I waited nearly a year from the time the first draft was completed before self-publishing it. I queried agents, entered it into ABNA (Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards), and also learned everything about publishing I could.

I researched cover artists, editors, ebook formatting, paperbacks, and a lot on marketing. Though I refused to change to a genre that might be more salable (people were saying urban fantasy was a dying genre), I did study my market so as to gauge my expectations. I also followed other authors and read about their experiences, soaking up every bit of information I could. At the end, I even changed the title to something more fitting and catchy than the original. It wasn’t Darkness Haunts until two months before I released it.

Continue reading →

Anthologies new and old…

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If you didn’t catch it before, the Christmas anthology is ready! A Very Paranormal Holiday is currently not available on retailers, but you can get a free copy of it by emailing me or leaving a comment below. Those who do so will be added to mailing lists of the participating authors so you can receive alerts for their new book releases.

With my 19k short story that is included, Facing the Darkness, you’ll see many familiar characters from the Sensor series. There are updates on what they’ve been up to since Darkness Clashes, a revelation on Cori’s background (the tattoo artist), a fight scene, and quite a bit of character development as Kerbasi learns an important Christmas lesson.

I’m also going to be re-releasing a New Year’s story later this month. For those of you who picked up and read The Stroke of Midnight anthology you will probably recall Tempting the Moon. It’s often referred to as Emily’s werewolf story, though it’s told from Melena’s perspective. The story was written between Chained by Darkness (book 2.5) and Darkness Divides (book 3). Maybe we could call it 3.7? That is while Lucas was still confined in Purgatory so you won’t see him in there, but you will see Micah and a few other familiar characters.

This particular anthology had a 10k word count limit on the stories included. I still went over by about five hundred words, but it always bothered me that I couldn’t expand on some scenes further due to the limit. Now that the anthology is being taken off retailers in a couple of days and I’m free to re-release Tempting the Moon on its own I’m fleshing some of those scenes out to make the story even better. I’ve also had an awesome cover designed for it and written a new summary:

SUMMARY: It’s New Year’s Eve and Melena Sanders is hoping she can survive the night without any more trouble in her life. But then her adopted teenage daughter, Emily, confesses to a prank gone wrong. Now her young werewolf admirer is caught in a trap on a full moon. Melena’s got to figure out fast how to rescue him without either of them getting bitten in the process. Of course, nothing ever goes quite how she plans…

For those who didn’t read this story, you missed the turning point in Emily and Hunter’s relationship. This is your opportunity to find out why Emily later gave him a chance. Plus see Melena get into more trouble.

As soon as the anthology is available on retailers I’ll post links here and send a message to my release alert subscribers. Those who have also signed up for the newsletter will be getting the first one at the end of this month with book release information and other publishing news.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Update on Christmas anthology

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I’ve had several people asking about the Christmas anthology. For those who don’t know, I’ll be participating with five other urban fantasy authors who are including short stories for the book. They will range from between 10-20k words each. You may recognize some of the names as they include Connie Suttle, Mark Henwick, Debra Dunbar, J.C. Mells, and J.T. Bock. Below is the cover and the summary for my story:

“Facing the Darkness”

Kerbasi, a former guardian of Purgatory, has resisted every effort to help him find his humanity. After forty-five hundred years of tending to his prisoners in the cruelest of ways he feels he’s above the petty concerns of mankind. But what’s he to do when he’s charged with bringing comfort to a boy sick with cancer during the holiday season? This is one child who just might break through that impervious wall he’s wrapped around his heart.

RELEASE DATE- December 20th, 2014

The anthology will be free for those who want it. There’s just one catch. To receive it you must agree to being added to all participating author’s book release alerts (your email won’t be used in any other way). If you later find you’re not interested in certain ones you will be able to unsubscribe from future mailings from them.

For those who have already signed up for my book release alerts, I’ll be sending a message out on December 20th letting you know the anthology is available and confirming whether or not you want it after reminding you of the catch. If you do, you’ll get the ebook file for the anthology right after that. Whether you’re on my list or not, you are welcome to email me early saying you’d like to get it and that you’re fine with the stipulation. In that case you’ll get the anthology first thing on the 20th. Just make sure to let me know what type of ereader you use so I can send you the correct format.

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A short Q&A with further details on the story for those who would like to know more about it:

1) Which POV will the story be told in?

Kerbasi’s

2) What other familiar characters will be in there?

Melena (of course), Lucas, Emily, Hunter, Cori, and Kariann

3) Will there be any action?

There is a brief fight scene. Maybe two, depending on if you’d count it or not (sorry, no hints on that).

Hope everyone in the U.S. had a great Thanksgiving. Looking forward to sharing this latest installment in the Sensor Series with you!