Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Have You Seen Her?

Some of us have talked recently about the opportunity to self-publish our books through Kindle and other e-reader services. I backed off because of the technical aspects involved. But one of my crit partners has taken the leap and pushed through the evil world of technology and...

I am excited to post the announcement for my crit partner's new Amazon Kindle release!





Have You Seen Her?
Chicki Brown, author







If she’d stayed any longer, her husband would have killed her.

Frantic to escape his drug-induced brutality, socialite Marcia Hadley escapes Santa Barbara and flees to Atlantic City. She’s sold everything she owns, rents a seedy inner city apartment and attempts to disappear as Dani Reynolds, cocktail waitress at Frenzy, a neighborhood nightclub.

Taylor Villanova, the club’s sexy multi-racial bouncer recognizes her naiveté and volunteers to teach her about surviving in the “hood.” Fearful and suspicious of men, Dani is at first repelled by his violent profession yet drawn to the compassionate nature that contradicts Taylor’s macho persona. But when her well-laid plans go awry, and Dani discovers someone is following her, she must put her complete trust in Taylor. Her time is running out.

Buy now at Amazon! Have You Seen Her?

Don't have a Kindle? You can download apps for free at Amazon! Here's the link I used for my PC and I LOVE it! Get yours here.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Just saying...


I suck at grammar.

There, I admit it. For someone who LOVES to read, and LOVES to write, I hate punctuation. I've had to use voice recognition software since my RA has flared in my hands and there's nothing like trying to think about the correct puncuation needed to make a girl feel like an idiot.

And to top it off my teen man/child walked in on me when I was "writing" a particularly spicy scene. Lovely. It was hard enough letting my mom read my manuscripts, but the kids are a whole different story. My hubby encourages the spicier tones and keeps offering to help with research. Big surprise.

I'm off to get the coffee brewing and get started working. I'm working on my synopsis and plan to get it polished today so I can move on to the partial.

Have you ever been embarrassed about showing your stories to family/friends? Whether it was your writing or what you're reading?

Friday, June 25, 2010

Moving on up...

Yup. I heard from Mr. Editor and he says the series proposal was very well conceived and particularly liked the first two stories. Woohoo!! He has requested the synopsis and three chapters from the first book. He answered my revision questions and I'll have to go unplugged to get the partial ready.

I just wanted to check-in with you guys to see how everyone was enjoying summer so far?! Anyone with exciting news or wanting to vent?

Monday, June 14, 2010

The Next Step


One foot in front of the other. Unless you're like me and often tangle the feet and trip. Well...I did it, guys. Even though I was sure I'd bombed with my rambling explanation when the editor asked "The Question".

"What is your book about?"

Que the crickets...

"Ummmm...well, you see, there's this guy..."

*sigh* I didn't totally suck though, the kind hearted gentleman took pity on my poor self and requested a proposal for all four books in my series. Done. I sent that in last week. Now the waiting game. He'd asked for a change in the subplot so we'll see if it's acceptable or not when...if he responds to my email. LOL. The next step will be a two page synopsis for the first book. My current synopsis is five pages so I'm working on shaving it down and revising the subplot.

But this entire situation brings about a question. What is the next step? I've been writing seriously toward publication for almost three years now. I've had several obstacles between trying to find time to write and health issues, to becoming frustrated and backing off from writing until I couldn't ignore the voices. I'm confident enough to believe I've improved and reached another level in my journey, but not arrogant enough to ignore the fact that there are so many more talented authors out there than me. I know I still have so much more to learn and improve on.

What is the next step? Is it time to start working on my multi-tasking skills and building a marketing platform? I'd love to stick my head in a hole and concentrate on revising and just hanging out with my characters.

When and how do you start building your marketing?

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Pre-conference jitters...

WOW! Has it really been almost a month since I've blogged?! I promise I didn't disappear off the face of the earth. LOL. We've just had some major chaos going on down here in Oklahoma. And remember me griping about winter? I take it all back. We went from occasional 70's to high 90's. And my RA/Lupus did not go into hibernation with the warm weather. What a rip off! ;)

Good news...maybe? I was having a bad time of it last week, so hubby found a local job and doesn't have to travel anymore. But even with him helping out more, the housework/cooking thing seems to have increased tenfold. *sigh* Guess it's time to pull out more recipes. Especially with summer and the hubster being the grillmaster, I'll just center most of the meals around the grill...less cooking for me. Wahoo!

I really wished you guys lived closer so you could pop by our OKRWA mini-conference. We have Charles Greimsman, HQN and Silhouette Desire, and agent Lucienne Diver coming in for a 3 hour presentation and taking pitches. We'll have a meet and greet social at Merline Lovelace's house Friday night with the editor and agent. And Saturdays schedule includes a continental breakfast, workshops presented by Merline Lovelace and Margaret Daley, lunch and time set aside for pitches.

And even though it's not my first rodeo, I'm still nervous. Ugh. But at least I'm prepared and nailed down which story I'll pitch. Now if I can get the family to stop hovering and let me write!

What do you think...

August Carter’s dream has been the same every night for over a week: a child’s dirty, blood-crusted hand reaching for her, his pleading whispers for help digging into her heart. August knows a child will die if she doesn’t find him, but she’ll have to trust the one man who destroyed her heart, her family, and her life.

Sheriff Levi Colbert has never believed in superstitions but he can’t ignore his dreams, especially the one of a young, desperate woman begging for his help to find her missing family. He’ll risk everything when the beautiful dark-eyed August shows up claiming to have had a dream, and the life of another child depends on his investigative skills. Sparks will fly as August and Levi battle not only time, but each other, to find the child before the dreams stop.