A New Year... What the Heck?

Here we are, almost two weeks into 2012... and I'm just now putting up my first blog of the year. My goal (as always) to post more frequently, but we'll see how that goes. In the meantime, let me prove that I haven't been sitting around idly...

I spent the end of last year writing furiously on my fourth book: A Wild Goose Chase Christmas. I essentially had about three months to write it from scratch. You see...

Abingdon Press is launching a new series called Quilts of Love. A call was sent out for pitches. Basically, a one or two paragraph summary of what your book will be about. So I sent in mine, centered around a Wild Goose Chase pattern quilt. I didn't hold out much hope of being chosen, especially when I found out that over 100 pitches were received, and there were only 17 spots to be filled. Imagine my delight to receive the phone call from my agent saying that not only was my book chosen, but they wanted it to be the Christmas title. (At the time I pitched it, the title was Izzy and the Wild Goose Chase, and it was not set at Christmas time. But making that change proved easier than I thought, and really improved the story.) Since my book is set to release November 2012, I had to have it completely done by December 1st. So I wrote until my arms hurt... literally. Toward the end, my arms and wrists were sore before I even started my daily writing. But it was worth it. I love the finished novel, and am really excited about it.

2012 will be the first time I've had two books release in the same year. The Mother Road comes out April 1st, and the reaction from advance readers has been amazing. It's humbling when you realize that not only do people "get" your work, they enjoy it.

What else have I been doing... I still blog at Inkwell Inspirations. If you want to see what Christmas was like for me as a kid, you can check out my post, Thoughts of Christmases Past.

Of course, there have been lots of holiday-related things going on. And that basically catches us up. I hope the new year is off to a great start for you! See you (hopefully) soon  :)

Promotional Opportunities for Published Authors

 

A little over a month ago, I took over as the Las Vegas Christian Fiction Examiner on Examiner.com. The good people of Vegas (and beyond) need to know how much great Christian fiction is out there, and how cool all you authors are, and I aim to tell them.

 

But what if you don't write Christian fiction? Or what if you write non-fiction? Well, I'm the Las Vegas Writing Examiner, too. I'm also the Las Vegas Pop Culture Examiner. So there's a place somewhere for me to talk about your book!

I'm starting two new, ongoing features:

• Take 5 Interviews - Short interviews with authors. As the title indicates, just five questions. There will be no book giveaways attached to these, but I'll link to your website as well as that of your publisher, your blog, and anything else of interest to readers.
• The Story Behind the Story - Is there an interesting story behind the creation of your novel? Some event that sparked the initial idea? Something amazing you discovered during the research phase that turned the plot around? A fan response so touching that it changed you? I want to share those stories here. And if somehow, you have some Las Vegas connection, even better... but not at all necessary.

I'm extending this invitation to ALL published authors. Yes, oh self-pubbed ones, that means you, too. There's so much talk about self publishing and POD right now, readers will be interested in your input as well.

 

In addition to the above two features, I want to keep readers updated on industry news. If you have a publicist or marketing department contact who would like to put me on their Press Release mailing list, please pass on my email address.

 

If you have any questions or would like to participate, let me know.