Friday, April 27, 2007

Book Release

My inspirational short story releases today. It is called Love's Blessings and you can find it at By Grace Publishing

Previous to this I have not promoted my writing here at all. I write mostly romance and for some reason felt the need to shy away from that. But you know what? It's what I write and I'm getting published and I'm happy about that. Everyone has pre-conceived ideas and, as such, that's why I was nervous to talk about it. I'm a sucker for a good romantic comedy, whether on the screen or on the page. Suspense? I love it...add some romance I love it even more. Did I expect to write an inspirational story about a couple who love each other but have lost sight of what they're doing together? Nope. But it happens. It happens in real life all the time. The only thing is you don't often get Happily Ever Afters. In my stories/books you do. I can't plan life. Only God can do that. But in my writing I get to assume that only the very best will follow the end of the book. And there's nothing wrong with that.

The story that released today received its first review the other day and got 4.5 hearts out of 5. I was scared to even look at the review but it wasn't so bad. I know there can still be some bad ones but in the meantime I feel good that my first review for my first story was good. You can read all about this at my writing blog here. If you read this story you will see the ending is very similar to that of some people we all know. Strangely enough I wrote this story before I heard that news but nevertheless the similarities are there.

I intend to keep these two lives separate for the most part but since it is release day I thought I would let all of you know (all two of you that may still read this blog! LOL). I have another story under contract with Wild Rose Press. I don't have a release date for this one yet but I should find out soon.

I have a longer book under conditional contract (which means they want to seem some suggested changes before I get to actually sign on the dotted line) with another publisher. This publisher emailed me last night to see if I would want to be an editor with them so it looks like I'll have another hat to wear.

All of the above publishers are epublishers. Which is not to say they don't publish "real" books but that the books are available as ebooks. Ebooks are becoming very popular as people can read on their pda's, specialised ebook readers, laptops and more. I read a lot of books on my palm pilot. Yes, there is still nothing as wonderful as a good book in your hand but, as with music, there are always new formats and generally ebooks are cheaper. At $10+ for a new book that is something (and hey my short story is only $1.49 USD in ebook format!).

I am at a writing conference next weekend where I will pitch a romantic suspense to Harlequin. Yes, Harlequin. That's the next step for me because the most I've been able to write and finish is 40,000 words and I need at least 60,000 for them. Can I do it? I sure hope so. Would I like to be published with someone else in NYC. Of course, but I can't see that happening for a while. Writing 80,000+ words is very daunting and with three small kids, at least for me, I just don't seem to have the attention span or time. Some day, maybe. But for now I am happy to be doing what I'm doing. I won't get rich (heck I might not even be able to buy pizza) from my short stories but if people enjoy reading what I write then I am happy.

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