News
First thing’s first.
Happy new year! I hope this year brings everything to you that you want and a few surprises that aren’t unwelcome!
If you want to pick up “Sunfire” for free, you have a few more days before it goes back to its original price. I love offers like this, and usually it’s me doing the picking up, but here are a couple of links so you can download a free copy of the first Pure Wildfire book (it’s a self contained story, no cliffhangers!) then quick sharp, go here:
All Romance Ebooks - http://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html
Barnes and Noble – http://is.gd/DKTJKi
I’m not including the Kindle link, because it never seemed to go up on Amazon for free, but if you have a Kindle, you can download the Mobipocket version and it will go on the Kindle fine, if you sideload it or use Calibre, or you can download a different format (try to avoid pdf, because it doesn’t convert well) and use Calibre to convert and upload it.
People usually take stock at this time of year, and while I try to avoid it because after all, it’s just a date, there are a few things I have to do, like keep track of the many and diverse places where I have my books. And I do have two resolutions. To lose a little weight, which is a regular, especially before RT, and something I rarely achieve, and to have another go at the big publishers. I’d love to see my name on a historical from one of the big houses! I know they aren’t the powerhouses they used to be, and in 2011 I became a Harlequin author, through Carina, but I’m starting a new series and I’d love to get a new contract to go with it!
On that new series – with the Richard and Rose series coming to an end in 2012 (Lisbon has a release date in June), I’m thinking of starting a new series. It’s still set in my favourite historical decade, the 1750’s, but it’s about an entirely new set of people. They will have similarities to Richard and Rose, because people living in a certain era do have that similarity going, but with very different concerns.
And on that note, many, many thanks to the beta readers who I appealed for last month. Your help has been absolutely invaluable.
I do have yet another historical series in mind, one I’ve planned for a very long time and not had the time to write, because Richard and Rose, Secrets and the Triple Countess took up so much time, but I do plan to write it this year. It’s based a decade earlier than most of my books, and has Jacobites in it, but it’s a very different view. Where I live, Lancashire, was historically a Jacobite stronghold, so I’d be able to use some of my local history research in this series.
For other genres – yes, there’s lots going on there, as well. I have an upcoming book with a new to me publisher, Decadent, and the second Trust book is with my editor at Carina, so keep everything crossed! I’ve put a new STORM book through to my editor at Ellora’s Cave, and a new series idea, together with the first novella in a new rock band series, although this time the stories are non-paranormal. I tend to start with the dilemmas I want to tackle, and work out which genre it’s best suited to. So, although romantic suspense was a new genre to me last year, when I wrote Learning to Trust, I tried to enhance the trust issues by putting them in a romantic suspense context. If that makes sense. I also have the last two rewrites in the Department 57 series in preparation for Loose-Id, so after that, it’s all new books! The first book, Rubies of Fire, which is a heavy rewrite, to account for its new position in the series, is out in March.
Last year wasn’t stellar for me in terms of earnings, but if you’re a writer, you learn to ride with that. I’m extremely fortunate that I don’t have to rely on my writing earnings to eat, but I take the view that it’s a branch of the entertainment industry which is volatile at best. I did mean to do a bit more on the self publishing front, but I didn’t find the time.
You might like to read the column I wrote for The Good, The Bad and The Unread about my year of reading dangerously – trying to find a new historical romance author to love.
I found one! But that’s me as a reader, a voracious one, not a writer.
Oh, and I’ve been nominated for four awards! Two CAPAs from The Romance Studio, and two Love Romance awards. Here are the details in case you want to vote for me or any of the other great authors there:
I don’t often do the “vote for me” thing, because I figure you’ve done your bit by buying the books! But if you find yourself over there, and you’re at a loose end, feel free!
And the Richard and Rose series was named as Series of the Year from MizLoveLovesbooks, too. I’m so happy!
