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Wednesday Writers: Quincy J Allen

Today I’m welcoming Quincy J Allen!

It was literally a bright sunny morning on July 15th, 2009, when my career in Information Technology came to an end. It was accompanied by the requisite screeching tires, crushing metal, and burning fuel. Picture a ’75 Lincoln full of gasoline cans driving full-tilt-boogie straight into a concrete overpass support, and you’ll get the idea.
I got laid off from a QA Manager position of five years—a position that had paid pretty well, I don’t mind saying. I’d even known it was coming months ahead of time—my boss and I had that kind of relationship—but even as they slid a severance check and a piece of paper listing stock options and a mountain of unused vacation time across the table, I didn’t have the slightest idea what I was going to do next. 
Seventeen years in IT had chewed me up and spat me out.
So, paper in hand, I went home to an empty house where months before events had conspired to make me a “separated” person rather than a married one. Okay, it wasn’t events, it was me and the ex (who is still a very good friend of mine) conspiring to grow up and discovering we made better friends than spouses.
You know that cliché about sitting in an empty house listening to a clock tick?
It’s not a cliché.
I actually did that.
I believe it’s the ticking that helps one think. There’s something about being perfectly conscious of time passing that grants better clarity when looking inward. It’s like a spotlight… or a magnifying glass… or even a laser cutting through all the bullshit straight to your soul. Yeah, that’s the one… a laser burning everything away until you’re left with a naked self, a pale child screaming in the darkness, curled up into a ball on a cold floor. 
Did I mention why I got into IT? I didn’t want to be a starving artist for the rest of my life. Well, someone else didn’t want me to be a starving for artist the rest of my life, and no, it wasn’t my ex. This goes way back. 
So, there I sat, the clock ticking, a screaming child surrounded by darkness fixed solely in the center of my mind’s eye, and then something happened that I didn’t expect. The child went silent. It slowly rose from the ground and looked straight back at me. It gave me one resolute nod, turned, and walked into the darkness of uncertainty.
You see, I’d been miserable for seventeen years, day in and day out—grinding someone else’s wheat as I like to say—and in the time it takes for a piece of paper to slide across a table, it all changed. I understand now that it was catharsis… it was freedom… it was self-discovery and so much more. 
Five days later, I started writing Chemical Burn, a light sci-fi detective noir where an alien ex-government assassin turns private detective in L.A. 
I had six months of life left in the severance, stock options, and back vacation time. After that, I’d be broke, bankrupt, and—at the very best—scraping by. What I realized as that child disappeared into the shadows was that I’m a writer. I’ve always been a writer. I will die a writer, and if I die starving, I’ll at least die happy. Two months and 144,000 words after that, I had my first novel. That novel placed in the Colorado Gold Fiction contest the following year.
Who I had been and who I was becoming were two entirely different people. One could argue that my career had contributed to my divorce, but I realize now that it was always me… pretending to be someone I’m not. The dissolution of that marriage was merely a manifestation of the dissolution of a mask I’d worn for far too long. I can also say that I was fortunate to have been involved with a partner who understood, and forgave, and who to this day still has my back… and vice versa. 
That was five years ago.
I can’t say it’s been easy. I’ve been paycheck to paycheck working a part-time job whilst producing anthologies and cranking out short stories and wrapping up a handful of novels. I got to cons. I work my ass off every day, sometimes twelve and fourteen hours in front of the computer doing “the next project.” I still don’t have health insurance, and the notion of savings is a goal, not a reality. But I can honestly say that every second, from that sunny July morning to now, has been fulfilling. 
I’ve been happy… truly, deeply, fundamentally… perhaps for the first time since I was a child.
I even have a tribe now, a group of writers who look at the world with eyes similar to my own. I express my creativity on a daily basis. I make things—stories and places and people—and I put them out there in hopes that at least some small part of the world might enjoy them… might derive at least a few moments of escape from grinding someone else’s wheat.
And after five years, I have a fair amount to show for my labors. 
On the 11th of June… today, in fact… I’m officially releasing Penny Dread Tales IV, the fourth annual installment of steampunk short stories from all over the world. Those four volumes were good enough to get a publisher interested in producing a “Best of Penny Dread.” That’s a big deal.
Additionally (and also today) 7DS Books is releasing a collection of my own short stories in a volume entitled Out Through the Attic. I bill myself as a cross-genre author, and this collection is a reflection of that. It’s got short stories from a number of different publications as well as a few previously unpublished ones, and it includes sci-fi, steampunk, fantasy, horror, and paranormal.
Twisted Core Press asked me to write them a novel, so I’m working on a military sci-fi story full of powered armor and mental abilities that should be out by late summer or early fall. 
Chemical Burn—that first novel I mentioned—has been picked up by WordFire Press, and they’re interested in my steampunk novel Jake Lasater: Blood Curse. 
All the hard work… all the uncertainty… every moment wondering if I’d simply lost my mind five years ago… it’s starting to bear fruit. I can only hope that the next five years are as fulfilling as the past five have been, and that along the way I can entertain more and more people with this wild compulsion to put words on a page.
If you’re interested, you can always find me at www.quincyallen.com or on FaceBook at facebook.com/Quincy.Allen.Author, doing what I do.
I hope to see you soon, and here’s to the future: chasing dreams and dying happy.

What’s with all the weird names?

How many times have you read a book with names you have no clue how to pronounce, so you find yourself renaming characters and places in your head? 

I’ve done this plenty of times, in some of my favorite series, even. 

All of the words in my lovely picture to the left contains names of people or places from real books, many of which I have read, few of which I can actually pronounce. I have read too many The Legend of Drizzt Series books to accurately remember a specific count, but I will always pronounce his name as “Drits” because even in my head, I can’t pronounce “Drizz-it” without stumbling over it every single time. Even though I now know how to pronounce Hermione from the Harry Potter Series, my mom pronounced it as “Her-me-O-nee” through four books and it occasionally still creeps into my head when I see the name. 
I was recently asked “What’s with all the weird names?” in regards to my Twin Souls Saga books, which got me to thinking about names created for fictional characters and places. For my series and plenty of others, the names used come from real places or people.The tough to pronounce names in Twin Souls are actual Native American names I chose to use in order to accurately retell myths or create an atmosphere that fit the Pueblo storyline. The same goes for names like Bageera in The Jungle Book, Thénardiers from Les Misérables, and many other names in historical fiction. 
Other names, I have to admit, really don’t need to be that complicated. I couldn’t pronounce half the city or title names in Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time Series, and I’d rather just say “Dream World” instead of Tel’aran’rhiod. Even though names like Tel ‘aran ‘rhiod certainly help to create a completely unique world, authors need to realize that readers are going to go with whatever they can pronounce easiest. 
If you’re fine with that, then by all means, create those kinds of names all you want. If you don’t want readers changing things up, strive for unique without being impossible to pronounce. Even though I have no clue how Al ‘cair ‘rahienallen is supposed to be pronounced, Robert Jordan did a great job with making many of the character names easy, yet unique by changing a common name like “Matthew” to “Matrim.” (Who, by the way is my favorite character from the series.)
There’s a fine balance between unique and pushing readers to rename your carefully chosen names for characters, places, and objects. I knew many of the traditional words in my Twin Souls Saga would be tough to pronounce and readers may end up coming up with easier to handle names. I’m okay with that, because the other option was changing names that are honored by many Native American cultures, and that wasn’t something I wanted to do. So, even though authors are famous for agonizing over names, there’s more to consider than just what a name means and whether it has the right connotation. 
What characters or places have you renamed while reading? 

Wednesday Writers: The Kickoff! (DelSheree Gladden)

Welcome to the Wednesday Writers Series! 

I’m very excited to kick off this new adventure, but before I get to my main post, I wanted to explain a little about the series. 

The fabulous Gina Larson also made this logo for the series!

My lovely friend and aspiring writer, Gina Larson, sent me a link to an author’s profile that read more like a character out of an erotic novel than a profile. It got me to thinking. How often to readers actually get to know something real about authors they enjoy? This series will stray from the pat author bios “So and so was born in …” and stay away from unrealistic portrayals. We want to know the person behind the words, why they write, what they care about, and who they really are. So I’m here to kick off the series. I hope you all enjoy getting to know more about some amazing established and up-and-coming authors!

~*~
One question that authors get asked more than almost any other is, “Why do you write?” Let’s face it, writing isn’t easy. It takes a lot of hard work. There is tons of rejection. Literally, tons. It can take years and years to ever get noticed or feel like you’ve accomplished something. There are easier hobbies to indulge. So why do it? Ask most any writer, and I guarantee there’s an answer deeper than what you were expecting. 
So what is my reason? 
At first, it may sound like what a lot of writers might say. I was a ridiculously shy kid. Answering questions in elementary school gave my anxiety attacks. I didn’t speak unless I absolutely had to. As I got older I grew out of some of my shyness, but certainly not all of it. I loved reading and could spend hours upon hours getting lost in someone else’s world. Like I said, this may sound like what dozens of other writers might say. My shyness and love of reading are part of why I starting writing, but not all of it. The reason behind my bottomed out self-confidence was the biggest reason. 
My dad and I have always been close, but I knew from a young age that it was different with my mom. I honestly can’t tell you why she despised me so much, but I knew without a doubt that she didn’t like me. It showed in the way she treated me on a daily basis. She told me constantly that I was jealous of my siblings and that was why any fight that broke out between me and my little brother or sister was my fault. If I wanted to participate in an activity outside the home that required her to drive me somewhere, she made sure I knew what an inconvenience it was. There were times when I would ask for something for a birthday or Christmas and she would get it for my sister instead. I rarely received anything from her without there being a hidden cost. Everything took a back seat to what she wanted. 
My mother was like this to all my siblings on some level, but I certainly seemed to take the brunt of it. She was unstable and manipulative, and caused a lot of hurt to our family before eventually leaving. My mother and I no longer speak, because she was not a good influence on me or my children. I don’t want to harp on my mom, because I hope one day she realizes her mistakes and lives a better life. I am sharing this with you because I know many kids grow up with emotionally abusive people in their lives, and I understand how damaging that can be. It changes your perception of yourself. It changes what you think you are capable of. It can determine how your life turns out if you let it. 
I was lucky to have had a few wonderful friends like Amy Brimhall and Melissa Caston who were always supportive and reminded me of my worth. They kept me from giving in to the belief that I was undeserving of others attention. They were the ones to help me realize that my potential had nothing to do with what my mom thought of me. 
So, aside from loving the written word and feeling more comfortable expressing my thoughts on paper than in any other form, I write because I want to share something with my readers. It doesn’t matter what situation you were born into, stumble into, or are forced into. No one else is allowed to determine your self-worth or your potential. There are times when you may not be able to get away from the kind of people who want to tear you down, but there are always others who will do everything they can to build you up. Seek them out. Sometimes you have to be that person for yourself, and then when you’re able, be that person for someone else. 

Thank you for taking the time to stop by the kick off of Wednesday Writers. I hope you to come back every Wednesday to meet a new author and get a glimpse of the person behind the words. 

And because writers are shameless self-promoters, here’s where you can find my books. If you want to connect on social media, just search “DelSheree” and you’ll find me. I’m pretty sure I’m the only one!

Double standard in romance?

How many romance novels have you read where the attraction was instant? 

How any times was it the woman who fell head over heels withing the first ten pages? How many times was it the guy who fell first? 

I’m going to make an educated guess based on my own reading and say, by far, its much more common for the female lead to get gooey-eyed over the debonair man she stumbled into while the guy remains aloof or even just a little bit antagonistic. 
Why? 
Is it realistic that only women feel that kind of instant attraction, or at least an instant interest in members of the opposite sex? Hardly. If we’re talking about falling in lust, let’s be honest. It’s pretty equal for men and women to see someone attractive and stare just for a minute and maybe imagine what if… 
Let’s get back to love, though, or at the very least, genuine romantic interest. Why is it perfectly acceptable for women for fall at first sight, but less so for men? Where did this double standard come from? Guys can be struck by that twitchy feeling that they just can’t help wanting to get to know a women they met just as easily as a woman can. It doesn’t even have to be that they ran into a supermodel at the grocery store. It could simply be someone who had an intriguing smile, or did something unexpected. What if the woman is simply not what they were expecting? 
Now, I know I’m fairly new to the world of romance novels, as my very first contemporary romance was just released last month, and I know there are a good deal of expectations and rules about HEA (happily ever after) and HFN (happy for now) endings and such, but I’ve always been the kind of writer who likes to bend the rules a bit. 
I don’t like writing based on a set formula. If my books have a happy ending, it’s not because I set out to write an HEA, but because that was where the characters took me. Not all my characters get their happily ever after. I’m not afraid to kill people off when I need to, and I’m not going to hold back a character’s interest in someone because it doesn’t follow the norm. 
In Date Shark, Eli doesn’t instantly fall in love with Leila, but he is intrigued by her right from the start. He wants to get to know her because she’s different. She catches his attention. When Eli spends his days piecing back together broken couples and trying his best to help socially crippled women, a woman who is sweet and charming and a little bit perplexing is going to stand out. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that she’s pretty, but there’s more to Leila than meets the eye and Eli wants to find out what that is. 
So, my question is, does it put readers off when an author breaks from the status quot? Or does a fresh twist keep them reading? Is it a different answer in romance than in other genres? 

Whohoo! Ten Reviews!

Trying to market Date Shark has been a challenge since I’m used to targeting teens, but Date Shark has made it up to 10 review (yeah!!!) and I felt like that deserved a preview from book 2 (for which I still haven’t come up with a title for yet). 

This scene was inspired by all the awesome readers who shared their worst date stories 🙂 

Oh and please excuse the French… literally… I haven’t had it checked for syntax errors yet. I will be calling on Liilia soon. 

~*~
Again, the thought crossed his mind that this was all Sabine’s fault. Eli had been set up with Lewis to take over the remaining Date Shark clients already on the schedule until he met Sabine. Guy knew his sister was très magnifique. She was a European fashion model, after all. Could she not tone it down on occasion? Like when it might end up dragging her brother into being Chicago’s newest, not-so-willing Date Shark? 
“The client’s issue is what?” Guy asked. 
Hedging, Eli said, “Why don’t you just wait and see?” 
Fantastique, Guy thought. That bad? He settled back in his chair and sighed. Drinks had been ordered, and appetizers were being contemplated by the time a commotion at the front desk brought the maître ‘d with the terrible French accent tripping in her six inch heels to cut off a woman carrying the largest purse Guy had ever seen. 
“Mr. Walsh, Mr., uh, Guy,” she said, apparently not wanting to make a second attempt at his last name. 
“Your third guest arrived. I tried to tell her …” 
Standing slowly, Eli tried not to let his embarrassment show, but Guy knew him too well to be deceived. He faced the frazzled maître ‘d and said, “It’s okay, Lauren. I’ll handle it from here.” 
“But, but she …” 
“I already spoke to Conrad about it.” 
Lauren’s shoulders dropped and her hands flapped against her body once, defeated. She simply turned and walked away after that. Guy was tempted to do the same. What did the purse hold? Should he be concerné?
“Deliah,” Eli said politely, “thank you for coming, though I believe we already had a discussion about the insects.” 
Insectes? Guy thought, his stomach turning involuntarily. He could not be serious, nes pas? Surely she did not … Oh, but she did. Guy watched with a strange mix of horror and fascination as Deliah carefully began pulling variously sized boxes out of her bag and setting them on the table. The tarantula wasn’t so bad, but the hundreds of meal worms wriggling against each other and the giant black and red centipede thing had both Guy and Eli squirming and scooting away from the table. 
“I know what you said, Mr. Walsh, but how could I leave them at home? Mortimer escaped and tried to eat everything the last time I left them alone,” Deliah said as if that excuse made it acceptable to bring a possible infestation to a restaurant. 
“Mortimer? Qui est-ce?” Guy asked, barely managing to get out the words without gagging. 
“Mortimer,” Deliah said, “is my python.” 
She looked at him expectantly. Guy wasn’t sure if she was waiting on him for a response of some kind, or confirmation that she wasn’t a complete maniaque, but there was no chance of either from Guy. This woman was clearly crazy. How did Eli expect to fix her? 
“Deliah, why don’t you take a look at the menu?” Eli said, more calm than he was a few minutes prior. “The waitress will be returning to take our orders shortly.” 
“Oh! Of course,” she said, “I just had one more …” 
Guy and Eli weren’t the only ones to jump back in surprise when Deliah pulled out a caged bee the size of her palm. 
“Bordel de merde!” Guy exclaimed at the sight of it. Even in a cage, the thing had Guy scrambling out of his chair. “What is that?” 
“A Japanese giant hornet,” Deliah explained happily. 
She seemed completely oblivious to Guy’s discomfort and Eli’s head in his hands. She held the cage closer to Guy and it took everything he had not to bat it out of her hand. Only the fear of the lid springing off when it hit the ground and coming after him kept him from lashing out. That and the fact that he was très allergique to bees and preferred not to end the night in the Emergency Room. 
Holding his tongue was not so easy, though. “Put that …”
“Deliah,” Eli interrupted before another round of French curse words spilled out of Guy’s mouth. “We have already discussed how your insect collection might make other people uncomfortable. Guy has a severe allergy to bees, and whether or not that translates to Japanese giant hornets, he is not comfortable having it thrust in his face.” 
For a moment, Deliah just stood there, holding the trapped monstrosity out in front of Guy. Her brows scrunched together, possibly trying to figure out why her repulsive bug collection would upset anyone. Eventually, she shrugged and sat the plastic cage down on the side of the table furthest from Guy. She managed to find her seat shortly after. Both she and Eli moved on from the incident as if nothing had even happened. Guy supposed that in Deliah’s twisted mind, nothing had. Eli was simply a better actor than he. 
“Sauve-moi,” Guy muttered under his breath. He knew no one was going to save him, though. Not this time. Sabine was going to pay for this. 
~*~

I hope you had fun with this! Feel free to comment with any other interesting date stories you might have 🙂 I hoping to have this one ready for publication in early fall, so keep checking back for updates!

We are visual creatures…and so is Social Media!

People who know me know how much I struggle with marketing, but it’s a necessary part of being an author, so I’ve been learning more about it. One aspect I’ve come to realize is how import is the visual aspect of marketing is. Take the picture to the side. It grabs your attention more than the title alone, right? 

Now, I’m not talking about book covers. We all know how important having a professional, eye-catching book cover is. Let’s take that concept and apply it to our marketing efforts. 

Pintrest/Blogs

Many of us are addicted to Pintrest. 70 Million of us, in fact. Pintrest is a digital scrapbook/pin board where you can store your favorite websites. It’s come to replace my bookmarks in my browser because it’s easier to organize and navigate. 
What to consider when marketing: 
Put pictures in your blog posts! If your blog post doesn’t have pictures, readers can’t pin it to their boards. 
Don’t use your book cover as your only graphic. Spice it up. You should be pinning your posts and book promotions onto your Pintrest boards as well. If it’s just your book cover over and over again, it’s tough to differentiate the links, and it’s boring. 
Vertical Images are best on Pintrest. The boards are arranged in vertical rows, so your pins will display better if there made to fit the layout. 

Twitter

Twitter now allows you to post pictures along with your tweets. You can’t schedule a picture post, however, so make sure you’re popping in every once in a while to post your pictures, and not just relying on scheduled posts through TweetDeck or Hootesuite. 
What to consider when marketing: 
Twitter recently changed the homepage layout, making it more important that pictures posted post on Twitter are rectangular. They should be about a 2:4 ratio with the long side being the the horizontal side. 
Tweets with pictures get significantly more retweets and clickthroughs. I’ve seen a range of percentages reported from 3x to 10x. Either way, it pays to use pictures on Twitter. 

Facebook

Posting pictures on Facebook is nothing new, but it is a newer feature that you can post pictures in comments. Use that to your advantage if someone asks for book suggestions, etc. 
What to consider when marketing: 
Remember, posts that include a picture get more “Likes,” “Shares,” and clickthroughs. Formatting pictures for Facebook is similar to Twitter. They should be rectangular in shape so the preview doesn’t get distorted. Readers may miss something important!
Now, if you’re like me and devote some time to posting promotional links for your books on Facebook groups meant for that purpose, don’t just post the link and let it show a preview of your book cover. If you let Facebook choose your preview, the models on your cover might get their heads chopped off, like what happens when I post a link for Date Shark. Control what readers see by creating an image to share that contains all the pertinent info for your promo in the right format. 

Instagram

I don’t use Instagram…yet. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually. What I do know is that it only posts square images. 
What to consider when marketing: 
This one’s pretty simple. Make some square images that contain info about your book/promo. 

What if I’m not artistic?

For those authors who aren’t particularly artistic, and don’t have artistic friends or funds to have them created, have no fear! There are some great, easy to use sites like Canva.com and Picmonkey. 
Canva even has templates ready-made for all the different social media sites, which is pretty awesome! 
Picmonkey also has lots of stock photos you can incorporate into your designs. 
If you are artistic, but don’t want to shell out money for Photoshop, download a copy of GIMP. It’s free and can do pretty much whatever a graphic artist needs. 

Free Books Anyone?

We’re coming up on summer, let’s get to reading! 

I’ll be sharing my official summer reading list recommendations in the next few weeks (There are some awesome books on it!), but until then, you’re more than welcome to grab one of these FREEBIES and share them with your friends. All of them. Seriously. 

Not sure where to get them? 
Well, here are the links!

Invisible

(working on Kindle, they’re slow. Right now it’s only .99)

Inquest

Escaping Fate

Wattpad (full book will be up this month)

Wicked Hunger

Twin Souls

Happy reading everyone!

New book, giveaway, and romance!

Want a chance to win a copy of my new book, Date Shark? 

Limitless Publishing thought you might 😉 

So, here’s your chance! First check out a sneak peek at Eli and Leila’s story, not to mention the beautiful cover art, then scroll down and enter the giveaway on the Rafflecopt widget. 
Last step…share the giveaway with your friends!
Blurb

Life as the marketing director for a popular fashion boutique is overwhelming for Leila Sparrow, to say the least.
She’s not sure what ever possessed her to add revamping her dating life to her already hectic schedule. Calling in renowned Date Shark, Eli Walsh seemed like a good idea until she actually met with him…
Date Shark was only meant to be a side-enterprise to his thriving couple’s therapy practice, but Eli Walsh knows it’s become more of an obsession.
At least, it was until he agreed to take on Leila. Somehow she has stolen his entire focus. He wants to admit his fascination with her and growing romantic interest, but he knows coming on too strong will scare her away.
His plan to convince her that she is worth any man’s interest by first being her friend is challenged when his tips start to pay off and Leila begins dating Luke.
Will his friendship with Leila mean the end to any romantic pursuit?

Excerpt
Despite the fact that Eli held his arm out for Leila to take again like they were some kind of fairytale couple, she started forward without him. Pierce was there to open the door for her. Leila gave him a polite goodbye, careful to watch the inclined entrance as she left. The city air outside the restaurant was undoubtedly filled with pollution and ick, but she breathed it in anyway. She had such high hopes for tonight. All she wanted to do now was climb into bed and pretend she didn’t have to meet with Eli the next day. 
“Where did you park?” Eli asked. 
He was smart to guess Leila hadn’t used the valet. She had never been to a restaurant that had a valet, so she hadn’t been sure how it worked. Every once in a while Leila thought ahead and prevented herself from doing something stupid. “I’m three blocks down. I couldn’t find a space near the restaurant.” 
“North or south?” 
“Um, south,” she said, glancing that direction then back at Eli. It must have rained while they were inside. Leila wasn’t too worried about her shoes, but she worried Eli’s monkstrap dress shoes and tailored slacks might not survive the trek. The crisp April air made the dampness even more profound. “Look, Eli, you’re sweet to offer to walk me to my car, but I know you have better things to do. You don’t need to feel obligated since …” 
“Since this isn’t a real date?” he finished. 
Leila nodded.
“Real date or not,” Eli said, placing her hand on his arm, “I have no intention of letting a young woman walk three city blocks at night all alone. Lead the way, Leila.” 
He was really only offering because his sense of chivalry was several notches higher than the majority of the male gender, but Leila still found herself smiling at his kindness. She clutched onto his arm a little more tightly and started forward. The three blocks passed quickly, but without incident. Leila was sure it was the nicest part of the whole night. 
When they reached her car, Eli said, “Are you still all right meeting for lunch tomorrow?” 
“Yes,” she said after a moment’s hesitation. 
“Good. I will see you tomorrow at The Fifth Street Café. Twelve o’clock.” 
“I’ll be there,” Leila said, even though she would rather be just about anywhere else. 
Smiling as though he knew exactly what she was thinking, Eli opened the car door for her. Before she could get in Eli stopped her. His hand resting lightly on her shoulder made Leila’s tense muscles bunch up even more. “Hey,” he said, “relax. Go home and do something just for you. You should feel good, proud of yourself.” 
“Why?” Had they been on different fake dates tonight? 
“Because if nothing else, you just survived a night with the most notorious date shark in the city.” 
“Notorious, huh? Nothing about you strikes me as notorious.” Debonair, maybe. Handsome and generally fabulous. 
Eli laughed. “Goodnight, Leila Sparro.” Then he did something completely unexpected. He kissed Leila’s cheek and walked away. 
Leila slid into her car and touched her cheek. He must do that for everyone, she thought, but her skin seemed to pulse where he had kissed her. The only thing that broke up her amazement was Eli’s comment about tonight. She hadn’t survived the most notorious date shark in the city yet. Tomorrow she would get to hear about all the ways she screwed up. There was no way she was surviving that. 

Psst, if you’re one of those people who never win anything (like me), you can grab DATE SHARK for 0.99 right now on Kindle!! Hurry, I have no idea how long the sale will last 🙂

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Luck 13?

This spring has been a marathon of book releases!

Last fall, my original spring book-related plans involved releasing Intangible (Aerling Series #2) and Soul Stone (Escaping Fate #2).

Two books, that’s not to bad, so how did it turn into releasing FIVE books within four months? 

It started with the fact that the publisher I was signed with at the time was not holding up their end of the bargain and I was very unhappy with them. I ended up breaking contract and taking Wicked Hunger back. I wasn’t looking for another publisher (I was pretty done with that by then), but my friend Leah recommended Clean Teen Publishing to me. Now, Leah always has the best ideas, so naturally, I listened.

At the same time, another friend and fellow author, the talented Apryl Baker, recommended her publisher, Limitless Publishing, to me for Invisible, which was doing really well on Wattpad then and now.

So, I decided to test them both out. I sent a query for Wicked Hunger to CTP and one for Invisible to Limitless. CTP got back right away and absolutely loved Wicked Hunger and wanted the whole series. They were so put together and excited, I decided to risk what could possibly be another bad publishing experience, and signed the series with them. I am absolutely thrilled that I did because they have been amazing, and that added two more books to my spring release schedule, since Wicked Power was nearly finished at the time.

Limitless had been inundated with queries at the time I submitted, since the only rarely open up for
submissions, and by the time they got to Invisible they had already closed YA submissions. But… they still read the book, liked my writing, and asked if I had a contemporary romance. As it so happened, I did! I sent them Date Shark, which was scary because NO ONE else had read it (I don’t recommend this), but they loved it and offered me a contract for a three book series. I was thrilled, and it added one more book to the spring schedule, topping it off at 5.

This spring has been incredibly hectic having released two indie books and three traditionally published books, but I wouldn’t trade the craziness for anything. I now have 13 published books, all of which I am so thrilled to share with my readers. Wicked Hunger and Wicked Power are doing awesome thanks to the tireless hard work of the CTP team, and Date Shark just hit the digital and regular shelves. I consider myself so amazing blessed to have found two publishers willing to get behind me and my books, even when I’m up late at night finishing edits or writing blog tour posts or sharing links on every Facebook group known to man. I also have some of the most amazing fans who share my books with anyone who will listen and never lose their enthusiasm.

If you want to see what all the craziness has been about, you can find my new releases here: 

Wicked Hunger (FREEBIE)

Soul Stone
Intangible

So, what’s coming up this summer? 

Lots and lots of writing. My Wattpad fans are waiting for Invincible (Aerling Series #3) as patiently as the possibly can. CTP is eager for Wicked Glory (Someone Wicked #3). Limitless has Date Shark #2 on the schedule. I also have Oracle Lost outlined and waiting patiently for its turn. It’ll be a busy summer, but I’m looking forward to it!

What do your summer reading plans include?