Hey, there! It’s nice to start feeling normal again. I am looking forward to a wonderful spring and summer, thinking back that a year ago we shaved my head.
This year, I bought an eBike and am trying to get used to it. I haven’t ridden a bike in years!
I’m also taking a course on building a website with a specific WordPress for Writers theme. I love my site, but it’s an old HTML site and not suitable for viewing on a phone. Before I get back to writing, my plan is to build the new WordPress site and get all my books over there. If I can’t do it myself, I’ll hire out, but I enjoying building websites!
Hey there, if you’ve been with me for awhile, you’re probably wondering where I went.
I’ll be honest and say I nearly gave up writing during a time when I felt like I should have been celebrating my recovery from chemo and radiation for Triple Negative Breast Cancer. It just didn’t go that way.
Chemo and radiation took a lot more out of me than I realized. THEN my husband and I contracted COVID for the first time.
THEN I got depressed. So much so that my mood affected my sleep to the point where I needed to be hospitalized.
I hope you haven’t suffered from a long depression. I’ve had highs and lows before, but never like what I experienced this winter. I’ve never needed to take depression meds.
Now, I am on a couple of medications but hope to whittle those down as I continue to heal.
Long story short, I haven’t written since BEFORE BRADY came out.
***AND NOW COMES THE BIG CHANGE!!***
After several years of marketing my books Wide (on all retailers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Google Play, and Apple Books), I’ve made the decision to go exclusive to Amazon, which might delight you or tick you off.
Yes, I’m moving my books into Kindle Unlimited!!
I’m excited about this. It will make it easier to schedule promotions. Plus, it gives access to a readership I didn’t have before.
Keeping my books wide might look simple. On the back end, life will be less stressful only dealing with one retailer.
If I find being in KU isn’t working, then I’ll put my books wide again but with a more streamlined process behind the scenes.
As of this typing, my books are in the process of being removed from Google Play, Apple, Kobo, BN, and Draft2Digital, but places like D2D aggregate to third-party retailers and I need to make sure all the books are gone from those retailers before I enroll them in KU.
I’ll let you know when the process is complete. For now, my books are available for sale on Amazon as per normal.
I hope I don’t lose you as a reader by making this move, but it’s something I need to try.
Now, here’s a picture of my hair 8 months post-chemo. It’s at a weird mullet/shag point of growing out, and I dinna like it very much. I can rock a pixie, but my hair grows fast so short would require Too Many Haircuts. I can’t wait until it’s the length it was before, between my chin and shoulders. But at least I ain’t bald anymore.
Thought I’d share shots of the new interior formatting for Picture Imperfect, my steamy mystery romance, AKA “A Sassy Suspense,” and a stand-alone set in the Pacific Northwest.
I wanted to update some language from the first publication that might cause some folks harm. Ie. words like crazy, insane, and overweight (which was only used in the book once, but if it caused harm, I apologize). Now that I know better, it felt like the right thing to do was correct some language.
While at it, I redesigned the interior with some snazzy new formatting that I love! The cover hasn’t changed, but I’m including a shot of Picture Imperfect next to Head Over Heels, as PI is twice as long!
PI is my longest book, with multiple points of view, a love story, a mystery to solve, family and friendship complications, and – ta-da, of course a happy ending!
What I found doing this update is there was one typo!! Fixed it.
I also got to update a bit of technology.
And I discovered I still love this book!
The new formatting applies to the print and digital editions, so if you pick up a copy, you’ll get it as it is now, February 2024 moving forward.
Same cover, “Not for Resale” because it’s a proof copy
Title page is the same
Sample of new interior formatting (this is the first scene with Gabe’s mom’s point of view – she gets a love story in the book too!)
Another sample of the new interior formatting. I love the script! (PS, don’t zoom in and read the page if you don’t want a spoiler)
New author pic, taken, you know the drill, in my bathroom with my shower curtain backdrop behind me.
I’m 6 weeks out from my surgery and still have a long way to go on my journey, but I’m keeping my toes in the writing world when I can.
I’m busy updating DMARC records (gobbledegook for email deliverability rules that are coming into place on February 1st.)
I’ve done a light edit on PICTURE IMPERFECT to update some word choices and tech. Happy to report that I only found one typo!
I’m about to upload the new editions of the book and will let you know when it’s ready. Same cover, no big changes. Just minor edits.
And…
My books can always use more reviews, and because I had a medical challenge in 2023 that will be continuing into this year, I didn’t do a great job getting ARCs out for BEFORE BRADY. But some fab reviews have come in from readers around the world!
5 Stars! “Every girl wants to meet Mr. Right, but sometimes it takes a long time to figure out that Mr. Right might not check all the boxes.” CA Cindy on Amazon (not me, I promise)
5 Stars! “I loved Alicia and Brady’s story . . .great characters, sparky interaction and a little steam . . . plus terrific humor.” Laura on Amazon Canada
5 Stars! “Alicia is missing her chance with Brady. This was a really good story where Alicia needed to figure out how to “multi-task”. This was a fun and enjoyable story with some great steam.” Deb on Amazon Canada
Today, Before Brady, Book 3 in Love & Other Calamities Romantic Comedy, releases (nearly) everywhere ebooks are sold!
IOW, the biggies: Amazon, Apple Books, BN, Kobo, and Google Play. I’m not sure when I’ll get things sorted on smaller stores reached through another distributor.
Normally, I would be all over things, but I’m having surgery in two days and am in serious prep mode. So my home page might be out of date for a little while. It’s not as easy to update as this blog (which really should have a soft green background to go with the rest of my site, but that’s something that also needs to wait).
But take a look at Before Brady if you want a quick-read, emotional steamy romcom that includes fun cameos from characters (and a dog) from Books 1 and 2!
Before Brady releases December 12th and is a Top Indie Favorites pick for December and January from Barnes and Noble. Yay!!
I should be all over social media with this news.
I’m not.
I have my newsletters scheduled to go out, and some wonderful authors are gonna be picking up my slack, sharing news about my release when I won’t be feeling up to it.
I’m not going into details right now, but the upshot is I’ve had some unsettling medical news and will be having surgery two days after Before Brady releases. So now while I’m in between prep stages and feeling good enough to slap a smile on my face, let’s hear it for Before Brady!
Coming in four days! On Apple Books, Amazon, Kobo, Google Play Books, and Barnes and Noble!
