Category: My Books

Release Day SNAFU Give-Away

My release day glitch for WHERE SHE BELONGS is turning out to be a bigger SNAFU than I realized. I’ve learned from other Five Star authors with the same release date that some readers who have pre-ordered December 16th “release date” books from Amazon and Barnes and Noble have received notices that the books aren’t available and do they wish to cancel their pre-order?

Well, the books ARE available, but not until the “On Sale” date of January 6, 2012. Now, I always knew that the books were considered to be shipping on December 16th and would not be available in libraries or for sale in bookstores (that have ordered them) until the January “On Sale” date. But I did not realize that Amazon and Barnes and Noble would show them releasing on December 16th (ie. available for shipping on that date) and then turn around and switch to the “On Sale” date of January 6th. Mea Scratchy Laser-Surgery-Recovery-Mode Eyeballs! What a SNAFU.

Somehow, my brain thought that “On Sale” date applied to brick and mortar establishments. Turns out—heh heh—it applies to on-line venues, as well. No matter what those on-line venues were saying a week ago.

So…if you’ve pre-ordered my book and received one of these emails asking if you want to cancel your order, please know that supposedly the books will magically appear available again on January 6th. Do what works for you. Cancel your pre-order, or keep it going, cancel and re-order when the books appear on-line, or cancel and don’t re-order because Cindy is an airhead and who wants to read an airhead’s books?

How about if you win a free book?

My hardcover author copies of WHERE SHE BELONGS are all already spoken for, however, I still have trade paperback ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) that Five Star/Tekno supplied me with for garnering reviews, etc. These trades paperbacks feature the same cover and the insides are the same except for a handful of typos that I found at the proofing stage (the ARCs were also used for proofing).

To make up for my release day SNAFU, I’m giving away one of my remaining WHERE SHE BELONGS ARCs. Autographed! And, while I’m at it, you can choose one of either HEAD OVER HEELS or BORROWING ALEX (trade paperback) to go along with the ARC of WHERE SHE BELONGS.

If you’ve read both HEAD OVER HEELS and BORROWING ALEX, I will mail you two copies of WHERE SHE BELONGS in ARC form and you can give one to a friend. They aren’t perfect—some minor edge wear. But they’re totally readable and enjoyable!

To enter to win an ARC of WHERE SHE BELONGS along with your choice of either HEAD OVER HEELS or BORROWING ALEX, please leave a comment at the end of this post. I will choose the winner’s name December 24th and email you at the email address provided for your snail-mailing info. The books will go in the mail around December 27th (post offices aren’t open on December 26th in Canada).

The winner must live in North America.

Meanwhile, the excerpts I had planned to share this week will wait until I know for sure this time that the books are available to order.

Happy Holidays, and good luck!

Note: If you are reading this post at a feed at Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Amazon, etc., please note that you must leave a comment at Muse Interrupted to enter.

A Wee Release Day Glitch

I’m about to leave for my laser eye surgery, but I wanted to update readers of my blog that apparently (or so I’ve found out from other authors) Five Star/Cengage books begin shipping on the publication date, which is today for my contemporary romance, WHERE SHE BELONGS, but that the books won’t actually arrive “on sale” at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc., until the stock gets there, which might be early January. Or might be next week.

So if you want to support this author, feel free to click the pre-order links, knowing your copy will ship out at the earliest opportunity. And please know that I appreciate ALL my readers and I thank you all.

Meanwhile, enjoy the excerpt I posted earlier today, and there are two more excerpts coming next Monday and Wednesday.

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Happy Book Release to Me!

Five long years…

One determined writer…

Lotsa works-in-progress…

Several new releases under a pen name…

All leading up to…ta-da!!…my first new book as Cindy Procter-King since June 2007!!

I am totally and completely thrilled that WHERE SHE BELONGS releases from Five Star/Cengage today. WHERE SHE BELONGS is a departure from my usual romantic comedy fare and also a departure from Penny’s books, which are erotic romances. WHERE SHE BELONGS still has humorous moments, and the love scenes are “tasteful” (according to my mother), but it’s also a deeply emotional story about belonging and forgiveness.

I’ve put the book cover up on this blog so many times, it’s not funny. But what’s book release day without the book cover?

You can find an excerpt for the book here. Already read that excerpt? Okay, here’s another one. First, buy links!

Amazon

Canadian Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Information for your librarian to order from Five Star

Excerpt!

The following excerpt leads up to Jess and Adam’s first kiss. They are in Jess’s mother’s detached garage. Adam has been helping Jess with her recently deceased stepfather’s classic old car, which has mechanical issues. Jess and her mother have reunited after a long estrangement, and Jess doesn’t want to do anything (like have to convince her mother to sell the car) that could hamper the positive steps they are just learning to make in their relationship.

Adam strode toward her. “A friend of mine’s a good mechanic. He’ll look at it for you.”

“I’ll talk to Mom about it in a couple of days.”

“Don’t put it off. You don’t want her having transmission trouble after you leave.”

“Yes, but there’s no point rushing her into something she isn’t up to handling yet. Isn’t that what you said to me about the grocery shopping this morning?”

“I’m sure you’ll know best when to discuss it with your mom.” His hand settled on the hood a scant inch from hers. Her fingers twitched. She would not move them and risk making him feel like he carried a contagious disease. “I’d hate to see her stuck without reliable transportation, especially come winter.”

The hot car hood cooked her hand. Specific lower regions of her body warmed up, too—for reasons that had zippy to do with engine heat.

God, what a time to redevelop a teenage crush.

“I will talk to her, Adam.”

“I know. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise.” He brushed grime off her sweater sleeve. His gaze lifted to meet hers. “You’re all dirty.” His thumb grazed her cheek, and her skin tingled. This was crazy!

“How did things go with the lawyer?” he asked. “Nora was quiet after the meeting.”

Don’t step back, she ordered herself. Don’t relay how much his touch affects you. “She needed time alone, um, to pull herself together. She’s doing better now, though. A friend dropped by to see her this afternoon. That helped.”

Adam’s faded-denim gaze pinned her in place. “The meeting went well?”

She shrugged. “Pete left her in a good position financially. The house and land were paid off before she married him, and he had life insurance. If she wanted to buy a new car, she could. I’d be willing to help her out, too, of course.”

“Of course.” He seemed to lean toward her slightly. Or she toward him? Awareness of him licked at her nerve-endings like a constant, low-burning flame.

“Would you like to stay for dinner? Mom wanted me to ask.” A lie. The question had popped out. “Molly brought over a casserole while you were gone. It’s heating in the oven. She and Mom are showing the horses to the kids,” she stupidly tacked on. Her rambling betrayed her nerves, which was silly. She’d had relationships with other men since Danny. She could deal with this unwelcome attraction to Adam.

“Do you want me to stay?” he asked softly.

“Um . . . ”

“I’m trying to be honest here, Jess. You’re in town for six weeks—that’s a fair while. I could keep my distance. However, the more I think about it, the more I realize I don’t want to. I’d like to see you while you’re here.”

“You mean as in dating?”

“If that’s what you want to call it. Although there aren’t many places in Destiny Falls I could take you on a formal date.”

Then what did he have in mind? A hook-up? “Well, I don’t sleep around.”

He laughed. “That’s gratifying to hear, because I wouldn’t dream of sharing you.” The scent of his aftershave floated to her, a heady mixture of moss and musk. “I was thinking more along the lines of getting to know each other better, one on one. However, if you’d like, we could always discuss our sleeping habits later.”

Her face burned. Now he knew the thought of having sex with him had crossed her mind. She wanted to crawl beneath the car and hide.

“Is there someone in Toronto?” he asked.

Say yes. “No, but—”

“Think about it for a few days. I’ll catch you on the weekend.”

“You’re not staying for dinner?” Her mother would be crushed.

“Can’t. Remember that big contract I mentioned Friday? I’m initiating some silviculture surveys up past Valemount tomorrow. They’re of the same nature, though smaller and less intensive. It’s another opportunity to show what MountainTop can do, so I’m leaving tonight.”

“Silviculture?”

“Textbook definition—the growing and tending of trees. We’re doing mainly survival assessments of blocks planted three years ago.”

“How long does starting the contract take?”

“Two or three days. Why, miss me already?”

***

Return Monday for another excerpt! Or visit my book page to find out how to buy.

Thank you for following along in my publishing journey!

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Author Copies! With Dust Jackets!

So pretty! So shiny! Hard covers! With dust jackets!

Yesterday, I received a very welcome surprise—a box of my WHERE SHE BELONGS author copies! We never get mail delivery on Sundays, so that was a surprise in itself (well, it was actually a courier). When I took the box from the delivery guy, I thought it was the custom door hinges we’d ordered (long story). Then I saw that the box was torn open, and, wow, not one single author copy was destroyed.

My husband signed off for the delivery while I carted the box to the kitchen table and carefully finished opening it. My Five Star contract calls for ten author copies. I received 19—as many as would fit into the box. Wow, thank you, Tekno and Five Star!

I was very excited to receive the author copies, because I hadn’t expected them to arrive until January. But they arrived before the release date (this Friday). Never mind that this is the first time I’ve received more than two author copies of a book for either my name or Penny’s name, but I wasn’t quite prepared for the reality of seeing my book in hard cover. The ARCs (Advanced Reading Copies) were in trade paperback, and all my Cindy and Penny books have been published in trade paperback up to this point, so trades have become second nature to me. But this is my first (and for all I know, only) book in hard cover. Everything was as I expected—strong, bright white internal pages with readable font, durable library-edition binding with the cover image embedded, like a trade paperback. But I did not expect the book to feel thicker and heavier in hard cover (although it makes sense that it would), and I dimly had no clue that the books would come with dust jackets.

My first dust jacket!!

Months ago, when I was filling out the publisher’s information sheet for “front and back flaps,” I somehow thought it was just another way to say “back cover.” However, instead of the story blurb being on the back, it’s on the inside dust jacket “flap.” And my author picture and bio are on the back cover “flap.” (I look kinda cute, too). The quote from Publishers Weeky and an author quote from award-winning author Mary J. Forbes is on the back cover. And reviews for previous books and mention of this book’s Golden Heart finalist status are also on the back.

Receiving author copies is always exciting. I tell you, it never gets old. But receiving these author copies in particular has made the publishing process very real for me. Living outside of an urban center in Canada, I’ve never had a chance to see one of my books in a bookstore or a library. The only experience I’ve had seeing one of my books “on the brick and mortar shelves” was when I placed copies of HEAD OVER HEELS on consignment with a now-defunct local bookstore.

So, hard cover, dust jacket, internal author photo and book blurb—this book looks like a smaller version of hard covers I have on my personal bookshelves. I am totally thrilled with the quality.

There’s something about seeing one’s name on a book cover…and I haven’t had a new Cindy release in several years. My publishing efforts have been focused on Penny. And that’s great. I love seeing Penny’s name on book covers. But this is MY name. And this MY book.

I tell you, it never gets old.

Desperate in December

December is always a crazy month for me. I never seem to expect the busy-ness that the holidays bring around. I’m ahead of the game this year, thanks to Cyber Monday, but the next few weeks will be hectic regardless. I usually shut down the blog in December, but this year I have a mid-December release, so it wouldn’t make sense to take a blogiday. If you’ve been reading my posts at all lately, you’ll know that WHERE SHE BELONGS, my 2007 Golden Heart finalist manuscript for Long Contemporary, is releasing December 16th from Five Star/Cengage.

Okay, December 16th isn’t really the release date, in that the book won’t be in libraries and stores ON December 16th. That’s actually the shipping date, when pre-orders from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Canadian Amazon will likely go out, and when my publisher will mail my RITA copies. The RITA contest deadline has been moved up to December 30th, because January 1st falls on a weekend. So cross your fingers that my copies arrive in time! My publisher is working with me to get them out of the warehouse STAT on December 16th. It’ll be nail-biting time around here after Christmas, until I know the copies have been received at the RWA offices.

So, my “shipping date” is what I’m celebrating as my “release date.” And I have laser eye surgery scheduled for that date. Yes, I am finally getting my eyes lasered! I go in for my consultation tomorrow, and during the consult I’ll find out which surgery my eyes qualify for, PRK, which my son had last year and has a 4-7 day downtime. or SBK, a fancier version of LASIK which uses a laser to create the flap instead of a cut, and which has a downtime of 24-48 hours. It’s more expensive, but that downtime is super appealing.

When I booked the surgery, it had completely escaped my mind that December 16th is my book’s release date. So I won’t be able to promote my book ON the release date, but what can you do? I’ve decided the best way around this is to pre-schedule posts to appear on my blog (and therefore on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and my Amazon Author page) on December 16th and thereafter. The plan is to post scene snippets on the blog, you know, to entice folks to buy my book!

That’s the plan. We’ll see how the execution goes. Because I’ve been super busy helping to execute two other major life events that have sucked away all my writing time, and I must wrap them up before the surgery, plus get out my Christmas cards, etc (I skipped last year, so I really want to do this year).

And then there’s the shopping! I still have a lot to do.

How’s your December shaping up?

Cyber Monday Cindy-Style

Like many of you, I’m busy surfing the web trying to find the perfect gifts for the nice (and naughty) people on my lists. And it occurred to me that the romance readers among you (or those who need to buy a gift for someone who loves romance novels) might want to do it up Cyber Monday Cindy-Style. How, you ask? By pre-ordering WHERE SHE BELONGS. If you’re looking for a contemporary romance to give as a gift and have been keeping WHERE SHE BELONGS in mind (my 2007 Golden Heart finalist book set in a fictional version of a tiny British Columbia logging town where I lived for five years), please note that the Five Star/Cengage/Gale warehouse doesn’t begin shipping the book until December 16th. Pre-orders placed on Amazon, Canadian Amazon, or Barnes and Noble are sometimes the first to get shipped. I have pre-ordered books on Amazon that have arrived the DAY of the release date.

Sounds pretty good, huh?

Cover and back cover blurb to entice you:

She never wants to go home again.

For Jess Morgan, Destiny Falls holds too many painful memories. Nine years ago, a logging accident near the remote timber town killed her dad and her high school sweetheart. Despite Jess’s broken heart, her mother immediately sought comfort with another man. That choice tore Jess apart and drove her to seek a life far away. But now fate steps in, and family obligations force her return home. Before long, she’s convinced that persuading her mom to live with her in Toronto will repair their bond and Jess’s own sense of belonging. However, she doesn’t count on a long-ago friend re-entering her life and challenging those same convictions.

Rugged forester Adam Wright believes in family, roots, and not running from heartache. Now, all he wants is to help Jess break down the walls of the lonely sanctuary she’s built for herself and heal her past hurts. But it’s not until she rejects his proposal that Adam realizes his dogged persistence has pushed her even further away—not at all what he intended. Has he lost his chance? Or can he convince Jess that where she truly belongs is with him…forever?

Reviews are starting to come in! For the first time ever, one of my books was reviewed in Publisher’s Weekly. PW says, “Procter-King gives her characters realistic conflicts.”

From Booklist: “The latest from Procter-King, a Golden Heart finalist and author of Borrowing Alex (2007), is a sentimental novel about love, grief, and coming home again. Jess is a sympathetic protagonist who learns the well-worn lesson that home is with the people you love.”

Perhaps my favorite so far, from Fresh Fiction: “WHERE SHE BELONGS is a very emotional and heartfelt story of  broken relationships and painful memories.  Finding where  she truly belongs is a heartwarming lesson for Jess in  revealing the true meaning of love and the ability to  forgive.  The story is very well written and the passion as  well as pain the characters feel is clearly felt by the  reader.  I thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful story of love  and finding oneself in the process.”

An excerpt can be read on the Fresh Fiction site or on my Books page.

Want those pre-order links again? I am nothing if not obliging.

Amazon

Amazon Canada

Barnes and Noble

Warm up your Winter with a contemporary romance from Cindy Procter-King! (Just thought that up. I think I like it).

Pre-Orders can be taken up until December 15th, but the earlier the ordered, the better the chance of receiving the books before December 25th.

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