#CoverReveal of Ghost Market (Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. Book 6)

Guess what I'm sharing today? The cover and blurb for Ghost Market! Woot! (Slight spoilers ahead if you're new to the series.)

*** 

In the wake of a thwarted war, Lana Harvey is more than ready for an extended vacation on the new houseboat she shares with the Lord of the Flies, but when the leaderless rebels begin poaching souls and selling them on the Ghost Market, Lana is tasked with heading up a new reaper unit to stop them.

Having one of the most famous faces in Eternity proves challenging when it comes to finding a way inside the secretive world of illegal soul peddling, and the only person Lana knows with the right connections is Tasha Henry, a former colleague and defeated rebel—with a poaching record of her own. The rogue reaper isn’t going to be easy to track down, and even if Lana does manage to catch up with her, the real question is whether or not a shot at redemption will be enough to lure her away from the dark side.

***

If you've read Season's Reapings, the Lana Holiday Short, then you may remember meeting Tasha. I'm really having a lot of fun writing her. She's definitely one of my more spunky characters. I'm also having fun working with a light-hearted Bub and the helljack puppies. ♥

The official release date for Ghost Market is May 1st, but it will become available for pre-order on Nook, Kobo, iBooks, Smashwords, ect. over the next few weeks. And it will be available for pre-order on Kindle on April 1st. I get a lot of questions about how all that works, and let me tell you, some of it is still a mystery to me too. If you're an interested indie writer, I'll be doing a blog post soon on the industry insights I've gathered on the pre-order business in the near future.

Hope you all enjoy the cover and blurb peek!
xoxo

Upcoming Events and Secret Handshakes

“The time has come!” the walrus said. “To speak of many things…”

I feel like a circus clown juggling chainsaws right now. I’ve come to the realization that I’m not very good at saying NO. But I’m getting better at it. I’ve also come to the realization that I am not a super hero, and that’s okay. I actually do need more than 5 hours of sleep at night. Using Redbull in place of water when brewing coffee will only work for so long, and if I don’t want to burn out or have a nervous breakdown, something’s gotta give. 

I know how many hours are in a day, and I know where I need to be directing them. I’ve already taken a big step by putting in my notice with my day job. That was hard. Really hard. I like my boss, and he’s asked me a few times now if I’d consider staying. But like I said, I’m getting better at saying NO. I did, however, give 3 months’ notice (I think I mentioned this in my last post). I just finished designing my second to last real estate guide book. And after next month, I’ll be a full-time writer. I’m hoping this will reduce my stress levels by about 25%. And just maybe, this weird eyeball thing I’ve had going on for the past few weeks (like sleepy pins and needles in my eye socket, when I’m in front of my computer for too long) will go away. I’m also looking forward to more sleep, and a faster computer, since I’ll be clearing out a bunch of ginormous graphics files.

With this month’s guide done and off to the press, I scoured over my author email account and noticed an update from my newsletter service, telling me that a hundred new subscribers have signed up since my last newsletter. Ruh-roh. Looks like I’ll be working on that next. I have a lot of news to share—upcoming events, books that friends have recently released, and other exciting things…

With spring comes convention season, and I’m diving in this year! Here are just a few things I have planned in the coming months:

NEXT FRIDAY, March 27, from 4pm-6pm @ Reader’s World in Sedalia, I’ll be signing books and visiting with readers, along with Madge Gressley and Paul Ross. You can find out more on the Facebook event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/629253317206789/

FRI-SUN, April 24-26, I’ll have a table at the Writer’s Corner of the Trail’s End Heritage Days event at the Missouri State Fairgrounds. Check out their website for more details on this huge event: http://www.thetrailsend.org/

FRIDAY, May 15, @ 2pm, I’ll be at Club RT at the RT Booklovers Convention in Dallas, TX. Kory Shrum and I are going to try to nab a table together, so you can visit us both and check out the new anthology we co-edited. We’ll be giving away a few copies! Find out more on the convention website: https://rtconvention.com/

SATURDAY, May 16, 11am-2pm, Giant Book Fair at the RT Booklovers Convention in Dallas, TX. There will be hundreds (like, around 800) authors signing at the fair. It’s amazing! I’ll have copies of my new book, Blood Moon, and copies of my first book, Graveyard Shift, available. Again, more info is available at the convention website here: https://rtconvention.com/

There’s also a vineyard reading in Knob Noster, MO in June, but I don’t have all of the details yet. More on that to come!

In other exciting news, I am now a member of HWA, the Horror Writers Association, and SFWA, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. As an indie author, without a publishing house family, these kinds of connections are usually difficult to forge. We indie authors have to do more research, without an agent or publicist to point us in the right direction, and many of the more prestigious organizations have not been open to us, until now. I’m very thrilled to be a part of these two groups. I admire many of their author members, and I’m looking forward to attending their events and learning secret handshakes! : )

Another group I’m proud to be a part of is my critique group, the Four Horsemen of the Bookocalypse. We’re coming up on our 1 year anniversary! Kory Shrum, Kathrine Pendleton, and Monica La Porta, you ladies are amazing! Your work is inspiring, and your critiques make all the difference in the world to me. I hope we have many more fantastic years together ahead of us! ♥

I’ve also been connecting with some local authors lately. Madge Gressley, who invited me to the Trail’s End event, met up with me for breakfast a few weeks ago. I’ve started reading her Inescapable series. It’s an interesting sci-fi, thriller, romance mashup that looks like a lot of fun! In that same week, Lisa Medley stopped on her way through Sedalia to have lunch with me. I met Lisa at the RT convention in New Orleans last year. She writes reapers too! If you follow my blog, you’ve probably heard me gushing about her a few other times, in interviews and blog hops.

So that’s what’s what on the author front. There are also some exciting things happening in my personal life, that have been upping my stress levels, but I’m hoping those will be resolved soon too. I can’t wait to share that news with everyone, but it will have to wait until everything is finalized. : )

Wishing you all rainbows and unicorns!

xoxo

-Angela

Leaps of Faith and Busted Buns

My New Year’s resolutions have not been going well. They started out great. Seriously! I made it to the gym a few times. I was writing consistently. I ate some kale. I posted a few videos on YouTube…

But it all fell apart around the beginning of week 3. My day job is designing a monthly real estate guide. It’s usually 64-72 pages, and it takes up a solid week every month. In that week, I fall behind on everything. EVERYTHING. The house work piles up, my writing lags, I sleep an average of 5 hours a night, and I start to smell. My husband and son aren’t thrilled about the lack of attention either.

I’ve been at this for 5 years now. If I wasn’t a full-time writer, it probably wouldn’t be so bad. But I AM a full-time writer. Don’t get me wrong. I love design work, and I have a great boss. Also, it is only 1 week a month. This job has allowed me to work from home—through being pregnant with my son, and through 2 years of breast-feeding. The thing is, when I took this job 5 years ago, I’d only been a published author for a few months. I was in no position to make it as a full-time writer. Even 4 years later, I was only making enough in royalties to claim writing as a hobby.

This past year has left me in a perpetual state of disbelief. 2014 was very good to me. It started in January, when I made the first book in my Lana Harvey series available for free. I know a lot of indie authors who are horrified by this concept, but it’s one of the best things I ever did for my writing career. I understand how some might see this as demeaning—almost like an admission that their hard work is worthless. I admit, it took me a while to get over that hump as well. The thing is, when you’re a relatively unknown indie author without a big publishing house to back you, it’s hard to get your name out there. It’s hard to get readers to take a chance on you. Obviously, it’s much easier to get readers to take a chance when you offer them a free book. When you have a decent backlist, that free book equals multiple sales you would have undoubtedly never seen. I regret nothing.

In April, I saw my first royalty check that was more than what my day job paid. Amazeballs! I allowed myself a few days to be giddy and celebrate, and then I reeled it in. One month of awesome sales does not equal a good enough reason to quit a job with a steady paycheck. In June, I was fortunate enough to be accepted by BookBub for a promo feature in their newsletter. I didn’t really understand what this meant until the actual day of the promo in July. Graveyard Shift, my free book, was downloaded over 25,000 times that day. It topped a few Amazon lists. Then sales on my other books took off. More readers began to email, asking when my next book would be out. My job as an author went into overdrive.

Squeeee!

 

My day job has since become harder and harder to manage. I end the work week feeling like an apocalypse survivor, and it takes me a good week to catch up on life in general. Now that I’m financially comfortable enough to make a living as an author, I really don’t need the day job anymore. I haven’t for a while, but when you work for good people, it’s even harder to make that leap. But I finally did. Last week, I put in my 3 month notice. I know that sounds like a lot of time, but like I said, I work for good people. It will take time to find the right person to take on this job.

So… back to those resolutions. It’s been almost 2 weeks since I posted a video. I’ll get back on that this week. And to be honest, it’s not just the day job that’s set me back recently.

Last week, in front of my son’s preschool, I tripped backwards over the curb as I was taking my son out of the backseat. The mommy instincts kicked in, so instead of trying to break my fall, I lifted my kiddo up as high as I could, and fell flat on my ass. The kiddo is fine. He thought we were playing. I, on the other hand, have a bruised tailbone and it hurts to sit down. Which means the gym was a no-go for a while. I don’t even want to think about how painful doing crunches would be right now. Also, kale was not going to cut it for a boo-boo of this magnitude. That required ice cream. If I was going to jump off the resolution wagon, why not do a somersault through a flaming hoop while I was at it?

Tomorrow’s the first of February. A good time to hit the reset button, yeah? Anyway, I hope you all are accomplishing all you’ve set out to do this year! If you need me, I’ll be furiously typing, folding mountains of laundry, and icing my ass.

♥♥♥

The Big Easy Blog Tour: Reblog

So, the writing process hop is really making the rounds! I posted this back in April, but I was tagged a second time by Lisa Medley, fellow reaper-writing Missourian. It is pretty neat to see how other writers "do it". (immature snorts go here) If you'd like to know more about Lisa, check out this interview she gave on my blog HERE.

 Lisa has always enjoyed reading about monsters in love and now she writes about them. Reapers. The grim kind.

She adores beasties of all sorts, fictional as well as real, and has a farm full of them in her Southwest Missouri home, including: one child, one husband, two dogs, two cats, a dozen hens, thousands of Italian bees, and a guinea pig.

She may or may not keep a complete zombie apocalypse bug-out bag in her trunk at all times, including a machete. Just. In. Case. 



You can take a peek at Lisa's writing process HERE.


My process as seen last April... with a few alterations.

What am I working on?

I am juggling several projects, which I really don’t recommend. At least, not to the extent I’m doing right now. I’m finishing up edits for PSYCHOPOMP, the fourth novel in my Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series. And I'm working on a new YA trilogy for an agent I adore. I am also working on a few short stories for anthologies and magazines.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My Lana series, which is my baby, is technically urban fantasy. I love vampires and werewolves, but they’ve been done. A lot. I was afraid that I wouldn’t have anything new to offer in that arena. I still knew I wanted to stick with urban fantasy. It just sets my heart on fire. I really enjoy studying world religions and mythology, so I decided to take my writing in that direction. My series is set in a modern afterlife, where all the faiths are right and all the deities exist… and have to work together. So, while it’s an urban setting, it’s still not quite “of this world”, and I’m playing with less familiar supernatural beings than most urban fantasy readers are used to.

Why do I write what I do?

Aside from my love of urban fantasy, I thought it would be fun to put my mythology and religious research to good use. I’m also a big supporter of religious tolerance, and while the deities in my series don’t always get along, my readers are still learning things about different faiths that they might not have known before. Intolerance is a cousin of ignorance. We fear the things we don’t understand. While my primary goal is entertainment, I still like the notion that I might also be subliminally promoting tolerance and peace.

How does my writing process work?

Not very well. I wish that was a joke.

Ok. Seriously… I have a plot board. I’m a bit OCD and ADD, so I NEED the plot board to stay on track. I have oversized post-its that represent my chapters. The post-its are big enough to hold a 2-3 sentence description of what’s going down in that particular scene. I fill out the big events first and shuffle them around until they make some sort of sense. Then I fill in the chapters where foreshadowing needs to happen, where character bonding and development is crucial, ect. ect. ect. Until I have somewhere between 25 and 35 chapters.

Then the actual writing happens. Once again, ADD, so the plot board comes in handy. I do not write my books in order. I often have the last chapter written before the fourth or fifth. If I don’t feel like a lovey-dovey scene, I skip ahead to a fight scene. If I’m not feeling the dialog in one spot, I play with the scenery or narrative somewhere else. My muse has mood swings, so I just go with it. Eventually, I have a book written. Then I read through it and make sure everything is still in order. I do some shuffling again. I polish up a scene here or there. I rebalance the dialog/narrative ratio where it feels off.

Then I email the draft to an author friend or two, a couple beta readers, my husband. I print it out and deliver it to my former college comp professor who volunteers to edit my novels (this is why he has the honorary title of THE professor—he also teaches Shakespeare, and he introduced me to Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, so I trust his judgment and taste in literature). Then I’m bombarded by a plethora of plot holes, grammatical errors, and general typos… which I face palm my way through as I fix. A final read through and BING! It’s done. Yes, it sounds like an Easy-Bake Oven in my head. This has happened in a matter of three months… or a matter of three years. Once again, I wish that was a joke. I have become more consistent and persistent over the past few years, so I’m hoping that means it’s a skill I’m able to hone… and not just a sadistic muse I’m at the mercy of. 

So that's about it.  


P.S. I'm not tagging anyone in particular. If you haven't been tagged and would like to participate in the writing process hop, consider yourself invited! You can totally blame me. ♥

New Series by Monica La Porta: The Immortals

One of my favorite things about being a writer is making friends with other writers... because then I get to read their new releases before everyone else! Yay!!! Seriously though, writers are readers first, so this is a definite squee for me. ♥

I've know Monica La Porta for a little over a year now. We "met" when YA author Clare Davidson invited us both to participate in a big online giveaway. Then Jason Graves, another author in the giveaway, invited us to submit stories for an anthology, OFF THE BEATEN PATH. Monica and I have followed and reviewed each others books for a while now, and I recently recruited her for my online critique group and for a plot panel at the RT Booklovers Convention in Dallas next year! (Yay!!!!)

While I'm a big fan of Monica's Ginecean Chronicles, I was really excited when I found out she was starting a new series, and even more excited when I learned that she was dipping into mythology! There are vampires in there too.... but I'm definitely Team Immortals. The Lost Centurion is the first installment of The Immortals. I can't show you the cover yet, since Monica will be revealing that on Thursday. But I can show you this billboard teaser....

Marcus has sworn to avenge his wife's death—even if it takes an eternity to hunt down the vampire who murdered her. Once a Roman Centurion, Marcus is now immortal and, for the past two thousand years, impervious to human emotions. Until the night he rescues Diana…

Diana knew nothing of the paranormal world until her transformation into a vampling, a newborn vampire entirely reliant for survival upon the distant and seemingly emotionless Centurion, who found her in the throes of changing. Her protector turned her without her consent, but at his untimely death, she becomes the cold immortal’s responsibility.

The entire vampire community is determined to kill Marcus as he protects one of their own. While Marcus and Diana travel the Italian countryside, being chased by their enemies, Marcus must choose between avenging his dead wife or saving Diana from the same vampire who ruined his life. Bewitched by the Amalfi moon, he soon discovers his heart has already decided for him.

My review: I really enjoyed how this was a novel with vampires... but not really about vampires. I'm definitely more drawn to the Roman history of the Immortals. The colorful look at Italy was fun too, and though I thought the plot would be predictable at the beginning, I was delighted when it shifted gears and went off in a direction I would have never guessed. Paranormal romance and suspense done fresh and done right.

Monica La Porta is an Italian who landed in Seattle several years ago. Despite popular feelings about the Northwest weather, she finds the mist and the rain the perfect conditions to write. Being a strong advocate of universal acceptance and against violence in any form and shape, she is also glad to have landed precisely in Washington State. 

She is the author of The Ginecean Chronicles, a dystopian/science fiction series set on the planet Ginecea where women rule over a race of enslaved men and heterosexual love is considered a sin. She has published the first four books in the series, The Priest, Pax in the Land of Women, Prince at War, and Marie's Journey. 

She just released two new NA paranormal romances, Gaia, and Elios. She also wrote and illustrated a children's book about the power of imagination, The Prince's Day Out. Her published short, Linda of the Night, is a fairytale love story celebrating inner beauty. She has a new series, The Immortals, coming out soon, a paranormal saga set in Rome. Stop by her blog to read about her miniatures, sculptures, paintings, and her beloved beagle, Nero. Sometimes, she also posts about her writing.

Find Monica all across the interwebs...

Blog | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

Be sure to check out Monica's blog on Thursday for the big cover reveal! 

 

RT14 NOLA Round Up

We got back from New Orleans on Sunday, and we're still recovering...

The RT Booklovers Convention was a blast! Hands down, best week ever! I hardly know where to begin, so I'll just take it from the top...

Monday (May 11th), was a blur. I packed and unpacked half a dozen times before I finally decided that yes, I did need all eight pairs of shoes I'd picked out. Good thing we weren't flying. After my parents picked up our minion, Paul and I cranked up the music and popped open a bottle of wine as we finished organizing everything and going over our OCD checklists for the nth time. I swear, I need to find a little kitchen sink key-chain thingamabob, just so I can say I didn't forget it. 

After we played Jenga with our luggage Tuesday morning, we were off! I'll spare you all the exhilarating details of our 14 hour car ride. When we got to the hotel around 9pm, the plan was to go to bed early so we'd be nice and refreshed in the morning. Hahahaha That didn't happen. I think we saw 2:30am. There were just too many people to meet! Seriously. We made a lot of new friends last week. From all over the world. Also, we had our books shipped to the hotel for the book fair, and they were waiting for us. 

Backwoods Armageddon!

Paul's first book (my fifth), and this is the first time he got to hold a physical copy in his hands. I had to capture the moment. ♥

More squee-worthy photos...

 Charlaine Harris!!!! Ahhhh!!! I adore her. She was so very sweet and funny. 

I'm glad I got a picture with her, because I didn't have time to track her down later and get books signed. The lines were super cray this year.

With E. L. James at 3:30am. Yeah, not even my camera was sober at that hour. Shay, a lovely blogger with very soft hands (I'm a hand holder when I'm tanked, FYI) spotted James in the lounge and let me tag along to meet her. She was so nice! It must be something about RT. I didn't meet one unpleasant person all week.

Darynda Jones (2nd from the right--next to Chloe Neil!) was also another author I was really excited to meet in person. Her Charley Davidson series is fantastic! It's about reapers. How could it not be awesome? ; )

Kim Harrison!!! (on the left) I adore her too. Also, crazy lines at her tables. I did wait in one to get some books signed, but I skipped getting a picture taken with her, because I didn't want to get mauled by fans. I nabbed this picture at the humor panel she was on, moderated by Trent Hart (on the right). Really great info! Glad I took notes. Trent did a lot for RT this year, and we ran into each other in the elevator at one point. We had emailed a few times, but I didn't recognize him right off. He said my name, and I'm sure the look I gave him was of pure panic. I'm usually pretty good with names and faces. Convention tip: Look at the name badge! That's Tiffany Reisz under the center arrow. She writes steamy erotica, and I got to hang out with her in the lounge later that night, after visiting with Lucienne Diver, agent/author extraordinaire. If you're a fan of my Lana series and love mythology, you have to check out Lucienne's Latter-Day Olympians series! So much fun! 

Rachel busted out a deck of Cards Against Humanity, which is my new favorite game. It's so wrong and yet so right! This was my first time playing, and I won! We decided the grand prize would be the mystery box of cheesecake we found in our booth. lol

Next to Lucienne is Tristan Smith, a cover model who works with Jenn LeBlanc, to his left. In addition to being a great model, Tristan is an all around nice guy. He's raising money for a friend of his who was badly injured in an automobile accident. Find out how you can help HERE. 

I met Jenn LeBlanc last year at RT13 in Kansas City. She creates amazing covers, and she writes too! She moderated a fun cover design panel this year with Tristan.

 Speaking of cover models....

I went to the "Jade Lee Lampoons the Writing Life", where this guy (I believe they were calling him Scotty McHottie) posed as a were-dolphin for a mock cover shoot. I ♥ Jade Lee. She's so much fun! Pretty sure my husband still blames her for getting me hooked on Plants vs. Zombies though. lol

Alcoholic keepsakes. Remember: Write drunk. Edit sober. 

The book fair was cray. Over 700 authors. It was Paul's first official signing, so that was exciting too!

I sat next to a very charming man in a bow-tie, Joshua Roots. His work has been compared to Jim Butcher's. I just downloaded the first in his series today! 

Here are some balloon animals. The clown said I was special, so I got two! Not creepy at all...

Partay!!!

 Mardis Gras World!

The marketing panel I moderated was a huge success! Lisa Kessler talked about Facebook parties. Sierra Dean talked about the right ways to use Twitter. Paul Ross covered one-on-one sales, and I discussed putting together a charity/launch party on a budget. If you missed the panel and didn't get one of the goody bags with a handout, you can download it here:

I'm already putting together a panel proposal for next year. The ladies in charge get the ball rolling early. It's a huge event, so they really have to. 

There were so many more wonderful people! I know I'm missing some names I should be giving a shout-out to.... J. Hali Steel, Alexis Flemming, Bobbie Cole, Jenna Jacob... Mia Marshall, Gretchen Stull, Lisa Medley. Really, it was a blast getting to visit with you all!

I'll catch you lovelies in Dallas next year! In the meantime... Keep Calm and Read On! 

xoxo