#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

Writing Process Blog Hop

Clare Davidson, a lovely YA author from the UK, tagged me in the writing process blog hop. Woot!

The internet is such a fun place. I’m always meeting new and amazing people from all over the world. I “met” Clare a little over a year ago, when she invited me to participate in a huge indie blog hop. Clare is really fantastic at bringing writers together and organizing fun and interactive blog tours. I always enjoy being a part of her online events. Her YA novels are pretty amazing too! You can find out more about Clare and her writing process here.

Now for the hop questions…

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 and rewrites for PSYCHOPOMP, the fourth novel in my Lana Harvey, Reapers Inc. series. I am also trying to work on BACKWOODS ARMAGEDDON, a comical hillbilly apocalypse novel I’m coauthoring with my husband. I have several short stories I’m working on for magazines, and I’m polishing some synopses and outlines for two different series that I hope will attract the agent I’m stalking—er, I mean querying.

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.

Want to hear how other authors do it? (Cue immature giggles here.) I’m tagging two awesome authors to share their secrets next week. These ladies rock! Check them out.  :  )

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. Stop by her blog to read about her miniatures, sculptures, paintings, and her beloved beagle, Nero. Sometimes, she also posts about her writing. http://monicalaporta.com/

Elisa Nuckle is a twenty-something fantasy and science fiction novelist. It's always been her dream to chase ideas down and put them into concrete words. Currently, she's undergoing enlightenment at University of Houston, and plans on getting an English major in the hopefully-not-too-distant future.  http://elisanuckle.com/

Crazy Little Baby Man

I really thought I'd have all the time in the world to blog after I finished my degree a year ago. But about that time, my kiddo hit the toddler phase. Xavier was a phenomenal baby. He'd hang out on the couch with me and breastfeed in between me typing on homework, a novel, or the monthly real estate guide I design. Most of the time I was still able to continue working one-handed. He really was the sweetest, happiest little guy. Not that he isn't sweet and happy now. It's just that since he's figured out how to walk (and subsequently run and crawl and open things), I'm finding that I require more and more coffee... and hours in the day. If anyone knows the location of a vat of chemicals that could help me develop time-freezing super powers, hit me up. I've weened Xavi off the boob, so at least I don't have to worry about said chemicals affecting my milk supply.

I love my kiddo. I love that I get to work from home and spend all day with him. It's not without it's challenges though. Today, I woke up with a tiny elbow in my spleen. It took half an hour to balance my checkbook this morning, because a million kisses were in order. Oddly, I was entirely uninteresting once I finished with the checkbook and was ready to play. That baby radar is no joke. As I type this, Xavi is relieving me of all the mac-and-cheese on my plate. (I can count this as dieting, right?)

I solemnly swear I'm up to no good...

Things have been especially trying through Xavi's terrible twos because his language skills are developing slowly. Crazy, right? With as much as Paul and I gab, it's really a shocker. No, we haven't had his hearing checked, and we see no reason to. You can whisper the kid's name from across the room and he turns around. And he understands when we tell him no or when we play peek-a-boo. I'm not getting too worked up about his pace yet. I know several people who didn't start talking until they were three, and Einstein was four. It just makes it hard for him to communicate with us, and then he gets frustrated, and I get frustrated for him. He's developing just fine otherwise. He's very mechanical and his motor skills are spot-on. He's even started changing the oil in my car. Okay, not really. I'm hoping those motor skills come along soon though too.

I'd like to start blogging more, and hopefully before my kiddo starts preschool. I think I'm just a guilty person by nature. I can't seem to focus if I feel like I'm not making enough time for my little guy. Mix in the time I spend writing, reading, editing, doing graphic design, marketing, networking, and all the regular, boring activities like exterminating dust bunnies and scrubbing toilets, and well, you get the picture. That's how I end up blogging once a month (if that). I'm a little better with Facebook and Twitter, but not much. I need a set schedule. I need a New Year's resolution... that I actually stick to. I need one of those coffee enemas. Okay, that might be taking things too far.

Well, it's taken nearly two hours to do this blog, because after eating my mac-and-cheese, Xavi decided that I should be wearing him like a hat. I love this little guy to pieces. And if I have to get a Five Hour Energy IV to keep up, then that's what I'll do. Until it comes to that, I'll save nap time and the extra hours I should be sleeping for working on the novels, and continue to blog when I can... while wearing a Xavi hat and drinking beverages with questionable looking toddler backwash in them.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! And I'll do my best to check in again soon, hopefully with some new giveaways and freebies before Christmas! : )