Miralee release party promotion

My newest e-novel, Miralee is now live on Amazon. Beginning Wednesday May 22, 2013 through Sunday May 26, 2013 the book will be available for free as part of my release party promotion! Afterwards, it is always available for the very low price of $0.99. It will also be included in Amazon's KDP Select library for the first three months of its life, meaning it can be borrowed by Amazon Select members for free. This means that it will not be available anywhere else until August, so check it out on Amazon.

Miralee is a fantasy novel of approximately 76,000 words that tells the story of a teenage girl with unique abilities that bring her to the attention of the demon hunting Order of the Shadow Knights. Miralee, for her part, does her best to avoid them and just wants to be left alone to pursue her music. It isn't so easy though as Miralee faces danger from every quarter.

Miralee...finally done!

It is about six months late, but my fantasy novel Miralee, is finally done! It will be ready for release as an ebook this weekend, first on Amazon Kindle, then on Smashwords (which supports various formats) during the following week. It will be available for a mere pittance, at only $0.99 a copy. Get yours.

Miralee is the story of Miralee (clever, huh?), a fifteen year old girl whose unnatural abilities force her from her village. While trying to break into the male-only bard's guild, she learns that she is being hunted by the mysterious Order of the Shadow Knights, a group renowned across Istey as demon killers.

Miralee has been on my plate for a long time. I wrote it originally as The Shadow Knight's Apprentice, and queried it out to numerous agents and publishers and got no bites. This is 2011 or so. I shelved it for a while and came back to it with fresh eyes. That resulted in almost a complete rewrite that is basically a prequel to the original story. Now with so much time invested in it, I am anxious to see it read. So I am bypassing the traditional publishing route and getting the electronic version on the market.

In the meantime, Dexter of Pozzelby, another fun fantasy novel is available in e-form for most major formats at Kindle and Smashwords, also for the low, low price of $0.99. Follow the links at the top of the page.

Social media and me

Lately, I've been expanding my social media network. Yes, as an author I was supposed to be on Goodreads years ago. Well now I am. I've also began to enjoy the simplicity of pinning things I like onto a virtual bulletin board; yes, I am on Pinterest too. For a while I had a separate author page on Facebook and a personal page. Now, it is all one and the same. I am still working on a new author's like page. So if you are on these media sites as well, look me up, join my network. I am always happy to meet new people.

Blow out!

To motivate me to get Miralee done and released sometime in the fall, I have reduced the price of all of my work. My short stories on Smashwords are now FREE! Yes, you heard me, absolutely free. Dexter of Pozzelby is now only $1.99 on Smashwords and Kindle. And these prices will remain this low at least until Miralee is released.

Good reading!

Oh the terrible heat

My last post was way back in June. It was about distractions. They continued in July, as July was The Month of Fun. I had front seats to Wicked (loved it!), saw Tenacious D, ran a 5K, there was San Diego Pride, and some other stuff. And through it all, San Diego got its share of the heat that has gripped the rest of the nation. That has been a distraction in and of itself. In San Diego very few people have AC, so when it gets hot, you just deal bear it. Not even most restaurants or stores have air, so there is no escape unless you go to theater or maybe Starbucks.

But some how, I finished a second edit of Miralee and am putting on it what I hope are the finishing touches. Things are looking good for a September/October release.

But today is Cityfest in Hillcrest, another distraction. And next weekend I am running the AFC Half-Marathon. Wish me luck!

Distractions

Life is full of distractions. My last two entries have been about one--exercise.

Exercise is certainly a worthwhile pastime. Few would dispute it. But it can be done to excess, like all things. When that happens, the things that matter suffer.

Perhaps, I've been guilty of this.

In February, I took a new job that required me to leave school. I figured it would give me lots of time to write. But I've been writing much less than I was when I was taking classes. Besides the job, the big difference is that I've been on a health kick. Exercise has become a daily, consuming activity. I like it, but I have to find a balance. That's always the key, isn't it? Finding balance.

If you don't have it, life finds it for you. In my case, I've been pushing my body too hard so my body pushed back with a strained achilles tendon, forcing me to take it easy for a few days. Probably, I should take it easy for longer, but I'm running a 5K Saturday and training for a half-marathon in August. I'll try to make some adjustments, find a balance.

Meanwhile, Miralee is being edited and will be ready for release in a couple of months. Then I can give my full concentration to Cawnor, which I am excited about and will seek a traditional publishing route. (I'm excited about releasing Miralee too, don't get me wrong.)

Wish me luck Saturday, I'll be at the Philip Rivers 5K in San Diego, benefitting foster children. Come out and see me (Or Phil) if you can.

KDP Select experiment over

As many of you know, in February I enrolled Dexter of Pozzelby and June Gloom and Golden Sand in Amazon's KDP Select program. This lets Amazon prime members borrow the book for free. For each lend, the author gets a percentage of a set amount put aside for the month. To enroll an ebook in KDP Select, the author has to remove it for sale from all other markets. Well, in my three months, I didn't lend one ebook. However, I did sell a few. So all of my work is out of KDP Select and once again available on Smashwords, and soon all of the Smashwords affiliates, like Barnes & Noble and Sony.

In other news, to pick up my last health related post, I went to the doctor today. In the seven weeks since I had last been there, I lost 21 pounds, and reduced my cholesterol by about 80 points, strictly through changing my diet and exercising. Woo hoo!