Goodreads Chats, Taking Over the Dreamspinner Press Blog, and Giveaways!

When A Casual Weekend Thing released, I hiked down into Bryce Canyon and tried to hide there for the entire week. This time around, it's too cold. So, I'm going to try to do the usual promo stuff.

In addition to my "I can't keep the paper back copies of this where innocent eyes, or my mother-in-law, might find them!" giveaway, I'll be....

Friday: I'm taking over the Dreamspinner Press Blog on Friday! I'll be posting, and chatting,  throughout the day on Friday, and giving away an ebook copy of Sex & Sourdough!

Saturday: I will be doing a Meet the Author chat on the Dreamspinner Press Goodreads Group, from 9:00am - 12:00pm PCT, with another giveaway!

Come join me for a chance to win!

Enter to Win One of 4 Signed Paperback Copies of Sex & Sourdough!

TODAY I am opening up my giveaway to celebrate the release of Sex & Sourdough! I will be giving away 4 free signed paper-back copies on this blog! Here's the blurb:

Anders Blankenship never intended to hike the Appalachian Trail alone, but when his boyfriend cancels, Anders steels his courage, leaving the abusive relationship to tackle the long-distance hike. Though a hiking virgin, he’s glad he made the decision when he receives threatening messages from his ex. Luckily, Kevin, an experienced backpacker, takes him under his wing.

Kevin Winters isn’t looking for a hiking partner, let alone a fling with a cute man on the rebound. After learning he has the autoimmune disorder that killed his father, Kevin left his family to wander remote trails. Convinced his future holds only pain and death, Kevin refuses to get close to anyone. The family sourdough recipes he recreates over a campfire are his only solace.

In the wilderness, Anders and Kevin discover a lot of common ground. While the future holds uncertainties they may not be ready to deal with, it might also hold the chance for happiness.

The contest will be open until 8:00 PM PST December 31^st, 2013.

 

Official Rules:

1. To enter, leave a comment on THIS post with a valid email address, or a comment on the corresponding Goodreads post. If you're really uncomfortable leaving your email address, you'll still receive an entry in the drawing for commenting, but you'll have to check back to see the Winners announcement on January 1st!
    
2. By entering, you're stating that you are at least 18 years of age.
   
   
3. Winners will be selected using the fun randomizer tool at Random.org. Because it's neat, free, totally objective, and some twit commandeered the Santa hat I like to draw numbers from for drawings.
   
   
4. Winners will be notified by email and will have 48 hours to reply and tell me where they would like their copy sent.

Also on the agenda:

Friday, December 13th: Sex & Sourdough officially becomes available for purchase! I'll be posting some background info about the book, here and possibly on the Dreamspinner Press Blog!

Saturday, December 14th: I'm scheduled for a Meet the Author chat on the Dreamspinner Press Goodreads Group, provided I don't chicken out. And, I'll be giving away a free ebook to one lucky participant during the chat session!

Cover Art and Updates!

LOTS of updates today! I'm really tempted to create three long, complicated posts to avoid actually working on my National Novel Writing Month project. So, they're all going up at once.

 I got the final cover art for Sex & Sourdough this morning! The cover below was designed by Dreamspinner Press artist Aaron Anderson, and I'm really looking forward to the December 13th release! There is so much to this story, I can't wait to share it!

 

Anders Blankenship never intended to hike the Appalachian Trail alone, but when his boyfriend cancels, Anders steels his courage, leaving the abusive relationship to tackle the long-distance hike. Though a hiking virgin, he’s glad he made the decision when he receives threatening messages from his ex. Luckily Kevin, an experienced backpacker, takes him under his wing.

Kevin Winters isn’t looking for a hiking partner, let alone a fling with a cute man on the rebound. After learning he has the autoimmune disorder that killed his father, Kevin left his family to wander remote trails. Convinced his future holds only pain and death, Kevin refuses to get close to anyone. The family sourdough recipes he recreates over a campfire are his only solace.

In the wilderness, Anders and Kevin discover a lot of common ground. While the future holds uncertainties they may not be ready to deal with, it might also hold the chance for happiness.

Read an excerpt!
Pre-Order!









In other news, Holding Out for a Fairy Tale, my sappy take on Ray and Elliot from A Casual Weekend Thing is officially under contract! It's slated for a May, 2014 release date.


Also, I'm proud to announce A Casual Weekend Thing is a Rainbow Awards Mystery/Thriller finalist! (I know, finalists were announced a while ago, but when I went to update this blog, I got distracted by something shiny....)


And now back to the NaNoWriMo craziness I go!

Holding Out for a Fairy Tale...?

My current work in progress is always affectionately referred to as "the damn book." When I've got to write the climax and want to skip to the ending, I complain that I have to finish the damn book. If I really want to start a new project rather than make dinner, I announce that I'm ordering pizza because I need to finish outlining the damn book. It stays the damn book through the entire writing process, from outline to rough draft edits. It's not until I begin to put together query letters that I ask the dreaded question: "What do I call the damn book?"

I suck at coming up with titles. I really, really do. I agonize over them. I come up with lists, think about the connotation of every single word, and then cross-out everything on the list. It sometimes takes me longer to pin down a title than it does to outline a novel, and I almost always give up.

So, what do I do? At a loss for an appropriate name, I end up going through the text while editing and looking for any phrase that I can rip out of context that might sound interesting. It's a creative cop-out, but I did it again this time.

Ray & Elliot's story, tentatively entitled Holding Out for a Fairy Tale, is done and will hopefully need one more proofread before being submitted later this week.

You can read a short excerpt at: Holding Out for a Fairy Tale.

I don't think any special warnings need to accompany the excerpt, but I'll post something worthy of a warning label as the story works its way through the submission process:)

I'm an AMB Ovation Awards Finalist!

I've just learned I'm a finalist for the The AMB Ovation Awards for Outstanding Author in GLBT Literature for A Casual Weekend Thing! Not even in the Debut Author category, which my fragile ego is taking to mean I'm now counted among writers who do this kind of thing professionally! The award strives to recognize "published romance authors who addressed a challenge, problem, or issue facing AA/IR/Multicultural couples today in their romance novels."


This is the first I've heard of the award and I am thrilled by the nomination!

The notice also shed a bit of light in an otherwise stressful transition in my life. I've spent the last few weeks living in a hotel, awaiting a housing assignment at my dear husband's new duty station. Entertaining three little kids in a hotel kitchenette isn't as easy as one might think, even when there's cable TV, because the novelty of living in a hotel loses its appeal really fast. One of the many joys of this transition is that this particular military base hotel has spotty wi-fi, and even spottier cellular coverage. The standing-on-the-dresser acrobatics needed for 3G access were fun, but the last thing my kids needed was to come to the conclusion that climbing the furniture is a good way to pass the time.

So, needless to say, I've been out of touch. Getting my computer unpacked and having regular internet access again was a relief, and finding such awesome news in all of the unread email I still have to sort through made my day.

I wanted to share the news and extend my thanks to everybody who's taken a chance on A Casual Weekend Thing!

And for those cynical friends who know me offline.... I swear, the name of the award is just a neat coincidence. Angie is an awesome, beautiful, and under-appreciated, name.

Sex & Sourdough Is Under Contract!

I'm so excited to announce that Sex & Sourdough, my 2012 NANO project (finished only six months late) is now under contract with Dreamspinner Press! It's slated for a December 2013-January 2014 release date!

Here's a rough blurb:

Anders Blankenship never intended to try hiking the Appalachian Trail alone, but when his abusive boyfriend cancels on their summer plans, Anders steels his courage and tackles the daunting long distance hike alone, leaving his boyfriend in the process. He lucks out when an experienced backpacker, who goes by the name Sourdough, takes him under his wing. Kevin Winters isn’t looking for a hiking partner. He definitely isn’t looking to be Anders’s rebound fling, no matter how cute the other man is. After years of watching a debilitating autoimmune disorder kill his father, the news that Kevin had the same condition hit him so hard that he grabbed a backpack and walked away from his home and family at the Rock Creek Bakery. He has wandered remote hiking trails ever since, refusing to get close to anyone because he is convinced the only thing his future holds is pain and death. His only consolation comes from the family sourdough recipes he recreates over a campfire. When he finds Anders stuck at the beginning of the Appalachian Trail, the easy friendship that forms between them threatens to break through Kevin’s self-imposed isolation.

Despite his ex’s obsessive voice mails, Anders is ready to move on. He makes no secret of how much he wants Kevin, but Kevin’s disease has left him convinced that Anders can’t possibly be sincere. When Kevin finally gives in to his desires, their friendship morphs into an intense physical relationship that leaves both men reeling. As the summer ends and Anders goes back to school, Kevin’s disease wreaks havoc on his heart, forcing him into the hospital. By the time Anders realizes how miserable he is without Kevin, and confronts his ex-turned-stalker who is still trying to insinuate himself into Anders’s life, Kevin has vanished. Anders searches from New England to California, following gossip and rumors in his desperate search for Kevin. When Anders finally finds Kevin, he has to persuade Kevin that facing the uncertainties of a future together is worth the risk, even if those uncertainties include medical problems and homicidal ex-boyfriends.

I'm really pleased with this one, even if it's still rough around the edges, because it's my first crack at a contemporary m/m romance. When I write, it's so hard for me to think of the relationship itself as the plot. I inevitably end up trying to include some kind of homicidal maniac by the end. Did I manage to keep the plot focused on the relationship this time around? No. But it came really close!

Giveaway Winners!

The Contest is Over!

It's is 8:04 PST! The giveaway entry period is officially over! 

Congratulations to our four winners: Penumbra, Zora, zeoanne, and Humsini Murali! I will be sending out emails here shortly, and if any of the winners don't get back to me within 48 hours, I will draw another number from the hat. 

And now I can stop pimping this giveaway on my other stories around the internet and get on with this daily writing thing.