by Sarah | Apr 4, 2018 | All About Me, Blogging Life, Books, Changing Tracks, Escaping Humanity, General, Holiday, I'm A Writer, Masked Hearts, Publishing Credits, Redefining Perfect, Secret Cravings Publishing, The Tribe, Wordy Wednesday, Writing
On February 8, 2013 my very first novel was published.
At the time I was contracted with the fabulous small publishing company, Secret Cravings Publishing. Very excited, and a very unseasoned author.
Thankfully, through SCP I had some great mentors, supporters, and fellow authors braving the waters.
The past 5 years have been a whirlwind of ups and downs. I spent time writing thousands upon thousands of words, and spent months upon months unable to write a word. I’ve had months with sales beyond belief and months where I didn’t sell a single book. I branched out into self-publishing with a few small gambits, but then my publisher closed their doors and I had to dive in full-force.
Some days it’s truly hard to believe that it’s been five years. How much my life has changed. How much my goals have changed. How much I’ve first lost, and then re-found my love for this world.
These days I’m keeping crazy-busy in my personal life, but also in writing. I pulled all 6 of my original Dominion Falls Series books, the first books I published, last year. I’ve revised, revamped, and added words to the books. Now I’m re-publishing them. Getting back to my roots, and sending these books back out into the world, with a new little novella added on for good measure.
The next book in The Tribe series, which will be book 5 “The Child” is written and with the editor, due for release in July.
My best friend & co-author, Mary Terrani, and I finally released our book to the world, Escaping Humanity (The Exceptionals 1). We are in the middle of book 2, looking forward to a release at the end of the year, first of next. We’re also working with a fabulous artist to turn the book into a graphic novel.
I’m working to try to create a new cover for Masked Hearts so that I can re-release it in September.
I have notebooks with plans for new books, new series, more books in my existing series.
I went to my first conference as a signing author recently, and did well, and had so much fun.
I’m excited to continue doing what I love, and bring more stories into the world. I’ve had to revamp my views on my publishing career, what I want to do, and where I want to go with it. I’d become too sensitive to the numbers and to the “you should” and “you shouldn’t” voices and lost my way.
I feel good coming home to my characters again. I hope you’ll come on in and pull up an armchair, grab a book and join me. Get lost in one of my worlds for a while. They are fun, dangerous, mysterious, romantic, sweet, and spicy. You’ll be able to find something for your personal taste with me.
by Sarah | Dec 13, 2017 | All About Me, All of Us, Blogging Life, I'm A Writer, Redefining Perfect, Wordy Wednesday
In 2017 I sort of unintentionally stepped back from publishing.
From writing.
From…everything.
But this coming year?
This coming year is the year of the comeback in a lot of ways for me.
Biggest of all, is my publishing goals.
In 2018 I’ll be release nine books in total.
Three of those will be original, never before seen books. One in a brand new series, a new book in the Tribe series, and a new book in the Dominion Falls series.
Six will be the brand-spanking new revisions of the Dominion Falls series under my own imprint, and in print as well as ebook.
The final release will be the first time I re-release my standalone Historical Western Romance, Masked Hearts.
I have so much to do to get them all ready. It’s an exciting time, and an overwhelming time.
It’s time to buckle down…because it feels really good to be back in the world of words.
Come join me…it’s a fun place to be.
January 15th will be your chance for the new books.
If you haven’t checked me out yet…take a gander at MY AMAZON PAGE.
by Sarah | Jun 17, 2016 | Books, General, Goals, Writing
June has been up and down for me. I made some major progress, but then crashed and burned when once again real life took a bite out of me.
The Wolf was released and is picking up in sales for it and The Tribe. I’m a hair away from finishing Red Zone, and made myself a list of all planned books (totaling 40, for the record).
So, when the real world stops getting its rocks off by kicking me in the teeth, I’m doing pretty well. I just wish I had a lot more time for writing. This second job is going to kill me…but the bills must be paid. ~sigh~
Onto the update!
First, my overall goals for the year…
- I’ve challenged myself to write 600,000 words in 2016. (at 229,644 as of 6/16/16. Not a huge leap from last check-in, but it’s only been 2 weeks, so I’m not disappointed.)
- I will build my audience and work harder at promotion. (This is going GREAT. Been talking with my publicist guru and she’s gotten me many new reviews, and given me great ideas on how to build. My sales are slowly starting to be impacting by the efforts.)
- I will regain my focus. (Getting better. Kids out of school and here all the time is throwing me off. Still, doing my best.)
- I will face my demon/salvation – the one story I’m afraid of. (Nope, not even a little bit yet)
- I will decide by July if I will return to Lake Point in 2017. (Still not a clue)
- I will prep all the things for print. ALL. The. Things. (Tribe and Wolf are in print. The Chief is next. I’m working on a few other things on the side when I can.)
- I will update my author website. (Just started. It’ll be slow going, but I have pages up for The Tribe series, which are my front runners right now. As I go, I’ll be adding all the books again).
And next is my list of projects. The list seems small without all the Lake Point books of the past on it, but I’m sure it will change and grow over the year. The books in ORANGE are current works-in-progress. The books in BLUE are new to the game.
- Into a Mirror Darkly (Morgana Chronicles 1) – 100k (~10k done)
- Dust Raiser (Dominion Falls 6) – 100k (Title Change!!)
- Dead Man’s Switch (Dominion Falls 7) – 100k
- Red Zone (Dominion Falls 5.5) – 40k (~32.5k done)
- The Raven (The Tribe #4) – 85k (DONE 5/15/16)
- The Child (The Tribe #5) – 85k
- Auld Lang Syne (Lake Point 12.5 ~ Revisiting Old Stories)
- Untitled Project (Hand Delivered Book 1) ~ 40k
- Escaping Humanity (Co-authoring w/ Mary Terrani) – 100k (60k done)
- Masked Hearts – Create new cover and re-release this one last SCP book (Plan to work on this in July)
- Fall (Hidden Senses #1) ~30k
Definitely still a big struggle this year. By making a list of all my books really has helped me find some more focus. Now if, like I said, real life would stop kicking me in the teeth I might get more accomplished. I have two more Tribe books scheduled for release in the coming months. I have more planned, and I have plans to release the re-vamped Dominion Falls series as well as getting some new books in that series on the way, and another series planned, not to mention the Lake Point series.
Many plans, but still struggling to find the time to get it all done. But I will. One way or another.
by Sarah | May 25, 2016 | Books, Challenge, General, Goals, Writing
How is it that it’s already May? My last update was in February…and then March was the month of sheer, utter hell around these parts. The bad sh*t kept happening. So there was little-no writing of any kind. By April I was working two jobs, and working too many hours at them…
Around Mid-April I started to get my ducks in a row finally. Then this week I set about really putting my big girl panties on and getting back down to business.
Through all of the chaos of my home life…I still managed to accomplish some good things like an ebook/print release in March (one sure shining spot), a few book tours that got me a bunch of lovely reviews, and another release coming up in about two weeks. Plus, this week I’ve actually gotten some words on the page again!
So, let’s see where I am in the goals I’d set. I hardly remember what I said, so this is going to be a journey to get through these for me. 🙂
First, my overall goals for the year…
- I’ve challenged myself to write 600,000 words in 2016. (at 212,324 as of 5/24/16. Running behind, but catching up.)
- I will build my audience and work harder at promotion. (This is going GREAT. Been talking with my publicist guru and she’s gotten me many new reviews, and given me great ideas on how to build. My sales are slowly starting to be impacting by the efforts.)
- I will regain my focus. (Struggling here. I lost my mojo–and the practices I’d put in place to keep on track. I’m re-establishing several of them now and trying to get back into the game.)
- I will face my demon/salvation – the one story I’m afraid of. (Nope, not even a little bit yet)
- I will decide by July if I will return to Lake Point in 2017. (Still not a clue)
- I will prep all the things for print. ALL. The. Things. (Tribe is done, I have The Wolf all set, and it’s onto the next. This is going on! I have a LOT of books to get through yet, but I have my print-formatting basis down. Loving it.)
And next is my list of projects. The list seems small without all the Lake Point books of the past on it, but I’m sure it will change and grow over the year. The books in ORANGE are current works-in-progress. The books in BLUE are new to the game.
- Into a Mirror Darkly (Morgana Chronicles 1) – 100k (~10k done)
- Switchback (Dominion Falls 6) – 100k
- Dead Man’s Switch (Dominion Falls 7) – 100k
- Red Zone (Dominion Falls 5.5) – 40k (~18k done)
- The Raven (The Tribe #4) – 85k (DONE 5/15/16)
- The Child (The Tribe #5) – 85k
- Auld Lang Syne (Lake Point 12.5 ~ Revisiting Old Stories)
- Untitled Project (Hand Delivered Book 1) ~ 40k
- Escaping Humanity (Co-authoring w/ Mary Terrani) – 100k (60k done)
- Masked Hearts – Create new cover and re-release this one last SCP book (Plan to work on this this week)
- Fall (Hidden Senses #1) ~30k
Clearly this year has been a struggle for me. I’m really determined to make sure the worst has passed. There will be days I don’t write, depending on editing, formatting, and the slew of other tasks I have to complete, but if I stay on target and write some every day, and keep my editing deadlines instead of pushing them back–I could see everything on my lists accomplished.
Now if only I could find those elusive EXTRA hours to add to my day. Any clue where to find those?
On February 8, 2013 my very first novel was published.
