RED SKY WARNING now available on Kindle and Nook!

I’m excited, without a doubt, to be able to say that my second book, Red Sky Warning, is now available for purchase on Kindle (support ticket in about the image, long story) and Nook and at Smashwords for other formats. It will become available on Kobo and Sony Ereader, and at iTunes over the next few weeks. The paperback should be available within 2 weeks.

I feel like I should be more eloquent about it all but I’m currently a mixture of exhausted and thrilled 🙂

Early feedback has been that it’s even better than the first, and that is something I love to hear!

To make up for my current quiet, please check out The-Cheap.net for today’s feature (me) and a guest post I wrote for them, which is supposed to appear on an affiliated site. At this early hour (pre-6 am) I don’t see either posted yet. I will update with links here when they do become available.

Coming soon: A blog about how incredibly different “Publishing, Round 2” turned out to be!

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Red Sky Warning – Back Cover Description + Cover

Each day I get a little closer to the publication of my 2nd book. I published the first with barely a chirp, but was still excited. Now people are actually looking forward to it and that adds a whole new level of thrills.

~*~

In this fast-paced follow-up to Wendy L. Young’s debut novel, Come the Shadows, the mystery deepens…

Will and Laura Harmon are trying to get on with their lives but are left reeling when a vicious hit-and-run sends Laura to the hospital. With all the recent changes in Campbell Creek Will has a long list of suspects – and few leads.

One thing is clear: Someone wants Laura dead and Will has to stop them in time.

But who from Campbell Creek’s shadowy past is behind the threats on Laura’s life and can Will figure out the mystery before tragedy strikes again?

~*~

PS It has come to my attention that, for some reason, those using IE 8 or earlier are unable to see the cover images on my blog. I apologize but all I can say is either update the browser or join the Firefox crew 😉

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Cover Art – Red Sky Warning

It’s here! Last night we finalized the cover art for the next book in the Campbell Creek Mysteries: Red Sky Warning.

Only 3 weeks to go!

We also tweaked the original just a little. This is a 3-part series and the covers all work together. It’s a learning process. When I put out book one the most forward-thinking I could go was just to get it done and out and available. In retrospect I would have punched up 1 even more so 2 and 3 could get the same treatment but at this point I think it’s more important to not flip number one on it’s head with a brand new cover, and to keep them consistent. I want people to look at them and recognized they go together as a series. I have so many books rumbling around in my head, and some will involve the same main characters more than once, but these are the three that truly are linked.

I also know the title of the last book already but am no where near having the cover art done. We were going to go ahead and start it but found out the picture I had is unsuitable. Back to the drawing board…

One last note:

The image from Come the Shadows is 100% mine. The image on Red Sky Warning is courtesy my mom, who has been incredibly supportive of my writing.

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Review and Interview – Norma Budden loves Come the Shadows

I’ve been connecting with a lot more people on both Twitter and Goodreads lately. Social media is such an important part of the new Author Paradigm, as Karen Baney pointed out here recently, and it comes with pleasant surprises and support.

Author Norma Budden took the time to pick up my book and give a very nice review of it on her blog and on Amazon. We also had a chat and she has posted an interview of me today.

Back to the edit/rewrite closet I go 🙂 This week is devoted to writing 8 chapters (mine are all 3-5 pages) that were not in the first draft. I’m the backwards lady that always has to add…. 🙂

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Second Verse, Harder than the First

I’ve read multiple lines that all say the same thing:

The second novel is much harder to write than the first

I breezed through the first draft of my second novel, Red Sky Warning, spending almost one less month writing it than I spent on the first book, Come the Shadows.

Great, right? Commence back-patting.

But the hip-hip-hoorays were short-lived. Only when I dove into the editing did I see the true nature of the idea that the second novel is harder than the first. Writing is more than just the first draft. It’s a process with many stages, layering onto the piece everything that makes it a good read in the end, and frequently ripping out a bits – large and small – in the process. In those changes the work truly takes flight, but it’s work, plain and simple.

I am finding that, contrary to what I hoped, editing the second book is far more challenging than the first. Come the Shadows was an inspired idea while Red Sky Warning is a much more cerebral exercise of continuing that story. I knew how I wanted book two to end but not exactly how I wanted to get there.

I took a few other ideas and added them in. Some of them I am now having to take out. The overall story has worked out very well, and I think it is a great follow-up piece, but it needs…refinement… that the first book did not need, or at least did not require to the same degree.

So yes, I must agree with the statement that it is much harder to write the second novel than the first, but what an experience! I know my craft grows and with challenge comes improvement. It will only get better (even if it won’t get easier) from here.

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November is all about excitement

November is going to be an incredibly busy month! I release Red Sky Warning at the end of the month on November 29th. Just before it I will have appearances on other blogs, TBA (and very open to invites 😉 ).  I also hope to release a short story in the middle of the month if I have the time. And to start it all off, at the beginning of the month I will participate in this launch party, hosted by the Women’s Literary Cafe!

Busy, exciting, wonderful times ahead!

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Playing Catch-Up

It’s time to play catch-up.

Or drag my feet.

Whichever way you want to look at it.

Thursday evening I completely finished my massive typing job. I was disappointed to find out the book is currently only 48.5k words (Come the Shadows is 66k, almost exactly average for the genre) but know that editing turns into ADDING for me, instead of taking away. I write so quickly, with my mind jumping from one thought to the next, that I frequently leave out everything but the bare bones. That leaves me putting in the softer bits as I edit.

Here’s where the feet dragging starts. I love the results of editing. I know every change makes the book better. However, I really don’t like editing. And, well, I haven’t started it yet. I’m putting it off until Monday.

Before you go getting ideas of pedicures, days in the sun, and lazy naps I have to point out that I fill my feet-dragging time with more work, thank you very much. It’s a personality flaw.

So, while I drag my feet on editing Red Sky Warning (which comes out Nov 29th) I am doing other important stuff.

I am re-editing Come the Shadows.

Yeah, the girl who hates editing, is reediting the first book.

I’m not changing characters, plot or any other information. But I have found some errors I need to get corrected. Most people probably won’t notice them, but some will, and it’s my duty to give the most error-free work I can. If you have purchased an earlier copy and you find errors, please accept my apologies. I hate them, but find it very hard to catch them all even with numerous pairs of eyes looking for them. No excuses, just know that I hate them and I want to destroy them 10x more than you don’t want to see them. (Confused? Sorry 😉 )

I am half way through that process on Come the Shadows. I committed to finishing the full read and mark-up tonight, and actually implementing all changes and updating 4 different sites tomorrow (with different files) to ensure that moving forward there are fewer errors. I wish I could say it’s error-free but how often is a book completely error-free? Yeah.

That leaves me with the set-in-stone commitment to start the diligent, sweat-inducing editing of Red Sky Warning this Monday and gives me seven weeks to complete it. Yahoo. I love deadlines. Without them I’d never get anything done.

I’m not working alone this weekend, either. My lovely husband is hard at work on the cover for Red Sky Warning and I hope to share it with you all soon.

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