Reborn cover reveal & What Works and What Doesn't Marketing Symposium

To save a kingdom, a prophetess must challenge Fate.

On the day of Yssa’s death and rebirth, the god Apenth chose her as the Phoenix Prophetess.

Sea serpents and gods endanger the young prophetess’s journey and sour the omens. Yssa is cursed instead of blessed, and her duties at the Temple of Apenth prove it. She spends her days reading dusty scrolls, which does nothing to help her forget Tym, the boy back home. But the annoying yet gorgeous ferryman’s son Liam proves to be a distraction she can’t predict, even though he rarely leaves her alone for two sand grains.

Her boring temple life screeches to a halt when visions of her parents’ murders consume her. Yssa races across an ocean to stop the future. If she can’t change Fate, she’ll refuse to be the Phoenix Prophetess any longer. Fate, however, has other plans for her and the kingdom.

Yssa must either accept her destiny or fight to change Fate.

Reborn, book one of The Fate Challenges, by Cherie Reich will be released on May 23, 2014. For more information about Cherie and her work, please visit her website or blog. The cover art is created by Laura Sava. To add on Goodreads, click here. If you'd like to be notified when Reborn releases, please sign up for the newsletter here.

Do you ever wonder why some books become bestsellers while others can barely be given away? Why some businesses succeed and others fail? How does a blog post or a YouTube video manage to go viral? Is it a matter of luck or is there some magic formula for success?

With our wonderful hosts,  Arlee Bird, Yolanda Renee, Jeremy Hawkins, and Alex J. Cavanaugh, maybe we can latch on to some of the secrets and tricks that make success happen or what we might want to avoid. Tell us your stories of success (or not so successful) as we present a blogging event that will help us learn. Tell us about a marketing idea that you've used and what worked or didn't work. Your post could describe a campaign that succeeded in a big or small way or one that failed drastically. Tell us about a business campaign, an organizational event, a fundraiser – anything where a bit of promotion was necessary!

Click here to sign up and visit other participants. Let's share and learn today!

Here's what worked and what didn't work last year during my promotion for the 13th Floor series.

What worked:
- Goodreads giveaway. Lots of exposure. Over 1300 people entered.
- Guest posts with helpful writing tips.
- Making the first book of the series free.

What didn't work:
- Rafflecopter giveaways. I had one each time I released a novella. I progressively got less and less people entering the giveaways as the tours went on.
- Guest posts with interviews, excerpts, or character posts. I did get some comments, but people seemed to have more interest and commented more when I offered them helpful tips.
- Book release tours with several hosts a day. It was too many for people to visit. One host a day seems to be best, or at the very least, much easier on me!

Friday Five for January 17, 2014

1. I'm almost at the end of draft 2 of my paranormal romance WIP. I have less than 5k to go. I rewrote the entire final battle. Last night, the villain did something that was simple and made complete sense. Why didn't I think of this before? It was awesome. I wanted to shout "Bravo!" Then I realized that was the villain. Drat. Okay, protagonist, you need to be equally as clever.

2. I came across a book I could not finish for the first time in a long while. I couldn't get past 10% on my Kindle. I only mention this because I felt really bad about it. I wanted to finish it. Is it strange I felt guilty?

3. My little guy had his first after school special on Wednesday. It's an Animal Science class that goes for six weeks. They learned about frogs. They put sticky jelly on their fingers and felt how it stuck to surfaces. Then they ate goldfish crackers using only their tongues to pick it up. He was really excited about it. (Plus mama got extra time to write!) I'm so pleased I enrolled him in a play-based cooperative preschool. I've been reading a lot of articles lately that reported upon the benefits of this type of preschool. Now that play-based preschools have been around for a while, several studies have shown how well it nurtures a love for school and learning. It is especially effective with boys, and studies have followed students up through the sixth grade with positive results.

4. I'm doing better with finding my balance, but I'm not there yet. I still spend too much time online when I should be writing. I've been going to bed at a better time, though, and that's helped during the days. I also take a little more time at night before bed to wind down. I sit in bed and read or watch a half hour show. Maybe I should use one of those timers and kid blockers to keep myself off the internet! Hmm, hey, not a bad idea. Anyone else ever try that?

5. I have my local critique group meeting tomorrow. Other than that, no plans for the weekend. What about you?

Wicked Wednesday - What PNR author websites need

I've been doing a lot of cleaning and organizing these past few weeks. Online and offline. One of my projects this year will be to design a new website. A big deal since I have no web design experience, and I can't afford to have anyone else do it for me.

My current website is okay. I do like the template. (It was free!) But does it represent me as an author and my books? No.

My website wishlist: easy to navigate, easy to update, wicked, dark, and sexy.

So I've been doing some research and visiting a lot of paranormal romance author sites. Here's what I've found a PNR author needs on the home page of her site.

1) The color red. Dangerous and passionate. Most sites have a lot of red. The unofficial color of PNR authors? (E.g. Kresley Cole and Jennifer Lyon.)

2) A kick-butt heroine featured in the heading or background. (One of my favorite sites based on appearance and ease of use: Keri Arthur.)  OR a hot guy (human or not) in the heading or background. (E.g. Larissa Ione.) 

3) A quirky, sexy, or magical welcome to the site. Something a little different than the standard news scroll or "Buy my books!" (E.g. Alyssa Day.)

4) Book covers. Some covers are gorgeous, and I can see why authors make them the feature attraction. (E.g. Rachel Vincent and Sherrilyn Kenyon.)

5) A background to set the right atmosphere. Dark and mysterious. (E.g. Jennifer Estep.)

Do you have a website? If you do, did you have it designed to fit your genre?

Teaser Tuesday with Fireseed One

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

This YA futuristic thriller is not like anything I've read before. In a very good way! FIRESEED ONE by Catherine Stine takes place in the not so distant future. Have you ever wondered what would happen if the Arctic ice melted? This is very well what might occur. I'm loving it so far!

Here's your teaser:
"Under no circumstances," I tell her.
Under no circumstances until we've been in flight for three hours over high desert and my facial blisters have popped and new ones have formed over the popped ones. (71% on my Kindle)

My Writing Goals for 2014

2013 was a great writing year for me, but one that took away time from other aspects in my life. (And how fitting I'm writing this post on the 13th!) I will attempt to make 2014 a year more about balance and organization. I even started off the year with a very clean and organized house. That also includes my online home. Hopefully organizing everything will help me make better use of my time.

Now for my writing goals!

Novel #1 - Revise and query. This is a paranormal romance I wrote at the end of 2011. I didn't like the ending I had scribbled down, and so it sat for a while until I was ready to come back to it. There are hot vampires and some unusual demons. I believe it has a great hook and will be highly marketable. Plus, it made me laugh and cry. That's a good sign.

Novel #2 - Revise and query. With a bit of POW! and a lot more ZAP!, I'll be marketing my superhero novel. I've been a comic book geek since I was a kid, but only recently have I started researching the genre by reading novels. Mine is very different from anything I've read. I hope that's a good thing!

Short stories - Write 6 / Submit 6 for the year. I would love to be able to do one every month, but with working on two novels, I won't have the time. I didn't have any acceptances the last half of 2013, and it depressed me. I was aiming high for an acceptance by a SFWA approved venue, though. I was short-listed a couple of times. That's closer than I've ever gotten before.

The A to Z Blogging Challenge - I've been going back and forth about it, but due to my time restrictions especially in April, I will not be participating in the Challenge this year on this blog. BUT I will be sharing the Challenge with my fellow Untethered Realms writers. We'll each have our days on the UR blog. I'm excited about it. I'm so honored to be a part of this talented group.

NaNoWriMo 2014 - I want to say yes. Let's make it a tentative yes. We'll have to see where I am with my novels in November. The novels have priority this year.

Balance writing, marketing, and home life - Home life comes first. No more grumpy mommy because she didn't get enough sleep. Writing comes in second. I wrote a lot last year, but I spent even more time marketing and networking. This year, I want to set weekly goals for writing. If I reach the goal, I can add extra time to networking, but only if I get my writing work done first. Balance is difficult for me, but I know it's vital to making me a happy person.

Don't forget to check out my post about sticking to your writing goals on the UR blog!

What are your writing goals for the year?

Friday Five for January 10, 2014

1. A bit of a rough week. School was canceled all week due to the weather and the after-effects of the frigid temperatures. I was stuck in the house for three days straight with a 3.5 year old. Cabin fever and I became reacquainted. One night, I watched a documentary about the Donner Party and wondered what if that happened in a modern city. Story idea?

2. I managed to do a little bit of writing work, but not as much as I planned. I wanted to be finished the 2nd draft of my WIP, but I still have about 10k to go. I keep telling myself I have no deadline except for what I set, but I'm still working with being flexible with myself.

3. Speaking of flexibility, I wrote about setting writing goals on the Untethered Realms blog this week. I'll be posting my 2014 writing goals on Monday.

4. I had a great review for The 13th Floor Complete Collection on BigAl's Books & Pals. The reviewer said the bonus short story, "The Shadow" was a 5 star addition to the series. Woot!

5. I baked a lot, cleaned some more, and played Uno Moo dozens of times. It always evolves into a story about a farmer and a family of skunks who like to sit on the roof of the barn. I do love it that my son is really big into imaginative play.

Have a terrific weekend!

IWSG for January 2013 and an interview with me

The Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) is the brilliant idea of Alex J. Cavanaugh. The purpose of the group is to share doubts and insecurities and to encourage one another. Please visit the other participants and share your support. A kind word goes a long way.

I was ready to write an inspirational post and cheer you all on as the year begins. Start off 2014 with positive thoughts and a good plan.

Then I fell into a mud puddle. I haven't had time to write yet. A week into the new year, and I haven't written anything new. School was canceled due to the horrible weather. My child has found a new super-duper clingy stage. Not a single moment allowed alone for me. The main time I get for myself to write is when the boy is at school. I haven't had any time in nearly three weeks!

To rub it in, I got a rejection to a story I forgot I sent out last year. I thought I'd received all my rejections last month, but I guess I forgot to write this one down. I can taste the grit of the mud now.

I'll stand, splash a few times in the puddle, and then carry on. It wasn't the start to the new year I'd planned, but I'll keep pushing forward on my journey.

How was the start to your new year?

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Please pop over to Ellie Garratt's blog for an interview with me.

Find out what my favorite cheesy movies are and tell us yours!