Today’s my birthday, and I thought it would be nice to give all my followers/fans/readers/etc. a gift. So for today only I’ve made a coupon code for Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris, so that you can get it for free from Smashwords. There are a ton of formats available there, including ones compatible with Nook, iPad, Kindle, and your PC or Mac (you can even read it right in your browser).

All you need to do is use coupon code QA45Z when you check out (it’s not case sensitive) and you’ll get it for free.

Alternatively, if you’d like to give me a birthday gift, you can purchase Aboard the Unstoppable Aerostat Fenris on Smashwords, Amazon (and in the UK), and Barnes & Noble. Or you can buy The Great Healion Race from Smashwords, Amazon (also  in the UK), and Barnes & Noble. If you’ve already bought the books, you might consider leaving a review on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, or Goodreads (here or here) for either one (or both)!

I’ll be taking down the coupon code sometime this evening (April 18th), so if you want the free copy, get it early (you don’t have to download it right away, so you can “purchase” it now and then download it whenever it’s convenient).

Feel free to share this post on Twitter, Facebook, etc. to spread the word!

The Great Healion Race, book two of The Steam and Steel Chronicles should be out sometime during the first week in April. The proofreading is done, the cover is done, and half of the formatting is done (the HTML half). Once I finish the formatting, I plan to write a post detailing how I do it for those of you interested in formatting your own ebooks. I’m still perfecting my workflow, but hopefully this book will go much smoother than the last one (which was nothing but headaches).

First, here’s a look at the cover:

Read the rest of this entry »

In the traditional publishing world, reviews and interviews are generally lined up ahead of launch. That’s because it’s important for books to sell well in the first week or two after they’re released if they want to maintain shelf space in bookstores. Many bookstores only give new releases three weeks or so to prove their worth, and if they don’t sell in that time, they’re returned to the publisher.

Indie authors aren’t as affected by initial sales. We can be in it for the long haul, especially with ebooks. There are countless stories of indie authors who only sold a dozen books in their first few months, and then suddenly took off and have now sold thousands (Lexi Revellian is just one such author, and I’m proud to say I was a beta reader for the book that has now done so well—if you like mystery and/or romance novels, go check out Remix!). So lackluster initial sales are nothing to fret over. Read the rest of this entry »

UPDATE: Please see the update at the end of this post!

The book cover giveaway announced on January 3rd is now officially over, and we have our winners! The winners were chosen randomly, using the Random.org random number generator.

So, drumroll please…the winners are:

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m still having a hard time getting my head around the idea that it’s almost 2011. My New Years’ Day started out on a horrible note, as both of our vehicles were broken into sometime after 2am that day. Thankfully, I hadn’t left my camera or anything else important in them (which I have a tendency to do). But they still stole my stereo and broke the power seat adjuster on my husband’s vehicle. It was not the way I wanted to start out our year. But I think our day yesterday, spent aboard the Conway Scenic Railway for their “Steam in the Snow” ride wiped out the negativity of the first.

An update on my resolutions for this year: I finished the first draft of one of my screenplays (which is now tentatively titled Two in Winter and is being workshopped on Zoetrope.com‘s Virtual Studio). And I’m about half way through the first draft of other screenplay I mentioned in my last post. I’m hoping to finish that by the middle of the month.

Now, on to the giveaway! Read the rest of this entry »