There's Still Time!

I know April Fool's Day is tomorrow, but I am not pulling your leg.

I'm giving away my books.

Yep, that's right. For the first time ever,  I am offering up a free copy of my novella. A Regency Yuletide is a Christmas novel which is short, sweet, and tied up with a red ribbon. Any month of the year is a good month to read about the magic of Christmas. There are a few copies remaining, so head on over to the link and add this to your Kindle TBR pile:

https://claims.prolificworks.com/free/8twdm

Book Six in the Cotillion Ball series released last week, too. The Duplicitous Debutante features Rosemary Fitzpatrick, who has created a business for herself as the author of dime novels in 1850s New York. However, no one is aware that the author of this wildly successful series is a woman. Dime novels were the precursor to the paperback book of today. They opened the door for millions of Americans to read for pleasure for the first time. Thanks to a combination of better education, revolutions in printing, and a less demanding work schedule, people now had time to read, and the dime novel was what they were reading. Here's a cover example of the dime novel.

Most of these tales were over-the-top stories about America's wild west. Here's a bit of Rosemary's offerings about her hero, Harry Hawk: 

Harry Hawk and the Tycoon’s Daughter—Book Six in the Harry Hawk Series

Harry Hawk stared down the barrel of his Colt .45. A huge Sioux Indian was in his sights, but was holding the girl in front of him as a shield. Her eyes were as big as saucers as she struggled against the man, and she trembled as she kept her eyes on the end of Harry’s gun.

“What are you doing, Screaming Eagle?” Harry tried to keep the exasperation out of his voice.

“Her father is running the railroad through Sioux land.”

“And by kidnapping his daughter, you think he’ll sit down and smoke a peace pipe with you?”

The Indian tossed back his long, straight, black hair and tightened his hold on the woman. Harry’s grip on his gun tightened as well when her whimper reached his ears.

“Come on, you’re doing the wrong thing and you know it.”

“White man does us wrong, we do same.”

“And two wrongs don’t make a right.” Harry glanced from the sniveling woman to the Indian. “Your father would not be pleased with this behavior, Screaming Eagle. Hiding behind a woman’s skirts.”

The Indian hesitated, then shoved the girl at Harry. “Take her, then. But keep everyone off our land.”

“I can’t promise that, Screaming Eagle. You’re raising a stink with the railroad, when it should be with the government. Not these honest, hard-working men who are just trying to build a railroad.”

“So bring me your chief, and we’ll talk.”

Harry smiled wryly as he thought of President Buchanan sitting down with Screaming Eagle and negotiating a land treaty. The man couldn’t maintain order in the civilized part of the United States. He couldn’t possibly interact with Indians.

“I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, you lie low, and I’ll try to smooth things over with the rail boss.”

The woman Screaming Eagle had thrust into his arms fainted. Great, Harry thought as he slung her over his shoulder.

If you'd like to read the rest of Harry's adventures, you'll have to buy The Duplicitous Debutante.

Here's the link:

 https://amzn.to/2Fh0JZz

March Comes In Like A Lion

It's finally March!

February may be the shortest month of the year, but it seems to take its sweet old time getting done. Bad weather, clogged highways, missed deadlines–all happen in February.

But it's March!

Time for new beginnings. I'm pleased to announce that two of my Cotillion books will be re-released in March. Blinded By Grace is one of my favorites, since it deals with the eldest son of the family, Halwyn, and how he only needed a pair of eyeglasses to see what had been in front of him all along. Here's the new, snazzy cover, and the blurb:

In 1858 New York City, Halwyn Fitzpatrick thinks he's off the hook for attendance at the annual Cotillion Ball. He has no sister to shepherd down the grand staircase this year and no real desire to go through the rituals of courtship and betrothal himself. Besides, he'll know the right girl when he sees her, especially now that he has new spectacles. But his mother has other plans for him. At twenty-seven years of age, her son is in dire need of a wife.

Grace Wagner needs a husband by July in order to inherit the trust her father has left for her. Her stepfather, though, has plans for the money that don't include Grace, and the last thing he wants is for her to find a husband before she turns twenty-one, thereby fulfilling the terms of the trust. She's been in love with Halwyn since she was thirteen, but he hasn't noticed her at any of the balls they've been at over the years. With the aid of his new glasses, he spies Grace from across the room and they share a dance. Grace decides to present him with a business proposition that will satisfy them both. But can a clueless knight in shining armor and a desperate damsel in distress find a way to turn this marriage of convenience into something more?








The Duplicitous Debutante is another favorite, since Rosemary Fitzpatrick is an author who writes Penny Dreadfuls, but under an assumed name–a name everyone believes to belong to a man. 

In 1859, ladies of New York society are expected to do three things well: find a husband, organize a household, and have children. But despite her mother's best intentions, making her debut is the last thing on Rosemary Fitzpatrick's mind. Writing the popular Harry Hawk dime novels as F.P. Elliott, she's too busy hiding her female identity from her new publisher, Henry Cooper. To protect her clandestine career, she ends up posing as the enigmatic author's secretary.
Henry is not the typical Boston Brahmin, nor the typical publisher, and Rosemary entrances him from the moment they meet. As they work together and grow closer, he wonders how his traditional-minded father will react when he brings her into the family, because Henry firmly intends to marry the working-class woman.
But when her deception begins to unravel at the cotillion ball, will Henry be able to forgive her or has deceit cost her the man she loves?









This entire series is set during one of the most tumultuous times in American history–westward expansion, the suffragette movement, the abolitionist movement, the Civil War and Reconstruction. I've loved taking this ordinary, well-bred family and tossing each member into the midst of history. Sometimes their choices surprised even me, the author. Each book in this series features a different sibling, all of them named after an herb or spice. And although each book can be read as a stand alone, it's fun to see how the siblings and their parents, Charlotte and George, pop in and out of each story. If you've been with me since this journey began, let me know which book was your favorite. If you're new to the series, they're now available on Kindle Unlimited for the first time.

Hope you enjoy the break in the weather and the Cotillion Ball series. 

Writing Amidst Chaos

Every author faces this dilemma at one time or another–members of the family, for which you are responsible, take center stage and your writing gets shoved aside for the time being.

Whether it's moving your children into college dorms, moving your parents into nursing homes, or moving yourself from one house to another, the computer gets ignored while life takes over. You can't close the door and zone out in whatever century or world you're writing because an obligation, in the form of a child, sibling or parent, comes knocking.

Well, it's been my time. My sister got shoved out of the hospital too early, and into a nursing home that was a hell-hole. Another sister and I busted her out of the nursing home, rebels that we are, and brought her home for one night. The next morning, we rushed her to the ER, and she's been in the hospital ever since. It's a three-hour round trip to the hospital, so no writing gets done on the days I travel to see her. Fortunately she's improving, and should be moved from the hospital to the VA rehab center on Monday. Maybe by this time next week, she'll be back home.

So, has my writing suffered with this interruption? I'm pleased to say no,  it hasn't. It seems the less time I have to write, the more productive I am.

I'm awaiting a final galley on my contemporary Christmas novella set in the fictional town of Lobster Cove, ME. The preliminary galley was pretty clean, and I'm pleased with the way it looks.

I decided to expand my horizons and try my hand at a Regency, so I wrote a sweet Christmas novella set in that era, which I just sent off yesterday. My book,

The Duplicitous Debutante, is being included in a boxed set called Love Between The Pages, featuring novels about writers. The scheduled release date is September 26. I've got a boxed set of all nine books in my Cotillion Ball Series, plus the novella about Charlotte and George, being released in December, and another historical, Dance With Destiny, this time set in Ohio in 1861, will be released in December as well. More about those recent developments later. So, things are moving along. All I need is to find an agent for my middle-grade book by the end of the year, and I'll be a happy camper.

How about you? How do you handle life's interruptions?

The Calm Before The Storm

I was asked recently by a soon-to-be-published debut author what types of promotion work best for me. And since today is the day before my release of The Forgotten Debutante, the calm before the storm, I thought I'd share what I've learned in the four years since I was a soon-to-be-published author.

1. Make friends with other authors, both inside your local chapter, and outside. Follow them on the various forums, buy and read their books, write reviews and post them, if you have a blog, offer to host them, etc. You'll soon find an entire group who are following the same trajectory you are at the same time, and there's safety in numbers. Plus, it's fun to watch their successes. I know the conventional marketing wisdom is not to add these fellow authors to your twitter feed, or friend them on Facebook, but I think that's a mistake. Most authors are also voracious readers, too. And they have friends.

2. Work with your publisher or agent, if you're going the traditional route, to find promotional opportunities. Most publishers have a list of places where they'll send your ARC for review, but develop your own list that caters to your genre. A review from a legitimate review site is golden. It takes time to figure out which sites prefer your type of book, but the end result is worthwhile. If you know that a certain site likes your books, you can keep sending them and rest assured you'll get a good review.

3. Don't turn down any promotional opportunity, however frightening it may be. Participate in local author book signings, get your books in the local library or bookstore, even if you have to carry them in yourself, be on whatever radio show you can find (it's not as scary as it sounds), be interviewed for your local newspaper. A few years ago, USA Today was starting up an on-line presence for romance and asked for folks to help. I raised my hand immediately, and for months afterward, it was my job to find new releases in a specific genre. They since decided not to run the new releases on a daily basis and disbanded the group that was helping, but I made a valuable contact there, which I still use today. (See the coverage on April 6 for my new release.)

4. Join whatever offshoot group you can find that caters to your genre. Within RWA, you have the FF&P chapter for paranormal authors, Hearts Through History for historical authors, RWA Contemporary for, you guessed it, the contemporary author, and so on. Each of these groups provide a wealth of information, new friends to make and ways to get the word out about your upcoming work.

5. Explore the various types of social media and find what works best for you. At a minimum, you need a website and Facebook page, but there are so many other outlets that you could easily spend your entire day on this task alone, instead of writing the next book. Play around with them all, and find what works best for you. Then pick three or four and use them daily.

6. Write the next book! You are only as good as your next one. How's that for pressure?

So today, I'll rest up, work a bit on the next book, and get ready for tomorrow's mayhem, which will stretch out for the next few weeks. You can glimpse where I am all month on the upcoming guest appearance tab of this blog, but here's an idea of what Monday brings.

I've got some gift copies to mail. I want reviews to start showing up on Amazon as well as on Goodreads, so I'll prod my beta readers. I have the BookBub ad running on Monday for another book in the series and hope to take The Duplicitous Debutante into the top 100 for historical romances, if even for an hour. And, I hope while people are there, buying The Duplicitous Debutante, they also will pick up The Forgotten Debutante. But that can't happen with just the ad. I must be active on social media all week, promoting on Twitter, Google +, Pinterest, Facebook, and all the rest. It'll be a fun, exhausting, time.

 

Buy Link: http://amzn.to/1V0b11r

Cover Reveal!

I've been so caught up in finishing the last book in my Cotillion series that I've neglected the fact the second bundle–books 4 through 6– is due for release right after Christmas.

This is a great way to catch up on the series, and this set of books, The Tempestuous Debutante, Blinded By Grace and The Duplicitous Debutante, are among my favorites. Each book involves a deb ball, of all things. Here's a little bit about each:

The Tempestuous Debutante–It’s Jasmine Fitzpatrick’s year to shine at this season’s Cotillion and men will be throwing themselves at her. But she sets her sights on a man she’s never met, the Viscount of Foxborough. He’s wealthy and has an English title. Only a few things stand in her way: a wealthy, young, beautiful widow who captures the viscount’s attention immediately, her fear of riding horses when he owns a breeding stable and racetrack, and the viscount’s stableboy, Parr.

Blinded By Grace–In 1858 New York City, Halwyn Fitzpatrick thinks he's off the hook for attendance at the annual Cotillion Ball. He has no sister to shepherd down the grand staircase this year and no real desire to go through the rituals of courtship and betrothal himself. Besides, he’ll know the right girl when he sees her, especially now that he has new spectacles. But his mother has other plans for him. At twenty-seven years of age, her son is in dire need of a wife.

The Duplicitous Debutante–In 1859, ladies of New York society are expected to do three things well: find a husband, organize a household, and have children. But despite her mother’s best intentions, making her debut is the last thing on Rosemary Fitzpatrick’s mind. Writing the popular Harry Hawk dime novels as F.P. Elliott, she’s too busy hiding her female identity from her new publisher, Henry Cooper. To protect her clandestine career, she ends up posing as the enigmatic author’s secretary.

This bundle is to be released on December 28, and pre-orders are available now here: http://amzn.to/1Nei5md

I hope you can fill up your days off between Christmas and New Year's by reading these three books. Thank you for your support over this past year. For those of you who celebrate, Merry Christmas! 

Home Alone

My sister is galavanting around the country on a well deserved ten-day vacation to sunny California. I'd be envious, but I have things to do. Writers don't retire, and I have a deadline looming.

I need to set up a routine again, which has been sorely lacking from my life these last few months. First, it was the hip, then the potential move, then bronchitis, and the constant search for a new home that meets all our criteria.

Mary and I are easing into this new normal gradually. Some thunderstorms interrupted us yesterday, since Mary gets very frightened and needs to be cuddled. I can break my routine to cuddle any day of the week.

And, under the guise of going out to lunch, I took myself to the movies yesterday and munched on nachos while I stared at an aging Robert Redford. He's still handsome, but not the steal-your-breath kind of gorgeousness of his youth.

Then, there's the water therapy schedule staring me in the face. Maybe next week.

My goal while Sis is gone is to find the groove again, and get back to writing at least 1000 words a day. So far, three days in, three thousand words. So, I'm on track. Now, to keep it there, until my last book in the Cotillion Ball Series is finished. I think I can, I think I can...

And, if you haven't already done so, I still need two votes for The Duplicitous Debutante to make it to the finals of The Romance Reviews' Readers Choice Awards. Please take a moment and cast your vote here: http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooks.php?bookid=14894

Ready To Rock

I may have been under the weather these last few weeks, but I have managed to stay busy. Here's what's going on:

Two of my books are up for Reader's Choice Awards through the website The Romance Reviews. Expressly Yours, Samantha is listed as a Western Romance, http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooks.php?bookid=17155 and The Duplicitous Debutante is listed as a Historical Romance. http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooks.php?bookid=14894
I need 50 votes for each title in order to continue to the next round. Simply click on the above links, hit the top button that says Nominate This Book, and you're done. Thank you so much for your help.


My little puppy-mill rescue dog, Mary, is a guest on USA Today's Happy Ever After Column.  Reminds me of the rock song about making it on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. You can see her here: http://wp.me/p5HLSC-1pb8

We had a serious nibble on the house, so my sister and I are spending the afternoon (along with the celebrity, Mary), doing drive-bys of the handful of houses we've narrowed our search to. For some reason, we want to be near water. So it's the Portage Lakes, or the canal, or any random lake or swimming pool. I think we have visions of pool parties in our future.

Hopefully, I'll have good news to report here soon. In the meantime, don't forget to vote!

Surgical Writing

As I prepare for surgery next week, and created my list of things to get done prior to admitting myself to the hospital, it occurred to me there are many similarities between what I'm doing to myself and what I do to my manuscript to get it ready for publication. A bit far-fetched? Possibly, but hear me out. I'm not known as the Analogy Queen for nothin'.

Surgery-–Prepare a list of things that need done before the event.
New Book–Prepare a list of things that need done before launch date.

Surgery–Be certain to arrive at the hospital all clean and shiny.
New Book–Be certain the book is polished and ready to go.

Surgery–Inform friends and family of the event.
New Book–Inform friends and family of the event.

Surgery–Line up friends and family to take care of daily chores in your absence.
New Book–Line up friends and family to read the ARC and write reviews.

Surgery–Get the word out about the outcome of the surgery and your expected release date.
New Book–Get the word out about the book and your expected release date.

See? Life, as with books, is about planning. Advance planning, and getting assistance when needed, is necessary for the best outcome, be it the launch of a new book, or the replacement of a worn-out hip.

My friends and family are poised and ready to pinch-hit for me until I can sit at my computer again. Bring it on.

The Tour Rolls On

The virtual book tour continues on for one more week. A complete list of stops for the remainder of the tour is on the right. I can't imagine how book tours were in the days before the internet, and have the utmost respect for the ladies who led the charge. Nora Roberts, in one of her "Get to Know" sessions at the RWA conference talked about appearances on QVC and how she had to cancel an appearance on the Today Show because one of her children had an accident and needed to be taken to the hospital. It's always been tough juggling home and career, and today is no different.

Like many authors, I write in multiple genres. On any given morning, I can be immersed in 1860 America and then switch in the afternoon to present day, to a beautiful lake in upstate New York. And then there are blogs to do for both genres, blog tour Q&As, stats to check, writer's groups to attend, and all the rest. It makes me slightly schizophrenic, but then I take a step back and think of the ladies who had to peddle their books by car, plane, or even by bus. They'd check into a tiny hotel room, missing their families, smile at the fans who braved all kinds of weather to come to the bookstore to chat with them for a few minutes and buy their books.

Twenty years ago, when e-books burst onto the scene, the industry was forced to change. No longer were under-performing books pulled from the shelves after a few months, never to see the light of day again. Now, a book's virtual shelf life is infinite. As can be an author's life. The first book in The Cotillion Ball Series, The Reluctant Debutante, has been out for two years now, and is still selling daily. I love being an author in the 21st century.

And, if anyone wants me to come to their bookstore for a signing, I'd love to accept.

Excerpt time!

On September 19th, I'll be asking a question on The Romance Reviews. If you answer the question correctly, you'll be entered into a drawing for all kinds of great prizes. Here's the excerpt from The Duplicitous Debutante in which you will find the answer:

“So you still want me to play the part of Mr. Elliott for you? I could free myself up for a portion of the afternoon.”

Rosemary smiled the tiniest bit. “Do you think you could pull it off, Papa?”

“I will be the first to admit your mother is better at making people see things her way, but I believe I could pass for Mr. Elliott. After all, you had me check over the contracts before you signed them over the years, so I’m familiar with the legal end of your business. But you’ll have to tell me about your story line. What’s the hero’s name again? Henry? Henry Eagle?”

Rosemary groaned. “No, Papa. Henry is the villain in this case. That’s the name of the new publisher. Henry Cooper. My hero is Harry Hawk, a half-breed.” She placed a hand on either side of her face and shook her head. “Perhaps my plan won’t work after all. Henry Eagle. Indeed.”

Her father smiled and took one of her hands. “I was close, wasn’t I?”

“I’ve molded Harry Hawk after Joseph, and the stories I write are all based on tidbits I get from the letters sent to us from Ginger, Basil, and Heather.”

“I can pull it off then, since I read the same letters. Your sisters and brother do lead exciting lives on the wild frontier, don’t they?”

“And someday, I’ll get to join them in St. Louis. But for now, my source of income is about to dry up unless you can remember our hero’s name.”

“I got it. Harry Hawk. Now, tell me something about Mr. Cooper. Is he an old ogre with a hunchback?”

Rosemary smiled for the first time since she sat, as she pictured Henry’s face on a stooped-over body. “No, Papa, Mr. Cooper is a man in his mid-twenties, I would guess. Tall, dark, and handsome.”

Her father’s quick glance was not lost on her.

“And no, don’t get any ideas. You’re as bad as Mother. I have no interest in him, other than business.”

“All right then, daughter. What time is your meeting with the handsome Mr. Cooper?”

“It’s at two o’clock. I thought I’d come by the bank first and go with you to the meeting.”

“You have this all thought out, don’t you?”

Rosemary smiled, a true smile, finally. “Well, I have had an overnight to come up with a plan. And I am a writer. When someone says to find the man and bring him to them, I can usually figure out a plot device, given enough notice.”

“All right then. I must get to work and get my day started. I’ll see you at the bank around half past one then?”

“I’ll be there. Thank, you, Papa. Mr. Cooper will now have no reason to cancel my contract.”

Click on the Fall Blog Hop banner on the right to be taken to The Romance Reviews' site. Have fun and visit often! 

And, We're Here!

September 1 is the release day for The Duplicitous Debutante, the sixth book in the Cotillion Ball Series. And I'm celebrating with a virtual book tour this week.

Be sure to follow the tour and leave a comment. I'll be giving away an ebook at each stop on the Fire & Ice tour, and would love to have everyone along for the ride. I've added in a few more stops on my own, too. The stops are all listed to the right, with links for each.

Now, here's an excerpt from the book. Hope you enjoy it.

Harry Hawk and the Tycoon’s Daughter—Book Six in the Harry Hawk Series
Harry Hawk stared down the barrel of his Colt .45. A huge Sioux Indian was in his sights, but was holding the girl in front of him as a shield. Her eyes were as big as saucers as she struggled against the man, and she trembled as she kept her eyes on the end of Harry’s gun.

New York City, March 1859
Rosemary Fitzpatrick laid her fountain pen on the paper, oblivious to the blob of ink that fell from its tip and damaged the page. She picked up the letter she had received earlier in the day.
It was her own gun, and she was staring down the barrel. 

See you on the tour! 

On The Cutting Edge

My latest entry into the Cotillion Ball Series will be unveiled on September 1. That's only one week away!

The Duplicitous Debutante is the sixth book in the Fitzpatrick family saga. And it features some

goodies that don't appear anywhere else. What, you might ask? How about a family tree? On the advice of my good friend, I used my own genealogy software to create a family tree for the Fitzpatricks. I was having problems remembering who among the children was having babies and when, so laying it all out on paper was a good exercise. And the tree looked quite impressive. I sent it to my publisher, who thought the idea had merit. So, the first version of the family tree will appear in The Duplicitous Debutante, and will be updated in each of the remaining books in the series.

While we were piecing together the tree, the publisher asked if I had titles yet for the remaining three books. I had a title for the next book in the series, and synopses for the two after that, but no titles yet.  A quick check in with the brain trust (me, my best friend, my sister, and my writing partner) and I had my titles. Book 7--Expressly Yours, Samantha, is about the Pony Express and will make its appearance in March, 2015. It features the last boy in the family, Valerian. Book 8 is The Widow's Salvation, due out in October, 2015. It takes place a year after the Civil War begins and features Pepper. Her husband has been killed at Ft. Sumter, leaving her alone with three young boys. She volunteers at an Army hospital and meets a doctor. Book 9 will finish off the series by featuring Saffron, the youngest Fitzpatrick. She's entered her teenage years during the Civil War, and all the men who would have been suitors are off fighting the war. She's The Forgotten Debutante. It is scheduled for release in March, 2016. My publisher and I also realized we were missing the story of Charlotte and George's courtship, so I wrote a novella, Charlotte's Unconventional Courtship, as a prequel to the series. No release date yet on that one.

I'm also trying some new things to promote the book. I've got two blog tours lined up--one for September and one in October, something I've never tried before. I've got ads scheduled for September in Eye On Romance and The Romance Reviews. I'm also a participant in The Romance Review's blog hop during September, and appearing on several other blogs as a guest. I'll try to keep everyone informed on when and where I'll be. I'm also attempting something new, using social media. It's called Thunderclap. I need to line up 100 volunteers to join me in putting a message out on social media on September 1. You don't even need to think about it beyond offering your support by signing up here: http://thndr.it/1lXOcXX Thunderclap does the work on September 1.

Will all this effort work? I'm hoping it will, but there are a lot of things being tried for the first time, so I don't know. I want to always be shaking things up with my promotional efforts, and trying new things. I've been looking for the magic bullet that will vault my books to the tops of Amazon's charts, but, just when I think I'm starting to get a handle on things, the floor shifts once again.

I'll keep trying.