Wendi L. Wilson's Blog, page 8

Cover Reveal for Shadowed Instincts

It’s been four months since I released Shadowed Strength and I am finishing up book two in the Shadowed Series, Shadowed Instincts. I am anticipating having it finished and ready to publish by the end of the year!

For my readers who are patiently awaiting it’s release, I’d like to reveal the cover. I hope you love it as much as I do! Thanks for all you support. I love you all!

Sorry for the Radio Silence

I haven’t put up a blog post in a while, so I just wanted to check in. I finished writing Shadowed Instincts (the sequel to Shadowed Strength) and have been working hard editing and trying to expand the details a bit. I’m feeling really good about this story and I think my readers are really going to enjoy this next leg of Melanie and Jeremy’s story (or at least I hope you all will!!).

I am really shooting hard for a December release, or possibly even late November. It just depends on how it goes with beta readers and editing. Thank you all for reading and supporting me on this journey. As a token of my gratitude, here’s a sneak peek at Shadowed Instincts:

Chris barked out a laugh and conceded, letting go of his disappointment. “Okay, okay. I’m done pouting,” he said, throwing his arm over Tara’s shoulder.

“Good. My work here is done,” Melanie said, then shoved her tray away. “Now, if you’ll excuse us, I need to talk to my boyfriend in private.”

“Bow-chicka-bow-wow,” Tara sang while waggling her eyebrows.

“Shut up,” Melanie retorted, standing up and holding out a hand to Jeremy.

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” he said quickly before standing and taking her hand, dragging her away from the table, through the doors and into the hallway.

Once they were alone in the hall, he wrapped her in his arms and whispered in her ear, “Where do you want to go? My truck? No backseat, but it’ll do in a pinch.”

Melanie smacked his butt before pulling back and grabbing his hand again. “No, dork. Let’s go to the library.”

“Ooh, dangerous. I would say I like it, but that librarian has an annoying way of interrupting every time I try to kiss you.”

“Well, good thing I only want to talk,” she said flippantly as she pulled him down the hall toward the library.

Jeremy yanked on her hand, which sent her flying back toward him to collide with his chest. He wrapped an arm around her waist and wound the other hand up into her hair. He brought his lips close to hers, as close as they could get without actually touching.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather go to my truck?” he asked huskily.

Melanie took a deep breath, feeling the heat rising to her face. “I actually would,” she whispered. “But I really,” she paused and gave him a quick peck on the lips before pulling away, “need to talk to you. I don’t think we’ll get much talking done in your truck, so the library it is.”

Look for the rest of the story in Shadowed Instincts, coming soon!

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Whole30- The First Two Days

I feel like I might die. Like, seriously, die. Okay, I am exaggerating a tiny bit, but still. This feels horrible.

I decided to try the Whole30 challenge. Here are the basics: You cut everything out of your diet except for meat, veggies, and fruits for thirty days. Your body detoxes and resets. All of your diet-induced ailments will go away- gut issues, joint pain, etc, etc (assuming those ailments are, indeed, caused by your diet). Oh, and bonus, you’ll most likely lose a bunch of weight. There’s a lot more involved and if you’re interested, you can check it out on the Whole30 website.

A couple of my friends did it and exclaimed on Facebook how they dropped six sizes in a little over a month. “Sign me up, now!” I thought. So I checked out the site, printed out the shopping list and the can have/can’t have cheat sheet and headed to the grocery store.

I apparently skimmed over the “side effects” section. Fatigue, headaches, and grumpiness are high on that list. I cut out carbs (other than fruit), sugar and caffeine in one fell swoop and body is rebelling. Dropping caffeine is not a requirement, but who wants black coffee or unsweetened tea? Not this southern raised child.

All I want to do is curl up on the couch, sleep, watch T.V., sleep some more, and maybe take a nap. My head has been pounding nonstop the entire two days. I had a fever all day the day before I started, so I was convinced this headache and fatigue were part of my sickness, but I have had no other symptoms. I googled it, and there it was in black and white: classic detox symptoms.

Will I give up? Absolutely not. The good new is, I feel fuller longer with all the real food in my belly than I did with the chips, dips and chocolate I was downing on a daily basis (Yes, I am was a junk food junkie). I haven’t craved a sweet all day, which I can probably contribute to not starting my day with two super-sweetened giant mugs of coffee.

So I will trudge on, making changes and concessions along the way. In fact, as I type this, my headache is dissapating thanks to the piping hot mug of (eek) black coffee I am funneling down my throat. I could get used to it.

So, basically, I have a lot of weight to lose, aching joints, back pains, digestive issues, and low energy. These are the issues that I am hoping this diet will help me absolve. I want to be a healthy eater, I want to live a long life, and I want to have more energy for myself and my kids.

I’ll try to keep everyone updated and when I’m done- if it works- I’ll post before and after photos. Cross your fingers for me. I’m gonna need all the help I can get! :)

Dream Cast for Shadowed Strength

One of my friends recently asked me who I’d pick to play the characters in my debut novel, Shadowed Strength, if it were made into a movie. I hadn’t really put much thought into it, so I took to the world wide web, scouring google images for people that I think best represent the look and feel of my characters. Here’s what I came up with:

Melanie

I had a really hard time choosing Melanie, but I think Anna Popplewell fits the bill.

Jeremy

Steven R. McQueen. Yes! Yes! Yes! He’s perfect!

Tara

Olivia Holt is gorgeous, but still has that sweet, BFF look about her.

Sissy

SONY DSC

Alexandria Deberry is a 10! She’d make a great Sissy!

Chris

Raviv Ullman has the looks and the mystery to be Chris.

Mr. Hughes

Okay, okay, I know Chris Hemsworth playing a 24 year old is a stretch, but I couldn’t find anyone more perfect for Mr. Hughes than him.

Ace

This is what Ace looks like… :)

What do you think? If you haven’t read Shadowed Strength, you can get it here. Tell me  who you’d pick. I’d love to know!!

Marked by T. L. McDonald

I recently discovered Marked by T. L. McDonald after seeing a recommendation to read it by my friend and fellow author, Samantha Britt. We have similar taste in books, so I figured if she liked it, I would too. And, oh, man, she did not steer me wrong!

This is the story of Hanna, a 17-year old high school student who sees a boy murdered in a dark alley. After his attacker leaves, she runs to help and in the mysterious boy’s last few moments of life, he does something that marks her soul, as well as the skin on her wrist.

Her boy-next-door-best-friend Jared is absolutely swoon-worthy, and I fell in love with him immediately. He is sweet, honest, loyal, and gorgeous- everything you’ll ever need in a book boyfriend.

I loved this book. I absolutely obsessed over it the entire time I was reading it. It has a little bit of a “Mortal Instruments” feel about it, though the story is unique. There’s a classic love triangle, good vs. evil, mysteries to solve, love, loss, regret.

Make sure you check this one out- I highly recommend!

You can buy the book on Amazon here.

You can follow T. L. McDonald on Goodreads, twitter, or Facebook.

The Value of Keywords

When I was finishing up the final edits of Shadowed Strength, I started furiously downloading books about publishing through Amazon’s KDP program. The books I read all had one common denominator- the importance of keywords.

Keywords are the “key” to readers finding your book. Selecting the proper keywords is crucial to a new, undiscovered author. You’re starting to build your fan base, so discoverability is the main point you should focus on when publishing. If readers can’t find your book, they can’t read it. It’s as simple as that.

When picking your keywords, you want to choose relevant words that are searched most often by your target audience. Make sure that they compliment each other, but are not too similar. You can use Amazon as a guide.

Here is an example of what I mean:

My book is in the young adult paranormal/fantasy romance genre. When choosing keywords, I was very careful to stay within my genre and did not choose words that were repetitive. For instance, I considered “paranormal romance” and “YA paranormal romance.” Both fit, but I chose “YA paranormal romance” because it had the first one contained within it and it was longer. It’s like I got three keywords in one. Amazon only lets you choose seven, so you have to get the most bang for your buck.

Here is how you use Amazon to your benefit:

Go the website and click on the category for books or kindle books.
Type in you first keyword.
Look at the drop down menu to see the top ten words searched.

For example, when I type in “paranormal,” I get these keywords:

paranormal romance, paranormal romance for adults, paranormal books, paranormal mystery, paranormal erotica, paranormal romance books, paranormalcy, paranormal investigation, free paranormal romance kindle books, and paranormal dating agency.

So the number one keyword searched with the word “paranormal” is romance, so I write that down as one of my keywords because it fits my book and it’s the most searched.

I repeat this step with the word “young adult.”  Young adult fantasy and young adult romance are numbers five and six on the list, so I write those down as possibilities. I can get even more specific, for instance, by typing “young adult” and going through the alphabet to see what pops up high on the list for my genre. For example, when I get to “young adult p,” young adult paranormal romance in number one on the list.

The steps are repeated with other keywords like “teen, YA, teenage, paranormal, romance, and shifter.” I end up with a list of about thirteen top searched keywords, but I have to pick seven. So I try to use seven keywords that are not too repetitive, but end up containing most of the top-rated keywords I found.

The ones I pick are: YA paranormal romance, shapeshifter, young adult ebooks, fantasy, fiction, teenage romance, teen love

I used my seven keywords to get as many words in as I could without being overly repetitive. I didn’t want to use YA paranormal romance and young adult paranormal romance, even though they are both high on the search list, because they are too repetitive and I would have been wasting a keyword.

Another tip is to get as many of your keywords as possible into your book description, without being obvious or sounding amateurish. I chose not to do that because of the nature of my book- I didn’t want to sacrifice the characters secrets and ruin it for the reader, so I only added some keywords into my age disclaimer:

“**This is a YA Paranormal Romance intended for teens and adults 16+ due to language and sexual situations.”

You see that I have YA, paranormal, romance, teens, and adults. This will help my book come up more often when readers search these words. This is why you sometimes see books that have titles like, “Such and Such Book- A Shifter Paranormal Erotic Romance.” Keywords in the title will definitely make your book more visible, but I don’t care for this approach. As a reader, when I see books with that type of title, it just turns me off. But that’s only my opinion.

I really hope this post is beneficial to all my fellow indie authors. If you are interested, my favorite book regarding this subject is this one. The author actually has website where he (and his team) have gone through every keyword and have found the top searched words for each one with each letter of the alphabet. He basically did all the work for us. If you buy the book, or download it for free through Kindle Unlimited, you get the password to enter the website and it’s all listed out for you. If you don’t want to take the time to do it yourself, I would suggest checking this book out. There was a lot of other helpful information in there as well.

Thanks for reading!

Wendi

Becoming an Author- When is it real?

Last night, while our kids were gone to a sleepover, my husband and I went out to dinner with some friends. The sports bar (yes, that’s how we roll) was completely packed, with no tables available. A couple sitting at a large table waived us over. They knew our friends and invited the four of us to sit with them.

At some point, the conversation turned and my friend told the couple, “Wendi is an author. She’s been published.” Amidst their smiles and exclamations of awe, I blushed and said “Am I really? I mean, I published it myself.” 

This is my normal reaction when it comes up. I have declared my occupation as “stay-at-home-mom” for so long, that it’s hard to make that shift to “I’m a writer” and take it seriously. Yes, I wrote a book. Yes, I published said book. Yes, people are reading it. Yes, people are enjoying it. Yes, I am writing the sequel, which will make the book a series. Yes, I spend hours writing, blogging, tweeting, facebook-ing, making connections with readers and authors, creating the trailer, etc, etc, etc.

Does all that make me an author? I guess it does. Maybe when I finally get my first paycheck, it’ll make it real. I don’t know. I’ve made so many new friends through this journey, authors Samantha Britt, Kat Stiles, and April Wilson, just to name a few. They are amazing people with amazing talent and I am in awe that they consider me among their ranks.

I’d really like to thank my new friends for making this journey so enjoyable. I’d like to thank my family for believing in me and encouraging me to take the big step into publishing. And last, but certainly not least, I’d like to thank my readers. You, above all else, have made me believe that maybe, just maybe, I really am an author.

Melanie Johnson- A Character Interview

Melanie Johnson is the protagonist in my debut novel, Shadowed Strength. She’s a sixteen year old girl with classic teenager self esteem issues. When faced with a difficult and frightening situation, she finds her inner strength to save herself and those she cares about. With a little paranormal roadblock thrown in her path, she must decide whether to trudge on, or run and hide like the scared young girl she was before. Here is my interview with Melanie.

In what situation is your self esteem most at risk? When dealing with my peers. The girls are mean and the boys just want to be my friend. I have a hard time bridging the gap between friendship and romance, and when it does happen, I don’t want to believe it. If I believe it, I might get hurt.

Is there anyone in your life that you are attracted to? (She looks down at her lap and smiles) Yes.

What scares you about this person?  We’ve been friends for a while, and though I’ve had a thing for him since I first laid eyes on him, I’m afraid he’ll only ever see me as a buddy. Besides, he’s gorgeous and way out of my league.

When you walk into a room what do you notice first? Second? I scan the room for the posse of mean girls that torture me daily. Then, I look for Jeremy.

What do you like best about yourself? My personality. I like to make people happy and I like to have fun. 

What do you like least about yourself? My body.

What do you like best about your best friend? Tara has the best sense of humor. We laugh all the time.

What do you like least about your best friend?  Her bossiness. She’s  constantly trying to get me out of my comfort zone, to try new things.

What do you think other people think of you?  People think I’m a  regular girl in a regular world. If they only knew.

Learn more about Melanie and her friends in Shadowed Strength: Book 1 of the Shadowed Series by Wendi Wilson.

You can order it on Amazon for $3.99 (or borrow for free through Kindle Unlimited) Here

You can follow me on Facebook Here

Follow me on Twitter Here

FERTS by Grace Hudson

I’ve only read a few post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels. I don’t know why. Honestly, that’s my favorite genre of movies and T.V. shows, so I can’t really explain why I haven’t been drawn more to this type of book. Sure, I read The Hunger Games with the rest of the world. I loved it-except for the last book. Then I read the Divergent series, and again, I loved it, except for the last book. Same for the Maze Runner series. Hmmm, maybe that’s the reason I’ve shied away; they never end well (in my opinion).

Deciding to give this genre another try, I picked up FERTS by Grace Hudson. This is a story of a madman who, in a future world where civilization has fallen apart, has constructed a center where women are bred and raised strictly for the pleasure of men. They have no rights, are separated into castes based on beauty, fertility, and muscle density. Some women are sold as slaves, some are bred, and some must fight to the death to entertain the men. Their only goal in life is to learn to properly seduce and get pregnant.

Beth 259201, they are all Beth with numbers after, has the power of intuition. She can sense things and dreams of events that have happened or are currently happening. She has no desire to live the way she’s expected to. She can, and will, change things after dreaming of a free life outside the walls of FERTS.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought it was creative and unique, and it really kept me hooked. This is a story of bravery, determination and hope. I think it’s brilliant. I recommend this to anyone who likes post-apocalyptic stories- you won’t be disappointed. I really liked the character of 201, and can’t wait to see what’s going to happen to her in the next book! I hope you’ll give FERTS a try. Let me know if you like it!

You can follow Grace Hudson on Twitter here or on Facebook here.

Ever read a book more than once?

Yesterday, I got a new review for my debut novel, Shadowed Strength. It was one of those anonymous ones, you know, that just say “Amazon Customer.” This particular customer gave it five stars and said that he or she had read the book more than once and couldn’t wait for the sequel.

This had me over the moon happy. Ecstatic. Someone liked my book so much, that they read it again. My book! 

So, this got me thinking about books that I love. I love them so much that I’ve read them more than once. Many of them are historical romance because that was what my mom read. I still have her copies, most of which I read for the first time nearly 25 years ago.

Shanna, by Kathleen Woodiwiss. I kid you not, I have read this book at least nine times. It has everything- romance, adventure, hate-turned-to-love, a haughty, bratty heroine who grows up and takes what she wants regardless of the consequences- everything.
Every book in the Mallory family series by Johanna Lindsay.
Actually, probably every book written by Johanna Lindsay before the year 2000. The more recent ones, I’ve only read once.
The Twilight Saga, by Stephanie Meyer. I only read New Moon and Eclipse again to get a refresher right before the movies came out, but I read Breaking Dawn three times, just because I loved it so much.
The Tiger’s Curse series by Colleen Houck. These books are so good. If you haven’t read them, read them, asap.

There are more, but those are mostly just refreshers when the next book in the series gets released. I read so many books, that I can’t remember what happened in a book I read two weeks ago, much less something I read a year ago.

There are several books that I’ve read recently that I plan to read again (when I have more time. haha). Here are a few noteworthy titles:

Seduction and Snacks by Tara Sivec. This is, by far, the funniest, most hilarious book I’ve ever read. I was highly entertained from start to finish. If you like crass humor and romance, I highly recommend this one.
Will of Fate by Samantha Britt. I anxiously await news of book 2 and will devour this one again as soon as the release date gets close.
Vulnerable by April Wilson. Sometimes you’re just in the mood for an alpha male protecting, and falling in love, with an emotionally damaged woman. Swoon.
Connected by Kat Stiles. I recently got a taste of the second book when Kat took me up on the 7/7/7 Challenge, so I will definitely read Connected again when book 2 releases.
The Deal by Elle Kennedy. I loved this one and am really digging the New Adult genre lately.

What books have you read more than once? What books do you plan to read again?