Ella James's Blog, page 11

A little swag for your Tuesday

It's Tuesday, and I have some prizes in store for you!
-The first is not a physical thing, but more a metaphysical slice of awesome pie - Nick's first-ever Q&A, which will give you clues to the second Here Trilogy book. (It should be out in late July or early August).
-Next, you can go to the beautiful Book Club Sisters blog and enter to win a $5 Amazon gc. All you have to do to win is buy one of my books and send me the purchase code at ella_f_james@ymail.com.
-You can read the teaser text for Chosen, Stained book three, at Paranormal Addicts, and also find out what makes me want to kill my husband, what surprised me most most about the publishing process, and which of my book babies is my (shhh) favorite!
-For the next few days, I'm running promotions on The Book Cave's Facebook page. Today you can win a $2.99 Amazon gift card by simply listing your favorite quote from any of my books!

If you came to my blog looking for an update on Chosen... I'm planning to release it near the end of this month. You won't believe what happens in it. xx

Stolen update

Recently I decided to re-edit Stolen. Not because there was anything wrong with the original - more because like most writers, I find it really hard to put a "FINISHED" stamp on anything I do. I picked up an old copy of the literary magazine from my high school the other day and wanted to take a red pen to some of my old poems! ;)

I've wondered before when I'll quit playing around with my ebooks. I thought I'd never revisit Stained again (as an editor), and just a few weeks ago I re-edited the whole thing. Stained was originally written in 2006... which means I'm still working on a project SIX YEARS later. I'm not sure if this makes me a relentless perfectionist or a normal writer.

Last night I finished my sweep of Stained Book Two, Stolen, and around 7 a.m. today it updated on Amazon. If you got a copy recently (or ever) and would like the new version, e-mail me at ella_f_james@ymail.com or leave a comment here, and be sure to include the first line of chapter eight, so I'll know you already own it. If you've already read it, don't worry. It's not that different. In fact, all the main plot points are exactly the same. :)

I'm planning to spend today and tomorrow going over Chosen one last time. Expect it in a few weeks, and expect lots of juicy surprises!

Stained free day + contest!

I'm having a Stained free day today at Amazon. Want to win some stuff? Post this on your FB wall: 

Stained is FREE Thursday! Share on your wall and be entered to win a $10 Amazon gc! You will also be entered to be the namesake for the leader of the Chosen's Swiss sect, where most of Chosen (Stained Book 3) takes place! Both winners chosen at the end of the night Thursday. :) http://www.amazon.com/Stained-Paranor...

Also... Have you bought tickets to UtopYA Con in Nashville, July 6-8? If not, you really should. All your favorite ebook authors will be there, including ME! Go here to get yourself a ticket!

As part of the blog tour, there's a character interview with Cayne over at What's Beyond Forks, which so happens to be one of the first-ever blogs to write a good review about Stained, back when it came out. Find out how Cayne felt the first time he saw Julia, and much more. If that's not enough for you, go check out Book Passion for Life, a beautiful book blog where there's a Stolen review and a giveaway. If that's STILL not enough to satisfy your Stained Series appetite, I have yet a third gorgeous book review blog for you: Alchemy of Annes Anomalies, with an awesome review of Stained. Go follow all these blogs! You won't regret it.

Also... thanks for reading my books. So much. You guys are the best!

A little Stained Series soup

Oh, you guys. Why do I hate updating my blog so much? It's a really pretty blog... and I have only good things to share here. I guess it just seems non-essential.

I'm going to try really hard to update every day, though. At least every other day. See, I'm already slacking. ;)

For a little recap of the last few days, I've been over at The Paranormal Romance Party Facebook page, where they were kind enough to do an Ella James promo all week; they gave away two of my books and posted snippets from all the books, including Chosen.

Just for fun, here's one of them. Pardon the funky formatting.

Julia turned around in her seat, feeling uncharacteristically angry at her friends. “You know, there are other people back here, too. Other people in the same situation you two are. And at least one of them doesn’t know anything about Adam or Thierry or being immobilized.” The word caught in Julia’s throat as she imagined herself spirited back to the compound, never to see the light of day again.
And okay, the compound wasn’t there, and daylight had streamed through the glass pyramid. But that didn’t matter.
Carlin’s round, hazel eyes met hers. “We weren’t meaning to be secretive.”
“I know.” Julia frowned. “But you kinda were. What’s the big deal about Adam anyway? What’s his ability?”
The van got quiet, and Julia’s heart pounded.
“What? Seriously. What?”
“He can immobilize people,” Meredith said.
“Did you and Drew see Theirry, too?” Julia asked.
Drew nodded, tight-lipped.
“And? What’s his power?”
“Ability,” Meredith corrected.
“Thank you, Nathan.”
For the longest second, while Cayne’s concerned gaze pinned her and everyone held their collective breath, nobody would look at her. The Edan did.
“Theirry is good at transportation,” he said. “Kind of like time-travel, but on this time plane. He can take someone and zip across the globe in seconds.”
Chatter filled the car, but Julia’s mind was frozen.
Adam could immobilize you and Thierry could spirit you away.
And she never would be heard from, ever again.

There are a few more on the PRP's Facebook page, so go check it out if you haven't.

Treasured Tales for Young Adults, a great book blog, kindly ran a snippet from Stained for me. I posted the first-ever excerpt from Chosen at the awesome Paranormal Opinion blog The fabulous new Le' BookSquirrel blog ran a Q&A and interviewed Cayne and Julia, and I did another interview and a giveaway at United by Books.The lovely ladies at Tsk Tsk What to Read  ran another Q&A, and gave HERE these two amazing 5-star reviews, which really made my day.

Everyone involved in the blog tour, even those I didn't mention here because I am a loser/slacker, has been totally awesome, and I'm so grateful for bloggers' help getting the word out about my books. We authors should probably pool our money together and compensate them somehow. Of course, then they wouldn't be unbiased now, would they? ;)

Tomorrow's blog stop is The Cover and Everything In Between. Hop on over there for more questions... which means more answers! :)

And, in case you were wondering, yes - the tour finally has a button! Thanks, hubby! Did I mention my husband is better than any romance novel hero, and TODAY IS OUR ANNIVERSARY.






In other news, if you buy Stained after Wednesday, you will be getting a shiny, new updated version. The content is similar enough to the old version that no one will be out of the loop. The writing is just better, because Stained was written years ago, and my recent edit-over was (well, duh!) recent.

In other, other news, Chosen is finished and is officially on its way to a June release date. :) I really think you guys will like it.

How's that for a long blog post? This girl is going to bed back to work on Stained!

Chosen: Stained Book Three

Julia has been chosen. While at the Compound, she was tapped as The One to win the war against the Nephilim and leashed with a debilitating illness that worsens each day she is away from The Three. Determined not to return to the frightening Chosen leaders and desperate to learn the fate designed for The One, Julia and Co. follow a trail of clues to the Swiss Alps, home of a rogue Chosen clan. In this snowy haven, all Hell breaks loose. SOMEONE IS A TRAITOR.SOMEONE CHANGES SIDES.SOMEONE IS DRAGGEDTO HADES.A new romance blossoms...An old romance is damned... And The Three will stop at nothing to recover the weapon
that will help them regain an ancient power.

Stained Series Blog Tour: Day 1

First things first: Happy Mothers' Day!

Today kicked off  my Stained Series blog tour. Check out Book Monster Reviews and Literal Addiction for a chance to win a copy of HERE and a copy of Stained.

Announcements, announcements!

Whew! I am so busy it's insane.

The writing of Chosen, book three in the Stained Series, continues to  roll along painlessly. It's longer than both Stained and Stolen and compared to the snarling beast that was Stolen-in-the-works, Chosen is a total sweetie. Oddly, it's a good bit more complicated...but still, much easier. I expect it out sometime in June.

I'm working with Mystic Marketing and Public Relations to make trailers for all my books. :) All I've done so far is pick a theme song for Stolen, but I'm hoping to get more done soon.

In the next week or two, I'm going to put out an official Amazon ebook-style preview of Over The Moon, my adult romantic suspense that follows Logan and Margo from Before You Go. I'll run it free via KDP on Amazon so everyone can get it. I'm not sure yet how many chapters it will be, but probably at least five or six.

Covers are also in the works for Chosen and Over The Moon. I'll post them here as soon as they're finished! :)

And now I'm thinking I'm going to put out the fourth and final Stained book after Chosen, rather than switching to the HERE series. Why not keep going while I'm ahead, ya know? :) The second HERE book will come after Stained #4, and should be out in July or August.

BTW, does everyone remember HERE?
Everyone, meet HERE.
HERE, meet everyone! You guys are going to be great friends.
Seriously...I secretly think this is my best book, with the exception of Over The Moon, but it's flying way under the radar because I'm not doing any PR for it right now. Makes me kinda sad to see it getting so little attention, though. Alas, I'm only one person and can only do a big PR push for one series at a time.

Big PR Push?! Ack, that reminds me: the blog tour! I have a HUGE blog tour starting this Sunday, May 13th. Originally it was just a Stained Series tour for May, but it has gotten way out of hand and expanded into June. Every day I'll post the link(s) to the blogs featuring Stained stuff; swag will  usually be involved, so get ready! I'm so excited and so grateful to all the blogs helping with the tour.

I may really lose my mind and see if I can keep the tour rolling until July. Why, you ask? Because it could be a fun lead up to UtopYA con! And guess what?! I'm gonna be there as a featured author!
http://utopyacon.wordpress.com/
Oh, yeah! I am so excited. It's in Nashville, July 6-8, and you should totally go because it's going to be awesome.

The first blogs on the Stained Series tour are Book Monster Reviews and Literal Addiction Paranormal Bookclub, both kindly featuring a guest post and giveaway on May 13. Come keep me company on Sunday!

What's next?

I'm having one of those awesome days where I have several great ideas competing for space in my head, and every song on the radio seems to apply to at least one of them, and I know I have a long night ahead of me where no matter what I write I'm going to have fun.

Where Stolen has a transitional, wait-and-see sort of vibe, Chosen is shaping up to be really ka-pow!, with lots of revelations and lots of movement. A few characters that weren't completely fleshed out in Stolen (because we just didn't see them much) are really owning it in Chosen. Meredith and a certain someone see each other again and... Edan, who we hardly saw in Stolen, is quickly becoming one of my favorite characters. Someone else thinks so, too... ;) And Julia and Cayne are firmly together - working some things out, but still an item, back to their Stained-era fun. Well...would be fun, if it weren't for...these people trying to Julia-nap Julia, and those people who want to have her killed... And, of course, that certain affliction that will make no sense to you if you haven't finished Stolen.

If things go as planned, this book will be out at the beginning or in the middle of June with (fingers crossed!) none of the madness that accompanied the Stolen release. I should be finished writing it in two, two and a half more weeks... My husband will give it a quick edit, and while he does, I can be first-drafting something else.

HERE book two? The U-PLOT-IT, featuring our girl Alana and Sebastian and Darian, shapeshifting on the Isle of Skye in Scotland? (OMG, that book is going to rock my socks off - there is a good romance there, people. Really good). Or maybe Azalea. Yep, Azalea. Futuristic/Speculative YA romance, probably the most badass item in my paper-and-ink arsenal. Azalea and the Makers of Zen has been plotted since 2006... It's very personal to me (though not at all autobiographical, for reasons which will later be obvious) and I've been putting off writing it because I was (at one time) worried my writing wouldn't be good enough for the rockin' plot. Which, BTW, came to me in a dream. Not even kidding. And also, BTW, by rockin' I mean it features Elvis. As a main character. Kind of. Depending on what you think constitutes a person. :) :) :) Confused yet? MUHAHAHA.

Speaking of the HERE sequel, you guys do remember I wrote a YA sci-fi romance called HERE, right? Where is the love for HERE?! My other books are getting some lovin' and poor HERE is all but forgotten. True I haven't PR'd it in, say, a month or more. True I'm intentionally not mentioning it *much* until the sequel is out... but it's still here, people! It happens to be my favorite of my books, and it's in first person. Classic first person. First person past. So if you hate first person present tense, you don't have to worry! :) (Why is it that people hate first person present? I really like it. Maybe the haters only hate poorly done FPP... Hmm.)

Well, regardless of what comes when, I'm hoping to have Chosen, HERE #2, Azalea & the Makers of Zen, Over the Moon (super-long, adult follow up to Before You Go), and the Skye shapeshifter project out before the end of the summer. If summer ends in late August. Which, as I recall, it doesn't anymore. Kids are going back to school in early August now, aren't they? Gah, I'm so old I don't even know. But I wish I did. Summer break, anyone? Mmm.

Okay, well, that's it for now. I'll keep you posted.

Also, I'm setting up a blog tour, so if you have a blog and would kindly feature a snippet, contest, Q&A, or review of one of my books, please let me know! ella_f_james@ymail.com

xx

Lackluster update

I always have to force myself to post on the ole blog. Not sure why, because I generally have a lot to "say." I think it's because I'm not sure how to categorize my thoughts. I also have a really hard time believing anyone cares what I'm thinking... =/

I started writing what I call the U-PLOT-IT book this weekend. Ya know, the one set on the Isle of Skye, with Alana as our heroine. I can't wait to revisit Skye, which was definitely one of the high points of my honeymoon. Its beauty is unique and totally unforgettable. Like so many places we visited in Ireland and Scotland, the landscape is so captivating it's like a living thing. And yes, I realize vegetation is alive... but I mean, it's like a character in a book. More than just a place. I'm having a lot of fun with the world-building aspect of the book... I think I know now "how" they became shapeshifters. This doesn't mean the plotting is over! I'm just taking a brief hiatus to determine the direction of my next questions. I still want my readers to do most of the plotting...

I was interviewed today by D.M. McDaniel on the Interview with an Indie Author Facebook group. For the sake of bookmarking it, here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/groups/362880...

After I finished the interview, I realized Donna was actually going to share it with other people and kind of freaked out. Lol!

I've also done a radio interview, which I need to dig up an link, along with the above interview, under my "interviews" tab at the top of the page.

I'm elbow-deep in writing Chosen, which is even more exciting than Stolen. I really think people will like it. I've gotten some feedback on Stolen. People seem to really like it, which is always weird on my end. I usually want to say, "Are you sure?" Haha. ;)

Eek! I'm burning a pizza! More later!

FINALLY!

I'm holding my breath for tomorrow... because sometime in the next few hours, the REAL version of Stolen should be appearing for sale at Amazon! Publishing this book has been ridiculously hard for many reasons I would've never anticipated, so I'a littlem nervous something *else* will happen. But I'm really hoping not. If all goes as planned, in the next few hours, Stolen will be available to anyone who wants it.

As for people who already bought it, I'm working with Amazon to get them an updated version, which would automatically go onto their Kindle, but they can get one sooner by e-mailing me at ella_f_james@ymail.com and letting me know what format they'd like to receive it in, and also what date they originally bought it.

Also... Stained is free again tomorrow! If you don't have it, now's your chance.

I'm looking to do some PR for this new Stolen release, so if you want to feature me on your web site or read and review any of my books, let me know.

In the meantime, I'm working on my Shelfari, my Goodreads account, and on Chosen! :)