Ella James's Blog, page 9

Print Books, Nook Books, & Blog Tours!

The last week has been busy at my house. My little guy turned 1 a little over a week ago, so we celebrated that with family and friends. I've worked some on Exalted, and then we've been experiencing some growing pains. The good kind, of course. The kind that lead to NEW THINGS.

Here's what's coming your way in the next few weeks:
-Print copies of Stained and HERE. (YEAHHH!!!) Both books will be for sale at $9 through Amazon and also through this web site. The ones you buy here will be signed by the author. ;)
-Stained and HERE bookmarks. I'll give them out as contest prizes and pass them out at book festivals. I'm also thinking up a way for you to get them if you send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope. At the moment editubby isn't too keen on giving out our home address, so maybe a P.O. box would solve that problem.
-Two blog tours, one for Exalted, the other for the Here Trilogy. I'll be posting information on the stops and the swag very soon. There is a LOT of swag!
-Ebooks available for Nook and all other ereaders (via Smashwords).
-A SUPER SECRET SURPRISE, to be revealed in the next week sometime.



I'm also going to be at the Decatur Book Festival, outside Atlanta. If you're in that area, please come by and see me! :) Buy a book and grab a free bookmark!

P.S. The lovely Georgia Cates made my festival button. If you haven't read her books, go do so! :)

P.S.S. - In the next four days I am attempting to finish Exalted. If I do, it should be available to you the first week of September, or possibly earlier! If you see me on FB or Twitter, give me a good kick in the booty! 

Get Stranded With Hotties Scavenger Hunt

It's August, it's summer, it's hot... but how much hotter would it get if you were stranded on a deserted island with nothing but some swoon-worthy fictional characters to help you survive? Come visit the blogs below from August 13th to August 17th to collect items from a group of true hotties. Then enter your 'gifts' into the entry form for your chance to win a fantabulous grand prize - a Kindle and a pile of books to load onto it!Now... we can't promise you this group will have the most traditional of survival gear for you. In fact, we can't promise you that you have a hope in Hell of surviving this ordeal. But we can promise... we can promise.. sorry, distracted by the twelve hot guys, waiting...  The Rules:Visit each blog beginning August 13th, 2012 at 12:01am ESTCollect the 'gifts' from your favorite fictional hotties Complete the entry form, listing each 'gift' you picked up  Cross your fingers!The Stops:K.A.TuckerTiffany KingM.LeightonElla JamesSarah RossHeather SelfAmy BartolC.A.KunzCourtney ColeLaura Elliott
The Grand Prize:1 Kindle - Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display
+
ecopies of:
Anathema, and Asylum (Causal Enchantment #1 & 2) ~K.A.Tucker
Dante's Girl ~ Courtney Cole
The Wild Ones ~ M.Leighton
Stained and Here ~ Ella James
Shadow Slayer (Shadow Series #2) ~ Laura Elliott
The One ~Heather Self
The Childe & Dark Days ~ C.A.Kunz
Forever Changed ~ Tiffany King
Awaken & Echo of an Earth Angel ~ Sarah M. Ross
Inescapable ~ Amy Bartol
+
Audiobook of 13 on Halloween (Shadow Series #1) ~ Laura Elliott

Make sure to visit us beginning Monday, August 13th to make some new fictional boyfriends, meet some new authors, have some fun, and possibly win a fantastic prize! You'll find the entry form and posts at that time, plus any additional information on the scavenger hunt & giveawayPlus...If you're in the Atlanta area on September 1st-2nd and want to meet these fantastic authors, come visit them at the Decatur Book Festival!

THE ITEM YOU ARE COLLECTING ON MY BLOG IS....
FIRE!
The fire is a gift from Nick, of HERE. I can't tell you exactly why, but I can post a snippet from HERE. And if you want to feel the burn, glance up at the top of the page and take a peek at Nick's sexy self... Out of this world, don't ya think?   
 

I’d known he wasn’t normal. Even thought he wasn’t human. I’d seen the evidence—seen him bring somebody back from the dead! But when Nick made the cabin explode, made the helicopters crash like kids’ toys, I was finally afraid of him. Only one wall stood—the one behind me—and through the trees, across the cliffs, I could see fires where the helicopters burned.  I backed against the wall instinctively—cornered prey. The wolf in front of me was panting, pale and weak, but it wasn’t enough to make me safe from him. He turned to me, and my heart stopped. "I remembered," he said, soft and low. "I remembered why I'm here. What my purpose is." 

That's an edited snippet...because HERE is kind of mysterious and I don't want to spoil it for you. Want to read it? Take the fire Nick has offered to help you survive on a deserted island full of hotties, and enter our giveaway below!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blog Hop - starting August 13

 It's August, it's summer, it's hot... but how much hotter would it get if you were stranded on a deserted island with nothing but some swoon-worthy fictional characters to help you survive? Come visit the blogs below from August 13th to August 17th to collect items from a group of true hotties. Then enter your 'gifts' into the entry form for your chance to win a fantabulous grand prize - a Kindle and a pile of books to load onto it!Now... we can't promise you this group will have the most traditional of survival gear for you. In fact, we can't promise you that you have a hope in Hell of surviving this ordeal. But we can promise... we can promise.. sorry, distracted by the twelve hot guys, waiting...  The Rules:Visit each blog beginning August 13th, 2012 at 12:01am ESTCollect the 'gifts' from your favorite fictional hottiesComplete the entry form, listing each 'gift' you picked up Cross your fingers!The Stops:K.A.TuckerTiffany KingM.LeightonElla JamesSarah RossHeather SelfAmy BartolC.A.KunzCourtney ColeLaura Elliott
The Grand Prize:1 Kindle - Wi-Fi, 6" E Ink Display
+
ecopies of:
Anathema, and Asylum (Causal Enchantment #1 & 2) ~K.A.Tucker
Dante's Girl ~ Courtney Cole
The Wild Ones ~ M.Leighton
Stained and Here ~ Ella James
Shadow Slayer (Shadow Series #2) ~ Laura Elliott
The One ~Heather Self
The Childe & Dark Days ~ C.A.Kunz
Forever Changed ~ Tiffany King
Awaken & Echo of an Earth Angel ~ Sarah M. Ross
Inescapable ~ Amy Bartol
+
Audiobook of 13 on Halloween (Shadow Series #1) ~ Laura Elliott


Make sure to visit us beginning Monday, August 13th to make some new fictional boyfriends, meet some new authors, have some fun, and possibly win a fantastic prize! You'll find the entry form and posts at that time, plus any additional information on the scavenger hunt & giveawayPlus...If you're in the Atlanta area on September 1st-2nd and want to meet these fantastic authors, come visit them at the Decatur Book Festival!

Redesign

This site is getting a re-design! My designer is the amazing Jude Henderson of In Between Designs. She is super talented and fun to work with, and she has competitive prices. If you need a good-looking blog, go check out her portfolio.

Print Editions...

...are coming!!!!

Have I told you this?!

I should have print copies of Stained and Here by the end of the month! You can buy them on Amazon, but if I'm not mistaken, I can sell them myself, too. :)

Just wanted you to know.

-El

Expectations

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and famous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. And when we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” -Marianne Williamson

In one of the Stained books - Chosen, I think - Julia mentions how foster kids are self-trained never to get their hopes up, lest they be let down. For a long time, I was with Julia on that. Really I still am.

I don't like getting my hopes up. I'm pretty good at not being a pessimist, either. I just try to keep my expectations modest. I walk a thin, wobbly line: While I project positivity, I don't actually let myself envision what would happen if my best-case scenario played out. What's the point?

It's like watching travel shows. My husband loves them, but unless I'm in exactly the right mood, they just seem pointless to me. If I can't go to Paris, why watch it on TV? It's almost painful. Like watching someone eat chocolate when you're on a diet. Sure, I might go to Paris someday, but until I have my ticket, I'd rather not watch other people walking around Paris. What's the point?

The other day I was talking to a book blogger friend who is also a writer. She's working on a novel she likes, one she hopes will snare her an agent. She's not originally from the United States. I asked her if she thought she'd ever move back to the country where she was born, and she told me she hoped to be successful enough as a writer to live in both countries one day.

I was surprised. Surprised because she isn't published yet. Surprised because she had the confidence to tell me that she has that kind of ambition. Impressed because clearly, she has already reserved her ticket to Paris, even though she may not have the money to pay for it yet.

It made me realize that I need to be more positive. And it made me sad that, somewhere along the way, I decided to hide the light of my own ambition. To stop watching travel channel shows. To pretend, like I did for a while, like I'm chill and low key, like I don't really care what happens with my writing. For a long time, I've been too ambitious to be pessimistic, but too faithless to be optimistic.

Now I find myself in the strange position of greeting successes I never actually expected to see. It's like visiting France without learning French. I can barely navigate the amazing landscape of my own life. I see that my books are selling, and I'm not sure what to think.

I find myself wondering if the people buying my books are crazy. Am I somehow fooling them? I've talked to a lot of them. They seem normal. Pretty awesome, even. I must be fooling them. But they've read the books... Is Amazon doing well? What if I wake up tomorrow and it's not there anymore. What if the Internet fails? Isn't it connected with some strange under-the-sea cables? What if a mermaid war breaks out and they are somehow severed?

But none of those questions scares me as much as this one: What if mermaid peace prevails, and the internet is fine? What if my books keep selling? Then what? What do I do with that?

So I wonder... What made me so afraid of projecting positive outcomes for my writing? Life. That's part of the answer. Making it to a point where people are buying my books - that's been hard for me. For years, I was the almost-agented wonder. It's a really good book, BUT... So I had to learn to keep my expectations level. For a few years, getting excited was too costly. I paid for it with tears. And tears. And more tears. I had an offer withdrawn one time, because an agent had a surprising death in the family. I had an agent interested, an agent who liked my writing, but who signed too many other authors while I worked on revisions.

I know none of that is unusual. So many writers have the same story. My point here is that I let those painful almost-successes not only shut down my optimism, but also veil my ambition.

Who was I to be ambitious? I didn't have anything to show for my work. When I mentioned my goal of making a living as a fiction writer to family and friends, they would get that pitying look on their faces - the one that told me they didn't think I could actually do this. They would nod and smile and say, "That's right. You keep writing." Like there was ever a chance that I wouldn't. They didn't know how wrong they were - that I didn't need their pity or their concern (when will she give this up and get a real plan?) because I was GOING to make it.

I didn't feel like I had a right to be openly ambitious. I got tired of people smiling politely. I buried my ambition, but I kept working. I didn't think about it. Where it might lead. I didn't ever, ever, ever allow myself to, even for a second, think about success. Success was for someone else. Hard work was for me.

So I worked hard, and suddenly I am selling books. And it's weird. But it really shouldn't be. Success happens for people who work hard. Most of the time. Maybe even all the time, in its way. It might not be the exact success you want, but if you work hard, you will find success somewhere.

I never wanted to be an ebook author. I didn't even know what Kindle was until last May. I wanted an agent. A New York City agent. That's all I thought I wanted. Now? I wouldn't trade my life for ten agents. Which is not to say that agents are not wonderful, but rather that I'm deeply grateful for my life right now, and I feel blessed that what started as a tumultuous year because of some health issues with my son has turned into an awesome year. The best. My son turned one today. He is happy and healthy. My books are selling.

It shouldn't be a surprise. It wouldn't be, if I'd had the faith my blogger/writer friend has. And I should have. Someone as ambitious as I am should have had the nerve to be open about it. To be confident about it. To hell with what anyone else says.

Something to remember if you're an aspiring author: The people around you have to have optimism in order to extend it to you and your writing career. Most people aren't optimists.

Most people aren't ambitious, either. They don't have the nerve. If they feel it, they don't think they have the right. But if you're working hard, if you want it badly enough, why not have fun with it? Why not watch the travel channel?

Cover update

I love it! What do you think?

On not having it all

I have a lot of writer friends - some more experienced than I, and others less. My less experienced friends, the ones who've just decided to try typing out the stories in their heads, or who have loved the idea of writing for a while but haven't quite gotten to it, will often ask me how I find the time to write. This is something I've struggled with for years. I've never met a writer who doesn't.

Like many of my author friends, I'm a die-hard perfectionist who wants to do things right, who spends a lot of time wondering whether I am. When I first started writing daily, in 2005, I hadn't yet decided to make fiction writing a career goal (I thought, for some reason, that I couldn't do that until I was in my 30s or 40s). By 2006 I'd realized I didn't really have a choice; I'd become addicted to writing and it wasn't an addiction I was interested in quitting. So... how to make it work?

At time time, my sister was in college and was going through a bored, single phase and wanted to talk on the phone a lot. I was working as the world's worst secretary, for a lawyer. I had a big, fancy desk in the front of his office, and I liked to stay after business hours and work on Stained. Inevitably, my sister would always call while I was working, and I would always have to tell her I was busy. After a while, she started getting irritated. You never make time for me. I don't care if you're writing. When are we going to talk?! It was a normal reaction, and so was my reaction to her: I had no idea what to tell her, and it wasn't long before I had turned my phone off, but was seriously stewing over how to handle her. And all my other non-writing demands.

At that time, my life was mostly non-writing, and I was desperate to write. I was willing to give up anything to do it. Except the many things I couldn't give up. Like my boyfriend (now my husband). And my sister. And paying bills. And going to work. And showering.

It's surprisingly sweet, remembering those days. But like with any new love, there are details to work out and things to learn. And over the last six years, I've learned them.

Here's the most important thing I've learned about making time for writing: There is no easy way to do it. I'm sure you've heard that before, but I want to tell you what that really means.

It means that unless you have a clone, you will never be able to do everything you want need to do.
It means that there will be phone calls you can't answer. Not that annoying call from the cable  salesperson, but the fun one from your sister.
It means that there will be parties you can't go to. Good parties. Parties with that friend you LOVED in college...when she's in town for the first time in four years and maybe the only time for four more years.
It means your car will not always be vacuumed and your shelves may not always be dusted.
It means your family will eat a lot of take-out.
It means different things for different writers, depending on priorities and personalities, but for me it means the floors in my house are perpetually in need of a good sweep-and-mop.
It means my big, white dog, who lives inside, doesn't get a weekly bath and pretty much never gets brushed.
It means the mirrors in my bathrooms usually have splatter-marks.
It means if you want your clothes folded, you get them out of the drier and fold them yourself.
It means I cook a lot of crockpot meals and buy a lot of organic, thin-crust pizza and try not to think about my cholesterol.
It means that although I was once a daily runner, I run only three times a week, and only for 30 minutes when I do.
It means my size medium running shorts are being donated to my sister in law, and I'm wearing a large. And I'm petite. And I value being in shape. But not as much as I value my writing.
It means I only have one pair of earrings right now and no eyebrow tweesers, and I'll get more earrings next time I go to a wedding or a party (which may be YEARS), and I'll get the tweezers when I start looking like a woolly mammoth, because I don't make random runs out to the store for things like tweezers.
It means if I run out of diet coke and want caffeine, I wait until I'm going out for other errands and get more then. Because I can't go on an errand run more than once a day. I don't have time.
It means I go clothes shopping once or twice a year and not once or twice a month, regardless of how much money I have to spend.
It means instead of going to the mall with my friends, we go on lunch dates that don't ever run longer than two hours. And I worry sometimes that they won't know how much I value them because I don't spend the day at the mall, or the day at the park. But I don't because I can't.
For me, being a writer means that if your kid has a party, I'm not going unless you are my sister and that kid is my nephew. And if you have people over to watch the Superbowl, I will never be there. Not even if you make my favorite brownies and invite my favorite people.
It means I don't have that many close friends - just two or three - and sometimes that doesn't feel like enough. But I don't have time for more. And I don't want to be a lousy friend, so I don't make more in-town friends than I can keep.
And when my son has his birthday party, I don't invite that many people, because I know we won't have time to go to their kids' party, and I think that's not nice.
It means that although I am a friendly person who loves to meet new people, I never usually know my neighbors very well. And it drives me crazy to just wave and smile, because I'm a chatty Southern girl and I love talking. But I can't. I just can't.
Sometimes writing means that I miss my husband, even though I live with him. Even though I do make time for him. I want more time. But I can't.
It means I break a promise I made as a little girl, that when I had a baby, I wouldn't be a mom who worked all the time. I'd be a mom who played with my baby all the time.
And I am a mom who works...a lot. And my husband is amazing, because he does more than I ever thought I would ask a husband to do, and he does it so I can work. I didn't think I'd be that mom, but I am.
I didn't think I'd be a 20-something-year-old mom and wife who had the water in her house turned off one month because I was so busy with my characters, trying to scramble up enough time for my writing and my immediate family, that I totally forgot I had a water bill. (In my previous town, it had been lumped in with the power bill, but STILL).
I would like to have a dozen close friends that live in my town. I'd love to run every day and talk to my family on the phone a lot. I would feel a lot better about myself if I never forgot a utility bill and managed to cook more than two or three nights per week. If there was even a smidgen of a chance that I might get to know one of my neighbors, and somehow, on a whim, get roped into a day at the zoo or a door-to-door fundraiser for kids with cancer. These things I cannot do, these impossible possibilities - and the sacrifice of them - is so difficult, it feels too personal to blog about.
I want to be that wife who can cook at least one or two things really well. That stay-at-home mom who plays with her child all day long. That mom who planned the birthday party just right, with every detail matching.
I want these things because I'm a perfectionist, because I'm driven. But I have to scale it back. I have to narrow down.
I have to pick something. Just one thing. Because I have learned that if I want to be a writer, I can't be much else.
For a long time, it felt like a gamble. And I struggled with it. How much I was giving up... and what if - What if it didn't work. And then I decided that I wouldn't let it not work. So now I feel a little better about things.
When I go to the mall and see a group of female friends with a morning's worth of shopping bags... When I see a friend's kid's birthday party...how her outfit matches the cake, which matches the balloons... When I look at my unplucked eyebrows five minutes before I'm supposed to go out to eat with my inlaws - and I think why didn't I remember tweezers - I know the answer: It's because I was thinking about a book.
And while a book is not a husband, or a son, and it will never be as dear to me as they are, it can be 'up there'. It can be kind of close. It can be what I need. And I can try to let it be enough.

Cover Reveal: Summer in Salem, by Brina Courtney

 Have you read Reveal and its sequel, Capture, by Brina Courtney? Reveal is on sale today for 99 cents - just so you know. ;) Brina has a new book coming out in September, and it looks so good I had to share the blurb with you.
Teagen’s summer has been turned upside down by a body, a pentagram necklace, and an old flame.
Nine months ago, Teagan Matthews' boyfriend disappeared and took her sense of stability with him. But when the opportunity to live with her aging grandmother in Salem arises, she decides it's time to get on with her life. A new home, new job and new friends are adding up to a beautiful summer...
...until a young girl's body shows up one night in town, wearing a necklace exactly like Teagan's.
Now a guy looking remarkably like her missing boyfriend has shown up in town along with a mysterious stranger who may have some answers that Teagan has desperately been searching for. Teagan must now decide who to trust because it could be matter of life and her death.
Expected publication: September 2012
Goodreads link: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15...
My site: www.brinacourtney.com
My books: http://www.amazon.com/Brina-Courtney/...
Brina's current books are on sale today, August 3rd. Seriously... go check out Reveal by Brina Courtney. Can't beat 99 cents!

Then check out my ongoing contests, three posts down!

Chosen Contests + Exalted TBR date

Hi guys! I just wanted to remind you about the Chosen contests with the closest deadlines. :) And also say THANKS FOR READING MY BOOKS! And also let you know that I plan to release Exalted at the end of August or the very beginning of September. I'm writing it as fast as I can, and I'm close to finished. Which means Editubby will get it and work his magic. And I will dance around him in a fit of readiness for him to finish editing so I can give you the book.

So before I re-post the two contests, I'll throw out a few Exalted teasers:
1. Someone's fate is in the air. Seriously. I haven't decided whether this person will die. I just can't tell...based on the plot and based on how I think Julia's crew will act. I hope they don't die. Because that would suck.
2. At some point, the crew ends up in the 'real world'. What job/major would be best for each of them? Post your guesses and when Exalted comes out, the closest ones will get the book for free.
3. Cayne's dad is someone important. Who do you think he is?
4. What will happen to Edan? His boss is NOT happy with him, so book four will be a sad time for Edan.
5. Someone gets tortured.
6. This book is darker than the others. Can you tell? It also has a brighter ending. Literally. MUHAHAHA.

-SHARING IS CARING/deadline 8-3:
Share the link to the Stained or Chosen Amazon product listing, and encourage all your friends to read the Stained Series! FB wall posts = one entry; tweets = one entry. Friday, August 3, I will draw one winner, to receive a free copy of my adult romantic suspense, Over The Moon (a 100k-word book to be priced at $3.99) as well as the $2.99 book of their choice.

-REVIEWER'S REWARD/deadline 8-12:
Starting Saturday, 7/28 and running through Sunday, August 12, I'm running an early reviewer contest. All you have to do is leave a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads! (Each one = one entry). Then rely to this post, let me know on FB or Twitter, or e-mail me at ella_f_james@ymail.com. I'll enter everyone who reviews Chosen between 7/28 and 8/12 in a drawing to win a $20 Amazon gift card! Drawing will be Sunday, August 12.