D.M. Guay's Blog, page 26

What do writers do when they aren’t writing?

What do writers do when they aren’t writing? Pull weeds. Seriously. Like tons and tons and tons of weeds.

All right. Maybe most authors don’t pull as many as I do. But seriously, the planty little jerks need to lay off my garden!

Oh wait. Were you not expecting that? You probably imagined me lounging in my erudite home library, with row upon row of dusty leatherbound books, wearing an ascot and smoking a pipe while looking suitably smug and intellectual. That’s what authors do, right?

Yeah, Okay maybe. I could probably really rock an ascot. And I could definitely rock a Hugh Hefner style satin smoking jacket, which would be red, while I lounged around on a red velvet fainting couch eating bon bons while wearing maribou-trimmed high-heeled shoes. Oh my god. Why aren’t I doing that? I’m so gonna do that. Christmas is coming, right?

But alas, that is not what I’m doing today. I’m pulling weeds. I’m not wearing maribou, I’m wearing rubber boots. No smoking jacket or ascot, just ugly green garden gloves and a scowl as I shout expletives at the spiky rude Canada Thistle taking over my yard. Jerks.

A casual stroll through any of my bio pages will alert you to the fun fact that I am a hobby urban farmer. That means that I’m basically running a mini-farm on my lot in the suburbs. It’s an addiction. I’ve tried to break the habit, but I can’t. Geesh. I’m such a garden geek that I even completed a year-long urban farm mentoring program, with the goal of one day becoming a real farmer, selling at local markets.

I blame the tomatoes. Tomatoes are the gateway drug. You’ve never eaten a real tomato until you’ve eaten a homegrown backyard tomato, particularly an heirloom variety, that’s still warm from the sun because it’s just been picked. And the beets. It’s definitely the beets’ fault. And the lettuce, because darn it, having a garden in the backyard is so so so great when you’re lazy like me and don’t know what you’re eating for dinner until it’s already 6 p.m. and everybody’s hangry and clamoring by the stove.

What vegetable are we eating tonight? I don’t know. Let’s go see what’s ripe.

Writers? Yeah. We’re geeks. We like to read and we spend way way waaaay too much time indoors typing. And I’m a garden geek on top of it, which means I spend a lot of time hanging out with old ladies in silly hats, talking about plants and fungus and seeds and bees and well… you get the idea.

And, every August, I transform from modern free-wheeling woman to 18th century pioneer wife (almost like a reverse Clark Kent-Superman transformation), because that’s the month when I have to turn all of our tomatoes and apples into sauces and can them. Aw great. Now you know my deep dark secret. Don’t tell, okay? Especially don’t tell 20-year-old me because she’d be horrified.

“Garden? Canning? That doesn’t sound like a party!” she’d scream, then slap some liquid eyeliner on me and take me by the ear to the nearest rock show.

Now that the secret is out, this is the part where I go squee while I bore you with a photo tour of this year’s garden.

See? I wasn’t lying when I said you can’t beat my beets! Look at this puppy! It’s a Lutz Winter Keeper, for all you other geeks, and yes my nail polish matches!

 

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I’m giving away 20 free ebooks!

[image error]What better way to show how much I appreciate all of you than to shower you with freebies? So let me officially announce: The Amazon giveaway is live!

Enter for a chance to win 1 of 20 Kindle copies of Jess, Rising: Guardians of Salt Creek Book One. 

The giveaway ends Oct. 18, 2017. Click here to enter!

*Sorry. You gotta live in the U.S. to enter!*

 

I’m making book sausage!

[image error]Book sausage. Wait, what?

“What the hell is up with the title on this page?”

Come on. I know you’re thinking that. Well, twist my arm, and I’ll tell you.

You know that old adage: No one wants to know how the sausage is made? I disagree. Sometimes, you just really really really really HAVE TO KNOW what unholy substance was ground up to make your meat. Or in this case, your book.

So, dear readers, I’ve decided to pull back the curtain, so you can see how I kill, chop, mold, stuff and grind all of the embarrassing/funny/sad/romantic/ tidbits of my life into fiction for you.

This is your official notice. I’ve added a new feature to the back of all of my books and ebooks” The Book Sausage chapter. In it, I will get way way way too personal. I will tell you the tales from my real life that inspired the events in my novels. Or, just stuff that will make you laugh. Or cry. Or feel embarrassed for me, because, well, that’s kinda how my life goes. One gaff after another!

Book Sausage is more than a sausage. In some books, it’ll also be a sweet delicious pastry stuffed with creamy, melt-in-your-mouth extras, like links to bonus content and deleted scenes, as well as stories and content from my super-secret deep dark archives!

I’ve just added Book Sausage to the new paperback and ebook editions of Jess, Rising: Guardians of Salt Creek Book One.

I also have a super-duper special for Jess, Resurrected, which comes out Nov. 15. It has links to deleted romantic (as in total make-out action) scenes between Billy and Jess! Woot!

So stay tuned, and if you see a weird chapter in the end of your book, read it!

 

Boy, do I have some sweet sweet freebies for you!

Oh my gosh. The release of Jess: Resurrected, the second book in the Guardians of Salt Creek series, is right around the corner. To celebrate, I’m planning some super awesome giveaways for my super awesome fans and all of their friends. What’s coming down the pipeline, you ask?

Twist my arm, I’ll tell you!

Starting Friday, Sept. 29, I’ll be giving away twenty copies of Jess, Rising: Guardians of Salt Creek Book One via an Amazon giveaway. Once it’s live, all you have to do to enter is follow me on twitter or on my Amazon author page, or share the giveaway link on your twitter feed! Details will be posted here on the blog as soon as the giveaway is a go!

In December, I’ll be hosting my very first super swag for super fans giveaway to mark the release of Jess, Resurrected! Oh my gosh, so excited! I’ll be giving away signed paperbacks of book one and book two, along with a Dogeared sun necklace, and a $20 Amazon gift card. Woot! Details will be posted soon!

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I want YOU for my book review team!

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I’m looking for some generous and lovely people to join my exclusive book review team. The team will receive free, early ebook copies (sorry, no paperbacks!) of my books so that they can write reviews. Once you’re on the team, you stay on the list until you stop requesting review copies or miss your review deadline.

Want to sign up? The link to the application is below. Although, please read carefully and only apply if you believe you can meet these requirements.

Right now, I’m looking for folks to review the Guardians of Salt Creek series, a teen/crossover paranormal romance and urban fantasy series. The first book, Jess, Rising, is out now. The second book, Jess, Resurrected, will be released on Nov. 15.

Do you enjoy paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels with teen main characters? Do you often review other products and books on Amazon?

Have you read and enjoyed Jess, Rising: Guardians of Salt Creek Book One? If not, are you interested in reading and reviewing book one before book two launches on Nov. 15? Are you willing to review both book one and two?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes? Yay. Awesome sauce. Join the club!

*Remember, We only distribute a limited number of ARCs for each book, so signing up doesn’t guarantee you a spot. If you’ve been selected, I’ll email you and send the ebook on or before before Oct. 30.

Still in? Great. Click here to apply.

Hard at work on Guardians of Salt Creek #3!

[image error]Woo hoo look at me I’m typing!  Yes, dear fans, I am hard at work on the third book in the Guardians of Salt Creek series, and ehrmagosh, is it gonna keep you on the edge of your seat. Or your pillow, or… heck, the edge of wherever you read your books.

Want to know what happens? Yeah. I bet you do. And I’ll tell you. I’m going all George R.R. Martin all up in Salt Creek. Yep. People are dying. People you care about. People I care about. Sniff. But hey. Things have to get real bad for Jess, right? I mean, she can’t be pretty, and have infinite super powers, and a hot boyfriend and get to live happily ever after without a few (deadly) bumps in the road, or else we’d all totes hate her guts!

So yeah. I was thinking of you guys knowing you were totally dying for an update. And since this book needs to be all pretty and perfect and in your hands by February, I better get back to work now. So here I go, type…type..type..type…typing up plenty of Sexy. Kick Ass. Magic just for y’all!

Free sneaky peek at Jess, Rising!

Be cool. It’s ready. There’s finally a free sneak peek of Jess, Rising, my paranormal romance and urban fantasy novel on Instafreebie. Click here to check it out!

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It’s launch day!

Ehrmagosh. My eyes are all streaky and my cheeks hurt from cry smiling. After six years of writing, revising, contest entries, and agents, Salt Creek Rising is officially for sale!

Hazzah!

It’s been a long and fulfilling road, and yes, there will be many more books to come. Unless my fingers go on strike and refuse to type all the zillions of words stewing in my brain jambalaya. Or they decide to run off to a sunny Pacific island and live the rest of their pink fleshy digit lives getting tan and drinking fruity cocktails out of a hollowed-out pineapple. Wait. That doesn’t sound so bad. Maybe I’ll follow them.

In the meantime, head over to Amazon or Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy of my brain baby. If you like teenagers, super powers, romance, suspense, or maybe just two or three of those things, this is the book for you! The paperback is on sale now. The ebook will be available May 1.

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Emily Award, 3rd place, Young adult

Salt Creek Rising (under its working title Girl with the Sun on her Heart) won third place in the young adult category in the 2017 Emily Awards hosted by the West Houston Romance Writers of America. I’m honored to have been a finalist and moreso to have placed. Thank you to all the people in Houston who worked hard to make the contest go off without a hitch.

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The lucky winner!

I am honored to say my novel Salt Creek Rising (aka Girl with the Sun on her Heart) won the Joyce Henderson contest sponsored by the Southwest Florida Romance Writers of America. First place in the young adult category!

Thank you to all the judges and volunteers who put a lot of work into making that contest go off without a hitch. I was honored to be a finalist, and I’m certainly honored now.

Also, a shout out to Christine Gunderson. Her novel Covenant Park was a finalist in the Joyce Henderson contest as well. She and I will also be going head to head as finalists in the young adult category for the Emily Award! Christine, if you’re out there, I’d love to read your book!