Janette Rallison's Blog, page 10
September 19, 2017
A Perfect Fit is released!
For those of you who’re wondering why the fourth Slayers book isn’t out yet–writing this latest novella was partly to blame.I know, you suddenly feel an intense hatred toward this poor novella, don’t you? But never fear, Slayers 4 (and probably 5… yeah, I think I need to break this book up again) is coming along and in the meantime, you have this 135-page romantic comedy to read. And I promise not to agree to be in any more romance anthologies until it comes out.
Here’s the back blurb: Do you remember your first love? Have you ever wondered what would happen if you had a second chance to follow your heart? In this collection of novellas written by award-winning and bestselling authors, come home to Echo Ridge as summer winds down and hearts once broken and lost are given one more chance, a second chance to love.
(Although if you read my novella My Fair Lacey–this is the story about Lacey’s roommate, Jojo.) You can order it here:
Click to buy A Perfect Fit along with four other romances in the compilation. (But promise to like mine best…)
August 20, 2017
Slayers 4 (and other projects) update (sorry I’ve been AWOL)
I haven’t looked at my blog in weeks. This has mostly been because I was in England for 17 days, then had my three out-of-state kids and two grandkids visiting for 3 1/2 weeks, and all last week I had my downstairs floor torn up and tiled. (As I write this, my downstairs toilet and sink are sitting on my back patio, making me look like the white trash house in the neighborhood.) Also, I’ve been helping my sons with their books. Yes, both of my sons–neither of which liked to read growing up–have written books. My daughters who love to read and have actually considered writing books–they haven’t written anything for you.
James’s book already has a publisher, (They contacted him with the idea of writing a book–which never happens to authors.) and will be out in April 2018. It will probably sell more than all of my books combined, but whatever. No one is more proud of his success as a youtuber than I am.
Anyway, you’ll be glad to hear that throughout the renovations, I’ve been busy working on Slayers 4.
It’s now about 500 pages long and I still have a few scenes to add. Plus I haven’t decided whether to leave one of the characters dead or unkill him. I’ve written the ending two different ways–one for Team Jesse and one for Team Dirk. Yes, I am trying to make everyone happy… and I have to say, it’s sort of weird. Like, my brain doesn’t know which ending is the truth. This is probably why more authors don’t use this technique.
My romantic comedy novella A Perfect Fit is done–yay–and will be out in September.
I also am waiting from my Disney editor to get back to me on several projects, and hoping I can finish the Slayers series before putting anything else on my plate.
And I’m avoiding talking to my agent about that WWII romance that I’ve been researching for the last year. It doesn’t need to be written right now…
So that’s the update. Someone create more time and send me some!
August 2, 2017
July 18, 2017
Two free ebooks, two for .99
Need a beach read? These will be perfect!
How I Met Your Brother
The best day of his life, the worst day of hers.
Back in college, Marco Dawson never thought of Belle as anything more than a friend. If she had crossed his mind on his wedding day, it was probably only to wonder why she hadn’t shown up to be a bridesmaid. After all, his new wife was her old roommate. Seven years have passed since then, and Belle just found out that Marco is divorced and vacationing with his family in an elegant Cancun resort. She’s not about to let the right man get away twice. She heads to the resort where she plans to casually bump into Marco and ignite some romantic flames.
But Belle hadn’t planned on one thing: Flynn Dawson, Marco’s handsome, charming, and determined twin brother. He thinks Marco and his ex-wife can make amends and he’s not about to let Belle stand in the way.
Part Sabrina, part While You Were Sleeping, romantic comedy readers will eat this book up!
Click to buy How I Met Your Brother for .99
Masquerade
A little white lie never hurt anyone.
When Clarissa takes a much needed job under slightly false pretenses, she doesn’t think it will be such a big deal. She may have told her movie-star boss that she was married but that shouldn’t matter. After all, she doesn’t want anything to do with men for a long, long time.
It’s hard for a woman to keep up the masquerade when her boss is as handsome as Slade Jacobson and the job takes her to Hawaii with him. In between handling his whirlwind four-year-old daughter and dealing with a whole cast of Hollywood personalities, Clarissa has to keep a tight hold on her heart.
Masquerade is romantic comedy at its best–clean and funny with lots of heart.
Click here to buy Masquerade for.99
A Longtime (and at one point illegal) Crush
From the day Elsie’s big brother brought his friend Kye McBride over to their house, Elsie adored him. When she was eight, she secretly blew kisses to him. When she was twelve, she sat on the stairs, unnoticed, and watched him escort another girl to prom. When she was a senior in high school, she walked into math class and found out he was her new math teacher.
With that much emotion fueling her, things were bound to go wrong. And they did. After Elsie let him know how she felt and made a fool of herself, she spent the last two weeks of school avoiding him. In fact, she turned avoiding-Kye-at-all-costs into her life-long philosophy.
Now three years have passed and Elsie has come home for her brother’s wedding. She’s got to face Kye—hopefully without getting crushed again.
Publishers Weekly has called Janette’s romantic comedies “Hilarious.”
Click to get the novella Longtime Crush for free
It’s a Mall World After All
A fun romp of a read that’s sure to please.”–Booklist
“Witty and hilarious.” –TeensReadToo.com
If they gave out diplomas for what you learn at the mall, Charlotte could graduate with honors. Ever since she got a job as a perfume spritzer, she’s become an expert on all things shopping related―oh, and she’s getting really good at spying on her classmates who hang out there. What she hasn’t mastered is the art of convincing her best friend Brianna to dump her boyfriend Bryant. After Charlotte caught him flirting with a mysterious, blond-haired stick figure, she knows he’s up to no good. Worse still, now Brianna is taking his side. Charlotte must prove who is right, once and for all, and that means catching Bryant in the act. This is where her mall roaming skills will come in handy. Perfume anyone?
Click here to get Mall World for free
June 27, 2017
Leading a directionally challenged life…
I just came home from an awesome week of teaching at WIFYR. I always take my work-out clothes and tennis shoes when I go to writers’ conferences—which proves that I am an optimist and that I don’t learn from past experiences. Because I never have time to exercise at conferences. I am talking with other authors into the night and then reviewing student’s manuscripts.
This time, insomnia stopped by for a visit and each day I became more sleep deprived. I kept thinking that since I’d had so little sleep, surely I’d fall to sleep as soon as I crawled into bed, but no. Every night I had to increase the amount of sleeping pills I took because I knew I needed some sleep or I wouldn’t be able to wake up at seven AM and teach for four hours. I ended up taking more sleeping pills than I ever had, and in the early hours of the morning, I groggily worried that I would accidentally overdose. If that happened, my students would always wonder why I’d opted to kill myself rather than read more of their work.
This would not be the best way to encourage their writing.
As usual, I had a class full of wonderful, creative, and eager students. I know some of them will be published soon. (Soon in the writing world is actually about three or four years…)
It was especially nice for me to be around other authors because I find it so validating. Any of you who already know me, know that I’m directionally challenged. Meaning, I can get lost pretty much anywhere. I have no internal compass. So I loved the fact that the conference director’s daughter got lost twice while driving us around. One of the agents admitted that although he’s lived in New York for years, he never knows which exit to take when leaving the subway. He just goes out the nearest one and figures out where he is once he’s on the street. Every time Kathryn Purdie walked by me at the end of the day, and then walked by going the other direction with the sheepish explanation of, “I can never remember where I parked my car,” I wanted to stand up and exclaim, “This is my tribe!”
Fortunately, despite my lack of an internal compass, I can rely on the GPS on my phone 95% of the time to get me where I need to go. The other five percent of the time makes life interesting. Once when I was doing a school visit at Timp View High, my phone insisted that the school was located in someone’s garage. There was the time when I was staying at Sarah Eden’s house and—I’m not making this up—when I put in her address, my phone took me to the state mental hospital and told me I had reached my destination. I’m not sure who should be more troubled by that misdirection, Sarah or me. At any rate, it was one of those time when I argued vehemently with my phone. It can keep its snide commentary about my mental health to itself.
While at the conference, I wanted to drive to an evening workshop on marketing that Heather Moore was giving at the South Jordan library. My phone took me there without problem, but on the way home it had battery problems. (It kept restarting, turning off, then restarting again.) I was without the aid of GPS and I hadn’t thought to leave a trail of breadcrumbs to lead me back to the hotel.
I decided not to worry about this problem because I was relatively certain I remembered the way I’d come and could just reverse the process. I know this all sounds terribly easy to the rest of you non-directionally challenged folk, but for my tribe, this is like asking a dyslexic person to not only remember how to spell a word, but then spell it backward.
I set off, sang along to the radio, and before long, I’d reached Auto Mall Drive where the Best Western was. I remembered the name because the street was filled with auto dealerships and hotels. (Hotels apparently don’t get street sign billing like dealerships do.) Success. I thought: Maybe I’m not as bad at directions as I’ve led myself to believe.
I pulled into the parking lot, found a space, and lugged my laptop bag to the side entrance. My room card didn’t work on the lock there. I’d never used the side entrance before, so I didn’t think much of the malfunction, and I trudged to the front entrance. When I went inside, I immediately noted something odd. The lobby no longer looked the same. It was much smaller, a different color, and the front desk was on the opposite wall of where it had previously been.
And that’s when I realized I’d driven to the wrong hotel. So actually, yes, I am just as bad as directions as I’ve led myself to believe.
This is your official warning, should you ever ask me to drive you anywhere.
June 16, 2017
winners are:
Lake, Donna Weaver, Jen, Wendy, Jessica Spo,Ashley, Sarah Daley, Lindsay Neville,Geordon VanTassle
I will start trying to contact you all tomorrow, or if you see this first, you can email me at jrallisonfans at yahoo.com and send me your email address so I can give you your code.
June 5, 2017
Ten Erasing Time audio books to give away!
Erasing Time is now available as an audio book, which means I will soon have some audio codes for reviewers. I thought I would do a giveaway on my blog. Here’s what you’ll need to do for a chance to win one:
Have an Audible.com account or be willing to set one up for a month so I can give you a code. (You can cancel afterwards, although to tell you the truth, you might become addicted to audio books the way I have. It’s so much more fun to clean, drive, or put on makeup while listening to a book.)
Be willing to review the audio book (and you can use the same review to review the regular book on Amazon.)
Leave me a comment telling me where you’d go if you had a time machine.
Here’s info about the book:
When twins Sheridan and Taylor wake up 400 years in the future, they find a changed world: domed cities, no animals, and a language that’s so different, it barely sounds like English. And the worst news: They can’t go back home.
The 25th-century government transported the girls to their city hoping to find a famous scientist to help perfect a devastating new weapon. The same government has implanted tracking devices in the citizens, limiting and examining everything they do. Taylor and Sheridan have to find a way out of the city before the government discovers their secrets. To complicate matters, the mob-like Dakine has interest in getting hold of them, too. The only way for the girls to elude their pursuers is to put their trust in Echo, a guy with secrets of his own. The trio must put their faith in the unknown to make a harrowing escape into the wilds beyond the city.
Full of adrenaline-injected chases and heartbreaking confessions, Erasing Time explores the strength of the bonds between twins, the risks and rewards of trust, and the hard road to finding the courage to fight for what you believe in.
If you already have an audible account and just want to order it (or if you want to set up an account–new accounts earn one free book) here’s the direct link: Order Erasing Time!
May 31, 2017
Free class this Friday in Gilbert
Library: Southeast Regional
775 N Greenfield Rd
Gilbert, AZ 85234
What do you do every day as an author? Lots of revisions. Learn from Janette Rallison, popular published author, how to use funny events from your life to give you plot ideas. Did your parents forget you at a gas station once? Your novel will be gold!
Register here: click for Janette’s class
Branch location
Location: Shakespeare Room
May 23, 2017
Free ebook and Kindle Fire giveaway for Paranormal readers
If you’re in the mood for a high school comedy, you’re in luck because Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws is free until the 27.
Josie loves Ethan Lancaster, the captain of the basketball team, but she never can do or say the right thing in front of him. So how can it be fair that Ethan is only interested in her best friend, Cami, when Cami isn’t even trying for his affection? Or is she?
Cami dreams of winning her basketball team’s coveted MVP award, and earning the chance to take the court during a special halftime demonstration with WNBA star Rebecca Lobo, but her best friend, Josie, is a better player. So how can it be fair that Josie is a shoo-in for the honor if she is barely interested in basketball in the first place and isn’t even trying to be the best? Or is she?
Told from two points of view, this novel of life, love, and the pursuit of free throws displays the same delightful humor as Janette Rallison’s other comedies.
Click here to get Life, Love and the Pursuit of Free Throws free!
If you’re in the mood for a rom com fairy tale retelling, you’re also in luck because My Unfair Godmother is on sale for .99 right now.
Tansy Miller has always felt that her divorced father has never had enough time for her. But mistakenly getting caught on the wrong side of the law wasn’t exactly how she wanted to get his attention. Enter Chrysanthemum “Chrissy” Everstar, Tansy’s fairy in shining, er, high heels. Chrissy is only a fair godmother, of course, so Tansy’s three wishes don’t exactly go according to plan. And if bringing Robin Hood to the twenty-first century isn’t bad enough for Tansy, being transported back to the Middle Ages to deal with Rumpelstiltskin certainly is. She’ll need the help of her blended family, her wits, and especially the cute police chief ‘s son to stop the gold-spinning story from spinning wildly out of control. Janette Rallison pulls out all the stops in this fresh, fun-filled follow-up to the popular My Fair Godmother.
Click to buy My Unfair Godmother for .99
(Note, it is scheduled to go on sale May 24. I’m writing this at 12:12 May 24, and the price hasn’t dropped yet, but I’m assuming it will do so soon.)
And here’s the Kindle Fire giveaway info:
Click here to enter the giveaway!
I’ve teamed up with more than 35 urban fantasy authors to give away a huge collection of novels to 2 lucky winners, plus a Kindle Fire to the Grand Prize winner! You can win my novel Son of War, Daughter of Chaos, plus books from lots of other authors.
Good luck, and enjoy!
Kindle Fire giveaway for Paranormal readers
Click here to enter the giveaway!
I’ve teamed up with more than 35 urban fantasy authors to give away a huge collection of novels to 2 lucky winners, plus a Kindle Fire to the Grand Prize winner! You can win my novel Son of War, Daughter of Chaos, plus books from lots of other authors.
Good luck, and enjoy!
