Michelle McCraw's Blog, page 2

Writing progress, November 10, 2024

Here’s the good news: I finished the first draft of Conspiracies and Chemistry (Tessa’s story)! The bad news: oof, revisions are s-l-o-w. I’m making progress, but some days it doesn’t feel like it! I’m trying to remember that revisions take as much time as they take, and it’s all good work, whether I’m adding words or deleting them. My goal is to finish the revision and have it ready for my alpha readers by Thanksgiving. Wish me luck!

The post Writing progress, November 10, 2024 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Writing progress, October 20, 2024

Well THIS update feels good! 23 and You and Me released last week. What a milestone, 5 years in the making! And I’m making strong progress on Conspiracies and Chemistry, the next book in my 40 and Fabulous series. This one has taken a minute, but I can see the end from here!

The post Writing progress, October 20, 2024 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Writing progress, August 11, 2024

 This month, I've made a lot of publishing progress…at the expense of writing progress. It works that way sometimes.

I've got four projects in progress:

Books and Hookups is ready to publish! The files are uploaded, and everything's ready to go for August 23. (Psst – you can get it TODAY in my store!)I'm about a third of the way through the third book in my 40 and Fabulous series, which is Tessa and Oliver's story. If I were a better marketer, I'd do a title reveal, but (shrugs) here it is…Conspiracies and Chemistry, coming 2025!23 and You and Me is ready for copyedit. Look for a cover reveal soon!4 Weddings and a Feud, its sequel, is turned in for content edit.

Finally, I'll be at Virginia Highland Books in Atlanta August 17 for Bookstore Romance Day. I'm looking forward to getting to know this new-to-me bookstore!

The post Writing progress, August 11, 2024 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Writing progress, July 14, 2024

It's been a minute since I posted my writing progress, so I figured I'd switch things up.

I've got three projects in progress:

23 and You and Me is ready for copyedit. Look for a cover reveal soon!Books and Hookups is with the proofreader. I don't have a release date yet, but look for it soon!I've started drafting the third book in my 40 and Fabulous series, which is Tessa and Oliver's story. Title reveal coming soon!

Finally, I'll be at Literary Love Savannah July 17-21. I can't wait to meet all the readers and authors!

The post Writing progress, July 14, 2024 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Writing progress, April 14, 2024

There's exciting stuff going on this month! I've always got a lot of projects in the works, but I'm really feeling it now!

23 and You and Me is back! I haven't worked on this manuscript since 2021, and now it's back in my hands from my lovely editor, Tee Tate of City Owl Press. I'll be working on revisions this month.I sent Books & Hookups off to my alpha readers this week. I'm so excited about this surprise-baby-at-40 romcom. I loved writing the (younger, but classic oldest sibling) cinnamon-roll hero in this one!4 Weddings is revised and ready to go to my editor. I'm holding it in case we change anything major in 23 and You and Me that affects this sequel.

Finally, if you're in the Chicago area, be sure to come by the Chicago Spring Fling reader events April 19-20. I won't be signing at the event, but I'd love to meet up for coffee!

The post Writing progress, April 14, 2024 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Frenemies and Lovers is here!

How to buy: 

Get your copy from my store. Use promo code DIMPLES for 20% off in my store. The book is delivered immediately by Bookfunnel, just like all my bonus epilogues, and you can read it on your favorite platform. Plus, I get to keep a little more cash from each sale.😁

You can also get a copy from your favorite retailer:

Amazon | Apple | Barnes & Noble | Google | Kobo | Everywhere else

It’s finally HERE!

This book has been a LONG time coming! Almost two full years after I started writing it, Frenemies and Lovers is available today from all retailers. Of course, it’s been up for a couple of weeks on my website, and those readers who grabbed it early can tell you that it’s got all my favorite things in it: a hero who’s GONE for the heroine practically from page one, dastardly exes, adorable pups, and a ride-or-die friend group.

The book started with that idea: a group of friends who meet up a little later in life. I’d been thinking about how much harder it is to make friends as an adult of a (ahem) certain age. When you’re a kid, everyone’s a potential friend. I remember one time when my son was little, he and another kid started up a conversation in the hardware store, and I could hardly drag my son away when we’d made our purchase. Afterward, I asked him where he knew that kid from. He said, “Here.” He had made a friend right there in the plumbing supplies aisle.

Making friends as an adult isn’t that easy.

So part two of this origin story happens as I’m listening to a podcast on a long drive. It’s a sex podcast, which I listen to for PROFESSIONAL REASONS – OBVIOUSLY – and the host is interviewing someone who gives workshops about exploring your sensual side. I’m all about this, and I’m listening intently as I’m cruising I-70.

And then this guest reveals the secret to a happy long-term relationship: treating your man like a king.

Needle scratch.

I had to rewind that part to be sure I heard it right. The way to find my power is to treat someone else like royalty? What in the ever-loving FUCK? (Yes, I promise I was alone in the car when I shouted this.) Shouldn’t he be treating me like royalty?

And then an idea took root.

What if someone at one of these workshops had a similar reaction? And what if a few others did, too? And what if they met up after in a bar and all agreed that it was utter bullshit?

And what, the romance-writing part of my brain asked, if they all then found partners who’d treat them like queens? Or goddesses?

I’d love to say the story wrote itself from that point, but, yeah, that was over two years ago.

So if you want to read about friends who meet each other under exactly those circumstances and then go on to find (younger) men who treat them like the goddesses they are, pick up Frenemies and Lovers.

Need more convincing? Here are the first two chapters.

The post Frenemies and Lovers is here! first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Incoming: New books

I’ve got a brand-new online bookstore, and what better way to test-drive it than to give away a ton of books? That’s right, you can get Fashion and Passion exclusively in my store for free two weeks early!

For 2024, the store is where you want to be. You’ll be able to download all my new releases early AND at a discount. Plus, I’ll be tossing in unique series bundles that won’t be available anywhere else.

It’s super easy. Just grab it on my store and download through Bookfunnel, and you’ll be able to read in your favorite e-reader, including your Kindle device.

Don’t mind waiting? You’ll still be able to get all my books in both ebook and paperback on your preferred book retailer or at your library.

Get it early: Fashion and Passion, a 40 and Fabulous prequel novella

Blame it on the chardonnay.

Newly divorced, forty-five, and desperate for a reboot, Carly drops the last of her cash on a self-help seminar that promises to empower her to achieve her dreams. Although the seminar turns out to be a bust, Carly finds it wasn’t a complete waste when she walks out with three new besties and a newfound feeling of rebellion.

As they soak away their troubles at the hotel bar, a surprise from Carly’s past walks in. It’s Andrew, a thirtysomething finance nerd with irrepressible dimples, disarming vulnerability, and stormcloud-gray eyes that have worshipped her from afar for years. He makes a shocking proposal – which her new friends urge her to accept.

Can Carly let go her inhibitions to enjoy a no-strings night with a sexy younger man? And if she does, what happens when they return to the real world?

Crush on this FREE spicy age-gap one-night novella featuring new friendships, bubbly barroom banter, and fantasies come true. Pairs well with sparkling wine and a fizzy bath bomb.

Those of you who picked up the Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights anthology will have already read a version of this story. It’s short and can be read in less than an hour.

Download Preorder Get it early: Fashion and Passion, a 40 and Fabulous prequel novella

Carly and Andrew’s story continues…

Fake partnership, real attraction, and one hilariously haute disaster waiting to happen…buckle up for this age-gap rom-com.

Carly Rose, forty-five and fiercely independent, is rebuilding her life. Newly divorced, she's determined to make her stylist business blossom, even with the thorn in her side – Audrey, her frenemy with a tongue sharper than her designer stilettos. Enter Andrew, Audrey's son, a charming blend of geek energy and fierce loyalty. Who happens to be Carly’s completely off-limits secret one-night stand.

When a chance for Andrew's dream promotion hinges on a polished public image, he makes an unexpected proposition: a mutually beneficial charade. Carly, facing the gauntlet of her ex's destination wedding in Barcelona, agrees to become his pretend girlfriend. What starts as a carefully curated act evolves into stolen moments whispered over tapas, kisses in front of Gaudi fountains, and feelings as warm as a cashmere scarf on a crisp autumn day.

Caught between ambition and a forbidden yearning, Carly and Andrew navigate a minefield of sabotaged styling appointments; cringeworthy encounters with exes, bosses and disapproving mothers; plus the undeniable truth that attraction doesn't follow age brackets.

Swoon for this steamy standalone romantic comedy featuring fabulousness after forty, making friends with enemies, and finding love with a wildly inappropriate fake date.

(Shh, don't tell Audrey, but Andrew's dimples are definitely the hottest accessory this season.)

How to buy: Preorder your copy here. Use promo code DIMPLES for 20% off in my store. You’ll get it on February 8 if you order from my store, February 23 (and no promo code) if you order anywhere else. Need a paperback? They’ll be available on launch day!

Amazon | Apple | Barnes & Noble | Google | Kobo | Everywhere else

The post Incoming: New books first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Writing progress, December 17, 2023

It’s my last #writingprogress post of 2023! I’ve got a lot going on, which is good news for my readers in 2024.

The Synergy holiday short is done and going out to my newsletter subscribers (if you’re a subscriber and you’ve missed it, let me know!). Frenemies & Lovers is ready to go to the proofreader. I’m wrapping up formatting for its prequel, Fashion & Passion, and I’ll publish them both in February. 4 Weddings is back from beta readers, and I’ll revise it based on their feedback. Books & Hookups is languishing, again, waiting for its turn. It’s up next!

The post Writing progress, December 17, 2023 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

What?? A new series?

Guess what? I have a new book, the first in a brand-new series, coming out in February. I can’t wait to share it with you all.

This series is a little different from my Synergy series. It’s less workplace focused and features more mature heroines. But it takes place in the same fictional version of the San Francisco tech scene as the Synergy series, so you might see some favorite characters pop in from time to time. And it’s still nerdy, sexy, and funny (God, I hope it’s funny!) so it ought to feel familiar.

Those of you who picked up the Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights anthology will know how it begins. The series follows a group of unlikely friends who meet up at a terrible conference. It explores some things I was feeling at the time, like figuring out the second half of your life and making friends as you get older. Okay, maybe I’m still working through those issues! 😅

How did I come up with the idea for the women’s meet-cute? It burst into my head during a long drive to my local-ish writers’ group. I was listening to a podcast where the host interviewed someone who runs women’s conferences about taking back one’s feminine power and sensuality. Sounds great, right? Well, the message I heard was that the way to take back your power and sensuality is to appeal to Your Man. Which didn’t sit right with me. I mean, you should be able to feel empowered and sensual whether you have a man or not, right? And if you’re into men or not. And monogamy. No one else (I don’t know, except maybe a therapist?) should be involved in finding your personal power.

So I imagined walking out of that conference. And meeting up in the bar with some other women who’d had the same objection I did. And wouldn’t that be a fun basis for friendship? And wouldn’t walking out give someone an extra shot of courage…perhaps to have a one-night stand with someone they shouldn’t?

So, when I got to my meeting, grabbed my notebook, and rage-jotted down those ideas, Frenemies and Lovers, and the 40 and Fabulous series, was born.

Keep checking my website or subscribe to my newsletter to be the first to hear when it goes up for preorder!

The post What?? A new series? first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.

Writing progress, November 12, 2023

What even is November without NaNoWriMo? I guess I’m finding out this year. With revisions on “4 Weddings” dragging from October into November, it just wasn’t a good time to drop everything and write. BUT! Good and necessary writing work is getting done. 

I just – as in yesterday – finished my revisions on 4 Weddings and a Feud and sent it off to my beta readers.That gives me time to write the Synergy holiday-themed short story I promised my newsletter subscribers. They voted, and the short story will feature Alicia and Jackson, the couple from Work with Me. If you want to get the story in December, be sure you sign up for my newsletter!Books and Hook(Up)s is still on hold, but I hope to get back to it next month. (And yes, I know I said that LAST month. 🤷‍♀️)

I have ambitious writing goals for 2024 – I already know my word for the year is going to be BACKLIST (as in, create more of it) – but I also need to be kind to myself and produce quality work, which takes time. I’m going to keep this in mind as we enter the holiday season and I turn my focus to my family. 

For anyone doing NaNoWriMo, good luck! I hope to join you next year.

The post Writing progress, November 12, 2023 first appeared on Michelle McCraw, Contemporary romance author.