Jae's Blog, page 42

My blog has moved!

Dear readers and fellow writers,

I thought I’d post a quick reminder that I’m no longer updating this blog. But I am still blogging!

 

You can now find my blog, along with my website, at:

www.jae-fiction.com

Some of the old blog posts can now also be found in the “writing tips” section of my website, where they’re much easier to find.

If you subscribe to the new website/blog, you won’t miss any of my announcements concerning new releases, giveaways, and other news. To subscribe, head over to my website and enter your e-mail address into the box on the right.

Thank you!

Jae

Filed under: News

My new website is online!

Yay! My web design magicians have been working hard for the last few weeks, and now my shiny new website is finally online!

You’ll find a lot of information about me, my books, and upcoming releases on the new site. For the writers among you, I also included a lot of writing tips.

The new website has an integrated blog, so I won’t update this wordpress.com blog any longer. Now you’ll find my website and my blog all in one place. Take a look at the new blog here: http://jae-fiction.com/blog/

If you want to make sure you won’t miss any updates, new releases, or book giveaways, please head over to the new website at jae-fiction.com and subscribe to my newsletter or to my blog, even if you already subscribed to the new one. The blog and website subscriptions couldn’t be transferred automatically, so you’ll have to subscribe again.

So head over and check out my new website. If you have a moment, please let me know what you think about the new site.

Have a great weekend,

Jae

Filed under: News Tagged: Jae, Jae fiction

And the winners are…

I just drew the two winners of a signed copy of Beyond the Trail.

The two lucky winners are:

Kara L.

and

Sarah D.-B.

Kara and Sarah, please send me an e-mail (jae_s1978 AT yahoo.de) with your address and let me know if you want the book made out to someone other than you.

Thank you to everyone who threw their name in the hat for the drawing! I’m sure there will be other giveaways in the future, so you might want to subscribe to my blog (in the right-hand menu) and to my publisher’s blog.

Have a great week!

Jae

Filed under: Uncategorized

Writing hours in July

I’m always amazed on how fast another month has gone by and it’s time to update my monthly writing hours.

In July, I worked mostly on True Nature, which is with the content editor right now. If her feedback is as demanding as it was for Second Nature, there’ll be two or three more months of hard work ahead of me before the manuscript is ready for copy editing. But I know it’s worth it.

I edited a novella titled Rich Girl, whose author patiently hung in there with me, successfully making it through several editing passes.

I also participated in another two-day editing seminar, and it was fun to meet other editors, since most of us tend to work alone.

So here are my numbers for July:

 
Writing


Editing


Research




January


46 hours
14 hours
–


February


44 hours
19 hours
–


March


82 hours
15 hours
–


April


71 hours
4 hours
–


May


105 hours
5 hours
25 hours


June


135 hours
10 hours
–


July


122 hours
19 hours
–


TOTAL
605 hours
86 hours
25 hours

Check back next month to see the hours for August. I’ll work on another great manuscript as an editor this month (Broken Faith by Lois Cloarec Hart), and I hope to get the edits for True Nature back from my own editor. One thing’s for sure: Working in publishing never gets boring

Filed under: Jae's writing process Tagged: Jae, writing hours

Book giveaway ��� 2 signed copies of Beyond the Trail

I’m in a pretty good mood today���my shape-shifter short story collection, Natural Family Disasters, is out and selling well, I sent off my novel True Nature to the content editor yesterday, and my new website should be up soon.��

To celebrate all of that, I thought I would give away two free signed paperback copies of my other anthology, Beyond the Trail.

Beyond the Trail includes six short stories that give us glimpses into the lives of Luke, Nora, and the other characters from Backwards to Oregon.

The Blue Hour: When her mother dies, twelve-year-old Lucinda Hamilton decides to start a new life���as a boy.
Grasping at Straws: No one knows that Tess Swenson, madam of a brothel, also owns a livery stable and a number of other businesses. On one of her secret inspections, she makes a surprising discovery.
A Rooster���s Job: The Hamiltons hoped to build a home in the idyllic Willamette Valley with mild winters, but now they���re snowed in and their rooster isn���t doing such a great job either.
The Art of Pretending: Tess finds out that someone is stealing her money. She suspects Frankie, a woman who reminds her of Luke. But nothing is as it seems.
The Christmas Oak: Luke sets out to bring home a Christmas tree���but she finds something else.
Swept Away: The greatest flood in the history of Oregon sweeps away houses, barns, and animals in the Willamette Valley. At the same time, fourteen-year-old Amy is swept away by her feelings for her best friend.

The enter the drawing, all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog. I’ll announce the winners on Monday, August 5, so check back then to see if you won.

Good luck, and have a nice weekend.

Jae

Filed under: News Tagged: Backwards to Oregon, Beyond the Trail, book giveaway, Jae, Natural Family Disasters, True Nature

Book giveaway — 2 signed copies of Beyond the Trail

I’m in a pretty good mood today—my shape-shifter short story collection, Natural Family Disasters, is out and selling well, I sent off my novel True Nature to the content editor yesterday, and my new website should be up soon. 

To celebrate all of that, I thought I would give away two free signed paperback copies of my other anthology, Beyond the Trail.

Beyond the Trail includes six short stories that give us glimpses into the lives of Luke, Nora, and the other characters from Backwards to Oregon.

The Blue Hour: When her mother dies, twelve-year-old Lucinda Hamilton decides to start a new life—as a boy.
Grasping at Straws: No one knows that Tess Swenson, madam of a brothel, also owns a livery stable and a number of other businesses. On one of her secret inspections, she makes a surprising discovery.
A Rooster’s Job: The Hamiltons hoped to build a home in the idyllic Willamette Valley with mild winters, but now they’re snowed in and their rooster isn’t doing such a great job either.
The Art of Pretending: Tess finds out that someone is stealing her money. She suspects Frankie, a woman who reminds her of Luke. But nothing is as it seems.
The Christmas Oak: Luke sets out to bring home a Christmas tree—but she finds something else.
Swept Away: The greatest flood in the history of Oregon sweeps away houses, barns, and animals in the Willamette Valley. At the same time, fourteen-year-old Amy is swept away by her feelings for her best friend.

The enter the drawing, all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog. I’ll announce the winners on Monday, August 5, so check back then to see if you won.

Good luck, and have a nice weekend.

Jae

Filed under: News Tagged: Backwards to Oregon, Beyond the Trail, book giveaway, Jae, Natural Family Disasters, True Nature

Natural Family Disasters is available!

I’m happy to announce that my shape-shifter short story collection, Natural Family Disasters, has just been published.

The two main characters of this anthology, Jorie Price and Griffin Westmore, first met in my novel Second Nature. The events in Second Nature took them on a wild chase from a tiny town in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to an off-the-books poker game in Detroit and then into the council chamber of the most powerful shape-shifters in Boise, Idaho.

Running for their lives didn’t leave Jorie and Griffin much time to enjoy their families’ company or to share romantic moments. This anthology gives them a chance to do all of that. I hope you enjoy sharing some peaceful times with Jorie and Griffin too.

For now, Natural Family Disasters is available as a DRM-free e-book on Amazon, but it will soon also be available on Smashwords, Bella Books, and other online retailers, plus it will be published as a paperback too.

Filed under: News, Second Nature Tagged: Jae, Natural Family Disasters, paranormal fiction, Second Nature, shape-shifters

Femslash Con – today!

Yesterday, the online community celebrated the 6th International Day of Femslash.

For those of you who have never heard of it: Femslash is fanfiction featuring relationships between two women (who, most often, are straight in the canon universe of the TV show/movie).

They always hold an online FemSlash con on the nearest weekend, discussing various fandoms, pairings, and writing-related topics. That convention is taking place this weekend, and I’ve been asked to be a panelist on the original fiction panel, which is today. The other panelists will be Shira Glassman and Zelma Blitzreiter.

Here’s a synopsis of the panel:

Writing fanfiction has its own problems and difficulties, but once we make the leap to original fiction, the world created becomes entirely our own. No longer will we have set universes with fleshed out characters to work with. Original fiction means starting from scratch and relying entirely on your own imagination. How difficult or easy is that to do? What makes original fiction work? Let’s talk about what it takes to make it as a writer of original fiction.

The original fiction panel starts today (Sunday, July 21) at noon (EST). It will last for an hour. Check the starting times for other time zones here.

Come join us for some interesting discussion!

Filed under: lesbian fiction, News Tagged: femslash con, International Day of Femslash

Second Nature is out!

After months of revising, rewriting, tightening, hair-pulling, and editing, the second edition of Second Nature has finally been published.

While my first republished novel, Backwards to Oregon, has mainly just been cleaned up and improved on a sentence level, Second Nature underwent major revisions. And when I say “major,” I do mean MAJOR.

I tightened the beginning considerably, because it was dragging a little in the first edition, but extended the ending so that readers could enjoy the romance between Griffin and Jorie more fully. I wrote a handful of new scenes—including a new opening scene for Griffin—and completely changed the course of other scenes.

As a result, Second Nature reads much better now. At least that’s what I think and what my beta readers are telling me. If you want to check it out for yourself, head over to Smashwords or Amazon or to my publisher’s blog to read an excerpt.

Here’s a short description:

Novelist Jorie Price doesn’t believe in the existence of shape-shifting creatures or true love. She leads a solitary life, and the paranormal romances she writes are pure fiction for her.

Griffin Westmore knows better—at least about one of these two things. She doesn’t believe in love either, but she’s one of the not-so-fictional shape-shifters. She’s also a Saru, an elite soldier with the mission to protect the shape-shifters’ secret existence at any cost.

When Jorie gets too close to the truth in her latest shape-shifter romance, Griffin is sent to investigate—and if necessary to destroy the manuscript before it’s published and to kill the writer.

For the moment, Second Nature is available as a DRM-free e-book on Amazon and Smashwords, but it will soon also be available as a paperback.

Filed under: Second Nature Tagged: Jae, Second Nature, Ylva publishing

Thank you!

I was surprised and honored by so many people volunteering to beta read for me. Having all of you beta read True Nature would have been a bit overwhelming, so I couldn’t pick all of you, but I still wanted to say thank you to everyone who took the time to send me an e-mail.

I am also planning on revising and republishing two of my other novels, Conflict of Interest and Hidden Truths, in the near future, so if any of you still want to volunteer for beta reading one of those novels, please let me know at jae_s1978@ yahoo.de (remove the space after the @).

Thank you!

Jae

Filed under: Uncategorized