Elana Johnson's Blog, page 7

A Cover for UNTIL SUMMER ENDS!

Okay, so my contemporary romance debut is coming in just 4 short months! At least according to Amazon, where UNTIL SUMMER ENDS is available for pre-order. I know, I know. That's super fast. I thought the book was slated for July, but it looks like May 10 is The Day!

I saw the cover last month, but I just noticed that it's out in the wild! So I thought I'd show it here on my blog! I'm super excited about this novel, because it's my first successful attempt at writing straight-up romance. I'd tried a couple of times previous to this, and well, those novels weren't, well, let's just say that they won't be getting published.

But hey, practice makes perfect, right?


Anyway, here's a bit about UNTIL SUMMER ENDS, as well as it's super-awesome, super-romancy, super-beachy cover!!


UNTIL SUMMER ENDS: Sophie Newton is determined to prove herself to her father, who insists she could never run a successful business. She opens a beachside taco stand called The Sandy Tortilla and plans to make her own way, one burrito at a time.

When she loses her summer help, Sophie rushes to find somebody to help take orders. She finds that somebody in Montgomery Winters, a struggling actor from LA. Mont takes the job; the money's useful, though he finds that his curvy boss is what really keeps him around.

As Sophie and Mont work together, they discover an intense attraction between them. But when Mont's agent calls him about a career-making audition, he decides he must pursue the opportunity, even though he can't get Sophie out of his head. Now, Sophie must choose between chasing after the man she's falling in love with and the business she's fought so hard to build.

Pre-order on Amazon | On B&N | On Indiebound | On Book Depository (they ship anywhere!) | Add to Goodreads (you can vote for the book in a 2016 most anticipated romances list too!)

What do you think??

This is a "sweet" romance, which means it's friendly for most ages. I think it's probably cleaner than my YA stuff! So don't be afraid of the label "romance." It's not that kind of romance. It's more like one of those holiday Hallmark movies. Set in the summer. On a beach. With tacos. Maybe I should put that as the description... Haha!

Nominate ECHOES OF SILENCE on Kindle Scout

Okay, so I've written an adult fantasy novel. That's right. It's a bit out of what I normally do. And I thought I'd try something a bit out of what I normally do for publishing this book as well.

And that means Kindle Scout. It's basically a submit and nominate program. And that's where you come in. I'd love it if you'd nominate my fantasy, ECHOES OF SILENCE, for publication. After 30 days, if the book has enough nominations, the Kindle Scout team will look at the book and decide to offer it a publishing contract or not.

So here's my campaign.


Her voice could unleash a war.Faced with the strongest dark magician in centuries, song-magician Echo del Toro must know when to let her voice fly and when to hold her tongue, or she’ll find herself caught in the lasting notes of a song that can’t be unsung.

It's easy! Read the beginning of ECHOES OF SILENCE and vote for the book to be published by Kindle Scout.

All it takes is a couple of clicks, and I'd really appreciate it! It's FREE to vote for the book, and if it gets chosen by the Kindle Scout team, you'll get a copy of the book for FREE too! #winwin


Read and Vote here.
Thanks so much!

NEW: Reader Facebook Group

Okay, so I have a new idea for this coming year. 2016 is going to be amazing! I have a TON of stuff coming out next year, and I'm happy about that. But I've decided that I'd like to have a group of readers to interact with and give my books to for reviews.

I have 4 full-length novels scheduled to come out in 2016, two self-published and two traditionally published.

3 of them are romance novels: A contemporary from Cleis Press in July 2016, and two more of my western inspirational romances under my pen name, Liz Isaacson, coming in February and May 2016.

My last novel is RIFT, a YA time travel thriller coming from Jolly Fish Press in the fall.

I also have 6 anthology collections coming out in 2016. All 6 of them are romance anthologies.
1. Sweet & Sassy Beach anthology (sweet and sassy romance): April 2016
2. Western romance anthology: April 2016
3. Hot & Haunted romance anthology: October 2016
4. City Christmas anthology (all written by me, contemporary romance under Elana Johnson): November 2016
5. Country Christmas anthology (all written by me, western inspirational romance under Liz Isaacson): November 2016
6. The Knight Before Christmas anthology (Knight Brothers contemporary romance, under Elana Johnson): November 2016


So here's how things will run -- in my head, it's this perfect system, much like Santa's workshop. Haha! 

I'm setting up a private FB group where you can get these new releases for FREE! It'll run like a "book of the month" club, where a forthcoming title will be available each month. You can read as many of my books (for free!) as you wish, even if it's not their assigned month. I have a pretty large backlist. :)

What I need from you: Reviews!

Reviews are an author's best friend. They determine if advertising newsletters (like BookBub) will run ads for titles, if other people will buy the book, etc.

So for every book I give you, I'd love to have a review listed on Amazon. (I'm specifically looking for reviews on Amazon for 2016, not Goodreads.) If the book is a new release, I'd like the review to be listed during the first 5 days of the book's release. I will give you lots of reminders, of course, via the private FB group when the books are releasing. You'll have plenty of time to read the titles in advance.

You decide which books you want. You structure your reading around your life, vacations, etc. I'm excited to have more direct contact with my readers, and I'm willing to give my books away in order to get reviews.

If you're interested, please sign up in this form, and I'll add you to the private Facebook group!

ELEVATED is free this week!

Four more days of free YA contemporary romance. 
Get your copy today!

Hickory Dickory Dock Cover Reveal!

Okay, so I'm here to help reveal the amazing cover of Lee Strauss's next New Adult Romantic Suspense! Hickory Dickory Dock is the third of her nursery rhyme suspenses, and they're fantastic!!

About HICKORY DICKORY DOCK: After a tumultuous freshman year at Detroit University, Marlow Henry and Sage Farrell look forward to a calm, uneventful summer break.

Not gonna happen.

Before Marlow can even make his blossoming relationship with Dakota official, Sage has pulled him into her new discovery – a math equation that opens a window in time and space. Then they witness a murder.

Fate pulls them into a war-torn and deserted version of Marlow’s neighbourhood where they are forced to help a rebel group counterattack. The group’s ethics are questionable and Marlow has a personal reason to distrust the leader. Plus, members of their small community keep dying.

The situation is more dire and twisted than Marlow and Sage can imagine. No one is safe. No one can be trusted. They don’t even trust each other. How can they save the world, if they can’t save themselves?

Find on Goodreads | Purchase Gingerbread Man (Book 1) | Purchase Life is But a Dream (Book 2)

Check out the cover!!



Isn't it GORGEOUS??!

I love the creepy colors of gray and black. And that house! Stunningly suspenseful!

About Lee: Lee Strauss is the international bestselling author of A Nursery Rhyme Suspense Series (Mystery Sci-fi Romantic Suspense), The Perception Series (young adult dystopian),The Minstrel Series (contemporary romance), and young adult historical fiction. She is the married mother of four grown children, three boys and a girl, and divides her time between British Columbia, Canada and Dresden, Germany. When she's not writing or reading she likes to cycle, hike and practice yoga. She enjoys traveling (but not jet lag :0), soy lattes, red wine and dark chocolate.

She also writes younger YA fantasy as Elle Strauss.

Goodreads | Blog | Facebook | Twitter

Lee is running a giveaway with this amazing cover reveal! Enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

SECOND CHANCE RANCH is #free!

Well, with the birth of another book, it's time to celebrate! Two weeks of par-tays, in fact.
This week, until Friday, December 4, you can get SECOND CHANCE RANCH for free.
Click the cover to download for FREE.

Tomorrow, THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM releases! So be sure to get that too, while the first book is free.
Click the cover to buy.

Next week, ELEVATED will be free! 
Free next week, December 7!
So gear up to gift these titles to your friends and family -- books make great gifts, even before Christmas. And gifting a FREE book is free for you and helps spread the word about the book. So even if you already have a copy, you can gift the book to someone who doesn't. 
It's easy! Look on the right side below the price and buy buttons to find the GIVE AS A GIFT button. All you need from there is an email address, and viola! The free book gets delivered to your loved one. 

THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM is coming soon!

Okay, so my inspirational romance series is getting another book! I'm excited to share this book with the world, especially since the first book has been getting some good reviews and feedback. 

(By the way, you can read SECOND CHANCE RANCH, the first book in the Three Rivers Ranch Romance series for free if you have Kindle Unlimited. And it'll be FREE from November 30 - December 4 to celebrate the release of THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM, so if you don't have Kindle Unlimited, be sure to get a copy next week!)


About THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM: Can Chelsea put aside her past to see what's standing right in front of her?

First Lieutenant Peter Marshall has never felt as safe and whole as he does at Three Rivers Ranch. With massive scars covering most of his upper body, he's self-conscious and searching for his life's purpose. He thinks he's found it in Courage Reins, an equine therapy program for veterans he's starting out at the ranch. He didn't plan on the beautiful Chelsea Ackerman looking at his deformities with admiration.

After her second failed engagement, Chelsea vows she'll never wear another diamond ring. But as she and Pete work together to train the horses and launch Courage Reins, she heals faster than she thought possible. Pete has a truckload of debt and no way to provide for a family, but Chelsea helps him see past all the obstacles, all the scars. With so many unknowns, Pete and Chelsea will have to develop the love, acceptance, and faith needed to find their happily ever after.




And look for the third book in the Three Rivers Ranch Romance series, FOURTH AND LONG, to come in February! I'm currently trying to finish my time travel that's under contract so I can start the fourth book in this series.



FOURTH AND LONG comes out February 16, 2016, but you can pre-order it now too! Can one summer together make up for eight years of separation?

Happy Thanksgiving this week!

Cover Reveal: THE UNDEAD ROAD by David Powers King

Dude, I am so excited to be sharing this cover with you today, for a book by my good friend DPK has coming out on January 1. It's called THE UNDEAD ROAD: My Zombie Summer, and oh my heck! It looks amazing! I can't wait to read it!!

About THE UNDEAD ROAD: Nothing brings the family together like a zombie apocalypse …

Fifteen-year-old Jeremy Barnes would rather watch a zombie movie than shoot a real one, but he has no choice if his family wants to survive the end of the world. Their plan? Drive across the infected United States to a cabin in the Colorado Rockies without a scratch, but their trip takes a complicated detour in the middle of Nebraska when they find Kaylynn, a girl who can handle a baseball bat better than Jeremy can hold a .45 Berretta. And when they stumble into a sanctuary, Jeremy soon learns that Kaylynn is stronger than she looks—a deadly secret lies inside her.

After the radio picks up a distress call from Kansas City about a possible cure, Jeremy’s parents go with a team to investigate. They never return. The only way to find their parents is for Jeremy and his sister Jewel to rely on a dangerous girl who might just turn on them at any moment.

Look at this amazing cover, which Steven Novak (who also makes my covers!) did.




Isn't that the most fantastic thing you've ever seen? I love the colors, the weapons in the silhouettes, the gorgeous font on the title, and that zombie at the top?! Dude, I'm scared already.

And there's a contest!!


A while ago, David invited the blogosphere to let him turn one unfortunate lucky contestant into a zombie for The Undead Road. The winner was Ilima Todd, who is now the awesome author of Remake. The next installment of My Zombie Summer is underway, and David wants to do this contest again. Want to be in a zombie book? Not only is this your chance, but it is your choice!


Between now and next Wednesday, send an email to dpowersking [at] gmail [dot] com, with the subject line: Zombify Me! Contest. In your email, David wants you to tell him three things:

1: The name you will be identified as (example: your first name).
2: A description of yourself—the more detailed you are, the better.
3: How would you like the survivors to put you out of your misery?

Four casualties contestants will be chosen on Wednesday, November 25th. The most inventive or interesting entry will be zombified! The other three who are unlucky fortunate enough to survive will be given special honors. Winners will be announced on December 2nd on David’s blog.

Prizes? The winner will be zombified in the pages of My Zombie Summer: Part Two, receive a signed proof of the novel (when it’s ready), and a $20 Barnes and Noble gift card. The runner ups will receive a free ebook of The Undead Road for their Kindle (other platforms TBA).


About David: David Powers King was born in beautiful downtown Burbank, California where his love for film inspired him to be a writer. He is the co-author of the YA fantasy novel WOVEN, published by Scholastic. An avid fan of science fiction and fantasy, David also has a soft spot for zombies and the paranormal. He currently lives deep in the mountain West with his wife and three children.

Find David online:
Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Newsletter

Another Story Behind Another Sale

So you may have seen my new YA sci-fi announcement. I sort of wrote up a little story behind the sale for that book, because it's had a Journey.

This story is different. I thought it would be fun to showcase both stories, simply because they are different, and every journey toward publication is unique, even for a single person.

So here's the deal:




Yes, it's a romance deal. Yes, it's adult. My debut, in fact, into the full-length adult romance genre (I have a novella in an anthology right now, and 3 more coming next year).

The book is called UNTIL SUMMER ENDS, and it begins the Redwood Bay series, which will have at least 3 books.

These past two book deals -- this one and my YA sci-fi one -- are big firsts for me, because they're multiple book deals, something I've never gotten before. It's both exciting and terrifying. I've never had to write a book under contract, and that pressure is intense.

Anyway, I wrote Until Summer Ends only a year ago. That's right. I started it in November 2014, and I finished it at the beginning of December. It was the second romance novel I'd attempted (the first was horrific!).

Over the next couple of months, I wrote a few more romance novels, but Until Summer Ends was the one I was preparing to shop. I sent the first few chapters to critique group, and then I had a professional editor work on the whole thing.

With their feedback -- which was mostly positive -- I felt encouraged to start querying. So I did, to both literary agents and publishers that accepted unagented submissions. On April 1, no less. No April Fool's Day here!

I got quite a few requests, mostly because I did my homework. I researched the agents and publishers, looked at the things they'd sold or published, and tailored my queries to them. I went wide, don't get me wrong, but I still did my homework. And in romance, there are quite a few publishers you can submit directly to.

I went to a local conference and pitched my book to an editor at St. Martin's Press. She requested it. Things were looking up!

Especially when I got an offer on the book the second week of May, from one of the publisher's I'd submitted to. That spurred me to let other pubs and all the agents considering the full know about the offer.

A couple of weeks later, I got another offer, from another publisher. The day after that, I got an offer from a literary agent. She was one of the top ten dealmakers in romance on Publisher's Marketplace. Even if she couldn't sell the book (hey, I'm realistic -- I've had several books on submission through an agent in New York that didn't sell), I figured I had the two publisher offers to choose from.

So we submitted, and we actually ended up getting several offers. I was sort of shocked. Ha! We ended up going with Cleis Press, because the editor there, Karen Thomas, was incredibly enthusiastic about the project, and after speaking with her on the phone, I knew it was the right place to be.

So that's how I went from the drafting of a novel in November 2014, to querying only 5 months later, to an offer just a month after that. It was fast. MUCH faster than any of my other book deals, that's for sure!

But it just shows that the journey is different for each book, and each person! And UNTIL SUMMER ENDS will be out in July 2016! Which is also fast! Meanwhile, I have two more novels to write, so... I better get doing that!

Fall For Young Adult Reads!

Okay, so it's finally getting pretty chilly around these parts. And a bunch of us YA authors got together with Kelly Hashway to bring you an amazing YA giveaway! It runs from November 9 - November 15.


You could win one of the following:

2 $40 gift cardseBook of PERFECT FOR YOU by Ashelyn DrakeeBook of FINE ART OF PRETENDING by Rachel HarriseBook of SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE by Elana JohnsoneBook of ELEVATED by Elana JohnsoneBook of PLAYING WITH FIRE by Sherry FicklinOne of the GUARDIANS OF GALAXY books by Ednah WaltersRITE OF REJECTION by Sarah Negovetich4 copies of THE TROUBLE WITH DESTINY by Lauren MorrilleBook set of THE DARK BETRAYAL Trilogy by Nichole ChaseeBook of TOUCHING SMOKE by Airicka Phoenix

So there will be a lot of winners! And it's open internationally! You can win one of my YA novels-in-verse, either ELEVATED or SOMETHING ABOUT LOVE. So get entering!

a Rafflecop-ter giveaway