S.E. Jakes's Blog, page 7

Winners!!!

Thanks so much for everyone who helped spread the word about the contest!!!  I was going to put everyone’s links (including your likes and such) into random.org but my son wanted to help.  So…I wrote down everyone’s names (so if you had 4 entries, your name got put in four times and yes, if you emailed me your links instead of posting them, they were included!) and then my son pulled the names  And it kept him busy so I thank you all.  It took a long time but it was worth it  

In the end, there were 67 entries.

So…the winner of the Kindle or Nook is…Bobbie Baynard!!!

And the winner of the $25 Amazon gift certificate is…Ursula!!!

Both of you, please email me at authorsejakes AT gmail DOT com to collect your winnings  And Bobbie, let me know if you’d prefer Kindle or Nook!

Free Falling will be up at some point soon on Amazon and B&N and iTunes…I’ll keep you updated but it’s being uploaded today!  I’m so excited for this release!

And I’ll be doing another contest for Bound For Keeps release in February, so check back

Win a Kindle or a Nook! (CONTEST CLOSED)

So, in honor of FREE FALLING’s imminent release (and I’m really hoping it’s up everywhere by December 5th, but since it’s the first time I’m self-publishing a book, it can take up to a week for Amazon / B&N to upload.  Next time should be much easier)…I’m having a contest!!!

First, what you can win:

1st prize:  Kindle Paperwhite (wifi only) or Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight, along with either a copy or preorder of FREE FALLING and a pre-order of BOUND FOR KEEPS (available 2/19/13)

2nd Prize:  a $25 Amazon or B&N gift card

How to enter:

First, help me promote the contest by linking to this post.  And then let me know in the comments on this post where you talked about this contest (your Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads, your blog, etc) with the links to your posts and you’ll be automatically entered to win.  And everyplace you mention it gives you another chance at winning, so if you Tweet and Facebook about it, your name will be entered twice.  I’ll also give you an extra chance at winning if you Like my SE Jake’s Facebook page but that can’t be your only entry. *

How to find the URLs to your links:

For Facebook, if you hover over the timestamp of your post and click, you’ll get a separate page with a URL. And here’s a link to help you do it with Twitter as well:

http://support.twitter.com/articles/80586-how-to-link-directly-to-an-individual-tweet

Dates:

This contest will run from today through Sunday evening (12/2), midnight EST.  I’ll pick the winner at random and announce sometime during the day on Monday and post a blog with the winners so they can contact me to collect their prizes!

Thanks in advance for entering and spreading the word!

* I’ll keep checking spam to make sure your posts with the links don’t show up there – I’m hoping it doesn’t cause a problem and if it does, I’ll just ask you to email instead.  But let’s see how this goes first!

Win a Kindle or a Nook!

So, in honor of FREE FALLING’s imminent release (and I’m really hoping it’s up everywhere by December 5th, but since it’s the first time I’m self-publishing a book, it can take up to a week for Amazon / B&N to upload.  Next time should be much easier)…I’m having a contest!!!

First, what you can win:

1st prize:  Kindle Paperlight (wifi only) or Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight, along with either a copy or preorder of FREE FALLING and a pre-order of BOUND FOR KEEPS (available 2/19/13)

2nd Prize:  a $25 Amazon or B&N gift card

How to enter:

First, help me promote the contest by linking to this post.  And then let me know in the comments on this post where you talked about this contest (your Twitter / Facebook / Goodreads, your blog, etc) with the links to your posts and you’ll be automatically entered to win.  And everyplace you mention it gives you another chance at winning, so if you Tweet and Facebook about it, your name will be entered twice.  I’ll also give you an extra chance at winning if you Like my SE Jake’s Facebook page but that can’t be your only entry. *

How to find the URLs to your links:

For Facebook, if you hover over the timestamp of your post and click, you’ll get a separate page with a URL. And here’s a link to help you do it with Twitter as well:

http://support.twitter.com/articles/80586-how-to-link-directly-to-an-individual-tweet

Dates:

This contest will run from today through Sunday evening (12/2), midnight EST.  I’ll pick the winner at random and announce sometime during the day on Monday and post a blog with the winners so they can contact me to collect their prizes!

Thanks in advance for entering and spreading the word!

* I’ll keep checking spam to make sure your posts with the links don’t show up there – I’m hoping it doesn’t cause a problem and if it does, I’ll just ask you to email instead.  But let’s see how this goes first!

Free Falling cover / blurb / excerpt

I’ve been doing some website updates – I still have work to do on the book pages and can’t get the Men of Honor series in the right order even though I’ve numbered them correctly within the wordpress pages.  But hey, you can’t have everything, right?  

Anyway, I’ve finally got Blue’s (aka Free Falling) cover!  I’m in love – thanks to the wonderful Frauke from CrocoDesigns!  I’ve also got an excerpt up for Free Falling here. Release date is November 27, 2012 and I’ll let you know when everything goes live, since I’m self pubbing it.

Sometimes falling in love is the most dangerous thing of all…

Blue’s a thief who lives for adrenaline and danger. When he meets Mick, a mercenary and a hitter, he feels an immediate attraction. But Mick reneges on a bet they’ve made, leaving Blue pissed and confused.

When they meet again a year later, Blue’s in terrible danger after having walked into the middle of one of Mick’s jobs. Mick saves him, and although the two men have fallen for one another, they have no idea how to handle that kind of intimacy that’s been forced on them. 

But when Mick goes missing on a job, Blue’s the one to go after him, determined to save the man he loves no matter the cost.

And the first two chapters of Bound for Keeps:  Men of Honor book 5 is up here.  That’s a February 19, 2013 release. Again, please feel free to contact me for ARCs of both books if you’re a reviewer or it you’ve got a blog you like to do reviews on.  Or even if you’re very active on posting Amazon and Goodreads reviews, I’ll for sure consider giving you an ARC.  Just contact me – email addy’s on this page.

In other news, preschool is killing me.  Snack is working out okay, as is the baggie clothing situation, but it’s killing my writing time.  It’s hard to explain, because it’s only a couple of days a week for a couple of hours, but I can’t get into real writing knowing that I’ve got to go back out into the world.  I can do some writing, but nothing settled.  But the moms are all nice.  One of the teachers I love (I actually know her from competitive swimming when we were both like six plus)…and the main teacher…she’s nice, I guess.  But she’s got this idea in her head that I told her that I let my son do whatever I want at home and I’m like, uh, I’d never say that because I don’t let him do whatever he wants.

But she doesn’t believe me.  And yes, I was also the first mom called in for a parent-teacher conference.  Because my son is what they call a kinesthetic learner.  Which basically means that I’ll be sitting in parent teacher conferences constantly for the rest of my life, because he likes to climb and move and experience everything.  He loves school – loves it.

So yes, he moves a lot.  But he can also focus for long periods of time and he’s improved a lot with his climbing on things since the start of the year.  (He’s also disassembled the fire alarm.  Several times.)

But when I asked the teacher how he was with the other kids, she said, “He’s so good to them – he’ll actually bring over toys to give to them.  He’s so kind.  And he’s the happiest kid – he’s always smiling.”

And I’m thinking, honestly, I’m not really listening too seriously to anything else you have to say.  Because he’s kind.  And he’s two.  And he loves school. And what more can I ask for?

I’m thinking of getting him a drum set for Christmas.  And yes, I realize you’re all looking at me in exactly the same way my husband did when I told him this.

Goodreads

Hey guys!  If you’re on Goodreads at all, please join my group  You can start topics, ask questions, etc.  Or just be my friend and we can dish books  I’m just starting out there, trying to navigate the waters.  Don’t leave me there all alone…

And, if you’re looking for a quick peek into the upcoming Free Falling (it’s Blue’s book – a novella coming out in November), look no further:

One year earlier

Blue had the hotel safe open and the necklace tucked into his palm when a big hand moved gently over the back of his neck. He stilled, barely breathing, until Mick murmured, “Caught you, fair and square.”

“Not the time,” he said through gritted teeth.

“I think it’s the perfect time.”

“If you fuck this up—”

“I don’t expect you to put it back. Come on, Blue—take your punishment like a big boy,” The bastard was smiling — Blue could feel it as the unease gnawed at his gut.

He never got caught. Never liked giving up control, but for this man…

It would still be hard. But shit, he’d never welched on a bet in his life and he wasn’t about to start now.

They’d been playing catch up for years now, circling each other for business and for the threat of pleasure. And Blue was finally caught.

 

Bound For Keeps cover copy!

Bound For Keeps – coming February 19, 2013  

Since losing their beloved third to cancer, Keith Masters and Johnny Lou Reed haven’t thought about filling the void in their lives with anyone else. Until a stormy Christmas Eve, when a half-frozen, newly discharged Army Ranger shows up on their doorstep—with no memory of who he is or how he got there. 

The former Marine in Keith is suspicious that he can’t turn up any information about Shane anywhere, not even an address. Direct questioning will have to wait until they’ve gotten the boy well.

Shane knows it’s only a matter of time before Keith and Reed figure out his past. And when they learn the depth and the darkness of the secrets he holds, he could get them all killed.

In the heat of the dark winter nights, the three men discover a passion that heals the gaping wounds in their hearts. And Shane wonders, despite the danger hot on his heels, how he will ever bear to leave…

maybe it’s just me

I don’t know if I’m going to survive my child’s preschool experience. Everything about it seems hell bent on making me feel stupid. Now, I admit, sometimes I can be dense. You know, when I was first looking into adoption, I called an agency and was prepared to leave a message because no one ever answers their phone. So I was kind of unprepared when someone actually did – on the first ring. This was how the conversation went:

 Me: Hi, I’m interested in adopting a baby.

Random Adoption Woman: What kind of adoption?

Me: (after a long pause) You know, the kind where you get the baby at the end?

Woman: (obviously terrified at the possibility of me actually becoming a parent) I meant, Domestic or Foreign?

Me: Oh – domestic.

Woman: Race?

Me: (hesitantly) Me…or the baby?

(I almost hung up at this point and figured I’d just call back but you know I’d get the same person and you know they’d recognize the caller ID)

Woman: (completely exasperated by this point) Let’s start with you.

Me: White

 Woman: And the baby?

Me: (I almost said, well, what’ve you got but I stopped myself) Um, we’re pretty open.

Yeah, okay, so keep that in mind. So this preschool thing. I get this six page list of orientation stuff. And already my husband’s like, ”we have to sit for more than an hour at parent orientation? Can you tell them that after like half an hour, I’m pretty much not going to remember anything they say?”

 Me: OMG – we have to bring snack!

 Husband: It’s like a bad episode of Everybody Loves Raymond – remember how their unapproved snack turned out?

Me: I don’t know if I want my child eating some random snack.

 Husband: We’re not going to have to make friends, are we?

 Me: I don’t think we’re cut out for this. We have to transition him for two weeks. I have to sit in an auditorium with other parents for three hours for the first three times.

(Granted, I guarantee I’d be doing this anyway, but in my car where no one would know. In the parking lot. And I live literally 4 blocks from the school, if that…)

Okay, so then the newsletter gives directions on what to bring for your child on the first day. It says: bring an entire fresh change of clothes for your child (got that part) in a ziplock.

In. A. Ziplock. Now look, I work from home in my pjs so it’s kind of like I’m out of touch with the outside world, love having things delivered and hate shopping with a passion. So I thought, maybe they now make special ziplock clothing baggies? Because how can I fit an outfit in a ziplock? Even a freezer one. I mean, they’re not big clothes, but I’m picturing myself folding them all up like a square and then not being able to close the bag and then…

I won’t even begin to go into directions for the drop-off line.

…in bed

I’ve gotten some kind of plague from the children.  This cannot be happening when I have five million projects due in a very short space of time, but, of course, that’s exactly why it does.  But hey, at least I can work from bed.

Which reminds me – when we went to buy a new mattress recently, I told the sales guy, “it’s very important for me to pick the right one, because I work in bed.” 

And then I see the way he’s looking at me and have to quickly add, “I’m not a hooker or anything.  I’m a writer.”

And then I thought of the Moliere quote, but I quit while i was ahead:

“Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for love, and then for a few close friends, and then for money.”

 

you’ve got the rhythm…

You’ve got the beat / Mama’s little baby likes it short and sweet / I said my, my, my / I’m once bitten twice shy, baby…

(sorry – had to continued the lyric and give you all the ear worm.  I’m good and giving like that)

***

 “All women hustle. Women watch faces, voices, gestures, moods.

      “She’s the person who has to survive through cunning.”

            – Marge Piercy, Small Changes, 1973

I forget how much Marge Piercy inspired me back when I’d started writing.  Her poetry is fantastic.  Liberating.  I fell in love with the feel of her words – the rhythm of her sentences.  And really, that’s what writing’s all about.  It’s the rhythm I hear inside my head.  Which means I can’t change my sentence structure or my voice all that much, because it’s the way I hear the story.  It’s what makes some readers love my stuff and some readers not. One person will say it’s well written, another says she can’t understand a thing I wrote.  And I think that speaks to the rhythms, the way you read, the way you hear the story in your head.  It’s nothing to do with grammar or editing or point of view – it’s, do you like the way this author’s words flow or not.  And if you don’t, could be the greatest story in the world and you’re not going to see it because we don’t mesh.

Writing’s a very personal thing – it’s amazing when your words go out into the world and you get emails back with people telling you how much they loved your stuff. But the only thing a writer needs to be focused on is, do you love your stuff and do you enjoy what you’re writing.  If you don’t, how can you expect anyone else to?

Speaking of, I’ve got at least 6K to write today!

Bound For Keeps cover!

Wanna see?  Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! (Click for larger version