H.R. Willaston's Blog, page 4

Like Me! :-)

My facebook page just reached 200 likes!! Thanks for all the love everyone! Future Letters almost has 100 likes.  It's time to celebrate!
Once the page for Future Lettershits 100, I'll be hosting a give away!  The prizes include one signed First Edition of Future Letters and an ebook copy of the current edition (in your choice of format), and an additional FIVE ebook copies will be given away.
So if you haven't already- please like my facebook pages (H.R. Willaston and Future Letters), please follow me on Twitter, please check me out at Goodreads.
I'll post the rafflecopter giveaway once Future Letters hits 100 (which should be very soon.)

Future Letters Giveaway!

I'm giving away three copies of  of Future Letters on Goodreads.  These copies all have the new cover and will be signed.  So if you already have an e-version of the book and want a hard copy, or want a hard copy with the new cover, or don't have the book and want it for free check out the giveaway.
The giveaway ends January 2, 2013.
Thank you to those who've already entered.  And of course thank you to everyone who's read it. :-D .goodreadsGiveawayWidget { color: #555; font-family: georgia, serif; font-weight: normal; text-align: left; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; background: white; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget img { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0 !important; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a { padding: 0 !important; margin: 0; color: #660; text-decoration: none; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:visted { color: #660; text-decoration: none; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget a:hover { color: #660; text-decoration: underline !important; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidget p { margin: 0 0 .5em !important; padding: 0; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink { display: block; width: 150px; margin: 10px auto 0 !important; padding: 0px 5px !important; text-align: center; line-height: 1.8em; color: #222; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; border: 1px solid #6A6454; -moz-border-radius: 5px; -webkit-border-radius: 5px; font-family:arial,verdana,helvetica,sans-serif; background-image:url(http://www.goodreads.com/images/layou... background-repeat: repeat-x; background-color:#BBB596; outline: 0; white-space: nowrap; } .goodreadsGiveawayWidgetEnterLink:hover { background-image:url(http://www.goodreads.com/images/layou... color: black; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; } Goodreads Book Giveaway Future Letters by H.R. Willaston

Giveaway ends January 02, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

New Future Letters Cover

The UPS guy just delivered the new copies of Future Letters with their brand new covers!!  I'm so excited!  I like this cover SO much better. With a bit of brainstorming with a friend and being surrounded five days a week with high school students who doodle and draw on ALL their work, I feel this cover is much more fitting.  I doubt it'll be on any "Best Cover" List or something like this, but I'm very happy with it.  And as you can see Laura-Glue is too. ;-)

Updated Future Letters

 Future Letters has a new cover!  Here are some pictures of the cover, plus the 3D pictures of the book.

Things to do when your sick...

... and November is just two days away. When you're sick you're suppose to drink lots of fluids and sleep, right?  Drinking I can do.  Sleeping - not so much.  I've been trying, but it's just not working.  So I've used my sick-kid time getting all the Future Letters stuff done that I wanted to get done. I updated it a bit (didn't make any major changes to the story, I promise), added a new cover and uploaded it for sale on Nook, Kobo and the new version for Kindle and paperback through Amazon.  I know the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" but obviously people do or else there wouldn't be "Best Cover" lists on sites like Goodreads.  The old cover was okay.  It really wasn't what I had in mind, but every time I tried to take a picture of what I wanted it just never looked right.  I'm definitely not Dylan Mead and do not have his photography skills (although I do like taking pictures).  With some brainstorming with a friend plus working at a high school  where students doodle all over their work and notes - the new cover was born!  According to one of my doodle art students it looks pretty cool.So now I'm back to the waiting game.  Waiting for all the sights to finish publishing the newest version of Future Letters - complete with new cover, additional acknowledgements and (hopefully) a table of contents that will work on the readers.  Not that I'm happy to be sick - it sucks - but these last two days off have given me the chance to completely clear up all Future Letters updating so I will have a completely clean slate on November 1.What's the big deal about November 1?  It's National Novel Writing Month!  Last year my NaNoWriMo project was Future Letters.  This year it's the complete rewrite of Nine Days.  I actually wrote Nine Days in Spring 2011.  It was the first full book I wrote and at the time it was called "Where You Belong".  I loved the plot idea for the story.  Loved the spinoff idea for a series that I got from the story's setting.  After re-reading the story itself, I hated it.  I tried keeping the characters and changing things a bit so I could just jump into the first book of the series my husband would like me to write.  I started, stopped, tweaked, started again, rinse, repeat.  It just never worked.  As much as I didn't like how the original story turned out, I still love the plot idea and feel it's a story that needs to be told.  I've already mapped everything out.  Other than most of the character names and the basic plot Nine Days is all brand new material (which is need as a NaNoWriMo project).  I like the new versions of the characters SO much more.  I love the new characters and relationships between them.I've been wanting to rewrite Nine Days for a while.  November is my shot.  30 days of writing and no looking back.  So today I leave the world of Lil, Alaia and Morgan behind.  And when I start writing on Thursday I'll submerse myself in Andy Qwinn and her runaway spring break trip to Hawaii to meet a couple of monk seals.

Hi Ho Hi Ho...

It's back to school I go!  School/Work, same thing when you're working at a school.  This will be a completely new experience for me.  I've been hired as a Special Education Tutor for a nearby small town's school district.  And with all my work experience, my degree in child development and specialized classes in early intervention/special ed, infants and toddler that district has decided the best place to put me is in High School.  I start on Thursday.
I've worked with high school age kids before, it's just a very big change going from toddlers and pre-k to high school.  But I'm excited - a bit nervous - but excited.
Laura-Glue is NOT happy about this.  Mama is supposed to stay home all day and let her inspire me to write or lay with her on the couch and read the stacks of books I keep bringing home from the library weekly.  The position is part time, but she'll still be home alone for about seven hours a day.  Hopefully, she and I can convince her daddy she needs doggie day camp a couple days a week.
Maybe buying her new hedgehog toys will all the extra money I'll be earning will help dry her tears. ;o)
The position is part time, which is good.  It'll give me time to write in the afternoons.  Nine Days will get finished!  

Few More Free Hours

Just a few more hours to get Future Letters FREE for Kindle
http://www.amazon.com/Future-Letters-...

Or get $1.50 off the hard copy by using this code: K8WS9WPW

Code Expires 7/16/12

Thank you to everyone who's already gotten a copy. I really appreciate it.

The Weekend to Bleed Dodger Blue!

Exciting things are going on for the Willaston family this weekend. 
Friday, July 13th is the 15th anniversary of Scott's first Dodger game - and also the 15th anniversary of the day we stopped being just best friends and roommates.Saturday, July 14 we'll be taking the Monkey Boy to his first Dodger game and it'll be my first Dodger NIGHT GAME.  I've always wanted to go to a night game in LA so I'm already very excited.  Adding the Monkey Boy to the mix and I'm ecstatic!
Of course with a Dodger game means a trip to LA, which means we'll be visiting my mom.  She was the first person to buy a copy of Future Letters and wants me to sign it for her (which I will do willingly).


So, in honor of this exciting weekend the Kindle version of Future Letters is FREE!  It's currently part of the Kindle Owners Lending Library and as part of that program I can plan Free Promotion Days.  Here's a link to the Kindle version.
This is just through Amazon and only for the Kindle (sorry, the hard copy isn't free).
As for the hard copy, you can take $1.50 off the cost of the book when you purchase it through the CreateSpace or the Amazon sites.  The discount code is K8WS9WPW.So, bleed Dodger Blue for the weekend and get free Kindle copies and discounted hard copies of Future Letters. ;-)
Happy Anniversary Scott!  Graduation Congratulations Monkey Boy!I love you both!! 

Books BEG to be read

I just got back from the library.  Dropped off two books (The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards and The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger), picked up two more (The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield and Kingdom Keepers II - Disney at Dawn by Ridley Pearson).  Obviously, I'm fine in the finding something to read department.But... The printed copy of Future Letters were delivered yesterday.  I wrote this book.  I've read it a gazillion times - on the computer and printed on paper, know the story by heart, know what parts will make me laugh and which ones will make me cry.   But unlike say, Silver On The Tree by Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising Sequence are my go to books when I haven't decided what to read next, or I finished my book and the library's closed), I know every back story of Future Letters.  Where in my mind the characters and their histories came from, where each part of the story was brought to life and why.  During my last proof, I told my husband that that would be the last read, that I couldn't keep reliving the story anymore.So, why do I have this urge to read Future Letters?  I hold the books in my hand and I have to stop myself from opening them, plopping down on the couch with Laura-Glue in my lap and reading them.I have two other books to read.  Two books I've never read before.  I don't need to read the one that I wrote.  But the books in that box are telling me that I do.  So, I guess my "Currently Reading List" is:The Thirteenth Tale by Diane SetterfieldKingdom Keepers II - Disney at Dawn by Ridley PearsonFuture Letters by H.R. Willaston

First

The first ever printed copies of Future Letters arrived today.  
I'm so excited!   I should be bouncing around, screaming in glee.  
But instead my head is screaming, my stomach is queasing, ginger ale and peppermint oil are my new bffs. 
So, I'll take a page from Laura-Glue's book, and celebrate by quietly snuggling into a book.