S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 159

Tour Schedule

20 January

Chanel Cleeton

Interview

AimeeKay’s Reviews & Other Randomness

Guest post: Inspiration for the Nogiku series

Heidi Ruby Miller

Interview

21 January

A Little Bit of R&R

Guest post: Constructing Your Own Kaiseki Meal

Biblio Belles

Review Released and excerpt

Tracing The Stars

Review Released and excerpt

22 January

Alessa Hinlo

Guest post: Visiting a Japanese temple

Word to Dreams

Excerpt Removed and interview

Diana Peterfreund

Excerpt from Released

23 January

Word to Dreams

Excerpt Released

Kimberly Sabatini’s Blog

Review Released

24 January

YA Story Teller

Excerpt and guest post: Dream Cast for Nogiku series

T.K. Toppin

Guest post: History of Gambling Games

25 January

Rainy of the Dark

Excerpt and guest post: Tea House Names and Ceremonies

Juliana Haygert

Interview and excerpt

26 January

MichaelSciFan

Interview

Through the Looking glass

Review Removed and Released and excerpt

27 January

Sporadic Reads

Review Removed

So, You’re a Writer

Guest post: The Hero’s Journey and The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship

28 January

Tara Swiger

Interview

29 January

Observation Desk

Guest post: Japanese wedding traditions

Upon The Wings of Greater Things

Excerpt and Tens list: Favorite Japanese Things

30 January

Off the page

Excerpt and tens list: Top ten Japanese movies

31 January

Nerd Alert Book Love

Review Removed and Released, excerpt and tens list: top ten Japanese Romantic Manga

PK HREZO

Review Removed

Books With Bree

Excerpt

1 February

Lola’s Reviews

Review Removed and Released and tens list: 10 things to put in a bento

Author Megan Erickson

Excerpt and guest post: Izakaya food

2 February

Just Write . . .

Guest post: What is Sake?

Delirious Musings

Review Removed and Released

Addicted Readers

Guest Post: How much researcher and work goes into writing a Japanese Cultured book?

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 24, 2014 12:41

January 23, 2014

Nogiku Series Blog Tour – Day Four

Nogiku Series Blog Tour

So I’m on day four of the blog tour and I’m wondering what more I can say? Lol. Four days in, and I’ve lost the ability to promote myself! Instead, I’ll promote my awesome blog tour organizer, Lola of Lola’s Blog Tours. Lola came to me one day when I needed her, after I had done a good deal of searching and not found a blog tour promoter to take me on. Isn’t that how all good relationships are formed, out of the blue? She gets me, gets my books, and she’s a hard worker like none other. I’m really pleased with how the tour has progressed! If you need a blog tour, please check her out.

On tap for today, we have:

Word to Dreams – for their second day on the tour, Word to Dreams has chosen a RELEASED excerpt to highlight!
Kimberly Sabatini’s Blog – Kim writes up a lovely review of RELEASED. It really is all about the ending

Hope you’ll enjoy all the stops on the tour! I’ll update everyday here, on Twitter, and on my Facebook Page.

Giveaway!

Tour Schedule

20 January

Chanel Cleeton

Interview

AimeeKay’s Reviews & Other Randomness

Guest post: Inspiration for the Nogiku series

Heidi Ruby Miller

Interview

21 January

A Little Bit of R&R

Guest post: Constructing Your Own Kaiseki Meal

Biblio Belles

Review Released and excerpt

Tracing The Stars

Review Released and excerpt

22 January

Alessa Hinlo

Guest post: Visiting a Japanese temple

Word to Dreams

Excerpt Removed and interview

Diana Peterfreund

Excerpt from Released

23 January

Word to Dreams

Excerpt Released

Kimberly Sabatini’s Blog

Review Released

24 January

YA Story Teller

Excerpt and guest post: Dream Cast for Nogiku series

T.K. Toppin

Guest post: History of Gambling Games

25 January

Rainy of the Dark

Excerpt and guest post: Tea House Names and Ceremonies

Juliana Haygert

Interview and excerpt

26 January

MichaelSciFan

Interview

Through the Looking glass

Review Removed and Released and excerpt

27 January

Sporadic Reads

Review Removed

So, You’re a Writer

Guest post: The Hero’s Journey and The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship

28 January

Tara Swiger

Interview

29 January

Observation Desk

Guest post: Japanese wedding traditions

Upon The Wings of Greater Things

Excerpt and Tens list: Favorite Japanese Things

30 January

Off the page

Excerpt and tens list: Top ten Japanese movies

31 January

Nerd Alert Book Love

Review Removed and Released, excerpt and tens list: top ten Japanese Romantic Manga

PK HREZO

Review Removed

Books With Bree

Excerpt

1 February

Lola’s Reviews

Review Removed and Released and tens list: 10 things to put in a bento

Author Megan Erickson

Excerpt and guest post: Izakaya food

2 February

Just Write . . .

Guest post: What is Sake?

Delirious Musings

Review Removed and Released

Addicted Readers

Guest Post: How much researcher and work goes into writing a Japanese Cultured book?

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 23, 2014 11:15

January 22, 2014

Nogiku Series Blog Tour – Day Three

Nogiku Series Blog Tour

Day three continues on the Nogiku Blog Tour! For the next two weeks, I’ll be posting links here everyday to stops along the tour so be sure to drop on in to each of these blogs and check out what they’re posting!

On tap for today, we have:

Word To Dreams – I’m interviewed by Marni J and she posts an excerpt from REMOVED.
Alessa Hinlo – I write a guest post for Alessa on Visiting Japanese Temples
Diana Peterfreund – Diana highlights a great scene from RELEASED.

Hope you’ll enjoy all the stops on the tour! I’ll update everyday here, on Twitter, and on my Facebook Page.

Giveaway!

Tour Schedule

20 January

Chanel Cleeton

Interview

AimeeKay’s Reviews & Other Randomness

Guest post: Inspiration for the Nogiku series

Heidi Ruby Miller

Interview

21 January

A Little Bit of R&R

Guest post: Constructing Your Own Kaiseki Meal

Biblio Belles

Review Released and excerpt

Tracing The Stars

Review Released and excerpt

22 January

Alessa Hinlo

Guest post: Visiting a Japanese temple

Word to Dreams

Excerpt Removed and interview

Diana Peterfreund

Excerpt from Released

23 January

Word to Dreams

Excerpt Released

Kimberly Sabatini’s Blog

Review Released

24 January

YA Story Teller

Excerpt and guest post: Dream Cast for Nogiku series

T.K. Toppin

Guest post: History of Gambling Games

25 January

Rainy of the Dark

Excerpt and guest post: Tea House Names and Ceremonies

Juliana Haygert

Interview and excerpt

26 January

MichaelSciFan

Interview

Through the Looking glass

Review Removed and Released and excerpt

27 January

Sporadic Reads

Review Removed

So, You’re a Writer

Guest post: The Hero’s Journey and The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship

28 January

Tara Swiger

Interview

29 January

Observation Desk

Guest post: Japanese wedding traditions

Upon The Wings of Greater Things

Excerpt and Tens list: Favorite Japanese Things

30 January

Off the page

Excerpt and tens list: Top ten Japanese movies

31 January

Nerd Alert Book Love

Review Removed and Released, excerpt and tens list: top ten Japanese Romantic Manga

PK HREZO

Review Removed

Books With Bree

Excerpt

1 February

Lola’s Reviews

Review Removed and Released and tens list: 10 things to put in a bento

Author Megan Erickson

Excerpt and guest post: Izakaya food

2 February

Just Write . . .

Guest post: What is Sake?

Delirious Musings

Review Removed and Released

Addicted Readers

Guest Post: How much researcher and work goes into writing a Japanese Cultured book?

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 22, 2014 08:28

January 21, 2014

Nogiku Series Blog Tour – Day Two

Nogiku Series Blog Tour

Day two continues on the Nogiku Blog Tour. For the next two weeks, I’ll be posting links here everyday to stops along the tour so be sure to drop on in to each of these blogs and check out what they’re posting!

On tap for today, we have:

A Little Bit of R&R – I explain what kaiseki is and show Ren how to construct a kaiseki meal.
Biblio Belles – Brianna swoons over Jiro once more in her review of RELEASED.
Pippa Jay – Adventures in Scifi – Pippa features one of my favorite excerpts from RELEASED.
Tracing the Stars – a very kind review of RELEASED from Corinne.

Hope you’ll enjoy all the stops on the tour! I’ll update everyday here, on Twitter, and on my Facebook Page.

Giveaway!

Tour Schedule

20 January

Chanel Cleeton

Interview

AimeeKay’s Reviews & Other Randomness

Guest post: Inspiration for the Nogiku series

Heidi Ruby Miller

Interview

21 January

A Little Bit of R&R

Guest post: Constructing Your Own Kaiseki Meal

Biblio Belles

Review Released and excerpt

Tracing The Stars

Review Released and excerpt

22 January

Alessa Hinlo

Guest post: Visiting a Japanese temple

Word to Dreams

Excerpt Removed and interview

Diana Peterfreund

Excerpt

23 January

Word to Dreams

Excerpt Released

Kimberly Sabatini’s Blog

Review Released

24 January

YA Story Teller

Excerpt and guest post: Dream Cast for Nogiku series

T.K. Toppin

Guest post: History of Gambling Games

25 January

Rainy of the Dark

Excerpt and guest post: Tea House Names and Ceremonies

Juliana Haygert

Interview and excerpt

26 January

MichaelSciFan

Interview

Through the Looking glass

Review Removed and Released and excerpt

27 January

Sporadic Reads

Review Removed

So, You’re a Writer

Guest post: The Hero’s Journey and The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship

28 January

Tara Swiger

Interview

29 January

Observation Desk

Guest post: Japanese wedding traditions

Upon The Wings of Greater Things

Excerpt and Tens list: Favorite Japanese Things

30 January

Off the page

Excerpt and tens list: Top ten Japanese movies

31 January

Nerd Alert Book Love

Review Removed and Released, excerpt and tens list: top ten Japanese Romantic Manga

PK HREZO

Review Removed

Books With Bree

Excerpt

1 February

Lola’s Reviews

Review Removed and Released and tens list: 10 things to put in a bento

Author Megan Erickson

Excerpt and guest post: Izakaya food

2 February

Just Write . . .

Guest post: What is Sake?

Delirious Musings

Review Removed and Released

Addicted Readers

Guest Post: How much researcher and work goes into writing a Japanese Cultured book?

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 21, 2014 08:20

January 20, 2014

Nogiku Series Blog Tour – Day One

Nogiku Series Blog Tour

Today is the beginning of the Nogiku Series Blog Tour! For the next two weeks, I’ll be posting links here everyday to stops along the tour so be sure to drop on in to each of these blogs and check out what they’re posting!

On tap for today, we have:

Chanel Cleeton - I answer interview questions and talk a little about my writing process, what I do in order to write a draft and how to get out of writer’s block.
AimeeKay’s Reviews & Other Randomness – I divulge a little more about what inspired the Nogiku Series to begin with.
Heidi Ruby Miller – I answer six questions including which of the Nogiku characters is my favorite. Can you guess which one?

Hope you’ll enjoy all the stops on the tour! I’ll update everyday here, on Twitter, and on my Facebook Page.

Giveaway!

Tour Schedule

20 January

Chanel Cleeton

Interview

AimeeKay’s Reviews & Other Randomness

Review Removed and Released, excerpt and guest post: Inspiration for the Nogiku series

Heidi Ruby Miller

Interview

21 January

A Little Bit of R&R

Guest post: Constructing Your Own Kaiseki Meal

Biblio Belles

Review Released and excerpt

22 January

Alessa Hinlo

Guest post: Visiting a Japanese temple

Word to Dreams

Excerpt Removed and interview

Diana Peterfreund

Excerpt

23 January

Word to Dreams

Excerpt Released

Kimberly Sabatini’s Blog

Review Released

24 January

YA Story Teller

Excerpt and guest post: Dream Cast for Nogiku series

T.K. Toppin

Guest post: History of Gambling Games

25 January

Rainy of the Dark

Excerpt and guest post: Tea House Names and Ceremonies

Juliana Haygert

Interview and excerpt

26 January

MichaelSciFan

Interview

Through the Looking glass

Review Removed and Released and excerpt

27 January

Sporadic Reads

Review Removed

So, You’re a Writer

Guest post: The Hero’s Journey and The Art of Japanese Swordsmanship

28 January

Tara Swiger

Interview

Tracing The Stars

Review Released and excerpt

29 January

Observation Desk

Guest post: Japanese wedding traditions

Upon The Wings of Greater Things

Excerpt and Tens list: Favorite Japanese Things

30 January

Off the page

Excerpt and tens list: Top ten Japanese movies

31 January

Nerd Alert Book Love

Review Removed and Released, excerpt and tens list: top ten Japanese Romantic Manga

PK HREZO

Review Removed

Books With Bree

Excerpt

1 February

Lola’s Reviews

Review Removed and Released and tens list: 10 things to put in a bento

Author Megan Erickson

Excerpt and guest post: Izakaya food

2 February

Just Write . . .

Guest post: What is Sake?

Delirious Musings

Review Removed and Released

Addicted Readers

Guest Post: How much researcher and work goes into writing a Japanese Cultured book?

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 20, 2014 08:17

January 16, 2014

Increasing Facebook Page Engagements – The One-Two Punch

facebook_one_two_punch

I struggled with whether or not to write this post because WHO KNOWS what Facebook will do next to change Pages. Each time they update them they make them even more difficult to use and Page owners continue to struggle to reach their audience. But I’ll share what I’ve learned now and hope that it helps some of you until things do change.

NOTE: I was not involved in any Rafflecopter giveaways during this time period. Anything that I did to get these numbers was from my own efforts. I had to post my findings now because my blog tour starts this weekend with a Rafflecopter giveaway.

Facebook Pages were a mystery to me for a very long time. I would post things there on my Page and no one would comment on them or like them, and my organic reach, that little number under the post that a Page admin sees, would barely tick up. This still happens, but I’ve seen a marked difference in growth since January 1st when I changed the way that I interacted with my Page.

Punch One!

Watch this video that I embedded below (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjpOPqxvcoU). It changed everything for me. The key to increasing your audience is engaging with your audience and other Pages. And I’m not just talking about putting items on your Page and then walking away. I’m not just talking about responding to random comments you get. I’m talking about logging into Facebook AS YOUR PAGE and interacting with other Pages that you like, AS YOUR PAGE.

Many people only Like other Pages from their personal account. Don’t do this. It’s time to sit back and think about you and your product (for me, it’s my books and my image as an author) and what other Pages on Facebook may be related to you. For me, I have gone into Facebook logged in AS MY PAGE and Liked pages about Japan, Tokyo, Kyoto, Kimonos, Korea, Seoul, other authors (especially New Adult, Science Fiction, and Romance), New York, Astronomy, National Geographic, etc etc. All of these Pages are reflective of my interests and what I write about.

Once I Liked those Pages (and I find new ones every day), their feed shows up on my Home page when I’m logged in AS MY PAGE. Now I take the time each day to go through my feed, like posts from those Pages I’m interested in, leave comments, and share those post from other Pages ON MY PAGE.

People, this is the single most important thing you can do as a Page owner. Once I started engaging with other Pages, Facebook started recommending me to THEIR audiences (you’ve seen these before, SUGGESTED PAGES that show up in the right sidebar or in the newsfeed). Example, I comment and like Dramafever posts, and then my Page gets recommended to the Dramafever audience. Wow, right? Suddenly people who have the same interests as I do and would probably love my books because they also like Dramafever are seeing my Page recommended to them.

Check out that number of Likes by Page Suggestion!

Check out this Insights graph. I started this activity on January 1 (so I included a few days before that to show you how low my activity was prior).

See how Likes have started coming from Page Suggestions after only a few days of interactivity? The graph goes up and down depending on how active Facebook users are (it dipped lower on Jan 11 and 12 which were a Saturday and Sunday) but I got almost NO Likes through Page Suggestions prior to this. That’s huge. It’s growing my audience and now I’m seeing a lot more interaction with my own Page from my new audience. There have been some Unlikes since I started becoming more active, and that’s fine too. Your new audience will have their own expectations of what they want to see. Some may love it, others may not. Do not take it personally

Punch Two! (pow!)

Update your page almost every day and vary what you post. Variety is the spice of life, right? This includes Facebook.

The Main Rule: Do not post the same TYPE of content everyday. If you write haikus and post a new one each day, your audience is going to dwindle to nothing. Because Facebook likes it when you keep things fresh. Status posts every day are going to sink your Edgerank. Yes, text status posts currently get the highest organic views but, if you abuse it, it will die and not work for you any longer.

Post something original everyday. I have a calendar that I was using this past week to post to my page.

Monday: a status update where I talked about what I posted about on my blog, and I put the link to my blog post IN THE COMMENTS.
Late Monday: I had another blog post that day (a cover reveal) so I posted that as a normal link.
Tuesday: I shared an excerpt from my next book. A lot people liked it and many people shared it. It was a normal text only status update so it got a lot of organic views. It reached more than 33% of my audience which is actually really good!
Wednesday: I posted a status update about a price change on my books. This got me an unlike

It’s okay. They probably weren’t going to buy them anyway!
Thursday: I shared a photo about the books I use to research my books and included a link.
Friday: I’m sharing this blog post and I’m asking people to comment on Facebook, too.

Of all the posts, my excerpt one on Tuesday was the most well-received. It’s original content and my audience wants that! I can’t always provide that, but I try to as much as possible.

I also take the time to share items from other Pages. Each day I try to share at LEAST one link from another Page. Some days, I share 5 or 6. So far, an infograph that I shared on Thursday is getting a ton of views. I think that Facebook favors infographs, so if you’ve got ‘em, show ‘em. (This is just a guess.)

I now pay attention to the “People talking about this” number as well. The higher it is in relation to your overall Likes number, the better you’re doing. This number is based on individual people liking, sharing, or commenting on your posts. The more people you have talking about you, the better. You can have one uber-fan that shares everything you post, likes, and comments on it, but they only have so many friends who probably haven’t muted them already. Their reach won’t be very far. But many individuals talking about you increases your exposure. Work on providing content people will want to engage with and see this number rise

What days and times your audience is online.

I also pay attention to when my fans are online. According to the graph above, most of my fans come online in the morning and then stay on throughout the day (slackers! Ha! Who am I kidding? I’m on Facebook all day. I love you, fans!). So if I want them to see something new and original from me first thing, I’ll post it just before 9am.

How different types of posts do on your Page.

You may notice that for my post on Monday, I put the link to my blog post in the comments instead of linking it in the status update. That’s because CURRENTLY Facebook is favoring plain text status updates! But you don’t want to do this all the time, because once you start abusing it, it will stop working. Only use it for things you NEED your audience to see.

Now, it should be stated that two weeks or a month from now or freaking tomorrow, Facebook could change from favoring status posts to favoring photo posts because on average photo posts do better, believe it or not. In fact, I bet that they do change things on purpose. It’s my suspicion that they have Edgerank on a fluctuating schedule that cycles throughout the year. (Don’t take my word on this. I know nothing. But I have gut instincts and I used to be a programmer and I would TOTALLY do this if I were working at Facebook.) Why? Because variety is the spice of life! I already said that, right? If you are already posting a variety of things throughout the week, it’s not going to matter if Edgerank changes its mind as to what it likes. Think about it.

Posts reach. Look at how they increased after January 1!

Likes, comments, and shares have gone up.

Overall organic reach has gone up!

OK, that’s all I have for you, and really, that’s all you need. The Facebook One-Two Punch to improving your audience is where it’s at.

Here are some links that I found and read that gave me insight on what I needed to do to understand Facebook Pages.

http://socialmediatoday.com/stephaniefrasco/1982256/how-increase-your-facebook-reach-without-paying-advertising – This one got me started after I watched the video.
http://www.jonloomer.com/2013/12/10/increase-facebook-organic-reach/ – This one had the most ideas that I liked, and I will be doing almost all of what he suggests in the coming months.
http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-page-metrics/ and http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-marketing-facebook-insights/ – These two helped me understand the insights metrics and what they all mean.
http://dashburst.com/report/best-time-to-blog/ – Though this is about blogging, I thought that its numbers were similar to what I saw in my insights.
http://www.insidefacebook.com/2012/01/10/people-talking-about-this-defined/ – This explained that one little number that I watch the most now.

So, please share this on Facebook and Twitter, etc! We should all benefit from my research! And if you learned something today, won’t you please do me a favor by signing up for my cover reveal? Or possibly signing up for my newsletter? Ha. Like how I slipped that in there at the end? Let’s share and help each other out at the same time!

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 16, 2014 16:20

January 13, 2014

HONESTY Cover Reveal

Folks, you may remember that I revealed Carrie Butler’s COURAGE a few months ago. Since then, Carrie and I have gotten to know each other really well, and I really admire her, her work, and her work ethic. Not only is she a fantastic writer (I gave STRENGTH 5-stars and COURAGE is waiting to be read) but she’s also a really talented designer. She made the REMOVED book trailer, and I also had her design the FACE TIME book cover which I can’t wait to show you on February 13th! The book, COURAGE, is all Cole, the twin brother of the hot boy from STRENGTH, Wallace. He’s rough. He’s rugged. He’s got secrets to hide. I can’t wait to get to know him better.

Cole Blake is more than just a roguish ladies’ man. He’s also a dedicated worker—so dedicated, in fact, that he’s willing to blackmail his boss with a falsified sex tape in order to keep his job. And his proactive efforts don’t end there. After hours, he uses his Dynari abilities to moonlight as a vigilante, keeping his neighborhood safe from drunks, dealers, and would-be thieves.

Until a mistake stops him dead in his super-accelerated tracks.

Now burdened with the closest thing he’s ever had to a conscience, Cole struggles to justify his once-reckless actions. It’d be all too easy to give in to his darker impulses, especially with ERA making dangerous advances toward their goal of revolution, but embracing that hatred could jeopardize the few relationships he actually cares about—including his pursuit of the saintly Rachel Ranford. No, in order to keep everyone safe, he’ll have to come clean about his warring compulsions and ask for help… before his dark side takes over.

HONESTY

March, 2014

New Adult Paranormal Romance

Bonus! Click here to read the first (unedited) chapter of HONESTY! While you’re at it, you might want to listen to its playlist on Carrie’s website. Then be sure to add HONESTY to your TBR list on Goodreads.

About the Author

Carrie Butler daydreamed her way through college—until they thrust a marketing degree into her hands, slapped a summa cum laude seal on the corner, and booted her out into a less-than-stellar job market. Instead of panicking at the prospect of unemployment, she used her Midwestern logic to steer into the skid and point her life in the direction she really wanted to go: writing out those daydreams.

Her passion for New Adult fiction led her to co-found NA Alley—one of the first websites dedicated to the category. A year later, she started a design business specializing in graphics for the publishing industry, called Forward Authority. Her Mark of Nexus series has appeared on Amazon bestselling, top-rated, and hot new release lists.

Website: www.carrieabutler.com

Blog: www.soyoureawriter.blogspot.com

NA Alley: www.naalley.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/carrieabutler

Facebook: www.facebook.com/carrieabutler

Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/carriebutler

Google+: www.google.com/+CarrieButler

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/writer

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carriebutler

Forward Authority: www.forwardauthority.com

MARK OF NEXUS on Facebook: www.facebook.com/markofnexus

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 13, 2014 15:39

5am Writing Lifestyle

Welcome to my 5am office

Who here knows me well? Raise your hand! Then you know that I’m not a morning person. In fact, I’m very far from. I’m grumpy, bleary-eyed, and generally cranky in the mornings. Can you imagine me getting up at 5am everyday to write?

Neither could I until November of last year (2013). I was working on revisions to RELEASED and trying to fit them in in the evenings after the kids went to bed each night. But my brain was foggy each evening. Some nights I would just sit and stare at my computer for hours, not writing or accomplishing anything. After a long day of being a mom, running around, writing while the kids were at school some days, and exercising, all I wanted to do was relax on the couch. In fact, I deserved to relax on the couch! But that didn’t excuse the work I still had to do to remain on schedule.

A while back, I wrote about my problems with insomnia which is something I still struggle with unfortunately. I do have to take a lot of things each night to sleep (melatonin and Benadryl) but it’s gotten better. I can now count on 5-6 hours of sleep per night where I used to get 3 or 4 hours. A big difference for me! So I was “sleeping” from 11pm to 6am everyday. If you count that up, it’s 7 hours, but it’s not because everyday I was waking around 4am and then tossing and turning for two hours. What’s the point of that, right?

And that was how my 5am writing lifestyle was born. I would wake at 4am, try to sleep until 5am, and get out of bed. Now I work from 5am to 6:30am when I can shower and then get the kids to school. And, go figure, my brain wakes up at 5am easily. I’m not foggy, not tired. I’m awake and raring to go! I open my computer, get my heated blanket across my lap, a bottle of water, and get right to it. Once everyone is awake, I make tea and have breakfast.

And I actually love it. By 7am each morning, I’ve accomplished a ton. And if I don’t have errands to run while the kids are at school, I can exercise or even work some more and feel like the day has launched on the right foot. The best part of waking at 5am each day is that I can do it or not. The only thing that stands in the way is sickness, really. If one my kids is sick and up early or if I’m not feeling well, the 5am wakeup can be moved. Whereas if I tried to do it in the evening, I would have to contend with my own tiredness, socializing with my husband, cleaning up the house, or any number of things that come up in the evenings around here.

Now I go to bed each night, my head hits the pillow, and I’m out. Sometimes I catch up on sleep over the weekend but not always. This new routine has been a revelation to me!

Are there any other early risers out there? There’s a @5amwritersclub on Twitter I belong to that does writing sprints in the early morning. I haven’t participated yet because I’m working on FACE TIME revisions and blog posts for my upcoming blog tour. But once I’m back and working on Nogiku Book 3, you better believe I’ll be sprinting with everyone at 5am!

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 13, 2014 06:17

January 9, 2014

Request an eARC of FACE TIME

Hi everyone! I’m now open for FACE TIME eARC requests. If you’re an avid reader or book blogger and want an advanced copy of FACE TIME, I’d be happy to provide one. Reviews are so important to an author, and I’d love it if I could get some advanced reviews up before the book is even available. So, if you’re interested, please sign up below!

After the best first date ever, Lee thought Laura was funny, intelligent, and impulsive; a whirlwind of bright laughter and happiness. Laura loved Lee’s sweet smile and the way he expertly filled in every awkward pause. He held her hand and then pulled her in for the most perfect kiss she’s had in years. What could possibly be wrong? Just the 7000 miles that separates them the next day.

Even though Lee has gone home to Seoul, Laura can’t stop thinking about him. What starts as an innocent text thanking him for their dinner date becomes something much more: someone either of them can’t live without. But Laura’s got a live-in mother going through a midlife crisis, and Lee’s stressful traveling schedule means they’ll be apart for some time. Life, family, and a complicated past also get in the way, and they’re both going to need actual face time to figure it out.

Told from both Lee and Laura’s point of view, FACE TIME is a funny, romantic, modern-day story about two people who connect across the world.

FACE TIME (A Love In The Digital Age Novel)

Available April 25, 2014

Adult Contemporary Romance

Cover Design by Forward Authority (Coming February 13, 2014)

Loading…

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on January 09, 2014 11:21

January 6, 2014

Face Time: A Love In The Digital Age Novel

A little less than a year ago, I got a great idea for a novel outside of the Nogiku Series. Something totally different. Something contemporary which was a genre that I never thought that I would write in. I have a lot of online relationships because I have friends all over the world. These are people that I text with, skype or FaceTime with, email with, twitter with, blog with, Flickr with. And many of these relationships have been going on for almost 10 years. Some of these people I have never even met in the flesh! I know lots of people who think that’s crazy, but I can assure you that in my corner of the internet, this is all de rigeur.

I have a good friend, Sharon, who is in the military and so is her husband. Last year, her husband went on tour overseas in the Middle East. She was pregnant, and it was a really hard time for them all to be separated. She often posted screenshots of her FaceTime conversations with her husband, and I loved every single one of them. It was sweet that they were talking as often as they could, and they used this amazing technology to do it. Yes, those FaceTime commercials are not just playing with your heartstrings. It really does connect people.

Then I thought, what would it be like to date over FaceTime? To really get to know someone without being able to touch them or see them other than through a device. FaceTime is the one-word variation of the phrase “face time” which means “time spent interacting in the presence of or in the same location as another or others.” Real face time means being with another person. And so my idea was born!

Coming Soon!

This novel combines many of my favorite themes: love, family, mistakes made and how to forgive those mistakes, getting over and making up for regrets, and Asian cultures and families. This time I chose a Korean-American family and all that comes with Koreans who moved here to the US to make a life after the Korean War, they’re own struggles, and how they impact their kids.

But first and foremost, this novel is a romance. It’s about two very different people, getting to know each other, learning to compromise, and falling in love.

FACE TIME will be available on April 25, 2014. The cover reveal will be on February 13, 2014 (I will post when sign-ups become available!) I’m very excited about the cover! It was designed by Carrie Butler at Forward Authority who I enjoyed working with immensely.

Here’s the blurb:

After the best first date ever, Lee thought Laura was funny, intelligent, and impulsive; a whirlwind of bright laughter and happiness. Laura loved Lee’s sweet smile and the way he expertly filled in every awkward pause. He held her hand and then pulled her in for the most perfect kiss she’s had in years. What could possibly be wrong? Just the 7000 miles that separates them the next day.

Even though Lee has gone home to Seoul, Laura can’t stop thinking about him. What starts as an innocent text thanking him for their dinner date becomes something much more: someone either of them can’t live without. But Laura’s got a live-in mother going through a midlife crisis, and Lee’s stressful traveling schedule means they’ll be apart for some time. Life, family, and a complicated past also get in the way, and they’re both going to need actual face time to figure it out.

Told from both Lee and Laura’s point of view, FACE TIME is a funny, romantic, modern-day story about two people who connect across the world.

FACE TIME (A Love In The Digital Age Novel)

Available April 25, 2014

Adult Contemporary Romance

Cover Design by Forward Authority (Coming February 13, 2014)

Queue FACE TIME on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20434205-face-time