Julianna Keyes's Blog, page 4
July 16, 2020
New book! All the Missing Pieces Available for Pre-Order
I always love making these new announcements - it's the start of an adventure, and you never know where each one is going to take you.
All the Missing Pieces is a sexy new suspense story about a woman with secrets to hide, and a man who may or may not want to uncover them. It's steamy and suspense-y, and everything I wanted it to be. The complete full chapter is available to read on my website if you'd like to check it out: www.juliannakeyes.com
Pre-Order links:
AZ https://amzn.to/2DzMY9P
iBooks https://apple.co/38R9gQg
Kobo https://bit.ly/30165RL
B&N https://bit.ly/2ZmN51a
Google https://bit.ly/329zSKJ
March 24, 2020
BENCH PLAYER Teaser #4!
Okay, time for our final #TeaserTuesday before release day next Monday! It's also the last days of the $2.99 pre-order sale for BENCH PLAYER, and the $0.99 sale for TEAM PLAYER. If, like me, you're missing baseball, these can help fill the void. Sorta. 😉
I didn't post an excerpt last week because of all the stress and uncertainty of what was happening in the world (and still is, obvs), and it just felt wrong. Plus, it just so happened that the teaser I'd prepared weeks earlier included a line that seemed kind of tasteless out of the context of the book and in light of the bigger world picture right now.
In any case, I hope you are all doing well, reading lots, keeping busy, staying home and staying sane! ❤️
AZ https://www.amzn.com/dp/B084T3R5MN
BN https://bit.ly/31W1Do2
Apple https://apple.co/3bwJPUO
Kobo https://bit.ly/2vymcuJ
Google Play https://bit.ly/38vjQLL
GR https://bit.ly/2HoCmta
Request on NetGalley: http://netgal.ly/LtreGs
www.juliannakeyes.com
March 10, 2020
BENCH PLAYER Teaser #3!
This is one of my favourite quotes from the book. I realized in November that the draft I'd been working on for months just wasn't, well, working, so I made the tough decision to scrap it and start all over. I was determined to meet my self-imposed spring deadline (because that's when the baseball season starts) so I made a little Post-It that said "One chapter a night!" and taped it to the wall next to my laptop, and did a surprisingly decent job of sticking to that plan. These lines were in the first-new draft, and never changed. Sometimes you get lucky and nail it the first time. (Not often, but sometimes.) ❤️😁⚾️
AZ https://www.amzn.com/dp/B084T3R5MN
BN https://bit.ly/31W1Do2
Apple https://apple.co/3bwJPUO
Kobo https://bit.ly/2vymcuJ
Google Play https://bit.ly/38vjQLL
Add to Goodreads https://bit.ly/2HoCmta
Request on NetGalley http://netgal.ly/LtreGs
Read an excerpt here! www.juliannakeyes.com
March 3, 2020
BENCH PLAYER Teaser #2!
AZ: https://www.amzn.com/dp/B084T3R5MN
BN: https://bit.ly/31W1Do2
Apple: https://apple.co/3bwJPUO
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2vymcuJ
Google Play: https://bit.ly/38vjQLL
GR: https://bit.ly/2HoCmta
Request on NetGalley: http://netgal.ly/LtreGs
www.juliannakeyes.com
March 1, 2020
TEAM PLAYER SALE!
Team Player got a facelift, and, for the month of March, is on sale for just $0.99! It includes an extended preview of Bench Player, and will satisfy your baseball cravings until the season starts at the end of the month. :)
AZ https://amzn.to/3agJqEE
BN https://bit.ly/38ey6HM
Apple https://apple.co/32GGFdd
Kobo https://bit.ly/2vtIcHo
Google https://bit.ly/39fZ4zZ
www.juliannakeyes.com/team-player.html
Team Player
AZ https://amzn.to/3agJqEE
BN https://bit.ly/38ey6HM
Apple https://apple.co/32GGFdd
Kobo https://bit.ly/2vtIcHo
Google https://bit.ly/39fZ4zZ
www.juliannakeyes.com/team-player.html
Team Player
February 25, 2020
Teaser Tuesday #1!
It's time for our first #TeaserTuesday!
Bench Player comes out March 30, and will be available to request on NetGalley this weekend. And it's on sale for just $2.99 until release day! ❤️⚾️
AZ: https://www.amzn.com/dp/B084T3R5MN
BN: https://bit.ly/31W1Do2
Apple: https://apple.co/3bwJPUO
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2vymcuJ
Google Play: https://bit.ly/38vjQLL
GR: https://bit.ly/2HoCmta
Read the first chapter! www.juliannakeyes.com
Bench Player comes out March 30, and will be available to request on NetGalley this weekend. And it's on sale for just $2.99 until release day! ❤️⚾️
AZ: https://www.amzn.com/dp/B084T3R5MN
BN: https://bit.ly/31W1Do2
Apple: https://apple.co/3bwJPUO
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2vymcuJ
Google Play: https://bit.ly/38vjQLL
GR: https://bit.ly/2HoCmta
Read the first chapter! www.juliannakeyes.com
February 16, 2020
Bench Player Pre-Order Sale!
It's finally (almost) here!! Bench Player is a sexy, funny, enemies-to-lovers baseball romance starring Connor (the ex-con right fielder) and Allison (the kinda mean PR queen) as they reluctantly work together to navigate his return to the spotlight. It has lots of laughs, lots of heat, and even a few tears. :)
Want to try before you buy? The first chapter is posted on my website to sample.
On sale for $2.99 until release day, when it bumps up to $4.99.
Amazon: https://www.amzn.com/dp/B084T3R5MN
B&N: https://bit.ly/31W1Do2
Apple: https://apple.co/3bwJPUO
Kobo: https://bit.ly/2vymcuJ
Google Play: https://bit.ly/38vjQLL
www.juliannakeyes.com
April 1, 2019
TEAM PLAYER - DELETED SCENE
RELEASE WEEK – POST 4 – DELETED SCENE (NO SPOILERS)
Here’s a quick scene from one of my earlier drafts. Because I kept starting the story over from scratch, I forgot about this one and when I remembered later, I couldn’t find a way to work it in organically. I still think it’s cute, so I’ll share it here. Enjoy!
* * *
“Come here,” Ty said, tugging open the patio doors. “I want to show you something.”
“Please let it be something scandalous.”
“Nope. But it’s probably the most interesting thing I’ve got. The most vain part of the house.”
“All right,” Gwen said. “I’m interested.”
She was interested no matter what, but once again her expectations were blown out of the water when he led her to a little alcove beneath the stairs and unlocked a nearly invisible door.
“Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
He pulled open the door and flipped on a light switch.
“Whoa,” Gwen breathed. It was a glass case holding approximately thirty baseballs, each in its own clear box, with a neatly typed sign identifying its milestone achievement. First hit. First RBI. First home run. The top row was dedicated to Ty’s firsts. The other three rows were balls marking milestones from some of the sport’s greatest players. They had to be worth a fortune.
“I know I don’t deserve to share space with these guys yet, but it’s the only place I had to display them,” he started.
“This is insane,” Gwen interrupted. “And you’re hardly displaying them, since they’re hidden in a locked room under the stairs.”
He shrugged and studied his feet. “It’s the only thing I’ve got.”
“Why don’t you keep them in your apartment, if you spend the most time there?”
He chewed on the inside of his cheek. “I don’t want to.”
Gwen nodded at the top row. “Do you remember those hits?”
“Oh, God, yeah.” He smiled sheepishly. “Are you kidding me? I could re-enact them for you right now.”
“Please do.”
He laughed. “No way. I’m not drunk enough.”
“Then tell me about them.”
He stepped close and tapped the ball for his first hit. “I played three innings in my first major league game and didn’t get on base,” he said. “This is from my second game. I got the start at short because the regular guy had a cold. I went 1-4, and didn’t get the hit until my last at bat. Ninth inning, one out, nobody on. We were leading, 8-3. Didn’t really matter what I did, but it felt like everything to me, like I’d never get another shot if I didn’t make this one count. Roy Fowler was pitching relief for the Mariners, and one of the guys told me he’d start me with a fastball right down the middle, because he knew I couldn’t hit it. That guy threw hard, and I wanted to throw up instead of bat, but I walked up to the plate, sent up a prayer to any god that was listening, closed my eyes, and swung as hard as I could at the first pitch.”
“Home run?”
“Lord, no. Bloop single to right. But I didn’t care. Tried to act like it, but you can see me grinning my head off, almost too giddy to stay on the base.”
Gwen laughed. “Do you have the video?”
“I’m going to lie and say no.”
“Why?”
“Because watching it with you is a step too vain, even for me.”
Here’s a quick scene from one of my earlier drafts. Because I kept starting the story over from scratch, I forgot about this one and when I remembered later, I couldn’t find a way to work it in organically. I still think it’s cute, so I’ll share it here. Enjoy!
* * *
“Come here,” Ty said, tugging open the patio doors. “I want to show you something.”
“Please let it be something scandalous.”
“Nope. But it’s probably the most interesting thing I’ve got. The most vain part of the house.”
“All right,” Gwen said. “I’m interested.”
She was interested no matter what, but once again her expectations were blown out of the water when he led her to a little alcove beneath the stairs and unlocked a nearly invisible door.
“Ready?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
He pulled open the door and flipped on a light switch.
“Whoa,” Gwen breathed. It was a glass case holding approximately thirty baseballs, each in its own clear box, with a neatly typed sign identifying its milestone achievement. First hit. First RBI. First home run. The top row was dedicated to Ty’s firsts. The other three rows were balls marking milestones from some of the sport’s greatest players. They had to be worth a fortune.
“I know I don’t deserve to share space with these guys yet, but it’s the only place I had to display them,” he started.
“This is insane,” Gwen interrupted. “And you’re hardly displaying them, since they’re hidden in a locked room under the stairs.”
He shrugged and studied his feet. “It’s the only thing I’ve got.”
“Why don’t you keep them in your apartment, if you spend the most time there?”
He chewed on the inside of his cheek. “I don’t want to.”
Gwen nodded at the top row. “Do you remember those hits?”
“Oh, God, yeah.” He smiled sheepishly. “Are you kidding me? I could re-enact them for you right now.”
“Please do.”
He laughed. “No way. I’m not drunk enough.”
“Then tell me about them.”
He stepped close and tapped the ball for his first hit. “I played three innings in my first major league game and didn’t get on base,” he said. “This is from my second game. I got the start at short because the regular guy had a cold. I went 1-4, and didn’t get the hit until my last at bat. Ninth inning, one out, nobody on. We were leading, 8-3. Didn’t really matter what I did, but it felt like everything to me, like I’d never get another shot if I didn’t make this one count. Roy Fowler was pitching relief for the Mariners, and one of the guys told me he’d start me with a fastball right down the middle, because he knew I couldn’t hit it. That guy threw hard, and I wanted to throw up instead of bat, but I walked up to the plate, sent up a prayer to any god that was listening, closed my eyes, and swung as hard as I could at the first pitch.”
“Home run?”
“Lord, no. Bloop single to right. But I didn’t care. Tried to act like it, but you can see me grinning my head off, almost too giddy to stay on the base.”
Gwen laughed. “Do you have the video?”
“I’m going to lie and say no.”
“Why?”
“Because watching it with you is a step too vain, even for me.”
March 31, 2019
RELEASE WEEK POST 3
WHO’S THE BOSS?
With just one exception, all of my books have started with a character first, story second. In this case, I wrote TEAM PLAYER approximately six different times, all from scratch. And they were pretty terrible. Some of the fundamental elements were the same: Ty, Gwen, Strip, and the structure of the season. The rest, however…
It’s a really frustrating process to feel like you have the essential elements right, but still not manage to achieve the outcome you want. And the thing I struggled with most was pacing. I had so much back story in my head about Ty and Gwen’s pasts and too much of it was ending up in the book and holding up the actual plot. While I think it’s important for authors to know their characters and have done their research, sometimes that information doesn’t need to make it onto the page, and I was writing down WAY too much. It wasn’t being written well, either. Just random lumps and clumps that kept interrupting the momentum (what little I could build) and slowing things to a crawl.
In what ended up being the first draft of what ultimately turned into the final product, I still had much more back story than you see in the finished book. It just wasn’t working. And it’s one of those cases where the more you peel away, the more what remains stands out weirdly, so you take out a bit more, then a bit more… In the end, I went with very little back story. I tried to include enough details to give a sense of why and how Ty and Gwen had become who they were, without taking away from the present-day plot, which was already eating up my word count. I figured if I couldn’t work it into the story in a way that felt organic, then it wasn’t meant to be there. So essentially I wrote five books of character sketches, then one actual book. That is not an efficient process!
When I was in school we had to go out and write a piece about a random person. I was so shy about approaching a stranger that I’d rather have just died, but then I finally spotted a guy in a cigar shop, looking incredibly bored. I went in, asked if I could write a piece about him, and he agreed. Except when I tried to ask about himself, he just kept talking about cigars. I kept trying, he kept up the cigar chatter. Eventually I wrote a piece about cigars. (That turned out to be very interesting.)
In the case of TEAM PLAYER, I did a ton of (accidental) character work for Gwen and Ty, but then Baseball, which was intended to have more of a supporting role, showed up and demanded to be one of the leads. I kept trying to shunt it into the background, it kept insisting. Five drafts later, it had a starring role. That’s writing for you!
Heads up: Tomorrow’s the last of the release week posts, and it’s a deleted scene I think is short and sweet and worth the read!
With just one exception, all of my books have started with a character first, story second. In this case, I wrote TEAM PLAYER approximately six different times, all from scratch. And they were pretty terrible. Some of the fundamental elements were the same: Ty, Gwen, Strip, and the structure of the season. The rest, however…
It’s a really frustrating process to feel like you have the essential elements right, but still not manage to achieve the outcome you want. And the thing I struggled with most was pacing. I had so much back story in my head about Ty and Gwen’s pasts and too much of it was ending up in the book and holding up the actual plot. While I think it’s important for authors to know their characters and have done their research, sometimes that information doesn’t need to make it onto the page, and I was writing down WAY too much. It wasn’t being written well, either. Just random lumps and clumps that kept interrupting the momentum (what little I could build) and slowing things to a crawl.
In what ended up being the first draft of what ultimately turned into the final product, I still had much more back story than you see in the finished book. It just wasn’t working. And it’s one of those cases where the more you peel away, the more what remains stands out weirdly, so you take out a bit more, then a bit more… In the end, I went with very little back story. I tried to include enough details to give a sense of why and how Ty and Gwen had become who they were, without taking away from the present-day plot, which was already eating up my word count. I figured if I couldn’t work it into the story in a way that felt organic, then it wasn’t meant to be there. So essentially I wrote five books of character sketches, then one actual book. That is not an efficient process!
When I was in school we had to go out and write a piece about a random person. I was so shy about approaching a stranger that I’d rather have just died, but then I finally spotted a guy in a cigar shop, looking incredibly bored. I went in, asked if I could write a piece about him, and he agreed. Except when I tried to ask about himself, he just kept talking about cigars. I kept trying, he kept up the cigar chatter. Eventually I wrote a piece about cigars. (That turned out to be very interesting.)
In the case of TEAM PLAYER, I did a ton of (accidental) character work for Gwen and Ty, but then Baseball, which was intended to have more of a supporting role, showed up and demanded to be one of the leads. I kept trying to shunt it into the background, it kept insisting. Five drafts later, it had a starring role. That’s writing for you!
Heads up: Tomorrow’s the last of the release week posts, and it’s a deleted scene I think is short and sweet and worth the read!
March 30, 2019
RELEASE WEEK - POST 2
CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT
Many of my books are inspired by a place or time in my life that I wanted to capture in words the way I can’t capture in photographs. (I’m a truly garbage photographer.) I wrote JUST ONCE because I’d worked on a dude ranch; I wrote GOING THE DISTANCE because I’d lived in China.
Capturing the “feeling” of something without describing it like a travel brochure is easier said than done. My biggest weakness in writing is description. I never, ever describe settings. Like, ever. I always have to go back during edits and remember that no one can see my imagination if I don’t write it down. (In a writing class in university I wrote a short story about a girl who lived a boring life in a boring apartment. The chief criticism I got from literally everyone was that they did not know what she or the apartment looked like. I remedied this by saying the walls were painted eggshell white, and I genuinely believed that to be sufficient. It wasn’t.)
But describing something is more than just telling people what it looks like. It’s getting them to feel like they’re inside of it, so they can fill in the details of those eggshell white walls with sensory details from their own experience. When writing TEAM PLAYER I really wanted to be mindful of describing the game and the setting in a way that “felt” right. Not everyone loves baseball, and it’s not about convincing them how insane they are, it’s about showing why *I* love it, and I don’t love it because the grass is green and the seats are blue and the chicken strips are $14, I love it because of how it makes me feel. The energy of a Major League baseball stadium is obviously more intense than the feeling of stepping onto a field for a softball game, but I was lucky enough to play some games on fields where they play national championships, with manicured grass and stadium lights and towering bleachers and *that* feeling is what I wanted to get on the page.
I watch a ton of cooking shows, and when someone says they cook with love I always thought, “What on earth does that taste like?” But then I ate at this restaurant where the chef’s love for his work truly came through in every bite, and I finally understood. This week I’ve been proof-reading the paperback version of TEAM PLAYER, and that loving feeling has come through the pages, making me giddy for release day, and the start of the new baseball season. I hope you feel it too!
Many of my books are inspired by a place or time in my life that I wanted to capture in words the way I can’t capture in photographs. (I’m a truly garbage photographer.) I wrote JUST ONCE because I’d worked on a dude ranch; I wrote GOING THE DISTANCE because I’d lived in China.
Capturing the “feeling” of something without describing it like a travel brochure is easier said than done. My biggest weakness in writing is description. I never, ever describe settings. Like, ever. I always have to go back during edits and remember that no one can see my imagination if I don’t write it down. (In a writing class in university I wrote a short story about a girl who lived a boring life in a boring apartment. The chief criticism I got from literally everyone was that they did not know what she or the apartment looked like. I remedied this by saying the walls were painted eggshell white, and I genuinely believed that to be sufficient. It wasn’t.)
But describing something is more than just telling people what it looks like. It’s getting them to feel like they’re inside of it, so they can fill in the details of those eggshell white walls with sensory details from their own experience. When writing TEAM PLAYER I really wanted to be mindful of describing the game and the setting in a way that “felt” right. Not everyone loves baseball, and it’s not about convincing them how insane they are, it’s about showing why *I* love it, and I don’t love it because the grass is green and the seats are blue and the chicken strips are $14, I love it because of how it makes me feel. The energy of a Major League baseball stadium is obviously more intense than the feeling of stepping onto a field for a softball game, but I was lucky enough to play some games on fields where they play national championships, with manicured grass and stadium lights and towering bleachers and *that* feeling is what I wanted to get on the page.
I watch a ton of cooking shows, and when someone says they cook with love I always thought, “What on earth does that taste like?” But then I ate at this restaurant where the chef’s love for his work truly came through in every bite, and I finally understood. This week I’ve been proof-reading the paperback version of TEAM PLAYER, and that loving feeling has come through the pages, making me giddy for release day, and the start of the new baseball season. I hope you feel it too!
