Lilly Avalon's Blog, page 9

Trick-or-Treat Reads Book Blog Hop #TrickOrTreatReads 2017

Hello all!

I'm participating in the Trick-or-Treat Book Blog Hop hosted by Patricia Lynne! The point of the hop is to go around to different blogs and get free books from authors--so it's like book candy. Isn't that super awesome?!

I'm offering Resist , an erotica novella. You can download it for FREE via Smashwords with a coupon code (located underneath the cover above the Goodreads link). This code will be good for TODAY ONLY.



Coupon Code for Resist: AH48W
Add to your Goodreads shelf
| Smashwords |

Be sure to check out the rest of the blogs on this hop and pick up your bookish candy treats!
');

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Blue Water Author Event 2017 Pictures and Stuff

Hello lovelies!

This post was supposed to be written and posted last month... but then I completely got distracted and forgot to finish it! Oops...

Anyways...

Back in June I went to my second author event, the Blue Water Author Event in Port Huron, Michigan. I wasn't as anxious as I was with the first one, and I actually got a little bit more sleep the night before. It was a great day! I sold several books, had great conversations and lots of laughs, and I ended up meeting a couple people who have my books in their Kindles. Pretty cool!

Here are all the pictures:
Me in the morning before we left Kyle and myself just before driving up the Michigan The convention center! Me at my table :) Full view of my table and my handsome hubby The swag I collected from my small trips around the room
I had a lovely time and I'm considering going next year as well. Unfortunately I can't make any immediate 2018 author event plans as my husband and I are trying to figure out vacations and a change in our housing situation (we're looking into buying a house in the next year). I'd hate to sign up for one only to cancel. I had to cancel the Legendary Lexington Author Event that happened last month because of a conflict with my husband's work schedule and I lost my table fee because of it. Don't really want to have to do that again if it can be prevented.

Anyways, hope you enjoy the pictures! I wish I had more to say this time around, but I'm drawing a blank. It was a whirlwind of fun, though!! :)

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The return of Irresistibly Yours and a shiny new cover!

Hello lovelies!

I don't know if you remember or not, but I started a compilation of short erotica stories called Irresistibly Yours on Wattpad back in 2015 a couple months before releasing Unexpected . I published one story in 3 parts, expecting to write another short story in the next few months. I never finished another short story.

A few months ago, I pulled up that long lost second short story and decided it was time to rework it into something good so I had a new story to share on Wattpad. I played around with it a bit, adding some new words, changing around others, but it didn't feel right. So I set it aside as something to tweak in my mind, which I did.

I'm super happy to announce that Irresistibly Yours will be returning in the next couple months!

The next story, titled Breaking the Rules , is nearly done. After I read through it a couple times and give it some edits and revisions, I'll decide on when it's going live. I'll probably divide it into 3 parts again like the first story (unless it ends up being longer, then I'll do 4) and space them out over a week or two.

Cover Change!
Also? I redesigned the cover! The original one was done on a whim with an old photo program I used to use, so it wasn't that pretty. It was mainly there as a placeholder until I could get a better one designed. I decided the other day to play around on PicMonkey, my new go-to photo program for my teasers and more. I managed to put together a much prettier design than before! It isn't finalized (I don't think it's centered right), but it's fairly close to what the official cover will be at a later date.

OLD COVER:
NEW COVER:
I'm very in LOVE with it, especially since the author font is a better match to the one I use on my other books. What do you think??

So, go take a look at the first story on Wattpad to prepare yourself for story #2, which features a character from story #1 getting her HEA. I'll keep you guys in the know on when Breaking the Rules will be coming, along with a short synopsis, which I'll be writing up soon.

Later, lovelies!

Glass City Author Event 2016 Pictures and Stuff

Hello lovelies!

I'm long overdue for this post... don't know why I never got around to sharing it. The end of 2016 was kind of whirlwind because Kyle and I got engaged, we went to the Glass City Author Event, went on vacation, then the holidays rolled around... then in the beginning of 2017 we eloped. Heh... so, yeah, I was a bit distracted! Oops! But better late than never, right??

The first annual Glass City Author Event was on October 8th 2016 in Toledo, Ohio. Kyle and I had to get up early to get there early to set up my table. I was nervous since it was my very first author event, not just as an author, but ever. I hadn't even gone to one as a reader! And given the fact that I have anxiety, that kinda made it a teensy bit more intimidating. Fortunately for me, Kyle was amazing and helped me out immensely. He was my salesman. And my bestie since Kindergarten, Stephanie came by and had me officially sign her copies of my books.

I met a bunch of authors, bloggers, readers, editors, PAs... just so many new people. It was great to connect and to make new friends. I even met someone who had read a few of my books! I sold several copies of books, and had a bunch of people pick up swag for themselves and giveaways and to remind them to buy my ebooks.

All in all it was a really amazing day. It kinda drained me a bit since it was so overwhelmingly wonderful to be in the midst of all the bookishness and there was so much to take in!

Here are photos from the event...

Me with (my then fiancé) Kyle at my table
Kyle sitting at the table in front of all my books, swag, and goodies
In the background is the large inflatable penis that everyone was signing. My signature is on there, too.
View from my seat at the table!
I'll be attending the 2nd annual Glass City Author Event on October 28th this year, so if you're interested, be sure to buy your tickets (VIP and general admission) so I can see you there!

Support Lilly Avalon on Patreon

Hello lovelies!

As I mentioned in my last post, I started a Patreon account. For those unfamiliar with Patreon, let me explain what it is.

Patreon is a website where creators like artists and writers are supported by their fans/friends. The creators post content (drawings, excerpts from writing, etc) and then Patrons (their fans/friends) pay a certain amount per month to view this content. It's really a brilliant thing to be able to support a creative friend in their endeavor to become successful.

I decided to get one going this spring and see what happens. I haven't had much of a chance to post as many things as I'd like to, but I'm working on getting more content available. As of right now I have several things for the monthly $1 and $2 levels, and a handful of things for the rest. It took awhile for me to work out the details of what I have to offer for which level, but I think I've finally gotten that figured out.

Are you interested in what I'm offering on there? Well, here's a list of all the tiers and what you can get if you sign up to be my Patron:

$1 level • Monthly updates, early cover reveals, poems, and tiny teasers from a WIP
$2 level• Essays on writing, authoring, and randomness
$3 level• Longer snippets from my fiction WIP
$4 level• Character/town naming and page long excerpts from a WIP
$5 level • Full unedited chapter from a WIP and occasional swag envelopes
$6 level• A monthly positive note, 25% off Etsy code to my shop
$8 level• Monthly Q&As and 25% off PA work through Sunrise Author Services
$10 level• Named in acknowledgements and an occasional bubble mailer of swag
Every level also includes the perks of the levels under it. So if you choose to do the $3 level, you'll also receive everything from the $1 and $2 levels, too. If you'd like to know more details of what I'm sharing on there, please take a look at this page.

That's all for today! I'll be sharing more stuff all through July on the blog, including pictures from the Glass City Author Event and the Blue Water Author Event I went to last weekend. Plus, other random news.

Don't forget to make sure you're subscribed to my newsletter because there's a new one coming out this weekend that includes a giveaway!

The World of Lilly Avalon

Hello lovelies!

How are you? I've missed you bunches! <3 <3 <3 As promised, this is a long overdue blog post coming your way. I'll give you an overview of a few things happening, then I'll go into detail on them in future posts this month and throughout the summer.

As you can see, I got the new blog design! Isn't it gorgeous? I think it fits in well with my style. It's easy for me to manage as well, which is a bonus. The old style just wasn't working for me anymore. It was nice, and I did like it, but I needed a change.

In my last post, I shared my real name and a picture of myself. Much has happened since then. For starters, I'm now married! Kyle and I tied the knot at the courthouse on January 13th this year. Then we moved to a new apartment the beginning of February and have been trying to organize all our stuff in the limited space that we have. That's been... quite the nightmare. Ha! But we're getting there. We're actually hoping to get a house in the near future (1-2 years), so that'll solve the problem fast.

As far as my writing goes, it's been slow. Minimal. I dabbled with a winter novella end of last year and had to set it aside because I didn't have enough free time to work out the kinks. I published a poetry compilation under my married name in April. And recently I've decided a story idea from a few years ago should be my next project. I don't want to jinx it because I haven't had the chance to write out a detailed outline (which this one definitely needs), but I'm pretty sure this one will be my next one. I'm hoping to have more information on it soon.

I also started a Patreon and a Ko-Fi for myself. On the Patreon, there are several tiers for patrons to choose from which include all sorts of goodies from me from current and past writing, as well as tips and positive notes. Some tiers also include discounts on my personal assistant services through Sunrise Author Services and my Etsy shop. Also, a few include occasional swag and paperbacks as a bonus.

I'll be attending the Blue Water Author Event in Port Huron, Michigan on June 24th this month, so I'll definitely be sharing pictures and fun stuff from that. I also want to share stuff from the Glass City Author Event that I attended last October (which I'll be attending this coming October, too). So be sure to look out for that post!

Anyways, that's the overview of the latest with Lilly. I hope you all are doing well and I look forward to chatting with you guys more soon!

It's been too long since I last blogged...

Hello lovelies!

I am just now realizing that I haven't blogged since last September. How is that even possible??? All I know is I'm long overdue for an update on here, which I will have for you soon. I'm in the process of updating the blog design and don't want to have "the latest" end up being hard to read because there are random changes happening when you click on it.

I'm hoping to get the new template installed soon and then you'll be able to find out ALL THE THINGS Lilly Avalon.

In the meantime, you all take care and have a wonderful day!!

I would like to present... the real Lilly Avalon

Hello Lovelies!

I have an announcement to make. It's one that has taken me a long time to tell this little secret. There were reasons I held off, lots of them, but it's time to tell it like it is.

As most of you know already, Lilly Avalon is my pen name, or pseudonym. It's not my real name. I kept my real name disclosed for safety's sake, which I will elaborate on a little bit below.

So... here's the big reveal... my real name is Jessica Sankiewicz. Yeah, that Jessica Sankiewicz. The author of If Only We and Not Until Tonight and the book blogger behind Thoughts At One In The Morning . Here's a picture of me in case you're curious:


I took this one when I turned 31, which was a little over a month ago. And yes, I am really a mermaid.

Now, you're probably wondering why I've kept it a secret all this time. Well, I'll tell you. It all started when I published If Only We . I wanted to do more, to write more, but I didn't want to censor myself or mix clean stories with sexy ones. That's where Lilly Avalon came in, a pen name I could do anything with. So I did. And it's turned into so much more for me than I ever imagined. More stories, more friends, more fans, more readers, more everything... and I love it!

Since I'll be attending the Glass City Author Event as Lilly Avalon, I felt it necessary for me to post about it here first. There will be plenty of photos taken there of the real me, and since the real me as Jessica Sankiewicz is shown in my profile picture on that author platform, I thought I'd save people the speculation of whether they've seen me before or not. Lol.

If you want to go check out me as Jessica, here are some links you can click on:

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Anyways, that's about it for now! A good friend of mine is going to be posting an interview next week featuring me as Lilly where I discuss this real name/pen name thing a little more. I'll link everyone up on that post when it goes live next week on my Twitter and Facebook.

In the meantime, I'll talk to you lovelies later! *muah*

A long awaited blog post about everything that's been happening in the Lilly Avalon world

Hello Lovelies!

I have been absent for way way way too long and I have so much stuff to fill you in on it's crazy! I'm going to break everything down into sections so that I don't forget anything important.

All books are off Kindle Unlimited
I had the above 5 books available only on Kindle Unlimited for 3 months as a test. I wanted to see if KU really has its advantages, and while it was nice to run sales on each of the books to give my readers discounts and
Read more »

Decisions on Sequels + Paperback Copies + Plans for the rest of 2016

Hello my lovelies!

It's been a little while since I've blogged, but it's stuff I've been needing to tell you guys about. There are some changes and some news... so here we go!

Decisions on Sequels After I wrote Here All Along , my first published story, a friend who read it said how much she would love to read more about Adrian and Hazel. When others voiced the same thing, it got me to thinking about what could happen next for them and I came up with an idea for a sequel. The same thing happened with More Than Words . I put the sequels up on on Goodreads and had plans to get to them soon.

However, every time I would sit down to outline, the stories weren't working the way I wanted them to. Some of it would be good, fun, and amusing, but as far as the plot goes, it was falling apart. I felt like each story was being forced. The ideas themselves weren't forced, but the conflict was. Since I have a strong dislike for forced conflict, it made me wonder whether the stories should even be written.

So, after much deliberation, I've decided that I will not be writing sequels to Here All Along or More Than Words . Both of the sequels (titled Here We Are and More Than Anything ) have been removed from Goodreads.

This doesn't mean that I'm never going to write about the characters in these stories again. Some of the brainstorming I did for sequels was great. I've been considering writing short stories about them at some point, so there's a chance you'll still get the opportunity to read more about Adrian, Hazel, Dana, and Landon, just not in novella/novel form.

As far as the Resist series goes, those plans are up in the air as well. I've been going over ideas for what happens next, but still haven't decided where to go. I'm definitely not done with Allegra and Devlin (not by a long shot!), so you will see something, even if it's a short story.

Paperback CopiesSince the Glass City Author Event is coming soon (this October on the 8th!), I need to get paperback copies of my books to have at my table (since the only one I have is Unexpected ). Right now, I'm saving up the money to get them all done. The original plan was to get Resist , Longing , and Can't Stay Away in paperback. I've now added one more: a combination of More Than Words and Here All Along . Since the two of them alone are too short to be individual paperbacks, I figured I might as well just put them both together. That way I can have ALL of my books available in paperback form, which is pretty flippin' sweet. The combination book of MTW and HAA will have the cover of More Than Words , with an added note on the cover that Here All Along is included.

I'm crossing my fingers that I can have all of these done by the end of the summer. I definitely need to get them by the beginning of September to have physical copies in my hands in time for the event. So I will keep you posted on this in case you're interested in getting copies of one or more of the above in paperback.

Plans for the rest of 2016Ahhh... 2016. I started the year with all these publishing plans in mind. I wanted to write a short story or two, get started on the sequels I mentioned above and publish one, and then get another story written and published either end of the year or early 2017. I tend to aim higher than I'm capable of, so I was completely fine with taking my time and seeing what I can do.

The beginning of this year hasn't exactly gone as expected. Nothing major, just a few bumps in the road and issues with moving, adjusting finances... but the biggest roadblock has been me. I've been struggling with a little bit of depression. My motivation has kind of slowed down. I haven't written since publishing Can't Stay Away . Well, I haven't taken the time to sit down and write for even 5 minutes. I have made notes for stories in my phone, but that's it.

It's a major bummer because I LOVE WRITING and I hate that I haven't been able to write. I've been slowly starting to feel better, though. I'm convincing myself to set aside 10-15 minutes a day to write, even if it's just free writing. Hopefully that'll get me back into the groove again.

So, my former plan for 2016 has changed to aiming for a winter themed novella by the end of the year. Cross your fingers with me that I can do this!

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Well, that's all for now, my dears. Hope everything is going well for you! Take care! <3