A.E. Jones's Blog, page 37

Balancing Act

If you have been following my tweets and FB posts lately you know that I have just finished final proofs on book 5 of my Mind Sweeper Series. And I am so very happy to be done with that part of the process. Sentinel Lost will be released in September, but my job is far from over. Now comes the preparation for release, preorders, as well as marketing and promotion for this book. While I’m preparing for all that, I am also working on my next book.

Being an author is a lot of things. It really is a balancing act. Like plates spinning on sticks. The plates stay suspended on the edge of that stick as long as someone keeps spinning them. And while my publishing plate spins, my author plate turns on the stick, as does my editor plate…well, you get the idea.

As part of this journey, I have to tell myself that sometimes the plates will slow down and wobble like crazy and that is OKAY. No one (that I know of) is able to spin multiple plates the first time they try. Each of us learn at our own speed. When I first started, I was spinning one writer plate on one stick and it was hard. But I learned. Then the editing plate decided to get involved, and so on.

My friends ask me sometimes if I feel overwhelmed with what I am trying to accomplish. And in all honesty, depending on the day and the plate I am spinning, the answer is yes.

But I also know that each step of this process is a learning experience and each spin of the plate is an opportunity which is why I keep this balancing act going. When the plates are spinning in harmony, it’s a magical feeling.

 

 

Reflecting on Nationals

Last week my blog was about my conference hangover and how I was trying to reconnect with the real world. Now that my brain appears to be functioning again, I have had time this past week to reflect on my experience at RWA Nationals this year. And for me, I think that the 2015 Nationals was all about CONNECTIONS.

When I arrived at the airport, I met up with several authors who were traveling on the same flight to New York. And boy did we have a blast at the terminal waiting for our flight. Not sure if people moved away from us or not, but when a group of romance writers get together…the conversations can get a little interesting.

And the fun didn’t stop there. We were stuck on the tarmac for two hours when we landed in LaGuardia, but we took it all in stride. When we finally got off the plane, a woman stopped us and thanked us for entertaining her while we waited!

The entire trip was about connections for me. Meeting new writers and reconnecting with old friends. But the highpoint of the conference was meeting my fellow First Book nominees. We had spent months blogging, tweeting and facebooking about being finalists. And finally meeting them face-to-face was so wonderful. Because here’s the thing…you can be up for an award and that is pretty cool, but the friends you make along the way? That’s what really matters.

At the reception, we “Firsties” spent time together and snapped this awesome picture!

Right to Left: Alyssa Alexander, Natalie Meg Evans, Sonali Dev, AE Jones, Patience Griffin, Clara Kensie, Elia Wnters

 

Conference Hangover

I am back from another great RWA Nationals and I’m suffering from conference hangover. And no, it has nothing to so with alcohol. Conference hangover, at least for me, is the period of time I need to readjust to the real world. The world where people don’t understand when I say I hear voices in my head and they say ‘me too’. Where people don’t have some really awkward thing happen to them and the first thing they think is ‘this would make a good story’. Where people don’t understand the terms POV, TSTL, and head hopping.

Conference hangover is having to let go of the boundless energy of 2000+ people who ultimately strive to do the same thing, whether writing, selling, editing, publishing, promoting, or distributing romance. When you first arrive at conference, the decibels are ear-splitting. I found myself doing the ‘squeal’ on a few occasions when I ran into my writer friends who I had not seen in a long time. And the energy does not wane as the days progress.

Networking, business meetings, workshops, publisher spotlights, book signings, keynote speeches…the activities are endless. And as much as you try, you can’t got to all of them, even if you run from session to session. So you form a plan, or strategy if you will, of what your goals are for Nationals. This year was the first year I went to Nationals as a published author. And I decided to sign at both the literacy signing and the indie book signing. A new, amazing experience for me. I was on the ‘other side’ of the table. It was great to talk to people and hand them my book to read!

And I had the honor of being both a Prism and RITA finalist this year, so the excitement of the award ceremonies also played a fun part in the festivities. For the Prism awards, I won for Best First Book and First and Second place for Mind Sweeper and Shifter Wars in the light paranormal category. So cool!

Finally, Sunday comes along and we collapse like limp dish rags at the airport waiting for our flight home. And in baggage claim, hugs are exchanged and promises to keep in touch are made.

And we head back into the ‘real world’. And the hangover begins. I spent today, doing laundry, sleeping, reading and writing this blog. A day of respite before I head to work tomorrow and start the countdown to the next Nationals…San Diego, here I come!

 

Twas the Night Before Nationals

In lieu of my normal Monday blog, I decided to write a poem in preparation for heading to RWA Nationals tomorrow…I hope you enjoy!

Twas the night before Nationals and all through the land

Writers were frantically making plans;

Shopping, last minute laundry and packing their bags

With clothes, costumes and extra cool swag;

In preparation for their upcoming trip

Where they will travel by train, car, plane, or ship;

To the isle of New York, the city that never sleeps

Which is a good thing since the city will find it hard to keep…

These writers in check.

So much to learn, absorb and explore

With workshops and spotlights and book signings galore;

Camaraderie, networking, and just plain fun

Contracts will be signed and awards will be won;

Before we know it the week will come to a close

And we will return home to write our own prose;

But not without new memories and life-long friends

Who become our cheerleaders and remind us in the end…

It comes down to Romance.

Sunday Teaser…

It’s Sunday afternoon and I am getting ready to head to RWA Nationals on Tuesday! Yahoo!! As part of the celebration in preparation for the RITA awards, I had promised to revisit some of my Mind Sweeper teasers and I have done a poor job of it so far! So today, I am posting another one of my favorite teasers from the book. Check it out!

 

A New Fashion Statement

In one short week I will be on my way to RWA Nationals in New York City. And I have been working through my checklist of things to finish before I go…

• Finish editing book 5

• Order books for book signings

• Finish swag items

• Pick out outfits

• Buy essentials

• And the list goes on…

But one thing that wasn’t on my checklist was hurting my foot. Two weeks ago I landed the wrong way on the side of my foot and it proceeded to swell up and turn black and blue. Off to the urgent care I went to get an x-ray. And as I waited for the results the same words kept going through my mind. I’m leaving for NYC my foot can’t be broken…I’m leaving for NYC my foot can’t be broken.

Then I calmed myself down. My friends asked me what I would do if I had to wear one of those wonderfully fashionable medical boots to the conference. My answer? No problem. I would bedazzle it and maybe even screen print the cover of Mind Sweeper on the side. Because I will not be deterred from enjoying the conference.

The x-rays came back with no break, thank goodness. But my foot has only been happy in tennis shoes so far. So what does that mean? I may be pulling off a new fashion statement at Nationals this year. Almost all of my outfits I am taking are dresses. And I do not have the time or inclination to go out and find new outfits that ‘work with’ tennis shoes. So dresses and tennis shoes are now my modus operandi.

And this is the life of a writer. Something will always surprise you during the writing and editing process. Something unexpected that can derail you or you work around to find a new solution.

If you are heading to RWA Nationals and see a woman walking around in (what I think are) cute dresses with ridiculously casual running shoes introduce yourself. Odds are it’s me!

This Week’s First Blog – The First Call

It’s Friday and that means a new ‘First Post’ from seven of RWA’s RITA First Book Finalists! Today, Patience Griffin is hosting the first call stories. Each of us are relaying our first call when we knew whether it be by agent or publisher. My story is a little different :)

Patience is giving away one of her books to a lucky commenter and there is also a rafflecopter giveaway you can enter at the bottom of her blog for a big giveaway of books which will be chosen at the end of our 7 week extravaganza.

Come check it all out by clicking HERE

Fiesta of Firsts: When I First Knew I Wanted to Write Romance

Welcome to week five in our Fiesta of Firsts celebration and my week to host the soiree. If you are just joining the par-taay, then let me bring you up to speed. Each year RWA has a published writing contest called the RITA’s. Finalists are chosen in different categories. And there is an award for First Book. It’s cool because you can only be nominated for First Book once and it pulls from all the genres- from contemporary, historical, erotic, paranormal, YA, romantic suspense, and inspirational. This year some of the RITA first book finalists decided to get to know each other a little better. And we wanted to share that experience with you. So each week one of us is asking about a ‘First’ and the other nominees are chiming in.

GIVEAWAY ALERT! I will be choosing one lucky winner from those who comment on my blog this week to win a digital copy of Mind Sweeper (or another of my books if you already have Mind Sweeper. I’m all about flexibility).

EVEN BIGGER GIVEWAY ALERT!! At the bottom of the post, you can enter a rafflecopter giveaway that includes a copy of EACH first book and a copy of one of our favorite books. Do the math, my friends, that’s 14 books all for you! So make sure to enter the giveway below!!!

If you have missed the other posts so far, you can check them out here:

Week 1 – Sonali Dev hosted First Romance Crush
Week 2 – Alyssa Alexander hosted First Favorite Scene
Week 3 – Elia Winters hosted First Kiss
Week 4 – Clara Kensie hosted First Page

This Week’s First!

Now on to this week’s first! The question I asked this week was…drumroll…When did you FIRST know you wanted to write romance? Or if you can’t exactly remember the romance part, then when did you first know your wanted to write?

Let the fun begin…

Alyssa Alexander

I had to think long and hard about this one, and I finally realized I don’t have an answer. I don’t remember a time I didn’t want to write–at least, not since elementary school. By middle school I was already trying to write my first book. It was romance, mystery and paranormal all rolled into one. (Ghosts, a love story, a villain–the works!) So writing was never a “choice”, nor was romance as my chosen genre. It was just was. I read romance, I dreamed of romance, and when it came time to put pen to paper, I never thought about what I would write. The result was romance twined with mystery and suspense. I guess I never strayed from those middle school roots!

You can visit Alyssa HERE

Clara Kensie

I’ve always enjoyed writing, but being an author was never something I set out to do as a career. I read a lot, though, and some characters I loved so much that I never wanted the book to end. But all books end, even if they are seven-book series like Harry Potter.

A few years ago, I realized that the only way that I’d never have to say goodbye to a character would be to write a book myself. I could develop characters I love, and write and write and write their stories. I could then spend years with my characters, instead of just a few days. A perfect plan, right? I brainstormed a list of all of my favorite elements to include in my book:

– Young adult – Realistic heroine – not perfect, but relatable – Devoted hero – mysterious and *hot* – Sweet but strong romance – Dark plot – Danger – Scary villain – Huge, jaw-dropping, didn’t-see-it-coming plot twists

I had a vague idea that it would be cool if the characters had secret identities. And that’s as far as it went. I was stuck.

A few weeks later on a cloudy November day, I was pulling out of a parking spot at the grocery store when I was hit with a “what if:” *What if there was a teenage girl who was the only member of her family without a psychic power? And what if they moved around from place to place because they were being hunted by a killer—and that killer had psychic powers too? And what if that girl met a boy…”*

It went on from there. I went home and wrote the story, being sure to include my brainstormed list of favorite elements. It took me only a few weeks to write, but between revising on my own and then with my publisher (Harlequin Teen), and then repeating the process by adding a sequel, I’ve been able to spend years with the characters I love so much. I’m thrilled that others are reading the RUN TO YOU series now, and loving the characters as much as I do.

You can visit Clara HERE

Sonali Dev

While I was a voracious reader growing up, unlike a lot of romance writers, I discovered the romance genre a little late. Funny thing is I always ended up zeroing in on the love stories within the mainstream fiction and literary fiction I was reading. In retrospect, I was searching for the romance genre and I finally found it quite by accident. I was sick and asked the hubby to pick up something for me to read at the library and he brought home Catherine Coulter’s Rosehaven because it was sitting next to the checkout counter. I stayed up all night reading, unable to stop until I was done. Amazingly enough, my first thought was, “Wow! reading this feels exactly like watching a Bollywood film!” And I was hooked. I consumed every romance I could find after that and then wrote a fan fiction style Bollywood Film script based on some romances I had really enjoyed. When I had finished that script I knew that I was going to be writing love stories that meshed together Bollywood films and romance novels. And the rest as they say is backstory.

You can visit Sonali HERE

Elia Winters

I didn’t set out to be a romance novelist. I’d a lot of other genres: sci-fi, fantasy, YA, horror, and general fiction, but none of those books really came together. I’d actually written erotica as a teenager (shhh), little short scenes that graduated from “fade to black” to full-on sex as I grew more comfortable in my erotic writing chops, but I never thought about making that my career. I wanted to write novels, and I didn’t really care what genre they were. It wasn’t until my 10-year anniversary participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) that I decided to write a novel just for me, indulging all my kinks and fantasies. Ironically, when I finished this “just for me” book, I realized that it was the best book I’d written so far, and I wanted to publish it. That book was *Purely Professional,* the book now up for two RITA awards. Of course, publishing this book meant going public with my kink, which was a huge step, and committing (at least for a while) to erotic romance. Now, three books later, I couldn’t be happier with my decision. Romance is a wonderful genre to write, a triumph of my feminist ideas and sex-positive attitude, all wrapped up in a happily ever after.

 You can visit Elia HERE

 Patience Griffin

I fell in love with happily-ever-afters at the same time I fell in love with audiobooks during many long, long hours of commuting. I remember the exact moment when I thought.I want to do this. I want to write stories that end well instead of tragically or open-ended. I had recently listened to Julie Garwood’s book, The Wedding. I couldn’t get enough of the story, so I bought a copy. I was lying on the couch savoring every written word when it hit me-the fiction writing bug. I turned to PhD (my husband) and said, “I can do this. I can write a book.” His response back to me was, “Of course you can.” And as they say, the rest is history.

You can visit Patience HERE

Natalie Meg Evans

I believe it was when I picked up Georgette Heyer’s ‘These Old Shades’ and got lost in a romance set in the late 18th century. I had just moved to London from a small, Midlands town and was lodging with my step-grandmother in the western suburbs. It wasn’t going too well. She, I think, was finding it hard having her home invaded by a willful 18-year-old. I was out of my depth, trying to find work in the big city. Gran had envisaged cosy fireside chats in the evening and I wanted to be out, pursuing my twin passions – being an actress and a nightclub owl. This was the early 1980’s when the London club scene was fizzing! But we did find that we had a love of Georgette Heyer in common, and she had a shelf-full. I’ve always though GH should be prescribed by doctors as an antidote to worry because of her power to transport the reader out of ‘real’ life into a dashing, sensuous world. At the time, I was writing serious, issue-laden stories. Georgette cured me of that! These days I allow reality into my work, but never forget that readers love stories that grip the senses, the emotions and above all, the heart.

You can visit Natalie Meg HERE

AE Jones

I have always wanted to tell stories. As a child I was addicted to TV and would rework the endings of shows in my head to ‘make them better’. My first manuscript was a very sweet, cozy mystery. And then my next manuscript was a mystery that wasn’t as cozy. But still, I wasn’t satisfied. I was a late convert to romances. I picked up my first one about seven years ago and it was like a light bulb went off in my head. The book was Lover Awakened by JR Ward. I wanted to write about relationships. And paranormal. I so love paranormal thanks to Joss Whedon (remember recovering TV addict here). So a paranormal author was born. And since I couldn’t give up my mysteries, I mashed them together. Why the heck not? Let the hero and heroine solve the who-done-it, and get a little somethin’ somethin’ with a side order of fangs and fur! A trifecta of goodness as far as I was concerned.

This Week’s Spotlight: Mind Sweeper

An angel, a demon and a vampire walk into a bar. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but it’s just another day in the life of Kyle McKinley.

Kyle was born with the ability to erase memories, and the inability to keep her opinions to herself. She and her teammates – a vampire who looks like a sexy pirate with fangs, and a Shamat demon with a penchant for Italian pastries – provide supernatural damage control when humans see too much. Today’s problem? A sword-wielding angel and a demon had a supernatural smackdown during happy hour in a Cleveland bar, leaving behind a headless vampire and a dozen human witnesses.

This latest supernatural slip-up is attracting all kinds of attention. So much attention that the police step in, and Kyle has to deal with Joe Dalton, a know-it-all human with the sexiest turquoise eyes she has ever seen. Kyle has no room in her life for yet another human who will treat her like a freak. However, Dalton definitely makes her naughty parts sit up and take notice, and it’s more than mutual. But before they can act on their attraction, they must join forces to solve a dangerous puzzle. And when they uncover the truth, the apocalyptic ripple effect forces Kyle to make a choice. Learn to trust again, or risk losing everyone she cares about, including Dalton.

EXCERPT    AMAZON      iTunes    BN     Kobo

GIVEAWAYS:

1) Leave a comment over the next week (Friday, July 3rd – Thursday July 9th) below telling us what you think about our romance revelations and you will be entered to win a copy of Mind Sweeper (or another book in my series, your choice).

2) RAFFLECOPTER GIVEAWAY! Win a Basket of Books from the First Book Nominees! Enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

It’s July…Let the Celebration Begin!

Yes, I know that today is Thursday for many of us and you are wondering why I am posting my Monday Blog on Thursday.

Well…let me explain why! I have multiple fun reasons…

We are finally in July and I cannot ignore the fact that I will be heading to New York City in a few short weeks for the RWA National Conference. Which includes the RITA Award Ceremony. Gulp! Heck, make that a double gulp! Up to this point I have been keeping myself calm with the idea that I still had time. That the conference was a ways off. Not true anymore, my followers.

So instead of folding up into the fetal position and mumbling to myself, I thought I would gear up for the celebration and bring you all along for the ride!

So how am I celebrating Mind Sweeper’s double RITA nomination?

First, I have a Goodreads Giveaway happening RIGHT NOW. The giveway will continue through most of July, ending on Award Ceremony night. You can win one of three signed copies of Mind Sweeper that I am giving away. Check it out HERE.

Second, if you have been following along, I am participating in the wonderful ‘Fiesta of Firsts’ with the other First Book RITA nominees. Each Friday we are sharing different firsts. Tomorrow is my week to host the party! So I will be posting another blog tomorrow that will stay up all next week as well. So think of today’s blog as your Monday Blog :) Remember that as part of the First Celebration you can win a basket of books too. So come visit my site tomorrow to sign up for more giveways!

Third, I will be digging out some of the original teasers I used for my Mind Sweeper release. To put me and the rest of you in the right frame of mind for the upcoming awards ceremony. Today I am starting with the line that brought the Mind Sweeper series into being. I so love this teaser!

Regardless if I come home from New York with a statue or not, this experience has been amazing. I have already made new friends and I plan on soaking in all that I can in NYC! Stay tuned…

She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not…An Author’s Dilemma

Have I intrigued you? My post today is not about the heroine’s plight of whether she loves the hero or not (even though that would be a fun post). Instead, it is about the relationship an author has with her manuscript. And yes, there are times when I am truly in a ‘loves me not’ state. Currently, book 5 has gone for second edits to my wonderful editor. I sent it to her today, after I had read it…again. Twice in the past week, actually.

And that’s when the ‘not love’ can rear its ugly head. Look at it this way…It’s like spending time with the same person in a small space. After awhile you start to notice their idiosyncrasies that were endearing to you in the beginning, but are now starting to grate on your nerves. And for an author, that is a precarious place to be in because you don’t want to change something in your book just because it’s the tenth time you’ve read it.

When that happens to me, I have to STEP AWAY FROM THE MANUSCRIPT. Even if it’s for a couple of hours. If I don’t, I could do more damage than good. And what makes it even more scary for me is that I write funny. When I’m in that ugly place, NOTHING is funny anymore. The first time you hear a joke you laugh, right? And maybe the next time your hear the same joke…but the fifth time? Right. I have to remember that the funny is STILL funny.

Ultimately, the person picking up the book for the first time is going to read it with fresh eyes. That’s what I keep in mind. Next week, when my editor sends me 2nd edits, I will be able to once again smile, cheer, and cry along with the characters. Because when it comes down to it, the journey to finishing the book is fraught with emotion, but when I pluck the final petal from the flower it will ALWAYS end with ‘she loves me’.