The F#@! BOMB Book Release Facebook Party!

Only a couple more weeks before F#@! BOMB is officially released! You can still pre-order your copy on Amazon.

To celebrate my second novel's debut, I'm hosting a Facebook party on March 30, 6-8 p.m. ET. Anyone is welcome to join!

I participated in two of these parties for the LOVE NOTES anthology and they both went very well. It gave me the chance to meet and interact with readers, and we had a lot of fun. Since I've only released my novels as e-books, I haven't had the opportunity to do in-person book signings/readings, so this is the virtual equivalent.

At my upcoming party, I'll be giving away several prizes to some lucky winners, including my handmade jewelry, an Amazon gift card and free copy of my book. It will also be a chance to hang out, meet some new people and have fun.

So please join me for the FB event! And make sure to check out F#@! BOMB, LOVE NOTES and REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD!

My New Novel: Now Available For Pre-Order On Amazon!

Great news! My second novel, F#@! BOMB is finished and is now available for pre-order on Amazon! It will be out on March 30, so you won't have to wait too long to read it.

I've been working on and off on this book for a couple of years, so it's a little surreal for me knowing it's finished. I have that feeling of, "Okay, now what do I do?" but the easy answer is to ... write another book. I began F#@! BOMB soon after the release of REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD and I hope to jump into another project within the next few weeks.

Meantime, I'm really happy with how F#@! BOMB came out. This novel is a heavier story than BAND GEEK, which was basically a romance. I don't know how readers will respond, but I've gotten some good feedback from my editors. More importantly, I'm proud of my work.

One thing I did with this book that I hadn't done with BAND GEEK is make the entire package look professional. I did hire a graphic designer to create my BAND GEEK cover, but I formatted the text myself... which apparently had mixed results. For F#@! BOMB, I hired someone -- Shane Morgan, whose book THE RIGHT SONG is included in the LOVE NOTES anthology -- to design my cover AND text. She did an amazing job! The cover is below, but when you read the book, you'll see the care that was put into the creation of the chapter headers, page breaks, etc. These are details I hadn't thought about when doing BAND GEEK, but every little thing matters. I'm actually thinking of re-doing BAND GEEK's overall design so I can update it and bring it to F#@! BOMB's level.

I hope people enjoy reading my latest book as much as I enjoyed writing it. Here's a blurb to whet your appetite:

Fatty. Freak. Friendless. Failure. Sadie Abramowitz is used to being alone. The morbidly obese college freshman literally doesn’t fit in anywhere and was constantly the butt of jokes in high school.

So far, life at Cunningham University isn’t much better. Her roommate only communicates in grunts while Sadie’s “dream job” at the school paper has her interviewing her fellow students with questions that practically invite them to insult her.

Things change when she’s assigned a story on Griffin Greenberg, the freshman track star who was one of Sadie’s high school bullies. At first, she’s reluctant to work with the gorgeous Griffin, but soon discovers that he’s not such a bad guy. Plus, he’s been keeping a secret: he’s gay.

As their friendship grows, Griffin challenges Sadie to do something she never thought possible: train for a marathon. Meanwhile, she supports him as he slowly comes to terms with his sexuality. Together, they help each other survive their first year of college – and also learn how to stand strong on their own.

Don't forget to order your copy of F#@! BOMB. Also be sure to check out LOVE NOTES and BAND GEEK, all on Amazon.

LOVE NOTES Guest Blog Post And Exciting Update!

The "official" LOVE NOTES Blog Tour ended over a week ago, but Elaine G. Flores of TV Recapper's Delight was kind enough to let me write a guest post for her site. In it, I share how critiquing soap operas for a living led to me writing REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD. Let me tell you, it felt very strange to be writing about soaps again! She and I had a few discussions about which examples I should use in my piece and I felt as if I were going back in time to my days at SOD.

In other news, I've taken a giant leap and have decided to release my second novel, F@#! BOMB in March! I've hired Shane Morgan, author of THE RIGHT SONG, and one of my fellow LOVE NOTES writers, to design my cover. She created the cover for our anthology and I really like her work, so I knew I could count on her to come up with something cool for my book -- and she has. Her concept is simple, but eye-catching, and captures the spirit of my story. I'm going to have a Facebook cover reveal party on March 4 -- and plan to have the book out by March 16.

A few months ago, I attempted to get another agent for this novel, but ultimately decided to again publish on my own. I'll admit, I didn't put as much work into finding an agent as I did for BAND GEEK -- but my heart wasn't in it. I just want to get my work out there without having to go through a bunch of other people. I found that dealing with this aspect of the business made writing a lot less enjoyable for me. I truly respect agents and editors, and the work they do, but I'm just not sure I fit into that world. If I did, I would've found my place in it by now and would have sold a book in the traditional way. Since I haven't, I'm finding another means to do so.

Meanwhile, I'm very excited and nervous about F@#! BOMB's debut! I've gotten some great feedback on BAND GEEK and hope my readers enjoy this one just as much, if not more. So stay tuned for the book's release -- and check out the LOVE NOTES anthology on Amazon.

LOVE NOTES Romance Novel Anthology: Facebook Party!

LOVE NOTES debuted on Amazon this past Monday! So far, things are going well. We're having steady sales online and we've gotten good feedback from readers. I've always been proud of REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD and am pleased that it's getting new life.

To celebrate the anthology's release, we had a Facebook party. Each author took an hour where we chatted with fans and gave away some prizes. I really enjoyed interacting with the readers, who were very enthusiastic and supportive. We had fun discussions about music, rock stars and dating. I also shared a few excerpts from BAND GEEK and gained some new readers.

A couple of people asked if I'd ever consider writing a supernatural novel. One woman in particular requested that I write something about vampires or fallen angels. I love vampire stories, but I don't see myself writing one in the near future. I enjoy writing realistic fiction and there are already many great supernatural series available. If I do a supernatural book, it would have to be something way out of the box... and so far, I haven't come up with a storyline good enough to put on paper. Hopefully, these readers will still enjoy my more realistic take on the world.

Because this event went so well, we are hosting another Facebook party: The LOVE NOTES Valentine's Bash. This one is on Saturday, February 14, 12-4 ET, so you can check in before enjoying your V-day plans. This time, we'll be focusing on the romance portion of our books. Again, we'll be sharing excerpts, chatting with readers and will be giving away prizes, so join us for some fun!

The LOVE NOTES Tour Continues! Plus, Life Imitating Book

The LOVE NOTES tour is still going strong -- and will be until the end of the month! Today REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD is featured on the blogs Teen Hoot Books and Book Groupies. You can read all about LOVE NOTES on these sites and can pre-order it at Amazon! Thanks again to the bloggers for hosting and to fellow authors Kira Adams (PIECES OF ME), Breigh Forstner (STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART) and Shane Morgan (THE RIGHT SONG). Make sure you check into the tour and get the chance to win some cool freebies!

In other news, I'm still putting the finishing touches on my second novel. I'd really like to get it out there by March. I just want this one to be great, even better than the first.

What's funny is that I feel as if I've stepped into the life of my latest novel's narrator, Sadie. Overweight, out-of-shape Sadie makes a life-changing decision when she decides to walk a marathon -- and spends the rest of her freshman year of college training for this event.

Well, for the past year, I've been walking, too. In 2014, I completed my goal of walking 1000 miles (1058 altogether). This October, I'll be participating in Avon's 39.3 mile Walk To End Breast Cancer.

Walking may not seem like a hard-core activity, but let me tell you, training to walk long distances takes work. Over the last year I went from barely being able to walk a mile without stopping to walking 7, 8, 9. 10 miles. This past weekend, my husband and I actually did 12 miles and are working our way up to longer and longer workouts in preparation for the event. I'm hoping to actually run a marathon in the future, but for now, I'll take walking.

The other day a friend commented that I'm following in my character's footsteps and you know what? Sadie has inspired me. There have been days when I haven't felt like getting out and doing those 5 miles I'm scheduled to do, but I thought of Sadie's training schedule and went for it. Maybe it's silly to draw inspiration from a character I wrote, but hey, it works for me, LOL!

I hope to have Sadie's full story out this spring so stay tuned. Meantime, enjoy LOVE NOTES, the perfect read for Valentine's Day.

LOVE NOTES Blog Tour In Progress!

Our Book Blitz Blog Tour for LOVE NOTES kicked off this week! What's really great is that a few dozen book blogs have agreed to host us and promote our novels REVENGE OF A BAND GEEK GONE BAD, THE RIGHT SONG (Shane Morgan), PIECES OF ME (Kira Adams) and STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART (Breigh Forstner). Make sure you check out the blogs so you can learn more about our novels and sign up for some fantastic prizes! The full list of blogs can be found at Itching For Books.

Because there are so many blogs involved, we're splitting the tour between the four books and are featuring a different work each day. Today is BAND GEEK's day and you can read more about it (and the rest of LOVE NOTES) on four blogs:

Desert Rose Reviews

Life, Books And More

Feed Me In Books

Cosying Up With Books

For my last blog tour, I wrote a few guest posts about writing YA fiction. This time, I went with a few fun "list" posts: there's a playlist to go along with the novel, detailed descriptions of the major characters and a list of "Easter eggs" within the book. Take a look because this will only add to your reading experience.

Thank you to all the blogs who are participating in our tour! Your help is much appreciated. And be sure to check out our boxed set, LOVE NOTES!