Just Chatting

Today's blog is more of a "Chatty Cathy" item about all the news that's fit (or unfit) to print! There's a heck of a lot going on, too!

While I'm awaiting word from the Acquisitions Committee about my cozy mystery, Whacked!, (and please make it good news!) I'm frantically writing another mystery as part of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). In order to win, I only have to write 50,000 words during the month of November (are you completely insane?) which will nicely finish off the first draft of the book. Assuming I can do that.

Not only am I writing serious chunks of new material each evening, I'm also a sponsoring author for Night Owl's Autumn Harvest Web Hunt. I'm giving away a gorgeous heart necklace to one lucky entrant, but there are dozens of other great prizes so be sure to join the hunt!

And if you need more contests to enter and blogs to read, you can join me and my fellow Wild Rose Press Authors for our Wilder Roses blog tour. We will be blogging on holiday themes starting November 24. Each Wednesday, we'll post new blogs with participating authors, for the following dates and themes:
November 24 ~ Our holiday "To Be Read" Books
December 1 ~ Favorite holiday recipes
December 8 ~ Favorite holiday stories or movies
December 15 ~ Favorite holiday tradition

I'm giving away a soothing herbal bath kit to a randomly selected person who leaves comments on my blog, so be sure to stay tuned! The more comments you make, the more "entries" this will make to the bucket of names and the higher your chances are of winning. The runners-up will also be randomly selected and will receive my ebook, I Bid One American.

And speaking of ebooks, for the holiday season, I'm offering a free traditional ghost story. It's a short story I wrote on Halloween to limber up for NaNoWriMo and if you like spooky short stories, you may enjoy it. It's called Silence is Concurrence and you can click on the previous link or download it from the freebies section on my website.

My paranormal romance, Vampire Protector, is already available as a paperback from my publisher, The Wild Rose Press, or as a pre-order from Amazon.com. The ebook version will be available soon, including on the Kindle. I'm really excited about this book and hope folks enjoy it. There's nothing like a good vampire story, complete with a haunted house and a mystery that may claim the lives of Gwen and her vampire protector.

I don't have a release date, yet, for the next historical romantic mystery in the Archer family series, The Necklace. However, I'm hoping it will be released in late November or December. The cover is already up on Highland Press's Coming Soon page, so it shouldn't be too long to wait! They did an absolutely fabulous job on the cover. I really love it.

Finally, I wanted to mention that I've started another brief series of blogs on my favorite topic of characterization. The blogs are featured on ...Voices of the Heart, which is another blog I participate in. In addition, I'm being featured on a variety of other blogs and book review sites, so be sure to watch the calendar of events on the right side of this blog. Busy, busy, busy.

On my blog, interspersed with interviews from other interesting authors and information about what I'm up to, I plan to begin a small series on tips for authors who are just starting out. I'll include things I've learned along the way, grammar, the mechanics of writing, links to other Internet sources of information on writing, and I'll bust a few common myths. With luck, writers and readers alike will find things of interest to them.

So sit back and enjoy the holiday season...and grab a good spooky story to read in front of the fire! You deserve a few harmless shivers!

Amy