Thursday, October 31, 2013

The Faerie War Book Launch

Yay! I've finally done it! Had a REAL-LIFE book launch! Those of you who follow my Facebook page may have already seen these photos, but now that the blog tour's over, I thought I should post them here too.

The event took place on Saturday Oct 26th at Maris Stella school in Durban. I roped in my husband and a few friends to help me set everything up, and my mom did most of the yummy catering. Approximately 70 people attended, including a group of girls from the school I used to teach at. It was incredibly special to have them there, as they were the ones who first read my book before it was even in printed form.

Unpacking boxes of books

Tying up trilogy packs with ribbon

Here's my "signing table" by the piano :-) (Pretty flowers!)




Button badges

Super cool "guardian in training" T-shirts!

Yeah, that would be me, happy to be surrounded by my gorgeous print books!

The prize pack for the lucky draw. Four books plus some other stuff.

Hey look! I'm signing a book! (Totally not posed ;-) )


And ... my first fans have arrived :-)


My mom did all the delicious catering

Faerie cupcakes

A group of girls came from the school I used to teach at! Yay!



Mini prize packs for the quiz

Signing a book for real this time ;-)

And that would be me talking in front of everyone (totally not freaking out at all. BREATHE!)

One of the winners of a mini prize pack

Winner of the lucky draw prize pack

It was a fantastic morning :-) I had fun, and I'm so glad I did this. It was a lot of effort to organize, though, so it's not something I'll be doing for every book I release. Maybe for every complete series!

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WHAT'S NEXT?

Now that The Faerie War release celebrations are over (and all three of my books are currently on Amazon bestseller lists. Woohoo!), it's time to get on with the next project.

NaNoWriMo!

Which is starting TOMORROW! And I have no plan written down yet because all I've been doing since the book launch finished is formatting for Morgan Media. So ... bring on the pantsing!


Tuesday, October 22, 2013

The Faerie War Blog Tour


Thank you SOOO much to everyone who helped spread the word yesterday about The Faerie War's release! Here's what's happening over the next week. Please feel free to stop by any post that interests you and say hi!

Blog Tour Schedule

Tues 22 Oct
SS Book Fanatics ~ Promo Post
Buried in Books ~ Review

Wed 23 Oct
Queendsheena ~ Review
In Between ~ Review
Elizabeth Delano Rosa - Interview

Thurs 24 Oct
Gwen Gardner ~ Creepy Hollow Playlist

Fri 25 Oct
Jeanz Book ReadnReview ~ Interview | Series Spotlight

Mon 28 Oct
Clare Dugmore ~ Saying Goodby to a Series

Tues 29 Oct

Wed 30 Oct
Fabulosity Reads ~ Interview

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And don't forget the giveaway!
Signed Creepy Hollow book, Creepy Hollow jewelry, 
and loads of ebooks from awesome YA authors!


Thank you to all the generous authors who donated ebooks for this giveaway


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Monday, October 21, 2013

You can finally read the end of Violet's story - THE FAERIE WAR is here!



It's party time!!! 
My third book baby is finally here!

Two and a half years ago, while taking a break from the loooong novel I'd finally finished writing, the words 'creepy hollow' popped into my head. From those two words, a magical world and three novels have been created. I'm SOOOO excited (and a little sad) that the finale to Violet's story is finally here. I hope you love it!



I put together eight teaser images which are being displayed on various blogs today. If you'd like to see them, you can visit the following fabulous bloggers who are totally awesome-sauce and offered to help me share the word today! (If you want to share any of the images on Facebook, Twitter, etc. please go right ahead!)


And what's a release day party without stuff to
GIVE AWAY?!


Thank you to all the generous authors who donated ebooks for this giveaway


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thursday, October 17, 2013

I'm a #NaNoWriMo Virgin

National Novel Writing Month

I've never done NaNoWriMo before. For the past four Novembers, I've been a teacher, and with November being the second-to-last month before the school year ends, it's one of the most insanely busy months of the year!

But THIS YEAR, I should finally have time to participate. Indeed, as a full-time writer, 50,000 words in one month should be a piece of cake! Although ... I've recently finished writing a 90,000 word novel, and I'll be concluding the blog tour promotions for it on the 29th of October, so it's possible I'll enter November completely exhausted ...

Nevertheless, I've signed up and I'm ready to go! (Sort of. I've been planning this contemporary romance story in my head since a plane flight more than two years ago, but I haven't written down an ACTUAL plan/plot yet. Hello, pantsing!!)

If you're doing NaNo this year and want to add me as your writing buddy, you can find me here.

Oh, and have you seen the writing project Grammarly is undertaking this year?


"We’re accepting submissions through October 25, 2013 from writers at all levels who would like to contribute to a community-written novel. Signing up with your email address will add you to the queue of authors planning to help write the novel, and Grammarly will notify you when it is your turn to contribute up to 800 words to your assigned chapter."

What do you think? Is that something you'd like to take part in?
Find out more here.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

The Creepy Hollow Series: Together at Last

Indie Life is a monthly feature hosted by the fabulous Indelibles where we get to share something related to indie writing life.

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Guess what I'm celebrating this month? The completion of my very first series! Yaaaaay! On October 21st, all three of my books will be out in the published world. Whooopeeeee!

So what does that mean for me as an indie author? More freedom! No publisher telling me I have to write in the same genre because that's the way they branded me. I can go whichever way I want now. And that's what I plan to do!

For now, I'd like to introduce you to the Creepy Hollow series, finally able to chill together on a couch/shelve instead of a computer folder :-)



Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Frannie's Connections (A Guest Post from Authors Gwen Gardner and Angela Brown)

Gwen and Angela are taking over today!
(Scroll down to the bottom for my IWSG post)

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We over at Partners in ParanormYA really enjoy interacting with our characters, and the characters from our books enjoy crossover interaction with each other as well. Our characters are very strong-willed and quite capable of taking over the show. They have their own opinions, likes and dislikes. So sometimes, we just have to let them take over the stage…

“Franny Bishop here. I appear in both Givin’ Up The Ghost and A Guilty Ghost Surprised, as well as the Afterlife series which comes out next year. If you’ve read any of the books, you’ll know that Indigo is always worried about my connections. You know a nineteenth century ghost madam is bound to have connections. I was quite, erm, social, both in life and after. I’m still in my youth, relatively speaking. I’m 125 years old, but that’s an infant compared to some of the folks I know.

Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yes. About my connections. I’m very active in the spirit community, so of course I know a lot of ghosts and such. Some are--were--very good people. So when Indigo needed protection for Bryan (in A Guilty Ghost Surprised), I called in a few favors. A group of watchers were called for. Watchers are spirits, of course, but they did double duty as nurses during Victorian times. They are more evolved than regular spirits. The strength of their love lends them powers that keep the grim away.

Of course, the grim includes unnatural beings like that dratted soul collector who’s after Indigo. But Indigo has her own sort of power, she just hasn’t realized it yet. But Bryan, he’s just an innocent little spirit soul who needs looking after, so when that soul-sucking shadow threatened him, I called in the best people for the job.”

“The watchers? I am familiar with them. Busybodies, all of them,” said a sarcastic voice. The former Father Quanon (of Neverlove fame), now known only as Q, the new Devourer from They All Fall Down, steps up to the stage.

Franny narrows her eyes at him. “You dare show your face here after what you did to Tegra? What you tried to do to Abby and Basil?”

“Come now, Franny. You know I didn’t really do those things. It’s just a part I play as the star of They All Fall Down.”

“The star? Now I’ve heard it all. Abby and Basil are the stars, not you…”

“So you do admit it’s just a part I play…” Q countered.

“I’m admitting nothing.” Franny's cheeks flamed. “All I know is that when trouble shadow jumps into town, you’re too often behind it.”

“You do look lovely with your eyes blazing like that,” said Q. “You’re quite attractive for a 125-year old.” He looks her up and down. “If only you’d lose that Victorian get-up…I wouldn’t mind connecting with you, at all. Why don’t you come on over to my place? Say, around eleven?”

The stage explodes with Watchers. Q backs into the shadows and shadow jumps away…

If you liked this little bit of character interaction, check out the books:


Indigo Eady and gang are back with a  feather and a Chance setting off another twisting-turning investigation to bring a cold case, and loved ones, closure at last.


Free of their duties as Cleanser and Harvestor, Abby and Basil try to move on with their lives. But some secrets remain. And what is done in the dark won’t be good when it comes to light.
TAFD buy links: Amazon and Barnes & Noble





Gwen Gardner and Angela Brown - YA paranormal authors embarking on the adventure of a lifetime. Share with us as we take the Indie journey to bring our works to the world. Buckle up! There'll be mystery, mayhem, action and emotional roller coasters...oh, and a few things that go bump in the night.
Hauntings are scary but we love interaction:


And don’t forget about the giveaway!


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This part of today's blog post is brought to you by the Insecure Writer's Support Group, an online group where writers can express doubts and concerns, and those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance.


My insecurity today?
A few hours ago, I uploaded ebook versions of the completed The Faerie War, entered all the email addresses of people who've signed up to post reviews, and clicked SEND!
EEEEEEEK!
So now I wait. Anxiously. Wondering what people are thinking of the conclusion to Violet's story...