Category Archives: Publishing

Cover Reveal for A Lush Betrayed Novel by Selena Laurence

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All you romance readers out there!

Selena is doing it again. She’s kicking off the first of her Lush series with a pre-read.

Join Selena Laurence and lots of friends for an exclusive pre-read of A Lush Betrayal from February 17-23. Sign up by commenting with your email address on the below Facebook page before Feb. 17th and you will receive a free advance copy of the book. Then join us online on Facebook, as we read, discuss and win prizes. There will be guest authors stopping by, blogger hostesses and lots of mancandy, so make sure to be here!
Here’s the location of that FB event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/580223195403003/
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Thanks so much everyone!
xoxo,
Selena Laurence
As Lush As It Gets (Lush #1) | February 2014
Buried (Hiding From Love #3) | April 2014

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up.

So, now to my newest release, A New Start, A Gulliver Station novel.

Several other e-tailers now have it out. It’s the first of a 4 book series about life on a space station. Hope you like it.

Blog Hop: My Writing

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What’s a blog hop you ask? It’s a journey for the reader from blog to blog. As the reader, you get to see what other authors are writing. For us authors, it’s a chance to talk about our work.

I volunteered to be in this blog hop as Power Writing Hour is a writing group I belong to and I wanted to support all of these wonderful authors and their work. I was invited to participate by Brianna Soloski. You can check out her post for this blog hop here: http://girlseeksplace.wordpress.com/2014/01/27/writing-whats-my-process/

So what am I working on? I’m editing and publishing my very first ever series called Gulliver Station. I’m publishing the first in the series, A New Start, right now! I’ll be putting out the 3 other books in the series every other month, March, May and July. The series is about the space station. Gulliver station is a chance for a fresh start. The colonists can build their own society but not everyone wants a society free from crime. Slowly, the corrupt few succeed and the station becomes a pit of corruption in the government and misery for the majority of the station residents.  A few begin the fight to reclaim the station. Can they turn around the tide of misery? The book, A New Start, is the beginning of the saga. Gulliver Station is brand new and being populated primarily with Old Earth Irish.  Fergus Boylan, the Provisional Station Manager, wants to leave the old, corrupt Ireland behind and make station life fair for all of its residents.  Conway Gillespie sees a chance to start his own crime family and rule the station like his old boss on Earth.  The new residents want a fresh start, free from corruption and violence, that’s why they volunteered to colonize the station.  Who will win this tug of wills?

How does my work differ from others in the SciFi genre? Of course it’s different just because it came from my head. Not being flippant here. While I’ve read great SciFi for decades, my stories have my own point of view and voice.

Why do I write what I do? I love SciFi and Fantasy and want to contribute to that body of work. I don’t always write that though. Sometimes I write stories set in the here and now, like my book Recall.

How does my writing process work? I’m an outliner. That doesn’t necessarily mean that I stick to the outline though. If a better ending comes up, or I get an idea for additional scenes, I’ll use them. I usually write during the afternoon when the hubby is napping but I’ve written in coffee shops, in the morning, or even late at night if an idea strikes me. Ideas come from everywhere. I did a story once that came to me because I saw an exit sign for a road named Devil Dog Road.

Many thanks to Jamie Raintree (http://jamieraintree.com/why-i-write-for-women) and E.W. Gibson (http://ewgibson.me/2014/01/13/link-by-link-chain-by-chain/) for starting the blog hop. Look for Aimie Trumbly Runyan at http://aimiekrunyan.wordpress.com/ for next week’s hop. Here’s a little bit about her.

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Aimie is a historical fiction writer from Black Forest, Colorado. She fell in love with the French and Francophone cultures at an early age and has found a way to express and explore her passion through writing. She has taught French and English for more than a decade. Beyond writing, Aimie loves travel, sewing, reading, hiking, baking, and being outdoors. She has two adorable young children, an amazingly supportive husband, and a very neurotic dog named Pippin.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up. http://conniesrandomthoughts.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8c24bb15bdf9245512f722298&id=0a097feea0  Special this month. Sign up for the newsletter and I give you a code to get the first book of the Gulliver Station Series, A New Start, free. All I ask for is a review if you like the book.

I have an in depth interview on my Smashwords Author page. You can read it here: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/conniecockrell  Don’t see information about me you’d like to know? Leave me your question in my comments and I’ll try to answer it.

Links to Christmas Tales will lead you to my author page on each site where my other published work is available:

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/christmas-tales/id761282885?mt=11

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Tales-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1494200570/ref=la_B009O6199C_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385963121&sr=1-4

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/christmas-tales-connie-cockrell/1117497310?ean=9781494200572

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/christmas-tales-3

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379010

What’s New?

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I’m pretty excited. My new book, A New Start, the first book of my Gulliver Station series is in the hands of my line editor (my hubby)! I’ve finished my cover. See it here.

Cover of the first book in the Gulliver Station series.

Cover of the first book in the Gulliver Station series.

Once the story is finished with the line editor I’ll be formatting it and putting it up on Amazon, Nook, everywhere. I’m still shooting for the end of the month. Want a free copy to review? Sign up for my newsletter. The link is below. I’ll send you to Smashwords with a secret code for a free ebook to read. The catch? I’d love a review.

Other news. I received a rejection for my story, The Reunion, from the Tucson Literary Festival. Bummer. I thought that was a pretty good story. Now though, I have the chance to look at it again and send it somewhere else. My stories Someone Else is Living Here and Generation Bug are still out at competitions. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Personal information: I’m adding compost and fresh dirt to my raised garden beds. This gives them a couple of months to rest and be ready in April for the first plantings. I ate my last pear  (I picked them in September) and it had a brown spot but the rest of it was delicious. I’m glad I planted a pear tree three years ago.

Like most people I’ve started a diet. First thing, to break my wine every evening habit. Face it. It’s nice but it’s a lot of empty calories. I’m doing the diet the old fashioned way. I’ve increased my exercise and am cutting back on bread, pasta, and so on. Some people would call that a Paleo or Whole 30 diet. Shrugs. It doesn’t matter what it’s called. I’m eating healthier.

So, now I’ve got to get back to editing the 2nd book in the Gulliver Station series, The Challenge. Have a great week, everyone.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up. http://conniesrandomthoughts.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=8c24bb15bdf9245512f722298&id=0a097feea0

I have an in depth interview on my Smashwords Author page. You can read it here: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/conniecockrell  Don’t see information about me you’d like to know? Leave me your question in my comments and I’ll try to answer it.

Links to Christmas Tales will lead you to my author page on each site where my other published work is available:

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/christmas-tales/id761282885?mt=11

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Tales-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1494200570/ref=la_B009O6199C_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385963121&sr=1-4

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/christmas-tales-connie-cockrell/1117497310?ean=9781494200572

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/christmas-tales-3

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379010

End of November 2013

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Hoo! Six days left for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo)! I’m close to finishing my book. It’s the last book in my series, Gulliver Station. This one is titled Revolution.  I’ve committed to putting the first book, A New Start, out in late January. This is my first series. It’s been a real lesson on creating a very long range story arc.

Thursday is Thanksgiving, one of my favorite holidays. How can a person not like having all of their favorite food on the table at the same time. This year my husband and I are going to a friend’s house. There’ll be 14 other people there. Kudos to my friend, Diane, for hosting such a large gathering.

Now we’re running into the Christmas season. I have so much to do in December I think I need to make a list. And, in case you haven’t heard, I put together a collection of Christmas themed stories. I released the collection the 17th of November. I had to write a couple of short stories to go into this collection. It’s out now and I’ve put the links below if you’d like a nice read over the Holidays. I’ll put additional links in as the book goes live on those sites.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the upper right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up.

Christmas Tales released November 17th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Amazon or Smashwords today!

Links:

Kobo: Not yet available

Barnes and Noble: Not yet available

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Tales-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1494200570/ref=la_B009O6199C_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1385322757&sr=1-5

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/379010

Apple: Not yet available

Merry Go Round Blog Tour: November 2013 – Looking Back

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Looking back. We all start to do that this time of year.

The year isn’t quite over for me yet. It’s National Novel Writing Month, after all. (see www.nanowrimo.org for more information and how to get in on the fun.) I also have a Christmas collection to get out by the end of November too.

Aside from that, 2013 has been a whirlwind for me. If you’re really interested in getting the exact details, go though my blog and pick out the posts where I talk about how I’ve met my goals by the month. Here’s the link to the first goal report of the year, it looks like I didn’t do one for January 2013: http://wp.me/p2AyuM-1o. I don’t want to talk about that here.

So I set goals for 2013. So what? Like most people, I get caught up in the minutia of getting through the day or at most, the week. The end of the year is for looking back at the big picture. What have I accomplished with my time and effort?

I’ve learned a lot about writing. Anyone who looks at my January flash fiction Friday stories and the ones in November, can tell that. There’s a lot to know about putting words on paper so that a reader will become engaged in the story. I think I picked up a little. There’s so much more to learn about the craft.

I learned about marketing and the publishing business as a whole. Am I an expert? By no means. But at least now I have a dim glimmer of what’s going on and how to navigate around the whole process. I’ve begun to treat what I’m doing as a business instead of a hobby. And no, it doesn’t take the fun out of it. It makes it easier for readers to find me and enjoy what I’m writing for them. What is the fun of keeping my writing to myself? I want others to enjoy it too.

Best of all, I’ve made friends; writing friends that I’ve actually gone to meet in person. What a treat. It’s like an atomic level convention. How cool is that!

The Merry-Go-Round Blog Tour is sponsored by the website Forward Motion (http://www.fmwriters.com). The tour is you, the reader, travelling the world from author’s blog to author’s blog. There are all sorts of writers at all stages in their writing career, so there’s always something new and different to enjoy. If you want to get to know the nearly twenty other writers check out the rest of the tour at http://merrygoroundtour.blogspot.com!  Up next: Jean Schara!

What’s going on in November

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Ten days to go until National Novel Writing Month (NaNo) begins. I’ve got a basic outline completed though I need a few more scenes planned. The challenge is to write at least 50,000 words of a novel in the 30 days of November.

This will be my third NaNo. This year I’ll be writing the final book of my Gulliver Station series. I plan on releasing the 1st book of the series in late January. It’s titled, Gulliver Station: A New Start. The daily word count to meet the goal is about 1700 words. I’m able to get the goal. The hard part is to do it every day. It will be hard for me this year as I have a 3 day hiking trip with my hiking group planned for the middle of the month. I’ll have to write extra words every day and/or write while I’m away.

Also planned for the end of November is the release of my book of Christmas stories. I’m still looking for a good title. I may go with Christmas Tales. I’ve named my two other collections, A Trio of Animal Tales and Halloween Tales. Using Christmas Tales keeps the theme going, don’t you think? Take a look  at the draft of the book cover. What do you think?

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November is a busy month for sure.

Don’t forget to sign up for my newsletter where you’ll get first dibs on any promotions, book announcements, and other information. Go to the button on the right side of the blog or go to my Newsletter tab to sign up.

And in other news, I just finished an in depth interview on my Smashwords Author page. You can read it here: https://www.smashwords.com/interview/conniecockrell  Don’t see information about me you’d like to know? Leave me your question in my comments and I’ll try to answer it.

Halloween Tales released September 30th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Amazon or Smashwords today!

Links:

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/halloween-tales-a-collection-of-stories

Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/halloween-tales-connie-cockrell/1116995365?ean=2940045288972

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Tales-Collection-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1492783072/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380515780&sr=1-2&keywords=Halloween+Tales

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/359689

Apple: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/halloween-tales-collection/id716418558?mt=11

Indie Books Pulled from Vendor Sites

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To my non-writer friends, family and fans, some news to explain why you can’t find my books on sites like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other sites.

A huge world wide kerfuffle is going on with indie books. It began in Britain with a newspaper pointing out that a British book distributor wasn’t putting a gate between adult listings and book listings for children. Because the story was picked up by major media outlets, the distributors world wide have pulled all indie titles from the bookshelves.  For a more complete story on what’s going on, check out this blog: http://indiereader.com/2013/10/banning-books/

Here’s what it means for me. I have my books on Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble and other distribution sites. All of them are handling the situation differently. Some have blocked all indie titles, even if they don’t have any sex in them. Some pull the books, put them back up, only to pull them again. It’s confusing for readers and extremely aggravating for authors like me who are trying to sell our stories.

This will eventually work itself out. Please bear with the process and don’t give up on finding my stories. Keep trying. I just released a Halloween book (Halloween Tales) and am working on getting a Christmas collection out by the end of November. I love being an independently published author. It allows me the freedom to experiment with different genre’s and be in control of my story in ways I wouldn’t if I were traditionally published.

Hang in there if you can’t find my books on your favorite book retailer right now. They’ll be back soon.

Halloween Tales Release Day!

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Halloween Tales, is released today, September 30th! I’m pretty excited about it. You can buy at: Apple, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Amazon or Smashwords today!

Links:

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/halloween-tales-a-collection-of-stories

Barnes and Noble: Not showing when I looked but search on Connie Cockrell

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Halloween-Tales-Collection-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1492783072/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380515780&sr=1-2&keywords=Halloween+Tales

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/359689

Apple: Not found when I looked.

Here’s a snippet from the book. This time from the story Rats.

“Have you ever seen anything like it?” Alex Monroe asked. “I shot it last night, getting into my chicken house.”

Albert Wayne nudged the dead body on the ground with his toe. “It looks like a rat.” He took off his Animal Control hat and scratched his head. “But I’ve never seen a rat the size of a beagle before.”

“Look at the teeth. No wonder I’m losing chickens. Where did it come from?”

Albert took a plastic bag out of the back of his pick-up. “I don’t know.” He scooped the body up with the bag and tied it shut. “I’ll take it to the lab in the capital. They’ll do some tests.” He dropped the bag in the back of the truck.

Alex walked to the door of the truck and the two men shook hands. “Call me, will ya, when ya find out? If there are more of these things, I want to be prepared.”

You can get the rest of Rats and 4 other stories starting today. Enjoy!

Big News: I’m a Publisher

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I’m easing myself into a new role, publisher. It only makes sense. I self or indie publish. Chuck Wendig (http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2013/09/09/why-i-like-the-term-author-publisher/)   has proposed that those of us who indie publish are not only authors, but publishers too. He’s encouraging the term Author-Publisher.

I’m embracing that term.  I took the plunge Sunday morning and bought a domain name for my own publishing house: 2ndWindPress.com.  What was exciting was filling out the on-line form. It asked for my organization and my position. I, with more than a bit of a thrill, typed in 2ndWindPress and Publisher. I know, I’m easily entertained, but my heart actually beat faster.

Today I’ll go over to the Chamber of Commerce and get my Doing Business As (DBA) form. I might as well jump on into the deep end.

How will this affect me? I’ll have a nifty logo (still in design) and publishing house name to add to the spine of my books. It sets me up as a professional. It confirms that I’m serious about my writing and getting my books published.

It has been a crazy 2 years since I first began writing. I hope you stay with or join me for the ride.

Just a reminder, my latest book, Recall, is on Amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Recall-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1484886224/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375657368&sr=1-2