This is an exciting weekend…because yesterday was Launch Day for my novel! Since my writing group was also meeting yesterday, naturally I had to bring something to celebrate!
You could say that I made one of these things from scratch…and just added some crucial decoration to the other.
Have a splendid weekend! And visit West Metro Mommy for more Saturday Snapshots. 😉
After all these weeks building up, it’s finally here–Launch Day! My novel, The Wanderers, is now available!
You can get a copy on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), Barnes and Noble (Nook) or Smashwords (alternate ebook formats). It’s $2.99 as an ebook or $11.99 in paper–though right now Amazon is offering a sale on the paperback. I don’t control that and I don’t know how long it will last, so you may want to jump now!
If you’ve somehow missed previous posts on this subject and are feeling a little perplexed, you can jump over to the Novel News page for more information about the book. If you’ve been following along, the journey doesn’t end today! Starting next week, I have a series of interviews, guest posts, giveaways and coupons lined up that I can’t wait to share with you.
And I have to give a big thank-you to all you wonderful people who have been so supportive along the way. It’s always hard for writers to send their words out into the world. Sharing my blogging words with such a great community has made the next step a little less intimidating. 🙂
I’ve mentioned a time or two 😉 that I have a novel coming out…and we’re getting close! Launch Date, November 15th, is less than a week away! The Wanderers will be available in paperback and ebook. Ebooks aren’t so easy to photograph, so today I’m sharing pictures of the paperback. Technically this is the final proof, but it’s what the published book will look like too…
Every writer I know agrees that the arrival of the proof is one of the most exciting parts of the process…suddenly it’s all real! 🙂
I hope you have a wonderful weekend–and you can visit West Metro Mommy for more Saturday Snapshots.
First of all, Happy Halloween! I wish you lots of chocolate and the opportunity to watch It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. Or whatever your favorite Halloween movie is!
Halloween wishes aside, as the title suggests, the real purpose of this post is to let you know that I have a definite release date for my upcoming novel! I’ve been promising it as “mid-November,” and that turned out to be more literal than I thought it might. I’ve settled on a release date of November 15th. I had to tell you so that you can mark your calendars… 😉 and so that I’m committed to it, by virtue of having told everyone!
The Wanderers is currently listed on pre-release (ebook only) through Smashwords, and on November 15th it will be available in paperback and Kindle through Amazon.
I also have to say that I am very grateful to the wonderful book blogging community, as several bloggers have kindly agreed to help me spread the word. Along with scheduling my release date, I’m scheduling interviews, guest posts and giveaways for after the release. I’ll keep you posted when they happen–although I highly recommend you follow all these bloggers anyway!
So far I’m making plans with…
If you have a blog and think your readers might be interested in hearing about a young adult fantasy novel, we should talk. 🙂
And I am also grateful to all of you for coming along for the ride. The talking cat and I both thank you!
Addendum: The novel’s out!
I haven’t done a Fiction Friday in a while, and since I’ve been chattering on about my upcoming novel release, The Wanderers, it seemed only appropriate to share an excerpt, no?
This scene is towards the middle of the novel. Julie, Jasper and talking cat Tom have just made a deal with a Sea Queen, which involves rescuing her sea serpent from Prince Randolph. Jasper and Tom met Randolph on a previous adventure, and were not impressed. Not every sentence here will make sense out of context, but I think enough is comprehensible…
Julie, Jasper and Tom exited the water abruptly. One moment they were skimming along just above the sea floor under the power of the Sea Queen’s magic. The next, they fell out of a wall of water to land in a heap on wet but not at all submerged sand. Julie’s hair fell in tangles around her shoulders, and Tom shrank to a third of his former apparent size.
Julie got to her feet, wet skirt clinging to her legs, and looked around. They were on bare sea floor, in a trench formed by walls of water rising dozens of feet above their heads on either side. The trench was maybe a hundred feet across, and several times that long, the floor covered in mounds of sand and wilted seaweed. At the far end, she could see the serpent coiled like an enormous snake, while Randolph stood before it with sword drawn, his back to them.
“Damn,” Jasper remarked. “He must have a useful enchanted sword.”
“You think he used it to part the ocean?” Julie said.
“Can’t explain it any other way. Randolph just isn’t that talented on his own.”
If Jasper was right, the sword was giving him a considerable advantage. Julie didn’t know much about judging the health of giant sea monsters, but she thought it looked ill. It was snapping at Randolph, but its movements were sluggish. “It’s probably sick outside the water,” she said. “So to rescue it, we’ll have to move it back into the sea.”
“You want to move a giant serpent?” Jasper said. “I’ve seen buildings that were smaller.”
Tom unhelpfully added, “I’ve seen entire towns that were smaller.”
“All right, so maybe we don’t move it,” Julie said, keeping her chin in the air and a positive tone in her voice. Someone had to be the optimist. “We’ll move the water back around it.”
Jasper caught the idea and the optimism. “We get the sword from Randolph, and if he can part water, why can’t we put it back?”
Tom groaned. “We’re going to get wet again.”
“You can’t get any wetter,” Julie said. “Come on, let’s go steal a sword.” Continue reading “Fiction Friday: A Sea Serpent and a Prince”
Tales of the Marvelous 