Want to Win a Nook Simple Touch AND a Gift Card to Fill It?

My publisher, esKape Press, is announcing a new contest that starts tonight.  To promote my most recent novel, and first release with them, we are doing a giveaway!

Simply read WINGSPAN, post a review and add the link to the rafflecopter here:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/f655e57/

And that's it!  You will be entered to win a brand new Nook Simple Touch ereader and that's not all.  You will also get a $20 egift card to start loading your new best friend!  You can enter once a day and the contest will run for a whole week.

To remind you, this is WINGSPAN:

Chessa Dawning never thought she’d be the kind of girl who’d be on the run.  Yet, here she was, having left the only home she’s ever known, staying two steps ahead of the men chasing her and falling for a resourceful ex-criminal with colorful friends. And that was just this week.

Most of the time, Charlotte Lake can’t believe her life.  The reluctant leader of a rebel faction called the Ginger Nation, Charlie’s days are filled with planning surveillance, rescuing detainees, and exposing government conspiracy.  Surrounded by loyal friends and soldiers, she knows she can never reveal the true nature of her quest: finding her real father.

When a sudden twist in both their lives brings these two girls together, revelations about their past will make them rethink where they came from, and define their future in ways they never could have imagined.  

Not every scientific breakthrough is a gift.

WINGSPAN Cover Release

I am excited to show the cover for Wingspan, designed by the unbelievably talented Elaina Lee. She designed the covers for Spellbound, Everspell, and Ghostly.  As I made my choice to release Wingspan with a new publishing company, esKape Press, I was both surprised and delighted to learn she would be my new artist.  She just knows how I like the covers to look, and she just GETS me.  Thanks, Elaina.

So, I'd love to unveil the beautiful cover here, and entice you with both it and the blurb.  Look for Wingspan, coming early December, from esKape Press!

Chessa Dawning never thought she’d be the kind of girl who’d be on the run.  Yet, here she was, having left the only home she’s ever known, staying two steps ahead of the men chasing her and falling for a resourceful ex-criminal with colorful friends. And that was just this week.

Most of the time, Charlotte Lake can’t believe her life.  The reluctant leader of a rebel faction called the Ginger Nation, Charlie’s days are filled with planning surveillance, rescuing detainees, and exposing government conspiracy.  Surrounded by loyal friends and soldiers, she knows she can never reveal the true nature of her quest: finding her real father.

When a sudden twist in both their lives brings these two girls together, revelations about their past will make them rethink where they came from, and define their future in ways they never could have imagined.  Not every scientific breakthrough is a gift.

The Writer's Alphabet - I is for Indie Houses

Okay, picture this: the time period was three years ago.  The setting was a struggling writer's work computer.  The event was my emails.  All three dozen of them.  All rejections.  Two requests for partials, then one exciting request for a full from a HUGE house (Harlequin Teen).  Then the rejection from even them.  Struggling Writer is trying to "stay in the moment" and "do the next thing on the list" (Mummy's words), and is failing. Then Struggling Writer types "independent publishers" into her search engine....and the sun comes out.

I submitted my first manuscript, SPELLBOUND, to a small house named Astraea Press.  The email I received back was encouraging, insistent, and life-changing, as it turns out.  Not only did they like my work, they were offering me a contract.  I would be published, both digitally and in print!  Thus began my love affair with Indie Houses.

Since then, I have published six books with four different indies, (try them yourself, below!) and even tried the self-publishing thing.  But, I am going back to my roots, and my tenth novel will be published this month with Eskape Press.  I'm thrilled, still and always, that the indie houses have loved me, embraced me actually, and claimed me as one of them.  And I am.  I may possibly publish with a more traditional house in my lifetime, but I will always come home to my indie roots.

If you are considering a contract with one of these amazing houses, let me encourage you to go for it!  The benefits are endless and unequaled in the traditional world.  Your work comes out in a few months, as opposed to a few years.  You retain much of your own creative control.  I have new author friends, colleagues who know my pain and share my joy.  I am represented by talented artists and dedicated editors who make creating a perfect final product as important as I do.  And I am loved by publishing houses that think I am the shit.  And that helps me think I am the shit.  And as a result, I think I write novels that are the shit.

I owe it all to the indie houses.  If you want to be part of a supportive, encouraging group, come on over.  It may be time for you to get your Indie on, too!

http://www.astraeapress.com/submissions.html
http://ftp.eskapepress.com/Submissions.html
http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=4
http://musapublishing.blogspot.com/p/submissions.html