Hi, friends! This weekend, along with spending a small fortune at the movie theater, I also participated in the third annual IndieVengeance Day, celebrating Indie Authors from all over the world. I thought I’d share a few pictures from the event!
Warning: Most of them are just my books looking pretty.
The new book covers were there too.
Pretty snazzy.
It was fun this year, crew! Until next time!
Hi, friends!
I’ve not been very good at updating recently. Lots of fun stuff going on including beta-reading, hanging out with friends, writing of course, and my first solo signing event at Half-Prince Books!
I had a wonderful time, met some new amazing people, and best of all, I had so many friends and family members come out to see me.
This is Cali, a new friend. It turned out she’d seen Boy Band on Tumblr! How cool is that? Also, please excuse my flushed cheeks and stringy hair. It was very, very hot. One thing they don’t tell you about becoming an independent author is how much manual labor is involved.
My gorgeous, amazing, wondering mom, who has gone above and beyond everything to support me (and my sister) no matter what.
So many of my favorite friends!
Friend and fellow author Jeanne Skartsiarsis (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeanne-Skartsiaris-Author/309154242555980?fref=ts).
Wild and crazy cousins. I love these girls. They’re so weird.
Finally, my former high school English teacher, writing mentor, and Shakespeare enthusiast, Steven Lund! I was so thrilled he came out to the signing! He also has a book out (that taught me everything I know about grammar!): http://lovinggrammar.com.
Not pictured but no less appreciated are author James William Peercy (http://www.jameswilliampeercy.com) and his lovely wife, Claudette, and author Paula Walker Baker (https://paulawalkerbaker.wordpress.com).
Thank you all for your constant love and support. You all mean the world to me.
Now, onto the next adventure: After Death, the Third Installment in the Cemetery Tours series! I am having so much fun writing this book. I can’t wait to share it with y’all.
After an extremely busy weekend of work and play (though admittedly, I felt it was more play), it is time to get back down to the daily grind. Of course, for the self-employed author, the daily grind is actually quite enjoyable, so I’m not complaining. Still, I’ve kind of been in Self-Congratulatory-Fun mode since Comic Con ended and I need to get back to my Okay-You-Are-Building-Your-Future-You-Need-To-Be-Serious-And-Stay-Focused mode.
And even as I’m writing this, I just took a break to go buy “Cups” on iTune. Focus, Jackie, focus!
Okay, so what do I need to focus on, exactly? That’s a good question. The two big ones are
1) My signing at Half-Price Books on June 24.
Originally, I had thought that my signing on June 24 would just be for Boy Band, but Half-Price has since contacted me and asked if I would bring all three books! Of course, I am more than happy to do so. I need to get to ordering those books, however. I also need to restock on all my fun giveaway stuff, like postcards and bookmarks. Comic Con kind of wiped me clean (which is a good thing!). But I need to stay on top of all that.
2) Cemetery Tours 3.
As I told everyone at Comic Con, I plan on releasing the third Cemetery Tours late September-early October, just in time for Halloween! That means I have a LOT of work to do between now and then. I know where the book is going to go, but I am also going back and re-writing and thanks to events and a lot of weird life things, I’m afraid I’ve fallen a bit behind. June is going to be my catch-up month. I do have a teaser board up and going on Pinterest, if you’d like to check it out and see what may or may not be in store for our haunted heroes (OMG that sounded so cheesy… I apologize): https://www.pinterest.com/windtrailpub/teaser-board-cemetery-tours-3/
I’m especially eager to get back to work on my Cemetery Tours series because of all the enthusiastic feedback I’ve gotten from readers, especially those I’ve met at recent book events and fellow authors. 
So much love!
I’ve also been playing around with the idea of redesigning the covers to the series. I love the covers I have now, masterfully created by graphic designer Benjamin Durham, but the thing is, I used ShutterStock images. After designing the cover to Boy Band, I’m realizing that I think I prefer using my own images. I don’t have to pay for rights and there’s no limits on how I use that image. So, that’s something else to think about. If you have copies of Cemetery Tours and Between Worlds now, congratulations! You might have limited first edition covers!
Love to all!
Hi, friends.
It probably comes as no surprise that I find myself very scatterbrained at the moment. I’m trying my best to concentrate on what needs to be done, but you know, there’s just so much that needs to be done that instead of concentrating on one thing, I end up trying to do three or four things at once, resulting in… nothing, really. Just a lot of crazy.
As you probably know by now, when I find my brain muddled and cluttered, I sort everything out with a list. I find it very therapeutic to literally separate my thoughts. That way, the don’t get all mixed up, kind of the way they are now. It really permits me to focus on one thing at a time. So, here are the things rattling around in my huge head.
* NORTH TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL THIS SATURDAY! I need to get everything organized. I need to make sure I have everything. I need to set everything out that I need to take. I need to figure out what I’m going to wear (this is a big one)! Get organized, brain! Get organized!
* Keep working on Cemetery Tours 3! Since I’m doing a bit of early revising, I’m going to have to go back and work even harder than I would have had I stayed on track. The good thing about being an independent author and publisher, however, is that I make my own deadlines. And if, for some reason, I miss a deadline, I can choose not to fire myself. Granted, it is very unprofessional to miss deadlines and all the official ones, I work like crazy to keep, but that’s another story.
* Don’t forget other events! Not only my upcoming events, like Authorfest in Denison, but friends’ events! For example, a couple of my friends are speaking at the Melissa Library. My dear friend, Paula, has a couple of book signings coming up that I want to attend! You can check out her blog and her new children’s book, Jack Learns to Grill, here: https://paulawalkerbaker.wordpress.com
* Boy Band is out in less than two weeks. It’s okay. Don’t panic. Breathe. Breathe. You’re excited for this! It’s an awesome book! You love it! Just make sure everything is okay for formatting for Nook and Kindle.
* Don’t forget about you GoodReads Giveaway! You have to have FIVE copies to send to people! https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/129034-boy-band
* BOOK SIGNING AT HALF PRICE! Yay! This is exciting! If you’re in the DFW area, stop by and see me on June 24! https://www.facebook.com/events/1114004495292639/permalink/1114004941959261/
* I am WAY behind on blog posts! I need to post some more Character Interviews as well as an interview featuring Steve Lund, author of Loving Grammar: Mr. Lund’s Guide to Professional Clamdigging. http://lovinggrammar.com
* Oh! And I really need to step up my advertising for Lurking in the Deep! This is a big deal and after everything that’s been going on, I’ve really been neglecting the new anthology. It’s going to be AMAZING, y’all.
* This isn’t really something that I need to be doing or thinking about, but my sister totally got to meet Country Musician Wade Bowen this morning. So jealous.
I think that’s about it. I pray that all your brains be far less messy and cluttered than mine.
The other day, I took a trip to the Half Price Books near my house. I wanted to talk to them about maybe selling a few copies of Cemetery Tours to their store (they agreed!). Afterword, I got online to research more stores. On the Half Price Books homepage, I noticed a link down at the bottom of the page. 
You can read more about it here: http://tracyjamesjones.wordpress.com/2013/10/11/indie-vengeance-day-weekend-begins/ Needless to say, I decided right then and there that I had to attend. I will confess, however, that I went to a party last night and was so tired, that for a short while I considered taking the day off today. However, when I woke up this morning, bright, alert, and ready, I knew that I needed to go. I am so glad that I did. I had the most amazing time talking with these people who traveled from all over the world to greet readers and sign their books. I expected to go, meet a few people, and maybe get some tips on marketing or any advice on making it as an independent author in general. I thought, perhaps, I might buy a book or two. I ended up leaving with ten books, two ebooks, several business cards, and more respect for all of these wonderful authors than I ever could have imagined. Of course, I already had a lot of respect for them, knowing all that they’ve accomplished just by writing and being published, but getting to talk to them about their books, their work, their interests, their backgrounds… they are all just amazing, fascinating, and wonderful people. Ever since I made the decision to self-publish, I’ve been wanting to make more connections in the Indie world. That includes reading and reviewing their works. I am thrilled to have so many new books to read. Sadly, I couldn’t purchase all of them, but I did find most of them on GoodReads, so I thought I could at least share them here and then review them later. 
Scott Morgan is a professor at Collin County Community College and he has written several books on writing. This one, I think, was written for his class that he teaches. http://www.write-hook.com 
Ben Ditmars was one of the first authors I met today. I’m a downright lousy poet, so I’m really looking forward to reading his work! https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5132689.Ben_Ditmars?from_search=true 
I didn’t get to talk to Amber Jerome-Norrgard for very long, but I very much look forward to reading her poetry! https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5815310.Amber_Jerome_Norrgard 
Lynn Hallbrooks was a sweet woman and the story of how she and David McKoy collaborated to write their novels was fascinating. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4950577.Lynn_Hallbrooks?from_search=true 
Tracy James Jones was absolutely one of the sweetest people I’ve had the privilege to meet. I didn’t get to talk to her very much about her work, because she had several fans surrounding him, but her romance novel definitely sounds like a good read! http://tracyjamesjones.wordpress.com 
M.E. Franco was the first paranormal author I talked to at Half Price. She was very enthusiastic about everything vampire, ghost, magic, etc… This was the first book I purchased at the signing. She also penned a cowboy romance novel which, as a true blue Texas girl, I really want to read. 
http://mefranco.com 
Another paranormal/vampire novelist I met was Melissa Zaroski. I purchased her novel too. I actually haven’t read any vampire stories since the Twilight series. I’m interested to see how these new paranormal books will compare. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7255267.Melissa_Zaroski?from_search=true 
I talked to Sydney native Ciara Ballintyne for a while. She was absolutely delightful as she told me about her novella, Confronting the Demon, a combination of deep fantasy and paranormal. We also had a lot of fun discussing other books we’d read. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6591156.Ciara_Ballintyne?from_search=true 
I love dragons, so I picked this book up almost immediately. I am really looking forward not only to reading this, but also its sequel. Dionne Lister was so lovely and I think I’m really going to enjoy her work! https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5824220.Dionne_Lister 
Melissa Craig and Charity Parkerson are Australian authors too. I didn’t spend quite as long talking with them as I did others, but they were both lovely women and very funny. They had with them selections of their works, mostly erotica. I have nothing against the genre, but it’s not my favorite. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5307783.Melissa_Craig?from_search=true https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4506281.Charity_Parkerson 
James Peercy was just a fun guy to talk to, and I’m especially curious to read his book, The Wall Outside, a work of fantasy set in modern-day Washington. I love fairy tales and fantasy, so I’m really interested to see how it will work in our world. http://www.jameswilliampeercy.com 
Sreya Bremtin is a photographer as well as a poet. She had a book of photographs as well, but as someone who really struggles in the poetry department, I was a lot more curious to read this. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7233499.Sreya_Bremtin 
Meeting M. A. Rogers and talking to him about zombies was a lot of fun. I’ve probably mentioned before that I am a new Walking Dead fan and that zombies absolutely scare me out of my wits. For some reason, that means I love watching them on television and reading about them in books. I’m often told that I am loud and awkward, but M. A. Rogers told me that my enthusiasm made his whole day. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15745432-chivalry-is-undead 
Sandcastle is a collection of short stories by Justin Bog. I haven’t read a book of short stories since about the eight grade, so I was more than eager to purchase his book. A cool fact about this book is that his father painted the picture on the cover. I thought that was so incredible! https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5832178.Justin_Bog 
Julie Frayn is a Canadian author and I ended up purchasing both of her books. Well, technically I purchased one on Kindle and she gave me a free download for the other. Not only to both stories sound totally awesome, I absolutely love her cover designs. https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6967128.Julie_Frayn 
The last author I met was a poet named Susie Clevenger. She was so sweet. I had run out of cash by that point, but she handed me a copy and told me to write her a good, honest review, and I intend to do just that! http://www.susieclevenger.com Everyone I met today was so amazing and wonderful and I hope I’m lucky enough to connect with all of them in the future.
A Platform of Sorts 