December Releases from the Wild Rose Press

The Last Daughter
Tales of the Scrimshaw Doll
Jessica Ferguson
Release Date: 12-04-2013

Aspen Shift
Lindsay K. McFerrin
Release Date: 12-04-2013

A Taste of Chocolate
Vonnie Davis
Release Date: 12-04-2013

Journey of the Magi
Barbara Edwards
Release Date: 12-04-2013

Another Man's Treasure
Anna Kittrell
Release Date: 12-06-2013

The Naughty List
L. A. Kelley
Release Date: 12-06-2013

Teach me to Ride
Rachel Leigh
Release Date 12-06-2013

Garden of Memory
Kalliope Bell
Release Date: 12-11-2013

A Song for Sophie
Honky Tonk Hearts
Mackenzie Crowne
Release Date: 12-11-2013

The Santa Next Door
Stephanie Cage
Release Date: 12-11-2013

A Christmas For Santa
Taylor Anne
Release Date 12-13-2013

Deadly Inheritance
Suzanne Rossi
Release Date: 12-13-2013

Alone No More
Terri Rochenski
Release Date: 12-18-2013

Amanda in the Summer
Brenda Whiteside
Release Date: 12-18-2013

Death Under the Mistletoe
Ashantay Peters
Release Date: 12-18-2013

Sixth Sense
The Crystal-Hale Psychic Detective Agency series
Marilyn Baron
Release Date: 12-20-2013

Outlaw Bride
Lawmen and Outlaws
Tanya Hanson
Release date: 12-20-2013

Surrender
THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES
Heather McCollum
Release Date: 12-20-2013

The Master’s Choice
Abby Gordon
Release Date 12-20-2013

Kindle Exclusives - December 2013

Get these titles early exclusively at Amazon Kindle!

Click here

World Wide Release dates in March 2014!

Hurricane Crimes
Chrys Fey

Whiskey Sour Noir
The Hard Stuff
Mickey J. Corrigan

Time for Love
Emma Kaye

Fading Rose
Tales of the Scrimshaw Doll
Tamrie Foxtail

Walking Into Her Heart

A First Realm Novel

Susan JP Owens

A Silver Lining
Flower Basket
T. R. McClure

Pippa's Rescue
JJ Keller

Climbing High
Madelon Smid

Notorious

Seaclusion Series
Leanne Davis

A Red, Red Rose
Susan Coryell

Maximum Memories
Abby Gordon

Untangle My Heart

Tangled Hearts

Maria K. Alexander        

Love Letter for a Sinner
The Sinners sports romances
Lynn Shurr

The Princess and the Templar
Hebby Roman

True Nature

Neely Powell

Taste of Darkness
The Siorai Legacy III
Victoria M. Noxon

Making Room at the Inn

Misty Simon

Purgatory
Colorado series
Denise Moncrief

Mine to Tell
Colleen L. Donnelly

Storms of Passion
Lori Power

Release Day Preparation by Maria K. Alexander

Release Day Preparation by Maria K. Alexander
Maria K. Alexander
http://mariakalexander.com

You’ve prepped and polished your manuscript. You’ve gone through the nail-biting experience of pitching to an editor or agent. You’ve been rejected up the wazoo. After much blood, sweat, and tears, you’ve gotten “the call” and have been offered a publishing contract. Congratulations, you’re getting published! The hard work is over, right?

Wrong!

The moment you sign that contract your life has changed. You will never again be that naïve unpublished writer in search of someone who will believe in your story as much as you do. Rather, you’ll be the naïve soon-to-be-published author who is in search of finding ways to reach your readers. Sound familiar?

Discoverability. Friend or foe? Art or Science? Whether a writer or a reader, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with this word. According to http://dictionary.com, the definition is:

Dis*cov`er*a*bil"i*ty\, n. The quality of being discoverable. [R.] --Carlyle.

So what’s the secret of being discovered? Actors and actresses seek it. So do authors. Come along on my journey to release date and read some of the tips I’ve received and put into play.

Maria K. Alexander’s Release Date Checklist:

1. Purchase the URL for my author name. This was easy since I had already done this.
2. Establish an author website. Once, the thought of this could cause me to wake up screaming in the middle of the night. Thankfully, it wasn’t nearly as daunting as it may seem. My initial website was a WordPress blog. It was easy to set up. Once I signed my contract with The Wild Rose Press, I decided to venture into creating something a little more functional. I created a WIX website (http://wix.com). For not a lot of money, I created something professional where I can manage the content.
3. Social Media. I’ve been an active tweeter for a couple years. I’ve also been an active blogger with my critique partners, The Violet Femmes (http://thevioletfemmes.com). I have an author fan page on Facebook, although I haven’t quite figured out how to use it effectively. Let’s just say I’m a work in progress. There’s a definite place for social media as an effective marketing tool. Even if it’s just one thing, learn how to do it effectively.
4. Blog Tours. A good way to meet readers. Having only recently learned of my Amazon KDP release date, I didn’t have time to set-up an official blog tour. It just so happens that my regularly scheduled date to blog with The Violet Femmes is the date of my release. I’ve also lined up a couple other guest posts that will hopefully get to readers. I’m working to have something official planned in early 2014.
5. Goodreads. Get your book up on Goodreads to connect with readers. You can upload your book cover and request participation in their author program.
6. Amazon’s Author Central. You won’t be able to set this up until your book is available. Once it is, go to https://authorcentral.amazon.com and set up your profile.
7. Newsletter. I’m still working on this as of the writing of this blog post. Think of something fun and creative to send to fans. I hope to have my newsletter finished and sent out in time for my November 25th release date. Stop by http://mariakalexander.com and sign up. PLEASE.
8. Plan/schedule your Tweets, Facebook posts. Know what message you want to Tweet and post come release day/week. Organize them in one document for easy access.
9. Giveaway. Do you have a giveaway planned for your release? While it’s certainly not needed, it’s a fun perk and way to entice potential readers to follow you.
10. Consolidate all your marketing info. I created a “Media Kit” file that contains my Author Biography, Book Blurb, and excerpt. That way, when someone asks me for it, I don’t have to go searching in five places for it.

Last of all, BREATHE! This is important when you find yourself having a meltdown because there aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything and you don’t know how you’ll be ready for release day. Can you tell what’s been running through my mind, lately?

Will these things work? Hopefully. Will there be other things I should have done that I didn’t think of? Certainly. As a newly published author, there’s only so much I can do. The next book in my series is complete and I’m working on editing it so I can send it out for submission. While marketing and promotion is important, I need to balance it with getting the next story published. That way as I am discovered and people fall in love with my book, hopefully, I can give them more.

I hope you’ll come get tangled in my debut contemporary romance, UNTANGLE MY HEART, which will be available from Amazon starting November 25th, 2013. To celebrate my Kindle release, I’m running a special Rafflecopter contest through December 25th. Please visit the contest page of my website at http://mariakalexander.com and enter to win a $10 Amazon gift card.

Thanks for stopping by!

Maria K. Alexander
http://mariakalexander.com

Buy for Kindle : http://amzn.com/B00GVKRLOG

THE HONEYMOON EFFECT by Liz Flaherty

THE HONEYMOON EFFECT
Liz Flaherty
http://www.lizflaherty.com/

Don’t you just love the honeymoon period?

You’ve already done the run around the kitchen table thing when you typed “The End,” saying yes, yes, YES before you gave much thought to how much you were going to miss the people you’ve been writing about. You’ve said “yes, thank you so much” quietly and with great dignity when a contract was offered, then run around the table again, shrieking this time. Yes, yes, YES. You’ve been through all the rounds of edits and no one has threatened anyone else with death or dismemberment, though there was that time when the copy editor got insistent about serial comas… You have, oh yes, yes, YES one more time, the most glorious cover ever and you get to show it around some. See here? you get to say on 101 guest blogs. Isn’t it just the coolest thing?

The book will be out…oh, soon, but for now, you can share an excerpt. Cut and paste the blurb. Say where you got the idea, what you’re working on now, how you celebrated your sale, what you’d be if you weren’t a writer.

You get to choose swag, wear ribbons that say you’re published, join with other writers who know “the secret.” Because there is one, you know. There must be. You’ve been hearing about “the secret” since the day you joined RWA or other large writers’ groups. Admittedly, published writers usually snickered when they talked about “the secret,” but surely…

Oh, the anticipation of waiting for the book to be out, to be available from the publisher, and on—oh, squee, Amazon! You know you make more money if people order from the publisher, but, really, Amazon! Yes, yes…what? Oh, you get it? I don’t have to say it again? Okay.

The great thing about the honeymoon period is that you get to have it with every single book. I’m as excited about my eighth book as I was the first one. Because they’re all different. THE GIRLS OF TONSIL LAKE is my first women’s fiction title. I loved writing it. Loved it! It will be out…soon.

And then…well, then the honeymoon will be over. What comes next is no less exciting, but it has different sides. It has what amounts to hanging the toilet paper wrong, squeezing toothpaste from the middle, and not being able to hit the hamper from six inches away. I mean, your book is in your hot little hands or, at the very least, your cover is up on Amazon and you’re a presence on Goodreads, but nothing’s really happening. There will be reviews, some worthy of another run around the kitchen table, some creating a cold hard place you have to work hard at melting down into experience. Your sales will be…well, what sales are, and you will have to work at promotion. At selling yourself when all you want to do is sit and write and interact with other writers on Facebook. People will ask when your next book will be out and you’ll have the cold, hard place again because you don’t know. You’re blocked. Your editor didn’t like your next story.

I love the marriage days of being published, the book-on-the-shelves and royalties-in-the-pocket part, even with all its attendant ups and downs, but sometimes—like before every book—it’s fun to be on the honeymoon.

Liz Flaherty
http://www.lizflaherty.com/

What's In a Name? by Kevin Symmons

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Didn’t some sage in the 16^th Century say, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet”… perhaps, but would it be as enticing, as interesting?

How would we view romantic fiction’s most popular and notorious heroine were her name Maude instead of Scarlett O’Hara. And what if her long-suffering suitor was named Joe instead of Rhett Butler would he have garnered the same swashbuckling bravado in our imaginations. And this works not only for the bold, the driven, and the beautiful. Let’s try and imagine a dark-hearted, morose old man named Fred instead of Ebenezer Scrooge… not quite the same. And what about Alexandria Eyre? Somehow we find it hard to imagine Charlotte Bronte’s stubborn, small, plain heroine with such an illustrious name.

No, without a doubt, character names have a vital place in both historical and contemporary literature. How often do I here the ladies swoon when the name “Ranger” is mentioned in association with heroine Stephanie Plum. Somehow if Ms. Ivanovich had named him Bob the macho element would definitely be lacking.

Convinced yet. Great!

We authors resort to a wide variety of devices, formulas, and even tricks to try to give their characters names their reading audience will remember. I’ve never subscribed to one of the many services that offer names for sale. I have friends who do. Others search the news media. Some resort to the obituaries searching for names. My best writing friend seeks names that are not only distinctive but give an exotic flavor to her characters. I admit I’m more a grass roots type. I give my characters names that I (and my beta readers) find appropriate not through formula or science but by the touch and feel method.

My debut novel featured a heroine named Courtney (Definition: of the court) who was the embodiment of a one-thousand year old Wiccan Goddess. Her heroine was named Robert… a strong masculine name. I intentionally abbreviated his proper name by having his intimates call him Robbie, an indication of his naïveté and relative immaturity, at least when compared with his beautiful but ancient heroine. The other strongest character was Simon, an all powerful male witch who embodied both the mystery and strength contained in his name.

My latest novel features Eric, a strong monosyllabic name (definition: one strong who rules) suited for my strong, Special Forces veteran hero and Ashley-Jean (definition: one who sees, which we discover she is), a brilliant, technology savant; a frightened young woman seeking refuge from the evil that pursues her. As a young, southern woman the name seemed to fit perfectly and my test readers agreed.

Which brings up another point: the name must not only lend a visual to the character’s image in the readers mind but must symbolize their place in the story.

In a few hundred words it’s difficult to give a thorough explanation of how and why we authors chose certain methods and different strategies to breathe life into our characters not only with their thoughts and deeds but by what we call them.

I welcome input from readers and fellow authors alike why and how you choose to name your characters. Until next time…

Kevin Symmons

Follow me at www.ksymmons.com. Kevin Symmons—Author on FB, @kevinsymmons on Twitter and at my Amazon and goodreads author pages.

Interview with Nathan Crosby - hero of Buried Secrets

Interview with Nathan Crosby,

Hero of Buried Secrets by A. Y. Stratton

  

Q First of all I must say I was shocked that you, an attorney, would enter a home without the owner’s consent. Is that routine for you?

A No. I’d never done anything like that before.  

Q So what drove you to do it?

A (Nathan shakes his head and sighs.) Schmidt had abused the justice system for a long time. I’d been working for various clients for five years, hoping to catch him in the act of bribing convicted men to confess to crimes they didn’t commit. I failed again and again, so I changed my strategy. I decided to search his home for evidence.  

Q Why would Schmidt bribe them to lie like that?

A Schmidt specialized in defending men accused of rape, perverts from wealthy families. Here’s how he worked: he’d persuade an already convicted man to confess to the rape. In return for his confession, the convict’s family would receive a large sum from the actual perpetrator. Schmidt was really good at making sure all the stories sounded valid. After I failed to get any evidence against him, I changed strategies.  

Q Wait a minute. You’re saying Schmidt convinced men who were going to be locked up for a long time to lie about crimes they didn’t commit?

A Schmidt’s clients had wealthy parents, people who would do anything to keep their sons from going to prison. And the convict’s family never asks any questions.

Q I can see that disturbs you.

A Doesn’t that disturb you? Do you understand why I wanted to get the guy?

Q Yes, of course it’s a noble cause, making sure the guilty man goes to prison. But what drove you to take up that cause, when your risky methods could land you in jail too?

A That’s personal.

Q I’m guessing someone you know was hurt by Schmidt.

A Let’s change the subject.

Q Okay. New subject. How did you and Kate wind up in the same house that night?

A That’s a good story. (Nathan sits back and laughs out loud.) I’d been hiding in the attic for about an hour, when Schmidt drove out of the driveway. I heard a noise, and when I went to check, we ran into each other right there in Schmidt’s hall. Kate ruined my timing. If she’d stayed home that night, I’d have been gone long before the murder.

Q What would have happened to Kate, if she’d shown up and you hadn’t been there?

A I don’t even want to think about what might have happened to her without me.

Q So you two fell in love that night?

A No. In fact we were more like enemies. I just happened to witness the way her ex treated her and did what I had to do.

Q You defended her and then took her to your condo.

A I had to keep track of her.

Q Why?

A To be sure she wouldn’t tell the authorities what we saw and heard that night. People fall apart after witnessing something like that. If either of us told anyone, we could both go to jail. Or get obliterated by Schmidt’s goons.

Q And when did you fall in love?

A (He sighs.) You could say I fell in love with her the first time I met her… in eighth grade. She teased me unmercifully. (He grins.) And still does.  

Q One more question, please. Why were you there that night, risking jail and your reputation?

A You’ll just have to read the book. Nice meeting you. 

BURIED SECRETS by A. Y. Stratton
Witnesses to murder, bound to secrecy,
denying their desire.
www.aystratton.com
EXCLUSIVE KINDLE RELEASE DATE, September 25, 2013
AVAILABLE FREE Nov. 12-16, 2013
WORLDWIDE RELEASE DATE, January 17, 2014
from
www.thewildrosepress.com
www.amazon.com

BURIED HEART by A.Y. Stratton
A perilous quest. An ancient Mayan codex.
Jealousy and desire.
www.aystratton.com
WisRWA 2010 WRITE TOUCH AWARDwww.thewildrosepress.com
www.amazon.com