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Monthly Archives: June 2012

Nine Steps to Sara is now available online!

Nine Steps to Sara

My new ghosty thriller Nine Steps to Sara is now available for sale on Amazon.comand BarnesAndNoble.com! It’s out as an e-book for $3.99 but you don’t have to have a Kindle or Nook to read it, they have free downloadable apps so you can read it on your PC, or even your phone. It’ll be available in print as well in a couple of weeks through Amazon.


When single mom Sara Darling inherits an estate in the remote English countryside, she jumps at the chance to become Lady of the Manor. With 8 year old son Jack and best friend Joanie in tow, they explore the nearly deserted mansion, isolated from the rest of the world except for the nearby village where everybody seems to know her business. Distracted by the charming chauffeur, Will, soon Sara never wants to leave her newfound home.

But the eerie manor house is hiding more than a ruined garden and plumbing issues, and it’s up to Sara to find out what the loyal staff isn’t telling. When Sara finds Jack talking to an empty room, she begins to wonder if she made the right decision uprooting her tiny family as the spooky surroundings fuel her imagination.

Especially when she starts to hear the voice talk back.

Is her ancestor’s unnatural attachment to Jack borne of concern or something more sinister? When she discovers the truth, will Sara accept the legacy she’s inherited, or run for her life?


I’m just about ready to start writing on the next book Meet Me When the Sun Goes Down, the next in my vampire series Forged bloodlines.

Endings and Beginnings

I was going to post about finishing Nine Steps to Sara when it struck me, it’s not really an ending; it’s a beginning. Sure, I’m done laboring over it, but it’s really the beginning of the book’s life now that it’ll be available for public consumption in the next few days. Huh.

Okay, wasn’t meaning to get all philosophical on you guys, really just reporting that I’m days away from publishing Nine Steps to Sara and starting in on the sequel to Wake Me, Meet Me When the Sun Goes Down. I’ve pretty much got the plot all laid out and I can’t wait to get started!!! I had a lot of fun re-reading Wake Me and getting back into Anja’s head. :)

I couldn’t resist getting in a little fanfiction oneshot in there before I get started on the new book though, so I posted a Vampire Diaries Delena fic Hate to Love You. Holy crap I missed writing for those guys! It’s so tempting not to take them on another epic adventure, but I’m trying to stick to my timetable and still get another two books written this year.

Happy Anniversary to me!

Bring on the hearts and flowers! It’s been exactly one year since I took the plunge and decided to self publish Angel of Mercy instead of waiting on my literary agent who was pretty unresponsive in her efforts to try and sell Pretty Witches All in a Row. Since then I’ve published six more books, fired my agent, and couldn’t be happier with the self publishing experience! In the past year I’ve sold over 6700 books (most of that in the past three months), and I’m still learning every day what does and doesn’t work in marketing my own books. Sadly there is no magic ticket to runaway sales, but I’m still hopeful I’ll be able to support myself with my writing at some point.

Nine Steps to Sara should be available in a couple of weeks and I’ve got two other books planned for this year (sequels to Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down and the next Mercy book), so here’s to more success in the year to come!

New Cover for Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down

Despite the recent success from the last Pretty Witches All in a Row giveaway, Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down
has continued to sell the least out of my books, despite the fact that I get the most fan mail about that one.

So, we’ve decided to try and shake things up a little and redesign the cover. What do you guys think?

In other news, I finished my first draft of Nine Steps to Sara and have just started the editing process! Woot!

Sneak Peek of Nine Steps to Sara

Nine Steps to Sara

Nine Steps to Sara is coming along well, and I’ve only got one more scene to write before the grand finale. Here is the proposed cover art (thanks Cap’n for the design!) for the book. I thought I’d share a little taste from chapter one. Please keep in mind that this is a rough draft and not the polished final version. :)

*****

“Repeat after me, I am Sara J Darling; millionaire. I own a mansion and a yacht.”

The corner of Sara’s mouth tilted up into a faint smile as she conjured images of Elmer Fudd going through psychoanalysis to cure him of his rabbitosis. “I don’t own a yacht.”

“You could own a yacht…” Joanie’s green eyes darted to the dark window for a brief squint before they returned to regard Sara steadily. “You don’t know.”

“That’s true, I suppose,” Sara allowed, leaning back against the supple leather seats of the chauffeured Mercedes. Despite the fact that the car was at least thirty years old by the body style, it’d obviously been kept in mint condition and still impressed the hell out of her. It was the first time she’d ridden in a car that cost more than her college education and for sure was the first time she’d been driven around in the back seat unless she counted the time she took a cab to the hospital on the night Jack was born (but somehow, she didn’t think that fell into quite the same category).

Joanie had a good point though, she had very little understanding of her inheritance so far, only that it was big enough to earn her a plane ride and an all expense paid trip to England in style, and there was a manor house somewhere in the countryside with a family history she knew nothing about. After the year she’d had, it hadn’t taken more than thirty seconds to decide to go check it out, especially when her best friend offered to come along for the ride. Still, Joanie’s excited speculation had spilled into the ridiculous after so many hours spent traveling.

“Why would I have a yacht? It’s a land locked estate.” Probably. There could be a lake, she supposed. If she hadn’t been so excited to get the heck out of town, she might have asked a few more questions. As it was, she had a vague sense that the estate was somewhere in the south, but that was about it.

Joanie waved her hand back and forth, unconcerned with logic. “So? England is basically an island. It’s like a nothing commute to get to the water.”

A snort came from the front seat, and Sara looked up to catch a flash of the driver’s grin. “I’m not too sure about that,” she murmured, looking out the window, but she couldn’t penetrate the gloomy fog apart from the occasional glimpse of an empty paddock or a copse of dark trees. “We’ve been driving an awful long time.”

“You’re telling me, I shouldn’t have had those drinks on the train,” Joanie muttered, shifting in her seat. “Excuse me, driver?” she leaned forward, bright auburn hair glowing as it caught in the dashboard lights. “How much longer is this gonna take?”

“Just until we arrive, Miss.”

June Resolution Time!

Okay, so far this year I’ve given up fried foods, baked desserts, fast food, and started exercising 5 days a week and tracking everything I eat. It’s June, so that means it’s time to give up something else and this one is going to hurt rolling into the summer months – no more ice cream!

I went back and forth on whether it was a better idea to wait until after summer to give this one up, but in the end decided that it would be healthier to give it up now.

Let’s see… what else is going on… Nine Steps to Sara is coming along great! I’m in the home stretch now, just a few major scenes to get to, and I’ll be done with my first draft. We’ve found a great cover idea, so that’s progressing well too.

Also, my oldest is graduating high school in a few days!!! Man, I’m old…