Pretty Witches All in a Row joins the Amazon Prime Lending Library
So I decided to give this lending library program a try, and list Pretty Witches All in a Row on Amazon Prime. What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re a member of Amazon Prime, you can download a copy for free for the next ninety days or so. What does this mean for me? Authors are supposed to share in a pool of money depending on how many people download your book. Do I expect to make any money at this? Um, no, not really. But I figure it’s a good way to get the book out there and gain some more readers. And if it doesn’t work, well it didn’t cost me anything but three months of availability as an e-book on any other format but Amazon. So, if you’ve been waiting to check out Pretty Witches, and are an Amazon Prime member, please give it a look-see, you can’t beat the price tag. 
New Year, New Logo, New Resolutions
So I’ve had this thing for a while, sort of an inside joke about me having a robot brain at work, and my husband James came up with this logo. Isn’t it cute?
I don’t, as a rule, set New Year’s resolutions because they seem destined to fail. At the same time I am in favor of making some lifestyle changes this year and I was inspired by Mike Saxton’s success at sticking to his resolutions from last year. So, being a planner and a maker of lists, I made a new list this year of resolutions I’d like to make, so that by the end of the year, I’ve affected real change. Instead of doing them all at once, because I know I don’t have the willpower to stick to that much change, I’ll pick a new one once a month and keep adding to it cumulatively.
Then some of them are just general resolutions I’d like to incorporate into my life. Like do something I want to do each day. So many times we do things we have to do, I want to take the time to do something I want to do every day, even if it’s a small thing. I’m hoping that helps me de-stress a little from the deadlines I put on myself coupled with my stressful job. Deadlines like… I’d like to publish 4 more books in 2012.
My resolution for the month of January? Exercise 5 days a week. I’ve been doing a fairly good job of this for the past few weeks, but it’ll be good to formalize it into a solid goal.
What about you guys? What are your resolutions for the New Year?
Dreamcasting – Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down
I can’t possibly release a book without sharing who I would cast if this sucker got made into a movie or a TV show. So without further ado, here is who I see the characters as:
Anja Evans: Teresa Palmer – So I haven’t cast a female lead as a blonde before, but since it went with the Viking ancestry link for this series, I decided to try something new. I like Teresa Palmer because she can play innocence well, but you get the feeling like she could seriously kick a little ass once she comes into her own.
Bishop: Chris Evans – Before I even nailed down this character I had Chris Evans in mind, as he looks in the movie Push, which is a little rough around the edges, but definitely formidable. He’s got that ability to play tough, but with a vulnerability that makes him relatable. Plus, he’s so damn pretty to look at.
Bridget Russo: Kat Dennings – Such a sassy actress, I could totally picture her delivering the lines with just the right balance of bitter bite mixed with playfulness.
Mason: Ryan Reynolds: a la Hannibal King in Blade Trinity. No one else could play his goofball humor while still conveying that he could break your spine with one hand if he wanted to. Overall a great contrast to Bishop’s strong, silent type.
Hanna Evans: Kristin Bell – Because a) I put her into every book I can, and b) her coloring went well as Anja’s sister and c) I love the thought of her verbally sparring against Mason later.
Detective Andrew Lucas: Matt Passmore – Have you seen The Glades? God he cracks me up in that show! I wanted that kind of light hearted banter from him, like he takes everything as a big joke, but he’s also crazy smart and he’ll figure out all your secrets in the end…
Aleksandr Kursik: Daniel Craig – I could just picture him as the suave, powerful vampire, alternately charming and brutal depending on the situation at hand.
Booth: Ron Perlman – Isn’t he in every sci-fi movie?
Rob: Jason Statham - Rob is a character I borrowed from my True Blood fanfic, and I pictured him as Handsome Rob from The Italian Job at the time and the name just stuck.
Jakob: Alexander Skaarsgard - Okay so I'm typecasting a little here, but who else can you picture as a Viking with flowing blonde hair? Okay, maybe the guy from Thor, but he was the wrong type for this role, knowing what's coming ahead. I couldn't find a good picture of him with long hair that didn't look kinda derpy though.
Now I've got just about every other bit player assigned to a celebrity as well, but this is getting long enough, so I'll save some for the next book, Meet Me When the Sun Goes Down.
Review of Storm Chaser by Mark R. Hunter
I was trying to classify this novel and found that it’s not easy to stick into a particular genre. The author Mark R. Hunter describes it as an action-adventure-romantic comedy-mystery, and I have to agree, that about sums it up, with a focus on romance. The story follows Allie Crane, who chases storms and other dangerous phenomena for her career as a freelance photographer, bringing her to a small town in Indiana. Chance Hamlin, the state trooper and quintessential “good guy”, suffers from his own set of preconceived notions of what a journalist from California is like. I found myself thinking of Pride and Prejudice, with the main girl being too proud to share her weaknesses with anyone and the man too prejudiced to accept her for who she was instead of who he assumed she might be. Of course Allie has just enough secrecy wrapped around her to send his imagination into overdrive, and all manner of miscommunications ensue.
This book was easy to pick up and hard to put down, and that’s saying a lot for someone like me who finds very little time to read! I knew from the first chapter I downloaded as a free preview that I wanted to read more, and I was glad when it finally came to Nook. The characters were engaging and had that rapid fire, witty repartee I tend to like. Chance and Allie had a combustible chemistry, and it was equally fun to watch them spark with conflict or simmer with heat depending on the mood. Allie was spunky and smart, just the kind of heroine I like to read, and she didn’t let Chance walk all over her as some heroines do in romances. I admit, I don’t know much about storms, fires or chemical spills, but it was obvious the author has done his homework with enough details to lend authenticity and keep things interesting without bogging us down with unnecessary minutiae. All in all, a very entertaining read!
Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down is now available online!
The first book of my new vampire series is now available for sale on Amazon.com and 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.
I wrote this one during November for NaNoWriMo and I’m super happy about how it came out and how the characters evolved. You know me and taking breaks are non-mixy things, so I’m currently working on the outline for Mercy for the Damned, due out next spring. My Vampire Diaries fanfic idea fell flat after I got the first chapter done, so I’ve decided to put that on hold and wait for better inspiration while I continue to work on Mercy and the Push fanfic (which doesn’t have many readers, but I’m loving the characters there!).
In the meantime, Happy Holidays to everyone who celebrates them, and don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon to those of you who don’t. 
We Have A Winner!
Thanks to everyone who voted on cover art for Wake Me When the Sun Goes Down, it came in at 14 for the one on the left, and 9 for the one on the right, counting votes offsite. I kind of agree, the one on the left looks more suited to Paranormal Romance even though the one on the right is probably cleaner when shrunk down. So, I’ll be using the one on the left, and hopefully it’ll be up and available for sale in the next few days. Tracy was our winner for a free copy of a book and she chose The Touch. Congratulations Tracy, I’ll send it out tonight.
I’ll take a break for a couple of weeks for the holidays before I get into serious plotting for The Fallen sequel, Mercy for the Damned, due out next spring. In the meantime, I’ve started a couple of fanfictions. One for the movie Push called Someone to Watch Over Me. If you’ve never seen the movie before, I recommend it, it’s set in a world where people have psychic abilities and a government agency is chasing after them. Chris Evans is fantastic in it, and he helped inspire my main guy Bishop in Wake Me.
I’m also working on another Vampire Diaries one where Damon lives next door to Elena while she’s in college on the west coast. It’s completely AU and nobody knows that vampires exist, should be fun.
