X is for eXtremely Crazy

Debra has a crazy goal to garner sales for her new release.

It's here! The fifth and final installment in the Holidays at The Corral series hit cyber shelves today. New Year's Eve at The Corral is the shortest of all the books. I definitely planned it that way, and while it would seem that a short book would sell well because of its price (99 cents regular price, on sale at TWRP for 50 cents through Friday), my editor mentioned that books of that length don't really sell well. Plus, I'm not that great at marketing. I used to do blog tours for each of my books, but busy life (and a touch of laziness I'll admit) got me out of that habit.

But I wanted to come up with SOMEthing to help sell these books. So, I came up with a really crazy goal of trying to sell 1,000 copies of this book, using mostly word of mouth. The challenge (as I'm calling it) will officially kick off in January. I'm still figuring out a few details and logistics: how to use Rafflecopter as I've never done it before, finding blogs who will let me guest and post about my promotion, setting up a Facebook event, etc. School is out in two days for Christmas break. I'll be tackling those issues then.

In the mean time, here's the basic idea of what I have planned.

#sellathousand

The Challenge:

When I submitted this story, my editor told me books of this length don't sell well. My immediate thought was how fun it would be to prove her wrong. (In the best way possible!)

Almost immediately an idea began to form. As crazy as it sounds, I decided to challenge myself to sell a thousand copies of this book. Why a thousand, you ask? Simply because a hundred didn't seem like enough (LOL).
For less than the cost of a cup of coffee (and I'm not even talking about one of those fancy frou frou ones) you can help me win this personal challenge. All you have to do is buy a copy of the book. (Passing word of the challenge along to your reader friends would be appreciated, too.)

You might be thinking: What's in this for me? Well, I'll tell you...First, you get to read a great story! You also have the chance to win a some prizes. (And who doesn't love prizes?) If you buy a copy of the book, if you tell a friend (or two or three or ten....you know, like those old commercials: And she told two friends and she told two friends and so on and so on...), if you Tweet about the challenge or post about it on Facebook, or if you leave a comment here, you can earn Rafflecopter entry points. The winner of the Rafflecopter drawing will get a paperback set (autographed of course!) of the original Corral series: This Time for Always, This Can't Be Love, and This Feels Like Home (If you're outside the continental U S of A the set will be digital.) AND digital copies (in the format of your choice) of the first four books in the Holidays at The Corral series (Christmas, Valentine's Day, Fourth of July, and Halloween).

So, what are you waiting for? Go grab a copy of New Year's Eve at The Corral!
TWRP: http://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/all-titles/4728-new-year-s-eve-at-the-corral.html
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MEEI0NN?tag=thewildrosepr-20
B & N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/new-years-eve-at-the-corral-debra-st-john/1124933779?ean=2940156932573

Happy Reading and many, many thanks for participating in my challenge!

P.S. If you can't wait to find out if you've won copies of the holiday books, they are on sale for $0.99 each for the month of January 2017.

So, what do you think? Am I crazy?!

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

N is for Nick

Nick Jameson is the hero in Debra's New Year's Eve story.

I feel like I know Nick pretty well. In addition to starring in his own story, he has cameos in just about every other story of the main Corral series and the holiday spin offs. Sometimes by name. Sometimes by just 'the bartender'.

In writing his story, though, one comment my editor made was about not knowing him very well. I think that's an overall dilemma in a short story. Nick's clocks in at just over 8,000 words. With a narrative that short, there isn't a whole lot of time to really dig deep into a character's psyche. It's more of a 'what you see is what you get' kind of situation.

In fact, most of what we know about Nick comes from the heroine's POV. Here we're in her head on the opening page:

Nick would make someone a good husband. Not her of course. It wasn’t like that between them. Although she couldn’t deny the hint of attraction that simmered right beneath the surface, hooking up with Nick, as good as it probably would be, wasn’t worth risking their friendship over. Lovers came and went. Truly good friends were much rarer and harder to find.
Besides, she knew Nick. He wasn’t interested in settling down. He wasn’t a player in the strictest sense of the word, but happily ever after with one woman wasn’t on his radar anywhere in the near future.

I did have some fun throwing in some phrasing that went along with Nick's career of bartender, and hopefully put us deeper into his POV when we do get into his head.

His mouth went dry and his head buzzed like he’d had too many shots of Jager.

The idea burned through him like a sip of perfectly aged Tennessee whiskey. Smooth with a warmth that spread until it consumed him.

It was like someone poured one-hundred proof tequila on his already shriveled soul. And shoved the worm down his throat for good measure.

...with an intensity that built like a shot of liquid cocaine burning into his belly.

New Year's Eve at The Corral makes its debut on December 14.

In the meantime, Halloween at The Corral had its worldwide release yesterday!

Get your copy at:

The Wild Rose Press: (It's on sale there for $1.00!)
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Sunday Snippet - A Peek at Debra's VALENTINE'S DAY AT THE CORRAL

The latest in Debra's Holidays at The Corral Series released on Friday.

“Gail?”

She groaned. Someone had recognized her? The stairs were only a few feet away. So close to freedom. Maybe she could pretend she hadn’t heard her name. She took another step.

“Gail Robbins?” The deep voice was closer now.

Crap. She turned.

Double crap. Scott Callahan, the new president of Thompson and Sons, the accounting firm where she worked, stood before her. She bit back another groan. Of all the people to run into.

He smiled. “I thought I recognized you.”

“Hello, Mr. Callahan.”

“Scott.”

Even though theirs was a small firm, being on a first name basis with the head of the company seemed too familiar, so she merely nodded.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

Not the word she’d use. More like awkward. Or embarrassing. Running into your boss at a speed dating event? Gads.

Wait…

“What are you doing here?” The question popped out before she could stop it.

He chuckled and tapped the name tag affixed to the lapel of his tailored suit jacket. Had he come right from work? “Same thing you are.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You’re here for the mixer?”

His green eyes twinkled. “Yep.”

“Really?” Triple crap. Her mouth had a mind of its own. If she wasn’t careful, it would get her fired. Not to mention the fact she’d snuck out of work early to go home and change before heading to The Corral.

He quirked an eyebrow, which drew her attention to his face again. Up close, he appeared more boyishly charming than stern executive. Younger too. Considering his position, she’d assumed he was in his mid-forties. Now she reassessed and put him closer to her own age of thirty.

“Does that surprise you?”

His age? She jerked back to the conversation at hand. “What?”

“You sound surprised I’m here for the speed dating event.”

“I am.” In for a penny, in for a pound. Not like the situation could get any worse. She might as well be honest.

He laughed. The deep, throaty chuckle was…sexy.

Gail blinked. Where had that come from? You shouldn’t think your boss’s laugh was sexy. Or the wayward lock of sinfully black hair falling over his forehead, loosened from the sweptback style as if he’d just run his fingers through it.

“I have to admit, I’m surprised I’m here too.”

“That makes two of us.” She bit her lip. “I mean, me. Not you. Me being here is surprising. It’s all my cousin’s fault.” Ugh. The more she tried to explain, the more tangled her words became. And now she was rhyming.

“Ah, we have something in common. It’s all my sister’s fault that I’m here.” He grinned. “Tell you what, how about I buy you a drink, and we can swap stories about our meddling relatives?”

Once again Gail gaped. Had he just asked her to have a drink with him? Her first instinct was to say no. For one thing, she wanted to get the hell out of there. For another, he was her boss. Mingling socially didn’t seem…proper. Then again, was it worse to refuse to have a drink with your boss? That couldn’t be good for a career either.

He leaned closer. The spicy yet subtle scent of his aftershave tickled her nostrils. “Come on, help a guy out.”

Odd phrasing. “Help you out?”

“Yes. Please save me from the woman dressed in a pink jumpsuit checking out my ass.”

Gail laughed. How could a girl say no to that?

Mission Accomplished!

Debra celebrates completing her WIP!

I was a day behind schedule, but it's official. The first draft of my WIP, "One Great Night" is complete!

Now I'll admit, there are a couple of places I used stand-in phrases and highlighted them to show I needed to go back and make them better, but that will happen during the revising process. But for intents and purposes, the story is complete from beginning to end.

This stage of a story is so, so fun. Now I'll let it sit for a couple of days and then do a read-through. Since I'd been writing in such a piece-meal fashion, this will be the first time I'll be reading the story from start to finish. How exciting is that?! From there I'll begin revising and tweaking and rewriting until it sounds the way I want it to. After that it will be 'search' edits where I use the find function in Word and look for specific words to eliminate or change. Then I'll go through and do manuscript formatting to make sure everything is aligned the way my publisher prefers.

The last step will of course be to submit it to my editor. The goal is to have it to her by the middle of August when I go back to school. Right now I'm feeling pretty good about my plan and my timeline.

In the meantime, I have a book coming out August 1 that I haven't even thought about promotion for. Yikes.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com

Family Secrets - coming August 1 from The Wild Rose Press. Paperback available now!

Once Ana started reading Rescue Me, she could not stop.

                                                    Today's Friday Friend, Jody Vitek

Jody will give a $10 Amazon gift card to one lucky commenter today. Leave your email address with your comment. 

      

Thank you for having me today at Heroines with Hearts. Bear with me today as my responses could be a little slow. I am traveling to a writer's retreat that I’m partaking in this weekend. I’d like to share my brief journey to publication and then about my newest release Rescue Me.

The first book I ever wrote is on a back shelf waiting to see the light of day. About 11 years into my writing career, I started researching agents and built a list of those I would like to represent me. Once I felt confident my book was ready for representation, I submitted queries to the agents on my list. The rejections flowed into my email inbox. After multiple times multiple rejections from agents, I decided to submit to electronic publishers and made forward progress. Two steps forward and then the rejection arrived.

About to give up, I was given a lead to two more electronic publishers. I was firmly told to submit to them. So, I sent my submissions to the two publishers and waited for a response. On an early October day I received feedback from both publishers. The first email came in the morning and it was a rejection. Later that afternoon, my family was gathered in the living room and I checked my phone for messages. There was the e-mail from the other publisher. After hemming and hawing over whether to open it on my phone or go downstairs and sit in my office at my computer to cry over the rejection, I decided read it on my phone. Opening the e-mail my mouth dropped open, closed as I continued to read, and with tears in my eyes I screamed, “I sold my book.”

Florida Heat was released in July 2012 and Rescue Me was in the process of being written and edited. I decided to submit Rescue Me to my publisher when it was ready for submission. I wasn’t interested in trying to get an agent and that’s why I went back to my publisher. I thought it would be easier the second time around. After having gotten all those rejections and having a publisher but it wasn’t. I still worried that they would reject me. That they would reject my story. To my delight, they offered me a contract.

Are you wondering how I came up with the idea for this book? Well, if you ask any writer how they come up with ideas for their stories you will get a variety of answers. But in general, every writer will have similar answers. A line in a song stuck out in their head, something overheard in a conversation in a crowded elevator, something they see on the side of the street and the list goes on.

For me, Rescue Me stems from a visit to a family member’s old farm house. Although the city I named in the book is fictitious, I based it very loosely on the city where the family farm is location. It was after I started writing the beginning of the story that I shared the basis of this book with my second cousin, who grew up on the farm, and he told me a little history that shocked me. What I wrote, actually happened to my distant relatives! What am I talking about? The real farm was won on a poker bet.

It only takes a sliver of information or to see a miniscule detail on the side of the road to spark an idea. To make you wonder, what is the story behind that? So, be careful of what you say and do because it may end up in a book someday.

What tidbit of your life would you be willing to put in a book? Are there any taboo parts of your life to be written about? If yes, you don’t have to explain but it would be interesting to see how many of us have taboo parts in our life.

Ana's Review of Rescue Me:

     In additional to her Twin Cities veterinary practice, Catherine Mornelli takes in stray animals as Four Hooves and Paws Rescue. The land where she houses her rescue horses has been put up for sale. Pragmatically, she decides to see her favorite great-aunt Elaine’s barn is serviceable.

     Up north, Aunt Elaine’s 200 acres abuts Catherine’s old boyfriend’s farm. Josef has become a successful farmer and rents Elaine’s fields. Josef dotes on Aunt Elaine, but he is secretly hoping the sweet old lady will bequeath her land back to him. You see, his great-grandfather lost the land to Catherine’s great-grandfather in a poker game. 

      And dear Aunt Elaine has a scheme of her own: to get Catherine and Josef to marry.

      With this setup, Jody Vitek creates an enthralling story with a host of supporting characters and perfectly timed plot twists. The priest who tries to block Josef’s and Catherine’s “shotgun” wedding so Aunt Elaine’s trust money will go to the church. The tornado that destroys Aunt Elaine’s barn along with Catherine’s dream for her rescue service. The dilemma after one night of passion.

      Ms. Vitek writes with vivid imagery and graceful phrasing.  I recommend it wholeheartedly.

Her website: www.jodyvitek.com
Her books are available at Melange Books, Amazon, and B&N
She can be found on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jody-Vitek-Author/142820225824162
Twitter: @JodyVitek
Email: info@jodyvitek.com