Cover Reveal: Colonization: Paradise 21 by Aubrie Dionne

I am very excited today to be a part of Aubrie Dionne's Cover reveal for Colonization: Paradise 21 (releasing November 7, 2012). Isn't this gorgeous?

Finding a new home has never been so dangerous.

Andromeda has spent all seventeen years of her life aboard a deep space transport vessel destined for a paradise planet. Her safe cocoon is about to break open as Paradise 21 looms only one month away, and she must take the aptitude tests to determine her role on the new world and her computer assigned lifemate. As a great-granddaughter of the Commander of the ship, she wants to live up to her family name. But, her forbidden love for her childhood friend, Sirius, distracts her and she fails the tests. The results place her in a menial role in the new colony and pair her with Corvus, “the oaf”.

But when Andromeda steps foot on Paradise 21, her predestined future is the least of her worries. Alien ghosts from a failed colonization warn her of a deadly threat to her colony. And when Sirius's ship crashes on the far ridge in an attempt to investigate, she journeys to rescue him with Corvus.

Andromeda now must convince the authorities of the imminent danger to protect her new home. What she didn't expect was a battle of her own feelings for Sirius and Corvus.

Can she save the colony and discover her true love?

Author Bio:

Aubrie Dionne writes science fiction fantasy with romantic elements. Her writings have appeared in Mindflights, Niteblade, Silver Blade, Emerald Tales, Hazard Cat, Moon Drenched Fables, A Fly in Amber, and Aurora Wolf. Her books are published by Inkspell Publishing, Entangled Publishing, Lyrical Press, and Gypsy Shadow Publishing. She’s also a professional flutist in New England.

Please visit her website: www.authoraubrie.com

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2964057.Aubrie_Dionne

Twitter: @authoraubrie

Blog: http://authoraubrie.blogspot.com

Giveaway! – Open for US and UK only.

We have a very cool keyring as a giveaway. 

Below is the rafflecopter link:

For Bloggers:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For Wordpress:

http://www.inkspellpublishing.com/1/post/2012/07/colonization-paradise-21-cover-reveal.html

Good luck to all who enter, and Congrats, Aubrie!

And the Winner Is,,,

Thank you to all who stopped by to enter my 100 follower contest. And now, the answer you have all been waiting for - who is going to win the signed copy of Woman of Honor by Nicole Zoltack?

After tallying up all the entries, I had my son pull out our winner, and that winner is:


                                                   Marybelle


Congratulations!!! Marybelle, please contact me a mewaibel @ gmail dot com with your mailing address.


Thanks again, to all of you for participating! And be sure to stop back on Monday for a cover reveal.  Have a great weekend!!!

Last Chance!

Today is the last chance to enter to win a signed copy of Nicole Zoltack's book, Woman of Honor.

Details can be found here.

Good luck!  Winner will be announced on Thursday.

Quick post- running late!

Running late today, so this is just going to be a quick post.

Fiona and Tammy (two of my wonderful CP's) have started a bi-monthly feature called "Yeah, But Would You Date Me?" Here, they post the first chapter of your WIP to see if we would keep reading because we like (or hate) your MC.  You can check it out at Fiona's site (where Tammy is the first entrant) http://agelessdruids.blogspot.com/ or at Tammy's site (as they will be switching the hosting duties) http://tcmckeewriter.blogspot.com/  Give it a shot! (I know I have a WIP I'm going to send their way :-)

And don't forget to enter to win  signed copy of Woman of Honor  by Nicole Zoltack. Details are at the end of this post.

Interview and Contest

A few weeks ago I reached 100 followers, and promised to hold a special contest. Well, today is the day that  contest begins. 

But first, Nicole Zoltack, one of my awesome CP's, is releasing her e-book, Woman of Honor, in paperback.

Aislinn of Bairbhe dreams of becoming a lady knight to honor the death of her fallen brother. To her mother's horror, King Patrick grants Aislinn's wish and she begins her long years of training.

Despite the mockery of the other pages, and the disdain of Prince Caelan who also trains to be a knight, Aislinn commits herself to her dreams and embarks on a journey of self-discovery and bravery. Through the years, Aislinn and Caelan grow from sparring classmates to good friends. They both know that someday Caelan will marry for the sake of the kingdom, but even that cannot keep them from falling in love.

The threat of war with the Speicans is a constant threat, and one that grows more frightening as she and Caelan train toward their eventual knighthood. Aislinn has committed herself to serving Arnhem, and has promised herself as King's Champion when Caelan claims the throne. She is willing to give up everything... her childhood, her life, even her heart for Arnhem. No matter the pain it brings.

[Blurb and Picture from Goodreads]

To help spread the word, Nicole agreed to an interview (and help with the contest), so, without further ado, here it is!

How long have you been writing?
I’ve been writing since I first learned how to write! I started writing my first novel in the sixth grade. I switched from fiction to poetry (bad poetry, I might add) in high school. I didn’t finish that first novel until the summer between sophomore and junior year of college! In fairness, I stopped working on it for years at a time. Thank God it doesn’t take me anywhere nearly that long to finish first drafts anymore (I’ve written entire first drafts of novels in a month

now.) When I was 8 months pregnant with my first son, I quit my job to stay-at-home, and now I’m a writer and an editor.

What made you choose to go with a small press?
I look at publishing as a ladder. Since I want to one day be traditionally published, I thought it was a good idea to have some books published first before trying to secure an agent. I am very happy with Desert Breeze Publishing.

Why did you decide to do e-books first?
I was one of the debut authors with Desert Breeze Publishing as Woman of Honor was one of the first books published by them. Desert Breeze Publishing is an epublisher so, for the longest time, their books are

only available in ebook format. I decided to go with DBP for Woman of Honor after talking with Gail Delaney, the editor-in-chief, during a yahoo publisher chat. She mentioned she was looking for a fantasy romance series, I mentioned that I was working on the first book of one. She told me to send it once I finished it. I did, she accepted, and that was that.

What made you decide to release Woman of Honor in paperback? And when will you release Knight of Glory and Champion of Valor in paperback?

Although DBP is an epublisher, I secretly always hoped they would eventually release our novels in print. And now they are! I was beyond thrilled when Gail emailed me to let me know that they had picked Woman of Honor, as well as nine other titles, to be the first ones to go to print.

I don’t know the exact dates of when Knight of Glory and Champion of Valor will be in paperback but it will be before the end of the year for Knight of Glory and sometime in early 2013 for Champion of Valor. [Be sure to check back here or at NicoleZoltack.com for updates.]

As of this moment, I can purchase copies of Woman of Honor but the public only can through me. If you would like a copy, email me at Nicole.Zoltack@gmail.com I’ll be more than happy to autograph it for you! The distributor that DBP uses is still working on getting the print book available on Amazon and other places.

Was it difficult to convert the books from e-format to paperback?
One nice part about using a publishing house, even a small one, is that you don’t have to do the converting by yourself. I know nothing about the conversion process. I went through Woman of Honor for any typos and made corrections, but that was it.

You wear many hats- author, editor, critique partner, wife, mother-- how do you balance it all?
I don’t get much sleep. I get up early to work on my edits and then stay up late to work on my writing. It’s definitely not easy with three young boys! I have a 3 ¾, an almost 2 year old, and a 4 month old. The eldest, in his quest to be potty trained, has given up his nap which used to be additional time for me to get editing and writing done so I really have no choice but to sacrifice sleep to get things done.

If you could go back in time and have tea with anyone, who would you choose and why?
Way too many choices! I’ll say Joan of Arc - one of the first female knights!

Favorite drink?
A vanilla milkshake. I don’t drink much other than water, though. Boring, I know! [Not necessarily! I read somewhere that people who like vanilla ice cream are more adventurous than those who prefer chocolate.]

Favorite writing snack?
Nuts, especially cashews. Or chocolate!

Do you listen to music while you write, and if so, what?
Nope! Not unless you count PBS in the background, lol

Three things you must have when you sit down to write.
My netbook or my computer. That’s it. I don’t need anything else to write.

Where is one place you've always wanted to go, but never been?
Europe! I want to go to Germany to see the castles. I want to go to England and Ireland. I would love to do research in Spain. Someday, hopefully!

Thank you so much for stopping by and letting us get to know a bit about you! You can find Nicole at the following links:
Desert Breeze Publishing, Amazon, All Romance E-Books, Barnes & Noble, Linkedin, Flickr, Twitter, MySpace, and Nicole Zoltack

Now, I mentioned a contest above, and here it is . Nicole has agreed to sign a copy of Woman of Honor  and I will send it to the lucky winner.  (See, I told you she is an awesome CP!)

How do I enter, you ask? 

In the comments, type "I wish to be the first female knight of this land" to enter.

The contest will run from Today (7/16/12) until Midnight (EST) 7/23/12. That's one full week to enter. I will announce the winner on Thursday, 7/26/12.

The winner will be drawn at random, but you can increase your odds. I will award one extra entry for each of the following:

1) Current follower

2) Post a link to this post at Twitter, Facebook, your blog, MySpace, or Linkdin (please provide link in the comments) [Just to be clear on this one, there will be one extra entry for each of these things, so if you post to twitter, facebook, and blog, that would be 3 extra entries]

3) Current follower who refers a new follower [please provide me the name of the new follower]

Good luck to you all!

What Was I Thinking?

Have you ever gone back to older work that you queried to agents and read through it and thought, "What in the world was I thinking?"

Yeah, that was me yesterday. I read through The Ruby Dagger, a story I had shopped around, getting a few requests for partials and fulls, and was stunned.  I had known there was something wrong with the story when I sent it out (I was hoping an agent would see it, love it, and tell me where I had gone wrong--didn't happen, and I don't blame them!) As I read through, I realized not only did I have gigantic plot issues, but the flow was off. It was not in any way, shape, or form something that should have gone out there.

But it did, and I'm okay with that. I'm far enough removed from when I wrote it, that I can see what I need  to change. I know that I need to know more about my characters' past so I can get the present correct, and I need better motivation for some things that happen.

Last year, when I was querying this story, I would have been utterly discouraged by the amount of work this story needs. Now, I feel energized by it. I want to get in there and play with these characters, learn about them again and get the story right, because in the end, that's what it's all about to me- getting the story right.

So, have you ever gone back and thought, "What was I thinking?" and if so, what did you do about it?

***Note:  Sorry no information on the contest yet. Still working out a few final details. Hope to have it up on Monday!

Slicing and Dicing

It's amazing how a quick conversation with a CP can help you see exactly what you need to do to fix a problem you've encountered in your MS. At least, that's how it's been for me.

I got feedback back on TLP, and a quick Skype chat later I knew exactly what I needed to do. So, I buckled down at the keyboard and sliced and diced, and fluffed and primped.

In the end I removed two chapters (well, one was actually a duplication I didn't realize I had done), but I strengthened the story, as well as added to my word count (I have a tendency to underwrite my description).

So, now while I wait for feedback on two projects (DKK and TLP) I am ready to start a new project. As soon as I know the title for it, I'll let you know. I can tell you it will be a reverse Beauty and the Beast tale, where my male MC (in this case a merchant) must help a princess find redemption. I can't wait to get to the drafting board on this one, as the two characters have been chattering to me for a while now on what they think needs to happen.

Hope you all have a great Monday, and be sure to tune in on Thursday, as I will (finally) announce my Give Away for my 100th follower. You won't want to miss it!!!

Splash-tastic Weekend

We had a great time this weekend visiting with friends at Sea Breeze Amusement Park, just outside of Rochester. The water rides and coasters were great! Unfortunately, there was an issue with our water shoes (they were not aqua socks) so, after our friends were told they couldn't go down the water slide (after they had climbed up and were getting ready to get into the tube) we ditched the water park and went on the other rides. If you are in the area, I do recommend it for a good time- just be ware the water shoes!

We returned home and I learned that Tammy had been hit by the storms that blew through on Friday night. Fortunately, she and her family are well, although temporarily displaced as they have no power. She has a post up at her site- check it out and send her some love.

Sunday, the boy and I went to a luncheon for some friends of ours who are moving to Alaska to be missionaries. It will be sad to see them go, but we wish them the best. After we returned home, I finished up my second draft of DKK and sent it off for critiquing. The timing was good, as I just received feedback on TLP (some minor character things) and will be working on that.

How was your weekend? Did you finish up any projects? Go anywhere special? Do you have special plans for the 4th? Share below!!!