Angie Derek Fan Page Giveaway

I hit 100 Fans at my Angie Derek Page on Facebook. To celebrate I am giving away a copy of one of my ebooks. Head on over and enter the Angie Derek Fan Page Giveaway

Horse Schools Online Giveaway

Only two mare days until the end of January. I'm really hoping to hit 100 Fans on my Horse Schools Online Facebook Page by the end of January. We'll be giving away a special prize to one of our Fans when we hit 100. Click on the box below to go to our page. Then click the Like button to become a Fan.

Horse Schools Online

Six Sentence Sunday - Spectors by Angelia Almos

Spectors by Angelia Almos. 

A space pirate almost loses everything she cares about when she's blackmailed by the military into running a dangerous mission.

Six Sentence Sunday Snippet:

She rested her chin on his shoulder. Their argument momentarily forgotten while she focused on the problem at hand. “We’ve got an MSA ship up ahead that needs to be avoided. What would you suggest?”

His face lit up and his lips curved into a grin. “I’ll get us out of here.”

For more Six Sentence Sunday's from other authors head on over to http://www.sixsunday.com

Available as an ebook from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Sony, Kobo, Smashwords. 

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday - Horse Charmer by Angelia Almos

Horse Charmer by Angelia Almos. Young adult fantasy novel.

A sheltered princess discovers her remarkable gift with horses while on a dangerous quest to find her father's murderer.

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday Snippet:

The barn was quiet and empty of people as she hurried down the long aisle of stalls. The presence of the horses worked its way through her like a soothing balm. The stallion she'd been riding earlier nickered as soon as he spotted her. Cassia patted his head and reached to unlatch his stall. She stopped. Someone was watching her. She turned to the stall across from him.

The petite mare Luki had given her looked back at her. Even in the dim light, the mare was achingly beautiful compared to the bulky mountain horses around her. Cassia slowly approached her and opened the stall door.

For more Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday's from other authors head on over to http://scififansat.blogspot.com.

Available as an ebook from Sony, iBooks, Diesel eBook Store, Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes and Noble.

Available in print from Create Space, Amazon, Barnes and Noble.

My LoveBytes Interview

Note:  This article used with permission by RWA Online, Chapter #136 from their January/February 2012 issue of LoveBytes.

Interview with Angie Derek

By Karen Jones

Angie, would you tell us a little about Mafia Secret?

 

Mafia Secret is a romantic suspense novel about a professional cheerleader thrust into the mob.

Lessa Noelle grew up never knowing she was the illegitimate daughter of a mafia king pin. After his murder, she finds herself a surprise heiress immersed in the dangerous world of organized crime with only the guidance of Marco Santo her father’s second in command to help her.

Marco searches for her father’s killer and tries to keep the realities of his life from touching her. An uneasy attraction blossoms between the two. An already dangerous situation turns volatile when a killer turns his attention to Lessa.

How did you come up with the idea for Mafia Secret?

The initial story idea came from a running plot line on a soap opera. The story line had ended and I was left wondering what would have happened if the girl character had made a different decision. Mafia Secret started with the question – what if the person you loved had to lie to you on a regular basis? Could you accept it? My heroine came to me first with MS and the hero evolved from the heroine’s innocence. I wrote with the idea of the heroine being the light and the hero being the dark. The hero needed her light, but could she handle his dark?  

Why did you make your hero a mobster?

I think it was the challenge of the darker hero. Could I make a character who might be the villain in another book the hero of this book? The main idea of the story was the mixture and contrast of light/innocent (the heroine) with dark/not-so-innocent (the hero). Could the heroine accept the hero for who he was? Could the hero be a better man for the heroine? Plus, antiheroes can be very sexy. J 

What was it about Mafia Secret that made your editor want to buy it?

You know, I’m not totally sure. The phone call is kind of a blur. I do recall her mentioning it being a fun read and being intrigued by the hero being a mobster.

What was the most difficult aspect of writing Mafia Secret?

Figuring out the family dynamic and my hero and heroine’s relationship. Toying with how dark to make the mob aspect of the plot line. How dark to make my hero while still keeping him the hero.

How much research did you conduct for Mafia Secret and what was the most interesting thing you did while conducting your research?

I tend to research as I go so am never sure how much research I do with a particular book. I did research the mob, Napa Valley, NFL cheerleading, and little odds and ends here and there. I love research and it is way too easy to research, research, research. What I like to do is have just enough little tidbits to sprinkle in for realism, but I try not to get trapped into this is the “way it is” mentality if it starts to interfere with the story. Plausibility/believability is more important than real. Some stuff you just have to make up – that’s why a novelist writes fiction.

The most interesting thing I researched, to me, was figuring out professional cheerleading. I watched Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making The Team and NFL Cheerleaders Making the Squad, googled a lot, and sent some questions off to a director of a professional cheerleading team. I was trying to make sure I got the professional cheerleading culture right even though it is more of the background of my heroine than the setting of the book.

Prior to publishing your first romance novel, you self-published a non-fiction book and then sold the second and third edition to a publisher. Would you talk a little about that?

I’ll try to make a long story short. I had the idea for the book, Horse Schools: The International Guide to Universities, Colleges, Preparatory and Secondary Schools, and Specialty Equine Programs, and submitted it to several publishers. It was uniformly rejected as being a niche within a niche. I had already pretty much written the book which took over a year to compile the information. After a lot of thought and research I decided to self-publish it. I devised a marketing campaign which included a lot of review copies. I sent press releases off to every horse magazine I had found letting them know about the book and asking if they would like to review it. The book kind of took off from there. I had a lot of direct sales from my website, but the book was also available through all major retailers as a POD (print-on-demand) order book. Due to the nature of the book, I had always intended on updating and revising it about every two years.

While I was updating for the second edition I decided to re-submit it to the publishers who did horse books. I devised a proposal which included a copy of the current edition as well as my sales numbers and the marketing efforts I had done up to that point. Out of the five publishers, I got one very nice rejection (loved the book, but niche within a niche) and two requests for more information. Out of those two requests, one resulted in a publishing contract with Trafalgar Square Books.

A lot of the marketing items I did for the 1^st and subsequent editions apply more toward nonfiction and not all of it was successful as far as time and money resulting in sales. But the main items I had the most success from were: 1) Press releases targeted to niche magazines with the offer of sending a review copy of the book. 2) Writing nonfiction articles related to the subject of my book. I always saw an increase in sales when a new article or review would appear in a magazine. From what I have seen, I think the most important marketing tool in a fiction writer’s closet is to write and release the next book.

My experience with self-publishing has been that the process is completely doable. You as an author have to set realistic goals and, most importantly, a budget. Self-publishing is a lot cheaper now than it was when I first did it ten years ago which is great. You can do some items on your own and shop around for contractors and/or trade with friends to handle the items you aren’t comfortable with. Print-on-demand technology has also become a lot more common making it easier for authors to directly contract with POD companies instead of jumping through a ton of hopes or going through an intermediary. With ebooks increasing I know a lot of self-publishers are skipping print books altogether, but I figure if I put that much effort into the book I might as well offer it in print and as an ebook.

What is your process for writing fiction?

I’m a pantzer who generally writes sequentially though I will hop around if I get a flash on a future scene or am uncertain what happens next. I almost always start with a vague idea which grows into the characters and from there into a plot. Mafia Secret is a perfect example as I had the idea – an admirable hero in a not so admirable lifestyle falling in love with a slightly innocent law-abiding girl. Could they overcome their differences? The characters emerged from that idea. The plot to thrust them together and put them to the test evolved from writing the story.

My steamy paranormal novella, The Beast’s Redemption, was a little different as I was basing it off a fairy tale. So, the theme and general plot was already set. Something I wasn’t used to doing, but even with Beast, it was the characters who guided me through the story and who told me what happened next.

Do you use any techniques, tools, or aids to help you write?

A thesaurus is a writer’s best friend. When I start to flounder I might do some research to keep me working while giving my subconscious time to work out the problem.

How do you make time to write?

It’s just one of those things you do. Sometimes I’m good at setting time aside and getting the work done. Other times not so much. But I figure it all evens out. Over the summer I was getting up early to write before the kids got up as I was getting very little done during the day. Now that the kids are in school I mostly work while they are in school and in the evening while they watch TV or do homework. If I’m on a time crunch I am generally chained to my laptop all waking hours, bringing it wherever I happen to be going.

When you are writing, who is in control? You or your characters?

My characters. 100%. Occasionally they will let me have some input, but in the first draft it is all them all the way.

What advice do you have for other writers?

Write what you love. Let the characters take you for a ride. Be okay with a crappy first draft, second draft, etc. Do the best you can in that moment and then move on to the next book. We learn more from the act of writing not rewriting. Editing and rewriting do have their place, but it is too easy to get sucked into the trap of polishing that first, second, third, etc. book over and over and over again. You need to let your baby go whether you send it out to a publisher or self-publish.

Give yourself permission to learn. Writing is a skill just as playing the piano, riding a horse, playing soccer, knitting, etc. are skills. Everyone starts out as a beginner. And if you practice, practice, practice, you work up to intermediate and beyond. You can take classes, read writing books, study books you love, study other story-telling methods, actively write (picking one skill to work on with each book), etc. But remember when you are learning, no technique or way is the only way to write. It is that instructor/writer’s way of doing things. Go ahead and try it, but if it doesn’t work for you than toss it aside and try something new.

Consider what you want from your writing career. We’re currently in a publishing world that seems to change every night. Don’t let it scare you. Read up on what is happening – ignore all the sky is falling screamers. Research all the methods toward publication and choose what path(s) you wish to pursue. Believe in yourself and your stories.

Why did you decide to become an author?

Because the stories won’t stop. Might as well take advantage of an overactive imagination and make a career of it. :-) A steady income would be nice too.

Why did you decide to become a romance author?

I think you are compelled to write what you read. Romances are one of the genres I’ve read since I was a teen and even when I’m not writing a romance there’s always some sort of romantic relationship within the story. The last book I wrote, I actually tried not to have any romances in it, but the hero quickly nixed that idea as the story got going. So, even when I write in another genre a little bit of romance always sneaks in.

If you weren't writing, what would you be doing?

I originally wanted to be a professional horse trainer and rider, but not sure that is what I would be doing if I wasn’t writing. I honestly don’t know what else I would do.

What are you doing to promote your book?

I believe the best promotion is to write the next book. Besides that I’ve done a few guest blogs, interviews, and I tweet/facebook when I have a new release or some other info which might let my readers know one of my books is available. I’ve linked my Facebook pages to Twitter which allows it to seem I’m a lot more active on Twitter than I am J. I also keep an up-to-date website for both of my pen names. But the most important thing is working on another book.

What support are you receiving from your publisher?

Mafia Secret is still in the pipeline for publication with a tentative release date set somewhere in the spring of 2012. I know from watching what they have done with their other authors that it looks like they create a book trailer, set up a blog tour, and some audio interviews to promote the release of their new titles.

What books can we expect to see in the near future?

I’m excited to say I have several books recently released.

The Beast’s Redemption is a paranormal novella about a shape shifter and a witch who have to trust in each other to break a hundred year old curse. Just out is Whitelighter, a paranormal novella, where a young witch whose special powers make her a target to any vampire who catches sight of her.

 

Under my other pen name, Angelia Almos: Horse Charmer, a young adult fantasy, about a sheltered princess who discovers her remarkable gifts with horses on a dangerous quest to find her father’s murderer. And my new adult space opera, Spectors, about a pirate who almost loses everything she cares about when she’s blackmailed into running a dangerous mission for the military.

How has your experience in the horse industry helped you with your two books, Horse Schools and Horse Charmer?

It’s probably helped me the most with promotion and authenticity. Having grown up involved with horses, it was relatively easy for me to market toward the horse industry when I self-published Horse Schools. I knew where to research marketing opportunities and came up with my plan to target market the horse magazines pretty early on.

For my fiction, I write with more confidence. I don’t have to do a lot of research if a horse is a character in a book (unless I’m focusing on an industry within horses which I don’t have hands-on experience). Plus, I love writing about horses, it feels natural to describe them and their behavior. I’ve had a passion for horses since I was five years old and gobbled up every horse book I could as a teen. This helps a lot in writing my young adult fantasies. I write the books I would have loved to read when I was a teen.

Author Bio

Angie Derek writes steamy paranormal and romantic suspense. She lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains with her husband, two daughters, two dogs, two cats, and one pony (she needs another pony to up the number to two J ).

Books (writing as Angie Derek)

Mafia Secret (romantic suspense), Tell-Tale Publishing, May 2012, ISBN unknown

The Beast’s Redemption (paranormal romance), The Wild Rose Press, 2011, ISBN 9781102083177

Whitelighter (paranormal romance novella), Thoroughweb Press, 2011, ISBN 9781465751010

Books (writing as Angelia Almos)

Horse Schools: The International Guide to Universities, Colleges, Preparatory and Secondary Schools, and Specialty Equine Programs (non-fiction), third edition, Trafalgar Square Books, 2007, ISBN 9781570763489 (The online version can be found at www.HorseSchoolsOnline.com.)

Horse Charmer (YA fantasy), Thoroughweb Press, 2011, Print ISBN 9781466228788, ebook ISBN 9781458148384

Spectors (space opera), Thoroughweb Press, 2011, ISBN 9781465771704

Web Site

To learn more about Angie/Angelia and her books visit her at www.angiederek.com and at www.angeliaalmos.com.

 

About RWA^® Online

RWA^® Online is proud to have been the first electronic chapter of Romance Writers of America^®. We know that the writer’s life can be a lonely one and it doesn’t help when the closest chapter meeting is a hundred miles and two weeks away. Our chapter was created in 1995 specifically to take advantage of the emerging capabilities of the world wide web to bring romance writers together through virtual instead of only physical meetings. We are now over 250 members strong and growing every day.

Our chapter resources are available to you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! All you need is an internet connection. We offer critique groups, plotting sessions, and lots of support and advice on your writing career. We understand the need to vent over a rejection letter and we celebrate your contest wins and manuscript requests and contracts right with you.

 

Chapter Features:

• 24 hour access
• Bulletin Board Discussion Forums (no email loops!)
• Monthly Discussion Topics
• Workshops - FREE for chapter members!
• Plotting and Critique Groups or Partners
• Private Chat Area and regular chat sessions
• January Jump Start Jam and KIA Marathon
• Love Bytes - Chapter Newsletter
• Published Author Only Forums
• Published-author blogging at The HEA Café, which is open to the public
• Publishing Spotlight with visiting editors/publishers
• And much, much more!

Membership is open to members of RWA. To learn more, visit us at http://www.rwaonlinechapter.org/

Fun With Indie Publishing Part 2 - Formatting

Find Part 1 here.

Formatting

Getting your book(s) ready. I'm not really going to go over editing except to say it is up to each individual author on how much editing you think your book needs for primetime. I know writers who higher out for content editors, copy editors, and proofreaders. I know writers who hire out for a proofreader. I know writers who use beta readers and critique partners to proof their manuscripts. I know writers who have one trusted reader to do it. It is up to you which way you choose to go. No way is the "right" way despite what some people will say. But I will agree you should have at least one other person read it with at least an eye toward typos and errors - authors are notoriously bad at catching those things.

Once you have set up your accounts at KDP, PubIt, and Smashwords it is time to start formatting your files. If you have any short fiction or nonfiction I would recommend starting with those since it is a lot easier to fix a shorter document than a long document. Please note this is my advice for those who don't already know how to format or design books already. If you have the skills to directly format in html and epub format - please go for it. Though you will have to do a doc version for Smashwords distribution, but KDP you can directly upload a mobi and for PubIt you can directly upload an epub.

Save As your manuscript file and name it Title Master. This is the file you will do the bulk of your formatting in.

Smashwords requires you to upload a Word .doc file so I use word for all the formatting. Smashwords has a handy dandy Style Guide which will help you with the majority of your formatting - http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/52. Read through it. I still reference it when formatting to make sure I did everything I need to do.

Here's my checklist for what I do:

• Turn on Show/Hide  ¶  icon in Word to be able to see all formatting. This is very helpful to make sure you don't have any weird formatting. If you do have odd symbols past the dots for spaces and the enter arrow for a carriage return refer to the Smashwords guide on how to remove it. Here's a site which explains what all the formatting symbols mean: http://word.mvps.org/faqs/formatting/NonPrintChars.htm
• Make sure this is a clean document with no Track Changes/Comment Boxes formatting stuff as this can really mess up your file.
• Select All. Resize font to 12 point Times New Roman. Remember to keep your fonts simple for e-readers. Chapter headers and title page - size font to 14 point Times New Roman.
• If you use tabs for paragraph indenting or to place text a certain way - get rid of it. They don't show up correctly. You can do Find/Replace. Find: ^t - Replace: leave blank. 
• Also use Find/Replace to get rid of multiple spaces which will look like multiple dots in a row in your manuscript right now. 
• If you want paragraph indents set it manually. Select all. Depending on what Word version you have it might be in a different spot. But for Word 2002: Format > Paragraph ... Special Dropbox: First Line: Set to .3. 
• I then go through and set all centered text - like chapter headings to NO First Line indent.
• Line Spacing. Select All. Format > Paragraph ...Line Spacing Dropbox: 1.5 
• In the Paragraph box, make sure everything else is blank or set to 0.
• Do not have multiple enters-carriage returns in a row. These can place your text funky. No more than two unless you want it to show up on a new page in the ereader. 
• I use page breaks and enters for new sections. Some ereaders don't understand page breaks and don't show them while others do. My method is after a section/chapter: two carriage returns - page break - two carriage returns - Chapter or Section Heading. 
• Make your Table of Contents. Smashwords Guide describes this clearly. You'll use the Bookmark and Insert Hyperlink tools to create your TofC.

I keep a few special formatting, smart quotes, dashes, ellipses. But I also don't sell in .txt or .rtf format (we'll cover more about this later on). Mobi, .epub, and .pdf don't seem to have any problem converting those special formatting, but if you are worried go ahead and take them out as the Smashwords Guide tells you to.


Once you have removed everything which will cause the platforms to spaz out when you upload or make your book look really ugly, :-) you can start working on the front and back matter. Coming in the next edition of Fun With Indie Publishing. Find Part 3 Here.

Six Sentence Sunday - Whitelighter by Angie Derek

Whitelighter by Angie Derek. A steamy paranormal romance novella.

A young witch's special powers make her a target to any vampire who catches sight of her.

Six Sentence Sunday Snippet:

“Your white light, it goes neon whenever you run hot.”
Crossing her arms, she faced him, pulling it back in. “Better?”
“Yeah, we’ll have to work on that.”
“You going to tell me how you can see my light when you aren’t a vampire?”
“A little late to be asking me such a suspicious question.”

For more Six Sentence Sunday's from other authors head on over to http://www.sixsunday.com

Available in multiple ebook formats from Smashwords, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, Kobo, Diesel.

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday - Spectors by Angelia Almos

Spectors by Angelia Almos. 

A space pirate almost loses everything she cares about when she’s blackmailed by the military into running a dangerous mission.


Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday Snippet:

Death shadowed him. He wouldn’t get off this planet alive. Luke Ryan knew the truth with every instinct he possessed. Mentally ticking off everything he would have to do, he walked as swiftly as he dared. They were behind and possibly around him, the one reason he didn’t allow himself to run and reveal he knew they were coming to take him. What they didn’t know was what he held in his possession. The one item that would allow his people a chance at taking the aliens down. If they knew he had it, he wouldn’t have made it to the docking yard.

For more Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday authors go to http://scififansat.blogspot.com.

Available as an ebook from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Sony, Kobo and Smashwords.

Fun With Indie Publishing Part 1

I've had friends and acquaintances ask me about my indie publishing and how (and if) they should indie publish. I'm always happy to help and tell what I've learned, but I tend to worry that I'm forgetting something. So, I decided I would make a series of blog posts on what I do to indie publish. It's been a learning process as I've gone along and I'm still very much in the learning phase so please don't take anything I say as gospel. Use what you will and be sure to explore and learn some on your own as well.

Okay, step one, do you want to indie publish?

Honestly, with the climate today, early 2012, I can't imagine a reason not to indie publish. Does this mean you're giving up on your goal to be traditionally published? No. It means you are playing both sides of the fence. You can continue to send out submissions to the traditional markets while you indie publish other pieces. There are also writers who have no desire to traditionally publish and only want to indie publish.

What can I indie publish?

Whatever you want that you have the current rights to. Articles, short stories, short story collections, poetry collections, novellas, novels, nonfiction books, etc.

How do I indie publish?

This question I'll answer in stages. Stage 1. The easiest and most efficient ways to self publish are to do it yourself through KDP, PubIt, and Smashwords.

KDP is Amazon's digital self-publishing platform. There are no upfront costs. https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin

PubIt is Barnes and Noble's digital self-publishing platform. There are no upfront costs. http://pubit.barnesandnoble.com/pubit_app/bn?t=pi_reg_home

Smashwords is an independent company which will distribute your digital content to Apple, Sony, Kobo, and Diesel. There are no upfront costs. http://www.smashwords.com/

Sign up and start accounts with all three. You'll notice Smashwords also distributes to B&N, but you get better royalty rates by going directly through PubIt. Very much worth the extra time to set up the account and upload. You'll need to provide your banking information - to get paid. And your social security number - for tax purposes. You can also put in your publisher name - you are your own publisher - pick a name it looks more professional. If you are going to publish under several pen name you should set up a publisher account with Smashwords; if you're only publishing under one name a regular account is fine.

There are other e-retailers you can directly upload to sell your books. It is up to you who sign up with. Amazon, B&N, and the retailers Smashwords sends you to are the big guns. Just make sure there aren't any upfront costs with any e-retailer. A retailer should only take a cut when you sell a book. You can also go directly to Apple and Kobo (I've been told), but I've also been told there are more hoops to jump through. Though rumor has it that Apple is going to debut a new self-publishing platform soon.

For writers outside the US, Smashwords does require you have a PayPal account to sign up if you are not a US resident. If you don't want a PayPal account, there are some other companies who also distribute to Apple and other e-retailers, just make sure they don't charge you up front fees.The following article lists aggregators which distribute to Apple including two outside the US - http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/05/how-apple-ibooks-needs-to-compete-with-amazon-better-author-too/.
ADDED: It is my understanding that PubIt! is not allowing non-US writers to use their service. I would check when you go to publish as this could change - if it has please let me know. But if that is the case you can get your books in via Smashwords  (you can check the other aggregators to see if they distribute to B&N) - the royalties are less, but you don't want to leave out a major bookseller like B&N.

Next step in Part 2 of Fun With Indie Publishing...

Six Sentence Sunday - The Beast's Redemption by Angie Derek

The Beast's Redemption by Angie Derek. A steamy paranormal romance novella. 

A shape shifter and a witch have to trust in each other to break a hundred year old curse.


Six Sentence Sunday Snippet

“I’m ready.”
The mere sight of her heated his blood, and Alexander crushed the reaction down. He needed to stay focused. The little wench had an agenda. Daddy was up to something, but two could play that game. Who was he to turn down what was offered up so generously?

For more Six Sentence Sunday's from other authors head on over to http://www.sixsunday.com

Available in multiple ebook formats from The Wild Rose Press, Amazon, All Romance eBooks, Barnes and Noble, BookStrand.com, DigiBooks Cafe, Fictionwise eBooks.

A Year in the Life of a Short Story

It's been one year since I released Jumping Thoughts into the big bad cyberworld. The story originally appeared in Ride! Magazine in 1997 and had been sitting on my computer gathering cyber dust. I've been going over my sales for the year to see how it did. And I was very pleasantly surprised. I honestly wasn't expecting a lot from the story. It was my practice book to get comfortable with all the different e-publishing formats, cover design, and everything else.

I wonder if it is the $.99 price point which keeps it selling as there aren't a lot of reviews for it. One 5 star on Amazon, but no where else. And sales have been steady over both Barnes and Noble and Amazon (in fact, it's about 45%/55% with Amazon in the lead). I haven't had any sales on the other platforms (though I am still waiting on numbers for the last half of the year for Apple and Sony).

My best sales were in January 2011 (release month) hitting double digits. February was a close second. It's dropped down to selling a couple of stories a month. I had guessed that Whitelighter written under my pen name Angie Derek was my best opening month sales, but in running the numbers, Jumping Thoughts beat out Whitelighter by a single sale. I had no other titles other than Horse Schools for sale at that point. No other ebooks or fiction for sale. I didn't do any promotion for the story other than listing it on Facebook, Twitter, my blog, and my website.

I don't really have any conclusions after looking over the numbers. I think I need more titles to run numbers on and the next one will be Horse Charmer in May (once it has been out for a full year).

Available through Sony, iBooks, Diesel eBook Store, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, Amazon. 

An additional note - After I originally composed this post in the beginning of January Jumping Thoughts hit three Kindle bestseller lists. I'm not sure how the bump initially occurred, but it is certainly interesting to watch the sales climb from being on the list. As of 1/12/2012, Jumping Thoughts is:

#19 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Lifestyle & Home > Home & Garden > Animal Care & Pets > Horses > Riding

#56 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Children's Fiction > Literature > Short Story Collections

#69 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Children's eBooks > Animals > Horses

New Blog Name

I'm still not happy with my blog's name. For those of you following me for a while you might have noticed I've changed it a few times. I know writer's who have super cool or clever names and others who just use their name as the title. I'm uncertain of what I should do. Part of it is I'm eclectic. This blog is for two very different pen names and within each pen name I write different genres.

Angelia Almos - Young Adult fantasy, space opera and horsey nonfiction.
Angie Derek - Steamy paranormal romance and romantic suspense.

I've thought about having separate blogs like I do websites, but honestly I have a hard enough time keeping up with my two blogs as it is. Yes, I have two. I also have the Horse Schools Blog. So for now, it's one blog for my writing.

Anyone want to help me come up with a cool blog name?

Six Sentence Sunday - Horse Charmer by Angelia Almos

Horse Charmer by Angelia Almos. A young adult fantasy novel.

A sheltered princess discovers her remarkable gift with horses while on a dangerous quest to find out who murdered her father.

Six Sentence Sunday Snippet:

"A fortnight ago the treaty wasn't even complete." She took a sip of wine. "And now the treaty is signed, my father is murdered, and we are to be wed."

Torr stared at her blankly. She had spoken quietly so the siblings hadn't heard her sarcastic remark. Torr set his fork down and focused on her.


For more Six Sentence Sunday's from other authors head on over to http://www.sixsunday.com

Horse Charmer is available as an ebook Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and Sony.

Also available as a print book from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

On My Keeper Shelf

Another author did a post on what's on her keeper shelf; the books she reads over and over. And it got me too thinking. I have a pretty large keeper shelf, but when it comes to what I reread over and over, it's a much smaller list and it's a list that changes. If you'd asked my five years ago, ten years ago, etc. there would be completely different books on the list. But let's focus on today and I only let myself pick one book per author (some of them I have several of their books dog eared from rereading).

Shadow Game by Christine Feehan was the first book I read of hers. She has several bestselling series', but I always come back to this book as my favorite. I think it's the dynamic between Lily and Ryland.

To Die For by Linda Howard. One of the funniest romantic suspense novels I have ever read. The only Linda Howard novel written in 1st person (well, the sequel is too) so it has a very different tone from her other books which I also love. But this one is just funny. Blair Mallory is an incredibly fun character to visit with.

After Caroline by Kay Hooper. I adore her name series which After Caroline is a part of. There's just a touch of the super natural in the books, but they wouldn't be considered paranormal by today's standards which makes them all the more intriguing. And as with most of Hooper's heroes Griffin is very easy to fall in love with.

An Accidental Goddess by Linnea Sinclair. First I have to say, I miss the original cover Bantam released the book under. This new one is just too...sexy. I loved the more sci-fi version which is what got me to pick the book up in the first place and dive in to the worlds of Linnea's making. Gillie, the accidental goddess, is a heroine after my own heart. Though not a goddess she struggles with who she truly is while falling in love. Danger lurks around every corner, of course.

Family Man by Jayne Ann Krentz is probably my favorite JAK title and it was really hard to pick just one as I compulsively reread several of her books. With JAK it's the banter between the hero and heroine which draws me in. And this particular book has the opposites attract dynamic played for full dramatic benefit.





What are some of the books on your reread shelf?

Looking Into 2012

This post has been a hard one for me. I wrote my goals post. Then came back and completely redid it. Then came back and deleted it. It started out as a general goals post then went to a I don't want to make any resolutions post. But then I reminded myself I need to have a writing plan. My ultimate goal is to make a steady income off my writing (the sooner the better). To accomplish this goal I need to be releasing so many titles each year. I don't have a magic number of titles to release, but I know the more the better. Yet, I am also planning on submitting a few titles to NY for consideration.

I began to make a list of possible titles to write. A few sequel books to titles already released as well as some which factor into the different genres of my pen names. I'm not going to write down exactly what I did in my notes as I already know the titles are subject to change based on sales, contractual obligations, and any shiny new ideas I might get.

But as I was staring at my list I began to get very intimidated. I had made the list based on word count. How many new words should I be able to produce writing full time with breaks for editing and publishing? The number of books surprised me, but when I did the math it is something totally doable.

I should be able to write five novels and three novellas. This number came from dividing between my two pen names and the genres within the pen names. Now I could change it around to more novellas and less novels if I feel that is what is needed, but the 5 novels/3 novellas is my initial list for my business plan to steadily bump up my monthly royalties as well as having a book or two to submit to NY this year.

How do you calculate your goals for the year? If you're a writer, do you use math to figure out how much you should be able to produce in the year?

Six Sentence Sunday - Spectors by Angelia Almos

Spectors by Angelia Almos

A space opera about a pirate who almost loses everything she cares about when she's blackmailed by the military into running a dangerous mission.

Six Sentence Sunday Snippet:

Someone stepped in their path, but backed away when Kristy glared at him.

“Impressive,” Andrew said.

“Takes practice,” she shot back. “I don’t see you running.”

He grinned. “I’m immune.”

For more Six Sentence Sunday's from other authors head on over to http://www.sixsunday.com

Spectors is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, and Smashwords.