I’ve been pressing my nose to the grindstone (as they say), but I’m having a lot of fun so it feels like I’ve been playing. 🙂

1.  I got all the preorder links up on this page on this blog.

I am only able to offer preorders on iBooks, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.  Smashwords says you can add it to your library, but I don’t think that’s exactly the same thing as a preorder.  I’ve added books in preorder to my library over there, but I can’t remember if I got an email when the book went live or not.  So I’m not sure how it works over there.

2.  I will be doing a series of posts for beginning writers.

After posing a question on Facebook about what kind of posts people wanted to see on this blog, I found out one person is a new writer who would like some posts done on where to go with her idea.  Since I know some people who read my books (and this blog) are either thinking about or have started writing books, I thought I’d go ahead and work on some posts.  I have drafted three posts so far, but I want to go back over each post before I publish them on the blog.

To give you an idea of what I’m doing, the first post focuses on where to go from a single idea.  The second post will be about picking the correct genre for the idea.  The third is on the subject of backstory–why you should avoid it at the beginning of your story, how to hint at it to intrigue the reader, and what you should do instead of filling backstory into the beginning of the book.  The fourth post will be on staying in a character’s point of view.  I’ll see what else I can come up with, but in the meantime, if anyone has any ideas, feel free to comment.

I plan to start publishing these posts next week and will probably schedule one a week so it’s not so much information hitting all at once.

3.  Progress on My Writing and Publishing Schedule.

This is in the very final round of edits.  I am currently at chapter 13 in my final read through, and I’ll be getting it from the last editor soon.  I expect to have it turned into Smashwords around August 15 or 16.  I want to get it ready in plenty of time for the release date of September 28.

I have gone through the initial edits on this book and have sent the second draft to my awesome editing team.  Two of the three people have already turned it back to me, but I won’t be getting back to it until August 17.    This is set for release on October 12.

I’m over halfway through this book, and I’m pleasantly surprised by how well it’s going.  There were a few days where it was hard to decide what to do with this story.  I did tons of brainstorming.  But now I know where I’m going.  I expect to be done with the first draft around August 17-20.  My editing team will get a little breathing room on this one since it’s not due out until November 16.  I know they’re breathing a sigh of relief. 🙂 I work my team hard. They really are an awesome group of ladies.

I plan to start this book on September 1.