Pull your socks up: another interview with me

You might not hear as much from me at the moment, but that doesn't mean, I'm lazily sitting on my arse, doing nothing. Far from it. I'm busily writing on the third book in the Branded series so that you, my lovely readers, will be able to join Celia and Tom again, see what they're up to next. And let me tell you one thing: it'll be a blast. Although I'm not yet sure where it all leads to, I'll do my best to make this book sing.

And while I'm furiously typing away, an e-mail reached me. Pageturners, a site for Chick Lit with a difference has asked if I'd be willing to do an interview with them. Of course I was. In fact, it's an honour. A site by readers for readers, what's not to love? And interviews are always fun, particularly when you're asked wonderful questions.

Find the interview here:

Hope you like it.

Love,

Stella

The book is here, the book is here!

Actually, it arrived on Tuesday and since then I've eyed it, stroked it, longed to read it. But I was beta reading someone else's book and therefore couldn't start with it. Tonight's the night and I can't wait to be honest. It's the first time I re-read a book I've read in my teens and I wonder if I'll feel the same as I felt back then.
It'll also be strange because I read it in German, but will now read the original title. Should be quite interesting. I'll report when I'm done.

On the subject of reading: as I mention above I was beta reading for someone and had to give up, because it became a chore almost halfway through. Although the writer had told me I should stop whenever I feel it's getting too much, etc., and I tell my beta readers the same, I still feel awful. Beta reading is about helping, not about judging, right? You know it's not a finished or polished manuscript. It only had very few errors, that was not the reason. It was the story that didn't appeal to me. Even when you read a draft of a story, you should be able to at least enjoy it, I think. No point slogging through something you can't immerse in. At least I wouldn't want anyone to read my books if they don't enjoy it and, thankfully, I never had anyone return a book. Well, okay, my friend who fell asleep at chapter four of one of the manuscripts I'm still tinkering with, and therefore refused to read more, which is fair enough. Since she has some difficulties getting to sleep at the moment, I 'prescribed' her said manuscript, maybe it'll do the job again. haha.

Funnily enough, after I did a big rewrite (another one) of the beginning, she suddenly loved it. Scary, that is. She read all my books and loved them all; even fell in love with the gory thriller, and she doesn't do gory (who can blame her? Not my thing either, but writing it, let me tell you that, is a lot of fun.). At the moment, she's reading the third book in the Branded series, which I'm currently writing. It's a lot of pressure after two fabulous first books and I already know that I have to rework the beginning, but I'm now back with Tom, Celia, Sam, Jimmy and Adam, back in the kitchen, back to deal with the dark force. It'll have the usual romance, humour, cooking and fights with the Dark Side, as well as twists and turns. The last book in the series will hopefully be as entertaining and enjoyable as the other books. I'll try my very best, I promise.

That's it, I'm done! It's time to say

Goodbye

to the Branded Series, that is. I've said it in the past, after No Wings Attached sunk into the bottomless belly of Amazon, that I contemplated to stop writing the sequel and put the series to a rest. Only after readers repeatedly asked where the sequel is, I finished the book. Now, Candlelight Sinner has been released last month and performs equally: a block of concrete couldn't sink faster than the book. So I thought back and forth and decided to not write the third book.

To say or pretend I'm not disappointed would be a lie. Of course I am. Three years of my life went into the books, they have made me laugh, cry and angry. I'm proud of them and I know many of those who read them loved them and it was a rather interesting journey; No Wings Attached taught me all about the craft and I had plenty of fun writing the two novels.

I feel that part of the 'not selling' is because of the first published version of No Wings Attached was error-riddled. No reader in their right mind would buy another book by an author who can't take care of their books. Well, if only I had known. Never mind, that's something I can't reverse.

Personally, I don't know why else the books won't sell, it might be the lack of vampires, the lack of erotica, the weird mix of genres being paranormal romantic comedy, or the reviewers who keep referring to Tom as being an angel, which he isn't - at least not in the common sense - who knows? Fact is that self-publishing is a good way to find out if your book tickles the fancy of the crowd.

My Branded series doesn't, so it's time to move on to other projects, which is what I'm currently doing. So for those of you who are waiting for the third book: I'm sorry. Really really sorry. But I won't continue this series.
This is not a whiny post, in fact, I think I'm rather relieved to not have to write a third book. As much fun as it was, I've somehow outgrown the books and the style and I'd like to take other challenges. So, maybe it's a good thing because now I can just step away with a clean conscience. I see that as a positive thing. And I'll continue to love the books 

I threaten you, however, to unleash a new book at some point this year.

Up to then, there's always my short story collection Excuse me, where is the exit?

Yes! I received my first 5-star review

For Candlelight Sinner, that is. And even better news is that the reader seemingly enjoyed the book, because she gave it the highest rating, which is wonderful. I'm still trying to bring across that the book might be labelled as paranormal romantic comedy, but it's far more urban and chick lit than paranormal. Think Charmed, and there aren't even demons in my book.

Anyway, here's what the reader said:

Candlelight Sinner is easy to read and a good book to take on holiday.

It is written in the first person. You view the events through the eyes of the two main characters, Tom and Celia. The only downside is that if go back to the book after a break you need to read a sentence (or two) until you know who you are and get back into the story again.

One is an angel and the other is part light side and part dark side. The dark side try to get Celia to go completely over to them whilst she is developing her relationship with Tom, who is in trouble for romancing someone who is half dark side. Celia also has human friends and she tries to hide the supernatural events which occur.

A light enjoyable read.

2600 and counting

I've always said I won't give my books away for free, unless they are for reviewers or some hand-picked people I want to give the books to.
Now I have been hearing good things about the Amazon KPD select programme -- something to get your books out there, your face and your writing known. Let me explain in short: you are exclusive with Amazon for 90 days in which you are  not allowed to sell e-copies of the enrolled book elsewhere. During that time you are allowed (you don't have to) give away your book for free for five days. You can do them all in one go or split them.
I've enrolled Excuse me, where is the exit? and also my new book Candlelight Sinner, which I both unpublished and removed from Smashwords since I never really made money there. Amazon is my main sales outlet.
Now my sales weren't too bad, but not very good either. Roughly about 150 in the past months, slowly going up again, but that's not enough to rectify the hard work I put into writing and promoting them.
With the promotion -- both books are free over the weekend -- I had over 2700 downloads since yesterday. To be honest I'm still in shock about the vast amount of downloads. It seems that my short stories do really well in the humour genre (position 3 as I type), yes even in the overall free charts (position 19). Candlelight Sinner has taken off on Amazon.com.
I wonder if that mirrors the 'buying' patterns of readers. I will admit that downloading freebies is addictive as I have downloaded about 20 books myself in the past two days. I only downloaded what I would buy in a shop, based on the pitch and I know I will give all of them a try, hopefully finding one or the other gem.

But with books on promotion for free on a daily basis, I'm a little worried that readers might rather download free books than paying for them, especially if they are by new Indie authors.
Many authors who have enrolled their books have reported an improvement on sales and it better when I think of the amounts of books given away. I expected only a couple of hundred downloads, but the actual figures make this one author dizzy. By the way, since starting this post about fifteen minutes ago, I had another 100 downloads. If only that would happen every day, with readers paying for the books. :-)

The return of the muse. Oh, how I've missed you.

It was a busy day for me, exhausting, to be honest; the release of Candlelight Sinner was a bit more complicated. I had to update the other two books for Kindle and Smashwords and I get easily confused. Yes, give me three sheets of paper and I'm in tears. Well, not that bad, but I have to concentrate very hard to get everything right.
Never mind, after hours of fighting with the different formats, I had the books updated and my latest baby released into the world. It's free on Smashwords for today until midnight and after that will be $3.49/£2.31. Still not bad, I would say. The downloads are flying in, but from experience I know only 10% will probably read the book. Many just hoard it. But I'm happy for the 10% to be able to flee from reality for a while.

To celebrate, I will write a 500-word flash fiction piece for my newly launched writers' group. I've given the prompt 'On a winter's night' and to be honest, I can't wait to write something; it's itching heavily. My muse has probably been ringing the buzzer of my former flat, trying to get in and help me writing. What a surprise when my buzzer went and the lost muse showed up. Back to writing!
I'm also looking forward to what people of the group come up with. I have only met two of them 'informally' and they are lovely.

Since I want to write two books this year, I better get cracking soon, right? My horror thriller, which exists of two scenes so far, one of them you can find here, has been calling, the story slowly forming in my mind. I will, though, write the scenes first and then weave them into a story. It's probably multi layered. Typical. Nothing easy for me please.

If you need to get your arse from the sofa and the fingers to your keyboard, feel free to use the same prompt. :-)

Happy writing, everyone.

Be the first to read my sequel!

If you are biting your nails because you can't wait to get your hands on the sequel to No Wings Attached, here's a chance to do so very soon. Or if you haven't read the first book yet and are curious what it's all about, but didn't get around to buy it, fear not, with a bit of luck you'll be able to snuggle up with the romantic comedy this weekend.

Read2Review is hosting a book give away today. And the lucky winner will receive No Wings Attached right now, and Candlelight Sinner in January, pre release. You'll be the first to read it and it's for free. All you need to do is answer a simple question and spread the word, then the books will be yours. And who knows, maybe I'll throw in another two for two more lucky winners?

So, what are you waiting for? Tell everyone who can't run fast enough and keep your fingers crossed.

The cover for Candlelight Sinner revealed!

When I said I'm going to think about a cover for my upcoming novel Candlelight Sinner, people groaned, asking if it's going to change as many times as the cover for No Wings Attached. You can all rest assured, it's not going to change. The amazing Sessha Batto has done it again, she took my ideas on board and came up with a stunning work. And I'm in love. I mean I'm seriously in love, but see for yourself:

It mirrors the plot, has a great deal of warmth and...well, it's just perfect. For those of you who remember my sad attempts to find a good cover for No Wings Attached: you can laugh now: it looks like I'm going to change it again. Simply because the covers in a series should be themed. So I'll head off to find something pretty to match and I already have an idea. And covers are important, after all. I wasn't sure how the second book would turn out, as you know, I'm not the best plotter in the world, but I'll learn, I promise.

And more great news: one of my Beta-readers got back to me with five pages of comments, giving me the feedback I needed to see if the book works as a stand-alone novel. The talented (I'm just saying that because she loved the book. -- Just kidding.) short story writer Winn Smith has volunteered to read the first draft since she hasn't read the first book and boy, are her comments helpful.
I've started to edit/rewrite with great enthusiasm and am falling in love with the book again. It makes me smile, it makes me laugh it makes me feel all fuzzy and guess what? Next month, you'll be able to read it, too, because I plan to have it out in January. So you better warm up your Kindles, Nooks, iPads, Sonys or even your PC's, because I'm planning a special surprise.

Here's the blurb:
Being madly in love with Tom, a rather good looking, immortal wish-consultant and working in her dream job, life seems to be perfect for 32-year-old Celia. If it wasn't for the dark side still being after her or Sam, a charismatic man asking for her help, causing dilemma. When Tom gets another demanding case, and Celia takes her friend on a trip to Lanzarote, everything's about to change. The question is: for the better or for the worse?