What. A. Ride.

It's the end of the year. No, really. It's the end of the line for 2014 in like eight hours from my little part of the world. For some of you it's already 2015 but I can't let this amazing year go out without saying some very important words to some very important people.

Linda Russell - You got me started on this crazy ride when I handed you the first few pages of my stupid little story and you... said, "Write more. I want to see where this goes." Thank you for the encouragement. Because off you I had the courage to hit the publish button on my first novel and, well, domino effect. For sure.

Tracie Warren - For picking up the torch and fucking running with it like a madwoman. Mostly for editing all of my stories and being my personal one woman cheer squad, therapist, sounding board and for every other thing you do because let's face it, they are just too numerous to list all of them here. Thank you. I love you with all my butt. I would say heart but my butt is way bigger.

Clarissa Yeo - For all of the fantastic cover art, for branching out into new arenas and creating the logo for the SHMC even though you really, really didn't want to. You put up with my particulars, let me swamp you with work and you keep taking on more and more stuff for me despite how crazy busy you are. Thank you for sticking with my crazy.

Liar Reese - For formatting my SHMC books for print but more importantly for not being afraid to point out flaws and ship them back to me until I get them right before you put them in to print. For the business cards, teaching me new tech and being patient through the gazillion questions I level at you just about every day of the week. Rock on sister. Rock on. Thank you so much for all of the last minute this that and the other and for keeping up with it all.

Michelle Bigioni Slagan - For scheduling shit for me so I can keep writing. You have no idea how much weight you slid off my shoulders by leading the charge on creating a street team and by taking on answering messages and talking to blogs and all manner of rather important stuff so that I can be anti-social and keep my fingers on the keys. Thanks for that in a big damned way.

Jennifer Mitsada - Holy shit. Where do I start? You jumped into the street team with both feet, went nuts making all manner of teasers and shouting my name from the rooftops and now you're my golden beta reader. I don't even... Yeah. Words. I has none. Thank you so, so much for all of your hard work and enthusiasm.

Paula Simoes Batista - For your amazing book trailers and for bringing Reaver and Hayden to life. More importantly for being willing to do it again for Squick. Thank you.

For the rest of the enterprising women of A.J.'s Sacred Circle, my street team - Sherelle, Melanie, Hossler, Jaclyn, Deanna, and if I've missed your name please, please, please don't be mad at me! There's like 15 of you and some of you are really, really quiet! I THANK YOU. For all of your enthusiasm and plotting and planning and helping me do good things.

2015 is looking to be a very bright year for all of us!

Finally, to all of my readers. For buying the books, for liking the books and for sticking with the series even when it gets dark and more than slightly out side your comfort zones. Thank you for reading, thank you for buying and thank you for making my dream of becoming a real life author a reality in the year 2014 and in in the upcoming year of 2015. I'm looking forward to continuing this crazy ride with all of you with more books, more novellas and for taking you on some other adventures a little less MC and a little more fantastical in the coming year.

Much love, and a safe and happy New Year,
A.J.

Another Monday - Another Update!

So last week has probably been the most disastrous and unproductive week thus far since I started this little writing adventure. Mostly because I hurt myself in a grand way on Thanksgiving which required me to see a doctor from all the pain I was in on Tuesday which put me on Vicodin for the rest of the week.

Seriously. Drugs are bad. Mmmkay? Only thing worse than drugs is trying to write while on them which was so not happening.

I was in such bad shape, I had to stay home from my day job on both Wednesday and Thursday because of it. Can I just say ewe?

I tried valiantly to keep up and get things accomplished in other spheres while down for the count and realizing that I couldn't do any of it, partially from a lack of the proper tools and partially because of a realization that if I continued to attempt to handle it all myself you guys would never get another book again... On Sunday, I reached my limit and tearfully began typing and begging for help...

Oh my fucking God. I was completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and the people willing to jump up, jump in and create a street team for me thereby allowing me to get back to doing what I do best - writing books.

I am incredibly grateful to everyone who formed A.J.'s Sacred Circle (A play on both The Sacred Hearts MC and my imprint of Second Circle Press) my very own street team out to spread the word about my books and to keep my social calendar much less messy while I work my ass off on writing this series and other projects that are coming down the line.

I got in a nasty fight with some dirty pirates this week. Some enterprising ass hole had five of my books posted up on a site for free which was soul crushing. Why soul crushing? Because the site gave a convenient little count on how many copies of my book I lost royalties on.

The number of copies was in the thousands between all of the books, predominantly the number of copies lost were of Shattered & Scarred and Broken & Burned though. To say the least, I was not pleased. Not. At. All. They got one hell of a nasty-gram from me and my books were down in less than 24hrs, but still. Damage done.

I don't have much to report on the print side of things. Lia has been hard at work on the internals for the first three books and so there isn't much to show you visually but she assures me that the print covers for books 1 and 3 will be underway and finished by the end of the week, maybe next barring any catastrophes.

This week I have a lot going on. For a lot of people out there wondering why I don't do giveaways of any electronic copies of my books. It's sadly because I don't have the technology... Seriously.
I work and write all my books exclusively on a Surface RT. It's amazing, and I love it, however, in order to format my books in a .mobi or .epub format, all roads lead to Calibre... which is a program you have to download and install and guess what?

The Surface RT is not a Surface Pro 3 and it wants an app for that! There is no app. I need a computer. I have a sad and sorry desktop at home which is in need of a physical and mental evaluation and checkup. It goes to the computer doctor tonight. When I get it back, I should be able to get the whole file extension thing sorted hopefully if not by the end of this week, then by the end of next week.

You'll know when that's accomplished, trust me. So please be patient and I promise to sort things with my street team and put out the word when some copies can be freed up.

This week I hope to get back to finishing book 5 of the SHMC series. It's going to take weeks for book 4 to go through the editing process and that's okay. The big news of the week is really that CRACKED & CRUSHED GOES LIVE TOMORROW!!!

Can you believe it!? Reaver's story is finally here!

Doesn't mean I get to stop, or catch my breath. Nope, all it means is that I will be eagerly skulking in the background like a nervous parent to see what you think of my latest brain child. I hope you like it. Not even going to lie. I'm scared.

This has been one exceedingly long Monday Update, so I am going to quit while I am ahead. If you have any questions, ask 'em! I'll be happy to answer them as soon as I can. I love talking to you guys.

Until later!

Monday Update & My FB presence.

I've been somewhat neglecting the blog as of late and truthfully, that's because I maintain a much bigger Facebook presence these days. I will try to be better about this. I'm sorry. One of the things I do on my Facebook page is a thing I call Monday Update which recaps everything I did in the previous week and lays out all my plans for the coming week.

They don't always end up matching up perfectly, but it gives folks a pretty good idea of what I am up to when it comes to the books. This Monday Update was no exception so I will now use the magic of copy and paste to fill in all you non-Facebook users who would like to know what's up:

Aaand it's another Monday Update!

Last week was quite productive, the internals for books 1 and 3 of the SHMC series have been completed for the print versions of those books. Book 3.5 has been shipped to the lovely Lia Rees for the same treatment and book 4 has been sent to my editor for it's first round of edits.

I deleted the entire back half of book 5, and by that I mean I only saved Chapte...rs 1-19 of a 32 chapter book. Not to worry though, I have already rewritten up through chapter 21. My goal is to have book 5 finished and to the editor by the time book 4 comes back to me but I am not going to sweat it if I don't quite make that goal.

Because of Lia at freeyourwords.com, starting with book 3.5, the novella that comes between books 3 & 4, I will be able to release the books in paperback simultaneously with the ebook versions.

About my book pricing: Interestingly enough I make about .34 cents less a copy in royalties for the paperback than I do for the ecopy of my books. That being said, with the paperbacks looking to cost around $10.99 a piece, if you buy a paperback of my book, I am not charging you anything for the ecopy. I have set up my kindle matchbook that way on purpose.

I mean it when I say that I am writing these for your entertainment and mine and that it's not about the money. The money is nice, don't get me wrong, but I make sure to put a better quality product out there with what I make. IE: I am dropping a decent bit of coin to make the subsequent novels I write better in quality and I even go back and revisit the ones that have gone before to improve them.

I want you guys to be happy and I try to go a little above and beyond to accomplish that goal.

So what's going on this week?

Well, Lia is hard at work on the back covers for books 1 & 3 of the SHMC series. The proof for book 2 has been sent back in to correct a very minor printing issue with the cover, and hopefully by the end of this week or next I will be ordering proofs for books 1-3 to go over.

Book 4 is at Tracie, my editor's, but this is her finals week so a big shout out and good thoughts and well wishes to Tracie Warren! Kick some ass sister! As soon as she's done with finals she assures me she'll be diving head first into book 4 and won't come up for air until she's done.

I will be working diligently on book 5 and making it mesh with book 4 and book 6, even if it does mean I rip my heart out even more than I already have. Book 4 was extremely difficult to write for me, having to be inside the head of a depressed person who is also the survivor of some pretty heavy violence... yeah. The level of awkward and hurty badness in book 4... well, for all you angst lovers, book 4 is for you. Book 5 is much better on that front and for that I am grateful.

So that's what's up with me for this week. Writing book 5, throwing feedback on the print versions of books 1-3.5 and just generally grinding it out. It's a stressful time of year with the holidays coming up so wish me luck and all and keep an eye out, only a week and a day left before Cracked & Crushed The Sacred Hearts MC Book III and everybody's favorite psycho's story hits those Kindles and Kindle reading apps!

Much love, and if you don't hear from me until next Monday... well you know why!

 

Oh yeah, and for you non-FB users, here's a couple of teasers that have been making the rounds over there for Cracked & Crushed:

 

Until next Monday!!!

 

Exciting news!

During NaNoWriMo this year I was very fortunate to make the acquaintance of my very own NaNoWriMo nemeses! Jeff became my nemeses based solely on his ability to stay around 10k words ahead of me on word count no matter how hard I tried to keep up or pass him. Suddenly, I had an idea! So I presented this idea for a project of mine conceived way back for NaNoWriMo 2010 and asked if he would be interested! Lo and behold he was and the plotting and planning began!

Jeffery Cook is the author of two Steampunk novels with a third due to be released in the near future. The two he has out are:

Both of which are available on Jeff's Amazon Page. 

 

 

The project we are embarking on is not Steampunk, nor is it romance but it might end up having a little romance in it. We plan to begin writing in mid April and have no set release date. I'm just super excited to be embarking on my first collaborative effort and wanted to share!

 

Not to worry my loyal Sacred Hearts MC fans, this effort will in no way impede the writing of or release of any of the upcoming Sacred Hearts Novels!

 

 

In the meantime, if you are needing a bit of escape from the romance genre and are looking for something new, or if you happen to be a Steampunk enthusiast and missed out on these gems, I recommend you give them a try! The reviews are good and from what I have gotten to read myself, I have every intention of picking up copies of my own.

 

 

At any rate, I need to get back to work over here. Happy reading and I'll talk at you later!

Independent Everything and a Very Special Thanks!

One of the best things about being an independent author is that you have the ability to network with other independent artists and freelance technical folk for so many different things, all to make your work into a reality. For example, once my book was finished I needed to find a cover artist, that accomplished, I was then able to give my book a face to present to the world. Yay!

My covers are almost all exclusively done by Clarissa Yeo over at Yocla Designs. (www.yocladesigns.com) Her prices are reasonable and her art is fantastic and she makes the process extremely easy.

After publishing exclusively on Kindle for a bit, I decided to move in to traditional paperbacks but I had absolutely no clue on how to format the interior of my book. Rather than pay money to a big corporation, I instead went to Lia Rees over at Free Your Words! (www.freeyourwords.com) Again, she is independent, her prices are reasonable and she does fantastic work with a fine attention to detail. I couldn't be happier with the product I am getting from Lia, however, as part of the process of putting my book into print, she suggested I publish under my own mark rather than just my name to give the whole book a more polished look, and so Second Circle Press was born:

But wait, I needed a logo! I write books and can't draw to save my life and so I turned to a very dear friend and graphic artist of mine, Giovanny Anglin and yet another independent artist! This is what he came up with for me:

 

I am both extremely lucky and blessed in equal measure to know such fine independent artists and I definitely encourage you to check any of these three fine individuals out for your publishing needs! As independent artists we need to pay it forward and keep each other working.

 

 

Because Gio has been such a very good friend of mine for such a very long time I told him I would do my best to help him out and asked him to send me his contact information and a list of his rates for me: Being the graphic artist/genius he is he sent this along:

 

 

 

 

Giovanny is multi-talented, so if you are looking for more than just a logo, I suggest you contact him. He is indeed capable of doing cover art in addition to business logos, I just prefer the artistic styling of Clarissa Yeo's cover designs for my romance books as opposed to Gio's style and you know what? He gets that and is good with that because he, like Lia and Clarissa, is a professional.

 

 

TL;DR version: If you are an aspiring author ready to take the next step, or an independent business owner who happens to need a logo/business card/flyer designed or whatever, give these guys a try! They are all three most excellent at what they do. 



Mapping

Not sure how many other authors do this but I've reached that point in my adventure that is Book Five:

Obsessive much!? Yeah.

Sometimes we read something that sticks with us and worries at the backs of our brains and continues to poke at us with a sharp stick until we sit up, turn around and yell, "ALL RIGHT!!! I GET IT I'M DOING IT, CAN YOU PLEASE STOP NOW!?" It's like the toddler or young child that's kicking the back of your seat for the entire four hour flight and who's parent is zonked out and oblivious next to them for the entire duration.

You really want to open the emergency exit door and pitch the annoying little brat into the ether, but then you look at his or her mom and the dark circles under her eyes and you just don't have it in you to wake her ass up and complain. So you sit, grinding your teeth for the entire duration of the flight and maybe even after but you say nothing and unbeknownst to you, you just earned like a million gazillion karmic brownie points and end up winning the lottery down the line for it.

This, for me, is a lot like that.

So when I first put out Shattered & Scarred this review stuck out at me... Now bear with me because this is going to a real good place. I promise.

Here is the review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/974458186?book_show_action=true&page=1

Now the specific passage that stuck out at me and has been kicking the back of my seat through books 2, 3, 3.5 and most of 4 is this: Ethan's back story should have been fleshed out a lot more instead of just being touched upon.

That's it. Out of that whole review, that is the toddler that has been kicking the back of my seat through four books and I really, really have to thank you Bev, and all of you should too because after four books of straight up nagging Trigger to freaking talk to me and tell me what the hell happened over there, he caved and we got this little gem, so without further ado... here is a sneak peek at Tattered & Torn Book IV of the SHMC series and an elusive piece of Ethan "Trigger man" Howard's past...

“Shhhh, it’s just Trig. He wanted to talk to you.” I pulled back and frowned at him.

“What does he want to talk to me for?” I asked.

The Big Man rapped lightly at the kitchen door and Ghost opened it. Trigger’s massive frame filled the doorway and he edged into the house.

“Hey man.” Ghost said and they clasped hands and pulled each other in for a hug. Trigger looked me over and sighed. He opened his arms and cocked his head questioningly and I smiled. I appreciated that he asked and didn’t just go in for the hug. I looked at Ghost who seemed fine with it and I opened my arms and Trigger hugged me gently.

“Get gone D.” he said to my man and Ghost slipped out the kitchen door and shut it behind him. I blinked, stupefied by the exchange. Trigger pulled out a stool and sat facing me.

“What?” I asked.

“Derek knows what happened because he was there that day, but this is something I haven’t even told Reaver, or Ashton.” He said and he pulled his e-cigarette out of his cut and put it in his mouth. He sighed out and took a long thoughtful drag.

“We were in this fucking podunk village in one of Afghanistan’s eastern provinces doing surveillance, trying to catch this piece of shit lead of this terror cell. We’d been set up on this ridge for fucking hours. Sun beating down on us, hotter than Hades balls and we’re just about ready to call it a fucking day when this God damned Mercedes pulls up outside this mud hut.” He took a couple more drags off his e-cig and looked at me with haunted silver-blue eyes.

“There he is. Just comes popping up out of the car and we call for confirmation, right? Well it takes a minute and while we’re waiting for the green light to take this mother fucker out, here comes his kid running out of the hut and this dude he doesn’t know I’m looking down the scope at him, and he picks his boy up and his holding him up in the air and it’s this joyous fucking reunion going on down there.” He bowed his head and was silent for a long minute.

“And we get it. Confirmed. Green light. Take the motherfucker out, but he’s got his kid in his hands and he’s bouncing this boy who is six maybe seven and I got it buzzing in my ear to take the fucking shot and I’m telling them, negative that I ain’t got a clear shot and the order keeps coming in, take the shot, to take the fucking shot and D. he’s like ‘I know man but you gotta take the shot, it’s orders’ and so I sight and I pull the fucking trigger and…” he looks at me agonized and I stare back horrified and his next words drop into the silence of the house like a thousand pound boulder… “I missed.” My shoulder’s dropped in relief and Trigger, he shakes his head and looks like he’s about to puke and he tells me… “I hit the kid.”

I stared at him, several moments of silence stretching between us and all I can do is blink, stonily, sitting there and Trigger he takes my hands in his and he tells me. “You did what you had to do to survive Shelly. <spoiler>He was hurting you. He was gonna rape you and nobody, I mean nobody should have to live through that once let alone twice.</spoiler> You did what you had to do to save your life. Big difference from the stain I got on my soul, Sugar. So stop torturing yourself.” He got up and I stared at him openmouthed and horrified.

“What about the man?” I asked hollowly, “The one whose son you shot?” Trigger looked at me incredibly sadly.

“It was the only time I’ve ever missed Shelly and I haven’t ever since for a reason.” He intoned and then to make things crystal clear he said, “I got the son of a bitch with the second shot but I can still never take back the first.” I nodded and pressed the heels of my hands hard into the seat of the stool I sat on, straightening my arms between my legs to hide their shaking.

“Why did you tell me this?” I asked him and I wanted so badly to cry for him. <spoiler>The pain I was living with for ending the bastard who attacked me must be nothing in the face of what Trigger was living with, </spoiler> I mean it explained so much. Trigger looked me over a little sadly.

“Because I thought it might give you some perspective, Baby. <spoiler>That it might get you to stop torturing yourself over a piece of shit male I would have gladly killed with my bare hands for putting his hands on you like he did. That wasn’t a man Shelly. Real men don’t hurt women, or children.”</spoiler> And with that parting shot he disappeared out the kitchen door, shutting it firmly in its frame.

-End-

So thank you Bev, for writing such a thoughtful review and for telling me what you wanted. Here you go. I hope you've stuck with the series and that you continue to do so. Much love for being brave and telling us all what you wanted because I know you weren't the only one thinking it. You were an inspiration. All of my readers are inspirations.

Much love to you guys!

Later.

Welcome to my differing opinion... Reviews.

So this whole thing with The Guardian and Kathleen Hale blew the fuck up like overnight and most if not all of you reading this have already heard/read/talked about it.

For those of you that haven't here is the TL;DR version:

Crazy Reviewer reviewed, Author didn't like.

Author went even more crazy than the crazy reviewer, stalked reviewer, and I mean hardcore stalked the woman, up to and including phoning the reviewer at her place of work and pitching up on the lady's doorstep after renting a car to drive to where the woman lived.

A whole lot of premeditation and a whole lot of crazy.


This blog isn't about that.

What this post is about is the opinion of a different person who posted that authors have no business reading the reviews of their work.

Yeah.

I disagree. I disagree totally.

Crazy authors should probably refrain from reading the reviews of their work but sane ones, should be able to read their reviews especially sane independent authors and here's why:

As a self-published independent author there are certain luxuries I can't afford, such as a professional editor. Seriously. I'm a freaking security guard by day and I can barely afford to keep my car running let alone pay someone $700.00+ to run amok with a red pen leaving me to decipher on my own whatever it is they've scrawled in my margins.

I am well aware of something that seems to be glossed over by like a lot in all of these blogs and articles and what have you...

I don't write these books for me.

I write these books for you, and if you aren't happy then what's the freaking point?

How do I tell if you are happy or unhappy?

Oh. Right. You tell me when you leave a rating or review!

Also, as an independent self published author, how am I expected to improve upon my craft without a big publication company and editing team/guru backing me up?

Oh. Right. Some of those reviews I'm not supposed to be reading have helpful little Easter eggs of wisdom in them! Things like wishes about knowing more about this or that character, wishes that I would lay off of this or that phrase or even wishes that I would pay more attention to certain grammatical errors or errors in punctuation and some of you more enterprising reviewers actually take a lot of time and effort to spell out in very fine detail what my dumb ass is doing WRONG!!!

I APPRECIATE YOU. I LOVE YOU. BUT APPARENTLY ACCORDING TO SOME PEOPLE I'M SUPPOSED TO LET ALL OF YOUR EFFORTS LIE FALLOW AND NEVER READ WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN WHY!?

Because reviews aren't for the author they are solely for readers.

Well I call bullshit on that notion!

So I end this rant with this...

Authors. Read your reviews, get better in subsequent books, just for the love of god lay off the 'message' button. Don't touch it. Read and get what you can out of it but DO NOT ENGAGE. The only time it is acceptable, again, IN MY OPINION, is when a reviewer messages you directly first or in answer to a direct question that can't get you into any trouble.

The ONLY question I answer when I see it is "I wonder when the next book comes out, does anybody know?"

Of course I know! So I hit reply and keep it simple with "This is who the book is about and this is when it comes out, cheers and thanks for reading."

By some standards even that is considered too far and outrageous and unacceptable and guess what... IDGARA.

Anyone who wants to jump my shit for it, feel free! It's your opinion and the first amendment right is alive and well here in the United States of America. Not particularly thrilled about personal attacks but I'm not a crazy bitch. I won't call you, come to your house or perform any background checks... At most you will get this face -_- and a DILIGAF?

So as ever, thanks for reading, you're my favorite, I love you and good night!

I should probably say something...

It's been around ten days since I've said anything on here. Oops. But not gonna lie, I've been super busy.

Book IV (Tattered & Torn) is at the editor's and like a nervous parent I'm waiting to hear back about this one. I had a lot going on inside these characters heads between the h finally finding the bravery and the will to both speak her truth and come into her own and the H trying to let go of some pretty deeply etched preconceived notions, there was a whole lot of inner dialogue and learning to deal with both things and each other in a healthier more adult way moving forward into a new relationship.

Yeah, that was a mouthful.

Still, everything in this book happened for a reason and I am half afraid that it's, well... boring. So far my editor assures me it's not and I really hope that's true! But I won't really know for sure until you guys get your hands on it in March.

Woah! Hey! Calm your shit! I can hear several of you exclaiming already, "MARCH!? ASDJKF!"

You guys still have Cracked & Crushed coming in December and unlike a solid three month wait between books, you have Masked & Miserable, Squick's novella, to tide you over in January/February.

Now, as to why I haven't been on here... As much as I needed a friggin' break, the characters in Book V (Tentatively titled Fractured & Formidable) missed it in kindergarten when the finer points of 'how to wait your turn' were gone over. Okay, well she was patient, but him not so much but that's sort of to be expected.

So as soon as the fourth book was finished the characters in Book V threw up their hands and were like "It's about time bitch!" and so I am a touch over 30,000 words into that one as we speak... er I write at you... yeah. Whatever.

Now being into Book V by 30k words is awesome! I know right where I'm going with this one and I'm moving right along and it's great... sort of... until I get to the part that's going to rip my guts out and yours, but it's fine! I promise! It'll be fine. Don't you worry.

(Please don't stalk me and go Misery on my ass! I like walking without benefit of a cane and would like to continue to do so.)

Books V and VI are heading into some dark territory for me. So you might encounter some whining and whimpering and even some out and out bitching from me in the near future either here or on Facebook. Just ignore me. Sometimes even I need to cope with the ugly things inside my head. So far I haven't dumber anything down and so far no one has written and screamed at me about what a horrible awful no good very bad person I am so that's at least something right?

Well.

I hope this has been a decent enough update about what's going on in The Sacred Hearts world.

Looks like six books and a couple of novellas aren't quite going to finish this thing after all, so you can expect a Book 7 and maybe some bonus short stories. Pretty sure there will be a bonus short story after Book V, depending how long it goes I may tack it on to the end of the novel if it goes over 30 - 40k words it'll be a .99 center between books V & VI.

I got a lot going on as you can tell with just getting these things on the page. Add to that the blogging and Facebooking and talking with cover artists and now, thanks to all you awesome folks, having to make appointments with tax people to get the income tax side of things straight so I don't get a spanking from Uncle Sam (Seriously, have you seen that guy? Can we say gross?) I'm a busy girl.

Still, if you message me or respond to something I've said, I will *always always always* answer.

Ask one of my Facebook peeps. She messaged me before five this morning my time and my cell phone woke me up and I answered! Sometimes if I am in a groove of things those answers might have a time delay of a day or a week but I ALWAYS answer.

Happy to field questions, love talking about this world, so don't ever feel like you aren't worth my time because if it weren't for you, this wouldn't exist! You have no idea how incredibly grateful I am for that!

Okay. I've rambled way too long on here and need to bounce!

You know where to find me!

Cleaning House

Took the time to clean some house over on good reads by combining the two editions of Broken & Burned into one and clarifying both Shattered & Scarred and Broken & Burned's titles to include what order the books appear in the series.

Additionally, added the as-yet-to-be-released title of Cracked & Crushed to my small but growing pile of titles because *gasp* I've been giving a few advanced copies of the work away through Facebook.

I'm not asking for reviews on those giveaways buuuut if someone wanted to leave one it was high time I provided them a place to leave it.

Cracked & Crushed will be available for pre-order in November so keep an eye out for that.
Also, keep an eye on my FB page at www.Facebook.com/authorajdowney The closer we get to release, a few more advanced copies will go out!

I will probably have a giveaway here through my blog as well, so keep an eye out here for an opportunity.

Well until later my lovelies! I just finished writing Book IV of The Sacred Hearts series and it is safely in the hands of my wonderful, beautiful, kind, smart and overworked and severely underpaid editor, Tracie Warren.

You can thank her for the massive improvements to spelling/grammar/punctuation between S&S and B&B and it's only getting better from here.

Again. Keep an eye out. You never know when I feel like popping off with some goodies!

Sneak Peek! Cracked & Crushed The Sacred Hearts MC Book III

 

Coming Soon…

December of 2014

 

Cracked & Crushed

 

Synopsis:

 

He’s Cracked…

 

Reaver has always been a little weird, a little strange, okay MORE than a little of each. His psyche cracked right down the middle a long time ago. He holds the official title of ‘Treasurer’ for the Sacred Hearts MC but he’s much more than that. He’s the club’s enforcer, the one they call on when things need to be done quickly, quietly, efficiently and have no traces left behind. Which is good for Reaver, very good, because it keeps the monster inside his head satisfied and in check for the most part… but then Hayden Michaels entered the picture and Reaver decided that he wanted much more.

 

She’s Crushed…

 

The day was supposed to be the happiest day of Hayden’s life, instead it left her crushed beneath a pile of emotional rubble. Is it any surprise that Reaver would be the one to pull her from the emotional wreckage left behind? Sweet, funny, caring Reaver with eyes like the bluest winter skies and a smile that left her breath hitching every time he turned it on her. Trouble is, Reaver has a darker side, one that he has never given Hayden any illusions about. Will it be something Hayden can handle? Or will the cracks his psyche contains be the cracks in the dam that crushes her under a river of never ending pain?

 

**Mature Audiences Only (18+)**

**Language, Extreme Violence, and Sexual Content including anal & a MFM threesome.**

 

 

Excerpt:

 

She sucked in a tremulous deep breath and her beautiful, bright green eyes flicked open and snapped to me.

 

“You’re back…” and the sound of her voice was the sweetest thing I’d ever heard.

 

I plucked at the sleeve of her pajamas.

 

“I threw these away.” I said. She rolled her eyes at me.

 

“And I rescued them from the trash.” She said.

 

“No dice. Take ‘em off.” I said and smiled serenely.

 

“They’re my pajamas Reaver.” She said and I raised an eyebrow.

 

“I said take ‘em off…” she looked at me and tried to change the subject.

 

“How did it go?” she asked.

 

“Got us invited to a beach party tomorrow night.” I said, it was her turn to arch one delicate dark brow.

 

“I see. So your winning personality won out this time huh?” she said and I laughed softly.

 

“I’m waiting Hayden.” I said.

 

“Well you’re going to be waiting a long time.” She said and stuck her tongue out at me and I sailed right over the limits of my self-control. I kicked off my shoes and let my cut fall to the floor. Yeah, the floor, the mother fucking floor, my cut which we treated better than our countries’ flag. I bounded onto the bed and trapped her between my knees.

 

My cock was straining against my jeans but I didn’t want that, not yet. No, I couldn’t help myself I wanted her fear. Her eyes flashed wide and she put up her hands and I easily captured both her wrists in one of my hands and pinned them both to the bed up over her head.

 

“Reaver! What are you doing!?” She asked, voice high and breathy with panic and I drank it in like fine wine, letting it soak into every one of my senses. Her heart beat rapidly inside the cage of her ribs, so hard, so fast, like a little rabbit’s, fluttering against the insides of my thighs through the thick denim there.

 

I looked down on her impersonally. All personality, all feeling bled from my eyes, my features slack and expressionless and met her eyes with that of my stone, cold, killer’s. Her fear ratcheted up a notch and she bucked beneath me.

 

“Shhhh.” I soothed and it had the opposite effect of the intent of the noise, just like I knew it would. She gasped and went very still when I showed her what I had in my other hand.

 

“I’m a fucked up individual Hayden.” I said and waited for a moment. “Do you believe me?” I asked her.

 

“Yes and no.” she said softly, her eyes glued to the black and silver handle of the switchblade in my hand. Her answer perplexed me and would bear further scrutiny later but right now I wanted to play. I needed to play.

 

“Do you trust me, Hayden?” I asked and my voice was cold and deep. I expected her to say no, to struggle to begin to cry but again she surprised me. She swallowed hard, her expression resolute and she told me, unequivocally,

 

“Yes.”

 

It was all over her face, in the deepest facets of her eyes, holy fucking shit… She was going to let me do whatever I wanted. I had to test my limits with her. I always had to test my fucking limits… I flicked the switch and the sharp blade came free of the knife’s handle. Hayden sucked in a breath as sharp as the blade and went very, very still. She trusted me, sure, but that didn’t keep her from being afraid and I lapped that shit up.

 

“I don’t like these pajamas.” I said and snagged the front with the tip of my blade. She looked down her body at me and I carefully punched a hole in the pink cotton. I ran the knife tip along the inside of the material as far as I could go. Up the chest, all the way up the arm the material parting smoothly before the blade, gaping behind it to give me glimpses of her silky smooth skin.

 

Hayden moaned, she mother fucking moaned and I nearly jizzed in my fucking pants from the sound. Her breast showed through the gaping material, the nipple dusky, a deeper nude against her creamy skin and I wanted so badly to take it into my mouth and turn that little moan into something deeper, throatier… decadent-sweet, a sound I could suck on and have melt on my tongue like fine chocolate.

I captured her eyes with my own and gave her a dark, wickedly sinful smile and cut the ugly ass pajama set off her lithe and sexy body. She glistened with moisture at the apex of her thighs and I wanted to taste her. Finger her and tease her into an orgasm, bury myself balls deep inside of her but I did none of those things, instead I folded the blade back into its hilt and I relinquished her wrists and backed off both her and the bed abruptly. Pulling myself back from the brink, but just barely.

 

My breath came hot and heavy and I swept her beautiful body with my eyes and wrestled the beast back into its cage. She covered her chest with her arms and curled up hiding her beautiful pussy with it’s barely there wisp of hair from my sight.

 

“I’m… I…” I was sorry but not in the way she would think. I couldn’t’ bring myself to say it out loud. I didn’t want her to think I didn’t want her because holy mother fucking balls I wanted her so damned bad it felt like my nuts were in a vice right now.

 

“I’ll buy you something different Baby, I promise.” I said and like a jackass I bolted leaving the door swinging wide behind me. I needed distance I needed away from her right now because what I just did was so not cool, not after yesterday not with the hurt that had been put on her.

 

Holy fucking shit, what the fuck did I just do?

 

I needed to get a grip and fast.

 

Text Copyright © 2014 A.J. Downey

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

All Rights Reserved

Best way to wake up EVER!!!

Thank you so much to those of you in the UK that made this happen for me. For real, I'm on cloud 9!

Fun & Games Reaver's Style!

Head on over to my Facebook page and have a look at my latest status update, and let me know... Are you ready?

https://www.facebook.com/authorajdowney

Worst Booklaunch Ever

So yesterday was a real treat... Thank you amazon! As most of you know, I hit the publish button at 21:30PST Monday night but for some reason there were significant publication delays world wide for the release of Broken & Burned and it didn't go through State Side and in the UK until almost 24hrs later!

This left me just as frustrated if not more frustrated than my poor readers trying to download it with no success. To make matters worse I was getting messages from a few more enterprising gals who phoned amazon only to be told the reason my book wasn't available in their country was because the publisher had chosen not to publish there.

*Cough* *Cough* *Cough* BULLSHIT! *Cough* *Cough*

I'm a 100% indie author and as such am my own publisher. I would never do that to you guys, especially in the two countries where I get the most love!

All that aside, it's out now. For reals this time, no more false starts. If you tried in vain to download Broken & Burned yesterday or last night and felt even a little frustrated my offer still stands! Just private message me here, on Good reads, or on Facebook an email address and I will sent you the prologue and first chapter of Cracked & Crushed The Sacred Hearts MC in an exclusive, early, by now not so secret squirrel sneak peak at Reaver's story.

Again. I am so sorry for the inconvenience yesterday and I am making strides to ensure that it doesn't happen for Cracked & Crushed come December. Thank you everyone for your patience during yesterday's fiasco. I really appreciate it.

-A.J.

Broken & Burned out 9/9!!

Here is a sneak peek from later on in Broken & Burned The Sacred Hearts MC Book II:

I turned to see a slim girl our age standing at my desk. She wore black from head to toe and her short pixie cut platinum blonde hair was parted on the side and smoothed tight to her head. Her hands were planted on her hips and her bright blue eyes fixed on the motorcycle club patches on my bag.

“Yeah, you can tell me who’s Old Lady you are.” She said and her eyes flicked to mine. Her eyes were familiar but I just couldn’t place them.

“I’m no one’s Old Lady.” I said frowning and her light eyebrows shot into her hairline.

“What’re you doin’ with a bag with Sacred Heart patches all over it then?” she demanded.

“The Vice President, Dray, gave it to me.” I said and my eyebrows knit together. Mandy bit her lower lip and her eyebrows went up.

“Dray!?” the blonde girl asked surprised her cell phone appearing in her hand.

“Now I know you’re lyin’!” she exclaimed and her phone was ringing on speaker in her hand. We still had a half an hour before class but still, I was nonplussed. Not only had she interrupted the conversation with my BFF, she had called me a liar in her next breath. I was getting pissed.

“Yellow?” a male voice through the phone line.

“Hey Cuz, you’re not gonna believe this. There’s this bitch in my class with a backpack covered in Sacred Hearts patches and she’s trying to tell me Dray gave it to her.” She looked at me with cold blue eyes and it was right there at the edge of my mind.

“Mmmm Shells?” the male voice asked.

“Yeah?”

“You got me on speaker?”

“Yeah?”

“Girl there?” he asked.

“Oh I’m here.” I said and my voice was strained with the suppression of my temper.

“Irish!” The voice crowed, “That you!?” I closed my eyes.

“Yeah Reaver, it’s me.” I said and put my face in my palm.

“Hey Shells, it’s totally cool! Dray licked her, she’s his. I saw it with my own eyes!” he sounded entirely too happy about it and people in the classroom including my best friend were turning to look at me. My face flamed with embarrassment.

“No shit!?” The blonde pixie haired girl asked.

“Uhhh do I carry a knife every day of the week?” he asked.

“‘nuff said. Thanks Cuz!” the mysterious ‘Shells’ said and hung up on him. She dropped into the seat on my other side and beamed at me.

“Reaver’s your cousin?” I asked.

“Yep! Sorry, so Dray licked you and you’re his now? How does that work?” she asked all trace of hostility gone. I sighed.

“Yes Everett. Do tell.” Mandy crossed her arms.

“As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted,” I said pointedly looking at ‘Shells’

“Shelly.” She stuck out her hand. “I guess you could say my official title is Sacred Heart club whore, I’m no one’s Old Lady, but no one messes with me on account Reaver would flay them alive.” I shook her hand and settled on doing some damage control with Mandy before she throttled me from the suspense.

Again, Broken & Burned, Dray's story is out next Tuesday, September 9th!

Blargh...

One of the struggles of being an independent author is that you pretty much  have to do it all yourself. Okay, well you don't have to do it all your self but you most definitely have to have the money to not have to do it all yourself and let's face it: Most of us are out here doing a nine to five to get by and this whole author thing is something we do for fun or on the side, such as in my case.

What precipitated this particular rant? Well two things actually, but the main one as of right this minute is that once again I am lost in the labyrinth that is formatting things correctly to get my books into paper back for the people disinterested in the e-reader format.

I really wish I had a couple hundred bucks to spare to hand my manuscripts to somebody smarter than me and say 'here, do this' but alas I do not and so here I find myself once again at the keys trying to slog through this incomprehensible mess that is getting the headers and page numbers to do what they are supposed to do.

Yep, that's it, the last stumbling block, the final hurdle... I can't get the damned headers and page numbers to show up on the pages they are supposed to show up on and leave the pages they are supposed to leave alone, alone.

DAMN YOU 10% RULE!!!

(That would be the rule that states you must be at least 10% smarter than whatever it is you are trying to operate at any given time. In other words, when it comes to MS Word: the dumb, I has it.)

So instead of drawing a target in the middle of my desk that states 'bang head here' I decided to come and whine about it on my blog, which is in essence the same thing just without the resulting concussion.

Someday I will get this down and then I will get to come and write a blog about how awesome I feel for getting un-stupid! I'm still pretty determined to get this all ironed out before Christmas so I have some time. It would be super epic if I could get it figured out and done before my birthday. (End of September if you're wondering.)

I have some folks in my corner trying to help me out and I'm hoping once I get it done once that I won't ever have to figure it out again, well, until Microsoft changes word again but I think I have a few more minutes until that happens.

Okay. Enough for now. I'm going to get back to it. Hopefully I will have something positive to report on this sooner rather than later.

Talk at you later!

Cover reveal - Broken & Burned The Sacred Hearts MC Book II

He’s Broken…

Dray, Vice President of the Sacred Hearts MC, watched his mother die in a bloody hail of bullets at the tender age of sixteen. It broke something inside of him and he’s been pretty much pissed off at the world ever since. Worse, he’s done things since that time that have just broken down his soul even further… Dray doesn’t want to be that guy anymore. Then came Everett Moran…

She’s Been Burned…

Evy is having one of the worst days in the history of, well… ever, and she’s seen a lot of rough days. Raised an only child of a single father, Everett finds herself an orphan before she’s even old enough to drink. She knows a thing or two about loss and thanks to her boyfriend, she’s had more than a few lessons in hardship too. Still, she moves through life with a single minded determination to make her circumstances better. She harbors no illusions about life being anything other than what it is, so how in the hell could she have been so blind as to what her boyfriend Jerry was doing!?

Could the worst day of Everett’s life actually turn out to be the best thing to ever happen to her when she pulls into Dray’s garage? Could Everett’s arrival on Dray’s doorstep herald a new beginning for Dray, and heal some of his broken?

**Mature Audiences Only (18+)**
**Language, Violence, and Sexual Content.**

It's been a minute...

So I figured I'd post something so you wouldn't think I was dead. So... I'm not dead. I've just been busy, you know... writing and stuff.

Mostly I have been working on this novella that comes between books three and four of The Sacred Hearts MC series but fore the last couple of minutes I've been flirting with a stand-alone novel concept surrounding a cruise ship. Don't panic. Reaver's story is already written, plus at the rate I write these things, you wouldn't see any break in continuity in the MC series. I've got releases on that going clear up through February of 2015 with what I have on paper going through the editing process right now.

I'm being rather dedicated and productive on this series and I'm finding it hard to find the time to sit down and figure out the formatting issues that are plaguing me when it comes to getting my e-book converted to a format acceptable to get my books into paperback. Something I have quite a few people wishing I would do.

To those people I say:

You are not forgotten. I am still trying to get that done before Christmas for you guys.

I should, in theory, have more time once the warm weather abates and it gets crappy outside again. I tend to not want to go out and do stuff when the weather sucks and it helps keep me focused on things like writing and formatting and giving avid readers more stuff to read in more mediums! (Trust me. I know what's what, I was an avid reader before I was an avid writer.)
 
Okay, yeah... I wish I had something more interesting to report or to say for right now, but I don't. I have some fun research coming up for some future installments so maybe I can let you in on some of that when I get there. For now, I hope everyone is having a safe and happy summer and as ever, I welcome correspondence and have a lot of fun answering any questions you might have about writing, processes, the MC series etcetera so feel free to drop me a line if you have a question that's just killing you. I don't bite.

Until next time!

Bad news Oreo!!!

The good news is, Broken & Burned The Sacred Hearts MC Book II is completed!

Yay!!!

The bad news is, my lovely readers, is that you don't get it until September 9th, 2014.

Boo!!!

The other good news is I'm going to share the back cover blurb thing with you!

Yay!!!


So without further ado:

He’s Broken…

Dray, Vice President of the Sacred Hearts MC, watched his mother die in a bloody hail of bullets at the tender age of sixteen. It broke something inside of him and he’s been pretty much pissed off at the world ever since. Worse, he’s done things since that time that have just broken down his soul even further… Dray doesn’t want to be that guy anymore. Then came Everett Moran…

She’s Been Burned…

Evy is having one of the worst days in the history of, well… ever, and she’s seen a lot of rough days. Raised an only child of a single father, Everett finds herself an orphan before she’s even old enough to drink. She knows a thing or two about loss and thanks to her boyfriend, she’s had more than a few lessons in hardship too. Still, she moves through life with a single minded determination to make her circumstances better… She harbors no illusions about life being anything other than what it is, so how in the hell could she have been so blind as to what her boyfriend Jerry was doing!?

Could the worst day of Everett’s life actually turn out to be the best thing to ever happen to her when she pulls into Dray’s garage? Could Everett’s arrival on Dray’s doorstep herald a new beginning for Dray, and heal some of his broken?


So there you have it! The second book in The Sacred Heart's series is The Vice President Dray's book.

As ever, thanks for reading and I hope you're as excited as I am about what comes next for the men of the Sacred Heart!

Writer's advice... Love the contraction... be one with the contraction!

Now when I say contraction I'm speaking in the literary sense, meaning the shortening of a word or words. I'm not talking about going into labor here. I'm (see what I did there?) also talking about it, more specifically, as it applies to dialogue.

One of the things I notice, and am extremely self conscious of when I write, is my dialogue.
I pride myself on making damn sure the things coming out of my character's mouths sound like something a real person would say. As a reader it is one of my greatest pet peeves to read dialogue that is supposedly coming out of someone who is street wise or a teenager that sounds like it is coming out of some Oxford scholar with how perfectly grammatically correct it is.
For instance:

"You are a big pain in my ass." Which sure granted someone might say but what's more likely to come popping out of someone's mouth...

"You're a big pain in my ass!"

The over use of 'you are' versus 'you're' in speech is the most notable but the use of 'can not', 'do not' and 'will not' are all equal opportunity offenders in this particular arena.

The quick, easy fix for this particular problem is pretty simple.

Do not fear the contraction.

As talkers, we love them and use them more than thirteen year old girls use glitter nail polish.
Can't, don't. Won't and you're (not to be confused with your) are our greatest friends and allies when trying to craft convincing and believable dialogue.

So to quickly recap:

A character who is an uneducated mechanic isn't going to convincingly say, "I can not deal with you when you are like this, Mary and I will not deal with you when you are acting like a bitch anymore!" in an argument with his wife rather than "I can't deal with you when you're like this Mary, and I won't deal with you when you're acting like a bitch!"

Contractions are our friends. Well, except when giving birth, even then they're sort of our buddies, but only because it means we aren't going to be pregnant that much longer... but still at that point they're more like a 'frienemy' than an actual friend. Anyways, you get my point!
Happy dialoguing friends!

Something useful... and a shameless plug.

I've been meaning to get around to this but have been pretty busy lately. When I first started this blog I intended for it to not be all about my generally random thought patterns and musings. I also intended for it to have some useful things for newbie aspiring authors like me in it too.

Today I figured I'd go over a minor but important thing that I've pretty much chosen because I dealt with it just a month ago:

So you've written the Great American Novel, are all set to publish (E or otherwise) and now you need a cover.

There are a lot of talented cover artists out there. My personal favorite (and here's the shameless plug) is Clarissa Yeo of Yocla designs... You can find her at http://yocladesigns.com/.

Now I've saved some of the important things from my last correspondence with Clarissa when it came to my latest book Shattered & Scarred. Keep in mind that Shattered & Scarred is the third book cover Clarissa has done for me so we've been through this a few times.

I finished the book and needed a cover so I emailed Clarissa with this:

Hey you!

So I've been writing... again... and I am about two books into what is shaping up to be a series and the first of these bad boys is ready for a cover. This time I come prepared with links!  

The first book's title is Shattered & Scarred with a subtitle of The Sacred Hearts MC Book I

I went surfing for some images and this by far is the first couple in the series. The only thing that needs to be changed is the eye color on both and her hair color. The length of her hair is perfect. The length of his hair is perfect these two are just freaking perfect!

http://m.shutterstock.com/images/40633336

The changes:

His eyes are a silvery blue. I would love for him to be in his motorcycle vest which I can get you references for what that is supposed to look like and what the patches are supposed to say if you can take on the project.

Her eyes are golden and she has auburn hair.

This couple is PERFECT in every aspect for the book couple. The only other thing I would need changed is she needs to look a little more frightened like she's hiding behind him instead of all meow sexy.

Okay so that's a bit much on the changes but you're awesome which is why I am asking about this all up front.

The only other addition is that the Motorcycle Club's logo needs to be in here somewhere and that's where it gets tricky. The logo is of the sacred heart with some changes made. In case you don't know what it is, here is an example of the sacred heart:

http://m.shutterstock.com/images/56968042

What I need for the motorcycle club's logo is a more human heart, wrapped in barbed wire instead of thorns, the valves of the heart morph into steel motorcycle tailpipes and the flames hover above it from the tail pipes.

What I would like is basically for you to hold onto the logo image as I'll have it appearing in some form or function on every book cover I commission for the series (3 so far)... The MC logo can appear as a patch, a tattoo, on a tee shirt... See where I'm going? It just has to be somewhere on every cover.

What do you think? Can it be done, and would you be interested and the $64,000 dollar question... Do you have time?

Out of everything I have done so far this one, by far, is my baby... the project I am most proud of and excited to market.

You've done such an uber amazing job on everything so far which is why you're my first pick for this project. 

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!

Andrea

 

That was a tall order! Most of the time you don't need to be so freaking nit-picky and detail oriented with a cover order but if you've got a good cover artist  (my opinion here) then they'll go the extra mile and some (depending on the individual) will actually appreciate the image links as it makes their job a bit easier.

So out of that single email came the following:

 

 

 

For the logo, which was not Clarissa's usual thing at all! She did this as a favor to me and with much trepidation and I thought it turned out pretty bad-ass!

 

 

Now as much of you know, the book in question is a Contemporary Romance Novel surrounding a fictional Motorcycle club. This was the very first attempt at a cover for the series that came through:

 

 

 

 

Mmmmmm... close. I had to send it back. Why? Well these are bikers, not vampires and not anything supernatural and I got to tell you I only had to ask for two minor changes. 1. Tone down the eyes and 2. Make them a little less pale. Those two changes my friends, made a world of difference! We went from the Twilight rejects above to this:

 

 





 

POW! Project completed and a pretty decent cover for the content contained therein, if I do say so myself.

So there you have it. A glimpse into the inner workings of cover art design for your project. All in all this is about what the whole exchange looked like.

1. This is what I need can you do it?

2. Yes, I can do it, when do you need it by?

3. I need it by XX/XX/XXXX

4. Okay cool. I have the time to do it around XX/XX/XXXX

It's important to note here... Do not rush your cover artist. I had my project finished and ready to go but I gave Clarissa weeks in which to work on it. The second book in the series isn't set to release until early September 2014. Right now it's July 2014 and I've sent her the next cover request already. Give your cover artist the time to work on your cover and your cover will turn out fantastic.

Now, about two to three weeks after this initial four part exchange I get an email.

5. I've started your project can you give me more detail here, here, here and here?

6. No problem, I want this, this, this and I'm easy about XYZ just do what you think is best/easiest for you. (Clarissa and I have a fairly decent working relationship after three pushing four covers so I'm comfortable letting her have full creative license in a few areas.)

7. Okay how does this look? *First images come through*

8. I like ABC but can we maybe do this, this and this over here and there?

9. Sure! I can't really do anything about that as I feel it's a little bit beyond my ability can we compromise? :/

Sometimes you absolutely must be willing to compromise! In this case I was asking about the fire over the sacred heart image. Fire is one of the most notoriously hardest things to work with/do and it was a bit of a no-go translating what I saw in my head to an actual image but on this caxe the ball of flame/spark was the compromise and it worked for me!

10. Sure! You know what? That works for me! Now can we adjust this and that?

11. Okay here, how about this?

12. Perfect! It's a wrap! Send me my invoice so's I can pay you!

So there you have it. Another successful cover art exchange. Hopefully someone heading into the unchartered waters of having a cover designed for them comes across this and it helps you through the process a bit. I can honestly say, the first cover Clarissa and I ever did together was an exercise in patience for the both of us! After all, your written piece is your baby and you want it to look it's best, but it's important to remember, your cover artist pretty much feels the same way! Their art is their baby too and they want it to look their best! So probably the most important piece of advice I can give you is to be patient with your cover artist. They're a professional and they want you to be happy as their client and they want the visual representation of your piece to look as stellar as you want it to!

Happy hunting, may you find the perfect artist to translate your dream into a reality!

~A.J.