Elliott Set for Early Release

Over Labor Day weekend this year, I participated in the International 3 Day Novel Writing Contest again. If you're not familiar, writers have three days to produce a novel. I've done it a few times before (Transformation, Titanic, and Aaron were all products of the 3 Day.) This year, I knew whose story I wanted to tell. If I was going to be essentially locked in a room inside a character's head for three days, it needed to be someone I liked. So, I decided to write Elliott's story, and I'm glad I did.

Unlike the first two books in the A Vampire Hunter's Tale series, Elliott's story doesn't involve historical events or figures recreated as vampires. It focuses more on how he got to be the character we all know and love today. And honestly, parts of his past are heartbreaking. It's no wonder he's always trying to make everyone laugh. As the saying goes, if you don't laugh, you'll cry.

I've decided not to wait on the results of the 3 Day to release this novel. We were promised word about a long list of winners in October and didn't get it, and since the book is edited, cover is made, formatting is done, I'm going to go ahead and release Elliott to the world on November 15. I'll come back and update this post with a link when I have one. I wanted to let you know because, over the years since I first started writing in this world, I've had more readers tell me how much they love Elliott than any other character I've created (and that's a lot of characters considering this is my 34th publication.) For me, this book isn't about vampires or hunters or guardians. It's about examining the struggles we all go through in life, the ones that stick with us and make us who we are. We all have ghosts of our pasts we carry along with us, those voices we hear in our head that either tell us we can, we can't, or we never will. I'm not sure if Elliott's story will make you laugh or cry, but I hope it will make you think and reflect on how you got to be you. After all, it's only through that sort of examination that we can ever figure out who we're going to be.

As always, thanks so much for all of your support. I don't blog as much anymore as I used to now that I'm writing more books, but I do plan on writing at least one more blog post this year to let you know about the goals I set for 2018 and how I managed to accomplish them (assuming they're all met by the end of the year. So close!) Until then, happy reading.

Elliott will be available on Nov 15, 2018 on Amazon and in Kindle Unlimited

2015 Three Day Novel Writing Contest Recap

You may recall that I spent last Labor Day weekend writing Transformation--a feat that nearly killed me.
Okay--that may be an exaggeration, but writing nearly 80,000 words in three days is a pretty difficult task.
This time around, I decided to tone it down a bit for my 3 Day Novel Writing Contest entry. I only wrote 54,000 words.
In three days.
It nearly killed me.
(But only because I was already sick.)
Compared to most of the other writers I was keeping up with that weekend, it still seems to be quite a lot of words.
But it's not the quantity that counts. It's the quality.
And I think you'll really like what I produced.

Learn more about the 3 Day by clicking here.

The name of the book is Ghosts of Southampton: Titanic. I have added the Titanic part recently because I have decided this will, in fact, be a series. I have a few alpha readers looking it over now and no word yet, but I think y'all are gonna like it.
The story is about a woman named Meg who boards the Titanic in Southampton, her home town. She is running away from someone, but we don't know who, not at first.  She is determined to start her life over again.  Unfortunately, we find out pretty quickly the man she has been engaged to for the last three years is also on the ship.  Only he doesn't recognize her because they've never met.  He's a billionaire from New York City named Charlie Ashton. And when Meg finally meets him face to face, she realizes she's made a terrible mistake.
But he's not the only person Meg is running from, and it seems some of her other ghosts have also followed her aboard the Titanic. If she doesn't figure out a way to explain to Charlie why she left Southampton without ever even meeting him, she knows she'll lose him forever.
Oh, and the boat is sinking....

I don't want to give the ending away, but the boat sinks.

Over the course of the three days I spent with Meg and Charlie (and Kelly, Daniel, Jonathan, Molly Brown, Ruth, and Baby Lizzy) I fell in love with them and their story! And I can't wait to share it with you! The only problem is, if I want to have any chance at winning the 3 Day, I can't publish the story until after the winner is announced, and while I really don't think I'll even make the short list (I didn't last year and look how successful Transformation and the rest of that series has become) I still feel like I should wait.
Luckily for you I've decided to go back a bit in Meg and Charlie's story and write Ghosts of Southampton: Inception--which will be a prequel to Titanic. And--I may go back further than that as well. AND--I'm thinking about publishing it on Wattpad and some other free sites.
What do you think?  Does Meg's story sound interesting?  Are we all Titaniced out or are we good for another go?  I'd really love to hear your thoughts.
P.S. If you're a writer at all, you owe it to yourself to try the 3 Day. It's one of the hardest most amazing things you will ever do in your life. The last 3 Day saw the creation of Cadence, Aaron, Elliott, and Eliza, and who doesn't love them?  You can purchase Transformation here for only 99 cents and see what can be done in only three days!