Kindle Scout...

I don't know how many of you know about Kindle Scout, if not, let me enlighten you. If you do already know, well, you'll get a refresher.

Kindle Scout allows you to submit a book, cover and excerpt. They review it, then let you know if it's been accepted or not. Once it is accepted, you have 30 days to gain nominations. After that, they'll review it once more. If your book is chosen to be published, you'll get an advance, plus marketing assistance and a higher percentage in royalties.

Not bad, huh? I learned about this from a fellow author who emailed me and asked for a nomination if I liked what I read. I went over to the site, checked out the excerpt and decided to nominate it. I'm hoping to submit a book over there, one of these days. I've got several in the works at the moment.

So why am I bringing this up, then? Well, my sister in law beat me to the punch. No worries, it's not a competition! I'm just super happy she's getting to try it out. She submitted a Young Adult, dystopian novel she's been working on. She had it all ready, with a cover and everything, when I told her about this program. So she submitted it and got accepted!

I'd like for anyone, who hasn't yet seen it, to go check it out. Read the excerpt and, if you're interested, nominate it. The readers are rewarded in this program, too. Anyone who nominates this book, if it gets published, gets a free copy of the book. So it's a win/win!

All right, so here is the link to her book. Again, go check it out, read the excerpt and then vote. If you don't like it, don't nominate it. Trust me, it's all good.

Have a great week, everyone!

My Awesome, Talented Sister-In-Law...

Most of you know my sister-in-law, Cheri Chesley, is a writer as well. I love having a sounding board for stuff and she loves to bounce ideas off of me.

And, not that it's a competition or anything, but she does have a lot more out there than I do.

Darn it.

I'm kidding, I love that she has so much out there. I thought I would help her with a little promotional stuff and do a cover reveal for her Christmas short story that will be available on Friday. I'll reveal THAT cover at the end of this post. You'll have to get through some other links, first.

She has her Peasant Queen series going, which include:

The Peasant Queen:

"After running away from home, Krystal is transported to a faraway kingdom where an evil tyrant is bent on taking the crown - and Krystal's hand in marriage. But when she falls in love with the rightful heir to the throne, she must make an impossible choice: sacrifice her one chance at happiness or face the destruction of an entire kingdom."






The Wild Queen:

"In the exciting prequel to The Peasant Queen, Roweena is the crown princess of Norvallen, a tiny kingdom with only one thing of value—the Healer’s Grove. The trees in this small section of forest are enchanted, giving a sap that can be mixed into potions or salves to heal almost any wound.

And it’s in high demand.

Lucien, the young king of neighboring Demarde, comes to Roweena’s father seeking an alliance, but comes away with a marriage contract for young Roweena’s hand. Furious and stubborn, this untamed beauty vows he will never conquer her. But the contract purposely gives her time to come to terms with her fate.

Before Lucien can return, Roweena’s home is attacked and her parents are murdered. The Healer’s Grove is also attacked—burned to the ground. With nothing more than her horse and the clothes on her back, Roweena goes to the only person she knows can help her. Lucien."


The Tyrant King:

 "Krystal’s peaceful life as queen of Fayterra is shattered when a stranger arrives with a connection to Jareth that threatens to change everything. Soon her loved ones are threatened, her people are under attack, and Krystal must face a devastating loss.

As the future becomes bleaker and the mystery continues to unravel, Krystal’s enemies will learn just how far she will go to defend the people she loves."



She also has a short story called Ghost Bride:

 "Arianne died on her wedding night, but her ghost can't rest in peace."






 And now she has a new short story out called A Haunting Love:

 "When her fiancé, Drew, suggests having their wedding at his family home in the Highlands of Scotland, Alita only thinks about the beauty and romance awaiting her. She’s unprepared for the frosty greeting she and her sister receive from each member of his family, particularly his domineering mother.

But nothing shocks Alita more than the odd, menacing dreams she begins to have her first night at MacColum House. Over and over again she dreams of a grisly murder—with herself as the victim"

She has a children's book out as well, called Lizzie Lilac and the Left Socks, which the proceeds go to the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah:

"Little Lizzie treasures her socks, especially the ones her mommy made. When some of her socks start to go missing, Lizzie is determined to find the culprit and get her treasures back. Author’s note: A few years ago, K.C. Rose and I got some devastating news: a sweet friend and mother had an extremely aggressive form of breast cancer. Since I had just launched my first novel into the world, I decided to donate all my royalties for a period of months to the family to help them fight this horrible invader. But it wasn’t enough—we knew we could do more. That’s where the concept of the Lizzie Lilac book was born. This book is not only dedicated to our friend (who is now cancer free!!) and her family, but also to all the families who struggle with this disease. K.C. and I make no profit from sharing this story—everything we raise will go to the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Utah to help them help others. Thank you for being part of our fight. ~Cheri Chesley"

Okay, finally, the one you have been waiting for! This is the cover reveal for her latest short story, which will be available on Friday!

So, see? She's pretty awesome and talented, that sister-in-law of mine. Hmm... now I just need to catch up!

Hope you are all having a good week. What new books do you have out? Please drop a link in the comments!

The Tyrant King Blog Tour...

Hey all! So my sister in law, Cheri Chesley, has her newest book in her young adult fantasy series out. It is called 'The Tyrant King'. She's been a hoppin' about the blogosphere these days and I bet she's getting kinda tired. That's a lot of hoppin'!

Her latest stop today has her on not one, but THREE blogs. Can you imagine? Well, technically four... Mindy and Sheila are blogging separately and together on their combined blog. You'll find the links below.

Here they are:

Angela Brown
Mindy Holt
Sheila Staley
LDS Women's Book Review 

So stop on by and share the links to all of these wonderful blogs. Help Cheri get the exposure she deserves. We are all authors supporting authors, right? And readers. We're ALL readers!  Thanks everyone!

The Monday After...

Hey everyone! I hope those of you who celebrated the Thanksgiving weekend had a safe and happy one. Too much turkey for me, but I also made the best turkey ever. Even though I bought the darn thing FROZEN the NIGHT before turkey day.

One of my Irish friends (bless her heart) patted my turkey in the store and said, "Love, how the eff are ye goin' tae cook dis ting?"

I told her I was going home to give it a bath. And sure enough, that's just what I did.

So today is another tour stop for my sister in law, Cheri Chesley and her NEWEST book, The Tyrant King!

For the latest stop on the tour, click here and head on over to Jamie Gibbs' page, Mithril Wisdom.

But wait! Don't go just yet!

I'll also be participating in 'The Next Big Thing' blog hop and I'm looking for 5 authors to tag. I'll be posting next Monday, so you will post the Monday after.

Okay, now you can go! Have a great week everyone.

More Updates...

Wow, getting some awesome responses for our little give away. I'm so happy!

I also wanted to clarify a little bit here, that my sister in law, Cheri Chesley has her own separate blog. So if you follow mine, follow hers as well. We do lots of things on a joint effort here. She's a mom of 5, I have one teenager living with me. She's got lots going on in her community, I spend days in PJ's. She's got a book coming out soon, I'm still in the revising stage. ;) All in all, we're family and we help family.

So our little contest we're doing is to boost our followers to 100 each. She or I could have been selfish and just said, "gimme 200 followers and I will give you stuff!" Nope, doesn't work that way, not with us anyway. Hehe!

So here's a couple of little clues as to what we're giving away once we each reach 100 followers:

A Mystery Package - Includes Mystery genre books + goodies.
A Fantasy Package - Includes Fantasy genre books + goodies.
A Romance Package - Includes Romance genre books + goodies.

Don't know if that piqued your interest, since I didn't give much away. I'm silly like that. So again: Follow my blog AND follow Cheri's. Get us to 100 followers each so we can give these fun little packages away!

Thanks to all who have joined so far! You're awesome. :D

*Note: I do click on my followers and follow your blog in return, just so you know. I'm doing this to find more writing blogs as well! Thanks!

We Wanna Give Stuff Away!

I had some technical difficulties with my internet yesterday. For whatever reason, it decided to let just one person on at a time. The problem was either my modem or router. Still don't know which...

I digress. As usual. I do that a lot, don't I? Of course I do, I wouldn't be me if I didn't get sidetracked on some tangent that has nothing to do with the original title of this post...

Did it again, didn't I?

OK! This time I stick to the topic. We wanna give some stuff away, baby! We does not mean I have a mouse in my pocket. It does mean me and my sister in law, Cheri. (Look, I spelled it right this time)

Cheri and I are wanting to (Sorry, got sidetracked by "Friends") give some prizes away, but we don't want to have our drawing until we each reach 100 followers. This will include FaceBook followers, the ones you see below the other followers, you know? Okay, cool, I didn't want to have to explain further. Hehehe... just kidding. Anyway, as soon as the two of us reach 100 followers each, we're going to have a drawing. But I won't tell you the prizes yet. That's for another post. Have to keep you all reading somehow, don't I?

So pass this around, tell your friends, we'll tell our friends and we'll keep networking like we do. We're good at that. And as soon as we reach that magic number, we'll be sure to let you know!