Updates for Monday...

Hello All!! I had such good intentions for blogging last week. It made my to-do list every single day. *sigh*  Yeah, I didn't do so well on my to-do lists last week.

Part of that is because I am deep into rewrites of Operation: Endeavor....and I will admit, that terrifies me.



A week and a half ago, I had a complete cohesive book. Now I have cut and spliced and inserted and deleted and I have no idea if it will ever recover. The only thing keeping me from hyperventilating every time I think about that is the fact that I have the old version still saved and safe on my hard drive...just in case what I'm doing to it is horrendous.

I'm really crossing my fingers that it's not horrendous. I'm also hoping to have it completely redone and finished (again) by Wednesday evening. Then the debate will be to hand it directly over to my editor? Or try to find a new beta reader who can look at it fresh (that didn't see the other version) to tell me, completely honestly, if the suspense line works? The pub date for this is still January, but I'm worried that I'm starting to push that, especially with the holidays coming which will affect all those cogs in the wheel (i.e. my publishing team...editor, proofreader, formatter, etc.) Every little step in the process has a person, who has a real life, involved and each of those little steps take anywhere from 2 days to 2-4 weeks to perform. *eeks* Today is all about not hyperventilating, right??

 

So, let's talk about what is going well...



Y'all really like Cassie and Jake. Yippee!!! Amazon sales are going really well. I am absolutely THRILLED and so THANKFUL to all of you that have helped me get the work out about my first book. I never even dreamed that it would do this well and that is completely thanks to all of you that have helped to spread the word.



BUT... and this is huge because it's so frustrating and I have no control over it. The book is still not up at B&N or Kobo. It is getting there....VERY....SLOWLY. I can follow the upload process and it is making progress...it's just taking 2-3 times the amount of time that it's supposed to. I have no idea why. It was uploaded by me (and met final approval by Smashwords who sends it out to everyone else)  August 30th. So, I don't know what to tell you except it is coming...sometime....

But in the meantime I do have some other links to give you about where the book and insider info about it has been shared over the last week:

• Yummy Men & Kick Ass Chicks- Review and Interview (it's always fun with friends to see what questions they come up with! Julie featured me two different days...thanks, Julie!!)


• A Writer's Mind- excerpt


• Roxanne's Realm- talking about friends to lovers


• Arianne Cruz- Another really fun Interview


• Never Judge a Book By It's Cover- fabulous review and a fun interview

Have a great week everyone!!!

Delusional Ramblings of a Procrastinating Author...

I keep thinking that if I make it through just another week, then I will have more time and start to get caught up. Yep, I'm delusional. I'm never going to get caught up on life again...LOL! So let me catch you up on what all is happening with my writing.

Operation: Endgame is officially released...well, kind of. *sigh* Yesterday was my official release day (at least in my head.) I uploaded it everywhere way early (on August 30th) so that it would be available on all the sites by yesterday. Hmm, not so much. It's still pretty much only available on Amazon and Smashwords, BUT I was able to see that it's started the process at B&N and Sony...so maybe in just a few more days, it will be available everywhere. Maybe.

BUT, I did start my huge Virtual Book Tour yesterday and have posts and review popping up all over the place now. I hope you will go check them out:

• Fang-Tastic Books- has the kick-off of my tour with all the stop links for the month.


• The Jeep Diva- has a review up with an excerpt and a post about the characters from the series.


• The Book Vixen- has a review up of the book.


• Sarah Nego's blog- I'm over at Sarah's blog talking about why I chose to self-pub. There's also an excerpt and a chance to win a copy of the book and editing by Sarah (she's my wonderful editor!)


• S.J. Clarke's blog- S.J. has a post up about using Texas Tech University as the setting for the book.

I will continue to update here with links of the tour posts. Also, I will definitely let you know when it becomes available on some of those other sites. Also, I'm going to be doing a giveaway here. I just need to get all my ducks in a row so stay tuned.



Operation: Endeavor is back from my beta readers and overall the reviews of it were pretty good. Regardless of that, it's sitting now waiting for rewrites. I don't think the suspense story line is strong enough. I felt like that was the case and the feedback from the betas just reinforced that. I have pinpointed where I want to change things. I just need to dig into the manuscript and do it. The goal is to have that done by the 1st of October...in the middle of writing Operation: Endurance. *eeks*



Operation: Endurance still sits at around 5000 words and until today was stalled. I have spent the last two weeks seriously drafting and workbooking this book to figure out where to take it. I have made so much progress on figuring it out and am *almost* ready to sit down and write. Which is good because TODAY IS THE DAY!

graphic by the talented David Beam

Today is the start of the official San Angelo Writer's Fast Draft. Three of us have pledged to do this for the next two weeks...5000/words a day. Yes, I am Fast-drafting Endurance and rewriting Endeavor at the same time. It's craziness, but if I want to keep up with my publishing schedule (and I really do want to do that) then this is what's required. BTW, Sarah is helping us keep track of our progress on her blog if there's anyone out there who wants to join us.

 So that's what's going on in my world. It's going to be crazy busy for the foreseeable future. I'll try to pop in and update you pretty regularly....AND that giveaway will be coming. As soon as I have time to get it organized...hehe!

Have a great weekend everyone!

So what exactly is a PJ??

One of the first things that I'm asked when people start reading Operation: Endgame is "What exactly is a PJ?" (The hero, Jake, is an Air Force PJ.)

PJ is short for Pararescue Jumpers. They are a spec ops branch of the Air Force. These guys are seriously BAD-ASS. Their main job is to jump behind enemy lines and rescue downed pilots, but they do so much more than that. Their training takes two years from start to finish and has the highest drop-out rate of any of the special forces....90% quit before then end.

But just listen to the list of training that they go through and you will understand that:

*Pararescue/Combat Rescue Officer Indoctrination Course, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas (9 weeks)

*Army Airborne School, Fort Benning, Georgia (3 weeks)

*Air Force Combat Diver School, Navy Diving and Salvage Training Center, Naval Support Activity Panama City, Florida (5.5 weeks)

*Navy Underwater Egress Training, Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida (1 day)

*Air Force Basic Survival School, Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington (2.5 weeks)

*Army Military Free Fall Parachutist School, Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona (5 weeks)

*Pararescue EMT-Paramedic Training, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico (22 weeks)

*Pararescue Recovery Specialist Course, Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico (24 weeks)

(training information from Wikipedia)

 

***Here is a link to a great video that just shows these guys in action...

it seriously gives me chills...  What is a PJ?***

So, that is what a PJ is and does....don't you want one for yourself?? ;o)

BTW, a little PJ trivia for you: PJ's all have tattoos of green footprints on their bodies somewhere. hmmm, I wonder where Jake's are??

 

And on to Operation: Endgame news:

*It's FINALLY out on Kindle!!! Only $2.99. It is DEFINITELY coming in the other e-book formats, but it takes time. I've done everything I can do on my end...am now just waiting on all the sites to get it uploaded. I'm told this part of the process can take up to 2 weeks. *sigh*

*I've been so lucky to have some great reviews posted. Here are some links for you:

• The Geeky Blogger


• Creative Deeds


• The BookGoonie


• Book Travels


• The Jeep Diva

*There are lots more appearances to come. My "official" release date is September 14th, so a lot of my PR is centralized around that date. Stay tuned...