Another Heartless Promotion

That's right, my lovelies, Heartless will be FREE again. But this time it's free for ONE DAY ONLY, Wednesday, December 19, 2012.

You can download this free from all the Amazon sites. The image above will take you to the US site. It's not free until Wednesday, though, so if you click over there now, you'll see the $2.99 price tag (free for prime members). 

♥Happy reading, writing, and blogging!!♥

There's a jukebox in my head. It's currently playing
♫♪ Counting Crows ~ Rain King

A Heartless Promotion

 ♥Click the ad to go straight to Amazon!♥ 

Heartless available in the Kindle Store absolutely FREE November 28 and 29. This is a great opportunity to try one of my titles if you haven't already!

In case FREE isn't enough and you need more convincing, here's the blurb:

A dark stranger....

Finding herself abandoned after the death of her father, Leandra Harcourt takes the greatest risk of her life. She accepts the marriage proposal of a complete stranger, the Duke of Derringer—a man the world calls Lord Heartless.

A heartless proposal....

A desperate girl with no prospects seems the perfect solution to Derringer's most recent problem: marry before his 30th birthday to gain his rightful inheritance, though marriage is the last thing he needs. The need to find his missing cousin takes priority over any silly marriage and he quickly abandons his new bride in the wreck of his family estate.

A perfect love....

Two people were never more suited for each other than the duke and his wife, but will they discover it before it's too late? With an assassin dogging his heels and a suitor wooing his wife, love will not have the luxury of time. 

Ready to get your FREE copy? CLICK HERE. (And thank you!)

♥Happy reading, writing, and blogging!!♥

There's a jukebox in my head. It's currently playing
♫♪ Santana featuring Dave Matthews ~ Love of My Life

~Just Released~ The Dragon's Birth...cont'd

~♥♥~ Now playing in my head: Chloë Agnew, Someday ~♥♥~

 Forgive me for the multiple posts on this topic but my excitement knows no bounds. The Dragon's Birth is now available in the Kindle Store on Amazon. There's a handy link, just to the left here, that will take you right to the listing, should you be interested in checking it out. 

If Amazon's not your cup of tea, there's still the listing at Smashwords, and soon (hopefully) it will appear on B&N, Kobo, Apple, Diesel, and a few others I can't think of off the top of my head. 

And if you like to try before you buy, there's an excerpt (from the first edited draft, not the final) on my website and Smashwords allows you to read the first 10%. Amazon also will send an excerpt to your Kindle, if that's how you prefer to roll.* 

Happy reading, writing, and blogging!! 

*Edited at 12:54PM to add: I just sampled the Amazon version and they don't give any of the actual story, just the copyright page. Sorry about that. lol

~Just Released~ The Dragon's Birth

I'm pleased to announce that after several months of fine-tuning and tweaking my non-romance, fantasy short story The Dragon's Birth, it has finally been accepted, approved, and released with TreasureLine Publishing. 

At the time of this posting, the e-book is available at Smashwords but will be available in the Kindle store soon. To read an early draft excerpt, click on over to my website. 

Happy reading, writing, and blogging!! 

*Winners of my celebratory giveaway, you have already been emailed with a download code to get the book for free. 

The first person to...

...correctly tell me what my favorite color is (and comments here, including an email address) wins an eBook copy of Honor.

Hint: Go to the "About Me" page on my website. www.jaimeygrant.com

GO!

:O)

Website Overhaul

---

I forgot to mention the major overhaul I gave my website last week. If you wanna compare old and new, here's the old site, hosted by Google: https://sites.google.com/site/jaimeygrant/; and the new, hosted by weebly: www.jaimeygrant.com. So tell me honestly. Improvement, yes? 

---

I also updated the logo/header for my art site. What do you think? Don't forget to bookmark www.anauthorsart.com if you're in the market for a book cover design or promotional materials, or even if you just like to check out book covers (like I do). I have a "fan" page too, if facebook is the place for you.
http://www.facebook.com/anauthorsart 

Happy reading, writing, and blogging!!

---

Updates of a Varied Sort

Well, there are a few matters to update here.

Announcements:

• I have started a blog for Spellbound. All you readers who are interested, please follow to get all the inside dirt on the novel as updates are posted: All the Gossip of Spellbound.
• The blog tour for Joyce DiPastena's new medieval romance Illuminations of the Heart is in full swing. Four prizes are being given away at the end of the tour and you can enter NOW. For details of the tour and rules for entry view the post on my book review site: Romance, Old School. Followers are always welcome and very much appreciated.

Updates:

• My recent blog poll on publisher reviews has ended with 75% voting that this type of review is only of some importance and should be considered with a grain of salt. 25% think they are too biased to be considered at all. Nobody felt they should be treated as normal reviews. Although the voting is over, you can still leave your opinion on the original post: Do Publisher Reviews Matter?
• Spellbound is still available for FREE download from Smashwords.com. Smashwords offers several file formats for many e-readers including Kindle, Palm, and Sony. They also offer PDF and HTML for ordinary computer reading. For details of my offer and the coupon code required for download, check out the original post: Spellbound is FREE Until August 21!

That is all for now. Happy reading, writing and blogging!

Spellbound is FREE Until August 21!

Until August 21, Spellbound can be downloaded for FREE from Smashwords.com. There are no catches, no hidden charges or requirements. All you do is enter coupon code FQ22T when required during the checkout process.

Smashwords offers many ebook formats for several ebook readers including the Kindle, Sony Reader and Stanza, as well as good old-fashioned PDF and HTML for online reading.

Book Blurb:

England 1820. Retired actress Raven agrees to pose as a missing noblewoman/fiancé of an eccentric duke. If caught, she could lose her life. Her reason is simple curiosity about her employer, Lord Windhaven. His plan goes far deeper than merely hiring an actress to play a role. He suspects something is not right with Raven. Then the duke's brother arrives, threatening to reveal Raven's identity.

Reviews from Goodreads:

From Joyce DiPastena: "Spellbound is filled with mysteries. Why does the Duke of Windhaven, who has hired Raven to pose, first as his fiancé and then as his wife, react with such terror when he sees Raven draw too close to the lake on his family estates? What is the truth about the missing noblewoman Raven is pretending to be, and what mysteries lie in Raven’s own past that have been hidden from her since childhood? And will the answers to these mysteries unite Raven and Windhaven together in love or tear them apart forever? Will the Raven I grew to love in Betrayal finally find her own happy ending?...I found the book difficult to put down, staying up later than I should have to read “just a few more words” in a new chapter, every time I finished an old one."

From Pamela Sinclair: "I really like how she fills in pieces of the characters past as the story progresses and the way the characters work to overcome their past mistakes."

From Rachel Rager: "Spellbound is an enchanting tale woven through and around two broken souls. Ms. Grant takes Raven, an actress, and leads her through a wonderful adventure full of love, forgiveness and acceptance. Together, the characters learned to work through their issues under unique circumstances.
I was particularly enthralled by the idea of the hero and heroine acting out a couple of Romeo and Juliet's duets! This definitely added a sense of romance unparalleled.
Once again Ms. Grant's style and description placed the reader right in the thick of the adventure. Such a page turner!"

Winner of the Jaimey Grant Drawing at JDP News

Joyce drew a name from her little hat yesterday, declaring Cindi Hoppes of Illinois the fortunate winner of an autographed copy of one of my Regency romance novels. Cindi gets her choice of Betrayal, Spellbound, Heartless or Redemption, or my yet-to-be-released Regency, Deception.

Congratulations, Cindi!!

Thank you to everyone who participated and those who became followers of my blog. I really appreciated all the lovely comments on Joyce's post, too. And thank you to Joyce for hosting the event. :o)

Happy reading, writing and blogging, everyone!!

Editor Unleashed Flash Fiction 40 Contest

It's time to vote in the FF40 contest over in the Editor Unleashed forums. To vote, you must register for a free membership. It's painless, I promise. :o) The contest forum is password protected; only members may view and vote the stories.

There are some great stories in the contest. I encourage everyone to read and vote on as many as they can. Mine is called "The Fold." Here is a direct link: The Fold

Have a lovely day and happy reading!

I Caved...

The Mackinac Bridge. I took this pic the day after the Corvette show in Mackinaw City last year. I love the Corvette show...

To get back to the subject of this post...

I caved. My author photo poll still has a week to go but the majority vote is for "so-so" on up to "essential." I have started uploading a photo of myself to my various profiles. Some of you may have already seen it on Goodreads and AuthorsDen.

Something you should know about my profile pic. Yes, it is me. The me of ten years ago, the me I want to be again. Someday, someday...

Meanwhile, the poll is still open. I am still curious to hear your views on author photos and you can still enter to win my upcoming release, Deception. Simply post your opinion in a comment on the appropriate blog post. 

POV Hell—Deception Update...

So this is Lake Michigan as seen from the backyard of Legs Inn™ in Cross Village, MI, which is near Petoskey. (I wanted a nice calm scene here so the rant that follows does not seem too...um, ranty.)

POV, or point-of-view (for those of you who enjoy reading more than analyzing), has become an issue in my new release, Deception. I have the tendency to write in 3rd person omniscient POV, a POV that some refer to as head-hopping. These are NOT the same, by the way, but they can sometimes be confused. (Heck, I'm a writer and I'm still not sure of the exact difference except in extreme cases.) 

I digress... 

The problem with head-hopping is the reader can lose his/her connection to the character if he/she suddenly becomes confused as to whose head they actually occupy at that moment. I understand this concern. However, if the transition is done with grace POV switches can increase the “character-reader” connection rather than detract from it. 

Here's my problem: I have no idea if my transitions are graceful or choppy. I am my own worst critic. I can't re-read the books I've already published because then I want to go back and fix things that may or may not actually need correcting. 

I had one reader who confided in regard to my first book, Betrayal: 

“The point of view was the only real thing that held me up at all. It was sometimes difficult to tell who was thinking what, but for the most part it was fine. I just don't think I've really read much in the 3rd person omniscient. There were a few spots that were a little confusing. But I quickly got over it!” 

At the time that I received this critique, I already had four books published. Because of this very, very helpful/thoughtful critique, I am attempting something a little out of my comfort zone on my newest book, something that has resulted in an indefinite delay on Deception's publication. I am rewriting it, converting it to a clearer 3rd person POV. I am avoiding the use of two or more POVs in one scene. (There are still more POVs in the book than just the hero/heroine. I have a few secondary characters whose views are too important to leave out.) I am curious to see if this book will be as enthralling as the ones I've written in the head-hoppy POV. 

Question time. Do POV shifts bother you as a reader? Does knowing everything everyone is thinking help or hinder your connection to the character(s)? (If you've read one of my books, feel free to contribute your views on what you read. I promise I won't get angry and I'll only cry a very little bit.) 

:o) 

By the way, the reader who said the above also said this: 

“I will admit that you're warning about your story being dark made me a touch leery. But I just finished reading Betrayal and loved it!!! In fact, I didn't find it dark at all...Rather your characters were very complex and seemed more like real people with real problems.” 

Just a friendly reminder: My author photo poll is still open. Leave a comment on the post about author photos to be entered to win a signed copy of the aforementioned Regency, Deception. 

Happy reading, writing, and blogging!

On the Importance of Author Photos

How important are author photos?

I have wrestled with this question for several months now. I use a picture of my daughter in all my profiles because I do NOT have a photo of myself that I at all care for. Well, maybe a wedding photo, but that was over ten years ago. Would that be acceptable? A photo from when I was young and thin...and blond. (Blonds really do have more fun, by the way.) I don't do photos--I am unphotogenic. (My spellchecker tells me this is not a word. It also says spellchecker is not a word. Go figure.)

So I leave it to you, the reader of this humble blog. I have added a poll. Choose how important you feel author photos are. Your opinion will decide whether or not I go through the tremendous effort required of me to reveal to YOU what I look like.

Oh, and if you comment to this post offering your opinion, I will draw a name to receive a signed copy of my new release, Deception, a Regency romance--ultimate release date as yet to be determined.

Happy reading, blogging, and polling!

(Poll will be closed May 9th. Winner of Deception will be drawn May 15th.)

Paperback Update

I am in the process of updating my currently published titles. Stupid? Maybe. Pointless? Hardly. Do I have control issues? Most definitely!

The Kindle versions are done. The regular eBook versions are done. Now, I'm updating the paperbacks, which takes longer, as I have to approve the new copies. Look for a title or two to be down for a week or more at one time.

As of posting this message, Heartless and Spellbound are taking a breather. Betrayal is finished. The new copy is what is now available on CreateSpace and Amazon, despite appearances to the contrary. I expect my proof copy of Spellbound to arrive any day, at which point it will be approved--fingers crossed--and then Redemption will take a break. In a week or so, Heartless should be back up for sale.

What are the differences between 1st and 2nd editions?

1. First and foremost, the artwork. I updated the cover art. The other covers all had some aspect I found mildly annoying. (Why were they published that way in the first place? I am impatient. I am an impatient control freak. How does that translate in regard to my overall health? Stress, stress, and more stress. LOL)
2. There were a few things I overlooked that my husband thought were rather important. I fixed those.
3. And, of course, I noticed a couple little typos that were overlooked in the billion edits these all went through before publication. There is always at least one, no matter how many different people go over the manuscript however many times. Even "professional" editors miss things.
4. I also cleaned up the formatting a bit. This altered the page count. The books seem longer now. They are not. The word count is the same. Ex: Betrayal went from being 144pgs to 172pgs. The word count is still about 60,000.

All that aside, here is an example of the new & old covers

I think you see my point...

Ran Into a Leeetle Snag With Deception

In editing my newest novel, Deception, I have realized that I made a mistake in a certain aspect of Regency history. Oops. I have to modify this detail since I can't, in good conscience, release a book onto the general public with a known historical inaccuracy. Obviously, as we are all imperfect and historical authors have not actually lived in the time period we favor--however much we may want to--I may have missed something in one of my previous novels. I hope not, of course, and tried very hard to get everything right...ah, well. I think I am beginning to ramble. Allow me to get to the point.

Deception's release will be delayed until sometime next week. My apologies for this delay.

New Release

I am hoping to get my newest Regency, Deception, on the virtual bookshelves by the end of this week. It is connected to my currently published novels.

Briefly: 

Determined to find love, Aurora Glendenning hides her wealth and status, all too aware that money will often blind a man. When she meets Levi, Lord Greville, she thinks her prayers have been answered. There's just one problem: he needs wealth to prevent his swift relocation to debtor's prison. When an improper meeting results in a rushed wedding, Aurora's lies begin to unravel. Her past arrives in the form of an old love, revealing far more than she'd ever intended. Levi's love is tested, Aurora's life is threatened, and through it all, a little girl is the catalyst.