Weekly Update - May 20, 2013

I missed my weekly update again last week. My apologies. I've been so focused on writing Finding Anna, Book 4 that everything else has taken a back seat.

Speaking of writing, things have been going well for the past two weeks. I've made huge progress on my WIP. Still no idea if I'll have it finished by my June 1st deadline, but I'm doing my best. Finding Anna, Book 4 is now up to 89K, and growing every day. I have no idea how long this one will be, but I do know it will be my longest book to date. Truth, due out July 25th, finished up at 98K. This one will surpass that easily.

As I mentioned, Truth (Finding Anna, Book 3) will be out July 25th - that's 66 days from today. I can't wait. I'm so proud of this one. :)




I spent last Saturday at the Ohioana Book Festival. The event gets bigger every year, which is great. One day I'm hoping that all readers in Ohio are made aware of this event and take the opportunity to partake. There ended up being over 100 authors this year with books that ranged from a military history to a book on breakfast cereals, to all manner of fiction from children's picture books to steamy romance. If you haven't been, and you're in Ohio, you should mark your calendars for next year. The book festival is always the second Saturday in May, and its FREE to attend.

Only a few days left to enter to win a signed copy of Slave through the SUBCLUB's Spring Giving Event. Help support these great charities by clicking here.

Weekly Update - May 6, 2013

You may have noticed that I didn't post an update last week. I'm not sure what was going on with me exactly, but I was in a sort of a funk when it came to posting. If you follow me on Twitter, you probably noticed that I didn't post much there either. Not sure what was going on, but hopefully I've gotten things back on track now.

First and foremost, I want to give you an update on my writing. Finding Anna, Book 4 is going well. I hit 70K yesterday, and I'm optimistic that I might actually make my deadline of June 1st. If that does happen, the final book in my Finding Anna series should be out to readers the first part of 2014.

The first blogger reviews for Truth are starting to come in, and so far everyone is loving it. July 25th can't come soon enough!

Posts you may have missed:

April 25th, I was interviewed on The Indie Book Exchange. To listen, click here.

The SUBCLUB has decided to extend their Spring Giving Event through May. If you haven't stopped by their website, please do. There are a lot of great charities that need your support, and you can win some fabulous prizes.

TWCSPH released their May Newsletter. To read it, click here.

Book conference season is about to start, and I'm going to be traveling to several of them this year. Hopefully I can see some of you there.

May 11, 2013

http://www.ohioanabookfestival.org/

 

http://lorifoster.com/connect-with-lori-online/readerauthor-get-together/

 

June 21st-23rd, 2013

http://www.romcon.com/

 

I'm also going to be at the RN Conference in Las Vegas, NV at the beginning of August. The Texas Book Festival in October. And Readers and Ritas in November. I'll post more information on those in a later post.

 

 

 

Monday Update - April 15, 2013

Happy Tax Day to all of those in the US.

Yeah, right. LOL.

On to more pleasant topics, like writing and books. :)

Last week was fairly productive. I added over 5K to my WIP. I'm not sitting at just under 58,000 words. There is no telling how long this book is going to be since I think I'm about halfway at this point. If that's really the case, then this book could be well over 100K by the time I'm finished. I somehow don't think most of you will have a problem with that. ;)

I updated my website with some new information, and rearranged a few things as well. There is more I need to add/change, but if you haven't stopped by my website lately, please do. I love my blog, and I try to keep things as up to date here as possible, but sometimes its easier to sift through things on the website than trying to find them here.

 

This past week I added Red Zone to my list of books on Authorgraph. If you aren't aware of what Authorgraph is, its a program that allows authors to personalize and 'sign' readers ebooks. If you have an ebook of one or more of my books, and would like me to sign it, go to http://www.authorgraph.com/authors/Sherri_Hayes.

 

 

You're probably getting sick of hearing about this already, but here is another reminder about the SUBCLUB's Spring Giving Event. I'm participating with more than 30 other authors. Every author has selected a charity, and donated some pretty amazing prizes from signed books to swag. All you have to do is donate in order to enter. http://thesubclubbooks.com/?page_id=9835

 

 

My Finding Anna Series was featured on Maryse's Book Blog last week.

 

Slave and Need also made Ana's Attic's list of Favorite Dom/sub or BDSM Romance Books and Series.

 

I wrote a guest blog post for Ali's Bookshelf talking about what is on MY bookshelf. Find out what books I've read that now have a permanent spot on my bookshelf.

 

 

The official program for Ohioana 2013 is out. I'll be on the Fiction by Women: A Writer's Roundtable panel from 12:45pm to 1:30pm. There are lots of activities all day long including a book fair of 90+ Ohio authors with genres ranging from childrens picture books to erotica, author panels, and children's activities. If you're in Ohio, or will be on May 11th, consider stopping by and seeing what the Ohioana Book Festival is all about.http://www.ohioanabookfestival.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2013-OBF-Program-web.pdf



Monday Update - March 25, 2013

Evening everyone. I hope you all had a good start to your week. Mine started with about three inches of snow, but thankfully the roads weren't too bad. I'm really starting to wonder how far away spring really is.

Last week was a great week for writing. I crossed the 40K mark on my WIP. Yay! I've been having fun torturing my editor, giving her little hints as to the story here and there, but not enough to actually tell her anything. lol. I'm a sadist, I know. ;)

Lots going on this week as per usual. First, Red Zone (Daniels Brothers #2), has been nominated for Best Romantic Suspense over at The Romance Reviews. Click here to vote for your favorites.

If you aren't following me on Facebook, you are missing a lot. Over the last two weeks I've been sharing little things about not only my upcoming novel, Truth (Finding Anna, Book 3), but also my WIP, Finding Anna, Book 4. If you're not keeping up to date, you are missing out. To like me on Facebook, click here.

On Friday I was over at Readers After Dark talking about emotional writing. "It’s common to hear both authors and readers talking about characters in books as if they were real people. Those who don’t read often don’t understand, but fellow book lovers do. Good characters and stories suck you in and don’t let you go." To read more, click here.

Saturday I was interviewed over at Italian Brat's Obsessions. Find out what my favorite cookie is, and if I'm a cat or a dog person.

BLOGGERS requests to be part of the Truth (Finding Anna, Book 3) blog tour are starting to come in. If you want to participate, contact Jenny at marketing@thewriterscoffeeshop.com.

Also, mark your calendars. I've confirmed to be at the following events:

Ohioana Book Festival. I will be there along with 90 other Ohio authors. The event will take place on May 11, 2013 from 10:00am to 4:30pm at the Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center. For more information, click here.

9TH ANNUAL READER & AUTHOR GET TOGETHER. Even if you are not registered for the event, there is a book signing open to the public on Saturday, June 8th from 2-4pm in the hotel lobby. For more information, please visit the event web site.

Ohioana 2012

This past Saturday I spent the day at the Ohioana Book Festival. It was my second year at the event, so I had a more of an idea what to expect.

I arrived just before ten to set up my little table. We were in a different building this year, but that turned out to be a good thing. There was more room, and everything was laid out a lot better than it was last year.

After getting checked in, I had a little time to breath before my author panel. There were five of us on the panel and it turned out to be a really great experience. Roughly thirty people showed up to hear us speak and asked a decent amount of questions, so much so that was actually ran out of time.

One thing I learned about Ohioana from participating last year is that while you may have your books for sale at the event, that's not what it's about. Ohioana is about celebrating authors, both published and aspiring. Throughout the day, I had several people come up to me who had listened to the panel discussion that morning and wanted to ask more questions. One has notebook after notebook full of information, but can't seem to take the next step. Another was asking about his son who has written several stories and dreams of becoming a published author.

I was lucky enough sit near some other really great ladies. One has been writing for years and is also going to be at the Lori Foster event in Cincinnati I'll be attending June 1st and 2nd. And beside me was an English professor who'd just published her first novel. The three of us were on the same author panel and we all shared the same message with those aspiring authors...

There is no one right way to write.

I think too many assume that you have to follow a certain program in order to write a novel and get it published. The three of us were proof that wasn't the case. The English professor doesn't start writing until she has everything plotted out and in a detailed diagram. Me, I'm a seat of your pants kind of writer. I get a general idea in my head of what I want to write and go for it. The third author fell in the middle. She does a general outline, and then lets her characters lead the way. See. No one right way.

Do you write? What method works best for you?

Book Signing - Eldchrist Winery

Last night was Ladies Night at Eldchrist Winery. There were four 'vendors' there with tables set up to display, and I was one of them. I set up the table with my books and got ready to go while the other ladies arranged their tables as well. One table had jewelry. A friend of mine who came brought three necklaces. There was also a woman from a company called Scenty. And yep, it's all good smelling stuff. :)

The fourth vendor set up beside me and were from a copy called Sweet Mamas. They make cake pops and boy are they good. There were samples and I got to try one. It's not what I was expecting in a really good way. Instead of the spongy type consistency cake typically has, it was more of a brownie. Oh and did I mention they were cute too. ;) Turns out, I went to school with one of the owners and a whole group of ladies I grew up with showed up that night to support them. It turned out to be a mini reunion of sorts as I'd not seen most of them since I graduated high school.

I had a lot of people stop by my table last night. One of them...

It was about an hour into the event when I see this guy across the room. Remember this is ladies night, so he sort of sticks out. He walks straight towards me and says, "You're the author?" After I confirm that, yes, I am the author, he shakes my hand and introduces himself. Nothing strange so far, right? He then asks me about my books, etc.

Everything is going fairly normal. That is, until another woman walks up. The man immediately throws his arm around my shoulders, pulling me up against his side. He then introduces me to the woman and tells me she's his girlfriend. She just laughs, say hi, acts like this is perfectly normal for him to be doing. Meanwhile, I'm just sitting there (I'm in a tall chair) trying to figure out what's going on and if I should just let things play out or ask the man to kindly remove his arm.

Thankfully, he does eventually remove his arm on his own after a little more conversing with the woman and he eventually picks up Slave and says he wants to buy it. I tell him how much, and he reaches into his wallet, pulls out the money and hands it to me. As usual, I ask if he wants me to sign the book. He says yes, but that he's not going to make it that easy for me. No, he wants me to write a dedication to him in the front of the book. And not just any dedication, but something fun and silly based on our conversation. Needless to say, I had to think about that for a while. So he left the book with me and in between talking to other people, I tried to figure out what to write. I did eventually, and he came back to get the book before he left. I honestly have to chalk that one up to one of the strangest experiences I've had yet as an author.

There was one other highlight of the night and that came through a little device I added to my phone two days ago called Square. If you're an author, you're missing out. It's an app you can download to your android phone, iphone, or ipad, and it allows you to run credit card transactions. Seventy-five percent of my sales last night were handled that way. It was fairly simple to use and everyone got a kick out of using their finger to sign on the phone. The best part, the app and the device that is being mailed to me where I can actually swipe the cards, is free. If you want to know more, click here.

All in all, it was a great experience. I'd definitely do it again. Now, I'm gearing up for the Ohioana Book Festival on Saturday. If you'd like more information on how to come see me and the 80+ other authors that will be there, click here.