What do you think of the cover of Vampire Guardian? There's a scene between Adan and Catriona where they're in this position, her gazing up at him and touching his chin just like that. I initially played with concepts that incorporated her wings, since she IS Fae. However, what they call the visual "branding" of the series - those character close ups, and the sepia-like tones with the reds - call for keeping it simple. I get that logic, because I like this final result. Hope you do as well! Maybe I'll ask my talented husband to turn some of those more complicated ideas into teasers as we get closer to release day (wink).
Oh, and if you're looking at this on your computer, wondering why the cover is posted above as well as in your sidebar, it's because on a smaller screen the sidebar is sometimes moved to the end. I didn't want to point to it in the sidebar and have readers looking at this on their phone or tablet and saying, "What's she talking about? I don't see a cover!" Lol.
So, if you'd like to know how the story is going, I hit 100k on the first draft this week! That might sound good, but I have mixed feelings about it, because I've been tweaking my creative process. I'm a very ordered and disciplined person, so up to now, my book-writing progression was very measurement-oriented. Meaning, I'd write 5000 words/day, five days a week, and have 150k in six weeks. Then I had a set number of days/weeks to handle the first, second, third and final edit rounds.
However, my fifth decade of life has brought some focus/physical issues requiring a different approach. Writers (and artisans of all kinds) have to strike a balance between channeling the creativity that puts HEART into their work, and achieving a level of productivity that pays the bills.
So, to keep things going in the right direction, I was advised by a fellow creator to try and work each day until "the juice" runs out. Doesn't matter if that's six hours or one hour, or anywhere in between. On the days when the juice runs out faster, that's more time to give to the marketing/business end of things (which is a never-ending to-do list). This person advised that if it works the way it should, I will somehow make just as much progress on the book and meet the deadline - and be as happy (or more so) with the results.
I won't know until this book is done if this worked, but I can say that I'm noticing some very good things about this process. I'm happier with what I'm writing as the first draft, which logically means I'll make up the time on the back (editing) end I lost on the front (creating/first draft) end, and still achieve that June 15 release date. And by not forcing it, I'm drawn deeper into who Adan and Catriona are, and where the story needs to go--always a good thing.
One caveat for my newsletter subscribers who are also authors: This probably isn't a good process for someone who already has writing discipline issues or difficulty meeting deadlines. But for an obsessive workaholic, the biggest challenge to this process is convincing myself I'm not a slacker because my creative process is becoming less rigidly measurement-oriented.
Remember, you can read the blurb for Vampire Guardian on the book page on my website. Preorder links should be up by the next newsletter, fingers crossed!
So we've now had two fabulous Guest Authors do a FB Live at the JWHMembersOnly Facebook group on the last Saturday night of the month. If you'll recall me mentioning this last month, I had asked our group members for suggestions on who they wanted to visit the group, and they provided me 80 names! In February, our guest was Samantha A. Cole. This retired police officer and paramedic regaled us with entertaining anecdotes about her pre-author life, as well as the inspirations for her popular Trident Security series, Doms of the Covenant, Master Key, the Malone Brothers series, and the list goes on. If you weren't there for the FB Live, you can watch it here anytime on the FB Group.
If you're catching up with our monthly guest author series, you can also watch our first one with Desiree Holt by clicking here.
So who's next? In March, our Guest Author of the Day is going to be Joely Sue Burkhart! With the tagline "Finding Love in the Shadows," Joely has a very eclectic series list - she writes MaleDom, FemDom, menage, polyamory, contemporary, paranormal, etc. Like me, she has a vampire queen. However, her heroine is part of a reverse harem series called Their Vampire Queen. For my FemDomme lovers, she also has a Billionaires in Bondage trilogy - yes, books where the billionaire man is the submissive (grin). But these are just two of her multiple series. You can check them out by category here.
Her bio states that Joely "has always loved heroes who hide behind a mask, the darker and more dangerous the better. Whether cool, sophisticated billionaire, brutal bloodthirsty assassin, or simply a man tortured by his own needs, they all wear masks to protect themselves. Once they finally give you a peek into the passionate, twisted secrets they're hiding, they always fall hard and fast. Dare to look beneath the mask and find love in the shadows."
Come join us Saturday, March 27, 8-9pm ET to spend some time with Joely, and be sure to check in with the group earlier in the day to see if she posts any additional information about herself, or her current and upcoming works.
Thanks to the guest author series, I've had a good number of new folks joining my social media pages. Because of that, I realized it might make sense to point people back to a post that was intended to help new readers decide which of my books to read first. Originally, I did it as a discussion post on GoodReads, but this month I streamlined it for the FB and MeWe groups. While MeWe doesn't yet have the option of a link for a specific post (or I'm not technically savvy enough to have found it yet), I'll put the FB and GR links here:
If you're one of my existing readers, you may not need these, but I thought they'd be helpful if you were introducing someone new to my work. And thank you for that, btw. A happy reader, in the mood to share her/his happiness, is the best kind of marketing an author can get!
There's been a lot of shakeup in the social media world of late. Authors tend to put their eggs in many baskets, because we want readers to be able to interact with us on their preferred platforms. So if you missed the mention of it in earlier newsletters, I'm also on MeWe (essentially an alternative to Facebook). Whatever content I'm putting on FB is also going on MeWe, so come join me there if you prefer that platform.
Something to Remember: No matter the inevitable fluidity of the social media world, there is one place readers can ALWAYS find me. [Unless there's a global EMP that knocks out all electronics, or a zombie apocalypse, in which case we'll have a lot of things to figure out a bit more important than finding our favorite authors online, lol.] That place is my website, storywitch.com. It's noted at the bottom of the newsletter, under the Contacting/Following Me section I include in every issue. When you go to my website, not only is there an email contact link, in the top right corner there are little icons that offer the variety of platforms where you can also find me, like GoodReads, YouTube, etc.
Well, unfortunately, it's looking like no SASS21 this year. With Virginia still limiting capacities and without a guarantee that would change by July, the coordinators have requested a 2022 date change from the hotel. At the time of this newsletter they hadn't officially announced the cancellation/new date, but hopefully we'll find out soon. So maybe we'll get to see one another in person at a con in 2022. In the meantime, if you're down my way in beautiful coastal SC, know you're always welcome to reach out to meet me for a coffee!
Don't forget, in January I released a new FREE vignette revisit with my Knights and Mistresses of the Board Room characters. "The Barbecue" is available on the Cantrips page on my website, with a convenient BookFunnel link to download it in your preferred format.
A reminder of what this vignette is about: If you've read At Her Command, the first book in my Mistresses of the Board Room series, you know at the end there's a reference to a barbecue at Dale and Athena's home (hero/heroine of Unrestrained). The vignette IS that barbecue. In this short, you'll get a couple nice foreshadowing scenes between Neil and Abby. Theirs is the next book to be written in the MBR series, Fall 2021. You'll also be on the front row for an emotional re-connect between Rachel of Afterlife and Lawrence, since he was her late son's childhood friend.
Another final reminder: Submissive Angel, my expanded M/m Christmas story, will return to a $2.99 price around mid-March. Get your $0.99 cent copy now, which includes the original 2012 story PLUS 180 pages of "the rest of the story." Here are all the buy links:
Amazon / Amazon Worldwide / Amazon Print
Nook (code BNPJOEY66 for sale price - also at top of blurb at Nook)
Find me online through my website email contact link (little envelope under Follow Me on the right side of home page) or email me directly at storywitch@storywitch.com. You can leave a question for me under my Author Profile on GoodReads. I'm on Twitter and Facebook (Author Page), and regularly stop in at the JWHMembersOnly fan group. I'm also on MeWe, if you prefer that platform to Facebook. If you'd like to see the pics that inspire my books, visit me on Pinterest, or check out my handful of videos on YouTube.
Finally, I'd love it if you followed me on Bookbub, Amazon or both, since that helps my books get increased visibility and recommendations on the site. And in return, you get heads up about releases and sales!
DIDN'T GET A RESPONSE? Responding to my readers, and doing so in a very timely manner (within 24-48 hours), is extremely important to me. So if you have sent a communication to me in any medium noted above and have not received a response, a technical glitch has occurred. Either your communication did not get through to me, or my response did not reach you. If you suspect that's the case, use one of the alternative methods to send me a "Hey, Joey, I sent you a note through email (or social media platform, etc). Did you get it?" message, and we'll make sure we sort it out. I will never intentionally ignore my readers!
HAVING PROBLEMS GETTING MY NEWSLETTER PAST YOUR SPAM FILTER? - Whenever I issue a newsletter, I will post about it on the social media platforms mentioned above, to ensure it reaches the widest number of people possible. So if you're following me on any of them, you'll get a heads up. Or you can put https://storywitch.com/newsletter/?latest as one of your Favorite links. You can click on it anytime to see if a new newsletter has been released. I try to get a new issue out during the first 7 days of every month.
Thank you so much for your support of my work!
12/15/2019 - Vampire Master - Book 16 of the Vampire Queen series
08/2019 - Naughty Bits - re-release as a self-published title in print and ebook.
07/2019 - Vampire Queen's Servant - re-release as a self-published title in print and ebook.
6/30/19 - The Problem with Witches - A Crossover novel of the Arcane Shot and Knights of the Board Room series
MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
Fall 2021 - Next Book in the Mistresses of the Board Room (title TBD) - Neil and Abby's story
06/15/2021 - Vampire Guardian, Book 17 of the Vampire Queen series
12/15/2020 - Re-release of Submissive Angel Christmas story with expanded content
09/30/2020 - In His Arms, Book XI of the Nature of Desire series (standalone)
06/15/2020 - At Her Command, Book 1 of the Mistresses of the Board Room series
GoodReads Blog - Whenever I have something half-way interesting to say (hopefully), I post it on my blog. Check out the latest, as well as the backlog of over 80 posts!
For my most up-to-date appearances info throughout the month, follow me on Twitter or "Like" my Author Page on Facebook - I'll keep you in the loop as things happen!
GoodReads Blog - Whenever I have something half-way interesting to say (hopefully), I post it on my blog. Check out the latest, as well as the backlog of over 80 posts.
For my most up-to-date appearances info throughout the month, follow me on MeWe, Twitter or "Like" my Author Page on Facebook - I'll keep you in the loop as things happen.
SEXY AND SASSY SIGNING 2020 - July 9-12 - next year's popular reader/author event will happen in Norfolk, VA. The theme is Sinful Fairy Tales! Click on the link above to find out more. You can also join the SASS Attendee group once you've registered.
NO CONFERENCES ON THE SCHEDULE RIGHT NOW - however, I'll keep you posted if and when there are! In the meantime, look under "EXTRA STUFF" below to find out how you can get some of the perks that meeting authors at a conference would offer - signed books, swag, etc.
Want a Kindle signature? My books are listed at the Authorgraph site, so if you'd like a "Kindlegraph", send me a request! Just go to Authorgraph.com, put Joey W. Hill in the search line, and it will pull up my books, with a "Request Authorgraph" button beneath each.
Want a signed bookplate for your print book and a bookmark? No need to be bummed about not seeing me at a book signing. Just shoot me an email at storywitch@PROTECTED with your mailing address and the title(s) of the book(s) for which you want a signature, and I'll send you personalized bookplates anytime, free of charge. And I always send it with a signed bookmark!
HAVE YOU CHECKED THE AUTHOR'S WEBSITE?
I am ALWAYS delighted to hear from my readers, and I never mind answering your questions. However, about 90% of the general questions I receive on email can be quickly answered on my website, www.storywitch.com. And the cool thing is you get your answer in the time it takes you to do a couple clicks, versus having to type up your question and send it to me, then wait for me to emerge from my writing cave and check my email.
A lot of authors experience this now. Because we have so much more of a presence at FB, Twitter, and the like, it's easy to forget that most authors still maintain a website where you can quickly get info. On my site, you can not only find BLURBS and FREE EXCERPTS for every book I've published, you can find SERIES ORDER, including recommendations on which ones can stand alone or need specific titles to be read first. Under the In the Works page, you'll find information about UPCOMING RELEASES and what's percolating (the popular "will you ever write a book about so-n-so" question would be answered there).
Just go to my website, storywitch.com, and enjoy your visit. It is specifically and deliberately designed not to be flashy or confusing. Just look at the drop down menus at the top for what you're seeking.
Want a SIGNED BOOKMARK? I have five beautiful bookmarks, each design representing one of my series: Knights of the Board Room, Nature of Desire, Vampire Queen, Arcane Shot, Daughters of Arianne. You can look at them here (click on the one you like for a larger view). Just shoot me an email at storywitch@storywitch.com with your mailing address and tell me which bookmark you want. I'll send you two of that design - one for you and one to share!
Want a SIGNED BOOK? Bummed because you can't make it to a signing? Just email me at storywitch@storywitch.com with 1) what book you want, 2) your mailing address, and 3) if you want me to personalize it to a particular name (Mary, Marie, Marissa, etc), or no personalization, just a signature and a cheery note. I'll shoot you an invoice and, once that's squared away, the book will be on its way to you!
Want a SIGNED BOOKPLATE? Want a bookplate for your favorite JWH book(s)? Just shoot me an email at storywitch@storywitch.com with your mailing address, the title(s) of the book(s), and I'll send you personalized bookplates anytime, free of charge. And I always send it with a signed bookmark!
Want a KINDLE SIGNATURE? My books are listed at the Authorgraph site, so if you'd like a "Kindlegraph", send me a request! Just go to Authorgraph.com, put Joey W. Hill in the search line, and it will pull up my books, with a "Request Authorgraph" button beneath each.
Want to read BONUS CONTENT STORIES revisiting Joey's characters? She has over a dozen FREE novellas/shorts with easy BookFunnel download links. You'll find them all under the Cantrips (Vignettes) menu item on her website.
Want Joey to visit your BOOKCLUB? She is available for online bookclub meetings and even sometimes in-person clubs, within a reasonable geographic range. Don't hesitate to ask! Just email her at storywitch@storywitch.com.
"I have a question."
Answer: "Have you checked my website?"
I am ALWAYS delighted to hear from my readers, and I never mind answering your questions. However, about 90% of the general questions I receive on email can be quickly answered on my website, www.storywitch.com. And the cool thing is you get your answer in the time it takes you to do a couple clicks, versus having to type up your question and send it to me, then wait for me to emerge from my writing cave and check my email.
A lot of authors experience this now. Because we have so much more of a presence at FB, Twitter, and the like, it's easy to forget that most authors still maintain a website where you can quickly get info. On my site, you can not only find BLURBS and FREE EXCERPTS for every book I've published, you can find SERIES ORDER, including recommendations on which ones can stand alone or need specific titles to be read first. Under the In the Works page, you'll find information about UPCOMING RELEASES and what's percolating (the popular "will you ever write a book about so-n-so" question would be answered there).
Just go to my website at storywitch.com, and enjoy your visit. It is specifically and deliberately designed not to be flashy or confusing. Just look at the drop down menus at the top for what you're seeking.
HAVE YOU CHECKED THE AUTHOR'S WEBSITE?
"I have a question." Answer: "Have you checked the author's website?"
I am ALWAYS delighted to hear from my readers, and I never mind answering your questions. However, about 90% of the general questions I receive on email can be quickly answered on my website. The cool thing is you get your answer in the time it takes you to do a couple clicks. Just look at the drop down menus at the top for what you're seeking. You'll find BUY LINKS, BLURBS and FREE EXCERPTS for every book I've published. You can also find SERIES ORDER, including recommendations on which books can stand alone or need specific titles to be read first. Under the In the Works page, you'll find information about UPCOMING RELEASES and what's percolating (the popular "will you ever write a book about so-n-so" question would be answered there).