Since it is now less than two months until The Sevenfold Spell comes out, I have been ramping up my publicity efforts. I’ve scheduled two days off but I hope to put together a blog tour that will go on for at least a couple of weeks. Because I am only going to be available for comments during the evening hours, I’m calling it Tia’s Pajama Party Blog Book Tour. What do you think? I’m looking for blogs to schedule for the tour, so if you are interested, please contact me.

I also have been handing out lots of bookmarks. You can also contact me if you want a couple, and I’ll send it in my next batch. I sent off a batch last weekend, and I need to send another batch tomorrow, including to a writer friend who unexpectedly asked for 50. She’s going to a convention just days before my book releases and she intends to put my bookmarks out with hers. Lovely of her, isn’t it? I also handed out a bunch of bookmarks at work.

(That reminds me, Anne Elizabeth–I still need your address!)

These efforts seems to be helping–my subscriber stats have jumped to a new average rate despite the fact that I’m not posting as frequently. And some people have already added The Sevenfold Spell to their bookshelves at Goodreads. Which is just awesome.

I’m still finding a little time to read. As I mentioned in the last Debut Showcase, I’m into historicals right now, and I’m digging Susanna Fraser‘s The Sergeant’s Lady. A mix of Regency romance and military life? Oh, yeah! I was intrigued enough to ask the author for an advance copy, and I’m certainly not doing much of that these days. (And be sure to stop by the website that her husband put together for her. I’m sure it’s a work in progress–but it’s hilarious!)

Can you think of anything else I could be doing for publicity–preferably something that doesn’t take a lot of time?

Maybe I’m just a pre-published ninny who is still all starstruck, but it occurs to me that Harlequin and Carina Press ROCKS. How so? Let me count the ways.

1. Ultra-rapid response time. Maybe this is just because I submitted a novella, and Angela James has said many times that she loves reading novella submissions. Still, I got The Call from Angela way before I started fantasizing about it. In fact, when she did call, I was so not expecting the call that I didn’t even know who she was. I literally had submitted and forgotten. How long did it take? Three weeks. And during that time, three other editors read it, including the one who would become my editor. So we were able to go right to work.
2. Multiple Release Potential. Our books are already appearing on Audible. As audiobooks. You know what that means? Another way to reach readers (and to make royalties). When they say digital first, they truly mean that.
3. Input on Everything. As a blogger, I’ve heard all kinds of sad stories about authors who:
   1. Never saw their covers until they got a Google alert — and there it was on Amazon. (I was asked to fill out a detailed cover art sheet)
   2. Had zero input into their blurb and totally hated it when it came out. In one case, the blurb was even racially insensitive. (I was asked to “approve” my blurb. Yes, approve!)
   3. Had entire scenes excised from the final version without their knowledge. (I knew exactly what was changed and all edits were totally open to my approval and/or ideas for further improvement. And since I just got my author copies, I know everything is as it should be.)
   4. Was ignored by prima-donna editors. (My editor always gets back to me within a few days, and usually on the same day.)
4. Online Reader Community. eHarlequin has been hosting an online community for about ten years, making them ahead-of-the-curve when it comes to publisher communities. Here is my profile. And Carina Press is right there! I’m told we’re going to get an author group blog, too.
5. Involved Publicity. Harlequin’s publicity department has already been in touch with me to see if I was interested in being a featured author at a major romance website. As if I’d say no!
6. Boundless Enthusiasm. Everyone at Carina Press, from the editors to the publicists to the digital conversion team has had wonderful enthusiasm for my story. It’s amazing for an author who met with indifferent rejections for over twenty years.

So would I recommend Carina Press to other aspiring authors? Absolutely! Especially if you have that hard-to-sell odd novel, or a novel that’s shorter than the minimum length, or historical periods and settings that aren’t otherwise in vogue. And if you don’t happen to have anything ready to submit, why not write a novella? It’s a much shorter time commitment to write it, and they treat it just like a regular novel, except it’s less expensive.

Ok, I’m done now. In other news, now that I have my final version, I can put up an excerpt! I’ll put up another post when it is ready for you to read.

Due to my semi-hiatus, this is my first Debut Showcase in about a month. My apologizes for the authors I missed, but this is a blog, not a news source, so I’m just going to carry on with this week’s debuts. If you are curious about those missed debuts, just look on my debut calendar–you can scroll backwards and forwards. In the meantime, I shall just wince and go on.

Death Most Definite
by Trent Jamieson
Orbit Books

Steve knew something was wrong as soon as he saw the dead girl in the Wintergarden food court. Nothing new – he saw dead people all the time – but this one was about to save his life . . .

Steve is a necromancer in the family firm, tasked with easing spirits from this dimension to the next after death. And he’s kind of OK with that, until someone high up the corporate hierarchy makes a bid to be Australia’s new Regional Death. This means killing all of the current Death’s staff. After his parents, relatives and pretty much every other necromancer he ever knew has been killed, Steve is left to make a reluctant stand.

But to do this he must stay alive. Threatened at every turn, Steve and the perilously attractive (and dead) Lissa go on the run to save what’s left of their world.

Despite the horror-ish plot, this novel is classified as an urban fantasy. It looks like the zombie trend continues!

~*~

The Vigilante’s Bride
by  Yvonne Harris
Bethany House
Trade Paperback

Christian Romance

Robbing a stagecoach on Christmas Eve and kidnapping a woman passenger is the last thing Luke Sullivan expects to do. He just wanted to reclaim the money stolen from him, but ends up with a feisty copper-haired orphan thrown over his shoulder who was on her way to marry Sullivan’s bitter enemy. Emily McCarthy is an orphan out of options. Forced to marry because she was too old for her orphanage, she doesn’t take kindly to her rescue. Still she trusts God can turn any situation to good especially when it seems Sullivan may just be the man of her dreams. But Sullivan’s crossed a dangerous man unused to losing and Emily may just be the prize he’s unwilling to sacrifice. When a rugged cowboy rescues a feisty mail-order bride headed for danger in 1880s Montana, crossing his enemy is just the beginning of his troubles.

This looks adorable. I have a fondness for prairie romances, but I’ve only enjoyed them in movie form so far. Now I have one that I can look for. I would like to humbly suggest to the author that she invest some time into some search engine optimization, because I only found her website after a determined search. There is a children’s author with the same name, which complicated matters.

~*~

Ok, so this made for a pathetic debut showcase. I will go back another week.

The Exile of Sara Stevenson
by  Darci Hannah
Ballantine Books
Trade Paperback

Historical Novel

In 1814, Sara Stevenson, the well-bred but high-spirited daughter of celebrated Scottish lighthouse designer Robert Stevenson, falls in love with a common sailor, Thomas Crichton. On the day of their clandestine elopement, Thomas mysteriously disappears, leaving Sara heartbroken, secretly pregnant, and at the mercy of her overbearing family. Refusing to relinquish her hopes that Thomas will someday return to her, Sara is banished to an eerie lighthouse on lonely and remote Cape Wrath. There she meets William Campbell, the reclusive yet dashing light-keeper who incites her ire—and interest. Soon Sara begins to accept her life on the cape and her growing attraction to William—until a mystifying package from an Oxford antiquarian arrives, giving intriguing clues to Thomas’s whereabouts. Through her correspondence with the antiquarian, Sara slowly uncovers the story of her beloved’s fate. But what she doesn’t immediately grasp is that these letters travel an even greater distance than she could have imagined—as the boundaries between time and space unravel to forge an incredible connection between a woman and a man many years apart.

And to think, I almost didn’t announce this one. A time travel romance! Another weakness of mine! Or actually, its the time travel thing that hooks me more than the romance. I wish the blurb had spent a little more time on the time travel aspect.

~*~

The Sixth Surrender
by  Hana Samek Norton
Plume
Trade Paperback

Historical Novel

In the last years of her eventful life, queen-duchess Aliénor of Aquitaine launches a deadly dynastic chess game to safeguard the crowns of Normandy and England for John Plantagenet, her last surviving son.

To that end, Aliénor coerces into matrimony her two pawns—Juliana de Charnais, a plain and pious novice determined to regain her inheritance, and Guérin de Lasalle, a cynical, war-worn mercenary equally resolved to renounce his.

Lasalle does not intend to be a husband to the shy young woman, nor to become entangled in John’s own matrimonial mire,but at the heart of Aliénor’s scheme is the mystery of his own past that could cost John his thrones—and Juliana her life.

Eleanor of Aquitaine was one fierce mama–she has a significant entry in a nonfiction book I have called Woman Warriors. I found the publisher’s blurb to be very weak and I’m afraid this one (from the author’s website) is only slightly better. I think the cover is beautiful, however.

~*~

Wow; we’re a bit on the historicals this week. Of all of these, I think I like The Vigilante’s Bride the best. I’m in the mood for something that and I have definitely been leaning toward the historicals in my reading selections lately. Any float your boat?

And I still want to pick up that Punjabi mystery I announced way back in May!

I made the unpleasant discovery that my site looked no good on a standard 1280 pixel wide display. So I’ve shrunk up the display to 1024 pixels, and I’ve been playing with a background. But I really don’t have room for much of a background, so everything I’ve come up with so far I’ve rejected. I don’t want to go any narrower, because I like three columns. It IS nice to be able to predict where things will go, which was not possible with my former fluid display.

I’ve been playing with the GIMP graphics manipulation program, which is very powerful but not intuitive at all. That’s the way software works: the more powerful it is, the more difficult it is to use. I’ve yet to see a program that breaks this rule. I’m really starting to get interested in graphic design again. I’m even thinking about taking a course. If I ever make it to full time writer status, it would be sweet to be able to moonlight as a nonfiction writer and graphic designer. (Yeah, I change careers every ten years, or so. Don’t you? I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but I’m getting closer.)

I have bookmarks! If you want one, leave a comment or email me at tia at tianevitt.com. (Yeah, that’s a different address from my blogging address.) So far, I’ve reserved almost 250, but yeah, 75 are for my mother and another 50 are for my sister. And that doesn’t include the bookmarks I’m going to foist off on people at work. And my critique partners. And my review partners.

This weekend I’ll post Harlequin Party pictures.

A strange thing happened when I started blogging regularly: my writing output plummeted. I have not finished a novel since 2007, although I have finished several short stories and novellas. I still want to maintain the blog because it keeps my name out there. So D&R will remain, but I will no longer even try to post daily.

When will I post? I have added a posting schedule to the sidebars, so you know when the best days will be to visit.

I also decided to prioritize. Debuts is listed first in the name of this blog, and I’m going to laser-beam on that. My primary focus will be the showcasing of debut novels. I’m not going to kill myself trying to find every debut out there. But I will kill myself (not literally) trying to get that weekly showcase post up. It will be my top priority, even if it is my only post that week.

My second priority will be that Thursday post, when I hope to host more guests. Interviews are a lot of work, and I can only do good interviews of an author who I have actually read, so they will be more occasional than guest posts.

The weekend post will be either reviews, editorials, link-ups, or whatever.

If any of my review buddies — Deborah, Katie or Raven — sends me a review to post, I have plenty of other days upon which to post it. And if I have something I’m just burning to say, I’ll go ahead and say it (or tweet it, which is more likely).

I also have not been accepting review copies in quite some time. I’m continuing that policy. I really do prefer to acquire my own books. Several publishers continue to send me novels occasionally; if I don’t want to read it and I don’t object to the book itself (which sometimes happens with those demon-lover kinds of novels), I’ll continue to offer it to my review buddies.

Thank you for your patronage of this blog, and hopefully this new approach will work for me.

Well, I’m back. I went to the Harlequin party and I’ll have a few pictures for you, but not tonight. We ended up in the car for at least an hour on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so I’m pretty zonked. Fortunately, my writing brain is OK, so that what I’ve been doing since we got home.

Decadent Publishing launched today, a epublisher/print publisher I intend to keep an eye on. Their initial offering leans heavily toward the erotic, so nothing has tempted me to buy so far. Sunday seems like a strange day of the week to pick for a launch date, and they have more books coming out on the 3rd and the 6th.

Another ebook caught my eye last week and I wanted to make you aware of it too, because the author is a regular commenter on this blog. She never said a word! (Or maybe she did on my defunct (now replaced and functional) Debut Informer. If so, sorry Anna!) The book is Faerie Blood and the author is Angela Korra’ti — or Anna the Piper! I love this cover–the violin alone makes me want to buy it, plus the opening chapter is fun. Check it out!

This week, I’ll post a debut showcase that I’ve been accumulating, plus I might have an editorial-like post about things I’ve been ruminating over lately. I also will post my review of Mary Robinette Kowal’s Shades of Milk and Honey! So it might be a near-normal posting week.

My daughter watched Beauty and the Beast today once we got home (along with Mulan and Cinderella–normally she doesn’t watch three movies in one day, but I figured she was as zonked as I am) and I had an idea for Beast when I do my retelling for that story. It’s a take on the Beast that might be totally repugnant–truly beast-like. Not the furry creature from the movie. Something that would be REALLY hard to fall in love with. It might be fun enough to tempt me away from doing Snow White next.

So, how was your weekend? Anyone here go to RWA? Anyone here wish they had gone (here!)?