Month: September 2016

Bake My Day!

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I am so excited to share some information about my book with all of you! The title of my first book is Bake My Day, set in the small town of Maple Falls.

See below for the back cover blurb!

Yesterday, I finished going through my edits and officially have a final draft! Something I have never had before after writing so many stories over the past few years so the word exciting doesn’t quite cut it.

This week I am working on finding a person to format my book in a print form and also for an e-book. I think I have found a great candidate to do it for me, I am just waiting for the quote to come in.

Next week, I will be getting my first proof of my cover. On Monday, she will be emailing me the first proof she has already been working on. After that, we will tweak a few things if needed and go from there. By Friday of next week, I should have a complete cover design ready to go!! I cannot wait to share it all with you next week.

Everything is starting to come together and I am getting close to the home stretch. These last steps I need to take are a little stressful but I know will be worth it in the end to see a finished product and be able to hold a physical book that I actually wrote in my hands!! Thanks to a very sweet author friend, I feel like I will be able to do this…with a little help from her 🙂  Thanks Harley!

And now…I leave you with my back cover blurb! I would love to know what you think!

           Cora Westerling thought she finally found the one. But as her relationship slowly starts to change, she is forced to make a tough decision. Giving her two week notice at her job, she packs up her life into her tiny car and decides it is finally time to live the life she has always dreamed of living. As a true believer of signs, she follows them along the way until she stumbles upon the small town of Maple Falls. Could this town hold everything she has been longing for?

Bradley Harper is a local police officer in the town of Maple Falls. After losing his wife, he was forced to raise their young daughter Lily all on his own. Working long hours and relying on his parents help, the last thing he has time for is a relationship. Could a new girl in town change all of that?

When the two of them meet on her first night in town, there is something about him she cannot stop thinking about. As their paths continue to cross and the love for his daughter grows in her heart, it seems like fate may have more in store for them than they both realize.

Comment below and let me know what you think 🙂

Shannon

The edits are in!

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Today was the deadline for my editor to have my manuscript completed and returned to me. I just received it and cannot wait to get to work on them and finally have a FINAL draft of my book!! She said that she really enjoyed editing it and that she was a big fan of my story and the message I put out there. She also told me that I did a great job with my first novel and that it is definitely ready to publish!!

It was such a huge relief to hear that, especially from someone else who doesn’t know me. I have let only a couple of people read a chapter or two, and my best friend read the entire thing. She is the only one other than my editor to read it through completely. I have loved the feedback from both and the support and encouragement they have given me that I can do this.

Having support and encouragement along the way has been huge!! Writing is a pretty solitary task and let me tell you, self doubt is a real pain. It creeps in WAY more times in a day than I would like and is not a friend of mine. Having those people close to you reassure you that you are doing a good job, that your writing doesn’t suck as much as you may think it does, and to give you that push to finish and see it through to the end is priceless!!

Like I have said before, I wrote my first story in 4th grade and I have dreamed of reaching this point for SO many years!! I am giddy and nervous and other things I cannot even describe to be this close and having my dream soon be a reality. To be able to see my story in a physical book that I can hold in my hand will be such an amazing moment! If all goes well and according to plan, that should be happening in the next 2 months!!!

If you are out there with a dream that you want more than anything…GO FOR IT! Don’t let anyone tell you that you can’t do it, that you aren’t good enough, that no one needs what you can put out there. Truth is, someone does need it and they are out there waiting for it as you read this. Don’t deny the world your talents. Make simple goals along the way, and little by little, you will get there. I have waited 23 years to get to this point and I am so close! I set little goals along the way and they have all been reached.

I am a mother of 4 young children ranging from 9 years old down to 2 years old. I don’t have a lot of extra time in a day to write, but I make sure to do something. If it is only 50 words, 100 words, it still counts towards my finished project. Consistency is the key to success. Keep plugging away at your goals and before you know it, you will reach them.

The world needs your work.

You can do it!

Shannon

The Waiting Game

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Over the past two weeks or so while I have been waiting for my book to come back from my editor, I have been using that time to begin the next book in the series. I sat down the other night and mapped out each of the scenes, chose the characters who will appear in each of them, and where they will take place. I know that once I get book 1 back, it will take me away from book 2 so I am trying to get a good solid layout on it while I have the extra time. Book 2 is going to be a novella so I am hoping the process will go quickly and smoothly for the most part.

Once I get my edits back, I will once again go through it and read all of her notes, making changes along the way when needed. Once I am happy with the final draft, I will then send it off to my formatter. I still have to finalize all of that as I do not know how long the edits will take me to complete. I received a message from my editor saying that she is really enjoying my book and that there are notes along the way but nothing major as far as story structure and plot go which was a relief!

I have hired my book cover designer and purchased my stock photo!!! I love the photo just as it is so I can’t wait to see it with my title and name on it! I know I will love it even more. I am on their schedule for the week of Oct 3-7. How it will work is I will give her all of my information ahead of time; stock photo, back cover blurb, author bio & photo, links, etc. and on the morning of Oct 3rd, I will be sent my first proof of the cover. She will have designed it beforehand and then we will work together over the next 5 days to make it perfect. I will have 2 proofs to look at in the end. I have been following her covers for months now and love her work so I have no doubt that she will do an amazing job.

Along with the cover design, I have chosen to add a custom title page and chapter headers to match the font that will be on the front cover. I could have just used plain text but as a personal preference, I love the look of matching text throughout and feel like it will just add that extra touch to my book.

The ebook cover will be complete within the week, but I may not get the print cover right away. My title page and chapter headers won’t be available until that week also so I will have to send them off to my formatter to add and complete first. The cover designer will need a final page count for the spine to be just right so it may take an additional week or so.

Once those two things are complete, it really just comes down to uploading the files correctly and lining up everything on Createspace. As a first time author, it may take me a little longer to figure it all out but I won’t give up until it is finished!!

I have been counting down the days until the editing is complete to move forward in the final steps of the process. I have never gotten this far in my writing and I get more and more excited about it each day as the date gets closer to seeing it again.

As of right now, I plan to reveal my cover around the second week of October and my hope is to release the book in November. I know this process is A LOT of work so I am going to accept that it may be December if need be. 2016 is the year I told myself that I would finally have a book in print out in this world and I will work night and day to see that it happens!

I can’t wait to share more of my book with you in the upcoming weeks and finally be able to introduce you to my characters!!

Shannon