The Girl Who Loved Ghosts Release Day!

Today is the official release day for The Girl Who Loved Ghosts!

I’m really grateful to the reviewers that have been posting early reviews on Goodreads. Here’s some of what they have been saying about Book Three of The Unbelievables:

“Ms. Tansley has built a realistic backdrop with vivid details, poured on emotional challenges and raised the stakes for her characters as each tentacle of this tale entangles readers for start to finish! Another fabulous Young Adult fantasy to add to your must read list!”~Tome Tender

“I really love how the ending went and cannot wait to read the story line from it. I don’t want to give away anything from this book, but I really enjoyed it and read it very quickly.” ~Confessions of a YA Reader

Magic! Gargoyles! A spell library! Wraiths! Time travel! A 1,000 page compendium of unbelievables that I need to read urgently! Breakfast! This is such a fun series!” ~Schizanthus Nerd

“This is a gripping adventure through time. It has moments of darkness and danger, but it also has moments of great poignance. It’s about honoring family, but it’s also about being true to yourself.”~Bibliotica

 

The Girl Who Loved ghosts cover

Be careful if you buy the paperback from Amazon–they are now listing a ridiculous $19.10 reseller price on the paperback buy button and the actual retail price of $13.99 is in tiny print as a link below the buy button.

My suggestion is buy from Barnes and Noble.

Here are the ebook buy links:

Kindle

Nook

Kobo

Here are the paperback buy links:

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

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Pre-order The Girl Who Loved Ghosts!

 

Cover Reveal

The cover for The Girl Who Loved Ghosts is finalized! It was a great collaboration between the cover artist, my editor, and me. I think it’s my favorite cover in this series. Which might be because it features Evan too.

 

Ebooks ARCS were sent out June 21

If you’re a reviewer who previously reviewed the book and indicated you’d like to read the next book in the series, I emailed you the link to the ebook ARC on June 21 from kourtneyheintz(at)gmail(d0t)com. Check your spam box for it. If you didn’t receive it, please email me and I’ll resend the link to you!

 

Back Cover Summary

She’d do anything to save her friends and family. But will that mean sacrificing the ghosts she’s grown to love?

Kat is trying to settle back into her senior year at McTernan Academy, but destiny keeps getting in the way of schoolwork and friendships. Continuing her magical training means abandoning her best friend, until an attack by a mysterious entity on campus proves that the only place they’ll both be safe is Dumbarton, the ancestral home of the Langley family.

Evan struggles with his coursework, a flirty new housemate, and his daunting responsibilities as the Kingsley heir and new owner of Ravenhurst manor. He tries to hold onto his normal college life, but he knows it’s only a matter of time before he and Kat have to travel into the past again… And Kat is in mortal danger every minute they wait to retrieve the last amulet they need to defeat the Dark One.

As her normal life slips further away, Kat must face the terrible cost that comes with time travel. Completing her quest in the present requires changing the past. She knows that the results of her actions can be disastrous—because the ghosts of her ancestors tell her of their tragic fates. A trip to eighteenth-century Connecticut might change everything. Kat tries to protect everyone she loves, but risks destroying every relationship that matters to her.

You can pre-order the ebook here:

Kindle

Nook

Kobo

 

 

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What’s Happening With The Unbelievables Book 3?

As spring moves into high gear, I’ve been hard at work on line edits for The Unbelievables Book 3,  The Girl Who Loved Ghosts!

The advance reader copy (ARC) of The Girl Who Loved Ghosts is almost ready! If you are a book reviewer/blogger who’d like an ebook ARC drop me a line: kourtney.heintz(at)yahoo(d0t)com. I do plan to reach out to all the reviewers of book 1 & 2 to see if they are interested in reading the third book’s ARC.

The cover design for this book is in the works.

The official release date for the book is September 16, 2019.

I’m really excited to share this book with everyone because we finally get to hear some of Evan’s point of view on things. And visit Ravenhurst–the Kingsley family manor. I spent weeks figuring out what it looked like and I hope you love it as much as I do. I really appreciate reader reviews and I read every single one. I made sure to have more of Seth and Morgan in this book because readers asked for it.

You may have noticed I’m rarely online. I’m still updating the blog and sending out my author newsletter with lots of insider goodies on alternating months (http://kourtneyheintz.com/contact/). But with my upcoming career change and job search, I’ve had to scale back on my writing life to, well, writing.

 

 

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I’m an Outlier

The past two weekends have been dedicated to tech updates to my life aka setting up the new iPad and iPhone and wiping the old ones clean.

For most people this is a smooth, easy transition. But I’ve come to realize I’m an outlier. If something can go bizarrely wrong, it will. If there’s a .05% chance of some weird glitch happening–it happens to me.

So I’ve learned to over-allocate time to tasks that should be easy.

Take my iPhone for instance. I set it up no problem, but when it came time to reset the old one, my device repeatedly said I was entering the wrong password. All my passwords are written down in a file folder and stored carefully. So I knew it was right. It worked on my other devices. I tried a few times. But nope, iPhone was not accepting the password, which meant I couldn’t turn off the Find my iPhone feature as required to send back the old iPhone and get a credit on my bill.

I reset the password.

Then it refused the new password too. The same password my other devices accepted.

In total time, I spent an hour trying to get this glitch fixed. Finally, in desperation, I ended up turning everything off and back on (the mysterious solution to 90% of tech issues) and the password finally worked.

The iPad change, however, went super smooth. Like ridiculously well. It made me nervous. Because something always goes awry. Then I was at the final step. I’d wiped my old iPad clean. Now I just had to take it out of its protective case and put it in the box and ship it back to Apple.

Could my outlier status be changing?

That’s when I learned how  the Otterbox Defender case got its name. It had kept my device safe for years. And it wasn’t going to stop.

There are a dozen points on the case where you must exert pressure to unlock the front and back. I think it may  be easier to break into the Federal Reserve.

I ended up watching 2 YouTube videos and I was still struggling. Twenty minutes passed before I managed to get the case unlocked and get my old iPad out of it to ship back to Apple.

These kind of things may be why I tend to hold onto my devices until they fail. Because I know some weird issue will greet me each time and it’s never the same. Mind you, now I love the new features of my iPhone and iPad and I can’t get over how outdated my old devices were.

How do you deal with transitioning to new devices? Any crazy tech glitch stories? A case that refused to stop protecting your device?

 

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Changes in Online Presence

In the past few months, I’ve spent most of my time in the now. I have a few goals that I’m moving toward, and each day I am giving my all to reach it.

And it feels really great to be pushing forward and taking pride in what I’m doing.

I don’t feel the pressure to “be on” that always dogged me online. I feel like I can finally relax and be me.

Then I realized I created constraints like I must be on Twitter x number of hours or I must post a blog twice a month or I have to be on Facebook every day.

I think pulling back was the best thing I could do because it made me realize how much happier I am offline. I love having private thoughts and not sharing them.

At my heart, I am an introvert. I don’t crave attention or interaction. I honestly prefer being anonymous and living my life below the radar. I also have just so much time to split between rebuilding my career in finance and writing.

At the same time, I recognize that as an author I want to give my readers access to me. I love every reader email I receive. It’s awesome to hear the affect my book had on a reader. Truly, I treasure that.

I’ve tried to come up with a balance. I will be focusing my energies on my newsletter and will send it out every two months. That’s where you will find free, unpublished short stories by me, giveaways, book updates, and insider info. I also want to keep the blog going, so I will alternate a newsletter mailing with a blog update month by month.

As for Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads, I’m not planning to be there much. So it may take a while to hear back from me on those platforms.  I hope you can understand that this will help me focus more on my stories and will be better for both of us in the long run.

Have you changed your online presence? How did it work out for you?

 

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Summer Break

Right now, my real life has to take a front seat to my online life.

There are things that I absolutely need to get done this summer and that means I won’t be online much. I’ll still be sending out my monthly author newsletter, so sign up for it if you want monthly updates on my writing life (http://kourtneyheintz.com/contact/).

I’ve got a few major projects happening.

I’ve got to revise my first draft of The Unbelievables Book 3 and deliver a polished second draft to my editor by September 1.

I’ve got some personal goals that require daily exercise and cooking. I need to exercise 1-2 hours a day. I also have to prepare healthy meals.

I also have some additional professional goals that require major time this summer. I’ll explain more about that in the fall. But for the summer, I’m studying and taking tests and getting certifications that requires hundreds of  hours of preparation.

I looked at my schedule and realized that in order to complete these goals, I have to let other things (my online time) slide for a few months.

I’m sorry to be away for a bit, but it’s what I have to do right now.

Have you had to take a break from being online? Was it helpful to achieving your goals?

 

 

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A Weekend in NYC

I started the month off in Manhattan with Brett for Easter weekend. We did most of this in one day!

Macy’s had a really cool flower show in the flagship store. It looked like an enchanted forest was dropped amongst the beauty department.

 

Then we decided to go down to the Village and walked along Christopher St. and Bleeker Street.

We ended up in Nolita for sushi lunch.

And even popped into Marie Belle’s in Soho for her signature dessert and hot chocolate.

Since Brett lives Uptown, we wandered around Downtown until we were ready for dinner at Green Bo in Chinatown. The best soup dumplings and pork and rice cakes. And then across the street for my favorite pandan ice cream from Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.

 

The next day we went to Central Park to see if any flowers were blooming.

 

 

Then we had an Easter feast at Kings’ Carriage House. The appetizer was purple potatoes with crabmeat, salmon, and avocado piled on top. Each bite was filled with so many flavors my tongue was dizzy with delight.

I had the duck breast with crispy kale and sweet potato entree. I can’t even describe how awesome it was. It’s a month later and just thinking about it makes my mouth water.

Dessert was a super smooth cheesecake. Awesome Easter.

 

 

And then I came back home to the turkeys that roam around in my neighborhood. I literally had to stop my walk to let a turkey cross the road.

 

 

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The Five Things I Would Tell My 20-Year-Old Self

Lately I’ve been thinking. Mostly because it’s the first time in a year and half that my mind is clear and my thought processes are firing again. I can actually do a few things at the same time and do them pretty well. In February, I started taking walks. It began as 30 minutes twice a week and mushroomed to daily walks that last 60-80 minutes, which gives me a lot of time to ruminate on stuff. I’ve got a backlog of thinking to catch up on!

On one of my epic walks, I was thinking back to when I was 20 and all the stupid things I thought and did. And I started composing this list of things I would tell my 20-year-old self. Some of it’s purely practical, some a bit deep. But I really wished I knew this back then.

  1. Take care of your teeth. When you’re thirty, you’ll need 2 root canals and a gum scaling. I know you hate flossing, but do it. Daily. Even when you hurt your back, and life is utterly miserable, make sure you brush twice a day. And use mouthwash. Your 40-year-old self thanks you.
  2. Most people leave, but you will never correctly guess who will stay. The people that you’d trust your life to at 20, most of them will leave. Some gradually, some quickly. But most won’t be around in ten years. The ones you don’t expect to stay, they will. And they will keep coming back to you. Treasure them and let the rest go.
  3. When someone shows you who they are believe them. The guys that lie and cheat—that’s who they are liars and cheaters. You cannot reform them. You cannot love them enough to make them love you. It won’t happen. I’m sorry, dear, but you just need to cut the cord and move on. Third chances are for idiots. Same with friends who betray you—frenemies are only cool in movies.
  4. Your dreams will change. And you have to find a way to adapt to a complete shift in your motivations and goals. You may feel like you are not the same person. You aren’t. And sometimes what you flee from is what you will return to in later years. Accept it and embrace change.
  5. You’ve only got this one life. Make the moments count. Live the life you want and make sure you spend your time in pursuit of your passions and your interests whatever they turn out to be.

 

When you look back on your life, is there any advice you wish you could give your twenty-year-old self?

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Does Social Media Make You Miserable?

For the past 3 months, I’ve curtailed the time I spend on social media. I check Facebook and Twitter once a week. I respond to all notifications and I try to take about 30 minutes to interact with friends’ posts and tweets. I’ve cut back on blogging and reading blogs too.

I’m not bombarded with angry political rants. I don’t have to constantly hear how awesome or awful everyone else is doing all the time. I’m not pressured to post all the time and create content and get followers. In short, I’ve stopped pushing my introvert-self outside my extroverting comfort zone so much.

What I have done instead is put more energy into my author newsletter. I enjoy creating that content and I only have to do it once a month. I’m getting responses from readers, and it’s fun without the pressure cooker feeling of social media.

The overall result is that I feel more relaxed and happy, which is incredibly important to my creating stories that I love and can share with readers.

Fundamentally, I have to be true to myself. I like living my life offline. I like having private moments that are only documented in my memory. I like disconnecting from the computer and reconnecting with friends on the phone or in person. I like listening to music and reorganizing things in my room or cooking a dish I’ve never made before or taking a hike through the woods.

So though social media can make me miserable, I’ve decided that I won’t let it. It can be a useful tool when used properly. But it can be a misery maker when you feel like you have to be there all the time and the tool starts to control your life.

 

How do you feel about social media? Epic time suck? Excellent Promo tool? Fun? Taxing?

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Winter Blog Break

With all the weekly author events, my monthly new newsletter commitments, and my writing schedule, I’ve decided to take a break from blogging for the holiday season.

I’ll still be on Facebook and Twitter, but I’m going to take a blog break from now until January 15.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

If you miss my posts, please check out all the amazing interviews and guest posts from the book tour in October and November!

TGWSG’s Blog Tour

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