A Great Review, a Nice Award, a Cool Q&A, and Exciting Appearances

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Kourtney

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Foreword Reviews published their review of The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts in the fall edition of Foreword Reviews and on their website. They gave it 5 hearts!

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https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/the-girl-who-ignored-ghosts/

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TGWIG is a Readers’ Favorite Book Award Finalist in YA mysteries.

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Q&A and Giveaway

One of the NetGalley reviewers of TGWIG reached out to me to give away a signed copy of TGWIG and do a Q&A. Rin has a great blog for books and I was excited to be featured there:

September 3: Q&A with Rin about ghosts, my inspiration, & what’s to come in the sequel + Giveaway.

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Upcoming Author Appearances

I’ve booked a couple more events for the fall. Here’s where I’ll be in September:

September 17th from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. In Wolcott, CT, at Bin 300 World Bistro: Launch Party for The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts: cocktails & hot appetizers and book signing. Door prize at event. This is a ticketed event.
September 20th from 3:45 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. In Brooklyn, NY, at the Brooklyn Book Festival in the Mystery Writers of America tent: selling and signing books and giving out author goodies.
September 26th from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. In Baltimore, MD, at the Baltimore Book Festival: selling signed copies of my books.

You can see my complete schedule for the year on my website: http://kourtneyheintz.com/news/

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Writing Work

I finished the first draft of TGWIG’s sequel in late August.

I’ve received beta reader comments on Six Train’s sequel. I’ve read through them all and am mulling them over right now and preparing to start revisions this week.

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School Visits

I’ve been hard at work creating all the paperwork for school visits, including my website content, and finalizing the PowerPoints.

I’ve has postcards designed and ordered them to send to schools this fall.

I’ve compiled a mailing list of schools in CT. Now I’m working on MA. I’m aiming to put them together for NY and RI too.

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Reviews

TGWIG has 49 reviews on Amazon and 63 ratings on Goodreads. I’m thrilled to have such a great response within 5 weeks of publication. I’m hoping to break 50 reviews on Amazon soon. I’d love to get 100 reviews for TGWIG by the end of the year. When I break 100, I’ll share the opening page of my draft of TGWIG’s sequel here. And I’ll run a giveaway with a $25 Amazon gift card.

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Happy Labor Day!

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Posted in author appearance, Award, book festival, book tour | Tagged , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Blog Post Love

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Kourtney

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The blog tour is winding down for TGWIG so I’m going to be off on the book tour this week.

Some of my guests posts didn’t get any comment love, so if you have time please pick one and swing by. I want to support the bloggers who generously shared their space with me.

July 27: Sharing an original short story about a college experience with my best friend and a taxi incident at 3 a.m. on YARN: YA Review Network.

August 1: Q&A on Whatever You Can Still Betray talking about the big question behind TGWIG, why the unbelievables, and why I love writing ghosts and time travel.

August 3: Guest blogging on Pretty in Fiction blog about how I created the world of the unbelievables in The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts.

August 3: Q&A with Omni Mystery News about the title, cover design, genre challenges, using a pseudonym and what’s on the horizon for me.

August 4: Dishing with Sarah at Workaday Reads about my writing routine, influences on my writing, and what I hope readers take away from the book.

August 4: Chatting with Katie, the Queen of Teen Fiction, about ghostly encounters, what inspired me to write ghosts, and where I would time travel to if I could.

Comments will be closed here this week.

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TGWIG’s Upcoming Events, Blog Tour Stops, & Such

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Kourtney

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Amazon Bestseller Lists and Hot Releases Lists

TGWIG has spent everyday since its release in the Hot Releases for Time Travel for teens and Mysteries and Thrillers for teens! It has continually been on the Best Seller list in both categories too. This is amazing exposure and makes me adore Amazon.

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Upcoming Book Tour Stops

The book tour has kicked off along with the blog tour. Here’s where I’ll be in person over the next 7 weeks.

August 24, New Paltz, New York from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.: I’m so excited for my writing workshop for teens on turning an idea into a concept in New Paltz at the Elting Memorial Library! It’s August 24 from 7-9 pm. We’re raffling off a gift certificate to the local bookstore Inquiring Minds. If you’re in the area stop by.

http://www.eltinglibrary.org/elting-events/calendar/…

August 27, Wolcott, CT from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.: I’ll be sharing Chicken Francese and chatting about writing with folks at La Fortuna.

I’ll be selling and signing copies of my newest release, The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts. Proceeds from the meal and $1 from every book sale will go to benefit the Wolcott Volunteer Ambulance Association.

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September 17, Wolcott, CT from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.: Launch Party for The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts at  Bin 300 World Bistro with cocktails & hot appetizers and book signing. Door prize at event. This is a ticketed event. All the details are on the invite below.

Mailchimp has gotten the invite tossed into half the spam boxes so I figured I’d post it here as well.

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September 26, Baltimore, MD from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.: Baltimore Book Festival Authors’ Tents selling and signing TGWIG.

October 5-9: Paid Workshop on Savvy Authors’ forum: conducting a week long online workshop “The Importance of Giving Up.”

October 9: New York Comic Con giving out freebies and enjoying the con.

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Final Blog Tour Stops

August 15: 5 Reasons TGWIG Should Make Your Summer Reading List guest posted on 4 am Writer’s blog. 

August 17: Spectral Spotlight on K.C. Tansley with Hartford Books Examiner.

August 18: Q&A with Terry Odell about what’s on my desk, music while writing, and dogs or cats?

Entire TGWIG Blog Tour

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Book Tour Stops in early August

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August 1 in Madison, CT, at the Craft Fair on the Green.

Met some awesome folks and sold a lot of books! Great day!

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August 13 in Waterbury, CT, at John Bale Book Company.

Had a delicious lunch and sold a good number of books. Good afternoon!

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Writing

I am in the last 5 days of working on TGWIG’s sequel. The first draft will be done in a week. Then I get a break to focus on my website and creating everything I need for school visits.

Posted in blog tour, book festival, book tour, Promotion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 23 Comments

TGWIG’s Blog Tour This Week

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Kourtney

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I don’t usually do two posts in a week, but I wanted to keep Monday’s all about the Tell Me Your Ghost Story contest. 🙂

I kicked off the blog tour and it’s going full steam ahead. If you want to check out any of the posts, here’s a snapshot of where I am and what I’m chatting about.

August 1: Guest blogging about Worldbuilding on Manic Readers blog.

August 3: Guest blogging on Pretty in Fiction blog about how I created the world of the unbelievables in The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts.

August 3: Q&A with Omni Mystery News about the title, cover design, genre challenges, using a pseudonym and what’s on the horizon for me.

August 3: Guest blogging over on Sarah’s Organized Chaos about why I wrote a YA novel.

August 3: Q&A on Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews about my writing quirk, when I called myself a writer, what’s next and my lifelong dream.

August 4: Dishing with Sarah at Workaday Reads about my writing routine, influences on my writing, and what I hope readers take away from the book.

August 4: Chatting with Katie, the Queen of Teen Fiction, about ghostly encounters, what inspired me to write ghosts, and where I would time travel to if I could.

August 4: I’m guest posting over on JM McDowell’s blog about 5 Ghostly Discoveries that I made while researching TGWIG.

August 4: Guest blogging over on Savvy Authors blog about The Importance of Giving Up.

August 5: Guest blogging on Becky on Books…and Quilts sharing why it’s important to believe in your story. 

Posted in blog tour, guest blogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Tell Me Your Ghost Story Contest Winners Revealed

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Kourtney

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It’s time to announce the winners of the Tell Me Your Ghost Story Contest! There were so many amazing entries, I don’t know how my editor managed to whittle it down to the final three.

Drumroll, please…

3rd Place Winner: Sabryna with “Playmate”

2nd Place Winner: Trisha with untitled work

Grand Prize Winner: Grace O’Rourke “Normalcy”

Here’s what my editor, Jessica Jernigan, had to say about our grand prize winner:

“Grace O’Rourke does an excellent job of telling an emotionally intense and chilling story with very few words. She even manages an awful little twist that I did not see coming.”

For those of you who haven’t read it, here’s Grace’s fabulous piece of flash fiction!

Normalcy

by Grace O’Rourke

I watch from the doorway as my husband tucks my daughter into bed. She asks for a story, and he obliges and sits down. Just like he always used to. My hands begin to shake. Even if you love someone, it’s still disturbing to see them up and about after they’ve died. I never believed in ghosts, but it turns out I was wrong. He tells her the same story he always used to tell, about a knight who slays a dragon.

“The end,” he finishes, standing up and turning towards the door. Towards me. Tears gather in my eyes. My daughter sits up.

“Tell it again, Daddy. And Mommy, come sit next to him.”

He agrees hurriedly and begins the tale once more, and I rush over and sit down. We’re both too afraid of her to disobey. I don’t know if she’s my daughter anymore – death changed her.

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A huge congrats to each of our winners! You did terrific work.

Here’s a quick refresher on what they won:

3rd Prize: A critique from K.C. Tansley of the first ten pages of your short story or manuscript + a query letter critique + an ebook copy of The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts + author goodies. Total value: $50.

2nd Prize: A one hour Skype visit with K.C. Tansley for you, your book club, your school, or your community. You can ask me any writing questions you’d like or chat about books with me. It’s your hour to pick my brain on anything writerly. If you want to pass pages by me for review, I can give you instant feedback during that hour. You’ll also receive a signed copy of The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts + author goodies. Total value: $70

Grand Prize: A gorgeous limited edition sterling silver replica of the Radcliffe ruby necklace. There are only three in existence and they were hand crafted by Marina A. Raye. You will also receive a signed copy of The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts + author goodies. In addition, I will publish your winning story on my blog + sing your praises on social media. Total value: $150.

I will be in touch via email with each of the winners via email to make sure I get your mailing address to send out your prizes and we can coordinate dates/times for skyping and critiquing. 🙂

You can check out the second place and third place winners over in the original post’s comments.

https://kourtneyheintz.wordpress.com/2015/06/01/tell-me-your-ghost-story-contest/

Thank you to everyone who participated. It was so cool to read your great entries and to get to hear your ghost stories. Keep writing!

Posted in Contest, flash fiction writing, flash fiction writing contest | Tagged , , , , , | 30 Comments

It’s Summertime?

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Kourtney

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Last Monday I took Grandma E to the doctor and lunch. It was the first time I’ve taken a few hours off on a weekday this summer.

It was 95 that day. As I was driving home I realized that I hadn’t enjoyed much of this summer weather. I’d been cooped up in the Kor cave toiling away on promo work and writing work.

So I made an executive decision, I was going swimming that evening. Didn’t matter that I showered that morning. I couldn’t be bothered to try to coordinate that aspect of my schedule.

At 7 p.m., as I was heading over to my aunt’s pool, our power went out. I didn’t care. I was going. When I arrived, their power was out too. So Grandma H joined me in the pool. My aunt and uncle came up too. There wasn’t much else to do but hang out.

I swam 40 laps. My aunt joked that she was watching the Summer Olympics. My uncle called around to find out what was going on with the power outage.

Grandma H cheered me on. She’d ask, “What lap are you on now?” and then say, “Good, keep going.”

When I told her I was almost done, she said, “Why not do a few more?”

She was loving her pool time. My goal was to swim to my age. But I pushed onward to 40.

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TGWIG’s Release is Almost Here

It’s less than a week until the book officially releases. The ebook comes out July 31 and the paperback is August 1. I can’t believe it’s really here.

I’ve been finishing up the posts for the blog tour. Working on school visit workshops. And finishing up the ending of TGWIG’s sequel. Still have a few more days on that and then a round of revisions in August before the first draft feels complete.

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Preorders and Free Bookplates

If you preorder the paperback from Amazon and you can’t get to one of my signings, I will mail you a free bookplate. Just email me a screenshot of your preorder (kourtney(dot)heintz(at) yahoo(dot)com) with your mailing address and I’ll send it out to you!

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I can also autograph your Kindle or ebook copy. Just pop over to Authorgraph and request an autograph.

TGWIG Giveaways

With the release date looming, there are a few book giveaways going on this week to celebrate TGWIG’s arrival!

Goodreads

Reading Away the Days

Fresh Fiction

Free Book Fridays

What I’m Reading Now

After Readercon, I’ve been sneaking in 30 minutes of reading before bed. So far I’ve finished Paige Shelton’s awesome Bushel Full of Murders, and moved on to Gretchen Archer’s tantalizing Double Mint.

Posted in book release, Giveaways, me time | Tagged , , , , | 38 Comments

The Whirlwind of TGWIG

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Kourtney

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Flash Fiction Writing Contest Update

Big thank you to everyone who entered the Tell Me Your Ghost Story Contest! It closed to entries on July 15th at 11:59 p.m. EST.

I have been reading through them all again. You made my job very, very difficult. Seriously talented writers all sent their work into this contest.

If I could have sent you all on to my editor, I would have. Whittling it down to the top ten is not an easy task. I don’t know how my editor will figure out who the top 3 are.

I will be posting the first, second, and third prize winner  here on the blog by August 5th and also contacting them by email.

Writing 

I’m hard at work on the sequel to TGWIG. Since June 9th, I’ve drafted 60k words or 250 pages, if you prefer. It’s the most rigorous writing schedule I’ve ever attempted. 4-5 solid writing hours every day.

I’m also doing a ton of research as I write. I’m kinda enjoying the travel journals, but if one more person writes, “the hotel was nice,” I am going to lose my mind.

I need to know what a hotel in 1831 was like. I have several scenes in one. Nice isn’t going to cut it!

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Promo Activities

With less than two weeks until the release of The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts, I’m in a promo frenzy.

Still writing guest blog posts. The majority of them are done, but I have a few more in my queue.

Finishing edits to an essay for the YA Review Network. Somehow that file got corrupted. So everytime I saved it, it garbled up. I finally had to open a clean Word document and retype the entire 10 page essay into it. I nearly lost my mind over that tech kerfuffle.

I’m working on workshops for school visits in the fall. I have one I’m polishing up. Two others are in the drafting stage.

I’ve bought ad space online and in print.

Signed TGWIG Book Giveaways

Right now, there are a couple giveaways going on for signed copies of TGWIG:

Goodreads

Reading Away the Days

Fresh Fiction

TGWIG Facebook Launch Party

I’m planning TGWIG’s Facebook party. There will be games and giveaways on August 3rd between 6-8 p.m EST. If you want to swing by on Facebook, here’s the party page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/642330805866722/

Upcoming Author Events

August 1, 2015, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Madison, CT, at the Madison Green (26 Meeting House Rd): Selling and Signing copies of TGWIG

August 13, 2015, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., in Waterbury, CT, at John Bale Book Company (158 Grand Street): Selling and Signing copies of TGWIG

August 27, 2015, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., in Wolcott, CT, at La Fortuna Restaurant (388 Wolcott Rd): Community Dinner Night with Local Author (proceeds to benefit the Wolcott Volunteer Ambulance): Selling and Signing copies of TGWIG and donating $1 from every book sale to the Wolcott Volunteer Ambulance.

Posted in author appearance, flash fiction writing, Giveaways, marketing a book, new release | Tagged , , , , , , | 34 Comments

Final Days of TGWIG Contest, Readercon Highlights, & Miracle Girl Shout Out

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Kourtney

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There are only two days left to enter the Tell Me Your Ghost Story Contest! If you want to get your flash fiction ghost story in, make sure you pop over to the original Tell Me Your Ghost Story Contest and follow the guidelines before July 15th 11:59 EST.

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Readercon Highlights

I did my best to live tweet and Facebook post things this weekend, but here are my highlights:

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A thought provoking panel discussion of zombies, vampires, and capitalism by Jack Haringa, Toni Kelner, and Faye Ringel.

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A fabulous reading by Leigh Perry of the next installment of the amazing Family Skeleton Series, A Skeleton Haunts a House. It’s out in October. I’ve already preordered this one–the perfect Halloween read!

As if things couldn’t get cooler, I got to have drinks with the amazing Leigh Perry/Toni Kelner on Friday night and talk about writing and publishing.

Best Readercon night!

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Listening to Nicola Griffith be interviewed by her wife, writer Kelley Eskridge. If I hadn’t already bought Nicola’s book, this fascinating interview would have made me do it! Excited to dig into Hild.

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While I’m talking books, I want to give a shout out to a great blog friend of mine, T.B. Markinson. She has a gorgeous new book out this month. Seriously crushing on that cover.

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Book Summary

Newspaper publisher and world traveler JJ Cavendish continually feels pressured to live up to her Miracle Girl nickname. Not many people know she’s living a carefully crafted lie. She may not hide ties to the LGBT community, but she does hide past struggles with addiction.

When the Colorado native is handpicked to take the helm at a dying Denver newspaper, she ends up reconnecting with her long lost love in this contemporary lesbian romance. Only there’s a catch. If JJ fires the most belligerent editor at the paper, she risks losing the love of her life.

Mid-afternoon office romps abound in this romantic comedy while also focusing on what it takes for a newspaper to remain relevant in this age of social media.

Must JJ lose everything in order to gain a life more fully her own?

Author bio:

T.B. Markinson is an American writer, living in England. When she isn’t writing, she’s traveling the world, watching sports on the telly, visiting pubs, or taking the dog for a walk. Not necessarily in that order.

Buy Links:

Amazon US      /     Amazon UK      /     Amazon Canada

Where to find T. B. Markinson:

Twitter       Facebook       Blog       Goodreads     Amazon Author Page

Posted in Contest, fantasy convention, flash fiction writing, writers, wrtiting | Tagged , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Celebrating Connecticut and TGWIG Contest Deadline Looms

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Kourtney

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Hope everyone had a wonderful July 4th!

This week I’m guest blogging over on Reading Away The Days and representing for Connecticut in the Virtual US Road Trip blog tour.

My post will be up July 7th. You can check it out here: http://readingawaythedays.blogspot.com/2015/07/virtual-road-trip-day-7-connecticut.html

She’s also giving away two copies of my upcoming release, The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts, so you can enter to win one there.

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There are only 9 days left to the Tell Me Your Ghost Story Contest! May sure to get your entries in before July 15th.

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Here’s another one of my PicMonkey creations–this is from a photo from my tour of Washington Irving’s home.

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The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts is getting some great early reviews online! I created a page on the blog for the TGWIG reviews.

Posted in guest blogs, Writing | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments

Book Trailer, Conference Proposals, Workshops, and Self-doubt

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Kourtney

I’m so excited to share the book trailer for The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts! We started working on this in February. I wrote the script, Cacko Studios produced the video, and Leah Merritt is the fantastic actress who brought Kat to life.

It’s funny how much time and effort goes into a 1 minute and 40 second video. I’m really happy with how it turned out! Many thanks to Leah and Frank for all their hard work on the video!

I’m finalizing conference workshop proposals for next years NESCBWI. They get submitted July 1.

I’m fine tuning a workshop for teens “Finding your Story: How to Turn your Idea into a Story” on August 24th from 7 p.m.-9 p.m. for the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz, NY.

I’m still working on all the blog posts for the blog tour. I’ve been tackling 4-5 a week.

For The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts sequel, I’ve been writing 2k a day and am at 160 pages. I’m having trouble researching the time period that they travel back to–it’s 1831 Vienna. Have been doing research online and at the library.

I need really specific stuff like what the streets looked and sounded like or what sort of places someone would stay at. Lots of times, I just throw a comment down to figure this out later, because I’m in a rough draft and I’m not sure this will stay yet.

Things are very fluid and change so much when you draft fast. It doesn’t make sense to spend a ton of time on research until I’m certain a scene will stay in the book.

There are only 2 weeks left to the Tell Me Your Ghost Story Contest–make sure to get your entries in!

I have a couple Goodreads giveaways going on right now for The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts. The are open to any country in the world.

I can’t believe The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts is coming out in 4 weeks. I’ve been preparing for this since March. Back then it seemed so far away. And now we are just 4 weeks until the release. I’m excited. I’m nervous. I’m hopeful. I’m scared.

I’m really hoping sales are good. But I also know how hard it is for a book to get noticed and probability is not on my side. I’m trying to be cautiously optimistic. But I don’t want to get my hopes smashed. I want my book to be beloved by readers. And deep down, I want this to be a hot summer release.

But at the same time I know how tiny a chance there is for that. So I just try my best and keep putting energy into promotion. Even when I have those moments where I’m not sure any of it will pay off. It’s like the lotto, you can’t win if you don’t play.

So I keep trying. And in 4 weeks, we’ll see what happens. Gulp.

Posted in Conferences, Contest, Events, Giveaways | Tagged , , , , , , , | 41 Comments