I just had my first author interview, which is an exciting thing. I was interviewed by Stephanie Boles, an author of inspirational Regency romance, and am her featured author for July on her blog. To read the interview, follow the link:
http://stephanieboles.blogspot.com/2009/06/featured-author_26.html
Just a couple of weekends ago I had my very first book signing at a festival. We had a pretty crazy time getting ready for it. I'd always planned to do a signing there, but I wasn't expecting it until July so I found out about it only three days before. Mom and I spent those three days making flyers and bookmarks and cutting them all out. I also only had about 12 copies of The Pirate Daughter's Promise and had no time to order more. But it all came together. I wasn't sure what to expect or how many people would actually stop at my table, but it was a really good day. I got there around 9:30 in the morning and stayed until 4. Quite a few people stopped to look over my stuff and I sold 12 books in total. 8 copies of TPDP and 4 copies of Every Tear. It was a great first experience for a book signing and I'm looking forward to setting up another one.
A couple of weeks ago, my brother Jake and I got to volunteer at a Building 429 concert. Building 429 is my favorite band so this was an amazing opportunity. We were at the church where they were playing when they arrived and helped unload their trailer and set everything up for the concert that night. It was incredible to see all the equipment and everything they have to do to set up their shows everyday that they play. They even gave us each a t-shirt that said "Building 429" on the front and "Local Crew" on the back. We had a great time setting up their merchandise tables and getting to know AJ, their merchandise guy. It was just unbelievable to be around the band all day. We got to say hello to everyone and even talked to Jesse and Aaron (B429's guitarist and bassist) for a little bit.
The concert that night was amazing. I am always so touched by their music and nothing compares to getting to hear them perform live. It was the greatest concert I've been to so far. During the intermission before Building played, Jake and I helped 33 Miles, one of the bands who opened for Building, carry their equipment off the stage. It was really great to be a part of it.
When we first arrived there that morning and we had met Ross, one of the guys from our local Christian radio station, Jake told him that I was Building 429's biggest fan. So then, before the concert, Ross told Jason, B429's lead singer. And after the concert, Ross made sure that Jake and I got to personally see the band for a brief time right before they went out to the autograph table. When he introduced me, he said, "Jason, here is your number one fan." Jason is one of my greatest heroes, so it was really cool that Ross did that for me.
We went through the autograph line and then each got a picture with the band. When it was my turn, Jason held up one finger and said, "Number one fan right here." It was the perfect end to a perfect day that I will never forget.
Finally, after a slight, unexpected delay, the day I've been waiting for ever since The Pirate Daughter's Promise came out a year ago. Every Tear, book 2 of my Pirates & Faith series is now available from my CreateSpace E-store and from Amazon. Follow the links below to purchase it, and if you have a little time after you read it, reviews on Amazon are greatly appreciated.
I meant to write a blog entry last week, but never got to it. It was quite a busy week. I got the first proof of my book last Thursday. It was very exciting and a little scary. I didn't know what I'd find when I opened up the book because I'd had so much trouble embedding the fonts into my PDF before I submitted it. I was afraid the special fonts I purchased and used for the chapters and dividers wouldn't show up, but they all did to my great relief. Everything looked great except that the margins were about a quarter inch off. I thought it was just because it was a proof and they are notorious for being not as precise as the final product. So I wasn't too concerned about it and approved the proof which made it available from CreateSpace. I was so excited and went around posting the purchase link on all my different sites, but then Friday afternoon I got an email form CreateSpace saying they'd made a mistake and my PDF wasn't processed with the right margins. In order to fix it, my book had to go back into the proof review stage, and they had to send me a new proof. I was pretty disappointed, but the way they handled it was great. They sent me a new proof right away, even shipping it two day air. I got the new proof yesterday, and it looks perfect. Now it's finally available again.
A couple of pictures of my two books:
Just a blog worked for a while, but with Every Tear coming out I felt like I needed a real website and finally started making it yesterday. I made it through Weebly which is one of the easiest things I've ever done and had it pretty much finished last night. You really don't need any website creation experience so I highly recommend it. Then I just bought my domain name through GoDaddy today and set it all up. It worked great. Check it out:
Now, as for progress on Every Tear, I think I'm finished. The manuscript is done and so is the cover. I'm now just waiting to get Adobe Acrobat which I had to order to make the manuscript into a PDF. As soon as I get it, I'm all set. I'm guessing the book will be available around the second or third week of May at the latest. That's what I'm hoping anyway.
There's nothing like an immediately answered prayer, even a really small one. This morning I was laying in bed (it's amazing the ideas I've had just before getting up or just before going to sleep) thinking about Makilien, my second book specifically. Now, I don't want to give a lot away, but there's something that needs to happen in both books. Makilien does it in the first book, but I needed someone else to do it in the second. I had a list in my mind of the potential characters that seemed to me to be the obvious ones to carry out my mission, and yet when I imagined the scene with each of them, no one felt like the right person. It's a very important part of the book so it needed to be right and it bothered me that none of my characters seemed fit for it. This was on my mind this morning, and when I still couldn't figure it out, I just prayed simply, "God, who do You want to do it?" Literally within seconds of that prayer, I thought of one character who had never occurred to me before and he was the perfect one. He gives much greater meaning and impact to the part than any of my other characters would have. Things like that are just amazing to me and why writing for God is one of the greatest things I've ever done.
Rejoice always!
1 Thess. 5:16
