Pitch Opportunity!

Hey everyone, I'm joining nine other Samhain authors at Musetracks for a giveaway and a pitch opportunity on the 12th of January. The pitch is to Samhain editor Jennifer Miller and there will be also be book giveaways for those who comment - and I'm giving away Finn!

Details of how to pitch are here.

So if you have an awesome story burning a hole in your hard drive, come along and take a punt. I actually got my three book deal with Entangled via a blog pitch so they can work big time.

Plus also, Samhain is a fabulous company to work with.

And if you don't want to pitch but want free books then there's heaps to choose from too. :-)

The Next Big Thing - And a Christmas Giveaway

Well, I've been tagged to do a Next Big Thing post by three fabulous people. First up is my awesome friend and CP  Maisey Yates! Check out her post about her amazing new cowboy story - it's....OMG, I can't even.... Second and third are two wonderful fellow Entangled authors and Kiwis, Michelle deWinton and Bronwen Evans. Both these fine ladies have Indulgences out (Bronwen's imminent I think) so if you're after a bit of Xmas indulgence, you can't go wrong...


Firstly I know this post should go up next week but it's Christmas and I want to do a giveaway so I'm doing it now. If you would like a copy of my debut book Falling for Finn to test the Ashenden waters (so to speak) before you decide on whether you may like the below ms, I'm giving away a copy to one commenter. And just to make it fairer, the more comments I get the more books I'll give away. Will draw the winner(s) on Sunday night.

To enter just leave a comment saying 'yo'.  :-)

Where did the idea for the book come from?

My Samhain editor tweeted that she wanted to see more virgin heroes and Maisey nudged me. I got thinking about why a guy would remain a virgin...et voila. 

 What is the working title of your Book?
 
Working title is Dirty Virgin Hero. Hehe. Or if you're on Twitter #dirtyeffingvirginhero. ;--)

What genre does your book fall under?

Contemporary romance.

What actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I wouldn't. No actors are ever right for my characters. Lame huh? However I do have a Pinterest board here.

What is the one sentence synopsis for your book?

Ugh. Sorry but I'm going to cheat.  Taking Him - Game designer Ellie's last mission before she leaves the country is to seduce her older brother's best friend, the man she's loved for years. But little does she know that construction company owner Hunter has a past darker than the black feathers tattooed on his back and a secret he'll do anything to keep.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It'll be published by Samhain in November 2013 and is represented by Helen Breitweiser from Cornerstone Literary.

How long did it take you write the first draft of your manuscript?

Probably about 3-4 weeks.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Um. I don't really know to be honest. I guess I would compare the screwed-upedness of the hero and the emotional intensity of it with Sylvia Day's Bared to You.  Except the hero isn't quite as screwed up as Gideon Cross.

Who or what inspired you to to write this book?

Well, the idea of the virgin hero is something I wanted to write about because you don't see many books about male sexual shame. It's an interesting issue and a challenging one to write.

What else about your book might pique a reader's interest?

A geeky girl game designer, a man with wings on his back, motorcycles, hot construction workers, cosplay, hookers, tattoo parlours, and some hot how's your father. How's that for starters?

I'm supposed to tag people now but I'm not sure who has been tagged and who hasn't so if you haven't, consider yourself tagged!

 And if you want a copy of Finn in your stocking, don't forget to yo me! 

Falling For Finn Excerpt

Well, FINALLY, I'm on the Samhain website as 'coming soon'.   On the last page but there I am!

So if you want to read an excerpt, go...

HERE!

Very First Author Interview Eva!

So...uh...I have my very first author interview with Sasha at Caribbean Accent. There's also a giveaway of Falling For Finn if you'd like to enter. So...um...yeah....go along and check it out.

*shuffles feet nervously*

I really need to get over this not wanting to toot my own horn thing.

*tries again* *with extra American-ness*

YA'LL!! I am being interviewed because I am so effing awesome!! And my amazing, effing incredible book is being offered as a giveaway and you can READ IT EARLY. 

So go read. And enter. Otherwise I'll set Hoo on you. ;-)

More New Author Confessions

Being a writer is SUCH a funny/weird thing. Firstly you angst about your book when you send it to the publisher. Then after the joy of acceptance has worn off, there's the angst about the revisions. About the cover. Then the copy edits. And then once you've finished angsting about that and you have your ARC copies, there's the angst about people actually reading your work.

Obviously that people WILL read your book should come as no surprise. That's why we write, yes? So that other people can read it. But after years and years of no one but family members and/or crit partners reading your stories, the time comes when COMPLETE STRANGERS get the chance to cast their eye over your scratchings. And even though you think you've prepared yourself for this moment, it's actually bloody terrifying. Especially when you know that these strangers will also discuss your book with OTHER COMPLETE STRANGERS! People you don't know will be having discussions about your book and the characters you've created and they will have opinions about them! 'Scuse me while I go and be sick in the corner...

Finn on the iTunes store!!

Yeah, I'm neurotic, can't you tell? Anyway what brought this on is the fact that Falling for Finn has been sent out for review and am feeling anxious about it. It's also now on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iTunes. And soon should be up on the Samhain website too.  It's everywhere basically.

But that lovely period between acceptance and release date is drawing to a close. Those lovely months when only you and your editor know how brilliant (or otherwise) you are. Where you can tell yourself you have a masterpiece on your hands and can fantasise about what you're going to buy with the millions of dollars in royalties that you're going to get. Or write down your acceptance speech for when you win the Man Booker prize or get your Nobel medal. Yep, those days will be over soon and then everyone's going to see behind the curtain and you'll either be outed as a fraud or, worse, people will just shrug their shoulders and wonder what the fuss is about.

Of course there is the option that you'll be hailed as the next Nora but let's not mention that. 

Right, so,  despite the fact that I'm terrified of ya'll reading it, it would be remiss of me NOT to point out that iTunes has a first chapter sample of Finn that you can download. I'm not sure how to link to this (and it's not on the NZ iTunes bookshop - Grrrr!) but if you're in the US (not sure about UK) and you're keen to read the first chapter, then feel free.... :-)

Breaking World Shattering News - Jackie is On Amazon

Ridiculous noobishness happening here but.....

I AM ON AMAZON!!!!

Here is the link.

Falling for Finn Jackie's bestest debut book evah and better than at least 1% of books on Amazon....

Yes, I am squeeing and being utterly ridiculous but you can only enjoy these things for the first time once so I am taking the liberty of fully embracing the moment.

*embraces moment*

Ahem.

At some point I will also be on the 'coming soon' part of the Samhain website but not yet. 

Anyway, bubbles all round I say what?

ARC Love!!

I haven't posted for ages because I wanted to wait until I got my ARC! And now I have! Yay! It looks like an actual booky book thingy that actual people might (will!) buy! It's got copyright info and an ISBN and a dedication and everything! *falls over with excitement*

My mission with my ARC is to read over and make sure the formatting is okay and there are no serious typos.

The problem with this mission is that I've already read the story fifty million times in the process of editing and line editing. And I'm pretty sure my eyes are now burned out of their sockets with it. Sigh.

I've also noticed that I now want to rewrite portions of it. Have cringed at repetitions I didn't notice, cliches I should have taken out...you know what I mean right?  I'm consoling myself with the thought that I always get like this after I've read an ms far too many times and that it's not as bad as I think. Anyway, it's too late now. The die is cast, etc. 

Reading my ARC on my iPad. Like an actual book!

So...uh....yeah. That's my excitement for the week and I'm basking like a basking shark.

What about you? Anything exciting happened for you this week so far?

Awesome Book Cake!

I wanted to post this awesome photo because I have had some good news over the weekend which I can't tell anyone about yet but shall taunt you with mercilessly (and no, it's NOT another sale).  Anyway, the kids decided a celebration was in order and so - as a surprise - made me a book cake.  They got NO help. This was all their own work. My oldest daughter's idea, ably assisted by her younger sister and a friend.

Yes, it's a Falling for Finn cake. I've already shared this on Facebook and it was so good that I had to share it here too. As you can see, there wasn't enough room for 'Ashenden' so I'm just Jackie. The brown thing off to the left is a 'chocolate fish award' so as you can see, I am an award winner already.  Aren't they fabulous children??

Jackie Ashenden, Chocolate Fish Award Winning Author! 

Definitely has a certain ring to it.:-)

Anyway, while you help yourself to some virtual Finn cake, may I also bring to your attention a fabulous post on writing emotion by Maisey. It's a must read, no matter what type of romance you're writing.

PS. If you're desperate to know my news, you can DM me on twitter. Bribes of chocolate, expensive champagne, and diamonds gratefully accepted. ;-)

Wot I have Been Doing

Chocolate! From the Armani shop! Armani chocolate!

Haven't been blogging much these past couple of months. Mainly because I've been up to my neck in conferences, rewrites, submissions, edits, Dr Jax going to Milan and me being a solo mum, and deadlines. It's been a thing.

Anyway, I thought I'd give you an update on where I'm at so people don't think I've dropped off the earth or have stopped blogging or anything completely INSANE like that.

So here's what I've been doing:

I rewrote the Chessman. Took out the stuff I put in to make it more category. Darkened the conflict, hotted up the sexy-times, put in lots of angst, and then sent it to my editor at Samhain.
 
Then I rewrote most of the sheikh and included a couple of scenes that freaked me out to write and made wonder whether I am actually insane to put them in a M&B manuscript. Possibly I am. Anyway, only time will tell about that because I send it off.

Then turned my attention to my second Entangled book - working title The Player. I finished this before I left for Australia but I knew I'd done a completely pants job of it so had to rewrite most of it. Sigh. Sent the partial to my Entangled editor and got her thoughts and yes, I did have to rewrite the last half. Double sigh. Have just finished the rewrite today and will send that off tomorrow.

Next up is my third Samhain project - which is affectionately known as DVH AKA Dirty Virgin Hero. Yep, he's a hero! He's a virgin! And yet he's also dirty!  Have no idea how that's going to work out and I may yet be off my tree in thinking it will but I'm going to give it a go anyway. Got to keep yourself challenged.

THEN, once I've finished the partial of the DVH, I am going to look at starting my third Entangled book - working title The Boss.  Uptight, OCD hero. Naughty heroine. Am hoping it's going to be fun.

So there you have it. Wot I have been doing. And in there somewhere will be Falling for Finn edits and maybe paying more attention to The Gambler, another Presents ms that I had to put aside for all the other stuff.

Phew.

Oh and one other thing, just quietly because I'm not sure I can announce yet. So just pretend you didn't hear this. I sold the Chessman. :-)

Finn Blurb!

I have a tagline and blurb!  I am excited! And here's some more exclamation marks to show just how excited I am!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. Okay, so here we go...

Falling For Finn

When you’ve been burned, the heat of the moment is the scariest place to be.

Six months after a sexual assault, Anna Jameson has decided enough is enough. She’s sick of being a victim, of letting the experience have power over her. She wants her fear of physical intimacy gone, as in now. 

In the quest to reclaim her sexuality, she needs a man. A man she trusts absolutely. A man like her best friend, Finn.

Finn Shaw is all about taking risks. He does it every week on his extreme sports TV show. But there’s one boundary he’s never pushed, and that’s his friendship with Anna. When his hyper-intellectual family kicked him to the curb over his dyslexia, Anna stuck by him. 

Her request to become friends with benefits throws him for a loop. He can’t deny her anything, but this is a whole different ball game. Once they’re skin to skin, there will be no hiding the fact that he’s loved her for years.

When their chemistry burns out of control, Finn decides he’s the one who’s had enough. It’s time to break out of the friend box—and show Anna that risking her heart is a risk well worth taking. Even if it costs him her friendship. 

Warning: This book contains a strong-willed heroine who knows what she wants, a daredevil hero intent on showing her how much more she could have, sexy love scenes that’ll melt your heart, and a grand gesture you’ll need a tissue for.

This story has all my favourite things in it: friends-to-lovers, angst, sexy times, angst, an extreme sports, alpha hero, angst, single malt whiskey, oh yes and some more angst. :-)

I await February (19th everybody, mark it in your calendars! This instant, I tell you!) with trepidation and excitement...

Cover Squee!

Okay, I can finally post my Samhain cover! Woots all round!!  I can't tell you how exciting this is and I just love it. LOVE IT!!

Is it not gorgeous?? It's got my name on it and everything!

First Cover Sighted!

Hanging around in this sold-but-yet-to-be-published limbo is weird. You want to yell about your books but you can't yet because they're not out. And they won't be out for another six months at the very least. You kind of want to keep going 'hi, remember me? Yeah, I sold. But my book isn't out for six months okay so be sure to remember that. February. Make a note in your calendar. Yes, next year. Six months. I know but be patient.'

Basically waiting is the one constant in the whole publishing process.

In the middle of all this waiting is some good stuff though - I got to see the first version of my cover for my Samhain book! Reader, I cried. Yes, hearing I'd sold didn't make me cry (I was too busy hyperventilating), getting the contract didn't make me cry, but seeing that cover with my name on it in big, shiny letters...  And it's a FABULOUS cover. Not just because it has my name on it but because it's actually really, really beautiful. I mean, if that was someone else's book I'd be going wow, that cover so makes me want to buy it.

Anyway, I can't show you the cover yet but since Samhain is really a well oiled machine, I won't be surprised if I get a final version soon-ish and then I can squee and wallpaper the internet with it.  Hehe.

Which brings me to my question of the week - what sells a book for you? The cover? The blurb? A review? Bribes of chocolate from the author??? *stands by with pen ready to take notes while staring at cover again*

The Trick is to Miss the Ground - Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Writing Again

Okay guys, I've been wanting to write this post for weeks now but I had to wait until I'd signed the Samhain contract. It's about my first sale and why writing for yourself is so important.

As you all know, I've been aiming at Mills and Boon for years. I had some success early on but basically, because I knew NOTHING about the craft of romance writing, I wasn't able to follow up on the editorial input I got. It was incredibly frustrating. Then, back in 2010, I decided I really had to figure out what all this conflict/character/structure/plot crap was instead of just ignoring it and letting my instincts do my writing for me.

Learning craft was very, very hard for me. I'd had 20 years of writing purely for my bad self but writing for publication is different to writing just for your own pleasure. I took one or two courses but they didn't really work for me because I don't really learn like that. I struggled with figuring out how to apply them to my own writing. I struggled to put the lessons into practice. I basically just struggled.


The end of 2010, beginning of 2011 was a killer. I won an Aussie contest and got a request but then this and another partial was was rejected and I got sent back to the slush instead of working with an ed. To say this sucked was an understatement. I'd had a couple of years of working my butt off trying to figure out what they wanted from me but I hadn't managed to give it to them. This wasn't their fault. It's only now I can see that the reason I didn't get anywhere was because I still hadn't got the craft stuff right and it was majorly messing with my writing ability. I'd lost my voice in other words.

By 2011 I was second-guessing everything I wrote. The process had become a nightmare. Did I have enough conflict? Were my characters acting inconsistently? What the hell was GMC and did I need to know? Did I have too much exernal stuff going on? Was it flirty enough? Was it too sexy?

I'd lost any pleasure I had from writing. I hated it. Basically I wanted to give up.

My CPs and my family told me I needed to go on. I needed to keep going. That I'd got too far too give up now. And because I'm actually quite a really stubborn old cow and  I HATED the thought of giving up, I decided they were right.

So I got back in the saddle. Being the glutton for punishment I am, I decided to keep trying with M&B but to write something a bit different from the Modern Heat/Rivas. So I wrote a Presents. It wasn't anything particularly different and despite the dread of putting myself out there again, I entered it into an NZ contest. I finalled with it. This was the first positive writing thing that had happened since I was slushed and - I'm not ashamed to admit it - I cried! I didn't get anywhere with it alas and I didn't get a request which was gutting, but it was a sign to me that maybe I didn't actually suck after all.

After that, I wrote another Presents and entered it into yet another little contest. This time it won. By this stage I was looking at the Presents I was writing and trying to figure out what I was doing right this time that I hadn't before. I wasn't holding back on the angst that was for sure and I really liked that aspect, but it still felt hard.  Anyway, I had a great conference year that year. Two great pitches and lots of lovely feedback from M&B about my writing. I was very happy. I'd dragged out an old Modern Heat that I'd rewritten and pitched to another ed from another publishing house. She loved the sound of it and told me to send it so I did.

The conference success was great and I was on a high. But then I got a bog standard rejection for my rewritten Modern Heat from the previously keen publisher and this made me incredibly unhappy. I couldn't figure out what the problem with it was because I received no feedback. Plus, the partial I'd sent to M&B was very hard to write and once again I felt back into the 'my writing sucks' hole.

Which is when I finally decided to take the advice that everyone had been giving me all year but I'd been too stubborn (AKA too dumb) to listen to: WRITE SOMETHING DIFFERENT JACKIE.

Well, something had to change. I either gave up writing or I got back the joy again because my loathing of the process was eating into my stories and killing my voice.

So I decided to write the way I used to when I loved writing, without thinking of craft or whether an editor would like it. Or whether it fit guidelines. Or whether a character had to be sympathetic. Or whether a reader would hate my idea. I threw all of those fears in the bin. I wanted to write what I wanted to write. Something with tonnes of emotion, sexy times and angst. I wanted to put everything I liked to write about in it and I would NOT send it anywhere. It would be just for me.

I had an idea for my heroine that I'd been toying with for a while now but that didn't fit into any guidelines for category - a woman who was recovering from a sexual assault. She wanted to reclaim her sexuality and the man she wanted to help her reclaim it with was her best friend, the one man she trusted absolutely. Friends to lovers is one of my favourite tropes and the theme of recovery from sexual assault complex and difficult and one I'd been wanting to explore for ages. So I decided I'd just go ahead and write it.

Like my heroine reclaiming her body, I was reclaiming my voice and my love of writing. I didn't second guess anything. I just wrote the way I wanted. And I LOVED writing it. Absolutely loved it. My hero was hot and dirty and alpha, and my heroine was gutsy and tortured and strong and it was the best experience.

And somewhere in the process of writing that all the craft I'd been learning just clicked. I didn't think about craft or character arc or goal or motivation or anything while I was writing it, but somehow it just happened anyway.

Douglas Adams in one of his Hitchhiker's Guide books has Arthur Dent learning how to fly. The trick to flying is missing the ground. Arthur gets distracted just before he hits the ground and ends up missing it entirely. I think this is what happened to me. I got distracted, somehow missed the ground and ended up flying. :-)

When I finished writing this book, my CPs told me I HAD to send it out. Since I'd never intended to send it anywhere this somehow made it easier. So I thought I'd give Samhain a go since I'd never sent anything there before. I didn't think it would get anywhere. It's such a hot-button issue and I worried I hadn't dealt with it sensitively enough. But I loved the story and decided to take a chance anyway.  Three months later, the editor sent me an email saying she loved the story too and wanted to buy it. :-)


Just after I finished writing it though, the good feeling I had with that book stayed. And because of it I began to realise what I'd been doing wrong with my M&B subs. The two characters in my Samhain book came alive for me in a way my characters hadn't before and that's what I realised was missing. Decent characters. I'd got it right with some mss - the contest winners - but not others. In others they were a collection of traits, robots going through the motions.

So after I sent my novella to Samhain, I rewrote my old Modern Heat that had been rejected again. I kept my heroine but I finally found the key that made my hero a real pereson. He had ADHD. And this is the one that I sold to Entangled.


There was something so freeing about writing my Samhain book. It was like everything came together in a perfect storm and finally slotted into place. And now everything I write is so much stronger because of that.

I'm so pleased that book was my first sale. It changed the way I wrote and it's the reason for my subsequent sales. If I hadn't written that book, I wouldn't have sold.

So if you've ever got to the same point I did and can't remember why you ever thought writing was a good idea in the first place, try writing just for yourself. Put in all the things you love. Don't think about where to send it. Don't think about an editor reading it. Just write because you love to write. And don't, whatever you do, look down.

If you're lucky, you may just miss the ground and end up flying. :-)