Random Updates and News

I knew it would happen. I couldn't resist tweaking Thief. But it's now done. Really. I turned it in Friday and it's officially off my desk. I spent the weekend working on a chapter outline for Fortune Hunter, the second book in the Brook Street trilogy, and got a start on chapter 1. I also turned in the cover copy for My True Love Gave to Me, my holiday story in Carina's M/M anthology (Men Under the Mistletoe). Once I get the final version of the blurb for the book, I'll post it.

Convincing Leopold has made its way to Amazon and is now available for Kindle. It's also available on All Romance eBooks and on Barnes and Noble for Nook. In fact, all my Loose Id titles are now on B&N. Some of the guys were missing, but Loose Id worked their magic and now they're all showing up.

In other news, Shawn Lane, my awesome critique partner, is holding a givaway on her blog for her upcoming release, Can't Be His. Click HERE for details. Congrats goes out to Sophia who is celebrating the 2nd blogoversary of her fabulous blog, Fiction Vixen Book Reviews. To celebrate, she's holding a giveaway for a Kindle Wifi 6" along with a bunch of ebooks. Click HERE to check it out.

And in fish tank news, we are down to 1 fish. The 3 other goldfish went tits-up (or fins-up) over the past week. One after another, we found them floating in the tank, and not floating in a good way. We're left with 'jerk' fish, as kidlet has dubbed it. We don't think he contributed to the demise of his goldfish buddies, but you never can tell. He was the biggest of the group, and he's always been a bit of a jerk. I'm certain he was part of the little fish carnage, so I wouldn't put it past him to take out his buddies.

One Down, Two to Go

I finished Thief! It came in just shy of 38,500 words, making it my second longest Ava book. It was longer than I had anticipated, but since it could go up to 40,000 words per the contract, I let the book be as long as it needed to be.

Around 9:30 pm, I had about 2-1/2 pages left to write. I figured I'd be done in a half hour. It wasn't a complicated 2-1/2 pages. Well....about 2-1/2 hours later, I finished the book. Hubby said I write like a football game. I agreed with him.

Next up is Fortune Hunter. Oscar and Julian have already started chattering away in my head, so best not to dally too long getting them on the page. I'll probably take a couple days off, but by the end of the week, I'm hoping to have a good start on chapter one. We'll see, though. I'm going to give Thief a few days to sit, and I might not be able to resist the urge to tweak before I send it in.

Giveaway Winner & Progress Update

I let the randomizer do its thing and pick a winner for the giveaway. And the name that came out on top was:

1. Jason
2. Chris
3. Lisa
4. Nikyta
5. Dinnakay
6. Brandi
7. Judi
8. Lily

Congrats to Jason, who has won a copy of the Japenese version of Bound to Him/Bound by Deception! Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway. :)

In writing progress news, I got a lot done on Thief over the weekend. I only have two half-chapters left to go (yes, I skip around sometimes when I write). I hope to finish the book before the weekend, so I can be lazy over the weekend, recharge the muse's batteries, then start Fortune Hunter next week.

Giveaway - Oliver & Vincent from Japan

I'm holding a giveaway on the blog for a print copy of the Japenese language version of Bound by Deception/Bound to Him. Yes, it's in Japenese, and I doubt many, if any, of you can read the book. But it's cool - the back is the front for a Japenese book, and the paragraphs are in columns and are read left to right. Plus, the cover illustration is all kinds of awesome. I'm guessing that since the publisher is Prism Romance, that's why the cover has the prism-ie effect on the paper. Pretty fabulous. The guys sparkle ;)

I ordered the book from Amazon Japan, and ended up ordering a few since the shipping costs were ridiculous. So I decided to share the love and do a giveaway for a copy. It's likely the only time the boys will be in print, and I thought some readers might be interested in having a copy of Ollie and Vincent in print, even if they can't read the book.

Leave a comment on this post to enter, and please include your email address so I can contact the winner. Or you can email me at ava @ avamarch (dot) com to enter. Giveaway is open until Monday 8/15/11 at midnight, EST.

Oh, and in case anyone is wondering why I needed to order copies of my own book...authors don't always get author copies from foreign pubs. Between my Ava and Evageline pen names, I've sold foreign rights to 5 countries. France is the only one who has sent author copies. Spain, Russia, Italy and Japan...apparently not so much. Since I'm impatient and didn't want to wait to see if the boys would eventually showed up on my doorstep, I ordered the books myself.

Schedule Change, Updates, & Back from Vacation

I'm back from vacation and it's great to be home, and it's SO wonderful to have a reliable wireless connection again. The wi-fi at the beach was intermittent at best, and even my phone didn't want to cooperate. The upside to sucky signal strength - I was amazingly productive. Got 2-1/2 chapters written on Thief. It's looking like the book will be a tad longer than anticipated, but I'm still ahead of schedule. Which is good, because my deadlines got moved ahead while on vacation.

The Brook Street trilogy was scheduled to be released April/May/June, but it will now release in March, April and May 2012. I had the option to keep the original dates, but since I'm ahead of schedule with Thief, I decided I'd be stupid to pass up the opportunity to move the dates ahead. So now the books are due sooner, which means you'll likely see me even less around the interwebz as I'll be busily typing away.

I got edits back on My True Love Gave to Me over vacation, and was able to get them turned in last night, so that's off my desk until I see copy edits sometime in September. My editor gave me a 'fantastic job!' on the book - *insert grinning Ava* - felt like she stuck a gold star on my forehead. LOL.

Um...what else? Oh, the Bound series got a lovely review from Dear Author last week. That put a stupid grin on my face for a couple of days. And also helped me to sometimes forget about the ouchy sunburn I got the 2nd day of vacation. Seriously ouchy, and my chest is still red though now it's peeling. Yep, I'm molting. Let me tell you, it's not an attractive look for me.

Speaking of Ollie and Vincent, starting Monday of next week I'll do a giveaway on the blog for a print copy of the Japenese language version of Bound by Deception/Bound to Him.

That's all for me. Hope everyone has a great week!