Counting down - 28 days

Whisper Falls releases in 28 days. Four weeks. One month.

Here are two giveaways to enter!

(1) My author-friend Katie McGarry is giving away the last ARC of her next book, Crash  Into You.  She's using rafflecopter--and you win chances to enter when you like/follow two debut authors (me and Colette Ballard) on facebook, goodreads, or twitter.

(2) I'm sponsoring a giveway on goodreads! If you'd like a chance to win a free (signed) ARC of Whisper Falls (and you live in USA or Canada), please enter!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Whisper Falls

by Elizabeth Langston

Giveaway ends November 07, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

So, what else happened in the past week?

• I sent my brother a copy of the book. He's in Afghanistan, so he'll have it by release day, if he's lucky.
• A blogger/book-reviewer asked me for an interview on November 1st. I've returned the questions to her now. (Hint: There will be a giveaway.)
• Book 3 (Whispers From the Past) is in first-round revisions. My editors said that it didn't need many changes.  Apparently, my editors and I do not define "many" the same way.
• My freelance editor, Laura, now has a signed copy of the book. She deserves a lot of the credit. So do my publishing house editors. It really takes a village to make a good book...
• The local library system now has 13 copies of the book to lend. There is already a waitlist.  That is seriously cool. (I plan to donate one more copy. Generous, I know :)
• I have two more book reviews. I probably should dread reviews, but I don't. Of course, here's hoping that all of them are as lovely as the two I've received recently. 

 

All right, it's back to Track Changes in WORD. Book 3 is not changing itself.

See you next week, countdown...

Counting down to 35 days

We're 35 days or 5 weeks or 1.1 months from the release of Whisper Falls.

So what's new for the past week?

Firstly,  promo has become a family affair. My daughters, on a cross-country flight, discovered that they were sitting next to a publishing (distribution) professional and proceeded to market my book to her. So, yes indeed, I have this person's contact info. Every little bit helps.

Secondly, I have a new blog interview up with my cyber-friend in the United Kingdom, Kayleigh. If you're curious about my writer's journey or what character I had the hardest time writing, check out Kayleigh's blog.

Thirdly, I attended a writer's workshop on Saturday and learned a lot about self-publishing. I'm not sure if this is a choice that I will ever make, but I'm definitely better informed.

Counting down - 42 days

Yes, we are down to 42 days. Six weeks. One and a half months.

Not close enough but better. Definitely better.

I've had two fun things happen in the past week.  First, I received a long-awaited package from Spencer Hill. 10 copies of the real book. (Not ARCs and not uncorrected proofs!) I could sell these if I wanted to (which I don't.)

The second cool thing is an award. The publishing house submitted my book to a contest, and Whisper Falls received a Bronze Medal in Young Adult Historical/Cultural Fiction!

Good news might just distract me enough not to care that there are still six weeks to go.

Don't Look Back cover reveal

My author-friend Jennifer Armentrout has a new YA thriller releasing next April from Disney Hyperion.  Here is a first peek at the cover for Don't Look Back...and it is animated!

Don’t Look Back release date: 04/15/2014

Don’t Look Back synopsis:

Samantha is a stranger in her own life. Until the night she disappeared with her best friend, Cassie, everyone said Sam had it all-popularity, wealth, and a dream boyfriend.

Sam has resurfaced, but she has no recollection of who she was or what happened to her that night. As she tries to piece together her life from before, she realizes it’s one she no longer wants any part of. The old Sam took “mean girl” to a whole new level, and it’s clear she and Cassie were more like best enemies. Sam is pretty sure that losing her memories is like winning the lottery. She’s getting a second chance at being a better daughter, sister, and friend, and she’s falling hard for Carson Ortiz, a boy who has always looked out for her-even if the old Sam treated him like trash.

But Cassie is still missing, and the facts about what happened to her that night isn’t just buried deep inside of Sam’s memory-someone else knows, someone who wants to make sure Sam stays quiet. All Sam wants is the truth, and if she can unlock her clouded memories of that fateful night, she can finally move on. But what if not remembering is the only thing keeping Sam alive?

Pre-order at  Amazon or B&N .

# 1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki.
Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture.
She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.


Social Media sites:

Website

Twitter

Facebook

Counting down from 7 weeks

Whisper Falls releases in 7 weeks. 49 days.

We signed the contract fifteen months ago. So you'd think I was used to waiting by now. But no. I'm thinking the next two months are going to be crazy-hard.

There are still things to do. I'm trying to savor them and distract myself from the waiting. It's not working yet.

• We're in revisions for Books 2 and 3.  A Whisper In Time goes to copy-edits soon, so it's time to stop tweaking it. Plus we wrote the blurb, which was horribly difficult to make interesting without revealing too much of the ending from Book 1.
• Blog interviews has already begun. I've been working on questions for a blogger in the United Kingdom today.
• I ordered some author promo stuff in the past few days. Bookplates, bookmarks, and some adorable jewelry made from a miniature version of my book cover. Yeah, spending money can be distracting.
• I did a research trip this weekend with my husband. We drove to the mountains of Virginia, which Mark (the heroine) will visit in book 2 and 3.  Just to make sure... I've been there before.
• A few days ago, a book-reviewer in upstate New York tweeted about how much she'd enjoyed WF. We ended up direct-messaging for a half-hour, discussing plot points, characters, and sequels. I won't be able to do that with every reviewer, but it was loads of fun for that first time.

Yeah, November 19th, I'm ready for you to get here. Really.

I did it for my daughters

My two daughters love to hear stories from my tour in the US Air Force. We laugh when we call them "war stories"—because I served mostly during the 1980s in a software development group in Montgomery, AL. 

The only war I fought was the war to integrate women into the military.

I was the first female officer that most of my subordinates had ever seen. They knew I'd just graduated from college and that I'd grown up in a rural Mississippi town. They had me pegged as a naive, helpless, Southern belle. I was assigned to report to a civil servant who hated the idea of women in the military and who thought it was impossible for an officer to be competent without prior enlisted time. I was screwed on both counts. 

I know that my boss believed these things because he actually said so at staff meetings--in front of the men I outranked. Other gems included:

• "There's only one reason a woman would ever join the military—because she's a [gay female] or a [promiscuous woman.]"
• "The colonel is making me lie about the lieutenant on her performance report. I have to say she's good."
• "This code is brilliant. I don't believe the lieutenant wrote it."
• "I feel sorry for the lieutenant when she marries. No man worth having would ever want her."

Most of the time, I chose to suck it up, but that last one got to me. I rose from my end of the table and walked out of the room while the civil servant yelled, "Beth, get back in here." Yes, he was using my first name—a blatant sign of disrespect.

I stood in the center of the hallway, visible to my staff, obviously being insubordinate, struggling to decide what to do, close to falling apart all while knowing that, if I did, it would set back women-in-the-military in a major way. The division's Chief Master Sergeant (E9) approached me and asked me what was wrong. I just stared at him, unable to speak. Then he heard what my boss was screaming at me. Chief turned and stalked into the conference room. It grew quiet. He said softly, "Everyone out except [boss]." My staff filed out in silence. Chief kicked the door shut.

I never had trouble from my boss again. 

At his final enlistment ceremony, Chief asked me to swear him in. On the day he retired from the Air Force, he saluted me last. Both were extreme signs of respect.

Three decades later, Chief contacted me on Facebook. Before friending me, he wanted to make sure it was okay with my husband. (And let me tell you, I married a man worth having.) Instead of Lieutenant and Chief, we're Beth and Jim now. I'm one of the few folks he's in contact with from that time. I think it's because I'm one of the "guys" worth knowing. (Back at you, Jim.)

I tell my daughters these stories, and they find it so amazing how kick-ass I had to be—because that's really not me now. My daughters shake their heads in wonder, as if I'd been living in a fairy tale. No one has ever made them feel less because they are female. No one has ever suggested that there are boundaries to what they can achieve because they have an extra X chromosome.

I did it for my daughters and for your daughters and for any child who is ever judged for factors beyond their control. And I couldn't have done it without men like Chief.

65 days

My first book releases in 65 days. 9 weeks. Around Thanksgiving.

I'm in a no-man's land between contract and debut release. Technically, I'm not a published author.  I will be published on 19 November and forevermore after that. But I've been in a gray area for the sixteen months since I signed a contract. Not quite published. Not really un-published.

I'm sitting in a cafe, about to eat my veggie omelet, with my laptop going.¹ People ask what I'm doing and I say I'm an author. And there's a hesitance in me to say that out loud because it doesn't seem quite true. Yet.

In a couple of months, that slight hitch in my statement will go away. I'll claim the job. I'll have information about my numbers.² I'll have reviews, fans, detractors, and other such authorial stuff.

Last night, I finished my fifth full-length novel.  I wrote it several years ago, but the story needed a skilled, experienced writer to write it, and that wasn't what I was several years ago. So I put it down and waited. This summer, I picked it back up. This go-round, I did the characters and their pain justice. And this time, it might get published because I'm an...author now.

Okay, my omelet's getting cold. And so is my coffee. Plus, with all of my current projects completed and/or in the publishing assembly line, I'm ready to dream up a new idea.


¹ Always, I have my laptop with me when I'm not working at my day job.
² For most authors, your numbers are "how many units sold" or "how much in sales". But there are other numbers too, like "how many twitter followers" or "how many books under contract." I'll go from caring about words to caring about numbers too.