Hidden: One Title. Endless Possibilities.

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Joynell Schultz

I’d like to officially introduce everyone to a project I’ve been working on since spring. You’ve all read about my novella, Hidden: A Pregnant Fairy Godmother’s Journey… Well, this was written as a part of a 70+ author collaborative where we each wrote a story with the same title: Hidden.

Confusing, right?

When you see the variety in the covers, it’s not confusing at all, just take a look at these October/November releases.

Each author could write any story they like, in any genre they enjoy, as long as it has the title, Hidden. Then, once weekly, a book is released…and we’re booked out into 2019!

The purpose of the project–besides having fun–was to connect indie authors for cross-promotion. Hopefully, when someone reads my eBook, they find another one of the Hidden authors and read their book as well. (Those that are interested in the outcome of this, don’t worry, I’ll blog about it sometime during this project.)

You can follow along on our website or with any of our social media (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram) to see what this fantastic group of authors came up with, or simply sign up for our newsletter to receive updates of the current new releases.

Here’s what’s in store until the end of November:

Here’s October/November’s Releases:

October 26thCheck this out HERE.

Laura Greenwood – Dystopian RH Fairy Tale Retelling

November 2ndCheck this out HERE.

Alasdair Shaw – Military SF

November 9thCheck this out HERE.

Joynell Schultz – Quirky Fairy Tale / Urban Fantasy / Romance

November 16thCheck this out HERE.

Troy McLaughlan – Dystopian Science Fiction Adventure

November 23rdCheck this out HERE.

Deidra D. S. Green – thriller, murder mystery and suspense

November 30thCheck this out HERE.

A.J. McWain – Post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller

I can’t wait to see all 70+ covers, side-by-side, in 2019 when this project concludes…and, of course, read every one of these titles!

Subject 23 – Free Prequel to Love, Lies & Clones

Posted on April 25, 2017 by Joynell Schultz

Sound the trumpets!

I finished a short prequel to Love, Lies & Clones that I thought was a lost cause.

It’s called Subject 23. Here it is:

Subject 23

Alice Taylor poured her heart into the advancement of science. It wasn’t until she connected with a surrogate mother, Subject 23, did she begin questioning what path science was taking her down.

This is a glimpse into June’s father’s cloning experiments. Meet June’s mother, Alice, and watch her struggle with the ethics behind the project.

You can download a copy HERE.

I had started writing it back in January with hopes of using it to entice readers to pick up the full novel, but abandoned the project because it contained spoilers, and I couldn’t figure out how to get the spoilers out of the story.

What a shame to have a story mostly finished and not be able to let people read it…that was until I had an idea last week while writing the post for my 1000 “true” fans blog series.

I finished this 5000+ word story up and am marketing it as a prequel best enjoyed AFTER reading the full novel. I mean, that’s better than letting it sit on the virtual shelf, unread, right?

If you’re interested, it’s a standalone story. You can read it if you’ve read Love, Lies & Clones, don’t intend to read the novel, or don’t really care about spoilers.

I kept a similar cover to Love, Lies & Clones, just to keep it easy. Hopefully, that doesn’t make things confusing.

Have a great day, everyone! Thanks for sharing my journey.

–Joy

Book Spotlight – BEYOND THE FOREST by Kay L. Ling

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Joynell Schultz

Novel: Beyond the Forest

Author: Kay L. Ling

Genre: Urban Fantasy / Epic Fantasy

How I found this book: Beyond the Forest was up for nominations in the Kindle Scout program at the same time that I had my first novel (Love, Lies & Clones) in the program. Seeing the story so much, I just had to read it!

Amazon book description:

Lana can draw arcane powers from gemstones, but she’s no match for a gem master like Sheamathan, brutal ruler of the gnome world. The oppressed gnomes of Shadow long for a better life, and Lana agrees to study their native gems to find a solution. But when she goes through the portal, she discovers her gnome guide has a different agenda. He takes her straight to Sheamathan’s castle through a land full of mutant insects, intelligent flying serpents, and other horrors. There, he forces Lana to make a choice–turn her back on the gnomes and go home, or brave Sheamathan’s goblin-like servants to find the throne room and deliver a warning. Only someone very brave or very foolish would risk enchantment, the dungeon, or death, but the gnomes’ conflict may spill over into her world if Lana refuses to go.

What’s not in the blurb: I’m a sucker for any story that has a little clean romance…and this one does. It snuck up on me, which was a pleasant surprise.

As I writer, what I really enjoyed and appreciated: Kudos to the author on her grasp and description of the fantasy world. I struggle with world building and really appreciated Kay L. Ling’s amazing grasp of the world she created. Her creativity and descriptions of the giant flying insects had me shivering in repulsion. Bravo! In addition to the fantastic world building, I appreciated the humor she brought in with the giant talking rats. Giant rats? You’ll have to read the story. 🙂

Who’d enjoy this book: Lovers of both epic fantasy and urban fantasy who want to read something more positive and uplifting.

My overall impression: Beyond the forest took me to another land with a main character (Lana) that followed her heart. There was the right amount of humor (sometimes, even silly, which I love) to keep me entertained. I defiantly cheered for Lana and her crew of gnomes and other fantasy creatures. The whole time I was reading this, I kept thinking how it reminded me of Lord of the Rings. I will definitely be watching for the second novel in this series, Shadowglade.

About the author: Kay L. Ling began writing fiction at an early age. In grade school, her stories evidenced a sense of wonder and love of adventure. In one, mythical creatures lived and traveled inside a rainbow, and in another, a bored sixth-grader turned her teacher into a maroon sofa and then teleported herself to London. As she grew up, Kay never lost her ability to imagine strange and wondrous peoples and places, and now she would like to share her unique fantasy adventures with others.

Where to find this novel:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M6AIPYX
Amazon UK : https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01M6AIPYX

Other books in the series:

Shadowglade (Coming in spring.)

My disclosure: I hate star ratings. Honestly, I think these are so subjective and sometimes reflect the reader more than they do the book. Because this is my blog, and I can do anything I want, I’m not using them.

I think ANYBODY who puts the time, effort, and dedication to write and publish an entire novel deserves 5 stars anyway. Also, when I read indie authors, I realize they operate on a shoestring (non-existent) budget and don’t have a team of college educated professionals helping them fine tune their novels.

Check Out These FREE eBook (and How To Design Your Own Promo)

Posted on February 17, 2017 by Joynell Schultz

In my blog post earlier this week, I mentioned that I was coordinating a newsletter growing promotion. Well, ~~here it is~~… It’s all over. But you can do your own.

***Make sure to scroll all the way to the end of this blog post, I have another fantasy / science fiction FREE eBook promotion down at the bottom. ***

I coordinated this one myself, and it was a little more work than I thought it would be. Hopefully, it’s a success and all these authors find readers for their books. If you wouldn’t mind, it’d be fabulous if you’d take a look at the page I made and perhaps find something that interests you.)

Now, you ask. How did I coordinate this? It started with a few of us author’s complaining about our pathetic mailing lists. A few, more experienced authors saying you needed to get involved in one of these cross-promotion things. Well, how do you get involved in one of these? YOU NEED A BIG MAILING LIST! It’s an endless loop, so we thought we’d create our own. Our goal was to find 20 authors to participate. Here’s the steps:

Ask everywhere you have connections if they have a giveaway and if they’d like to participate. I used Facebook groups I belonged to along with a post on kBoards. After a few days, I pulled together the twenty authors I needed. (You’d think 20 slots would have filled much faster, but it turns out many authors don’t have freebies put together. The other authors, already having huge lists and are involved in much larger scale promotions.)
Using my blog, I created a landing page to host the author’s giveaways along with the links to their book and a sentence or two description. It took a little bit of time gathering all the info I needed and having the participating authors change a little. Pull outs due to contracting and scrambling for new additions. It worked out though.
I created a Facebook group for all the authors to get together for instruction and to snag the graphics I made using Canva.
I created a HeadTalker campaign for the authors to support, that would give at least one post directing their fans to the site.
The only requirement for the authors is to share this giveaway any way they can. No minimum newsletter subscribers, twitter followers, etc.
Now, the promotion is out of my hands. I need to trust the author to spread the word, and I can’t wait to see how many page views this promotion gets.

Okay…on to the SECOND promotion that I’m in. This one is fantasy and science fiction only (my favs!) HERE’s the link

I hope you find something to read this weekend. 🙂

–Joy

Book Spotlight – Codename Omega: Omega Rising by Jessica Meats

Posted on February 3, 2017 by Joynell Schultz

Did you know that I love to read? I don’t talk about it much on this blog, since my focus has been on writing, but it’s true.

I love books!

I love them so much, that I’m adding a new feature on my blog. I figured, since I’m putting the time in to read books, I’d share them with whoever’ll listen to me. (Note: I tend to almost exclusively read independently published novels these days, and this is a nice plug for them too.) I’ll be sharing the speculative fiction novels I read, since that is my writing focus (and my passion.)

**See my disclosure at the end**

I hope you enjoy this new feature.

Okay…here we go.

Novel: Codename Omega: Omega Rising

Author: Jessica Meats

How I found this book: Mystery-Thriller Week is an eleven day celebration of novels, authors, and readers with a passion for mystery and thriller stories. It runs from February 12^th to the 22^nd. I stumbled across this novel through the pages of participants. What caught my attention was the books genre: a scifi mystery. If you enjoy mystery & thriller novels, head over to the Mystery-Thriller Week blog or join their Facebook group. It should be a lot of fun.

Amazon book description:

Jenny Harding has no money, no qualifications and no career history. A job working security for a big tech firm seems too good to be true. Maybe it is.

She is tasked with hunting down a group of thieves who have been stealing sensitive technology. Caught up in a battle involving alien forces, Jenny has some important questions to answer:
–Who are the thieves?
–What’s their real purpose?
–And is she on the right side?

What’s not in the blurb: Being hunted down and attacked wasn’t the kind of job interview Jenny Harding had in mind when she turned in her resume to Grey Tower. Now, she’s got the job and becomes tangled in a web of missing high-tech devices…not only that, when one of the thief’s are killed, she finds her hands on technology that can only be described as alien.

As I writer, what I really enjoyed and appreciated: Kudos to the author on the foreshadowing. The story was told in first person past tense and there were times the main character would give you a glimpse of things she wished they knew at the time…or what was yet to come. I felt this did a fantastic job of creating suspense and a feeling of dread for the future. (And secondarily, I enjoyed the references to the martial arts throughout the book. While I was reading, I caught myself wondering if the author had some type of training herself.)

Who’d enjoy this book: This book is a great, quick read, with some good action and science fiction that takes place on Earth (not space-opera, even though there are aliens.) Right up my alley. The book wraps up quickly, and leaves some things unresolved, as it is the first book in a series.

My overall impression: For some reason, this is the third novel in a row I’ve read written by a European writer. I’m digging that. This story was a nice introduction to a series, showcasing how an “average” person got caught up in an alien conspiracy—becoming a hero, costume and all. I enjoyed the alien technology, adapted for human use. This had it all…a little action…conspiracy…scifi…mystery…and romance. The plot was well done. Despite really enjoying the creative concepts of the story, this story is told first person, filtered through the main character’s perspective. It gave it an old-time detective story feel, which detached me from the story’s action. Not bad–just different than I typically read.

About the author: Jessica Meats is a graduate of the University of York and works in the IT industry. She draws on her experiences as a technology specialist and martial arts student to create a unique and interesting fictional community of combat experts and computer geeks.

Other books in the series:

Codename Omega: Traitor in the Tower (Book 2)

Need a book? Don’t Miss These Promos

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Joynell Schultz

I just wanted to let everyone know of two limited time promotions I’m participating in. It’s a great time to load up your kindle. One focuses on Speculative fiction novels and the other on mysteries/thrillers. (Of course Love, Lies & Clones is in both promotions–see my happy face?)

The first is a speculative fiction (fantasy & science fiction) collection. Over 70 authors are participating in this one and it ends tonight at midnight, SATURDAY 1/14/17, so you’ll need to hurry if you like this genre. One great deal here is the “Name Your Demon” box set that includes 15 fantasy and paranormal romance novels for nearly free. There are a ton of other stand alone novels too. Click the graphic below for more information.

The second promotion runs through SUNDAY 1/15/17 at midnight. It’s a large collection (40+) of mystery / thriller / suspense novels discounted for 99 cents. Click the graphic below for more information.

I hope you find your next favorite book 🙂

–Joy

Is Your Book Done Yet? (Part 1)

Posted on December 25, 2016 by Joynell Schultz

Over the past nine months, everyone kept asking me, “So… is your book done yet?” Ugh! Really? How long is it supposed to take to write a novel? I thought I was moving along quite quickly.

How long should it take to write a novel?

I did what I always do when I want factual information. I googled it. (Ha. Ha.) Do you know what I found? Famous novels took a variety of time. From 2.5 days (The Boy in the Striped Pajamas) to 16 years (Lord of the Rings Trilogy). Click here for a nice infographic on famous authors / books.

But those are super FAMOUS people. What about everyone else? Those authors without huge publishing contracts. Those who perhaps balance a day job as well as writing.

Well, I met a whole crew of awesome authors during my Kindle Scout campaign. I thought I would throw that question their way.

I’m going to spotlight some of their answers in a three part blog series this week. (Read PART 2 or PART 3) I hope you enjoy the feedback and meeting some new writers–people who have been super supportive of me and my writing adventures.

Today: Speculative Fiction Authors (Fantasy / Science Fiction / Horror)

Note: You can CLICK any book cover below to learn more.

QUESTION: How long did it take you to write your most recent book(s)?

M. Black: Simulation is my most recently finished book. I just finished Quantum State, but it hasn’t been edited and reedited, and beta-read yet. It took about 3 months as most of my books take.

Kay Ling: I spent at least two years rewriting and polishing Beyond the Forest, a novel I wrote and then abandoned in the 1980s due to my time-consuming career. So, I suppose I could say it took me three decades to write it!

Bill Hiatt: Full-length novels typically take three to six months, depending on their length and complexity, as well as upon how many other demands on my time there are while I’m writing.