Announcing Chasing Anya and National Wormhole Week

Available today from J. L. Campbell - Chasing Anya!

Been there. Done that.

Feisty and independent, Anya Davies lives by her own rules. The one thing she’s hell-bent on avoiding is a conventional relationship. Nor is she interested in romance, thanks to her abusive ex who refuses to stay in the past. The second complication in her life is a secret that condemns her to constant guilt and a solitary life. A series of near misses and escalating threats are a third and worrying factor. Only a special man would understand or live with Anya’s challenges and demands.

Casual sex...so not having that.

Enter Christophe Mondesir. Two years ago, Anya dumped him without explanation. An accidental meeting shoots Anya back on Christophe’s radar. He refuses to be denied and plans to breach the fortress Anya has built around her heart—if she’ll commit to more than a casual liaison. He’s also determined to find out what she’s hiding. That’s if the stalker who’s after Anya doesn’t end her life first.

J.L. Campbell is a proud Jamaican, who is always on the hunt for story-making material.

She writes romantic suspense, women's fiction and young adult novels. She is the author of Anya's Wish, Chasing Anya, Contraband, Christine's Odyssey, Dissolution, Distraction, Don't Get Mad...Get Even, Retribution, Saving Sam, and Hardware (written under the pen name Jayda McTyson).
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2014 National Wormhole Week! 

Hosted by Stephen Tremp, Alex J. Cavanaugh, and myself.

This blogfest, also known as “Wormfest,” runs March 10-16, 2014, and is a celebration of Stephen’s upcoming release, Escalation.

Rules are simple:

Name one thing where science advances mankind, and one where technology will go too far and set us back. They can be the same thing or different.

Example: De-extinction or bringing back extinction species through backbreeding, genetic engineering, and cloning. (Article here.) With all the breakthrough discoveries mankind is on the cusp of, are we playing God?

Sign up here:

The Insecure Writer's Support Group

It’s time for another edition of The Insecure Writer’s Support Group, hosted by Ninja Captain, Alex J. Cavanaugh.

Don't forget to follow the Facebook IWSG. We are beginning a new feature this Saturday.

I haven’t been writing in the past few weeks, but I have been doing other writerly things to get myself organized. Sometimes you have to step back and clean things up first. So far:

I have outlines for all four stories for Four in Darkness. No idea which one to tackle first. One story will be a rewrite of a much older one, so that will likely be first. Another one has multiple reasons why something happens, I just need to pick the best one.

I redesigned the front page of my website, and adjusted the description of my book formatting services. Also did some price adjustments, as I have a new program that rocks the epub.

I cleaned up my blogroll. The first listing with authors and more are now those with whom I interact the most. I added bloggers who visit often and removed those who don’t. Really, when was the last time you looked at your blogroll? How many of those bloggers don’t visit very often anymore?

I’m compiling a mailing address that involves time on the Internet looking for zip codes. That I would love to outsource to a virtual assistant! (Any takers?)

I set several guest spots for the coming months, which was one of my goals for January. Done!

What have you been doing besides writing that just “needs to be done?”

The Journey to Publication with Author Kimberly Afe

Kimberly Afe joins us today. The Headhunters Race was released last week and she wanted to share her publication journey with us.

Journey to Publication

The Headhunters Race has a bit of a long journey. The idea was born on June 26, 2011 after a Zelda game commercial inspired me. The commercial was brilliant and I thought why can't they make a movie that cool? And then I thought, why don't I write a cool adventure myself!

So I brainstormed this story with my son over a dinner of spicy spaghetti a couple of nights after the idea came to me. We worked out the entire novel: the characters and their motivations, the world, and the details of the race as I frantically wrote it all down. My husband and daughter also helped me brainstorm items that I needed worked out. I then spent a little while playing around with Avene's voice and then wrote like crazy. I finished in December of 2011. I actually started having critique partners read it in November of 2011 and began querying agents in January of 2012 after more revising. I also entered it into a few popular contests around the blogosphere in early 2012. Then I took a very long break due to life circumstances with hubby’s heart and moving. Early this year I got back into writing. I’d been thinking about self publishing for quite awhile so when querying a few more agents and a handful of publishers didn’t work out, I decided to go for it, and now, 2 1/2 years later, the book is out there! Wahoo!

About the Book:

Sixteen-year-old Avene was sentenced to prison at thirteen for a crime she didn't commit. Now she has a chance to win her freedom back – if she enters the Headhunters Race. Second prize isn't so bad either, an upgrade to the Leisure Prison if you make it to the finish line. To win either prize, Avene and the other prisoners must navigate one hundred and fifty miles of dense forest, desert, and worst of all, cannibal territory.
With a mechanical collar timed to strangle the prisoners if they're not back in nine days, Avene allies herself with seventeen-year-old McCoy, another prisoner that insists on helping her at every turn and a boy she's trying hard not to fall for. Together they battle nature, other prisoners, and the timed death collars to win the coveted prize. But when Avene is tested with one deadly conflict after another, she realizes there is more at stake than winning her freedom – first she has to survive.

Kimberly is the mother of two awesome kids, wife of the nicest man in the world, and her dog's best friend. She works by day and writes middle grade and young adult science fiction and fantasy novels in her spare time. She lives with her family in the beautiful Sonoran Desert.
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Reflecting on the Loss of Friends

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year’s. Last year, my husband and I were both sick, so it was nice to enjoy the holidays this time. We enjoyed Christmas with just the two of us. Technically four when you count the two black cats that were playing in the shredded wrapping paper. I had fun stirring them up even more with my new Despicable Me Talking Minion. He talks, giggles, and sings!

One thing happened that made me reflect on friends past and present. Before my husband and I were even dating, we worked for a contracting company in Arkansas and were good friends with another employee, Debbie. She was one of those happy, free spirits that is a joy to be around. We lost track of her for a couple years, and then got to visit Debbie and her husband in Orlando on several book signing treks south.

We didn’t get a Christmas card in 2012, and I don’t think I sent one. But I sent one for 2013 just to let Debbie and her husband know we were thinking about them and missed them.

We get a letter from her husband, apologizing that he didn’t have our address and the phone number he’d tried was disconnected.

Two years ago, Debbie committed suicide.

My husband and I are still in shock. It was due to a situation with her family, but we just can’t fathom Debbie killing herself over it. Our heart goes out to her husband.

I went through my photo albums and gathered every photo I could find of Debbie and sent it on a CD Rom to her husband. As I looked through the pictures, I thought of other friends I’d not seen or spoken to in a while. I was an only kid, so solitude is often my thing, and I wonder if that works against me sometimes. How many friends have slipped away because I haven’t maintained contact? Even the Internet, it’s easy to let time pass without interaction. That’s something I need to work on.

How many friends have you lost contact with due to neglect? Can you do something about it now?