Awake is Now Available!

I’m so excited I can barely stand it!

I hit the “go button” on Awake yesterday for Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble and it is already available!

My book is out there for the general public to purchase and read! Oh. My. Gracious. So I guess this means I’m an author! I feel like Liv Tyler in That Thing You Do except instead of saying “Make a record? Like a record record record?” I’m saying “am I really an author? Like an author author author?” If you haven’t seen That Thing You Do and have no idea what I’m talking about stop reading now, go watch it, and come back. I’ll wait…

Want to snag a copy of Awake for yourself? You can find it on Smashwords for a variety of formats, on Barnes and Noble.com for Nook, and on Amazon for Kindle. The paperback version is coming soon! And if you want to win a copy then head on over to Indie Jane. We are giving away two copies – an ebook and a paperback!

To everyone who already bought my book yesterday – and those of you who were tweeting your favorite lines. I kind of love you all. I hope the hotness that is Luke Reed lived up to your expectations.

Trailer for Awake

My book comes out in just over a week! I debuted the pre-release trailer for it on my author blog on Friday, but I wanted you guys to see it too! Thanks so much to Victoria Austen-Young for putting it together, and to my hubs, Ed, for composing the score!

What do you guys think?

I can't wait for next Tuesday!

A New Sample of Awake

Last week I posted a new sample of my upcoming novel Awake: A Fairytale on my author site. I'd love for you to check it out and let me know what you think.

I am now counting down in days to the release! Yikes!

Revealing the Cover for My Novel!

Oh my gosh, I am so stinking excited that I cannot contain myself! Today on my author site I am revealing the cover for my novel Awake: A Fairytale. I would really love if you could head on over and check it out!

I'm kind of bummed to have missed out on the Sew, Mama, Sew Giveaway Day - but come on guys, it's a real book! I promise to not miss out next time (May, right?!?!)

Introducing Jessica Grey

I've gone back and forth on whether to use a pen name for my writing. And I've finally decided to go ahead and use one. So, without further ado, meet Jessica Grey.

Hey! That girl looks just like me!

So, why Jessica Grey?

Grey is my mother’s maiden name, and my first book, Awake: A Sleeping Beauty Story is dedicated to my late grandfather, Charles Richard Grey, who was a huge influence in my life and a great reader. He introduced me to Mary Stewart, one of my biggest literary influences, and I still have his copies of his (and mine!) favorite Stewart novels. I actually began using Grey as a pen name when I was in middle school, and so when I decided to publish under one, it was the best and most obvious choice.

I am launching my new online presence this week, and would love if you would join me on my new blog! I will be sharing fun writing stuff, excerpts from my upcoming book, and random ramblings on music from my infamous writing playlists. Good times all around. I also have a Twitter account dedicated to my new pen name @_JessicaGrey.

We are actually getting pretty close to the launch of Awake! Only four more months to go!

I am excited!

Review: Caroline Bingley by Jennifer Becton

Caroline Bingley. For Austen fans, even hearing the name can bring up feelings varying from annoyance to revulsion. For me, the feeling I get is kind of the same as the one that shimmies up your spine when someone scrapes their nails down a chalkboard. That “Oh my gosh, why? Make it stooooop” feeling. Caroline is one of the best examples of what I call “Austen’s smack-able characters,” and she could write some pretty darn smack worthy characters (pretty much everyone in Sense and Sensibility for example)! You love to hate Caroline.


So what is Jennifer Becton thinking centering a whole entire Pride and Prejudice continuation on this smack-able, nails-down-the-chalkboard, crazy girl? I have been wondering that every since I heard Caroline Bingley was coming out. I loved Jennifer Becton’s other Personages of Pride and Prejudice novel, Charlotte Collins. I really, really loved it. I also really enjoyed her thriller Absolute Liability. I mean the woman can write . . . but CAROLINE BINGLEY? Surely, you jest.




I don’t know quite how she did it, but at the end of this book I like Caroline. Not only do I LIKE Caroline, I totally get her. I sympathize with her. I want her to succeed. I want her to be happy. Up is down . . . wrong is right . . . “Dogs and cats living together . . . MASS HYSTERIA!”




The story picks up right after the end of Pride and Prejudice with Caroline being banished to her mother’s home in the north by her brother Charles for her interference in his romance with Jane Bennet (and her refusal to apologize to Elizabeth). To Caroline, who wants only to help further her families connections in society and to find her own home, this is a truly harsh punishment.




While in the north Caroline continues to try to advance her standing in society, but her best-laid plans seem to come to naught. To make matters worse for Caroline, her brother has saddled her with a paid companion, Rosemary, a woman she cannot stand. Caroline desires to distance her family from their roots in trade, but her mother’s husband doesn’t seem to be ashamed of his trade as a bridge designer at all, and his partner, the young and handsome Mr. Rushton, has the audacity not only to not be ashamed of his trade, but to find Caroline and her machinations amusing.




Can Caroline let go of her fear long enough to find her own home? Could it be be possible that Caroline will find a true friend where she least expects? Could Mr. Rushton be any more hot? The answer to that last one is no. If he was anymore hot readers everywhere would be spontaneously combusting, and I can’t imagine Ms. Becton wants that on her conscious, so she wisely went with an appropriate level of hotness.




So here I am, all confused and feeling slightly like I’ve cheated on Lizzy Bennet by ending up liking Caroline Bingley as a character. We often forget that Caroline is so very young, that was one of the first things that struck me while I was reading this book. She tried so hard to present a sophisticated and urbane front that, I, at least, forget she was the same age as Lizzy. Also, as the reader comes to learn more about Caroline’s history as Becton presents it, and the pressure put on her by her father (intentionally or not), and how she internalized that pressure, she becomes a much more understandable and sympathetic character. I’m not saying that she is easy to love, but there is something about the difficulty in getting past those prickles that makes the reward worthwhile.



Did I mention Mr. Rushton is hot?

Just for Fun

Just for fun I created a Wordle word cloud of my novel (as it stands now mid-editing) and then I took an Instagram picture of it, because everything is better with Instagram.

The best part is that none of my overused words appear anywhere on this! Progress my lovelies, progress!

I am hoping to release the first chapter as a sample soon . . . anyone interested?

Realizing You Have a Problem is Half the Battle

I know there are certain words I overuse when I am writing a rough draft. That's kind of the point of the rough draft, you have to turn off that internal editor as much as possible and just plow through.

I know I use "suddenly" way too much. Apparently things never happen at a slow pace in my novel. Another one is "seemed" (and seemingly and seems), maybe part of that is that I am writing scenes with magic so I default back to my own unbelief and say something "seemed to happen" instead of actually happening.

I had no idea that there was another word that I overuse. A lot.

Realized. Who knew? It appears to be one of my favorite words and I didn't even realize it (ahem). This was pointed out to me by one of my beta readers, Victoria. Her awareness of it was likely enhanced by the fact that because she's in Australia, her spell check underlined each and every instance of it in annoying, squiggly red. I'm glad it did or I would never have known!

After a few hours of editing . . . the occurrence is much lower. Yay for the awesome "find" feature in Pages, I really do get more out of it than the one in Word.

Are there any words you overuse? Do you own a thesaurus? My Mom swears by good dictionaries with an included thesaurus. Luckily for me, there are some online, it makes editing so much easier!

Indie Jane Awesomeness

I have been just a little bit MIA the last week.

Why?

Because I have been almost totally consumed by the awesome new project I've started with fellow author and Janeite Nancy Kelley.

Allow me to introduce Indie Jane - the premiere independent Austen community!

About Indie Jane in bullet points:

* We are awesome (of course).

* We are an online community that supports independent publishing of Austenesque novels, shorts stories, and other literature.

* We are a great place to hang out if you are a reader of either of the above two categories (indie pub or Austen).

* We are a great place to hang out if you are considering becoming a writer of either of the above two categories.

* We have an amazingly kick-butt logo (above) drawn by my friend Victoria. No really, isn't it the coolest thing you've ever seen?

* We have an amazing site & blog button courtesy of my hubs.

* We are giving away a Kindle.

What? What was that last? Yes! We are giving away a Kindle! Our launch was yesterday . . . and today in appreciation of everyone who visited yesterday, and to celebrate our opening month we have posted a Kindle giveaway! Head on over and enter!

We will have weekly giveaways for our first month as well. The excitement is overwhelming!

Also, there is still time to enter to win an ebook of Absolute Liability (for kindle, nook, or as a pdf to read on your computer), please make sure to enter!

Shazam! Ka-pow! A Title, a Release Date, and a Synopsis

Take two! I posted this the other day, but then blogger went all cuckoo for Coco Puffs and deleted it, posted another post, reposted this post - but with the comments deleted! It had only been up a few hours before blogger threw its little hissy fit, so I thought I'd post it again (I reworked the synopsis again, let me know what you think)!

I've been studiously (and shockingly productively) working away on my novel. If I can keep up the pace, I am pleased to report that my rough draft will be done by July 2nd. Woot! Then comes the fun business of rewrites, editing, formatting, and promoting!

I am not sure if I have mentioned this explicitly before on this blog, I know I've discussed it pretty openly on Twitter, but I am planning to self-publish. And no, this novel hasn't experienced loads of rejection from publishers and agents. I'm actually writing it with the intent to self-publish. Why? So many reasons! Mainly, it means I get complete artistic control over my product, as well as the ability to set my own timeline, price, and marketing. There are a billion more reasons, and if you're interested in why self-publishing works for some people I highly suggest checking out Jennifer Becton's blog Skidding in Sideways.

Maybe I will blog more about my reasons in the future - there is a lot of debate about self-publishing in the writing community, and I fully expect to get some flak for my decision - but for now I have some exciting news.

Here is my official announcement of my novel title and my release date.

I'm including the internet debut of my novel's synopsis for your reading enjoyment! Let me know what you think!

Awake: A Sleeping Beauty Story

February 7, 2012

Alexandra Martin didn't believe in fairy tales...

Alex has always been more interested in rocks and science than stories about princesses and magic. Now she's far too busy with her summer internship at the Gem and Mineral Museum to think about children's stories. Between avoiding her former best friend and high school baseball star, Luke Reed, and trying to hide her unrequited crush on her mentor at the museum, the real world is occupying all of her time.

...Until she walked into one.

It turns out fairy tales aren't all fun and games. A curse has turned her neat and orderly world upside down, and to break it, she bands together with a fellow intern and a recently awakened princess, who's been asleep for 900 years. Can this trio of unlikely heroines put an end to an ominous enchantment, discover true love, and keep an ancient and evil magic from being unleashed on modern-day Los Angeles?