Celebrate A Missing Peace

To celebrate the release of A Missing Peace, I'm sharing advance praise.

"One of the best plots of all the YA I have read this year," Harlequin Junkie Reviews.

¨I think Beth Fred has really found a niche in YA romance.  She does a good job combining well-known tropes of the genre with more interesting conflicts and questions." Beth Woodward Book Editor for CC2K Online Magazine

"An interesting take on a subject that has changed and taken so many lives, including the repercussions once soldiers return home." Meradeth Houston NA Author 

"More than just high school drama—A Missing Peace blends romance and military conflict in an emotional story that will have you tearing through the pages." Ashelyn Drake, author of the Campus Crush series.

"As a reader who loves sweet, clean romances, I highly recommend this story. It's so hard to find them in YA these days, and this one was great!" Ashley Maker 

"I could not stop reading this book. Every time something seemed to wrap up, something else came undone." Kim Trotter, YA-Asylum

"This is definitely a book that held my attention from start to finish." Kelly Hashway, YA Author

"I applaud Beth Fred for a unique idea well done." Romance Author Tara Chevrestt

"Mirriam has a great heart and so does Caleb. And when their together it's sweet." Jenni Million

The Big Dreams Blog Hop

Misha Gericke and I are co-hosting the big dreams bloghop. It all started when Misha announced in five years time she wanted to be making $90,000 a year in royalties ($7500/month). I then got the courage to post what I'd been thinking for a while. I want to be a millionaire. Misha and I decided that we should have monthly check-ins to encourage each other and let others join in so we could keep perspective along the way.

And so here it is. The update: It's been a month already. I can't believe a whole month has passed, and I don't feel any closer. I'd like to tell you I'm so close. But that would be a lie. Here's where I'm at: The Other Marlowe Girl is continuing to sell but not as well as it did last month. (The Fate Of A Marlowe Girl is permafree).A Mi ssing Peace comes out this Sunday. The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive with people thanking me for writing it. This is a huge compliment but something I have no idea how to respond to! I guess the polite reply would be, "Your welcome," but that feels weird because I didn't write it with anyone in mind. Except maybe myself and writing my way through what I believe was postpartum depression. I'm still in lala land on the draft of Perfect Harmony. I've missed every deadline I've set for it which is rare. I used to work in a law office. I'm good at meeting deadlines. But I will be done by October. I'll have to be. I still need to write another book this year.

The Action Plan: So here's the action plan for September. I'll add The Other Marlowe Girl to Smashwords. It hasn't been there because it was originally part of the Kindle Select program. I wanted to see what the benefit of that was. In my opinion, there isn't one. I'm not adding it to B&N because with no clear way to track sales, it's not worth my time. (If you know an easy way to track B&N sales please let me know in the comments). I'll finish and polish Perfect Harmony, and hopefully when we check in next month I can say it's been sent to my agent. With A Missing Peace being published by Escape there is no way for me to track sales. It's hard to set a goal for that. I can tell you I've arranged for a two week blog tour and offered to gift The Other Marlowe Girl to any blogger who copies their review to Amazon. I guess next month we'll see how much closer I am.

Plotting To Win Review

First off, for people who love me for my clean romance reviews--this isn't PG-13 because of language and Victor's preoccupation with that part of his body male characters tend to be preoccupied with. (No joke, it was referred to more than once). So this might not be your thing. But the romance never got hotter than a kiss.

I think what I liked most about this novel was the concept. I've said for years I wish there was an American Idol for writers and that's exactly what Plotting To Win is. I think it's closer to America's Next Top Model, but still I loved that. The voice took me a minute to get used to, but once I did it was a pretty smooth read. I loved the descriptions of the writing cave and some of the challenges the contestants had to go through. But sometimes I thought people who were chosen as contestants for this show would have been a little bit more knowledgeable about the industry than some of them were. The characters are all well developed and the book is an easy read. However, I didn't like the way that Victor and Felicity kind of pegged each other as major competitors right off the bat based on attraction. Victor went so far as to try to get a bed closer to her to throw her off her game. Then again he did spend a lot of time thinking about a bodily appendage, so that might have just been a ploy to get closer to her. And on the romance front something happens in an epilogue that I think would have been better in a final chapter. All in all, I'd rate this about 3.5 stars for my blog followers. I'm of two minds. 4 stars based on the book and 3 stars because I'd like it a little bit cleaner, so taking the average 3.5  

The Number 1 Thing I Heart About Being A Writer/Blogger

You know what? The number one thing I love about being a writer/blogger is YOU. That's right you. For reading these words and pretending to care. Or better yet for reading these words and actually caring. I think the best thing about making the decision to become an author in 2010 was the people I've met along the way. Most of you I couldn't pick out of a crowd. And yet anytime a major life event has happened you've been there to laugh or cry with me. Many of you, I've known since 2010. Others I met somewhere along the way, and I still consider you friends. If you live in driving distance and need something, you could totally text me in the middle of the night. I'd be there.

This is such a supportive industry and I'm so thankful for that. The things I've accomplished in the last three years, I couldn't have done without the people who have been doing this longer than me, who took the time to say, "Good job, now do it better." And, "you can do it." Which is usually what I need more than anything. I'm a hardworker but have no confidence. I know my last post wasn't nearly so upbeat, but I'm thankful to everyone of you who took the time to leave a message. I don't feel great yet mainly because I'm still fighting with this WIP wondering if its ever going to see the light of day. But I love all the feedback and I know that if I get to the end with a ms that still sucks 1) it added to my words toward a million 2) I have big plans for the future ;).  Three words: the senator's son. And that's all I will say about that.

The Struggle

My debut for full length fiction and YA will be releasing soon. Very soon--like days away soon. Part of me feels like the world is at my finger tips. I got an agent and a book deal and I'm playing with the pros now. But most of me knows it's not enough. (If you're an unpublished writer reader, please don't roll your eyes and get upset. I know how hard it is to get even this far and I'm thankful to have come this far). But nothing humbles like writing. I'm trying to push through my current WIP, so I can revise it and send it to betas and eventually my agent. And things I thought I had learned over the years are obviously still weaknesses. It makes me feel like I will never get *there*. Then there is the fear that comes with the anticipation of a book release. What if it doesn't sell? What happens then? And I used to think getting an agent was the answer, but in the past few weeks I've come across so many multi-published authors who are frustrated because their books aren't selling. They wonder what it means for future contracts. More importantly, they wonder if they will ever make a living writing. I wonder the same thing!

I've been blocked with my current WIP for about a week. I finally gave myself permission to just have fun (for me that usually means writing cute romance scenes) but when I did I couldn't even think of cute romance scenes. I belive Beth's brain is fried. So how are you? Where are you on the journey?

I'm Back!

I realize not too long ago I posted a MWF blogging schedule and here I am blogging on a Tuesday. I'll return to the normal schedule tomorrow. I just felt like staying I'm still alive blog-o-sphere. I moved from Wisconsin to Texas since my last post, which was fine with me as Texas is my home. I love it here!

A missing Peace will be available in 12 days and people are starting to post reviews. Beth Woodward, book editor of CC2K online magazine posted a review here and fellow writer/blogger Meradeth Houston who you probably know from A Chemistry of Fate posted a review here.

I'll be back with a real post tomorrow.