DISPOSAL - Pop Travel Book 3
Release Date: Winter 2017
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| (sample cover) |
DISPOSAL - Pop Travel #3
Cooper and Geri are finally in a good place, but their bliss is short-lived. When Cooper's rebellious nephew Jimmy moves in with them for a summer internship, he hits the town hard and thinks he's found the girl of his dreams in an fiery, exotic beauty. Against all words of warning, he pursues her and ends up getting kidnapped by her powerful Drug Lord father. Geri tracks him down, but gets herself kidnapped as well.
Now it's up to Cooper to use all his resources to save them, including the hot homicide detective Geri secretly despises, and the latest sketchy gadgets his genius friend Hasan offers him to field-test. Sure, why not? Cooper will do anything to get his family back.
Cooper and Geri are finally in a good place, but their bliss is short-lived. When Cooper's rebellious nephew Jimmy moves in with them for a summer internship, he hits the town hard and thinks he's found the girl of his dreams in an fiery, exotic beauty. Against all words of warning, he pursues her and ends up getting kidnapped by her powerful Drug Lord father. Geri tracks him down, but gets herself kidnapped as well.
Now it's up to Cooper to use all his resources to save them, including the hot homicide detective Geri secretly despises, and the latest sketchy gadgets his genius friend Hasan offers him to field-test. Sure, why not? Cooper will do anything to get his family back.
~~ RECENT EVENTS ~~
These past three months have flown by! I recently started a new long term substitute job that will take me through the end of the year. And I'm tutoring six days a week - so not much free time for writing!
But I was able to go to a small book event at the preschool where my boys attended and I taught for a brief time. I made some new connections and sold a few books!
I also found some time to finish and resubmit my POP TRAVEL screenplay to the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. The great thing about this contest is that I should get some feedback in April. That's quick!
Lastly, I've put the final touches on TWO PRINCESSES and should have it published soon. Then, Princess B is next, plus a couple more Unconventional Princesses whose stories need to be told.
But I was able to go to a small book event at the preschool where my boys attended and I taught for a brief time. I made some new connections and sold a few books!
I also found some time to finish and resubmit my POP TRAVEL screenplay to the BlueCat Screenplay Competition. The great thing about this contest is that I should get some feedback in April. That's quick!
Lastly, I've put the final touches on TWO PRINCESSES and should have it published soon. Then, Princess B is next, plus a couple more Unconventional Princesses whose stories need to be told.
Here are some sketches for TWO PRINCESSES, Unconventional Princess Series #2
Illustrations by Laura Kramer
TWO PRINCESSES
Illustrations by Laura Kramer
TWO PRINCESSES
Forget Once Upon a Time... Deja is a tough, trouble-making troll princess who despises humans, as trolls are taught to do from birth. But when Deja's mischief causes destruction in her home tunnels, her father the King sends her to serve the humans as punishment. The human Queen has her own problems with too many suitors for the beautiful, secretly-spoken-for princess Calleah, so she locks her up in a tower to protect her kingdom. When Deja arrives, she decides to make the humans' lives so unbearable they'll send her right back home, until she realizes Calleah is a surprising gem among the stone-hearted humans. The real trouble starts when two princes arrive to vie for Calleah's hand, but they'll have to prove their worth to Deja first, who will protect her friend to the end.
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Since I get lots of questions about the writing process, I decided to add this section, Bookishness, dedicated to answering commonly asked questions plus passing on writerly advice...
Q - Where do you get your ideas? Life. Though I write a lot of sci fi and fantasy, these stories have universal truths. I wrote Pop Travel because I don't like to fly and I wanted an easier way to get around. And Broken Branch Falls was inspired by watching my boys' football practices. There are so many great characters and stories all around us!
ADVICE - Don't give up. It took me a long time and many rejected query letters before I received my first book publishing offer. And even though I'm published, I'm still trying to get an agent (and having a hard time since I'm in the middle of two series.) This business ain't easy, so stay strong and don't give up - if writing makes you happy, the torture of the process is worth it!
Q - Where do you get your ideas? Life. Though I write a lot of sci fi and fantasy, these stories have universal truths. I wrote Pop Travel because I don't like to fly and I wanted an easier way to get around. And Broken Branch Falls was inspired by watching my boys' football practices. There are so many great characters and stories all around us!
ADVICE - Don't give up. It took me a long time and many rejected query letters before I received my first book publishing offer. And even though I'm published, I'm still trying to get an agent (and having a hard time since I'm in the middle of two series.) This business ain't easy, so stay strong and don't give up - if writing makes you happy, the torture of the process is worth it!
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April ~ May ~ June
April - New Events
I'm currently looking into which events I'd like to do this Fall. With my son graduating and going off to college this summer, I'm keeping my schedule open, possibly doing something local. And writing, writing, writing!
May - WIPs
I'm waiting on revisions to the TWO PRINCESSES cover and hoping to have it out by May. If I find some time, I will attempt to add a song to accompany it - per a reader's request! I'd also like to get more chapters of Jolissa on YouTube.
June - Windy Hollow
Windy Hollow, Beast World Book 3, is coming along nicely. I should have the first draft done and be well into edits by summer. My goal is to submit it in October for publication in 2018. I'll also be working on my new book outline!
What I'm Reading...
What I'm Writing...
Where I'll be...
~~ Available for SCHOOL PRESENTATIONS, BOOK CLUBS, or BOOK TALKS ~~
June - Windy Hollow
Windy Hollow, Beast World Book 3, is coming along nicely. I should have the first draft done and be well into edits by summer. My goal is to submit it in October for publication in 2018. I'll also be working on my new book outline!
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- The TOTEM series by Christine Rains - She keeps writing them and I'm excited to read them!
- STATIC by SK Anthony - I'm a slow reader, but I'm still into this page-turning story!
What I'm Writing...
- WINDY HOLLOW - Beast World, Book Three. Typing away on the first draft! The beasts are discovering new foreign lands and getting into mountains of trouble!
- MAGIC STORM - This story is about Chinese twin teens, brother and sister, living in London, who discover a chunk of metal from an ancient talisman that ignites magic powers in them and inspires them to search for the rest of the pieces. But of course there are others who would like to find the pieces and take the magic, too. I'm still playing with how I want this series to be produced - a series of short stories like a weekly/monthly installment of episodes? a comic/illustrated series? or write it as a script to submit for a TV series? There are so many possible outlets!
- PAULA JEAN - For my 7th book, I'm putting my two series on hold to write a YA Christian Urban Fantasy - a biblical journey in modern times, taken by a damaged young woman... could be controversial, but getting folks to talk about it can only help it!
Where I'll be...
April
- April 8, 10:30am-5:00pm - OHIOANA Book Festival in Columbus, OH. This will be my 4th year. This event is near and dear to my heart as my first event and first time being on author panels. It's wonderful! And it's FREE!
May
- I'm looking into school visits for next Fall and library presentations possibly this summer... But May is graduation month, so I'll be pretty busy!
June
- No events in June either - baseball will be in full swing and company is coming... But I'm already lining up events in July and the Fall! Then hopefully another book signing for DISPOSAL!
Take your allergy meds! Spring is in the air!
~~ Available for SCHOOL PRESENTATIONS, BOOK CLUBS, or BOOK TALKS ~~
