Category: Writing Life

Funny Guy Cover Reveal!

Isn’t the cover for Funny Guy amazing? Well, the blurb is even better:

From the author of Chick Magnet comes a heartfelt friends-to-lovers story about what can happen when a funny guy and his childhood best friend are stuck together in a small New York City apartment.

Sam can’t escape the smash hit “Lost Boy” because, well, he is the lost boy. His pop-singer ex immortalized him in a song about his childish ways, and now his comedy career is on the line.

At least he still has Bree, his best friend and confidante. Bree has always been there for Sam, but she’s never revealed her biggest secret: she’s in love with him. To help herself move on, Bree applies for her dream job across the country―and doesn’t say a thing to Sam.

But as Sam tries to resuscitate his career, he turns to Bree for support―and maybe more. In the confines of her tiny apartment, they share a different dynamic. A charged dynamic. But she’s his friend. He can’t be falling for her.

Except he is.

Are his feelings for Bree just funny business? Or is their smoldering attraction the real deal?

It’ll release on May 16, 2023, but you can preorder it on Amazon and add it to your Goodreads shelves now.

And while I have your attention, I had a wonderful chat with Meg and Liz at the Make Out Already podcast about Chick Magnet. You can listen here, and you should because they’re charming.

2023 Goals

Following last year’s example, I’m going to make my writing goals public for accountability. I’ve focused on things I can control rather than the things I wish might happen. Those, I’ll keep to myself.

  • Finish revising the thing I’m working on. Let’s call it Snowshoe. I’d like to get that done and to my agent in January.
  • Return to the secret book, revising what I have and finishing it. I’d like to complete this by June.
  • Write another book in the second half of the year. I have a veritable cornucopia of proposals, and I hope by summer, it will be clear which one I should work on next.
  • Survive not one but two book releases. I haven’t had two full-length books come out in a single year since 2015. So I need to remember how to get through this with my sanity intact.
  • Continue to play the piano most days.
  • Restart jogging. No really, I mean it this time.
  • Continue to use social media less.

And that’s my plan for the next 12 months!

2022 in Review

The last twelve months were about 2023. In other words, all the work I’ve done has been future-looking. I have felt as if I were paddling so hard, but in many ways, I’m in the same place I was last year. Or, to mix my metaphor, maybe I’ve edged a little closer to the waterfall, but I haven’t fallen over the precipice–yet.

In the last twelve months:

  • I revised Chick Magnet yet again, adding about 10K to the book (and then pruning it back). I also laid marketing groundwork, because, had I mentioned it?, it’ll release on January 24, 2023.
  • I wrote and revised Funny Guy. The polished word count is 80K, but I suspect I wrote and deleted at least an additional 10 or 12K. This will release on May 16, 2023.
  • I revised and rereleased the entire Political Persuasions series. This includes at least 15K new words, most of which went into “Aspiring” (in The One You Crave). That novella is my only wholly new piece of writing published this year. I also did some marketing for the series, and it’s currently in KU.
  • I researched and then wrote 25K words for a secret project. I’m not super happy with it, so I’ve taken a few steps back, and it’s marinating. Getting this finished and into a submission-worthy state is one of my key goals for 2023.
  • I began work on a major revision/rewrite of a series that’s on my hard drive, with the goal of going out on submission with it early in 2023. I’ve written at least 10K new words for this.
  • I read 56 new-to-me books.

In terms of my 2022 goals, I played piano most days (logging practices on Twitter with the #RomancePianists hashtag). I didn’t start jogging again, alas. I stayed off social media…in fits and starts. But I did write approximately 150K new words, which is my best writing year since 2016. Except I didn’t achieve my stated goal of writing two books. I may need to reevaluate whether two books is achievable for me these days, or whether I have to settle for writing one, plus revision/marketing and life-ing.

Taken as a whole, it was a year of labor that will bloom–or wither–in the next year. I’m not displeased when I look back, but on reflection, my primary emotion is anticipation.

(I’ve been producing some version of this post for as long as I’ve been blogging my writing. You can read about my 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, and 2013 respectively.)

Things I Really Liked in 2022

How is it the end of the year? I mean…how? It feels as if I just wrote one of these, and yet here I am, writing another one. What I can say for 2022 is that I survived it. But it’s been a low-hanging thing, more endurance than thriving. Despite that, my year was brightened by books and television and music, so let’s focus on the sparkles.

What follows is a list of cultural artifacts that I consumed this year and that I thought were pretty cool. As always, this isn’t a best of list because I simply don’t read, watch, or listen to enough stuff to write one of those. According to my Goodreads challenge, I read 56 books in 2022. That’s decent, but I read across genres enough that I don’t think I could–with a straight face–tell you what the best books of this year were. These are the just the ones I really liked. (And the same goes for music, TV, etc.)

If you’re curious, check out my previous year in reviews: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, and 2016.

Continue reading “Things I Really Liked in 2022” →

A Goodreads Giveaway!

I’m writing my year end posts, and trying to revise a book, and recording podcasts and writing promo columns for Chick Magnet‘s impending release, but let me just drop a quick post to tell you to enter this giveaway. The lovely folks at Amazon Publishing are going to give away 100 digital copies of Chick Magnet. All you have to do is click.

Also, while I have your attention, The One You Want (the book formerly known as Special Interests) is currently FREE at Amazon. So if you haven’t read it, or you want to recommend it to a friend who hasn’t, click fast. It will revert to regular price at the end of the day on December 27, 2022.

Virtual Event (Me + 2 Superstars!)

If you’d been thinking, “Wow, I need to brighten an afternoon with an event featuring two romance superstars plus, for some inexplicable reason, Emma Barry,” then I have the surprise of a lifetime. Olivia Dade, Therese Beharrie, and I are doing just such an event with Love’s Sweet Arrow at 1 pm CST on November 5, 2022. All the details are at Event Brite, and I would love to see you there.

Housekeeping

First things first, the entire Political Persuasions series is now available on Kindle Unlimited. I know, I know, I’ve done a lot of shuffling with the series this year. I’ve been trying to figure out where it should be to find the most readers, and so I’m giving it a spin in KU. If you’ve read and enjoyed these books, please recommend them to friends who may not have sampled them: The One You Want, The One You Need, The One You Hate, and The One You Crave.

And the auction to support the release of the three-volume Dissent anthology is now live! The proceeds will benefit reproductive rights and justice. So many incredible items are on offer, including a signed ARC of Chick Magnet!

And Chick Magnet is available for review-y types to request on Netgalley.

Chick Magnet Cover Reveal

Y’all, the cover for Chick Magnet is here, and I am in love…with the cover. Not with Will. I mean, not that much with Will. But you can see why I was teasing it as #BringingSexyCoversBack, right??

And here’s the blurb:

From Emma Barry comes a clever romance about a hot veterinarian and a chicken-loving influencer who can’t help but ruffle each other’s feathers.

Nicole Jones needs a fresh start. “Chick Nic” to millions of internet fans, the social media star and her flock of chickens bask in the spotlight—until she’s publicly dumped by a YouTuber for clout. She has no choice but to round up her birds and move on.

But when one of her hens has an emergency, Nic gets her first taste of her new stomping grounds—and it isn’t good. Veterinarian Will Lund is wildly attractive, yes, but he’s also surly. In fact, he comes right out and calls her a menace for parading her chickens on social media.

As neighbors, Nic and Will can’t exactly avoid each other. Then again, maybe they don’t want to. The two can’t deny their smoldering attraction, and it isn’t long before late-night confessions lead to backyard shenanigans.

Is this the start of a neighborly relationship—or could something more be hatching?

It’ll be out in FIVE MONTHS, and you can already preorder it on Amazon and add it to your Goodreads shelves. But for now, I’ll just be taking in those shoulders.

Get Earth Bound for Free

Yet again, months have gone by since you heard from me: I’m so sorry! The good news is that I can offer you one of my best-known and best-loved books for free. Yes, that’s right: Earth Bound is included in today’s RomanceBookworms.com promo, and can be yours for zero dollars. There are more than five hundred other books included, and so the browsing is incredible.

Earth Bound is about two intense engineers who stumble into a secret affair during the 60s space race. I co-wrote it with Genevieve Turner, and by a country mile, it’s book I’ve had the most reader emails about. So if you haven’t read it, or if you’ve been trying to get a friend to take a risk on a historical set in the 1960s, now is the time.

I’ve been just bonkers busy the last few months. I finished drafting the second book for Montlake (and everyone so far has LOVED it), and then I wrote a third of a secret project. For this, I will take any and all good vibes. I was like Leslie Caron in Gigi crooning, “Say a prayer for me tonight” as I clicked send on that email to my agent today.

And we’re getting into the swing of summer here, which somehow feels just as cram-jammed as the rest of the year. So if it’s the same for you, I do hope that Parsons and Charlie for free (did I mention free?) will help ease the sting.

Stuff Your E-Reader

a desktop with an open book and a cup of coffee covered with daisies. the text reads, "stuff your ereader with 750+ free romances. romancebookworms.com.)

I’m briefly emerging from my writing cave to offer you over 750 FREE romances, including The One You Want. Run to Romance Bookworms to get all the links, and click fast because this sale only lasts for one day. I don’t have any plans to discount any of the Political Persuasions titles in the near future (and certainly I can’t do better than free!), so take advantage and tell your friends.

And one last, tiny plea: if you have read The Ones You Want, Need, Hate, or Crave, will you please consider leaving reviews at Goodreads or retailers? It would mean so much to me. xoxo