It's a New Year - 2015 Is Here!

Welcome, I’m Judith Ashley author of The Sacred Women’s Circle series. I write contemporary romantic fiction that celebrates spiritual practices that nourish the soul and honors the journey from relationship to romance.

It’s time to take a look at what I want to create in 2015. There are things I want to do. The big ones are spend over two weeks in Ohio with my friend; spend four days at the coast in April with two other friends; travel to Las Vegas in July for the US Conference for The William Glasser Institute; and attend Emerald City Writers Conference in October. Each of these events will take planning and will have an attendant expense.

Smaller activities are monthly gathering with my own women’s circle, the monthly Dark Moon gatherings, building community within my neighborhood with like-minded women, and staying connected to other people I’ve met on this journey.

Sponsoring and teaching at least two Basic Intensive Trainings for The William Glasser Institute is also on my ‘Things to do in 2015’ list. I love to teach and plan to write articles showing how the basic concepts of Dr. Glasser can be used to enhance our lives bringing us more of what we want. I’ve already created a couple of workshops for writers to use these concepts in their writing lives and in their writing but somewhere along the line stopped promoting them.

While these are all activities I’ll enjoy, what is uppermost – actually at the top of the list – is completing the last three novels in The Sacred Women’s Circle series.  Hunter, Gabriella and Sophia each have stories to be told. If you’ve been reading the earlier books in the series, you’ve met these women and may even have an idea of what their story will be about, who will end up with who – I promise you this, at this point even I don’t know who Gabriella will marry – only that she will.

The incomparable Christy at Gilded Heart Design is working on the cover for Hunter. I’ve got my own work to do before she can finish the covers for Gabriella and Sophia. You may want to read her post on Cover Design to see what it takes to put a great cover together.

You can also check out my author page at Windtree Press to see her work as well as click here to visit my website.

My goals for 2015 are doable if I stay focused and on track.

Do you set goals for yourself? How do you stay focused to maximize your success? I’m always ready to try out new ideas, so please share.

Help! I Need Help With Branding!!!

By Judith Ashley

No, not the kind made with a hot iron or a tattoo.

I need help with my author branding.

2014 has been a busy year for me. By January 1, 2015 I’ll have published 4 full length novels and 5 short stories with a 6th one coming out by mid-January. In addition, by that time, I’ll have participated in 4 book signings. But most important, I’ve attended 2 writer’s conferences and several workshops as well as read a couple of author marketing books.

The author marketing books and several of the workshops talk about creating an ‘author brand’. This is where I need help—your help to be more specific.

What I’ve already done:

Named my series. Not an easy task. It took over a year to finally settle on The Sacred Women’s Circle series.

Hired Christy Caughie’s Gilded Heart Design to create the book covers for my The Sacred Women’s Circle series. My covers all have a cohesive design and if you look closely, you’ll see the ‘overlay’ which conveys the mystical/spiritual element that is in all the books. Check out the upper left-hand corner to see one of my favorite cover elements.

Hired Christy’s Gilded Heart Design to update my website and create a ‘new look’ that is part of my author brand.

Purchased Joel Friedlander’s Media Kit and created varied length bio’s.

But then I attended Emerald City Writer’s Conference in October and realized I need to be even more focused regarding my brand. One of the important pieces is to consistently label/market yourself. You’ll see excellent examples with B.A. Binns and Pippa Jay’s posts. Each post starts out with their name and their genre – a bit about what they write.

Here’s where you come in. I’ve written three short introductions (19 – 22 words) and I’d like your input as to which one best showcases my brand. BTW: the experts say 20 words is best because of how search engines like Google scan for content.

1. Welcome, I’m Judith Ashley, author of contemporary romantic women’s fiction and spiritual romance: stories that celebrate the journey from Relationship to Romance. (22 words)

2. Judith Ashley’s twenty plus years in sacred women’s circles gives her stories an authenticity that enhances a reader’s experience. (19 words)

3. Hi, I’m Judith Ashley. I write romantic women’s fiction with spiritual elements. My stories are all about journeys from Relationship to Romance. (22 words)

If you have other ideas, please share! Commenters will be entered into a drawing for a $5.00 gift card for Starbucks. Please be sure I have your email address so I can contact you if you are the winner! Drawing will be held 12/10/2014. If you want to know who the winner is, I’ll post it at on my Judith Ashley blog.

The Gift of Gratitude

Hi, I'm Judith Ashley. I write contemporary romance and romantic women's fiction with mystical, spiritual elements. 

Before the end of the year, I'll have published Ashley, the fourth book in The Sacred Women's Circle series through Windtree Press. I'm very grateful for the support I've received this past year.

First I'm grateful for my friend and co-Blog Queen, Sarah Raplee. She and Diana McCollum, another Genre-ista, co-authored Love & Magick: Mystical Stories of Romance. Publishing this anthology gave me the foundation to move forward with The Sacred Women's Circle stories.

Second I'm grateful for the technical help from Maggie Lynch and Terrell Hoffman. Without their support I might still be trying to figure out how to get Lily published.

Third I'm grateful to the #FTB writers who encouraged and inspired me with their words and deeds. Every day most of them post to the Challenge Forum with their daily writing goals or just "I know you can do it" words of support. Because of them Elizabeth was published.

Fourth I'm grateful for the work Gilded Heart Designs did on my website and the book covers. One of my draft readers loves Diana's cover. "Looks just like how I've imagined her to be". High praise indeed.

Fifth I'm grateful to be a member of the Windtree Press author cooperative. I have many more opportunities to grow and expand as an author as well as learning more about the business and technical side of things. Because of my involvement with WP I've a short story included in The Gift of Christmas.

Who knew that a year ago, I'd have four books published and be in two Anthologies? Not me! But here I am - making it happen!!!

Who knew that I'd have print books in book stores?

Judith and Sarah at Desert Dreams Book Signing

Who knew I'd have participated in two book signings with a third one coming up in December?

Who knew I'd be interviewed for a podcast (due out in March)?

Who knew I'd meet my financial goals for this year?

Who knew? 

I've said it before and I'll say it again because it is worth repeating. I may be the one sitting at the computer putting words on the page but without the support, encouragement of the folks mentioned above I wouldn't be where I am. 

In addition to these people who have supported me, I have an amazing cadre of people who believe in me. Lois R and Lois N, Jean, Kayla, Mariah, Judith, Gimi and Connie to name a few.

Then there are my circle sisters - Michele, Kris, Heather and also Nancy, Kitty, Kelly, Robin, Karen, Aarlene, Mary, Carole and Paula to name a few - the list is long!


In love and light
In grace and gratitude
In joy and happiness
In Peace

Blessed Be

Learn more about Judith and The Sacred Women's Circle here.

Who are you grateful to have in your life? Who cheers you on? Who believes in you and your dreams?

Publishing Trends: It's a Great Time to be a Hybrid

I had my first romance, a red hot sci fi shifter tale, published in 2008 with Samhain Publishing.

That was a great time to get pubbed. Readers were making the big shift (if you'll pardon the pun) to ebooks, and uber-sexy romance was hot, hot, hot. My first royalty checks were crazy big. This continued well into 2010, as I wrote and sold the next three books in the series. RT listed me as one of the sci fi romance writers to watch for. Whoopee!

Then, a strange thing happened. More and more publishers leapt into the ebook market. With more and more choices, readers spread their dollars out among them. My royalties dropped--partly because I genre jumped into contemporary paranormal, and readers did not follow me.

My Hawaiian Heroes were highly reviewed--RT and Library Journal loved them, yay! Readers did not vote quite as highly with their dollars. But, I kept writing, Samhain continued to publish my books, and another strange thing happened.

Romance writers began to publish their own books, with no middle-man except the sales platforms such as Amazon and BN.com. With a plethora of more new choices, readers spread their dollars thinner. Yikes, my royalties dropped yet again. Still highly rated on Samhain, still good reviews, but I was becoming extremely worried that I'd made the wrong decision to quit my teaching job and write romance full time.

Then, in June of this year, I went back to my roots. I self-published the first book in my new sci fi romance series, The LodeStar Series. Book 1, Stark Pleasure sold well enough that it earned nearly half as much as my eight books at Samhain. Wow, this was cool.

I got busy and wrote Book 2. Actually, I battled my way through Creed of Pleasure, fighting with the characters and the plot. With the help of my skilled editor, Jessa Slade, I finally wrestled it into the shape of my signature story--red hot romance, action and danger, with a little laughter in the mix. And some fantastical galactic creatures and futuristic inventions, of course. That's the fun of sci fi, after all.

With a gorgeous cover by Christy Carlyle of GildedHeartDesigns, the book went live November 7, 2013.

At latest report, my Amazon author rating is the highest it has ever been, a good indicator of reader interest. The book is the highest on the Zon charts I've ever had a book rise, except for my Free Read, Heart of Stone, another sci fi romance, but you kinda expect free books to go higher.