Military Wife Mementos

By Catherine Mann

Catherine Mann and Friend

As a military wife, I love it when I hear people say "I support our troops." I can tell you firsthand that our men and women in uniform appreciate the supportive letters they receive from classrooms as well as all the other forms of caring people have showered on them while they're away from home serving our country. Just the other day as we were cleaning out the garage, we came across a box of mementos my husband had saved from one of his deployments, and sure enough, he had kept every letter he received - including big fat envelopes full of precious handmade cards from elementary students and Sunday school classes.

I want to share with you a link to one of my favorite organizations that also supports military members and their families - The Fisher House Organization. Fisher House is much like a Ronald McDonald House, except located near military hospitals. Here's a snippet from their website that best describes their purpose.

"Because members of the military and their families are stationed worldwide and must often travel great distances for specialized medical care, Fisher House Foundation donates 'comfort homes,' built on the grounds of major military and VA medical centers. These homes enable family members to be close to a loved one at the most stressful of times - during hospitalization for an unexpected illness, disease, or injury."

There are many creative ways you can help - even by donating your frequent flyer miles. To learn more about The Fisher House, check out their website: http://www.fisherhouse.org/

Thanks for listening!

Cathy - author AND proud Air Force Wife

USA Today bestselling author Catherine Mann writes romance for Berkley, Harlequin, Sourcebooks and Tule Publishers. With over fifty books in print, she has won the prestigious RITA Award. Catherine and her military flyboy husband live in Florida where they brought up their four children and are active in animal rescue.

SHELTER ME, “Second Chance Ranch,” Berkley – available now!

From the USA Today bestselling Catherine Mann comes this beautiful, heartwarming novel about a returning soldier, the daughter of his fallen commander, and a very special dog with a mission. For fans of Jill Shalvis, Susan Mallery and Nicholas Sparks.

Nestled in the sunny fields of Tennessee lies the McDaniel family’s Second Chance Ranch Animal Rescue. Two new arrivals are on their way, but only one is the four-legged kind.

Staff Sergeant Mike Kowalski wants only one thing after he gets home from Iraq: to sleep in a king-sized bed with clean sheets. But first, he has to hand off his fallen commander’s dog, Trooper, to his family without handing off his heart to Sierra.

Sierra McDaniel needs a break. Her family life is crazy, and when she’s not mucking out kennels, she’s slogging through grad school. Sierra certainly doesn’t want another dog, especially one that reminds her of her father. And she definitely doesn’t want to see Mike with that charming smile of his.

But Trooper has a mission of his own. Before too long Mike is moving to the ranch to lend a hand—and hoping for his own second chance with Sierra.

From the same series watch for:

SHELTERED BY THE MILLIONAIRE, Harlequin Desire, November 2014

RESCUE ME, “Second Chance Ranch,” Berkley, February 2015

Website: http://www.catherinemann.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CatherineMannAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/catherinemann1

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/catherinemann/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/93454.Catherine_Mann

SHELTER ME book video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBfLiHsis3o

Debut Romance Author Bec McMaster

SOME RESOLUTIONS ARE MADE TO BE BROKEN

As a debut author, I can only say that I’m having the time of my life. In 2012 a dream came true for me, when my first book Kiss of Steel, was published with Sourcebooks. A steampunk romance, it’s set in a dark world where my heroine must make a desperate bargain with a dangerous rogue for her safety.

BEC MCMASTERS

A brilliantly creative debut where vampires, werewolves and clockwork creatures roam the mist-shrouded streets of London…

When Nowhere is Safe

Most people avoid the Whitechapel district. For Honoria Todd, it’s the last safe haven. But at what price?

Blade is known as the master of the rookeries – no one dares cross him. It’s been said he faced down the Echelon’s army single-handedly, that ever since being infected by the blood-craving he’s been quicker, stronger, almost immortal.

When Honoria shows up at his door, his tenuous control comes close to snapping. She’s so… innocent. He doesn’t see her backbone of steel – or that she could be the very salvation he’s been seeking. 

“Dark, intense and sexy…a stunning new series.” – Library Journal

For 2013, I’ve been setting a lot of goals and resolutions, because I firmly believe in having a roadmap for the year ahead.

For a little fun, I thought I’d get the hero and heroine of Kiss of Steel to write their own resolutions – as they might have been at the beginning of the novel.

CLICK TO BUY

Blade’s New Year’s Resolutions:

       1.     Kill the Duke of Vickers

2.     Find out precisely what Miss Honoria Todd is hiding under her tightly laced gowns

3.     Discover the stubborn chit’s secrets… after all, why would Vickers have a price on her head?

4.     Keep the blue blood’s of the Echelon out of his turf, with extreme force if necessary.

 Honoria’s New Year’s Resolutions:

       1.     Survive

2.     Stay as far away from Blade, the Devil of Whitechapel, as she can

3.     Ensure the Duke of Vickers doesn’t get his hands on either her or her siblings – or the diary her father made her swear to protect with her life

4.     Resist the urge to choke her sister, Lena, when she spouts her romantic drivel – particularly when it involves a certain ruthless rogue.

Of course, some resolutions are meant to be broken, and those are the most fun of all. Can you guess which of my hero and heroine’s resolutions will be the first to go?   ~Bec McMasters
 

You can visit Bec's website here

Agile Thinking

By Matt Buchman

Agile is all the craze in the software world. “Agile” jobs have gone up 2,000,000% in the last three years. (No, that’s not a typo.) And while I’m not a software geek, I find myself a bit surprised at the aptness of this phrase to publishing in today’s market.

The Kindle’s 5th birthday passed on November 19th. (Did anyone send a cake?) When it was released, e-books were only in the land of the crazed geeks and other early adopters. (Anyone recall the Rocket ereader? It weighed only twice as much as the Kindle and held forty books for 20+ hours of reading per charge –and that was in 1998!) As of August 2012, eBooks represent 21% of the adult market, have blown into the children’s market (mostly this year) to 13% share, and will see huge growth this Christmas (Kindle sales have already broken records).

I published my third SF “Monk’s Maze” in 2010 as my first e-book. I’ve followed it with five others across three genres. That was right after PubIt and CreateSpace entered the fray. Now I’m direct to Kobo as well and through Smashwords to others. In that time I’ve learned a lot, so, I’ve redone all of the covers once and the marketing twice. I’m trying to be agile and responsive to my own learning.

At the same time, I marketed to traditional presses and sold my “Night Stalker” romance series to Sourcebooks. With these releases, and the very kind reviews that readers and critics have been nice enough to bestow, my one other romance title started taking off.

Or rather, it should have been, but it wasn’t. After a bit more “agile thinking” I changed the cover to make my own line up better with the beautiful ones designed by Sourcebooks. The day I changed the covers, the book started selling. I didn’t change the marketing, I just let go of a cover that I’d ever so carefully designed and branded to match my other books. Same love story, far more sales. (Night Stalkers #3 “Wait Until Dark” out 2/2012 & Angelo’s Hearth #2 “Where Dreams Reside” out 4/2012).

Then I wanted to write a short novel (1/2 length) in the “Night Stalker” world. After it was finished and proofread and fixed, I published it in under 12 hours. My first dozen sales happened on one site before I was done getting it on the other sites I load to. It’s not just being agile to keep up with the market’s technology changes. It’s also thinking about your customer (a key part of agile software design). What do they want? Another story in a successful series about a side character they liked. 

Did I need to take the traditional 1-1/2 to 2 years to get to market as I did with my traditional sales? No, I took 12 hours (including the print layout and full front-and-back cover design). Does it have the huge reach of traditional press? Not yet. I’m leveraging my self-pub sales off the traditional sales, but they’re both going to grow. It doesn’t happen overnight, some of my self-pubbed books still don’t sell but occasionally.

So, what I’m constantly asking myself today? How can I be even more agile tomorrow!





Matt Buchman

ML “Matt” Buchman has worked in theater, law, computers, opera, publishing, and manufacturing, roughly in that order.

Somewhere in there he designed and built two houses and rode a bicycle solo around the world (that last wasn’t really on purpose, but it happened anyway). He started his first novel while on that trip.

A half dozen novels exist in SF/F, a foodie thriller, and romance. His Night Stalker series was just named Top 10 Romance of 2012 by Booklist and earns rave reviews. Somewhere along the way he picked up an amazing kid and the best wife a writer could ever dream up. He lives and writes in the Pacific NW.

For more information about Matt and his books check out his website