The Album is legitimately amazing! š±
Wow, guys, I’ll tell you more in the Cruise Control updateā¦but I’m so, so happy with it!
Anyway, before that, I’ve got two group giveaways and three books to talk about. So, let’s get into it. š
GIVEAWAYS
This BookFunnel giveaway has 41 full books in it, lots of really great books in there. I submitted Dreams, so this is another chance to get this as an eBook rather than reading it on Wattpad.
I got The Billionaire’s Board…of course. Heaven forbid I write one of these newsletters without downloading yet another billionaire book lol!
This is another BookFunnel giveaway, this one with 152 books in it. Lots and lots of good books to choose from, here.
I grabbed He’s the Boss. It seemed cute and fun. God, guys, I need to stop writing books and actually read some of these, though! š
Click here to check out the books
BOOKS
A devoted sister, innocent witness, and unwilling pawn.
Asha Vivenzio’s life is in jeopardy when she walks in on the mafia about to murder her brother. Her world comes crashing down when she becomes a pawn in the turf war between the feuding mafia families. Things start to look up when she escapes but stumbled into the hands of the Triad.
Cornelio Capturi the don, of the Capturi Mafia rules the city with an iron fist. His life suddenly becomes complicated when one of his made men steals from him. He sets out to extract justice but doesn’t plan on Asha. Like a pit-bull in a skirt she stands up to him bargaining for her thieving, lying, strung out brother, so he decides to keep her. One moment of pleasure turns into an obsession as he realizes the Capturi mafia isn’t the only one set on get their hands-on Asha. Things become bloody when Cornelio goes against the Triad to take back what belongs to him.
Fans of The Sopranos will love the dark mafia Claimed by Cornelio. Scroll up and one click today to be immersed into the gritty, seedy underworld of the Capturi Mafia.
The golden boy. Wes Spencer, aka Mr. Darcy, has it all: the face of a Greek god, millions of adoring fans, a mile-long yacht and a bored attitude. The last thing he needs is a crew member on his new film set nearly dying in his arms.
The stunt girl. Thatās me, Ari Demos. I just landed a coveted job as a stunt double in the new Pride and Prejudice movie adaptation starring actor slash phenomenon Weston Spencer. Cue high dives and complicated car stunts along the narrow cliffs of Corfu -one false step and I could lose not only my job, but my life.
I wanted nothing to do with the arrogant English boy. Waking up to his kiss was something other girls dreamed of, not me. The movie star is the last person Iād expect to save my life.
Falling in love was never supposed to be part of the job. Fighting to stay alive was never supposed to be part of growing up.
“Today is not the day I die.”
Jazz Abadi has it all. She is an heiress, lives in a luxury mansion, and has the biggest social media following in Maiden City. Thereās just one thing missing: the CEO title of her fatherās fitness company, Ultimate ME.
As her fatherās health declines, naming his successor becomes paramount. But thereās one problem. On paper, Ethan Rothāāher fatherās dashing and intelligent menteeāāis the better candidate. He is a manipulation machine, but he didnāt count on one thing: Jazz is no sucker.
When Ethan proposes Jazz marry him as part of his business plan, she laughs in his face. Jazz runs from the situation, needing time to build a counter-attack. When she finds herself in a drop-in centre for vulnerable people, she is simultaneously invisible and obvious. As she decides to leave, Adrian steals her attention.
Adrian Cassidy is like no man sheās ever met. Heās distrustful of corporations and the wealthy, and treats just another person in the shelter. Jazz has never had a crush, sheās always been adamant that work comes first, but will Adrian be the distraction her heart truly needs?
If Jazz gives into her heart, what kind of person will she become? Will losing focus give Ethan clues to find her? And what will happen if Adrian finds out who she really is?
CRUISE CONTROL
So most of this week was spent on The Album, but I’ve finally moved back on to writing Gabriel’s Album, again! I feel so much better about doing this with The Album fixed up.
THE ALBUM – ARIANA AND GABRIEL
So…this guy. B was amazing, and we finally finished it off last night/this morning. It was emotionally exhausting, I won’t lie.
We both kind of dreaded doing the voicemail chapter and basically left it until last. It was so hard. When I finally went to do it on Saturday night, I made a playlist to get me in the mood…
Basically, those phrases were what B would comment on sections of The Album where I’d failed to display Ariana’s emotions. It was a sign that I’d shied away from exposing how she was really feeling.
I’ve said it before, Ariana is the heroine who is most like me. The way she behaves is much like how I used to behave before I got help for my mental health. Getting into her headspace, meant getting into my old headspace.
I won’t lie, it was uncomfortable and I cried a lot. Even after some of the rewrite, B had to point further things out. She literally wrote:
“I think that when it gets too hard for YOU, you go back to telling, listing things.”
She was spot on, of course. I can display Heather’s emotions and I can display Lita’s emotions, but displaying Ariana’s emotions is a lot more exposing.
Anyway, I’m happy with the book, now. It feels good enough to be the book that kickstarts the series, and I’m glad I got it fixed before the release of The Baby next month. So, it’s all ready to go for the new readers that find the book when that comes out.
In the end it landed here:
I know I joked about writing words for the sake of cracking the 100k mark in my blog about rewriting it, but none of those words was “filler”. Except in the sense that I was literally going and filling out sections where I’d failed to write as much as I needed.
This was book was 86,000 words when I first released it. The second edition was 96,000 words, and the final version is 103,000 words. In some ways, I wish that I’d perfected it before I put it out into the world, but without doing that, I could never have discovered the readers I have and especially not the friend I’ve gained through this processed. I can’t be more grateful for the entire experience. š
Anyway. I’ve sent it to the narrator, so it’s all set in stone, now! I also made the new eBook last night and uploaded it to Amazon, so the new version is live. I’ve also contacted Amazon about making the update available to anyone who already purchased the book.
If you’re looking for the book, it’s available here, and I’ve spoken to my cover designer about getting the cover fixed. Since I’ve added over fifty pages to the book, he needs to adjust the cover, but once he’s done that, I’ll be able to put paperbacks up, again!
GABRIEL’S ALBUM – GABRIEL AND ARIANA
Moving right along to Gabriel’s version of the story. As some of you know, I’d reached the end of chapter 6, and early into chapter 7 before deciding to rewrite The Album.
With that locked down, I’ve now started the process of marrying those two books to make sure they match up. Some slight reactions and dialogue, etc. changed in the early chapters, so I need to make sure what’s in Gabriel’s Album still fits.
I’ve discovered there are some times where his version doesn’t match perfectly by intent. They are different people with different perspectives on things. What one person perceives as being done a certain way isn’t necessarily how they intended it. It’s a lot of fun playing with that as an author.
I think if I’d stuck with a third-person POV, it would be a lot more tempting to just tell the same story in the same way. Changing it to first-person forces me to get more in Gabriel’s head and allows more of his personality to come through.
So, that’s where I’m at with this one. I’m hoping to get this written quite quickly, now that the block of The Album needing to be fixed is out of the way!
THE BABY – LITA AND SEBASTIAN
Final thing for this week is The Baby. The advance copies went out to Team Cruise Control on Friday at 11:30am. So, if you’re on the advance reader team, go forth and check your email, my lovelies!
I can’t believe it’s only five weeks until this book is released! I’m so excited, I love it so much. It’s just aaaaarrrrgggghhhh, we all know how much I love Sebastian Fox, and this book is an entire novel about him.
His character arc is one of my favourite things ever, and just… *swoon*
Anyway, I thought it would be fun to share some excerpts with you over the next few newsletters. As always, I’ll try my hardest to avoid spoilers!
This is from the first time Lita and Sebastian meet. I always knew Sebatian’s heroine had to be too smart for his shit, so she is not his biggest fan. Hayden is her favourite member of Cruise Control, and if she was ranking them in order, Sebastian would be last… š
Lita tried to regulate her breathing as she walked toward them. She looked over at Becky, who looked completely and utterly besotted right now. God, is that how she looked, herself? She cringed internally, but then figured it didnāt matter. These guys knew how gorgeous they were, surely.
They reached the group and Gabriel smiled up at them. āHi, does one of you happen to be Lita?ā
āYes, I am.ā She went over to him and shook his hand. āI didnāt expect you guys to be here.ā
āWere you thinking of meeting some other band tonight?ā Sebastian drawled at her from next to Gabriel.
Lita caught his gaze and felt sparks of electricity shoot through her from head to toe. She couldnāt look away from him, and just stared into his gorgeous blue eyes as he reached a hand out toward her.
āSebastian Fox,ā he said.
Lita looked at his hand. Then, with some trepidation, she reached her hand out to shake his. At once, she found herself overwhelmed with a feeling she recognized as lust. She wanted this man in a bed with her right now.
She forced herself to breathe as their handshake ended and he let go of her hand. Well, shit, that was how he did it. Once Lita had moved on to greet Harrison and was no longer looking at Sebastian, she was able to remember all of the reasons he was dangerous.
And that’s all for this week, guys. If you liked that, and you want to pre-order The Baby, you can do so here.
Remember, as well, if you do pre-order The Baby, you should fill out this form to get one of the chapters rewritten from Sebastian’s POV a year before anyone else gets to read it in Sebastian’s Baby. š
Happy reading!
