Join me on Facebook

I’m finally on Facebook.

On my fanpage, I’ll post updates on my latest writing projects and other interesting news. I already have my shiny new banner up on my Facebook page, so head over there and check it out.

Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/JaeAuthor

Have a nice week everyone!

Writing hours in April

April is over already, and once again, it was a busy month for me. I spent most of last week at an editing seminar, which is part of my endeavor to earn a certificate in editing.

We wrapped up editing Lois Cloarec Hart’s Walking the Labyrinth in April. I look forward to seeing this wonderful novel published in June.

I had a new novel out in April (the second, expanded edition of Backwards to Oregon), one new anthology (Beyond the Trail), and a short story (Seduction for Beginners, a short sequel to Something in the Wine).

I also did a lot of writing or rather rewriting this last month. I mainly worked on revising Second Nature. These are really extensive revisions, but my beta readers tell me they like the new version better.

Here are the numbers for April:

	Writing	Editing
January	46 hours	14 hours
February	44 hours	19 hours
March	82 hours	15 hours
April	71 hours	4 hours
TOTAL	243 hours	52 hours

Check back soon for more news on my writing and editing projects.

Seduction for Beginners

When I published my novel Something in the Wine last year, a lot of readers asked for a sequel.

For one thing, unlike my other novels, Something in the Wine doesn’t include a love scene. I didn’t feel that Annie and Drew were at a point in their relationship where they would make love, so I ended the book before that milestone in their relationship happened. Some readers seemed disappointed, but others thanked me for not making Annie and Drew jump into bed too fast.

Since I still wanted to give readers a chance to see how the relationship between Annie and Drew progresses, I wrote the mini sequel Seduction for Beginners. The short story has been previously published in the anthology Connected Hearts, and now we’re also making it available as a single short story.

You can buy the short story as a DRM-free e-book at Amazon. It will soon also be available from Smashwords.

I hope you enjoy the story, even if you haven’t read Something in the Wine.

Jae

Beyond the Trail is available!

When my novel Backwards to Oregon was first published, I got a lot of feedback mails with readers asking me if I would ever write a sequel. Back then, I said no. Well, I should have listened to the saying “never say never.” Not only did I write a sequel (Hidden Truths, which will be republished by Ylva Publishing some time in the future), but I also wrote a number of short stories about Luke and Nora.

There were so many interesting facets of the characters’ lives that I couldn’t explore in Backwards to Oregon. How and why did Luke start disguising herself as a man? How did Nora come to work in Tess’s brothel? Will Tess find love too, or is she destined to spend her life alone? What happened to the Hamiltons after they reached Oregon? How will growing up with Luke as a “father” affect Amy and Nattie?

I put together an anthology that answers all these questions. Beyond the Trail includes the revised versions of five short stories that have been previously published and one completely new short story, “Swept Away.”

Here’s a description of the stories:

• The Blue Hour: When her mother dies, twelve-year-old Lucinda Hamilton decides to start a new life—as a boy.
• Grasping at Straws: No one knows that Tess Swenson, madam of a brothel, also owns a livery stable and a number of other businesses. On one of her secret inspections, she makes a surprising discovery.
• A Rooster’s Job: The Hamiltons hoped to build a home in the idyllic Willamette Valley with mild winters, but now they’re snowed in and their rooster isn’t doing such a great job either.
• The Art of Pretending: Tess finds out that someone is stealing her money. She suspects Frankie, a woman who reminds her of Luke. But nothing is as it seems.
• The Christmas Oak: Luke sets out to bring home a Christmas tree—but she finds something else.
• Swept Away: The greatest flood in the history of Oregon sweeps away houses, barns, and animals in the Willamette Valley. At the same time, fourteen-year-old Amy is swept away by her feelings for her best friend.

The anthology is available as a DRM-free e-book from Amazon and will soon be available at Smashwords and other online bookstores too. We’ll also release it as a paperback.

I hope you enjoy Beyond the Trail!

Jae

Backwards to Oregon as a paperback

The revised and expanded edition of Backwards to Oregon is now available as a paperback. I really like the background the designer created for the backcover. If you click on it, you’ll see that it’s actually a map of the Oregon Territory.

If you’d like to order your copy, head over to Amazon. Or even better, go to my publisher’s blog. Ylva Publishing is running a giveaway for many e-books and some paperbacks, also including a signed copy of Backwards to Oregon. If you leave a comment on Ylva’s blog before midnight, you’ll be included in the drawing.

Good luck!

GCLS Award Finalists 2013

I’m excited to announce that my novel Something in the Wine has been named a finalist for a “Goldie” (Golden Crown Literary Society) award in the category traditional romance.

Congratulations to all the other finalists!

Visit the GCLS’s website to take a look at the complete list of finalists.

Backwards to Oregon — new release and giveaway

Backwards to Oregon was an important milestone in my personal journey as a writer. It was the first original novel that I wrote in English. When it became the “story of the year” on The Athenaeum in 2007, I received hundreds of e-mails with feedback from readers. With that kind of encouragement, I took the first tentative steps toward publication. Even though I had written other novels before, Backwards to Oregon was the first book I published. I will never forget how it felt to hold a copy of it in my hands for the first time.

So it’s no wonder that Backwards to Oregon still holds a special place in my heart. It seems Luke and Nora’s story resonated with readers too. To this day, many readers write to tell me that Backwards to Oregon is one of their favorite novels.

When I switched publishers in 2012, I started to reread my old novels to prepare them for republication. I quickly realized that I didn’t want to republish Backwards to Oregon as it was. While I still love the characters and think Backwards to Oregon holds a story worth telling, I found many little—and not so little—things that needed to be changed. I have a lot more experience than I had six years ago and, hopefully, fewer bad habits.

I also added four or five new scenes that were missing in the first edition and that give us more insight into the characters.

So after many months of rewriting, revising, and editing, Backwards to Oregon once again represents an important milestone: it’s the first of my earlier novels republished by Ylva Publishing.

We added one of the “Oregon” short stories, A Rooster’s Job, to the book to give readers a glance into the Hamiltons’ lives after the end of Backwards to Oregon.

The other stories (Grasping at Straws, The Blue Hour, A Rooster’s Job, The Christmas Oak, and The Art of Pretending), along with Swept Away, a new short story about the Hamiltons, will soon be published in an anthology titled Beyond the Trail.

Backwards to Oregon is now available through Smashwords and through Amazon, and it will soon be available from many other online bookstores and as a paperback.

My publisher, Ylva Publishing, is giving away a free e-book of Backwards to Oregon. Head over to Ylva’s blog to participate in the giveaway.

I hope you enjoy the revised and expanded edition.

Jae