The 10,000 Sales Challenge and Kindle Fire Giveaway Progress!

Release Date for 1500 (#3 Timeless Trilogy)

I am pleased to announce that I am now making good progress on 1500, the third and final book of the Timeless Trilogy.  I expect it to be ready for release around December 15, 2015, about a month earlier than expected.

I started writing this book a couple of months ago, somewhere at the start of August.  As of last weekend, I had only written about 15,000 words on it out of about 60,000, so I was making slow progress on most days, if any at all, and was finding it hard to find any motivation to write.  After all, I worked all day long and came home tired.  I was struggling to get even 500 words done per day.  Last week, I wasn't sure if I would ever finish this book at all.  Every time I sat down to write, something would come up that would interrupt me--usually one of my cats. 

Then I picked up a Kindle copy of Chris Fox's 5,000 Words Per Hour.  It recommended that I try writing as fast as I can in short bursts, distraction-free, a few times per day.  The book (which is a short, easy read) outlined exactly how to set up a distraction-free space and how to plan out what you're going to write before you do it.  I decided to give these writing bursts a shot.

I started on Monday with one distraction-free, 5 minute burst.  I shut my cats out of the room.  I sat down with my Netbook (which I've disabled the Internet on), put on a pair of headphones, listened to some classical music and started a timer.  I wrote as fast as I could for that five minutes, and wound up with 400 more words than I had before.

The next day, I decided to try three six-minute bursts of writing: one when I got up, one on my lunch break at work, and one before bed.  The result: about 1100 words written for the day.  I felt like I hadn't even done any work, the bursts went by so quickly.

On the next day, I upped it to three seven-minute bursts.  1300 words written.  Again, I felt as if I hadn't done much work, yet I still had a good chunk of a chapter done.

The next day, I managed 1700 words and the next, 2,000 words.  

Yesterday, I was up to three nine-minute bursts, all of which were quick and didn't interrupt my day.  I managed 2,200 words, and today, on three ten-minute bursts, I'll probably reach about 2,500 words written for the day.  All in all, I've added about 10,000 more words to 1500 in only five days-- far more than I've done in an entire month.  And I'll be drawing closer to the end faster and faster each day.

If I continue to write using this technique, I can expect to release 1500 to my early reviewers probably in mid-November, and release 1500 for sale in early to mid December.  That's a whole month earlier than I originally thought!

And this is great news for my future novels as well.  I have two more trilogies in the planning stages for 2016, a survival fantasy and a science fiction.  I'm working up to eventually doing three 20 minute bursts of writing per day, every day.  That could mean 4,500 to 5,000 words written each day.  Once I reach this speed, I'll be able to complete a first draft of a novel in about two weeks.  With the editing added (and of course there will be lots of that) I may be able to release a novel in only one to two months after I begin work on it.

Kindle Fire Winner Drawn!

First, my apologies for being a bit late on this.  Due to some bad storms, I lost power Sunday into Monday and had to wait to complete this drawing. 

We had 31 entries.  Each entrant in the Kindle Fire contest was given a number.  I used a random number generator to select the winner and I have notified the winner via e-mail. 

And the winner is...Sherry!

Please check your inbox and let me know where to ship it.  Thanks to everyone who participated in this contest. 

Unleashed (#3 Deathwind Trilogy) Now Released!

The Third and Final Book of the Deathwind Trilogy
Allie used to be terrified of the Deathwind--a mysterious force that cursed her to turn into a tornado with every storm. But now she's its master, charged with turning others into Outbreakers like her before the Deathwind unleashes and kills thousands. Even with the help of her boyfriend, Dorian, it's almost impossible to keep up with its demands. In order to gain full control of the Deathwind and find a cure for her affliction, she must make a permanent bond with either Dorian or her best friend, Tommy--and the choice won't be as easy as she thinks.

Allie will also meet a new foe, one that will stop at nothing to gain the power that she now holds. To save herself, Allie must go to war with the worst of her kind and face the evil in herself--a growing urge to give in to the darker, destructive side of her nature.

The clock is ticking. Salvation--or death--is only days away.

Unleashed is now available in many eBook retailers.  However, Barnes and Noble and iTunes are dragging their feet with getting it up and live, so only the Amazon sites and Kobo have it available at this time.  For those of you who don't want to wait to get the Nook/iPad version, click on the Smashwords link to download Unleashed (be sure to choose the .epub format.)

Find on:

Amazon US           Amazon UK              Amazon CA             Amazon AU

Smashwords (All eBook formats)          Kobo

I Am 50% Closer to Having A Tarantula On My Face

This week, we have crossed the 1,000 sales mark for the Deathwind Trilogy!

Granted, many of those sales were from the Magic Touch bundle in which Twisted was a part, which is no longer for sale as of this month.  I counted every 12 sales of the bundle as 1 sale for Twisted.  In other words, I've enjoyed (or maybe dreaded) the fast progress in the past few months.  Without the Magic Touch bundle, I would still be sitting at about 200 total sales or so.

Things may be slower from now on and there is no telling how long it will take until we reach 2,000 sales, in which I will "celebrate" by putting a huge, hairy spider on my face for a full minute.  However, Twisted will be going on sale for 99 cents during the first week of August to observe the release of the third Deathwind Trilogy book, Unleashed.  It's possible that at that point, sales will pick up and we will make fast progress again, at least for a short time. 

I have been spending much of my spare time setting up ads for Twisted and getting the third Deathwind Trilogy book done.  There are some nights I have spent literally hours submitting Twisted to marketing sites and blogs. 

Just so everyone knows, the giveaway to win a Kindle Fire is still going until the last day of this month!  If you haven't entered yet, visit http://hollyhookauthor.blogspot.com/p/the-very-scary-10000-sales-challenge.html  for rules and the entry form. 

Unleashed (#3 Deathwind Trilogy) Coming Soon!

Unleashed is set to release on 8/1/2015!  This will be at the same time that I do a massive sale and blog tour on Twisted, the first book of the series.

I would have done a cover vote for this book, but it would have been no contest.  I was very lucky to find the perfect stock art in this case.  Feel free to respond to this email and let me know what you think!  Personally, this is my favorite cover in the entire trilogy.

Working on this book has been quite a rush.  Expect four twister scenes in this one and one heck of an ending.  This book is also turning out to be very emotionally complex and intense, with a lot going in between all the characters.  Things are only going to get more dangerous for Allie, Dorian and Tommy.  Also, get ready for one very despicable villain.

Why I Am Done With Wordpress

I am done hosting my author website on Wordpress.

Thank you for coming to the new website!  I have been thinking of moving my site to a new host for some time now, and for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, I like the look a lot better and it is much easier to customize to my liking.  Blogger gives you many, many options to make your website look nice.

Wordpress does, too, but most of the time you have to pay for a really nice theme.  This left me with little choice in how I wanted my site to look without knowing a lot about code.

Another reason I made the switch can be seen in my 10,000 Sales Progress Bar up above.  As you can see, I'm closing in on 800 Deathwind Trilogy sales now.  The blue bar's getting closer and closer to that tarantula at 2,000.  When that happens, I will be posting the video of said tarantula on my face right here on my website.

Wordpress doesn't let you post videos on your site--unless you pay.  Blogger will let you do the same for free.  I would much rather have my video posted here than to force people to go to another site to watch it when the time comes.

Recently, another author has started a program where fellow authors can advertise each other's books on their websites at random.  Others will advertise 2:20 and Twisted on their sites, and I return the favor.  All I have to do is paste a little bit of code in my sidebar for it to work and to participate in this program.

I just found out that it's code that Wordpress blocks.  It works on every other website under the sun.  Wordpress doesn't even allow me to link to giveaways that my own book is in, either.  It has given me so many problems in the past that I can never fully participate in author cross-promotions. 

Today, I decided that I've had enough.  I want to be able to post the things that I want to post on my own website.  I'll leave the Wordpress site up for now, so that those of you who entered the Kindle Fire giveaway aren't sending people to a dead link.