April Is Almost Gone...

 Happy Tuesday All,

Can you believe April is already almost over? I think it went by way faster than I expected.

One thing that has been interesting about this particular April is the variety of weather we've had. Everything from jackets to shorts. No snow, but that's just fine with me! After "Snowmeggeddon" (what was that, about 3 or 4 years ago?) I'm good. I don't need any snow here.

Yes, I'm still writing. I have several what I term "active" projects, meaning they're the main manuscripts I'm working on. I also have a sort of "side-ish" project, which has to do with my Immortal Dreams series, but I don't foresee it ever published (at least, not anytime soon). For those who have read the other books, this would be Nic and Sirena's story. I hinted a bit at it in Perfect Love. The Immortal Dreams books are no longer available (I have my rights back; any of them you find for sale aren't from me or my previous publisher) EXCEPT for Divine Love's audiobook is available (that I did independently with my audiobook narrator, the very talented Chris J. Hudson).

I've nothing that's ready to report on The Author Encounter at this time. It's currently working on some things, though.

I'll tell you about querying when I'm ready to say something. At this moment, I'm not. (When I'm in the middle of it I prefer to not say much about it publicly).

And yes, I've been reading, too. I read Jenniffer Wardell's Beast Charming. I enjoyed it. :-)

I hope your April has been great! It's hard to believe May is right around the corner!

Have A Tremendously Terrific Tuesday!

It's July ALREADY...?

 Happy Wednesday All,

I can barely believe it's July already! Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July American Independence Day. We didn't do very much for it, which was okay. There were plenty of people around us shooting off fireworks for 2 days (late into the night, too).

After Texas "Snowmeggeddon" displaced us from our house from February 15th to late June, we're back in our house and things are fixed. We're unpacking boxes from things we had to box up while the contractors were here putting our house back together. We had 2 pipes burst--one in the kitchen, the other around the garage. My kitchen looks so different, but I love how it turned out. We were glad that insurance covered so much of it.

While our house was getting help, we lived at my parents' house. We were lucky they're still living in the two-story I spent a lot of my growing-up years in. Except, my old room is now my dad's office so there is no sign of the pink walls anymore. Although, the memories are there. Sometimes nostalgia hit so hard I was surprised. I did enjoy sharing old photographs with my eldest who enjoys hearing stories about when I was growing up and seeing photos.

I haven't done a whole lot of writing and editing. I started working on a new story that I can't decide what I'll do with, I just know I need to get it out. I've got a ton of editing to do--the Immortal Dreams series is getting a sort-of "facelift"--I'm not changing the story, but I'm doing some re-edits and new covers (Divine Love already has had its new cover, which I revealed a while back). My business partner and co-founder/co-owner of The Author Encounter, Nan, wants to help me with the relaunch.

This one story I finished is in the editing process. I was surprised and flattered (complimented) when a freelance editor asked me if she could edit it for me. We worked out a deal and she's already seen the first 3 chapters and liked them! We've struck up a friendship of sorts, being that we're both Dan Navarro fans, and she's listened to me talk about how this story feels different to me. Sure, it's got my usual fare of magical beings and fairy-tale, but it's different. In some ways, it's a bit intimidating, but the editor says that it's good that I've gotten a bit out of my comfort zone, in a manner of speaking. She's struck at the heart of my fears and obstacles...encouraging me in spite of them. People like that are the type of people every author should have. And they're not always easy to find--someone who feel you can trust with something you created.

Having the right people and resources as an author is one of the reasons why I worked with Nan to found and now, to own, The Author Encounter. There are plenty of author groups, sure, but it works a little differently. It's a cross between a publicist and a community. The Author Encounter is not designed to teach one how to write (or what to write or any writing technique) it's designed with the author's career in mind. Working with The Author Encounter is how I found the freelance editor. It's how I've formed some networking relationships with agents, and some other writers and people I never thought I'd ever even end up in the same room with (like Shay Baby of The Brown Book Series, who interviewed me and my narrator, Chris J. Hudson for her show!) I'm excited to be helping authors, especially with some of the events we have coming up in August, September, and in November. Of course, every other month I sit down and interview someone in the industry for The Author Encounter's Behind The Page. The next one is in August (I need to work out who my guest is going to be, yikes...this decision came upon me faster than I expected--not because I haven't been working on it, I truly have, but it's not settled and I usually have these things already figured out). So, August, then October, and December, which means there are 3 more Behind The Page events for 2021.

Anyway, I hope your summer is going well. I hope I'll work out a blogging schedule, but so far I haven't come up with one, yet. You'll just have to stay tuned!

Have A Wonderfully Witty Wednesday!

It's April!

 Happy Wednesday!

It's April 2021, if you can believe it! I went on a sort of hiatus from blogging because of Texas's "Snowmeggeden" in February. Our house suffered 2 broken pipes and is currently unlivable while we undergo demolition (of moldy/totaled out/drenched) wall, appliances, etc. in our kitchen (one pipe burst in our garage and the other in our kitchen). We also need to replace the carpeting in 2 rooms because of water damage. So we're living at my parents' house while all this is going on and hoping that it finishes, soon.

Meanwhile, I continue to conduct The Author Encounter business with my business partner, Nan, and there are many things happening with that. Nan has done a ton of work on the website and continues to work on ways of making the website better and more user-friendly. We filed our LLC after having a "soft-opening" for a year in 2020. You check out everything on the website.

My publisher added an addendum (per my request) to Perfect Love's contract after the contract on Immortal Love had expired and all rights have been reverted back to me. My next step is to re-edit all the books (I need to finish the fresh edits on Divine Love) and to issue the 2nd edition with new covers at some point in the near future. I don't have dates, yet. There are a ton of details to iron out. But as of last week, the rights to all 4 books have reverted back to me. Divine Love is still available on audio, which I will continue to make available. I hope to put new cover art on the audio version, soon, too.

I've got to finish editing a manuscript I finished writing (and started editing last year). That's a process, but I made a little progress. I plan to query that one.

Recently, I started working on another new fantasy YA romance. I can't go into many details at this point, but we'll see what happens with it.

Anyway, I just thought I'd post a little update to let you know what's going on. You can find me most often on Twitter at @WriteByBethany.

Have A Whimiscally Wonderful Wednesday!

Happy New Year 2021 And More...

 Happy New Year Everybody!

I hope you're having a wonderful 2021 thus far and that it's full of blessings, health, and happy moments to make it a special year.

On New Year's Eve at 2:26 a.m. Central Time, I finished the WIP (Work In Progress) I'd been working on most of the year. I had wanted to finish it a month or so BEFORE December 31st, but life happens. So now it's written! The next step is to edit and then I'll query it out to agents.

The Author Encounter has many events planned for 2021 and starting off great with D.C. Gomez's "New Year, New Mindset". While this workshop is mostly professional development for authors, you do not have to be an author to attend it. We're going to get into the harder parts of being an author: Imposter Syndrome, Rejection, Professional Jealousy, and More. It'll be about working through these feelings to a positive end. I've been impressed with what I've learned about D.C. in the time I've gotten to know her and I think she'll make this a great event. Registration is now available to the public if you click here you'll be taken straight to the workshop part of the site. You don't have to be a member to attend, but we do recommend becoming one because members automatically get the quarterly newsletter (which talks about the events for the next 3 months), advanced registration to events (including very popular ones), discounts on paid events, and more. We have 3 types of membership which are: Author (you have to be published with valid ISBN numbers to gain this membership), Reader/Fan (readers, reviewers, fans of books/publishing that are NOT agents, editors, booksellers, etc.), and Supporters/Vendors (booksellers, librarians, agents, editors, publishers, screenwriters, songwriters, voice actors, etc.). The Membership fee is good for an entire YEAR. You can find out more at The Author Encounter website.

So, what's on my list for 2021 at this point?

1. To edit my WIP
2. Edit Divine Love (2nd edition) to get it ready to be reissued
3. Finish 2 WIPs that I have in my unfinished work
4. Who knows what else...we'll see what happens!

May you have a wonderful 2021. And because I'm Catholic, I'll say God bless you (you're free to take that as a compliment/gift or ignore it).

Have A Fabulously Fantastic Friday!

An Experience Worth Encountering...

Happy Monday All,

While we're all trying to navigate our lives amid a pandemic, I'm eagerly awaiting the next collaboration I have coming up...

The last time audiobook narrator and musician, Chris J. Hudson, and I teamed up was in 2017. We did a talk on putting together an audiobook for BrazCon.

Well, we're baaaccckkk! 

This time our workshop, Done By Christmas: The Making of An Audiobook has been expanded into a more in-depth workshop! We'll be hopping online from our respective states (Chris is California and I'm in Texas) to bring you the workshop, except longer, more in-depth, and online. This webinar will be available on September 4, 2020 at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central / 6pm Mountain / and 5pm Pacific.

The Author Encounter will be sponsoring us in this event. The Author Encounter is geared towards helping authors' visibility whether they're newly published, or superstars. Some people who read a genre that an author is in might not have discovered a particular author and this is an opportunity for them to be seen and also engage with their established fans (and, hopefully, gain new fans!)

I'm pretty excited to see how this all goes and thrilled to be able to work with Divine Love audiobook's narrator again. (Yes, Chris did the narration and all the voices for the audiobook version of my novel).

I'm also working on getting Divine Love available to E-Book and paperback readers, too. I hope to make it available on more platforms, too. As an author, I'm trying to make my work available in as many ways as I can with the resources I currently have available to me.

Anyway, I wish all of you the absolute best and hope things are going well.

Have A Marvelously Magical Monday!

Long Overdue...

Happy Wednesday Everybody,

Wow...I have been really neglecting the blog! Last post was in February about Nationals. I'm all signed up and everything to go there. I'm looking forward to it. I've never gone to the National conference, even though I've been a member since about 2009.

I got my first round publisher edits for Perfect Love, the next book in my Immortal Dreams series. For the readers who have been asking, yes, this is Hailey's story. Hailey and Arion's story, I should say. You meet Arion very briefly in Astral Love, but he'll be more prominent in this one. Will there be more books after Perfect Love? I don't know, you'll have to wait and see. However...there is a little surprise for my readers after the end of Perfect Love. I won't tell you what (because it's a surprise). The first round publisher edits got turned in on Sunday (April 9th) which was later than I intended, but at least they're turned in. I'm still waiting on the cover art (believe me, I'm just as excited as you are for that).

My narrator for the audio book of Divine Love texted me yesterday and he's making progress. I expect I'll get those to listen to and either approve or ask for edits on before too long. I'm guessing either end of April or sometime in May we'll release it. It really

depends on how fast I get the listening and we get the editing done. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but both narrator and I have a bit of perfectionism in us, so we're trying to give you an awesome product that you can enjoy, so that takes some time. There will be a cover for that that will give the narrator cover credit, I just have to hear back from the cover artist.

As to everything else--I need to finish reading an ARC of a story that's already released for an official blog book review. I don't know when that will be, but I will do it.

Other than that, I'm trying to keep the Averie household together and do my every-day things that have to be done as well as I possibly can. I hope you all are having a good week!

Happy Passover to all my Jewish friends and readers, and Happy Holy Week and Easter to all my Christian friends and readers!

Hope everyone has an awesome week and weekend!

Have A Wondrously Wishful Wednesday!

It's My Birthday, So I'm Doing A Giveaway...

Happy Wednesday Everybody,

Also, happy my birthday to you all! It's a beautiful, sunshiny day outside. Weather report says it's 75 degrees out (I wish that was 65 degrees or lower--but not bitter cold; and no snow or ice. LOL) but the weather doesn't listen to me. (How rude, LOL!)


PLEASE NOTE AS OF 10/17/2014 10:00 PM Central Standard Time this contest is now CLOSED. I am NOT accepting any more entries. Thank you!

I know it's customary for the birthday person to receive gifts on his/her birthday, however, since it's MY day I'm going to shake things up a bit. I'm going to GIVE something away to you, my darling readers, instead!

Please read the details below VERY CAREFULLY! I repeat

VERY CAREFULLY. I'm emphasizing "very carefully" because if you're anything like me, you embarrassingly misread something in a giveaway rules section and ended up feeling stupid that you didn't read them carefully, so I'm trying to spare you all that embarrassment by emphasizing the READ VERY CAREFULLY.

***THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. THANK YOU FOR YOUR INTEREST***

Here are the details:

The giveaway is open to USA Citizens ONLY. The times on the giveaway are CENTRAL STANDARD TIME, so even if it's 3pm on Thursday in one place, if it's not 3pm Thursday Central Standard Time, then it's not 3pm Thursday for the giveaway. Make sense?

So here's how to enter:

1.  LEAVE A COMMENT in the comment section. NOTE: ALL COMMENTS COME TO ME BEFORE THEY APPEAR ON THE BLOG. I have to approve them. This is because there have been problems with commenting in the past and this has made those problems less of an issue. If you don't see your comment right away, it's because I haven't gotten to it. If you don't see it an hour before the contest ends, email me.

COMMENTS FOR ENTRY:  Your comment MUST contain the following:  Your FIRST name,  your email address and the answer to the giveaway question (which will be posted at the end of this post). If you miss ANY of these, I can't count your entry. ***No profanity or sexually explicit comments, please. I don't have a warning page on this blog. If you include any of those (even as a joke) I will delete your post and disqualify you from the contest.***

2.  ALL ENTRIES MUST BE IN BEFORE 10:00 PM CENTRAL STANDARD TIME FRIDAY, October 17, 2014 (after 10 PM on Oct. 17th I will close the contest and will NOT accept any more entries). There will be ONE winner. The winner will be announced on Monday, October 20th.

THE PRIZE:  An E-book (Kindle*) copy of IMMORTAL DREAMS BOOK ONE: DIVINE LOVE. 

BLURB:  Laney Alberts should be enjoying her senior year of high school. Instead, she’s mourning the death of her beloved father—her hero. Even after a year without him, she still feels directionless. 

Things take a complete one-eighty when she literally walks into Jason Magnus, the hot, new guy at school. He’s different from anyone she has ever met, and intrigues her in ways she never guessed possible. 

But, there’s more to Jason than Laney realizes. Before she knows what’s happening, she’s thrown into the world of Immortals. To prevent a goddess bent on world domination from destroying both the human and Immortal worlds, Laney and Jason must embrace the Fates’ destiny for them. 

Human and Immortal collide in this, the first of the Immortal Dreams Trilogy.

*If you don't have a Kindle, please email me, and we'll see if we can work something out. (Again, this giveaway is open to USA Citizens ONLY).

****HERE'S THE GIVEAWAY QUESTION (the question you MUST answer in the comments in order to enter):

Which myth (whether Greek, Roman, African, whatever mythology you go for) is your favorite and WHY? It can be an American Legend, but it has to NOT be TRUE (that means it has to be FICTION).  (Note: If the reality or non-reality of the story has yet to be dis-proven that's different--however, NO CONSPIRACY THEORIES!) NOTE:  Please give a brief overview what the myth is about. Thanks!****

So that's it:  Your first name, your email address, and the answer to the above question in the comment section of THIS post is all you need to do to enter.

Have A Wonderfully Whimsical Wednesday!

It's October! Time For Updates...

Happy Wednesday All,

Also, a very happy October to everybody! October is one of my favorite months. Okay, I'm going to come across as biased, but my birthday is in October and I've always loved my birthday--yeah, I'm over 30, but who cares? It's my special day and I get to celebrate it...even though this year it's on a Wednesday (not today, a different Wednesday). But never mind! I will be celebrating!

Currently I'm gearing up for the NWHRWA Lone Star Writer's Conference, which is featuring keynote speaker Bob Mayer, and special guest, Jen Talty. I always look forward to the NWHRWA conference. It's an opportunity to hang out with all my writing pals and meet new ones. Also, this year, my publisher is coming down, so it'll be a new (and I'm thinking fun) experience to see my publisher as one of their authors rather than someone who they didn't know.

Another way I'm celebrating is by being a guest on author Anne B.

Cole's blog. I'm talking about 5 secrets of Divine Love, plus much, much more...so I hope you all will visit me there.

The other thing is, Astral Love is supposed to release this month. I'm hoping it still will, I haven't heard back from my publisher on an exact date, but I'll let you all know. A friend of mine is especially looking forward to the release of this book--not only because she loved Divine Love, and is ready for Book Two, but because Astral Love is dedicated to her! You'll have to wait until the release to find out who and what I say about her.

I'm working on writing Book Three of my Immortal Dreams

Trilogy. I'll be doing a cover reveal soon I imagine. I haven't figured out exactly when I'll do that, but I believe before December. I love all my covers, but this one...well, I'll explain when I do the reveal.

Meanwhile, be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter to keep up-to-date with everything.


Hope you all have a oh-so-outstanding October!

Have A Wonderfully Whimsical Wednesday!

Lovely Louisville Wedding & More!

Happy Tuesday All,

Whew! It's been a very busy week:

On Tuesday, September 9th husband, offspring, and I boarded a plane for Louisville, Kentucky in anticipation of my eldest niece's wedding. The flight was mostly uneventful (although some turbulence, but nothing serious). We landed at the airport and had to wait to get to the jet way because there was a police car there. Apparently there were two airplanes that had to push back and leave before we could get dock there. It was about 20-30 minutes wait, but then finally we docked and exited the plane.

**Warning:  I didn't take very many pictures--sorry!**

At the rental car counter there was a huge line, which meant offspring and I had to wait with the bags while husband got our reservation. I was hungry and a bit on the dizzy side, but finally husband got the keys and we went and found our rental (a royal blue Chevrolet Cruze, not sure what year--anyone own one or driven one?) Husband opted for GPS system since we didn't know our way around.

The hotel wasn't real far from the airport, so that was good. We got our room and settled in.

My family arrived the following days and activities ensued.

One day, myself, husband, offspring, one of my sisters, her two offspring, my younger brother and his wife, all walked down to a

coffee house called Mrs. Potter's Coffee Lounge & Cafe. We stayed in the lounge area, which had couches and chairs. I got a decaf Mocha (so yummy) brother opted for drip coffee, sister-in-law got some kind of tangerine tea (sounded good), my sis got a regular coffee Mocha, offspring got a Strawberry Smoothie, and sis's kids got ice cream and chocolate chip cookie respectively (the chocolate chip cookies were HUGE!)

On the way to the coffee house, we passed the KFC Yum! Center. I

didn't know such a thing existed until I saw it. Apparently they hold

all kinds of events there, like Disney On Ice. So, it's basically a stadium of sorts. I think there was some kind of a rally going on in front of it. We never found out what the rally was about, though.

Thursday morning I got to meet author Katie McGarry (of Pushing The Limits, Dare You To, Red At Night, Crash Into You, Crossing The Line, and Take Me On fame!) Unfortunately, that's one picture I should have gotten, but I have a picture of the autograph. I haven't read Take Me On, yet, but I plan to.

Thursday night was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner--but most of my family didn't have to be a part of that (except my parents, my younger brother and his wife, and of course, one of my sisters, who is my niece's mom and my sister's husband and my niece's brother and some other people--most of which I didn't know). So the rest of us got together and went out to eat at a place called Champions Bar & Grill that has really good food and wasn't at all far from the hotel (we walked). It was fun.

Friday we hung out doing various activities until it was time to get ready for the wedding--which was at 7 p.m. (Eastern time). The

My niece & her new husband
during their first dance

wedding was really lovely and the reception was a ton of fun. (Link to the Cathedral where the wedding was held).

They had a photo booth, so a bunch of my siblings and I crammed into there and took some photos. I'm pretty sure that booth was not meant to hold quite so many people, LOL! The reception was held at a place called Ice House which was a nice location.

Yep, we crammed into that photo booth!

Saturday husband and offspring went with a bunch of others on the Louisville Slugger tour. I stayed at the hotel and did some edits, and then later that evening we all went to Mass at the Cathedral where the wedding ceremony was held. That night we went to the Troll Pub Under The Bridge for dinner--very good food.

Most people left Saturday and Sunday, but we weren't scheduled to leave until Monday (September 15th). So we remained behind an extra day.

Sunday I didn't feel good, so I rested in the hotel bed while husband and offspring went off to the zoo and to play putt-putt.

Monday morning we got up early. I showered while husband and offspring went downstairs for breakfast, then joined them when I was dressed. We got squared away with the hotel, and left. Traffic wasn't bad, and we made it to the airport with plenty of time. Husband turned in our rental, and then we all went through security, found our gate, and waited to board. When the time came, we boarded the plane and the flight went really well (much better than the one over). We got back to Texas early. My dad picked us up at the airport and brought us home. We had several things to do (such as grocery shopping) and I rested while the husband and offspring went off on an evening excursion after dinner.

Anyway, we had a lovely time. Today husband went back to work and I'm doing edits and various other things.

Offspring and I have some kind of cold/allergies thing we're dealing with, but no fevers (thank God!) so hopefully we'll be all well, soon (which would be really good).

Hope you all are doing well! Please be sure to pass the word along

about Divine Love and the upcoming release of Astral Love.

 

Speaking of Divine Love, I got a wonderful surprise Sunday morning in the form of an Amazon email. I get email recommendations from them, and lo and behold, at the top of the email for Fiction & Literature was Divine Love! I was so excited, I cried. It really was a thrill.

You all have a good week. I've got edits and writing to finish up, so I'll probably be pretty MIA for a while. I'm gearing up for the Northwest Houston RWA Lone Star Writer's Conference (which, if you're a writer and you haven't registered, please do! It'll be a great conference!) For more information please click here.

See y'all around!

Have A Totally Terrific Tuesday!