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!

Postponing & Other News...

 Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Hope you're having a great holiday (if you're off, enjoy your break, if not, hope work is going well). I'm doing okay, busy as always! Being Co-Owner of The Author Encounter means I don't take a lot of time off at the moment, but I have taken some time off for Christmas, so that was nice. New Years' was pretty uneventful (other than lots of fireworks going off in my neighborhood) which is fine with me.

So, what's being postponed? Two things, actually:

1. The Author Encounter decided to postpone the January 15th event to March 20th for our new theme (more of that will be announced at another time).

2. The release of 2nd edition of Divine Love is currently postponed. Nothing bad, just realized I needed to postpone it. When I have a release date, I'll announce it here and on my social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are the primary places you can find me. Facebook under Bethany Averie, Instagram is @bethany.averie and Twitter is @WriteByBethany).

In other News:

I finished writing my WIP (Work In Progress) on December 31, 2020 at 2:26 a.m. my time. So that's now in the editing process and I've already got a beta reader giving me some awesome notes, so that's really good. I've got a list of agents that I wish to query with this story and we'll see what happens when I get to that point.

I'll be doing another online live Behind The Page for The Author Encounter on February 19, 2021. This one will be with singer/musician/songwriter, Dan Navarro. For years, he and Eric Lowen had a band called Lowen & Navarro and toured, as well as writing songs for such entities as The Bangles. Pat Benetar made their song We Belong famous in the 1980s. I'm excited to sit down with him because when I was in high school (many moons ago!) I interviewed Dan and Eric for my school paper. Dan said something like "The agony of the blank page" which has stuck with me all these years later. So, this interview feels like everything has come full circle. Eric Lowen died in 2012 of ALS, which is sad, but he is definitely NOT forgotten. He was a talented musician, songwriter, and singer. Pre-Covid Dan was still touring, and perhaps if things work out with the vaccine, etc, he'll go back to touring soon.

I'm also working on other novels--writing one of my WIPs that's not finished with the written draft, yet, and I have one other to work on as well. We'll see what happens with these two stories.

As for my family life, today is my husband's birthday and I'm thankful that not only did he take the day off to celebrate, but that he's in good health and I have him in my life. We've been together for more than 10 years and I look to many more years of us being together as well.

Anyway, Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day again!

Have A Marvelousy Meritorious Monday! 

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!

So much Excitement! Cover Reveal...

 Happy Monday Everybody!

We're down to eleven (11) days until Christmas, if you can believe it! I can hardly believe how fast this Advent has gone--at least, it's been fast for me. I'm not finished Christmas shopping, which is strange because I'm normally done near this time, but, we're all blaming 2020 on things being not the norm (whatever the norm is for each person) so, that's what I think I'll do.

I did plan, however, to do the cover reveal for Divine Love, 2nd Edition, so that's what I'm doing today on here!

My contract expired with the publisher (and it was decided that it wouldn't be renewed), and so I've chosen to do a quick run-through of some editing and reissue it myself. (It's hard to get an agent or publisher interested in something that's already been previously published). It's the same story, just did some little editing here and there, and decided that a newly edited novel needed a new cover. I've been fortunate to be able to work with the cover artist who did the original covers and am thrilled (as usual) with what she came up with for the new one!

I'm looking at releasing the 2nd edition in February of 2021--this will be for the E-Book, and I hope the paperback to follow very soon after (or at the same time--that's a detail I'm still working out because the paperback is a little different case than E-Book--I would like to release not just in Kindle, but also in Nook--maybe even some other E-book platforms as well. Those details aren't ready to be shared, just yet).

So, *drum roll* I give you the 2nd Edition of Divine Love, Book 1 in the Immortal Dreams series, cover art for you to enjoy:

Isn't it gorgeous? Fiona Jayde Media is the company I used (she also did my bookmarks and all my original covers). And in January 2021 an email interview I did with Fiona will be up on The Author Encounter's blog for a blog version of The Author Encounter presents: Behind The Page: Industry Interviews with Bethany Averie.

I'll be posting about the new cover art on social media this week, with this fun graphic that I put together (thank you, Canva!) So, I thought I'd share that graphic with you, as well.

Here you go:

Anyway, I hope you all are having a wonderful Advent and got your Christmas shopping all done!

Hope you have a Magically Marvelous Monday!

Work In Progress...

 Happy Monday All,

I'm once again playing with the theme of my blog, trying to find something that works best for me. For now, this new one seems like a good fit. The banner I made in Canva, which is a really cool site that helps you make graphics for different posts and things.

I'm still working on the same WIP (Work In Progress) that I've been working on for a while. The good news is, it's almost ALL written! Then I can (FINALLY) start the editing process. I'm looking forward to getting this all cleaned up and querying.

The Author Encounter continues to do well, and there are SEVERAL events coming up next year in 2021. I'm excited!

BIG NEWS:  Next week (the week of December 14th) I'm going to do the cover reveal for Divine Love, the 2nd edition! To be clear, I'm not changing the plot or the characters. My contract was up with my publisher and it wasn't renewed (long story, no details I can share, sorry) so I'm reissuing it myself and it's got a fabulous new cover from the same cover artist who did the original, Fiona Jayde. She's AH-MAZE-ING!

So, watch this space, because there will be more coming (and yes, the whole website thing is still up in the air, but I promise it's on the agenda of things to do!)

Hope everyone has a Magnificently Marvelous Monday!

Wooo-hoo, Updates!

 Happy Thursday Darling Readers!

It's been a while since I last updated and there are plenty of things to mention. I'm still trying to figure out the new template I'm using on this blog. The template came with some options I don't even use, so ignore them (I'm talking about the link options that don't go anywhere). My website is still being worked on and figured out--lots of things have gotten in the way of getting that completely up and running, but it is on my mind. 

I've been writing! Yes, yes, I have! For months now I've been working on a new story (no connection to my Immortal Dreams series or the out-of-print, All's Fair In Love & Lion). I can't tell you where I am with the story because I keep pretty mum about the process until I have specific news. But I am writing and I am editing and I am working on query stuff.

The Author Encounter has been taking quite a bit of my time (but yes, I have been working on all the stuff I mentioned above). But, things are progressing there. Some people have asked about what the company does. So, here's the break-down as best as I can give it:  it's a company that does promotion and engagement. What does that mean? Well, if you're a reader it means attending uniquely themed events (no two events are exactly the same--even if it's an interview series like the one I'm starting on November 13th called Behind The Page: Industry Interviews with Bethany Averie) and we're working on membership perks and things like that for readers/unpublished authors/reviewers. For authors, it's like having a promotion company, but with a twist: we're built upon engagement and interest in our different events, so authors get info on upcoming events and get to say if they want to be featured or make suggestions for events. (I'm sure I've missed a detail somewhere. My business partner is better at explaining it than I am!) We also have what's called a "Supporter" option. That's for businesses like editors, publishers, agents, etc. who have a business they want to promote to our members that are specific to writing and publishing. We're pretty niched on what genres we'll accept and promote (because we know what we're good at and what we're not) but we're hoping to grow and offer more in the future.

The Author Encounter is hosting Indie Author Day on Saturday, November 7, 2020. Registration is free and required. https://theauthorencounter/indie-author-day/ is the link to check it out. The workshop I did with my narrator was recorded and will be available on that day to watch.

Both Divine Love and Astral Love are now out-of-print. I won't go into the details, but the contract with my publisher wasn't renewed. However, I'm working on re-issuing Divine Love and will be working to re-issue Astral Love, as well. Divine Love is still available in audiobook format, though through Audible, Amazon, and I believe, iTunes, and I highly, highly, highly recommend getting it even if you've already read the E-book (or paperback) because my narrator, Chris J. Hudson, is AH-MAZE-ING! I do hope one day to have all the Immortal Dreams books out in audiobook format, but right now that's not possible for a variety of reasons. But, don't lose heart, I keep working on trying to figure it out with Chris and he said it's not an unlikely thing, it just isn't possible for us to do right now.

Other than that, it's normal life in the Averie Household. Offspring things to do, and I also continue to be wife to my husband. It's wonderful to have Averie Cat as my furry companion/furry shadow. I'm grateful to God for all of them and for my family and friends. And of course, you dear readers. I do my writing and re-issuing the series FOR YOU! You keep me writing and doing this, so thank you so much. Your support means the absolute world to me.

Have A Thrillingly Terrific Thursday!

Webinar, Writing, Reading...

 Happy Monday Everybody!

Just two more weeks until me and my narrator, Chris J. Hudson, present our webinar, Done By Christmas: The Making of An Audiobook. I can scarcely believe we've got another opportunity to present this workshop again. It's been two years. We're very excited and I owe it all to the company I co-founded, The Author Encounter.

While I'm still writing, (and my writing is important to me, of course) The Author Encounter means a lot to me because it's giving opportunities to showcase authors in all different stages of their careers. Readers will get a chance to interact with authors in a more "intimate" way than some author events. And the events are more than a book signing. They're meant to be unique experiences. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19, we had to put our inaugural in-person encounter on hold (Books & Beauty). We've got most everything for the event, but we're keeping it for whenever we can do an in-person event again. What we're doing is different than anything I've done as a writer--it's on a smaller scale (to create that intimacy I mentioned) and each event is themed towards a particular genre (Books & Beauty is themed around Romance). But, for now, everything will be virtual. We're going to have a costume contest on Instagram, we're putting together books we're thankful for in November and a scavenger hunt in December (I love Christmas and so does my co-founder, Nan, so we're hoping to do this up very Christmassy).

Our company is open to various genres across the board--including Non-Fiction and we very much would like you, my darling readers, to join!

We recently got a Celtic Author (who's bio was fun to read--originally from Belfast, and found his way down to Texas!) named David H. Millar. We've got some other members, too and working on building a member page on our website (not sure when that will be ready, but it's on our list to accomplish).

This brings me back to my webinar...

It's open for registration now. But, with one caveat...if you're a member you only pay the annual membership fee and then you can get access to the webinar for no extra cost (and that membership fee will get you into other exclusive member content as we roll it out), but if you don't join, it's going to be an extra cost. So, I definitely encourage everyone to join.

As for writing...

I'm working on an idea...I'm not sure if it's panning out or what, but I'm working on it. I'm also in the process of self-publishing Divine Love back into E-book and paperback with a brand-new cover! (Done by the ever-talented, Fiona Jayde--who did do the original cover, as well). Self-publishing has been a bit of a mess for me. There is a lot I have to look into and do that I didn't before, but I love this book so much that I want it out to my readers.

And I'm reading, of course...

I did some catch-up reading, too. I finally read C.C. Hunter's This Heart of Mine (very good!) and I read the two books that have been released in Jennifer L. Armentrout's Origin series (also good).  I'm hoping Harley Brooks comes out with part 2 of book 2 in her Designer Genes series really soon. 

I'm excited to see how Kiera Cass's The Selection works out for Netflix. So far they don't have a cast list--and it's in the very early stages of everything (and I'm not sure how this all works during a pandemic). So, I'll have to keep an eye on that for sure!

Anyway, I hope you all have a Marvelously Merry Monday!