Latest News

I'm working on the rewriting of the book. It's coming along really well. Since I have time now I will hopefully be done really soon. I'm making a lot of changes. It will still have the same story line but I'm giving the beginning a little more of a hook. Others who have read it said the beginning was really slow but once they got into it they couldn't put it down, so I'm fixing that little hiccup in the flow of my book. Hopefully after that everyone will be hooked from the very beginning. :) Talking with the Muse as we speak. lol So I will be going now so I can put thought to paper. More soon.

Slowin' Down

Things have finally slowed down. I just graduated college December 4th with my Bachelor's degree. Have to finish out this week and take a test at the end of December then I am done! :) I can't wait. I'll be more able to work on my books then. The release date for my 2nd edition came around and I even sold a copy in Europe, but then they had to be pulled due to a review from a wonderful friend of WCP. She made some suggestions so I am rewriting the book in third person and making some changes. This will hopefully be the last time then I can have my 3rd and final edition released.... hopefully. o_O I'll be posting more now that I have time, and I will let everyone know what's happening from now on.
Welcome newcomers to my blog. I hope you enjoy reading about my new experiences and about my 2nd and 3rd books. I'm going to be writing on all of my blogs from now on so that when people find one of the those I had stopped on they can just read the info there instead of having to jump to one of the others. No worries I only have three. The one I first started on, wordpress, this one about me, and then one other blogger about the book series Celtic Rose. It's still a work in progress but now that I have time it will develop much quicker now. :D

Official Release Date!

I know I haven't written anything in quite a while, but I have been very busy with edits, school, church, raising my wonderful son and living life to the fullest. lol I finally have some news to write about. My book Celtic Rose, the second edition, is set to be released 9/15/11. The cost will be $5.99 for the e-book and $11.99 for the print book. So much better than $30 like the first edition. lol I'm extremely excited, and bouncing in my chair. I may fall out of it (again). ;)
When the book comes out I will have a section in my facebook author page that will hold deleted scenes that were interesting, but not essential to the plot of the book. I hope that readers will be interested in learning more after reading the book. I have character blogs to tell more background about the characters and where they came from so feel free to browse all the information from this blog and the old one to get more information if you're interested. Have a blessed day!

Favorite Scene From Book 2

The night before last I had a visit from my figurative muse in a dream. This idea was so wonderful I had to share. I wrote this scene into my book as dream from the main character, Kallisto. Keep in mind this is a part of a WIP and has yet to be edited. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. :)

I was in a city that was flooded. All of the houses were nearly covered in water. Searching the remnants of the underwater city for something I knew I had lost, but not sure exactly what it was. Swimming all around the city seeing nothing but death and destruction, my hopes were not high that I would find anyone or anything alive. How had I survived? The buildings of the underwater city were very old looking like it was an ancient city that hadn’t been inhabited in quite some time. There were no cars, electronics, or paved streets. There were lanterns for streetlights that would have to be lit by hand. It was the strangest place I had ever seen. There were underwater creatures inhabiting the homes now, but they paid me no mind as I swam through looking.

I came upon a place where I could stand and the water was only up to my waist. I searched around the area and finally heard sloshing water. It was the sound of someone or something swimming. There was a possibility that it was just one of the creatures that took over the city after the flooding so I didn’t get my hopes up, but I still watched the area where the sound was coming from. I guess I did have some hope left.

There was a tunnel over to my left that was only partially flooded because it sat up higher than the rest of the city. The noise was coming from there so I stared at the opening intently. I saw a shadow of a human walking toward the opening. Hope welled up inside of me as I watched what looked like a man coming out. As he stepped into the moonlight my heart just about exploded as I screamed out for him. I dove back in the water and swam toward him. He stood at the mouth of the tunnel staring with a confused look on his face. It was like he didn’t know me, but I kept running to him. He smiled excitedly as I got to the tunnel and stood in the water. I ran through the water as fast as I could and jumped in his arms. He grabbed me up and started kissing me. I could taste the cool, salty water on his lips as we forced ourselves as close to each other as we could get. The passion and heat in that moment should have dried up all of the water that surrounded us. Neither of us wanted to let go, but there was a small cry and as we pulled away to look there was a child in my arms. I kissed the child’s head and looked up into Talus’ beautiful blue-green eyes. Emotions flitted across his face, confusion, shock, awe, and then finally love and acceptance. He hugged us to him like he would never let go. He kissed my head and then the head of the mystery child in my arms. This wonderful moment couldn’t have gotten any better, but it could definitely get worse… and it did.

The child disappeared from my arms and a blonde banshee appeared on top of the tunnel. I call her a banshee because of the loud, excruciatingly painful sound coming from her mouth and the glowing green eyes. Her skin looked gray and hollowed and she looked like she was dead. Talus stared up at her in fear at first and then the look changed to that of lust and he pushed out of my arms and started trying to climb the tunnel toward her. I grabbed him screaming for him to stop, tears poured down my cheeks but he was too far gone to notice. The banshee screamed again and launched herself off of the tunnel and pushed me back into the water. Talus turned to follow and I thought I saw a flicker of fear pass through his eyes as he watched me be pulled under the water. The banshee had a hold of the back of my shirt and dragged me deeper and deeper into the water. There was light toward the top of the water, but further down the water turned black, no light could penetrate the water this far down. I was released, finally, but I was so week I couldn’t move. My air had already been taken from me but it seemed that I was getting small amounts of air from somewhere. The water around me moved violently and I felt a hand grab my arm. I tried to pull away, but I felt so heavy that I couldn’t muster the strength. I was being pulled in another direction but it was so dark I couldn’t tell whether I was being pulled further down, around in a circle, or back up to the surface. I started feeling light-headed about the time I started seeing light around me again and then I realized I was being pulled back up to the surface. Joy filled my heart as I thought of the fear in Talus’ eyes. He must’ve jumped in to get me.

I hit the surface of the water and drew in a large breath, but it felt as though it was being pushed into my lungs faster than I could suck it in and I started coughing. When I opened my eyes I was in the bedroom at Gabriel’s and Gabriel, Ephiny, and Keira were all standing over me with looks of concern. Gabriel was the closest so he must’ve been where the air came from. I had another coughing fit and Gabriel sat me up in the bed. When I was finished I looked around me and realized that the bed was completely soaked and so was I. Had I really gone there?

Progress Report on Editing of First Book

So far we have the first three chapters edited in my first book. It is sounding better and better with every chapter edit. My editor has had some personal things to take care of so editing has slowed down to a crawl. I was expecting Chapter four before the weekend but it didn't arrive. That's okay, my poor editor has so much on her plate I don't want to be pushy or a burden. She is going to her very first book signing this weekend and I am so excited for her. I pray that she sells lots of books and has a lot of fun. Hopefully she'll take pictures and what not so we can see what it was like. I can't wait to do something like that for my book. :D I'll be jumping for joy and doing my happy dance.
She told me that as soon as she got finished with the book signing we would buckle down to work and get it done. So it's all good, no worries. Hopefully we'll get it done by the end of June, or beginning of July so the August 1st release date will stick or be moved up to the end of July. lol We shall see.
I received the very first prize I have ever won yesterday. It was a swag pack for E.J. Stevens Spirit Guide Series, which includes the books She Smells the Dead, Spirit Storm, and the soon to be out and I cannot wait, Legend of Witchtrot Road. I'm jumping up and down for that one to come out. I loved the first two so much. My swag pack consisted of paranormal romance trading cards with the characters on them for both books, a book mark for she smells the dead with the main character Yuki on it, beautiful, two post cards, and a flip card with the covers of the first two books on it. It was a wonderful prize and I will definitely cherish it. I hope one day to have items like this for my book that others will cherish as well. :) I won a second prize that exact same day for three e-books sadly I haven't received them yet. I hope I get them soon.
I will write more later as more news comes on the book.

New Info on Celtic Rose (the Second Edition)

I just received an email today from the publisher saying that my book had gone to the editor. Later I received an email from the editor. She said that she received my book and is going to get started on it. She said she will talk to me soon. I'm going to take it that it will be a while anyway, because another friend of mine said it takes some time to go through a full length book for editing. The editor may talk to me as she goes so that we can work on it piece by piece. :) I'm extremely excited about all of it.
Also another bit of good news. I was looking on Goodreads and found that my book is set to be released on August 1st. Yippee!!! Another reason to be excited now. That is probably a rough estimate that they are pushing for so that it will be done by that day. I'm going to do all I can to finish what I need to ASAP so that maybe the date can be a bit quicker than that. We shall see.
Progress is going well for the second book in the series. It is coming along rather nicely. I'm hoping that by the time the first one is released I will be able to submit the second one to be edited and ready to be published shortly there after.

On another note that is completely off subject but relevant to the day. Tornadoes have been ransacking Oklahoma and other surrounding states. My prayers are going out to all of the families who have been devastated by the storm. Also My prayers are going out for little 3 year old Ryan who is missing since the tornadoes as well. I would be frantic if my own child was missing like that. My prayers for the families of all the missing and deceased. Lord be with them in this horrible time. Please give them the strength to make it through this horrible ordeal. My love and prayers go out to all of you. God Bless.

Busy Time

I haven't been on in awhile. I apologize for my absence. It's been a very busy time for me. My first book has been sent in line to be edited at my new publisher, World Castle Publishing.  It has been a great experience with them. My book is already posted on their website with it's new cover and new blurb for the back. I just found out today that my book has also been listed on goodreads which is awesome. :) It has already been marked as to be read by a few people which is also exciting.
I have been working on the second book and it is taking some very interesting turns that were not planned in the original thoughts of the book. My fingers just flowed across the keys and it came out the way it did. I still say it's divine intervention coming to help me write. Speaking of divine intervention, there's a lovely rumor going around that the end of the world is suppose to be coming at six o'clock this evening. Codswallow if you ask me. The bible clearly states that the end will come when we least expect it, we will not know the day and we will certainly not know the time. False prophets are also mentioned in the bible and it says to watch out for them. This man who 'prophecied' this has done it before. He said the world would end in 1994. It didn't so that should prove he's not a prophet. I'm on a soap box here and apologize if I offend anyone, but I am a Christian. Jesus will come back, but not today. He will come back when people can not buy or sell anything. It will grow dark the trumpets will sound and he will descend from the clouds just as he ascended into the clouds after his resurrection. I believe this whole heartedly and I plan to live every day like he is coming back. Anything I am blessed with between now and then, such as having my book published and read by others, is just a perk and a blessing by him until he comes. It's my way of living life to the fullest the best way that I can until it's all over. I hope that all ov you are doing the same. I leave you with a question and some advice. Always remember though that you are free to do with it as you will. You can disregard it or heed it. It's your choice. :) I will never force my opinions on anyone. So here it is. Are you chasing your dreams and living your life to the fullest? If not, now is the best time. Strive to be the best you can be in whatever you do.

Great News!

I just received the money to get my rights back for my first book and I have another publisher ready to make a contract up for me as soon as I have the letter in my hand! Life is good, God is great! I had a new cover for my book all ready for the new publisher, but since it was a person from the new cover that made it I'm going to get another one now that she has read and knows all about my book. She's going to add the first characters from the book onto it. I'm so excited I started bouncing up and down and shaking. :) Nothing causes the shakes more than excitement, not even nerves and fear, at least not in my case. Maybe I haven't been nervous or fearful enough to shake me as much as the excitement. lol My brain is working a thousand times faster than normal thinking about all the possibilities now. I've seen what this publisher has done with another of my author friend's work and I'm excited to see what will be done for mine. I can't contain my enjoyment right now. I just want to shout it to the mountains! :) I'm fairly sure the people at the top would be able to hear me from ground level. lol I hope every wonderful author after me has the same great experience I am right now. Even my first initial induction into being published didn't shake me as much as now, because there were too many unanswered questions that had me wondering just how wonderful or not everything would be. Now there are no questions because I have seen their work first hand and have been thoroughly impressed by all of it. So here's to a new and excited experience... Cheers! I don't drink so we'll have to use grape juice and pretend. lol

God Bless,
Jill

A Brave New World

As of today I am done with the semester. I will be starting back with my writing on my second book. The first has kind of gone askew. I have to pay $299 to get my rights to my first book back and that is proving difficult to come up with since I am in such a low paying job and now I have to help my mother with her finances since she became ill. I'm working most of her shifts now because she is unable to work much. She works afternoons now and I have to come up and close for her for the last three hours of the day. This gets me home a little late at night and then I have to get my son to bed for school the next morning. In the mornings I help babysit my cousins daughter and help my grandmother with other things. The afternoons are the only time I get to work on my writing right now. Hopefully I will have the money soon so I can move on to better and brighter things. A wonderful author friend of mine has created a new cover for my book and I love it. It looks just like one of the scenes from my book. She also has her own publishing company and is looking at my book. She will tell me soon if she wants to publish it herself or not. Here's hoping and praying. :)
I have written two chapters to my second book and as I pondered them before moving on I realized that I need to make some changes to it. There are a few aspects that sound silly now that I read them and a few others that don't seem to make any sense. Back to the drawing board I guess. I like most of the ideas that flowed through my fingers as I wrote but there were some that didn't flow as well as the others. We shall see how that goes.
I have definitely entered a brave new world in publishing and with authors. I have gained many friends and acquaintances who are authors which is something I never would have thought would happen to me. They are so supportive and helpful. They are there for me no matter what. All I have to do is ask and I get several pieces of advice from several different authors. We have become more like family now, more than I could ever have dreamed. The publisher I was with became extremely rude when asked certain questions about the way they run things. They did not seem to like that very much. Even when asked legitimate questions they became hostile. I received email after email some rude, some condescending, but all contradictory. I will be glad when I am free of them. My author friends have turned me onto some other wonderful publishers including the one run by my author friend. If she decides not to take me on then I have many other wonderful avenues to try. Eventually I will find a publisher that will take it and then hopefully I can prosper better than I did with the last one. Farewell for today. :)

Hello World!

I am a writer and as of December 2010 I am a published author. Although I am not happy with the price of my book at least it is out there for the world to see. Eventually I will be able to have my book available at a better price than the one listed although that will be a while from now. At least I can say I did it! :) Others out there will be able to do it as well, they just have to go through the right channels and make sure that they DO NOT get caught in a scam. I have many author friends from an Amazon discussion board in the paranormal romance forum. If you are a writer trying to become an author I suggest you find this group or others and get advice from more experienced authors before taking a leap into what could be a very bad mistake. I made that mistake and only now wish I could have found these people before I had signed the contract. I was naive and did not realize what I was getting myself into. Before you step into this competative world be sure to talk to others who are in it that can help you make your way. The process is long and sometimes very hard physically and mentally, but it will all be worth it in the end.

If you would like to learn more about me I will be posting that in another area. Feel free to browse around and see what I have. I am new to this blogger as of today but I do have another blog at http://jlcampbell11.wordpress.com/

Feel free to view this one as well as there is much more information. This blog will be my new start and the other is my past. I will tell about my writing from here on out and the experiences that I have with new publishers and my wonderful author friends. ENJOY!