HIDDEN is in Paperback!!!!

Well, HIDDEN is officially available in paperback. You can order copies directly from the Barnes & Nobles website. I've also been told they can be ordered in-store, but I can't guarantee that, unfortunately. B&N can be persnickety about that sort of thing. At the time I'm publishing this post, they are selling HIDDEN for $11.85. Click here to order from B&N.

If you order a paperback of HIDDEN from Amazon, you are also eligible to download the ebook for free. It's my little gift to you! Currently, Amazon is asking $12.60. Click here to order from Amazon.

Or, if you want a SIGNED copy, you can order one directly from my website. I'm charging $12.00, including shipping and tax. You can order that here. If for any reason, there's a rush on paperbacks
and I run out of stock, I will let you know ASAP.

HIDDEN may be available from other sales outlets and bookstores, but these are the only ones I'm aware of right now.

HIDDEN has been more than a year in the making. I'm thrilled to have the paperback available now. :)

XoXo,

Megg

Win ALL of My Novels in Paperback

2014 is shaping up to be a very exciting year!!!

Not only is HIDDEN getting great reviews, but I've also embarked on a project that's really exciting!

As you may know, ANATHEMA, OUBLIETTE, SEVERED, and SLEEPERS have all been available in paperback at one time or another. I designed the interiors myself and, well, they were just okay. Graphic design isn't my thing.

Win with Rafflecopter #1

Now that I'm making a bit more, I can afford to spend some decent money on crafting my paperbacks by using interior designer, Ali Cross from Novel Ninjutsu. The covers will be created by Steven Novak of Novak Illustration.

I plan on releasing all of my novels in paperback form in 2014 - and one of you will win a signed set. In fact, I'll send you a new paperback probably every month as they become available!

If you want a chance to win, enter below. The only required entry is joining my newsletter list. If you're already on the list, no problem - you can still use that as an entry. It's not just for new subscribers, it's for ALL subscribers. :)

This will include HIDDEN, SHUCKED, ANATHEMA, OUBLIETTE, SEVERED, SLEEPERS, AFTERLIFE, THE SUNDERING. Hopefully HUNTED (the in-progress sequel to Hidden). Possibly THE INITIATE (it's just a short story). Perhaps HELL BENT HEAVEN SENT (I haven't decided on that one yet). This prize package is valued at well over $100!!!!

If you want to buy signed paperbacks, I'll give more info on that after the contest is over. <3

Win with Rafflecopter #2

Unfortunately, due to the cost of shipping, I can't extend this giveaway to my international friends. It breaks my heart, but....I do have an alternative contest for the UK fans!

My amazing friend over the pond, Charlie Finn, has this company called 3 Little Owls. She makes these adorable little custom key charms and she's made 5 Hidden key charms! And those can be won by anyone in the UK.

How cute is this? Hidden's cover along with stars, a dagger, an owl, and a dragon?!

I know some of you US people might really want one of these key charms, so feel free to contact Charlie about this. Shipping from the UK to the US can be costly, just like it can from the US to UK. :)

Enter to win the paperbacks through the first Rafflecopter and enter to win one of the key charms through the second Rafflecopter.



a Rafflecopter giveaway

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

HIDDEN Release Giveaway and Midwinter's Eve Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Midwinter's Eve Giveaway Hop hosted by I Am a Reader Not a Writer and Bookhounds!

I'm glad you stopped by.

I'm celebrating the publication of my newest fantasy novel, HIDDEN!

The mystery enshrouding Hutton’s Bridge is as impenetrable as the fog that descended at its borders eighty years ago. Each year, three villagers enter the mist searching for answers. No one ever returns.

Then a dragon falls from the sky to the town square, dead—the first glimpse of an outside world that has become nothing more than a fairy tale to Hutton’s Bridge. Except to Tressa.

Tressa grew up with Granna’s stories of the days before the fog fell. When Granna dies, leaving Tressa without any family, Tressa ventures into the fog herself, vowing to unravel the foul magic holding Hutton’s Bridge captive.

What she discovers beyond the fog endangers the lives of everyone she loves.

You can download HIDDEN now on Amazon and Barnes&Noble.

Add HIDDEN to your TBR on Goodreads.

Unfortunately iTunes and Kobo will not be available until after the new year. Both systems are closed to uploads over the holidays.

~ ~ ~

No new release is complete without a giveaway!!!!

Help me spread the word and you could win one of these prizes:

Grand Prize:

A dragon notebook with a raised cover

A dragon pen

A HIDDEN swag pack - signed bookmark & tattoo

First Runner-Up Prize:

A dragon pen

A HIDDEN swag pack - signed bookmark & tattoo

Enter in the Rafflecopter below to win.

Then follow the linky underneath to visit a ton of other amazing blogs offering prizes through Dec. 31st. Good luck and happy holidays!!!!

XoXo,

Megg

a Rafflecopter giveaway

HIDDEN: Book Blitz

Hidden is making the rounds of the blogosphere - and you can help spread the word!

As the bloggers post, I'll be updating this blog with direct links so you can visit them - some will even be running their own contests in addition to mine!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to enter the Rafflecopter below for some great prizes!!! :D

XoXo,

Megg

(All eARCs will be delivered in January)

Swag pack includes: signed bookmark & temporary tattoo

More ways to win:

Buried Under Books


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Editing HIDDEN: Step 7 - Finishing the First Edit & Writing the Last Chapter

Yes, you read the title correctly. At the end of the first full editing pass, that's when I write the last chapter. Often, that's when I write the first chapter too. With Hidden, I wrote the first chapter when I hit the halfway point of the book.

The first and last chapters should be a mirror of each other - presenting/solving the main problems. If it sounds simplistic, it is. Doesn't mean it's easy, but it is really is that simple.

On Monday, I wrote the final chapter of Hidden, tying up loose ends that relate to the main plot. Not every loose end. If you're familiar with my work, you know I tend to write series. Hidden is the first in a new series, so of course there are going to be a few mysteries left unanswered (and, yes, I'm making notes of those for the next book).

After completing that chapter (and doing a quick editing pass), I did a search for all of my tk notations. I replaced all of the tk notes with the word or name that actually belonged there. Then I ran spell check. That may have elicited a resounding "DUH!" but you'd be surprised how many times I've sent a doc to editing without running spell check. Not because I don't believe in it, but because I get so excited about someone else reading that I totally forget to do it.

What's next? Well, now I am 30% relieved the first pass is done and 70% scared everyone's going to hate it. I think that's normal. Right? *laughs nervously*

Once those edits come back, I'll start on my second full editing pass.

XoXo,

Megg

Want to enter contests, win swag, and be told the moment my books go live? Sign up for my newsletter HERE. Thanks!

Editing HIDDEN: Step 6 - Dealing with Multiple POV

Thanks to everyone who entered my contest this week! I'll contact & announce the winners next week. :)

Before getting down to editing, just a quick notice - my second trilogy, The Swarm Trilogy, is on sale this weekend. Sleepers is FREE, Afterlife is 99 cents, and The Sundering is $2.99. If you don't have them yet, now is a great time to pick them up.

Okay, on to my next editing step.

This is a new step for me! HIDDEN is the first novel I've written in 3rd person with multiple points of view. When I sat down for my first major edit, I realized the second half of the book was out of order! The chapters didn't line up properly with the timeline.

You're probably thinking I pulled out my note cards for this task. Nope. I laid out all of the remaining chapters on the floor and sorted them into the proper order.

Why didn't I use my note cards when that clearly would have taken up less space? Cliffhangers.

My note cards gave plot basics. However, I wasn't exactly sure which chapters had the biggest cliffhangers and every good writer knows you switch POV right after a huge cliffhanger. It's how we keep readers engaged!

Here's what my floor looked like while I worked on it ... and Tanu approved!!!! (She's looking on curiously in the bottom right corner).

It's back to entering edits into my master document now that the story is actually in order. ;)

Happy editing!!!

XoXo,

Megg

Want to enter contests, win swag, and be told the moment my books go live? Sign up for my newsletter HERE. Thanks!

HIDDEN - Naming Contest!

If you've been with me for a long time, you know I love hosting naming contests. The first contest was for Anathema - and the winner chose the main character's name, Reychel.

I'm running a similar contest again - but I'm throwing a little twist into the mix.

There's a grand prize for the person who wins the naming contest - but I'm also giving away a prize package to one winner who helped spread the word.

CHARACTER NAMING CONTEST

GRAND PRIZE:

- $25 Amazon gift card
- Your name in the Acknowledgements of HIDDEN
- A set of bookmarks
- An ecopy of HIDDEN when it releases
- An ecopy of MOTH, a newly released fantasy by Daniel Arenson, to keep you busy until HIDDEN releases

Help Spread the Word Prize:

- $5 Amazon gift card
- A set of bookmarks
- An ecopy of HIDDEN when it releases
- An ecopy of MOTH, a newly released fantasy by Daniel Arenson, to keep you busy until HIDDEN releases

To Enter Character Naming Contest:
 
The character: A woman, age 19, who is selfish and cruel. She's beautiful - blond and curvy. 

Comment below with your picks for the character's name. Only three (3) suggestions per person! If more than one person chooses the same name, and I wind up choosing it, the prize goes to the first person who suggested it.

If you don't have a registered Blogger account, please leave a way for me to contact you!!!!

Remember - I write epic fantasy. A name like Jane isn't likely to make the cut. Jayne, however, might.

I will choose the name I like best by November 12th and notify the winner!

To Enter Spread the Word Contest:

Check out all of the options in the Rafflecopter widget below. 
    

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Editing HIDDEN - Step 5: The First Major Edit

Yesterday I sat down with my manuscript and began editing. Content editing, mainly.

I love editing as much as I hate it.

It's amazing to take a rough draft and sculpt it into something publishable. At the same time, the amount of work that goes into revising a first draft is HUGE. For me, it is the longest, hardest, most painful part of the entire process from first idea to hitting the publish button.

Since I began HIDDEN more than a year ago, it's changed drastically. I need to almost completely rewrite the entire first act.

This does not make Megg happy. It makes Megg very grouchy.

For the foreseeable future, I'll be buried in those pages with a red pen and a purple highlighter. I'll be cursing and crying, and I'll likely quit a million times. Then I'll transfer to my computer with the damaged and beaten manuscript in my hands. Slowly I'll make all of those changes. I'll rewrite the ugly passages. I'll fill in the missing pieces.

And when I'm done, that's when HIDDEN will fly through the internet to my first editor.

How long will all of this take? I don't know. I worked for nine hours yesterday. I may slip in even more today and tomorrow. I could be done by Friday. It may not be until the week after. I just don't know. I'll work my butt off until it's done.

If you want specifics, here's what I'm looking for in my manuscript in this pass:

Any/all grammatical errors
Repeated words/phrases
Correct character names/spelling
Awkward sentences/phrases
Proper timeline
Chapters in the correct order
Story flow
Continuity
...pretty much anything that isn't perfect must be ripped to shreds

Wish me luck!

XoXo,

Megg

Want to enter contests, win swag, and be told the moment my books go live? Sign up for my newsletter HERE. Thanks!

Editing HIDDEN: Step 4 - Declaring WARS

Now that I have all of my note cards labeled, it's time to declare WARS.

W - Want
A - Action
R - Resolution
S -  Surprise

I'll be analyzing the chapter description on each note card to make sure it aligns with my WARS strategy.

Everyone in publishing says to keep your stories tight. Leave out the extraneous junk, right? The WARS strategy, coupled with the note cards, helps you do this.

W - Want: Your character should want something in each chapter. Have a goal in mind to propel them forward. That's much preferred to reading about George,

Courtesy of Microsoft Office Clipart

sitting in a blue armchair, contemplating a squirrel. Unless, of course, your plot has something to do with the zombie apocalypse and an infected squirrel, which just happens to be George's focus of study.

A - Action: Once you know what your character wants in the chapter, take some action! George slips into his super-secret infectious disease lab hidden in his basement. There, he constructs a trap, designed to capture the squirrel while minimizing risk to himself.

R - Resolution: Resolve your character's want. George sneaks outside, sets an acorn in the trap, waits...and...SUCCESS! George has trapped the infected squirrel and he can now begin studying the virus.

S - Surprise: Don't let your reader relax. Everyone loves a good page-turner. End each chapter with some kind of lead-in to the next. It doesn't have to be a complete shocker or cliffhanger each chapter, but give your reader a reason to keep reading. You know what's coming, right? Poor George, despite all of his precautions, he gets bit by the zombie squirrel.

This is a critical step in the editing process. Not just because you want to make sure your chapters have proper internal structure, but also because this will affect everything coming up next.

What happens if you declare WARS on a chapter and you can't identify all four aspects? Look at what came before, or what comes next. Sometimes you can combine chapters and sometimes you need to rethink the chapter completely.

Once you've successfully completed these steps for each chapter, you'll find you have a solid base for the next step in my editing process.

XoXo,

Megg

Want to enter contests, win swag, and be told the moment my books go live? Sign up for my newsletter HERE. Thanks!

Cover Reveal, Part Deux

Here's the second piece of the cover of my next book!!!! I hit 10,055 words this morning. :)

Cover Reveal ... Kinda ;)

If you're Facebook friend of mine, or a fan (I hate that word), or you just follow my public updates there, you may have seen something a little out of the ordinary.

I'm currently writing my next novel, Hidden. I did something I haven't done in three years - I actually sat down and plotted the book using the techniques of The Plot Whisperer. I have a notebook filled with notes, background story, character sketches, etc. I've got this one DOWN, baby. All I have to do is write (easy and fun) and edit (not easy, but still fun). It's like all cake from here.

I've already got a cover. I've had it for about a month. The incredible Steven Novak made it for me. I've been dying to share it, but it seems silly to share it when the novel isn't even fully written yet!

So I had this idea...this evil idea...to share my cover in pieces. lol. Cruel, I know. Only 5 friends have seen it in full and here's what they have to say:

"Oooooooohhhhhhhhhh! I LOVE it."

and

"I LOVE it!!! Very mysterious and dark and enticing."

and (my favorite)

"holy <bleeping> <bleep>

you're going to sell a <BLEEP>LOAD of books"

Here's how the cover reveal is going to work. Every time I hit a new word count goal, you get to see another part of the cover. I showed the upper left corner yesterday, just to kick the whole thing off. When I hit 10,000, you'll get the lower right corner, 20,000 is the upper right corner, 30,000 is the lower left corner, 40,000 is the right and left sides, 50,000 is the entire cover. Sounds like fun, right?

If you want to keep track, and help encourage me to keep writing, there's a word count meter on the top of the right sidebar of my blog. You'll know exactly where I'm at because I update it several times a day.

Here's the first reveal:

 

XoXo, Megg