Nancy Straight's Blog, page 4

I hope you all had great holidays and a very happy New Year!

I thought it was time for an update as a few of you have told me you’re anxious for Destiny’s Wrath. Destiny’s Wrath is going through its second round of editing right now. It is the ending to the Destiny Series. Although this has been an exciting series to write, I think you will all LOVE how the story ends.

I am planning to release it on January 30, 2012.

Meeting Destiny, Destiny’s Revenge and Destiny’s Wrath will also be available in paperback in February (maybe yet this month for the first two).

More exciting news: I met the absolute coolest book blogger this week and would love for you to check out her blog. She was nice enough to do an interview with me and post a give-away of Meeting Destiny. (YES – My very first interview!!!!)

The interview is at the link below, but spend some time on her blog, it really is AWESOME. http://twimom101bookblog.blogspot.com...

You can also follow Mandy on twitter: @twimom101 and I'm always looking for new twitter-friends too: @NancyStraight

Hi Everyone,

I want to send out a huge “thanks” to everyone that has contacted me on twitter and Goodreads this month! Your messages and tweets have been awesome and the Destiny Series has been getting some GREAT ratings & reviews. In chatting with a few of you I heard one consistent theme: "Loved your books, your covers are terrible." LOL!

Never let it be said that I don’t listen to the people that matter most! Danielle from dreamscapecovers.com did a fabulous job with the new Meeting Destiny cover! A special thank you to: Amber from Cape Coral, FL and Kris Kendall. You both energized me enough to have the new cover designed.



I hope you all have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!

It’s frustrating watching the news. The stock markets are plummeting, governments are going bankrupt, and politicians can’t get along. Gas prices are sky rocketing, the price of food is going up, and a night out is outrageous.

I tried to figure out what I could really buy for a dollar, this is what I came up with:

A quart of gas with enough left over for a piece of bubble gum – that means I can drive 6 miles for a dollar’s worth of gas and have minty breath while I walk the rest of my trip.

Four tablespoons of a Mocha Latte (my favorite) at Starbucks – although I think the person behind the counter might be unwilling to sell me only four tablespoons.

I can get an order of small fries from the McDonald’s value menu.

Enough with the depressing ideas of how little I can buy; now let me tell you the good news! E-books, thousands of them are .99 cents or less! These books represent several months, in some cases maybe years of an author’s life and they’re willing to share it with you for less than a dollar.

Okay, so if you’re reading this blog, chances are you already know I have a book with great reviews for .99 cents – but have you tried...

Shelly Crane’s Significance, Lizzy Ford’s Katie’s Hellion, Jessica Sorensen’s The Fallen Star, Samantha Young’s Smokeless Fire, Addison Moore’s Ethereal

These are just a few of my favorites; I bet you have some too! If you do, put your favorite .99 book in the comments so others can give them a test drive. If you haven’t tried any of the above, I highly recommend you do!

Thanks to all of you that have taken the time to send me notes and tweets this month! I still keep myself in the “Rookie” category and your feedback is truly an inspiration!

All for now,
Nancy
Follow me on Twitter: @NancyStraight
Facebook Author Page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nanc...
Meeting Destiny on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Meeting-Destiny...

I’ve been an independent author for nearly 90 days now and have met some of the most amazing people of my life. Independent Authors are a breed all their own. I’ve worked in many industries, and rarely have I been humbled by my peers.

As an author, I write for a selfish reason - because I love it. I didn’t know that there were thousands of people out there just like me! Each one of them more willing than the last to: offer advice, recommend other authors’ works, and engage with their fans.

These are the people that tell stories that make you laugh out loud, hours after your spouse has fallen asleep. Stories that allow you to escape into worlds full of Vampires, Shape-shifters, Angels and creatures no one has even heard of. The same stories are able to drive us to the brink of hysterics when the heroine doesn’t fall for the right guy.

Traditional authors are great, publishing houses are necessary institutions, but over the years I’ve found fewer and fewer traditional authors whose work I felt passionate about reading.

Independent authors’ work is different; it feels different to read. The amazing part is, every independent author is anxiously waiting to hear from you on Facebook, their blog, their website or in your reviews.

When you buy books from Independent Authors, and their work moves you – you can tell them. They want to hear from you. The stories I am able to read now, from other independent authors, have made me love reading again. So when you have a choice between that $10 book from a publishing house or a .99 cent story from an Indie – take a chance, I bet you’ll be surprised.

Hi Everybody,

Again, I was surfing Amazon and I found a list of 40 great Paranormal and YA Paranormal books recommended by an author. This one is from author Garry E. Lewis. Of the 40 listed, Meeting Destiny made 27!! http://www.amazon.com/Supernatural-an...

Considering there are thousands out there to choose from, I am really excited that Meeting Destiny is on his recommended list, too!

My author facebook page is operational as of this week. If you go to FB, please "like" my page! http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Nanc...

I'm also officially on twitter too, you can follow me @NancyStraight - Although I am not quite the tweeting master yet, I'm definately working on it! :)

Thanks to everyone for sending me notes on Meeting Destiny and Destiny's Revenge this week! I'm super excited to get such great feedback from all of you! It is a lot easier to write when people go out of their way to say they are anxious for the next book!

Hi everybody,

I was just surfing the net and found a guide written on Amazon's website that's titled "So you like to read Awesome YA Kindles Cheap" by Skyla Rain.

My heart about stopped when I saw Meeting Destiny made the list! Number 22 on the list of 35.

Here was her introduction of the list: "There is nothing like the anticipation of starting a new book. Having a kindle makes getting ahold of books so much easier and cheaper but I have a hard time sorting through the overwhelming amount of books available to find one that I can truly enjoy. I mostly read young adult paranormal romance but often get sick of all the high school drama and self-centered heroines. I like my heros to be protective but also understanding. I love honesty and despise love triangles that could be prevented by a selfish heroine. The books listed here are some of my favorites."

Currently there are only 2 reviews of Meeting Destiny on Amazon, so how she found it, I don't know, BUT I'M SURE GLAD SHE DID!

Here's the link, I've read several of the other books she lists and she's right, they are awesome too!

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/sylt...

My very first blog: Not a tremendous achievement to anyone reading this – but I am so far behind the times it’s laughable. Up until three weeks ago I had never been on facebook, twitter, had only the most meager of profiles on LinkedIn, and I really had no grasp of what a blog was. I’ve spent the last several weeks lurking around on other writers’ blogs and have come to a single conclusion: I can do this!

I’ve written two books. They are "Meeting Destiny" and "Destiny’s Revenge," the final installment to this trilogy should be out in early 2012. Trying to put them in a particular genre was difficult – I chose Paranormal, but they could easily slide into Paranormal Romance, Young Adult, Fantasy and I’m sure many others.

Since this is my very first blog, and I may only be writing it for my own entertainment – I’ll write about the first book: Meeting Destiny. My problem with most Paranormal Romance is the helplessness of the female lead characters. It seems to be a consistent theme in eighty percent of the books I read. My goal was to make unbelievable situations, believable. When I began writing – I vowed to not fall into the same cookie cutter character development.

Meeting Destiny is told from Lauren’s perspective; she’s smart, witty, thoughtful, and courageous. For the women out there – I wanted someone we could relate to. For the husbands, brothers and fathers out there – I wanted to develop a character that has the strength you admire in women in your lives. I hope I hit the mark.

The book description is:

Lauren is visited in her dreams for years by a stranger claiming to be her destiny. Destiny becomes reality when paths cross during a failed robbery attempt. Lauren and the stranger experience chemistry like no other and now her doubt over her long time relationship with her high school sweetheart is not her only secret…someone else knows about her keen intuition and sixth sense. A mysterious clairvoyant seeks Lauren out and tells her not only of her life now but what the future may hold. Soon Lauren is in the middle of a murder investigation and a questionable friendship with the key suspect. Law enforcement, friends and family are concerned for Lauren but unfortunately they are unaware of the true danger…Sinister forces are at work and will stop at nothing to destroy Lauren’s abilities.

Hopefully I piqued your interest enough for you to give it a test drive. It’s available electronically from all major book stores; right now I have no plans to put it in print.
Meeting Destiny