Zoe York's Blog, page 3

I’ve always been a truly terrible blogger. But as social media trends start to escape me (what the heck is Tik Tok?), I’m starting to be grateful for this little platform of my own. I think a lot of writers get to this point, and well, now I’m here.

So I’m going to try to use this space more often to keep readers up to date on what I’m working on. Today I’ve officially announced my first non-fiction book (on writing genre fiction series). It’s coming out on Christmas Eve–and it’s already up for pre-order at the major ebook retailers, including Amazon, which previously only allowed 90 day pre-orders for indie authors, but they’ve recently (like, this week) changed that. YAY!

I’m very excited. This also means a change to how I do…everything. I’m taking a firm look at my 2020 calendar now and locking things in.

What have I locked in so far?

The first book in the new Pine Harbour series is committed to release on April 21, 2020, and I’ve already set up that pre-order. And by Christmas time, I’ll know if I’m going to alternate that with a new Navy SEAL series, or if I will writing the PH series in more of a straight line.

I’ve also plotted in the last book in my Ainsley Booth series, Forbidden Bodyguards. Filthy Liar will release on May 19, 2020. And I’m going to plan out the rest of my Ainsley releases soon. 2020 is going to be the year of (almost) zero surprises!

So that’s my update for this week! Next week I’ll have the full list of pre-orders for All That They Desire, and I’ll try to remember to blog a bit about that book, and the whole Wardham series, before it releases on Sept 24.

Happy Sunday,

Zoe

Today I presented a workshop at the annual national conference for Romance Writers of America. For members of RWA, the recording will be available once the conference is over. If you’ve come to my website later on because of that recording, click here for a copy of the planning sheet.

A friend messaged me late last night: Happy anniversary, of a sort.

Me: [redacted because it wasn’t PG-13, but I thought it was the anniversary of some kind of sex, okay? I HAVE A FILTHY MIND]
Her, this morning: Uh, no. Yesterday was the anniversary of you buying a MacBook and deciding to be a FT writer.

A friend messaged me late last night: Happy anniversary, of a sort.

Me: [redacted because it wasn’t PG-13, but I thought it was the anniversary of some kind of sex, okay? I HAVE A FILTHY MIND]

Her, this morning: Uh, no. Yesterday was the anniversary of you buying a MacBook and deciding to be a FT writer.

?

Yes, yes it was. And Facebook didn’t remind me, so I didn’t know! But yesterday was in fact my five-year-anniversary of being a full-time writer.

I love my job. I love the freedom, I love the pressure, I love the creativity, and I love love love my readers. The last year has been one of introversion and reflection, and I’ve come out of it very grateful and happy.

Five years ago, I had three novels and two novellas under my belt. I was not ready to be a full-time writer. But I took the plunge anyway, and fifty-something books later, I’m so very glad I did.

Also, if you ever DM me something vague, I’m going to assume it’s about sex. Blame it on the job.

Every so often, I talk to a writer friend–sometimes a traditionally published author looking to diversify, and occasionally a writer weighing their options for what to do with a debut book. And a common worry I hear from them is, “The work of indie publishing is overwhelming. I don’t want to do it all.”

Honestly, this baffles me, because when I compare my work flow to that of my traditionally published friends, it feels very similar in terms of weight–maybe even lighter. That being said, it’s been nearly seven years since I published my first book, so it’s sometimes hard for me to quantify on the fly just how simple it is to indie publish.

After another one of these conversations today, I decided to write it down.

Indie Publishing in Five Easy Steps *

* YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary); take what is useful here and leave the rest, as my friend Melissa Blue likes to say. There are lots of reasons to pursue an agent or use a distributor: but “indie seems like so much work” hopefully won’t be one of them when you finish reading this.

In a nutshell, here are the steps, with my guesstimate for how long each one takes:

Create Accounts at the book Retailers – give this an afternoon, and you only have to do it once!
Prepare Your Manuscript – this is exactly the same as with a publisher. Get it done and tidy.
Convert Your Manuscript into Book Form – outsource-able at a reasonable cost, or 1-48 hours, depending on process
Upload digital files for ebook and print to the Retailers – this can suck up an entire afternoon, honestly, but can be done in as little as an hour
Repeat with the Next Book, starting at step 2 – this is exactly the same as with a publisher

So you can see that the formatting of the book (and creation of the cover, which is part of that) is the biggest time sink, not the administrative tasks of uploading the book to the retailers. HONESTLY, THAT’S A VERY MINOR PART OF IT. For each book you write, it will take 1-3 hours to get it fully settled on the retailers. That’s it.

So let’s dig in to the step by step process of this. Each of these five steps can be chunked down inside themselves to achievable 5-10 minute admin tasks.

1 – Create self-publishing Accounts at the book selling Retailers

Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo are the big four ebook retailers. All of them have direct portals most authors can create accounts for directly. I’m not a lawyer or international business expert: there’s a chance you live in a country where one or more of these businesses don’t allow direct upload, and if so you might want to look at a distributor (I use Draft2Digital to reach any retailer I can’t get to directly–when I started publishing, that was Barnes & Noble and Apple; I still use D2D for them because their dashboard is easy to use and the team there are very helpful). A distributor will take a cut of your royalties, though, so you need to consider that in the balance of things.

Amazon’s portal is called Kindle Direct Publishing: you log in to kdp.amazon.com with your existing Amazon account (if you’ve ever shopped at the Zon — if not, then you’ll need to create one).

Kobo’s portal is called Kobo Writing Life: writinglife.kobobooks.com

Barnes & Noble is called Nook Press: press.barnesandnoble.com

Apple’s portal is iTunes Connect: itunesconnect.apple.com

If you want to Do What Zoe Does: I’m direct with Amazon and Kobo, and I give Draft2Digital a cut to manage my B&N and Apple titles, as well as distribute to some smaller platforms I can’t access directly, and some library catalogues. It’s all on one dashboard and very simple to toggle. But that’s pretty lazy on my part, and most people recommend being direct everywhere.

2 – Prepare Your Manuscript

If this is universal, why do I include it? Because this is where you do a lot of the stuff that will make publishing a breeze. Understanding how this step rolls into the next is helpful.

Let’s assume you already know about editing and proofreading, and you’ve done that. If you don’t, reach out to a local writers group and find out about that part of the process. Or maybe I’ll blog about it in the future. So now you have a Word document that’s clean and done. Make sure that each chapter starts on a new page, after a page break. At the start of the manuscript, you will have front matter, and at the back you’ll have back matter. What goes where is up to you, but in one of these places, you’ll have a copyright page, a blurb of the book (back cover copy), a biography with social media links, a sign-up page for your newsletter, a list of your other books, acknowledgments, dedications, etc. Each of those on their own pages, again with page breaks.

3 – Convert Your Manuscript into a Book!

Ready to publish? You need a cover next (ebook only, or ebook and print). You can do this yourself, or you can hire this out to a professional book cover designer. Bargain basement covers don’t help your book. This, along with editing, may be your biggest investment in the indie publishing process. It’s unavoidable unless you have the drive to DIY, which I think is wonderful (I do my own), but certainly not necessary. This can be a big time sink, or a bit of browsing, asking for suggestions, and then outsourcing like a queen.

After you finalize your cover, then it’s time to format your book. I’m going to explore a couple of different ways to do this. You can take that Word doc above and upload that directly to Amazon and Kobo. Draft2Digital will also take a word doc. I don’t know about B&N and Apple, but I think they require an ePub file.

So let’s assume you want to Do What Zoe Does, and that’s end up with three things:

an ePub file (ebook for everyone else)

a Mobi file (ebook for Amazon)

a .pdf interior print file to make a paperback

You can do this yourself, or you can hire this out to a professional book formatter. Unlike with the cover, don’t pay too much here. Ask for referrals.

I use a program called Vellum, which is Mac only, and costs $250, a one-time fee that is well worth it because it spits out all three formats with a single click. There are lots of other programs. If you don’t have a Mac, ask around for what “ebook formatting programs” people use. Scrivener is one option, Sigil is another, Jutoh is a third.

But in a nutshell, that’s it: Word doc + cover = book.

4 – Upload Your Files to the Retailers

Before you start doing this, do yourself a favour and start a new Word doc. This is the start of your media kit, or your metadata kit. If you get ISBNs (optional), you can copy and paste them here. Also put your back cover copy here, and add your list prices so you don’t forget. Most retailers recommend that you set each country’s price to X.99 cents, so the currency conversion isn’t visible. If you’re an American author, remember that ebooks are a global product–make it look nice and local for your readers overseas!

When you go to the first retailer’s, you’ll probably spend twenty minutes or so going through their step-by-step upload process. This is where you’ll see the BISAC codes for selecting metadata categories. Write down what you choose on your media kit. That will make it faster when you move to the next dashboard. Another choice you’ll have here is picking a release date: that can be in the future (up to 90 days out for Amazon, further in the future for the other retailers), or go live immediately. You should know that Amazon has a lock-down feature once you submit a book, so triple check the details before you finalize it. But if–no, when–you make a mistake, don’t stress. As soon as the book goes live, you can hop back in to the listing and fix whatever typo you made, and nobody will be the wiser.

Give yourself a whole afternoon for this task. When you finish it in an hour, take yourself out for a treat to celebrate in the remaining time.

5 – Plan Some Promo, then Repeat The Process With the Next Book

Write an email newsletter, post about the release on social media, take a look at your long-term strategy in terms of eventual price discounts (or raises, if you release at a discount for a limited time), and then get to work on the next book. When you finish it, you can loop back to step 2 and repeat the process again.

The rest of indie publishing–checking sales, planning promo, writing and writing and Twittering and writing some more–is pretty much the same as anywhere else. All the retailers pay by electronic deposit, monthly, and will poke you for your tax ID information, etc. It’s quite lovely once you get into the flow of it.

Every so often, I talk to a writer friend–sometimes a traditionally published author looking to diversify, and occasionally a writer weighing their options for what to do with a debut book. And a common worry I hear from them is, “The work of indie publishing is overwhelming. I don’t want to do it all.”

Honestly, this baffles me, because when I compare my work flow to that of my traditionally published friends, it feels very similar in terms of weight–maybe even lighter. That being said, it’s been nearly seven years since I published my first book, so it’s sometimes hard for me to quantify on the fly just how simple it is to indie publish.

After another one of these conversations today, I decided to write it down.

Indie Publishing in Five Easy Steps *

* YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary); take what is useful here and leave the rest, as my friend Melissa Blue likes to say. There are lots of reasons to pursue an agent or use a distributor: but “indie seems like so much work” hopefully won’t be one of them when you finish reading this.

In a nutshell, here are the steps, with my guesstimate for how long each one takes:

Create Accounts at the book Retailers – give this an afternoon, and you only have to do it once!Prepare Your Manuscript – this is exactly the same as with a publisher. Get it done and tidy.Convert Your Manuscript into Book Form – outsource-able at a reasonable cost, or 1-48 hours, depending on processUpload digital files for ebook and print to the Retailers – this can suck up an entire afternoon, honestly, but can be done in as little as an hourRepeat with the Next Book, starting at step 2 – this is exactly the same as with a publisher

So you can see that the formatting of the book (and creation of the cover, which is part of that) is the biggest time sink, not the administrative tasks of uploading the book to the retailers. HONESTLY, THAT’S A VERY MINOR PART OF IT. For each book you write, it will take 1-3 hours to get it fully settled on the retailers. That’s it.

So let’s dig in to the step by step process of this. Each of these five steps can be chunked down inside themselves to achievable 5-10 minute admin tasks.

1 – Create self-publishing Accounts at the book selling Retailers

Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo are the big four ebook retailers. All of them have direct portals most authors can create accounts for directly. I’m not a lawyer or international business expert: there’s a chance you live in a country where one or more of these businesses don’t allow direct upload, and if so you might want to look at a distributor (I use Draft2Digital to reach any retailer I can’t get to directly–when I started publishing, that was Barnes & Noble and Apple; I still use D2D for them because their dashboard is easy to use and the team there are very helpful). A distributor will take a cut of your royalties, though, so you need to consider that in the balance of things.

Amazon’s portal is called Kindle Direct Publishing: you log in to kdp.amazon.com with your existing Amazon account (if you’ve ever shopped at the Zon — if not, then you’ll need to create one).

Kobo’s portal is called Kobo Writing Life: writinglife.kobobooks.com

Barnes & Noble is called Nook Press: press.barnesandnoble.com

Apple’s portal is iTunes Connect: itunesconnect.apple.com

Google Play’s portal is Books Partner Center: play.google.com/books/publish/

If you want to Do What Zoe Does: I’m direct with Amazon and Kobo, and I give Draft2Digital a cut to manage my B&N and Apple titles, as well as distribute to some smaller platforms I can’t access directly, and some library catalogues. It’s all on one dashboard and very simple to toggle. But that’s pretty lazy on my part, and most people recommend being direct everywhere.

2 – Prepare Your Manuscript

If this is universal, why do I include it? Because this is where you do a lot of the stuff that will make publishing a breeze. Understanding how this step rolls into the next is helpful.

Let’s assume you already know about editing and proofreading, and you’ve done that. If you don’t, reach out to a local writers group and find out about that part of the process. Or maybe I’ll blog about it in the future. So now you have a Word document that’s clean and done. Make sure that each chapter starts on a new page, after a page break. At the start of the manuscript, you will have front matter, and at the back you’ll have back matter. What goes where is up to you, but in one of these places, you’ll have a copyright page, a blurb of the book (back cover copy), a biography with social media links, a sign-up page for your newsletter, a list of your other books, acknowledgments, dedications, etc. Each of those on their own pages, again with page breaks.

3 – Convert Your Manuscript into a Book!

Ready to publish? You need a cover next (ebook only, or ebook and print). You can do this yourself, or you can hire this out to a professional book cover designer. Bargain basement covers don’t help your book. This, along with editing, may be your biggest investment in the indie publishing process. It’s unavoidable unless you have the drive to DIY, which I think is wonderful (I do my own), but certainly not necessary. This can be a big time sink, or a bit of browsing, asking for suggestions, and then outsourcing like a queen.

After you finalize your cover, then it’s time to format your book. I’m going to explore a couple of different ways to do this. You can take that Word doc above and upload that directly to Amazon and Kobo. Draft2Digital will also take a word doc. I don’t know about B&N and Apple, but I think they require an ePub file.

So let’s assume you want to Do What Zoe Does, and that’s end up with three things:
an ePub file (ebook for everyone else)
a Mobi file (ebook for Amazon)
a .pdf interior print file to make a paperback

You can do this yourself, or you can hire this out to a professional book formatter. Unlike with the cover, don’t pay too much here. Ask for referrals.

I use a program called Vellum, which is Mac only, and costs $250, a one-time fee that is well worth it because it spits out all three formats with a single click. There are lots of other programs. If you don’t have a Mac, ask around for what “ebook formatting programs” people use. Scrivener is one option, Sigil is another, Jutoh is a third.

But in a nutshell, that’s it: Word doc + cover = book.

4 – Upload Your Files to the Retailers

Before you start doing this, do yourself a favour and start a new Word doc. This is the start of your media kit, or your metadata kit. If you get ISBNs (optional), you can copy and paste them here. Also put your back cover copy here, and add your list prices so you don’t forget. Most retailers recommend that you set each country’s price to X.99 cents, so the currency conversion isn’t visible. If you’re an American author, remember that ebooks are a global product–make it look nice and local for your readers overseas!

When you go to the first retailer’s, you’ll probably spend twenty minutes or so going through their step-by-step upload process. This is where you’ll see the BISAC codes for selecting metadata categories. Write down what you choose on your media kit. That will make it faster when you move to the next dashboard. Another choice you’ll have here is picking a release date: that can be in the future (up to 90 days out for Amazon, further in the future for the other retailers), or go live immediately. You should know that Amazon has a lock-down feature once you submit a book, so triple check the details before you finalize it. But if–no, when–you make a mistake, don’t stress. As soon as the book goes live, you can hop back in to the listing and fix whatever typo you made, and nobody will be the wiser.

Give yourself a whole afternoon for this task. When you finish it in an hour, take yourself out for a treat to celebrate in the remaining time.

5 – Plan Some Promo, then Repeat The Process With the Next Book

Write an email newsletter, post about the release on social media, take a look at your long-term strategy in terms of eventual price discounts (or raises, if you release at a discount for a limited time), and then get to work on the next book. When you finish it, you can loop back to step 2 and repeat the process again.

The rest of indie publishing–checking sales, planning promo, writing and writing and Twittering and writing some more–is pretty much the same as anywhere else. All the retailers pay by electronic deposit, monthly, and will poke you for your tax ID information, etc. It’s quite lovely once you get into the flow of it.

Read the first chapter of Ambushed by Love right here, right now…

Chapter One

Always trust your gut. That had been Frank’s motto his entire adult life and had served him well up until a month ago, when he foolishly accepted a well-meaning gift from the Navy SEALs serving under his command.

Frank hadn’t known what to think about the week of vacation in the Berkshire Mountains before the wedding of one of his favorite SEALs. An adult summer camp didn’t sound like his kind of thing, but that’s where Wyatt had met his bride, and it was where the wedding would take place next weekend.

In the end, he couldn’t bring himself to decline the generous offer, so he’d flown out to the east coast a week early.

But from the moment Frank arrived in Boston, he’d wanted to turn around and fly right back to San Diego. The feeling intensified when he got on the Camp Firefly Falls shuttle bus the next morning and was hit by a wall of pheromones and testosterone-laden side-eye from people he assumed saw him as some kind of competition for the single women who easily made up half of his fellow adult campers.

Ha, he thought. The joke is on you guys. I’m never getting laid again.

Which was a damn shame, given that he was only fifty-seven and his equipment worked better than it had when he was twenty-seven.

It wasn’t that he wasn’t interested in sex, either. But his partner-in-crime on that front was gone, and he wasn’t looking to replace her—ever.

The one-year anniversary of Bianca’s death was barely behind him, anyway. Maybe one day, way down the road, he might…

His stomach twisted as he threw himself into a seat at the very back of the camp bus.

Nope.

Not even if he lived to be ninety-five. He’d jack it to the sweet memory of his wife bouncing on his lap. That would be enough. It had been everything, after all.

He flexed his hand and looked at his wedding ring.

This was definitely a mistake.

He appreciated what his team had been thinking—get the old man away from Coronado, away from his favorite haunts and all those memories of Bianca.

Frank dragged in a rough breath.

The first sign of trouble had been when the welcome package had arrived, highlighting the theme as Silver Fox week. Adult summer camp for the fifty-five-and-up set.

He glanced at the hormone-fest playing out in front of him on the bus as they waited for the last few stragglers. The camp people should call it High School 2.0.

Well, Frank wasn’t going to play any of those games. No drama, no making out under the bleachers.

He turned his hand over, revealing the tattoo he’d just had done on his forearm. A breast cancer ribbon wrapped around the nickname Bia in script. It had healed well, unlike his heart.

At the front of the bus, a camp staffer started counting heads.

Great, maybe they could get underway. He didn’t care if they left anyone behind.

Unfortunately, the staff person didn’t agree. “We’re just waiting for Grace,” he said pleasantly. “And then we’ll be underway.”

“That’s me!” A blonde woman popped onto the bus, her backpack banging against the door as she waved her hand. “Sorry I’m late. I just wanted to grab some treats for the ride.” She lifted her other arm and wiggled a plastic bag which bulged from cardboard boxes inside it. “Who likes cannelloni?”

Frank pulled his headphones out of his carry-on bag. He didn’t like cannelloni, sunshine-y personalities, or blonde women in general. He’d lose himself in music just as soon as they got under way, which was thankfully happening now.

The camp staffer gave the word to the driver, and the bus started up. “I know everyone is eager to continue the socializing, so I’ll keep this brief. As you know, this week at Firefly Falls is sponsored by the dating site StarCrossed…” The rest of what the staffer said was lost in the dull but growing buzz in Frank’s ears. Dating site.

How had he missed that? He wanted off this bus right the fuck now. But he wasn’t going to make a scene. He swallowed around the giant lump in his throat, jammed his headphones onto his head, and sank as low in his seat as he possibly could get.

This was going to be the worst week of his life. He’d stick around for Henderson’s wedding because he wasn’t a jackass, but until his SEALs arrived, he was hiding from everyone.

***

Grace stretched her neck one way, then the other. She may have overdone it today with all her walking carrying that beast of a backpack. But she’d heard amazing things about a bakery in the North End, and the only thing that sounded worse than a two-plus hour bus ride with a bunch of strangers was the same without anything to eat.

Catching the bus from Boston to Camp Firefly Falls with the other campers had not been the plan. She lived north of the camp, on a hobby farm in upstate New York where she grew lavender and heirloom perennial flowers. When her daughter, Tegan, announced she was getting married at the camp, Grace had planned to drive down for the weekend.

But Tegan had different plans. She’d arranged for Grace to attend camp the week before the wedding as a so-called “treat” for the mother-of-the-bride.

Grace liked the idea of camp. She just wasn’t sure how she felt about the theme of the week. She didn’t feel like she was in her fifties most of the time. Ever since her divorce nearly twenty years ago, she’d felt like age had become nothing more than an abstract, meaningless number.

Or maybe that was simply her stubborn refusal to accept her ex-husband’s toxic framing of aging as a bad thing. Regardless, she had mixed, complicated feelings about attending senior’s week at camp, and while she enjoyed dating as much as the next single woman, she didn’t have a StarCrossed profile like the people around her.

So, a week ago, she’d set out for a quiet road trip where she’d intended to end up in Briarsted and Camp Firefly Falls this weekend after some necessary solitude and reflection. But her car had broken down at an artisanal cheese farm in New Hampshire and she’d spent the last day and a half figuring out the best place to get it repaired without disrupting Tegan’s wedding countdown.

The last thing she needed was to stress her daughter out with minor details like her car being stuck in Nashua.

She’d figure out how to get back to it after the wedding.

So she’d gone to a mall, bought the biggest backpack she could find, shoved everything she needed for camp into it, and hopped on a Greyhound to Boston, where she knew she could get on this bus, which she’d wanted to avoid in the first place.

But that was Grace Bennett’s life in a nutshell. No matter what she did, she could never dodge the lemons. Every internet meme about life’s hard lessons making one stronger both spoke to her and infuriated her at the same time.

Therefore, once she’d arrived in Boston, she squeezed in some sightseeing because, hello, it was Boston, and how often did she go on an adventure like this?

Lemonade. She was a pro at mixing it up nice and sweet.

“Cannelloni?” She smiled brightly at the woman sitting behind her and held out the first box. “Pass them back. I bought enough for everyone.”

She handed the second box to the gentleman across the aisle from her, then she sank into her seat and let herself breathe.

In and out, focusing on her heart rate. In a few hours, she’d be at camp. And then she’d find a stiff drink.

~

KEEP READING! Ambushed by Love is available now at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Google Play!

And explore the other books I’ve written at Camp Firefly Falls: Winning Back His Wife, Skinny Dipping Dare, and Take a Chance on Me!

 

 

First of all, I need to confess that I am the worst blogger ever. I use this space inconsistently at best. If you want to hear from me regularly, I recommend signing up for my newsletter or joining my Facebook reader group. That being said, every so often my blog is an excellent place to put a LOT of information in one place, so here goes! A blog post about all things Camp Firefly Falls. I have three military romances set at adult summer camp in this world that I want to make sure all of my readers know about!

A new Rom Com! Silver Fox Hero!

First up, the highlight BIG NEWS: I have a new book coming out this week in the Firefly Falls series! It’s called Ambushed by Love, and it’s a sexy, happy story of a SEAL widower finding a very unexpected second love. This is the third book I’ve written inside the Camp Firefly Falls series with a Navy SEAL hero, so starting now, I’m calling this the “SEALs at Camp” series inside a series. Why? Because this series is really long now, and it’s written by a bunch of different authors. I want my readers to have as much clarity as possible about how my books are connected, how they relate to the other books in this world, and what the reading order is. All of those answers are below!

[Ambushed by Love releases Friday, July 13, 2018, and is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Kobo and Google Play. It’s $2.99 USD/CAD, $3.99 AUD, and 1.99 in the UK]

Sweet confession time: This book wasn’t the story I’d originally planned to write for Camp Firefly Falls this year. But Grace and Frank got under my skin and when I started writing, I didn’t stop until their book was done. My husband did an editing pass on this (a first!), and he said there’s a lot of me in it. I’m so glad I wrote it.

BUT FIRST, MORE SEALS AT CAMP NEWS! 

The first “SEALs at Camp” story, Skinny Dipping Dare, is now FREE for a limited time!

If you haven’t read Tegan and Wyatt’s book yet, now is the time to grab a copy and start the “SEALs at Camp” mini-series.

Navy SEAL Wyatt Henderson had signed up for a guys-only week of fishing and hiking and beer at his buddy’s favourite camp in the Berkshires. Nobody said anything about campfire songs and kitchen duty and crafts at noon. Retro Throwback Week at Camp Firefly Falls is almost enough to drive him around the bend, and that’s before the beautiful hippie in the girls’ cabin next door decides he’s no fun.

Tegan Bennett can’t stand the insufferable, grumpy, gorgeous military man who wakes up every morning at dawn and takes up far too much space in her general vicinity. So when he throws down a dare, she takes it—and lobs him one of his own. It’s on like Donkey Kong. Camp rules? Out the window. Along with her bikini top.

Is one week at summer camp enough to turn his frown upside down and tame her wild spirit? A lighthearted, sexy, opposites attract romp complete with a midnight dining hall ice cream raid.

Skinny Dipping Dare is available at Amazon, iBooks, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Google Play. I’d recommend reading it before Ambushed by Love, for sure. We see a lot of Tegan and Wyatt in the new release.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need to read the other books in the Firefly Falls series? The ones by other authors?

Nope. My books stand alone. But if you are interested in trying some of the others, I think you’d like them. Kait Nolan’s Second Chance Summer was nominated for a RITA award this year; Jamie Wesley’s books are about siblings who each discover love at camp, one after another. When in doubt, try the “look inside” feature on the book retailers and see which ones grab you.

Q: What is the reading order for your Firefly Falls books?

Winning Back His Wife (this is the origin story for camp, Camp Firefly Falls #1)

Skinny Dipping Dare (SEALs at Camp #1, Camp Firefly Falls #4)

Take a Chance on Me (SEALs at Camp #2, Camp Firefly Falls #12)

Ambushed by Love (SEALs at Camp #3, Camp Firefly Falls #21)

Q: Is this series complete?

The Camp Firefly Falls world at large will continue, for sure! There are four more books releasing this year, for example. I haven’t decided if I’ll write more SEALs at Camp. If you enjoy the series and would like more, please let me know!



Q: Why/how did you end up sharing a world with so many other authors?

That’s Gwen Hayes’ fault! She wanted to write a story set an adult summer camp, but only one, and yet she saw it as a whole series. She told a few author friends about it, and we all wanted to write a book or maybe two…and so the shared world was born. Fun Fact: Heather and Michael Tully, the couple in Winning Back His Wife, have that last name because Gwen and I met in a Tully’s coffeeshop in Seattle back in September 2015 to talk about the ideas for that book!

In my Facebook reader group this weekend, I marked the countdown to Love on the Outskirts of Town with a week of fun shares. On Saturday, because of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding, I asked if anyone could name the couples in Pine Harbour who’d gotten married. This is a bit of a trick question, because not all of the weddings are on the page.

(The correct answer is Rafe and Olivia, who get married in book 2, Jake and Dani, who get married in book 4, Zander and Faith–the ones who get married off the page!–and Sean and Jenna,who get married in their own book, book 6.)

So, as a reward for everyone who knew that Zander and Faith had a quiet courthouse wedding right after the epilogue of their book, I’ve written that scene. It’s interesting to go back and write about them two years ago, because they’re living, breathing people in my mind–which means I also know what’s going on with them now. And because I’m a cruel writer, I’ve included some of that, too.

WARNING: Don’t read this until you’ve finished Love on a Summer Night! It’s book #4 in my Canadian small town military romance series, and can be read on its own, but most readers recommend starting this series at book #1, which is always free!

The Wedding: a bonus epilogue, Love on a Summer Night

July, two years ago

ZANDER never imagined he’d get married, full-stop. But if he had been pressed to picture his wedding day, he couldn’t have imagined a rainy summer day with his bride wearing a red plaid shirt and the best man not even four feet tall.

“You really want to do this?” Faith asked as he tugged her up the steps of the Owen Sound courthouse. It was their second trip to the small city at the base of the peninsula this week. They’d picked up their marriage license from city hall on Monday, and now they were back on Thursday—the first available booking with a Justice of the Peace.

The whole adventure had started the week before when Faith had gone to see her lawyer. She wanted to set up a literary trust for Eric, and Zander had asked her to find out about the process of adoption—no rush, he’d said, but if she’d be open to it, and if Eric wanted him to become his dad…

Only it wasn’t that easy. The court would want to see a happy, stable marriage, the lawyer advised. An engagement wouldn’t cut it.

Faith broke the news to him on Canada Day in the sweetest way—by proposing to him. He’d had his hand up her shirt at the time, so it had taken a second or two to sink into his thick head.

When it did, he made her back the hell up and start at the beginning again, because he didn’t want to miss anything. He didn’t want her to miss anything, either—not a wedding, or the specialness of being a bride. The countdown and all of that.

They had originally picked a wedding date for a year in the future, but Faith promised him she’d trade all of that in a heartbeat.

Now here they were, doing just that, and the beaming smile on her face promised him it was the right call.

He leaned in and kissed her lips. “Yes, I really want to do this.”

Inside, they were directed to a chamber not far from the entrance. The door was open, and when they peeked inside, they found two women, one in robes.

“Come in,” she said with a warm smile. “You must be my nine-thirty.”

“We’re early,” Faith said.

Zander took his fiancée’s hand. “We’re excited.”

Eric pressed close, and Zander wrapped a protective arm around his boy’s shoulders.

“Well, we’re excited too,” said the justice. She quickly ran through the steps of a civil service. “If you want to exchange your own vows, there’s a spot in the service for that. Do you have rings?”

They’d bought them on Monday, right after applying for the license. Eric held out his hand, showing the officiant the velvet ring box he clutched tightly.

“Then let’s get started.”

***

Faith took a deep breath and lifted her bouquet of wildflowers. She’d gone out to the garden first thing this morning and picked a thick fistful of them. She rarely woke up before Zander, but today she had, and she didn’t roll over and go back to sleep. She quietly climbed out of bed, pulled on his sweater, and went outside to start her wedding day with a quiet moment of reflection.

Each flower was a whisper of gratitude. For her partner, her life, her child. More children, she hoped. For a second chance at happiness.

“We are gathered here today to witness the formal joining in the legal state of matrimony of Alessandro Minelli and Faith Davidson, under the authority given and provided by the Government of the Province of Ontario. Marriage is an important and serious commitment to a partner, and in this case, to a family.” The justice smiled at Eric, then at Zander. “Please repeat after me.”

Faith’s heart took off at a gallop as Zander listened to the officiant with one ear and gave the rest of his attention squarely to her. His eyes were bright and his jaw firm. “I do solemnly declare that I do not know of any lawful impediment why I, Alessandro Minelli, may not be joined in matrimony to Faith Davidson”.

“And Faith, now it’s your turn.”

““I do solemnly declare that I do not know of any lawful impediment why I, Faith Davidson, may not be joined in matrimony to…” She grinned. “Alessandro Minelli”.

“She can call me Zander for the rest of the service,” he said in a grumble.

“Oh no, babe,” Faith whispered. “We’re doing this the formal way.”

He squeezed her hand tight. Yes, they were.

“Zander it is. Since your hands are already joined…” That got a laugh from Eric. “Let’s move on to the vows. I’ll prompt the first part, the legal bit, and then you can add your own words after that. I declare in front of this legal witness that I, Zander…”

“I declare in front of this legal witness that I, Zander, do take you, Faith, to be my lawful wedded wife. I promise to care for you, to protect you, to hold you and comfort you.” He said each word softly, seriously, with such intent she felt them to her core. “Everything that I have, and everything that I am, is yours. In sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, I am your faithful and loving partner as long as I live.”

They’d written these vows together, the night before, curled up in bed. It was still surreal hearing him say them out loud. And that he hadn’t needed any prompting was impressive. Faith wasn’t sure she’d be able to get through hers as smoothly. She glanced at the officiant, who prompted her with the first bit.

“I declare in front of this legal witness that I, Faith, do take you, Zander, to be my lawful wedded husband.” She swallowed around the lump in her throat and glanced to the justice for another prompt from their handwritten card. “I promise to care for you, to protect you…” That one was hard. It spoke to her greatest fear of losing him. She took a deep breath. “To hold you and comfort you. Everything that I have, and everything that I am, is yours. In sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, I am your faithful and loving partner as long as I live.”

Zander knelt down to Eric next. “And bud, I have some promises for you, too. I promise to always lie in the grass and look at the clouds with you. To be a safe set of arms for hugs, and a voice of reason when you need advice. Everything that I have, and everything that I am, is yours, too, for your whole life.”

The clerk, who up to this point had been a silent witness, leaned in and handed Faith a tissue. She had her own in the pocket of her jean skirt, but this was better. She didn’t have to dig blindly through her tears for this one.

“Eric,” the justice said. “Now it’s your turn. Do you have the rings?”

He held up the box, and Zander took it, opening it for the officiant with one hand.

She took both rings out of the box and he handed it back to Eric.

“These rings signify your commitment to each other. They are symbols of your vows, a daily reminder of the solemn promises made today. Zander, place the ring on Faith’s finger and repeat after me.”

Faith held out her shaking hand and he carefully slid the simple band up to her first knuckle.

“Faith, I give you this ring as a symbol of my vows to you. Whenever you look at it, know that I love, honour and cherish you above all others.” Zander pushed the ring on the rest of the way, then took a deep breath.

She may be the only one crying, but he was affected, too. She squeezed his hand, then took the ring the officiant offered and repeated the same words back to him.

“Zander and Faith, in as much as you have pledged yourselves to one another, by the exchanging of vows and rings, and by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Marriage Act, do hereby pronounce you to be married.” She paused a beat. “You may now—”

“Kiss the bride. Yes, please.” Zander swept Faith into his arms and tipped her back, covering her mouth with his. It sealed the ceremony with a firm, perfect promise, that she was his in every single way.

May, two years later

IF THERE was anything better than wake-up sex, Faith couldn’t imagine it—and she was a writer with a pretty wicked imagination.

“Never stop doing that,” she panted as Zander slid into her from behind.

His hands tightened on her hips and he bottomed out inside her, demanding space inside her body. It was his to take. She was his wife, his bride, and they had the entire long weekend all to themselves. Her mom and Bill had taken Eric camping.

And Faith was officially off work for the summer, doctor’s orders. For the first time in seven years, she didn’t have a book deadline in her future. She’d think about getting back to writing once she was pregnant.

If she got pregnant.

She pressed her face into the pillow and pushed that thought out of her head. That was next week’s problem, when she started seeing her OB/GYN daily for infertility monitoring and treatment dictated by a reproductive specialist from Toronto.

This weekend was hers and her husband’s. Just the two of them.

“Where did you go?” Zander murmured, bending his big body over her, his lips brushing against her ear.

“A dark place,” she whispered, turning her face so he could kiss her cheek.

He always did. “I love you,” he growled as his beard brushed against her skin. “Exactly as you are.”

With secondary infertility and aging eggs. Yeah, she knew just how he felt. And any hour now, she’d get her period, on their romantic weekend together, because the universe was just that cruel.

“Babe,” he growled.

She groaned. “I know.”

“Do you?” He tangled his hand in her hair, tugging just hard enough to make her squeak.

She smiled despite herself and angled her hips back, urging him to fuck her harder. “Yes.”

“Good. I love you exactly as you are.” He rolled his hips, pushing deep again. “Exactly. Whatever it takes, we’ll do it. Or not.”

She loved that about Zander the most. He was genuinely happy with their family exactly as it was. And Eric was eight now, mature beyond his years. Independence was in sight, and then they’d have endless mornings like this.

But deep inside, she still wanted more.

She twisted beneath him, and he pulled back, leaving an aching void inside her. As soon as she was on her back, he returned, pressing the thick, throbbing crown of his cock against her wet slit. “Like this?”

She nodded, stretching her arms up to catch him. To pull him close.

Lately, she’d always wanted it like this. Him on top of her, face to face.

“Touch yourself,” he murmured as he braced his arms on either side of her head, caging her in. “Touch me. Feel us together.”

She traced her fingers down the dark line of hair from his belly button, where his skin pulled tight over hard muscles, down to the even darker hair he kept trim at the base of his cock. Heat swirled between them as she explored him. Hard, throbbing, and wet, too, from where they joined. He hissed when her fingers left his skin and found her own. She looked up.

He was watching her.

She locked her gaze on his face as she touched herself. Looked at her husband, at the lusty need written all over his face as she rolled her fingertips over her clit. He started thrusting again, slower than slow. Thick, deep pulses that drove her crazy and made her squirm.

“Like this?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“Always.”

She nodded helplessly, need spiralling hard inside her now. Tight, coiling desire. “Zander…”

He didn’t miss a beat, his entire body rolling into her as she crested, her climax a shimmering, clutching release that went on and on and on.

When her hand slipped out from between them, he groaned and buried his face in her neck, finally letting himself go.

“You are my everything,” he whispered when his breath came back. “Perfect in every way.”

Tears threatened to spring to her eyes and she blinked them away. “I love you so much,” she murmured instead.

He rolled to the side, pulling her with him. “Good.”

She laughed.

“Should we get up and have some breakfast?”

“In a minute.” She circled her fingertip on his chest.

“That was really emotional for you.”

“Yeah.”

“I wish I could take that hurt away.”

And he would if he could. She knew that. She burrowed against him and closed her eyes. “We should talk about something else.”

He smoothed his hand over her hair. “Should we?”

Damn it. She wrinkled her nose. “No, I guess not.”

“It’s going to be an intense experience. But I’m going to be right beside you the whole time.”

“You always are,” she whispered.

“And I always will be, babe. Forever.”

I sent out a newsletter about this today, so look for that in your inboxes. In that newsletter, I told my readers they could vote on which Pine Harbour book (exluding the new release) would be discounted to celebrate Love on the Outskirts of Town’s release. Some of you couldn’t reply to my email for some weird reason, so I’ve sent out another email with a link to this blog post. In the comments, please tell me what your vote is!

And if you missed my newsletter, here’s the information on the new release.

PRE-ORDER PRICE is $3.99 USD/CAD/AUD

Amazon: www.smarturl.it/PH7Zon

iBooks: www.smarturl.it/PH7iBks

Kobo: www.smarturl.it/PH7Kobo

Google Play: www.smarturl.it/PH7Play

Barnes & Noble: www.smarturl.it/PH7Nook

Matt Foster has never met a woman he couldn’t seduce into his bed. But when he meets Natasha Kingsley, there’s just one little problem—she’s not alone. Her three-year-old daughter wants a pony ride, an ice cream cone, and help to reach the highest rungs of the climbers at the park. Before he knows it, he’s spent all day with the Kingsley girls, and for the first time in forever, finds himself wanting more.

Tasha doesn’t realize who Matt is related to until he gives her his number at the end of a perfect day. Turning down his request for a second date—with both her and her daughter—is the hardest thing she’s ever done. But her history with his brother, and her firm commitment to living a drama-free life for her daughter, means she can’t flirt with, sleep with, or dream about Jake Foster’s younger brother.

Not even if he makes her daughter laugh.

Not even if he seeks her out again and shows her just how interested he is in every part of her life. Because there’s no such thing as a truly secret affair—and Tasha’s done with being anyone’s guilty pleasure.

COMING MAY 22!