Free Copy of My First Novel?! Yep!

Photo credit: Danica Clark Photography.

Happy Pentecost, everyone!!

Just a quick blog post to let y'all know that the Kindle version of my first novel -- Will and Lina: When Two Worlds Collide -- will be a free book deal on Amazon on June 5-7. The Kindle version of the sequel, Will and Lina: London Calling, will be on sale for 99 cents June 7-10. I've been told that the books are quick reads so if you're looking to kickstart your summer reading, feel free to try them out.

Special author's note: I wrote the first novel in the early days of my reversion and the sequel years later... and I think you can tell. I grew up along with the characters in the novel so both of these novels have a special place in my heart. And if you're wondering, London Calling is my favorite of the two (for personal reasons).

If you've already read the novels and enjoyed them, thank you! If you read them and didn't like them... I'm really sorry! lol. If you end up reading them and have questions, please check out the following blog posts in which I answered FAQs or gave you some background info (and playlists!) of things mentioned in the novels.

• Readers Want to Know: Will and Lina Q&A: Find out if Will is based on a real person (the most commonly asked question), if Lina is based on me (the second most commonly asked question), and other questions asked by readers.
• Questions about the Will and Lina Series: Find out which characters are based on real people and which aren't.
• Novel Playlists and Sequel News: Listen to the playlists I listened to when I wanted to get into a "character's headspace." edit: language/content warning (if you're sensitive to it) on some of the songs on the first Will playlist and Candace's playlist. You'll understand once you get to know the characters. 
• "This is..." Novel Playlist: Spoiler alert, this playlist is mentioned in the first novel, WTWC.

Since my birthday was on Tuesday, I decided to give myself a writing break -- from the blogging world, from the third novel (which I'm seriously loving right now -- is that weird? That I'm loving what I'm writing?), and most everything else. I hope to return to the blogging and novel-writing world at some point this upcoming week. :)

I hope you are all having a lovely end of the weekend!

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D

Novel Sequel (London Calling) is Now Available!

This is going to be a quick post because I have a lot of things to do in a short amount of time. Long story short: mom has shingles and I had to take her to urgent care -- and then drive her back when her supervisor was being difficult about her return to work -- so my afternoon/evening has been spent doing that and I still have other things to take care of. Anyway...

The novel sequel is now out! WHOOO! So excited! Yes, Will and Lina: London Calling is available in both print AND Kindle editions as of today. I would've posted this earlier except... well... you know. Anyway, here are the links to a couple of places where you can find them.

Print
CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/5165372 (it'll go live tomorrow)
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Will-Lina-Calling-Melissa-Cecilia/dp/1505487404/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_1 (they were temporarily out of stock but they have copies once more)

eBook
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Will-Lina-Calling-Melissa-Cecilia-ebook/dp/B00RC56PAK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1419290102&sr=1-1

If you're getting the Kindle version, please note that, yes, the table of contents looks wonky because they (CreateSpace) forgot to take it out when they sent the file to Kindle. There shouldn't be any table of contents on Kindle editions (for obvious reasons). I've been told by those who have their copies that that is the only issue (which I will be taking care of tonight). Everything else is formatted correctly so don't worry about it. Just skip it and go onto the story. ;) If something looks off, let me know and I'll fix it asap; that's the beauty of Kindle, I can fix it and you'll get the corrected version automatically updated to your Kindle app/device.

And that's it for now. I'll hopefully blog again tomorrow. We'll see. ;)

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D

Will and Lina Giveaway Winners AND News

First let me just say a big "thank you" to those of you who took time out of your busy schedules to post a little something about the first novel on various websites. I was not expecting y'all to be as kind as you were in your reviews... especially you men. Y'all were not my target audience but it seems you fellas didn't hate it, so thank you. lol. That's as "brag"-y as I get, folks. You can find reviews in various places; I'm not linking them. ;) lol.

The contest closed at midnight and we have the two winners. Y'all know the expression "the early bird gets the worm"? Well, two regular blog readers (aka those who submitted their reviews in early) ended up the winners! Congrats Stephanie Z. and Stephen C.! I've already gotten touch with y'all so now we shall just wait for Amazon to release the sequel so I can send it your way. ;) For those of you who didn't win, don't worry; I'm sure I'll hold another giveaway before you know it. ;)

I have a lot to do today so I'll keep the news short and sweet: Will and Lina: When Two Worlds Collide is officially available in print! Excited panda dance time. As of now, it's only available through CreateSpace AND Amazon since they are the ones printing the physical copies of it. I was told that you will be able to get copies elsewhere in the next 3-5 days. I will link those when I get them.

As for tomorrow's release of the sequel (London Calling), yes, it's still on but I don't know the time it'll be released because it varies every time. Amazon has to upload the file, send me the notification, etc. As soon as I get word, I will make another blog post and share the link. There is a chance that it won't go "live" (aka ready to purchase) until Saturday morning (even though I'm submitting it tomorrow). Hopefully I'll get word early tomorrow. We'll see... wish me luck 'cause I had some major issues with the first one being properly formatted. :)

And that's it for now. I have a million (yes, of course that's an exaggeration) little things I need to do before I can get some sleep.

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D

Will and Lina Series Info and Giveaway!

I'm currently dealing with yet another formatting issue with the first novel (seriously, y'all? I've changed it twice already!) but I thought I'd take a break from that to show y'all the print covers (and Kindle covers? I am not sure how Amazon will update the covers for the Kindle version) of both the first novel (Will and Lina: When Two Worlds Collide) and the sequel (Will and Lina: London Calling).

Final cover for WTWC:

Final cover for London Calling.

Can y'all say "stinkin' excited"?! Okay, now for the info y'all are probably going to be asking for:

Where you can purchase a copy:
Paperback: You can get a copy almost anywhere. I've set it up so you can get the book from physical bookstores or Amazon or CreateSpace. I am an independent self-published author so if you want to cut the "middle man" and get the book straight from the publisher, it'll be through CreateSpace. However, y'all can choose your preferred store (physical or virtual) to get them through.
eBook: It'll be exclusively available through Amazon just as WTWC is at the moment. And, no, you don't have to own an actual Kindle to get a copy. I have a Kindle app on my iPod touch and on my laptop so I can read any Kindle books without an actual Kindle. 

How much will the novels cost:
Paperback: The price is going to be set for $9.95 USD for each of the paperback versions but, knowing Amazon, they will discount 20-30% of it so you'll pay less. That's almost the lowest price they would allow me to set it at, to be honest. I wanted a $7.99 listing price but making books is expensive. Certain venues will earn me less royalties but I don't care about that; I'm just excited that people will read the novels.
eBook: It'll be set at $3.99 for both, just as WTWC is at the moment. I will occasionally hold sales throughout the year in which it'll be 99 cents (Amazon limits the number of times I can do this) as well.

Publishing dates:
Paperbook: Because there have been formatting issues (I've been working on these for three days now!), I don't have a specific publishing date for these. However, I am told that as soon as the proofs get approved (usually less than 24 hours), they should be available within 48 hours. I am aiming to have everything done by Monday so they can be available mid to late next week. I'm aiming for  December 19th release date across the board so let's just go with that unless I get news that it'll be available either earlier or later.
eBook: As y'all know, WTWC has been available on Kindle since May 1st of this year so you can get your copy now. Also, Amazon was nice enough to allow me to update the cover (for now, at least) and how the Kindle version looks like so if you've already purchased a copy, go check it out; updates should've been automatic. London Calling will be available on December 19th through Kindle.

Links:
I will be posting the links to where you can purchase the novels next Friday. I do know the ISBNs for both books but it's no use in giving them out now because they're not available for purchase yet. ;)

Giveaway:
I will be giving away TWO novel sequel copies because I'm technically not allowed to give my novels away (it's in my contract with Amazon) but I can certainly gift them to the winners by paying for them out of my own pocket so... it's not really a giveaway if I only gift two, right? Wink. ;) As I stated in the previous blog post, to enter you must have somehow reviewed or "starred" the first novel. It could be on Amazon, Goodreads, your own blog, etc. I want an honest review because that's how I grow as a writer. As soon as you have something published, you can DM, tweet, or send me a message via the blog's FB page and you'll be automatically entered. The giveaway is on the 18th. Winners will get to choose whether they want their copy to be on Kindle or print. I already have a couple of entries from early birds (aka regular readers) so if you want a chance to win a copy of the sequel, please send me the link to your review/star-rating by midnight PST on the 18th. I might hold more giveaways in the future but, right now, I'm pretty broke so I can only do two. May the odds be ever in your favor! ;)

And that's it, I think. If you have any more questions, let me know. Leave me a comment in the blog, tweet me, FB message me, etc. :D

I hope y'all have a wonderful feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe and a fantastic weekend. :D

As always, thanks for reading and God bless! :D

Introducing: Will and Lina; Q&A

It's official: the first novel is available on Amazon for Kindle! It's kind of surreal! This is definitely not the book I started writing in 2008 but I like how it changed as I grew up.

It was technically published yesterday (May 2nd) but it says May 1st for some reason? Maybe Amazon really wanted me to have a book released on St. Joseph the Worker's feast day; I definitely worked hard with the proofreading and the editing (so much editing) in the past couple of weeks.

I've gotten some questions asked about the novel so, instead of just repeating myself, I'm taking the top 4 and answering them on here.

Q1) What genre is it?
A: Um, (mostly) fiction? lol. I'm still unsure beyond it being YA fiction. Amazon has it listed as Contemporary Women as well as New Adult and College. *shrugs*

Q2) Is Melissa Cecilia a pen name?
A: Yes. Most of you know by now that Emmy has been my nickname for years (Melissa is my actual first name)... and that I used my nickname because I didn't want my alma mater to sue me for "exposing" them. I decided not to use my surname for the novel because there is a designer, a model, and, I think, a photographer with the same name and I didn't want there to be confusion. That's what happens when you're born in a decade when your first name was in the top 10 most popular... for an entire decade. Also, I generally use Melissa Cecilia or Emmy Cecilia for everything anyway. :)

Q3) Are Will and Lina based on real life people? Is the novel based on real life events?
A: *shrugs* It's mostly fiction. Friends are speculating that Lina is based on me. That's all I'm saying. ;)

Q4) Will there be a print version?
A: Yes! Don't ask me when the release date with be though. I don't know when it'll happen but hopefully over the summer. Since I'm doing independent publishing, it's all dependant on when I have the free time to get everything done myself. Ah, life of an indie writer. ;)

And that's it for now. I'm trying to take it easy this weekend because I return to school on Monday. I need the weekend to rest from all the stress I endured this past weekend. ;)

I hope y'all have a great weekend! If you have any prayer requests, please send 'em my way. :D



P.S. There may be a FB page for the novel. Thanks to Jane for getting people to join. lol.