MILESTONE: 60,000 Books Sold!

Yippeee!!! I'm very excited to announce that yesterday, I hit a new sales milestone. 60,000 books sold. This is an all-time figure, starting when I self-published my first novel, Beautiful Demons, at the end of October 2010. It took me almost exactly 16 months to reach this milestone, and I couldn't be happier.

More than anything, I just wanted to say thank you! Thank you to all my faithful readers who have purchased the books in the Peachville High Demons series and supported me. It means more to me than I could ever say. You have all made my dreams come true. There is nothing I have ever wanted to do more than write, and every day for the last 16 months has felt like a gift. So thank you so much.

I'm setting my sights now on 75k, and then the 100,000 sales milestone, hoping to hit them both before the end of 2012! That might be a tad ambitious, but a girl can hope right? :)

Back to Work!

I am safely home in North Carolina and getting back to work on the rough draft of Demons Forever! I had such a great time in Georgia, but I always feel like I lose a lot of work time when I go there. It's just too hard to concentrate on writing when there's so much family activity. I mean, it's hard to justify crawling into a cave somewhere to spend hours writing when I barely get to see my mom and sister and brother, you know?

So the bottom line is that I didn't really get any work done while I was away, lol. /sigh.

Now I'm back though, and ready to go. I spent a lot of time on my drive thinking about this final book and where Harper and Jackson will end up. I'm really excited about this last stage of their journey. My goal right now is to finish the rough draft by March 15th. This is a pretty ambitious goal considering that this book is definitely going to be the longest in the series, but I know I can do it.

Once I finish the rough draft, I'll have a much better idea of when the book will be released. Also, I have the cover art already for the book, but I think I will wait and reveal it after the rough draft is done!! One of my critique group members saw it and said that she thinks it's the best cover in the series, so I really hope all of you will like it! You'll just have to wait a tiny bit longer to see it.

Thanks again for all of the encouragement and to all of you who have bought and reviewed Rival Demons. So far on Amazon, the book has all 5 star reviews! It's almost the same for Barnes and Noble, but there is one lone 1 star review that simply reads "What order do these books go in?" LOL. I've been so appreciative of everyone who has taken the time to read and review the book! And believe me, I'm overwhelmed by the positive response. I am going to do everything in my power to make Demons Forever just as good, if not better!

So, long story short, I'm back and hard at work. :)

Home to Georgia

No, I haven't completely fallen off the face of the earth, lol. When I'm starting work on a new book, I always sort of crawl into this cave where I have less to say to the outside world. And I've been working a lot on Demons Forever. Since this is the final book in my series, it's obviously very near and dear to my heart. I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my characters, reading back through important scenes, writing out lists of all of the unanswered questions. I really want this book to be something special.

That's the main reason I've been more quiet lately. Unfortunately, my concentration on the book is about to get slightly interrupted. I'm heading home to Georgia this afternoon to spend a week with my Mom and other family. They are throwing me my first baby shower tomorrow, and I'm so excited!!! It's going to be lots of fun. I have a feeling most of the week will be all about baby - shopping, talking, dreaming. I do actually have high hopes of getting a little bit of work done on the book, but it won't be full focus like normal.

I also probably won't have a lot of time to blog or be on Twitter or Facebook. I just wanted to let you all know that I haven't forgotten about you or about the book. I'm just taking a week to be with family and celebrate being pregnant. :) I'm really looking forward to it!

I'll be back next Friday and it will be right back to work!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!! It's always such a fun day of telling people you love them and watching romantic movies or daydreaming about the future. Today, I have been thinking a lot about my sweet little baby boy, Andrew, who will be coming in June. I hope he knows how much I love him already :).

My husband and I are not doing anything fancy tonight. Just going to see a movie - and nothing romantic, haha. I think we're going to see Chronicle, which I've heard is good. And I can't resist movies about teens with powers, hehe. It should be a fun evening!!

Today, I've spent some time working on Book 6 of the Peachville High Demons series, thinking a lot about Harper and Jackson's relationship. They've been through their share of rough times, so how will it all end for them? Sometimes, even though I'm the author, I feel like it's out of my hands. I feel like I've become so close to these characters that they really truly must exist somewhere. I'm just lucky enough to know them and to be able to tell their story. Is that weird? LOL.

I'm already getting a lot of emails and messages from those of you wanting to know when Demons Forever is going to come out. All I can tell you is that I'm working on it! I promise, I will do my best to keep my word meter here on the right side of my blog updated so you can follow my progress on the rough draft. I will also keep posting blogs, tweets, and facebook updates on how the book is coming along. As soon as I know when the book will come out, trust me, you'll know too!! All I can say for sure is that I'm going to do everything humanly possible to get this book out before baby Andrew comes in June!

Oh, and in other news, I'm also working hard on a new website! It's actually completely designed (by my amazing cover designer, Robin Ludwig, and my great friend Tivi at Creativity Loft), but right now I'm working on getting the content set up. As a little warning, I will be moving my blog to the new site when it launches at the end of the month. I hope you'll follow me there :). Like I've been talking about for a while, I'll be splitting my blog into two pages - one more for readers and fans and one more for Indie authors and those interested in self-publishing news and tips and opinions. I'm excited about the change and can't wait to show you the new site!

I hope you all have a very happy day with your loved ones!