New novel out on February 16, 2016

2 min read

I am pleased to announce that my contemporary romance novel, At the Heart of the Stone, is due to be published and released with Loose-Id on February 16, 2016. Cover art by Dar Albert with Loose Id. Though the title may change the closer we get to publication, it didn’t dawn on me when I named it that the acronym spells out ATHOTS, but as it is an erotic romance novel, it seems fitting! 🙂

A quick word about writing this. I originally wrote this novel 7 years ago, when I was pregnant with #2. It was more along the lines of a cookie-cutter Hallmark movie, with no love scenes in it. After being rejected for publication, I shelved it for 6 years while I graduated from college and did the mom thing. When I finally kicked my own behind to get back into it, I went through several rewrites and character changes, and the protagonist all but demanded I give her a love scene, which mutated and gave birth to baby love scenes.

The finished product is something I’m pleased with and proud of, and I encourage anyone who has doubts as to if they should write a book/rewrite a book or not, to just do it. Self-doubt is part of being a writer, but so is editing and rewriting. Along those lines, the one thing I didn’t do with ATHOTS that I regret was to get it critiqued.

In a current novel I’m working on, I’ve had it critiqued twice, and working with an editor makes all the difference. The more you go along and put your work out there (in good, professional hands, hopefully), the greater the chance it stands at becoming solid, publishable material.

Always believe in your dreams.

As a little Easter egg, here is a playlist for ATHOTS that I continually listened to while rewriting it before Loose-ID accepted it, for any curious readers (below). Happy writing, everyone!

Playlist for ATHOTS: