Fall 2012 Release & Some Musings, Too

Here it is--MORE THAN SPARROWS! A few days ahead of schedule and ready for your Amazon Kindle. It's been over six months since CHAMPAGNE TASTE, my last release (which was in April of this year), so I'm very happy and excited to be seeing this newest book available for my readers.

That's part of what I love about being an indie author. If a book is ready to go, it's ready. No more waiting for a publisher to get their twenty books for the month out; YOU'RE the publisher. Speaking of being an indie, it's now been over a year since I released my first self-published book, GLIMMERS OF HEAVEN. Since then, I've been able to publish a paranormal, a lighthearted Christmas spy tale, a chick-lit/romance fusion, a previously published title (SEA SIREN, writing as Consuelo Vazquez) and now this Christian mainstream novel.

My next book, tentatively titled GREETINGS FROM MY SANDY DREAMS, is already in the works. This is a project I'd started some time ago (right after CHAMPAGNE TASTE, actually), but it has undergone some changes. For one thing, a male character proved to be much more interesting and important than I'd previously understood him to be, and both he and the story's heroine are in their 40s rather than in their 30s. As any writer can tell you, projects are started and stopped, then rejuvenated and reworked once authors have a better grasp of who their "people" really are.

That's something else I love about being in indie. First I have to give credit where credit is due: The truth is, most small presses are excellent to write for, much less unyielding and much more willing to be adventurous than the big guys in New York. For the past several years I've had the privilege of working with ebook publishers, all of whom have given free reign to their authors' imaginations.

As an indie, too, I've approached my work with a let's-go-somewhere-we-haven't-gone-before approach. Why would I want to write something some fresh-out-of-college marketing grad at Acme Publishing Company in Manhattan claims will sell like hotcakes? Why not write from my heart, trusting myself to do an inspirational mainstream--set in another era, no less--with not one, not two, but SIX different POVs? Or a story about a woman who picks up roots and...well, more on that later. :D

In short, this has been an exciting venture for me as an author. Am I rich? Can I leave my nine-to-five? Not right now, though GLIMMERS OF HEAVEN was a Christian bestseller, and my other books have also done well. Other indies, too, are producing things and having success with them, projects the Big Six would have totally overlooked.

So, personally, I look forward to the year ahead and books that will come from my heart, to be shared with my readers. And I promise not to take as long with the next one!