Celebrate the Small Things: June 26, 2015

It's Friday!  Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain!  Tonja and I are her co-hosts!

My dad had to spend the night in the hospital this week for a heart-related issue.  He got to go home yesterday afternoon and he's feeling much better.  My dad hates being in the hospital with a passion (as do most of us), so he was relieved to go home.

Today is the last t-ball game of the season, so my kids are excited about that.

The release date for A Silent Soliloquy is a little over a week away now.  I'm making good progress on finishing the posts for my blog tour, and I should be sending those out early next week.  I'm excited and terrified.

Suzanne Furness gave me the Encouraging Thunder Award last week!

What you can do with Encouraging Thunder Award:

Post it on your blog.

Grant other bloggers with the award.

What you can't do with the award:

Abuse or misuse the logo.

Claim that it's your own handmade logo.

What you should do after receiving the award:

Enjoy the award!

Thank via comments or mention the blogger who gave you the award.

No questions or complicated rules. It's acknowledgement  for those who support and encourage.

I'd like to offer this award to everyone who helped me with my cover reveal and/or signed on to help me with my upcoming blog tour.  Whether you choose to pass it on or not, I just want all of you to know how much I appreciate your help!

What would you like to celebrate?

Express Yourself: Abnormal Skills

The Express Yourself Weekly Meme is hosted by Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests.

The question for this week is: If you could learn one out-of-the-norm skill, what would you choose?

I know I've said this before, but I'd like to learn Klingon.  Learning Elvish would also be cool. The writing just looks so pretty.

What out-of-the-norm skill would you like to learn?

Celebrate the Small Things-July 19th, 2015

It's Friday!  Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain!  I am one of her co-hosts.  Tonja Decker of Kidbits is starting this week as a co-host as well, so let's all give her a warm welcome!

This has been another crazy week for me.  My novella A Silent Soliloquy made the Smashwords Premium Catalog, which is all kinds of awesome.  That means my book is already available for pre-order through Barnes & Noble and Kobo and other similar retailers in addition to being available through Smashwords.  It's been crazy seeing it there and knowing that people will soon be able to buy it.  You can also add it on Goodreads now too.

My blog tour is also coming together.  I still have two spots open that need to be filled: Wednesday, July 15th and Thursday, July 16th.  If you're interested in helping me out either of those days, please let me know and leave your contact information in the comments.  Thanks again to everyone who has signed up so far!  You guys are the best!

My kids are nearing the end of t-ball season.  Next week is the last, and I have the feeling they'll miss it when it's over.  The library's summer reading program started this week, though, and that runs through the end of July.  I know they'll have a good time with that.

My husband has been working on a video game related YouTube Channel.  He's excited about the project and I'm excited for him.  It's him and some friends playing video games and inserting plenty of colorful commentary.  You can check it out here, but be warned: this is only suitable for adults.

What would you like to celebrate?

Express Yourself: Secret Location

The Express Yourself Weekly Meme is hosted by Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests.

This week's question is: You have been blindfolded and taken to a secret place. When the blindfold is removed, where are you?

When I remove the blindfold, I'm sitting in a nice coffee shop with a steaming hot cup of dark roast coffee and a delicious side salad.  I have my laptop and notebook with me, and an entire afternoon of uninterrupted writing ahead of me.

I know, this isn't an elaborate dream, but I could really use an afternoon like this right now.

Where would you be?

Cover Reveal!

It's time!  I can hardly believe it's time for the cover reveal.  I'll probably be in pieces when release day finally gets here.  This is the cover for the e-book.  The cover for the print edition will look similar, but there are going to be a few differences.  The main image, however, is going to be the same.

Title: A Silent Soliloquy

Author: L.G. Keltner

Genre: Science Fiction/Dystopian

Length: 28,000 words

Cover Art: Devross

Release Date: July 6th, 2015

Blurb:

TIPPIE was created to be a weapon.  By all appearances, she's an ordinary girl of 18, and she uses that to her advantage in her work for The Facility.  What no one sees is that there's another girl buried deep inside.  She can't speak or control the movements of the body she inhabits.  As TIPPIE's silent passenger, she can only observe.  She uses the details she learns from TIPPIE's work to reconstruct the stories of other people's lives.  It helps her feel a little more connected to the world she can only watch.

When TIPPIE's work leads her to David, a young man with a haunted past and information that The Facility wants, TIPPIE uses her skills to earn his trust.  The silent girl beneath the surface knows that TIPPIE is only going to hurt him, but she can't help but feel for him.  Those feelings only grow, but she knows all too well that TIPPIE's work will soon come to an end.

Pre-Order Links:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Thanks to everyone who signed up to help me with my cover reveal today!

Celebrate the Small Things and Express Yourself: June 12, 2015

It's Friday!  Let's Celebrate the Small Things with Lexa Cain!  TheCyborgMom and I are her co-hosts.

As some of you may have already read, TheCyborgMom is stepping down as a co-host.  She's been a wonderful co-host, but I understand that life makes other demands and it can be hard to keep up with blogging at times.  I'd like to wish her all the best!

This has been a tough but exciting week.  I announced earlier this week that I'm having a cover reveal for my new novella on Monday, June 15th.  If any of you would like to help me out with that, you can sign up on the following linky.  I'll get all the necessary information emailed over the weekend.

The release date is July 6th, which also happens to be my husband's birthday.  To celebrate the release, I'm going to be doing a blog tour that will run from July 6th through the 17th.  If any of you would like to host me during that time, you can sign up with this linky.

As a first time self-publisher, I'm learning a lot this week.  I learned a lot about formatting especially.  The Smashwords style guide was helpful, though the whole formatting ordeal still gave me a massive headache.  I finished formatting a print version of the book as well, and I just need to finish proofing it.  I'm also publishing on Amazon, but I've had a bit of a hiccup there.  I'm working on getting it resolved, though.  I think I should be able to get things worked out in time, but  I'm a newbie as far as these things go, so I can't say anything with absolute confidence.

Still, even with the challenges that have come up this week, I'm still more excited than anything else.

UPDATE: The issue with Amazon is now officially solved!  I'd love to thank the super helpful customer service person who helped me out.  You were awesome!

What would you like to celebrate?

The Express Yourself Weekly Meme is hosted by Jackie @ Bouquet of Books and Dani @ Entertaining Interests.

The prompt for this week is:  You have 30 seconds to change your whole name, what is it?

Perpetua Nicklefinger Gruntletoad

Why that name?  I don't know.  My brain is weird.

Announcing My Cover Reveal and Release Date!

I have the cover to my novella A Silent Soliloquy in hand (or, more accurately, in computer), and that means I can now announce my cover reveal!  Woohoo!  There are a fair few butterflies in my stomach, because everything is coming together.

Isn't it a strange but amazing feeling when that happens?  It's certainly a little terrifying.

Anyway, now that things have gotten this far, I need to start planning.  Though I'd love to throw this thing out into the world right this second, I should perhaps be a wee bit more patient than that.

I've decided that my cover reveal will be this coming Monday.  That's Monday, June 15th.  It's still pretty short notice, but I honestly don't think I can hold out any longer than that.

Interesting side note: the day of my cover reveal will also be the 10 year anniversary of the day my husband first asked me out.

If you'd like to help me out with the cover reveal, just sign up with the linky below.  I'll get you all the info you need over the weekend!

I've also decided on a release date of Monday, July 6th.  It's only a three week wait in between, but July 6th is also my husband's birthday.  I figure that will help make our day that much more festive.  We also have a tradition of taking over other people's special days in our family anyway.  My husband asked me out on my parents' anniversary, and we got married on his parents' anniversary.  Therefore, this release date makes complete sense.

And since a blog tour is one of the best ways to get the word out about the book, I decided to schedule my tour for Monday, July 6th-Friday, July 17th.  Funny, that end date would have been my great grandmother's 100th birthday.  As many of you know, she died a couple of weeks ago.  The way the dates are all coming together feels quite appropriate, really.

So, since it's all coming up close anyway, I figure I should put out a linky for people to sign up for the blog tour too.  If you have any ideas about the specific date you'd like me to stop by and the format you'd like that visit to follow (interview, details about the world/characters, new piece of flash fiction related to the story, etc.) feel free to let me know in the comments below.  If not, never fear.  I'll get a hold of everyone within the next week or two to start hashing out the details.

So, here's the blog tour linky for all those interested.



I feel like I'm rambling today, so I'll let you all go about your business now.