The new book is out!

It’s here! Sound the trumpets and send up the fireworks! My new book, The Goddess is in the Details: Wisdom for the Everyday Witch is finally out from Llewellyn and available at Amazon and your local bookstore. It has gotten rave advance reviews, which is very exciting. Notable Pagan authors Z. Budapest, Edain McCoy and Denise Dumars were kind enough to write blurbs for the book, too. Huzzah! I got the box of books I ordered the other day, and I have to tell you, there is very little in life that is more satisfying for an author than holding your “baby” in your hands for the first time.

Didn’t Llewellyn do a great job on the cover? Kudos to the artist, and to my two wonderful editors, Elysia Gallo and Becky Zins.

I am so excited, I am going to run a special “blog only” contest. Until the end of May, people will have the chance to post links to this announcement and/or to my website www.deborahblakehps.com and/or to the book on Amazon in as many places they can think of. The person who can send me proof that they’ve posted in the most places will win a free copy of the new book, signed by me. Just contact me through my website or this blog. If anyone manages to find over 50 places to post links (blogs, loops, facebook, twitter, myspace, etc), I will send them copies of ALL THREE of my books! So go out and spread the word!

And I hope you will find and enjoy the new book!
Blessings,
Deborah

April news and the EMILY Best of the Best Award

Hi All,

Happy “theoretical” spring! Here in upstate New York, we are still doing the moody swing between sunny and 60 and raining/snowing/30 blech.

But I have news to brighten the darkest day, so I don’t care!

I was notified that I won the EMILY contest “Best of the Best” award. They take the winners of all the various categories (I won “Romantic Suspense,” although my novel is really a paranormal with romantic suspense) and pick, well, the best of the best. And that was ME! I’m still over the moon about it.
Better yet, my prize was that I got to send the 1st 3 chapters of WITCH EVER WAY YOU CAN to Leis Pederson, at Berkley. Let’s hope she likes it!

I am hard at work editing my second novel, KING ME! – a humorous paranormal romance about a modern witch who accidentally brings back King Arthur to save the world. Oops. Many thanks to my “First Readers”: Judith Levine, Caere Dunn, and my two writing partners, Robin Wright and Saoirse Redgrave. You guys rock! As soon as I get through the first round of edits, I’ll be sending the first 65 pages or so to fabbo author and professional editor, Mindy Klasky.

Speaking of my pal Saoirse, she got great news, too. (Way better than mine, really.) Her YA werewolf tale, 13 TO LIFE, which won the Textnovel.com contest, has been “snapped up” by a great publisher! More details later when everything is official, but in the meanwhile, big cheers for Saoirse!

I’m more than midway through writing my fourth book for Llewellyn, THE EVERYDAY WITCH A TO Z SPELLBOOK. Today I started working on the “Q” spells, so it’s moving along nicely. And of course, book 3, THE GODDESS IS IN THE DETAILS: WISDOM FOR THE EVERYDAY WITCH comes out in May!

Booksigning news next time J

Many bright blessings, and may spring bring you good news, too!
Deborah

I win, I win, I win!

Got the call last night (happy Valentine's Day to me!) that I had won 1st in the contemporary series catagory of the West Houston RWA "EMILY" contest. It's my first "1st" (I have a couple of 2nds) so I am really tickled pink. In addition, I was told that the judging editor, Patience Smith of Silhouette, asked to see the full. Woot!

Of course, it is odd that I won in CS, since I am usually in the paranormal catagory [for some reason I entered both in this contest...no idea why...must have been that little voice in my head...and didn't final in the paranormal catagory). And my mss isn't really Silouette material, although you never know. I was aiming more at LUNA or MIRA. Still, just having the request makes me feel like I am on the right track and getting closer to my goal...

I hope everyone else had something wonderful happen this weekend :-)

Doing the happy dance,
Deborah

Update on January Goals and new February Goals

I didn't manage to accomplish all my writing goals for January, although I made a fairly good dent in them. Here is my report for last month and the month to come:

Writing Goals

This Week (Feb 2-Feb 8):
1. Update blog
2. Enter “Chase the Dream” contest again
3. Write G-H on Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook
4. Write 20 new pages in King Me!
5. Read and edit Writer’s Group pal Shannon’s book chap 9-12

Last Month (January 2009)
1. done Finish all edits on WEWYC (set aside other than agent/contest submissions)
2. did only thru F Complete thru “L” on Everyday Witch Spellbook
3. done Review and revise first 100+ pages of King Me!
4. did 3, decided to wait on more Send 10 queries for WEWYC (if necessary)
5. got verbal “yes” and waiting on contract Get contract for Everyday Witch Spellbook
6. done Update blog weekly
7. Write up outline for Witch Ever Way You Turn didn’t get to
8. Write additional 50 pages on first draft of King Me! Didn’t get to
9. Find 2 opportunities for freelance article writing did one of 2
This Month (February 2009)
1. Update blog weekly
2. Enter one contest
3. Complete G-M on Everyday Witch A to Z
4. Complete 50 additional pages on King Me!
5. Work with webmaster to update website

How are you doing with your goals?

More goals

Okay, I admit it--didn't manage to accomplish all my goals for last week. I blame the winter. And stuff. I did get 5 of the 8 goals completed, and worked on the others...
The biggest one I did accomplish, however, was finishing the edits for my completed mss, WITCH EVER WAY YOU CAN. It is off to a few more agents, and I will still be sending it out to contests, but other than that it is getting set aside for now so I can return to work on the WIP (work in progress), KING ME!
Here are my writing goals for the coming week:


This Week (Jan 26- Feb 1):

Update blog
Enter “Chase the Dream” contest again
Write E-F on Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook
Review and revise 1st 137 pages of King Me!
Write 20 new pages in King Me!
Enter “Sheila” contest
I'll let you know how it goes:-)

Hope everyone has a good week and meets or exceeds their own goals.
Blessings, Deborah

Great news and this week's writing goals

This week was quite productive, and I managed to do all but one of the goals on my list. But I am TIRED and am devising a slightly more manageable list for next week.

THE GOOD NEWS IS: I got the call from my aquisitions editor at Llewellyn, and they will be contracting for my 4th book, The Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook. Yahoo! That puts me in line to achieve my goal with the NF, which was 5 books in 5 years. (I decided that was what it would take to get me "known.") So big ol' happy dance here! Of course, now I have to finish writing it:-)

Did: updated my blog, entered two contests (small free ones), got info to my webmaster pal so we can update my website, wrote all of the "C" and some of the "D" entries for Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook, reread and polished Witch Ever Way pages 100-190, sent out 3 queries for it (got 2 rejections almost immediately--sigh) and finished reading and scoring my entries for the Golden Heart and Great Expectations contests and sent them in.

Didn't do: I only managed to get through part of "D" for the A-Z, when I'd been aiming at finishing thru "F." Still, not a bad week, all in all.

Updated Writing Goals

This Week (Jan 19-25):
1. Update blog
2. Enter “Chase the Dream” contest again
3. Write up mini-proposal for Itty Bitty Kitty Spellbook
4. Write D-F on Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook
5. Reread and polish WEWYC page 193-263 (end)
6. Send out 3 Queries for Witch Ever Way You Can
7. Send out Full of WEWYC to Lois Winston
8. Review and revise 1st 35 pages of King Me!

I hope everyone is doing well keeping up with their goals and new year's resolutions. I am working on a few personal goals too, but it is a little to early to share them. I'll let you know if things go well:-)

This week's writing goals

It's a miracle! I actually accomplished all of last week's goals. Will it ever happen again? Too soon to say...

Here are the goals for this week, and a recap of the monthly goals, to keep me honest:
Writing Goals

This Week (Jan 12-18):
1. Update blog
2. Enter “The Verb” contest by 1/15
3. Enter “Chase the Dream” contest 1/12
4. Get info to webmaster for updates of website
5. Write C-F on Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook
6. Reread and polish WEWYC thru page 190
7. Send out 3 Queries for Witch Ever Way You Can
8. Finish and send in judging scores for Golden Heart
9. Read and critique 2 entries for Great Expectations

This Month (January 2009)
1. Finish all edits on WEWYC (set aside other than agent/contest submissions)
2. Complete thru “L” on Everyday Witch Spellbook
3. Review and revise first 100+ pages of King Me!
4. Send 10 queries for WEWYC (if necessary)
5. Get contract for Everyday Witch Spellbook
6. Update blog weekly
7. Write up outline for Witch Ever Way You Turn
8. Write additional 50 pages on first draft of King Me!
9. Find 2 opportunities for freelance article writing

IN other news, my friend Shannon got some great news, which I'll share when I can. Robin and George bought a new house (which is going to make it hard to gather for our writing group, but is still good news for them).

And I was notified that I am a finalist in the 2009 "Emily" contest! Yippe!