Samuel, Seer

Since October, I've been busy revising and republishing books. So far, we've re-published Scott's Tanella's Flight, Natalie's A Gigolo for Christmas, and The Mom's Place, and my Clues to Food. We've also republished our anthology, Bits and Bites.

Additionally, as an Editor with the Electric Scroll, I've been working with four other authors, and their books are in various stages of publication.

Today, I want to talk about the newest book out, Samuel, Seer. It's the fictionalized autobiography of the Old Testament prophet, Samuel, and it's...hmm...what's a better word than Awesome? Well, it's better than Awesome!

Also, today, and until the 9th, the Kindle ebook version is free! (Get it here.)

A M Jenner

Moms Place Giveaway

Scott Roche is giving away an ebook copy of The Moms Place on his blog this week.

Moms for Mama

Random.org picked tiggermama as the winner of The Moms Place. Drop me an email and let me know how to sign it and where to send it.

Also, for the record, if you've already won a book, you are still elegible to win another one, just be sure to enter each day. In other words, Goofy Girl and tiggermama can enter again tomorrow and have the same chance of winning as anyone else who enters tomorrow.

~Marie

Giving Away Moms

My new book, The Siege of Kwennjurat, is scheduled for release nine days from now, and I feel like celebrating. For the next nine days, I am giving away one signed book each day. Here’s how to enter:

Making a comment on the blog gets you one entry. If you’re a blog follower, say so for a second entry. Tweeting and sharing to Facebook or Google+ are worth one entry each (post a link to where you shared in your comment). First thing tomorrow morning, I will put all the entries in a hat and draw a winner. I’ll announce the winner, and then they can email me their real name and address, and their signed book will be on the way!

Today I’m giving away The Moms Place, a sweet romance. What is the most romantic thing your husband / boyfriend has done for you? I thought it was extremely romantic when mine got up in the middle of the night to change a pretty toxic diaper. If you don’t have a romantic person in your life, feel free to make something up. See you tomorrow with a new giveaway and the announcement of today’s winner.

News and Resolution Update

First, the news.

Christopher Wilke wrote a review of Assignment to Earth, which can be found at the League of the Iron Quill.

The Moms Place is now available in all formats. Links to both books are on my website, am-jenner.com.

I was out of town at my sister's wedding when it was time to publish my resolution update, and it's taken me a week or so to recover from my trip and get all the loose ends at home tucked back in again. I have not been neglecting my goals, I've just been too busy to write about them.
My goals for this year are:

• Graduate from college.
• Write a new manuscript, something I haven't had time to do since I started college.
• Take a vacation someplace out of Arizona.
• Hug my daughter every day.
• Learn how to make book trailers and post them to YouTube.

College graduation was May 11, so that goal is now retired.

My darling daughter and new partner Jenna helped me plot a new book, Crown of Tears, which I will be writing for Camp NaNoWriMo in August.

I just got back from my vacation in California, where I visited with family and a large sentient rodent.

I continue to hug my daughter on  a daily basis.

The book trailer project has been put off indefinitely.

As I continue through the year, my goals now read:

• Write a new manuscript, something I haven't had time to so since I started college.
• Hug my daughter every day.
• Finish editing The Siege of Kwennjurat and get it published.
• Support my daughter as she takes her turn at college.

In June I read 17 books, with a total of 5335 pages. At the half-year mark, this brings my reading total to 120 books and 25,903 pages read for pleasure. None of the reading I do for school or work is included in this total.

~Marie

Exciting Mid-Week Announcement!

Just a brief post to show off my new book, The Moms Place. What's The Moms Place about? I'm glad you asked! Here's what is says on the back of the book:


     The Power of Advertising
     Cassi Spencer's upscale restaurant is in trouble. She needs a loan, fast, not advice to spend money she doesn't have on advertising. Especially when that advice comes from the distractingly handsome Rhys Morgan!
     Rhys Morgan likes Cassi's idea of creating a training ground to get homeless moms out of the shelters. He likes Cassi even better, and he’s willing to help her...under certain conditions.
     Together, can they save Cassi's livelihood and her dream, or will everything end up as yesterday's news?


Because of those nasty "circumstances beyond my control", The Moms Place is being published on the day before I leave town for a week. This means there is not yet an ebook available, and there is not a page on my website linking to the book. For at least the next week, and maybe for a few days after that, the only way to purchase this book is in print, through this link: The Moms Place. I'll get the ebooks up as soon as I can, but between my sister's wedding and non-refundable tickets, I can't move the trip around.

This is also a great time to introduce my new partner, Jenna. Jenna plotted this book, and helped write it, even before she realized she wanted to be a writer. It's an excellent romance, and I hope you'll enjoy it.

~Marie

June Resolution Update

Welcome to June! In Arizona June means triple digit temperatures, excessive heat warnings,and generally high pressure. The humidity is still low enough to be comfortable, and this year the hurricane season hasn't really ramped up yet (though it has started), so my back is loving the weather and I'm starting to feel a lot better. Yeah, I know what you're thinking, what's the connection between hurricane season and weather in an inland state like Arizona? Pacific hurricanes, and some Gulf ones that strike Mexico, pour humidity into Arizona, so they do affect our weather. More importantly to me on a personal level, the arthritis in my back is so well developed that I'm affected by strong hurricanes up to a thousand miles from Phoenix, as well as really strong winter storms clear up in northern Idaho. So a quiet start to hurricane season means less pain for me, more energy, and a lot more productivity.

My resolutions for this year are to:

• Graduate from college.
• Write a new manuscript, something I haven't had time to do since I started college.
• Take a vacation someplace out of Arizona.
• Hug my daughter every day.
• Learn how to make book trailers and post them to YouTube.

How am I doing?

I graduated! May 11 was the commencement ceremony, and I'd show off my pictures of my cap and gown with the yellow Phi Theta Kappa stole and tassel and the blue cord of highest distinction, except that those pictures all show my face, and I have a thing about putting my face on the Internet. May 15 I got an email from the college saying they'd checked my grades (all A's!), and all of my requirements were met, and my degree was posted. I can now put the letters AGS after my name. They also said they'd be mailing the paper diplomas out "starting in the first week of June", so I expect to get it soon so I can frame it and hang it on the wall of my office.

The new-manuscript writing is still scheduled for November, but I've been toying with the idea of also doing Camp NaNoWriMo in August. If a plot idea strikes me. Or a character starts bugging me. Right now the only characters bugging me are in things in editing stages. The Moms Place is still on schedule to be published by the end of June, and I'm also working on The Siege of Kwennjurat, hoping to get it finished and published sometime this fall.

We're getting excited about the trip to southern California at the end of this month and sneaking into the first part of July. (If my resolution blog post is a little late or early next month, it's because I'm crossing off resolutions.)

The daily hugging is doing wonders for relationships and attitudes.

And the book trailer project has been officially put off until next year. I have too many other things going on right now to work on that.

In other news, Anne has a new desk in her office, and we're working on reclaiming the room from the boxes and boxes of "to-be-filed" stuff. Filing has become my summer project, and I'm making good progress on it. I'm still working on the manually striped socks, and have got the first one past the heel, and am working toward the toe. I'm only making slow progress on the socks because I'm pretty tired out every evening. The being tired is from working hard to get myself to the point where I can walk around Disneyland without slowing Anne and Jenna down. Although I will be taking my walker to Disneyland with me, for a while I thought I'd be taking my wheelchair. Friday I was set out from the house to do errands. (I had to go to the bank, the library, the Wal-Mart supercenter for computer parts, Barnes & Noble, the hair salon, and the Wal-Mart neighborhood store for milk on the way home.) The best part of my day is that I didn't use my chair or my walker, and, for the first time in I don't remember how long, I was able to complete all my errands before running out of energy and giving up halfway through. I know that sounds pretty pathetic, but for me it was a major triumph. In May I read 30 books with a total of 4441 pages.

~Marie

Pomp and Circumstance

On Friday, I will graduate from college. This represents to me both the culmination of two years of hard work and determination, and the fulfillment of a life-long dream.

In high school, my plan was to graduate and go directly on to college. It took a year after graduation before I was finally able to get to college. Three semesters later I was out of money, nowhere near graduation, and had a large student loan. I had to quit school and go to work.

I worked at many jobs, got married and divorced, and have the single most wonderful child in the world to show for it. Through it all, the goal of someday going back to school and graduating was always in the back of my mind and near the center of my heart. I resolved to never stop learning.

I moved in with my parents when arthritis forced me to stop working. At about the same time, my daughter’s school situation threw me into homeschooling. Once my daughter completed all the requirements of high school and eyed the local community college, it occurred to me that I had the time to go back to school, if I could get the money.

I enrolled in the community college and applied for a grant. The grant came through and I threw myself into my classes. Of the classes I’ve completed, I have only one B in a long string of A’s. I have a reasonable expectation of getting an A in all four of the classes I’m completing this week. I’ve been on the President’s Honor List every semester. I was inducted into Phi Theta Kappa last October. College has been a strain on my health. I started school walking across campus and carrying my books in a backpack. I now use a walker to move both me and my books. I shuffle across campus, and I have to nap between classes. Some of my classes were to improve my writing, some were to help with the business side of writing, and the rest were simply requirements for the degree.

On Friday, I will graduate from college. I will be the proud owner of a freshly-inked Associate of General Studies degree. I will hobble across the platform with my walker. Over my black cap and gown, I will be wearing my gold Phi Theta Kappa stole, and the blue cord indicating I’m graduating with highest honors. As I write this post, I still have three finals to take and the grades have yet to be awarded, but I’m doing well enough in the classes that they’ll let me graduate before the finals have been scored and the grades awarded.

I know this long post isn’t the usual thing you see on this blog, but I wanted to share a little about where I came from so you can understand why I’m so enthused and how proud and excited I am of my accomplishment.

A lot of people have asked me what I’ll be doing after I graduate. They expect me to say I am going to go on to a University to pursue a bachelor’s degree. I always surprise them by saying I will be working very hard on my books. I hope to have The Mom’s Place out by the end of June, and with any luck, the long-awaited The Siege of Kwennjurat will be finished by the end of October.

~Marie

Looking for Readers Again!

School is out, I got straight A's, and am halfway to graduation. It's time to work feverishly on writing until I fall back into academia in mid-August.

What have I done so far? I've learned how to format a manuscript for a successful conversion to e-book; learned enough about photoshop to make decent book covers; cleaned up all the files on my external hard drive, including a badly needed reorganization of my writing files; engaged in a seriously painful battle with a sinus infection; and began coding an update on my website.

My goals are to publish Deadly Gamble by the end of June in print and e-book, re-do the covers and e-book formatting for Tanella's Flight and Fabric of the World, and do as much as possible to get the next two novels ready to publish in October and April.

The October novel has been read, and is entirely in my hands now. I am looking for readers for the April novel. This one is called The Mom's Place. It is a romance, but it is a clean romance. It has a contemporary setting.

I'm looking for people who have MS Word to read and edit the manuscript. I would like to send it out to 5-6 people on Monday, and you will have three weeks to read, edit, and return it. As always, I'm looking for people who are willing to help out, and not people who just want a sneak peek at the manuscript. Instructions on how to edit will come with the manuscript. If you're interested in reading, please email me at marie@am-jenner.com.

Thanks,

~Marie