Been Awhile

Sheesh, it's been awhile since I've written anything here. Mostly because I don't think people read blogs anymore, but I'll give an update anyway. I have an Instagram account @nicole_l_bailey and my author page on Facebook is under Nicole L. Bailey where I have all of my updates on new books and current writing I'm doing.
I now have five books published on Amazon in paperback and kindle.
-In the Midst of Darkness (Book 1)-which is a vampire romance
-Return to Darkness (Book 2)-continues their story and now has an epilogue added in the 2nd ed. and also a new cover
-Destiny Bound (Book 1)-a werewolf/witch romance
-Destiny Revealed (Book 2)- continues the story and also has a new, way cooler cover
-Broken Curse (Book 1.5)-Nick's point of view of book 1

I'm currently a little over 200 pages into a new novel where faeries, vampires, werewolves and witches all exist. The main characters and focus are on faeries and vampires though. It's got language and a little steaminess in it so not for teens probably, but once I finish, I'm going to try and tame it down a little, but if I feel like it will take away from the story, I might leave it or maybe it's a fun story for me and won't be published. I've been ignoring my family this past week and pouring the story out of me. I started it at least a year ago and then stopped not too far in because I couldn't figure out how to get to the conflict I wanted to create. But I've read a few really good books on kindle lately and it made me want to write and feel ready to write again. It's crazy the way the story just forms in my head and I have to get it down on paper or I can't function. I need to tell Moira's story. I need to finish it while it's all up in my head. I wish I there were words I could use so that would make sense to non-writers.
So anyway, that's what's up for now. It still doesn't have a title. Which won't matter if I don't publish, but it's still bugging me anyway that I can't come up with one. I'm trying to think of something simple. I thought of one, but it has 'bound' in the title and I've already got one novel with that so I need to get more creative.

Working Again

I finished and published Destiny Revealed in December. Exciting times. While I was working on that, I thought it would be fun to write Nico and Sofia's story from his point-of-view. It's shorter of course because I didn't include every bit of dialogue. I plan to keep a lot of dialogue the same, but made a few changes here and there. I just enjoyed looking at their story from his perspective. And he for sure loved Sofia first. I'm editing it one or two more times and then think I might actually publish Broken Curse. I think I found a cool cover photo for it and it would be fun for fans of the story to know what Nico was thinking during their struggles to come out as a couple.
Also working on a story called The Changelings for now. I'm trying to think of a better title. It's a little different from my other stories and the chapters are written from the point-of-view of the two main characters, Lilly and Zane. Lilly has lived in a small Montana town her entire life and when Zane moves to town to live with his cousin, her world is flipped upside down.
It's always hard to write during the summer when I'm trying to do fun stuff with my kiddos. We've found a few games we love, lots of movies, pool time, library days. But three of them will be out of town next week and the oldest works everyday as a lifeguard so I'll have plenty of time to work. Hopefully things will move along...

Progress

I'm now up to 208 pages in Destiny Revealed. Coming along. I hope to be done by the middle of September, which is totally doable since I actually wrote Destiny Bound in two weeks from start to finish. Of course it had to be edited, but the book was complete. I did realize the other night though that certain things didn't make sense the way I explained them. I thought, "Wait, why did all the families move to America? And if witches and werewolves hate each other, why live in the same place?" Then I also wondered why the witches in Giuliana's coven were a mixture of French and Italian. Do not despair, all these questions will be answered! Almost as soon as I'd written down like five or six questions (I can't tell you the other ones I had because that would give some stuff away), I thought of the answers. I just needed to write them down for myself to come up with the answers. For some reason, I never thought about some of those things when I wrote the first book. I was just focused on Sofia and Nico's love story. Now I'm getting into some of the whys. I'm still trying to come up with something for the back cover. That's hard-getting people interested without giving away too much. I'm working on some middle stuff now-Sofia and Nick take a trip to Italy to visit her grandparents for a honeymoon. They've graduated high school and now what? I think you'll love Dash this time around. He's grown on Sofia-and me for that matter. There's possibly a new villain along with our favorite best friend that we hate, Ky.
I've toyed with the idea of going back and writing a novella from Nick's point of view from the first book. What do you think?

Holy crap!

Wow, I really haven't kept my blog updated. I do have an author's page on Facebook now. It's Nicole L. Bailey. I really should've used the L. on all my covers so you could distinguish my books from the other Nicole Bailey who writes much steamier stuff (okay let's just say it for what it is, porn). But since I've done my covers myself, it's quite time consuming and annoying to keep going back and changing things because I have to re-submit it all to createspace and wait for it to be accepted again. And if it isn't just right, it gets rejected. *sigh* Anyway, I started writing again, but then took a hiatus this whole spring and summer. Like I mentioned in my bio, my kids play baseball. As in, all four of them. This year, three had games on the same days. And then two of them played all summer as well. Our family went on a much needed vacation on a cruise to Mexico with my husband's family and I'm feeling ready to buckle down and get this done. It's unacceptable to me that it's taken so long to write Destiny Revealed. I absolutely hate when authors make me wait for the next book in a series. In my defense, Destiny Bound can be a stand alone novel. But then I went and told everyone that Nico and Sofia's story wasn't done. I really love this new book and whether it ends up being a full novel or just a novella, I'm excited to finish and get it released. The big problem is that I have a beginning and the major conflict. Now to figure out the middle and how it ends. I have the cover finished and much of the book. I have had lots of volunteers to proofread when I'm done, so it's up to them to read and critique fast. That's been the hardest part in all this. Critique. Ugh. Of course every author wants to hear that their story is fabulous and perfect and I'm not good at having people rip up my stuff. I do not have thick skin as the saying goes. But I'm excited again and my story makes me smile. There's a new character along with all our old friends. A trip to France and Italy is in their future. And of course, the drama with Ky isn't over yet. Did you really think Ky would give up Sofia so easily? Oh, and I did end up going with a new cover because the girl on the first one was just way too ugly to be Sofia. So here it is. I hope to post a little teaser soon.

Next...

I haven't written in awhile. Not just on the blog, but in general. I read a seriously bad review on my first book that threw me into the depths of discouragement. Then my wise cousin (who is also a writer) reminded me that when someone says, "I don't normally read this genre", those aren't the people I want reading my books anyway. Of course they aren't going to get it. He also told me how many bad reviews Twilight got. He said the people were brutal in their criticism. Apparently all those people were wrong since the books turned into movies and every kind of merchandise you could ever imagine. I wrote Destiny Bound as a single book. But I fell in love with Sofia and Nico. A few people told me it was their favorite of my novels so far. I had to agree. I will always have a special place in my heart for Waverly and Finn, but I just really didn't want to give up my new characters. I started writing after I published it, continuing their story. I already had 99 pages when I lost the desire to write. Well, I've decided that I don't really care what people think. I know I won't be the next Stephenie Meyer. But there is another story inside me somewhere and I'm going to write it for myself. My goal is to have it published by September since that's when I published the first one. This one will be called Destiny Revealed and I think I have a cover already. The guy looks just how I envisioned Nick, but the girl isn't as pretty as Sofia, so I'm mulling it over. I'll keep you posted on the progress and perhaps give a sneak peek at some point.

Just for fun, here is who I envisioned playing Waverly and Finn in the movie. They would be perfect, yeah?

Discount

My fabulous cousin, Brian, has a great project that he's been working on. It's called Spark: A Creative Anthology, and they have just released Volume III, with Volume IV scheduled for a January release. He has so graciously given me a code to offer my readers a 40% discount on any volume or subscription. Check out their website http://sparkanthology.org/ and decide which one you want to order. Then leave me a positive review for one of my novels on Amazon or Goodreads and I'll email you the code once you've let me know it's posted.

See how I did that? No code for free. I'm making you work for it.

It's Here!!

Yep, it's finally here. Destiny Bound went live today on my e-store.
 https://www.createspace.com/4068671 Buy it today! It will be available on Nook and Kindle within a week and on Amazon in paperback shortly thereafter.
And in other news, I decided I wasn't ready to give up Nick and Sofia yet. I love them! One of my readers gave me a suggestion after reading this book and I decided to go with it. I am currently working on the next book Destiny Revealed. I'm hoping to release that one next Spring.
For now, buy the book!