Moving to my own blog!

I have moved from Blogger to my own blog at www.olivialeighton.com

See ya there!

Smashwords

Thicker than Blood has been approved for Premium Status!  :)  Hopefully in about a week, it will be on B&N.  At that point, Amazon should soon match the free price B&N will have.  I will also have the second book in Thicker than Blood listed and the first book in the Confessions of a Curvy Girl series up.

I hope to finish or get close to finishing book one in CoaCG.  Had some really good thoughts on it last night, so my brain is already to go today.  :)

December 12, 2013

Alright, the beta reads are in and so are the edits.  Have made my corrections and had one beta re-read it... she loved it!  Waiting to hear back from two other betas, and, if all looks good, I will be posting on Amazon later today.  :)

As I was doing my edits, I realized that the story line I had originally mapped out would be changing... or, perhaps is still in the air.  I want to give my readers what they want, and by creating a series, I can adjust events to their liking, as long as they provide the feedback.  Guess it makes it almost like a TV show... give people something to look forward to all week?

Anyway, the dye has been cast.  I have uploaded book one of Thicker than Blood to Amazon, Literotica and Smashwords... setting the price as permafree.  My goal by doing this is to get my name out there.  Being a new author, I need to make a name and get some reviews.

Cross your fingers for me!

Book One of Thicker than Blood Completed

Whew!  What a whirlwind day!  I managed to put down 5k words to finish book one.  Will be sending it off to the editor here in a few moments and after I get the corrections/edits done, I will be uploading the second half to Literotica and posting the entire thing to Amazon.

Tomorrow, I start book two!

Thicker than Blood Synopsis

So, I finally managed to create the synopsis for the first book:

Thick and Curvy nurse, Kenna Miller, had an average life and average job... until the mysterious and handsome new Cardiologist, Dr. Alex Amante, starts seeing patients at the hospital. Kenna's life suddenly takes an exciting and frightening turn after one shocking and passionate kiss with Alex. Why was her friend warning her against Dr. Amante? Why did it seem supernatural elements were at play? What was Kenna really getting herself into?

I think it describes it pretty well, asking enough questions to make a reader curious themselves...

Thicker than Blood Cover

I totally forgot to upload the cover I created for book one in Thicker than Blood:

December 11, 2013

*Yawn* Good morning.  Had a late night since the husband had to work unexpectantly until 1am.  I stayed up and waited for him, reheating the cajun chicken alfredo I had made earlier.  The dish turned out quite well and I was a little upset that we couldn't enjoy it warm.

Anyway, I'm doing a bit of reading while I wait for the coffee to kick in.  :)  I will finish book one of Thicker than Blood and get it to the editor.  I sent the first 5k words to a beta reader, and this is what she had to say:

I found no problems at all with the flow of the story. I cracked up when the nurses were talking about the hand size. I could just see them gathered around the nurses station gossiping like that! You've got me drawn fully into this storyline and I would be greatly honored to read the rest of it! I am dying to know why Matt got so angry and stormed off when he learned who the doctor was!!

With that, I am very excited to finish and get it out to people to read. I am very thankful that God has allowed me the opportunity to focus on my writings during the week and not have to go to a job.  Our move to Houston has turned out to be a real blessing in disguise.  :)

December 10, 2013

I am about to finish up the first book in my series "Thicker than Blood".  As I was writing, I was amused with how handy some of life's experiences are to writing and it made me think of a movie I watched, with Harvey Keitel and Joshua Jackson (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0376181/) where Keitel is a novelist giving advice to Jackson's character.  One of the bits of wisdom Keitel imparts upon the aspiring novelist is that you cannot write about something unless you've experienced it.  I couldn't find that to be any truer.  If I never worked at a hospital, how would I know it's environment?  How would I know what nurses spoke about, what they thought in situations?  If I didn't work at a gun range, how could I possibly explain how black powder smelled, or how guns react to being fired?  It used to be that I thought of all of my past jobs as embarrassments, but now, I find them to be a wealth of knowledge.  Experiences that I can draw upon to describe settings, occupations, environments...  It's amazing how perspectives can change.