I have two giveaways getting ready to start next week over on Goodreads. Two copies of Forever and Through Shade and Shadow will be available.
Click here for Through Shade and Shadow
Both giveaways open on the 18th of April and will be open through Aptil 26th. Both are open to the US, Canada and the UK.
If you win, you will get a signed copy of the book with a note from me.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately on book promotion and how to get new readers. Some of my fellow authors have small “street teams” or early review teams who help get the word out, get reviews up early, and talk about their books on various social media platforms.
Are you interested in joining my team? I’m still getting the details together, but there would be benefits. First of course, you would get an electronic copy of a new book before it’s release so that you can review it as soon as it’s available online.
I’m still considering perks. Maybe something like, leave a review on 5 different sites (amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, goodreads, barnesandnoble.com and your blog maybe), and I’ll send you a signed hard copy?
And, yes, I am still trying to build up reviews on both Forever and Through Shade and Shadow. If you have read either, please consider taking a few minutes to leave a review on any amazon site and/or any other site you see reviews on.
If you want to be a part of my team and be among the first to receive an electronic copy of In Shades of Sage when it’s ready, comment below or email me at natalie@nataliejcase.com.
As a writer, I am a people watcher. I love finding spots where I can sit an unobtrusively observe the world around me. I find the lives of others endlessly fascinating, even in the most mundane activities.
Each person has their own story. Some of them more than one. They all come from somewhere. They all are thinking about things I can’t know about. I live in an area where people watching can be a very rich sport.
Some of the most stand out people though are those I observe on my daily commute. I live east of San Francisco, and I take the BART train into the city 3 to 5 days a week. Most of the time the ride in is quiet. Everyone is busy catching up on Facebook and email or trying to catch a few more minutes of sleep before the day really begins.
The ride home though…that is a treasure trove of people watching. Young mothers with small children, teenagers with their backpacks and music banging out of their earphones, construction workers looking tired and worn, business people in their suits….it’s like a microcosm of the Bay Area.
When it’s really crowded, like the scene above, and my agoraphobia ratchets up, I pick out a single face and I start to tell myself a story about that person’s life. That guy in the suit looking like he just spent an hour at the gym…it was his third interview that week, but so far nothing had panned out and he was tired, exhausted really, but he knew he needed something better. He’s crammed into that corner trying to study the text book in his hands so he’ll be prepared for class that evening, after he goes home and feeds his baby and kisses his wife and promises her that things will get better.
Some of those little stories create characters so vivid for me that they end up in a book I’m writing. There are a few of them in Through Shade and Shadow. Can you spot them?
I have had a Patreon account for a while, but didn’t really put any effort into it because I wasn’t really sure I wanted to pursue it, and what I could offer as rewards, but I’ve spent the last few days working over there to get something set up.
You can find me at https://www.patreon.com/nataliejcase.
I don’t expect this to make me a fortune, but I am hoping it will help me put aside some money to invest in books for signing events and the like, as well as save up to be able to afford voice talent to record audio books.
My rewards levels are all pretty low, starting at $1. At $3, you get first look at the weekly micro/short story. I will be writing one per week to some prompt and they will get posted first to my Patreon blog. I will migrate them over here after a couple of weeks, but they will be first for my Patrons.
Most of the levels are under $20, with varying rewards. So, if you like what I do enough to consider coming along to play, pop on over and have a look.
I’m a big coffee drinker. I like mine dark and fairly strong. And yes, I freely admit my caffeine addiction. A day without coffee is a day without sunshine.
As I have many friends who are also authors, it is fairly routine for us to get into conversations where we imagine ourselves in the worlds of our characters, or in the worlds of favorite books.
Recently we started talking about dystopian futures and post-apoc worlds. It got us talking about living without the common modern conveniences we take for granted. We talked about our survival skills, how we would cook without stoves and ovens and microwaves, how we would hunt or fish, etc.
There was one thing we all agreed on, however. That one thing was coffee. We could survive any apocalypse, as long as there was coffee and a way to make it. How about you? Coffee-fiend? Or is there something else you can’t do without?
The first book in the Shades & Shadows series, we only meet a few of the women who will become a big part of the series moving forward. We met Emily Lambrecht, the mother to Alaric, and wife of the leader of their clan and Sahara Katan, a Shifter without a family who reluctantly takes on the responsibility of the two underage Shifters, Mila and Maddie.There are a few minor characters as well, Victoria, Cassandra, Raven and others.
In the second book, however, the women start to come to the fore. Raven Ivany steps up into a more prominent role, as a Shade who works for the same organization as Mason. New to the story is Zero, who is a teenage Sage on the run from her father. Keisha joins the cast, a Sage midwife and mother to two teenage boys.
I look forward to introducing all of you to these characters as we get closer to the book being finished.
I hope a bunch of you were able to get your hands on the free Kindle version of Through Shade and Shadow while it was on promotion! If not, don’t worry, you can still get it for the low price of $2.99.
And for you who prefer the feel of a real book in your hands, you can get a paperback too. If you want to order on from me, which I’m happy to sign before I send it your way, you can visit my facebook store.
Meanwhile, I’m hard at work on the sequel. I can’t wait to introduce you to some new characters!
Today is the last day of February, and tomorrow we begin a new month. Time flies faster all the time. Grab ahold of something meaningful today and let kindness shine.
Did I say free? Yes, in fact I did!
February 18-21 Through Shade and Shadow is FREE for Kindle!
Get your copy for free and if you feel so inclined, leave a review when you’ve finished reading it. I love getting free stuff, don’t you?
How many more times can I say free? Probably lots, but I don’t want to bore you!
Come into my world and meet my characters!
I was very fortunate to receive a FIVE STAR review from Reader’s Favorite this week!
Through Shade and Shadow was reviewed by Liz Konkel for Readers’ Favorite.
“A cautionary tale with a supernatural essence, Through Shade and Shadow tells the story of two people who are trying to make a difference, to do good and save people from hatred. So much truth is in this novel. There may be Shades, Shadows, and Shifters, but it’s so realistic that it’s eerie. All it took was a Shade being caught murdering people, and then everyone is afraid of Shades, not taking the time to see that at their core they’re healers.”
Also, a little birdie told me a secret! The Kindle version of Through Shade and Shadow will be FREE for four days, starting Saturday, February 18th.
I hope you’re all enjoying the book. If you’ve read it, I hope you wouldn’t mind leaving a review on the Amazon store (US, UK, CA, AU, whichever) and/or Goodreads or other review friendly place. If you’re a blogger and you post a review, I’d love to hear from you. Or if you’re interested in an interview or other blogging fun with me, drop a line.
You can email me at natalie@nataliejcase.com.
Have a wonderful Thursday, everyone!
I have to admit that I love my weekends, especially weekends like this where I get to live in my pajamas and my big fluffy bathrobe and write without worrying about other commitments.
I’m working on the second book in the Shades and Shadows series at the moment. I’m nearly through what is technically the first draft, in that large sections of this were written quite a while ago, but the plot has shifted and turned since then, so I’m working on stitching things together and cutting stuff out.
Of course, I will need to start at the beginning again and make sure I’ve weaved in all the ends and that the story is smooth, complete before I send it off to my editor who really does a good spit polish on the whole thing.
Oh, right. In other news, I woke up yesterday morning to a coveted five star review from Reader’s Favorite, a web site that many Indie authors seek a good review from. You can read that review on the Reader’s Favorite website. I was fortunate enough to also get a five star review from them on Forever.
So, since I’m writing, I’ll be sitting at the computer for quite a bit of time today. Have anything you want to ask me? I can talk about my “process” such as it is, or answer any questions on Forever or Through Shades or Shadows, though I reserve the right to let you know the answer to your question will be found in the next book so as not to spoil folks.
The comments section is open, ask away!