WeWriWa Snippet from The Chocolate House - All for Love - Anthology: Pig in a Poke 4/5/15

Happy Easter!!!! I hope you have a wonderful day that’s full of laughter and springtime, wherever you may be!

I’m continuing to post from my short story, Pig in a Poke. The complete story can be found in The picks up where last week’sended. I’m only posting six sentences since that’s all that remain in the first chapter, and the 2^nd chapter is told from my heroine’s POV.

Chocolate House-All for Love-Anthology which was published a month ago. This week’s snippet

Take some time and check the main Weekend Writing Warriorsign up list. There’s several writers participating this week.

Simon succumbed to the impulse to lean closer to the window and strained his ears, hoping to catch a bit of the conversation, enough to let him get the gist of the conversation but his efforts went unrewarded. He sighed and reached for his coat. The truth of the matter was that whatever drama was unfolding on the street wasn’t any of his business and his older brother’s request meant Simon already had quite enough to worry about without taking on a stranger’s problems.

Still …

Simon glanced out the window one last time, and took a moment to study the young woman’s face. She really was quite pretty and clearly upset about something that had been said to her, it would be irresponsible for a gentleman to simply ignore her and Simon had always considered himself a gentleman.

The Chocolate House-All for Love-Anthology

In the fall of 2014 Francine Howarth (author of Debt of Honor & Infamous Rival) came up with an idea to compile a group of writers who would be interested in writing a story for an anthology. The book would be self-published and the proceeds would be donated to charity. 

By the start of November, 6 writers were committed to the project. We all had different writing experiences, different backgrounds, and different ideas about the type of story we wanted to write.

We also lived on three different continents.

The group consisted of

• ·        David W. Wilkin    
• ·         Elizabeth Bailey
• ·         Francine Howarth
• ·         Giselle Marks
• ·         Susan Ruth
• ·         And me.

It was decided that the stories could be Georgian or Regency in nature and would be set in Bath, England. Now we just needed something to unite the stories. Masqueraders, a fictional Chocolate House located on Milson Street. Perfect. 

During the next few months there was a great deal of sweat, tears, cramped fingers, panic about deadlines, debate about what Masqueraders looked like, laughter, and I’m sure more than a few curse words dropped, but in the end six different stories were submitted. The best thing about the stories is that they have something for everyone. In the pages of Masqueraders you’ll find murder, kidnapping, mystery, murder, romance, and of course, lots and lots of chocolate.

The Chocolate House-All for Love- Anthology is available via Amazon. All of the proceeds are going to Great OrmondStreet Hospital for Children, London. So support a great cause and get a great book out of the deal! 

If you love the book, we'd adore you if you would kindly post a review on Amazon.

The Results of my Free Promotion of Snowflakes & Beeswax

When it comes to my books, I haven’t done much marketing, mostly because I didn’t see the point. I figured it made more sense to write my heart out and self-publish a few more before I got crazy with promotional efforts.

In December, I did some light promotion with Snowflakes & Beeswax, which led to a few sales

which generated a couple of reviews. Since Snowflake is a holiday themed novella, I figured that was it for the story until next Christmas.

In February, on a whim, I decided to give the e-version of Snowflake away for free, just to see what happens. Personally, I’m a little skeptical about free books. My attitude is that most of the people who take advantage of these freebies are trolling for free books and are unlikely to purchase many or become a regular customer. Still curiosity prodded me forward.

Snowflakes & Beeswax was free from February 18-20. During that time, more than 400 people downloaded the book. I have to admit, it was fun watching the numbers on my KDP dashboard climb higher and higher. It was even more exciting to see Snowflake appear on the Regency Romance freebie bestseller list. It even reached the #2 spot at one point. I know that at least one of the people

who downloaded the book while it was free took the time to write a short, 5 star review. I should say that I didn’t tell anyone, not even people I’ve connected to through social media, about the deal. I wanted to see what would happen without any assistance from me.

When the free promotion ended, once again, I thought that’s it. The novella was going to languish in oblivion. I was wrong. 

Since the promotion, I’ve sold a minimum of 1 copy a day, most of the “sales” have been through the Kindle Unlimited program. It’s not much, especially when compared to the number of sales other writers get, but each one adds up and that makes me happy.

If you’re interested in downloading Snowflakes & Beeswax for free, I’m running another free promotion when my next Georgian romance, From Moonlight to Mayhem, releases in late April.