Dawn Judd - Author

  While looking for a good picture of the Giza pyramids, I came across this beauty. The Pyramid of the Magician. Oh how I would love to take a trip to Mexico. I think I may have to write a book about this thing just so I have an excuse to go there! LOL.

Reining In will be featured on Daily Cheap Reads in late December or early January. Phantom Rising will be featured on Kindle Boards mid December. I've been notified of a few other places each book will be showing up. I'm so excited. I can hardly wait!

I just got an email this morning that they have mailed out my proof copy of Phantom Rising already. I am so excited. In a matter of days, I will be holding the first copy in my hand and if I managed to catch all of my mistakes, I will be able to approve it for publication. I can hardly wait. In other news, sales for Reining In have been off the charts all month long. I am only two books away from tripling my sales from last month, my best month ever. Two great things all in the same month. I can hardly stand it. Somebody pinch me please.

I always forget to post my updates here. I need to work on that. Phantom Rising is live on Kindle . I'm hoping the paperback will be out next week. I have a little formatting left to do yet, and then it will be up and running. I'm so excited to finally have it done. To celebrate it's release, I've dropped the price of Reining In on kindle to $.99 for the rest of November.

Reining In is today's sponsor at Kindle Boards. I'm happy to say that it has been great so far. Reining in went from #81,582 to #4,163 in the bestsellers rank for kindle. How exciting. Not only that, but I have sold more books today than I have in the last 6 weeks. I hope this does a lot to help get the book noticed. I have been considering sponsoring Kindle Nation, and after the success of this sponsorship, I think I will go ahead and do it.

  My daughter's FCCLA group decided to put on a book fair and invite some local authors. It was fun for me because I got to meet J.M. Pierce, one of the authors I met through some author boards. It wasn't a hugely successful event, but the kids had fun and it was a learning experience for all of us.

This is my  first ever KAP event. This was my first chance to meet and talk to other authors in person. It was a great event and I'm glad I made that call. It was the beginning of several really great friendships.

I made it home safely tonight. It was a long trip, but it was worth it. The book talk/signing was a blast. Everyone there was so nice and did their best to make me feel comfortable. Once we got going, I wasn't nervous at all. No, really. I actually enjoyed it very much. If only speech class were that fun, high school would've been so much better. Seriously, though, everyone was great. It was really neat to hear the reactions of the people who have read the book. It's hard to tell what your readers are going to feel after reading your book, so to talk to someone who has and then to realize they interpreted it the way you meant it to be is such a rewarding feeling. 

It's been an interesting week. Or stressful. Maybe chaotic. Not sure what word I'm looking for. Guess I need to go pull that thesaurus back out. Whatever it is, it hasn't been a normal week, that's for sure. It started out in a bad way when I was informed that the book fair my daughter has been working on for months might get canceled. The location that they had secured was suddenly not available anymore. Turns out that the principle booked the school for two events on the same day. The book fair and a class reunion. So I helped her start looking for a new location. Not as easy as it sounds. The local libraries wouldn't allow it because we have vendors. (we're raising money for FCCLA. Of course we have vendors.) Every other place we called or visited charged more than the kids could afford. They literally don't have a budget. It was starting to look pretty grim. We made a plan to approach some of the other schools to see if we could use their facilities. The...

The proof with the new Reining In cover is here and it is AWESOME. Ronnell did a great job and I think anyone who buys the book with the new cover will agree. Now I can't wait for the Phantom Rising cover.

September 23rd is coming up quick, and I'm finding myself completely unprepared. Nervous is hardly the word for it. I'm freaking out. It's odd, because I don't feel the same way about the book fair in October. Well, it's farther away, you say. Sure, but that's not it. Really. I've always been nervous about this event. It's just gotten worse as it gets closer. I think I know what it is. It's the exclusiveness of it. This is all about me. I will be the one talking and doing everything, and that scares the crap out of me. Anyone who knows me knows that I am terribly shy around people I don't know. Public speaking is not my strong point. So this is going to be extremely hard for me. The book fair is different because I won't be there alone. One of the authors from my group will be there, as well as some local authors. Not to mention all the kids that hang out at my house will be there cheering me on. Well, between now and next Thursday, I'm g...

It's funny how my muse works sometimes. She's a little bit crazy, probably riddled with personality disorders, including multiple ones. But I kind of like her. Because when she works, she works overtime. This weekend has been idea after idea. There's the new ending for Phantom Rising, and then of course the new name, which just feels so much better. There are the two or three books I have lined up now because the ideas just hit me like a brick. But best of all, I have a PLOT. Yes, that's right, the third book has a plot. As you may or may not know, I changed the name of that book, too. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Given what it was about, the name seemed to fit. Well, now that I have something to write about, I feel even more that it fits. The cover fits. Everything fits. I love it. So plans have changed again. I will start work on book 3, now called Blood Lines, immediately after Phantom Rising is completed. While I still want to work on the other books t...

Well it wasn't as productive of a day as I hoped it would be. I started early, but I got interrupted so many times that I couldn't keep a straight thought for most of the day. I was hoping I would've made as much progress as yesterday. I would be almost done if I had. I am happy with how the story is going though. It seems to be headed in the right direction at least. Now for the good news. I thought I would have to delay everything because my editor was in the hospital. They sent her home, but she is on bed rest for the next couple of weeks. I didn't want to send work over to her while she was feeling ill, but last night she asked me to send it over. She's bored and looking for something to do. I love that girl. So the first six chapters are in her hands as we speak! I will be sending more over to her in the morning, and hopefully will have the rest completed to send to her before Tuesday rolls around. If she gets through it fairly quickly, it should be with my bet...

It's 8:42 AM and I'm hitting the keyboard again. I'm sure my children look at me and think "Mom - Fail". Our most recent conversation. "Are you going to make breakfast or what?" "You're almost 17 years old, I think you can make yourself breakfast. And make some for your sister while you're at it." Yeah, I suck. Meanwhile, my husband feels completely neglected. A whole weekend has gone by and I've talked to him twice, for about 3 minutes. But I am so close to finishing this, and I now have a deadline. I want copies to bring to the book fair. After having to order a 2nd proof for the new Reining In cover, I don't want to come in at the last second for Phantom Rising, and not leave myself time to correct any errors. With my biggest fan base being located right there in that school, it has to be ready for them. They have waited patiently for the past year, and well, I owe it to them. Those kids are the reason I continue to write. So...

Ronnell is making a new cover for Phantom Rising and we are using the other cover for the third book, Blood Lines. If you're looking for cover work, look this guy up. He is awesome!

Alright, it's official. I'm changing the name of book 2. Phantom Rising fits the story as much as Finding Hope did, but it is more fitting of the genre I write. So that's what I'm going with. It is also more fitting with the new ending, which was inspired by Ronnell's cover design. With the new covers, I think both books will have a more professional look. I can hardly wait. The countdown is on. Only a matter of days before I send it over to Michelle. I know I have taken a long time, but the new ending will be worth the wait. In other news, Imogen has shared her secret on where I can have a hard-cover with a case wrap printed. These are not for sale to the general public, but I will be ordering a few copies of Reining In in the near future for giveaways. I guarantee you guys will like them. I have a hard-cover of Portal with the case wrap and it is beautiful.