Kristen Painter's Blog
December 22, 2019
The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride
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The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride, Nocturne Falls book 1
Paranormal Romance
June 2015
Welcome to Nocturne Falls, the town that celebrates Halloween 365 days a year.
The tourists think it’s all a show: the vampires, the werewolves, the witches, the occasional gargoyle flying through the sky. But the supernaturals populating the town know better.
Living in Nocturne Falls means being yourself. Fangs, fur, and all.
After seeing her maybe-mobster boss murder a guy, Delaney James assumes a new identity and pretends to be a mail order bride. She finds her groom-to-be living in a town that celebrates Halloween every day. Weird. But not as weird as what she doesn’t know. Her groom-to-be is a 400-year-old vampire.
Hugh Ellingham has only agreed to the arranged set up to make his overbearing grandmother happy. In thirty days, whatever bridezilla shows up at his door will be escorted right back out. His past means love is no longer an option. Not if the woman’s going to have a future. Except he never counted on Delaney and falling in love for real.
Too bad both of them are keeping some mighty big secrets…
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June 12, 2017
Choices
Well, I have something to say now so here I am. This is to all the new authors out there, and to all those maybe not-so-new authors struggling with time management and promotion and marketing and getting the next book done and figuring out how to do all that and still keep a clean house and their kids/pets fed. You know what I mean.
Here’s what I want to say: You don’t have to do it all. In fact, I recommend you don’t. (Not the feeding your kids and pets part. You have to do that.)
In the early days before I was published and then in those first few years of being published, I believed I had to do it all. I had to write and promote and fill my website with content and do blog tours and attend every conference under the sun so that I could “get my name out there.” We’ve all heard that phrase, right? It was overwhelming. I was on a constantly spinning hamster wheel of things to do. It’s not surprising to me that some of the people who were coming up with me at the same time have dropped out of writing altogether.
What I’ve learned in the last two years is that much of that can be skipped or dialed back or just put off until a different time in your career. For example, yes, you should buy your domain name and throw up a coming soon page, but you shouldn’t spend hours every week crafting content for it when you haven’t published your first book yet. You also shouldn’t be killing yourself promoting one book. There’s no tail! Do a little promo, but save the big stuff for when you have three or more books in the series. That’s how marketing really pays off.
I promise that making these kinds of choices won’t cause you fade into oblivion or ruin your career or make you to miss your shot at some best seller list.
What it will do is free up your time. And with that time, you can do what matters most: write. Because that’s the best tool in your arsenal. The next book. It could be the book that launches you, the book that really resonates with readers, the book that finally enables you to earn the sort of money that lets you breathe easier.
Look, if you love blog tours, do them. I don’t. And I don’t think not doing blog tours anymore has hurt my sales one bit. Just like not going to conferences or reader events. Hey, I’m an extrovert and conferences wear me out. It’s great meeting readers and networking with other authors, but it’s also exhausting. Cons also take up an incredible amount of time. From the prep to the time there to the recovery time at home, you could be losing two weeks or more. (And that’s IF you don’t come down with con crud, which is a very real thing.)
And then there’s the cost of doing cons. Clothes, swag, airfare, hotel, meals, transportation, etc. It’s outrageously expensive which makes getting a decent ROI nearly impossible. Again, if you love conferences, have at it! But don’t feel like skipping one is going to ruin your career. It might actually improve it.
I keep my schedule as simple as I can these days. One, maybe two events a year and that’s it. And I try to keep those events on the industry side of things so that my writer well gets refilled. I love my readers and love interacting with them, but social media has made that so much easier these days. So not only does this lighter schedule lessen my stress level, but it’s healthier for me physically, mentally, and financially. And did I mention it allows me more time to write?
Because honestly, writing the next book is the most important thing.
Have a comment or question? Leave them below. Happy writing!
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Merry Christmas! How do you find new authors? Guess who's got a new book out today? I have a cover to share! A little publishing advice...Copyright © Kristen Painter - Author [Choices], All Right Reserved. 2017.The post Choices appeared first on Kristen Painter - Author.
March 24, 2017
Fun stuff!
www.usbmemorydirect.com made me some cute USB cards:
Fun right? They have the cover for The Vampire’s Mail Order Bride on one side and my logo on the other. As you can see, the USB stick fits right in the back.
They’ll be randomly up for giveaways on my Facebook page on Thursdays (giveaway day!) so if you want one, keep an eye out!
Aren’t they cool?
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March 6, 2017
Looking for the Official Nocturne Falls Reading List?
Here it is – now with a chronological option too! And it’s printable!
Just go to this page.
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The Vampire's Mail Order Bride is live! Audiobooks Part One - Narrators Vampires, valkyries and kittens, oh my! *QUESTION* My Not-So-Secret Side ProjectCopyright © Kristen Painter - Author [Looking for the Official Nocturne Falls Reading List?], All Right Reserved. 2017.The post Looking for the Official Nocturne Falls Reading List? appeared first on Kristen Painter - Author.
February 24, 2017
There’s a new Nocturne Falls book out!
The Dragon Finds Forever is now live!
You can grab your copy here:
I loved writing this book and I can’t wait to see what you guys think of it. I hope you enjoy Ivan and Monalisa’s story as much I did! They were a fun couple with some interesting challenges. And, as you may have noticed, this is the first Nocturne Falls book with a dog in it!
Happy reading!
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January 24, 2017
How do you celebrate a day like this? With a giveaway!
What’s today, you ask? I’m so glad you did. It’s release day for the first ever Nocturne Falls Universe stories! There are six in total and you can find all the links here. And if you want to know more about the Nocturne Falls Universe, you can read the FAQs here.
But now for the big news. The giveaway. I’m giving away a Kindle Fire (or a $25 Amazon GC if you’re an international reader) and ten of those fabulous silver Nocturne Falls pumpkin charms in the picture!
How do you enter? See below!
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January 12, 2017
Six new books in the Nocturne Falls Universe!
Just wanted to let you know that all six new books in the Nocturne Falls Universe January launch are now available for pre-order! Early reviews are already coming in and readers are loving them. They all release on January 24th – what a fun day that will be!
Check them out here: http://kristenpainter.com/nocturne-fa... And don’t worry about what order to read them in – they’re all standalones.
Happy reading!
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December 20, 2016
My Not-So-Secret Side Project
I’ve been working on a passion project on the side. It’s a book, but not really my book, because the story was written by one of my nephews when he was 10. I loved the story so much (and Ben’s enthusiasm for writing), that I couldn’t let it go.
I helped him edit it and refine it into scenes. That was fun and he was such a good student!
Then, after many trials and errors, I found an illustrator who captured the right look – so I hired him. It was a long process of back and forth, but his patience (and mine) paid off.
The illustrations were adorable and evocative and put a smile on my face.
Next came the process of putting those pictures into the form of a readable book, then getting that book up online and waiting for it to go live.
Well, it just did. And I am the proudest aunt EVER. (Print is still in process, but it’s coming.) I swear, it’s like I’m a debut author all over again.
I present to you The Great Cat Sled Race by one of the great loves of my life, Benjamin Brunori.
You can check it out here: http://amzn.to/2ic91ng
And just in time for Christmas. Just saying.
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December 1, 2016
News. BIG NEWS.
I am SUPER excited about this. Read more here: http://kristenpainter.com/sugar-skull...
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November 11, 2016
There’s a new contest coming soon!
Check out my Facebook page tomorrow, Saturday Nov. 12th, for all the details!
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