J.S. Snow's Blog

My profound apologies for being so late with this! Know I am forever grateful for all my followers and your prize, instead of a Temptation excerpt, since the book is out, how about one from Admiration? Thank you again!

An excerpt from my conversation with Character Angela Ramirez:

J.S.: “So you’re trepidatious about loving him in return?”

Angela: “I don’t want to be, I swear I don’t. All I know is if he were to leave me, I’d be ruined. I really think we’re only granted that one true love once in our lives and when it’s before us, we need to take advantage of it. But that’s where we can corner ourselves you know? If we screw it up, we can lose it, and there isn’t any way we can get it back.”

J.S.: “Wow, this whole thing is really a mind fuck for you isn’t it?”

Angela: “He’s my everything, so I guess…yeah. I think that’s why I fought it so hard. I had it in my head that if I don’t take advantage of it and therefore, not have it, I can’t lose it.”

J.S.: “Now it’s too late.”

Angela: “Beyond.”

Read my entire interview with her and the other women of The Metal Prodigy Series in Admiration, coming 8/23/16

From Attraction - Coming 12/19/15

Crawling on the bed like a predator, he uncrossed her legs, smiling, opened them wide, licked his lips and made his way to the place he considered nirvana.

Simone replied by immediately arching her back, grabbing his head and gasping.

She tasted like the sweetest nectar and better than he ever imagined. He flattened his tongue and took a large swipe of her folds from bottom to top which in turn had her fingernails digging into his skull.

That’s what I’m talking about.

From Reconciliation, my WIP due out Summer 2015:

“After putting the children to bed and getting ready to turn in myself for the night, I heard rather strange sounds coming from the kitchen downstairs. The orphanage ominously began to smell like a movie theatre. I entered the kitchen to find Sister Maria Therese in her night clothes at the stove cooking up two large pots of popcorn. To her left on the floor, were three filled to the brim giant black trash bags, full of the snack. Now, while this is odd in itself, what caught my eye were the four industrial sized boxes of cellophane on the counter. She obviously had a plan.

“The plastic wrap was courtesy of a delivery mishap to the soup kitchen, which was not located here at the time, and instead of having four boxes delivered, it was blessed with forty. Needless to say, we had enough to last us for years. Our beloved sister, however, had other plans for it. I quickly inquired, ‘Sister, what in heaven’s name are you doing?’ to which she grumbled, ‘He wants popcorn, then by all means, I shall give him popcorn.’ I knew immediately, Father Martin was in big trouble.”

To keep a series fresh in the minds of the reader, it's critical to outline. When I wrote the synopsis for the outline of my upcoming work Reconciliation Book 3 in the Metal Prodigy Series, here's what I came up with:

A life changing event, infidelity, one dead hooker, three villains, a badass biker who can’t shoot straight, two new declarations of love, an overdue conversation, one too good looking for his own good New York Times Best Selling Author, the next Mrs. Doc Madison, a new album, a new tour in the works, a WTF revelation no one will ever forget, bullets flying, a band member shot, one female FBI badass who can shoot straight, secrets discovered and a cliff hanger so over the top, it’s more like being shoved off the top of the Sears Tower in Chicago without a parachute.

And that’s just the outline.

Reconciliation by J.S. Snow - Spring 2015

Yeah....that should keep them guessing.

For the first time since beginning The Metal Prodigy Series, I actually found myself with a unique problem.....not enough words!

Trepidation, my next project is a novella and will be limited to 50,000 words. With being at the halfway point in the chapter count, I looked at the word total and gasped that it doesn't even qualify as a short story, and it was almost done! UGH!

I stared at the outline until my eyes bugged out and then gave up the ghost and went to bed.....frustrated.

I sat up at my usual wake up time and it hit me....this story can include EVERYTHING you left out of book two, not just the hot romance scenes!

Tada! Words! I reworked and added to the outline and smiled as things started clicking, then one of characters whispered in my ear something to add and I just about spit coffee all over the desk. He suggested a "AYFKM?" moment that has me reeling and I'm hoping, will have my readers too!

Words, they are beautiful things!

Trepidation, coming 12-23-14

My second novel Resurrection is not even two weeks old and I'm already working on the third installment, Trepidation.

Trepidation is a novella which is essentially omitted chapters from Resurrection. You can learn more about Trepidation on my website under books: http://www.jbstspbooks.com/books.html

I am challenging myself with this work as it will be limited to only 50,000 words with none of the chapters exceeding 7,000 due to a special bonus chapter I have decided to place in it as well.

For me, this will be a huge undertaking. Not only am I continuing the story, but also writing the work as a standalone that I am hoping to offer free. If the websites I sell my books at won't cooperate with me, perhaps I'll just offer it free HERE!! Stay tuned!

Book two can now be found on Amazon and Kobo and I just fixed a glitch on BN.com so it will be available there soon.

This book was a true joy to write and I couldn't be happier with the continuation in this series. This book along with the first one does have a cliffhanger and this time it's a whopper. I didn't even see it coming!

Until the third installment is completed, I will be working on a novella that I would like to release by Christmas and the third book should be out no later than next summer.

The villain in book two will make a return in book three and there will also be several other surprises!

For right now, I'm going to bask in the celebration that I have published a second book and catch up on some reading.

I hope you enjoy Resurrection and feel free to drop me a line any time!

The other day one of my favorite authors who I stalk mercilessly on Facebook and Twitter posted a meltdown she was having that day. I won't quote it specifically, but in a nutshell, life was piling up on her and she was beginning the ultimate freak out of not being able to release her next book on time. Now I commented on her post by telling her that I was pouring us both a shot of Grey Goose and to just breathe. I then noted the other comments to her post and something started nagging this writer in the back of my mind.
Two things amongst many that Author Kendall Grey and I have in common is that we are both self-published writers and series writers. So while the supportive comments she was getting that were along the lines of "Just push the release date out, we'll live...." I know in my heart, this isn't a possibility for her.
Being self published comes a crap load of accountability to one's self. Our self imposed deadlines are just as important as if they were imposed on us from the big publishers. How are we to discipline ourselves unless we set our own deadlines and stick to them? How will we ever become that New York Times Best Selling Author that we all want to be unless we put professionalism into our craft?
When a self published series writer like Kendall or myself push out dates, it causes a ripple effect. That means the next book will be delayed, then the next one, then the next one and subsequently, it's our fans that suffer.
I know Kendall was just having a bad day and I know she'll adhere to her own deadlines because she is a professional. Throughout the last few days the nagging in the back of my mind has been "Why haven't you set a release date for Book 2 yet J.S.?" It all comes down to commitment and accountability to ourselves. So I grew a set of lady balls and set one, finally. Granted, I want to throw up right now, but the date is set, and my second book will be released on this date come hell or high water.
Kendall, I am writing this blog post on Mother's Day 2014. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family today. Mother's Day should be a day of celebration for our mothers and honestly for ourselves since we are also mothers, however I know you are laying to rest your beloved grandmother and this is so hard for you right now. Know you are in my thoughts.
Kendall Grey is a writer I strive to be when I grow up. I have stated in all of my reviews of her Hard Rock Harlots Series books that "she grabs you by the balls and doesn't let go throughout the entire journey." I can only hope that one day I have the impact on my readers like she has on hers and especially me.

Have you ever read a villain in one of your favorite author's works and thought to yourself, "Where did he/she come up with that?" I have often wondered to, until I became a writer myself nearly 10 months ago and figured it out. I derive my villains from the same place my hero Stephen King derives his from, my fears. Now my fears are not based in the paranormal by no means. Translation, I do not believe in ghosts, vampires, monsters, zombies, things that go bump in the night, but instead I believe in those things that can be stopped but sadly aren't stopped in time. I believe in real monsters. Pedophiles, rapists, gossip mongers and the criminally insane.

My first villain, Vic Davone for instance is a psychopathic child sex slave trafficker. There is nothing more scary than people that pray on children and use them in a horrific and vile manner to benefit their own pocketbooks. What is even scarier to me? It's happening right under our noses.

Now as I am writing book two in my series, it's time for a new villain to be introduced, and the fear, the rapist. Not just any rapist, but a rapist you married thinking he would protect you, cherish you and love you always. I was inspired by the movie "Sleeping with the Enemy" featuring Julia Roberts. To be trapped in a marriage where you are beaten for no reason what so ever, have every thought, feeling and action controlled by someone you loved and are forced to endure it day after day.

I write these malicious monsters to also remind myself at how blessed I am in my real life. I was never abused sexually as a child, was never raped then or now as an adult, have never had someone post a blasphomous article about me or have I been attacked for no reason by a criminally insane person. But just because I am blessed, doesn't mean these things can't happen. What's even sadder to me, they are happening.

Molding a villain like this into a story for me is setting the scene. We are all products of our environments. We all act and carry ourselves the way we do from the environment hence we came from. In other words, the next time you come across someone in your life or in your workplace and wonder why they are the way they are, take a moment and ask yourself, "What was their past like to make them like this?" and maybe you'll be more empathetic and less judgmental.

The villain also sets the tone for the HEA in my opinion. I like nothing more than to read that the villain got theirs because the one thing the villain always forgets in their selfishness for world domination is this, karma. It's biblical folks. What you put out there comes back to you ten fold. I love seeing a villain finally get what's coming to them, it's a feeling of satisfaction like no other.

I wrote a review on Sylvain Reynard's third book in the Gabriel Series along these lines. I didn't see the need for a third book in this series, the first two were excellent and could have ended there. But the theme throughout, especially towards the end was that the bad guys were going to get theirs because they masterminded it by putting out bogus stuff to begin with. Love it.

Wrote the ending to the main villain in my series last night, and I for one couldn't be happier with it.

I remember when Vic Davone first made and appearance in my head and then later was transported through my fingers to the keyboard. He was far different than what I originally envisioned him to be, but in the end, he grew to be a character you wanted...........ENDED! I will not go so far as to say he's a character you love to hate. Love has nothing to do with this monster, believe me. But you were perfectly at peace with the fact that you hated this S.O.B.

Now I have a new villain to work on, he's not a murderer or a child sex trafficker like Vic was, but he's a bad dude. I wonder what words he will have me typing for him?