Another review!

It's always fun Googling yourself -- you never know what you'll find. Today, I came across another review of Heart's Revenge, this one over at Romance Reviews Today.

A fine review, in that the reviewer nailed the book for me when she says "I was more interested in reading about the ghosts than Ella and Mitch’s romantic involvement."

Me too, sister! Give me the spooky stuff over the gooshy stuff, any day. Some romance writer I am, eh? :)

Another review!

Slowly, slowly, the reviews are trickling in for Heart's Revenge, which has dropped in price over at Amazon.com (you can now get it for ten bucks off cover!). Also, the book has gone from a rating in the 1,000,000 range to half that recently (which means at least one person has bought the book! Cool!).

This most recent review is from LoveRomances.com, and the reviewer seemed to like it, even if it wasn't romantic or "spicy" enough. Ah well. At least she read it! Not a bad review at all. Maybe this will encourage other folks to give the book a try.

I've been so slack about promoting this book, I can't really complain about the lack of reviews, so I'm happy about any I get. Looks like we missed the boat on Publishers Weekly, but it's their loss... ;) Later!

Buy Buy Buy! And Read Read Read!

Taking a quick break from the new job and some fun reading for pleasure (lots and lots of Charles de Lint! When can I move to Newford with my fam?), to make a quickie announcement:

Heart's Revenge is now officially available for purchase!

You can buy my paranormal romance novel about dead pirates and shipwrecks and reluctant lovers at Amazon.com for full price or at a nice discount at Barnes and Noble (about five bucks off cover!).

I really should've done more promotion for this book, but I also wonder what good all that does, and I really don't have the time or energy for bookmarks and contests and all that. If you wanna buy it, buy it. Hope ya like it! This is why I'm not in Sales...

Now, back to work, and then tonight, back to seeing what's up with Jilly Coppercorn and Geordie -- when WILL they hook up???

And since I'm here...

I may as well remind y'all that Heart's Revenge now has an Amazon.com page, so you can place your pre-orders now.

I'm hoping to get some signed books made available over at Clarkesworld Books as well, which is my new favorite place to buy books online. Check 'em out! Tell Neil that Julia sent you!

First review of HEART'S REVENGE!!!

I know, I know, I've been away for a loong time. But I've been busy, working on a new novel and moving to a new house, among other things. Now I'm back...

And I have news! The first review for Heart's Revenge has arrived, and it's by none other than the reading/reviewing machine known as Harriet Klausner! Go check it out, I dare ya.

It's a pretty good review (even though part of me is convinced she only read the opening, skimmed the middle, and read the last chapter). I like that last bit -- "fans of an interesting ghost story enhanced by romance will want to read Julia C. Porter's tale of long dead pirates riding the high seas."

Hopefully, that's just the start of many more reviews to come! God knows I sent out a pile of advance reading copies, as did Five Star. Later!

Releasing to the Press...

Below is a first draft of a press release for Heart's Revenge. Comments welcomed -- it's a rough first draft, written at 4:45 a.m. on a Saturday... Just testing the waters here... And I'm getting very excited about this book's release!



WAKE FOREST RESIDENT DEBUTS
NOVEL OF MYSTERY AND ROMANCE
SET ON NORTH CAROLINA'S COAST


WAKE FOREST, NC—Wake Forest resident Julia C. Porter announces the upcoming publication of Heart's Revenge, a paranormal mystery/romance that takes place on Ocracoke Island, off the North Carolina coast.

To be published by Five Star Books on May 15, 2006, Heart's Revenge tells the story of a young Maritime History professor in search of Blackbeard's missing ship, rumored to be hidden under the waters next to Ocracoke Island. The professor, Ella Simon, teams up with Ocracoke native Mitch Thompson to dive the wreck, and sparks fly between them as they attempt to solve the mysteries surrounding the shipwreck while avoiding the ghosts of long-dead pirates, wild ponies, and even surly elderly tourists. The novel incorporates various legends and ghost stories about the small island off the Outer Banks of North Carolina, including tall tales about Blackbeard, whose headless ghost comes back from its watering resting place to visit Ella and Mitch.

For more information on Heart's Revenge, please contact the author at ***-***-****, and to place an order, call 800-877-4253, ext. 1255. Advanced reading copies of the novel are available for review, and Julia is available for author signings, readings, and discussions. Discounts for copies of Heart's Revenge by Julia C. Porter are available from Five Star Books in conjunction with scheduled author signings.

******

They're HERE!

In addition to the excellent card I got from my hubby and one-year-old today, I also got the following package in the mail:


Yes -- Advance Reading Copies of MY FIRST NOVEL (well, Julia C. Porter's at least). They look awesome. And the book now has its own Amazon.com page for pre-ordering. It's all becoming quite real now.

Sweet! My little guy says: "Mom, when are you going to quit fondling those books???"


Yay! Much happiness here on V-Day in the Porter household!

HEART'S REVENGE Cover!

Hooray! It's almost exactly the way I'd imagined it! Doesn't it look fantastic?

I'm pretty sure this is what the final version will look like. So lovely!

Inside the flap

Speaking of covers, I thought I'd share with you an early version of the "copy" that'll be on the inside cover of HEART'S REVENGE. Comments are welcome!

Off the rocky waters of North Carolina’s Outer Banks, Ella Simon is hot on the trail of one man—the infamous pirate Blackbeard.

Little does she know that she'll find someone much more appealing than the long-dead Edward Teach (though she will, indeed, meet the pirate's headless ghost in the coming days).

That appealing someone is her divemaster Mitch Thompson, a native of Ocracoke Island, and his superstitious sensitivity to the mysteries of the island is a direct contrast to Ella's no-nonsense directness. Mitch is a dreamer, while Ella is a realist. He's a divemaster from a small, isolated island; she's a professor from Boston.

Of course, when they get together, sparks fly.

Over the course of a week, they explore the wreck of a ship that just may be The Revenge, the lost ship of the pirate Blackbeard.

Soon Ella realizes that she may have literally gotten in over her head here on this tiny island. While trying to solve the mysteries related to the ship, she and Mitch must flee vengeful ghosts, avoid drowning, dodge wild ponies, and evade the wrath of elderly tourists.

And in the middle of all this, they find themselves falling for one another...

But like anything good in life, even that doesn't happen without a struggle. Such is the price of discovering true love.

Someone fire up the blender...

It's margarita time!

After working on this little fella (not a baby, though!) all day, I'm done.

I just emailed off my copy-edits for HEART'S REVENGE. I tell ya, those good people at Five Star are really making me look good -- they caught a lot of little errors I'd missed.

Now I can't wait for the next step in the process -- the cover!

Take care,

Julia, wastin' away again, in Margaritaville...

HEART'S REVENGE Excerpt: From Chapter 12

Standing on the catwalk at the top of the lighthouse, Ella tried to stay calm. If someone was coming up to them, they’d surely hear them creeping up on the unattached metal stairs. She was already putting together a cover story for the local authorities, something about how she’d needed to see the island at night, from the lighthouse. For her research. Mitch reached his arm around her, and she resisted at first, and then leaned into him.

“Someone’s messing with us,” he said. “We’ll just wait them out and then get the hell out of here.”

Ella hoped he was right. She listened hard for the creak of stairs, but there was nothing. Instead of being able to relax, though, she felt even more panicked. Her eyes kept returning to the strangely pulsing lights of Teach’s Hole Channel. She thought of Mitch’s stories about finding the shipwreck, as if the lights had led him to it, and his nightmare about the hand reaching up from the water and pulling him in, dragging him under the depths.

She looked away, trying to reassure herself that she was imagining all of this, when she saw the channel called Teach’s Hole. The flickering white lights had spread and transformed into a blood-red fire.

“Look,” she said. “Blackbeard’s channel is burning.”

When she squinted to try and see more clearly, she saw what may have been the outline of a burning ship. The ship was headed south, toward the inlet. The lights began to shift back to white.

“Blackbeard?” Mitch whispered.

And then the night went black as something blocked her vision. A cannon exploded in her ears as Mitch and Ella both pressed themselves back against the lighthouse, away from the shadow in front of them.

Ella tried to aim her flashlight onto the shadow, but all she could see was blackness. But it was blackness in the shape of a man. And the man was headless.

Oh no, she thought. Not again.

“Aye,” the shadow growled, the sound coming from somewhere inside the space where the man’s chest would have been. “ ‘Tis me again. An’ the two of ya been makin’ enough noise to wake the dead.”

Ella’s fingers went numb at the sound of that impossible voice. She dropped her flashlight, and it clattered down the side of the lighthouse and smashed onto the pumping house next to the tower.

“So tell me,” the shadow said, floating five feet next to the balcony where Ella and Mitch were cowering. “What do ye be needin’, on this night blacker’n my soul, from ol’ Teach?”

* * *

Birth of a Novel

Some writers call their novels their "babies."

I'd like to slap those writers.

Having a baby is nothing like writing a novel. When my husband and I decided -- at long last -- to have our first child last year, I'd already drafted Heart's Revenge. I was working on some new projects, and I'd put this book on the back burner as it made the rounds to various agents and editors, collecting rejection slips as it went.

Now... how many parents can put their child on the back burner? Images of toasted baby bottoms aside, I'd like to just tell those writers one thing: "Get a grip."

A book is just words. It's something you work on. Yes, we all have books that we love, novels we come back to again and again to read and wallow in their familiarity. A writer pours a ton of effort into a book.

But still. It's just a book!

In the "real world," nobody rejects your baby (or sends them back to you in the mail in a self-addressed stamped envelope!). Well, maybe that happens later, when the child becomes a teenager and starts dating -- that's a whole 'nother can of worms.

In the "real world," you can't ever consider your child "finished" the way you can with a book that's hot off the press, and then put him or her on the shelf (to start collecting dust).

In the "real world," you can't hit the Delete or Undo button with something you've done or said to your child.

Having gone through about twelve hours of labor, let me tell you that birthing a novel is far easier than birthing a baby! And having our son was the best thing my husband and I have ever done -- writing and selling a novel doesn't even come close.

Maybe that's why I had no problem deleting scenes or adding dialogue or description to my novel as my editor requested of me last month -- I didn't consider Heart's Revenge my baby. I care deeply about this book and its characters, don't get me wrong. I also care deeply about romance and love, especially when it comes to my family.

I just don't consider a book a blood relative, I guess!

(Whew -- not sure where all that came from! I guess that's what happens when you name an entry "Birth of a Novel" -- takes you on all sorts of tangents!)

Take care,

Julia

Welcome!

I woke up this morning and realized 2005 was almost over already. I know, it shouldn't come as a shock to me, but with a ten-month-old keeping my husband and me on our toes, as well as a variety of writing projects on my plate, not to mention my full time day job, well, I've been easily distracted.

I've been wanting to put together a Web site focusing on my fiction writing for a while now, but I'm afraid this "blog" will be as fancy as I get for now.

The reason I'm doing all this is to help spread the word about my first novel, the paranormal romance entitled Heart's Revenge. This book is coming out from Five Star Books in June 2006.

This blog is the place to find information about the book, to participate in contests and giveaways for the book and related materials, and to just discuss writing in general, and romances in particular. I'm a big Nora Roberts fan, of course, and I'm always looking for good paranormals -- romances with a supernatural aspect to it, like my own.

In the coming weeks I'll talk more about me, my family, and the process of putting the finishing touches on my novel -- I just received the copy-edited version yesterday. It's been a fun, educational ride, let me tell you.

But I didn't want to overwhelm you on my first entry. I do want you to keep coming back.

Take care,

Julia.

P.S. Is it the weekend yet?