Happy 1st Birthday Into the Fire

Into the Fire Book 1 of The Fire Series the book that started it all. In celebration of this romance suspense novel's anniversary Black Bird Books Publishers is doing a social media Giveaway contest to celebrate Into the Fire's first birthday. Don’t miss out on this week-long Giveaway event before book 2 is published in March, 2022. No purchase required giveaway contest.

Raven is a chef who longs to get out of the high-pressure environment of Seattle's high-end restaurants. It might be the career path she chose, but it isn't the right fit. While searching out a new path, she happens to meet her favorite actor and gets to cook for him. Confident about her cooking and little else, she finds herself falling for him. Is her attraction to her famous boss worth the risk of losing everything she has worked for and gained?

Travis is regretting his decision in dating his co-star Jessica and breaks things off. When he runs into Raven at a convention, he is in awe of her talent. He hires her to be his personal chef. Jaded about romance, especially after how toxic the end of his previous relationship has become, Travis finds himself caring more and more for his new personal chef. However, another workplace relationship could blow up in his face again.

Raven's life becomes endangered by Travis’ stalker, so he pushes her away for her own safety. He discovers with the help of his friends that what he feels for Raven is real for the first time. Can he get her back before it's too late?

Can Raven and Travis escape the obsession that follows him? Can they find the courage to fight for what could be the best for both of them?

What was it like to publish for the first time as an indie author?

I fully admit that I misjudged the amount of time it would take to get some aspects of the project finished. I didn’t leave as much time for formatting and uploading.

Here is what I said last year about the process:

"What’s it like after publishing your book?

Wow-what a crazy week. Some of you know that I live in North Texas and you’ve seen that the state is currently under weather we are completely unfamiliar with and don’t have the equipment and know-how to handle. Luckily we still have power at this time, our pipes haven’t frozen, we are safe and have food. On top of all of this weather-related chaos, I published Into the Fire last Sunday the 14th.

Well, truly still overwhelming. Work on that manuscript is finished and the book is out there for others to read but my job is no way over. Since I have a very small marketing budget (cough) $0 (cough) I am relying on word of mouth and social media. I’m so glad that I spent a long time working on building a social media base beforehand.

Here are the tasks I have been doing to help push my book.

Create a new graphic for each campaign every workday.

Work on my author web page.

Create a forum for my ARC/Street team S. A. Crow’s Wings (Wings)

Come up with creative ways to advertise my novel and get readers to interact with my website. (Dating profiles for book boyfriends)

Hold author chats where I read chapters from the book or next book.

Preparing for my book tour.

Making vlog videos and advertising my book on YouTube."

Don’t get me wrong Amazon has their uploading down right it’s easy to do and doesn't take too much fuss. The only problem I had with making the paperbacks for Amazon is that I had a free Canva account so the book cover I made wasn’t a high enough DPI and so it doesn’t look the way I wanted it but that will be fixed soon.

The nightmare of uploading came when I tried to upload to another middleman site that would upload my novel on other sites and put it on the library list. I contemplated throwing my computer out the window and into the yard.

I wrote this first novel and published for several reasons.

I’m going to write anyway. It's a part of who I am to tell stories.
I wanted to give a copy of a book I wrote to my Grandmother. I was named for her and I’m her first grandchild. We have always had a wonderful connection and I wanted to experience this milestone with her. I was lucky enough to bring the book to her and have her sign my copy.
This novel set up everything for the series. Even if it will never be my best work, it did what I set out to do. I grow with each novel I write and I couldn’t do that without this novel existing.

All I asked of this novel was to exist and that I at least sell one copy to someone I don’t know. I accomplished both goals.

What is it like a year later with the next novel coming out?

Not having a marketing budget does make selling a novel difficult but I could have done more to get the novel out there. I’m working on that this year and I’m still proud of my first novel. I’m not done with the novel yet. It has things coming it’s way that I will keep you up to date on. If you want in on the scoops early become a Wings member or sign up for my Newsletter.

How to enter the social media contest Giveaway

Ends Feb. 14th

Simply click the image and it will take you to the page and follow the instructions. No purchase necessary to enter this Giveaway. The more you share the giveaway or the book helps me and it’s a simple thing to do to help out an indie author.

What is in store for the series?

Book 2 The Fire Inside coming this March, 2022 we find out where Tony went and his story. We also spend some more time with Tony’s friends who helped Raven in Into the Fire. There are new book boyfriends to check out.

Story 2.5 Home Fires is a holiday short featuring Raven that you can get only if you sign up for my newsletter it will come out in March after Book 2 is released.

Book 3 is If The Seas Catch Fire Steve and Mallory’s story. Steve is Travis’ best friend and co-owner of the band Home. I’ll be starting the revision phase in April, 2022 and It will be up for Beta read late spring early summer. If you would like to be on the beta read team keep an eye out or sign up for news.

Book Code of Fire 3.1 Tony and Landon road trip

Book Small Embers 3.5 Malcolm’s back story

Book 4 is Malcolm and Julie’s story. I'll be writing it in September 2022.