Whip is now available

Whip finalThe sixth book in the Captive Hearts series is now available on Amazon! This book is a prequel and covers Whip’s early years.

You can get it here.

Blurb:

Named at birth by his mother in memory of her father, he’s given a name that his father can’t bring himself to say. When Whip’s uncle suggests an alternative, the only evidence of the ‘sissified’ name is in the bible Elizabeth Harding records her son’s birth in. Dead of consumption before her son’s third birthday, the bible is buried with her, and so is the only evidence of Whip’s ‘real’ name.

Raised by his father on their successful Texas horse ranch, Whip learns everything he needs to know to train and raise the finest working horses in Texas. But when one tragedy after another befalls the small Harding ranch, Whip’s father loses his drive and ambition and slowly the ranch begins to fall apart. Whip is left alone at the young age of fifteen after a riding accident takes his father’s life. There aren’t many ranch hands willing to have a teenaged owner be their boss. Whip needs to make a decision. Should he attempt to try to bring the ranch back to its once profitable state on his own, or is it time to move on?

Buy now on Amazon or Smashwords

Coming soon to Barnes and Noble, Kobo, and other ebook sellers.

 

Crazy Water Available!

Crazy Water mergedCrazy Water is now available on the Kindle store and on Smashwords! It usually takes Amazon close to 24 hours to finish their review and publishing but this time only took about four hours!

It’ll be available for the nook and on the apple store soon.

Crazy Water

Crazy Water – is he Comanche, half-breed, or white? The four men who find him with a head injury on the riverbank, name him Crazy Water. He doesn’t know his true name or where he comes from. He is dressed in Comanche garb, speaks the Comanche tongue fluently, and has more knowledge of hunting and tracking than most boys his age. He remembers nothing of his life before he was found at the riverbank.

For nearly ten years he lives as a Comanche. When the Jerome Agreement is put into effect, giving each Comanche 160 acres of his own land, thereby breaking up the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache reservation, Crazy Water and his friends decide to take advantage of this and return to the reservation for their share of the land.

When he meets beautiful Kyah and they fall in love, he concentrates on building a life without ever learning the answers to his questions. Will he ever learn who he is? If he has parents or other family? Or will his past remain a mystery forever?

 

 

Crazy Water in Publishing on Amazon Kindle

Crazy Water mergedI just hit publish on Amazon Kindle for Crazy Water. It generally takes 12 to 24 hours, so sometime tomorrow it will be available for purchase.

Crazy Water:

Crazy Water – is he Comanche, half-breed, or white? The four men who find him with a head injury on the riverbank, name him Crazy Water. He doesn’t know his true name or where he comes from. He is dressed in Comanche garb, speaks the Comanche tongue fluently, and has more knowledge of hunting and tracking than most boys his age. He remembers nothing of his life before he was found at the riverbank.

For nearly ten years he lives as a Comanche. When the Jerome Agreement is put into effect, giving each Comanche 160 acres of his own land, thereby breaking up the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache reservation, Crazy Water and his friends decide to take advantage of this and return to the reservation for their share of the land.

When he meets beautiful Kyah and they fall in love, he concentrates on building a life without ever learning the answers to his questions. Will he ever learn who he is? If he has parents or other family? Or will his past remain a mystery forever?

Hawk is Now Available on Kindle!

Great news! Hawk, the fourth installment of my Captive Hearts series, is now available on Kindle! This one took a lot longer to finish than I anticipated. I’ve become attached to my characters in this series and I’m planning two more books featuring the Harding family.

One will be about Whip’s early life. Where did he get his name? The second one will be Crazy Water. It will follow Ashton as he travels over the vast plains that used to be Comanche territory with the four Comanche men who have become his new family.

I don’t have any publication dates yet, but I plan to get Whip finished this year.

Hawk can also be purchased at Smashwords and will be soon be available at Barnes & Noble for the Nook, the Apple store, Sony, Kobo, and Diesel.

Click here to buy Hawk now on Amazon.

 

Progress on Hawk, 4th book in series.

I had hoped to have the fourth book, Hawk, in my Captive Hearts series completed before Christmas. Unfortunately, due to many different things, I was unable to meet that expectation and Hawk is still not ready to be published. There have been several inquiries concerning the completion date of Hawk and I am now looking at having Hawk finished by the middle of April. I truly appreciate all the kind words from everyone about how much they enjoyed the first three books of this series. I will post updates on the progress of Hawk as it moves along.

Is There a Right Book Length?

Big BookHow long should a book be? Epic novels of 800 or more pages can be very daunting to some people. They fear they’ll never finish them. I like a good epic novel; I get all wrapped up in the characters and I want to find out what happens to them. But they do take a long time to read and if it’s a book that tends to drag on and on, I begin to feel as though it is keeping me from getting to other books in my large unread pile. Short stories are my least favorite, I always want to know more and am rarely satisfied with a short story. My ideal length is somewhere between 200 and 400 pages. I can usually finish a book of that length in a week or less and move on to the next one. Aside from my large stack of unread printed books, I have dozens of ebooks sitting on my Kindle. They’re all there, patiently waiting for me to get to them. So what’s your ideal book length?

What I’ve Learned About Editing

I’ve always known how important  editing is. We first learn about it in school when we write book reports, essays, etc. I  review what I’ve written whenever I’ve finished a paragraph. When I finish a chapter, I review it. Then when the first draft is complete, I read the entire thing from the beginning, correcting errors as I go. When I’m done, I start again at the beginning and repeat the process. My plan is to keep repeating the process until I get through the whole manuscript without finding any errors. That never seems to happen. There is always a typo or something that I feel can be better said. Other authors tell me they experience this as well. I have a few friends read over my manuscripts and they always find a few errors I’ve missed. On my third book, Gray Cloud, I hired an editor. More errors were found and corrected. The book was at last published on Kindle. Then I submitted it for publication in print form. When I received my first proof copy I read it once more. Guess what? I found more errors! I corrected them and resubmitted. The second proof copy has arrived and I am currently going through it, and yes, I’ve found a few more errors. I’ve come to the conclusion that editing is never complete. It does give me a small amount of comfort when I read books by popular authors and discover that they too have errors.

Gray Cloud now available!

Gray Cloud, the third book in the Captive Hearts series, is now available in Kindle. It will be available in print form on or before August 15, 2012. The story of Carrie and her family continues in this book and has an exciting cliffhanger ending.

I’ve already begun the next book, Hawk. The first chapter is included at the end of Gray Cloud.  For new readers, I’ve gone back and included the first chapter of Eagle’s Wish at the end of Captive Hearts,  and the first chapter of Gray Cloud at the end of Eagle’s Wish.

Hawk is already shaping up into an exciting addition to the series. Happy reading and I look forward to hearing from you!