Everything is Ready...WooHoo

I ordered the ARC (advance readers copy)  for Wilson Mooney Eighteen at Last, I should have it in my hot little hands before Saturday! I am going to read through it and check the formatting. If everything is the way it should be...then it looks like WM18@L will be available the first full week of November! 

What a process it has been. 

I want to thank my graphic designer Eunice Ortegon and my editor Tiffany Grayson. These two women are beyond fantastic! They are amazingly giving, super cooperative, completely open, and extremely talented! I am so lucky to have them in my life and part of my journey. I can't explain how awesome it has been having authentic and selfless people surrounding this project. My BFF Becky Codere, which without her constant attention, Wilson and Max would have still been hanging out in my head.  Seriously, she was the one who kept pushing me, locking me away for writers weekends and read-throughs...I am truly fortunate to be surrounded by such wonderful people. They give without conditions and support me through it all.

Okay, enough mushy stuff...A couple of things to hold you in suspense until WM18@L is available....

When it becomes available it will be available and distributed in all formats at www.smashwords.com and of course Amazon, iTunes, and Barnes and Noble.

I will announce the release of WM18@L  on the following Social Networking sites...
Twitter...@delaogk
 Facebook....www.facebook.com/wilsonmooneytheseries
My Blog.....www.wilsonmooney.blogspot.com
Goodreads...http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16086588-wilson-mooney-eighteen-at-last
My Website...www.gretchendelao.com

So keep checking back!

**DISCLOSURE**
WM18@L will not be categorized as  a YA novel. I will not tout it as a YA. I don't even think I will offer it even under the guise of a "Mature" YA.  It is an adult romance novel (even though the main characters are still quite young.)

I hope you enjoy the read, and truly, thanks for all your support and kind words!

Don't forget to keep checking in!

With Gratitude and Love,

Gretchen

Tah-Dah.....WM18@L Cover is here!

Okay, so the book isn't up for sale yet, however; keeping you in the loop...here is the cover for Wilson Mooney, Eighteen at Last! I believe with the way things are moving and shaking....The book will be out this week or next....EEEKKK!!! I actually pinned it down to a time frame more than soon!...Still sorry I'm not more specific with an actual date, but I gotta go over the last couple of chapters and pick up the image files from my graphic designer!

I HAVE THE MOST AMAZING KICK-ASS READERS!!!!

THANKS FOR BEING SO PATIENT AND HOLDING ON!

Getting Closer...

Okay, so if I would have remembered how frickin' frustrating editing in html was when using Mobipocket Creator I would have taken better notes when uploading the first Wilson Mooney! Urrghh…The most time consuming part, for me, is making sure the table of contents is working properly. After that, I always seem to need to re-set the title page, and each chapter heading. Forget ncx…that is just way out of range for me. Besides all new Kindles don’t use the ncx feature, because the reader can drag the bar across the screen. So Yay, on leaving behind the ncx formatting!

After writing, editing, and type-setting for print, I must go and create a couple documents for all the different electronic formats. I end up with roughly 3 different copies of Wilson, formatted 3 different ways. Print version has their requirements, Kindle has theirs, and Smashword (a distributor for all electronic formats) seem to have theirs too!

I don’t have the cover yet, but I am very close to having the book ready to go. What I’ve worked on last night was checking the formatting and functionality of different options with the electronic/eBook formats. Once I get the cover for the paperback and the electronic copy...I will be able to finish uploading the book…WOW, that was a pretty LOUD Whoop!

Oh man, if you guys only knew how crazy nervous I have been lately—I’ve been, driving everyone around me bonkers. I don’t bite my nails, but I do require the occasional “really, really” when I start to feel inadequate or unsure about the book.

Gosh, I just can’t get over the fact that there are thousands of readers waiting at the door. Waiting to find out what happens next between Wilson and Max. It’s pretty amazing that people—I don’t know, have become emotionally invested in the characters from my head. Let me just say…the pressure is on…

It’s close to that time to get ready for Wilson and Max to dance across the screens of your e-readers as they live amongst the words that give them their lives.

Thanks for waiting…it won’t be long now…So here’s a little something I’m working on to keep you excited...

Wilson Mooney ~ Eighteen at Last

(Back of the book description Rough Draft #1)

Eager to take the next step in their relationship, Wilson and Max return to Aspen to celebrate Wilson’s eighteenth birthday. When an uncontrollable situation leads to a split second decision, both will be tested like never before. Butterflies will soar, hearts will clash, and Wilson’s relationship with Max will spin into a silken cocoon with choices that seem too impossible to overcome.

Could it be…uncovering the deep ache that lays dormant in their hearts will become the real threat to their forbidden love? Or will the pressures of keeping their relationship a secret be too much to bear?

Are you ready?

Where the Heck is WM18@L?

Alright, right off the bat...I gotta tell you, I don't have a release date for WM18@L...yet. **grumble**grumble** (feel free to replace previous grumblings with your personal words). 

I feel this book (WM2) is much more of a hurry up and wait game. I gotta say, the “hurry up and wait” aspect of publishing this book, sucks. I want to come up with a date, I want to tell you, it is perfect, done, and ready. Because I know there are hundreds of people waiting to find out about Wilson and Max. I know where I left you, and I know how hard it can be to wait and see. It’s disheartening to keep telling you, my most amazing readers, to be patient. I feed off your energy and the anticipation that's building through all of your reviews and emails. I wish I could give you the inside scoop of the exact day it will be released, but I am waiting just like you.

I have so much love for all of you, and totally wish I could tell you what you want to hear, but I can’t. There are some aspects that effect the release of the book. So we are in the waiting process. But I promise you, WM18@L is completely written, and it has been edited twice. I have some small tweaks I have to make to the content and then meet again with the graphic designer to finish up the cover.

NOT TO CHANGE THE SUBJECT BUT…

Trust me; I know how you feel having to wait, because that’s how I write. When I sit down at the computer I have no idea what journey Wilson and Max will go on until my fingers are tapping on the letters of my keyboard. I wish I could tell you that I am a plotter, that I know exactly what character is going where, and what actions, feelings, and events are going to occur from one chapter to the next, but I don’t. Sometimes I stop mid-paragraph, mid-sentence, and have to come back when the story decides to continue. I write from that place of inspiration that decides to turn on in the middle of dinner, at my son’s basketball game, or even in the middle of the night.

Any writer will tell you, whether they plot or not, you can’t force the characters to do something they don’t want to do. It will come out awkward or unbelievable. I can’t sit down and tell Wilson what she and Max are supposed to do. She will argue until I see it her way (and just so you know…Wilson always win—always). Sometimes when I want to protect her or the other characters I will try and write it from a safer place or a different direction and sure as sh*t, they’ll flat out ignore me. When the characters decide to do something I would personally never do, I find myself pacing the floor, arguing with them. My body begins to perspire and my heart thunders in the back of my throat. I guess that’s when I know it is authentic. Eventually, I find myself tapping the keys and writing exactly what Wilson asked me to in the first place.

Even though I know what happens next, I struggle with waiting just as much as my readers. I know, I know…I can hear what you’re saying, “Come on Gretch, you have no idea how we feel. You have Wilson and Max in your head all the time!” Actually, I don’t. They aren’t hanging out telling me what is going on. Heck, it would make writing their story a lot easier if they were. But like you, I have to wait and see what they are willing to share with me.

 

Wilson Mooney, Eighteen at Last…Coming REALLY soon, sometime in 2012.

With So Much Love and Gratitude,

Gretchen

Truth Filled Confession...

I know everyone is biting at the bit to get their hands on the second book (my editor cleverly refers to as WM18@L).

I want to tell you how much it means to me to have so many people who have invested their time and hearts in Wilson and Max. Being a new indie author, I’ve learned there are a lot of avenues I have to trudge through to figure out what is working or not in this adventure called self-publishing.

Everyone has been caring, fair, patient, and totally understanding. So I owe a fair and honest answer to the hundreds of people who peek in on the Wilson Mooney blog every couple of days, wanting to know when the second book will be available.

Trust me, I wish I could just have the book out tomorrow, and let you all live in Wilson’s head for a couple of days; but if I did that, it wouldn’t be a quality moment for you and your experience with Wilson and Max is very important to me. Especially now that they don’t just live in my head anymore; they don’t just belong to me anymore. 

So, I want to take a moment to tell you what is happening as of right now in the physical world of getting Wilson out to you!

**My editor is 90% done with edits to the book. She likes what she sees and that makes me feel good. She is on her second read through and should be done by sometime next week.

**My designer and I are working out visuals for the cover and I think we will be able to pin it down in the next week. I still have to get the back cover summary hammered out. But I think that shouldn’t take much.

**My biggest hurdle I keep dreading is the typesetting and uploading. I know the process has changed since I uploaded the first book. So here’s to hoping the process is dummy-proof for me!

 

**Amongst all of this, I am behind at getting a book trailer out for WM18@L. But a great musician is letting me use one of his original songs, for the book video! The creative process continues!

Gosh, I can’t tell you how overwhelmingly grateful I am to everyone who has worked on Wilson. I have very talented, selfless, giving people, who are invested in this process with me. Not to mention the readers who love the book and keep it alive via word of mouth.

It is very important to me that people who read WM18@L still feel the connection they had with the characters in the first book. 

Oh my God, the pressure of producing a sequel is totally crazy! There are readers who have read the book over and over again. So keeping the continuity from the first book into the second is pretty important. Also, when I wrote the first book I honestly didn’t know what to expect. Now I do!

So here I am, at the same spot on the Merry-Go-Round, reaching for that elusive gold ring that seems to be so close and yet keeps slipping out of my hand every time I reach for it. It’s a feeling of disappointment that I can’t allow myself to embody. What I want is to snatch the ring, push my feet down in the stirrups of the carrousel horse and thrust that ring into the air, hollering at the top of my lungs…“I did it!” That, yes, I have a hard date WM18@L will be available. But it seems so impossible to predict right now.

Truthfully, what it comes down to is…I don’t want to let my readers down (there I said it). If I give a date and the book isn’t ready…how crappy would that be? Pretty crappy! So that’s why I am keeping tight-lipped about throwing dates out regarding WM18@L’s release date.

But, I promise you, when I feel I’m close I will post it here on the blog, the Facebook Fan Page, which feeds it to Twitter, and on my website.

Thank you for coming back and checking in on me! I really do appreciate your interest and patience. And believe it or not, I truly know how hard it is to wait when you are left—wanting more.

With Gratitude and Respect,

Gretchen

Almost One Year Later!

Sales of Wilson Mooney, Almost Eighteen are growing at a steady pace. Almost a year after it was released it seems word of mouth is working its magic. Yeah, at times I wonder if it is because I am getting close to releasing the second novel in the series…maybe. Or it could be that people are finding it because they are looking for a steamy read with a storyline and character development.

I understand readers want to invest in the characters; it is important to feel the different emotions that the characters evoke in their hearts. Let’s face it, we all want to love, hate, get angry, and laugh at characters in a book. We want to be entertained and transported to another world, even if it is only for a couple hours in a day.

When I decided to self-publish Wilson, I went about it with blinders on. When I stumbled or came across a roadblock, I would hit the internet and searched out how to overcome it. Yeah, sometimes I had to take a pretty big shovel and tunnel under some real huge barriers. Sometimes I would fall off the confidence wagon and question the choices I made. But I eventually found my footing again, fixed the axle of the wagon, and gave it a running push before I jumped back on.

The biggest roadblock I still work at overcoming; the biggest mental hurtle I work on the most (sometimes multiple times a day), has been my own self-defeating talk in my head. You know that little irritating, nonsensical voice that shows up in the back of your head when you believe everything is heading in the right direction.

Do I listen to the little irritating turd in the back of my head? Sometimes~ But my saving grace has been the people who support me and want to share in the success of my stories. See, I learned early in life, the people you attract in your life, the people who surround you will shape your experiences. Now, fortunately, I have some really amazing people in my life; people who share the same philosophy as I do. I’m not saying that we are a bucket of rainbows all the time. But we don’t focus on the negative situations for very long when they seem to come up and bite us in the rear.

Now, I’m not saying my journey been perfect. But it’s my journey and how I react to it, creates my experience. I work every day at perfecting my craft, marketing my books, and most importantly making sure to live in gratitude. Every person who has invested in me and my stories, every new sale I get, every letter or email I receive, and every moment I am given to write and create…I consciously and verbally give thanks for…everyday.

Thanks for visiting~

Make sure you check out the Wilson Mooney Facebook page~ HERE

 

Are We There Yet?

It’s funny, people who are close to me and my process can tell when I am coming to the end of a story. I start looking for the reassurance that what I wrote isn’t sh*t. I begin to question what I have written. It’s a bizarre feeling when my thoughts begin to morph into different advocates that cheer or hiss in my head.

I have to admit, when I decided to publish Wilson’s story…I felt like I took every stitch of clothing off and ran butt naked down the median on the highway. Every flap of skin, every pocket of cellulite, mole, and gnarly scar exposed for anyone who wanted to look over and point a finger (Pay attention, traffic is stopping up a head!). And yet as I awkwardly tried to run with my hands over my no-show parts, I felt the need to just free my arms and start waving at all of the rubberneckers checking me out.

Because, now that people are taking a chance on me and read my writing; they are beginning to wave back instead of point. They smile instead of scowl, and they actually roll down the window to cheer me on. They don’t notice the flaps bouncing with every step and somehow my moles and scars seem to disappear. Suddenly the shift from apprehension to confidence has taken place. Don’t get me wrong, I live the teeter-totter of cheers and jeers daily.

Everyday I’m learning that being an author is a game of patience and gratitude. I am completely aware that some people search their entire life to find something that drives them and they never discover what it is. I realize how fortunate I am to have found what drives me. There’s something deep in my heart…actually it’s in every cell of my body that tells me that I have to write. It’s almost like breathing. It is so personal, and yet at the same time so communal. 

It’s as if the huge metal claw in the grab-o-matic game hovered over me before it dropped down and snatched me up by the head and waved me precariously over the sea of prizes. And before I knew it, I was in the arms of the people who celebrated who I was and what I wrote. It's been the most humbling experience and continues to be!

So I guess I want to tell you, my wonderful readers…Thank you! Thanks for your support, your loyalty, and your patience as I edit, re-work, and revise Wilson Mooney, Eighteen at Last. Thanks for all the emails and letters you send me about Wilson and how her story has resonated with you in your own life.

From the bottom of my heart I am truly grateful.

Please keep checking back for updates and little teasers as I get closer to releasing the second book in the Wilson Mooney Series.

Want more?

Visit my website: www.gretchendelao.com

Follow me on Twitter: @delaogk

Send me an email: gretchen(at)gretchendelao(dot)com

Just want my words emailed to your box? Subscribe w/Feedburner up on the right side of the blog...

 

Wilson Mooney, Eighteen at Last Teaser...

Alright ladies, here's a little bite for ya...

"Max glared at the floor for a postponed moment. His eyes slowly raked up my body. My skin burned and my vision blurred as my heartbeat bruised my lungs. It was agonizing to watch him take me in inch by inch. His expression tortured; his lips pulled in a severe line; his shoulders rounded like the whole world was dumped heavy across them. He opened his mouth and his nostrils flared as he began to speak words that must have caught somewhere between his heart and the back of his throat."

(Wilson Mooney, Eighteen at Last~2012)