A Big Year Deserves A Big Contest

Whenever I want to be reminded of how much my life has changed in 2013 all I need to do is walk into my bank. The people at my bank have always been nice to me, but this is the first time they've ever tried to sell me things. They call me now, ask if I'm happy with their service and if I might be interested in opening this or that kind of account, or maybe they can help me plan for retirement? Does my son have a college fund? Do I need a line of credit? and so on. Now it's not like I have a fortune in the bank right now, far from it.  From a financial point of view I'm a definitively middle class girl. It's possible that my bank is just trying to expand in certain areas and that's why I'm hearing these new sales pitches. But they wouldn't have tried to sell anything to me before, not when I was one car problem away from being overdrawn. Now, well I'm not rich but I am comfortable and comfortable = sales-pitch worthy. Comfortable means I might be a safe bet for a line of credit.

Most importantly, comfortable means I can finally exhale.

It wasn't that way in January.  Eleven months ago I was, in pretty much every way, very uncomfortable.  In January I was a single mom who was obsessively filling out financial aide applications so my son could stay in the private school that has helped him so much.  I was considering giving up on writing as a profession. Yes, I had a few ebooks coming out with Simon &Schuster but when you consider my advance....well, I might as well have been working for one of those fast food restaurants all the hourly employees are railing against these days. My car was on its last legs but I couldn't afford to replace it. My son and I wanted a dog but I could barely cover the adoption fee let alone the dog food and vet bills, plus we didn't have a yard. Oh, and I had just broken up with a man who I loved but I couldn't seem to make it work with.

That was January. Now it's December. Those little ebooks were the JUST ONE NIGHT books and all three of them made the New York Times list, in fact I was on the New York Times list for about 7 weeks this year and on the USA Today list for 10 weeks. The books have sold upwards of half a million copies. Publisher's Weekly gave JUST ONE NIGHT a starred review and RT gave it 4 1/2 stars. It was optioned by a major Hollywood production company.

Paying my son's tuition isn't so hard anymore. I have a new car.

And that guy who I broke up with? Well we worked out our issues and now we're engaged.

I no longer spend my days filling out financial aide applications. Instead I spend my days writing. In 2013 I published four works: the three JUST ONE NIGHT novellas (THE STRANGER, EXPOSED and BINDING AGREEMENT) and the newly released Sophie holiday short story, SEVEN SWANS A' SHOOTING.

  

And in 2013 I wrote 5 manuscripts, including the upcoming DECEPTIVE INNOCENCE series which will be released on January 14th.

So maybe I shouldn't have to walk into a bank to remind myself of how much has changed. Maybe I should just look out my window and watch my son play with our new rescue dog in our yard.

2013 really has been a big year and as it draws to a close I feel the need to celebrate. And I want to celebrate with the people who made it all happen for me: My readers.

So this is what we're going to do: On Tuesday, December 31st JUST ONE NIGHT will be released in paperback. At noon on every Tuesday leading up to that date I'm going to give away an autographed copy of JUST ONE NIGHT and then on December 31st I'm going to give away three $100 Visa giftcards, which will feature the cover of one of the books I published this year or one that I will be publishing next month.  That way we can start  2014 off on the right foot, together.

Here's how to enter:
 Facebook or Tweet a quote from one of the four stories I published this year with the hashtag #SophieK for the Sophie story or #JON for any of the JUST ONE NIGHT books and tag me in the post. You can enter once a day, every day until December 31st.

That's it. It's that easy. Quote a book, win a book...and maybe more. I owe you guys a lot so I really hope you join me in this little end-of-the-year celebration.

Together, we've come a long way.