Big BUTs, and Odd Awkward Forms of BraveryWhen a big important project comes up, seems to be one of those times where authors talk about what's going on behind the scenes. For me what's behind the scenes is awkward, quirky, sometimes heart breaking, and always odd. But that pretty much describes me as a person, so that makes sense lol! I've been talking about this current big project for a year. Yep, a year. The big project?
My book Gargoyles: Stone Curse got into a boxset and that boxset is making a list run to try to hit the USA Today bestseller's list by March 16th, 2021. That's big. HUGE. Out of this world, over the top huge, for an author who once was daydreaming of being a writer who could only wish to make it even this far. It didn't start huge for me. It started with whispers, telling only close friends and family. I didn't want to get too excited or seem too hopeful. I mean, what if I failed? I'd look like a fool who believed too much in herself. People seem to love to see others fail, who am I to even try? Then as time went on I built enough courage to say, "Yes, I am going into a list run". Of course, I always added an amendment at the end of that statement, "Yes, I am going into a list run. But who knows. I mean it would be cool if we made it, but..." I always had to throw in a couple of big BUTs. I was excited, it just seemed so unreal. I'm just me. I've had people trying to knock me down since long before I got started, I shouldn't get "too much" about anything. If I failed then my "too much" personality would be used against me. Most people don't even know what a list run is. I mean if I weren't in it myself, I'd already be bored of it. Then something big in my personal life happened. My mom died. She is my husband's mom, but make no mistake, my husband and I have been together since we were teens, that woman raised me into who I am in many ways. She is my mom too. Her and my husband both encouraged me in life to go from a shy wallflower to becoming "too much" and learning to love my too much. It's weird how one change like that on a personal level ripples in to effect everything else in your life. Including, my career. Right after she passed, I held on for dear life to things that kept my head above water. I worked out daily to keep happy endorphins kicking in so I could be mentally present for my flock and my husband. I put a tight clamp down on my own grief for months so I could handle all the important details that needed to be cared for and give my husband, his dad, and our children the chance to just grieve themselves. I still had to work, I had writing deadlines galore. I also had a deadline to clean out her apartment, find a way to plan and run two different funerals, figure out the logistics of so many things I had never experienced before, and still help and raise my flock every day, all while being heartbroken. We were also in the middle of prepping to take in our newest, now, daughter. And hosting family who were coming for the funerals. I wasn't alone, my husband and our oldest daughter did amazing during this process, they were so strong. They took over when I had to work, but work was harder and harder to manage for me. Thinking about a list run at this time seemed impossible. I kept telling myself to do one thing each day for it, even if it was small. So I did. In between cleaning out the apartment I would market or research ways to help a list run. I would write at night since I couldn't close my eyes long enough to rest with the stress and grief building and building trying to take over. Being in Mom's apartment, alone, day in and out, was tough. I kept remembering everything she had ever said and done for me. I would sing because she was always singing and her apartment felt wrong without a song in it, and I would talk to her, reminiscing, while I worked so I wouldn't just sit in a ball and cry. The word "Brave" kept running through my mind as I was in her apartment. I remembered when I took up making jewelry for fun, and had a full-on jewelry fashion show in a two-story coffee house to showcase my work. Mom had called me brave for having the courage to put myself out there. I hadn't thought I was brave. Back then I was cripplingly shy. But I still did it because I thought it would be fun and funny. I had models sign up, walk down a runway, and everything. It was a blast. It still cracks me up that I had the nerve to do that. Then, I remembered when I was put in a wheelchair while pregnant and every single day was painful, unable to stand or run errands on my own, and I was told birth would be hard and likely impossible in the future. Mom called me brave when I started trying to walk again even though it hurt. I didn't feel brave, I felt like a mom with two other kids who needed me to try harder, be better. I felt like a mom who's body was failing over carrying a baby, something that seemed so simple for the rest of the world at that time. She called me brave when my Grandfather passed, then my Grandmother, breaking me, and I forced myself to get out of bed (that's when I first learned how I needed to handle grief in the future, with exercise). She called me brave when I first started writing because I was doing the one thing I always wanted but was too afraid to try. Then when I let her read a rough draft of my first novel. She called me brave when I decided to keep querying to agents and publishers even though I had plenty of rejections. She called me brave when I pitched the idea then threw a werewolf-themed release party the day my first book got published and made my family and friends dress up as werewolves and take pictures with me lol! She called me brave when I went for my first author interview on the radio, did my first book signing, and eventually got offered a job at said radio station. She called me brave when I first hit the international bestselling list, and my books first won awards, and I decided to celebrate that too even though it felt awkward. She called me brave when I started my own comedy radio show and embarrassed myself weekly telling jokes on the radio. She called me brave so so so many other times in my life. There are times I hear her call me brave still, like when I started writing a humor advice column for the newspaper. Even though most people haven't heard of a humor advice column (probably because the idea came from a dream I had, so it only existed in my weird brain haha!) and therefore I thought they probably wouldn't understand it and would mock me for it. I do it anyways because like with most weird things I do, its fun writing for a newspaper and hilarious, and I'll keep doing it. There's plenty of times Mom called me brave that were much larger hurdles, but are too serious to talk about here, many of which I failed at haha. Remembering all the times I didn't have to be brave enough for it to count to me, I just had to be brave enough to try and see if things worked out, gave me the confidence to become more open about the list run. (Along with many other things; Mom's words effected every avenue of my life, but for the sake of this post I'll stick to the list run.) So for the last 6 months I've been wide open about the list run. About my goal and the fact as authors we need those around us to support us so we can keep writing. That's how this career works. It's not just about me though, there's 20 other authors who also want this. Who have their own personal trials and life changes and goals and deserve this too. We don't just deserve this because we write, or because of anything other than the fact we work hard, we stress, we build and hone our careers daily having started from the ground up, and we never give up despite all of our individual and industry setbacks. This is part of that. Everyone in, and even some outside of the author world, has their opinions of how the author world should work. List runs get criticized all the time. Authors get criticized because it's a very competitive business. But for now this is how it does work. List runs help. I am a huge believer in goals. I have lists upon lists of them that are ever-evolving over time. I will keep going after them. If this list-run doesn't pan out, I will keep working and work my way to another one. Just like after every rejection and criticism, I would pull myself together and keep going. I'm strong enough to keep being building, keep working, and keep trying. BUT (<- There's those big but's again.) if we do make this, I don't just plan to keep working towards the next goal. First, the next goal gets bigger, harder, and I have to be that much braver and better to attain it. I'm not holding back in life. It is way too short to waste any time not saying what we mean, and going after what we want. This career is what I want, I have worked for, and I will keep working for no matter what may come. So, this is where I remind you that we need support. This is the part I feel silly about, but this is what needs to be done so I'll do it. We are in the last month of this list run. Our boxset Possessed by Passion releases March 16th. We need preorders. That's the fact. Every single pre-order counts! And it is SOOOO appreciated!!! Going along with all the weird things I do because they're scary, fun, and on my goal list; I plan to go live on fb and thank everyone, while likely crying and making a complete fool of myself for funsies, if we do hit the USA Today bestseller list! Plus, if we do this, my husband agreed to support my decision to get gargoyle wings tattooed on me to mark the book of mine that first made it!!! I'll be posting pics of those shenanigans as well. So here's the info about the boxset! 21 authors got together and wrote some absolutely astounding dark fantasy paranormal romance novellas. I'm truly truly honored to be in this set with so many of these strong and insanely talented authors! To even make it in to this set with these authors is an accomplishment for me! Now I want to do my part, and help make us all proud. In this boxset you get: 𝟐𝟏 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐎𝐍𝐋𝐘 𝟗𝟗¢ Possessed by Passion: A Dark Romance Paranormal Collection #PNR #Darkromance #Writingcommunity #Possessedbypassion #Possessed #CrazyInk #darkfantasy #valentinesbites #fantasy #paranormal #paranormalromance #comingsoon #monsters #gargoyles #vampires #werewolves #ghosts #seraphs #boxset #valentinesread UBL: https://books2read.com/u/31qZ0M Apple: https://apple.co/3kqjj3e Nook: https://bit.ly/33GUjhw Kobo: https://bit.ly/35FXys0 Amazon: mybook.to/PBP Passions pulsate. Destinies collide. Humans, angels, and demons alike are possessed with a common bind—desire. Experience exquisite and sultry seraphs, demonic witches, a hellfire phoenix, a vengeful gargoyle, ordinary humans with dark sides, vampires, werewolves, ghostly spirits, and other creatures of the night. Travel with them into their worlds as they lust for love, and romance. Will they find what they are searching for? Will you? Find out in this twenty-plus, limited time paranormal and dark romance collection by USA Today, international bestselling, and award-winning authors. Experience the passion. My book in the set is Gargoyles: Stone Curse. I love this book! I actually wrote it well before the boxset and was saving it for something special. I knew this was it. ༻༒༺ GARGOYLES: STONE CURSE ༻༒༺ YOLANDA ALLARD ༒ Releasing March 16th 2021 in the Possessed By Passion Boxset! Preorder now for only 99¢! ༒ "Your whole family is dead; so here’s a bunch of money, a rundown estate on twenty acres, and a chance to live in a po-dunk town in the middle of nowhere." Three months after sixteen-year-old Violet Kai moves to the small town of Concrete Washington to receive her inheritance from her late uncle, she starts to get the feeling that not everything is what it seems in the sleepy nook of the pacific northwest. During an impromptu séance with friends that ends up in chaos, Violet learns she was bequeathed much more than she bargained for. Six gargoyles swoop in and save her life, only to inform her that she also inherited them as her wards, an ancestral curse, and a book load of magic. With Violet in town, the gargoyles are awake for the first time in years and Violet quickly learns why they seem to need a magical babysitter. Ready to stretch their wings and go wild, they wreak havoc on her life and even her reality. Pulled into a new world of magic and stony shenanigans, it’s not all fun and games. Awakened gargoyles also mean awakened demons too, demons who are attracted to Violet and her powers. With monsters of all sorts seemingly running loose, it’s up to Violet and her gaggle of gargoyles to fight and contain them. Demons aren’t the only threat in her midst, when long lost memories start bubbling to the surface, they bring with them betrayal, deep seeded feuds, and strong feelings that Violet isn’t sure any amount of magic can fight. ༻༒༺༻༒༺ This is where you preorder now for .99 and enjoy 21 passionate books of all kinds and while doing so, help us reach our goal of becoming USA Today bestselling authors! So get to it! XOXO Yo
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It's time for Halloween and that means a hop!This year I'm joining Untamed Books for their Halloween Hop. There's plenty of prizes for all.
* * * * * * * Welcome to Untamed Books Halloween Hop! 31 days-31 authors-$31 treats! 🎃🍬🎃 Follow along every day as we hop from page to page, and discover new authors and books along the way! Like EACH page, and EACH hop post, as you stop to say hello! This will enter you in the $31 Amazon Giftcard Giveaway, Awarded November 1st. Every day you can find the featured page and book on untamedbooks.com! Thank you, and good luck! 🎃🍬🎃🍬🎃🍬🎃🍬🎃 ** You also have the chance to enter win a copy of one of my books or an Amazon giftcard from me during the month of October by liking & sharing my author page and books! (FB is not responsible for this giveaway or hop) https://m.facebook.com/YolandaAllardAuthor https://www.amazon.com/s?k=yolanda+allard 🎃🍬🎃🍬🎃🍬🎃🍬🎃 . . . . . . #UntamedBookServices #UntamedBooks #UntamedHalloweenHop #Authors #Readers #AmReading #AmWriting #HalloweenHop #BlogHop Ready for more great reads and some book events?! |
Yolanda AllardInternational Bestselling and award-winning quirky author of numerous fantasy, and paranormal novels, novellas, & anthologies. Archives
February 2021
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