Newsletter Launch

| Amy

Katies Choice_CVR (1)Want a chance to win an Advanced Reader Copy of Katie’s Choice?

I am launching my brand-spanking new newsletter this March. If all goes according to plan, I’ll have the newsletter in your email box by March 15. In each newsletter, I’ll have book updates, author appearances, review quotes, and more importantly–recipes!

If you’d like to send in a recipe, use the Contact Me form on my website (to keep your email out of the spam folder.) Recipes cannot be copyrighted and have to be original. Recipes do not have to be Amish, but that would be fabulous if anyone has any to share. I’d love to hear about Easter traditions, favorite dishes, and other stories concerning this special holiday.

All readers who sign up for my newsletter will be entered into a drawing to win an advanced copy of Katie’s Choice (which doesn’t release until May 1, 2013). If you’ve already signed up, never fear, you are in the drawing.

Please use the Contact Me form on my website to sign up for the newsletter–this will allow me  to make sure you get your mail.

Addresses must be received by March 10, 2013, in order to be included in the first mailing and contest. Any addresses sent after this date will be including in future mailings, but not in the drawing or the launch.

Thanks for all your support! I’m looking forward to getting this together for you.

FYI–Frequency of the newsletter will depend a lot on reader participation. I’d like to share as many recipes as possible. But I won’t send more than one email a month. (I gotta write too, ya know! <wink>)

Blessings to everyone and thanks again for your support!

Amy

“The Call” Blog Hop

| Amy

Every published author has a story to tell about when they first got the call that they were signing with their agent or publishing house. I wish I could tell you this fabulous story about getting the call from Mary Sue Seymour of The Seymour Agency and it being so totally unexpected that it took my breath away. But that’s not how it happened.

TheCallBlogHopActually, it went a little something like this…

I had sent out 16 (yes, 1-6) query letters to agents.  I had decided that if I was going to get anywhere in the writing  business, I needed an agent on my side. And I was determined to find an agent. Thankfully I did, and  one of the the best. (Waves to Mary Sue).

But as with most transactions in the  writing world, there was a lot  of “hurry up and wait” that went on. I sent her my query. I got a letter back  saying she would like a partial. I sent her a partial. I got a letter back  saying she wanted to see the complete. Squeee…I sent it out. And I waited.

Now, I have to tell you that every time I’ve gotten back my manuscript over the years, it has never been good. Nev-ver. So when I got home and saw a big fat envelope-package waiting for me, my heart sank. I didn’t even have to read the  return address to know who it was from. I trudged up the stairs to the mail box and pulled it out, telling myself for the millionth time in my days of trying to publish that one more rejection wasn’t going to break me. I wasn’t all that disappointed. (I was crushed, but I wasn’t going to admit  it).

I didn’t even open it. I didn’t want to read what she said. If it was anything like my previous letters it would say how my writing was good, but it needed “more”. More what I hadn’t figured out and it was looking like I never would. I sat the package on the dinning room table and walked away.

My son, at the time young enough to covet any unclaimed mail, asked  me if I was going to open it. I shrugged. Did I really need to be told again that my characters were lovable and sympathetic but…

“Can I open it?” he asked.

“Sure,” I  said, with another half-hearted shrug.

Let me just say that I am so glad I  had a young reader! And to think that I had almost shoved it in the filing cabinet without even seeing what Mary Sue had to say.

Not a breath taking moment, but momentous all the same.

Want to read about how other authors received their “call.”? Check out our The Call Blog Hop. Details and a full list of participants are available here: http://www.tonyakuper.blogspot.com/ Be sure to check  it out, there are several giveaways along the hop.

My giveaway? A copy of Saving Gideon and a Bag of Swag. To be entered all you have to do is answer this question: Have you ever thrown away an important piece of mail? Or maybe shoved it in a drawer, unopened and forgotten?

Be sure to check my Facebook fan page more ways to increase your chances to win. The winner will be contacted after Friday and so everyone knows, This giveaway is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amy-Lillard-Author/177732292332322?ref=hl

Good luck!

And the winner is…

| Amy

Well, actually, I had such a great response and so many fabulous entries that I decided to draw twice. So…in a random drawing conducted by my very own personal neutral party (my son) the winners are …

Kira Saucedo  and her friend Leighanne

and

Susan Fletcher and her friend Velma

Susan and Kira, congratulations! Send me an email so  I can get your addresses and mail your books!

And to everyone else, I’ll be hosting another contest shortly. So  hold onto your socks. There’s another chance to win Saving Gideon coming up!

Party balloons decoration

A Very Special Christmas

| Amy

christmastreeI thought I might take a  break from the norm today–this week  actually–and focus on Christmas. I love Christmas–everything about it. Well, except for the grumpy shoppers.

If all goes according to plan, I’ll get to spend Christmas with my mother this year. The first time in over twenty years! And my big sister, too!  I’m very excited and feeling blessed. Christmas is special every year, but this year it’ll be more special than most.

Is there something extra special happening at your house this year?

Praying for Connecticut

| Amy

Just wanted to take a minute to say that like all of you, I’m praying for the families of the victims in Newtown. Today I wanted to dedicate my blog to all those suffering. Families, friends, first responders. And to say that there just aren’t enough prayers for those hurting. But we can try.

Feel free to leave a comment and join a prayer chain for this devastated community.

Illustration of an angel praying by candlelight.