Grab your FREE copy and I would be very grateful if you could leave me a review on Amazon.
Random thoughts from the ordinary life of a Writer - about History and Romance, of the Funny and Weird, perhaps Love and Sex, and maybe even the Philosophical and Serious. ie. Life in General. And WRITING of course. Feel free to comment!
Friday, 16 October 2015
Tuesday, 13 October 2015
Techno-Phobia Be Gone!
Techno-Phobia Be Gone!
Website - www.jenyatesnz.com
Twitter – www.twitter.com/@JenYatesNZ
Blog - jenyatesnz.blogspot.co.nz
AMAZON Jen YatesNZ Author Page - http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B009MSEA7U
A Deal with the Devil by Jen YatesNZ - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012OIDZUM
Fallen Angel by Jen YatesNZ - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B014NB9PWA
Token Bay by Jen YatesNZ - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015Y80P9I
AMAZON Georgi Winchester Author page - http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00Z93HJRU
FB Georgi Winchester Page - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Georgi-Winchester/
Short Erotic Romances Vol 1. - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00XQ1ESNU
Short Erotic Romances Vol.2 - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00Z7X2XLY
The Winning Hand - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00YTD56OY
Feel like I might finally have arrived in the 21st century!
Celebrating. Thanks for listening, Blog!
Friday, 4 September 2015
Words - and Re-Branding
'A day without words, written or read,
Is like a night without stars, or hunger unfed.'
Jen YatesNZ
Even as a teacher my passion was reading and writing. Teaching maths was just a necessary chore.
This morning I received a brief message from an ex-pupil which touched me in the core passion of both my careers.
He said (Yes! HE!):-
'Hey I just finished your book it was awesome why are you not famous yet Mrs Yates? (His partner) loved it too it was her first read. She had never finished a book before your one! '
After explaining to him I don't have the marketing genius that launched '50 Shades of Grey' and grinning at his suggestion I re-brand myself as JK Rowling-Yates, I'm sitting here smiling and thinking how cool it is that we have words with which to communicate and that those I have dared to share with the world have been appreciated.
Which leads me nicely onto the topic of Re-Branding.
Apparently there are a lot of Jennifer Yates's in the world, along with all the varied abbreviations. No surprise therefore, to find another Jen Yates publishing books on Amazon. My books appear among hers. She writes funny books about cake decorating gone wrong, has published more books than I have and her author page shows up rather than mine. I thought it might be a good thing for both of us if I found some way of differentiating myself from her.
So I have re-branded myself as Jen YatesNZ. Now I show up separately on Amazon, along with my own author page which is great. And all my books are shown as written by Jen YatesNZ. But the re-branding will take time to filter through to other social media sites because, despite making great technological strides, I am still somewhat technologically challenged!.
Here are the links to both my Author Pages on Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Jen-Yates/e/B009MSEA7U
Immediately we have an instance where I haven't a clue! Amazon allowed me to change the name of my Author Page to match up with my books but that doesn't actually show in the URL. Ah well!
Saturday, 29 August 2015
Light Through the TechnoPhobic Clouds
Well Blog, I do remember writing to you way back at the beginning of time about being a TechnoPhobe. I was about to write happily about my progress in that particular area, but I just went looking for that old blog and couldn't find it - and was too impatient to persist.
So I guess there is still a fair amount of cloud about in the TechnoAtmosphere around here!
A bit like the weather really.
Nevertheless, I have been busy and making quite large technological steps.
My alter ego, Georgi Winchester, has three books up on Amazon and her own author page. Georgi writes Short Soft Erotic Romances.
Check her out at http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00Z93HJRU
As Jen YatesNZ I have recently published a Sexy Contemporary NZ Romance, 'A Deal with the Devil' and am about to publish another, 'Fallen Angel'.
Check her out at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B009MSEA7U
I have also created a website which, while live, is still a work in progress.
That can be accessed at http://www.jenyates.weebly.com/
So all in all, Blog, I am feeling a buzz of achievement, and a heart full of gratitude for my good friend, Jaci P, who has been largely instrumental in bringing sunshine through my TechnoFog.
It's only taken ?? years! (Too embarrassed to actually say how many!)
So I guess there is still a fair amount of cloud about in the TechnoAtmosphere around here!
A bit like the weather really.
Nevertheless, I have been busy and making quite large technological steps.
My alter ego, Georgi Winchester, has three books up on Amazon and her own author page. Georgi writes Short Soft Erotic Romances.
Check her out at http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B00Z93HJRU
As Jen YatesNZ I have recently published a Sexy Contemporary NZ Romance, 'A Deal with the Devil' and am about to publish another, 'Fallen Angel'.
Check her out at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B009MSEA7U
I have also created a website which, while live, is still a work in progress.
That can be accessed at http://www.jenyates.weebly.com/
So all in all, Blog, I am feeling a buzz of achievement, and a heart full of gratitude for my good friend, Jaci P, who has been largely instrumental in bringing sunshine through my TechnoFog.
It's only taken ?? years! (Too embarrassed to actually say how many!)
Wednesday, 3 June 2015
Introducing my Alter Ego, Georgi Winchester who writes Short, Naughty and Just for Fun! :-
Already live for pre-order on Amazon is "Short Erotic Romances Vol 1." which contains 4 'naughty shorts'. ASIN B00XQ1ESNU
Live on Amazon by tomorrow will be the 15,000 word novella "The Winning Hand".
Coming within the next few days will be "Short Erotic Romances Vol 2." which contains 3 'naughty shorts'.
Already live for pre-order on Amazon is "Short Erotic Romances Vol 1." which contains 4 'naughty shorts'. ASIN B00XQ1ESNU
Live on Amazon by tomorrow will be the 15,000 word novella "The Winning Hand".
Coming within the next few days will be "Short Erotic Romances Vol 2." which contains 3 'naughty shorts'.
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
2014 Romance Writers of NZ Annual Conference
2014 Romance Writers of NZ Annual Conference - 14th - 17th August
Damn old age! It took me a couple of days to recuperate after a fantastic weekend at the Romance Writers of NZ Conference at the Waipuna Conference Centre in Auckland. I was so very happy to be back at this great venue. So easy to get to, free parking, wonderful rooms and conference rooms, a quiet oasis in the city. An altogether beautiful spot beside a small 'lake' in the Panmure Basin.
Congratulations to Lizzi Tremayne for winning the Pacific Hearts Award for a completed novel by an unpublished author, and to Sheryl Buchanan who came 2nd. Both are in the Coast to Coast (Central Nth Island) Chapter and we are very proud of their successes. Success in this competition can often be the breakthrough that takes an author to the next level of their career.
Congratulations to all the winners in other categories and competitions also. I'm sure a complete list will be on the RWNZ website.
This was the 21st (or 22nd??) annual conference and I have only missed a few of them over the years. This one had a huge focus on e-publishing and 'indie' authors, those publishing independently on Amazon or similar sites. It is very interesting to look back to when e-books were first appearing and how skeptical most of us were. Nothing could replace a 'real' book in our hands!
One of the main speakers this year was Jim Azevedo of Smashwords, a huge distributor of e-books based in USA and he had some graphs that firmly established e-books as a force to be reckoned with in the world of literature today. And yes, I'm just as likely to be found reading from my Kindle as from a paperback now too!
In 2008 fiction e-book sales accounted for 0.5% of fiction book sales in the USA (in monetary terms, and bear in mind e-books are generally much cheaper than paper!) and in 2013 they reached 35%. It's not difficult to work out where that graph is headed.
The keynote speakers and break-out workshops were hugely informative for this techno-phobe and I have come home with a much greater understanding of the industry and more importantly, its marketing strategies.
I'd also like to point out to those of you out there who consider romance novels 'trash' that this genre far outstrips any other in the market place! Cos, let's face it, no matter how much more important you might consider business publications, non-fiction, and literary fiction, it's Romance that makes the world go round!
Thank you to the Conference Committee, to RWNZ Executive and to the awesome line-up of international and local speakers and workshop presenters. You'd think I'd be hard to 'wow' after so many years of conferences but this one certainly had the Wow Factor for me.
Now to finish the first draft of Crystal Dancer, and get on with plotting 'Marked for the Duke', a regency romantica, which I plan to write for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), the great November Writing challenge that makes us write 50,000 words in a month. I did it 2 years ago. Should be easier this year then - eh? Watch this space!
Damn old age! It took me a couple of days to recuperate after a fantastic weekend at the Romance Writers of NZ Conference at the Waipuna Conference Centre in Auckland. I was so very happy to be back at this great venue. So easy to get to, free parking, wonderful rooms and conference rooms, a quiet oasis in the city. An altogether beautiful spot beside a small 'lake' in the Panmure Basin.
Congratulations to Lizzi Tremayne for winning the Pacific Hearts Award for a completed novel by an unpublished author, and to Sheryl Buchanan who came 2nd. Both are in the Coast to Coast (Central Nth Island) Chapter and we are very proud of their successes. Success in this competition can often be the breakthrough that takes an author to the next level of their career.
Congratulations to all the winners in other categories and competitions also. I'm sure a complete list will be on the RWNZ website.
This was the 21st (or 22nd??) annual conference and I have only missed a few of them over the years. This one had a huge focus on e-publishing and 'indie' authors, those publishing independently on Amazon or similar sites. It is very interesting to look back to when e-books were first appearing and how skeptical most of us were. Nothing could replace a 'real' book in our hands!
One of the main speakers this year was Jim Azevedo of Smashwords, a huge distributor of e-books based in USA and he had some graphs that firmly established e-books as a force to be reckoned with in the world of literature today. And yes, I'm just as likely to be found reading from my Kindle as from a paperback now too!
In 2008 fiction e-book sales accounted for 0.5% of fiction book sales in the USA (in monetary terms, and bear in mind e-books are generally much cheaper than paper!) and in 2013 they reached 35%. It's not difficult to work out where that graph is headed.
The keynote speakers and break-out workshops were hugely informative for this techno-phobe and I have come home with a much greater understanding of the industry and more importantly, its marketing strategies.
I'd also like to point out to those of you out there who consider romance novels 'trash' that this genre far outstrips any other in the market place! Cos, let's face it, no matter how much more important you might consider business publications, non-fiction, and literary fiction, it's Romance that makes the world go round!
Thank you to the Conference Committee, to RWNZ Executive and to the awesome line-up of international and local speakers and workshop presenters. You'd think I'd be hard to 'wow' after so many years of conferences but this one certainly had the Wow Factor for me.
Now to finish the first draft of Crystal Dancer, and get on with plotting 'Marked for the Duke', a regency romantica, which I plan to write for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), the great November Writing challenge that makes us write 50,000 words in a month. I did it 2 years ago. Should be easier this year then - eh? Watch this space!
Tuesday, 10 September 2013
Am I a Writer or a Wimp?
Hi Blog, I haven't been here in a while as I've been busy writing! Yeah, I know! It's what I'm supposed to be doing! And I was working happily on the sequel to 'Through all Eternity' (B009MFQUBC on Amazon) when a Regency Lady who proved not to be so Lady-like, took over my muse!
She's 25 and if she can't get her best friend, neighbor, and only love to show her what making love is all about she's going to die a virgin! He says he will never marry, so be it, but surely he could show her just once? He has a dark ugliness in his soul that he believes makes him unfit to be any woman's wife, especially someone raised with the ladylike expectations of marriage as his JC has! But she is determined to open 'Pandora's Box' (and I really did argue that even if I could write what she was telling me there was stuff in that Box I couldn't, just couldn't, publish!) and she was just as determined her story would be told! Too bad about another story half-written - or my wimpishness!
Write mine! she demanded.
I thought I could get away with writing a quick novella (which I could hide in the bottom of a drawer) and then she would be happy. Not! I started writing it at the beginning of July and it's already 66,000 words long with probably another 20,000 to go. And it's the kind of story I really considered dredging up a pseudonym for. Thank goodness my Mum's not around to read it! But wait! I have kids, grandkids, and even great-grandkids! (I hide my face. ;((
Then on FB Karina Bliss posted a link to 50 Rantypants Snidbits Of Random Writing & Storytelling Advice
She's 25 and if she can't get her best friend, neighbor, and only love to show her what making love is all about she's going to die a virgin! He says he will never marry, so be it, but surely he could show her just once? He has a dark ugliness in his soul that he believes makes him unfit to be any woman's wife, especially someone raised with the ladylike expectations of marriage as his JC has! But she is determined to open 'Pandora's Box' (and I really did argue that even if I could write what she was telling me there was stuff in that Box I couldn't, just couldn't, publish!) and she was just as determined her story would be told! Too bad about another story half-written - or my wimpishness!
Write mine! she demanded.
I thought I could get away with writing a quick novella (which I could hide in the bottom of a drawer) and then she would be happy. Not! I started writing it at the beginning of July and it's already 66,000 words long with probably another 20,000 to go. And it's the kind of story I really considered dredging up a pseudonym for. Thank goodness my Mum's not around to read it! But wait! I have kids, grandkids, and even great-grandkids! (I hide my face. ;((
Then on FB Karina Bliss posted a link to 50 Rantypants Snidbits Of Random Writing & Storytelling Advice
http://terribleminds.com/ramble/... a blog by Chuck Wendig. Of course I had to share it too. (Warning! Uncensored language! :))
So far I've only read to #10 BUT I then I had to share the link with a couple of other writers, go back and find it on FB and share it there too, sign up to follow Chuck Wendig's blog, copy #10 and print it out to stick on my wall - and blog about it!
Among the uncensored stuff (which I've sensored!) he says, "Be brave! Be powerful! Take risks. Write big. Write without fear. Write with blood, guts, madness and majesty!"
Now you really will have to check into his blog and read all the really good stuff I censored out!
So, I ask myself, am I a writer or a wimp?
And when I allowed the story to flow, I found once again, that it wasn't just about the 'beyond-sexy sexy stuff' - it was, as always, about the power of unconditional love to heal.
So hopefully I can do it justice and write it with all its 'blood, guts, madness and majesty'.
Harlequin have asked to see the first 3 chapters!
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