Last fall, I announced my very first contracted romantic suspense series: The Centurion Corporation.
I’m happy to say I’ve turned in the manuscript for the first book on time and have been working with the awesome teams at Carina Press to prepare for the launch of the series in fall of this year. As a result of all our brainstorming, we’ve decided to re-title the series and the books. (This happens fairly frequently in the publishing world.)
I’m super excited about the new series name and the new book titles. What do you all think?
Series Title: Safeguard
Book 1: Hidden Impact
Book 2: Deadly Testimony
Book 3: Contracted Defense
And as a fun bonus, here’s an unofficial blurb for the first book. 😉
Military veteran turned mercenary, Gabriel Diaz doesn’t want to get emotionally invested in missions anymore. Been there, done that, almost died.
When Maylin Cheng asks him to help her find her missing sister, Gabe tells her to invest in a private investigator…or a memorial service. But he can’t stand by and watch Maylin be run down by a hit and run driver either. As he looks further into Maylin’s story, there’s too many red flags about her dilemma and her missing sister for him to ignore.
Plus, the dark beauty has gotten under his skin further than he wants to admit. The sparks flying between them have ignited a hunger neither of them is able to extinguish regardless of their dubious futures.
Only one thing is certain: without the help of Gabe and the Centurion Corporation, not only will Maylin never find her little sister, but someone out there will have their hands on the brilliant mind behind the research that could create the next level of biologic warfare.
The year 2014 flew right by me in a whirl of book releases (as PJ Schnyder), new series proposals, and exciting book deals (as Piper J. Drake).
Even though I’ve only existed as Piper J. Drake since September of 2014, I’ve been very busy.
- 3 book deal with Carina Press for a new romantic suspense series
- 3 book deal with Grand Central Publishing’s Forever imprint for a new romantic suspense series
- turned in book 1 of the new romantic suspense series with Carina Press to my editor
Whew. And 2015?
I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions.
And let’s face it. No matter how quickly a year seems to fly by, a year is a long time and things can change. So a year long resolution might not be applicable 6 months in. Setting my goals on a quarterly basis gives me time to reassess and set new goals completely applicable to what I want to accomplish. How I set them, what they are…that’s probably the topic of a podcast.
Goals aside, I have made commitments.
Those, I need to meet and they give a pretty decent snap shot of what I’ll be up to this year.
So what’s in store for 2015?
- turn in book 1 of the new romantic suspense series with Grand Central Publishing Forever imprint to my editor*
- turn in book 2 of the new romantic suspense series with Grand Central Publishing Forever imprint to my editor
- turn in book 2 of the new romantic suspense series with Carina Press to my editor*
- Edits, promotion, and celebration for the RELEASE of book 1 of the series with Carina Press in November
- create more Piper Travels and Piper Notes on my YouTube channel
- consistently produce episodes for my new podcast – Every Minute, Everywhere: Time Management for Authors with Piper J. Drake
- fulfill commitments as my alter-identity, PJ Schnyder
*Note: my editors for Carina Press and Grand Central Publishing are two different, very talented people. I am incredibly excited to work with each of them.
What are you up to in 2015?
I’m writing this weekend. Madly writing with a daunting word count goal for each day. I’ve got tasks in my Any.Do app for my goals and my deadlines highlighted in brilliant red on my Google Calendar with automated reminders set to email me as they get closer.
Looking forward to 2015, I’ve got the most contractual deadlines of my career so far. It’s exciting! It means I have books coming out!
As wonderful as it is, it’s also intimidating. And I was starting to approach my planning for 2015 with trepidation. Not a positive way to look at projects.
Then, Katee Robert pinged me with something so very shiny. And practical. And perfect.
She was getting a day planner. Very practical. And oh, but what a day planner (click here to check it out). The ideas presented with this day planner of colorful stickers and washi tape and pieces of scrapbooking paper…it was an explosion of colors, designs, and fun. My creative side bubbled up in glee at all the possibilities.
Suddenly, planning for 2015 was fun and exciting. You bet I purchased a planner too, complete with colorful stickers. I’ll dig out my scrap booking stash and put it to good use rather than letting it languish tucked away in my storage unit. So many happy things …completely non-digital.
Out of character for me, possibly. But I think a change of pace for my usual techno-gadget self is a good thing. 😀
One of my goals for my social media presence is to create interesting and/or fun content. I find YouTube content creators to be engaging and ground-breaking. My own YouTube channel is in infancy stages and I may have missed “the wave” for true viral growth but I still want to explore content creation.
BUT even in all things nifty, projects need prioritization. #PiperTravels videos take a lot of time to edit as I’m still learning techniques for putting them together. My books come first. So how to add content to my YouTube channel or other social media outlets and still have time to hit my writing deadlines?
I decided to create #PiperNotes for those quick thoughts or messages I wanted to share with minimal prep, lighting, audio, or editing. They’re meant to be quick check-ins with random thoughts or hints to what I’m up to. I’m also trying to learn to deliver a clear message quickly, with a lot of personality. It’ll be interesting to see me evolve over time with these, I think.
Here’s the first!
Please do subscribe to my YouTube Channel to see more of my projects – including insights into my writing process and research. 😉
AAAAHHHH! *muppet flails*
Ahem.
I am incredibly excited to announce that Grand Central Publishing’s FOREVER imprint has acquired my new romantic suspense series in a 3 book deal!
This will be my first series with FOREVER and will be available in print. (Woo!)
This is a huge evolution in my career as a writer and I look forward to learning from the FOREVER team and embarking on this fantastic adventure.
Hopefully, you’ll all be as excited as we are about the series. 😉
