A Blueprint for Hope Release Announcement & Free Giveaway!

I am so excited to announce my new book launch! A Blueprint for Hope, a contemporary sweet romance will be released on July 6th, 2020. Thank you to all the followers who have encouraged and supported me on my writing journey. 

From now until July 5th, 2020, please email me at olenequinn@gmail.com for your FREE pre-release copy. Honest reviews posted on release day would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the first glimpse:

A Broken-Hearted Chef with a Big Dream. An Architect with a Past. A High School Crush. What could go wrong?

When Hope Gibson broke up with her fiancé, she lost everything. She returns to her small hometown of Harmony Ridge with a modest savings account and big dreams of opening her own restaurant. However, she soon learns that her own father and his cronies in the county government have every intention of blocking her plans.

Hope’s high school crush, Lone McGregor, is not having any better luck. The death of his grandfather forces him away from his high-speed life as an architect in Los Angeles to repair and sell the property he inherited in Harmony Ridge. As a member of the least popular family in the county and boasting a hell-raising reputation of his own, he too finds the local government standing in his way.

When Lone concocts an ingenious plan to solve both their problems, they must commit to working together. And manage not to fall in love…

 A Blueprint for Hope is a sweet romance and is book one in the Harmony Ridge Romance Series. Each book in the series can be read as a stand-alone novel. Keep up with your favorite couples by reading them in order. Happily Ever After guaranteed!

FREE Book Promotion Websites (A Resource for Broke Indie Authors)

So, you're an indie author. And you're broke. Not just a little broke. Very, very broke. You want to schedule an Amazon ebook promotion and you have zero dollars to spend.

I can help. At least a little bit. Listed below are twenty websites that offer free slots for ebook promotions. Some require that the book be free, some that it be discounted. On many of these websites you have a 1 in 50 chance of getting listed. Still, 1 in 50 is better than nothing and even a single listing will help you to climb Amazon algorithms.

I'm not personally affiliated with any of these websites, but I have submitted Kindle promotions to all of them.

It’s Write Now https://itswritenow.com/free-book-submission/

Ebooks Habit (your book must have 5 reviews on Amazon to be submitted) https://ebookshabit.com/for-authors/

eBook Lister http://www.ebooklister.net/submit.php

Awesome Gang https://awesomegang.com/submit-your-book/

ContentMo https://contentmo.com/submit-your-free-ebook-promo 

KindleBookPromos.luckycinda.com https://kindlebookpromos.luckycinda.com/?page_id=10719 

New Free Kindle Books https://newfreekindlebooks.com/authors/

Pretty Hot https://pretty-hot.com/submit-your-book/

The eReader Café (Your book must have 3 reviews to submit)https://theereadercafe.com/promote-your-books/

Reading Deals (Your book must have 5 reviews and an average of 4 stars to submit.) https://readingdeals.com/submit-ebook

The Book Circle (This website selects just 5 books per day to promote.) https://www.book-circle.com/submit-free-kindle-ebook-listing/

eReader Love http://www.ereaderlove.com/contact-us-submit-a-book/

Discount Book Man https://discountbookman.com/book-promotion/

Book Bongo https://bookbongo.com/submit/ 

Lovely Books http://lovelybookpromotions.com/submit-your-kindle-freebie/

Frugal Freebies http://www.frugal-freebies.com/p/submit-freebie.html

FreeBooks.com http://www.freebooks.com/submit/

Books on the Knob (Don't send free books here. They only advertise discounted books.) http://blog.booksontheknob.org/subscribe-about-contact/authors-read-this

Ask David https://askdavid.com/free-ebook-promotion 

Topless Cowboy (Romance Novels Only) https://toplesscowboy.com/submit-your-book/

Superbowl Book Sale

If you would rather cozy up with a good book and a warm drink than watch the Superbowl today, I've got your back.

Get two of my sweeping historical epics for just $0.99! Sale lasts until this Tuesday 2/4/2020.

Prince Dead is FREE on Kindle:

The Gates of Nottingham is just $0.99 on Kindle:

Follow my blog or follow me on Twitter for more news & promotions.

After the Happily Ever After - The Problem with Romance Novels

It's the genre's greatest selling point - the guaranteed HEA. Pick up a romance novel and you know that not only are two characters going to fall in love; they are going to live Happily Ever After. What happens, though, when the reader is just not convinced? When two characters seem too toxic, too selfish, or too different to make it work? Yes, they wind up together on the page, but in the reader's head?

Possibly not. And that can spoil the novel.

Can you imagine the brooding alpha millionaire mob boss doing a midnight tissues and Nyquil run at the drugstore when his lady has the flu? Will the career-obsessed, highly aggressive, totally self-involved heroine ever find it within herself to make compromises for her relationship? Will these two self-serving, argumentative, domineering people ever be able to decide where to order takeout or which laundry detergent to purchase?

Probably not. And no matter how hard the author tries to push the HEA, it won't convince the reader.

Taking all of this into account, I was bound and determined to portray the characters in my romance novels performing everyday activities, making the mundane sacrifices that sometimes define relationships, and simply enjoying each other's company. In the manuscript I currently have out for submission to Harlequin my hero and heroine go fishing and four-wheeling, tackle the annoyance of vehicle breakdowns and bad cell phone reception, and face the balance between chasing their dreams and compromising for each other. Sometimes their problems are huge, sometimes they are tiny. In the end, they overcome them together.

I think that is the ultimate romance. I hope Harlequin agrees. More importantly, I hope that one day my novel will get into the hands of readers who love it.

Edwardian Advice on Self-Confidence

Confidence is nothing new!

Today, I am transcribing a reply in an advice column from the July, 1905 edition of The Delineator.  The column is titled "The Observances of Society" and is written by Mrs. Frank Learned. Unfortunately, the original letter asking for advice is not included, but I still find the reply interesting.

Anxious--
Your trouble seems to be morbid self-consciousness. If you think less of yourself, and the impression you are making, less of the criticism of others, if you are your own courteous, refined self, you will not be worried constantly about little problems. You tell me you understand the first thing is to be a refined woman always, and that is the limit of your knowledge. Now, I think when you say this you show you are not at all limited or narrow when you know by instinct the refinements and natural conduct of a "gentlewoman." This is a good old English word and it means much. Less self-consciousness, the cultivation of a sense of humor, which is the salt of life, would help you to look less seriously and severely on the little every-day matters which worry you. Do not make mountains out of molehills.  

Good advice, even in the internet age!

Other Posts of Interest:

Edwardian Advice on Baby's First Clothes

10 Fierce Women from Viking Lore

The culture of early Norse people is often associated with war, rape, and pillage. Like a pack of wild animals, flaxen-haired barbarians, destroyed, burned, and killed everything in their path. Surely, these savages took no thought of art, song, or storytelling. Yet, history says otherwise. Centuries of oral tradition passed down tales of kings and tinkers, Valkyries and dragons. From these tales, the Icelandic Sagas were recorded. Just as any modern novel reflects our world, these historical texts open a window into a much maligned people. Though they depict a society sharply divided along gender lines, the women of the Sagas are not all the shrinking violets and damsels-in-distress you may expect. (1)

10 Artifacts that Prove Vikings Weren't Savages

Pop culture perception of the Vikings is that of a savage people, unsophisticated and unusually violent, raping, pillaging, and razing their way across Europe. They were dirty, feral conquerors in horned helmets. Their only advantage was that of genetic size and strength. As they used it to destroy gentler, more sophisticated societies, the world was set back to the dark ages, shrouded in fear and haunted by lost civilization. Their history was written by their enemies. Their truth, recorded in Sagas and buried away in artifacts a thousand years old, tells a different tale.

Image Credit: National Museums Scotland

10. Balance Scales

Although Vikings may be best known for what they plundered, sets of early Scandinavian scales prove that they also paid for goods. Silver was the primary money of the day, although gold and other precious metals were also used in trade. Whether formed into coins, jewelry, or ingots, the metals were valued by weight, rather than demarcation. Large numbers of Islamic coins were brought into Scandinavian countries only to be melted into hack silver. So important was the weight of metals, that one merchant who lived his last days in Kiloran Bay on Colonsay in the Inner Hebrides chose to be buried with his scales. Weapons and ornaments from his homeland in Scandinavia surrounded his body, but cradled closest to him, between his knees and head, rest his splendid set of bronze scales along with seven engraved, lead weights. (1)