So happy to finally have a dedicated space to write about books and writing. I’ve had all these posts intermingled with my old personal/family blog for years and have been wanting to separate them. So I’ve been working on this a little bit here and there over the past month, and this weekend, I was determined to finish. Last night, I finally got everything in place and now when you type bykrista.com, this is where it will take you.
The posts go all the way back to my first NaNoWriMo in 2008. It was fun to look back through all the posts and follow my writing journey from the start. Thanks for stopping by!
THIS BOOK, LAWFULLY SECURE, is coming out on June 4th. It’s my first in the Lawkeepers Series, and it was a different story than I’m used to with a little mystery and suspense going on in the background of the romance. But I loved it. It pushed me and made me better as a writer. Can’t wait for you to read it in a couple weeks. For now, you can PREORDER ON AMAZON for just 99¢ (special NEW RELEASE PRICE will be in affect until June 10).
What’s it about?
She thought she knew love. Until she met the man hired to protect her.
Paige Bancroft lives a charmed life—the daughter of a billionaire, beautiful and intelligent, about to marry the man of her dreams. Things are going according to plan, until her father unexpectedly summons her home and introduces her to Adam Wilder. He’s irritatingly polite and far too serious, and she hates herself for noticing how handsome he is. Worse, he’s the man her father has hired to protect her after a threat against their family.
After his years in the military, Adam Wilder never expected to work as a personal bodyguard for the heiress of the Croft athletics empire. Her sarcastic remarks and cold shoulder are easily overlooked, given the sudden inconvenience to her life, but when she’s open and real with him, he feels a connection with her that he’s never felt before.
The closer Paige’s wedding gets, the closer they get to each other, and the more Adam realizes he would do anything to keep her secure. Will he uncover who’s behind the threat before it’s too late?
I’m so excited that Not the Billionaire is HERE! I started writing Sebastian & Genevieve’s story last fall for NaNoWriMo, all the while thinking it would be a Valentine’s Day release. It’s funny, because I actually put it up for preorder before I’d even finished the first draft, which is something I have NEVER done before. I usually have the draft written and have gone through it at least once before deciding whether or not to do a preorder. In this case, it ended up being the fuel that kept the edits on this book going. And, as often happens, life got in the way a bit. We had a family vacation, and I did take a little time most mornings to work on the book but did not get as much done as I wanted and was starting to feel behind. Then, we traveled to Indianapolis for my daughter’s gymnastics meet, which also happened to be the same weekend my dad was scheduled to have surgery there. He ended up being in the hospital longer than anticipated (within the normal range for his surgery, though), so it worked out for me to stay in Indy with my mom for a few days so she wouldn’t have to be alone. It ended up being like a little writing getaway. I got a bunch of editing done and was able to send the book off to my critique team just a couple days past when I had originally wanted to get it to them. That was a month ago. So this past month has been tons of last minute edits before finally getting the formatting done for eBook and paperback. I guess I work okay under pressure. 😉
Last year, when I released Another June with You, I did not do a preorder and did sort of a quiet launch. No release date announced, just finished the edits, formatted, and put it live on Amazon. That was an entirely different experience. No deadline meant less pressure, but it also meant some days I had to make myself work on the edits. That can be a long and sometimes tedious process, so not having any deadline slowed that whole process down.
This time around, I am amazed that I got it all done in a month’s time, happy that it’s out for Valentine’s Day, just like I wanted it to be, and excited for you to read it.<3
Happy reading, everyone!
Not the Billionaire is a sweet, clean billionaire romance. Book One of the series.
TOMORROW is the day! Not the Billionaire is almost here! Yeah! Actually, if you pre-ordered, the book will drop onto your Kindle just after midnight! I’m so excited. Sharing the full paperback cover with you here today.
Stop over to my Facebook author page for a few quotes from the book. And some news on what I’m writing now!
In Not the Billionaire, I make a very brief mention of Genevieve and her new friend, Marianne, taking Marianne’s kids on a Red Bus Tour of Glacier National Park, which is near Kalispell, Montana, where a portion of this book and some of the next book will take place. In researching this, I also discovered that you can take a Yellow Bus Tour in Yellowstone, which now makes me want to go to both of these parks and experience a ride in each colored bus. 😉
• During the early years of touring, women were discouraged from riding in the front because they distracted male drivers. <— This one made me LOL!
• The drivers are called “Jammers” because they could be heard “jamming” the gears of the red buses going up Going-to-the-Sun Road when the buses had standard transmissions.
• The color of the Red Buses comes from the Ripe Mountain Ash Berry in Glacier National Park.
• The Red Buses of Glacier are nicknamed “The Rubies of the Rockies.”
• In addition to touring guests around Glacier, the buses have also served as evacuation vehicles in times of fire or flooding.
I love knowing the history behind things and learning interesting facts. And now I’ve got all kinds of stories spinning around in my mind about these buses. LOL!
Not the Billionaire arrives on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited on February 12th!
In Not the Billionaire, Genevieve and Sebastian could not be more different when it comes to how they were raised. She’s a country girl, having grown up on a farm, working with her daddy in the fields, and riding her horse, Charisma. She loves country music and the simple life. Sebastian’s horses were boarded at a fancy stable and cared for by others, he’s never worked in a field a day in his life, and he’s not a fan of country music, but he wouldn’t mind a simple life with Genevieve.
Are you a country music fan? If so, what are some of your favorite songs?
I grew up listening to it because my dad always had it on and then worked at a sporting goods store where they played it constantly, but I can’t say I was a fan. Until my daughter started listening over the past couple years, and I warmed up to it. A couple of my recent favorites are “From the Ground Up” by Dan + Shay and “She Don’t Wanna Marry Me” by Thomas Rhett and “Yours” by Russell Dickerson.
Not the Billionaire arrives on February 12th and is available for pre-order NOW on Amazon!
The heroine of my story, Genevieve Willis, is the new event coordinator for the Schultz Foundation, the part of the company that raises money for various area charities. Genevieve’s brilliant idea for this year’s annual fundraiser is a REGATTA, which everyone is on board with. Just looking at these pictures makes me happy. Sunshine and sailboats and family yachts, oh my!
I’ve never actually been to a regatta and whenever I hear regatta, I think of the episode of Friends, where Rachel makes up a story about going to a regatta gala. So, I guess those events in my book are sort of a nod to Friends in a way. 😉
Are you a Friends fan? What’s your favorite episode?
There are too many for me to list, but thinking about sailing, the episode where Joey buys the boat and Rachel tries to teach him to sail cracks me up.
Joey: “Who names their boat ‘Coast Guard’ anyway?” Rachel: “That is the Coast Guard.” Joey: “What are they doing out here? The coast is all the way over there.” LOL!
Only six more days until the book releases! I got the paperback all formatted today, so that should be releasing right along with the eBook. I also woke up this morning with a scene playing out in my head for Book 2 – Gus’s book – so I quickly typed it out on my phone before I even got up so I wouldn’t forget. Ideas and scenes come at random times. My phone is my best friend. 😉
It’s almost here! This book I’ve been working on since October will be out in the world next Tuesday, February 12th, and I’m just as excited as I always am when one of my books releases. Over the next week, I’m going to share some tidbits about the book that I shared when I took part in the Facebook billionaire bash last month.
In Not The Billionaire, my hero, Sebastian Schultz, is president of his family’s company, Schultz Chocolate, which his grandfather started and his father built up to a billion dollar company. Think big companies like Hershey or Ghirardhelli, etc. That’s what I was going for. Schultz Chocolate is best known for their truffles, which were what startled it all, but they are also manufacturers of high quality chocolate.
In the book, Genevieve’s sister does NOT like chocolate. This part of the story was inspired by my best friend, who is not a fan of chocolate. I love chocolate of all kinds – milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate. Gimme! The one thing I don’t like, though, is chocolate covered cherries. I just happened to give Genevieve a dislike for those as well. 😉
Are you a fan of chocolate covered cherries or, like me, will you pass on those? And do any of you not like chocolate?
Not the Billionaire is available for preorder now at the special price of $2.99 (that’s $1 off regular price).
I know I’ve gone missing around here, but only because I’m writing lots of books and maybe a little bit of normal life has taken over as well. I used to share here SO much about our life. Lots of pictures of my family and stuff we were doing (all those posts are still here so far). That changed a lot as the kids got older. I don’t think they loved me sharing so many pictures of them anymore. 😉 This space became all about my books and writing and I’m not sure anyone who used to follow my page is still around here, but if you are, thanks for sticking with me. I’m much more active on Facebook and Instagram these days. But I still want to share in this space because I still love reading blogs. Even if a lot of my favorites have disappeared over the years.
On the HOME front … we’ve had some big milestones this year.
Zach graduated and is in his freshman year of college now. He started off as an architecture major, but pretty quickly decided it wasn’t what he wanted to do and switched to an English major for this semester. He likes it so much more already. I told him one day he can help me edit my books, to which he said, “Only if you write something other than romance.” Doh!
Chloe is a sophomore in high school this year. She went through drivers ed last fall and has her permit now. And I have to say that she’s a very good driver. She’s still on the gymnastics team and had her first meet of the season last weekend. I still love being a gymnastics mom and love our gym.
ON THE WORK FRONT …
Not the Billionaire is my most recent work in progress. It’s actually less than a month from its release date, and I’m so excited to introduce you to Sebastian and his family and Genevieve, the girl who walks into his life and changes everything. The book is available for preorder now for a dollar off regular price HERE.
OTHER BOOK HAPPENINGS!
SECOND CHANCE WITH YOU SERIES The Second Chance with You Series was a great success this past fall! It was so fun to be a part of, and there just might be talk of more books being added to the series in the future. I’m game!
THE LAWKEEPERS I’m part of The Lawkeepers Series, and will be releasing a book in June. I love that most of the authors in the group have a connection to law enforcement in some way. All the books deal with some area of that, whether it’s contemporary police officers, military, etc. or historical sheriffs, Texas Rangers, etc. Very fun! My story will be a contemporary bodyguard theme. Still ironing out the details on this one.
THE MCGREGOR FAMILY – BOOK TWO Out of all of the books I’ve written, I’ve never had so many people ask when Book Two of a series will be coming out! LOL! I’m just overwhelmed with the love readers have for Shannon and Micah, and how much they can’t wait to read Duncan and Jamie’s story. That will be coming later in 2019. I’m a little ways into writing it now and I can already tell it’s going to be an emotional one.
18 HOURS TO US My little YA book that released in November 2017 has had a little resurgence on Amazon this month. It has reached #1 in several categories and even pushed little old me into the Top 100 Young Adult authors on all of Amazon. I was as high as #62 one day, between Veronica Roth (Divergent) and James Dashner (Maze Runner), so that was fun! I’ve also had several readers say they wished there was a sequel to this book and that is something I have definitely considered. Another road trip for Natalie and Colton sounds like so much fun!
That’s the latest around here! If you want to stay even more up to date and be the first to know things, you can join my private FB group, A Work in Progress, and sign up for my NEWSLETTER! New projects, cover reveals, behind-the-scenes, etc. My FB group is where I share first!
I am beyond excited that our new series, SECOND CHANCE WITH YOU, is about to kick off on October 9th with the release of my newest novel, Bittersweet. Second Chance with You is a series written by a group of sweet, clean romance authors connected by the the idea that past loves, broken apart for a myriad of reasons, can be brought back together—some by chance, some by circumstance, some by choice.
All books in the series are standalone and can be read in any order.
They are all available for preorder now for just 99¢ each. The books will remain on sale for one week after their release when the next book releases. 🙂
