Wednesday, December 28, 2022

Audiobook Giveaway!

 

Something new and different for you - Spotify is no longer just a place where you can listen to music or podcasts. They've expanded into audiobooks!

And because my audiobooks are wide - sold on more retail platforms than just Audible - they were automatically loaded onto Spotify for your listening pleasure.

Now here's the fun part. I've got 20 free codes for each book to give away. If you're interested in either (or both), please comment here with your email, or, if you're not comfortable with leaving your email address in public (understandable), then email me at karen @ karenheenan (dot) com and let me know which book you want. 

Whether or not you can have both will depend on the number of responses I receive. Just know that both books are well voiced - two extremely talented actors with whom I've worked for years - and even though independently done, the books passed Audible's stringent controls before being uploaded. (I may not want to sell exclusively through them, but their quality control is the bomb, and I use them as a filter before I upload anywhere else).


Monday, December 19, 2022

Downhill to the holidays

It's coming. The holidays. 

I'm still stupid tired from the last few weeks and trying to remember what I did when I had the house to myself every day. I'm sure I'll figure it out just as my husband's long break starts (December 23 - January 3), and then I'll have to remember all over again.

It's not looking good, but I still have hopes of finishing the first draft of Coming Closer by Christmas. 

The original end date was Thanksgiving, but obviously that got derailed by family stuff, which is why I build wiggle room into all my deadlines. Something always happens, and even when that something isn't as large and sad as the loss of a family member, it's easy to lose time and get off-track.

Since the extent of my holiday decorating is usually looking at the decorations of others - too many years of adventurous cats to ever want to set up a tree again - I thought I'd share my favorite houses on Baltimore Avenue in West Philly. 

Urban legend says it's two sisters in side-by-side houses. They're decorated when there's no holiday going on, but give them a reason and they pull out all the stops. I'm not even sure this is all the Christmas decorations yet. Since they'll swap it all out again for Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Juneteenth, July 4th, Labor Day, Halloween, and Thanksgiving, my main question is where do they store it all in the off-season? 

Wednesday, December 14, 2022

Brief update

Just a short post this week because I haven't been around much and I'm just starting to catch up.

My husband's mom has been in hospice, and we lost her last week. Yesterday was the funeral and today is generalized exhaustion and starting to get to all the things that were set aside while we were with her.

Here's a list I wrote for shepherd.com that tires in with my release of Coming Apart - the five best books about complicated sister relationships. If you haven't heard of Shepherd, it's a fantastic place to go for book recommendations. While it does feature specific author's books, in exchange we have to come up with a list of books that work with the theme of our featured book. Complicated sisters was a fun list to put together.

Do you have any books you'd suggest adding to this list?

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

It's a sale!

 

One of the best things about the holiday season is the sales. One for them, one for me - sometimes that's just how you have to roll to get through it all.

Just in case you haven't treated yourself, and also haven't yet read Songbird, it's on sale (Amazon Kindle only) from December 5 through December 11, for just 99 cents. This offer is US and UK only, because that's how Amazon set it up, but hopefully that covers the bulk of you.

Have a book, on me, and find some time to sit down this season, put your feet up, and escape for a while.

Friday, December 2, 2022

November Roundup

November has been a month, let me tell you.

Figuring out how the launch went. Moving all my books from wide ebook distribution onto Kindle Unlimited (apparently that's where my readership is, because I've gotten more page reads than I ever expected - for which I am very, very grateful), keeping up with all those other November obligations and pleasures (family, holiday, craft shows), and getting ready for the big push at the end of the year.

Plus continuing on with book 2 in my Ava and Claire series, which is titled Coming Closer. The completion of the book is also coming closer, but my original December 1 deadline was derailed somewhat by life, which I will detail, at some point, in a regular post.

One thing I've learned from these roundup posts all through the year. It's absolutely exhausting to sit down ta the beginning of the next month and figure out what the heck you did for the past 30 days. It's either a blur or a cliff looming over your head, ready to topple.