Gull Harbor is a #1 Bestseller on #Amazon + #BarnesandNoble! #Ghosts #Romance #99c #sale #amwriting

Seeing the orange banner under
your book never gets old!

My birthday came early this year!  This weekend, my novel, Gull Harbor, hit #1 Bestseller status on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble sites at the same times, in multiple categories!  On Saturday night, this second-chance romance/ghost mystery was within the Top 100 Bestsellers list overall on both sites, hitting an overall ranking of 92 on Amazon and landing in the top 10 overall on B&N's list of Bestselling Nook Books.  What a thrill!  It definitely gave me a warm, fuzzy glow on a bitterly cold weekend that made just going outside a brutal prospect.

Gull Harbor hit #1 in both Paranormal Romance and
Paranormal Contemporary Romance at Barnes & Noble,
coming in at #10 Bestseller in all Nook Books that day

#1 in three categories! Happy dancing!

This book has long been my most popular, and has earned a #1 Kindle Bestseller banner on several occasions, almost every time it goes on sale.  This time, the sale was picked up by BookBub, which is a very discerning site and newsletter promoting deals on books they select.  I was so excited when they chose to advertise my sale to their subscribers, but I wasn't expecting such phenomenal sales!

My biggest hope, though, is that the readers who purchased my book enjoy it.  That's really what it's all about, and that's the sole reason I decided to pursue a writing career...there are few things I enjoy more than getting lost in a page-turning read.  Every year, I post my favorite reads of the year here, and I'm currently working on my 2017 list.  Reading is my absolute favorite form of relaxation and entertainment, and my goal is to provide that for my fellow readers with the stories that come to life in my very active imagination.  Since I love both the roller coaster of emotions that come with romance as well as the chills and thrills of spooky suspense, I try to combine those two elements into hard-to-put-down reads.  

A dangerous ghost & an ex-boyfriend await
psychic Claire Linden in Cape Cod's Gull Harbor

If you'd like to pick up a copy of Gull Harbor while it's still less than a buck, the links are below.  A huge thanks to the readers who sent the book to #1...you made my weekend!  Enjoy visiting the shores of Cape Cod for some steamy romance with a haunting mystery :)

Gull Harbor on Kindle

Gull Harbor on Nook

Gull Harbor on iTunes

#HAUNTED SOULS made Top 3 Best #Books 2016! #amreading #amwriting

Earlier in the year, Read Freely, a website that highlights small-press and indie books, invited people to nominate their favorite titles for their annual "The 50 Best Indie Books" contest.  Titles had to meet the requirement of being published either by a small press outside the "Big 5" or be self-published, with a release date in 2016.  When the nominations closed, I was thrilled to hear my romance/ghost story Haunted Souls was one of 100 books to make the Finals round.  Voting then opened up for about three weeks in order to whittle that list down to the Top 50.

An exciting addition this year was the introduction of a cash prize for the Top 3 winners--something most authors would be especially grateful for this time of year!  So with the incentive of the honor of making the list, plus a monetary award, competition was bound to be fierce!  And it was--apparently, over 10,000 votes were cast, according to the site.

I did my best to make sure my readers knew about the contest and had the link information.  Thankfully, I have a Street Team that helps me spread news about my books online, and a number of wonderful friends active on social media who wanted to share the contest information as well. Family members sent emails to those who've read my books. For the past 20 years, I have worked at an all-women's gym, teaching classes, and many of the members have been supporting my writing journey since I began my first manuscript.  In addition, the owner is kind enough to allow me to sell my paperbacks at the gym, and I've done a number of books signings there as well.  Many of the members and employees who read my novels were eager to help by signing up to vote.

I picked up new readers as well along the way, which is one of the great things about these contests--your title lands on the radar of people who haven't heard of your book before as word spreads.  In fact, I found a new fan who took the time to email me about how much she enjoyed my latest novel and compare my work to her favorite romance authors: Julia Kent, Marie Force, Kristan Higgins and Jill Shalvis.  Quite an honor! That made my day.

The contest closed December 16, and the results trickled in day by day, starting with 50-41, then 40-31, etc.  Each day I both wanted to see my cover in the results and didn't want to see it...because if I didn't see it, maybe I made the next highest group.  Last night, before I could even check (okay, before I hit refresh for the hundredth time to see if the final 10 results had been posted), I got a text full of excited emojis from one of my friends, announcing I'd won $200.  If that was true, I knew I'd come in within the Top 3, in second place.  I sprinted to the computer to check, and it was there!  My book had come in at 2nd place in a competition that began with 100 books--very exciting! 

Happy Dance!

Check out the link below to see the Top 10 of Read Freely's 50 Best Indie Books of 2016, and find some new reads for the holidays! Last but not at all least, a HUGE thank you to everyone who voted - we're all busy these days, especially with all the winter holidays, so I very much appreciate your taking the time to support me.  Thanks! xo

Top 10 - 50 Best Indie Books