Re-Releases – Yay or Nay? by Alicia Dean

I know there are varying opinions on re-releasing titles. I have re-released a few, for different reasons. I currently have not one, but TWO re-releases available for pre-order. Here’s the scoop…

Soul Seducer – Available tomorrow, Oct 20^th – I landed an agent with this book a few years back. She liked it a lot, but said editors wanted ‘hotter’ – So, I added very spicy sex scenes, out of my comfort zone spicy sex scenes. The book was eventually picked up by Crimson Romance. They wanted me to cut, a lot, not because of content but because of word count restrictions. I did. I cut the sex scenes and the scenes from the killer’s point of view. My experience with them was less than awesome. Eventually, I got my rights back and self-published. I published a version that included the sex scenes. I planned a few sequels to Soul Seducer, and I didn’t really want to self-publish them all. I decided to submit to Edward Allen Publishing, our own Leah St. James’ publishing house. I have a short story as part of an anthology through Edward Allen, and I LOVE being with them. I wouldn’t have asked them to consider my book, with it being a re-release which seems unfair to them, if I hadn’t planned (and still plan) sequels. I’m hoping this will be a beneficial experience for them and for me. (I kept my same cover)

Amazon Pre-Order Link: https://amzn.com/B01M6YGVI3

Blurb:

As a nurse, Audra Grayson devotes her life to healing others. She realizes death is inevitable, but struggles every day to help her patients combat it. When she has a near-death experience of her own, she inadvertently opens a portal between the world of the living and the dead. Two Grim Reapers step through—Gaylen, bent on vengeance, determined to bring death to the innocent, even when it isn’t their time. And Dimitri—sexy and deadly, even though he’s just ‘doing his job.’ When Gaylen targets Audra’s patients, then her loved ones, she’ll have to conquer her fears to defeat him. But she can’t as easily conquer her feelings for Dimitri—she’s falling in love with him, and there’s no future with a man who exists in a world beyond the grave.

Snippet:

He was there. Waiting where he said he’d be, leaning against the wall, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans. A light above the emergency door illuminated the alcove, allowing Audra to make out his features clearly. His crystal blue eyes glittered as he watched her approach. He didn’t speak when she reached him.

“Okay,” she said breathlessly, staring up into his face. “Tell me who you are and what the hell has been going on since the night of my accident.” Blood pounded through her veins, rushing loudly in her ears as she waited for his reply.

He chuckled, taking his hands from his pockets and straightening.

A flash of anger shot through her. “What’s so damned funny?” she demanded.

“Nothing. It’s just that, this hasn’t been going on ‘since the night of your accident.’ It’s been happening since the beginning of time.”

She threw her arms in the air and let them drop to her sides. “Great. All the shit I’ve been through, and I get riddles. You think you’re a Batman villain or something?” She moved closer and jabbed her finger toward him. “I want some straight up answers. Right. This. Second.”

He lifted his hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. Calm down. I’ll tell you, but it’s going to be difficult to believe.”

She gave a humorless laugh and crossed her arms. “Everything that’s happened lately has been difficult to believe. Try me.”

He took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. “My name is Dimitri. I’m a reaper.”

She waited. She couldn’t have heard him right, so she let the words play in her head for a bit. What else might he have said? It sounded like he said he was a reaper. But that wasn’t possible. That was utterly ridiculous. Of course, all of this was utterly ridiculous.

“Did you just say you’re a reaper?”

“I did.”

“And what exactly is it that you reap?” She’d play along. See where this led.

“Souls, Audra. I reap souls.”

Right. She impatiently brushed a lock of hair back from her forehead. “So, you’re a reaper as in, Grim Reaper?”

A grin played over his full lips. “I can’t say I’m fond of that adjective. Grim. Sounds sort of...repugnant. I’m just a reaper. Plain and simple.”

The Twelfth Day – Available December 7, 2016 – This short story was part of a Christmas anthology last year, which was released for only a short time. I submitted the individual story to The Wild Rose Press, and they contracted it. (I LOVE being with them as well!). (Isn’t this a wonderful cover?)

Amazon Pre-Order Link: https://amzn.com/B01MF4GV69

Blurb:

As a teen, party girl, Sabrina Spencer was the lone survivor of a serial killer’s attack on her family. Her testimony put the killer behind bars, and she spent the following decade carving out a new life and trying to forget. But someone hasn’t forgotten. Two weeks before Christmas, she begins receiving bizarre messages with demented references to the Twelve Days of Christmas. 

Handyman Josh Cravens is remodeling the lake house she rents each year to escape the painful reminders Christmas brings. While his dimples and blue eyes are hard to resist, he’s the exact kind of player she’s been avoiding since she outgrew her wild days. But the isolated cabin and threatening messages boost her paranoia to fever pitch. 

As Christmas draws closer, she’s torn between finding comfort in Josh’s arms, and fear that he might be behind the twisted countdown to the twelfth day.

Snippet:

She opened the box lid. “The Twelve Days of Christmas” played from one of those little discs used in musical greeting cards. A silver bracelet lay amidst crumpled red tissue paper. And a note. On the third day of Christmas…

She gasped. The box fell from her trembling hands and landed on the table.

“Hey,” Josh’s low voice spoke beside her. He put his hand over hers, and a slight sense of calm stole through her. “You all right?”

All eyes were on her. “I-I thought I saw a spider in the box. I’m fine.”

“You sure?” His gaze captured hers. Doubt lingered in their blue depths.

Sabrina nodded. Everyone went back to eating, but she could barely focus on the remainder of the meal. This wasn’t just a computer glitch. The bracelet was just like the one she wore often, had been wearing when she was rescued. Someone was purposely referencing her past. But why? Was it a sick joke?

SO…those are my reasons for re-releasing. Do you think they are valid reasons? When promoting, would you suggest I highlight the fact that they are re-releases, or just leave that out? The titles are the same and the cover for Soul Seducer is the same. I think people will know if they already have them. What about you? Have you or would you re-release a title?

An Old Pro at Sail Adjusting by Alicia Dean

She stood in the storm and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails. ~ Elizabeth Edwards

I am not a sailor, nor am I a boatie. (I just coined a new phrase. You know, like trekkie? ;)) But, I know a little something about adjusting sails. When I was a child, our family moved a handful of times, and a few of them were devastating, frightening prospects, although they turned out fine in the end. All I had to do was adjust my sails. As an adult, I’ve moved quite a few times, changed jobs, made and lost friends, divorced, relocated, etc, etc. At nearly fifty, I began a whole new, never before attempted career as a legal assistant. As it turns out, I have a knack, and I love it. A lot. Of course, there’s also the writing thing. Rejections, publishers closing, attempting new genres, searching for new ways to market your book, and struggling with some of the stories that just don’t seem to want to be written. Talk about needing to adjust your sails!

All of that was easy, because I was the one affected, the one having to adjust my sails. But, recently, each of my three adult children has had experiences that have more or less rocked their world. I have found it’s not as easy to adjust sails for someone else.  I watch helplessly as they struggle and grieve, and all I can do is be there for them, encourage and listen to them, tell them that these experiences are, unfortunately, a part of life, and promise them that things will get better. And they will, it just takes time and a lot of pain. I believe each of our experiences, good and bad, mold us into the people we become. Maybe it’s a good thing I can’t take the hurt and struggles from my children. If I did, they wouldn’t become the people they are meant to be. They wouldn’t find their inner strength and fortitude. And, they would never learn to adjust their own sails.

Even though I don’t like for my children to suffer, I love for my characters to suffer (simmer down, I reward them in the end :)) I think that’s one reason I’m struggling with my latest WIP. My heroine isn’t suffering enough. I need to find some diabolical ways to wreak havoc in her world.

The heroine of my paranormal romance, Soul Seducer, dealt with a great deal of suffering. When you’re being threatened and tormented by one Grim Reaper, and falling in love with another, you have to do a lot of sail adjusting. Soul Seducer is an older release, but I got my rights back, and it’s been re-worked and re-released. I added back some scenes that my publisher made me take out, and it has a fabulous new cover. 

***Temporarily on sale for 99 cents:  Amazon   Barnes and Noble

She spent her entire life fighting death. Now she’s falling in love with him…

Audra Grayson became a nurse in order to help save lives. But one night after a brutal beating, she almost loses her own. The near-death experience opens a door between the world of the living and the world beyond. Two Grim Reapers invade her life. One is charming, with the angelic blond looks of a saint and the black soul of a psychopath. The other is dark, dangerously attractive and, in spite of her distaste for his reaper duties, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to him.

When Audra's patients begin to die unexpectedly and her loved ones are threatened, she will risk her life—even her soul—to save them. But can she risk her heart to an inhuman being whose very purpose is to take those she is trying to save?

Excerpt:

A crash and a scream sounded over the noise of the crowd.

Audra shot to her feet and stared in the direction of the commotion. At a Gyro stand near where Jaxon stood, a small group of people had started to move frantically, some in one direction some in the other. Between the sea of bodies, Audra glimpsed a toppled chair and the prone figure of a man.

A male voice shouted, “Give him room, people. Back off. Someone call 9-1-1.”

Jaxon rushed over to the source of the uproar, and Audra grabbed their belongings, heading to join him as quickly as she could, although her progress was slowed by her limp and the rush of people. Several had vacated their seats and were also moving toward the action, trying to get a glimpse of what was taking place.

Keeping an eye on her target, Audra was pushing her way closer to Jaxon and the hubbub when she spotted the blond ghost. She halted, her breath stalling in her lungs. What the hell?

He was closer to whatever was happening than Audra was. She peered through the mob and, just as she feared, the dark stranger was there, too. He moved through the crowd easily, which was no surprise. After all, ghosts weren’t hindered by mere solid objects. Anger contorted his face, his dark brows drawn over his piercing blue eyes. Forgetting the potential victim for a moment, Audra changed her course and headed toward the dark man, who was nearer to her than the blond. Once and for all, she would get some answers.

When she was within earshot, she shouted, “Hey, you!”

He whirled at the sound of her voice, his eyes momentarily widening in surprise, then he turned away and continued his course.

“Stop!”

Some of the people nearby cast her puzzled glances, probably wondering who she spoke to, but most of them were focused on the drama unfolding next to the Gyro stand.

She was almost upon the man now. “I said stop. You have some explaining to do.”

He barely spared her a glance. “I can’t talk now,” he bit out, still striding toward where Jaxon was administering aid to the ill man.

Before he’d covered half the distance, he came to a sudden halt, his fists clenching next to his sides. “Son of a bitch!”

Audra followed his gaze, and her brow creased in confusion. Through an opening in the crowd, she saw Jaxon crouched next to the fallen man, giving him chest compressions. The blond stood just behind Jaxon, his arms outstretched. Even from this distance, Audra could see an expression of complete rapture on his handsome face.

She looked back at her companion. Unlike the blond’s, his expression held abject despair, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

“Son of a bitch,” he muttered again.

“Someone,” Audra whispered next to him, “had better tell me what the hell’s going on.”