Jules Jones

I've been interviewed at the Prism Book Alliance blog, and along with that, there's a prize draw for a copy of "And if I offered thee a bargain" and a $10 Musa voucher, plus 30% off the book at Musa's website today.

http://www.prismbookalliance.com/2014/02/jules-jones-stops-by-to-talk-with-adriana/

The interview is a little incoherent, what with having had a migraine at the time. :-/

Reviews are good. Five star reviews are even better. And sometimes a review makes you very, very happy indeed. Like this one.

I have made a list of the people with correct answers, and asked random.org for a random number. :-) The winner is Carole Lake, but everyone who answered gave me at least one of the alternative names for the sidhe used in the blurb, i.e. the Fair Folk or the Good People. And thanks for the comments some of you sent. The story is out tomorrow -- it's only a short story, but it's the first release I've had in four years, so I am very pleased to see it coming out.

Right, chaps and chapesses, the new story is out on Friday next week, which means it's time for the traditional competition to entice you to read the blurb. If you'd like the chance to win a copy, go over to the book's page on Musa's website at http://musapublishing.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9&products_id=373 and email me with one of the alternative names for the sidhe you'll find there. Competition closes at midnight UK time next Wednesday evening, and I'll draw a name at random. My email address is jules.jones@gmail.com

Took longer than it should have, because the throat infection is taking its own sweet time about leaving, and I've been feverish yesterday and part of today. On the other hand, at least I had several days in hand to do them, because I got the revisions for checking a full three weeks ahead of release day. I know this might not sound like much to those of you at print-first sf houses, but the weird timescales of erotic romance epublishers mean that there have been times in the past when I've had to do a final round of checking galleys a day or two before release. Three weeks is <Yorkshire>luxury</Yorkshire>.

I'm sure I'm not going to get any sympathy from desperance and autopope, mind. :-) After all, I only had 5.5 kwords to edit, and all on one title. When I have the edits for three novels land on me at once, I might get some sympathy...

The main edits on If I offered thee a bargain have gone through, and late last night I was sent the draft cover art. The latter is interesting -- it is utterly wrong if considered as a literal representation of what's in the story (white-haired and bare-chested elf when it should be black hair and teeshirt, cliff beach scene instead of drumlin). It's also spot-on in giving an *impression* of what the story's about. I thought about it for at least 3 seconds before saying yes. :-) Because the cover's job is to get the prospective purchaser to fondle the merchandise, and what I've been given does that job well.

I need to check whether I'm allowed to post the draft in public, so not putting it up tonight - maybe later this week.

In other writing news, slightly fitful progress on Taxman. Monday 305 words, Wednesday 323 words, Saturday 333 words, and on Sunday I cracked the 30k mark with 526 words to take it to 30,269 in total.

ETA: final version has just been posted, but I'm too tired now to upload it to my site so I can link to it. Will try to do it tomorrow.

Had a relapse on the RSI at work yesterday - not bad, but I had to step away from the computer for a couple of hours, and did nothing more than check my email when I got home.

Bad timing, because the email included one from my editor telling me I've got the first round of edits on Bargain to look through. Fortunately we've got some time in hand, but I need to step away from the keyboard *now*, even though I had a long break from the keyboard at work today, and I suspect will be in the same position for the next couple of days.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet -- when I logged into Musa's manuscript tracking database last week to upload the nicely formatted Word doc version of the file for And If I Offered Thee a Bargain, I found that the release date had been updated. It's now scheduled for release in September, which amongst other things made it rather more urgent that I get on with doing the cover-art worksheet.

No, I have still not learned to like dealing with the cover art worksheet, or indeed any of the other prerelease marketing stuff. It is, alas, something that has to be done, though. I have wrestled with the tagline and the blurb, and have produced something that I think is acceptable first draft standard. I'm not so convinced about the cover art worksheet, but it's a 5.5 K word story -- there's a limit to what I can say about it beyond "it's set in the drumlin fields around Strangford Lough, the heroes are one human and one of the sidhe, and they're both wearing jeans and T-shirt." Oh, and there's a brief physical description of elf boy's pointy ears and cat eyes.

Have I mentioned recently that I'm not a very visual writer?

Received an email late last night to say that Musa's Erato imprint has accepted "And if I offered thee a bargain". :-) With the inevitable editorial caveats, of course... That could be fun, as I don't disagree with the reason for the editing request, but will need to be careful that the necessary fiddling won't throw off other aspects of the story.

Reprint of a 5.5 kword short story, as far as I know to be published as a standalone. No idea at this stage when it'll be released

I used my website blurb as the basis of the synopsis after all, although it needed a bit added. Draft so far - any thoughts?

A modern man meets one of the sidhe, and finds that legends are true, but the sidhe have changed. They have a new bargain to offer mortals who bring them fresh stories - nobody will leave their domain after a single night to find that years have passed in the mundane world. But there is still a price, one he discovers too late -- once you do leave their domain, you can never go back, no matter what or who you've had to leave behind.