Monthly Archives: January 2014

World-Upending News!

Books Two and Three SOLD to HarperCollins Avon Impulse in WW Series!

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A.J.MeerwaldThis is the A.J.Meerwald, New Jersey’s official tall ship. She’s a Delaware Bay oyster schooner, once used to hunt for oysters off the coast of the state. She’s what I pattern the Esther Reed after in my sequel to Wanted: Wife, or at least the sample from which I was showing you above, My Dear Captain.  It’s a work of fiction of course, but today it became just a bit more real, and even more tomorrow, when this announcement is slated to appear in Publishers Marketplace:

Gwen Jones’s WANTED: WIFE next two titles in series. Book Two tentatively titled MY DEAR CAPTAIN, about a billionaire playboy who unwittingly falls for the only female captain in his shipping fleet. To Nicole Fischer at Avon Impulse, in a two-book deal, for publication in September 2014, by Marisa Corvisiero at Corvisiero Literary Agency (World).

Can’t say you didn’t hear it here first!

World-Upending News!

Big News Brewing!

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can't keep a SecretAnd wouldn’t you love to know what it is. Well, I can’t tell you, not yet anyway, but when I can I PROMISE you’ll be the first to know. Look, I don’t like to be vague, but I’m all about NOT counting chickens as when I have they’ve only gotten me scrambled eggs. And if that’s not enough mixed metaphors for you, then you’ll have to leave me time to think up more. My brain is kind of fried and there’s a blizzard going on in NJ as we speak. So give me a break and stop back soon. I promise I’ll have more for you as soon as I can.

World-Upending News!

‘Ma Cher Capitaine’ the sequel to ‘Wanted: Wife’ – and no, you’re not crazy

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51cunardcruiselinesIf you’ll take a look at the top you’ll see I’ve posted the first chapter of the sequel to Wanted: Wife, Ma Cher Capitaine, which centers around Andy Devine’s half-brother, Marcel Mercier. It’s brand-spanky new, just out of my head into yours, and if you’re saying to yourself now wait a minute–didn’t I read this before…?” Well, yes, you’re right, but then you’re not. And I’ll tell you why. I had posted another iteration of this chapter before, but it’s not what appears now. Why is that?

Well, because ‘Capitaine’ is what we call in the biz a WIP–a ‘work-in-progress,’ and what you saw before isn’t what it is now. You see, writers go through many versions of their WIPs before they finally settle onto a final version, and even then it isn’t finished until the editor gives it her final approval. A writer can get half through the story, especially in the early stages, then find out something isn’t working, and sometimes that means she has to go back to the beginning and start all over again. Of course, every writer has their own methods, and some write from beginning to end without ever stopping to edit. Unfortunately or not, that’s not the way I roll, as I’m constantly editing until something finally sounds right to me. Right now, at this point, Chapter One does. Though I can’t say how I’ll feel tomorrow, next week or by the time I finish. Right now, I’m satisfied. If you are too, let me know what you think.

Happy reading,

Gwen

World-Upending News!

“Wanted: Wife” makes BN.com Top 100 Nook Book List

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Wanted WifeOkay, if I don’t blow my own horn, who will? So in a shameless self-promotion, here’s the skinny: Wanted: Wife, as part of HarperCollins’s holiday “Fill Your New eReader” promotion is offering said book at .99 until January 6, which apparently is just enough incentive for the adventurous to download my genius. I didn’t notice this until the day after Christmas, when coming down hard from a cookie overload I decided to see how my book was doing on Barnes & Noble. On that day WW was #1 in Romance and #13 OVERALL, right up there with Stephen King and Nora Roberts! Sweeties, to say I was floored is akin to calling Niagara Falls a drip. From there I next went over to Kobo where it was also in the top 50, and at Amazon it was hovering around 10,000, which doesn’t sound that all impressive until you consider they list about 400,000 titles. A week later, WW is still in the BN. com Nook Top 100 at 37, and 10 in Romance out of approximately 55k titles. Again–floored.

I’ve gotten some pretty fantastic reviews, too, the majority of which give me five or four stars. Of course, there are a few dissenters, grumbling about the surprising amount of sex in this romance (“I am shocked–shocked!–to find that gambling is going on in here!”), one even calling it “pornography.” (Hm. I wonder how many more books that sentiment sold.) But most comments were really sweet and all–good or ill–are appreciated. One frequent comment was if and when there’s going to be a sequel. There will. When it will be published…well, let’s just say I have to finish writing it first. Which I’m getting to right after I’m done here. There’s a major snowstorm working its way to New Jersey, and I’ve already armed myself with a boatload of writing chocolate and Irish Breakfast Tea. Zoom!