A fairly accurate title, if you ask me, considering I haven’t been here since Plus One dropped out of the heavens way back in May. In my defense, I’ve been a busy beaver, writing and editing and writing some more.

First things first: Waaaaaaay back in May, my good friend and critique partner, Jeanette Grey, issued me a challenge. Join JuNoWriMo and write a novel in a month. Which I accepted. And kicked ass at, if I do say so myself. I blogged about my experience with it over on Contemporary Romance Cafe. And you guise…this book? I am all kinds of in love with it. It’s gritty and emotional and darker than anything I’ve ever written, and the heroine…I just wanna put her in my pocket. The sole inspiration for this book came from this song: Favorite version. Full version. And if you are on the Pinterest train, you can see all the yummy visuals I used for inspiration here. And did I mention it’s new adult?

I had lofty goals for this MS. Write it in its entirety in the month of June, spend the first three weeks of July editing the hell out of it and then pitch it at RWA. And let me tell you…it was tough. It was basically seven weeks of me being a hermit and rarely seeing my family. Considering I am an editing whore, and the last MS I edited took me well over a year before I felt it was complete, this was definitely pushing my limits. But I worked night and day (and a total of twenty straight hours in the car…thank God for modern technology) and got this bad boy finished. And, yes, I pitched it twice. And I got full requests from both. I’m currently on my fifth read-through, polishing this to all its pretty, shiny glory, and then I’ll dive in. And then I’ll wait.

So what else have I been up to? Well, in July I attended my first writers’ conference, and I dove right into the big times with attending RWA. It was truly an unparalleled experience.

What I spent four days doing:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basically, I had a blast. An exhausting, amazing, exhilarating blast.

Besides RWA, where I got a ton of awesome books for giveaway, I also attended ALA in Chicago at the end of June. It was two days of crazy crowds of book loving people just like me. What’s that mean for you? Well, I’ve got all these for giveaway:

And some are even signed! I haven’t decided yet how I’m going to do this, but stay tuned for details. In the meantime, I’ve got a few digital copies (codes available on signed by the author postcards), courtesy of Samhain Publishing, to give away. These codes expire on August 20th, so this giveaway is gonna be a quick one! You have until midnight on Sunday to enter, and I’ll be picking five winners Monday morning to receive one of the books offered.

If you haven’t already, sign up to follow the blog so you know when I post the giveaways for that pile of super awesome books! Did you see any in that group that you’re dying to get your hands on?

You should know that every time I say that ^ ^, I say it in my head just like Peach from Finding Nemo, so you should, too.

 

Seventeen months ago, I started this journey. Actually, if you want to get technical, it was earlier than that when I started writing PLUS ONE (and if you want to get really technical, you could say I started this journey the first time I wrote a complete story, but I digress). Seventeen months ago, I submitted my completed novella to three romance e-publishers I’d had my eye on for a while. And then I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

It seems like that’s what this has been–one big waiting game with a few pit-stops along the way. And maybe that’s why this–today–feels so surreal. I can’t believe that after nearly a year and a half, my book’s here.

IT’S HERE OMG.

Olivia hates the singles scene, so when her best guy friend, Ian, offers to be her plus one to a series of weddings she has to attend, she agrees. Although she doesn’t want to complicate their lifelong friendship, she can’t pass up the chance to have a steady date without the dating drama. What she doesn’t expect is to now find Ian so incredibly sexy.

When Ian sees his old friend Olivia dolled up for wedding #1, the boyhood crush he once nurtured transforms into smoldering attraction. It doesn’t take long for their no-strings arrangement to turn physical. But as Olivia’s desire to stay “just friends” becomes clear, Ian’s feelings are deepening. In the time they have together, how will Ian convince Olivia that one plus one can make for a lifelong pair?

You can find this baby on amazon | barnes & noble | carina | ibookstore | kobo 

And what’s that? You want another excerpt? Well, okay.

I know Mondays usually suck. But, hey, my book came out, so it sucks a little less because we’re celebrating! I got cupcakes this weekend and went out to lunch today, but since you all weren’t there, how about some giveaways? Enter one or two or all of them! Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks for playing the ARC game with me, everyone! I loved reading the dating disasters (sorry about those), and getting pinged all week with #PlusOneARC entries on Twitter.

All right, all right. On to the lucky ducks who won a copy of Plus One. For the Twitter and Facebook giveaways, I used random.org to generate the winner. For the fine people that embarrassed themselves for my pleasure, I picked the one that made me laugh the hardest.

Without further ado…

Twitter ARC goes to: @GeauxHeather

Facebook ARC goes to: Giliana

Blog ARC goes to: Tyra @t_y_r_a

Yay! E-mail me at brightonwalsh @ gmail.com, ladies, with your desired format, and I’ll get your copies out to you right away!

Thanks, everyone, for your entries and RTs of the contest! This won’t be the last time I offer up some free copies, so stay tuned for future fun.

Guess what today is? It’s Make a Fool Out of Yourself in the Comments Section for a Chance to Win an ARC Day! Or, not such a mouthful: Three weeks to release day!

That’s right. The release of Plus One is only three weeks away. I’m trying not to think too much about that because A) OMG THERE’S SO MUCH TO DO! and B) holy son of a nutcracker, my book is coming out in three weeks.

If I focus on either of these things, I tend to feel a little like I just inhaled a corndog, a deep fried snickers bar, a 64oz diet coke, then proceeded to go on the Tilt-A-Whirl. Seventeen times.

So.

Instead, I’m going to give away some ARCs! I know, right?! Free books yay! You can enter a couple different ways. If you want the easy way out, simply tweet me at @WriteAsRain_ with the hashtag #PlusOneARC. You can tell me about your day or what your dog’s name is or what color socks you have on. Or, if you’re exceptionally grumpy because it’s Monday and you haven’t had your coffee yet, you don’t even have to say anything, just stick that hashtag in there! See? Easy. I’ll randomly pick a winner tomorrow night to receive a copy of Plus One in your preferred format! Cut off for entry is 8pm CST 4/16.

Now, if you still like easy, but maybe you hate twitter (or *gasp* don’t even have one!) and you’re a Facebook lover. Welp, head over to my Facebook page, like it, and post a comment. That’s a two-fer. You gotta do both to be put in that drawing, because sometimes I can be a hardass. In the comments, I don’t care what you talk about. You can tell me about your favorite book, what you’re reading now, or what you had for breakfast. See? Again, easy.

Now for the fun part.

As you may or may not know, Plus One kicks off with a bang with Olivia on a date from hell. It’s one of many that she’s been subjected to, and while I (thankfully) have not personally had the misfortune of attending one of these hellish events, my imagination was a very fun place for a while as I wrote this.

I know bad date stories abound, and I want to hear yours. Maybe it was your first date or your fourth date. Maybe you said you had to go to the bathroom and escaped out the window or climbed down a fire escape. Maybe you ended up marrying the guy. Whatever it was, I want to hear about it. Post it below in the comments for a chance to an ARC of Plus One. The one that makes me laugh so hard I pee (or cringe so hard, I want to pet your hair and erase it from your memory) will be selected. Here’s hoping you guys have had some shitty dates!

Let’s recap. Three ways to win: Twitter (#PlusOneARC). Facebook (like page & comment!). Blog (embarrass yourself for the sake of a free book!). That’s three copies I’m giving away, and if you enter in all three places, I suppose your chances are that much higher, yeah?

To help get the ball rolling, here’s an excerpt from Plus One and some of the many, many bad dates Olivia’s had over the years.

So, can you top that? You’ve got till tomorrow night (8pm CST) to try!   

ETA: Due to the awful events that unfolded in Boston on Monday, I’m extending this till the end of the week–new cutoff is Friday, April 19 at 10pm CST. 

My thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected, directly or indirectly, by the bombings.

It’s time! It’s time! If you follow me on Twitter and/or Facebook, well…you sure are pretty. 🙂 And also, this is old news to you because I’ve been blowing up your feed (okay, I posted a handful of times is all) with this news. On Tuesday, I revealed the cover for Plus One over on FicFare where you can even pre-order it! If that isn’t enough to get you over there to have a peek, you can also find the full summary and even an excerpt for your first look at Olivia and Ian. Annnnd, I’m giving away a $25 gift card to Amazon or Barnes & Noble, so enter the giveaway!

This week, while being super awesome, has been kah-ray-zee. I‘ve been a querying fool, I debuted the cover and did a giveaway (free book money!), I got a finalized PDF file of Plus One (HOMG!), and I wrote up a blog post for Bad Girlz Write for a guest spot I’ll be doing there March 29th. And then, right while I was typing this up, I just walked my fingers over to Goodreads for a link and guess what popped up? SHINY PRETTY!

Man. This suddenly seems very real. 

I know, I know…it’s about damn time.

So. Let’s recap. Cover reveal! Bad Girlz Write post coming 3/29! Add Plus One on Goodreads! Pre-order from Amazon!

Whew. All right…who’s got the nutella and rum? Let’s celebrate.