Always Bet On You
So 2017 was filled with some ups and plenty of downers too. As a writer it was also filled, for me, with quite a few moments of doubt. So imagine my shock when I get a tweet the other morning from none other than the amazing, incomparable, QUEEN of all the words, Ms. Beverly Jenkins congratulating me on making NPR’s Great Reads 2017 list with my book THE BETTING VOW.
I tell you all I could say was Huh? And What? And WOW!
What an amazing moment and so very needed to end out 2017 and get me rolling into the 1-8.
Here’s to us tacking it together! CHEERS!
Best,
KMJ
A Fine Romance
Hi peeps!
Hope you’ve all been doing well. I’m so sorry to have been MIA, but things in KMJ land have been as hectic as ever. I’m happy to say I’ve just written the end on book 1 in my new Sugar Lake series so yay to that! I can’t wait to introduce you all to these new characters and this tasty new town.
That said I hope you all are great and have you picked up The Betting Vow yet? NPR calls it: “a satisfying romance that shows a wedding is just the beginning of happy ever after.”
When it comes to love you always play to Win!
The Betting Vow
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2izySdL
Nook: http://bit.ly/2ghcTaM
iBooks: http://apple.co/2rOqKqp
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2qN8NKs
All the best,
KMJ
When you wish… RWA17 National Conference Photo Recap!
At RWA 17 When you wish…
I had the joy of spending the majority of last week in sunny, sometimes stormy, always humid, Orlando, Florida at the 2017 Romance Writers Of America National Conference. What a time it was! So much so, that I’m still exhausted an at a loss for words.
The conference was at the Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotels with workshop schedules jam packed with so many informative subjects it made making your hourly choices quite difficult. Thank goodness for recorded sessions. And the fact that the conference was held on Disney grounds also made, at least for me, a bit difficult to stay focused on the business at hand since the call of the amusement parks were quite loud and the 10-year-old in me was just itching to go out and play. I found myself watching they clock at times like I was back in elementary school watching for the recess bell.
That said, it was a great conference all in all. I got lots of writerly knowledge, while catching up with some of my very best friends, (thank you to all who supported diversity by wearing your #WeNeedDiverseRomanceTee shirts) and to top it all off I got to go out and play like a kid again.
Not to mention I was in the room when Ms. Beverly Jenkins received her Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award!
Now please check out my recap collages and see if you can spot some of your romance faves who were in Orlando at the conference too!
Some of the fab folks in this set: Katana Collins, Falhuni Kothari, Robin Lovett, Kate McMurry and come on me with over 17K steps. that is insane!
With our lovely Disney tour group! Thanks so much Deb! Marie Long, Dana Kaye, Joy of Joyfully Reviewed!
Shawntelle Madison, Creah Demps, Laurel Cremant , Sage Spelling & Aliza Mann, Pintip Dunn, Priscilla, Oliveras, Alyssa Cole, Adrienne Mishel, Farrah Rochon
Kate McMurry, Falguni Kothari, Sonali Dev, Alyssa day, Carolyn Jewel, Adrienne Mishel, Callie Hutton, Beth Yarnall, Faith Salle, Damon Suede, Alyssa Cole, Falguni Kothari, Synithia Williams, Kristan Higgins, Farrah Rochon & Lifetime Achievement Award Winner Beverly Jenkins!
Cheryl Etchison, Megan Frampton, The incomparable Ms. Brenda Jackson, Yarrah St. John & Synithia Williams, Beth Yarnall, Sofia Tate, Shelly Bell, Holley Trent, Tracey Livesay
Pricilla Oliveras, Sabrina Jefferies, Megan Frampton,
The fab women of The Ripped bodice Bea and Leah Koch.
Sally Kilpatrick, Heather McGovern, Sally Mackenzie, Dee Davis, Adrienne Mishelle and some of the rip roaring members of the RWA board, Nancy Holland, Fran of Frannie’s Romance, Joyfully Reviewed
Me, Jamie Wesley and Flaguni Kothari kicking up at Animal Kingdom. Adrienne Mishel,
Farrah Rochon, Mari Mancusi, Karen Lynn
Wishing you all… dreams coming true and may we all live like Farrah Rochon on a ride at Disney!
Best,
KMJ
And P.S.
In anticipation of Book 3: THE BETTING VOW coming out at the end of the month.
Both Book 1: INSERT GROOM HERE:
And Book 2: TO ME I WED
Are on Sale for a limited time! Now’s the time to check them out if you haven’t already!
Thanks so much for your support!
Bright spots and Deal News!!
Hello peeps! I’m so sorry it’s been a minute since I’ve been here, but I’ve been a busy bee as you will soon see and I’m wishing you all well and hoping for Spring to bring us warmer weather and sunshine soon (I say this as I look out my window at falling snow, yet again, and take antibiotics fighting off an ear infection).
Yeah I’m over Winter.
All that said, there are some bright spots. I have some fantastic deal news that I can finally share. I’m so thrilled to say my lovely and fearless editor at Kensington Books is taking me on for two more novels in a brand new fish out of water small town series! The series will be the SUGAR LAKE series and the first book is tentatively titled:
As Good As The First Time (release date to come- see the pic of the deal announcement below).
And if you follow me here or on other forms of social media (twitter @kwanawrites or Facebook ) you’ll know I had an article in a local paper which I have come to find was shared with another local paper and, funny how these things go, was seen by Jack’s vet. Well yesterday I nearly broke out in tears when I got this sweet note from Jack’s vet office. I tell you people can be so kind and generous at times. And I’m so grateful for that. Talk about a proud moment of being a fur baby’s mama!
Thanks for hanging with me and all the support. You don’t know how much it means to me. Or maybe you do.
I think you might. Once again I hope all is well where you are.
Sending wishes of Lovely Reading!
All the best,
KMJ
Writer’s Life in Pictures…
Because I’m editing right now and words are on the chopping block, I’m keeping them to just a few here and letting my pics do the talking…
Seeing a library edition of a book with your name on it is quite a dream come true!
Annual Divas retreat is now a highlight of my year. I’m so inspired by these amazing women.
I’ve picked up the crochet hook again. It’s been years.
My Nana taught me when I was a very young girl. This sure took me back.
There was a pretty exciting foozeball game that happened…or so I hear.
Gah! I got ARCs of To Me I Wed, Book 2 in the Unconventional Brides Series.
Can you believe this is coming out in just a few months? I sure can’t!
But you can pre-order your copy now! http://amzn.to/2krfm26
I hope things are going super over your way. Let me know what’s happening in the comments!
All the best,
KMJ
All the best,
Kwana
- #WeNeedDiverseRomance, book launch, Books, covers, Insert Groom Here, Unconventional Brides, writing, writing life
Yummy Unconventional Brides Cover Goodness!
Good day! I hope the New Year is treating everyone super so far.
I recently got in cover proofs for book 3 (wow, that’s wild to say): THE BETTING VOW in my Unconventional Brides Series and I love how beautifully it sits right along with my lovely cover for book 2: TO ME I WED. They are so sweet I just want to eat them with a spoon! I think Jack is in love with them too.
So INSERT GROOM HERE (book 1) which is out now is just the beginning of the fun for the
Unconventional Brides.
Book 2 will be out May 1st and Book 3 will be out September 1.
2017 will be quite the ride!
Pick up INSERT GROOM HERE wherever books are sold and get in on the fun now!
Kensington: http://bit.ly/2eh61Vb
Amazon: http://amzn.to/28Mbqk3
iBooks: http://apple.co/28RPaWU
Barnes and Noble: http://bit.ly/2gwFuas
Kobo: http://bit.ly/2g8FhtpThanks so much!
All the best,
KMJ
Dreams realized- Holiday Temptation in the wild!
Ok so this happened. HOLIDAY TEMPTATION came out and no fooling, the publishers weren’t kidding with me, but it is out and in bookstores just like they said.
At this point in my career seeing my name on a book on a shelf was still something I dreamed of but it had become a dream in the far back corner or my mind, about two feet to the left and behind the box that says ‘GET BACK TO COLLEGE GRADUATION WEIGHT’. But today I went into my local Barnes and Noble, the one I’d been in countless times before with my dear twins since they were tiny tots, and there it was. Right up high on the romance shelves, face out no less with the other new releases.
Holy crap HOLIDAY TEMPTATION was there! And it was next to Hannah Howell and one book over from Madeline Hunter. The way I nearly swooned one would think I’d taken to day drinking. But this feeling was better than any drink. This was the feeling of a dream not deferred, but one come true after years of hard work, more rejections than I could count or take so I just stopped counting them, and a determined spirit and faith that boarded on nonsensical so only those with faith or little sense would dare understand.
Thank you all for sticking with me and understanding.
Now what to do with that blasted GRADUATION WEIGHT box?
All the best,
KMJ
Hello old friend, hello… knitting it all together
So I just handed in another story to my super fab agent. Go me!
But really those in the KMJ know, know there is never any of that “Go me!” spirit when I do these kind of things. It’s more of a weak ‘yay, got that done’ and a shaky hand turnover because I’m never all that confidant in what I just put down on the page. The neurotic writer critic in my always wins out.
I will say I do adore this story and these characters and I hope when it’s time to share them come next holiday season you all will think they are just as delicious as I do. My heroine got to take the dream vacation that I have been longing for so there is that.
And with my hand-off, my super agent gave me the advice to not just dive into the next work, but take a moment for myself, which I also find hard to do. But with that permission to goof off from her I’m pulling out my long forgotten knitting to unwind with and instead of unwinding I’m having a devil of a time trying to remember this lovely stitch.
Oh well, I wonder if I can get this shawl done by the time my story comes out late next year. Ya think?
Tell me do you have an unwinding hobby that you retreat to?
All the best,
KMJ
Just here… looking pretty
Jack says, hey people! He wants you all to admire him and his lovely haircut and his bandanna that says ‘I am handsome’ while Kwana runs around over on the sidelines doing all the things a writer does a week before the biggest conference of the year (no, she’s not grumpy or stressed at all).
For those coming to RWA National next week she can’t want to see you and remember Thursday the 23rd is #WeNeedDiverseRomance tee day. Later!
All the best,
Jack & KMJ
Feeling Friendly… Deal News!
I’ve been holding on to this news for a little while and I’m so happy to now be able to share it far and wide (social media pun totally intended). I’ve been signed on to write a novella called FRIENDING THE FASHIONISTA for Samhain Publishing under the fabulous executive editor Latoya Smith who I adore and have been wanting to work with for so long. FRIENDING will be the first in my Flirty Fashionista series, marrying my love of fashion and romance.
I can’t thank Latoya enough for taking me on and my fantastic agent Rachel Brooks from the L. Perkins Agency for making it all happen. Thank you ladies for helping to make my publishing dreams come true.
Now let me get to writing… after a dance just a little but more.
#WeNeedDiverseRomance
All the best,
Kwana
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