Saturday, January 1, 2011

HELLO and Good Bye

Happy New Year! Hopefully you all have some wonderful events to look forward to in 2011.  The first day of the new year brings my first highly anticipated event.  Today is the official release date for Beyond the Gate!

Ebook Cover

Book #2 in The Futhark Chronicles picks up the story only moments after the end of book #1, The Keepers of Sulbreth.  It has two terrific covers, one for the ebook and one for the print.  You can purchase the ebook here and probably other places also.  It's not up on Amazon yet and my publisher is blaming them for being behind. 
You can buy the print book here if you'd rather have that.  Being my book, I prefer to have it both ways.  LOL.

Print Cover

I have other good news I'll share later this week but I do want to take this chance to say good bye to some dear friends.  My local chapter or RWA, called Central Pennsylvania Romance Writers, are a talented, supportive and friendly bunch.   Our monthly meetings are filled with laughter and generosity as members share knowledge and support.  I've learned so much from then and am certain I would never have been published without them.  But the economy (well, two kids in college) forced me to some tough choices this past year and one of those was to end the high yearly dues I must pay the national organization, RWA, to belong to my local group.  Their rules disallow membership in a local group if one doesn't pay the hostage fee, I mean dues, to the national organization.  So I say farewell to those lovely people and wish them the best.  Perhaps I'll rejoin later but in the meantime I'll keep in touch with many of them through my blog, their blogs, facebook and a few are fellow members of Pennwriters, a statewide and much less expensive group to belong to. 

 I'm thrilled about some of the things going on over the next few weeks, most of them related to the release of Beyond the Gate.  I have a blog tour later this month, ankle surgery later this week (ouch) and another book being released later this winter.  Busy and busier and wonderful.  So hello to 2011.

14 comments:

M.J. Fifield said...

I really love the eBook cover for Beyond the Gate. I'll be purchasing a print copy though.

Good luck with the ankle surgery. I wish you a speedy recovery.

Happy New Year...

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Thanks, Haleine. I like both covers but the ebook is my favorite.
Happy New Year.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Congratulations on the book - and that really sucks about the high dues.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

It does suck about the high dues to belong to RWA. I really had to weight the benefits against the cost and decided I could spend those dollars better else where. I do miss my local group.

Jemi Fraser said...

Congrats on the release!!! :) Good reason to celebrate in the new year!

The high dues are a problem for me too in a lot of circumstances - it makes it hard!

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Thannks, Jemi. I'm sure I'll miss CPRW but I'll like not forking out the big bucks for RWA.

Helen Ginger said...

Yikes, ankle surgery. I hope you're recovered and back on both feet soon. (At least writing is usually done sitting.)

So many organizations require hefty dues. You have to pick and choose and sometimes bypass altogether.

Happy New Year. I hope 2011 brings you many sales.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Thanks, Helen. I 'm not too worried about the ankle surgery. I expect to miss two days of work and then be back at it. Happy New Year.

Anonymous said...

Best wishes for your promotional events. I hear often people say their publishrs do next to nothing in the marketing department. And if you ever need to book a tour stop I'm happy to host you.

Susan Gourley/Kelley said...

Thank you, Stephen. I have another book coming out in March and I'd love to take you up on that.

ali cross said...

HELLO! I love the covers, girl! Fantastic! Gonna go get myself an ebook (or two!) right now ...

Paula RC said...

Good luck with the books. It sounds as though you will have more ups than down this year, Susan.

Best wishes my dear friend.

Cate Masters said...

Congrats on your latest release Susan. Wishing you many sales.

Natalie J. Damschroder said...

Sue the link in the first paragraph didn't work for me. :(

Good luck with your ankle surgery, and congrats on the new release! :) We'll miss you in CPRW, but thank goodness for the Internet to keep us in touch! :)