Category Archives: Rock Star Romance, Part 3: Sophie’s Encore

SOPHIE’S ENCORE COVER REVEAL plus excerpt and giveaway!!

Posted on July 15, 2013 | 52 comments

Ooooooh! Are. You. Ready??

I am so excited about this cover for Sophie’s Encore. I know, I always say this. But this one is different yet again. You’ll see!  Between myself, Chad, Katie and Amy at Sapphire Star, we have ramped things up a few notches, which is only befitting a rousing final part of the Rock Star Romance Trilogy!!

Read on for:

The BLURB
The COVER
The EXCERPT
The GIVEAWAY!!!!
YES! Here’s your chance to win an advance review copy of Sophie’s Encore or Rock Star Romance SWAG!

Sophie’s Encore

Her rock star is waiting in the wings, but will he get a second chance?

It’s all change for Sophie Jones—only this time, there is more at stake than just her happiness.

Rock star extraordinaire, Dan Hunter, has been her patient and caring friend through the highs and lows since her wedding day, but now he figures it is time for her to start over. By stealth, the rock singer draws Sophie into the behind-the-scenes work for his band’s latest album. Through the days and weeks spent together at the mixing desk, Sophie discovers whole new horizons for her life, yet before she can even begin to explore them, she faces the very real threat of losing her rock star for good.

Join Sophie and Dan in Sophie’s Encore to find out how their journey will end…

Sophies_Encore

Cover design: Nicky Wells and Chad Lichtenhan
Cover image: Singer in the darkness © Dmytro Konstantynov | Dreamstime.com

Wow, right? 

Sophie’s Encore: Excerpt

My bedroom door opened slowly and Dan crept in. All thought of sleep forgotten, I flicked the light back on and was met by an astonishing sight. There was Dan, the rock star, legend for his antics on and off stage, clad in a demure pair of checked pajamas with a button-up top and a mismatched, stripy dressing gown. His feet were stuffed into fluffy slippers, and he clutched a bottle and two glasses in his hands.

“Come on,” he whispered. “Dinner is served.”

I giggled and left my bed, grabbing my own stripy dressing gown and a pair of thick socks.

“What are you doing?” I breathed into his ear, but he simply took my hand and pulled me down the dark corridor toward the open-plan lounge.

“Have a seat,” he invited me and gestured at the dining table, which was once again laid, although only for two, complete with candles and napkins.

He set down the bottle and glasses and scurried off to shut the lounge door. While he busied himself in the kitchen, I basked in the heat from the fire which Dan had re-stoked, and observed my rock star with some degree of amusement.

Within a few minutes, he brought a dish of smoked salmon bites to the table, followed by olive bread, a cheese board, various cold meats, olives, pickled anchovies, and prawns with some sort of aioli dip. He popped the cork on the bottle of champagne, poured two glasses, and sat down, satisfied at last.

“Now we can eat,” he announced. “Tapas. What do you think?”

I raised my glass. “Cheers,” I giggled. “So that’s what you meant earlier. I think it’s amazing. It’s like a midnight feast. I’m just waiting for matron to discover us and give us detention. Why all the secrecy?”

Dan speared a prawn and pointed it at me. “Well, for one, as you say, matron will certainly come and give us detention. Peter is very strict on my sleep regimen, you see.” He dipped the prawn into the aioli before popping it into his mouth. The beatific look on his face and his scrunched up eyes suggested he was enjoying this humble treat far more than was warranted.

He swallowed and cleared his throat. “And for another, I’m on a strict diet. Every last bit of cheese gets weighed, the carbohydrates counted, the sugar added up. It’s really tedious.” He grimaced.

I helped myself to some bread and salmon. “Tedious indeed, I can see that. But why? I thought you were supposed to eat lots and get better.” I chewed greedily, my tummy having given an impressive rumble.

Dan speared another prawn and added a mountain of cheese and bread to his place. “Bliss,” he murmured before explaining further. “I’m supposed to eat healthy, not lots. So Peter has taken it upon himself to reform the bad eating habits of a lifetime. Bless him, it’s what he’s paid to do. I’ve been going along with it, and I have to admit, I’m feeling pretty good. But…”

He grinned his school-boy grin, took a big mouthful of food, washed it down with a large gulp of champagne, and finished his thought. “Well, it gets boring. And I wanted to do something special with you. On my own.”

I burst out laughing, but quieted down when I saw the alarm on Dan’s face.

“Sorry,” I whispered.

“Peter’s bedroom is right next door there,” Dan whispered back. “And he’s a light sleeper.” He pointed his finger, and we sat in silence for a minute, straining to hear.

“I think we’re okay,” Dan finally concluded and resumed eating.

I giggled softly. “Naughty, naughty us.”

“Ha, we’re not naughty yet,” Dan shot back, speaking softly as well. “I was working up to that part.”

He winked, and my heart skipped and jumped. He didn’t mean—he couldn’t mean what I thought he meant?

“What do you mean?” I bumbled, hoping for clarification, but Dan was enjoying himself.

“All in good time,” he teased. “Let’s finish our meal first.”

The Giveaway

I want to share my excitement about this cover reveal and upcoming release with you!  Enter for your chance to win:

One of TWO Sophie’s ENCORE Advance Review e-Copies
or
One Sophie’s RUN Mug
or
One Rock Star Romance Trilogy SWAG Pack featuring postcards and bookmarks

ENTER HERE:  a Rafflecopter giveaway

GIVEAWAY CLOSES 15 AUGUST AT MIDNIGHT BST. The small print! Entrants must be aged 18 or over. Giveaway is open internationally. Winners will be drawn via Rafflecopter.

GOOD LUCK!

****STOP PRESS:
The Kindle editions of Sophie’s Turn and Sophie’s Run are now available for only $0.99 (£0.77 or equivalent) each to celebrate the cover reveal! Hurry ~ limited time only!! *****

SOPHIE’S ENCORE: coming your way in e-book and paperback editions on 5 SEPTEMBER 2013!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

THANK YOU

There’s a great group of awesome bloggers supporting this cover reveal today in a massive cover-reveal blitz enterprise. Here’s the roll call of honour! Ladies, I love you one and all, and thank you for everything you do. ROCK ON!

Andi’s Book Reviews ~ Bookreview by Rea ~ Book Mama ~
Boyfriend Bookmark ~ Brook Cottage Books ~ Celtic Connexions ~ Chick Lit Central ~ Cosmochicklitan ~  Dana Mason ~
Dizzy C’s Little Book Blog ~  Eve’s Chick Lit Reviews ~
Everything Books and Authors ~  Forget the Housework ~
Jera’s Jamboree ~ Jersey Girl Book Reviews ~ Kim The Bookworm ~ Me and Reading ~ Me My Books and I ~  My Seryniti ~
Perusing Princesses ~  Supportive Business Mums ~
The Adventures Within ~  Today I’m Reading

All together now... Don't they look stunning?

All together now… Don’t they look stunning?

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Posted in Rock Star Romance, Part 3: Sophie's Encore

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Sophie’s Encore, First Draft… Done-Done-Done!

Posted on March 8, 2013 | 32 comments
In this post: how I improved my writing process; and what’s next for Nicky Wells, author

I finished!

It’s done! Oh yes, the first draft of Sophie’s Encore is finished. It came in at just over 105,000 words and I am pleased with it. It made me laugh, and cry, and bite my nails.

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Done-done-done!!

It was quite a different writing experience…

Unlike Sophie’s Turn and Sophie’s Run, which were both written in a mad, continuous and single-minded frenzy, Sophie’s Encore was written in small, deliberate instalments. If you added all the time together, you’d find that it probably took me about twelve weeks to write this third book. However, the twelve weeks were spread out over almost five months because there were several other authorly activities that required my attention.

First and foremost, the beginning of writing Sophie’s Encore overlapped with the book launch for Sophie’s Turn, book 1. I spent a significant amount of time promoting my first baby and keeping up with the book tour.

Next, writing Sophie’s Encore also clashed with the editing process for Sophie’s Run. I had a three-week break from writing in November while I took care of publisher edits for book 2; and then another two-week break in December for proofing and final formatting of ditto. Add to that the Christmas festivities, and you won’t be surprised that I didn’t touch the manuscript for Sophie’s Encore at all in December.

And lastly, of course, there was the launch of Sophie’s Run which coincided with the very end of the writing process of Sophie’s Encore. Talk about multi-tasking!

And yet, Sophie’s Encore got done, and ahead of my own personal schedule too. How so?

Two reasons, I think. One is that the frequent breaks and smaller writing instalments actually made for better writing, or at the very least for a better writing experience. I came back refreshed and eager to the manuscript every day; and after the longer breaks, I took the time to re-read the entire work before continuing it, pressure-testing it ‘real-time’. This meant that I had a much greater confidence in what I had already produced, and also afforded me the opportunity of doing a little bit of pre-editing here or there.

Which leads me to the second reason. Having had the benefit of two extensive editing processes through Sapphire Star Publishing also improved the writing process for Sophie’s Encore. Let me remind you that the first draft of my second book, Sophie’s Run, came in at nearly 150,000 words ~ requiring a good 45,000 words to be chopped by me personally before publisher edits and eventual publication. I learned my lesson, but I didn’t notice until I started writing book 3.

Everything I chopped out of book 2 (and book 1 before that) involved amusing episodes or back story that I enjoyed writing but that, in hindsight, didn’t advance the plot. What’s more, I probably knew that even while I was writing them because I got a kind of…impatient buzz from them. A kind of, move-on-and-hurry-up buzz, only I didn’t know what it meant at the time.

With Sophie’s Encore, I did. The first time I found myself writing something that gave me that kind of…nice-but-not-relevant feeling, I stopped. I re-read. I listened to my heart. I thought of the editing process. And I chopped the section out right away.

It’s incredibly hard to gauge this but I think I figured it out. When I re-read the manuscript after my breaks, I whizzed through it with barely an itch for the red pen. My famous ‘Queen of Hearts’ internal editor remained silent.

Of course I’m not deluded enough to believe I have produced the perfect manuscript. In fact, I am quite certain that it’ll require some significant polishing to bring you the very best I have to offer. But I do think it’s the best first draft I have yet produced. Surely that counts! 🙂

What happens now?

Well, right now, I am spring cleaning! I kid you not. I have given myself a couple of weeks off writing, or thinking about writing, while I let my mind come to a rest and give myself distance from the manuscript. To me, that’s a critical part of the process.

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LOL, you know me ~ I don’t do anything by halves!

And when I’m done with spring cleaning, I’ll get planning book 4. Of course. You didn’t think you’d heard the last of me after Sophie’s Encore, did you? Book 4 will be an entirely new story with new characters and I’ll tell you more about that…nearer the time.

In April, I will take Sophie’s Encore through a first round of author edits, incorporating the feedback of my beta-readers who are busy reading as I write this blog post. I love you, ladies, and I trust you with my baby! Over the summer, Sophie’s Encore will undergo publisher edits and then….before you know it… It will be launch day. 5 September!

See that small pile on the left? That's Sophie's Encore. By the time Sapphire and I are done with the editing, the pile will probably be as big as the one next to it which...yes, you guessed it, is the complete round of edits and proofs for Sophie's Run. Who says us writers aren't busy??

See that small pile on the left? That’s Sophie’s Encore today. By the time Sapphire and I are done with the editing, the pile will probably be as big as the one next to it which…yes, you guessed it, is the complete round of edits and proofs for Sophie’s Run. Who says us writers aren’t busy?

When can I tell you more about Sophie’s Encore?

Patience, my friends, patience. I will keep you posted, I promise. Sophie’s RUN is only just out ~ let me share the joy of book 2 with the world before I move onto shouting about book 3. I promise you’ll be the first to know. There’ll be a cover reveal at some point, and I’ll post a synopsis and who knows… I’ll probably share an excerpt ahead of time too. Watch this space!

🙂 Rock on!

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Working out the Kinks in the Trilo-nology

Posted on July 20, 2012 | 3 comments

I hold Sophie’s and Dan’s fate in my hands. What a weird feeling! That’s quite a responsibility, actually. Two people’s lives.

I have their lives planned perfectly, of course. I have a grand plan that spans book one, Sophie’s Turn, book two, Sophie’s Run, and the concluding part. It’s a big picture plan. I know what’s going to happen in broad strokes, and then I plan each book in meticulous detail as and when I write it.

So I did a bit of a double-take when I sat down to plan book three. You see, by necessity, a few years will have elapsed between the end of Sophie’s Run and the beginning of my next novel. Events will have transpired that will have changed the world, and Sophie’s universe.

And I suddenly realise that age matters. As in, my characters’ age. Not how old they are, per se, that’s kind of immaterial to the story by now. Well, not immaterial, it matters, too, of course, they’ve grown a little older and developed in the intervening… time.

What I mean is, their exact age matters. How old they are when this next novel starts, with everything that entails for the plot. I didn’t pay much attention to this to begin with. I had a rough age in mind, and I’d counted out their ages using my fingers. I put an age down for both lead characters in the book-three-planning-box, and that seemed fine.

Until. Until I realised that my books usually run from June or July time through the end of the year, sometimes rolling over into the spring. Sophie’s Run, book two, for example, begins in June, just before Sophie’s birthday, and ends in late November with a little spree into the following April.

Birthday. Yes, there you have it. My characters have birthdays, and they need to be honoured. So where initially I counted this many straight years (“one, two, three years since the end of Sophie’s Run”), it became much more complicated when I actually thought about it properly. Because, you see, at the beginning of book two, Sophie is 29, but then she turns 30. At the end of book two, she’s still 30 of course, but she would be turning 31 quite soon. There’s the hitch. That rolling over birthday calendar.

Same for Dan, just a month later. So straight counting of years is actually misleading. In fact, after much scratching of head and, eventually, a detailed month-by-month calendar exercise charting Sophie’s and Dan’s ages over the years with all the relevant events that would have taken place between books two and three… After all of that, it emerged that I actually cheated both characters out of two years of their lives. Well, that’s not on.

Thankfully, I caught this calamity in the nick of time and managed to get my Trilo-nology right before I start planning in depth, let alone writing. So we can all celebrate birthdays with confidence, and in style.

Does it matter?
It will matter. To my characters. To me. Possibly to nobody else, but at least I know now that the story and its evolution over time are plausible. It could work, it could have happened, because I didn’t mess up a (small?) detail like ages. I’m inanely pleased with myself for working this out, bizarrely complicated as it might have been. I can write with complete confidence now.

What about you? Do you worry about details like chronology, ages or timelines when you write? Does it matter to the substance of the story, or am I tying myself in knots unnecessarily?

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