Alex is winning ...

I would literally be biting my nails -- if my fingers weren't glued to the keyboard. Sever just took another major turn, and to be perfectly honest, I don't know what's going to happen … I'm just following the characters!

I will say this: Seventy-five pages ago, Ever was firmly in the lead. Right now, Alex is pulling ahead. Ever is going to have to play a mean game to catch up. On the other hand, it is Ever, and he is capable of the impossible. ;-)

More soon!

Sever is ...

Hmm, what's the right word? Oh, yeah. Complicated! Things have gone totally off the rails, and I am loving it!

And now, because I just can't resist, here's a teaser from Sever … Stay tuned for more news and teasers for the third book in The Ever Series!

Never is available on barnesandnoble.com!

Never is (once again) available for purchase on barnesandnoble.com. Buy it here.

And stay tuned for news about Sever!

Fairy tales

I'm back -- finally! After a long, strange summer that was less than productive due to an unbelievably successful "side project" (as well as some very obnoxious health issues), I am back in Everland. And, as usual, I'm pulling a lot of inspiration from fairy tales.

I grew up on the one below, and it's currently providing a wealth of inspiration for Sever. The question is: who will turn out to be the prince? ;-) As far as I can tell, fans of The Ever Series in the United States seem to be rooting for Ever; fans in the UK seem partial to Alex. Interesting, no?

As for me, the prince of my heart tends to be whichever character's scene I'm writing at the moment. Right now ... Alex is my man.

Stay tuned. Teasers to come!

C.J.

P.S. -- When I have a firm publish date, I'll post it here!

Is it getting hot in here?

Oh, wait. That's just Ever. ;-)

The writing is picking up steam ... and Sever is getting, ahem, steamy.

Yay!

Run

Okay, so I hadn't played this song by Snow Patrol in a long time, but listening to it while working on Sever (YES! I am back to work!) I realized that it's totally going into my mental movie of The Ever Series. Somewhere, not sure where.

The big question I have: Who's song is it -- Wren and Ever's or Wren and Alex's???

What do you think?

PS -- I usually let the lyrics of songs match whatever is going on in my head at the moment, so if the "true" meaning is something totally different, then I prefer to remain oblivious!

Happy Friday!

Remind anyone of For Ever?

I survived ... so here's a Book 3 teaser!

Surgery was pretty painless. (However, I won't post the pic of my IV site, because people might throw up!) And my super-secret project is out of my hands for final edits. So now, for the first time in too long, I am spending some quality time with Wren and Ever. I've been so wrapped up in my other project that it's going to take some time to get reacquainted with my favorite characters -- but it really does feel like going home.

Now, without further ado, here's a little teaser of a scene I just wrote. (New character!) More to come as I start ramping up again. ;-)

Surgery again ...

For the second time in six months. When this is over, I am done, done, done with anesthesia! (At least I hope so.) As of right now, I'm wrapping up edits on my super-secret project. More importantly, the third book in The Ever Series is roughly one-third to halfway done, depending on how long it ends up being.

I will post soon, probably tomorrow. Again, thanks to those who have stuck with me! (Cara, Goodreads isn't letting me reply, which is why you haven't heard from me! Thank you for the b-day wishes. Very much appreciated.)

The clock is ticking. Three hours left until surgery. I hope everyone is having a better Wednesday than I am. I shall be back -- and writing -- very soon.

CJ

Where I got the inspiration for the end of Never ...

Well, since retiring, my parents have been traveling a lot. And when they travel, they send postcards!  When they traveled to South America, they sent this from Patagonia, Argentina:

Imagination ... can take you anywhere!

So, I had it up on the cork board, and that's how Wren and Alex end up at the southern most tip of South America!

Pretty, huh?

For my birthday ...

My dear, sweet friend gave me an addiction ... to Sherlock. She sent me both seasons, which I watched in a single, feverish week. I know I've got it bad when I dream about the characters. Maybe it's because Sherlock's star, Benedict Cumberbatch, is tall, hauntingly handsome, and has piercing eyes like Ever Casey. (The rest of the cast, I must add, is divine. Martin Freeman had me laughing myself senseless!)

I can now say that I have been Cumberbatched! Officially. But I'll have to get in line, because apparently his fanbase is legion. I can see why. If he were a couple of decades younger, I might have my Ever (for the movie in my head). And if I were single ... LOL!

Thank you, G, for the lovely new addiction. It is very much appreciated. And now I have to go see the new Star Trek movie, even if Mr. Cumberbatch is the baddie. ;-p

Hillary, you rock!

This week I got a wonderful letter about Never from Hillary, my friend and For Ever fan (aka sweetest girl ever). Plus, she took time out of her busy college schedule to outline all of her favorite quotes, telling me why she liked them.

By far the best compliment I've gotten about Never (ahem, Ever in particular):

"I wish he was real ..."

LOL! Me, too!!! Seriously, it was so nice to read Hillary's insightful comments, and since she's a writer, too, I'm looking forward to reading her future books when she publishes them!

Thank you so much, Hillary!

CJ

Slight detour

Ah, the downside to starting a random, unrelated project in the middle of a book series. ... I just got edits back on my little side project, which went from novella to full-blown novel. That said, I'm going to be working on the edits this week. Then it's back to Ever-land and the assortment of villains that Wren and Ever are up against.

Wait, what happened to Alex? you ask.

*** Insert evil laughter here ***

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Third book in The Ever Series has its bad guy

Okay. So I'll admit it. When I first started writing For Ever, its characters were kind of a mystery to me -- except for Wren, since I was in her head. No irony there, right?

As for Ever (and Iago, *wink* *wink*), I really didn't have much of a preconceived notion about them. However, overall I knew that I didn't want them to be "good" or "bad." Hmm, that's not completely true. At first, I sort of thought that Iago was going to be a straight-up bad guy. Then -- whoops. It didn't happen. He evolved and turned into someone I wasn't expecting.

 That's the way I like my stories. You may start off thinking you know what to expect, but then the characters surprise you. I never try to predict their choices, because -- in my head -- their decisions feel very spontaneous. Which is why I totally sobbed while I was writing the end of both For Ever and Never.

 For those of you loyal souls who have been following this little blog, which I've been neglecting of late, you'll know that I took a break from the third book recently to work on a side project. (Sorry, it's going under a pen name!) Well, when I "finished" writing it, something felt off. I couldn't tell what it was, but the story just didn't feel complete as it was. Feeling very restless and dissatisfied, I went back and wrote an insanely depressing epilogue, which made me bawl my eyes out. I probably won't publish it with the book, but I felt better knowing it was there. Sick, no?

 Back to my original point. The third book in The Ever Series has its (second) villain so far, and I hate, hate, hate him. In a good way.

 Now a word from Sever's villain ...

The third book in The Ever Series

Crossing my fingers right now. I'm really hoping to be done with my non-Ever project very soon. Of course, it turned into a 100,000-word monster that I can't publish under my real name, but such is life.

The minute I get back to The Ever Series, I'll post. For those of you who have stuck with me, thank you. I'm gearing up for a giveaway, but for now, I leave you with this ...

I'm free!

After spending a good chunk of the morning in the crowded basement of the county courthouse, I have been released from jury duty. Yay! With that in my rearview mirror, I am going to get back to my little super-secret side project, which has taken me away from Wren, Ever (and Alex!). And with a lot of luck and hours, I will have said project done within another two weeks, and then I will be diving back into The Ever Series.

I'll be back with more news soon!

Quick update

I've been MIA for quite a while, so I wanted to give a quick update. I have been absolutely flying on a super-secret side project, which has been so fun. It's so different than The Ever Series, which probably means it's not getting published under the same name. (Can't have people buying this one thinking they're going to get The Ever Series and then getting angry that it's not!)

This project has taken longer than I first thought, but I think I'll be done within the next couple of weeks. Then, I'll go back to the third book in the The Ever Series, which was about a third of the way finished when I left it. I'm hoping that by now I'll have fresh eyes and be able to enjoy myself a little more.

Lastly, I would like to give another quick shout-out to For Ever's UK fans. You fine individuals have kept the momentum going. (And thank you so much for the lovely reviews of Never!) You've really been inspiring me to get back to the third book and get it out there. Expect big surprises, as it's been surprising me! I'm going to start trying to put together a UK-only giveaway, so keep an eye out.

It's gray and a little rainy in Portland. No surprises there! I hope everyone is well.

OH! And I nearly forgot ... silly me. I just approved the paperback version of Never, so I'll be posting links to that very soon!

CJ

Happy belated V-day!

What did I get for Valentine's Day? A big Internet nightmare. Spent the entire day trying to sort that out. However, my husband saved the day with his lovely card and two of my absolute favorite movies, which was a complete surprise. He's good at that! The final film in this trilogy is coming out later this year. (The first came out when I was a junior in high school, and it's been a long time since then!)

I'm feeling a little sentimental. Never was originally supposed to be published yesterday, but I beat my goal by more than three months. Unfortunately, I don't have a date set for the third book yet, but I will be getting back to it as soon as I know my fate in March as far as jury duty goes. Send good vibes toward the third book! LOL

At the moment, I'm having a fun little vacation with my secret project. ... Must get back!

Kidnapped ... by another project

Please send ransom. ;-p Kidding, kind of.

The truth is I've been writing like crazy, but unfortunately it hasn't been The Ever Series that I've been working on. I needed to take a breather from the third book, and another project that I had started a few months ago just kind of took over my life. I've been literally eating, sleeping, breathing it.

But never fear. The third book in The Ever Series is percolating in my head. I just won't have much time for it until after I find out about my jury duty coming up next month. The good news is that the paperback copy of Never will be up for sale very soon.

I promise I'll post with an update as soon as The Ever Series is in full swing again.

CJ

P.S. -- A special shout out to Hillary! I hope your writing is going well.

For Ever's new paperback is here!

I love it. But maybe that's because I've been waiting so long for it! It is so pretty. And Never is coming along soon after. (If I get lucky, it'll be up by tonight. We shall see.)

On another note, I may very well be dedicating the third book in The Ever Series to For Ever's UK fans! Again -- wow!

All right. Back to editing the third book.

Happy Monday!

The kindness of strangers

So ... I was in a bit of a funk this weekend, and I wrote a somewhat rant-filled post. My apologies. I deleted it (you guys don't need to hear me whine!), and I was reminded the very next day of how some people who we've never met go out of their way to say nice things. It does not go unnoticed! (On a semi-related note: I was standing in line at an ice cream shop in Portland this weekend, and a man passed by me and gave me the remaining balance on his gift card. It was a tiny amount, of course, but it felt good to be in the right place at the right time. Kindness travels.)

Now, in my aforementioned (deleted) post, I talked about taking a little break to work on another side project, which is tonally way different than The Ever Series. Well, last week said project was sort of stealing my will to work on the third book ... but fear not. I'm going to try to do both at once. And if I can't manage it, I will go back to my first love -- Ever, of course!

In other news, the proofs of For Ever and Never's new paperbacks are ordered and coming soon, so they will be available for purchase in the near future. So excited about that!

Lastly, the first seven chapters of For Ever are up on Amazon for free right now. They'll be available for a day ... or maybe five. I haven't decided yet. If you have a friend who might enjoy the book, but he or she wants to try it first, this is a great time to check it out.

Hugs to all of you who have left the wonderful reviews of Never (and For Ever) on Amazon. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

More soon!

CJ

Uh. Oh.

So ... I have a dilemma. I'm roughly a third to halfway done with the third book in The Ever Series, which is good news. The problem is that I've gotten to a point in the story where I'm thinking: "Uh oh. I need to go back and rewrite it." It's not so much the story itself that's giving me trouble; it's the timeline.

Usually if I start rewriting, I can tell if that's going to "fix" the problem. I've done this before, but it's always kind of a "hold my breath/is this gonna work?" plunge to take.

Cross your fingers for me! Will post an update soon.

CJ

PS -- Looking at the online proofs of the paperback covers. For Ever's is beautiful, but Never's is yummy. Will hold them in my hands soon. Stay tuned!

Beautiful

The paperback versions of For Ever and Never will be available shortly -- and this time I mean it! So, if you're sentimental (like me), you might want to order a copy of the first book with For Ever's original tree. (Otherwise ... Hillary, you're probably going to own one of the only originals! LOL)

Now, let me just say ... The new artwork for the paperbacks is gorgeous. My designer went above and beyond with beautiful detail, and I'm really looking forward to holding the proofs in my hands. (But in all honesty ... I just want to see Ever's bright green eyes staring back at me from the cover of Never. An e-book, sad to say, just can't do justice to his smoldering stare.)

Files will be uploaded soon. Then I will be ordering proofs. And finally they will be available to anyone who wants to hold Ever ... I mean For Ever and Never ... in both hands. (The books will be available via Amazon and CreateSpace for the United States and in Europe, and I'll post the associated links when both books are up for order!)

CJ

To For Ever's UK fans

Um, you guys rock! Wow. Did you guys tell your friends about my little book? Because I never would have guessed that For Ever's readership in the UK would be growing faster than in the US! I know where I'm traveling on my next trip abroad.

Much love to all of For Ever's fans, wherever you may be!

CJ

Back to work!

I survived my doctor's visit on Friday, but let me just say: twilight sleep is just weird!

So, now that I'm back in the land of the living, I am really hoping this week will be a monster write-a-thon. With Ever's first chapter out and available here (and on Amazon, iBooks & Lulu), I'm officially back to work on the third book. Now I just have to make some major headway before March when I have to report for jury duty. Don't want to get stuck with a half-finished book!

Last week I just started to dive into some of the nitty gritty about Ever's world that has remained pretty mysterious up until now, so it's getting very interesting. I have to say: there were a couple of really jaw-dropping revelations in the last scene, and I can't wait to find out what happens this week!

To those of you who reached out -- Hillary, you are my #1 blog buddy! -- thank you so much. I always love hearing from you guys, and I hope everyone had a great weekend.

I'll be back soon with more news. (FYI ... I'm thinking about starting a photo tour of For Ever, including some of the locations and other stuff that helped inspire the book!)

CJ

Back in Ever-land

So, I took a little vacation over the holidays and will be going in for a less-than-thrilling medical procedure tomorrow afternoon. As such, I've had little chance to work on the third book in The Ever Series. I did, however, have a good day working on the book yesterday! And let me tell you: this one is surprising me at every turn.

I'll start releasing teasers after I get the first draft done. It may take a while, but for now, I hope people are enjoying a little peek into Ever's mind with the first chapter of For Ever from his POV!

To those of you who have left the wonderful reviews of For Ever and Never in the US and the UK -- thank you! You are my heroes.

Happy New Year's! I hope everyone has a terrific 2013 ahead of them!!!

CJ