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!

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

"A love letter" to For Ever's fans

I recently took a little break from the third book in The Ever Series to work on what someone (she knows who she is) called "a love letter to For Ever's fans." It's just the start of something, and I'm going to be putting it up for free on Amazon and -- most likely -- here very soon. Sort of an early Christmas present to those of you interested in "the other side" of For Ever. (Ha! I think I just gave away the surprise.)

Depending on the response I get, I may think about making this my next project. We'll see. And for those of you who have reached out, thank you! It is so appreciated. It keeps me going on the days I've thought about quitting.

I hope everyone has been having a safe and happy holiday season.

Best wishes,
CJ

For those of you who have read For Ever

A dear, sweet friend sent this to me as a present, and I hope she doesn't mind me sharing a picture, because I was just too excited when I opened it up! For those of you who have read For Ever, do you recognize this???

For Ever's names continued

For Ever's names (cont.):

Wren: I had a bit of luck with her name. When I started writing, I spent a lot of time looking at a baby names Web site. Looking for my main character's name, I happened to see that the "name of the day" on one of the sites was Wren, or "small bird." I thought of my character, unassuming but watchful and cautious around others. Then, when I found the last name Sullivan, it just fit. No specific meaning. It just was "Wren."

Alistair, Chasen, Audra, and Persephone: For all of Ever's immortal compatriots, I went straight to searching for names with particular meanings. We only meet Alistair briefly by the end of the book, but he is, for all intents and purposes, introduced as the front man. He's college age or a little older, and he appears to be a leader in the group (when in reality I see them as equals, despite their varying temperaments). The meanings behind Alistair seemed to lean toward "defender of the people," a concept I played with in the second book (see the spoiler after the jump). For Chasen, his name was pretty straightforward. It's a modern, more American take on Chase, meaning "hunter." No explanation needed. Audra, another American name, means "noble strength." I see Audra as beautiful, noble, aristocratic, unbending, and harsh. I took Persephone's name straight out of Greek mythology. She is a minor character in the first book, though I really played with her name in a way that becomes much more apparent in the second book.

Ashley, Josh, Taylor, Lindsay, and Marcus: For Wren's group of friends, the people who welcome her on her first day, I went straight to the U.S. Social Security Administration's Web site to find age-appropriate names.

Caroline: For Wren's mom, I did the same thing (the SSA's Web site). And again, her name just fit.

Iago: Well, that's a long story. If you want to read more about For Ever's eleventh-hour villain, it's probably best if you've read both For Ever and Never ...

How I chose For Ever's names: Ever

Names are really important. In a lot of ways they shape who we are. You can love your name, hate it, change it -- but it's meaningful any way you look at it. I found the names for the characters through tireless searching or total luck.

Ever first ...

Tidbits

It seems like forever (no pun intended) since Never went live on Amazon. I guess a lot's happened in my little world since then, and I haven't quite caught up. Quitting coffee over the weekend (l-o-o-o-o-n-g story) didn't help matters. :-/

On to some news ... First, I'm working on getting Never up on Barnes & Noble. Will post when I do. And I'm also looking into Smashwords. Last but not least, I'm also hoping to have the paperback versions of For Ever and Never available with their spiffy new covers.

 Even more exciting ... I'm also working on the third book in The Ever Series. I'm roughly a quarter of the way through the first draft. The question is: can anyone guess the title?

For those of you who have purchased Never, I hope you're enjoying it! Got my first review on Amazon, which made me absolutely giddy with happiness since I now know for sure that one person out there really loved For Ever's sequel! And like I said before, sometimes I think I'm writing for just one person. I still hope that a lot of people out there love Never. I had a great time writing it. And the end totally made me cry, but I cried at the end of For Ever, too. I do that a lot, I guess. ;-)

Last but not least, I'm working on some ideas for a raffle. It all depends on how it goes with the paperback copies. However, if it doesn't look like those will be finalized before the end of the year, first I'll scream. Then I'll probably just raffle off an Amazon GC. Those of you who are visiting the blog regularly deserve a little holiday season bonus!

Dark and stormy looking in Portland, Oregon. Hmm. Guess it's time to spend the next three months writing the third book. Title coming soon!

Question for Barnes and Noble readers

Never is officially, officially available for purchase on Amazon (Yay! I beat my projected 2013 release date by a mile!), and right now For Ever is for sale on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Now, here's the thing ... I've been going back and forth between either releasing Never on Barnes & Noble or making both titles exclusive to Amazon.

For anyone who has purchased For Ever on B&N already, are you interested in Never? Let me know: author (at) cjvalles (dot) com

And those of you who already have Never in your hands, thank you a million times for your support! It means a lot, and I hope you enjoy the roller coaster ride!

Never is up on Amazon!

Buy it here!

Will Never come out this weekend?

Okay, so the title of this post might be the biggest teaser ever, but the answer to that question is: I sure hope so! As I type this, the man behind the scenes is running through the result of my last fit of editing (which happened to increase the length of For Ever's sequel by at least 15 pages). Plus, I told him if he doesn't hurry up, that I'm going to post his e-mail address. ;-) No. Actually, I just went and harassed him again, and he said it's looking quite possible that he'll finish with my edits today.

Which means ... All the pieces are in place. The cover is done, the final edits are this close to being tweaked/incorporated. So, please cross your fingers for me, and I'll give another status report shortly.

If Never does get published on Amazon, it will likely be at 10:30 at night tomorrow (Sunday), the same way I published For Ever -- full of nerves, excitement, regret, and nausea, making it available Monday at the earliest. If it gets delayed, I'll aim for next weekend. But I really, really hope that Never will be released sooner rather than later!

Yep, totally nerves, excitement, and nausea. (No regret, yet!) Maybe that means I'll actually get Never out this weekend (way earlier than my projected February 2013 date) ... or I'll just have a monumental freakout! One or the other.

Stay tuned!

CJ

Never's teaser of the week

I hope everybody enjoyed the first chapter of Never! I'm still working on getting the book out early, so stay tuned!

Now, here's the regular old weekly teaser ...

For Ever is back ... on B&N

For Ever is available on the Nook again ... with its pretty (new) cover and everything!

Click here to go to the sales page on B&N.

Never: Chapter 1

Like I've said before ... I have no patience. And on that note, here's the first chapter of Never.