Thanks for the Likes Giveaway!

My author page has over 200 likes.  Future Letters has hit 100.  As promised here's my very first rafflecopter giveaway!  This giveaway will run for two weeks.

The Prizes:

One, signed, first edition paperback of Future Letters, and an ebook copy of the current edition.

Five ebook copies of Future Letters.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks again for all your likes.

Like Me! :-)

My facebook page just reached 200 likes!! Thanks for all the love everyone! Future Letters almost has 100 likes.  It's time to celebrate!

Once the page for Future Letters hits 100, I'll be hosting a give away!  The prizes include one signed First Edition of Future Letters and an ebook copy of the current edition (in your choice of format), and an additional FIVE ebook copies will be given away.

So if you haven't already- please like my facebook pages (H.R. Willaston and Future Letters), please follow me on Twitter, please check me out at Goodreads.

I'll post the rafflecopter giveaway once Future Letters hits 100 (which should be very soon.)

Catching Up

Catching Up.

A lot's been going on since I last posted.  So, here's a little update.

I've been hard at work on getting my next book Nine Days out into the world.  It's currently in its first hard copy edit stage and being edited by my husband Scott and me.  My goal is to have the second hard copy edit ready for Monkey Boy Editing by the end of the school year (so, the end of May).  The front cover art is done, the back cover art is being worked on by Big Mike and the synopsis is being tweaked hopefully to perfection.  I'm really excited (and terrified) about this story making its way into the world.

Los Angeles Central Library

My wonderful husband took me to the Central Library in Los Angeles, CA back in February.  This is the library that inspired Lilianna Gregor's 18th birthday trip in Future Letters.  The place was incredible!  Just like Lil said - I'm pretty sure I could live there forever and be completely happy.  To check out more pictures from our library visit click here.

Fairy Realm

Last week we took a Dylan and Lil type camping trip to Cambria, CA.  We already go there as much as we can, but this was our first camping trip of the year.  During this camping trip I tried to take Dylan Mead's Fairy Realm picture.  For an amateur with no training at all here's what I came up with (pictured on left).  To see more pictures of our Lil and Dylan style camping click here.

Our next adventure will hopefully be to the San Francisco Indie Authors Event in June.  I'm super excited about this.  There will be so many amazing authors there!  Maybe I can get a few books signed. ;-) This will also be our first "pup free trip" since getting Laura-Glue.  She will *not* be pleased about this, but we'll see what happens.

So, for now it's back to work tomorrow after two weeks off (Spring Break and vacation!) with seven weeks until my seniors graduate, lots of reading (current reading list: The Indigo King by James A. Owen, City of Bones by Cassandra Clare, Stay by Jennifer Silverwood, Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee), editing and writing for Nine Days and some mapping for book one of a new project - Elementals - (my first try at fantasy/paranormal writing).

So, what are you reading? 

Future Letters Giveaway!

I'm giving away three copies of  of Future Letters on Goodreads.  These copies all have the new cover and will be signed.  So if you already have an e-version of the book and want a hard copy, or want a hard copy with the new cover, or don't have the book and want it for free check out the giveaway.
The giveaway ends January 2, 2013.
Thank you to those who've already entered.  And of course thank you to everyone who's read it. :-D

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Future Letters

by H.R. Willaston

Giveaway ends January 02, 2013.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

New Future Letters Cover

The UPS guy just delivered the new copies of Future Letters with their brand new covers!!  I'm so excited!  I like this cover SO much better.

With a bit of brainstorming with a friend and being surrounded five days a week with high school students who doodle and draw on ALL their work, I feel this cover is much more fitting.  I doubt it'll be on any "Best Cover" List or something like this, but I'm very happy with it.

 And as you can see Laura-Glue is too. ;-)

Updated Future Letters

 Future Letters has a new cover!  Here are some pictures of the cover, plus the 3D pictures of the book.

Things to do when your sick...

... and November is just two days away.

When you're sick you're suppose to drink lots of fluids and sleep, right?  Drinking I can do.  Sleeping - not so much.  I've been trying, but it's just not working.  So I've used my sick-kid time getting all the Future Letters stuff done that I wanted to get done.

I updated it a bit (didn't make any major changes to the story, I promise), added a new cover and uploaded it for sale on Nook, Kobo and the new version for Kindle and paperback through Amazon.  I know the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" but obviously people do or else there wouldn't be "Best Cover" lists on sites like Goodreads. 

The old cover was okay.  It really wasn't what I had in mind, but every time I tried to take a picture of what I wanted it just never looked right.  I'm definitely not Dylan Mead and do not have his photography skills (although I do like taking pictures).  With some brainstorming with a friend plus working at a high school  where students doodle all over their work and notes - the new cover was born!  According to one of my doodle art students it looks pretty cool.

So now I'm back to the waiting game.  Waiting for all the sights to finish publishing the newest version of Future Letters - complete with new cover, additional acknowledgements and (hopefully) a table of contents that will work on the readers. 

Not that I'm happy to be sick - it sucks - but these last two days off have given me the chance to completely clear up all Future Letters updating so I will have a completely clean slate on November 1.

What's the big deal about November 1?  It's National Novel Writing Month!  Last year my NaNoWriMo project was Future Letters.  This year it's the complete rewrite of Nine Days. 

I actually wrote Nine Days in Spring 2011.  It was the first full book I wrote and at the time it was called "Where You Belong".  I loved the plot idea for the story.  Loved the spinoff idea for a series that I got from the story's setting.  After re-reading the story itself, I hated it.  I tried keeping the characters and changing things a bit so I could just jump into the first book of the series my husband would like me to write.  I started, stopped, tweaked, started again, rinse, repeat.  It just never worked. 

As much as I didn't like how the original story turned out, I still love the plot idea and feel it's a story that needs to be told.  I've already mapped everything out.  Other than most of the character names and the basic plot Nine Days is all brand new material (which is need as a NaNoWriMo project).  I like the new versions of the characters SO much more.  I love the new characters and relationships between them.

I've been wanting to rewrite Nine Days for a while.  November is my shot.  30 days of writing and no looking back. 

So today I leave the world of Lil, Alaia and Morgan behind.  And when I start writing on Thursday I'll submerse myself in Andy Qwinn and her runaway spring break trip to Hawaii to meet a couple of monk seals.