UtopYA Con 2013 Award Nominees

The 2013 UtopYA Con Award Nominees are now up and open for public voting and the Archers of Avalon series has been nominated for several categories!

Best Cover (Avow)

Best Edited Book (Avow)

Best Kiss (Tristan & Scarlet)

Best Couple (Tristan & Scarlet)

Best Supernatural Series of the Year

Book of the Year (Avow)

(and I may or may not have been nominated for Author of the Year--eeeeek!)

 AHHH!!!! :) Is anyone else freaking out? Because I AM! 

And guess what? 

YOU GUYS CAN VOTE HERE!

  (it only takes like thirty seconds)

So go vote for your favorites in each category (there are SO many fantastic nominees!) and spread the word! 

You guys rock!

Reviewer Appreciation Giveaway Winner

Thank you so much to all of you who participated in the Reviewer Appreciation Giveaway!!! :) Avow got 93 reviews! That's so awesome!!! My readers are AH-MAZING! ;)

And the winner is...

Alyssa P.

Congratulations, Alyssa! You've won signed paperbacks of Anew, Awry and Avow!

Thank you so much to everyone who left reviews of the series! You guys are amazing and I appreciate your support more than you'll ever know! :) Love you guys!

Video Blog: News! (Audible.com, foreign rights, UtopYA Con and more!)

If you want to skip the video (because let's face it, who has time to watch me ramble? :) I've listed the highlights below. Love your guts! Mwah!


The Highlights:

* Avow (the third and final AoA book) is now available!     Kindle     Nook     Paperback

* My Archers of Avalon series has been picked up by audible.com! Whoo-hoo! A big thanks to my super awesome agent, Suzie Townsend!

* Rights for the AoA series have been sold to Turkey! Yay! Again, thank you, Suzie!
http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/members/sztownsend81/

* I'll be a panelist at UtopYA Con this June--come visit me!
http://www.utopyacon.com/

* Check out my "Coming Soon" page for info on what I'm working on next! http://www.chelseafinebooks.com/p/coming.html 

* Reviewer Appreciation GIVEAWAY!
http://www.chelseafinebooks.com/2012/12/reviewer-appreciation-giveaway.html

Happy New Year, guys! :)

Video Blog: Awry, Film Option & UtopYA Con

My new book, the film option, and UtopYA Con 2012! :) 

BIG NEWS!

I have big news, guys. BIG. Are you ready for this?

*takes a deep breath* 

My Archers of Avalon series has been 
optioned for film/TV!

Say whaaaaaaaaat???  *squeals*

What does this mean? Well, mostly it means I'm jumping around like a kid who's just reached the front of the line for the Dumbo ride at Disneyland. *flails hands and squeals again*

But it ALSO means that Tapestry Films--the same peeps who brought you WEDDING CRASHERS (that's right, they're big time)--are hoping to put my Archers of Avalon series on the big screen! Or maybe make it a television series! Either way? Dream. Come. True!

YAY!  

I'm so SO excited! I'm smiling so big my face hurts. Ahhhh! 

So, yeah. Tell your friends, tell your family, and shout it from the rooftops! (But be careful climbing up there because I'd hate to have to you fall off in the middle of your "Archers of Avalon has been optioned for film!" proclamation and land in a garbage can or bounce off an awning or something.)

Are you guys as excited as I am??? *takes another deep breath* It might be a while before I calm down. Like, a day. Or two. Or ninety. 

Bring on a big-screen Tristan Archer! WHOO-HOO!!!

Playlist for ANEW!

Hi guys!

Below is a playlist of songs that inspired me while writing Anew. Music plays such a crucial part in the development and creativity of my stories and I wanted to share my inspiration with you guys!

That being said, do any of YOU have song suggestions for Anew? I heard from a reader the other day (thank you, Belle!) about a song that she associates with Scarlet and Tristan and, after listening to it (and getting goosebumps because it was AWESOME), I totally added it to my playlist!

So, I wanted to open up the playlist idea to all my fan-freakin'-tastic readers to see if there are any amazing songs out there that you guys think are perfect for Anew! Comment your ideas below or, if you'd rather, you can email me: chelseafinebooks@gmail.com


Here is my playlist (the short version...because the long version is, like, 59 songs) but if you want the long list, you can click HERE.

RUNNING UP THAT HILL by Placebo (Chapter 2 - Introduction to Tristan)

YELLOW by Coldplay (Chapter 11 - Gabriel & Scarlet's picnic)

RUSTED WHEEL by Silversun Pickups (Chapter 14 - Tristan shooting arrows)

SO EASILY by Kathryn Calder (Chapter 27 - Tristan & Scarlet sit in the woods)  *I'm lame and couldn't figure out how to add this song to the list but you can listen to it HERE

CLOSER by Kings of Leon (Chapter 29 - Tristan meets Maniac in the alley)

LIGHTS by Ellie Goulding (Chapters 44-48 - After Tristan saves Scarlet)

HEARTBEAT by Enrique Iglesias, ft. Nicole Scherzinger (Chapter 53 - Pancakes)

LOOK AFTER YOU by The Fray (Chapter 59 - Gabriel sees Scarlet's stomach)

WOLF & I by Oh Land (Chapter 68 - Scarlet realizes what the design is)

LOST IN PARADISE by Evanescence (Chapter 73 - Scarlet confronts Tristan)

NO LIGHT, NO LIGHT by Florence + The Machine (Final Chapters)
 

Click here to check out Anew! 

100 blog followers!

YAY! Wow, guys! Thanks so much for following my blog--you all ROCK!

When I started writing this blog, my hope was to have 40 followers in the first year (and, of course, 39 of those would be family members) but WOW! 100 followers in 4 months? That's awesome!

Thanks, everybody, for caring enough about my babbling self to follow my blog! :)

Here's a picture of how happy I am ----->

See? SUPER happy! Love you guys!

Who, me?

You can't see me right now, but I'm smiling so big my face hurts. Why the super-sized grin, you ask? Two reasons:

1) Vampire Diaries returns for a third season in two weeks. This is cause for celebration and completely blog-worthy. In fact, I might just do a video blog in honor of the season premiere. That's how excited I am. Does this make me obsessive? Absolutely.

Okay, reason number two....

2) Sophie & Carter has spent the last few days at the top of Amazon bestseller charts! #2 in Social Issues and #5 in Teen Love & Romance! SAY, WHAT???

Wait, does that mean strangers are reading my book?

I'm having a good day.  Partly because I spent the morning cuddled up with my babies on the couch (*love* my children).

But also because Sophie & Carter is doing much much better than I ever anticipated.

When Sophie & Carter was first published four weeks ago, I thought approximately five people would buy it (and all five people would, of course, be friends of mine) and then it would disappear into the oblivion of Amazon books.

But that hasn't happened...yet.  :)

My sales rank with Amazon started out at #60,302 out of 750,000 Kindle books.

Not bad.  :)  I was feeling victorious because my book---written by ME, a newbie author---was in the top 100,000 ebooks.  Awesome!

But this morning I checked my sales rank again and...     drum roll please.... 

Holy Tuna!

Sophie & Carter is now available on Kindle!

Click Here To Order!

I can't explain how surreal this is for me.  I've spent the last several years living in front of my Kindle, night after night, downloading new works of fiction for my brain to get lost in before I fall asleep.  I never imagined my own book would someday be in the Kindle store.

So, I feel triumphant in this.  Even if no one reads my Kindle book, I still feel triumphant. Because it's there, sitting on Amazon's electronic shelf, like it's worth reading.  And I've never been so proud.  Or terrified.

Proud, because I did something I didn't think I could do.

And terrified, because the only thought that keeps running through my head is, "Holy mackerel!  What did I just do?  I am a lunatic.  What if everyone hates it?  What if I suck?  I probably suck.  I probably suck and should never, ever try and write again.  And also, I really need to put away the pile of laundry that's been sitting on my couch for two days."

Okay, that last part, about the laundry, has nothing to do with Sophie & Carter-- but it still plagues my thoughts!  (By the way, the saying "holy mackerel" is weird, don't you think?  I might as well say, "Holy Catfish!" or "Holy Tuna!"...right?")

That's it.  It's official.  From now on I will be saying, "Holy Tuna!" at every possible opportunity.

So, anyway...here's to my book being on Kindle...

...And to laundry that folds itself.
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Wait, is that not a real thing?  Holy Tuna!

Ogres, People of Walmart, and my book trailer.

What an exciting last few months! 

I've been reading and re-reading and writing and re-writing Sophie & Carter endlessly, in the hopes that I just might be able to publish something that at least one person out there (who is not my mother or any other obligated relative--yes, relatives, you are obligated to like my writing) will enjoy.  Maybe not even enjoy...maybe just relate to...or understand...or maybe just not hate with a feverish passion.  

Really, I believe, that is my biggest goal:  NOT to evoke a mass uproar of readers who hate my story and are, therefore, picketing outside my house with cardboard signs and torches and ogres (because whenever I envision a picketing crowd, there's always an ogre in the background looming over the enraged townsfolk and drooling) while chanting a catchy mantra of dislike...and all because they didn't like my book and think I should stick to things I do better--like lying on the couch and watching reruns of Gossip Girl.  I'm very good at that.  In fact, I might just ditch this blog post right now and conjure up a dusty DVR recording of Gossip Girl Season 2.  Who's with me?

Anyway...these last few months have been crazy.  Crazy wonderful.  Crazy weird.  Crazy I'm-so-nervous-and-excited-I-can't-eat-or-sleep-so-instead-I-spend-an-unhealthy-amount-of-time-on-www.peopleofwalmart.com-because-it-makes-me-laugh-out-loud-at-3am-and-vow-never-to-wear-neon-mesh-in-public.  Yes, these months have been just plain crazy! :)  

But it has honestly been the best kind of crazy I've ever experienced.  And I hope (so so SO bad) that I continue to have the craziness of writing and re-writing and editing and publishing saturate my otherwise sleep-and-food-filled life for many years to come!

Now, onto the reason I'm posting (because I certainly had no intention of going off on a tangent about ogres or confessing my short stint as a peopleofwalmart voyer when I sat down today). 

I am proud to announce that Sophie & Carter is now officially available for pre-order on Amazon.com!  

The title will be released by July 1, 2011 and should be ready for purchase at www.barnesandnoble.com and www.ebooks.com within the next few weeks/months. 

Click here to pre-order today!

Also, I had the pleasure of working with a very talented videographer to produce the official book trailer for Sophie & Carter.  Check it out and let me know what you think. :)

by Anderson HD Photography

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello everyone and thank you for checking out my blog. :)

A short time ago I was going about my merry little life painting murals and trying to avoid housework at all costs ...when BAM! I suddenly found myself right smack dab in the middle of the exciting and nerve-racking chaos of publishing a book! And, honestly, I was kinda freaked out. :)  But now that I've had time to let it all sink in...I am totally thrilled!

My first book, Sophie & Carter, will be out this summer and I have butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it! I am so excited for the opportunity to share my stories with others. :)  I will be coming out with my next book (unrelated to Sophie & Carter) in early 2012.

I hope those of you who get a chance to read Sophie & Carter enjoy it. In the meantime, you can swing by my website www.chelseafinebooks.com or check me out on Twitter.

Much love to you all!

~Chelsea~