Aurora Blazing ARC Giveaway!

Aurora Blazing comes out on October 1, which means we’re just about a month and a half away from release! Ahhh!!! Where did this year go?

If you want to read it even sooner, I’m giving you a chance to get your hands on an early copy! I have three ARCs (advance reader copies) to give away. See below for details. And if you haven’t preordered yet, now is an excellent time. :)

And don’t forget, for US readers, my publisher is running a Goodreads giveaway, too!

Aurora Blazing Cover

To save her brother and protect her family’s future, a powerful princess must join forces with a dashing man from her past in this thrilling space adventure, the second novel in the Consortium Rebellion trilogy.

As the dutiful daughter of High House von Hasenberg, Bianca set aside her personal feelings and agreed to a political match arranged by her family, only to end up trapped in a loveless, miserable marriage. When her husband unexpectedly dies, Bianca vows never to wed again. Newly independent, she secretly uses her wealth and influence to save other women stuck in dire circumstances. Information is power and Bianca has a network of allies and spies that would be the envy of the ’verse—if anyone knew about it.

When her family’s House is mysteriously attacked, Bianca’s oldest brother, the heir to House von Hasenberg, disappears. Fearful for her brother’s life, the headstrong Bianca defies her father and leaves Earth to save him. Ian Bishop, the director of House von Hasenberg security—and Bianca’s first love—is ordered to find and retrieve the rebellious woman.

Ian is the last man Bianca wants to see. To evade capture, she leads him on a merry chase across the universe. But when their paths finally collide, she knows she must persuade him to help her. Bianca will do anything to save her sibling, even if it means spending time alone on a small ship with the handsome, infuriating man who once broke her heart.

As the search takes them deep into rival House Rockhurst territory, Bianca must decide if she can trust Ian with the one piece of information that could destroy her completely . . .

Preorder now:

  • Amazon
  • Barnes & Noble
  • Apple Books
  • Kobo
  • Google Play
  • IndieBound

EDIT: Entries are now closed, winners will be announced soon. Check for the new blog post in a day or two. :)

To enter to win an ARC, here are the rules. Please read them all! Incomplete entries will be ignored.

  1. The entry period starts now and ends on August 30, 2019 at 12:00PM (noon) CST. You must be eighteen or older. Open to US and international readers.
  2. Leave ONE top-level comment (i.e., not a reply) below and tell me about something fun you’ve done this summer. It could be reading a new book, a vacation, enjoying a break from school, etc. Let’s celebrate summer fun! (EDIT: Okay, I forgot about the southern hemisphere. D’oh! If you live south, tell me something fun you’ve done this winter.) Duplicate top-level comments will be deleted. You are welcome to reply to other comments, though, because those won’t count as entries.
  3. Comments must be on the blog post on my site (www.jessiemihalik.com). Comments on Facebook, Goodreads, etc. won’t count.
  4. Come back after August 30 and see if you’ve won! Winners will be picked by random number and must claim their book. Instructions will be included in the winning post.

I will start! Not only did I finish writing Chaos Reigning (and you might want to peek over there for a teeny snippet!), I also have time to read again! In the past couple weeks, I’ve read Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean and The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare, and both were fantastic!

How to Write a Book in 165 Days… More or Less

This week, I officially sent off book three (*cough* Chaos Reigning *cough*) to my editor, so I thought you might like a peek behind the curtain of how a rough draft comes about. Thanks to Scrivener, I have a detailed history of my word count for each day.

It is not very pretty, but I hope it helps some of you who write as slow as I do. You don’t have to write like the wind. You can write like molasses in winter and still write a book, you just have to hang in there and keep going.

Finishing the draft (not including a week of edits) took 165 days, but I only wrote on 124 of them. I started on February 18 and finished on August 1. For a good chunk of the book I was writing every day, including weekends. I prefer to take weekends off, but a deadline waits for no woman.

Let’s start with the overview before diving into the details. The monthly breakdown looks like this:

MonthWord Count
February2,607
March10,105
April26,490
May15,510
June16,123
July27,030
August5,297

You can see that I really struggled in May. I had edits for TQA and proofs for AB, plus I always struggle in the middle. You can also see why, at the beginning of June, I decided to see if I could push my deadline back from July 1. I hated to do it, but if I hadn’t, June might’ve killed me.

Luckily, there was some room in the schedule, so a later deadline gave me a bit of breathing room. I actually took some weekends in June off, but I was still stuck in the middle, so between the two, my word count was not good.

In July, I realized I had to get serious or I wasn’t going to make it, especially because the RWA conference would take up an entire week. Sadly, my brain did not get on board with this plan and I went into RWA in a mild panic. Where I met with my editor.

In person.

Book Update and Goodreads Giveaways

I finished the rough draft of book three! 🎉 I expected to be writing right up to the deadline, but some super productive alien took over my brain last week and I ended up writing over 17k words in four days, which still kind of amazes me. I’m not sure what happened, but I wouldn’t mind if it happened every week. :)

The first draft clocked in around 103k and since then has grown to almost 105k as I go back and edit. It’s out with my alpha readers right now and I’m letting it rest a bit, then I’ll do another editing pass before I send it off to my editor next week.

Finishing a book is always a little bittersweet, especially this book which gave me such trouble during drafting (the last four days notwithstanding). During edits, I read it end-to-end, which you don’t really do when writing, and it’s not as bad as I expected.

It might even be good.

I don’t know, I’m too close to it, but that’s why I have early readers. None of them have stopped answering my calls yet, so maybe it’s okay. Or maybe they just haven’t gotten to the bad parts yet. 😅

In other news, my publisher is running two giveaways on Goodreads right now. Both of them are US only (sorry, international folks!). The first is for a chance to win one of 100 copies of Polaris Rising. It ends August 10, so get cracking.

The second, which might be more interesting to you all, is a chance to win one of 50 early copies of Aurora Blazing. It ends August 30.

Good luck!

On Deadline

I’m back from RWA 2019, which was awesome, but now I’m just two weeks out from book three’s deadline, so I’m going into internet hibernation to focus on words. I’ll do an RWA recap when I come back, because it really was incredible, but book words come first.

If you email/message me in the next two weeks, I probably won’t respond until after I’m done with book three. I have a lot of words to make and very little time left to make them. If it’s extremely urgent and you don’t have my phone number, Twitter DM me. But if you abuse this power, I will block you with extreme prejudice. :)

NYC and #RWA19 Events This Week!

This week I’ll be in New York City for the RWA conference. I have three events scheduled and two of them are completely free and open to the public, so please come see me if you’re in the area!

Best-Selling Authors in Bryant Park: A Lotta Romance

Wednesday, July 24, 12:30–1:45 PM

Bryant Park
Free and open to the public! I think I can sign whatever you bring, but don’t hold me to it. If not, I’ll make time after the official signing.

RWA 2019 Avon Signing (Conference Badge Required)

Thursday, July 25, 2019, 3–4 PM

Westside Ballroom, New York Marriott Marquis
I have no idea what I’m signing. Could be PR, could be AB. Find out with me! :)

RWA 2019 Readers for Life Signing

Saturday, July 27, 2019, 3–5 PM

Westside Ballroom, New York Marriott Marquis
Free and open to the public! I’m signing PR. No outside books, but you’re welcome to come say hello and get a button/bookmark!

If you see me at the conference, please say hello! I’m a super introvert, so I’ll probably be hiding in a corner, but I love to chat if I don’t have to be the one to start the conversation. :)

I’ll be around all week and I’m happy to meet up to sign your books outside of the signing times. Twitter is the best place to keep track of me and to reach me. And please introduce yourself, even if we’ve met before. Names and faces are difficult for me, and with conference brain being crazy, I’ll be doing well to remember my own name.

Last year, I sat next to the lovely Tara Wyatt for the entire Avon signing, talked to her a bunch, and then reintroduced myself to her the next day like I’d never seen her before in my life. She was so nice about it, but it’s still one of those cringey things my brain likes to remind me of when I’m trying to fall asleep. So I promise you, if I’ve forgotten you (and I inevitably will), it’s not you, it’s 1000% me.

If you are planning to come to RWA or one of the signings, I made some Badass Space Princess buttons. Find me to snag one for yourself!

And if you’re not going to be in NYC this week, I hope you have an excellent week wherever you are! :)