Bittersweet Farm 4 Cover Reveal Part 3

Now you have the entire bottom half of the cover.  You should have a good idea what the whole thing looks like!  I'm teasing.  I think this is pretty hard but then I was very surprise when I had the contest for guess the title to Bad Apple 4 and someone figured it right out.
You all are better at puzzles and contests than I am!

If Wishes Were Horses FREE!

And #1.
The only free book in the horses category!  I'll be #1 FOREVER!!

If Wishes Were Horses

BF4 Cover Reveal Part 2

That tells you a lot.  Or not.  I showed the cover to another writer and she didn't understand it at all.  But, not knowing anything about horses, she is a bit confused by the terminology and what goes on.  Another friend thought it is very understandable but she knows horses.

By the time we get to Book 4, we know what Bittersweet Farm is and a little experimentation is a good thing.  If we don't shake things up, some of us will get bored, right?

Cover Reveal Puzzle for BF 4

Yes, I've done the cover but how much fun is it for us if I just REVEAL it.
So I made it into a puzzle.  You can download the pieces and try to fit them together.
Then if you have a graphics program and know how, you can put each puzzle piece on a raster layer and move them around on the image until they all fit.  There are only 6 of them so it shouldn't be too taxing!

Good Luck!

Starry, Starry Nights

I got a very cute Bittersweet Farm related necklace today made by a farrier in Tennessee so that was fun.  What was not fun was to go outside and find 2 strange dogs in the yard and all my cats gone.  What was good was that they seemed to be the non-harm-intending types and I shooed them away.  Later all the cats showed up.

A typical day at Black Cat Farm while I write my way to the end of BF4.

Goldilocks or The Tale of the Bad Girl

Once upon a time there was a chick who had no regard for private property.  She went walking somewhere and got fed-up with the walking and all that it entailed so she broke into someone's house.  The home owners had food all over the place but because Goldi imagined her palate was Cordon Bleu level, none of it was good enough.  At least she could have barged into Eric Ripert's weekend house but no, she was stuck with grains.  It was hot it was cold it was too chewy.  After all that eating business, Goldi was exhausted so she crashed on the best bed she could find and she'll be the first to tell you none of them were any good.  It doesn't even bear repeating what happened in the bathroom.  And she got away with it because no one knows what to do with a bad girl.

4 books of top 6

In Bestsellers Equestrian Sports are mine

 

I'm tickled.  I think it's beyond wonderful.  Even if these things are pretty temporary.

Thank you everyone for your support.

http://barbaramorgenroth.com

Live!  It was worth the wait.  It's a beautiful website dedicated to Bittersweet Farms.

http://barbaramorgenroth.com/

I can tell you it was built by Amanda Church.  I don't need to say she's talented and intelligent and gifted.  You can see that by going to the site.  You know I recommend her because the site is so gorgeous and that's the kind of work she does.

So now with the roof fixed and the website created, all I need to do is go grocery shopping and I can get back to work!

Website Almost Ready to Debut

Finally after all these years I'm getting a real website built by someone who knows what she's doing ie not me!  It's pretty darn fantastic as you will see.  For the time being it will be focused on the Bittersweet Farm books and if you still want my random thoughts, this blog will be the place to get them.

I have created the cover for Bittersweet Farm 4 and will reveal that when we get a bit closer to release.  For those with a mental telescope, you will be able to see into the future based on book 4 and life at Bittersweet continues to be complicated, messy and wonderful.

The Sign At the Top of the Driveway

If you go down the right dirt road in Newbury, you will see this sign.

Unspeakably Desirable

Gorgeous pastry chef, handsome lawyer, sunshine and psychos.  Can you ask more of a romantic comedy? http://amzn.to/11yEDsj

Bad Apple 1: Sweet Cider Free

Edgy, realistic, gritty.  Bad Apple 1: Sweet Cider

New Nothing Serious Paperback

When I originally published Nothing Serious, I did a paper version.  I reformatted it and rebuilt the cover.  This is the wrap-around cover for the paper book. 

If that's all I'd done this week I would think myself a slacker!  Hopefully there will be fewer demands on my time next week and I can return to Bittersweet Farm 4.

Billie Holiday-- Crazy He Calls Me

A torch song to end the summer in fire and smoke.

Just Kate new cover

Here is the revised Just Kate cover.  This is a book that hasn't quite been discovered at Amazon, but has done well at BN for quite a while.  I still can't figure that out.

This is the story of a show business family--the Raffertys.  When the father loses his job on a soap, Life To Its Fullest, he goes into a tailspin.  Needing money, seventeen year old Kate agrees to do some commercial work to tide the family over.  Unfortunately she winds up getting a job on her father's old show and, worse, she starts to become famous before he did.  The redeeming aspect for Kate is that a new actor is cast to play opposite her, Fitch Cooper.  Fitch is gorgeous, talented, and emotionally smart.  Who isn't going to fall in love with him?  But in show business, you love someone for the run of the play and then it's over.  Kate knows this relationship is time-limited but sometimes you just can't help doing the wrong thing when it feels so right.







  

If Wishes Were Horses #11!

Thank you all for your interest and I know you'll love Caprice and Mill.  Who isn't going to love a polo player in tight blue jeans?

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #98,790 Paid in Kindle Store
  • #11 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Sports & Outdoors
  • #43 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Individual Sports > Horses > Equestrian
  • #58 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Literature & Fiction > Sports

  

Not Low Maintenance

It's not about a high maintenance Louboutin  high heel wearing slickchick.  It's about your life and how that's not low maintenance, you have to attend to it.  But it's also about being sued for defamation of character and a Blood and Guts hunt breakfast, apple cake and the sexiest attorney in New York City.

I changed the cover today.  It's a little more autumnal.

Bittersweet Farm 1 5 Star Review

Thank you.  Very much appreciated.

As I was looking at the cover for the print book I realized it needed a tweak so I did lighten the horse which is so much better!

Does anyone think Greer needs a boyfriend?  Leave your comments.

Now I'll get back to BF4.

"If Wishes Were Horses,

that would explain this horse manure."

Yes, that's what Mill says in the newly retitled Caprice's Totally Screwed Up Wish.  It's still a novella.  It's still cute, and light, and who knows, Cap might move back to Connecticut and visit Bittersweet Farm one of these days.

When seventeen year old Caprice Rydell flips a coin into a fountain and
makes a wish that's just the beginning of trouble.  Cap learns her father
was a bigamist, and it's all downhill from there.  It's bad enough that
news is announced on a national television show but it all plays out in front
of Mill Crocker, captain of the school polo team and the most gorgeous guy
Cap's ever seen.

Mill doesn't take Cap's wishing seriously and thinks she already has what she wants. Not seeing it that way, Cap just wants to reset her life back to normal by retrieving that coin. One more small problem.  How is Cap going to find it among the thousands in the fountain?

Bittersweet Farm 1 Coming in Print

Yes via the magic of trees and ink, those without readers will be able to experience the endless excitement of Bittersweet Farm next month.

The way Maggie Dana and I help each other may be featured in an article appearing in the Huffington Post next month so if that happens, I'll be sure to mention it.

Indie publishing is not like traditional publishing in so many ways.   Large publishers believe their audience is small and each reader has to be fought to win over.  If books didn't cost $30 maybe readers could afford to buy more books.  In digital publishing, the costs and prices are low.  Readers are able to read as much as they want.  Writers don't have to be in competition for a small market, they can help each other reach the audience.

Bad Apple 2: Burning Daylight

Giving this a refreshed cover, too. 

Nothing stays the same in digital publishing, something I like and other people don't.  The book itself will be unchanged. 

Bad Apple 1: Sweet Cider has ended its perma-free run.  Thousands of copies were given away and I hope you all got a chance to read it and perhaps enjoyed it.

Bad Apple 1 Freebie Final Days

All things, good and bad, must come to an end and since Bad Apple has been free for quite a while, it needs a revamping and perhaps a category change.

What's great about digital is that books aren't stuck in a pigeonhole and forgotten there.  You can change anything.  The Bad Apple series is probably not really for young adults.  It doesn't fit well into New Adult, so there just isn't a named category for it.  Crossover someone said.  Ok.  But that's still not a real category.

I want to thank all of you for your sincere appreciation and affection for Neal and Tru.  I think we had a blast on the journey.

Here's the new cover and, yes, it gets its original title back!

Thanks go to Maggie Dana for doing the titling for me--she's a genius at it.

Top Three!

This is so unbelievable.  I never imagined this could possibly happen until yesterday but it wasn't something I expected to happen.

Of course it wouldn't be possible without so much support from people I know and who I don't know yet.  Thank you. 

Bittersweet Farm Makes It Across the Water Jump

Haynet

This is a nice post from the Haynet site in the UK featuring BF1.  I'd like the British audience to be introduced to the series.

It's finally Nov. 1 in Bittersweet 4!  Yay.  I got past Halloween.  Now I face new horses arriving, new characters arriving and of course an appearance by the Ambassador of Good Cheer.  I forgot to mention Thanksgiving.  Maybe they should be invited to Hotter Than Heck Farm for deep-fried turducken.  

Halloween at the Farm

Yes in Bittersweet Farm 4 it is All Hallows Eve, but soon to be Nov. 1.  It's going to be a very busy month for them.

As for Wingspread, it's having an amazing run at being #1 at Amazon

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,362 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Sports & Outdoors
  • #1 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Individual Sports > Horses > Equestrian
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Individual Sports > Horses > Equestrian

A couple of hours ago I had 4 books in the top 10--all the the Bittersweet books and Dream Horse, so that was truly amazing.  These moments are fun but I don't take them too seriously.  Life is like a Wheel of Fortune.  It goes round and round,  you go up you go down.

Time For Photography Again

A couple minutes!

Friday in the Rain

If you knew the secret to life on the earth, would you reveal it?

What I Did For My Summer Vacation

I worked on Bittersweet Farm books, didn't I?

I have to share this, so exciting!  BF3.  Of course, thank you to all who are reading the series and supporting it.

• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #14,514 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Sports & Outdoors
  • #2 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Nonfiction > Sports > Individual Sports > Horses > Equestrian
  • #3 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Individual Sports > Horses > Equestrian

I started BF4 this week.    I can tell you one thing.  It spans November in their year.  There will be new characters entering.  Okay.  You twisted my arm.  Cameron Rafferty, extremely cute, extremely talented, who rides show jumpers.  I can also tell you this.  FINALLY, the carriage house will be finished and there will be a house warming party.  Will Lockie wind up living there?  You totally cannot trust me!

Swept Away On A Tide Of Words

I used to work in daytime television.  I even wrote a book about it.  And I just changed the cover which is pretty dang cool looking.

Free copies for the asking until the end of the month.

3 in Top 10 Equestrian!

That's never happened to me before.  Not 3 in the same series and it's fun.  And Wingspread is still listed in Hot New Release.

Maybe this is all "inside baseball" to some degree but the more visibility a book gets, the more lists it's on, the more people will see it and consider reading it.  That's good for all of us.  So enjoy this happy moment with me and know I had an idea last night that was so staggering I couldn't believe it myself.  It's for a book down the line so we'll see if I can actually go there.

Bittersweet Farm 3: Windspread Wow!

• #6 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Sports & Outdoors

What a nice way to end the day!
Thank you to everyone who finds the series interesting and entertaining and wants to support it.

Now you have a bit of a wait for Bittersweet 4.  I can promise new characters, new horses and new surprises!

Bittersweet Farm 3: Wingspread Live!

This is a very exciting morning.  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EB2O7KW
Bittersweet Farm 3 went live overnight.

Again the photo used for the cover is by Sommer Wilson, a terrifically talented and generous woman. 

Here's the book blurb.  No, it doesn't tell you very much, you have to read the book to find out about Oliver, Citabria and CB showing his real personality.

Surprise!” Greer’s mother says with her unannounced arrival.  What Victoria Swope is doing in town is a mystery but they soon find out and no one is pleased.

When Greer demands to be homeschooled with Talia, the lessons at Bittersweet Farm aren’t restricted to dressage, cross-country and show jumping.  If the half-sisters can’t get along, one of them will be sent abroad to finish high school.  Unable to bear leaving the farm’s trainer, Lockie Malone, or her horse, CB, Talia grits her teeth and tries to move forward.

It's soon obvious that everyone at the farm faces changes and challenges.   Solving them is difficult and maybe impossible.

Bittersweet Farm 3: Wingspread Available Tomorrow

It was a very exciting moment.  No, really.  My friend, Maggie Dana (check out her Timber Ridge Riders books for tweens) and I gave it a final pass, she added several commas (!) and then I clicked publish.

The book is full of surprises, reversals,  disappointments and triumphs.  And more horses!

Here's the blurb:

“Surprise!” Greer’s mother says with her unannounced arrival.  What Victoria Swope is doing in town is a mystery but they soon find out and no one is pleased.

When Greer demands to be home-schooled with Talia, the lessons at Bittersweet Farm aren’t restricted to dressage, cross-country and show jumping.  If the half-sisters can’t get along, one of them will be sent abroad to finish high school.  Unable to bear leaving the farm’s trainer, Lockie Malone, or her horse, CB, Talia grits her teeth and tries to move forward.

It's soon obvious that everyone at the farm faces changes and challenges.   Solving them is difficult and maybe impossible.

2, 3 and 4 in Equestrian Sports!

This is so exciting!  Thank you.


And yes, I reached the end of Bittersweet Farm 3.  Need another edit.  Off to the proofreader soon, then formatting and then publication!

Hubris and Nemesis

This morning I checked all the sites selling my books and I realized I had never uploaded Charlie aka Dream Horse to iTunes.  So I took care of that.

Yesterday the news was going around about a big Romance Writers convention where authors always made appointments with editors and agents to try/struggle to get the attention of these demi-gods.  The demi-gods would be bored and after the alloted 10 min. it would be "Next!"  This year, instead of it being impossible for writers to get one of these coveted appointments, the dance cards of the demi-gods were wide open.  The people getting the attention were fellow writers who struck it big in digital and they were glad to share their knowledge and experience with everyone.  "Come on, you can do it, too!" is a lot more empowering than "I don't know how this would sell in a really tough market."

In ancient Greece there were two words.  Hubris means extreme arrogance, an overestimation of one's own competence or capabilities.  Nemesis is the spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris.  If you get too big for your britches, somehow you will be taken down.

Those much maligned women who write in a category no elitist will deign to mention, just gave traditional publishing their first big newsflash.  "We don't need you anymore.  Not on your terms, not when you abuse us."

I published a book today without the permission of an agent or editor or beancounter.  I did the cover myself, I edited it myself, I formatted it myself.  I didn't need anyone else.  All I need are readers.  Readers only want good books.  Wow.  What a concept!

Now I'll get back to Bittersweet 3 because I really am very close to also publishing that without the permission of the demi-gods.

Bittersweet Farm 2: Joyful Spirit Is On Top

I love it and maybe I'll get a 2nd wind out of the enthusiasm for 2 as I finish book 3!  
I promise you I'm close to the end, I'm looking at publishing it the 1st week of August.  Lots of twists and turns to deal with and make sure everything works in concert.


Amazon Best Sellers Rank:

• #1 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Teen & Young Adult > Sports & Outdoors

Bittersweet Farm 3: Wingspread Bee Patient

Getting there.  Some of the surprises have surprised me!

Bittersweet Farm 2 New Cover

Yes, it's still #1 in its category.  YAY!

There was no pressing need to change the cover and I didn't change it much but here's the thing.  I was advised to use a panel by a paper book designer.  So I figured she knew what she was talking about.  The more I looked at the cover, the less the panel worked for me.

So I took it out.  I'll redo Bittersweet 1 when I have a chance.  Hey, I'm busy.  I'm finishing Bittersweet 3.  Lots of surprises!

Pansified

Hotter Than a Match, Yeah

I always thought it was match head. That works, too, though, doesn't it? What's with the sideburns? It's another fun summer song that makes you feel like everything is hunky dory.

 

My brakes burned up, too. So everything is either hot or wet this year. I think Bittersweet Farm 3: Wingspread will be published soon. We'll all be happy about that. Then I can start working on 4. I thought that would be titled Available but now I'm not sure.

Peppy Pop Music

It seems like pop music used to be happier.  Maybe it was naive.  Maybe it wasn't really reflecting the lives of kids in the city but there is something to be said for just being light-hearted for three minutes.

Summer and Rain

It has rained more than shined around here and while my tomatoes may not exactly be suffering, it's the rare variety doing well.  I spent the last 10 years collecting varieties that would do well here.  I tried probably 100 Russian/Eastern European types thinking that if they can take Siberia, they can take it here.  Pretty much true.  But the best, I think, most reliable, is a variety from Kentucky called Grandfather Ashlock.  Every year I'm surprised.  Sort of like Groundhog's Day.  If we have a long summer and a late fall, all will be well.

Yes, I am working on Bittersweet 3.  "Scorching the world one mouth at a time."  You'll have to read the book to understand it.

Bittersweet Farm 2 is #1!

Yay!  Amazon created a new category this week so it's neat that my YAs don't have to be in with "Betsey Rides Her Bike" or whatever it was.

4th of July

I love America.

Bittersweet Farm 3: Wingspread

I'm excited that there are people anxiously awaiting book 3 and I can assure everyone I'm working on it.  It will definitely be published this summer.  There are lots of surprises, twists and turns and everything you expect from Lockie and Talia and some you totally do not expect.

This is the mock-up cover.

Again,  a huge thank you goes to Sommer Wilson for her terrific photograph.

Bittersweet Farm #2 and #5 in Equestrian Sports

There's a lot of competition in this category so it's a nice treat to see Bittersweet 1: Mounted and Bittersweet 2: Joyful Spirit in the top 5. 

Yes, I'm working on Bittersweet Farm 3: Wingspread.  Notice how the books are named after horses?  Yes.  I think the next one will be named after Greer's horse.  No, it won't be Counterpoint.  Everything is always changing at Bittersweet Farm.

I'm quite far into 3 and it's only about 5 days since the hunter pace!  They're busy and it's going to get busier.

Flag Day

It's sometimes easy to forget that people lived, fought and died for our freedom to sit on a couch and do nothing.  No people of any country has ever been more free than in the USA and yet we treat it as a nothing little thing.  Even today, there are women in the world not allowed to go to school, or to drive, or to leave the home without a male relative escorting her.  There are countries where a woman needs 4 witnesses to testify that she was raped.  Her word alone is insufficient.  This week a 15 year old boy was shot in the face and killed by the police in front of his parents so the point was really made, because he spoke out against the government.  Homosexuality is a crime punishable by death.  Slavery is not against the law.

We are not that kind of people.  We never have been.

God Bless America.

The Missed Wish Transforms Itself

Here's a little backstory on this novella.  A friend lives near a fountain and he wondered about wishes.  That sent us both in different directions--me with a book in mind and he with a script in mind.

I didn't write a book and he didn't finished the script but I did wind up with a cute novella even if the right title was elusive.  It was originally one thing and then I shortened it and then shortened it again to The Missed Wish.  I had other things to do so moved on.

A few days ago I went back to it since it's a cute story, I like the characters, the setting on the California coast, polo as the sport they play.  I worked on the cover and couldn't do what I wanted to do quickly and easily.  It's possible but I didn't want to commit to hours of effort.

Today I renamed it twice.  I really think the first title is the best Caprice's Epic Fail 100% Totally Screwed up Messed Up Wish.  Long, huh?  But I don't mind.  Then I thought other people would so I shortened it to Caprice's Totally Screwed Up Wish.

Digital publishing makes changing your mind easy.  Changing my mind has always been easy but the rest of the world didn't cooperate well with that.  Now I don't need permission to see if something else will work better.

Here's the blurb.

If wishes can come true, how could one girl go so wrong?
When seventeen year old Caprice Rydell flips a coin into a fountain and makes a wish that's just the beginning of trouble.  Cap learns her father is a bigamist, and it's all downhill from there.  It's bad enough that news is announced on a national television show but it all plays out in front of Mill Crocker, captain of the school polo team and the more gorgeous guy Cap's ever seen.
Mill doesn't take Cap’s wishing seriously and thinks she already has what she wants. Cap just wants to reset her life back to normal by retrieving that coin. Just how is Cap going to find it among the thousands in the fountain?

ELFS

Not the movie.  The acronym I noticed this morning when reading about how everyone likes free stuff.

Obviously everyone does like free stuff, and loss leaders are common in the marketplace.
There's a store by the name of Stew Leonard's which is notorious for giving away samples of food.  By the time you get to the check-out line, you don't need to eat lunch and your shopping cart is full.

So giving away books works.  Provided it leads readers to your other books.  The common wisdom is that you're better off putting Book 1 in your series as a giveaway and let readers be intrigued enough to keep going.  This isn't set in stone.  I have a friend who doesn't have a series, she gives away thousands of books through Select and Bookbub and I would say she's very successful.

Since ELFS that means a lot of people will download any free book and 1) not read it at all 2) read it and go meh 3) like it enough to seek out more books by the same author.

The author is the winner really because each time a freebie is downloaded, their readership is better defined.  If you get a bad review "Boy, I got this for free and it was so bad they should have paid me to read it!" all that says is that's not your audience.  Priced at free there will be unlimited opportunities for the right audience to coalesce around an author.

Bittersweet Farm 3

Yes, that's in progress.  There will be surprises, twists and turns at the farm.  Does anyone vote for Rogers getting a boyfriend?  Wouldn't that be unexpected?  I wonder what Greer would say about Rogers getting a steady guy before she has one.  Since Greer is so unpredictable it's hard to know what her reaction would be to anything.

I have another idea kicking around but I've been so busy with everything from gardening to formatting, I haven't had a lot of time to think.  Maybe soon.  I have the title, though, and it's good to have a title before the writing commences.  It's a little bit like a compass, keeping me pointed in the right direction.

I've been playing around with the cover for Pass or Fail.  Sometimes I get tired of what's there and need a change.  I like the top version because of the background colors but I like the black and white because it's stark and the book is rather stark and disturbing.

Any votes which you like better?