Hi There!
From now until March 31, The Callahan Split ebook is on sale for AUD $4.99!! (USD$3.99)
To read more and buy the book, CLICK HERE
Print copies of The Callahan Split are AUD$20 and available for purchase HERE.
Very much looking forward to a fabulous lunch and conversation with the wonderful women from the Greek Young Matrons’ Association.
Would love to see you if you are in Sydney and are free on Friday, February 19th.
Should be a lot of fun!
It runs from today until Wednesday January 27 – Leave a comment on my blog and visit other participating bloggers and leave a comment, to be in the running to win fabulous books by Aussie authors.
On my blog, you could win one of two copies of The Callahan Split or one of two copies of It Started with a Kiss!
My latest novel, The Callahan Split, centres on the lust, love, loss and lives of several fictional players on the international tennis circuit. And as it happens, coincides with Australia’s summer of tennis…in fact the first page begins with sisters and doubles partners playing at The Australian Open!
Here’s a little more about the novel –
In tennis, as in life, nothing ever goes truly to plan.
Samantha and Annie Callahan are successful doubles champions — the toast of the Olympics, Wimbledon, and Flushing Meadow. But their winning partnership spirals out of control when Annie’s new boyfriend announces their engagement at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Amidst rising anger and betrayal, Samantha completely changes both their destinies when she does the unthinkable after a devastating Wimbledon loss.
The sisters are driven to create new lives by confronting the past and taking control of the present. But can Samantha and Annie both win? Click here to read more.
It Started with a Kiss…After the pain of her marriage breakup, Friday Jones makes some major blunders – from a misguided affair to online dating disasters. But can heartbreak actually be the best thing that ever happened to her? Click here to read more.
If you’d like to win one of these books, please leave a comment below – and make sure you visit all the other amazing Aussie authors who are joining in this promotion.
Click here to check out the other authors – there’s quite a few!
Good luck!
Click here to purchase an ebook copy.
Click here to purchase a print copy.
I’m so pleased that reviewers are loving this book. I think it’s one of my best and many seem to agree.
The Callahan Split – now available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Kobo. I’ll post details of iBooks shortly.
I really love this one and believe me when I say that a little piece of me is contained in every full stop in the book!
Here’s what you’re in for: The Callahan Split…
So here’s the blurb:
The Callahan Split: No one knows you better than your sister.
‘In pro tennis just as in any memorable film or book, you have your hero, villain, heroine, damsel in distress, rake and, of course, the girl next door…Let me tell you a story.’
Samantha Callahan
In tennis, as in life, nothing ever goes truly to plan.
Samantha and Annie Callahan are successful doubles champions — the toast of the Olympics, Wimbledon, and Flushing Meadow. But their winning partnership spirals out of control when Annie’s new boyfriend announces their engagement at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
‘Janko has the announcement. To say my bride, Annie, is for me the new koala. It matters not that Annie win tennis, she is Janko’s new wife, about to be.’
Bear, the sisters’ coach, guides Annie as much as she’ll allow. But when she insists on dropping Samantha in favour of a singles career, her game and rankings plummet.
‘You are such an older sister,’ Bear said. ‘Controlling, logical, determined.’
I glared at him.
‘What? You are. Annie’s more relaxed, sociable. God forbid if you were both like you.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
Bear snorted. ‘You’d kill each other.’
Samantha is left floundering. Disillusioned, her only sweet spot is the growing passion between her and Bear.
I walked up to him, my mind blank, and pressed my lips to his. When I pulled away, there was a look of confusion on his face. Then he returned my kiss and I let my towel drop – again.
‘Sweetheart,’ he said, as we stumbled our way toward the bed. I silenced him with more kisses.
Amidst rising anger and betrayal, Samantha completely changes both their destinies when she does the unthinkable after a devastating Wimbledon loss.
A very bad thing!
Afterwards, the sisters are driven to create new lives by confronting the past and taking control of the present. But can Samantha and Annie both win?
The Callahan Split: Do you like the cover and the blurb?
As some of you know, I have an eBook coming out soon. In fact, so soon that next week I’ll be revealing the ULTIMATE winning cover for The Callahan Split. Yippee!
For me, the eBook adventure has been several HUGE learning curves, especially as my five previous novels have been published, both print and electronic, with Allen & Unwin.
What I’ve learnt along the way is, that just because a manuscript is published as an eBook, doesn’t mean it’s in any way inferior. To get The Callahan Split to a publishable standard, my characters’ stories and my writing had to jump through several enormous hoops, no less arduous than my other writing hoops.
There are definitely similarities between print and eBooks such as:
Editors: Authors need them – even self-published authors. You may think that after re-writing and editing your manuscript twenty times, you don’t need structural and copy editors, plus a proof reader – that’s a minimum of THREE professionals – objectively reading your work. But you DO! I’ll just repeat this – YOU DO!
Cover Artist: Again, you need a graphic designer. When readers tell you they don’t judge books by their covers, they’re lying. We all do.
Marketing Guy/Girl: (Or a computer wizz who probably isn’t you.) I’m okay at writing stories, but I am CRAPOLA at creating an e-book in multiple formats for reading on a multitude of readers. It does my head in just writing this sentence! As with print book publishing, we need these gurus to get the word out and our books into the right hands, which will then result in $$$$. Or so we hope.
Can you tell I’m VERY excited?
Not only will The Callahan Split be saving trees, it will also be cheaper than my previous five books. YAY!
In addition to being cheaper, buying The Callahan Split (or any other book) as an eBook means:
1. You can eat and read at the same time. So hard with print books as you need at least one hand to hold a page down – and then if you’re eating a sandwich with beetroot in it and the beetroot falls out, that print book will be scarred for life and most probably ruined.
As evidenced here. I am not a messy eater by the way – but accidents DO happen.
2. Yes, with an eBook you DO have to power down during take-off and landing, BUT on the up side, the eReader is convenient! Not only can you store all six of my books on it, you can store thousands more and it won’t be any heavier to carry, or take up more luggage space when flying. (Remember kilo limits!)
3. Not only that but where ever you are in the world, you can download books almost instantly. How’s that for service? Just like magic!
4. With an eReader, you can increase the font size!
5. AND use it as a self defense weapon. Excellent!
(However, I wouldn’t recommend reading either a Kindle or print book in the bath tub!)
6. Cats, dogs and other animals are prone to chomping print books because they don’t like missing out on attention.
See what I mean!
7. Cats don’t go anywhere near Kindles.
Okay they do because they like ATTENTION – however only very few will try to bite them. They’re not silly.
8. The author gets to choose the cover, especially when self-published! Yay and Nay because (refer to my earlier point) we all judge books by their covers. When a publisher has the ultimate power, and punters don’t like the cover, authors can say ‘Yeah, I didn’t much care for it either…’ but when the author is GOD and thus gets to design and create the cover, ultimately the responsibility rests with them.
Or in this case, ME. I love The Callahan Split cover.
9. With a print book, you can cut away the pages and hide a gun. Not good! However, you can’t cut out the inside of a Kindle and do the same. This is very good!
One final thought – in a court room, can you swear on the download of the bible on a Kindle?
Print? eBook? Or both?
So, I have a completed manuscript and a title but am still working on the cover…with a little help from my friends.
Initially, the kind of cover I envisaged was something abstract like this:
But then a few people commented that it was too obscure and that the tennis reference wasn’t strong enough…Did they want something like this?
I think not.
And then a wacky friend came up with this one –
The image is lifted from an original photo titled Tennis Girl, taken by Martin Elliott in 1976, of his then 18-year-old girlfriend, Fiona Butler.
I can’t use it, but I did laugh…sisters, tennis and a bit of raunch. …And I will definitely be using the byline ‘no one knows you better than your sister‘. Thanks Nicholas!
I also like the reference to Wimbledon…which brings me to my next point! Am off to London on Thursday! Yippee.
Yes, I’ll visit Princess Charlotte, have High Tea at The Ritz and attend the Chelsea Flower Show, But hopefully, I will also be inspired to create the perfect cover…or at least be able to tell someone far cleverer than me the kind of cover I’d like for The Callahan Split!
So, we’ve established that the title is The Callahan Split...
A story about two sisters…
Now here’s a bit more information…
In tennis, as in life, nothing ever goes truly to plan.
Samantha and Annie Callahan are successful doubles champions — the toast of the Olympics, Wimbledon, and Flushing Meadow. But their winning partnership spirals out of control when Annie’s new boyfriend announces their engagement at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Bear, the sisters’ coach, guides Annie as much as she’ll allow. But when she insists on dropping Samantha in favour of a singles career, her game and rankings plummet.
Samantha is left floundering. Disillusioned, her only sweet spot is the growing passion between her and Bear. Amidst rising anger and betrayal, Samantha completely changes both their destinies when she does the unthinkable after a devastating Wimbledon loss.
The sisters are driven to create new lives by confronting the past and taking control of the present. But can Samantha and Annie both win?
Thoughts?
*******Update
Look what the lovely (and perhaps slightly strange) Robin Riedstra has come up with!
Love it!
Hello and thank you to all the wonderful people who have bought It Started with a Kiss – either print or e-book version.
If you haven’t, well, I still like you anyway, but here’s your opportunity to buy the Kindle version for a whopping 90% off the list price.
For a very short time, It Started with a Kiss is NOW available at Amazon for only $2.61.
Did I just say $2.61?
Why, yes! Yes, I did. In less than a minute, you could be reading It Started with a Kiss!
If parting with that kind of cash doesn’t tickle your fancy, and you’re thinking ‘but what if I hand over my hard-earned money and hate it?’, fear not, because you can actually download the first chapter for FREE and then make your decision.
Click here to download the first chapter for free
Amazon hasn’t told me how long the promotion will run, but they are usually short, so, don’t delay.
Leave a comment and two lucky readers will receive a mug and notebook.
You heard correctly! An It Started with a Kiss mug AND a notebook! (Aren’t they both adorable?) I haven’t even given my mother a mug and notebook, but Mother’s Day looms and she may get lucky.
Lisa xx
A huge welcome to Jenn! Thanks for stopping by just as Season of Shadow and Light is about to hit the shelves! I was very fortunate to have received an advance copy and finished reading it in two days. It was unputdownable!! Congratulations, Jenn.
Season of Shadow and Light had me laughing, crying and wondering what would happen next. It is definitely a Paige Turner (inside book joke!) This book has it all. Love the family intrigue and drama, secrets, lies, half-truths, betrayals, ultimate love and redemption…and of course, horses!
Welcome, Jenn! So, why are you here?
1. Because you invited me.You’ve been a pretty big influence on me and on my writing. I’ve loved all your books. (Shucks, thank you.)
2. Because big breaks (no, I’m not talking about Claudia’s Big Break) are kind of topical right now.
WHY topical?
1. Because I am taking a pretty big break (more on that later) and . . .
2. Because your novel, Claudia’s Big Break, gets a mention in my next novel. (An author/book mention by one of my characters in a novel is my little way of paying homage to the authors who have inspired me.) (Thank you so much. I was surprised and delighted. Very kind of you.)
Okay, so about the OTHER big break?
It’s the ultimate in breaks, a massive life-changing event, a fresh start.Late last year I downsized, selling my little corner of country and shifting fulltime into a caravan.
Eek! Why a caravan?
1. To travel this vast country and find new inspiration for my small town stories. (I guess you can say I’ve run out of friends and family to fictionalise.) (I know that feeling.)
2. To do less housework and NO gardening. (Yep. I hear you!)
So that’s the ‘WHY’. Now, how about the ‘HOW’?
HOW did you feel about selling everything?
1. Liberated: it was surprisingly therapeutic to let go of life’s clutter. (And, wow, did I have some clutter!)
2. Happy: as every dollar I made went into my wine kitty. (Wine kitty looking good, so are Lisa’s wine bottles!)
HOW did this travel dream of yours begin?
Dare I say . . . It Started With A Kiss about 30-odd years ago, but that’s another story for another time. (Thanks for the book plug…and I am intrigued.)
Speaking of stories and time, your third novel, Season of Shadow and Light, is out on May 1! Again, congratulations. It’s an outstanding read.Tell us a bit about it.
Well, there are three wonderful characters whose time has come. The tagline goes something like this:
Sometime this season:
The secret keeper must tell.
The betrayed must trust.
The hurt must heal.
I am pretty excited about this novel. As the name suggests, this novel has shades of light and dark, with themes that deal with betrayal, tragedy, family loyalty and trust—the kind of trust that takes years to build but only seconds to wash away.
With shades of dark and light, as well as an enduring love story and a fun flirtation that I got so much enjoyment out of writing, you will laugh, you may cry. (I certainly shed a tear!)
Jenn, your early reviews are encouraging:
“Jenn J McLeod delivers her best yet – a winning story of self-discovery, acceptance, renewal and coming home, in a distinctively Australian setting.” http://www.writenotereviews.com
I am sure Season of Shadow and Light will be a runaway success for you, Jenn. Thanks for stopping by.
Thanks for hosting me, lovely Lisa.
Jenn has a 3 x BOOK PACK GIVEAWAY
For your chance to WIN all THREE Jenn J McLeod novels* simply leave a comment below. From now until the end of May Jenn drops into some of her favourite author blogs to say hello to readers old and new. She’ll then collect the comment names from each author blog post, picking a lucky winner from one major draw and announcing the name at the end of May on her website.
If you’d like to find out more about Jenn and her contemporary women’s fiction about small towns keeping big secrets, head on over to her website or, like me, follow the Facebook and Twitter fun.
Website: http://www.jennjmcleod.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JennJMcLeod.Author
Twitter: @jennjmcleod
*Book Pack: House for all Seasons (#5 Top Selling Debut novel, 2013), Simmering Season, and Season of Shadow and Light. (Australian postal address only)
Ah, The Who…don’t you just love these old fogies…
As far as labelling generations goes, I really thought I was a Generation X, albeit an early adaptor. Regardless of what the experts say, I’m way too young to be a Baby Boomer and refuse to be lumped in with them. Anyway, aren’t they the old folks born post-WW11 who are well on their way to retirement now? No thanks! I’m not answering to Baby Boomer.
Gen X is the go, besides it’s got a much cooler name. Anyway, my friends say I act like a Gen Y or worse that most of the time.
The Brady Bunch
But then I happened upon US cultural historian, Jonathon Pontell, who has coined the term ‘Jonesers’ – that is people born from 1954 to 1965. Yay! (Okay, the name’s not great, but let’s not quibble.)
Apparently, Generation Jones is the lost generation caught between two demographics. We’re stuck in the middle. We’re children of the sixties, were teenagers in the seventies and took on our adult responsibilities in the eighties and beyond. Now middle-aged (again, not a term I’m fond of) Jonesers are distinguished by our pragmatism, tempered scepticism, and perhaps most importantly, by the quality of ‘Jonesing’—slang for a longing or craving.
According to Pontell, Jonesers were given huge expectations as children in the optimistic 1960’s, and then were confronted with a different reality as they came of age in the pessimistic 1970’s, leaving them with a certain unrequited, jonesing quality. In other words, we feel hard done by!
This is the situation described by Sex Pistols bass player, Sid Vicious, who said that he had missed the Summer of Love because he was too busy playing with his Action Man.
As Pontell explains, ‘We fill the space between Woodstock and Lollapalooza, between “Turn on, tune in, drop out” and “Just Say No,” and between ‘Dylan going electric and Nirvana going unplugged.’
Apparently, Generation Jones has two defining features: they tend to have more money, being at the peak of their career earnings; and they are ‘persuadable’, because they are not as fixed in their preferences as older people. Pontell says that Jonesers are also busy, practical and media-savvy.
No-one has said anything about Jonesers being good-looking, witty, articulate and exceptional in the boudoir but I’ll take that as a given!
Defining Joneser show: The Brady Bunch (Yes, definitely!)
Defining Joneser film: St Elmo’s Fire (Good, but I preferred The Breakfast Club.)
Defining Joneser game: Twister (Must admit I never got into that.)
So, are you a Joneser like me? Don’t despair. You’re in good company. Famous Jonesers include Russell Crowe, Madonna, Tom Cruise, Elle Macpherson, Gina Riley, Brad Pitt and Barack Obama.
