Category: News

Happy New Year!

2019 is now behind us and 2020 lies ahead of us. A brand new year is upon us and many more chances to take. We even have an extra day in 2020 to accomplish our goals.

Our goals are to get Immortals book #2 published as well as book #3. Right now Sydney is editing the final two chapters before it gets sent off to City Owl Press. We both had a rough 2019 and therefore we have been slow about getting things done, like editing book #2. Dani is currently working on book #3. No title yet. Once Syd gets the edits done, she’ll work on getting a solo project done. More details to come on that on a later date..

Book 2 is tentatively called Immortal Secrets and focuses on two new characters, but Damianos and Akantha make appearances in the book along with another new immortal.

Right now we are sitting across from each other at Syd’s kitchen table. We only get to see each other once, maybe twice a year. If you didn’t know, Syd lives in Maine and Dani lives in California. The distance makes seeing each other a little difficult and expensive, but we are carrying out a yearly tradition of seeing live music and catching up.

Each year Dani files to New England and Sydney spends the week chauffeuring Dani around to Ellis Paul shows. Ellis Paul is a folk singer/songwriter who originally hails Presque Isle, Maine. We have been listening to his music for almost twenty years now. Each year he does a holiday show in Portland, Maine and four shows in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We go to his Portland show and then a few days later we ring in the New Year with Ellis and some of his friends at Club Passim.  This is something we have been doing since at least 2011 or 2012 (we’re not sure on the year).  It’s great to have traditions and keep them going.

We’re looking for some beta readers. Beta readers get to read our new works before they’re even published and give us feedback. If you’re interested in getting our books before everyone else and giving feedback on them, please sign up for our beta readers mailing list.  You can do that here:  https://mailchi.mp/203c77acc1b1/beta

Wishing you all the best in 2020!

Hello!

October slipped away and November rolled it. Since it’s November that means it’s time for NaNoWriMo.  What is NaNoWriMo?  It’s an online writing challenge with participants all around the globe. NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write 50,000 words during the month of November. It boils down to 1667 words per day. It doesn’t seem like much, but when you factor in work, Thanksgiving, and life in general, it becomes harder than it sounds. Chasing Destiny was the result of two NaNoWriMos. One to write it and one to edit it.

I have been participating in NaNo since 2004. I haven’t won every year because of life, but I’ve won more than lost. Two years ago I became an Municipal Liaison for Southern Maine. MLs schedule write-ins (where we gather together in one place to  write) and act as a cheerleader for writers. I love being an ML and love meeting all the different people in my area of the state.

My NaNo project this year is a superhero romance. It’s been a blast to write and three days into November I’m at 11,000 words. I’m scheduled to finish by Nov 14th, but I know life will throw some curve balls and I’ll barely finish like I did last year.

I have something to admit. I suck at writing these newsletters on a regular basis. I would swear that I sent one out in October and it turns out I didn’t. So my bad. I will try to make these a little more regular, but not enough to spam you wonderful people.

Our next book is coming along. It’s called Immortal Secrets and features Akantha and Damianos, but they’re secondary characters. We’re introducing quite a few new characters in it.

Speaking of immortals, a few people have asked why we write about immortals. Here’s the low down. We wanted to write about characters who were immortals, but weren’t vampires. I know books about non-vampire immortals are out there, but they’re the unicorns of the book world.  Our characters started out as role-play characters. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the game we were playing them in didn’t get off the ground. Akantha stuck around and bugged the heck of out me and practically demanded attention. So instead of a RP character, she morphed into a book character. Due to their long history, Damianos and Akantha provided a plethora of material to work with.  History nerd that I am, had an extremely difficult time narrowing down to a few time periods to show in Chasing Destiny. I was talking to a friend of mine who had recently read Chasing Destiny and wants to see more of Akantha and Damianos. I have nothing planned for them right now, but maybe something will come up. There are quite a few new immortals that we want to introduce in new books. Though I’m sure they will demand some attention and will give me a clue to what to do with them.

I have a few craft-fair appearances coming up this month. I’ll be in Sanford, ME at the Operation Ray of Light on Nov 16th. I’ll be at the Carl J Lamb school in Springvale, ME on Nov 23rd. I’ll be selling books along with some D&D accessories I’ve made.

That’s all the news I have right now. If you have any questions about Chasing Destiny or our writing process, please feel free to drop us an email or find us on social media.

Have a great November.

– Sydney

Happy 2019!

Dani and I have successfully made it through another holiday season and came out relatively unscathed. Dani flew to Maine the last week in December and she and I did our New Year’s traditions of going to see Ellis Paul perform in Portland, ME and Cambridge, MA.  As usual the time went too fast and she returned home to California on the 4th.

Winter has tightened its grip on New England and we’re now in the single digits at night and still below freezing during the day. It’s perfect weather to stay inside, have a cup of tea, and write.

We’re both working hard on new projects together and separately. We’re hoping the next book in the Immortals universe will be picked up by City Owl Press and be published later this year.

We had our first author appearance and signing on January 3rd at A Freethinker’s Corner bookstore in Dover, NH while Dani was in the area.  We had a few people stop by and say hi and it was fun.

I have a few solo appearances coming up. The next one is January 18th at New England Authors Expo’s Authors at the Vineyard at Zorvino Vineyards in Sandown, NH. This event is free to the public and will have food, wine tasting, and a lot of authors. You can visit their site here: https://newenglandauthorsexpo.com/2019-authors-night-at-the-vineyard/

I will also be at A Freekthinker’s Corner on Feb 9th for another author Meet and Greet with a few local NH and ME authors. You can find more information on their site at: https://www.freethinkerscorner.com/#/

I will also be at LeviaCon in Saco, ME on Feb 23rd selling books.  More information can be found here: http://www.leviacon.me/?

I will also be singing up for New England Authors Expo’s Authors by the Sea in April. More information will come as I get it.

I will also be selling books at Bar Harbor Comic Con on May 4th. You can find more information here: https://www.barharborcomiccon.com/   I’m just happy I have a reason to visit Bar Harbor again 🙂

I will also be at PortCon in Portland, ME, but right now I’m on a waiting list for the vendor’s room. I will be doing a panel with some of my fellow NaNoWriMo people on NaNoWriMo.

I’m in the process of setting up some more appearances for the year.

Dani and I will both be attending RWA’s annual conference in July in New York City along with some of our other City Owl Press authors.  It will be great to see them in person and get to know them. Not to mention all of the other authors there. It looks to be a great time.  After the conference we’ll be heading to a two day retreat with our fellow COP authors.

You can follow our day to day updates/musings by following us on Twitter and FB, You can find us here:

Twitter:
@sydneyashcroft
@daninicols10

FB
https://www.facebook.com/SydneyAshcroftAuthor/
https://www.facebook.com/daninicholsauthor/

Sydney and Dani

Greetings and Happy Halloween!

There’s only a few hours left in October. Kids and adults are out trick-or-treating and we’re inside getting ready for the kickoff of NaNoWriMo. We’re stocked up on tea and coffee and ready to get to work!

NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and is a challenge to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Sydney is a Municipal Liaison and organizes write-ins for her region in southern Maine. We both started NaNo way back in 2004 and still do it to this day. Our released novel Chasing Destiny was a NaNoWriMo novel. This year Sydney is starting a new project and Dani will be working on our next adult novel.

We are in a cover contest with Chasing Destiny. If you haven’t voted yet, please do so here: http://www.indtale.com/polls/creme-de-la-cover-contest

Our next novel, a New Adult novel, has been submitted to our publisher. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that they’ll pick it up and publish it.

Sydney will be selling books and signing them at the Lebanon craft fair this weekend. It’ll be her first time out selling and signing.

Want to give us an early Christmas gift? Leave us a review of Chasing Destiny on Amazon or Goodreads. Amazon’s algorithms are based on the number of reviews. The more reviews we have, the better our books get out there, so please leave a review.

If you haven’t followed us on Twitter you can find us at the following handles:

@sydneyashcroft

@daninichols10

If you’d like to ask us any questions, please feel free to drop us a line. You can reach us through the contact form on our site www.nicholsandashcroft.com or send us an email. Sydney’s email is [email protected] and Dani’s email is [email protected]

Thank you!

Sydney and Dani

Since we received the offer to publish the book until the final edits and finalizing the cover, I’ve always said that this didn’t feel real and wouldn’t until I had the book in my hands. Today it became real!

It’s hard to believe that summer is winding down and autumn is almost here. Despite the hot weather in New England,  traces of color are already starting to appear in the leaves.  The sun is now setting earlier and rising later. Kids are returning to school and we’re less than 30 days out from the release of Chasing Destiny!  It still seems a little surreal, but it’s exciting at the same time.

Sydney will have a table set up at her town’s craft fair and be selling and signing books. It will be her first public appearance as a published author.

To celebrate the release of Chasing Destiny in September we will be hosting a giving away for folks signed up for our mailing list.  Two random people will receive a signed copy of Chasing Destiny signed by both of us and two people will receive a signed copy of Laurie MacAllister’s cd The Lies the Poets Tell.  This is an amazing cd filled with songs about love and where we found “A Reckoning of Us” which is the song we are giving away free with subscription to our newsletter.

If you want to sign up for our newsletter go to: https://mailchi.mp/969d2be7739c/nicholsandashcroft

While we’re launching Chasing Destiny, we’re working on the next few books.  We have a New Adult book in the works along with an Adult book in the works.  Both expand on the universe we created with Immortals and other supernatural types. These feature new characters, but Akantha and Damianos do make appearances.