  Please tell your friends! Please share the links! ...and have an amazing day! Thanks for all of your support. -Lisa Add Comment I feel the need to cue the music... and possibly quote Night at the Roxbury. According to the song, apparently love is dancing around in lingerie with a vampire cape on... but seriously. I feel that I've been doing a lot of soul searching on this particular question. And the answer is different for everyone. I think the big discrepancy is between what we think love is / should be, and what it really is. Plus the fact that there are multiple ways to love and be loved. I've been addicted to pinterest quotes lately and they all seem to have the same theme of "what is love?" Here are some of my favorites that I've found. Sadly none of them were attributed to the original quoter. "Never give up on someone you can't go a day without thinking about." "I dream of you in colors that don't exist." "Love is when you look into someone's eyes and see their heart." "You know that tingly little feeling you get when you like somebody? That's common sense leaving your body." "I'll see you when I fall asleep." Oh man! Self realization. All of these quotes sound like Atlantis and Stonehenge to me. Which would make sense for my underlying views of love to come out in my writing... but it's still a little trippy. I think the answer to this question changes as we change... with time. I know my answer five years ago would be different then it is today. I feel my answer six months ago would be different then my answer today. Things change, people and experiences reshape us, and these things alter how we view the sometimes very complicated feeling called love. Now I ask you... What is love (to you)? Let me know in the comments. -Lisa 
It's January... 2013... already? Man! 2012 was a TON of fun! I am usually very introverted by nature (thus writing is an ideal occupation) but I played a lot (and actually enjoyed most of it) and made some great memories with some amazing people last year. Above is a picture of Patrick, me and hubby boarding the Utah mountains last month... just one of the ways I've been slacking on my goals. Seriously, I only batted about 40% on goal completion in 2012. Boo! In all honesty it kinda (really) bums me out. *tear* I am usually much better at followthrough than that. I think I am going to focus on finishing last years agenda in 2013. Hmmm... what is left to do? 1. Finish / Proof / Publish my PBG action / adventure novel with my friend Patrick *Finish = done. Woot! Proof = done. Woot! Publish... not yet. But super close! Priority #1! 2. Research and write the third and final novel in the Atlantis Series *Research = done. Outline / map = done. Write... not done :( I should have known Atlantis #3 would take longer than expected. I'm actually a really fast writer, it's just my own self confidence and high expectations that are getting in my way on finishing this goal. Plus... the title is turning out to be tricky on this one. 3. Sell over 1000 books in a 30 day period *I honestly don't know how I did on this one. My last post on here was July (after checking June's amazing stats) and I must say I feel a bit conflicted. Something about watching the numbers was having a negative affect on me... so I stopped. Will someone please message me when I'm famous so I know? 4. Become fluent in Italian *I L.O.V.E. Third Eye Blind and one day while driving along, Thanks A Lot came on and I realized I could translate some of it into italian... woot! Grazie mille! Since I don't have anyone to talk to... though I do talk "at" someone in italian... I figure trying to translate things I am constantly listening to should help me improve my skills. That has been my solution to work on this goal. So far so good ma no molto bene appena ancora. 5. Learn more ways to market and sell my books *Nope... I didn't do squat. Wait! I did kind-of do one interview. It never went live... apparently. I just tried to check and can't find the "Lit Chick Show" site anymore. Here is my ONE attempt at marketing in 2012. Don't laugh to hard... at least to my face. Wait til I leave the room. Now that you've had a good chuckle... I want to wish you all a great 2013 full of happiness and success! -Lisa 
Happy July Everyone! Man. I could have swore I was posting at least monthly on here... ma no (but no - in italian)! Sorry for slacking on the posts. I can't believe it's been since April. I will work on being better at this. Speaking of work, how are eveyone's 2012 resolutions / goals coming along? Being July (Already! Time flies!), I figured I'd check in. I am happy to announce that I am done with my first draft of the PBG novel. Yay! Patrick has being doing the first proofread and making sure I didn't mess up on the cool technical aspects of our adventure novel. He is nearly done with his first pass before I get it back to fix then we will get to expose our baby to "outside" proofers. I am excited and nervous. It is fun to have others read your work, but it is a little scary also. Here's to it rocking their socks off! Being done with the first draft of PBG, I am now starting to re-immerse myself in my beloved chick-lit world. I've been reading my favorites first to get me "in the zone" before I re-read Atlantis and Stonehenge. I am going to carefully go through them and make sure I don't leave anything hanging at the end of the third (and final) Atlantis novel. No worries... ALL will be resolved. Truthfully, I have really high expectations for my fourth born brain child. How "Atlantis" is unfolding is very exciting and a little intimidating to write. Conveying that amount of sensory detail can be tricky. Wish me luck! Now for numbers. I have yet to "sell" over 1000 books in a 30 day time period. The most I've sold is 121 and that was in June. Now with that said, I have promo'd (for free) much higher numbers. Woot! My total downloads (free and not) for the first 6 months of this year are.... 5526! Wow! That is some awesome exposure for Atlantis and Stonehenge. Thank you. Mi italiano e cosi cosi. Non molto bene ma provo. (This is form the "hip" so no spelling promises on anything). I've been learning Italian from straight memorizing (I am close to 1000 words) and from listening to language tapes. I feel I am decent but I would be a lot better if I had a buddy to talk to. I took 4 years of Spanish when I was younger, so I have a good grasp on how to conjugate verbs. I'm sure I am far from perfect, but at least I'm trying. Felice Sabato! Felice Luglio! My marketing goal has been a bust up til now. I haven't had time to give it real love and attention. Hopefully I will get to it by the end of this year. I think it would help. That's how I've been. I'd love to hear how you all are doing in regards to your goals. Leave me a comment below. Here's to 2012! -Lisa First let me mention the KDP experiment. In March I totaled 279 downloads with almost all of them being from Amazon. That made my total downloads January thru March... drumroll.... 1166! That is so super awesome. Thanks for all your help and support in getting Atlantis and Stonehenge out there and increasing the word of mouth. I couldn't do it without you. Second, I want to check in in regards to my 2012 resolutions. Here is the recap: 1. Finish / Proof / Publish my PBG action / adventure novel with my friend Patrick 2. Research and write the third and final novel in the Atlantis Series 3. Sell over 1000 books in a 30 day period 4. Become fluent in Italian 5. Learn more ways to market and sell my books Patrick and I met today and worked on our novel for a few hours as we tried to tie it up and finish it off. There are a lot of decisions that need to be made, especially on a new series, but I think it is coming along nicely. I am excited and nervous to release this new novel. It is in a different genre than Atlantis and Stonehenge and I am interested to see how it does. It has been a blast to write! I have learned so many new and fun things, and I am excited for readers to meet my new characters. As soon as I finish this book I can immerse myself into Lilly's world again and get to work on the final book in the Atlantis Trilogy. I can't wait. I am still working on selling over 1000 books in a 30 day period. I am certain I will get there though. Sales are increasing steadily and I am a fan of the KDP program in helping me and readers find one another. It will happen. I have been a slacker on #4 and #5 on my resolutions list. How embarrassing. I was rocking the Italian in January but a few things came up that distracted me and caused me to lose focus. I need to get a few things caught up with in life, but then I will be sure to immerse myself in my bilingual goals and hop back on the Italian trolley. As for #5... I have created a list for internet marketing that I want to systematically go through, but any tips or suggestions on how to help me and readers find one another are always appreciated. I hope your New Year's Resolutions are going better than mine. Best of luck. -Lisa I would like to give Atlantis away for FREE for the next 15 days in hopes of getting some more unbiased reviews on what you all think of it. Reviews on Amazon and Smashwords are much appreciated. Feel free to tell your friends about this offer. Fill up those ereaders! Here is the info: Free with coupon code: GX93Q at smashwords site: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/57278 What would you do if you thought your boyfriend were a figment of your imagination? Sure he randomly seems to appear and disappear out of no where. Perhaps he is cryptic and evasive when it comes to details of his past. But what if you can feel in your soul that you are meant to be together? Would it matter? Find out by checking out Atlantis. So... month two of the KDP experiment went well. Not as well as January, but still some good numbers. Here are the numbers for February: Smashwords: 0 Amazon: 329 Barnes and Noble: 7 Apple: 1 Amazon UK: 37 Total downloads = 374 Reminder: while doing the KDP experiment Stonehenge is only available through Amazon, thus the sales at the other sites are of Atlantis. When the experiment expires April first (and Stonehenge is again available at the other retailers) I am thinking of doing it again with Atlantis. I feel it is helping my books get some good exposure and helping me find readers. It's pretty sweet getting nearly 1000 new readers in the first two months of the year. Yay 2012! -Lisa One of my buddies found this on youtube and I had to share it with my fellow book lovers out there. I wanted to check in on the KDP experiment and my numbers for January: 8 @ smashwords 5 @ barnes and noble 1 @ paperback ...and drumroll... 499 @ amazon!!! Oh yeah! Totaling 513 downloads for January 2012. I am on my way to selling over 1000 books in a 30 day time period goal. *Smiles* I hope all of you are still sticking with your 2012 goals and had a great January... and here's hoping everyone's February is even better. -Lisa  After a big mess up in processing, Stonehenge is now available in paperback! Only $13.95! When I received the first proof (sample book) back in December, there had been an error as the file uploaded and the formatting was all over the place. The fonts hadn't saved correctly. The spacing was off. Pages weren't where they were supposed to be. Bah! But after a month of fixing the issue, Stonehenge paperback is here and even cooler than Atlantis. I'm curious what you think of the cover. How do you like the purple? What about having two flowers on the back for the second book symbolizing book two? Add your comments below. P.S. Stonehenge has a continuation of the Atlantis code hidden within the text. Did you find it? | AuthorLisa Graves is the author of the Atlantis Series Novels (Atlantis and Stonehenge). ArchivesMarch 2013 Categories |
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