Spirit's Oath launches today!

My Eli world novella, Spirit's Oath, launches today! Hooray!

Four years before the events of The Spirit Thief, Miranda Lyonette was a young apprentice Spiritualist on the cusp of a promising career. But on the eve of her return from bonding a wind spirit, a night that should have been a celebration, she finds instead that her father has come to take her home. Now, Miranda must choose between her duty to her family and her future at the Spirit Court. But while she's trying to make her parents see reason and avoid an arranged marriage to a man she can't stand, she stumbled across the one one spirit who needs her more than any other, a caged ghosthound who doesn't want her help. To save him, Miranda will have to earn the dog's trust, but what she gets in return is a friendship deeper than anything she expected. Amazon | Other vendors


The novella has no spoilers for the series, so you can read it without reading the other books, but it will probably be more enjoyable if you already know the major players involved. It's an ebook only release, but that means it's only $3!

The wonderful Mihir of Fantasy Book Critic has posted his review here, along with his review for The Spirit Eater. I hope you'll give the short story a try, I had a lot of fun writing it!

Day 7 Winner and the Grand Prize!

Our day7 winner is....Hanna C! Hooray! If you will send me your info, including your address and who you'd like your book made out to, I'll send it out.

And now, the grand prize gift card! Everyone was eligible for this, even people who've won other prizes (if that happened, I'd just give the double winner the gift card and pick someone else for the extra signed book). Fortunately, though, the random number elves felt like spreading the wealth, because out grand prize winner is...Courtney E. Richards! Yahoo!! Courtney, you've won the $50 Amazon card and a signed book! Yay! Please send me your info including all the usual book stuff (address, who you want it written out to) and the email address tied to the account you'd like the Amazon gift card to go to (or I can just mail it, as you like).

Thank you EVERYONE for participating! This was a huge success and I could not be happier. I will totally be running contests like this for my other new releases, so please add me to Twitter (@Rachel_Aaron) and RSS (feed links are on the left) to keep up with announcements and priz-ize-zes!

Also, for those who are interested, I have an Eli Novella coming out tomorrow about how Miranda met Gin. It's only $3, so I hope you'll give it a try! I'll be posting more about that later, but I just wanted to shout out since the date is so close.

Again, thank you to everyone who reviewed, posted, and otherwise spread the word! Eli loves you all! And if you didn't win one, I really do hope you'll pick up the omnibus just to see for yourself what a nice piece or work Orbit did with it. It's a thing of beauty for sure.

Thank you, everyone, congratulations to the winners, and I hope you have a great day!

<3s forever,
Rachel

Day 6 Winner!

And our day 6 winner is....Busy Woman! Not too busy to read a book, I hope! Yay!! If you will send me your info, including your address and who you'd like your book made out to, I'll get it to you pronto.

Today is the very last day of my contest! Also, Valentine's Day, but that's #2. Anyway! I'll be picking today's winner plus the grand prize, a $50 Amazon Gift card to spend on the books/goods of your choice, at noon EST today! If you still haven't entered, there's still a chance to win, drop down to the official contest post and leave your comment to get in the pot. Rules are there as well.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered! You guys really made me get all emotional! Thank you :D

- R

Day 5 Winner!

And our day 5 winner is....Tirzah Duncan! Hooray!! If you will send me your info, including your address and who you'd like your book made out to, I will ship it off!

There are only 2 more days (today and Tuesday) left to go, which means 2 more books plus the grand prize! I'll be announcing Tuesday's winner and the grand prize at noon tomorrow! So if you still haven't entered, or want to enter again to increase your chances, drop down to the official contest post and leave your comment to get in the pot. Rules are there as well.

Almost there!

- Rachel

Day 4 Winner!

And the number elves have picked....Ezzierae as our day 4 winner! Congrats!! If you will send me your info, including your address and who you'd like your book made out to, I will ship it off!

And if you didn't win yet, don't worry, there are still 3 more days left plus the grand prize to go! Everyone who has already entered is still eligible to win in every day hence, so keep posting. New entries also go into the pot, so everyone has a shot!

And things don't stop just because it's the weekend! I'll be announcing today's winner tomorrow morning, as per usual. If you haven't entered yet, drop down to the official contest post and leave your comment to get in the pot. Rules are there as well.

As always, thank you all for being so great!

- Rachel

Day 3 Winner!

And the winner for yesterday's drawing (as picked by my random number machine) is....Imaeko!! YAY! If you will send me your info, including your address and who you'd like your book made out to, I will mail it post haste!

Don't worry, there are still 4 more days left, and the grand prize to go! Everyone who has already entered is still eligible to win in every day hence, so the sooner your enter, the better your chance! New entries also go into the pot, so everyone has a shot!

And things don't stop just because it's the weekend! I'll be announcing today's winner tomorrow (Sunday) morning, as per usual. If you haven't entered yet, drop down to the official contest post and leave your comment to get in the pot. Rules are there as well.

As always, thank you all for being so great!

- Rachel

Day 2 Winner! (plus review roundup)

There have been some awesome entries! You guys really bring a tear to my eyes. Thank you for all the help!!! On to winners! The winner for Day 2 according to my Random-o-matic is... Booklover 31! Hooray!! If you will send me your info, including your address and who you'd like your book made out to, I will mail it post haste!


There are 5 days left of books to give out, plus the grand prize to go! Everyone who entered so far is still eligible to win in every day hence, so keep the entries coming! (If you tweeted on day 1 or 2, you can tweet again for another entry if you're so moved. Think one tweet a day, ^__^)

As usual, I'll announce today's winner tomorrow morning! If you haven't entered yet, drop down to the official contest post and leave your comment to get in the pot. Rules are there as well.

Thanks everyone for entering!

And just because they made me fantastically happy (and I haven't done a review round up in a while), here are more Eli Omnibus book reviews!

• Whatchamacallit Reviews was far, far too kind. Thank you!
• The Bookbag had some lovely things to say. And yes, the omnibus is very, very big. More story for your money!
• The Black Gate reviewed The Spirit Thief a while ago, but better late than never!
• And finally, this isn't actually a review but Bakka-Phoenix independent bookstore has the Eli Omnibus as one of their February recs, and you know I love me some independent book stores!

If I missed a review, let me know, and congrats again Booklover 31 on the win! Contests are so much fun! :D

Day 1 Winner!

And the winner for yesterday's drawing (as picked by my random number machine) is....Deshipley! YAY! If you will send me your info, including your address and who you'd like your book made out to, I will mail it post haste!

Don't worry, there are still 6 more days left, and the grand prize to go! Everyone who entered yesterday is still eligible to win in every day hence, so the sooner your enter, the better your chance!

I'll be announcing today's winner tomorrow morning, so pull your friends in and make them enter too :D! If you haven't entered yet, drop down to the official contest post and leave your comment to get in the pot. Rules are there as well.

And also, thank everyone so much for all the lovely comments. You guys SERIOUSLY make my life. If I had the money, I'd give you all books. And if you ever see me, I will sign anything you put in front of me. Seriously. Anything. I'll sign dogs.

Go enter, and let's give away some more books!

- Rachel

Win the Eli Monpress Omnibus!

So, Orbit is launching The Legend of Eli Monpress Omnibus this month! Hooray! Isn't it pretty?

And it's got three books in it, so it's HUGE! Also, the finish is smoooooth, but the book isn't too heavy, and it smells nice. In short, a very pleasant thing to hold in your hands.

It seems kind of absurd this phonebook only costs $10.98 on Amazon ($9.99 for the ebook, that's like $3 per book!), but the dealz, they are realz! I couldn't be more excited. I think Orbit did such a great job on the packaging for this book. That's why I'm giving some away!

The Eli Monpress Omnibus Giveaway Raffle!

The Prizes!
To celebrate the release of my omnibus and get the word out, I'm giving away 7 personalized signed copies, one for each day until Tuesday, February 14! Also, at the end of the contest, I'll combine all the entries to pick one grand prize winner who will get a signed omnibus and a $50 Amazon.com gift card to spend on the book of your choice!

How to Enter
Happy as I am about the omibus release, binding the first three Eli books into one volume means I leave all my lovely reviews behind. The Spirit Thief has over 100 reviews on Goodreads, the omnibus has only 5, and that just sucks because they're the same books. But there's no way to link them...

SO! Here's the deal! If you rated or reviewed The Spirit Thief, The Spirit Rebellion, or The Spirit Eater, I'm asking you to please take a moment to copy it over to my new book on Goodreads and leave a note that you did so in the comments. Every transferred review is an entry to win!

Didn't write a review, don't feel like moving it, or haven't read the books yet? No worries! You can also enter simply by spreading the word of the omnibus's release! Post about Eli on FB, Twitter, your blog, or any other social platform of your choice and then drop me a note to let me know what you did and I'll enter you!

This is a raffle, so you can enter this contest multiple times. Every time you spread the word about the omnibus's release or move a review (or write a review, if you're so inclined, but only if you want to. You know how I feel about reviews. They are precious gifts! But if you want to write one, I would be delighted and it would totally count for the contest.), put it in the comments below with a link. Move a review, post on Twitter, and mention the book on your blog? That's 3 entries! Tell me so and I'll enter your name 3 times.

I'll be drawing from the comments on this post every day, including today, so the sooner you enter, the more chances you have to win! You can also keep promoting the book to increase your chances ever further! Winners will be announced the morning of the day after they win, so today's winner will be announced tomorrow morning, etc.

The grand prize drawing will be on Tuesday, February 14th at 12:00 PM, east coast US time (EST). After this, entries will be closed and I'll be mailing out a lot of books!

Boring Rules Stuff
This contest to open to everyone in the US, Canada, the UK, and Auz/NZ. Only one entry per moved review/social network (so no posting it a million times on Twitter for a million entries :P). New reviews and moved reviews count as 2 separate entries. Also, you can move reviews/post new reviews for the omnibus on other sites besides Goodreads. Readers who win one of the earlier signed copies are still eligible for the grand prize gift card, but since they already have a book coming to them, I'll pick a new winner to get the extra copy.

If you have any questions about the contest, the rules, or the books, please contact me! If you want to read a sample of the book you'll be winning, you can do that here.

Good Luck!
And please spread the word of the contest around. If I get a lot of people, I'll just give away more books to keep the chances even.

Thanks for reading!
- Rachel

Editing for People Who Hate Editing

Note! I am giving away signed copies of my new omnibus on my blog starting tomorrow (Wed, February 8!). Check back for a chance to win!

Since I wrote my posts on how I drastically upped my word count and plotted my novels, a lot of people have been asking me to do a post on editing. I can totally understand why, editing can be very intimidating. I actually used to dread edit time because that was when I actually had to deal with all the problems I'd been putting off while writing, not to mention that by the time I'd read through my book the requisite 5 times it took me to finish an edit to my satisfaction, I invariably hated it.

But after 8 finished books, I've come around to a different way of thinking. These days, editing is probably my favorite part of the writing process. This is partially because all the planning I do means I have far fewer horrifying messes to deal with in the editing phase of things (yet another benefit to planning your novel), but mostly it's because I started thinking about editing in a whole new light. A new light that I'm not going to attempt to explain in the hopes that others can learn from the years I spent banging my head against things.

So, without further ado, here is my take on the editing process, complete with the tools I build for each book. I can't promise it will work for you exactly as written, every author's brain works differently, after all. But I do hope it will at least encourage you to approach edits with a new frame of mind.

Disclaimer: Unlike my work count tips, which I think can work for anyone, this process is highly personal. If something I describe doesn't work for you, feel free to ignore it or replace it with something you find more useful. I offer these only as examples of methods I use to save time and lower stress during the editing process.