Hi Lynette and thanks so much for inviting me over today, giving me the opportunity to introduce my books to your readers. Let me begin by introducing myself. My name is NONNIE JULES and I am a mother of two wonderful daughters, wife of one loving husband, NANA to many 4-legged babies and a published author. My family and I reside in Louisiana where it is very peaceful and serene, and I guess from that description you can assume we don’t live in New Orleans. This peacefulness allows me what I need to concentrate, create and produce incredible reading material.

I published my first book “THE GOOD MOMMIES’ GUIDE TO RAISING (ALMOST) PERFECT DAUGHTERS”, 100 Tips On Raising Daughters Everyone Can’t Help But Love!, back in May of 2013. It was very enjoyable and easy to write.

My second published work was my recently released debut novel, “Daydream’s Daughter, Nightmare’s Friend.” It hit the airwaves in late November, 2013. It was not-so-easy to pen, but the finished product made me very proud.

Since deciding to become a published author, I have been literally thrust into a world very foreign to me. I thought I could just jump right in, write a book, publish via Amazon KDP and that was it. Suffice it to say, I got a really rude awakening after the release of my first book. Because of this, I would like to share with you what I learned my first year as a published author:

1) I learned that I needed to plan better. I found out that it’s really good to plan blog tours, as many as you can handle actually, but you need to put a lot of planning into these and not just jump in and say “I’m having one.” It requires a lot. A lot of writing, a lot of time promoting, and this year, I wasn’t really prepared.

2) I learned not to hesitate to seek help from those around me. I’m not the kind to “need” people for anything at all. But since I launched this writing career, there was so much I didn’t know and there were those so willing to answer my questions and also help. I learned to relax and just accept the wonderful gifts that came to me.

3) I learned to close my ears off to the naysayers. When I first started, it seems that everyone I encountered had some type of negative advice for me, and when they gave it, it sort of hurt my feelings. Almost to the extent, that it felt like they were trying to derail my career as an author. We all know the world is filled with jealous and petty people, so I moved on from those and surrounded myself with very positive, caring and supportive individuals who truly cared about my success. Now, I know how to weed out the good, and step right over the bad.

4) I learned that I need to set working hours and stick to them. I’m one of the lucky ones as I don’t have to spend time on a day job, and then come home to moonlight as an author. Another one of my blessings. But, I have learned that this is a business and I should treat it as such. For my health and sanity, in the new year I will be setting regular office hours and adhering to those. There will be no more late nights at my computer because I failed to plan that upcoming blog tour and I’m then caught writing a piece at 3 am, only to have to turn around and get up for 5 am (of my own accord).

5) I learned that if I am to be truly successful at writing, I need to continually work to hone my craft. I have already planned the sequel to my first novel, to be released at the end of 2014, but I in no way will be sitting around twiddling my thumbs until the last minute. I have started working on it now.

6) I learned NEVER to set a release date until you are ABSOLUTELY sure you can meet it. My debut novel was delayed a whole three months, and that date had changed several times during the interim. I swore that I would never set another release date until I was at the end of the editing stage.

7) I learned to always go above and beyond in being supportive of others. I found this to have played a huge part in my own success and my book sales.

8) I learned to STOP and BREATHE.

Well guys, I’m going to wrap this all up but I wanted to stop for a moment to ask you all to support me on the rest of this tour (tour schedule) as well as checking out my books below. You may click on the links to my blogs, my books as well as the trailers for each one. I would also ask that if you enjoy what you read on either of my blogs, you FOLLOW me there as well as on Twitter (see link below).

As a way of saying THANK YOU, I will be awarding three lucky winners after my blog tour is over. First place winner will win a “Daydream’s Daughter, Nightmare’s Friend” Swag Pack and the other two winners will both be awarded a $5 Amazon gift card. To get your chance(s) to win all you have to do is leave a comment below. For each day of my tour that you do comment, know that 1 comment equals 1 entry; 2 comments (1 per day) equals 2 entries and so on and so on…….

Thanks again for having me, Lynette and to all your readers I wish you much Peace, Love and great reads! PLEASE DON’T FORGET TO CHECK OUT BOTH MY BOOKS and remember ALL the links are listed below. Thanks!

Nonnie Jules, Author
“…and her words breathe life onto paper”

CONTACT:
General Blog
Parenting Blog
Nonnie’s Book Store – Signed Copies & more
Twitter: @nonniejules

BOOKS:
“The Good Mommies’ Guide to Raising (Almost) Perfect Daughters,”
100 Tips On Raising Daughters Everyone Can’t Help But Love!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CP62O56
http://www.createspace.com/4355124

“Daydream’s Daughter, Nightmare’s Friend
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GLM2VVM

TRAILERS:

“THE GOOD MOMMIES’ GUIDE …”

“Daydream’s Daughter, Nightmare’s Friend”