Sunrise Cabin Stacey Donovan Hallmark Publishing best bestselling new romance novel 2018 fall autumn clean wholesome sweet

My sweet romance for Hallmark Publishing, Sunrise Cabin, comes out in a few weeks! (If you want to support the launch, pre-order it and tag it as “want to read” on Goodreads.) Some of you have seen excerpts of it because you participate in WIP Wednesdays, where we all share our work in progress.

This is my fourth romance novel, but for a couple of reasons, I’m more nervous and excited about it than any of the previous ones.

 

 

1. It’s the first original fiction release for the publishing house I work at.

I really didn’t plan it this way. Originally, when I developed this storyline, I was going to hire another writer to write it. I’ve done this a couple of times now, once for a book and once for a movie: working out a basic plot for someone else to run with.

But in this case, once the Hallmark Channel programming folks had greenlighted the storyline, I couldn’t let it go. I knew these characters, and the story meant too much to me.

It was really tough to squeeze in the writing time when I was putting in long hours on a new publishing business. Still, it brought me so much joy to write. Because I already knew the characters so well, it flowed like nothing I’d worked on before.

When I first put this book on the schedule, we’d published many companion novels to movies, but we were getting ready to go into original fiction. I’d expected to release a few original fiction novels before mine came out. It didn’t work out that way.

I suggested to others at work that maybe we should delay my autumn romance for a year, because I felt embarrassed that the first one was mine, but they didn’t see it as that big of a deal.

It’s weird for me for another reason, too. Writing novels, like blogging, has always been separate from my day job. Whether people liked my books or not had no impact on my coworkers, let alone my company’s bottom line. Only a few people would even know about it.

Now, everyone I work with will know and care, which makes me write things in meeting agendas like, “Maybe I will make a TV appearance in September to talk about my new book, or maybe, I will move to Iceland and start a new life.”

 

2. It’s my first novel under my “real” name.

I put “real” in quotes, because here’s the funny thing about my pen name, Bryn. I feel like it’s my real name. I literally write notes to myself like, “Okay, Bryn, let’s rework the dialogue in this scene.”

But Sunrise Cabin is the first book under my legal name. I didn’t use Bryn for a few reasons.

It’s very different from the writing I’ve done as Bryn. This one is strictly G-rated…so if you’re not a fan of steamy scenes (and frankly, I know some of you aren’t), you won’t need to worry here.

Also, I’ve published children’s books and gift books with Hallmark as Stacey Donovan. I even had my own card line.

 

Stacey Donovan Hallmark

 

And I thought it would be dishonest to use a pen name for this book, seeing as I work for the company. I don’t know how we’d actually benefit from me having a pen name, but it could cause confusion or awkwardness at some point.

“Stacey Donovan” isn’t actually great as an author name. There are at least two other writers out there with the same name, not to mention a popular porn star from the 80s, so I don’t have it to myself. But it’s mine.

 

It’s Nerve-Wracking, But Exciting

Just this week, the book went up on NetGalley, where registered users can share their honest reviews. At the time that I’m writing this, my first two reviews are up. Both of them are 5 stars. I’m especially happy about that because one of the reviewers, like my heroine, is a first-grade teacher. There are several scenes of my main character in the classroom, and I always worry about getting people’s occupations wrong. I’m so glad she liked it!

 

 

If you’re in the mood for fall, or funny and emotional romance, here’s where you can pre-order the eBook! (But if you want the paperback, you’ll have to wait until September 16.) I’ll include some international Amazon links because I know I have lots of readers from other countries. If I didn’t list the link here, you can probably find it anyway if you look up the title…or, just use iBooks, if you have an iPad or iPhone.

Amazon

iBooks

Barnes and Noble

Amazon UK

Amazon Canada

Amazon Australia

Kobo

Thanks so much for reading about my forthcoming release! I hope you’re having a great week!

 

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