Beach House Update

A lot of stuff has been happening, all directly relating to The Quest For A Beach House, so I thought I’d let you all in on what’s been going on.

First of all, if you’re not following me on Twitter – @DErnst1 – you’re missing some very funny and pithy Tweets. From my recent road trip to the shore – “Where r the great legs&tight butts?” – to my retweeting of some class acts, like Joshua Lyman Tweeting about tropical storm Debbie and Dallas. Yes, I too thought Joshua Lyman was a fictional character from a now-defunct television show, but, obviously, I was wrong. His Debbie Does Dallas thing got retweeted 5000 times. Pretty good for an imaginary guy. Better than my tweet-is envy quip.

Better Off Without Him is being made into an audiobook. Pretty exciting, right? Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon were both involved in other projects, and did not return my calls, but I found a great voice-over artist named Gillian Vance to do the reading. She’s got a great quality to her voice. I was afraid she’d be too perky for Mona, but she’s found the perfect blend of warm and wry. That should be available sometime in August.

Better Off will be free again this month – 6/27 & 6/28 on Amazon. A Different Kind of Forever is going free in July 7/27 & 7/28. After that, I’m pulling them out of the exclusive Amazon program and putting them both back onto B&N and Kobo. I’m also trying to get them into iTunes, but Apple will only let you download from an Apple computer, so I’m going to have to borrow a MacBook from someone. Those Apple people are very strict about stuff, and as much as I want to be in the iBookstore, I’m not buying a new computer to do it.

Better Off is also available as a paperback at a lower price – $10.99 on Amazon. Sorry Lulu, but I wanted to give readers a break. So if you’ve been waiting to give it as a gift to your non-e-reader friends, now is the time.

I’m working on a new book. I put the YA project on hold. Trying to think like a teenager was giving me headaches. I’ll try to finish it off, but not anytime soon. My new project is way more fun. 55 year old widow decides to go ahead with the ‘next phase’ of her life. She quits her job as a lawyer to become a professor at a private college, sells her family home and moves into a chi-chi condo, and starts looking for romance – online. But, as with all the best laid plans…she doesn’t get the new job, her adult children start moving back in with her, and as for on-line dating – well, you know. I was thinking about ‘Ohbabybaby.com’ as a possible title. Or maybe “Caution – Mid-Life Ahead’. Still working on that.

I do know that this time around, since I’m actually making a little money here, I’m paying someone to design the cover and do all the formatting. As much as I’ll miss hours at the computer, squinting at the screen ‘till I want to poke my eye out with a fork and STILL not getting it right, I’d rather give the money to a professional than pay it to the government in taxes.

Which brings me to the really big news – I’m getting a real live web-site. I actually bought the domain name, DeeErnst.com. It will be an extension of this blog, but more. I’m not sure how much more, but I’m thinking of being able to buy the paperback copies of my books directly from the page, as well as links to all the retailers and maybe even a sign-up for a newsletter. I don’t have a newsletter, but I’d like to be able to reach out to readers who want to know when the next book is coming out. Maybe once the audiobook is done, you could click and hear a sample. And I could post sample chapters of the new book. And there’ll be pictures. I have a very long wish-list, and I’m sure the folks working on this are getting a big kick out of my ideas. In fact, it will probably play out as a whole chapter in THEIR book – Things Idiots Think You Can Do On A Laptop.

Finally, I’ve figured out a sequel to Better Off. It will be short – more like a novella, but I’m going to send Mona to Hollywood to take a meeting about her movie script. Should be fun. I’m thinking about offering it free to anyone who signs up on my new website!

I’ll keep you all posted.

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