A big thank you to all my readers & my glamorous life…

Yesterday was such an exciting day. No Place to Run placed #18 on the New York Times mass market fiction bestseller list. And you guys totally put it there! Thank you so much for pre-ordering it and going out and buying it in release week. *squeeze*

It’s a little surreal. I mean every author hopes to hit the USA Today and the NYT bestseller lists. But if feels like a pipe dream when you’re first starting out. It’s a little weird to think that I’ve hit both lists with my KGI books. Books that are so special to me. A series that is so special to me. To get to do what I love as my job is spectacular enough but to achieve any level of success doing what I love is just priceless. I can’t thank my readers enough for that opportunity. I’m grateful for you every single day.

Just so I never, you know, get too full of myself *snort* As some of you know, my husband is a forester. He buys timber for a paper company. Which means he deals a lot with loggers, good ole boys. (Our kind of people! lol) Anyway we have this friend who owns a logging company and a saw mill. He kept nagging my husband to make me get Word Feud on my cell phone because he thought it would be cool to play against an author.

So I’ve been playing Word Feud for the last few weeks with him. So last night when I saw it was my turn (these games go on for days) as a teasing way of telling him my news, I sent him a chat message through the game saying “You’re now playing Word Feud with a NYT bestselling author heh”

To which he responds: “Yeah, well, you’re playing Word Feud with a drunk redneck”

Well there you have it folks. My life. Glamorous huh?

Oh lots of stuff to talk about

No Place to Run released this week. A huge thank you to those of you who’ve already bought and read it. You guys are so fast! And I hope those of you who are buying later will enjoy it!

There are lots of updates to the website this week as well. FInally an excerpt to Colters’ Daughter yay! AND I’m SO excited because not only do I finally have blurbs for my Scottish historicals that release next fall, but I also got new titles as well! I didn’t like the old ones and the reaction to them was pretty tepid. But I’m so very happy with the blurbs and the titles now. The blurbs are just gorgeous. Gorgeous! I’m so afraid now the books won’t live up to the wonderful back cover copy hehe.

But the new titles are In Bed with the Highlander, Seduction of a Highland Lass and Never Love a Highlander. You can check out the blurbs on my coming soon page! And please do let me know what you think :)

Hubby and I went couch shopping tonight. Now the thing is, we just moved into this house a year ago. In fact this very time LAST year we were furniture shopping and I picked out TWO couches for our living room. So why were we shopping for another couch?

Because my children are wallowers.

Seriously. The problem is the couch that my husband and I sit on in the evening… Well it’s a large deep couch. I sit on one end and I work. He sits on the other. I sorta stretch out and put my feet on him. Sometimes he’ll lay toward me. Sounds perfect right?

Well, back to the wallowing.

My children refuse to sit on the OTHER couch. It’s going completely to waste. No, they have to sit with mama and daddy. Or ON us I should say. My two youngest pile on the couch and then wallow all over us as they snuggle and wallow and make their place ON us lol. Cute huh?

So I told my husband we simply have to get a bigger couch to replace BOTH couches so that everyone can sit (and wallow) together because right now it’s just not comfortable because while the couch is PERFECT for me and hubby, it is NOT perfect for 4-5 people.

So we went couch shopping and I brought the kids and made everyone sit and wallow on it to make sure we’d all have room and be comfortable. I think the saleslady thought we were insane, but hey, she got a sale out of it!

I’ll have to post a pic of the dogpile when we get the new couch…

It’s been awhile!

It’s been so long since I last blogged that I couldn’t remember my login info. Yeah, that bad…

I’ve been incredibly busy this fall. I don’t think I’ve stopped since August. I’ve churned out one book after another and the result has been edits on all books coming at me all at once along with MORE books that I’m trying to get done in short order.

But enough about that. It’s why you haven’t seen much of me, though I tend to check in on my Facebook page more often.

Had a super weekend. Cooked yummy food, put up our Christmas tree, hung out with the kids and snuggled on the couch in front of a fire. Tonight I’m working on copy edits for Sweet Possession. I’m almost done, done, done! I also just finished up Colters’ Daughter and Hidden Away. Like I said, I’ve been busy!

No Place to Run releases in just a week! Amazing how fast the time has gone by. I swear it was just yesterday that The Darkest Hour released. I LOVE this series. I’m already day dreaming about KGI #4. I have a tentative title but can’t share it until I get final approval from my editor. I LOVE it though. It fits the story so very well. I’ll also let everyone know WHO is in KGI #4 as soon as possible :) I want to make sure I have it all cemented before I let my readers know. Let’s just say I doubt it’s who you think it’ll be ;)

Fun contest!

I’m going to be posting this a few different places and I think it’s going to be SO much fun. Plus it will allow me to “meet” so many of my wonderful, wonderful readers (I can’t wait!)

Here are the details. Take a picture of you holding a copy of The Darkest Hour. It can be at home, at the bookstore, in the car, in a tree or in a recliner hehe. And hey, if you aren’t a print reader, just load it up on your Kindle, Nook, Kobo or reader of choice and take a picture of you holding it where it’s obvious that the book is The Darkest Hour.

Once you have your picture, post it on your blog, on my facebook fan page, twitter, your website if you have one or any public forum. Then email me the link to maya@mayabanks.com so I’ll know of your “entry” If you don’t have a place to post it, simply email me your picture, but be sure to let me know if you mind ME posting it publicly. If you don’t prefer that, I completely understand and you’ll still be entered! These pics would make an AWESOME addition to my website under fun photos :))

Sound easy enough? Here’s what you can win.

Winner will have a choice of the following.

Kindle ebook reader

Of course not everyone wants a Kindle and some of you already own one, so I have some other prizes to throw out there :)

100.00 gift certificate to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Borders

PLUS, in addition to one of the above, the winner will receive signed copies of ALL my 2011 releases. A year’s worth of new releases sent directly to you :)

For EVERYONE who sends me or posts a picture? I’ll give you a choice of one of my backlist ebook titles. Any one you’d like. Now I understand not everyone has an ebook reader but you can easily read it on your computer if you get the PDF or HTML version. So you can at least give it a try!

Sound fun? I love, love, love the idea of getting to put a face to so many names that have been SO good to me, so I really hope many of you will participate :)

Contest will start now, for anyone receiving early copies and will run until September 21. At that time, I’ll draw the winner.

Book news!

Blurbs for Hidden Away, book 3 in the KGI series, and Sweet Possession, book 5 in the Sweet series, have been posted to my coming soon page!

Hope everyone has a terrific weekend! I’m on vacation countdown. One week and counting!

A few answers

to some questions I’ve gotten recently.

I’ve had some people ask about the free short story sequel to Colters’ Woman that has been offered on my website until recently.  You’ll be able to download it from My Bookstore and More on April 6th when Colters’ Woman is re-issued.  It’ll have a gorgeous cover and be formatted in all the various ebook offerings unlike before where it was only available in PDF. It will also be made available from most other online retailers as well. And of course it’ll still be FREE. Here’s a peek at the cover for it

Another question, readers want to know if the expanded ending and the bonus material offered at the end of the re-issue of Colters’ Woman is just Colters’ Wife tacked onto Colters’ Woman. The answer is no. Colters’ Wife is completely separate and will be offered as its own ebook FREE.  The short story sequel called “Callie’s Meadow” that is offered in the Colters’ Woman re-issue has never before been published.

This week, two of my upcoming books have gone up for pre-order at Amazon. My October HEAT anthology, Four Play, has gone up, as well as my December release, No Place to Run, which is the SECOND book in the KGI series. Now this has caused some confusion as readers have wanted to know, But what about The Darkest Hour, the FIRST book in the series! I’ve been asked if the date was pushed back from September or if The Darkest Hour was retitled or if it will be delayed. The answer is no.  The Darkest Hour is set to release September first and will debut the KGI series. No Place to Run is the second book in the series and will release in December with the third book in the series, No Place to Hide, to release next March.  I have no idea why the other two books went up before The Darkest Hour. I’m sure it’s one of those little hiccups that will get resolved shortly.

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