Cover of The Assignment by Jade A. Waters

The Assignment Blog Tour!

***UPDATED: All tour stops noted below, and will be updated as the dates arrive with links and specifics! Thanks for joining the fun!***

Hi everyone!

It’s a super exciting time over here, because I’m gearing up for the release of The Assignment in less than three weeks and putting all the final wheels into motion for the big day on December 12th. Woo hoo! I can’t tell you how over the moon I am for my debut novel—the first installment in the Lessons in Control series—to be coming into your hands in such a short amount of time. Yesssss!Cover of The Assignment by Jade A. Waters

That’s why today, I’m even more pumped to tell you about The Assignment Blog Tour! It’s a huge event filled with interviews, excerpts, reviews, giveaways, and a bunch of posts connected to and inspired by the book. Extra fun is that this will be a two prong tour, part of which I’m fortunate to have had arranged via Carina Press and Kismet Tours (thanks, guys!) and the other part of which will be hosted by some fabulous author friends of mine.

All right, all right. You probably want to know where to go when it’s on, right? Then consider this your official Blog Tour post, where you can come back throughout the duration of the tour (and heck, even after, if you’d like) to be able to catch all the stops along the way…

Thanks so much in advance for joining the fun!

The Assignment Official Blog Tour Schedule:

Sunday, December 4th: Interview and Sexy Snippet read over at The Sexy Librarian’s Blog-Cast with Rose Caraway
Monday, December 5th: Guest Post and Giveaway at The Book Cellar
Monday, December 12th: Release day blitz with an excerpt at Rachel Kramer Bussel‘s and a review at Alpha Book Club!
Tuesday, December 13th: Guest Post and Giveaway at Bewitched Bookworms
Wednesday, December 14th: Bewitched Bookworms, Take Two—Guest Post and Giveaway!
Thursday, December 15th: Guest Post with Horny Geek Girl and home (here) for Blissemas
Friday, December 16th: A Few Thoughts On Asking For What You Want in Bed at Carina Press, and The Assignment visits Parajunkee, Book Briefs and Alpha Book Club with Guest Posts!
Saturday, December 17th: Interview at Kink Praxis
Sunday, December 18th: Guest Post with F. Leonora Solomon
Monday, December 19th: Guest Post at The Brit Babes
Tuesday, December 20th: Interview with Malin James
Wednesday, December 21st: Exclusive Excerpt on Sugarbutch via Sinclair Sexsmith
Thursday, December 22nd: I Write Smutty Things with A. M. Hartnett
Friday, December 23rd: Final stop right here!

The Assignment Blog Tour is brought to you December 5th through 16th by Kismet Tours…

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And on the remainder of the tour by wonderful author pals Rose Caraway, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Xan West, Horny Geek Girl, F. Leonora Solomon, the Brit Babes, Malin James, Sinclair Sexsmith, and A. M. Hartnett! A giant thank you to all involved!

Can’t wait to see you lovely readers on the tour. And be sure to pick up your copy of The Assignment, available at…

Amazon US     Amazon UK      Barnes & Noble      Google Play      iBooks      Kobo

Happy reading to all!

XX,
Jade

All three covers of Jade A. Waters's Lessons in Control series!

The Discipline and The Reward — Cover Reveals!

Hello everyone!

As you may know, I’ve been working away at the Lessons in Control series, which launches with The Assignment on December 12th. Wee! I’m so damn excited! The series is releasing not only soon but at rapid fire speed, with book 2, The Discipline, out in March ’17 and book 3, The Reward, out not all that much later—in June! Woo hoo!

I’m currently working on the third book to turn into my editor at the end of the year, but while that’s in motion, all sorts of thrilling things have been happening on the sidelines. Are you ready for the biggest?

I received these ridiculously sexy covers for book 2 and 3!

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*Faints.*

Wow. I don’t know about you, but I seriously swooned when I saw all three of these together. In fact, why don’t I just go ahead and show you all three in a row, too:

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OMG. OMG. Aren’t they to die for? Carina Press seriously knocked it out of the park here. I’m so happy!

All right… *Breathes x 1,000* What else, what else? Well, besides deciding that the triple threat image above is going to need to get framed and hung on the dining room wall I keep rambling on about being too bare, I’ve also been working on a blog tour for The Assignment. Yay! I’m getting pumped to share details about this soon because I’ve got a ton of awesome, lovely people involved, but for now I’ll just say the party kicks off December 4th and you won’t want to miss it. It’s going to be so fun, with lots of exclusives, giveaways, interviews, info about the book and whole series, and more! I can’t wait!

In the meantime, you can find both The Assignment and The Discipline available for pre-order for your Kindle, and the first book at a few other sources, too (find all of them here). I hope you’ll please add both books to your shelves on Booklikes (you can find The Assignment here and The Discipline here), and please mark The Assignment as “Want to Read” on Goodreads.

I’d also like to ask that if you haven’t yet signed up for my newsletter, please do. Newsletter subscribers are the first to hear about news and special events, and will get various exclusives during the course of the Lessons in Control series. The first? An absolutely free preview of the first chapter of The Assignment BEFORE it’s released—but you can only have access if you sign up. I hope you do!

Finally, I wanted to let you in on a reading I have booked down in L.A. on January 31, 2017, hosted by the lovely Rachel Kramer Bussel at Skylight Books in honor of the Best Women’s Erotica of the Year series. There, I’ll be reading with the fabulous Melina Greenport, Jocelyn Bringas, and Ms. Bussel herself. You can find more info right here. I’ll be reading a snippet of “Ophelia the Second,” which was included in Best Women’s Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, and I’ll have some swag for The Assignment to give you there, too. Hurray! We hope you’ll come out and say hi!

All right, that’s it for now, folks. Thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing more soon!

XX,
Jade

Cover for Jade A. Waters's The Assignment, Book One in Lessons in Control

The Assignment—Cover Reveal!

Hi everybody! I’ve been super quiet for a while, working away on my forthcoming Lessons in Control series—but today, I’m so enthralled to share all sorts of good stuff with you about my debut novel and the first book in the series, The Assignment. I’ve got news, excitement, and perhaps most importantly,

A COVER!

—and—

BACK COVER COPY!

Wowsa! Yes, that’s right! I do! So, let’s start with the cover…

Cover of The Assignment by Jade A. Waters

OMG. I can’t even tell you how pumped I am over this cover! First, there’s the super snazzy lettering that I love. Then there’s the hot ass couple the design team picked to represent the book’s heroine, Maya Clery, and the entrancing hero Dean Sova, who leads her out into a world of all sorts of sexy fun. On top of that, Carina Press rocked my world by managing to capture a touch of the Bay Area water scenery in that glorious pier in the background. Why is this so awesome? The Assignment and all sequential books are set in this very area, where coastal views are everywhere—and since in real life I’m rather fond of these views, I wanted that love of the area to transfer into the books. I’m just so ecstatic you can catch a glimpse of that on the cover. Hurray!

Speaking of the Carina Press team, I need to say they’ve been phenomenal in every stage of working on this series, from editing to all the ins and outs of setting up for press time. I’m tickled to be working with them, and of course, as we get closer to the December release date (currently listed as December 12th, but these things sometimes fluctuate), I’ll have tons more news and info for you.

Okay. Before I get to the blurb (I know, I know, delayed gratification!), I wanted to let you know a few things. First, you can pre-order The Assignment on Amazon Kindle or at various other e-tailers linked below. I’d also love for you to mark it as “Want to Read” on Goodreads or add the book to your shelves over on Booklikes if you’re a member there. And, while I will be posting news about the series here on my blog, I’ll be sending out more info about various events and other exclusive ditties through my currently quarterly newsletter, which will launch at the end of September. Not a subscriber? I’d love for you to join the fun, and as a special incentive, I’m offering all those who have subscribed by September 15th, 2016 a free, never before published flash story (about 1100 words) by me. That’s right—free story for you if you subscribe by 9/15/16! I do hope you will, and those of you who are already subscribed will be able to get this freebie after the deadline, too. 🙂 Thanks so much for subscribing!

All right. I think it’s time for something that tells you about the story, hmm? Ready? Without further ado, I’m delighted to share the official blurb for book one in Lessons in Control, The Assignment:

What would you do if someone offered to fulfill your wildest fantasies?

Seductive.

Charming.

Dominant.

Dean Sova is everything Maya Clery craves. From the first touch, their connection is intense. After leaving her troubled past behind, Maya thought she was happy—she is happy—but meeting Dean forces her to acknowledge dark needs she longs to explore yet has never had the courage to face.

Her perfect match, Dean encourages Maya to set loose the submissive urges inside her in a series of assignments intended to open her mind and test the limits of pleasure…but Maya isn’t sure she can fully let go of her inhibitions.

What would you do if someone offered to fulfill your wildest fantasies?

The answer seems obvious. You take the offer and hope the price isn’t too high.

Book one of Lessons in Control

This book is approximately 81,000 words

One-click with confidence. This title is part of the Carina Press Romance Promise: all the romance you’re looking for with an HEA/HFN. It’s a promise! Find out more at CarinaPress.com/RomancePromise.

*

Wow. I am way damn excited. Are you? I sure hope so! I promise I have more info to come, but in the meantime, if you’re intrigued and needing something to tide you over until the official release of The Assignment, please check out my Free Reads page to enjoy some of my work. And if you’re a visual person, feel free to hop on over to my Pinterest boards for some Maya and Dean visuals that inspired me as I worked. Also, make sure you’re following me on Twitter if you aren’t already since I’ll be posting lots of info there, too, and please subscribe to the newsletter—don’t forget, a free flash story awaits for anyone subscribed by September 15!

Finally, I hope you’ll pre-order The Assignment at any of the links below. Thanks so much for reading and joining me on this exciting journey, because—in case it’s at all unclear—I’m bouncing off the walls for the release of this series! Yippee!!

Pre-order book one, The Assignment, today:

(eISBN: 9781459293588)

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XX,
Jade

P.S. We are planning a blog tour for The Assignment starting somewhere around late November and running through late December-ish. Interested in taking part? I’d love it so much! Please send me an email at jade@jadeawaters.com with your name and website address if this intrigues you, and I’ll get you info once I have it!

 

Picture of feet sticking out of car window, parked to watch sunset; Ammentorp ©123RF.com

We [Were] On a Break!

I am the worst at taking a break. I’ve been this way my whole life—relaxation is a thing I enjoy, but most of the time, there has to be something else going on simultaneously. Hell, it wasn’t until recently that I took up watching some TV before bed while needing to talk myself into lying still on the couch (because, sadly, reading revs me up and makes it impossible to pass out). I have a friend who describes me as being incapable of slowing down, but I often correct him to say that I can, I just prefer to have my wheels spinning at all times, if not in person, then at least in the back of my head.

The slowing of the wheels is something I’m actively working on this year. I’ve been going through a lot that I’ve mentioned on the blog, but there’s been other off-site stuff, too, which has made my series-writing ride quite the adventure. Add to this that moderation is a concept lost on me (just give me a pile of candy and I’ll blow your mind, swear), and the fact that I’m still pretty good at pushing past pain…well, put all this together, and you’ve got a flashy sports car that eventually has a major break down and stops working.

Obviously, that, in the middle of a 3-book series, simply will not do.

Picture of feet sticking out of car window, parked to watch sunset

Chillin’. Ammentorp ©123RF.com

Which is why I’ve set up various rewards to honor the need to slow my roll in this already unique process. Since I just typed “The End” and closed off the draft for The Discipline, book 2 in the Lessons in Control series, the one I greet you with today is a deal I made with myself long ago: two full weeks off! This is a time for me to not only not think about the book while it simmers, but to essentially take a mini-writing-pseudo-vacation. Yes, writing is my passion, my sustenance, my love—but revisit that moderation in all things clause, and eventually, one can overdose in love, too.

Plus, a “vacation” always brightens the landscape of pretty much anything, so here I am, taking one!

What does this mean? Save for the potential of my copy edits showing up during this rest time, I’m not doing a lick of writing beyond a blog post or two, and maybe even a little revise of a poem and a piece of flash I wrote a while back, since it’s high time I get some fiction up in this joint. But beyond that? I’m practicing chilling out interspersed with moments of handling a short To Do list I avoided while staying focused on the series. This last weekend, for example, I swapped between bills, taxes, and major social time with friends. I even kicked off Saturday morning with pancakes, bacon, and a coconut milk latte in front of a TV show while still in my robe. Guys, this sort of thing hasn’t happened in years. And you know what? It felt pretty good.

There are other cool things happening in this two-week break, too. One, I’ve got a slew of awesome social encounters I’ve delayed: karaoke, luncheons, dinners, happy hours, and, hell, I might even take myself dancing and then sleep in this weekend! Whoa! Also, I’m finally reading a book. I know this sounds like a no brainer—but between being all up in this series and not being able to read before bed lest it keep me awake, I’ve pretty much been catching only blog posts here and there, and thus haven’t touched a book since, oh, late August (shameful, I know, but it’s the truth). Oh and extra chill-worthy: I’m rewatching Fringe from start to finish. This is my favorite series of all time, right before the wicked tie for second between The Tudors, Dexter, Friends (bonus points if you caught the show reference in the title of this post), Grey’s Anatomy, and the first six seasons of The Vampire Diaries (don’t even talk to me about the current season). I have tons of other good things planned for this time, too, but let it be said: there will be some real relaxation for me. I’m excited!

On top of that, I’m not going to feel guilty. Not at all. I know my lovely little characters can wait for me, and everything—life, series, etc.—will return to normal when I’m back.

We are, after all, on a break. 🙂

XX,
Jade

B/W still vintage image of typewriter

THE Process

Okay, here’s the deal: I kept fooling myself into believing I have a systemized process, and it’s become abundantly clear I’m full of shit.

As some of you may have noticed, I’ve been fairly quiet on both this site and my poetry site. For the most part, I’ve had my head down working on the Lessons in Control series. I’m getting more and more excited to talk about it as we get closer to launch in December, but for now, I’m tied up (heh) in edits for The Assignment (book one), the drafting of The Discipline (book two)—and later down the line, the drafting of The Reward (book three).

The process has been thrilling, shocking, and terrifying, all at the same time. My editor, Rhonda Stapleton, has been a dream through the work we’re doing on book one—but alongside that, I’ve had a hell of a journey on book two. Whatever “process” I swore I had for writing books has been, well, doctored.

B/W still vintage image of typewriter

Dmitriy Cherevko ©123RF.com

Let me give you a little background. The first real book I wrote (because I’m excluding the fictional biography I wrote at 11 as well the YA horror I wrote at 13) was a romantic fantasy that took me 17 years to complete, and at the end of it, I learned one very important thing: I’m neither a fantasy writer OR a strictly spec fic writer. I love sexual content, and I love dripping that all over the pages of whatever the hell I’m writing. So for my next book, I opted to write a comedic memoir about the year and a half I semi-intentionally stopped having sex. (True story!) Turned out, for a book about not having sex, it actually had a lot of sexual content—but it was also about healing from heartbreak, finding oneself, and a bit of ridiculousness that happened in that period, among other things. Honestly, I haven’t talked a ton about this thing since it’s shelved in lieu of what I currently love writing (that would be erotica in its various forms), but, the point is that it took me about three years to write, the end confirming that (1) I needed to write more because it was my life blood and (2) I was capable of finishing things faster than I thought.

Next came a bunch of short stories. I had a spec fic writing mentor at the time who suggested what I needed was to start and stop over and over again, so I could feel more confident in the process before I took on another book. Whoa nelly, did that turn out to be a boon: I wrote something like two dozen short stories in a few months. Plus, I wrote them fast. 4-6k in a couple hours? No problem! I had become a binge writer who also learned the skill of drafting without backtracking, because one can always chop and revise later. I was pretty sure that nifty trick would carry with me for life.

Flash forward to the recent past, and there came The Assignment. I’d been plotting and stewing about how I might be able to write an erotica series for a couple months, and, meanwhile, had an extremely transformative relationship that sparked all sorts of ideas in my head. Then…we broke up. Okay, in actuality, I had to pry myself away because the entire thing was about to ruin me, but a well-timed vacation and a keen interest in the “do not disturb” function on my phone created utter magic. Even through my devastation, the plot of my story became clear and I proceeded to channel all that breakup energy into writing The Assignment. That book—which I am seriously excited for you to read when it comes out in December—took me a whopping week and a half to outline, and right around one month to draft.

For realsies.

And suddenly—I knew my process: outline, speed draft without editing, let it breathe, go in and proceed to smoothe. Check! Oh yeah. It was that simple, and it would be, forever. Right? So while the final version was off wandering the world for a home, I proceeded to start another book—but the entire time, I couldn’t figure out what had happened to my process because I seemed to be going in circles…for almost eight months.

I’d just upped my speed and written a book in a month. How on earth did this thing take so long?

Then came some real life chaos that fucked with me. It took a while for me to get a clue on how to handle it, but when I did, I opted for a book break. I spent a couple months writing shorts and reworking my confidence, so that when The Assignment found a home at Carina Press and they wanted the entire series, I was both giddy and ready to write book two. Except, not so much. I was still contending with the residual chaos that culminated in the attack of the chronic migraines while also struggling to realize this was in no uncertain terms affecting my process. I drafted about 30k. I got migraine sick. I drafted 10k. I was still migraine sick. I tore up 20k. Edits for book one came. I finished them and then drafted 20k. But again, I was really sick and had to straight up stop. When I was migraine-free and ready to go again, I not only cut out about 15k, but completely replotted the rest of the book.

Ha. Take that, process!

Oh, and my binge writing tendency in that entire time period? M.I.A. 1-2k became a good day! But I plodded along, accepting that I would produce, delete, rewrite, break, etc., until somewhere around December when—while setting my 2016 goals—I took a step back and thought, hmm, maybe I should just write the damn book however it comes out, and stop being an asshole to myself because the process happens to have changed from what it was before.

Amazing concept, right?

I have to say—since then, things have continued to be pretty good over here. I turned in another round of edits on book one, and when I sat down to begin the final chunk of the book two draft this last weekend, I didn’t even bat an eyelash at the fact that the first thing I did was replot the last 20k again.

Go figure.

So, ladies and gentlemen, it’s safe it say: I have discovered the real process! It’s good, and I’m going to share it with you. You should grab a pen. Go ahead, I will wait. *Taps foot.* I know you want the Secret to the Writing Universe I discovered over the last few months, and now, I’m going to give it to you!

Okay, you ready?

Here it is.

The official process is…

Whatever fucking works.

Yep. That’s it. (Did you write that down?) 🙂

I have no idea if my process is “no process” because of life things, or just because that’s the truth of the matter, but I’m pleased to have established this riveting…process. Also, I’m curious about everyone else—what’s your process? I’d love to hear in the comments.

For now, though, time for me to get back to work.

It’s a process. 😉

XX,
Jade

 

My personal optimist motto pencils, a gift from Alison Tyler

Looking Up

Up until about a month ago, things over here were—oh, how to put this?—really fucking cray-cray in the brain department. There was a lot of good going on (and more I’ll get to shortly), and I tried to center my online attention to that—but offline, I was a wreck. This has all passed now, thank god, but things were pretty dark for a bit there.

I talked in a previous post about the sensory migraines that took over my life—but what I stayed pretty quiet on was the adjustment to the medication my doctor prescribed. Once it kicked in, it helped tremendously—but the month-long adjustment period was torture. My brain was definitely not my own for that wild ride, and, honestly, if you and I had a conversation anywhere in that month, I probably have no solid recollection of what we talked about. On top of that, other than one flash piece inspired by my migraines and a couple poems I scribbled in brief moments of clarity, I wrote little (coherently, anyway). It wasn’t until after I signed off of Skype from my interview with the wonderful Rose Caraway about my story in Libidinous Zombie that I realized how wildly out of my head I felt. Yikes!

Fortunately, my doctor turned out to be a genius. After that month of adjustment—and practically overnight—everything turned…well, normal. My migraines damn near disappeared, and all the side effects I was experiencing completely vanished. I keeMy personal optimist motto pencils, a gift from Alison Tylerp describing it as the way the sky looks after a storm, when the clouds pull back to reveal a clear blue world—but I kid you not, it’s what my head felt like after that period passed. My spirits soared, and my usual optimist Fuck half full, I have a glass! self was ready to go screaming from the rooftops about how damn amazing I felt.

And that’s where I’ve been cruising for almost a month now—appreciating all the awesome things going on, and enjoying having my brain back to participate in them! Woo hoo!

So, let’s move along to the good department, shall we? First, some book news—I’ve been cruising away on edits for The Assignment, book one in my forthcoming Lessons in Control series. We had to do a few schedule adjustments, but I’m pleased to announce that it will be released in December 2016—and hey, you can already pre-order it on Amazon! 🙂 There’s no cover or blurb up yet, and I believe it might still say it’s coming out in June, but that’s soon to be fixed. I have much more to tell you about this book and the entire series as we get closer to publication, but let’s just say that as I’m working on edits, I’m getting really excited. It doesn’t hurt that I landed Rhonda Helms on this project, who is possibly the most enthusiastic editor on the planet and making me squeal. A lot. (Okay, and I admit—I’m one of those weird authors who loves editing almost as much as I love writing, so I’m having fun in this process either way.) A picture of Jade's manuscript

Meanwhile, I’ve still been keeping up on my poetry, and even wrote a piece loosely inspired by a scene in The Assignment. In the short story world, I got confirmation there will be a San Francisco reading for Best Women’s Erotica, Volume 1 on January 19th at 6:30pm at the Good Vibrations Polk Street location (mark your calendars!). My BWE story “Ophelia the Second” is one I’m rather fond of, and I can’t wait to tell you more about the it and to hopefully meet you at the reading!Cover of Best Women's Erotica of the Year

Speaking of reading…back in July, Rose asked me in my first KMQ’s interview what I’d be doing if I wasn’t a writer—and I told her I was looking into voice over as a future day job. Since then, I’ve taken a couple weekend workshops and learned all sorts of intriguing things, and decided this little dream will need to become a reality over the coming years. I even set up a recording space, which I officially used for the first time to record “Longing” in honor of the release of Coming Together: In Verse (a smokin’ erotic poetry anthology)! This voice over adventure is on hold while I work on books 2 and 3 in the Lessons in Control series…but it’s on my radar!

Finally, since it’s nearly Christmas, I couldn’t possibly skip mentioning my always free holiday short story, “Office Santa.” It’s about an office superstar named Kristi who has a major thing for the Santa suit—especially when it’s worn by one of her very favorite colleagues. Kristi was a character I had way too much fun writing, so I hope you’ll please check out her adventures. Also free for the holidays is a new flash piece called “Missing You,” hosted over at Tamsin’s Superotica as part of her hot annual advent calendar—please be sure to check out both my story and the others on this holiday countdown!

So, all in all, I’m thrilled to say things are looking up. WAY up.

Just in time for the start of a brand new (and super exciting) year, don’t you think?

XX,
Jade

Very colorful and explosive fireworks!

On a Scale of 1 to 10…(News!)

On a scale of 1 to 10…I’m this excited:

Very colorful and explosive fireworks!

To translate, that’s, like, 15. Or maybe 20…

Or, maybe I’m just too excited to put a number on it!

See, I’ve had some news under my hat for a bit now, but, um, the word is officially out:

Screen shot of Jade's series announcement on Pub Lunch

Official posting from Pub Lunch

I am so, so thrilled to get to share this news! My fabulous agent Jessica Alvarez has been shopping around my erotic romance book for a little while, and I’m ecstatic that it’s been picked up by Carina Press—along with the rest of the series! The Assignment, The Discipline, and The Reward are all slated to be published starting sometime in late 2016 in the Lessons in Control series, and I seriously can’t be more delighted!

You may recall me mentioning the process of writing the first book in the series a couple times—it was a wild thing that just poured out of me at a bizarrely fast pace, and even though I put the continuation of the series aside for a while, I couldn’t stop imagining my characters resuming their tale. Theirs is a sexy, edgy, BDSM experience full of all sorts of adventures and heated exploration—and I have so much more to share with you in the coming months about not just the first book, but the whole series.

A giant thank you to Carina Press for taking a chance on my debut novel (and then second and third, too!), and to Jessica Alvarez for helping me on this journey!

Much more to report in the future, folks—but for now, please picture me bouncing around my house squealing (because it is totally happening)! 🙂

Thank you so much for being part of the excitement with me!

XX,
Jade