Stolen Book Update: Of Honor and Love

Hello, everyone! I'm in a much better mood as I write this. My free book, Of Honor and Love, that was stolen and posted for sale by someone without my authorization, was removed from sale at Amazon within hours of me contacting Amazon's Security, Author Central, and Copyright Divisons. Woo hoo!

I really have to give praise to Amazon. Everyone I communicated with took this matter very seriously. Each one was professional, courteous, and they worked quickly to get this situation resolved and have the book taken down. My thanks goes out to Amazon for the wonderful service they provided!

Unfortunately, it seems this person had also stolen more works from the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads and listed them for sale on Amazon. The thief posted all the anthologies from the Don't Read in the Closest event in 2011 and had them for sale without the group's or authors' permission. I also reported the anthologies, along with several other people, and the books have since been removed.

If you're an author who has written for one of the M/M Romance Group's events, I encourage you, please check Amazon for your work and the anthologies it was featured in to ensure your efforts and hard work aren't being stolen and profited from. In this age of ebooks, it's hard to prevent things such as this from happening, but as this experience has shown, the thieves can be stopped.

It's really a despicable thing, to steal the hard work of authors and the money of readers. The nerve of this person amazes me! However, there was a bright point in this and that was seeing the unity of authors and readers working together to spread the word on these thefts. I truly believe that it was thanks to the many retweets on Twitter, sharing on Facebook, review posting on Amazon and reporting to them, "liking" and discussions on Goodreads, that helped bring this situation to Amazon's attention. Many, many people were speaking and sharing the truth against this thief. And the good guys have won, because the books have been removed :-) From me personally regarding Of Honor and Love, my deepest thanks and gratitude goes out to everyone who helped get the word out to not buy the book and that it was stolen. Your help and support means the world and beyond to me. Thank you, thank you, thank you!  

Stolen Book on Amazon: Of Honor and Love

Everyone, I'm putting out a notice, someone has stolen my FREE book, Of Honor and Love, and is selling it on Amazon for a price of $2.99: http://www.amazon.com/Of-Honor-Love-Always-Write-ebook/dp/B00JNGWG2W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397512903&sr=8-1&keywords=s.j.+frost

They do NOT have my permission to sell this book and I'm gaining no compensation. I had dedicated my time and efforts to write this story for the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads as part of their Love is Always Write event in 2013. The intention of the story was for it to always be for free.

I've contacted Amazon's security and hope to have the book removed as quickly as possible. I've also requested the lister's information and I'm keeping my fingers crossed they'll give it to me. In the mean time, DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK! There's no reason to! The entire story is free at these websites:

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13701725-of-honor-and-love

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/177793

I'm sickened that someone would do this and I'm hoping so much no one has purchased the book and been ripped off by this scammer. Again, please do not buy this book. It's stolen work!

Love Is Always Write; Anthologies Now Available!

Hey, everyone! I have some fun news to share! Some of you may remember early this summer, I was talking about the Love Is Always Write event being held by the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads, and how I was taking part. I wrote a story for the event titled, "Of Honor and Love", my first gay historical romance.

I've talked about this story a few times, and you can read exactly how it came to happen by clicking HERE. This story is actually one of my favorites out of all I've written. I loved writing it, I loved the characters, I loved the setting, I just loved everything about it. Well now, the story is available in an anthology with more of the fantastic stories written for the Love Is Always Write event.

The event had a huge turn out. Several authors from across the gay romance genre came together to write stories inspired by pictures people posted, and they did this for free, as a gift to readers. And how many stories came out of the event? Enough to create an 11 volume anthology! 11 volumes! That's huge! The stories range in length from shorts to novellas, and they range in theme from contemporary to historical, paranormal to fantasy, and everything and anything in between. So to say among all these stories there's surely something for everyone is a very safe bet, I think.

"Of Honor and Love", is in Volume 7. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed taking part in this event, and how happy I am to be included in this anthology with so many incredibly talented authors. It was all made possible by the wonderful folks at the M/M Romance Group. I know they put in countless hours of hard work to make the event happen. They dedicated their time, their resources, their skills, and they did it all for free. My thanks and my gratitude goes out to them for all they've done for readers, authors, and the genre. Your work and time is very much appreciated!

The 11 Volumes are available for download in all ebook formats now at Goodreads. Last I checked this morning, Volumes 1-4 were available at AllRomance Ebooks, so the others will be there soon. All the anthologies, on Goodreads and AllRomance eBooks, are offered for FREE download. That's a whole lot of reading and a whole lot of talent for free! I know everyone will find many stories in these anthologies that they'll enjoy, and if you haven't already read "Of Honor and Love", I hope it'll be one of them!

Independence Day Blog Hop Winner!

Hey, everyone! Before I announce the winner of the Celebrating Independence Blog Hop giveaway, I just want to extend my appreciation to everyone who stopped by here. It was wonderful to see familiar faces and new ones, and the kind words and good wishes you all offered gave me such a smile :D Thank you all so much!

And now, because I know everyone wants to know who the giveaway winner is, it's....

Suze!

Congratulations, Suze! I'll be getting in touch with you very soon.

As always, the winner was chosen using Random.org, so that way the computer did the dirty work. I just can't pick a winner on my own. But there's two pieces of good news I can offer to everyone.

First; you can have a second chance to win one of my books this Saturday, July 7th. That day is Reader Appreciation Day at The Sweet Spot, the Yahoo Group run by me, Sloan Parker, and Jambrea Jo Jones. I'm offering up a title from my backlist in ebook as a prize, as well $15 in eBook Bucks to ARe. But I'm not the only one offering prizes. Many other authors are too, and I'll be getting a full list up soon.

Second, for those who haven't seen, you can download a free story from me, "Of Honor and Love", at Goodreads, Smashwords, and AllRomance eBooks. Whichever is your preferred choice, the story is at all three places in PDF, mobi (prc/Kindle), and epub (Nook).

Thank you again, so very much, to each and everyone one of you for visiting here!

"Of Honor and Love" Now Available at ARe and Smashwords

Hey, everyone! I just wanted to pass on a quick note to let you all know that the novella I wrote for the M/M Romance Group's Love is Always Write event, "Of Honor and Love", is now available for FREE download at AllRomance eBooks and Smashwords. Woo hoo!

I'll admit, it wasn't easy for my tech inept self to figure out how to get it upload to both those sites and there were more than a few swear words flying around as I worked on it, but I did it! I was really motivated, though, because I wanted this story to be available to all my readers, not just those who are Goodreads members :-)

To download it at AllRomace eBooks, go here: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-ofhonorandlove-857394-145.html

To download it at Smashwords, go here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/177793

I hope all you read it will enjoy it!

A Writing & News Update

Hello ladies and gentlemen! Wow, it's been a really long time since I posted. I'm so incredibly sorry! June's been one busy month for me, both on the personal front and on the writing front. I thought I was way overdue for giving an update on what I've been working on, so here we go.

First, let's talk free stuff! Some of you may recall a while back I had mentioned I wrote a short story for the M/M Romance Group on Goodreads, my very first historical, "Of Honor and Love." I'm pleased to say that story is now not only posted live in the group, but also you can download a file for it on Goodreads. Go here for that: http://www.goodreads.com/ebooks/download/13701725-of-honor-and-love. It will also soon be up for free download on AllRomance eBooks, once my "publisher" account is approved. And I figure out how to upload it!

Other news on the writing front, I'm pleased to say the third novel in the Instincts series, LOVING INSTINCTS, is now in edits. We had been shooting for a July release, but as I warned before, this is a very long book (just over 100k at the moment) and we might not hit that. We're still aiming for the end of July, but it could quite possibly be an August release. I hope everyone understands and won't be too upset for the delay!

Keeping on the writing news, I'd like to mention what my current writing project is. I'm currently writing the story for Brad Delfini from the Conquest series. It's going very well, currently sitting at over 30k with more story to tell. I'm still hoping to have it finished by the end of summer with the goal of a late fall/early winter release.

And for non-writing news, but still book related, I'm going to be participating in another blog hop. If you looked over to the right, you'll see a button for the 4th of July Hop. This giveaway will run from July 1st - 4th.  For this one, I'll be offering up a free ebook copy of one of my works, winner's choice of title. Woo hoo! If you click that button, it will take you to the hop's page where you can see all the awesome authors taking part!

In one last piece of author information, I just recently found out that by "liking" author pages and books on Amazon.com, it gives them more visibility on the site. Who knew? I sure didn't. But it's an extremely helpful thing for authors in a place where it's easy to get lost in the crowd! So if you have favorite authors, please do consider liking their pages and books. They'll appreciate it! Should anyone feel inclined toward liking my page there, you can find me here: http://www.amazon.com/S.J.-Frost/e/B003WZ0LPE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1 And I can say I most certainly will appreciate it, too!

Well, I think that about covers it. At least, it's all I can think of at the moment. Thank you again, everyone, for your patience with me disappearing for a while!

Free novella, "Of Honor and Love", now available!

Hey guys and gals!  Some of you may have heard me mention that I was writing a free novella for the  M/M Romance Group's Love is Always Write event. Well, that story, "Of Honor and Love", is now live on the group over at Goodreads! It just went up today! Woo hoo!

Just like with the Hot Summer Days event, pictures were posted by group members, along with a prompt, and then authors could pick from them to write a story. I fell in love with the image I picked the instant I saw it. The image was posted by none other than a fellow author, the wonderfully talented, Megan Derr. I was so excited when I won the pic and thank her for giving me the chance to write this story!

As soon as I knew I had this image and prompt...and actually a little before...I started writing the story because the characters, Jonathon Addison and Kazuhiro Takezaki, were coming through so strong. It takes place in 1867 Japan, and it's my first attempt at writing historical. I have to say it was challenging, invigorating, and an all around blast to write something so different than my norm! I really fell in love with the characters and the story.

If you'd like to read "Of Honor and Love", here's the link to it: http://www.goodreads.com/facebook/topic/880228-sj-frost-of-honor-and-love-5-24

You do have to be a member of the group to read it for now, but I'm actually planning on having a cover made for it and posting it for free on AllRomance Ebooks, as well. Providing I can figure out how to do that!

And here's the beautiful pic and prompt that inspired the story.

Prompt:

Dear Author,

I think this man is much more, or much less, than he seems. Who is he really, and who or what is he pretending to be? What sort of trouble will his secrets cause him? I’d be grateful if you could answer these questions for me.

Sincerely,

Megan

I also wrote a blurb for it.

Blurb:

Japan 1867…

Jonathon Addison wanted a night of companionship, to be in the arms of a man – any man – and no longer feel lonely. But he picked the wrong man, and events led him to make a twisted deal to save his own life. Now he’s in the mysterious and distant nation of Japan, where the death of another means freedom for himself.

Kazuhiro Takezaki is a lord and samurai living in a country strained and ready for rebellion. He agrees to meet with Jonathon Addison, a representative of a foreign arms dealer, in an act of keeping his enemy close. Only, Jonathon isn’t anything like he expected, and Kazuhiro can’t stop himself from being drawn toward the man’s exotic beauty.

As Jonathon and Kazuhiro’s passion takes hold, danger looms close, much of it in the secret Jonathon keeps.

And there you have it! I hope everyone who reads this story will enjoy it :D