Sara Creasy

A new look

You may have noticed yet another spiffy cover change for the Wynter Wild series. I’ve been experimenting with different styles, with these rustic floral designs being the latest. I launched them at the start of March and saw an instant increase in readership – which leads me to conclude they’re more appealing than previous iterations. So, I think they’ll be hanging around for a while.

A downside of self-publishing is the lack of a marketing team’s expertise to make your cover the best possible design to attract suitable readers. An upside of self-publishing is that it’s easy to change the cover around and experiment!

For the new Wynter Wild covers, each design relates in some way, small or large, to the book’s contents or themes.

#1 Little Sister Song has a selection of Pacific Northwest natives

#2 Out of Tune has daffodils for the “Wordsworthesque” poem Wynter is writing

#3 Rhythm and Rhyme represents the lavender farm Wynter and Indio visit on his birthday

#4 Lost Melodies has shells for beach Wynter visits at the end

#5 Distortion has belladonna or deadly nightshade to represent bad mothering and twisted love

#6 Natural Harmonics features herbs from Wynter’s gardening efforts

#7 Duet has Arizona natives as a throwback to Wynter and Xay’s childhoods

#8 Minor Key has petals for a death in the family.

#9 Broken Strings has dying autumn leaves as it takes place during that season

#10 The Beat Goes On features sunflowers, a recurring theme in the book

#11 Echoes is an Aussie beach to represent Australia, where the story takes place

Visit my Books page to see all the covers.

Content warnings for my books

I included content (trigger) warnings on the Amazon pages of my Wynter Wild books when I published them. I’ve now added a website page that lists them more extensively, linked from the top of the “Books” page.

Click here to read them.

Note that I’ve included everything I could think of using a lengthy list I found online, but not all warnings apply to all books in the series. It’s also worth noting that some of these issues are referenced (for example, as past events) but aren’t “on the page” as such, and that overall I don’t consider the books to be explicit when it comes to sex or violence.

Echoes Aussie Artist Playlist

This playlist features some popular and not-so-well-known Aussie artists that Wynter and her family are probably exposed to when they tour Australia in Echoes (Wynter Wild #11). (Read Echoes here.)

Go straight to the Spotify playlist:

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

Or, if you don’t have Spotify, this is the list of songs on the list to make your own playlist:

NEW RELEASE: Echoes

Echoes is the next instalment of the Wynter Wild series and it’s out now on Amazon! You can read in ebook and Kindle Unlimited, or paperback format. Click the image and then choose your format, and you’ll be taken to your regional Amazon store:

Coming home should be easy.
Xay Morant, rising rockstar and media darling, has returned to Australia for a whirlwind tour. Every night he steps on stage to make music with the people he loves the most.

But something doesn’t feel right. He can fit in anywhere, so why doesn’t he fit in here?

His bandmates are dealing with their own challenges. Wynter makes an impossible promise to cover up someone else’s lie. Indio is confronted with a mistake that could change the course of his life. Jesse is fighting the habits of a lifetime to win the girl of his dreams.

As pressures build and nerves unravel, Xay suddenly vanishes without a trace.

The show must go on – even without a lead singer. As Wynter struggles to maintain faith in her family and in herself, a heartbreaking secret is sending echoes from the past…

Little Sister Song: How to Listen

Audiobooks are expensive to purchase, but there are several ways to listen to Little Sister Song (narrated by theater director and actor Stacey Lind) using subscription services.

If you have a Spotify Premium account, you can listen to 15 hours of audiobooks every month – which is about three hours longer than you’ll need for Little Sister Song.

LITTLE SISTER SONG ON SPOTIFY

If you have an Audible subscription on Amazon, choose Little Sister Song as your monthly book:

LITTLE SISTER SONG ON AUDIBLE US

Non-US listeners: find your Audible links here.

There are a whopping fourteen places you can borrow or purchase the Little Sister Song audiobook – click on your preferred store:

LITTLE SISTER SONG – ALL AUDIOBOOK OPTIONS

Wynter Wild is in Kindle Unlimited

The entire Wynter Wild series is now available in Kindle Unlimited – check it out here – choose the book you want, and you’ll be taken to the Amazon page for your country.

You can also purchase the ebooks and paperbacks from Amazon.

Expanding Wynter’s World

If you’re new to Wynter Wild’s world, here are a few things to do and read about the series:

Little Sister Song (book 1) is FREE until May 29th (rest of the series is on Kindle Unlimited):

DOWNLOAD FREE BOOK 1

Samples from the forthcoming audiobook for Little Sister Song, narrated by Stacey Lind:

AUDIO SAMPLES

Book trailer for Little Sister Song:

BOOK TRAILER

Read Wynter Wild books #2-10 on Kindle Unlimited (book #1 soon) or purchase the ebooks and paperbacks from Amazon:

Kindle UNLIMTED

FREE STORY

Bonus material for the series (57 pages) in my store:

BONUS MATERIAL

Short stories (free and cheap) in my store – prequels and a sequel:

SHORT STORIES

Follow my Facebook page for daily posts and to meet other readers:

FACEBOOK

Relaunching my sci-fi series: Scarabaeus

My writing career started 12 years ago when I sold my debut novel to HarperCollins Voyager. Well, it started 10 years before that, really, when I started writing the book. Yes, it took me 10 years to write my first novel. Compare to 4 years to write the entire 1.3 million-word Wynter Wild series… I’ve learned a lot since those days.

Recently the rights to that first novel, Song of Scarabaeus, and the sequel, reverted to me – so I’ve republished the series with new covers on Amazon.

NEW RELEASE: Waiting For Her

I’ve been wanting to write some prequels to the Wynter Wild series for years. The Fairn brothers – Caleb, Indio, and Jesse – talked (or thought) about their childhoods throughout the books, giving me a good framework upon which to build some short stories set in the late 90s and 2000s.

Waiting For Her is a short story ebook (11K words) and the first Fairn Boys story, set in 1997 Anaconda right after Miriam takes her daughter Joy and leaves her sons with their father. You can read it as a standalone story, but if you’ve read the Wynter Wild books it will take on a slightly different flavor. UPDATE: This story is now a free exclusive for my newsletter subscribers. The newest cover is shown here:

Caleb is nine years old when Momma leaves him and his brothers at their estranged father’s house for the summer. Dad doesn’t have a clue how to care for three boys, and nor is he motivated to try. Navigating his moods and covering for his neglect are more than any child should have to face, but as the oldest brother, Caleb knows it’s his responsibility to step up and grow up.

With his mother gone, taking his twin sister with her, Indio is battling anger and grief as well as the nagging guilt it’s all his fault. Resisting Caleb’s newfound authority, struggling to keep little Jesse out of trouble, he never gives up hope. Momma will be home for his seventh birthday, won’t she? All he has to do is wait for her.

Diplomats: Wynter Wild Characters

Part of a series looking at the personality types of the main and secondary Wynter Wild book characters. Take the test at 16personalities.com and see which character matches you. Also read the introductory post.

The four Diplomat personalities are the intuitive feelers.

INFJ: Advocate

Also called the Protector or the Counselor. The only character in the series with this personality type is: