tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81421295980773710242024-03-13T10:22:19.718-04:00Journeys Thru BooksQuality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.comBlogger859125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-82841684375523712642015-01-03T10:00:00.000-05:002015-04-10T19:14:11.784-04:00LUCIFER & THE INDIGO KIDS #Excerpt by Lord Ra Krishna EL @Lord_Ra_Krishna #AmReading #Poetry <i><b>Geronimo... (and the ones with religion) </b></i><br />
<br />
Dear Geronimo...<br />
My Great, Great grand Father<br />
<br />
They took you from us<br />
And our people were slaughtered...<br />
<br />
They didn't break your spirit<br />
You passed it unto me<br />
<br />
And I will spark the movement<br />
As soon as I get free...<br />
<br />
They hunted and chased you<br />
I clearly remember<br />
They would have never caught you<br />
They're lucky you surrendered...<br />
<br />
They tricked you and stole your land<br />
and we even have the audacity to celebrate Thanksgiving...<br />
<br />
They used you for mascots<br />
the Red Skins <br />
and the Chiefs <br />
<br />
Your great land was stolen<br />
By the ones with religion...<br />
<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e7ohu8GS8NQ/VEZ099OgsPI/AAAAAAAADdI/JA7IU27mLuE/s1600/10543606_799244456762857_1951121046706555738_n.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e7ohu8GS8NQ/VEZ099OgsPI/AAAAAAAADdI/JA7IU27mLuE/s1600/10543606_799244456762857_1951121046706555738_n.png" height="320" width="225" /></a></div>
<br />
"This
“new age” book of poetry reflects the diverse views and philosophies of
it’s author Ra Krishna EL. It’s an intimate, humorous and thought
provoking group of poems intended to evoke strong emotion. To quote the
German philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, this style of poetry can be
called “Zukunfts poesie“ which translates into “Poetry of the future”,
where truly original ideas are presented thru poetry. Also known as post
Nietzschean poetry.<br />
<br />
It’s subjects include society, pop
culture, love, religious dogma, God and the new age of Aquarius. This
book was written and published during the false incarceration of its
author in Chicago’s notorious Cook County Jail, the largest jail in the
country."<br />
<br />
Bu<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">y Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-indigo-kids-Last-Prophet-ebook/dp/B00L3VL7E8/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406567843&sr=1-1&keywords=lucifer+and+the+indigo+kids" href="http://www.amazon.com/Lucifer-indigo-kids-Last-Prophet-ebook/dp/B00L3VL7E8/ref=sr_1_1_title_1_kin?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406567843&sr=1-1&keywords=lucifer+and+the+indigo+kids" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre - Poetry, Philosophy</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – PG-13</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Lord%20Ra%20Krishna%20EL&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank" href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Lord%20Ra%20Krishna%20EL&search-alias=books&sort=relevancerank" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: bold ! important;">Connect</b> with Lord Ra Krishna EL on <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lord-Ra-Krishna-El/729737850380185?ref=hl" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lord-Ra-Krishna-El/729737850380185?ref=hl" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Lord_Ra_Krishna" href="https://twitter.com/Lord_Ra_Krishna" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-88432152574913670642015-01-01T08:00:00.000-05:002015-02-06T03:40:36.898-05:00#Excerpt from SAGA OF THE NINE: #Area38 by Mikey D. B. @mikeydbii #Thriller #Dystopian #TBR <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Standing up from the cover of the
shadows, Mica heads forward calculating and planning each step and
breath he takes. He slows the surroundings down and takes in every
sight, every sound, and every smell he can. As he feels the leather
armor on his body and the weight of his weapons in his hands, he knows
he’s got this. He can do this. He must.</span></span><br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Hey!
Whatcha doin’?!” A thug notices Mica’s advancement but is
unintimidated by the approaching tweeker. “Yo! I axed you a
question.” He pulls out a Glock 21 from his pants and flips off the
safety.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Forty-five
caliber, Mica is very familiar with it. Mica stops and so does every
gang member present, watching for what happens to this old vagrant.
Mica’s right hand slides on top of the whip and unclips it. “What are
you doing here?” he demands. He knows how stupid it sounds, but he has
to stall and distract them while he finalizes things.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Doin’ business. Now git!”</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mica doesn’t move. The thug takes three steps forward, chambering a round in his gun.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Did you hear me? I said--”</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Three
steps was all Mica needed. In a flash the whip is out and slicing the
back of the thug’s hand open. He yelps and drops the firearm
immediately. Gun shots rain in from the twenty-seven others, but Mica
is behind an SUV before a single trigger is pulled.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Who is that?! He with you fools?” one gang banger shouts.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Ain’t no way! He’s with you!”</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This
is exactly what Mica was aiming for: confusion. The prime situation
would be if they started fighting amongst each other, but that’s
doubtful. They might damage their merchandise if they do that.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Protect the product!” Seven gang bangers huddle around the five hostages as one of the kids begins to cry.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Shut up!” And without warning he kicks the kid.</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Hey!!”
Mica stands up from his hiding spot, throws a knife with all his might
at the terrorist. With a thud, the blade finds its mark in the meat of
the thigh. A retaliating barrage is shot in Mica’s direction, but again
he’s long gone from that spot.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Let’s get outta here!” A gang member cowers at the thought that he could be next.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It’s
one douche--” but before he can finish his petty logic, he’s clocked in
the back of the head by a cane and Mica is able to easily take out two
others with the same weapon before he is gone and they are shooting at
his shadow.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An
eerie silence falls, over the moans and groans from the injured. The
wind blows leaves across the asphalt and nobody moves for seconds at a
time. A startling hiss cracks the silence as one of the SUV’s groans
under the lack of support from its flat tire. Investigating, the gang
finds no one.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“What the hell man?”</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Shut up.” The leader whispers and listens but hears nothing but whimpers and scattering leaves.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Without
warning a News Van’s alarm goes off. First one, then two, until all of
them blare in the early morning hours and every gang member is
disoriented by the obvious diversion. Out of nowhere, the middle gang
banger is whipped in the throat and drops to his knees. Not a single
shot is fired as Mica breaks the various limbs of the thugs trying to
stop him from running off again until only a select few stand in between
him and the kids. They cautiously approach Mica with the realization
that this is no old bum.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mica
unexpectedly throws his cane, cracking a gang banger’s skull on the far
left, as the remaining thugs advance without caution but full of fear.
Mica pulls out two mini-clubs from off of his back and goes to town on
their hands, knees, jaws and any part of their body that gets in the way
or tries to cause harm. Mica is only hit once, and that comes from a
wild swing with a bat to his ribs. He slams the mini-club into the
thug’s collar bone and easily knocks him out.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">With
the car alarms still blazing in the background, Mica knows he has to
hurry. He hears the sirens from the police and Mica scrounges for his
weapons and quickly approaches the kids. They cower at the sound of the
unknown man approaching.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Hey, it’s okay.” Slowly Mica lifts the canvas bags off of each of their heads. “Are any of you hurt?</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All timidly shake their heads.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“You’ll
be fine.” He kneels down, looking into the eyes of a little girl. Her
eyes red and cheeks flushed, Mica wipes away one of her tears. “The
good guys are on their way.” He would say more, but there is a flash of
white light from behind him.</span></span></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Saga-of-the-Nine.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Saga-of-the-Nine.jpg"><img alt="Saga of the Nine" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-41059" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Saga-of-the-Nine.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Saga-of-the-Nine.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" id="outer_postBodyPS" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div id="postBodyPS">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Change
affects everyone and it is no different for Jackson. Living in Area 38
for as long as he can remember, he knows of no better way to exist than
under the tyrannical rule of Christopher Stone, son of Stewart Stone
from The Nine of The United Governmental Areas, aka The UGA. This all
takes a dramatic turn when Jackson finds a red, metal box buried in his
yard, filled with illegal artifacts—journals, a Bible, CDs, etc.—that
are from a man of whom he has no recollection of: Mica Rouge.</span></span></div>
<div id="postBodyPS">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The
year is 2036 and Mica, unlike Jackson, does know of a better way of
life but is torn apart as he sees his country, The United States of
America, crumbling from within by group known as The Political Mafia.
The Mafia has infiltrated levels upon levels of governmental resources
and it is up to Mica and a vigilante group known as The USA Division to
stop them and their dark Utopian vision. To their demise, and at the
country's expense, The Division fails and has no choice but to watch The
Constitution dissolve and transform into The UGA.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
a final stand, having not given up hope, Mica and what is left of The
Division, give one final fight in Colorado, or better known as Area 38.
However, all is lost as The Division is betrayed by one of their own,
Stewart Stone. Mica is left with no choice but to hide in exile, leaving
what little history he can of himself and the great United States of
America, with his wife, long time friends, and newly born son in hopes
that they will one day finish what he could not.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jackson,
having found this legacy twenty-seven years later, decides to start the
war that will end The Nine, and he with an outcast group known as The
Raiders, begins his fight with Christopher Stone in Area 38. Filled with
betrayal, unity, despair, hope, hate and love Area 38 follows both Mica
and Jackson in their attempts to restore what they believe to be true
freedom, and where one fails, the other rises to the seemingly
impossible challenge.</span></span></div>
</div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Saga-Nine-Mikey-D-B-ebook/dp/B00I3I8R9W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1391036693&sr=1-1&keywords=mikey+d.+b." href="http://www.amazon.com/Saga-Nine-Mikey-D-B-ebook/dp/B00I3I8R9W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1391036693&sr=1-1&keywords=mikey+d.+b." target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Dystopian Thriller</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – PG13</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Mikey%20D.%20B.&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank" href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Mikey%20D.%20B.&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with Mikey D. B. on <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikey-D-B/193122724228568?ref=hl" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikey-D-B/193122724228568?ref=hl" target="_blank">Facebook</a> &<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/mikeydbii" href="https://twitter.com/mikeydbii" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" data-mce-href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.mikeydb.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29rFXKoKCy5nHRPTeDOI1JD41dROQ" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.mikeydb.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29rFXKoKCy5nHRPTeDOI1JD41dROQ" target="_blank">www.mikeydb.com</a></b></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-62353166284128336202014-12-31T10:00:00.000-05:002014-12-31T10:00:11.126-05:00#Excerpt from WITNESS TO MY HEART by Loni Flowers @LoniFlowers #Romance #MustRead #TBR Choosing to dress in my own clothes for dinner, I slipped on a soft,
baby blue blouse with short, capped sleeves, a pair of slim-fit, jean
capris, and my brown, strappy sandals. Twisting my long dark strands
into a loose knot, it felt good to wear my own clothes and I headed
downstairs to the kitchen.<br />
<br />
David, who was only slightly
taller than Caroline, was physically the polar opposite of Max. Max was
tall and broad with obviously well-defined muscles, and David was much
thinner. Also well toned, but not as obviously as Max, David was pale
with short, wavy, blonde hair. He was an absolute perfect match for
Caroline. Together, David and Max sat at the dining room table, drinking
their beers as I eased through the foyer.<br />
<br />
“David, can
you get this bowl down for me?” Caroline asked. He stood, without
noticing me as I stopped outside the threshold to the kitchen. Max’s
eyes found me instantly and he assessed me in his iron chair with one
ankle crossed over the other. He changed into khakis and a navy collared
shirt. It was a pleasant surprise to see him dressing up a bit for
dinner. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. His pose, so casual, yet
confident, was appealing in so many ways.<br />
<br />
“Join the party,” Max finally said with a smile.<br />
<br />
I stepped into the doorway and Caroline turned. “Oh, Abi, how are you feeling? I hope you were able to get some rest?”<br />
<br />
“It was enough I guess,” I smiled, peering at Max, while remembering his unexpected charge into my room earlier.<br />
<br />
“What?”
Max asked. “Sorry I woke you. Next time, I’ll let the cleaners leave
your clothes hanging on the front porch… including your sexy lingerie.”<br />
<br />
Caroline and I gasped. “You went through my clothes?”<br />
<br />
He picked up his beer with a chuckle and walked to the patio door. “Of course not, what do you think I am… a pervert?”<br />
<br />
“Yes!” Caroline answered sarcastically.<br />
<br />
“Well,
I’m not, but I know my instincts were right,” he grinned. “Now I’m
curious if it’s the black or red you prefer? I already had you pegged as
a red girl, but I’m sure you have some naughty black mixed up somewhere
in there too.”<br />
<br />
My mouth gaped open, and I was unable
to think of a comeback. Max stared at me, his eyes penetrating my body
as if he could clearly see the black lace bra and panty set I wore
beneath my clothes. I wanted to run away and change so he wouldn’t be
right. And I was sure my silence and shocked expression confirmed his
suspicions. David snickered, trying to snuff out a laugh as he peeked at
me from behind Caroline.<br />
<br />
“C’mon David, let’s sit outside.”<br />
<br />
David
walked past and patted me on the back. “Sorry, Abi, but if you could
see your face right now…” He chuckled again and grabbed his beer from
the table before opening the patio door.<br />
<br />
Max caught my
eye and winked as he followed David. That man is going to drive me nuts!
I faced Caroline and she stared back with her hand on her hip.<br />
<br />
“I can’t believe him… both of them!” she chided.<br />
<br />
I
waved the whole conversation off and walked around the bar beside her.
After all the other exchanges Max and I had these last two days, this
one was fairly tame, even if it pissed me off. “It doesn’t make a
difference. What’s bad about the whole thing is: Max was right. I do
have a lot of red… and I’m kind of wearing black right now.”<br />
<br />
Caroline gave me the once-over and smirked. “Cotton?”<br />
<br />
“Lace.”<br />
<br />
“You are a naughty girl,” she teased. “I didn’t think you had it in you.”<br />
<br />
“Oh hush! There’s a lot about me you don’t know, my lingerie being just one of a number of choices.”<br />
<br />
“Oh
no…. let me stop you right there. I don’t need any mental pictures. How
about you chop up the vegetables and just keep that dirty talk to
yourself?”<br />
<br />
I laughed. “I think I can handle that.” I had all kinds of dirty flashing through my mind lately.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Witness-to-my-Heart.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Witness-to-my-Heart.jpg"><img alt="Witness to my Heart" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-41881" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Witness-to-my-Heart.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Witness-to-my-Heart.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
Keep
a low profile. That's what Abigale Peterson was supposed to do,
especially when the person she was being protected from was one of the
world's worst crime lords. After seven years in the Witness Protection
Program, she felt no safer now than she did when she was seventeen.
Revenge was rarely forgotten when it came to a professional criminal
like Zerilli.<br />
<br />
Low profiles meant no social life and definitely no love life.<br />
<br />
Paranoia
and lies became daily habits, going against everything Abigale believed
in, but they kept her safe. They kept everyone safe.<br />
<br />
Until
a house fire puts her out of that safety and into the arms of a
stranger. Max Smith is sexy, smart, and has major attitude. He’s the
only one who seems to get her. He calms her fears and comforts her from
her nightmares. But he also sees right through her lies.<br />
<br />
Before
Abigale can stop, she’s in too deep; confiding too much and breaking
the one rule she promised herself to uphold: Never fall in love.<br />
<br />
Bu<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">y Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Witness-my-Heart-Loni-Flowers-ebook/dp/B00MLN4IFW" href="http://www.amazon.com/Witness-my-Heart-Loni-Flowers-ebook/dp/B00MLN4IFW" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Contemporary Romance</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – R</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Loni-Flowers/e/B00JOF1XYO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" href="http://www.amazon.com/Loni-Flowers/e/B00JOF1XYO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Connect with Loni Flowers through<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLoniFlowers" href="https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLoniFlowers" target="_blank">Facebook</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>&amp;<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/LoniFlowers" href="https://twitter.com/LoniFlowers" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-13225602207110364782014-12-26T07:00:00.000-05:002014-12-29T03:11:12.516-05:00Cheryl Rice on Writing "Where Have I Been All My Life" @RiceonLife #AmReading #Memoir #Women <b>What Inspired Me to Write"Where Have I Been All My Life"</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
One life
changing event and three simultaneous inner urgings inspired me to write
my book, Where Have I Been All My Life? A Journey Toward Love and
Wholeness.<br />
<br />
The life altering event was the swift,
merciless death of my mother – who happened to also be my best friend –
when she was an otherwise robust and healthy 68 years old and I was 45. I
was completely unprepared for life without her. Her death broke me open
in unprecedented, yet ultimately life-affirming, ways.<br />
<br />
While
I was mired in grief, and playing all sorts of grief games in an effort
to stay connected with her, I also felt compelled to live more boldly,
authentically and vibrantly than I ever had before. Even though I had
always prided myself on living with intention and enjoyed setting and
reaching challenging goals, there were a few dreams, like writing a
book, that I had been too scared and overwhelmed to tackle. But in the
wake of my mom’s death there was no time for just thinking about
“tomorrow” or relegating my long buried dream to “someday.” My someday
was now.<br />
<br />
The second thing that inspired me to write my
book was a deep, intrinsic desire to produce something that would
outlive me. While I had two wonderful stepchildren and a puppy I treated
as my baby, I hadn’t yet truly offered the world something tangible
that would endure. And now I had a fierce longing to give creative birth
to something that would speak for me when I was gone – something that
would be part of my legacy.<br />
<br />
The third thread of
inspiration for my book came from a yearning to find and validate my own
voice. Ironically, as a professional leadership and life coach I was
comfortable and competent helping others, especially women, claim and
cultivate their own voice yet I had been remiss in doing the same for
myself. Coming from a family of writers (but never identifying as one
myself), I always knew that writing was a wonderful way of clarifying
and cleansing one’s thoughts, but beyond penning some bad adolescent
poetry and keeping journals episodically throughout my life, I never
took myself or my writing seriously. That changed once my mother died,
my heart broke, and my time and need for self-inquiry and validation
burst forth.<br />
<br />
Lastly, I had a strong desire to reach out
and connect with other people, women in particular, who were struggling
with similar issues. Issues like self-acceptance, using longing as a
substitute for loving, and overcoming the loss of a loved one. Reading
books, especially stories of personal resilience written by women, had
always been a comfort and balm to me. Through the brave and honest
stories of other women I found strength, companionship and validation.
My loneliness or isolation would lift, even for a bit, and my fortitude
and hopefulness would be reignited. Also, since I adore championing
women, writing a book felt like a natural and necessary vehicle to
connect with them on both a deeper and broader level and to inspire
those who are on a similar journey toward love and self-acceptance.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Where-Have-I-Been-All-My-Life.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Where-Have-I-Been-All-My-Life.jpg"><img alt="Where Have I Been All My Life" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-41809" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Where-Have-I-Been-All-My-Life.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Where-Have-I-Been-All-My-Life.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
Where
Have I Been All My Life? is a compelling memoir recounting one woman’s
journey through grief and a profound feeling of unworthiness to
wholeness and healing. It begins with the chillingly sudden death of
Rice’s mother, and is followed by her foray into the center of
mourning. <br />
<br />
With wisdom, grace, and humor, Rice recounts
the grief games she plays in an effort to resurrect her mother; her
efforts to get her therapist, who
she falls desperately in love with, to run away with her; and the
transformation of her husband from fantasy man to ordinary guy to
superhero. In the process, she experiences aching revelations about her
family and her past—and realizes what she must leave behind, and what
she can carry forward with her.</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
Bu<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">y Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Where-Have-Been-All-Life/dp/163152917X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405965204&sr=8-1&keywords=where+have+i+been+all+my+life%3F" href="http://www.amazon.com/Where-Have-Been-All-Life/dp/163152917X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1405965204&sr=8-1&keywords=where+have+i+been+all+my+life%3F" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Memoir</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – PG-13</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Cheryl-Rice/e/B00J5OWIGQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1" href="http://www.amazon.com/Cheryl-Rice/e/B00J5OWIGQ/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Connect with Cheryl Rice through<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="%20https://www.facebook.com/yourvoiceyourvision " href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-admin/%20https://www.facebook.com/yourvoiceyourvision" target="_blank">Facebook</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>&<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/RiceOnLife" href="https://twitter.com/RiceOnLife" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: bold ! important;">Website <a class="in-cell-link" data-mce-href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.yourvoiceyourvision.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-KsIroKPbTLpqZOg7K5rhGXAchzg" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.yourvoiceyourvision.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-KsIroKPbTLpqZOg7K5rhGXAchzg" target="_blank">www.yourvoiceyourvision.com</a></b></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-2522222283396429852014-12-23T09:00:00.000-05:002014-12-24T05:38:28.717-05:00#Excerpt from A LIFE LESS ORDINARY by Victoria Bernadine @VicBernadine #AmReading #ChickLit <div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Manny glanced up as her assistant energetically bounced in.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Morning, Manny.”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Morning, Roxie. How was your evening?”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Great–went to that new Robert Downey Jr. movie–<i>rrrooowwwrrrr!</i> Phil wasn’t too impressed with my drooling though.”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Manny laughed. “I’d expect not. I guess I need to go see it then.”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yeah, sure. When was the last time you actually went to a movie in the theatre?”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Manny paused, considering the question then shrugged carelessly. “Can’t remember, actually.”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Roxie
shook her head in exasperated fondness and sat down in front of Manny’s
desk. She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “So, the new boss
starts today?”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yep,” Manny replied absently, reviewing the e-mails in her inbox.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Are you going to be okay with this? I mean, you–”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Of
course I’m okay with it. Steph’s a nice person, bright, energetic,
competent, levelheaded, full of new ideas. She may have a bit of a
learning curve ahead of her, but she’ll do just fine. She may be just
what we need around here. Perk us up a bit.”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Yeah, but you–”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Manny
took her hands off the keyboard and turned to face Roxie directly. She
gave her a reassuring smile and calmly held her gaze.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“I’m
okay with it,” she said. “Really. I didn’t want to be the boss anyway.”
She paused then continued. “Everything’s going to be fine. You’ll see. A
new boss will be fun!”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Roxie grimaced cynically and Manny shook her head in mock disapproval.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“We should get to work,” she urged gently.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Roxie nodded and stood. “Yeah, that at least never changes. But Manny…”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Manny raised a quizzical eyebrow.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“It should’ve been you.”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/ALifeLessOrdinary.jpg" /></span></span></div>
<div id="postBodyPS" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; text-align: center;">
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For
the last fifteen years, Rose “Manny” Mankowski has been a very good
girl. She turned her back on her youthful fancies and focused on her
career. But now, at the age of 45, she’s questioning her choices and
feeling more and more disconnected from her own life. When she’s passed
over for promotion and her much younger new boss implies Manny’s life
will never change, something snaps. In the blink of an eye, she’s quit
her job, sold her house and cashed in her pension, and she’s leaving
town on a six month road trip.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After
placing a personal ad for a travelling companion, she’s joined in her
mid-life crisis by Zeke Powell, the cynical, satirical, most-read – and
most controversial – blogger for the e-magazine, What Women Want. Zeke’s
true goal is to expose Manny’s journey as a pitiful and desperate
attempt to reclaim her lost youth – and increase his readership at the
same time. Leaving it all behind for six months is just an added bonus.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now,
armed with a bagful of destinations, a fistful of maps, and an
out-spoken imaginary friend named Harvey, Manny’s on a quest to
rediscover herself – and taking Zeke along for the ride.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AMJBOSQ" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amazon</a> & <a href="http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/299257" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – ChickLit, Contemporary Fiction</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – PG-13</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Victoria-Bernadine/e/B00AN2VS5G/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <b>Connect</b> with Victoria Bernadine on <a href="https://twitter.com/VicBernadine" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Blog <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://victoriabernadine.wordpress.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2_NZu0iup6n2vJwBd--NRvslbSPnw" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">victoriabernadine.wordpress.com</a></b></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-42764463558228559172014-12-23T08:00:00.000-05:002014-12-24T05:30:08.191-05:00Madi Brown on Finding the Right Book Cover Designer @Madithe1brown #AmWriting #SelfPub #ChickLit <div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<u><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why Book Covers Are So Important</span></span></b></span></u></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Unless
you don't have eyes, people are visual. If there's a handsome guy
sitting across from me during my daily commute on the train, I'm going
to look. If I'm away on vacation, I'm going to appreciate the beautiful
sights around me, because I know that I'm there to relax. If my mom
bakes one of her yummy peach cobblers, I'm going to feast on it with my
eyes first, and then I'm going to devour it. In the world of books, book
covers work in the same way. There are probably millions of them out
there, but most readers are only looking for one title. Just think, your
book cover is going to be the very first thing that a buyer will see.
If you're suddenly feeling the pressure of of just how important a book
cover really might be, then continue to read on.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">“I've
penned a stellar novel. People are going to love me once they read what
I've written.” Plenty of authors are probably thinking the exact same
thing. But how are you going to let people know about this stellar body
of work that you've just created? I'll tell you how. You're going to
have a fabulous book cover that will make your book stand out from the
rest. And don’t worry, I get it. Writers aren't book designers, but
here's where you bring in someone to help with bringing your vision to
life. Outsourcing can be your new best friend.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><span style="font-size: small;">How to Find a Book Cover Designer That Fits Your Needs</span></b></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I'm pretty infatuated with the book cover for my debut novel,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>The Truth About Emily</b>,
but it wasn't a one step process of knowing what I wanted straight
away. It started with me doing research. Think about your storyline or
nonfiction topic. Jot down some ideas so that you have a place of
reference to pull from. Do you have a title already? Great. If you do,
then keep that in mind too, because it's another source. Now go online
and begin looking at other people's book covers. Are they popular
authors? Ask yourself what it is, if anything, that's drawing your eyes
to it. How do you feel about the colors, the images, the font style, and
the font size? Also, check out some of the books that you've previously
purchased; specifically on the strength of its book cover. What caused
you to click on buying it? Next up, what you want to do, is take all of
that information and keep it somewhere safe. We'll come back to it.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Now
you'll need to find yourself a competent book cover designer. Fiverr
(an online company that will do almost any task for you for $5.00) has
loads of people on there who can assist you for a bargain, but just
remember that most of those people specialize in quantity over quality.
By this, I mean that you might end up with a book cover identical to
someone else or it may have an appearance that looks manufactured. This
isn’t to say that there aren’t some gems on there, but you'll have to
diligently seek them out. As for myself, I chose to go with a
freelancer. I was drawn to the element of selection in having access to a
host of talented designers with exceptional portfolios and being able
to make a choice based on a price that I’ve set. My final winning pick
was Gavin Pledger, Creative Soutions King).</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">By
now ,you’ve found yourself a book cover designer (as far as the work
contract is concerned, make sure that you add in how many times they’re
willing to revise. Negotiate a flat fee). The first thing that they’ll
want to know is what creative direction you’d like them to go in. This
is when you whip out the notes that you’ve been compiling for your
project. It’s your starting point. Don't be afraid to let them know what
works for you, and what doesn’t. A really good book cover designer will
be as excited as you are in getting right!</span></span></div>
<div style="font-size: 13.3333px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/truthaboutemily.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/truthaboutemily.jpg"><img alt="truthaboutemily" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-41632" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/truthaboutemily.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/truthaboutemily.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" id="outer_postBodyPS" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div id="postBodyPS">
<h2 data-mce-style="color: #cc6600;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">"If you LOVE New York, if you’re a
name-dropping, fashion fiend careerist; fed up with serial dating,
plagued with a thirst for sex, then you’ll totally stalk me for what
I've penned.” - Author, Madi Brown</span></span></h2>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i>Description</i></span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">29-year-old
Emily Greene looks the part, but she’s still working on becoming a
modern-day woman. Not that she’s one to back down from a challenge, but
living as an eternal work-in-progress wasn't exactly the goal that she
had in mind. It’s a harsh but true realization---the idea that that time
isn't on her side, and the notion that wanting to have it all, doesn't
mean getting it. The verdict is in; with zero prospects for a
relationship and a stalled blogging career, Emily has every reason to
believe that she’s been living a life too humdrum for her own good.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Making
the change won’t be easy. She’ll have to do whatever it takes; start
dating like a man, become more selective about which RSVP's she accepts,
and work even harder at getting her dream job.The payoff’s huge; a
modern twist on a storybook ending, but gains don’t often come without
risks. In the here and now Emily just may be forced to choose...It’s got
to be one or the other----the profession that she’s always wanted, or
the love that she’s never had.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<br />
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">˃˃˃ Praise for Madi Brown & </span></span></h3>
<h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: large;">her debut novel, The Truth About Emily</span></span></h3>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">"The
added depth of character promises complexity but wraps everything in
the saucy cloak of Emily's evolving personality and newfound beliefs
about life, love, and the real nature of happiness. And this is where
The Truth About Emily outshines many competitors, making it a
recommended read for those seeking more than a standard romance novel." <i>- D. Donovan, eBook Reviewer, Midwest Book Reviews</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">"This
book has just about anything a girl would love to read about. If
there's anything Emily Greene has is ISH and lots of it, oh the
ending... This book is a total keeper, just anything about fashion to
relationships to friends and family." <i>- Y. Sanchez, Goodreads</i></span></span></div>
</div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Buy Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Emily-Madi-Brown-ebook/dp/B00MNIL5TW" href="http://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Emily-Madi-Brown-ebook/dp/B00MNIL5TW" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Genre – Contemporary Women's Fiction</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Rating – PG18</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Madi-Brown/e/B00MNMD2ZS/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" href="http://www.amazon.com/Madi-Brown/e/B00MNMD2ZS/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Connect</b> with Madi Brown on <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/Madibrown.combooksandblog" href="https://www.facebook.com/Madibrown.combooksandblog" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/Madithe1brown" href="https://twitter.com/Madithe1brown" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-85652183946211360822014-12-19T08:00:00.000-05:002014-12-19T08:00:03.435-05:00KS Ferguson Says Sub-Genres Multiply Faster Than Rabbits, Agree? #AmWriting #Fantasy #SelfPub Do you read fantasy? Which kind? Back when I started reading
fantasy—just before the invention of the printing press—fantasy was all
wizards with staffs and cloaks, kids with magical objects that allowed
them to fly to the moon, or crazy professors making trips to the center
of the Earth. I don't recall there being separate sub-genres. If there
were, the librarian didn't tell me about them.<br />
<br />
Now
days, sub-genres seem to multiply faster than rabbits. You've got your
epic fantasy, your sword-and-sorcery fantasy, steam-punk, dark,
superheroes, and urban, just to mention a few.<br />
<br />
I just
have to ask—why urban? I mean, isn't that a tad discriminatory? Is an
urban setting somehow superior to a suburban setting? No witchcraft
going on behind those perfectly trimmed hedges? No summoning of demons
from the sinkhole that's just opened in the back yard?<br />
<br />
Don't
get me started on rural settings! No one thinks it would be amusing if
the shape-shifter hero morphed into a dairy cow to blend into the herd
or gored the baddie to death? No possessed pocket gophers taking over
the town? If pocket gophers aren't a creation of the Devil, I don't know
what is!<br />
<br />
When I wrote Touching Madness and published
it, retail sites insisted I classify it according to their prescribed
list of genres. Because it involves traveling to alternate realities, it
might fit the fantasy alternate histories category. But it's not about a
single alternate reality.<br />
<br />
Touching Madness isn't epic,
sword-and-sorcery, or steampunk. It's sort of urban fantasy. But it
isn't strictly confined to an urban environment. While River spends most
of the book in Centerville, Kansas, important chapters see him in a
Raptor military camp, snowy winter woods, and an underground compound of
unknown origins.<br />
<br />
So in keeping with current trends,
I'm proposing a new category: contemporary,
alternate-dimension-hopping-magic-advanced-technology-and-demons
fantasy. What do you think? Will it catch on at Amazon?<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Touching-Madness.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Touching-Madness.jpg"><img alt="Touching Madness" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-41637" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Touching-Madness.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Touching-Madness.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Light
bulbs talk to River Madden; God doesn't. When the homeless
schizophrenic unintentionally fractures a dimensional barrier and
accidentally steals a gym bag containing a million dollars, everyone
from the multiverse police to the local crime boss—and an eight-foot
tall demon—are after him. Can he dodge them long enough to correct his
mistakes and prevent the destruction of three separate dimensions? If he
succeeds, will the light bulbs stop singing off-key?</span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007H9QPLA" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007H9QPLA" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Contemporary, Urban fantasy</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – R</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=K%20S%20Ferguson&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank" href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=K%20S%20Ferguson&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" data-mce-href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ksferguson.net&usd=2&usg=ALhdy28uYLnWK2puPbkhz-G_C7dYRTpoBw" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.ksferguson.net&usd=2&usg=ALhdy28uYLnWK2puPbkhz-G_C7dYRTpoBw" target="_blank">http://www.ksferguson.net</a></b></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-24959286607649452082014-12-17T10:00:00.000-05:002014-12-17T10:00:01.762-05:00Hank Quense Shares Key Writing Tips to Create Believable Characters @Hanque99 #SciFi #WriteTip <br />
To
make a believable character, you have to develop the character in four
separate areas: physical (outer) attributes, mental (inner) attributes, a
biography and a dominant reader emotion.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Physical attributes: </b> </span><br />
<br />
These
attributes are the obvious ones. They tell the reader what the
character looks like. Many beginning or inexperienced fiction writers
stop the character development at this point. What they have created is
a cardboard cutout of a real character. No reader wants to spend time
with characters like this because they aren’t human. In fact, these
attributes are the least important of the four areas. I’ve written and
had published short stories in which I never described the characters. I
left that job to the reader’s imagination. The only important
attribute here is dialog; how does the character speak?. Does the
character talk like a banker or a thug? Does the character’s dialog use
gonna, inna and other words of this ilk? It’s important to
differentiate the characters through their dialog. If every character
sounds the same as all the other character, it won’t be an interesting
story.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Mental attributes: </b> </span><br />
<br />
These
attributes are much more important than the physical ones. These are
what turn the cardboard character into a “human.” These are the
attributes you have to assign to your character. Every one has a
personal philosophy and your character needs one also. Is the character
an optimist? A pessimist? Is she an individualist or a pragmatist?
Once you assign a philosophy, the character has to act in that fashion.
You can’t have a optimist acting like a pessimist. If you do, the
reader will call you out on it. Other important traits include the
character’s personality. Is he charming, despotic, murderous, friendly?
And don’t forget to give the character a few quirks. Does he avoid
making eye contact with others? Does he overeat? How about picking at
her finger nails, or her nail polish?<br />
<br />
All this attributes are essential to defining a well-rounded character.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Biography:</b> </span><br />
<br />
Most new writers don’t understand the need for a character bio. After
all, most of the material will never make it into the story, so why
bother. Writing a bio allows the writer to understand the character and
learn what makes him tick. If you don’t have a bio, you don’t know how
the character will react in different situations. Suppose you didn’t
wrote a bio and someone walks up to your character and punches him in
the mouth. How doe he react? Does you character punch back? Turn
around and walk away? You don’t know what the character will do,
because you don’t understand the character. What if a beautiful woman
grabs him and kisses him. Does you character turn red and develop a
stammer? Does he ask for her phone number? Does he kiss her back?
Without a bio, you’re guessing what the character will do. Guess will
ensure the character inconsistency.<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Dominant reader emotion:</b> </span><br />
<br />
This attribute isn’t discussed much in fiction writing books. It’s
the emotion you want the reader to experience when the character is in a
scene. All the main characters need one or more of this attribute.
Typical reader emotions are: sympathy, annoyance, pity, amusement,
empathy and affection. Don’t give the story’s hero a dominant reader
emotion like annoyance or hatred. These are reserved for the bad guy in
the story.<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Moxies-Problem.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Moxies-Problem.jpg"><img alt="Moxie's Problem" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-42271" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Moxies-Problem.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Moxies-Problem.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br />
Do
you enjoy untypical coming-of-age stories? Well, you won’t find one
more untypical that Moxie’s Problem. Moxie is an obnoxious, teen-age
princess who has never been outsider her father’s castle. Until now. The
real world is quite different and she struggles to come to grips with
reality. The story take space against a backdrop of Camelot. But it
isn’t the Camelot of legends. It’s Camelot in a parallel universe. So,
all bets are off!</div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Buy Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Moxies-Problem-Hank-Quense-ebook/dp/B00MK5UA80/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1409836365&sr=1-1&keywords=hank+quense" href="http://www.amazon.com/Moxies-Problem-Hank-Quense-ebook/dp/B00MK5UA80/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1409836365&sr=1-1&keywords=hank+quense" target="_blank">Amazon</a> &<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/448914" href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/448914" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Genre – Fantasy, Sci-fi</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Rating – G</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Hank-Quense/e/B002BM76IE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" href="http://www.amazon.com/Hank-Quense/e/B002BM76IE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Connect with Hank Quense through<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/StrangeWorldsOnline" href="https://www.facebook.com/StrangeWorldsOnline" target="_blank">Facebook</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>&<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/hanque99" href="https://twitter.com/hanque99" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13.3333339691162px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b style="font-weight: bold !important;">Website <a class="in-cell-link" data-mce-href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://hank-quense.com/wp/&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29hrxwzFyEMQY_AGYyT9ew6gPqByA" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://hank-quense.com/wp/&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29hrxwzFyEMQY_AGYyT9ew6gPqByA" target="_blank">http://hank-quense.com/wp/</a></b></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-91016833364701007552014-12-05T07:00:00.000-05:002014-12-08T01:08:31.962-05:00S.A. Snow on Procrastination - The Jaws That Bite, The Claws That Catch @BooksbySnow #Scifi <div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Beware the Procrastination Demons</b></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Have
you ever heard that poem the Jabberwocky? It’s one of my favorites. I
even wrote a short story around it once, to an extent. “Beware the
Jabberwock, my son! The jaws the bite, the claws that catch!”</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Jabberwock is procrastination.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I
honestly do not believe in writer’s block. I simply think it’s a form
of procrastination and people just don’t know to get around it. They
become so good at it that they can’t figure out which way to even start.
Well, the news flash is in!</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Put
your fingers on the keyboard, pick up that pen and just start going!
You can’t edit a blank page, you can’t share a story that hasn’t been
written. Procrastination is that little voice in your head telling you
that you can’t do it, and the fact of the matter is, you are the only
person in the way of yourself.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Stop
putting the blame on someone else, stop finding excuses (there’s a
saying I’m going to share...excuses are like armpits; everyone has two
and they both stink!), and get your butt in gear and write that story!
It’s important. It matters! It’ll make you feel good!</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Everyone
struggles with procrastination. Know you are NOT alone. I have issues
with it, and so does the next person. The trick to avoiding it is
finding out how to motivate yourself. Sometimes I use websites like
Write or Die by Dr Wicked in order to motivate me (and yes, I use the
Kamikaze level where it deletes your writing if you don’t write fast
enough), I use accountability partners, friends who are allowed to yell
at me, and sometimes it’s as simple as just scheduling the time to write
at the same place/same time during the day every day.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Find
what works for you. And sometimes, when the Jabberwock is really after
you, you might need to try something new. Sit in the bathtub with
pillows and lock the door. Go outside to the park and only bring a
notebook, pen and the last two lines you have written. Go to Starbucks
with a writer friend, put in headphones and stare at the computer vowing
not to talk to your friend. Hide under the covers on your bed with the
laptop on your lap and type away. Take your laptop to your car, park in a
lot where there is no wifi and pretend you ran out of gas and are
waiting on AAA to come to your rescue in their big white truck.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Be
creative in your ways to avoid procrastination, and you’ll find your
creativity won’t stop flowing. You’ll have slain the Jabberwock with the
very bite and catch it dealt you.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/AcrossWorldsCollision.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/AcrossWorldsCollision.jpg"><img alt="AcrossWorldsCollision" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40725" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/AcrossWorldsCollision.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/AcrossWorldsCollision.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jane expected six months undercover to be hard; she expected it to be lonely and bleak. She didn’t expect to find love. <br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" /><br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" />Jane
Butler, a CIA operative, is assigned the task of infiltrating the
Xanthians and determining if they’re a threat to humanity. Going
undercover as a Xanthian mate, she boards the transport ship and meets
Usnavi—her new mate. After spending six days traveling through space,
Jane is ecstatic to explore the Xanthian station and soon sets out to
complete her mission. The only problem? Usnavi—and the feelings she is
quickly developing. <br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" /><br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" />Fumbling
their way through varying sexual expectations, cooking catastrophes,
and cultural differences, they soon discover life together is never
boring. As Jane and Usnavi careen into a relationship neither of them
expected, Jane uncovers dark secrets about the Xanthians and realizes
she may no longer be safe. When it becomes clear she’s on her own, Jane
is forced to trust and rely on Usnavi. Simultaneously struggling with
her mission, her feelings for Usnavi, and homesickness, Jane faces
questions she never imagined she would have to answer.</span></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Across-Worlds-Collision-S-Snow-ebook/dp/B00MANJM2M" href="http://www.amazon.com/Across-Worlds-Collision-S-Snow-ebook/dp/B00MANJM2M" target="_blank">Amazon</a> &<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/435337" href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/435337" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Blended Science Fiction, Erotica</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – NC17</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/S.-A.-Snow/e/B00MARDKL2/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" href="http://www.amazon.com/S.-A.-Snow/e/B00MARDKL2/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with S. A. Snow on <a data-mce-href="http://www.facebook.com/booksbysnow" href="http://www.facebook.com/booksbysnow" target="_blank">Facebook</a></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-88134739727766746152014-11-28T08:30:00.000-05:002014-12-03T00:48:31.307-05:00Margaret Westlie Shares an #Excerpt from Anna's Secret @MargaretWestlie #HistFic #Mystery #TBR<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA">Ian
surveyed the expanse of red fields linked one to the other by the rail
fences and the wild blueberry bushes, remembering that day, and Anna’s
sturdy figure hurrying away over the crest of the hill, her auburn hair
in its neat bun, shining in the sunlight, her back straight in its grey
drugget dress.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA">He
strode on. The night air against his skin was as warm as milk. He
thought again of the tiny daughter lying beside Anna in the churchyard.
We should have had another, and another after that.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA">He
had said as much to her after she had recovered from their daughter’s
birth, but she had only smiled at him and nodded. She never conceived
again, he thought. …</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA">Old
Annie had attended Belle’s delivery, but there was not much she could
do except give her wormwood against the pain. The baby was turned, she
said. She had tried to turn it but Belle had only screamed in pain and
had begged her to stop. Belle had laboured for a day and half and
finally died from exhaustion. “The baby was likely dead long before that
for the same reason,” said Old Annie.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA">Old
Annie knew things. She had the second sight. She also knew about plants
and seeds and weeds. She attended Donald’s birth too, Ian remembered,
and the birth of the nameless little one. Anna seemed to take great
comfort in Old Annie’s presence after that. She spent many hours
visiting her. At least that’s where I thought she was, he thought. They
say Old Annie knew how to help a woman get with child. I wonder if she
knew how to prevent it too? He shivered at the idea. Would Anna have
done such a thing? Old Annie’s senile now so I guess I’ll never know.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA">His
thoughts took him past Murdoch’s ruined house, doorless now in the
bright moonlight. Old Annie was right about this, too. Murdoch’s door
was smeared with blood, the blood of the just. My Anna’s blood. Though I
don’t know anymore how just she was. Oh, Anna.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA">He
followed the path that took him across the field to where Anna had lain
so few weeks ago. The little pillow of straw, still dark with her
blood, lay a few feet into the field, Ian stopped and stared at it. This
is all that’s left of her, he thought. Rage filled him. Why, Anna? He
kicked the straw pillow to bits and began to run, a great lumbering run.
It felt good to run again. The soft wind blew past his face and
whistled across his ears.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA">Suddenly
he was in James’ dooryard. The house was dark and silent now, the
windows jagged where Donald had broken them. The rage, which had abated
somewhat in his run, returned to a hot boiling fury. “I will burn this
house of sin!” he shouted, and ran to the barn to gather some straw. He
returned in a few moments with a great armful and stuffed it through the
gaping windows, then went back for another. Armload after armload of
straw he carried and stuffed through the windows, far more than he
needed to start a fire.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA">“My
father helped build this house,” he raged, “and I will destroy it!” He
stood and surveyed the dark silent house before lighting the match that
would burn it to ashes. His father’s face seemed to hang in the air
before his own, its expression sorrowful. He remembered that expression
from his childhood, and hesitated before striking the match. The rage
drained away. “Oh, Poppa, what am I to do?” He fell to his knees and
wailed like a tiny child, the tears finally coming, awkward, hot and
wrenching. He buried his face in his hands and wept, the tears dripping
between his work-roughened hands onto his grey homespun shirt. At last,
his sorrow and his anger spent, he rose and stumbled away across the
moonlit fields to his own place, the match still clutched in his
fingers.</span></span></span></div>
<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div class="Bodyparagraph" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-CA"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/annasSecret.jpg" /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Anna
Gillis, the midwife and neighbour in Mattie’s Story, has been found
killed. The close-knit community is deeply shaken by this eruption of
violence, and neighbours come together to help one another and to
discover the perpetrator. But the answer lies Anna’s secret, long
guarded by Old Annie, the last of the original Selkirk Settlers, and the
protagonist of An Irregular Marriage. Join the community! Read Anna’s
Secret and other novels by Margaret A. Westlie.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IEEXUMO" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amazon</a> & <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/418795" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Fiction, mystery, historical</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – G</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Margaret-Westlie/e/B00HZRKK10" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <b>Connect</b> with Margaret Westlie on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/margaretwestlienovelist" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/MargaretWestlie" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.margaretwestlie.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29ilE1Iu2yMnk-3FJ1ZhE-qq3C3Qg" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.margaretwestlie.com</a></b></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-52281391184105338602014-11-27T09:30:00.000-05:002014-11-30T11:48:24.319-05:00Mikey D.B. on the Musical Inspiration that Led to His Book @mikeydbii #MustRead #TBR #Dystopian <div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What inspired me to write my book?</b></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>This is War<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>by 30 Seconds to Mars. I got that album for Christmas in 2009, and the second I heard the first song,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Escape,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>my mind went crazy. Youtube it! It’s the only way to properly visualize what I’m about to tell you. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As
that first song played, I imagined a man, tortured and beaten, sitting
in a chair in the middle of an abandoned football stadium. The war
drums built and built and as they did, another man, a rebel, stepped
into the scene and began to circle the one in the chair. As the lyrics
then played, I pictured that it’s what the rebel would be saying to the
man in the chair.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Time to escape the clutches of a name,</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>No this is not a game,</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>It’s just the beginning.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>I don’t believe in fate but the bottom line,</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>It’s time to pay,</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>You know you’ve got it coming.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
way Jared Leto says these words, it’s as if he’s seeking revenge for
the destitute and war torn lifestyle the man in the chair caused. Just
then, he and a crowd of people shouts:</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>This is war!</i></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I
was listening to that song on a major sound system, taking in the
details of all the instruments and voices, and when this declaration of
war sounded out, the bass shook and goose bumps shot all up and down my
arms. The rest is history really. I wanted to write about a
revolution, and that album became a major player in my writing process.
I did end up getting stuck at one point. The plot became a poor
version of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Hunger Games</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that
had a lot to do with some drama I was dealing with in the dating
world. That whole sad realization put the project on hold and I started
a second one that ended up becoming the missing half to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Area 38.</i> </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I
do have to say, that the ending though, it was my favorite part to
write and is my favorite part to ask people about. I came up with it
while sitting on my bed. No music this time, just was pondering and it
came. I won’t give any spoilers, but it leaves the reader asking
“How--what just happened?” It makes them mad because it seems so
contradicting to the nature of a character, but that’s what I love about
it. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This book,<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Saga of the Nine: Area 38<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></i>leaves
the reader asking these questions, and more, in utter confusion, while
the rest of the three books in the saga are meant to answer those
concerns. The ending seems random to some, but that’s only because the
reader is missing a huge middle chunk. They’ve read ABC and then X.
They don’t know the rest of the alphabet, and that’s where books two,
three and four come in.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Saga-of-the-Nine.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Saga-of-the-Nine.jpg"><img alt="Saga of the Nine" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-41059" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Saga-of-the-Nine.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Saga-of-the-Nine.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" id="outer_postBodyPS" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<div id="postBodyPS">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Change
affects everyone and it is no different for Jackson. Living in Area 38
for as long as he can remember, he knows of no better way to exist than
under the tyrannical rule of Christopher Stone, son of Stewart Stone
from The Nine of The United Governmental Areas, aka The UGA. This all
takes a dramatic turn when Jackson finds a red, metal box buried in his
yard, filled with illegal artifacts—journals, a Bible, CDs, etc.—that
are from a man of whom he has no recollection of: Mica Rouge.</span></span></div>
<div id="postBodyPS">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> The
year is 2036 and Mica, unlike Jackson, does know of a better way of
life but is torn apart as he sees his country, The United States of
America, crumbling from within by group known as The Political Mafia.
The Mafia has infiltrated levels upon levels of governmental resources
and it is up to Mica and a vigilante group known as The USA Division to
stop them and their dark Utopian vision. To their demise, and at the
country's expense, The Division fails and has no choice but to watch The
Constitution dissolve and transform into The UGA.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
a final stand, having not given up hope, Mica and what is left of The
Division, give one final fight in Colorado, or better known as Area 38.
However, all is lost as The Division is betrayed by one of their own,
Stewart Stone. Mica is left with no choice but to hide in exile, leaving
what little history he can of himself and the great United States of
America, with his wife, long time friends, and newly born son in hopes
that they will one day finish what he could not.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jackson,
having found this legacy twenty-seven years later, decides to start the
war that will end The Nine, and he with an outcast group known as The
Raiders, begins his fight with Christopher Stone in Area 38. Filled with
betrayal, unity, despair, hope, hate and love Area 38 follows both Mica
and Jackson in their attempts to restore what they believe to be true
freedom, and where one fails, the other rises to the seemingly
impossible challenge.</span></span></div>
</div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Saga-Nine-Mikey-D-B-ebook/dp/B00I3I8R9W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1391036693&sr=1-1&keywords=mikey+d.+b." href="http://www.amazon.com/Saga-Nine-Mikey-D-B-ebook/dp/B00I3I8R9W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1391036693&sr=1-1&keywords=mikey+d.+b." target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Dystopian Thriller</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – PG13</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Mikey%20D.%20B.&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank" href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Mikey%20D.%20B.&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with Mikey D. B. on <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikey-D-B/193122724228568?ref=hl" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mikey-D-B/193122724228568?ref=hl" target="_blank">Facebook</a> &<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/mikeydbii" href="https://twitter.com/mikeydbii" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" data-mce-href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.mikeydb.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29rFXKoKCy5nHRPTeDOI1JD41dROQ" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.mikeydb.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29rFXKoKCy5nHRPTeDOI1JD41dROQ" target="_blank">www.mikeydb.com</a></b></span></span></div>
</div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-28918292293362415262014-11-22T07:00:00.000-05:002014-11-25T09:39:05.083-05:00ENEMY OF MAN (Chronicles of Kin Roland) #Excerpt by @ScottMoonWriter #Goodreads #SciFi <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Excerpt from Enemy of Man, Chapter One<span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></b></span></span><br />
<br /><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Earth Fleet assaults the lost plane<span style="font-family: inherit;">t .... </span> </b></span></span></i><br />
<br />
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">….He knew she kept them all alive. She was a force of nature. He needed to meet a nice girl, someone like Becca.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
wormhole convulsed. Kin let go of the rail and stood straight. His hand
went to the pistol hanging on his leg. Objects burst from the hazy
opening high in the atmosphere. Most ships that crashed on this huge
planet came alone—pioneers, explorers, or pilgrims fleeing persecution.
Meteors were more common, but during the last three days, a variety of
space junk and wreckage had splashed into the ocean and smashed against
the mountains east of Crater Town. Somewhere in the universe, an epic
battle raged and the debris drifted through the wormhole.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Pacing,
Kin watched the sky until the wormhole began to puke earnestly. Small
pops sounded in the distance, but he suspected they were explosive
thunderclaps.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Damn</i>.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Objects
burst into the air close together, sounding like the chatter of machine
gun fire. Pop-pop-pop. Pop-pop. Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>That’s a planetary assault force</i>.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Each
cluster of fast-moving smoke trails were troopers in Fleet Single
Person Assault Armor units. He had worn an FSPAA unit during his
enlistment and recognized the formation. Several larger objects
followed, flanked by more troopers in airborne assault mode.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Laura emerged from the doorway, paused to stare at the sky, and hastily buttoned up her shirt. “I’m going to the meeting hall.”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Go to a bunker,” Kin said, but she was already running.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Damn!”
Kin estimated a division of Fleet troopers were plummeting toward
Crater Town. He jumped off the side of the deck and ran to the
lighthouse, sprinting up the spiral staircase. When he reached the top,
he doused the light and picked up a horn.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A
large ship emerged from the mouth of the wormhole, bow elevated twenty
degrees too high and drifting sideways. The ship was still under power,
laboriously righting itself as the atmosphere burned it. Kin watched
pieces break off. He didn’t recognize the ship’s class or if it were
built for entry into the atmosphere, but it was shaped like a Fleet
vessel.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An
armada of broken ships, huge things never meant to enter the atmosphere
even if in one piece, were the last through. Kin sounded the alarm.
Horns answered from every corner of Crater Town. Men, women, and
children rushed from their homes with survival kits. He saw many running
to the well to form a bucket line and parents rushing their children to
crude fallout bunkers.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two
companies of assault troopers splashed into the water off shore. Two
additional companies veered right while another two veered left of
Crater Town as flanking elements. Four came straight at him. The command
ship and heavy vehicles—Tanks, Strykers, and reconnaissance
vehicles—fought for altitude. They soared over the town, landing near
the <i>Goliath</i> half buried in the sand between the coast and mountains.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kin
picked up binoculars from the railing and tracked the progress of each
assault force and the efforts of Crater Town’s people. About the time
young men surrendered to Fleet troopers in seven-foot-tall armor, the
space debris hit. The noise of the plummeting ship parts had been
minimal from a distance, but as they neared, they ripped through the
air, vibrating the tower where Kin stood. Troopers and townspeople ran
for shelters, threw themselves on the ground, or gaped at the
destruction. Earth exploded. Water erupted into steaming clouds of
death. Fires rampaged like demons.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kin risked a final glance toward the wormhole before descending the tower.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>That’s not a Fleet ship.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He jerked the binoculars up.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>No military emblems. No weapons. And it’s shaped like a blockade runner.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He
watched the small craft drift away from the others, seeming to sneak
free of the chaos. Kin didn’t like the feeling in his gut. Dread
hollowed him out. He thought of Reapers and stolen technology.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
faster Fleet vessels and plummeting debris posed the immediate threat.
Kin knew it. He needed to ignore the small civilian ship, but understood
Reapers hijacked anything that would take them from their home world.
The creatures didn’t build ships and were notoriously bad pilots, but
when they left Hellsbreach, they were on a mission of murder.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kin forced his gaze toward the ships and troops already on the ground.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Don’t think of Reapers. Don’t think of Hellsbreach. Captivity. Death. I should have died. </i>Kin steadied his breathing, unsure if it calmed him or merely suffocated his panic. <i>Should have killed them all.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sweat
beaded on his forehead. He waited for Fleet ships to spot the stranger
and destroy it, but nothing happened. The craft disappeared beyond the
mountain pass. He wanted to go after it, but Crater Town took priority.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He
left the tower and ran down the unpaved street twisting around
ramshackle huts near the bay. Laura hurried from a building up the
street, wearing a firefighting coat. She paused to tie up her hair, then
pulled on heavy gloves. People carrying tools rushed from their
shelters to follow her. She accosted a group of men held at gunpoint by
Fleet troopers and ordered them to follow her.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The squad leader pointed at Laura and gave an order. <i>Get back. This is Fleet business.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Laura elevated her chin and put both hands on her hips. She said something. <i>I’m
sleeping with Kin Roland, a murdering deserter and traitor to the
Fleet. He’ll cut your balls off if I even nod your direction. Fleet
business my ass. This is my business. These are my people. Kindly mind
your manners, you faceless killer.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Fleet trooper spread his hands in frustration and surprise. He yelled and thrust his gauntleted finger near her face. <i>Listen you stupid bitch. You’re lucky I don’t blow your head off.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kin
couldn’t hear the conversation, but he could imagine it. He wasn’t
surprised when the troopers released the people of Crater Town to Laura.
The guards followed, seeming a bit dazed.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>What the fuck just happen?</i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Don’t ask me. You’re the squad leader. Take charge.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>I’ll take charge of your face with my boot. Stay sharp. Watch the work crew. I’ll watch the councilwoman.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Kin
ran up the steep hill, knowing planetary assault forces demanded
immediate compliance when they made planetfall. They were paid to shoot
people. He feared Laura would push too hard. Inflexible and harsh
standard operating procedures placed the interests of the Fleet before
the welfare of local populations. He needed to warn her about what
happened when people resisted. She won this scrimmage and freed her work
crew, but needed to consider a softer touch when dealing with officers.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Then
he realized she had a trump card. He believed he knew Laura. He
believed she had been toying with him when she said she would expose him
to the Fleet. Being wrong would cost him his life.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“You
there, halt and identify,” a Fleet trooper shouted. His amplified voice
echoed from the helmet speaker. He held a rifle and a plasma thrower,
each connected to the armor by woven metal tubes. Kin ignored the
trooper, who moved forward, weapons ready.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He
slipped around the corner and ducked through a cloud of smoke, then
circled the area until he was behind the trooper who continued in the
wrong direction.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“Identify yourself,” Kin said, under his breath.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/enemyOfMan.jpg" /></span></span></div>
<h2 style="background-color: white; line-height: 40px; margin: 10px 0px; text-align: center; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
Lost Hero</span></span></h2>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Changed
by captivity and torture, hunted by the Reapers of Hellsbreach and
wanted by Earth Fleet, Kin Roland hides on a lost planet near an
unstable wormhole.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When a distant space battle propels a
ravaged Earth Fleet Armada through the same wormhole, a Reaper follows,
hunting for the man who burned his home world. Kin fights to save a
mysterious native of Crashdown from the Reaper and learns there are
worse things in the galaxy than the nightmare hunting him. The end is
coming and he is about to pay for a sin that will change the galaxy
forever. </span></span></div>
<h2 style="background-color: white; line-height: 40px; margin: 10px 0px; text-align: center; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
Books</span></span></h2>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Enemy
of Man: Book One in the Chronicles of Kin Roland was written for fans
of military science fiction and science fiction adventure. Readers who
enjoyed Starship Troopers or Space Marines will appreciate this genre
variation. Powered armor only gets a soldier so far. Battlefield
experience, guts, and loyal friends make Armageddon fun. </span></span></div>
<h2 style="background-color: white; line-height: 40px; margin: 10px 0px; text-align: center; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
Movies</span></span></h2>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If
you love movies like Aliens, Predator, The Chronicles of Riddick, or
Serenity, then you might find the heroes and creatures in Enemy of Man
dangerous, determined, and ready to risk it all. It’s all about action
and suspense, with a dash of romance—or perhaps flash romance. </span></span></div>
<h2 style="background-color: white; line-height: 40px; margin: 10px 0px; text-align: center; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
From the Author</span></span></h2>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thanks for your interest in my novel, Enemy of Man. I hope you chose to read the book and enjoy every page. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you have already read Enemy of Man, how was it? Reviews are appreciated! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Have a great day and be safe.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Enemy-Man-Chronicles-Kin-Roland-ebook/dp/B00DAIQO9A?tag=booaremag-20" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Science Fiction</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – R</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Scott-Moon/e/B0082VIWL8/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <b>Connect</b> with Scott Moon on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/scottmoonwriter" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/Scottmoonwriter" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-20582714135656103402014-11-20T11:00:00.000-05:002014-11-20T11:00:02.160-05:00Erin Sands on It's Okay to Lose and More Life Lessons @TheDunesBook #NonFiction #Goodreads <div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The 3 things kids from the 70s can teach today’s kids</b></span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As
a kid growing up in the 1970s summer held a magical allure for me. It
meant playing outside from sun-up to sundown, endless games of hide and
seek, double-dutch and jacks. I loved the muggy summer walks to the
corner store with my friends, to purchase Grippo’s Chips and hot
pickles. It was the best of times. The laughter of children filled the
air and freedom was sweet and sticky, dripping down our arms like an ice
cream cone in overflow. Unlike today, darkness carried no fear. Jars in
hand, we engaged the night in boldness, warning all lightning bugs to
beware. There is something to be gleaned from those kids, from that
time, something that they could teach the youth of today.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<i><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The Outdoors are a Good Thing</span></span></b></i></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
virtual world is fun and it can get you moving, but there is nothing
like the real thing. Running, jumping, learning about nature and our
place in it, help to define our appreciation for the earth as well as
engender a sense of boldness and exploration. Nothing against the Wii,
but there is something that happens when you actually kick a ball, hold a
tennis racquet and grab the metal handle bars of a bike and engage.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s Okay to Lose</span></span></i></b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now
a days kids get a participation trophy just for showing up. As a kid
growing up in the 70s, you only got a trophy if your team won. We kept
score and it taught us how to enjoy victory as well as to accept defeat.
I can honestly say that I learned more about competing when I lost. I
learned that I had the ability to become better and to stretch myself in
ways that I hadn’t before. Character isn’t born when everything goes
your way. Character is cultivated in the losses and in the trenches when
you learn to work as a team and overcome.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Be Fully Present in the Moment</span></span></b></i></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Modern
technology is great. It gives us the ability to connect with people
anywhere, 24hrs a day, 7 days a week. It can also, unfortunately, be a
distraction when we are more focused on it than the life that is
happening around us. In the 70s if you were at an event you didn’t stop
the fun to inform the world “Hey I’m enjoying myself!” You were too busy
actually enjoying yourself to advertise it. Don’t get me wrong; sharing
is good, but fully experiencing all of life’s great moments is even
better. Telling the world electronically that you are having a great
time with a friend should not be more important than savoring the moment
and actually having a great time with a friend. Share, but be there, in
that moment, one hundred percent.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">May the memory of those 1970s kids remind us all to experience life beyond our technology.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dunesfinalSB.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dunesfinalSB.jpg"><img alt="5DmkII_2226" class="aligncenter wp-image-40866" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/5DmkII_2226-198x300.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/5DmkII_2226-198x300.jpg" height="193" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="127" /></a></span></div>
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<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Born
in Cincinnati, Ohio and raised in the Bay Area of Northern California,
Erin grew up with an innate love for dance, theatre and the written
word. A graduate of Loyola Marymount University, Erin began her career
in the arts as an actress and choreographer. After booking several
notable roles in television and film, Erin began to use her gift of
writing in blogs featuring political and social commentary, as well as
developing content for theatrical use.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Although<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>The Dunes</i>,
is a divine departure from Erin’s previous writings it is by far her
most cherished work to date. “I wrote The Dunes initially as self
therapy because I needed to release some painful experiences and
disappointments from my past. I had this thirst to walk in the complete
fullness of life with joy as my constant companion. I had no idea what
effect it would have on other people. But when I saw people read it and
be released from fears that had held them back for years…when I saw
people forgive and be able to walk in the freedom forgiveness
brings…when I saw people commit and serve and how those things opened up
new opportunities in their life, I was just humbled. Humbled by the
awesome power of God and humbled that I had been allowed to go along for
the ride”.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">When asked<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><i>why</i><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>she
writes, Erin pauses and reflects on the truth of her heart. “I write
because although I am only now beginning to truly love the process, I
have always loved the outcome. Like a composer, words become my notes. I
string them together in song eliciting the response of my reader,
grafting a picture of my soul. Where besides the written word can you
effect change so utterly and so succinctly? What besides the written
word can pierce the universal collective mind? Everything begins with a
thought, but it isn’t until that thought is articulated in written word
and those words passed down can life changing movement happen. It must
be written, it must be expressed on tablet, and when it is, we all
become greater, whether the writing be genius or fatuity, it has evoked
thought and debate. Why wouldn’t I want to be apart of that phenomenon?
Why wouldn’t I want to share my story, give my testimony…add my paradigm
to the mix? Whether it is a novel, a poem, an essay or an article, it
is humanity visited. An insight into a new or sometimes shared truth.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b>In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>And with that I live my life”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dunesfinalSB.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/dunesfinalSB.jpg"><br /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Dune.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Dune.jpg"><img alt="Dune" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-40719" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Dune.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Dune.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If there was a journey that could masterfully change your life in seven revelations...would you take it? <br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" /><br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" />In
life, sometimes the kernels of wisdom and the richness of revelation
can be found in the most innocent of stories; and so it is with The
Dunes. Join one man and one woman in an exquisitely simple yet
remarkably profound journey as you discover with them that the mountain
you must climb in order to live the abundant life of your dreams is
located squarely within your heart. <br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" /><br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" />Illuminated
in seven revelations; The Dunes carries the reader on a journey to not
only examine the obstacles that are holding them back in life but to
conquer and over come them as well. With each revelation The Dunes
intimately calls on the reader as the journey companion to face a
challenge…a dare if you will that requires an uncompromising commitment
to change. In the family of faith-based self help books, The Dunes
stands alone, simultaneously taking the reader from fiction to life and
back again, equipped with a tailor made journal for the readers inner
most secrets and reflections. The Dunes is part allegory, part testimony
and part journal, but the best part is the healing it offers your
heart. When you’re ready to step out of your comfort zone and step into
the miracle of your life…The Dunes awaits. <br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" /><br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" />CAUTION:
Readers of this book are subject to significant changes for the better.
Side effects may include frequent smiling and enjoying life in every
season.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Dunes-Release-Fears-Restore-Renew-ebook/dp/B00KO43L2Q/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1403131233" href="http://www.amazon.com/Dunes-Release-Fears-Restore-Renew-ebook/dp/B00KO43L2Q/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1403131233" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Non-fiction</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – G</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Erin-Sands/e/B00M5ZWIM6/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" href="http://www.amazon.com/Erin-Sands/e/B00M5ZWIM6/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with Erin Sands on <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/thedunesbook" href="https://www.facebook.com/thedunesbook" target="_blank">Facebook</a> &<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="http://www.twitter.com/thedunesbook" href="http://www.twitter.com/thedunesbook" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="color: #000000; text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" data-mce-href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.thedunesbook.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29-Z7bqviUDISeSGG7sYWToCfcGIg" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.thedunesbook.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy29-Z7bqviUDISeSGG7sYWToCfcGIg" target="_blank">www.thedunesbook.com</a></b></span></span></div>
</div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-91674080590691286492014-11-11T09:00:00.000-05:002014-11-11T09:00:01.639-05:00PM Pillon on Google Being a Writer's Friend, Research & Writing @KirstenWrite #AmWriting #SciFi <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">It’s
hard to imagine a writer who is disinterested in being perceived as
credible, and faux pas that are easily avoided is one way to lose
credibility.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;" /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">And
it’s not just research about what kind of pavement or trees would be
found in a Thai village that your protagonist visits, but also diligence
with vocabulary and spelling, I just read an excerpt for instance, that
ended with “had drank” instead of the correct “had drunk”. This kind of
writer needs to buckle down and find an editor to correct such errors
that wouldn’t likely be revealed by Microsoft or another word processor.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;" /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">As
the saying goes, “The Google is your friend” with which you can learn
about even foreign ambiances with very specific keyword usage. But it
won’t replace an editor for a writer who isn’t uncertain about “had
drank” and therefore doesn’t search the phrase at</span><a href="http://www.google.com/#q=had+drunk" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.google.com/#q=had+drunk</a><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;"> to find out that it’s incorrect.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;" /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">Using
the best keywords is crucial to fast and effective research. No doubt
you have Googled something like “current German technology” and started
reading a story only to discover it was published a decade ago – which
for that topic may as well be the 19th century – and then had to go back
to The Google and add the current year to the search.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;" /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">Taking
the above Thailand example for instance, even if you have been there
you may not remember crucial details you might need to know, such as the
type of architecture and the type of people you might encounter on the
streets at different hours of the day; and where there are different
activities are such as red light districts and temples. All of this can
be found by reading travel blogs and comments, and even though it might
require a lot of time, it’s worth it if you value precision in your
writing. For instance, if you write about a particular season in England
or Europe but have never been there, it’s worthwhile to research and
find out that both places can have very drab summers except in the
South, unlike the U.S. which is warm or hot in almost everywhere between
June and September.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TheRealityMaster.jpg" /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div id="outer_postBodyPS" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; text-align: center;">
<div id="postBodyPS">
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">His celestial companion was waiting for him</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Precariously
climbing a sea-side cliff near Big Sur, ten-year-old Joey Blake was as
yet unaware that near his grasp was an object, so odd, mysterious and
alien to earth that it would change his life forever and the lives of
countless others in the next few astonishing days. Reaching up as far as
he could for a handhold it was just there; it had subconsciously lured
him, occupied his mind, and made him find it. It was like he was meant
to see and discover this object of unimaginable power … the power to
change reality.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Time travel and more</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This
young adult series of sci-fi fantasy novels begins with The Reality
Master and continues through four other exciting and amazing stories
about time travel and mysterious alien devices. Joey and the reader will
face dangerous shadowy criminal organizations, agents of the NSA,
bizarre travelers from other times and even renegade California bikers
and scar-faced walking dead.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Vol 1 The Reality Master</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Vol 2 Threat To The World</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Vol 3 Travel Beyond</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Vol 4 Missions Through Time</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">- Vol 5 The Return Home</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Reality-Master-PM-Pillon-ebook/dp/B00GTWX4CO" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Science fiction, Fantasy, Young adult</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – G</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/PM-Pillon/e/B00ASAMQVI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with PM Pillon on <a href="https://facebook.com/pmpillon" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/pmpillon" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-41123839044780403002014-11-08T07:30:00.000-05:002014-11-09T09:59:34.610-05:00Documentary Filmmaker @TheobaldSprague Opens Up About Adventure & Writing #Memoir #TBR<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5wamO789NHY/U5dDH3CdV-I/AAAAAAAADXo/Wd4IDRv8QzY/s1600/2e2cb351aec0cb041d5f3fd540ea0502.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5wamO789NHY/U5dDH3CdV-I/AAAAAAAADXo/Wd4IDRv8QzY/s1600/2e2cb351aec0cb041d5f3fd540ea0502.jpeg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">How do you work through self-doubts and fear?</span></span></b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">QUIET
TIME. I'VE ALWAYS FELT, EVEN AS A KID, THAT FOR THE MOST PART WE HAVE
ALL THE ANSWERS THAT WE NEED BUT WE JUST DON'T KNOW IT OR HAVE NEVER HAD
THE OPPORTUNITY TO PUT THEM INTO WORDS. I DISCOVERED 'QUIET TIME' (NOT
PUNITIVE QUIET TIME!) WHEN I WAS ABOUT TEN FOR THAT IS WHEN I TRY TO
LISTEN TO WHAT IS GOING ON DEEP INSIDE OF ME, AWAY FROM THE NAGGING
NEGATIVE VOICES AND SELF DOUBT. THE ANSWER MIGHT BE AS SIMPLE AS FINDING
A SMILE WITHIN, BUT THAT SMILE HAS GOTTEN ME THROUGH THICK AND THIN FOR
THAT SMILE IS ME APPROVING OF ME!!</span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What scares you the most?</span></span></b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">FAILURE
TO REACH MY POTENTIAL REGARDLESS THE ARENA. WHETHER IT'S BEING WITH MY
KIDS, LEARNING SOMETHING NEW OR FACING A DAUNTING TASK. MANY TIMES IN
FACE OF FEAR I MIGHT BACK AWAY AS I'M AFRAID OF A NEGATIVE OUTCOME, BUT
IF I SUMMON UP MY INNER STRENGTH, TRY NOT TO LISTEN TO THE FALSE FEARS
AND GIVE THE SITUATION ALL THAT I HAVE, I STAND MY BEST CHANCE AT
REACHING MY POTENTIAL. IT'S ONLY IN HINDSIGHT THAT I CAN SEE I DIDN'T
REGARD MY POTENTIAL AND THAT'S USUALLY WHEN I'M THE HARDEST ON MYSELF.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What makes you happiest?</span></span></b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A HAPPY OUTCOME, A BABIES' LAUGHTER, BEING AT PEACE WITH MYSELF AND NATURE AT HER FULLEST AND MOST BEAUTIFUL.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What’s your greatest character strength?</span></span></b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">THAT'S
A HARD ONE… PERHAPS MY BUILT IN BLINDERS TO OBSTACLES AND THE
WILLINGNESS TO TRY AND PERSEVERE REGARDLESS THE ODDS. OPTIMISM.</span></span></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">What’s your weakest character trait?</span></span></b></div>
<div style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I CAN BE VERY, VERY HARD ON MYSELF.</span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Why do you write?</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I
HAVE NO IDEA! PERHAPS IT'S TO GIVE VOICE TO ALL THOSE SCENARIOS AND
IDEAS INSIDE OF ME. WRITING ALSO TAKES ME TO A PLACE NOTHING ELSE CAN. I
LOVE THE FEELING OF SITTING DOWN TO WRITE FRO WHAT I THOUGHT WAS AN
HOUR WHEN IT WAS ACTUALLY FOUR!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TheOtherSideOfIce.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TheOtherSideOfIce.jpg"><img alt="TheOtherSideOfIce" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-38622" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TheOtherSideOfIce.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/TheOtherSideOfIce.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
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<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">( <b>TO WATCH THE OFFICIAL HD TEASER FOR "The Other Side of The Ice" [book and documentary] PLEASE GO TO:</b> <i><b>VIMEO.COM/45526226) </b></i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A sailor and his family's harrowing and inspiring story of their attempt to sail the treacherous Northwest Passa</span></span>ge.<br /><br />Sprague Theobald, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and expert sailor with over 40,000 offshore miles under his belt, always considered the Northwest Passage--the sea route connecting the Atlantic to the Pacific--the ultimate uncharted territory. Since Roald Amundsen completed the first successful crossing of the fabled Northwest Passage in 1906, only twenty-four pleasure craft have followed in his wake. Many more people have gone into space than have traversed the Passage, and a staggering number have died trying. From his home port of Newport, Rhode Island, through the Passage and around Alaska to Seattle, it would be an 8,500-mile trek filled with constant danger from ice, polar bears, and severe weather.<br /><br />What Theobald couldn't have known was just how life-changing his journey through the Passage would be. Reuniting his children and stepchildren after a bad divorce more than fifteen years earlier, the family embarks with unanswered questions, untold hurts, and u<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">nspoken mistrusts hanging
over their heads. Unrelenting cold, hungry polar bears, and a haunting
landscape littered with sobering artifacts from the tragic Franklin
Expedition of 1845, as well as personality clashes that threaten to tear
the crew apart, make The Other Side of the Ice a harrowing story of
survival, adventure, and, ultimately, redemption.</span></span></div>
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<div align="center">
<br /></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Ice-Treacherous-Negotiating-ebook/dp/B008QD8OTC/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1396289433" href="http://www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Ice-Treacherous-Negotiating-ebook/dp/B008QD8OTC/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1396289433" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Memoir, adventure, family, climate</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – PG</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Sprague%20Theobald&search-alias=digital-text" href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Sprague%20Theobald&search-alias=digital-text" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <b>Connect</b> with Sprague Theobald on<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/TheOtherSideoftheIce" href="https://www.facebook.com/TheOtherSideoftheIce" target="_blank">Facebook</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>& <a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/TheobaldSprague" href="https://twitter.com/TheobaldSprague" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" data-mce-href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.spraguetheobald.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-hqap-1OaYQfgpmkVVaj6tZwQK7A" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.spraguetheobald.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-hqap-1OaYQfgpmkVVaj6tZwQK7A" target="_blank">www.spraguetheobald.com</a></b></span></span></div>
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Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-66288816230115821452014-11-01T07:00:00.000-04:002014-11-04T09:58:45.826-05:00Pendelton Wallace on Not Making Up Story Lines #AmReading #Mystery #Thriller <div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Inside the Mind of an Author </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You don’t want to know what goes on in my mind. It will shock and scare you.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I was at a writers conference and heard James Rollins tell a good story.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He
said that most people wake up on Sunday morning and think about the
golf game they’re going to play or the football game they want to watch.
He lays in bed on Sunday morning and thinks of interesting new ways to
kill people.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m
kind of like that. I don’t make up my story lines. I get them from the
newspapers and news reports. I couldn’t make this kind of stuff up.
However, once I have the story line, I have to add enough sex, murder
and mayhem along the way to keep my readers interested.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I
have so much trash and dirt in my mind that it could never be
published. Hmm . . . maybe I should take a short at the erotica genre.
Seriously though, if you’re a girl, you may not want to date me. Most of
my erotic scenes are from memories of “the women I have loved before.”</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’m
always looking at people, places and situations and thinking how they
could fit into a book. Many of my friends and co-workers have wiggled
their way in to books. They may not recognize themselves, but little
pieces of their personalities become quirks of my characters.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have a character in <i>The Mexican Connection</i>,
who did not know her husband was a drug dealer until the DEA knocked
down her door. This really happened. I met “Lisa” many years after the
incident, but it was still indelibly etched on her character. A story
like that just had to end up in print.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My
head is exploding with ideas, I will never be able to write them all
down. I keep a folder on my computer called “Story Ideas.” I have files
in it with little kernels that may or may not someday become stories.
But I write them down so I don’t lose them.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I know the story line for the next two Ted Higuera novels. I just have to read the newspapers.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I
hope someday to be able to write historical fiction. I have at least
three stories that I would like to tell. The first is about my
great-grandfather in the Civil War. The next is about how my maternal
grandfather came to this country and how he met my grandmother. Then
there is the story about the USS Kearsarge and the CSS Alabama. What
drama.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My mind never stops. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to keep up.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/hacker.jpg" /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If Clive Cussler had written Ugly Betty, it would be Hacker for Hire. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hacker
for Hire, a suspense novel about corporate greed and industrial
espionage, is the second book in a series about Latino computer security
analyst Ted Higuera and his best friend, para-legal Chris Hardwick. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
goofy, off-beat Ted Higuera, son of Mexican immigrants, grew up in East
LA. An unlikely football scholarship brought him to Seattle. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Chris,
Ted’s college roommate, grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth. His
father is the head of one of Seattle’s most prestigious law firms. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ted’s
first job out of college leads him into the world of organized crime
where he faces a brutal beating. After being rescued by beautiful
private investigator Catrina Flaherty, Ted decides to go to work for
her. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Catrina
is hired by a large computer corporation to find a leak in their
corporate boardroom when the previous consultant is found floating in
Elliot Bay. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ted
discovers that Chris’s firm has been retained by their prime suspect.
Now he and Chris are working opposite sides of the same case. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ted
and Catrina are led deep into Seattle’s Hi-Tech world as they stalk the
killer. But the killer is also hunting them. Can Ted find the killer
before the killer finds him? </span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Hacker-Hire-Ted-Higuera-Book-ebook/dp/B00KH3Z53W/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1405401192&sr=1-1&keywords=Hacker+for+Hire" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Mystery, Thriller</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – R</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Pendelton%20Wallace&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with Pendelton Wallace on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/penn.wallace" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.pennwallace.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-lvi4hquGvTx3TTco7IMaVQe7wYA" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">www.pennwallace.com</a></b></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-55827367784955311202014-10-31T10:30:00.000-04:002014-10-31T12:48:55.846-04:00RJ Blain Shares a Day in Her Life @RJ_Blain #AmEditing #AmWriting #SelfPub It’s 8:30, and the phone rings. It’s reminiscent of one of those old-fashioned tellies most people only see in museums nowadays. If I wasn’t already at least a little awake, the sound would’ve had me sitting up groping around to answer the phone, only to realize it’s my alarm. What can I say? I have to trick myself into waking up in the mornings.<br /><br />Usually, though, I beat the alarm up by five or ten minutes, sleepily checking my email for any new stuff from my editing clients. I have roughly an hour to wake up, and I tend to spend most of it addressing little things I can do on my phone while half asleep.<br /><br />By 9:30, I’m mostly conscious, and have sent my husband off to work. Then, and only then, can my real work begin.<br /><br />Cue chaos.<br /><br />First up, I have client work to address. This means I’m reading through manuscripts trying to find ways an author can improve their novels on a structural level. Some days, this involves picking at writing on a sentence level, making recommendations on style improvements, tension and pacing improvements, and even general improvement of English-language skills. On other days, I’m picking apart character arcs, plot arcs, and the general tone of a novel.<br /><br />Once I reach my benchmarks for the day, I’m drafting or editing my own novels. This can be rewriting scenes I think need a lot of improvement, tweaking sentences, or addressing problems my editor(s) have pointed out.<br /><br />During this, I’m dealing with household emergencies, bills, making sure my four cats don’t try to eat me, you know, the usual. Sometimes, I flake out and do things other than what I’m supposed to be doing. One of my favorite flaking-out activities is drawing maps of my world. I used to sketch them on my computer, but now I do them on imitation parchment paper and scan them into the computer. Sometimes I sketch things like dragons. Other times, I’ll crochet something (badly) or try to knit.<br /><br />Mostly, though, I work and try to pretend that I’m not falling behind on the house chores again. One of these days I will get a maid. Of course, one of these days will probably never come, but a girl can dream, right?<br /><br />At night is when things get really weird. On the surface, I look like this responsible and serious editor-writer person. Then, my husband comes home. If I owned the proper attire or felt comfortable in that sort of thing, I’d probably get into a catgirl suit, find some daggers, and try to play my computer game character. My fellow gamers just call me StabbyStabby. I play a rogue, and I’m prone to saying StabbyStabby before it’s time to kill something in the game.<br /><br />I guess all work and no play for a few years made me a kind of crazy person. I raid in Everquest with my husband a few days a week, which gives us time to spend together doing something we both enjoy. Rogues are great therapy characters. If I have a bad day at work, it’s no problem. I can take it all out on some unsuspecting monsters in Everquest. Stabbystabbystabby…<br /><br />Whenever I find time, I settle down and read books. I usually try to review the books I read, because I enjoy the process of explaining what I liked and didn’t like about a story. I also find it useful for readers who are potentially buying a story.<br /><br />To sum it up…<br /><br />A day in the life of RJ Blain: Busy but rewarding.<br /><br />Here’s to tomorrow.<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/StormWithoutEnd.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/StormWithoutEnd.jpg"><img alt="StormWithoutEnd" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-29551" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/StormWithoutEnd.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/StormWithoutEnd.jpg" height="200" style="border: 0px none;" width="130" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
Kalen’s throne is his saddle, his crown is the dirt on his brow, and his right to rule is sealed in the blood that stains his hand. Few know the truth about the one-armed Rift King, and he prefers it that way. When people get too close to him, they either betray him or die. The Rift he rules cares nothing for the weak. More often than not, even the strong fail to survive.<br /><br />When he’s abducted, his disappearance threatens to destroy his home, his people, and start a hopeless and bloody war. There are many who desire his death, and few who hope for his survival. With peace in the Six Kingdoms quickly crumbling, it falls on him to try to stop the conflict swiftly taking the entire continent by storm.<br /><br />But something even more terrifying than the machinations of men has returned to the lands: The skreed. They haven’t been seen for a thousand years, and even the true power of the Rift King might not be enough to save his people — and the world — from destruction.<br /><br />Buy Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GI7C0QG?tag=booaremag-20" href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00GI7C0QG?tag=booaremag-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<i>Genre - Fantasy</i></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<i>Rating – PG - 13</i></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/RJ-Blain/e/B00EA5VH6M/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" href="http://www.amazon.com/RJ-Blain/e/B00EA5VH6M/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" target="_blank">the author</a></i></div>
<div align="center" data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 1.3em; orphans: auto; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;">
<b>Connect</b> with RJ Blain on <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/RJ-Blain/121746651191778?ref=hl" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/RJ-Blain/121746651191778?ref=hl">Facebook</a> and <a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/rj_blain" href="https://twitter.com/rj_blain" target="_blank">Twitter</a></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-23986803165972122712014-10-29T08:30:00.000-04:002014-10-30T10:34:29.968-04:00@GaryTroia on Publishing Your Writing & Marketing Your Own Work #SelfPub #IndieAuthors #Fiction<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>So, you’ve written your book, found an agent, your agent has matched your book with a publisher. What next?</b></span></span></div>
<ol style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>It can take one year before your book is in print. </b>Throughout
the year you will receive two or three rounds of edits, then copyedits,
then line edits. You’ll be asked to proof the cover copy of your book. A
bio and a professional headshot will be created. Blurbs need to be
written. At least 3 months before publication your book will be sent to
reviews and the press for pre-publication reviews and to bookshops.<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>You may or may not be lucky enough to have a publicist, either way you still have to market your own book. </b>If
you are fortunate enough, you might have a book tour. But touring
Authors around the country is expensive, don’t expect any-more
travelling by coach! You need to market yourself in any way possible,
talk to local papers, radio shows, apply to be a guest at local
conferences or speak at libraries, book clubs or schools. And don’t
forget social media twitter, Facebook etc…<span style="line-height: 1.5em;"> </span></span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.5em;">You get to select your book cover. </b><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">This
is very unlikely, the book cover is usually the work of an art
department, with the opinions of everyone from the editor, publisher,
marketing and PR departments. Everyone has their say but you!</span></span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.5em;">You still get rejections</b><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">. It’s true. Just because you have a publisher doesn’t mean that your new manuscripts or proposals won’t be rejected. </span></span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="line-height: 1.5em;">You will still be poor</b><span style="line-height: 1.5em;">.
If you are extremely lucky your book will make enough money so you can
quit your job, the average book advance is a mere £3,000-£5,000 then you
have to wait a year until it is in print-then if you’re fortunate
enough to sell tens of thousands of copies you may be in a position to
quit your day job.</span></span></span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Gary-Troia.jpg" /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px;">
<div id="outer_postBodyPS">
<div id="postBodyPS">
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For
the first time ever, this collection of short stories by Gary Troia
brings together, in chronological order stories and memoirs from Spanish
Yarns and Beyond, English Yarns and Beyond and A Bricklayer’s Tales
into one complete volume.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>“Excellent!</b> A
collection of short stories about depression, alcoholism and drug use.
Very compelling reading. I read this short story collection all in one
go.” (Maria, Goodreads.)</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>A Bricklayer’s Tales</i> is
the ultimate “I hate this job” story, written as a collection of short
stories and memoirs, each one revealing a snapshot in the life of Ray.
Troia captures the tedium of working in a low paid, menial job and
living hand to mouth. This book of short stories is sad and questions
the reader to ask questions about their own life. This book achieves
clarity without trying.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ray
has three expensive hobbies: drinking, drugs, and running away. Without
the income that Bricklaying provides, he would not be able to maintain
his chosen lifestyle, so he compromises his principles and continues
with his trade.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A collection of short stories and memoirs that include:</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Cuckoo’s Egg.</b> Boyhood antics lead to tragedy.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My Grandfather’s Shed.</b> The making of an English key</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>No Comb on the Cock.</b> Gypsies, champion fighting cocks, and career choices.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What I Did In My Summer Holidays In 1000 Words.</b> Could having an idea ever be considered a criminal act?</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My Best Mate’s Head.</b> Did a weekend of boozing save Ray from certain death?</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Shetland Isles.</b> A trip to sunny Benidorm, a chance meeting with some Glaswegians, and a cold, miserable job in Lerwick.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Pointing a House in Islington.</b> Too much alcohol and cocaine don’t mix well on building sites!</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Angel Dust. T</b>he peculiar story of a man whose new life in America leads to conversations with Ancient Greek philosophers</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Peyote.</b> Hippies, LSD and an idyllic refuge</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Return Ticket.</b> Handcuffed and ready for deportation. A sad departure from the States</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>When I Joined a Cult.</b> Sober dating as Ray discovers religion.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Bilbao</b>. How very, very English!</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Teaching Other People.</b> The grass is always greener-the escape from bricklaying.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>A Week in the Life of Ray Dennis.</b> With the prospect of no money for food or alcohol this Christmas, Ray has to find work quickly.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Catania. </b>A meeting with a Sicilian fox, some Neapolitans, and a man with a camel haired coat.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Advert In The Art Shop Window. </b>Will a new building job in Spain be the start of a new life?</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Gaudi. </b>A flight to Barcelona for a kebab, and a look at the <i>Sagrada Familia.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Day My Soul Left Me. </b>“To be or not to be? That is the question”</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>How Not to Travel to The Alhambra<i>. </i></b>Hung-over, the wrong fuel, the car breaks down. Will they ever make it to Granada?</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Road To Ronda. </b>A terrifying drive to Ronda, was it worth it?</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Poking A Carob Tree</b>. A new home and new neighbours, just in time for Christmas.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Spain Reborn</b>.No more commuting to London. Lets celebrate!</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Home From Home</b><i>. </i>A parallel world where the Spanish have taken over Weymouth.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Three Common Carp</b>.An epic battle with a whale and marlin it is not.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Mrs. McClintock.</b> An absurd farce in which a Glaswegian couple retire to Spain</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Steak, Egg and Intensive Care. </b>A harmless dinner leads to hospitalisation.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>The Unchangeable Chameleon. </b>Can a leopard change it’s spots?</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>A Bricklayer’s Tale. </b>The story of a disillusioned, alcoholic bricklayer</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A collection short stories and memoirs of British dark humour.</span></span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div id="psGradient">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <span style="line-height: 1.5em;">Buy Now @ </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Short-Stories-Gary-Troia-ebook/dp/B00IR1F9MI/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1397639934&sr=1-1&keywords=short+stories%2CB00IR1F9MI" style="line-height: 1.5em; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
</div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre - Fiction, Short Stories</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating - PG-16</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Gary-Troia/e/B00DXJC2OW/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with Gary Troia on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/garytroia1" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/GaryTroia" style="text-decoration: none;">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
</div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-7070992817559524482014-10-25T12:30:00.000-04:002014-10-29T09:41:38.666-04:00James Rada, Jr. on Winning Two Dozen Journalism Awards @JimRada #AmWriting #HistFic #CivilWar<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I
was asked to give you a little insight on me by telling you 10 things
that you might not realize about me from author biographies that you see
in the back of my books.</span></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<ol style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My first short stories were published while I was in high school.</b> I was a senior in high school when I had short stories accepted for publication in the <i>National Vietnam Veterans Review</i>. I wasn’t paid for them, but I still count them as my first publishing credits.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My first professional publishing writing credit was in 1988.</b> The
first time that I got paid for something I wrote was when I was still
in college. I competed in a competition to develop a marketing and
advertising campaign for a new business. I put together an entire
campaign with ads, press releases, etc. and won the competition. What I
was particularly pleased with was that I was competing against teams of
other college students, and yet, I won by doing it all by myself.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>I have won more than two dozen journalism and advertising awards.</b> I
have won awards from the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association,
Society of Professional Journalists, Associated Press, Maryland State
Teachers Association, CNHI, Utah Ad Federation and American Advertising
Federation of Greater Frederick. I figure it is only a matter of time
before my books start winning awards. I’ve got my fingers crossed.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>My family is not interested in writing.</b> You
would figure that at least someone in my family would also be
interested in writing since it’s my work. They’re not. In fact, only my
youngest son is the only regular reader in the family and my wife admits
the only book of mine that she has read was my first historical novel
published in 2000.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Both of my sons are adopted.</b> My wife and I have two sons. They are both adopted; one from Kentucky and one from Russia.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>I love to bicycle.</b> I
can’t say that I’m particularly fast on my bike. I average about 13.5
mph, but I do bike about 100 miles a week. I tend to meander along the
back roads in the county where I live. I love the scenery, but sometimes
the hills kill me. I will even ride my bike if I have to run errands in
Gettysburg.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>I own a dinosaur egg.</b> I
have a small collection of interesting fossils, rocks and minerals that
I’ve accumulated over the years. At a festival I attend annually to
sign books, there’s another gentlemen who sells rocks and minerals. I
always check out his items. Last year, he had a fossilized hadrosaur egg
from China. It’s about the size of two softballs. It was a splurge
purchase.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>I have had articles published in more than 110 publications. </b>I
like to write and I try to get in a wide variety of publications as
well as getting published multiple times in the ones I like. I do this
rather than focusing on a few magazines because I have had magazines
that I write for go out of business. I have been published in magazines,
newspapers, web sites, newsletters and newspapers that cover a lot of
different markets and subjects. One of the reasons for the variety is
that I usually come up with an idea first and then try to find the
market for it.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>I started out as a business major in college.</b> I
did this because my grandfather kept telling me that I needed a major
that I could get a job with. I figured out that when I get falling
asleep in class, though, that I might want to find a major that better
suited me. With my grandfather’s advice in my head and my interest in
writing, I settled on advertising copywriting, which was an enjoyable
major.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>I am a big Jimmy Stewart fan.</b> Forget modern actors. My favorite actor is Jimmy Stewart. I’ve enjoyed his movies since I first watched <i>Mr. Smith Goes to Washington</i> while
I was in college. I think I have seen all of his movies and most of his
television roles. I have even listened to his old-time radio series and
guest appearances.</span></span></li>
</ol>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So there you have it. That’s 10 things I bet you didn’t know about me. Does it make me seem geekier? Oh well, it’s me.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/lockready.jpg" /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
Civil War split the United States and now it has split the Fitzgerald
Family. Although George Fitzgerald has returned from the war, his sister
Elizabeth Fitzgerald has chosen to remain in Washington to volunteer as
a nurse. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The
ex-Confederate spy, David Windover, has given up on his dream of being
with Alice Fitzgerald and is trying to move on with his life in
Cumberland, Md. Alice and her sons continue to haul coal along the
184.5-mile-long C&O Canal. It is dangerous work, though, during war
time because the canal runs along the Potomac River and between the
North and South. Having had to endured death and loss already, Alice
wonders whether remaining on the canal is worth the cost. She wants her
family reunited and safe, but she can’t reconcile her feelings between
David and her dead husband. Her adopted son, Tony, has his own questions
that he is trying to answer. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He
wants to know who he is and if his birth mother ever loved him. As he
tries to find out more about his birth mother and father, he stumbles
onto a plan by Confederate sympathizers to sabotage the canal and burn
dozens of canal boats. He enlists David’s help to try and disrupt the
plot before it endangers his new family, but first they will have find
out who is behind the plot.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Lock-Ready-A-Canawlers-Novel/dp/0692211454/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400758482&sr=8-1&keywords=lock+ready+rada" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Historical Fiction</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – PG-13</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&field-author=James+Rada+Jr.&search-alias=books&text=James+Rada+Jr.&sort=relevancerank" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with James Rada Jr. on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jim.rada" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/jimrada" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://jamesrada.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy28d4iaix3UBtVx6pNwPpNkw3GcEKA" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">jamesrada.com</a></b></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-8827165621843302292014-10-23T11:00:00.000-04:002014-11-04T10:43:45.209-05:00#Excerpt from GLIMPSES OF HEAVEN ON EARTH by John E. Wade II #NonFiction #Quotes <i><b>From the chapter on prosperity, by co-author John E. Wade II:</b></i><br />
<br />
“In
the long term I am quite optimistic that humankind will learn how,
individually and collectively, to prosper. Unfortunately, most
developed nations have debts and obligations that have gotten beyond
prudent levels for a healthy world economy. Our world leaders and their
electorates must come to terms with this enormous obstacle to our
future. We can and we must address this huge problem in a kind and wise
manner. Once this onerous debt is properly alleviated, nations and
individuals can move forward toward sustainable prosperity.”<br />
<br />
<i><b>From the chapter on democracies, by co-author John E. Wade II:</b></i><br />
<br />
“A
world full of stable, robust, prosperous democracies would be a world
of permanent peace. Democracies almost never make war on each other;
so, if democracies were the only form of government on earth—and they
were stable, robust and prosperous—humankind’s age-old dream of world
peace would be assured. Globalization, with its intricate and intense
connections, helps to guarantee the peaceful planet that humankind has
always sought.”<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Glimpses-of-Heaven-on-Earth.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Glimpses-of-Heaven-on-Earth.jpg"><img alt="Glimpses of Heaven on Earth" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-42087" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Glimpses-of-Heaven-on-Earth.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Glimpses-of-Heaven-on-Earth.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Editor
and author John E. Wade II has compiled a spiritual guide of invaluable
insight for finding peace and meaning in life while making the world a
better place for all. Along with co-authors Charlotte Livingston
Piotrowski, Daniel Agatino, Michael Nagler, and Martin Rutte, this
collection of enlightening essays and inspirational quotes from renowned
thinkers and leade</span></span>rs throughout history provides the intellectual tools needed to live a more harmonious life.<br />
<br />
Buy <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/GLIMPSES-HEAVEN-EARTH-Quotations-Insightful-ebook/dp/B00LOYGN3O/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1405439205" href="http://www.amazon.com/GLIMPSES-HEAVEN-EARTH-Quotations-Insightful-ebook/dp/B00LOYGN3O/ref=tmm_kin_title_0?_encoding=UTF8&sr=8-1&qid=1405439205" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre - Inspirational</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – G</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=John%20E.%20Wade%20II&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank" href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=John%20E.%20Wade%20II&search-alias=digital-text&sort=relevancerank" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: bold ! important;">Connect</b> with John E. Wade II on <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/jwadeii?ref_type=bookmark" href="https://www.facebook.com/jwadeii?ref_type=bookmark" target="_blank">Facebook</a></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-50126706894110744542014-10-15T07:30:00.000-04:002014-11-29T08:10:04.487-05:00@GayleTrent on Watching TV & Movies to Become a Better Writer #AmWriting #WriteTip #Mystery<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">1) Read, read, read.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Reading
within your genre as well as within other genres will make you a better
writer. See what works for you as a reader and what doesn’t.
Incorporate the good traits and resolve to eliminate any bad habits you
observe.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">2) Study writing blogs, books, and sites.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You might feel like you’re an expert once you’ve gotten your book published, but there’s always more that you can learn. <i>Writer’s Digest</i>,
other authors’ websites, genre-specific magazines, and writing
newsletters can help you understand what mistakes other authors are
making and how to avoid those mistakes. For instance, one writing ezine
often discusses disreputable publishers and agents, warning other
writers to say away.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">3) Watch TV and movies.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yep,
you read that right. Watching television and movies helps you to
understand what’s popular and can help you to see issues in ways you
might never have considered. Let’s say you watch a detective program. It
could give you insight into why your villain behaves as she does.
Granted, your villain might not be a murderer, but her long history of
abuse could explain her actions.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">4) Subscribe to agents’ and editors’ blogs.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They
know the industry like no one else. If you want to know what’s going on
in the publishing world, this is an excellent place to start.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">5) Follow Publisher’s Weekly on Facebook (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/pubweekly" style="text-decoration: none;">https://www.facebook.com/pubweekly</a>) and Twitter (<a href="https://twitter.com/PublishersWkly" style="text-decoration: none;">https://twitter.com/PublishersWkly</a>).</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">6) Learn to proofread.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
order to properly proofread your own work, you might have to read the
story backward or in some other order to truly see the words. When we’re
proofing our stories, we tend to see what we believe is there. If our
intention was to write, “We took the dog to the groomer,” then we’ll see
that even if we’ve actually typed, “We too the dog to the groomer.” The
eye skims right over that missing <i>k</i>, and the mistake isn’t highlighted as such by my word processing software.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">7) Learn to self-edit.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Self-editing
differs somewhat from proofreading because it is more involved than
correcting typos. Self-editing includes fixing flaws. Did your character
say something that doesn’t ring true? Have you used the word <i>jump</i> ten
times on the same page? Does your character behave in a way that isn’t
faithful to her personality for no apparent reason? Once you’ve had your
work edited by a professional, you’ll be more aware of what to look
for. In the meantime, do a search for some helpful articles.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">8) Listen to how people actually speak.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To
do dialogue well, you need to truly listen to people talking. This is
another good thing about watching movies. The first time I picked up an
Elmore Leonard novel, I thought, “Huh? This guy doesn’t follow the
rules.” But his dialogue rings so true! He uses dialogue to create
characters that are realistic.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">9) Experiment.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Write
outside your comfort zone. If you don’t write poetry, try a poem to see
what you can come up with. I took a creative writing class where
students had to read a short story in a particular genre and then write a
story in that genre. We had to write western, science fiction, romance,
horror, mystery, and even how-to instructions. Stretch your limits—you
might be surprised at what you can do.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">10) Write.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">All the study in the world won’t make you a better writer if you don’t simply put your butt in the chair and write.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/threadEnd.jpg" /></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Embroidery shop owner Marcy Singer is about to have the rug pulled out from under her….</i></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Marcy can’t wait to see the new
exhibit at the Tallulah Falls museum on antique tapestries and textiles,
including beautiful kilim rugs. But her enthusiasm quickly turns to
terror when, the day after the exhibition opens, she discovers a dead
body behind her store, the Seven-Year Stitch, wrapped up in a most
unusual fashion.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The victim appears to be a visiting
art professor in town for the exhibit. Did someone decide to teach the
professor a lesson, then attempt to sweep the evidence under the rug?
Along with her boyfriend, Detective Ted Nash, Marcy must unravel an
intricate tapestry of deception to find a desperate killer.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thread-End-Embroidery-Amanda-Lee-ebook/dp/B00GSBEDI0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1390178732&sr=8-1&keywords=Thread+End" style="text-decoration: none;">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Cozy Mystery</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – PG</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&field-author=Amanda%20Lee&search-alias=digital-text" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with Amanda Lee on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GayleTrentandAmandaLee" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a><a href="https://twitter.com/leah_beth" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><br /></a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.gayletrent.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-YTHdt59oPNToypDfFq2iQ7Epl5g" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.gayletrent.com</a></b></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-85820970637856681852014-10-11T07:30:00.000-04:002014-10-11T11:59:32.730-04:00Ted Tayler (Unfinished Business) & What You Didn't Know About Him @ted_tayler #BookClub #Thriller<ol style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin: 0px 0px 10px 25px; padding: 0px;">
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
joined the choir in my local church when I was eight years old. I left
to sing a different type of music when I was eighteen. When my treble
voice was in its prime I sang with the choir at evensong in Salisbury
Cathedral.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
the mid 60s I worked for the Kray family. This could send a shiver down
the spine of a lot of people who either experienced the family first
hand or have read about their ‘reign of terror’ in London at that time.
Charles Kray, who was related to the infamous brothers, was a director
of an entertainment agency who booked us to play at pubs and clubs
across London. His name appeared at the head of every contract we
received; one of his ‘boys’ arrived at the majority of venues to pay us
the contracted amount or to tell us it was ‘cheque to the agent’
tonight; we never argued. We worked for the agency for eighteen months
and had no trouble whatsoever; it was probably the best agency we ever
worked for!</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">In
the early 70s I appeared on several editions of a sports quiz programme
on the radio. British readers of a certain age will remember the
celebrity team captains, Brian Johnston and Ted Moult. The quizmaster
was Peter Jones, a broadcasting legend. It was an unbelievable
experience.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
started playing snooker when I was sixteen years old. The local League
provided me with many happy years of competition and after 25 years of
playing I decided to give something back. In 1991 I became League
Secretary and I plan to pass the reins over to someone else in 2015.
I’ve operated a ‘benevolent dictatorship’ and it has seemed to work
without too many problems! I plan on playing after my long term of
office is over!</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">We
played at The Granary Club in Bristol supporting Genesis on February
22nd 1971. It was a regular venue for us and we had backed several big
names there. The gig was voted the best night in the history of the Club
(1969 -1988). Happy days! The full story is in my first book.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Lynne
and I ran a quiz night at a local social club for almost twelve years. I
hosted over five hundred quizzes, all of which I prepared myself. Lynne
was my glamorous assistant. The last quiz we ran was on 21<span style="line-height: 0; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">st</span> December 2012; seven days after I started to write ‘The Final Straw’ my first novel.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I was
made redundant in March 2000 after thirty four years with a tyre
company. I took the money and ran! When I had joined them in the mid 60s
it was a friendly, sociable working environment that made it a pleasure
to go to work. By the time I left it had become a soulless money making
machine and I haven’t given the place a second thought since I walked
through the gates for the final time.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">It’s
not very rock ‘n’ roll but the summer after I finished work I started
playing bowls. The vast majority of my colleagues were twenty years
older than me at least, yet the next eight summers were the happiest
sporting times of my life. I was Club Captain in 2008 and maybe I’ll
find time to take it up again when I get older!</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">I
have been an Exam Invigilator at our local school since 2002. I look
after children sitting various stages of their examination life from
eleven to eighteen years of age. We have a team of twenty or so
invigilators and I’m possibly the longest serving member now. It’s
rewarding work and I keep an eye out for how the ‘superstars’ develop as
they leave us and go on to university and beyond.</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: 20px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.5em;">In November 2012 I was joined by two of the original members of my last group for a reunion gig. It was to mark the 65</span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.5em; position: relative; top: -0.5em; vertical-align: baseline;">th</span><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 1.5em;">birthday
of one our road managers. Almost 40 years after our last gig together
we played some of our favourite songs; it was the first time my children
and a lot of my friends had heard me sing! We had a great night, but it
was probably just a ‘one-off’. My friends asked me whether I missed how
it felt to be on stage singing to an audience that enjoyed what they
heard. I replied ‘Only every day!’</span></span></li>
</ol>
<div>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="line-height: 21px;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/unfinishedBusiness.jpg" /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The
sequel to the award winning ‘The Final Straw’ sees Colin Bailey return
to the UK after almost a decade abroad. With a new name and a new face
he still has scores to settle. His meticulous planning takes him
ingeniously across Scotland and the North of England ticking names off
his list with the police completely baffled. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">DCI Phil Hounsell pitted his wits
against Colin before and so he is sent to Durham where he teams up with
super intelligent young DS Zara Wheeler; together they track their man
to Manchester and then eventually south to Bath. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">The final scenes take place on the
streets of the Roman city; Phil Hounsell’s family is threatened and in a
dramatic conclusion reminiscent of Holmes and Moriarty at the
Reichenbach Falls, the two men struggle above the foaming waters of the
historic Pulteney weir. </span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;">Buy Now @ <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unfinished-Business-Ted-Tayler-ebook/dp/B00J9V1DJI/ref=la_B005GPBMAQ_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399910837&sr=1-1&tag=booaremag-20" style="text-decoration: none;">Amazon</a> & <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/414477" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Genre – Thriller</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>Rating – PG-18</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ted-Tayler/e/B005GPBMAQ/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Connect</b> with Ted Tayler on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/EdwardCTayler" style="text-decoration: none;">Facebook</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/ted_tayler" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://tedtayler.co.uk/&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2-Y88MFk7aXYwwhxPL-R3L0vZfMiw" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://tedtayler.co.uk/</a></b></span></span></div>
</div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-80034497865013532902014-10-08T09:30:00.000-04:002014-10-08T09:30:02.419-04:00@KentBurden's Thoughts & Experience on Book Marketing with #KDPSelect (#SelfPub #AmWriting)<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have put together a synopsis of what I did for the free 5 day free promotion on amazon .com for my book <i>Is Your Chair Killing You?</i></span></span></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My
personal goal for the promo was 3,000 downloads, although I secretly
thought that the chances of getting that many were slim to none. I told
myself I would be totally jacked if I could get 1,500 and pretty darn
happy with 1,000. I kept all this to myself because I wasn’t going to
make the same mistake I made when we originally launched the book (I had
told my wife we would never sell 10 copies of the book in the first
week because most indie authors sell about 4 books a month. She said we
would indeed sell 10 and I defiantly said “if we sell more than ten
copies in the first week, I’ll run naked down the street.” She took the
bet. We sold 40 copies… the neighbors thought my midnight run was
hilarious).</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In March when I first launched <i>Is Your Chair Killing You?</i> I
set up several Google Alerts. One for my name, one for the title of the
book and one for “sitting health risks.” It would prove to be very
helpful to my promo.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Three
weeks before my free promo I sent out my first press release to some
local news outlets, magazines I have contributed to, and several health
and wellness blogs and websites. As far as I can tell no one paid any
attention at all.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Two
weeks before my promo I sent out a second press release which generated
just about as much enthusiasm as the first. I also registered with
Pixel of Ink which showcases free Kindle Books as well as a couple of
other free sites. Every couple of days I did a teaser on Twitter,
LinkedIn and Facebook for the upcoming promo. I also tried to find an
E-zine to post to with no luck.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">One
week before the promo I contacted some of the companies that have
products featured in the book. Really wish I had done this sooner.
Several said if had I contacted them a couple of weeks earlier they
would have sent out press releases as well ( they have professionals
doing theirs that actually get some attention on the web). Oh well; live
and learn. The companies did agree to push the book on their social
network platforms. I decided not to waste my time with a third press
release. A couple of days before the promo I sent out an email blast to
my data base. In all honesty I thought that this was a waste of time
because I figured I had pretty much exhausted most of my people in my
original March launch, but I did it anyway. The night before the promo I
posted the book on 24 free book and freebies sites then headed off to
bed.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Day 1.</b> I
woke up to 250 downloads. I was in shock. My wife and I danced around
the bed in our pajamas. I spent the morning announcing the promo on my
social network platform with a direct link to my book page. I hit
Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and LinkedIn 3 times in the morning and 3
times in the afternoon with non book posts in between to keep from
getting too spammy. The book started moving up in the free healthy
living category and in the free personal health category. By the end of
the day we had more than 800 downloads and were ranked #4 in the free
healthy living category.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Day 2 . </b>Slept
in, dawdled around the kitchen making breakfast then checked our stats.
Holy shitake mushrooms! We had over 1,500 downloads. I couldn’t believe
my eyes. I went back and hit my social media again and by early
afternoon we had 3,000 downloads. I checked our overseas downloads but
they were pretty meager—just 11 in the UK and 1 or 2 everywhere else. I
was starting to get a few new reviews, most of them 5 stars, and then I
got my first 1 star review. I was a little ticked about it–not because
it was a bad review, because I totally expected to get a few bad reviews
(you can’t please everyone) but because it wasn’t actually a review of
my book. The reviewer just accused me of faking my reviews (I didn’t)
and never talked about the book at all.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In
the late afternoon I got a Google alert for sitting health risk. A big
study in a prestigious British medical journal had just been released.
The new study found that people who sat for extended periods of time
doubled their risk of getting diabetes, heart disease and dying (which
just happens to be the subject of my book). Eight or nine major online
news outlets (BBC, New York Times, Huffington Post) were reporting the
story and I plugged my book in the comment section of each one of the
stories telling people about the book and where they could get it. All
of the outlets posted the comments. By the time we went to bed we were
#2 in free healthy living category and had 4,500 downloads.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Day 3. </b>I
sent out a follow up email to my list and suggested that if they had
already gotten the book they could also go on Amazon and gift a copy to a
friend or family member. Got more Google alerts and again left
comments. Went back to all the free sites and reposted (the original
posts had been pushed down below the first page by then because of newer
posts). At the end of the day we had a little over 6,500 downloads and
had climbed to the #1 spot in the free healthy living category as well
as the free personal health category. Even more surprising, we had
cracked the free Kindle top 100 list at 38.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Day 4. </b>Things
started to slow down a bit on the fourth day in the USA but the UK was
on fire. I had gone from 11 downloads to almost 300 and every time I
looked the numbers were going up. I kept hitting my social media while
trying not to piss off my followers by being spammy. Headed to bed with a
little more than 8,000 downloads. We were still #1 one in both free
healthy living and personal health and in the top ten of free Kindle
nonfiction. Even better we hit #13 on the free Kindle top 100 list.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Day 5. I</b> spent
most of the day just checking the numbers. It had been an incredible
ride. Now I had to figure out how to keep this momentum going and try
not to worry… “is there going to be anyone left to actually purchase the
book?” Somehow even though it had been five days, it still didn’t feel
real. It was like a great dream that I really didn’t want to wake up
from. As day turned to night I started to feel sad, which is nuts
because it’s one of the coolest things I had ever experienced, but sad
none the less because it was almost over. I turned off the computer at
9pm. We were #1 in both free healthy living & personal health and
cracked into the top 10 of the kindle free top 100 list. My book had
been downloaded 10,542 times worldwide in those five days. Honestly it
still doesn’t feel real, but it certainly feels good. I think that when
my next book is published (in the next three weeks) I think I’ll do a
two or three day free promo and position it to start mid-week—I’ve heard
that the numbers can be bigger during the week. That’s all I know.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Chair.jpg" /></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sitting
for extended periods of time is as bad for your health as smoking
cigarettes. And exercising for 30-60 minutes a day isn’t enough to undo
the damage from extended periods of sitting. Is Your Chair Killing You
reveals shocking new research showing that sitting for long periods
greatly increases your risk of developing obesity, heart disease,
diabetes, stroke and cancer. Our bodies were designed to move constantly
over the course of the day, but most of us sit for hours a day at work
and at home! Fitness and wellness expert and award-winning author Kent
Burden has created brief, simple movements you can incorporate into your
daily life to combat the damaging effects of sitting. These simple
movements, done standing for 1-5 minutes each hour will burn calories,
energize and refresh you, and you won’t even break a sweat; you’ll even
improve your back pain. This book is a how-to for weight loss and
disease prevention. Read this book–you’ll be healthier in as little as 8
minutes a day.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Nominated for the Dan Poynter Global Ebook Awards and won honorable mention at the Los Angeles Book Festival</b></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Your-Chair-Killing-You-ebook/dp/B007OLYMZW/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Non-Fiction</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – G</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kent-Burden/e/B001K8U9HA/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with Kent Burden on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/kent.burden.3" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/kentburden" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website </b><a href="http://www.kentburden.com/" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.kentburden.com/</a></span></span></div>
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Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-33824309396219760892014-10-07T10:00:00.000-04:002014-10-14T11:31:23.991-04:00Mike Hartner on Networking Online & Being Social @MHartnerAuthor #WriteTip #AmWriting #HistFic <b>How To Network Online to Sell Your Book</b><br />
<br />
First,
I must print this disclaimer. I’m not a marketing individual. And I,
James, the second book of The Eternity Series which will be released in
September 2014, is only the second book that I’ve tried to market.
So, everything has been trial and error. But, I will borrow heavily
from badredheadmedia.com’s Rachel Thompson, and several others, and the
lessons they have taught me.<br />
<ol>
<li>You need an Online Presence. Gmail+, FaceBook, Twitter, Pinterest….
They all have their uses. Personally, I’m on FaceBook, and Twitter.</li>
<li>Facebook has my personal page, where my family and friends reside,
and then a Corporate page which is where I try to publicize The Eternity
Series. And other projects that I have. BcBaldEagles.com also comes to
mind. It’s also a separate corporate page. And the three pages share
posts from each other.</li>
<li>Twitter is my second social media channel. @MHartnerAuthor is my
identity, since Rachel once said, it’s better to publicize yourself as
an author than to publicize individual books, and keep changing the
identity. Son’t confuse people. Publicize yourself as an author.</li>
<li> First Rule of Social Media: It’s Social. Don’t Spam. Don’t spill
every word saying ‘Buy my book’. Build relationships, show people your
interests outside of writing. If you’re interested in Nutella, and
Alaskam wilderness cabins, show that. If it’s quilting, crocheting and
flowers you’re interested in, show that. Let people meet the REAL you.</li>
<li>Pluggio and hootsuite are great tools. Pluggio allows you to ‘drip’
every few hours news topics of your interest. Hootsuite allows you to
post on more than one site from a consolidated dashboard. Both are
useful.</li>
<li>Don’t expect everyone who follows you to remain. But help them by
not including expletives in every second post, or every third word.
Show them that you can enjoy life as much as it can frustrate you.</li>
</ol>
Social Networks allow you to reach out to a lot of other people.
AS much as you want others to follow you, follow them. Find others
with your interest. Other authors, other Nutella aficionados, other
quilters, whatever… By following a wide range of others, a wide range of
them will follow you.<br />
<br />
BLOG, or get blog tours. Blog
tours are GREAT exposure for your book. They usually have a wide and
diverse cross section of reviewers, who are all interested, to some
extent, in your writing.<br />
<br />
HELP OTHERS. If you can help
others with your lessons, do. If you can Share other’s posts,
announcements, etc… chances are they’ll share yours. And your messages
will get out to people you never expected.<br />
<br />
90/10 Rule.
At least 90 percent of your posts and blogs should be focused on
things OTHER THAN selling your book. Great reviews are one thing you
can announce more often. Share Reviews of books you’ve read. Even
better if they’re current books (last five years). Even Better if
you’re following the author when you post the review.<br />
<br />
ENGAGE
your audience. Snippets, comments, and reviews of everyone’s work are
great things to post. Top Ten lists about your life, about your
hobbies… all of these build audience.<br />
<br />
And while you’re building audience, but not screaming BUY MY BOOK, chances are some people will buy it.<br />
<br />
And that’s what makes social media so great. Being Social.<br />
<br />
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><a data-mce-href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IJames.jpg" href="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IJames.jpg"><img alt="IJames" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-41780" data-mce-src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IJames.jpg" src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/IJames.jpg" height="200" width="130" /></a></span></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">James Crofter was ripped from his family at age 11. <br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" />Within a year the prince was a pauper in a foreign land. <br data-mce-style="color: #000000;" />Is nature stronger than nurture? And even if it is, can James find the happiness he so richly desires? </span></span></div>
<div data-mce-style="text-align: center;" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/I-James-Eternity-Book-2-ebook/dp/B00MQHIG0Q/ref=la_B009VJQBEA_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409891856&sr=1-5" href="http://www.amazon.com/I-James-Eternity-Book-2-ebook/dp/B00MQHIG0Q/ref=la_B009VJQBEA_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1409891856&sr=1-5" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre - Historical Fiction, Romance</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – PG</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a data-mce-href="http://www.amazon.com/Mike-Hartner/e/B009VJQBEA/" href="http://www.amazon.com/Mike-Hartner/e/B009VJQBEA/" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 19px; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with Mike Hartner on <a data-mce-href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Hartner-Author/368690356556759" href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mike-Hartner-Author/368690356556759" target="_blank">Facebook</a> &amp; <a data-mce-href="https://twitter.com/MHartnerAuthor" href="https://twitter.com/MHartnerAuthor" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
Quality Reads UKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03216387289293473067noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8142129598077371024.post-88541198840127882162014-10-07T07:30:00.000-04:002014-12-04T07:01:25.004-05:00John W. Mefford on Internal Struggles & Mid-Life Enlightenment @JWMefford #AmReading #Suspense<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I
look in the mirror, and what do I see? Extra lines, less hair, a little
more weight, depending on my current level of fitness. Time stands
still for no one. And, if you’re open to growing, learning, that’s a
good thing. A very good thing.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">By
looking at that reflection—literally and figuratively—I’ve seen more
changes than I can possibly count over the years. With more salt than
pepper in my goatee, my facial hair shows some tread on my tires. Muscle
strains, joint pain, squinting to read small print, all come with
living a full life year after year for almost five decades. And don’t
get me going about my torn rotator cuff. But it certainly beats the
alternative.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I’ve
never been one to hide my age, starting when I was a young kid, and
looking even younger. I always had a stubborn, driven core that pushed
me to work hard, even if the task or nature of the job was unappealing,
or even if it made me want to puke. In my teenage years I built banana
splits and flipped burgers, then mowed yards in triple-digit
temperatures. Once I made it out of college, I worked long hours trying
to scoop my rival reporter at the cross-town newspaper—my first paying
gig in the writing world. But my drive and competitiveness hit an
advanced level once I hit the grind of corporate life.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Information
Technology was the field, the very hot field that sucked me in like an
F5 tornado. It’s a remarkable industry, with an amazing array of
talented, visionary people, especially in the early days, before anyone
had used the term start-up.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">From
day one, I never quite felt comfortable working in IT, and most of the
time truly felt out of place. Technology has never been a keen interest
of mine. I had a few talents that helped me along the way…I’m pretty
good with numbers and motivating people to get stuff done, even if I
didn’t truly understand the nuts and bolts of what the hell we were
trying to accomplish. It didn’t matter. I was told to break through the
brick wall, and I did anything to reach the goal. I was about the best
grinder around. Many were smarter, but few worked as hard. I never let
my brain relax, because I couldn’t afford to.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And
then I woke up. It wasn’t an overnight epiphany. I had internal
struggles for years, my true voice softly telling me to find a job or
business that suited me. It took a good ten years for me to take action,
to recognize that little voice as my true self.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I
have a friend who knew what he wanted to do when he was fourteen years
old, maybe younger. He dreamed of working as a nuclear physicist. I’m
not kidding. He was—is—brilliant. He wanted it so badly he could taste
it. He talked about it all the time, studied everything about that
world, and mapped his path toward his destiny.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Outside
of dreaming to play for any number of sports teams, while growing up I
could never figure out what I was destined to do with my life. Working
as a reporter allowed me to work a muscle that I’d never used. The job
itself was bit confining, but it ignited a creative spark in me that
stayed alive like the Olympic flame. Then came the IT gig.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It
was all meant to be…to provide life experiences that have taught me
plenty, that I can share with others, my family, and, yes, write about
in the most unbridled, embellished way possible. It’s empowering to
finally admit the truth about who I am, how I want to contribute to the
world, to evoke emotion from readers of my work. Is it a mid-life
crisis? That’s not how I see it. I don’t want to buy a red sports car, I
love my wife more than ever, and I have great fulfillment by watching
three kids grow up and figure out life.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Instead,
I’ve experienced a mid-life enlightenment. I might be in my late
forties, but it’s better to admit who you are and what you’re passionate
about before there’s no life left to live.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">My
only advice to my kids and anyone else of any age? Listen to your true
self. Find your passion and then don’t hide it. Work like hell to be
better at it, and be proud of who you are and how you impact the world.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s
funny how things work out in life. My friend? Well, the government shut
down funding for the super-collider, and after investing seven years of
college and low-paying internships in cold-weather cities, his dreams
of making a living as a nuclear physicist were flushed down the toilet.
Now, though, he’s one of those visionary, brilliant people in the IT
industry. He’s damn good at it, and I think he enjoys most of it. Bravo
for him!</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">As
for me, I’m a writer. I think I’m pretty damn good at it, and I’ll work
my ass off to get better. That’s my passion. I hope you find yours.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img src="http://www.orangeberrybooktours.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/FatalGreed.jpg" /></span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Behind
the façade of every corporate takeover executives pull levers this way
and that, squeezing the last profitable nickel out of the deal. But no
one knows the true intent of every so-called merger. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">No one knows the secret bonds that exist. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">An Indian technology giant swallows
up another private company that has deep roots in North Texas. For one
unassuming man the thought of layoffs, of losing his own job to a bunch
of arrogant assholes feels like a kick to the jewels. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Until the day Michael’s life changes forever. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Perverse alliances. An affair of the
heart. A grisly murder. A spiraling string of events thrusts Michael
into a life-or-death fight to save a tortured soul and hunt down a
brutal killer…one who lurks closer than he ever imagined. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Greed knows no boundaries.</span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Buy Now @ <a href="http://www.amazon.com/FATAL-GREED-Greed-John-Mefford-ebook/dp/B00KP3TUQW/ref=la_B0062PGVP0_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402330476&sr=1-1" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Amazon</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Genre – Suspense, Thriller</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Rating – R</i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>More details about <a href="http://www.amazon.com/John-W.-Mefford/e/B00KPIA8AE/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the author</a></i></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Connect</b> with John W. Mefford on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JohnWMeffordAuthor" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> & <a href="https://twitter.com/jwmefford" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Twitter</a></span></span></div>
<div align="center" style="background-color: white; line-height: 21px; margin-bottom: 10px; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Website <a class="in-cell-link" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.johnwmefford.com&usd=2&usg=ALhdy2_KrtKBwV_do8k5j4dKlWUQF6WR9A" style="text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">http://www.johnwmefford.com</a></b></span></span></div>
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