Word Magic: Articles & Tips for Authors

Book Review: The Winds of War

2012-01-26T01:53:00.000-08:00

First published in 1971, The Winds of War is aptly described on the cover as `another splendid epic' as well as being compared to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind. Although such fulsome praise has often been used to describe various tomes, this book deserves such high praise. It is actually the prologue to Wouk's War and Remembrance, and (my tattered old edition) is a 960-pager at that! If you are looking for something that seems to have died out recently, namely, a good old-fashioned read or a solid story, then this is it. Despite being written over forty years ago, there is no sense of being dated, albeit some of the expressions might come across as quaint. The story concerns two families, one Jewish and European, the Jastrows, and the other American and WASP, namely the Henrys. Looming behind the tapestry of lives and loves interlinking is the horrific menace of World War 2. The author is truly a gifted writer in that tackling a subject as monumental as a world war and trying to humanise both friends and foes is daunting. However, this book is superbly written and keeps the reader glued to the pages. Each character brings a unique angle to this novel, even those historical personalities usually relegated to the pages of history books. The stubbornness of elderly academic Aaron Jastrow, who remains in Italy despite the imminent threat of Fascism and Mussolini's pact with Hitler, drags his niece, the strong-willed and beautiful Natalie Jastrow, right into the fray. Pug Henry, a middle-aged US Naval officer, is dismayed to find his youngest son Byron not only gets involved with Natalie, but marries her. When war breaks out she is stranded in war-torn Europe with her cantankerous uncle and a new-born babe. Pug has his own problems with a beautiful but bored and dissatisfied wife (Rhoda) who feels her husband has not achieved the career she had in mind for him. On an observer mission to Europe, Pug himself finds himself attracted to a girl old enough to be his daughter.

These human conflicts are somehow always uppermost in a story that never succumbs to the weightier issues of war and destruction. I enjoyed the way in which the author deftly creates an intimate viewpoint of the three pivotal characters of the war: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Hitler himself by having Pug Henry at different stages of the novel actually meet and interact with these men. Another interesting angle is Pug's analysis of General Armin van Roon's (fictional) account of the war and the motives and machinations behind Hitler's various invasions and instances of both brilliance and bungling ineptitude. The author also provides a perceptive analysis of the psyche of the nations dragged into the war, and this is a great help in understanding how and why so many people entered into and supported their leaders in what could only be the greatest folly of the century. The book cannot, of course, adequately describe the unspeakable horror of the bombings, the dreadful atrocities perpetrated in the death camps, and many more occasions of wholesale slaughter, but the author does an excellent job of describing these events without sinking into a mire of sentimentality or a ghoulish litany. The book ends as Pearl Harbour is bombed, thus bringing the USA into a war that FD had successfully avoided in an effort to appease the war-shy American public. The bombing of Pearl Harbour, a momentous blunder on the part of Japan propelled the American giant into the war with a unanimous vote (bar one). This is a truly satisfying experience for the readers who want to sink their literary teeth into something solid!

Putting the History into Historical Novels

2011-11-14T05:31:00.000-08:00

Putting the history into an historical novel is not as easy as it sounds. Although it might seem that just a bit of research and flinging a few facts into the mix will do, trust me, it won’t. Historical novels can be both under- and overwhelming. The first kind either have glaring anachronisms, where the hero or heroine living a few hundred years ago comes out with a thoroughly modern saying, or curse, or pattern of speech/behaviour. On the other hand, some writers positively drown their readers in facts that, while interesting and pertinent, are too much. The story is swamped by an excess of detail. How to get it right? The perfect mix is just enough detail to create the setting and keep the reader in the era without an excess of technical and historical detail. I recently reviewed two books by the same author, Lucinda Brant, who has captured the essence of an age (Georgian England) and made it her own. Deft, subtle touches of details place the reader firmly in the history and society of this abundantly opulent age. For a reader like myself, gently reared on Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer and post-Regency plots, the heroics of this brash, endearing, and vital period in history came as a wonderful surprise. I have included my two reviews in the hopes that they will persuade you to discover this eminently readable and skilled historical novelist.

Salt Bride

The Earl of Salt Hendon, with good looks, fortune, and the reputation of a lover par excellence, could have any woman he pleased just by crooking his little finger. So when he seemingly lost his reason and married a squire's daughter, Jane Despard, Society is aghast. Despite being a noted beauty, Jane's reputation is clouded, an incident in her past having cast a shadow over her marital prospects. What Society does not know is that Jane and the Earl share a dreadful secret: a past encounter that brought them both nothing but misery, misunderstanding, and mistrust. Their marriage four years after that encounter is sealed so that the Earl can discharge a promise to a dying man and Jane can save her stepbrother from financial ruin. Jane holds out the hope that the Earl will finally come to love her. Her husband, alas, is deeply influenced by the scheming Diana, Lady St. John, widow of his cousin and the mother of his nominated heir, his young godson. Can Jane's love prevail and will the Earl finally open his eyes to the Machiavellian maneuvers of the wicked Lady St. John?

It is the year 1763 and King George III is on the throne. Georgian aristocratic life is synonymous with elegance and a devil-may-care pleasure, and the upper classes enjoy a kind of amorality in their love lives. Men, and women, are inclined to take their pleasure where they choose. It is this angle, the tawdry underbelly of high society that the author captures so brilliantly in this eminently readable novel. The rakish, raucous character of the Georgian period is contrasted superbly with the sophistication of the age. The author has created a love story that fans of historical romance will relish. Details of the politics, manners, social mores, and dress are deftly interspersed within the plot lines to fully flesh out the era and the people in it. The author's characterization, even with secondary characters, is accurate and believable. The plot is complex and interesting; the author guides the reader through the maze of misunderstandings without ever giving the game away. The dialogue is witty and sparkling, with the characters' words often belying their actions and vice versa, thus further adding to the love confusion. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

Autumn Duchess

Antonia, Dowager Duchess of Roxton, has been in mourning for three years for her beloved dead husband and soul mate. Antonia has lost the man who meant everything to her and it appears she no longer has any enjoyment for life. That is until Jonathon Strang, a larger-than-life, forceful character bursts into her life like a hurricane, and turns it upside down. Although Antonia is easily ten years older than he is, her amazing beauty and enchanting aura soon have him captivated. Jonathon began life as the second son of an impoverished second son. However, by virtue of hard work and good fortune in the colonies, coupled with several family deaths that have put him in line for a title, Jonathon is very eligible indeed. He also has links with the Roxton family that he wishes to pursue, namely, the illegal misappropriation of property that rightfully is his. One of these properties can only be signed over to him by Antonia herself.

Antonia is initially repelled by the buccaneer; a man whose casual manners are almost insulting in a society obsessed with the niceties of conduct. His blunt approach, his sharp brain, his sense of humor and finally his blatant adoration serve to break down her icy disdain. Set in 1777, in Georgian England, against a backdrop of the imminent French Revolution and the American War of Independence, this compelling love story will appeal to romantics of all ages.

I recently reviewed Salt Bride by the same author and was keen to revisit Georgian England. Lucinda Brant has carved a niche for herself in this particular patch of history and she is gifted in weaving both story and history into a compelling read. Passion is the keynote of this novel; abundantly clear in the passion of the main characters, the robust energy of the age, and the pulse of action that creates an energetic and well-paced novel. The author has a wonderful turn of phrase, creating a sense of the opulence and oftentimes excessive luxuriance of the era. Food, drink, clothing, entertainment, appetites are all described in glowing detail in an era that celebrated abundance and sensual gratification. Although this is the third book in a series, and readers would derive even greater enjoyment by reading the first two as well, this story stands alone with enough back history threaded through to keep readers in touch with prior events. Highly recommended.

Both books by Lucinda Brant first reviewed for Readers Favorite by Fiona Ingram

Book Review: Tribe

2011-10-17T05:19:00.000-07:00

Oh, for a good book ... one with action, a layered plot, something interesting like a fresh viewpoint on politics and/or life. I have been struggling recently with finding a 'real' book. By that I mean dialogue, or inner monologue that sounds just like real people would speak, a viewpont that makes me think, "Yes!" or "No!" I read a lot of non-fiction while researching my children's book series and have been disappointed in my efforts to find some fiction to relax with. Many books just do not sound or seem 'real.' Either I don't believe the characters, or I don't like the characters (not a train smash) or else the themes don't grab me. Luckily, reviewing for Readers' Favorite allows me to choose from a wide range of possible me-pleasers. TRIBE is basically an exceptional book. It's the kind of book that is so interesting you wish the author had given you more information, more insight, more detail to chew over while the battle rages on. I will certainly read more of the books this author has already produced.

TRIBE by James Bruno

Meet Harry Brennan, CIA officer and go-to guy on Afghanistan. When his mission in Afghanistan is aborted and he finds himself back in Washington, Harry starts digging until he finds out what everyone doesn’t want him to know. And it comes as no surprise to Harry that it’s all about money, or oil to be exact. As the Western world’s need for oil increases, something must be done to break the stranglehold of the Arab world on oil supplies. A secret deal has been struck to get a U.S.-financed trans-Central Asian oil pipeline to the Arabian Sea built through Afghanistan and Pakistan. This scenario would bring Croesus-like wealth for the oil companies, back-channel cash to politicians and cement American political and economic supremacy in Central Asia at Russia’s expense. It would also force the Afghan allies to share power with the Taliban so pipelines could be built and US troops finally withdrawn. Harry becomes enmeshed in the double and triple cross of the relentless Washington political machine. In a surprise turn of events, Harry finds himself branded a traitor and fleeing for his life from jihadists in Afghanistan and Predator drones in Yemen, a target of his own CIA, while trying to rescue his kidnapped daughter.

This is a brilliant book that is well-paced and -plotted with many interesting layers. The author has created in Harry Brennan a likeable character, with a conscience that compels him to do the right thing. The author is a former insider and the book has undergone US government censorship, which explains the occasional ‘vague’ patch. However, nothing can detract from this riveting read. Harry Brennan’s dry, laid-back inner monologue adds to the appeal of the author’s style. Readers will also enjoy Harry’s pertinent, humorous references to the books, movies, and well-known personalities of popular culture that underscore his worn, somewhat cynical take on politics. The author has an eye for detail and a style of rich description that the eager reader can feast upon. I really enjoyed this book. Highly recommended.

First reviewed for Readers' Favorite

Not Just a Pretty Face(Book)!

2011-09-29T07:29:00.000-07:00

RIP poor blogger!

I was recently inspired by a blog post to drag myself out of my Slough of Blogging Despond. The post was by the excellent blogger Roni Loren, entitled ‘Is Blogging Dead?’ Please read it. I found myself overwhelmed by the plethora of very much cleverer-than-mine blog pieces, and despite my promise of last year to cut down on subscriptions, I fear they have crept up and I now read even more incredibly intelligent posts. Plus, some of my favorite bloggers I follow now include loads of even cleverer pieces by people I have never heard of; I felt could not compete with them! My blogging enthusiasm died and my ideas for cute, inventive posts withered. After all, I reasoned, how can I compete with bloggers who create wonderful posts about developing characters when some of mine literally just arrive on my computer screen, fully fledged and grown? Sigh. But Roni’s piece got me all fired up again because at least I felt someone understood my problem. Then I just completed a tour with the wonderful World of Ink/Stories for Children and got such a great response I reasoned that maybe there is life after blogging. Still short on ideas, I drew some inspiration from a post by one of my favorite people in the publishing industry Penny Sansevieri. Here’s her take on how to commit social suicide, or something like that.

The Quickest Way to Kill Your Online Success

Penny says: I have a friend who lives in San Diego. She and her boyfriend rented this lovely home outside of the city. They have tons of land, a great house. It was really a fantastic deal. Since they were in such a good place, the rent was cheap and they had no intention of moving anytime soon, they decided to do some minor renovations to the house. This became their "weekend warrior" project. They'd paint, tinker, plant and in the end, they had a great and slightly improved property. Then one day the owner stopped by for a visit. "Bad news," he said, "I need to sell this property and I have a buyer who wants to offer top dollar, in a market like this I'm sure you understand why I need to take it." They had 30 days to move out.

Now, you might think this is a very sad and unfair situation, but it happens all the time. And it doesn't just happen to real estate, it happens online too. It's a great thing, this social networking, but what a lot of people forget is that you don't own the sites you are populating. While Facebook owns the world (pretty much) right now, things could change. But more than that, sometimes a slight "uh-oh" from you and a slight violation of the site's terms of service can cause you a world of grief. We had a client several years ago who built up 5,000 friends on his personal profile. I kept cautioning him about doing promotion on that page as Facebook has rules against doing promotion on a personal profile. He continued to do promotion (though not heavy) and lost his page. He never got it back. His entire tribe of 5,000 people was lost in the minute it took Facebook to pull down that page.

Don't get me wrong, it's great to utilize these tools and promote yourself, but just remember: as much as you might feel "at home" on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, and Twitter, you don't own these properties. They do. Be smart and make sure you aren't making these sites the center of your success. Here are a few tips to help you own your real estate:

Website. You should always, always, always have a website. I know some authors who use Facebook as their websites. Big mistake. I know other authors who get a website that doesn't belong to them, meaning they are part of a community of free sites they don't own. If the community decides to stop doing websites and goes away, guess what happens? So does your content.

Smart Social Media. One of the things I really recommend is that you center all of your content around your website. That's partially why I suggest linking your blog to Facebook and Twitter. The content starts on your site and gets funneled from there, rather than in reverse.

Other Ways to Promote. Consider other ways to promote your stuff that isn't social media centric. Interviews on (other) blogs or websites, for instance. Yes, you are still putting stuff out there on other sites, I'm not saying not to. I'm saying that you need to make sure that whatever content you put out there is reflected on your site as well.

Duplicate Content. There's a problem with posting huge amounts of duplicate content online, but unless you are pushing hundreds of pieces out a month, I doubt you have anything to worry about. However, the flip side is that you want to make sure you have copies of all the content you put out there. If you're uploading a video on YouTube, don't delete it off of your computer because you think it's "safe" on this site. It may very well be, but if you lose your page or YouTube gets bought (again) and morphs into something else, you're in trouble.

Enhanced Website. When I talked about having a website, I'm not just talking about having a one or two-pager. I mean have a robust site packed with content. Make sure that you have a blog, and you might consider adding a resource section, etc. All information about your books should be on the site (don't rely on Amazon to house this for you) and be sure that any ordering information is on your site as well. Wait! You might ask, is Amazon in danger of going away? Not likely. But as they've shown in the past by pulling down books and buy buttons without warning: Amazon can do whatever it wants.

Gotta love that traffic!

Traffic. So, the nitty gritty of promotion is what? Sales, right? Sure, and exposure too (though I think you should target exposure first, then sales, but that's another article). If you're sending all of your traffic to social media sites, guess what? Your website traffic is probably pretty low or non-existent. If you send traffic to social media sites guess who benefits? Well, certainly you do in the way of exposure, but long-term this isn't a good plan. Let me explain why.

If you aren't promoting your site as the center of the universe, and instead pushing people to social media sites, then your website isn't getting those super valuable incoming links from blogs, websites, etc. that you are promoting yourself to. As a result, your site will sink in Google rankings. That means if you lost one or more of your social media sites, you could certainly pick up the pieces and start sending people to your site, but that will be a long, hard haul. Better to focus on that now and gather that traffic, along with the buzz you create in social media, so you aren't caught with a zero starting point if anything happens.

You might think that the moral of this story is a slightly paranoid "trust no one" mantra but it's not. It's about protecting your stuff and being a smart and savvy author. You would never open up a store in a mall without a lease that locked you in for a certain amount of time, right? While there are no guarantees in anything, you need to be smart about all of these wonderful, free, not-owned-by-you social media sites. You might do a fantastic job of driving traffic, fans, and likes to various pages. But the reality is that you should focus on what you own, your website. I love my social media sites and yes, it's a widely known fact that I'm addicted to Twitter. Yet they aren't the center of my online universe, my website is. Yours should be, too.

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

30 Ways to Woo the Media

2011-08-28T04:48:00.000-07:00

There is a reason so many pitches get rejected by the media. On average, the media rejects 95% of pitches they get. How can you become part of the 5% that get picked up for a story? First, you need to know the reasons why pitches get rejected. Keep in mind these aren't the only reasons, but certainly the majority of them:

Uninteresting email subject lines: Often your pitch is judged by the subject line. Make it something interesting, make it a headline or risk getting relegated to the delete bin.

Long emails: I don't know about you, but I hate reading long emails. The media hates it even more, in fact many of my media friends have told me that if they have to scroll through a pitch, they often won't consider it unless it comes from a very trusted source. How long is too long? If you can read it on the screen without scrolling down, you're in good shape.

Non-compelling topics: You won't get attention for your topic just because you pitch it. It has to be timely, unique, and relevant to the audience they serve. Think HUH: Hip, Unique, and Helpful.

An opened email isn't always a sure bet: Even if your email gets opened, it might still get deleted, here's why: For all of the above reasons. Create a tight, focused pitch that isn't too long and stays on topic. This will increase your chances that the media will read it through.

Not relevant: What I mean by this is that it's not relevant to the audience the media outlet serves. Don't think for a minute that just because you find it interesting and compelling that your media target will. For example, I once had an author tell me about the amazing world of fly fishing, and then insist that Oprah would be interested in this topic. Really? I think not so much. Watch the show, listen to the broadcast, or read the blog or publication - before pitching.

A false sense of urgency: Often I find that folks pitching, in order to get noticed, will call upon a false sense of urgency. Yes, it's urgent that we fix our school systems. Yes, it's urgent that we clean up the environment. Neither of these things is going to blow up tomorrow so don't pitch them as though they are. While it might make for a more compelling pitch, it will only serve to paint you as an unreliable and often excitable source. Neither of these is good.

Unknown senders: An unknown source or sender may be considered an unreliable one. It's easy enough to get to know the media long before you start pitching. And I highly recommend that you do so.

Now, let's look at 30 things you can do to make yourself, and your pitches, irresistible to the media!

1) Start early and Focus on Relationships.
2) Connect on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn: get to know your media, connect with any local and national reporters, journalists, and news people via these social sites so you can get to know them.
3) Comment on postings via Twitter and Facebook: comment on their postings and news when appropriate.

4) Facebook birthdays: this is a great way to connect to everyone on your list, especially media. Wish them a happy birthday, they'll appreciate it.
5) Watch those Twitter hashtags: as you follow your media, you'll start to see a trend of most-used Twitter hashtags, I highly recommend you follow them so you can see who else is talking about the story.
6) Blog about them on your site, referencing a recent story they did.
7) Comment on their stories, whether it's on their site or on their media site.
8) Sign up for Helpareporter.com (HARO) and respond to stories appropriate to your topic.
9) Get to know your smaller, regional publications, and also trade publications. Both of these tend to be easier to get to and could offer you some exposure well in advance of your book launch.
10) Get to know your local radio hosts, or the hosts of stations you'll be targeting. Especially in radio, it's great to get connected to the broadcast people as early as you can. They also tend to be pretty accessible.
11) Go to events where you know you might meet some media folk. This is often a great way to engage them on mutual ground. Attending the same event is a great way to start a dialog or relationship with the media.
12) Practice your elevator pitch! What's an elevator pitch? It's a short, succinct description of your topic or pitch. Short enough to keep them interested (1-2 sentences) but long enough to tell the story, or at least the headline.
13) Become a source for your target media: becoming a media source is something we'd all love to do. But this takes time. By getting to know your media, commenting on stories they write and letting them know your area of expertise, you might become one of their regular sources!
14) Become a connector: be the person the media goes to for other experts as well. How do you do this? Whenever you introduce yourself to media, make sure they know your area of expertise and your ability to connect them to other experts who might be helpful as well.
15) Every now and then, I will share a blog post with a journalist that I think will be helpful to them. I don't do this a lot - just every once in a while.

16) Be succinct: define your story in one sentence. Keep it short, sweet, and relevant to your topic.
17) Sell the benefits, not the features. The media cares about what consumers care about, and all they want are benefits.
18) Make sure the media person has all the information he or she needs prior to the interview. This is especially true for late/breaking news. If there are new developments, make sure they are aware of them. This will save them research time and make them look good!
19) Speaking of making media look good, this is your job as well. Yes! It's important to make them look good, give them a set of questions, a synopsis about the book or interview topic and be prepared in case they ask you a question that doesn't seem quite right. Sometimes the person who is interviewing you doesn't get the media packet until 10 minutes before they go on, which doesn't leave them a lot of time to prepare. Be sure to help make their job easy!
20) Jump on breaking news when it happens and be ready when the media calls.
21) Be flexible. If a reporter covering a big story wants to chat with you on a weekend or late at night/early morning, say Yes.
22) Be excited about your topic: if you're not excited, how do you expect the media to be?
23) Never, ever give up. It might take a while for you to hear back, and sometimes (most times) the media won't respond to you until they have a need for your story.
24) Keep it short. Write short emails, always. Generally media folk are on email overload anyway; don't add to that with long, elaborate emails.
25) Think locally when appropriate: craft a local spin to a national story. While local media will always cover local, they love regional angles to stories that are making national news.
26) Stay on topic: when you do get the interview, stay on topic. Don't stray all over the place, you will confuse the media person and you'll end up getting a much smaller piece of a story if you look too fragmented.
27) Respond immediately: even if you are on vacation, reply right away to all media queries.
28) Don't tell the media anything you don't want to see in print. Assume everything you say is "on the record" even if you ask them to keep it confidential. I've seen authors say "well, off the record;" when it comes to media, assume there's no such thing.
29) Avoid slang and industry jargon: it will confuse the media.
30) Be grateful: always. Send a handwritten thank you note after an interview, and even if you didn't get the interview for which you were being considered, send a note of thanks anyway and wish them well on their story.

When it comes to media, get started as early as you can and build those relationships. Remember that while the delete rate of pitches is high, they are still in need of great guests, interviews, and stories. Be all those things and you'll not only be irresistible to the media, but you'll get a lot of placements that could really help launch your career!

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

Five Top Tips to Make Reading Rock!

2011-08-18T06:20:00.000-07:00

With the plethora of gadgets and technology at their fingertips, getting kids to open a book seems a daunting task for many parents. However, as any parent knows, when kids are interested in something, it’s hard to tear them away from it! You can turn your kids into avid readers by making reading exciting and interactive. Creative and interesting approaches to reading will transform this activity into something novel and stimulating. These tips will also enhance your child’s reading experience, encouraging them to think more deeply about the characters and themes in books, while having a whole lot of fun! My guest post today comes from Susan Black, who is a freelance writer and mother of two pre-teens.

FIVE TOP TIPS TO MAKE READING ROCK!
As pleasurable as reading is there are many ways to engage with a book other than simply reading it. Active reading strategies help young readers formulate their own ideas about characters, events and themes in literature. Outlined below are 5 active reading strategies to try with younger readers.

Strategy One: The Treasure Box

Whilst reading a book ask the young reader to choose a character and fill a shoe box with small items that would be important their chosen character. For example, if you were reading the Twilight series and the reader chose Bella they might fill the box with an old keepsake from her mother, a ring or flower given to her by Edward and a photo of her and her father. The idea is that the reader updates the treasure box as the story progresses. It’s almost like physically emptying the pockets of a character to find out what is important to them personally. This gives readers a deeper understanding of the characters at hand and enables them to engage with characters at a deeper emotional level.

Strategy Two: Reader Turned Reporter

Reading is a great tool for writing and a great activity is to get young readers to act as newspaper reporters throughout the story. This could range from getting them to read out a TV style news item to writing a column for the local newspaper based on events from the book. Most books involve dramatic events that would easily be covered by local, and sometimes even national, news channels and encouraging them to report on events from the book might help them look at the book from a new perspective. For example was the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood really the villain? The media’s penchant for twisting facts can make for an interesting perspective on new books.

Strategy Three: Hot-seating

Have young readers step into the shoes of a character and get them to respond to a series of questions. As all of the answers about a character are not always given in the book the reader will have to think imaginatively about their responses and make up believable answers. This works particularly well for stories involving passionate crimes as it can be set up in a court of law situation with the reader having to justify the actions of the character. If this is a little bit advanced for a child the adult may instead step into the shoes of the character and allow the young reader to question them. Formulating questions for a character is a higher level thinking skill as the reader is probing the material and creating a personal line of enquiry.

Strategy Four: Thematic Collages

Young readers who respond well to art projects will enjoy creating collages around the major themes in a book. Looking at the finished collage anybody should be able to tell you what a particular book is about. For example, in the case of Romeo and Juliet there may be images concerned with death, love and violence. This would give anybody coming to the play for the first time an idea of what to expect if they read it, or indeed, watched it. This works well for young readers as it gives them a visual representation of all the major aspects of the text. With complicated texts this can help to break down more sophisticated concepts into simpler terms.

Strategy Five: Create Your Own Ending

When you reach the last chapter of the book it’s always a good idea to stop and digest everything that’s happened. An even better thing to do is to make predictions about how the book could end and to write an alternative ending. The fun of this activity is that it can be easily made as serious or as fun as you want it to be. For fun you might try and get a young reader to write the most unlikely ending to the story. If you’re wanting the reader to take the text more seriously however you might get them to make sensitive predictions about how the book will end and write their own version. Not only is this enhancing their ability to analyse books it is giving them the opportunity to improve their creative writing skills. At the end of it they will have produced a piece of work they are proud of and will probably enjoy reading the end of the book even more to look at the similarities and differences between their written ending and that of the author.

Susan’s other interests lie in photography and amateur interior design. She has written this article on reading with kids on behalf of her favourite recliner sectionals specialists.

The Beauty of Book Reviews

2011-08-03T07:43:00.000-07:00

Just how important is a book review and why should writers bother with them? The benefits to any author are mind-boggling in terms of the potential reviews have to boost an author from obscurity into the stratosphere. Dana Lynn Smith’s How to Get Your Book Reviewed opens many possibilities that encompass not just reviews and their benefits, but also the add-ons of marketing and promotion.

How to Get Your Book Reviewed is a step-by-step method to creating a winning book marketing strategy. Beginning with understanding the book review process and why many submitted books do not get reviewed, this guide takes the writer through the entire process. Given the hundreds of thousands of book published each year, the author stresses the need for writers to make sure their product meets the industry standards. This book also offers great tips on the extras that can draw positive attention and ensure their book is chosen above others: a media kit, a good press release and sell sheet—simple elements that are actually a valuable tool to further publicity.

Each chapter is laid out in user-friendly fashion, with details that will save a writer time and money: how to search for favorable outlets, how to approach potential reviewers, timelines attached to review publications, and details on print and online options. The guide also explores the formal (literary and review journals, newspapers, magazines etc.) and informal avenues (blogs, book and author sites, virtual reader communities) available to the writer seeking reviews. Approaching people or experts for endorsements and testimonials is also covered. Interspersed throughout are the succinct savvy tips for which Dana Lynn Smith is renowned. The author also provides many useful web links to review sites, and explains the process of getting reviews uploaded. A section on Amazon gives great advice on how to successfully utilize the Amazon tool.

This gem is the definitive guide for any writer who wants to get their book out there. I highly recommend this publication!

Learning From the Movies: Another Year

2011-07-09T05:44:00.000-07:00

I love movies and make a point of ‘seeing’ my story unfolding before my eyes as I write. I pretend my book is a film. Will the reader see, hear, feel, and notice everything that I experience as I write? So, that takes me to the next point. If movies can be thought of as ‘moving pictures’ or books come alive, what can we learn from them in terms of plot and character development? Inspired in part by Jami Gold’s wonderful character and plot analysis of The Green Lantern, I thought more deeply about a film I saw recently. A film that didn’t say much; it didn’t really go anywhere … so why did it hold me and my friend absolutely enthralled?

Another Year, by director Mike Leigh, follows a year in the life of a sixty-something couple, Tom (Jim Broadbent) and Gerri (Ruth Sheen). He’s a commercial geologist; she’s an NHS therapist. The director is known for weaving stories around fictional ordinary folk. In Another Year we find Tom and Gerri (only one reference to the obvious in the movie) who live in a quiet street, somewhere in suburbia, and who are passionate about their allotment where they grow a variety of vegetables. They seem to spend a lot of their free time madly digging and planting; sometimes joined by their son Joe (Oliver Maltman), to whom they are devoted. Their smooth uncomplicated lives are punctuated by socializing with their son, and several friends with various troubled lives and personal problems. Nothing seems to shake Tom and Gerri. They reach out to communicate with their loved ones and then slide back into the comfortable, maybe even complacent shell that cocoons and protects them. In a way they are a sounding board to highlight the weaknesses and worries of the people around them. Their serenity only makes their friends’ lives seem even more chaotic.

So what is the captivating aspect of this film that quite simply moves through the four seasons in a quiet reflection of how times slips by? As I said, nothing really happens; or rather nothing happens directly to them. Tom’s brother Ronnie loses his wife and the terrible grief of these scenes is positively palpable. Again, sitting in the movie theater I asked myself what was so compelling about this film. With virtually no plot—no action, no real drama, no special effects, no computer generated gizmos, no car chases, no car crashes … we only hear about their neurotic friend Mary’s car troubles, we don’t see them—it can only be said that character, real living people drive this film.

The acting is sublime with characters such as their old friend Ken (Peter Wight), who visits from the North during the summer and masks an unhappy personal life with ample smoking, drinking and eating. His drunken behavior is totally cringe-worthy because we realize that we’ve all got friends like these. It is a tribute to the director that I felt as if I was watching real people; that somehow I had wandered into their lives by accident. I know and admire Jim Broadbent’s acting skills, but as Tom he was somehow not Jim Broadbent playing the part of Tom. He was Tom. From the moment I saw the opening scene of Tom and Gerri running through the rain from their front door to the car, with boxes of seedling and garden implements, I was hooked. I truly believed in the person called Tom and his wife called Gerri. Ditto for the remaining characters. The exquisite craftsmanship of the director draws the viewer into the situation so that by the time Mary (superbly played by Lesley Manville), their problematic friend, throws yet another tantrum related to her anxieties about ageing, you just want to throw her and her neuroses through the front door.

The film is made in unforgiving close-up, something I deeply admire the British acting fraternity for accepting as ‘part of the job.’ Most British films are characterized by a dearth of silicone and other cosmetic enhancements, minimal make-up, and plenty of real acting. The close-ups also reveal the inner soul of the characters and quite honestly, the internal life and drama of each person portrayed is so interesting, so much a raging tempest of emotional turmoil that one can do without the apparent lack of plot. Aren’t most of our lives like that? Fiction generally takes us into some unreal, often outrageous places and situations. It’s as if we need it to escape the dull humdrum existence that is life. Yet, somehow Another Year is like peering into a microscope at some seemingly insignificant leaf or drop of water, and seeing life teeming there. It seems that we are so blind to the beautiful simplicity of life as it really is that we need high drama and roller-coaster action to make a dent in our consciousness.

Writers, alas, have to work harder than directors or filmmakers. The human eye sees more in one image than we can say in a single word. Isn't a picture worth a thousand words? We have to work harder to ignite the imagination of the reader. Yet the joy and beauty of the printed page is that each reader will create a different image in their mind of what they just read. Each moment of the book will be unique to the people who turn those pages. Now that's creativity!

Book Review:The 19th Element

2011-07-07T02:18:00.000-07:00

A murder, a suspect, a nuclear plant with a spent fuel reactor that no one wants to discuss, potassium, a terrorist plot and two stolen truckloads of fertilizer … plus a couple of Mongolian goons makes for a thrilling race-against-time plot. The man to tie up the loose ends and resolve the case is none other than James “Beck” Becker, a former elite U.S. government intelligence operative who has retired to his childhood hometown of Red Wing, Minnesota, just six miles down the Mississippi from the Prairie River nuclear facility. The 19th Element makes for a thrilling read.

When the body of a University professor of agronomy turns up on the Mississippi River bank, Beck suspects foul play of a terrorist kind. His instinct tells him there is a connection between the victim and his missing lab assistant Farris Ahmed, an international cell phone call and a stolen fertilizer truck, but no one believes him. After all, who could take seriously his suspicions of a potassium bomb attack on a nuclear plant facility? The local police, the FBI and the nuclear plant security scoff at his ideas until things start rolling and it looks as if there is only one way things will end … in disaster. In fact Beck is not wrong. Al Qaeda plans to attack Minnesota’s Prairie River Power Plant as a means to restore the organization’s fading reputation to international prominence. It is indeed a motley crew that Beck finds himself up against: Al Qaeda has struggled to get Arab operatives into the nuclear facility and has resorted to using homegrown anarchists and a Three Mile Island survivor with a pathological vendetta against the nuclear establishment.

The author has established a likeable character in James Becker, one who has appeared in a previous novel and will no doubt feature in future political thrillers. By handling much of the narration, Beck’s character imbues the novel with his own style and personality. Beck is laid-back, with a dry sense of humor and an unerring instinct for danger. He trusts his gut and so do his friends, namely Ottawa County’s Chief Deputy Sheriff, Doug Gunderson, aka “Gunner” and Terry Red Feather, a full-blooded Mdewakanton Dakota American Indian, aka “Bull.” This book is an excellent read, with the author managing to steer the untutored reader through a maze of technical details about nuclear power and potassium bombs without losing attention. My one criticism would be that the story slows down in the middle with the author “telling” rather than “showing” but speeds up to a satisfying and thrilling climax. An interesting snippet is the fact that potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (Neo-Latin kalium) and atomic number 19, hence the title of this book.

First reviewed for ReadersFavorite.com

Book Review: The Hounds of Samaria

2011-06-28T04:06:00.000-07:00

I love anything to do with the two World Wars and of course, ancient history and mythology. I found an amazing package all rolled into one with Nigel Patten's The Hounds of Samaria. Here's my review of a great book and a compelling read.

Era: World War Two. Place: Crete. George Ghikas has Greek ancestry so the British army sends him behind enemy lines on occupied Crete with orders to organize partisan groups in the White Mountains. Before his posting, George had begun having strange dreams, almost hallucinations, about a dancing girl. These dreams continue upon his arrival in Crete. It appears that George was once the victim of a human sacrifice ceremony that took place in a restored Minoan temple located near his current base camp. The girl who has been haunting his dreams was the officiating priestess during the ancient sacrificial ceremony ... until the temple was destroyed by an earthquake. The past merges with the present until George almost commits suicide by reenacting the sacrificial ceremony from 3,600 years ago in the restored temple.

This book has an amazing sense of lyricism that draws the reader into a complex, yet finely woven plot. The author is a consummate wordsmith, whose eloquent and poetic descriptions paint a vivid picture for the reader, giving a sense of timelessness and a link to an ancient, bloody past. Given the nature of the plot, the author has included historical and mythological details to deepen the mystery surrounding George’s recurring dreams. In counterpoint to George’s experiences and discoveries as he delves into his obsession with Lamia the dancing girl are the experiences and impressions of Doctor Vassilis Iatros. The doctor became a monk when his wife was killed in a car accident. His obsession is to painstakingly restore the ancient Minoan temple on the island, the same temple that features in George’s dreams. Both George and the doctor become increasingly aware of the power of the subconscious mind and its ability to transcend time and space. The author uses an interesting technique by deftly introducing back story and other necessary details in a series of poignant memories to bring the reader and the characters to the moment in time when literally all hell breaks loose on the island. This is a wonderful book with a compelling story; a real page-turner.

First reviewed by Fiona Ingram for Readers Favorites.

Writer’s Digest - 8 Ways to Write Better Characters

2011-06-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

Writer’s Digest - 8 Ways to Write Better Characters

This is a great post if you're struggling with your characters and want to give them greater depth, develop their motivations and desires, or even just understand them better. Ask yourself just how much you know about your characters: their opinions, their likes/dislikes; what they'll die to save and what they'll kill to preserve; who they hate and why. Oh, yes, and lots more besides.

This article struck a chord with me today because while I was doing something very difficult in my Pilates class involving a ball and a theraband (?) my trainer asked me how I come up with my characters - do I plot everything out step by step or does it just flow? I had to admit that in fact it's a bit of both. I make a basic outline, place who I think will appear where in the story, and away we go. However, what I found hard to explain to her, although it seemed to make complete sense to her, was that often the characters surprise me, overturn my plans for them, and forge ahead with a better storyline for themselves. So, that tells me I didn't know them very well. In my first historical romance (The Dangerous Duke published by Aurora Regency) I created a wonderful baddie called Sir Marcus Solesby. Oh, the epitome of sleaze and just the man to disgrace and discredit the heroine. However, Sir Marcus refused to seduce the unsuspecting young lady. That's right. He refused because he said he'd fallen in love with her and although wooing her would definitely annoy her employer (the dangerous duke himself) and please said duke's nasty mistress Lady Penelope Vane, he wanted to court her honestly. Lucky for me he dug his heels in because the story took a sharp turn and ended up being a lot more interesting and exciting.

The conversation continued and I brought up the beautiful and malicious Lady Vane, the duke's mistress. As I was describing to my trainer what a complete cow this woman is, and how she's one of those ghastly females who always manages to turn any situation round, even though she is caught red-handed, I found myself being rather envious of my character's ability to twist everything to her advantage. I grudgingly admired the kind of rampant self-centeredness that makes Lady Penelope just the bitch she is. Well, she doesn't get away with it in the end, of course, but she survives...

So, just a little example of how well I did not know my arch-villain and villainess. How well do you know your characters?

Submitting a Manuscript for Review?

2011-06-18T06:01:00.000-07:00

This is a question many authors have asked themselves. Is it a good idea to submit a manuscript as opposed to a finished and published book for review? I think the answer is yes. I recently reviewed a manuscript (see my book review below) and because I knew the author had not yet published, I was more tolerant of the few errors that a good editor would pick up anyway; and I was also more keen to be of assistance. I spotted things in the otherwise excellent story that I pointed out and suggested the author fix before actually publishing. Had this been a published book, I would have been a harsher critic. Surely, I would have thought, the author had an editor to fix these glitches. Alas, glitches are part and parcel of being a writer. I have recently prepared my children's book for e-publishing and OMG, would you believe it, I found something (actually there were two somethings) that almost made me curl up and die. OK, so they weren't too bad as mini glitches, but the awful part is I had my manuscript rigorously edited before publishing to hard copy. I also have an eagle eye when it comes to errors. So, yes, if you are considering getting your work reviewed at manuscript stage, go ahead. Critics will be more helpful when they know it's not completed. You may also pick up some very good pointers instead of the reviewer thinking, idiot, why didn't he/she get an editor?

Book Review: Cry of Eagles by Stefan Vucak

When the Valero refinery complex in Texas City is bombed, forensic evidence seems to point glaringly to one culprit—Iran, which had recently expanded its nuclear program. Instead of bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities like they did in Iraq, the vacillating Israeli government has done nothing to crush this potential threat to their national security. In fact, Matan Irian, a former Israeli Army Colonel whose family was killed years ago in a PLO terrorist attack, created this strategy to protect Israel: sabotage a refinery complex in Texas City, plant evidence that incriminates Iran, and sit back while an enraged United States strikes back in retaliation. However, the president of the United States hesitates to act without complete forensic investigation. There seems to be no logical reason why Iran would willingly antagonize the United States, calling down upon itself the wrath of a much mightier nation, and one that instantly mobilized its two carrier battle groups off Iran’s coast in readiness to strike back. The perpetrators of the covert black ops have made one tiny but revealing error: they left behind a minute piece of forensic evidence that traces the operation back to Israel. When the real culprits are revealed, the USA turns on its former ally and demands that Israel makes reparations and finally recognizes Palestine’s right to exist. Israel rejects this demand as naïve. When the USA immediately withdraws all economic and military aid, Israel must either seek peace with the Palestinians or go to war on their own.

This is a great read, a real page-turner. The author lays bare the deep-rooted hatreds, as well as the tribal rivalries that dog the composition of the Middle East and preclude a possible resolution. From the start the author draws the reader into a world where modern and historical animosities are twisted together in a knot that seems impossible to untangle. Or is this indeed so? The actions of two men, Namir Bethan (Director of Metsada) and Matan Irian, the man who proposes a drastic solution to the nuclear terrors that threaten his county, cut this Gordian Knot.

The author draws on current events such as international fears of a nuclear-powered Iran ready to hit the red button at any time, to the natural anxieties of the USA bigwigs, to the defiant and entrenched recalcitrant attitudes of the Israelis towards any attempt at removing what they perceive to be their God-given rights. The author also eases the unversed reader into the technical and forensic aspects of explosives and armaments, as well as laying bare the complexities, the chaos and the internecine rivalry that dominates government departments in the delicate interplay of politics and war. I enjoyed the development of the characters and the dialogue. Each character came with his or her history and motives, created in a believable and natural way. The author also has an excellent eye for visual detail to paint the picture of different environments for the reader. This is a must for lovers of political thrillers.

The only hollow note for me was the author’s opinion of the television station Al Jazeera, which has one of the finest teams of international reporters, and reports fairly on Middle Eastern and international matters, given the hard-line attitudes of Middle Eastern governments towards the unbiased dissemination of information.

First reviewed for Readers' Favorite by Fiona Ingram

Can Books Help Kids Cope with Life?

2011-06-14T07:32:00.000-07:00

Can books help kids cope with life? Recently I thought about this because of a slew of articles that have appeared in the press and online, some denouncing the levels of violence and sexuality in YA novels, and others arguing that by reading about YA problems today's teens are able to deal with them.

This article appeared in the Guardian (UK) Writing in the Wall Street Journal, columnist Meghan Cox Gurdon argued that contemporary fiction for teens is now "so dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18".

This is a thought-provoking argument and it unleashed a firestorm of opinion. My own view is that the average teenager is not likely to encounter the dark and sordid side of life described in some of these novels. However, a sheltered teen from a wealthy family whose worst experience is being grounded or having their pocket money stopped is not the same as a young person struggling to survive in a situation of abuse, rape, incest and violence. I think the point is this: are novelists sensationalizing these real aspects of life in order to sell books? Have we, as a society become so hardened that only the most shocking of descriptions and experiences will move us? Will reading about these terrible experiences help the very young people who are undergoing the same sort of tribulation? One thinks immediately that possibly a poverty-stricken teen would not have access to either books or/and education, but I don't wish to split hairs. How can books help kids cope with life?

Life issues are sometimes a challenge for kids to comprehend. Although most parents wish to shield their children from the tragic side of life, many times reality intervenes and the parent may be powerless to adequately comfort their child when dealing with a sad or traumatic situation. Death, disease, divorce, moving house, loss of a pet, bullying, experiences with alcoholic or abusive parents, and drugs form part of a long list of potentially negative life experiences. The death of a beloved grandparent, parent, sibling, friend, or an important adult can have a potentially devastating effect on a young person. Books can offer the kind of therapy that a child will appreciate and in a format that they can understand.

Stories, either fiction or non-fiction, enable children to identify with characters and sad or devastating events and relate these experiences to their own lives. Children are then able to recognize and understand how other people respond to frustration and disappointment. This helps children develop empathy and understanding of human behavior. It can also enable children to respond to discussing issues with a parent or responsible adult such as a teacher or therapist.

Today’s books also have opened up discussions on a variety of previously taboo topics or at least topics that were avoided. These issues can include:

bullying at school;

negative comments regarding a child’s weight, appearance, or lack of athleticism;

tolerance of differences among peers, such as income levels, religious beliefs, nuclear families vs. broken homes, etc.;

a parent’s history with substance, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse;

long term changes in living situations, such as the arrival of stepchildren or grandparents;

issues such as homosexuality and lesbianism, especially where a parent decides to ‘come out’;

unique abilities and challenges faced by peers or family members with special needs, i.e., autism or Down Syndrome, debilitating illness, or illness or trauma resulting in disability, etc.

Regardless of the issue tackled or the story composed, a book’s therapeutic effectiveness will be enhanced by:

age-appropriate language;

honest and realistic characterizations;

an avoidance of explicit preaching while allowing the reader to make the moral connection through critical thinking;

a good, well-written story with relevant illustrations

Books are essential guidelines between covers and the younger kids start reading, the better they will be equipped to deal with the many curved balls that will be flung at them.

Of course, even the best written book embracing a particular problem is not a cure-all, and parents should take note that books cannot replace the expert advice of a health care professional where necessary. However, using books for the purpose of healing will often be a solid step in helping a child understand and accept the realities of life, even when harsh and unpleasant.

Improve Your Child's Reading Levels

2011-06-10T06:46:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been reading some disturbing stuff about the fate of books and libraries, and the decline of children's reading levels. It is ironic that in England the law says prisons have to have libraries, but libraries are closing in schools and boroughs because of spending cuts. I've also been reading how some children never open a book and as a result their grades suffer. On many occasions the reason is that there are no books to open! Believe it or not, there are homes with not a single book to read. Whatever the reasons for a child not reading, this situation can be reversed. Can parents make a difference and turn a non-reader into an avid reader? The answer is yes!

Parents already know that books are vital to their child’s scholastic achievements, and developing life skills. It can be disappointing when your child expresses absolutely no interest in reading. However, you can change that by coming up with new and interesting ways to ‘package’ the art of reading. Reading is a skill, just like any other skill. It has to be introduced, nurtured, and developed. Imagine trying to play championship tennis when you can barely hit the ball? Children don’t enjoy what they can’t do. And when reading is difficult, they shy away from even coming near a book. Turning your non-reader into a reader will require your participation and encouragement every step of the way.

• A good way to begin is to actually assess your child’s reading level. If it’s below par, then that’s one reason why he or she isn’t keen on books—books are the enemy, boring, a problem. Have your child read a page or two from a variety of books. Make a list of the words they find easy/hard/not understood. Once you have an idea of their level, based on vocabulary skills, then you can move forward. In fact, to build your child’s confidence, perhaps begin with a book for a younger age. Your child will skim through it, feeling proud at having finished and understood it, and you can offer praise by saying, “Look how easily you managed that! Shall we try something else?”

• A book can appear quite a formidable object to a non-reader. Begin small. Start with a thinner book, not some great tome, and say, “I bet we’ll finish this quickly.” Then let your child read the book in bite-sized pieces. Don’t try for ten pages—read only four or five pages. Your child will feel this is not a huge task after all.

• Reading aloud is something that all parents should do, regardless of children’s age. Most children really love that special time when Mom or Dad comes in to say good night. You can say, “Hey! I’ve got something really exciting here. Want to hear some?” Anything to delay turning off the light, your child will say (of course) “Yeah!” You can make this session into something really memorable by acting the parts and using your Repertoire of Funny Voices, but more importantly, stop at a really exciting point, just when the hero is about to be plunged into mortal danger. Close the book and say, “Gosh! I hope he survives. We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.” Generally, no kid can go to sleep without confirming their hero is indeed still alive…

• Praise and admiration boost a child’s confidence. You can do this by letting friends and family members know just how well your child is doing. “It’s amazing how many pages (child’s name) is reading every day now!” Soon your child will be the one to suggest reading. Use the time together to understand your child’s thought processes, and structure the book choices around what really sparks their interest.

• Get your child their own library card and encourage them to begin choosing their own material. Buying book vouchers instead of other kinds of gifts will encourage your child to start building their ‘own’ collection of cherished books.

• Go slowly—tennis champions aren’t made overnight….

Book Review: Guinevere: On the Eve of a Legend

2011-05-20T08:14:00.000-07:00

The Arthurian legends have timeless appeal and Cheryl Carpinello’s book Guinevere: On the Eve of a Legend is no exception. As an educator dedicated to encouraging reluctant readers, and having taught the legends of Arthur to high school classes for nearly 20 years, the author knows her stuff and her love of the legend shines from every page. Although much has been written about Arthur both as boy and king, and books have been devoted to the adult Guinevere and her ill-fated marriage to Arthur, this book comes as a surprise by introducing Guinevere as a young girl. In fact, our heroine is truly on the eve of a legend as the book centers around Guinevere’s 13th Birth Day, the turning point for her, when she crosses over from being a child to a young woman. We find Guinevere in the opening pages having the time of her life. With her friend, seven-year-old Cedwyn, she spends most of her time playing, roaming the castle grounds and occasionally the forest, hunting for rabbits or mythical creatures. But life has plans for her, as Guinevere finds out, and life’s plans, a combination of what her father and the wizard Merlyn have decided for her, do not sit well with this fiery-tempered and independent young girl. Upon hearing she will be betrothed to the young brave King Arthur and then married to him on her fifteenth Birth Day, Guinevere decides to run away from home. She is not interested in being married and is even less interested in becoming a queen. Her attempt at fleeing is short-lived, partly because Cedwyn’s legs are too short to do much running, partly because foraging for food in the wilds loses its appeal very quickly, and partly because Guinevere realizes that she must eventually grow up and grasp her destiny with both hands. In this coming-of-age story, her friend and advisor Merlyn is there to guide and instruct her. With magicality, tenderness, and spinning a sense of enchantment, Merlyn uses the teachings of legends and the forest to illustrate the lessons one must face in life. In this way Guinevere realizes that if she enjoyed being a princess so much, it is just a small step to enjoying being a queen. She also understands how much her father loves her and that her happiness is all he desires. Besides, she still has two whole years to enjoy before having to really grow up.

Cheryl Carpinello’s take on the Arthurian theme is unique and enchanting. Her descriptions of everyday life, food, behavior, weapons, and attitudes of the early Middle Ages display a wealth of research. Information is subtly introduced to enhance the story and does not overpower the reader. Her descriptions are rich, palpable, and appropriate to whatever scene one reads. The moment when the children see the unicorns is one of poignant magicality. The scene with the brachet, the rabbit, King Pellinore, and the hapless Painted Dragon is roaringly funny! Cheryl Carpinello has created a book along the lines of The Once and Future King, with the same kind of appealing humor and dry wit in her Merlyn. She has included an interesting glossary for young readers to fully enjoy their understanding of an historical environment; as well as Q and A for educators, and a recommended reading list. I look forward to reading Cheryl’s next book Young Knights of the Round Table: The King’s Ransom.

You can read more about Cheryl on

http://www.beyondtodayeducator.com

http://carpinelloswritingpages.blogspot.com

How Publishing Works (in New York!)

2011-05-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

The problem with many writers is that they don’t understand how publishing works. I am sure that many still are exactly like I was. I wanted to write a book, so I wrote one. Then I naively assumed an agent would immediately put me on his/her books, they’d get me a publisher in as much time as it takes to sharpen a pencil and BOOM! pretty soon I would be raking in the dollars. Of course, soon the rose-coloured spectacles were yanked away and I had to face the reality of doing it all myself. So, you’re not alone. Publishers are a strange kind of animal. The more you understand them, the easier it becomes to accept that there are many reasons why your book has not been snapped up … yet! (Note the yet!) In addition, times have changed and there are now successful e-authors who have made a huge amount of money in e-publishing by themselves.

When it comes to being competitive in publishing, it's important to know as much about the landscape as you possibly can. Because regardless of how you publish, it's important to have a clear understanding of the publishing landscape in general. While you may not work within the traditional publishing model, you should always be aware of new models emerging, new trends, and publishers breaking new ground. For example, did you know that a few select publishers are starting to dabble in self-publishing? It's big news in the industry and when you keep your head in the market, you'll be able to stay in tune with what's happening out there.

We all know what the big six are good at. They know how to produce a quality looking book and get it into bookstores. They know the publishing landscape, and they know how to get a title to market. But making yourself and your book competitive is not about understanding the strengths of these publishers, but understanding their weaknesses. To know where they miss the boat is to gain access to a market segment and marketing ideas that you might have overlooked.

Weakness #1: New York Publishers Don't Think Outside the Mainstream

Publishers have particular criteria they look for in a successful book; the first is mainstream appeal, which is understandable since they have to appeal to a larger bookstore-driven market. If you have a book that is outside the mainstream, this is actually good news, unless you're trying to find a major house to pick you up. The idea here is to understand that traditional publishing dominates the mainstream, but it's the niches that tend to do very well. You'll see these books in places like the Writer's Digest book collection and smaller, off-the-radar publishing houses.

Weakness #2: New York Publishers Don't Do Consumer Research

Most publishers (not all) do not do consumer research. How do publishers know what to publish? They often rely on bookstores to direct their attention, as well as trends, both cultural and celebrity. What does this mean for you? If you have access to consumer data, you are light years ahead of the big six. This doesn't have to be an exact science, either. Sometimes just having a mailing list on your website or even having a website where you interact with your consumer is sufficient. What this also means is that if you have access to this data and you are publishing mainstream, you are a very valuable writer to any publisher out there. Having access to this data is crucial for most of us and seen as a bonus when a publisher is considering a manuscript. One of the reasons you should get online early and have a mailing list is that the sooner you jump into the fold, the quicker you can start gathering this information.

Weakness #3: New York Publishers Don't Publish to Niche Markets

Niche markets have no appeal to publishers and ironically, that's where the trend of successful authors is headed: into the niches. Chris Anderson addressed this in his book The Long Tail: niches can be powerful but New York publishers stay away from them.The popularity or lack thereof isn't the reason that these publisher divert from printing these titles. It's because their entire model is set up to cater to mainstream product, so to slot some obscure, niche work in there would never work.

Weakness #4: New York Publishers Don't Sell Direct to Consumer

Publishers don't sell from their websites; many have tried and failed. Why? Because the publisher isn't the brand, the author is. This is starting to change in some areas as publishers seek to bypass Amazon and gather their share of the consumer market. Most consumers don't really identify with a publisher as much as they do an author or a trusted online shopping portal like Amazon or BN.com. What this means to you is that if you can sell direct to consumer and bypass the traditional consumer model, you might actually do better than if you try to compete in a cluttered sales space. The other option (and usually most preferred option) is that authors sell from their own websites as well as from Amazon and other online stores.

Weakness #5: New York Publishers Only Promote Their Authors to the Top 30 Media Markets

When publishers develop marketing plans for their books, they don't look at markets that aren't in the top 30 (the list of top 30 media markets follows below). What does that mean? Simply that if you're in one of those markets, you might want to consider promoting there as well as in any outlying areas that aren't considered "top markets," especially during heavy promotional seasons. While it might seem discouraging to try to compete with a major publishing house if you live in Los Angeles or New York (both are top five markets), keep in mind that there are a number of markets not even on this list. For example, if you live in Los Angeles, maybe you want to saturate the Orange County market. It didn't make the list but it's close enough to the Los Angeles area that it could affect interest there as well. In order to succeed in publishing, you must have a working knowledge of all facets of the market. Understanding traditional publishing is one of them.

Knowing the landscape and marketplace will position you for success and you likely won't get caught off guard by a stumbling block or situation that could have been avoided. Know your market - the more you do, the faster you will succeed!

Top 30 Media Markets (US) (according to Nielsen, accurate as of 2009)
1.) New York
2.) Los Angeles
3.) Chicago
4.) Philadelphia
5.) Dallas/Fort Worth
6.) San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose
7.) Boston
8.) Atlanta
9.) Washington, DC
10.) Houston
11.) Detroit
12.) Phoenix
13.) Tampa, St Petersburg
14.) Seattle-Tacoma
15.) Minneapolis, St Paul
16.) Miami, Ft Lauderdale
17.) Cleveland, Akron
18.) Denver
19.) Orlando, Daytona Beach
20.) Sacramento, Stockton, Modesto
21.) St Louis
22.) Portland, OR
23.) Pittsburgh
24.) Charlotte
25.) Indianapolis
26.) Baltimore
27.) Raleigh-Durham
28.) San Diego
29.) Nashville
30.) Hartford & New Haven

So, the first step to your writing success is understanding the publishing landscape. Best of luck with whatever publishing route you choose!

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

How to Write and Publish the (almost) Perfect Book

2011-04-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

I love Penny Sansevieri’s newsletters because just as one gest a bit slack about things along comes another gem from the Author Marketing Experts. Here’s Penny’s advice on …

How to Write and Publish the (almost) Perfect Book
When it comes to publishing, there is a certain recipe for success. And while nothing is guaranteed, there are significant activities which must happen in order for your book to have a chance at success. I often speak of promotion, websites, and gathering a social media footprint. Today we're taking a look at the equally important back-end issues. Now, I can't guarantee if you follow this that you'll come out leading the charge with the most perfect book, but you'll certainly be close. Writers never intentionally write a bad book, or a book that's not marketable. We do our best, and we often hope for the best. But in a world full of clutter, you have to do more than that. You have to step out to succeed, and you have to learn the ropes of your market and the publishing industry. Here are 11 points for you to consider:

1) How big is the market for your book? Before you launch headlong into a campaign or even write your book, be sure you know the market for it really well. Often, I find that authors don't take the time to study their market. This is important because you need to know first and foremost if there is a market for your book. I know this might sound odd, but hear me out. Some years back I worked as a literary agent and was being pitched by this super-talented author. He'd written a book on why good men fall for bad or mean women. He was proud of this book, saying there was no other book like it on the market and further, that he'd written it for men. There are two problems with this:

First, that there is no other book like it on the market. If there isn't a book like it on the market, there might be a reason why. It's not that there are no new ideas, but most of the models that work consist of books that fit a certain, existing market. Second problem: a self-help book written for men. No offense guys, but women buy 97% of all self-help out there. If you're writing a good book with a great topic but for the wrong audience, that's a problem. Know the market.

Go to bookstores and talk to booksellers, they can be the best source of information for you. Ask them if they have a book on your topic and then have them point you in the direction of where those books are shelved so you can see for yourself what the competitive space looks like. If there isn't a book on your topic, see if you can find out why. Ask a professional you trust. This could be your bookseller, or it could be a marketing professional. You'll save yourself thousands of dollars by doing this. Regarding my talented author with a book written for the wrong market, once we repositioned him it was fine. It took little effort but saved him countless hours, dollars, and frustration.

2) What will you call it? When we worked with author Marci Shimoff, she told us that she spent two long weeks agonizing over the title of her book: Happy for No Reason. Marci was featured in Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Secret, and had done extensive speaking events worldwide. Why would she agonize over the title of a book? Because the title (and the cover) are the most important elements of your book. People will judge a book by its cover and title, you can be certain of that. If you're debating on a title, or even if you've settled on one, do not take chances. Find a professional who can give you important feedback. If a title is unappealing, too confusing, or too tied to branding that isn't clear or benefit-driven, you could lose sales. Remember: the title of your book isn't for you; it's for your reader. Make it matter to them.

3) Don't fall in love with your own ideas. This is a big one. It's great to love your work; in fact, you should love it. You should be passionate about it. But don't love it so much that you aren't open to feedback. Feedback is critical to any successful book launch campaign. Further, if you aren't open to feedback, you might miss some advice that could save your book and you from spending thousands of dollars pushing something that isn't quite ready for the mainstream - or worse, a book that's missed its mark only slightly. Be open to feedback and then seek that feedback from professionals you trust and respect.

4) Do you know how to compete with major publishers? If you're self-publishing your book, or even trying to find a major NY publisher for your book, why would this matter? Because, as much as some folks like to say that NY publishers are doing it wrong, they are still the driving force behind the industry. Knowing when they typically release a majority of their titles and what their strengths and weaknesses are is important. Why? Because you need to understand what the competitive landscape looks like. It's important to note, for example, that major publishers don't generally publish to the niches. Why is that? Because they are focused (and must focus) on bigger areas: celebrity titles, trends, etc. Even the things (like the Snooki book) that might turn our stomachs. In an upcoming piece, I will spend some time discussing how NY Publishers work, as well as how you might compete with some of these giants.

5) What's the "look" of your work? I'm speaking specifically about branding and book cover design. I would never trust my book cover to anyone less than a professional designer. Why? Because there are certain things you don't want to leave to chance. This is another reason why you don't want to get too close to your work. You might love a book cover that's totally wrong for your book. Now, don't misunderstand me. You should love your final cover, absolutely. But don't love something that many professionals advise against. This could mean trouble. Further, you should do your research. Look at other covers; see what appeals to you and what does not. Make sure the cover is simple and powerful in design. If you have a brand aligned with your business, make sure there's a synergy between them. Also, your cover shouldn't be too complicated. If you have to explain the cover (or book title) you need to keep searching for a simpler message. Remember: you aren't going to be able to be everywhere and speak to every consumer interested in your book about what the cover or title means. It should pique their interest without confusing them.

6) What other titles are competing with you? Knowing your competitive space is not only important, it's mandatory. As I mentioned in #1, you want to identify your market and know that there's an audience for your book. Once you do, however, you'll want to get to know that market even better. You should read most (if not all) of the top books in your category (to the degree that time allows, of course). You should know the authors who write them and if possible, network with them via email, their blogs or (if you're lucky) in person. Why is this crucial? Two reasons: The first is that you want to know what other titles are out there because your book needs to somehow align with the market. Also, what happens if you do research and find that there's another book exactly like yours? Glad you found out now, aren't you? Now you can change your book slightly to support a similar, but unique, message. Second, networking with other like-minded authors is always a win-win. It's great if you can get to know them, share information, helpful tips, maybe even some upcoming networking events. Knowing your "neighbors" in publishing is never a wasted effort.

7) Who is your target audience and how will you reach them? Who are you writing for? Who is your audience? If you aren't sure, now is the time to find out. Specifically, you want to make sure there's an audience for your book and you want to know how to reach them. By reaching them I mean selling to them. If you're unsure, a professional can help you identify this. The reason you want to do this early on is so that if needed, you can incorporate elements into your book that matter to your reader and make it more appealing to your audience. Identifying your target market and how you will access them is important because this could help you align with them before your book comes out. Let's say that your audience is heavily into associations. This could be a great outlet for you to market to and even, if you're so inclined, to position yourself as a speaker. If you've written fiction, this is important as well. Key associations in your market can be very helpful to your success both through promotion and networking. Authors have a tendency to isolate themselves. Yes, I know this is a stereotypical way of describing an author, but let's face it, between writing, research, and promotion we're clocking a lot of computer hours at our desk. It's important to allocate some time to step out of your comfort zone and get to know the audience you are writing for.

8) How will someone buy your book? You might say: Duh - in bookstores and on Amazon. Well, maybe and maybe not. As I mentioned in #4, bookstore shelf space is often occupied by books published through major houses, therefore getting space on these shelves can be difficult. Your local store or stores may stock you, but that's never certain until the book comes out. I recommend that you offer your book on your website and if you aren't interested in shipping and fulfillment then link to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or whatever online e-tailer you feel most comfortable with.

Additionally, consider other outlets for selling your book such as: associations, gift shops, catalogs, specialty stores, etc. Why do you need to know this information so far in advance? For planning first and foremost. You want to plan your sales strategy early. If you're going after specialty shops, gift shops, or catalogs you'll need to target them early enough so the book can run through their internal acquisitions process. How will you sell them a book that hasn't been published yet? Print galleys (advanced review copies, also called, ARCs) that you can distribute. Even if the book is only 80% complete, meaning that it's written but in the editing phase, as long as you have a near-final cover you are good to go. Galleys tend to be 80% close to the final book. They should be bound and look like the final book but should indicate on the cover (top or bottom) that it's an advanced reading copy.

9) What's the best time to launch? Timing is everything, especially in publishing. Fall is always a big time for book releases. Publishers tend to publish their biggest titles in the Fall, making this sometimes a rough time to launch. Rough, but not impossible. If you're launching in the Fall you will need to start your efforts early. And speaking of that - when will you start marketing your book? As soon as you have the title and branding complete. Start early, often I recommend six to eight months prior to the book launch.

Remember, it's the long runway of promotion so there's a lot to do before you can take off. Starting well before the book comes out will help you gain significant traction by the time the launch arrives. So, back to your perfect launch time. If you're planning this far out, you should be able to align your book with a target date that supports the subject matter if appropriate. A mom-focused title on Mother's Day, a relationship book on Valentine's day, etc. Remember, it's much easier to sell something to someone who is already interested in it. Selling a topic that aligns with a commemorative date, holiday, or anniversary will make your marketing road a bit easier.

10) What's the unique message? How will you differentiate yourself from the competition? Your book is not the field of dreams; readers won't beat a path to your door just because you wrote it. Remember that you must be different. You must be unique. It's critical to identify your unique marketing message and, as well, identify your elevator pitch. What's your elevator pitch? It's a short, concise message that will help sell your book. It's short, benefit-driven, intriguing, and all about the reader.

11) It's not about you. The biggest and most important message in all of this is that despite the hours that you've toiled writing your book, at the end of the day it's not about you. It's about your reader, and moreover, it's about what your book can do for the reader. If you keep this in mind as you move through the process of writing and publishing your book, you will have a title that will attract readership and help your writing career gain momentum.

Many of us forget this important note. I mean, let's face it: Writing is a very personal experience. Whatever you're writing about, whether it's your life or how to lead a better life, it's all personal. We love our work and we want others to love it, too. Remember your book is your resume and this book is inviting readers into your world. Likely you would never invite a reader to your home, but if you did I doubt that you'd invite them into a messy house, right? Then why launch a "messy" book? Get it edited, vet the content, and get a cover that speaks to the reader. If you can step away from your own book in an objective way, you'll be head and shoulders ahead of most writers who stay too close and too tied to their work. Passion is great, except when it prevents you from making good decisions.

Now that I've given you several ways to succeed, how do you align yourself with professionals you trust? First, do your homework. Read their websites, blogs and newsletters if they have one. If they purport to be social media experts, make sure you take a look at their social media footprint. I've had companies pitch me who say they are experts at social media yet they have no Facebook Page or Twitter account. That doesn't seem very "expert" to me. References are always good to have as well. In fact, the more you can ask others who have been successful for the names of people they trust the quicker it will be for you to find people who have a good track record.

If you hire someone, make sure they can work hourly for you. You just want an opinion, perhaps some brainstorming time. You likely don't need a package, just an hour, maybe two. You don't need to spend your marketing budget on this process, but whatever you do spend can potentially save you a lot once the book hits the market.

Succeeding isn't always about getting to the starting line on time. Often, it's about all the work you do to get to the starting line and then, hopefully, to a successful finish. Our books are often an extension of ourselves, our businesses, and our personalities. But success requires more than just a good book. It requires a lot of sweat equity up front, and while it may seem like a hefty price for a book that hasn't even launched, I can guarantee you this: The more you do now, the more you'll save and succeed in the end. Good luck!

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free e-zine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

Thanks for the great advice, Penny! If any readers have more gems to add, please feel free to comment.

The Charm of Cranford

2011-04-14T03:17:00.000-07:00

Cranford is one of the better-known novels of the 19th century English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. It was first published in 1851 as a serial in the magazine Household Words, which was edited by Charles Dickens. The fictional town of Cranford is closely modelled on Knutsford in Cheshire, which Mrs. Gaskell knew well. The book has little in the way of plot and is more a series of episodes in the lives of Mary Smith and her friends, Miss Matty and Miss Deborah, two spinster sisters.

But what is it about Cranford and its deceptively simple tales of country life that makes the work so appealing? It has been aptly described as ‘a piece of exquisite social painting’ … ‘tender’ and ‘delicate.’ Narrated by Mary Smith, a friend of Miss Matty and frequent visitor to Cranford, the lives, loves, tragedies, and triumphs of the inhabitants of Cranford are woven together seamlessly to create a tapestry portraying timeless emotions and choices.

The petty social bickering, cold shouldering and jockeying for importance in the village’s pecking order are outlined in a humorous yet pointed way—the author loves her characters, with all their faults, and is tolerant of their foibles while holding them up to gentle ridicule. In every community there is an arbiter of good taste, a setter of trends, a leader of public opinion, a foolish gossip, and all the other social whimsies that make up this colourful collection of characters. It is not easy to keep secrets in this closed environment, and as Mary Smith remarks, “It was impossible to live a month at Cranford, and not know the daily habits of each resident ….” Yet, despite the squabbles and occasional ‘no speaks,’ the ladies of Cranford would rather die than see one of their own fall by the wayside. It is this community spirit that inspires Miss Matty’s friends to decide to donate a portion of their annual income to sustain their beloved friend when an investment goes sour.

As a different kind of history book and one that very possibly the author did not set out to write as such, Cranford is actually an analysis of an early Victorian country town. The inhabitants are shaken and disturbed by inevitable changes such as industrialization, the advent of the railway, and other events that force an inescapable transition into an increasingly modern world.

The appeal of Cranford cannot be better described than in the popularity of the BBC drama series. The teleplay by Heidi Thomas was adapted from three novellas by Elizabeth Gaskell published between 1849 and 1858: Cranford, My Lady Ludlow, and Mr. Harrison's Confessions. (The Last Generation in England was also used as a source.)

A gentle, charming read, Cranford has much more to offer the discerning reader than a unassuming look at country life.

How to Write Really Bad Fiction and Enjoy the Benefits of Rapid Rejection

2011-04-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

As a writer I am always looking for articles to help me improve my writing. I happened upon an absolutely hilarious article by Hank Quense. His advice is given the other way around… but it works!

Hank: "I'm an author of five books and over forty short stories along with a number of fiction writing articles. From my experience, I've learned a number important lessons and I want to pass them onto others. One important lesson involves getting a book published; it changes your life. No longer can you sit in your office and spend your time writing more fiction. Once you become a published author, you also become the book's marketing manager and its sales manager, a terrifying situation if you're not prepared for it."

To protect others from the trauma of this situation, I've put together a list of fiction writing techniques that will guarantee non-publication. Following them will ensure a rapid reply from editors who will use a preprinted form or a terse email. This rapid reply will allow you to maximize the rejections you receive in a given period of time.

Here is the list in no particular order:

• Always use adverbs! Lots and lots of adverbs. One of your writing objectives should be to use an adverb to modify at least fifty percent of your verbs. And don't forget about using them in dialog tags. Why show the reader a woman shredding a paper tissue? Make it easy on the poor readers. Tell them the woman is nervous. Thus, "He's making me so fidgety," she said nervously.

• A naked noun is evil! Adjectives exist to be used. Their primary purpose is to modify a noun, so make use of this most excellent writing technique. Load up your nouns with modifiers so the reader will have no doubts about the noun. “The skinny, ugly guy wore a hideous, ripped t-shirt, dirty, baggy pants and shredded sneakers.” Here's an even better example of clever adjective usage: “The scrawny boy used his undersized biceps to try to pick up the clumsy weight and place it in the old-fashioned truck before the foul-mouthed old man became aware of his clever trickery.” Get the idea? Remember, a naked noun is e-v-i-l!

• Use conversation. Don't limit yourself to dialog. Conversation is the stuff of life. Don't allow your characters to be stuck inside the story by restricting them to dialog that moves the story forward. Make your characters more life-like by letting them engage in idle conversation just like real people do.

“ How you doing?”
‘I'm cool. What’s up?”
“I'm good. Couldn’t be better. Watching the Yankees tonight?”
“Who they playing? . . . Yada, yada, yada.”
This stuff doesn't move the story along like dialog does, but it shows the characters are just as boring as real folk.

•Motivation is overdone. To properly show motivation requires a lot of creativity, time and words. It is much better to skip over that part and get right into the action. So what if the guy disarming the ticking bomb is only doing it because his shift doesn't end for two hours and he doesn't have anything better to do. The character doesn't have any motivation, but who cares; it keeps the story moving and doesn't slow it down with a lot of words explaining the motivation.

• Don't worry about Point of View rules. POV is perhaps the most technical of all aspects of writing and handling it correctly is time consuming and requires advanced planning. Who needs all that extra work when there is another scene to write or another crisis to defuse? Most of the readers will figure it out and sort of follow the story.

• The fine art of the -ing word. It's wise to develop writing habits such as peppering the page with –ing words. This technique will give your writing a pleasing sing-song effect. “Opening the door and running down the corridor while waving her hand, she tried shouting, calling attention to her life-threatening situation.” Doesn't that sentence make you want to hum along from all the –ing words?

• Use empty words. Very, really, ever, still, just and others are words with no meaning but they do fill up sentences and make them look more impressive. Fiction writing is filled with opportunities to use these words and titillate the readers. With a bit of imagination, you can also use these words to punctuate the sentence.

•Why bother with multiple-dimensional characters? Flat characters work just as well. Flat characters can fight, love and die just as well as the more complicated ones, but take considerably less work. The simple approach gives you more time to write still more stories.

• Character Voice. This attribute allows the reader to identify the characters from their dialog “voices.” What nonsense. That's what names are for. Just use the names in all the lines of dialog and the readers will be able to keep the characters straight.

Keep this list near your keyboard and refer to it frequently. Within a short time, your friends and family will be impressed by the huge stack of rejection notices you've accumulated. A side benefit is that your family will know you're really doing something in your office. Right now, they probably think you're goofing off and playing computer game. If you chose to ignore this excellent advice, there are alternatives listed in my book, Build a Better Story. Be advised that following the advice in Build a Better Story can significantly increase the response time from editors.

By Hank Quense © 2011 Originally published by Writing-World.com March 2011

Award-winning author Hank Quense lives in Bergenfield, NJ with his wife Pat. They have two daughters and five grandchildren. He writes humorous fantasy and sci-fi stories. On occasion, he also writes an article on fiction writing or book marketing but says that writing nonfiction is like work while writing fiction is fun. He refuses to write serious genre fiction saying there is enough of that on the front page of any daily newspaper and on the evening TV news.

I am looking forward to reviewing Hank’s latest work Zaftan Entrepreneurs. In it, an alien mining ship discovers a planet that holds promise to be a mining bonanza. Unfortunately, it is inhabited by humans, dwarfs, elves and other races and they object to the mining expeditions. Sounds like a whole lot of fun. Watch this space.

Find out more about Hank on his website.

Have You Lost the Plot?

2011-03-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

Losing your way in your very own plot can happen to any writer. You're pounding along and suddenly - wham! - the plot thickens and turns into your worst nightmare. Suddenly you can't see the wood for the trees! Before you throw your computer (or typewriter or pen and paper) out the window, here's some great advice from James Scott Bell's The Ultimate Revision Checklist. I found this on the excellent Writer's Digest site courtesy of Jane Friedman.

There Are No Rules - 6 Common Plot Fixes

Some Key Questions to Ask About Your Plot
* Is there any point where the reader might want to put your book down? (Shudder! Yes, it happens to the best of writers.)
* Does your novel feel like it's about people doing things? (Maybe doing too many things?)
* Does the plot seem forced and unnatural? (Even though you know in your heart of hearts this is the best novel since ... well, since the last best novel ever.)
* Is the story out of balance? Too much action? Too much reaction? (Ha! Seriously, can there be too much action?)

Maybe even one 'yes' means you should read this good advice because there are six simple ways to doctor your plot back to (almost) perfection. In fact the six simple steps are so simple you could say to yourself, "Hey, I knew that!"

These tips are so good I'm going to print them out and stick them on the wall when I begin the monumental task of editing my second children's adventure novel. Oh yes, I'm going to ask myself, "Is there too much action here? I mean, seriously, can there ever be too much action?" Don't answer that that!

Are You a Perfectionist?

2011-03-04T08:07:00.000-08:00

If the answer to the title question is yes, then look no further for advice than Jami Gold's excellent article A Perfectionist's Guide to Editing: 4 Stages.

Jami's words will strike a resounding chord with anyone harboring even vaguely paranoic perfectionist tendencies.

Jami says, "Perfectionists tend to be nitpicky, no surprise there. But there’s a time when that trait is very helpful, and a time when we need to ignore the compulsion to tweak. How do we tell the difference?"

That's a good question: how does one tell the difference between useful tweaking and compulsive (possibly ultimately destructive) tweaking.

Finish the Story!
As the song goes, "start at the very beginning" and that means "finish the story."

Jami: "Before we even start on the revision process, we need to finish the story. Many people give advice to not edit previous chapters before finishing the draft of the whole thing. Usually, the thinking goes like this: If we start editing before we’re finished, there’s a greater chance we’ll never finish the story and much of that editing time will be wasted further down the road."

4 Stages of Editing
Expanding upon these four stages of editing this excellent article tackles:
*Revising - scene structure and character
*Dialogue, POV and motivation
*Polishing - grammar, sentence structure, use of words/adjectives/adverbs etc
*Tweaking - everyone's favorite! There is no finality about tweaking. One can tweak forever but that's when one has to rein in the tweaking tendencies and know when to say, "It's finished!"

Oh, but is it ever finished? Possibly not, but by then your product should be at a stage where you can submit it to the eagle-eyed agent of your choice. Good Luck!

Loving and Leaving Mr. Darcy

2011-02-26T08:23:00.000-08:00

Mr. Darcy. Need I say very much more? The name instantly conjures up an image of the reluctantly delectable Colin Firth, brooding, handsome, desirable … a man torn between social mores and his heart. A simple enough story and one that’s been told over and over again. Fast forward to The King’s Speech. Another simple story. This time it’s about a man with a terrible stammer who has to deliver a very important speech. Again, not much to it … so it seems. What do these two seemingly simple stories linked only by the excellent Colin Firth in the leading roles have in common? I give you the simple answer: these are two great stories. Again one wonders why this is so.

Translated to film, none of the stories have any special effects; there are no terrorists,hi-tech gadgetry, 3-D (already beginning to pall with audiences), Avatar-like computer graphics, elaborate sets or gimmicks. In effect, Pride and Prejudice (a novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813) and The King’s Speech, a film released 198 years later, emphasize the timeless goal that every writer should aim for: is your story a good story. Nay, is your story a great story? Pride and Prejudice has become one of the most popular novels in English literature, and receives considerable attention from literary scholars. The King’s Speech, a low-budget movie, has swept the boards when it comes to accolades and is sure to stimulate interest in King George the Sixth, his brother’s abdication that thrust him so suddenly into the limelight, and of course the war-torn background to this history. Aha! See? Already this seemingly simple story has grown into a fully fledged drama, gripping viewers.

A good story can be found in the most unlikely places. I have just spent the afternoon watching (out of sheer laziness) a low-budget movie on television called A Perfect Getaway. With a ‘ho hum’ attitude I settled down and prepared to laugh my way through bad acting and a preposterous script. With a byline reading: ‘Two pairs of lovers on a Hawaiian vacation discover that psychopaths are stalking and murdering tourists on the islands’ I expected Saturday afternoon drivel. It wasn’t like that at all. It was a good plot, with twists and turns designed to take the viewer by surprise; the setting was simple (how much simpler can a paradisiac island be?); the acting was excellent. A good story. No, it did not garner awards, and was judged by some to be slightly above the average slasher film. The New York Times referred to the film as a “genuinely satisfying cheap thrill.” The point is … did it hold my attention? Was I surprised by the end result? Yes. Did I enjoy it? Yes.

Worlds apart, the three titles I have discussed have achieved what we all aim for: a product so compelling that our audiences/readers keep coming back for more. Isn’t that what this is all about…?

Buy More Books!

2011-02-17T08:15:00.000-08:00

Don't you just love the word "sale" when it comes to books? I confess that not being a shopaholic or a shoe addict, the word "sale" only gets me excited when it is pasted in big red letters on the doors and windows of a book shop. Living in South Africa means that my shopping choices are rather limited. The best bookshop in the southern hemisphere is an emporium called Exclusive Books. Every branch is truly an emporium. You can get books on such a wide variety of topics that eventually you want to fling your credit card at the cashier and scream, "Load 'em all up!" Sadly, book prices in this neck of the world are prohibitive, to say the least, so such antics are out of the question. Apart from being off the beaten USA/Europe/Asia track, South Africa's currency and duty on book imports does not favor the avid reader. That's why people like me wait for the Exclusive Books Summer Sale when books go for half, nay, even less than a third of the shelf price.

I don't know why I pretend to avoid the sale when inevitably it finds me. I turn a corner and there are the tables laid out in the mall, nowhere near the actual store, but sneakily placed between the unsuspecting will-be-buyer (me) and the supermarket. How can one avoid casting a longing, hungry glance at the covers so delectably displayed. What's worse, a single book quickly becomes two, three, even four or five as one trawls the tables, eyes sliding over the tantalizing cover copy... Even worse is when assistants rush up to relieve you of the burden of six coffee table books and offer to look after them at the impromptu till so that "Madam can shop comfortably." Sigh - how quickly do Madam's arms fill up!

This year I was restrained. Sort of. Listed below are my three (yes, such is my will power, only three!) tomes. Why did I choose these titles? My children's book series is based on ancient mysteries and secrets so I made for the historical ones. The dictionary? Well, one can never have too many dictionaries in the house, and having something on literary characters appealed to my sense of the quirky in life. I have not read any of my purchases yet, but this is what awaits me!

Millenium by Tom Holland

I must admit I did not find Perisan Fire an easy read, and I think this will be the same kind of journey, but compelling cover copy forced my hand... Of all the civilizations existing in the year 1000, that of Western Europe seemed the unlikeliest candidate for future greatness. Compared to the glittering empires of Byzantium or Islam, the splintered kingdoms on the edge of the Atlantic appeared impoverished, fearful and backward. But the anarchy of these years proved to be, not the portents of the end of the world, as many Christians had dreaded, but rather the birthpangs of a radically new order. MILLENNIUM is a stunning panoramic account of the two centuries on either side of the apocalyptic year 1000. This was the age of Canute, William the Conqueror and Pope Gregory VII, of Vikings, monks and serfs, of the earliest castles and the invention of knighthood, and of the primal conflict between church and state. The story of how the distinctive culture of Europe - restless, creative and dynamic - was forged from out of the convulsions of these extraordinary times is as fascinating and as momentous as any in history.

Chambers' Dictionary of Literary Characters sounds fascinating. It offers over 6500 entries and even if I did not finish reading the Harry Potter series, I can catch up on everyone in this book! On a serious note, there are some big literary names in here from the classics as well as the fun stuff.

'This is a great plum pudding of a book stuffed with interesting titbits, pithy summaries, tantalizing tastes of those novels you've always meant to read' -- Reference Reviews

Now for the hero part! One of my most loved books as a child was a book on Greek and Roman myths and legends. I read it countless times. Which explains this purchase.

Heroes: A History of Hero Worship - the title says it all. Beginning beneath the walls of Troy and culminating in 1930s Europe, a magisterial exploration of the nature of heroism in Western civilization. In this riveting and insightful cultural history, Lucy Hughes-Hallett brings to life eight exceptional men from history and myth to explore our timeless need for heroes. As she re-creates these extraordinary lives, Hughes-Hallett illuminates the attractions and dangers of hero worship. This is a fascinating book about dictatorship and democracy, seduction and mass hysteria, politics and culture, and the tensions between being good and being great.

Phew! Can't wait to get stuck in.

If You Build It, They Won’t Come: A Guide to Author Websites — Publishing Trends

2011-01-30T05:52:00.000-08:00

How To Boost Book Sales, Win More Fans & Attract Readers

If You Build It, They Won’t Come: A Guide to Author Websites — Publishing Trends

For the fiction author interested in attracting more fans and readers, this article is a must. For any serious author a website presence is an absolute given! Visiting an author's website is the prime method used by book lovers to get to know and appreciate their favorite authors. This holds true regardless of age.

How else are readers going to know your book exists unless there's a web link to who you are, what the book is about, a cover image and any other graphics details, links to purchase sites, links to great reviews, links to book awards ... the list goes on. In addition, website visits translate directly to book sales.

These days readers want to know more about their favorite authors, what makes them tick, what makes them real, accessible and human, what makes them touchable and yet still special. With more and more buyers preferring to browse online, a virtual bookstore may just have become more important that a real one. Fans are more likely to visit an author's website than the author's page on the publisher's website. With such a strong trend as evidence of the reader's thinking, authors would be foolish not to spend that extra bit of time and/or money giving readers and fans something special and worthwhile.

A big plus is giving readers unpublished material. Maybe an extract from a forthcoming book? Letting readers know where you'll be to read from your latest work is also a drawcard. Readers love seeing authors in the flesh, and many relish the opportunity to ask questions about the author's work, get an autograph or a copy of the book personally signed.

So, when designing your book or author website, give some thought to including your voice, your attitude and your unique angle as a writer and a person!

Book Review: The Secret History of the World

2011-01-14T07:39:00.000-08:00

After being nearly three months without regular internet access, it is a wonderful feeling to be 'back in the saddle' so to speak, and able to blog and communicate again. Without the distractions of email, internet etc I managed to catch up on a lot of reading and would like to share my views on a fascinating book.

Secrets and mysteries ... don't we just love them! Well, I do and always bypass the romance or drama for the ultimate adventure or archaeological thriller. I happened upon a book just at the time I was trying to give Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol a second chance. I read it once and got bored about middle to nearly the end. I found myself skimming over the very details that are usually meat and drink to me - mysteries and secrets of the world, the explanations of the unexplained and inexplicable that tease and tickle our minds and imaginations. Browsing the book store, I purchased Jonathan Black's The Secret History of the World. Now, granted, this book is by no means perfect and there are a few spellos that kind of jump out, but for the reader interested in esotercia and world mysteries ... read on!

For anyone interested in esoteric matters, mysteries, legends and many of the "is it true?" questions that haunt the world's myths and legends, this book is a must. From the world's beginnings, back in the mists of time, right through to present day, the author unfolds an ideology that many will find riveting, but equally as many will find either incomprehensible or down right unacceptable. True, some of the ideas tease the imagination and here the author warns sceptical readers to skip certain portions. For my part, I would advise them to press on. The cover copy suggests that Dan Brown may have used this as his reference guide to The Lost Symbol. I would agree, and also say that The Secret History of the World is far more intriguing and exciting than The Lost Symbol. The author delves into Freemason matters, and offers a balanced view of their not-secret secret society. But that's not the main thrust of this work. He also links many of the ideas of the world's superheroes of legend, science, the arts and literature in an incredible way. His ideas on why certain individuals have emerged in world history as charismatic forces either for good or evil are thought provoking. To say more would be to spoil the book for potential readers. My only complaint was that the book could have been double in size. The author tends to skim over areas that really begged for more explanation and I can only think this is because the author assumes the readers already have a knowledge of such matters. Fascinating topic and equally fascinating book!

Are You Wasting Time Reading...?

2010-08-27T23:35:00.000-07:00

The complete question reads like this: Are you wasting time reading about writing when you should be writing? This awful question reared its ugly head when I began packing to move house. Ah yes, the joys of moving. I think it’s number two on the list of Most Terrible Things To Happen In Life. Along with death and divorce, moving house is one of the most traumatic experiences known to man, woman, and writer. Of course, there’s always the chance that while packing, as you scrabble among the dust balls under your desk, you might just find a vital piece of paper with a plot link you thought of in the middle of the night, wrote down, but then couldn’t find... There’s also the chance you could find money, the winning lottery ticket, or the missing library book that has accumulated thousands in fines...

However, the worst part of moving is thinking about what you have been doing for the past few months. Is there a link? Yes, for me there is. You see, I can’t move into my beautiful new house yet, the one with a stunning TWO (yes, two) room office. This is an incredible step up as far as office space goes, and I just can’t wait to fill it with books, lost library books, missing pieces of paper, and dust balls (My housekeeper very wisely put a clause in her contract that prevents her from cleaning my current office and I guess it extends to the new one...) How is this connected to what I have (not) been doing for the past few months? Let me explain. Alas, I have to camp out in a rented flat for two months while the current owners make their own moving arrangements. This means no access to the Internet unless I go down the road to an Internet cafe and log on. So, I’ll only be doing that once or twice a week. I decided I should pare down my subscriptions. It was a shock to find out just how much mail I was receiving.

Last week I did not open my email for two days. When I did, there were over 100 messages in my inbox. Apart from the ever-present ‘you have won the UK lottery’ spam mail, I found I had recklessly subscribed to just about anything that had ever presented me with an interesting article. I was receiving mail from all sorts of blogs and newsletters, some with remarkable articles, some with run-of-the-mill stuff. In my eagerness to learn more about honing my writing skills and developing a marketing strategy, I had accumulated so many subscriptions that basically my time on emails had gone from 10-15 minutes every morning to 90 minutes. Unacceptable. I was spending more time reading about writing than actually doing any writing.

I also found that while many of these articles were extremely informative, I had begun to question my writing, my characters, the back story, the inner story, the action, the dialogue, the adjectives, the adverbs ... I had begun to tear my writing apart. So, I had to cut off the source of my addiction and ... unsubscribe! I have, however, kept the few stalwarts that I began with. I expect that once I am settled in my new abode I shall be tempted to start subscribing again. But my resolve is firm: forge ahead with more writing, and not so much reading about writing. I shall leave the ‘fixing’ to my editor!

Here’s my TOP Ten List of best blogs, sites and newsletters about writing and marketing. I just know I will start adding to my list again....

Adventures in Children's Publishing
Daily Writing Tips
Nathan Bransford Blog (Nathan Bransford)
WordPlay (K.M Weiland)
Book Marketing Maven (Dana Lynn Smith)
The Creative Penn (Joanna Penn)
Author Marketing Expert (Penny Sansevieri)
Marketing Tips for Authors (Tony Eldridge)
Writers Digest
Book2Book

Beyond Adversity: Author Arlene Crenshaw

2010-08-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

For many authors, writing is a means of expelling the demons, getting rid of burdens and baggage, healing the pain of past hurts, and sharing a story with many others who may have experienced similar events in their lives. Author Arlene Crenshaw has used her experiences to heal and change her life. I'll let her tell you in her own words...

Hello everyone, my name is Arlene R. Crenshaw, the author of Twelve Roses for Uretta. I wrote my book because I felt it was a story that needed to be told for my sake of healing within. I also hope that by putting this story out there it will raise awareness to many, many people that suffer with domestic violence as well as child abuse. My story is a true story of my life growing up—watching the abuse of my mother and also the abuse I suffered from my best friend’s brother, being molested over and over at age 14, which led to me being a mother at age 15.

Most of my life I have struggled with anxiety, depression and I struggled even more after the untimely death of my mother. After 47 years of struggling to finally get my life under control, I decided to write everything down. The first thing I did was stop crying behind closed doors. Everyone who ever knew me always thought I was a happy person, full of joy. The truth was I wasn’t. I was miserable with my life and the only thing after the death on my mother that kept me going was my son; he was all I had.

So after 47 years of crying, I decided to stop and take charge of my life. I had been through a lot of challenges that I didn’t at first realize I had overcame. When I began writing, I started emptying out all the old baggage I was carrying within and I started noticing I felt better and stronger. I cried and cried while writing and sometimes I found myself writing so much that hours went by, but it felt good right to the soul. The more I wrote, the more I sensed a feeling of healing coming over me.

I realized I had been carrying a lot of stuff and for an awful long time. I prayed and prayed to God to help me…and he did. I got it all out and I ended up writing a book and it’s all true. My own story healed me within. I no long suffer from anxiety or depression. I have not taken any medication going on 2 years now. I live my life beyond adversity. I have also written a second novel due out this month called Hidden Closet’s Book of Short Stories. It is not a true story but it’s all about secrets that people have that they want to keep hidden for fear of being exposed to their real truths about themselves.

Life is wonderful for me now I love life and I even write every day on Facebook and Blogger. I call it “My quote of the day,” which I write a quote to try to inspire people and uplift their spirits, I do this daily. Also below is a poem called Living Beyond Adversity. To all stay blessed and soar high as eagles!!!

Living Beyond Adversity

Adversity means different things to different people and it depends on what their experience was and the attitude they have about it.

In the beginning when life was out of control, it meant something like this:

It shows up uninvited.

It took control.

It changed your life in ways you didn't want.

It took what you wanted away from you.

It forced you into situations you didn’t want to be in.

It stopped you from doing what you wanted to do.

It's was ruthless and cruel.

It's was unfair.

After working through its challenges, life became something like this.

It helped you to become a better person.

It made you achieve more than you ever thought you could.

It made your relationships deeper and more meaningful.

It showed you what was most important in life.

It helped you become more compassionate and understanding.

It made you appreciate life much more.

It leads to the discovery of true joy, in life.

It gave you wisdom and now you soar beyond the clouds (awesome feeling within).

And know you live your life beyond adversity; because now you’re in the best place you can be for yourself emotionally… now you’re living beyond adversity.

By Arlene R. Crenshaw

Thanks for sharing these thoughts and feelings with us. For more information, visit Arlene's website.

Imperfect: Author L. E. Harvey

2010-08-15T05:43:00.000-07:00

Say hello to someone who flies in the face of convention, both as a writer and a person. L. E. Harvey is a writer and model in Harleysville, PA. She greatly enjoys all that Philadelphia city life has to offer. She is also an activist for human rights, animal rights, women's rights, and gay rights. When L. E. is not writing or working on the political scene, she models as a pinup and "alt" (alternative) model. L. E. admires women like Betty Page, and "Rosie the Riveter" has been her idol since childhood. She is currently affiliated with The Gypsy Queens, Angels With Ink (AWI), The Cherry Girls, and Curvy and Rocker Pinups. L. E. Harvey is a proud participating author in Operation E-book Drop, sending e-book copies of her books to the men and women of the U. S. military across the globe!

Imperfect, L. E.'s first full-length novel, is the story of Carol Mathers. Carol was born a sickly child, and received a blood transfusion in the early 1980s. Now in her mid-thirties, she's a highly sought IT guru in St. Louis. She has built a great life for herself with her partner of twelve years, Alexandria. Carol and Alexandria face prejudice as lesbians, and as an interracial couple. Fighting tragedy and sometimes finding triumph, both of the women live day to day. During her tumultuous life, Carol discovers that she has acquired AIDS as a result of her childhood transfusion. Now, they face even more obstacles, prejudice, and a new life as AIDS patients. Carol learns just how much her chaotic past has affected her, and how she can never really escape it, even as she tries to move on with her life. An unexpected hostage event creates even more pain and tragedy in Carol's life, and causes her to wonder about the meaning of and purpose of her own life.

Chatting to L. E. is extremely interesting so let's get to know her better!

Imperfect is your first full length novel. How did you make the leap from short stories to full novel? Was it difficult/easy/like falling off a log?
The leap from short stories to a full length novel was definitely difficult and not at all like falling off a log! My publisher encouraged me to try writing a full-length. With a background in non-fiction and short stories, she knew this would be a good challenge for me. The storyline came very easily, but the time and work weren't always easy. I did feel like I was falling off a log into some kind of strange abyss, but in the end, it actually worked out!

Tell us something about that inner and outer journey and inspiration for the book. It's a pertinent topic right now.
The inner journey for Imperfect is that it challenged me emotionally as well as just being my first full-length novel. I began writing it in the beginning part of a year and a half of some serious health issues. I was very vulnerable as I wrote Imperfect. I allowed the book to showcase the emotions of a difficult health issue as well as my own insecurities and self-perception. The outer journey was that I studied computers and technology, as well as HIV/AIDS. I was able to learn a lot in my research and I feel that the studies that went into this book have helped to make me more aware, more understanding and much more attuned with the HIV/AIDS cause.

Tell us about the follow up you have planned, how do the themes expand?
Impeccable, the sequel to Imperfect is almost complete. I'm really excited about it individually and these two as a complete story. What you find in Impeccable is much more character growth and development, even of secondary characters. You really get to know my characters, their thoughts, their emotions, their motives and perspectives on life. Impeccable also shows us all the real meanings of love, devotion and family. The reader will gain a tremendous amount of peace and knowledge, too.

What was your publishing journey like? How did you get published etc? Any funny moments etc?
My publishing journey was actually fairly simple. Like every writer, I got rejected from publishers and agents alike. I happened to stumble across Vanilla Heart Publishing's website, queried them and the rest is history! As far as funny moments, probably the joy and elation I had when I received my acceptance letter from them. I'm normally a fairly calm person, but even I couldn't help but jump around the house when I got that good news!

How do you hone your craft as a writer—do you read books by authors you admire, do you attend classes, do you have a critique group?
Honing my craft is extremely important, especially since my background is in non-fiction. Fiction writing is so much more difficult, so it's important to me to keep improving my fiction writing. I read as much as I can from the other authors in our publishing house. These are people with doctorate degrees, tremendous accolades and years of professional writing under their belts. I have an incredible classroom at my disposal! I also study style manuals, the dictionary and thesaurus. I know that sounds ridiculously nerdy but it helps to improve my vocabulary and writing skills.

Modeling and writing—that's an interesting combination and what is an alternative model? Tell us how you came up with this multi career?
Yes, I do have an interesting career. I've been writing since childhood, and was nationally published for the first time at age 14. So writing has simply always been there. As far as modeling goes, I literally fell into it. A few photographers saw my picture and thought that I had an interesting look and it sky-rocketed from there. Within my first year, I was already in a calendar! I was Miss November 2007 for the original Pinups for Pitbulls calendar. My pictures have been featured in art exhibits and were even in the Philadelphia Enquirer! I NEVER imagined I'd ever model, but it worked out well for me! An alternative model is someone who is not 6 feet tall and only weighs 80 pounds. I am only five foot one and I wear a normal dress size. Alt models are also typically tattooed and pierced, which I am as well. You won't find us on the cover of Cosmo, but we do much more artistic work and you can find us in art exhibits and in more creative photography. It's a very unusual pairing, but I love the creative outlets each provides, and I've had some incredible experiences in my life from them both!

Some advice to writers who perhaps hesitate over contentious topics such as mixed couple, HIV, gay relationships—what is the best way they can get their work out there?
When dealing with difficult or controversial matters, there's really only one way to handle it: just do it. It's not easy at all, and it is a risk to put such books out there. You don't know how they will be received, but creating a piece that's dear to your heart is far more important. Be sure to do your research as well. You don't want to tackle these issues and not have your information be correct. Yes, it takes time. Yes, it can be tedious and boring at times, but the end result from your efforts and research will show. Your book will be so much stronger and sharper, and that is key, no matter what the subject matter.

Thanks for being my guest today, L. E. Readers who'd like to learn more about L. E. and her books can visit her website.

12 Secrets to Selling More Books at Events

2010-08-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

One of the funniest book signing videos popped up recently on YouTube: Parnell Hall singing about signing books in the Walden Books. It's an amusing video but possibly taps into every writer's greatest fears ... will anyone come to the store and will anyone buy my books? Marketing guru Penny Sansevieri offers 12 great secrets to selling more books at events, not just book stores.

So you got a book event, great! Now you want to maximize it, right? You've heard your writing buddies talk (or perhaps read online) about the lack of attendance at signings, so figuring out how to maximize the event, regardless of the numbers might be tricky. While I spend a lot of time addressing online marketing, the offline component is one you shouldn't overlook. If book events are where you want to focus, then bringing in some ideas to help you sell more books is something you should consider.

Some years back when I was promoting The Cliffhanger I ended up at a book signing in the driving rain, I mean it was pouring and the store was all but empty. It was amazing I sold even one book, let alone seven. While not a big number, the copies were all sold to people who were seeking refuge in the store from the rain and not there for my event. This signing taught me a lot about events and connecting with consumers in stores. If you have an event coming up, consider these ideas before you head out:

1. Marketing: First and foremost is the marketing of your event. But I'm not talking about the marketing you do in the media (though that is great too) I'm speaking of in-store marketing; this is what most folks seem to overlook. This is where you supply things to the store to help them market your event. Because the first phase of a successful event is driving people to it. Here are a few thoughts.

a) Do bag stuffers. You can easily do this in your favorite computer program, do two up on a page, meaning that you use one 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper to do two fliers. You'll want to ask the store first if they mind that you provide this, most stores or event venues don't.

b) Bookmarks: while most in the industry see these as passé, people still love them. You can do bookmarks and bag stuffers (or staple them to the flier) or you can do custom bookmarks with the date and time of your event. Nowadays it's pretty easy to get these done cheaply. Keep in mind that if you are having the event in a mall or other type of shopping area, you might be able to drop the bookmarks (or bag stuffers) off at the nearby stores to see if they'll help promote the event.

2. Book signings are boring: Regardless of where you do the event, plan to do a talk instead of a signing. People are drawn into a discussion and are often turned off by an author just sitting at a table. Marketing is about message and movement so stand up and speak. If speaking in public is intimidating to you, go to Toastmasters or some other local networking/speaking group and see what you can learn.

3. Unique places: If you want to get more attention for your event, consider doing events in unique places. We've done them in video stores, electronics stores, gyms, even restaurants (on slow nights); doing outside-the-bookstore events is a great way to gain more interest for your talk. Why? Because you aren't competing with everyone else at the bookstore for your crowd. When you do an event at a locale that doesn't normally do events, you'll attract more people just because it's considered "unique."

4. Show up early and talk it up: OK, so let's say you're in the store and there are a ton of people in there shopping (a book event dream, yes?), I suggest that you take your extra bag stuffers or custom bookmarks and just hand them to the people in the store. Let them know you are doing an event at such and such time and you'd love it if they can sit in. You'll be surprised how many new people you might pull in this way.

5. Customize: Regardless of what your talk is about, poll the audience first to see a) what brought them there, or b) what they hope to learn if your talk is educational. I suggest this because the more you can customize your discussion, the more likely you are to sell a book. If you can solve problems (and this is often done during the Q&A) all the better. You'll look like the answer machine you are and readers love that. If you have the answers, they'll want to buy from you. I promise.

6. Make friends: Get to know the bookstore people, but not just on the day of the event. Go in prior and make friends, tell them who you are and maybe even hand them your flier or bookmark (or a stack if you can). Often stores have Information Centers, see if you can leave some fliers there instead of just at the register. Getting to know the people who are selling the book is a great way to help gather more people into your event. If your event isn't in a bookstore but attached to a shopping area or mall, go around to the stores (and perhaps you did this when you passed out the fliers) and let them know you have an event and ask what you can do to help them promote it. If you can rally the troops to help you market your talk, you could triple the numbers of people at your event. No kidding.

7. Take names: I always, always recommend that you get names and (email) addresses from the folks who attended. Signing them up for your mailing list is a great way to keep in touch with them and stay on your reader's radar screen. If you have a giveaway or drawing, great! This will help you to collect names. If you don't, offer them a freebie or e-book after the event. Often if I'm doing a PowerPoint presentation I will put together a set of them (delivered in PDF) after the event. Attendees need to sign up to get them and then once they do, I include them in our newsletter list, which helps me to stay on their radar screen.

8. Pricing: Make sure your book is easy to buy. If you are doing this outside of a bookstore this is easy to do and will help your sales. I find that a rounded number like $10 or $20 makes for a quick and easy sale. If you can round up or down without adding or losing too much to the price, by all means do it.

9. Book pairing: One way you might be able to round up is by pairing your book with a freebie. When I paired Red Hot Internet Publicity with a second, but smaller, marketing book I took the awkward pricing of $18.95, bumped it up to $20 (so 2 books for $20) and quadrupled my sales after an event. Now the pairing doesn't have to be a book, it can be a special report or even an e-book that you send to them after the event.

10. Product and placement: As you're doing your talk (especially if it's in a non-bookstore venue) make sure that you have a copy of the book propped up in front of you so event visitors see it the entire time you are speaking. Hold up the book when appropriate and use it as an example when you can. This will help to direct the consumer's eye to the book - and making eye contact with the product is a good way to make sure it stays on their radar screen throughout your talk. When I do a speaking gig at an event that allows me to sell books in the room, I will sell four times more than I would if the attendees have to go somewhere else to buy it, so make the buy easy. If you can, make sure your books are for sale in the room.

11. Ease of purchase: Aside from pricing, if you're doing your own checkout make sure that you have many ways consumers can buy your book. I take credit cards at the event, checks and cash. Don't limit yourself as to what you can take or you will limit your sales.

12. Post event wrap-up: So the event is over, what now? Well, if you got attendees to sign up for your newsletter (you did do that, right?) now it's time to send a thank you note for attending and remind them (if they missed the chance at the event) to buy a copy of your book at the "special event price."

Speaking and book events are great ways to build your platform, but if you aren't selling books there's little point in doing them. For many of us, our book is our business card and thus, if we can sell our "business card" we can keep consumers in our funnel. If your book isn't your business card you still want readers, right? The marketing before, during and after an event is crucial to building your readership. While it's easy to say that events sell books, they often don't. I find that if you don't "work it" you often will find your time wasted. Seek the opportunities when they are made available to you - and then maximize them when they are, you'll be glad you did!

Thanks, Penny!

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques.

Books That Change Childrens' Lives

2010-08-01T00:25:00.000-07:00

This post on books and children struck a chord with me and I am sure any parent reading it will also be interested. A recent blog survey by Susan Orleans on books that have changed children’s worlds reveals that many times the books are possibly the parents’ choices. This could be because until the child can go out and choose and pay for their own books, the parent is usually the book buyer, and therefore is by default the book chooser.

Parents may purchase enchanting classics because they want their children to enjoy the books they grew up with. It could also be that some books may be considered inappropriate by the parent. Perhaps the subject matter is too shocking in some cases. For example, when I first read Lord of the Flies (now a classic) at a very tender age, I was shattered. Violence and death among children seemed impossible. Nowadays, the number of instances of child on child violence is rising. Or is it? Possibly with wider media coverage and the age of the Internet, more cases are being reported because the dissemination of information has become so much easier.

When I taught my adopted daughter Mabel to read I naturally turned to my old favorites. I was very pleased to see many of them on Susan Orleans’ list. Many of those books changed my world. Mabel loved lots of them but naturally began to spread her literary wings as she grew up. First it was The Golden Compass, then Inkheart, and then Twilight. It’s time for another trip to the bookstore soon. Twilight has kept her busy for a very long time because each movie release means another read of the whole series to check what the movie makers are leaving out.

Your child may not enjoy the beloved books of yesteryear that were your friends and companions. Times change, technology marches ever onward, and children’s tastes develop. Any parent wishing to foster and develop a love of reading in their child should be aware of the new and often difficult pressures on children today. Issues that did not exist thirty years ago may be of compelling importance now. Subjects that were never spoken of such as child abuse, incest, violence, drug use, death, a dystopian world, global warming, war, racism, nuclear threats, etc unfortunately rear their ugly heads in today’s society. Children are also bombarded with media messages that create confusion. Should kids be growing up too soon parents wonder? Should they be reading this or that?

Some practical tips for parents wishing to expand their children’s book list and foster a love of reading in their child:

Sign up for online newsletters from children’s publishers to keep up with latest releases.
Subscribe to children’s book review sites such as 5 Minutes For Books to keep abreast of kids’ books. Often reviews are helpful in deciding whether to purchase a book or not.
Look at what your child is reading at school and discuss whether they are enjoying it, and if not, why not.

Plan a shopping trip to a good bookstore and look at the books most prominently displayed. Chat to the store assistants. Get their opinion on what is popular, what works, and what they would recommend. Find out if any authors will be doing book readings or if there are any book launches coming up.
Local librarians are a fount of often unappreciated knowledge. Ask about book readings or library sessions where there is a fun activity planned.
Buy books that target your child’s interests and hobbies.
Encourage your child to make their own choices.
Fill your home with books on a variety of topics. Recent studies show that having a few as twenty books in the home boosts your child's chances of going on to higher study.
Let your child see you reading, and how much you enjoy it.
Children love to share activities with parents. Reading aloud to kids is something all parents should do for as long as possible.

For more articles on the benefits of books for children, or for educational aspects visit my author site.

Don’t be afraid that any one book will change your child’s viewpoint in a negative way. Life is full of all sorts of experiences that they must eventually experience. Books are a way for kids to dip into another world or explore topics safely.

When Truth is Stranger Than Fiction: Author Jacqui Murray

2010-07-25T23:47:00.000-07:00

I love techno-thrillers! Tom Clancy's The Hunt for Red October remains one of my firm movie favourites, and anything by Michael Crichton gets my vote. So, I was particularly interested when VBT author Jacqui Murray popped up on my guest list.

Tell us about yourself, Jacqui:

I was born in Berkley California to Irish-German parents. After receiving a BA in Economics, another in Russian and an MBA, I spent twenty years in a variety of industries while raising two children and teaching evening classes at community colleges. Now, I live with my husband, adult son and two beautiful Labradors and I write. I write how-books, five blogs on everything from the USNA to tech to science, and a column for the Examiner on tech tips.

What type of fiction do you write?
I call it scientific fiction. It continues my love of spreading knowledge to kids, but is geared for high school or college. I pick science topics and weave them into the plot so readers learn about them while they’re engrossed in the story. So far, I’ve covered DNA computers and Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak (oh yes, it exists and is a great plot twist).

After a background in technical and educational writing, what made you decide to try your hand at fiction?
I am a teacher by day. It is always a challenge to get kids interested enough in science to get through the technical stuff. I think complicated science-type stuff is much more palatable when couched in the traits of fiction--an exciting plot, appealing characters, a story arc filled with twists and turns. That’s what I do in my techno-thrillers. Lots of nail biting and it is all because of the sizzle of science.

You describe your fiction as 'scientific fiction' - it sounds fascinating! To Hunt a Sub is the title of your first novel. How hard was it to create a storyline out of what are essentially hard cold facts?

Not difficult. Fact is stranger than fiction. The problem with ‘fact’ is its perception as boring. That simply is not true. To counter it, I broke the science up into bits and pieces, presented it a little at a time, in different ways—i.e., different point of views, in scene as well as narrative, using all those wonderful fiction traits that make us unable to put down a good story.

Can you describe any amazing scientific things that sound made up but are actually scientifically proven? I mean things that we see in comics like rocket boots or little jet things one can wear on one's back to fly around. How about Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak? How you know that technology exists?
The Navy is researching the use of metamaterials as the foundation for an ‘invisibility cloak’ for submarines, tanks, military equipment. Holographic soldiers are not too far away. Look out drones! We will soon have another way to save lives. I also use a DNA computer virus in one of my plot lines—a virus that gets by firewalls and virus scanners on silicon-based computers because it is organic. I have lots more, but you will have to read the books!

Your next novel is To Hunt a Cruiser - did you already know this much about naval vessels or did this interest come about from writing your non-fiction book Building a Midshipman?
My daughter was the USNA Midshipman I wrote about in Building a Midshipman. Now she’s graduated from the USNA and serves on the USS Bunker Hill, which happens to be the most modern cruiser in the Navy thanks to its upgraded AEGIS systems. It’s an interesting fact that America has had no Naval battles since WWII so these wonderful offensive/defensive systems have never been tested under fire. That’s the kernel of my story: a foray into a 21st century Naval sea battle.

I discussed it with my daughter because it would require much collaboration on her part as well as the crew of her ship. Everyone on the USS Bunker Hill from the Captain to the XO to the enlisted engineers—and everyone in between--has gone out of their way to answer my questions, explain complicated systems (such as the degaussing coils and the AEGIS systems) to my layman’s level of understanding. I am very excited about how it’s all coming out.

I read how Tom Clancy began writing fiction based on his interest in various non-fiction topics. He has become such an expert that the US Military use him as a resource. Do you see yourself treading the same ladder?
I would never compare myself to Tom Clancy. He’s one of my heroes in the military fiction genre. What a cool thought, though.

You've been very successful with your non-fiction and educational books. Have you found your fiction road to fame a smooth ride or rocky in places?
Writing non-fiction is a much different animal than fiction. Where my background as a tech teacher can provide credibility to my tech workbooks and my legacy as the mom of a USNA Midshipman gives me authority in that realm, fiction is not the same. Publishers are primarily interested in how many books you have already published. I have two fiction books that I haven’t found publishers for. Since they are both along the lines of To Hunt a Cruiser with their focus on making science exciting for people, I’m hoping that once I find a publisher for one book, the rest will follow.

With my fiction choices, I love action/thrillers that show how people solve problems when under stress, and how they come up with unique solutions to never-before-solved problems. The human mind fascinates me. We’ve done so much no other species has managed to accomplish. Your words here prompt me to ask - are you a cerebral or an emotional writer? Do your characters’ feelings or actions come first?
My stories tend to be plot-driven rather than character-driven. I delve into my characters, but it is the plot that will keep people coming back. I have the usual amount of interior monologue and reaction scenes to allow my point of view characters to show their emotions and thoughts regarding an action scene, but I have to say, it is the action that drives things.

Anything you'd like to share with readers that I haven't asked you.

Anyone interested in my books, here is where you can find them:

My six technology workbooks are available on Amazon.com and the publisher's website. The ebooks are available on Scribd.com.
My two computer lab toolkits are available on Amazon.com and the publisher's website. The ebooks are available on Scribd.com.
Building a Midshipman is available on Amazon.com and the publisher's website. The ebooks are available on Scribd.com.
If you’re interested in To Hunt a Cruiser, leave a comment on my WordDreams blog and I’ll let you know when it’s out.
My Building a Midshipman site is USNA or Bust.
My Computer Lab Toolkit and Technology Workbooks site is Ask a Tech Teacher
My writing tips blog is WordDreams
I also write a column for Examiner.com. I invite everyone to read that, add comments, follow me!
Oh—my Twitter handle is @askatechteacher

Thanks for all this info, Jacqui. I'll be interested in reviewing To Hunt A Sub when it's out!

Enid Blyton lingo gets an update | theBookseller.com

2010-07-23T05:15:00.000-07:00

Enid Blyton lingo gets an update theBookseller.com

This is a fascinating article and I am sure will elicit both 'for and 'against' responses. I grew up with Enid Blyton, and also taught my illiterate foster (later adopted) child to read starting with all my old childhood favorites (Secret Seven, First and many other terms at St Mallory's, Naughtiest Girl in the School, Famous Five etc). I loved Noddy and Big Ears, and Miss Kitty, and wanted a car like Noddy's to drive myself to school.

The question is: should one 'update' or 'modernize' books written in a different era to accommodate new, modern audiences? One could say yes, because it makes great stories of yesteryear fresh and accessible to new audiences. There are children's versions of sometimes difficult classics like Treasure Island, The Water Babies, and Wind in the Willows. One could on the other hand say no, because many classics remain untouched. Dickens is still sacred, and no one messes with Shakespeare, with even modern film versions still using the bard's sometimes laborious language. I am wading through Macbeth with my daughter and can attest to the number of Forsooths and other incomprehensible stuff! We watched Roman Polanski's Macbeth with a superb Jon Finch, Francesca Annis and Martin Shaw, but had the textbook on hand to work out the meaning of the actors' speech every now and again. It's a great story, a great tragedy of greed and hubris, and no one has said, "Hey, let's make Bill a bit more modern!"

I love anything from the BBC Classic drama series and we collect the DVDs. My now teenage daughter adores the cobblestones and corsets brigade. It seems strange that a modern young person would find that appealing, but she does. She says she loves the stories and seeing the past come to life. So, maybe kids don't need to be led by the nose to books and stories of yesteryear. Maybe we should let them make up their own minds. How come no one has 'freshened up' The Lord of the Rings, or said, "Hey, this Jane Austen stuff should be made really modern - how about rock chicks and boy bands in these stories?"

I am all for leaving a good story told as it is.

How Many Times Your Book Is Sold

2010-07-21T23:12:00.000-07:00

PUBLISHED ONCE, SOLD FOREVER AFTER

Successfully articulating the publication of a big book is the test of good publishing, involving the ability to keep in one’s head not only the numbers and their daily fluctuation but the harmonious synchronizing of publicity, manufacturing, advertising, and sales departments often run as independent fiefdoms. —MICHAEL KORDA

As publishers shepherd books from writers to readers, they face the challenge of sustaining the enthusiasm of the editors who convinced the house to buy the books. Your book will be sold many times as it makes its way to your readers.

• You are the first person to sell your book. First you sell yourself on the idea for it.

• Then you pitch the idea to your professional networks for feedback.

• Then, assuming you want an agent, you send your proposal or manuscript to prospective agents.

• Your agent sells your book to a publisher.

• To buy your book, editors must first sell it to others in the house whose support they need.

• The editors use that support to sell your book at the house’s weekly editorial meetings. Depending on the makeup of the editorial board, your editor may need to convince the house’s publicity people, sales and marketing staff, and executive officers to take a chance on your book.

• Your editor meets with the sales and marketing departments to decide on the size of the first printing and the marketing plan that will be presented at sales conferences and in the catalog.

• Your editor presents your book to the publisher’s sales rep at a sales conference. This may be done via a Web conference to save the cost of bringing the reps and in-house staff together.

• The sales reps return to their territories and use the publisher’s catalog to sell your book to independent booksellers. Special reps sell to the chains, the two largest wholesalers—Ingram and Baker & Taylor—and other large customers.

• Pre-publication reviews in periodicals such as Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and Kirkus Reviews sell your book to libraries.

• The art director decides how best to create your book’s hardcover jacket or paperback cover to sell your book to bookstore browsers.

• The production department creates or farms out the design of the interior of your book. The goal is to come up with the most effective design, paper stock, and typeface for selling your book.

• The subsidiary rights department tries to sell the publisher’s subsidiary rights, such as book clubs, first- and second-serial rights, and film and foreign rights. If your agent has retained any of these rights for you, your agent, usually helped by co-agents, will try to sell them.

• The publicity department decides how they will publicize your book to the media, which helps to sell your book to the public.

• When your book is published, booksellers sell it to their customers. Where your books are stocked in bookstores and whether they’re shelved face-out or spine-out makes a big difference. Independent booksellers use shelf-talkers—handwritten notes taped to the shelf below the book—to push the staff’s favorite books.

• For literary books, especially novels, the eagerness of independent booksellers to hand-sell books can make the difference between a failure and a best-seller. Competition from the chains and online booksellers is destroying this path to success by putting independents out of business, at the rate of three a week.

• The first group of readers reads your book, and if they love it as passionately as you want them to, they sell everyone they know on reading it. Through the comments they write for online booksellers, your readers can also help sell your books online.

The ultimate challenge your book faces is arousing enough passion in your readers that their recommendations cause whoever hears them to buy your book, swelling the size of your unofficial but unstoppable word-of-mouth sales force.

Best-selling authors have an army of such readers. That’s why they’re best-selling authors. The most clever, heavily financed promotion campaign can’t make a book sell if it doesn’t provide the benefit—whether it’s information or entertainment—that book buyers expect.

If your books don’t require revisions, you only have to write them once. But because of the endless book chain between you and your readers, your books will continue to be sold.

Even after books go out of print, libraries continue to lend them, and used bookstores and online booksellers continue sell them. Print-on-demand publishing can continue to make books available around the world until a better technology comes along.

Reprinted from "Rick Frishman's Author101 Newsletter." Subscribe at http://www.rickfrishman.com/ and receive Rick's "Million Dollar Rolodex."

The Story of a Heart: Author Susan May

2010-07-19T00:07:00.000-07:00

When Susan contacted me about featuring a heart-warming story, I had no idea it was a book about a real heart: her son Nick’s new heart. What an amazing journey this family took in order to give new life to a little boy who was surely doomed.

Susan May’s love affair with books began when she was in the sixth grade and made a bad grade on her report card in math. (She still doesn’t like math.) Not allowed to watch TV for six weeks she filled her extra time with reading. Her first book, Nick’s New Heart about her son’s heart transplant experience is available now. She is currently working on a her fifth romance novel about a strong, rich man and the woman that loves him, a nonfiction about a WWII flight surgeon and another about her summer trip to Europe with her four teenage children. She often speaks to nursing groups, civic groups, and high school health classes about the importance of organ donation. She leads workshops on promotion, rejection, time management, finding the right writer’s conference, collaging and memoir writing. When her head isn’t in a book, hers or someone else’s, Susan is traveling, cross-stitching or watching chick flicks. Visit her at http://www.susancmay.com/.

Nick May was one of the first successful heart transplants in the United States, performed on a one-year-old baby, as told by his mother. Most people associate heart problems with old age. However, many children also suffer serious heart, kidney, eye or other medical problems that once were insurmountable. In the past, infants with the heart defects that Nick once had invariably died. However, with surgical and medical advances, this sad situation has changed, providing not only life for these children, but a good quality of life. The story of Nick is similar to a roller coaster ride without seat belts or safety bars. Here is a true story that is often more dramatic than fiction, as excellent doctors worked together with a caring, intelligent family not just to save a life, but to provide a good life. Great experiences, deeper understanding, hope, love, faith, and steadfast support from friends, relatives, nurses, staff, and doctors have been the result...along with a wonderful book. Author Susan May skillfully weaves a story of strength, ability, determination, faith, teamwork and inspiration in her book, as she recounts the story of her baby Nick and the overwhelming odds he faced. Although his birth at first seemed normal, Nick's worried mother asked, "Is my baby fine?" Her question either went unanswered or was met with a simple, "I do not know. More tests are needed." She did not realize then that the adventure had only begun, as tests revealed that this baby had a catastrophic problem potentially more deadly than cancer. The author describes the brilliant care and dedication of the highly-skilled doctors and staff who were able to turn the life of a dying baby from a tragedy into a triumph. Often touching, sometimes sad and scary, sometimes funny, this story demonstrates the extraordinary results of doctor/family teamwork, positive attitudes, and the needed support of others when a serious medical condition strikes any child.

Book Extract:

There was a pause in the conversation, and then Dr. Kanter asked, “Susan, are you sitting down?”

“No, but I can be.” I moved to the kitchen table and sat on a chair. Nick reached his hands up to be held from where he crawled on the floor. I situated him in my lap. “I’m sitting now.”

Dr. Kanter calmly asked, “How do you feel about a heart transplant?”

“I think they’re nice things if you need one,” I told him after a full minute. I said the first words that popped into my head. I was being flippant to cover my surprise. He was serious, I knew. We never thought that Nick might be considered for a heart transplant so young, maybe later in his life, but not then.

“I think we need to consider it. Can you and Andy come to the hospital to discuss it?”

“They say it is supposed to snow tomorrow. We’ll be there if it doesn’t,” I said. My mind spun. It required effort to think.

“What are you going to do if it does snow?” he asked.

“I’m going to play in it with my kids.”

I immediately called Andy and asked him to come home early. I only told him it was in regard to Nick, not what Dr. Kanter had asked. Andy was as surprised as I was at this turn of events. We decided that we would hear the doctors out and try not to close our minds to the idea. It did snow that night, so I phoned Dr. Kanter’s office the next afternoon and made plans to meet him two days later.

“Nick will need to have an antibodies test. So come early enough to go to the lab,” Dr. Kanter said. “If he has a high amount of antibodies it will be hard to find a match.”

Nick's New Heart is available on Amazon.

Travel in Time with Author Laura Vosika

2010-07-12T00:15:00.000-07:00

I have an interesting guest here today, author Laura Vosika.

Laura grew up in the military, visiting castles in England, pig fests in Germany, and the historic sites of America's east coast. She earned a degree in music, and worked for many years as a freelance musician, music teacher, band director, and instructor in private music lessons on a winds, brass, piano, and harp. Laura is the mother of nine, living in Minnesota. Laura’s debut novel is a romance set in two different centuries. Blue Bells of Scotland is historic fiction with a time travel twist. The first in a trilogy, it is the story of two men, polar opposites but for their looks and love of music, who switch places in time and are caught in one another's lives. Laura has an interesting mix of inspirations for her writing, which we’ll find out about.

Blue Bells of Scotland

Shawn Kleiner has it all: money, fame, a skyrocketing career as an international musical phenomenon, his beautiful girlfriend Amy, and all the women he wants—until the night Amy has enough and leaves him stranded in a Scottish castle tower. He wakes up to find himself mistaken for Niall Campbell, medieval Highland warrior. Soon after, he is sent shimmying down a wind-torn castle wall into a dangerous cross country trek with Niall’s tempting, but knife-wielding fiancée. They are pursued by English soldiers and a Scottish traitor who want Niall dead. Thrown forward in time, Niall learns history’s horrifying account of his own death, and of the Scots’ slaughter at Bannockburn. Undaunted, he navigates the roiled waters of Shawn’s life—pregnant girlfriend, amorous fans, enemies, and gambling debts—seeking a way to leap back across time to save his people, especially his beloved Allene. His growing fondness for Shawn’s life brings him face to face with his own weakness and teaches him the true meaning of faith.

Blue Bells of Scotland is both a historical adventure and a tale of redemption that will be remembered long after the last page has been turned.

Laura your story sounds fascinating. Where does it come from?
Books are born of multiple inspirations. For Blue Bells of Scotland, a historic adventure with a time travel twist, a lifetime of experiences brought the story to life: my favorite childhood book about four children who go into a Scottish keep and come out in medieval Scotland; the lyrics of the trombone showpiece Blue Bells of Scotland; and a flash of an image of a musician gambling away his instrument and conning his girlfriend into getting it back for him.

You have a degree in music: how much has music played a part in inspiring you?
My life in music plays heavily (no pun intended) in my writing. I considered having Shawn play a more typical star soloist sort of instrument, like saxophone or trumpet. But Shawn is unique and able, as his conductor says, to turn even a tin whistle into stardom. It’s part of his charisma and confidence. Also, as the lyrics which loosely inspired the novel come from a trombone piece, it made sense for my hero to play that instrument, and it was a great chance to bring to life some of the pieces I have loved playing, myself, as a trombonist: not only Blue Bells, but Monti’s Czardas, a beautiful piece of music with a gypsy flavor, which Shawn plays at a medieval fair, while his pursuers watch. I reference music pieces quite often throughout the trilogy, and have made a page at my site that links to many of those pieces on YouTube.

Tell us about your research.
Music is the ‘write what you know’ part of my story. But a novelist cannot possibly write only what he or she knows. I knew almost nothing of Scottish history when I started. I’d never heard of Bannockburn until I looked into battles which might be a backdrop for the noble deeds and streaming banners of the Blue Bells lyrics. The deeper I got into writing, the more I loved researching. With my youngest three not yet in school when I started, I relied on anything I could do from home: a wide variety of internet sites, books, movies, and DVDs on Scotland, castles, medieval life, warfare, and more. Caltrops, murder pits, and Bruce’s guerrilla strategy have all been topics of conversation at our dinner table. My poor children!

My favorite part of the research was traveling to Scotland to visit the locations in my book—Inverness, Loch Ness, Rannoch Moor, Stirling, Bannockburn, and the Monadhliath Mountains. I took over 1300 pictures and dozens of pages of notes. I changed a few things in the final draft as a result, while many other experiences show up in book two, The Minstrel Boy.

Is historical accuracy important to you as a writer?
There is debate among both readers and writers regarding the level of historical accuracy in novels. As a reader, I enjoy a good story regardless, but as a writer, I lean toward being as accurate as possible, partly because I don’t want to destroy the suspension of disbelief for those who know their history, and partly because I love learning and want to know, myself, what it would really be like to go back.

Time travel … and the inevitable comparisons with The Time Traveler’s Wife. What are the pitfalls facing a writer when it comes to time travel?
Many time travel stories fail to explain how the time traveler gets along in a new world. It is passed off as simply part of the time travel mystique, for instance, that the traveler inexplicably speaks the language. I prefer explanations. Niall is of the educated, multi-lingual upper class of his time and a quick learner—the primary reason he is the laird’s future son-in-law, and hence in the tower that night with the laird’s daughter. As a musician, he has a sharp ear. When he arrives in the twenty-first century, he struggles with modern English. He relies on a head injury to explain his difficulties, while he listens, watches, and learns.

Your average modern American does not speak Gaelic. However, of all the things of which Shawn has been accused, average is not one. He pushes for the orchestra’s Scottish tour exactly because of his background—a grandmother from Skye and a father who embraced that heritage, including his mother’s native Gaelic. Like Niall, Shawn struggles at first. Like Niall, he is a musician with a good ear. In addition, he excels at lying and deception, and quickly learns of Niall’s head injury, all of which help him until he adapts to the unfamiliar accents.

This is a first in your planned trilogy—what can readers expect in the future?
Just as a book grows from multiple inspirations, sometimes an inspiration grows into multiple books. In addition to a non-fiction on the history behind the story, look for the story of Shawn and Niall to continue in The Minstrel Boy and The Castle of Dromore, in which Shawn and Niall’s own inspirations and self-revelations culminate in final choices which transform the futures of many.

It sounds fantastic, Laura. Thanks for sharing this amazing story with us. Readers can visit Laura’s interesting and informative site and purchase on Amazon. By the way, stop by to read some of the excellent reviews Blue Bells of Scotland has garnered.

The Imaginarium of Ami Blackwelder

2010-07-10T03:18:00.000-07:00

I have such a fascinating VBT guest today. Ami Blackwelder is an author whose wide ranging interests take her from one end of the imaginative scale to the other. While many authors would like to expand their skills with a couple of different forays into genres, Ami seems to glide effortlessly into a variety of genres. Author of Rain: Graphic Novella, Guardians of the Gate, The Day the Flowers Died, and The Hunted of 2060.

Tell us about yourself, Ami:

I was raised in California and then in the third grade moved to Florida. I attended the University of Central Florida where I received my BA in English creative writing and teaching. After college, I did a lot of traveling as a teacher to countries like China, Tibet, Nepal, Korea and Thailand! I’ve always loved storytelling. As early as Elementary school, I wrote long inventive tales which my teachers would read in front of class. I took it more seriously as I grew older. I wrote primarily poetry and short stories in my twenties, but in my thirties I have written spiritual books as well as novels. I write paranormal and historical romance which focuses on the forbidden love aspects of characters because of culture, religion, time, gender, death, and species differences.

Ami, reading over your list of publications, I am astounded at the range and variety. What a range—from Christian topics and the bible (Genesis) to a graphic novella, to Munich in 1930, to an elfin romance, to the year 2060! Quite a variety of topics and you obviously have an incredible imagination.

Please tell us how you were inspired for each of your books, what you brought to bear from either your travels, education or research in creating each of your works, and where you see yourself settling comfortably in a genre, or will you continue to be a gipsy wordsmith.

I graduated from UCF with an BA in English and teaching credentials. I traveled to Asia for eight years, teaching primarily kindergarten and writing. I began my writing career with short stories and poetry in my twenties, winning Best Fiction awards and publications in magazines and newspapers in Korea and Thailand.

In my early thirties, I delved into religious topics such as The Ancient Genesis (Creation and Evolution debate) and re-educated myself about Christian issues in Christianity and Sensibility. My overseas adventures helped to inspire my book The Other Five Senses which also incorporates Eastern religions.

But by my mid-thirties I discovered my passion for creative writing was not content to live as mere short stories and I began my journey. I now define myself as a paranormal and historical romance writer. I enjoy the science fiction and fantasy aspects of my imagination as well as entering a past time that I find intriguing. Romance is usually central to my writing, but not the sappy, cliché, or erotic kind of romance. My writing is tasteful with a twist.

Readers will be engaged, entertained, and sometimes enraged with my novels. Currently I am switching publishing companies from 'Creative Endeavors' to 'Eloquent Enraptures.' My books are being re-edited and re-designed with covers and being re-submitted to online and offline venues. The Hunted of 2060 and The Day the Flowers Died are both complete with the transition. My other works will soon follow.

I will be having my first book signing shortly for The Hunted of 2060, my latest work. I am currently working on the prequel, The shifter of 2040, which fans of that novel will love to hear! It is a new book, but has already caught a lot of buzz. Inspired by metamorphosis, wildlife conservation, and prejudice, this novel is a teaching tool within the framework of original, and intriguing shorelines.

Let's take a look at Ami's latest book: The Hunted of 2060
America 2060.
Three Lovers. Two Species. One Way to Survive.

Set in Alaska in 2060, when April enters her Sophomore year at University, she thought Robert might be the love of her life, but as she discovers, she is hiding something inside her, something the rest of the world believes to have died out. She struggles with who she was and who she is becoming as she learns of a family she never knew existed and of enemies she will have to outrun, outfight or outwit to survive. As April embraces her new identity, will she have to leave the life she loves behind? With underlining themes of how prejudice breaks human connections and animal/wildlife conservation, this novel which has received rave reviews will leave the reader flipping through the pages of April’s story.

Please visit this fascinating author's website for downloads and more purchase details.

An Immortyl Revolution with Author Denise Verrico

2010-07-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

Say hello to a fabulously interesting guest today on the VBT, Denise Verrico, auteur extraordinaire on the topic of ... yes, they’re here again ... vampires! But not just ordinary vampires. Denise has created the kind of spine-tingling mythology in her Immortyl Revolution series that makes a reader want to embrace her dark and enticing world of the undead.

Denise is an East Coast native. She has loved vampire stories since she was a little girl and a fan of the Dark Shadows television series. She is an avid reader and fan of sci fi and fantasy of all genres. Denise also enjoys anime, manga and graphic novels. She is a big movie buff. Her favorite TV series of all time are Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. Her favorite rock group is Queen, but she also loves The Beatles, The Who, and David Bowie. Her background is in the theatre and she was a member of the Oberon Theatre ensemble in NYC for seven seasons, with whom she acted, directed, wrote plays and designed, www.oberontheatre.org. She attended Point Park College in PGH PA. She currently resides in Ohio with her husband, teenaged son and flock of seven parrots.

Cara Mia, Book One of the Immortyl Revolution

Vampires Mia and Kurt become involved in a deadly mission to harness the power of immortality. Mia Disantini is a vampire whose greatest desire is to walk in the sun again. She is enslaved by her charismatic master, Ethan, and plunged into an ancient, unenlightened Immortyl culture. As Mia struggles for the freedom to live as she chooses, she is trained as Ethan's Bird of Prey. Soon she becomes the pawn of their powerful, enigmatic elder, Brovik, in his deadly games of deception and intrigue against his rival, Gaius, concerning their forbidden science experiments. When Mia is cast out by Ethan she joins forces with Kurt, and together the lovers steal fire from the gods and deliver it to Genpath Laboratories. The company CEO Lee Brooks deceives and imprisons the pair. While held captive, Mia calls upon the aid of Dr. Joe Ansari. The couple is hunted for their crime and time is running out. Will Mia and Kurt escape with their lives and succeed in their mission before their Immortyl enemies harness the power of immortality for evil purposes?

Let’s find out more about Denise and what makes her vampires ... er ... tick (maybe not the right word!).

Fiona, I’m happy to be your guest today! I want to remind your readers that on July 15th I will be drawing for a free autographed copy of my book. Please leave a comment to be entered in the drawing. I’ll post the winner on my blog, website and Facebook page. My question to the readers is this:
Who is your favorite literary, film or TV vampire and why?

Denise, the question you've been asked a thousand times, I guess: Why vampires? I know you've been crazy about them since a kid, but what was the initial attraction to something that should have scared you at a young age, and how has your love affair with these creatures of the night grown and deepened as you embraced more adult themes in life?
As a child, I was attracted to their power and invincibility. Vampires were like really cool superheroes to me. Also when I was a kid, most heroines were blonde and helpless, where female vampires were usually brunette and strong. I guess I identified with them. As an adult, one begins to understand the drawbacks and moral implications of having to drink blood to survive. To me they are the perfect metaphor for man’s inhumanity to man, especially for those people who hurt children.

What influential writers/movies cemented this passion?
The television show Dark Shadows was the first time that I ever saw a vampire represented in a sympathetic way. Actor, Jonathan Frid played the vampire, Barnabas Collins. He portrayed Barnabas as sophisticated and debonair. He could also be scary. Although I wouldn’t have put it this way as a child, his air of regret over his condition touched me. Of course I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula and saw a lot of vampire movies as a kid. These were the horror variety. I loved monster movies of all kinds. In my twenties, I discovered Anne Rice and loved her Interview with the Vampire. Some people find Louis whiny, but I find him a decent man who is thrust into a nightmare. He’s trying to make sense of his circumstances and retain his humanity. That’s admirable. Lestat, on the other hand, embraces his vampirism and doesn’t spend a lot of time looking back. He’s more fun. I like both of these takes on the condition. I also enjoyed the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, which is a sci fi look at vampires. In this story vampires outnumber humans and only one man is left to battle them. The twist is that the hero is actually seen as the monster. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is my favorite paranormal show of all time. I like how Joss Whedon strikes the perfect balance of humor, horror, romance and drama. My current favorite is Being Human on the BBC.

What appeals to you most about sci fi? Favorite writers or themes?
I love how science fiction and fantasy build new worlds. Science fiction and fantasy take on big questions, setting them outside of the mundane world and putting them into a place where people can look at them more objectively. An author can also take a remote scientific possibility and run with it, long before theory becomes reality. In sci fi, you can clone dinosaurs or engineer androids that want to be real live boys. Maybe one can capture the secrets of immortality from vampires.

Ursula K. Le Guin is my favorite author in science fiction. Her stories are strong on character, and I love the detailed societies and subcultures she creates. In The Left Hand of Darkness she explores an alien race that is neither male nor female. I always find discussions of gender interesting and deal with the idea in my books. In some of her work she deals with slavery, another subject that fascinates me. I love Dune by Frank Herbert because of all of the multi-layered worlds with all the various subcultures and religions. Time travel stories are fun. I watch a lot of Doctor Who these days. I’m into good space opera. Star Trek and Firefly are two of my all time favorite sci fi series. I haven’t read any Steampunk yet. It looks interesting.

Is Cara Mia your first book or have you written any short stories etc?
It’s my first novel, but I’ve also written plays that have been produced. I majored in theatre in college and worked with The Oberon Theatre Ensemble, a company in New York for seven years. My first produced play is entitled, Attempting Fate. I also directed the production. I’m still passionate about the theatre, but I’m too busy writing fiction these days to do any acting or directing. I’ve written a libretto inspired by the songs of Freddie Mercury that I’d love to produce someday.

On your blog you have an in-depth mythology (for want of a better world) that encompasses characters and ancient family lines. Did this kind of 'world creating' come easily to you? Do your characters 'create' themselves in a way?
Wow. Good question. It took a long time to develop and a lot of research into history. However, I love that kind of research. I’m kind of a history buff and love to create characters from time periods I’ve read about. I decided to make my vampire culture male-dominated, like many ancient societies. It’s tough to be a woman in a world like this and it gave my heroine a lot to fight against. The oldest example of the Immortyl culture is centered in India, but the world of Immortyl Revolution encompasses values from many other societies like ancient Greece. I also see vampires as similar to wolves, predators who cooperate to ensure survival. Immortyls are also highly territorial.

You could say my characters create themselves. They come to me, start to speak and demand attention. I do a lot of thinking about whom these people are and their beliefs. It’s not like I agonize over it. This part of it is fun for me. Since they are different aspects of my personality, many of them share characteristics of mine. The chief elder keeps parrots like me. Mia was an actress. Cedric, in book three, is a big fan of rock and roll.

I have often wondered this: can one do any research with this kind of paranormal fantasy, or is it all a product of your imagination; would you need to do outside or factual research?
Well, Immortyl Revolution features sci fi vampires in an urban fantasy world. I did a lot of reading to come up with a plausible biological reason for my vampires. There are no magical powers in this world. You won’t find any werewolves, angels or wizards in the Immortyl Revolution series. My vampires are mutated human beings who must drink blood to survive, but they also must eat food and drink water. They avoid the sun because of a cancer caused by ultra-violet light that can kill them. They are sterile and can’t have children. They are, however, virtually immortal. We age and die because our DNA makes less and less perfect copies as we get older. Our bodies are genetically programmed to do so. I won’t give away how my vampires become immortal, but it’s discovered in the books.

As I mentioned before, if one is dealing with people from other times, it makes sense to find out all you can about that time so you can find out what makes this character tick. Also, to create an alien world within our world, the writer should be aware of politics, world events, geography, architecture, art and so many subjects. I’ve researched many religions and mythologies to give me a jumping off point to create my vampire mythology. The imagination needs food to grow and research provides that food.

Tell us about Book Two, Twilight of the Gods.
In this book, Kurt becomes a charismatic revolutionary leader over the sewer rats, feral child and teen formed vampires. Although Kurt is beloved by his followers, Mia is disliked by many of them. Both of them deal with the challenges of leadership, love affairs and impending war with the house of Gaius. There is much more of Kurt’s struggle in this book. He’s a reluctant leader, but driven by his strong desire to right wrongs. Having observed his master, Brovik for fifty years, Kurt realizes the dangers of power and worries that he will become someone he doesn’t want to be. He wants to believe the best of those who follow him and often turns a blind eye to treachery. Mia, on the other hand, is more cynical than Kurt and sees potential threats to his position and the revolution. Their relationship is strained when Kurt forms an affectionate bond with Arturo, an oddly timid vampire.

Is there going to be a Book Three?
Fearful Symmetry is almost finished going through my critique group. It’s set in India and is told from the POV of Cedric MacKinnon. He’s an adept of the ancient arts or temple artist/courtesan in service to the Immortyl cult of the goddess, Kali. I wanted to tell this part of the saga from within the Chief Elder’s court, to get the perspective of the ruling class as observed by one of their servants.

There are so many writers in this genre—why will you stand out from the rest?
Gosh, I hope I’ve created something original. Lots of authors have done sci fi vamps and vamp cultures before. The heart of the series is the sewer rats, the lost boys and girls who are victimized by their masters. I’m moved by the plight of their real-world counterparts who are trafficked and enslaved by human monsters. Hopefully people will come away from reading my stories thinking about conditions in our world that allow women, kids and young adults to be treated this way. Like Mia, I have a big problem with the strong preying on the weak.

Gag question: what are you afraid of in the world of vampires - bats, the dark, coffins, dungeons, people with big teeth....?
I love bats. They’re essential creatures in many eco-systems. They eat pounds of harmful insects. I like the nighttime and do most of my writing then. Dungeons would be uncomfortable and slimy. Being shut up in a box would terrify me. I’m very claustrophobic. No coffins in my world, thank-you!

I've learned a lot today about this 'other world.' Thanks for being such an interesting guest, Denise.
Fiona, it’s been a pleasure talking with you and your readers! Don’t forget to comment to be entered in the drawing.

You can connect with Denise on Facebook or on her web site where you'll find fun stuff like excerpts, character profiles and an Immortyl Lexicon. Click here to purchase an author-signed copy.
Cara Mia is also available in trade paperback and multi-format e-book, including kindle at the following sites: Amazon and Borders.

It’s Murder... and Madness with Author Jen Hilborne

2010-07-05T23:09:00.000-07:00

Another murder author takes the page today with an interesting writer Jen Hilborne. Jen straddles two continents—born in the United Kingdom and living in the USA. I’m sure that puts an interesting slant on her writing. Madness and Murder is her debut novel. Congrats Jen! Let’s hope you’re another Agatha Christie!

Frustrated by the rising body count and lack of evidence, veteran homicide detective, Mac Jackson, questions his own ethics when he risks the life of an innocent young woman to trap a cunning and sadistic serial killer. Known for his uncanny precision with a hunch, he is all too aware that, this time, the stakes are much higher if his gamble fails to pay off. Jessica Croft, withdrawn, vulnerable, and emotionally scarred, moves from Sacramento to begin a new life in San Francisco with her twin brother, Judd. Ninety miles from the sinister, shameful secrets of her past, and the madness that tore their family apart, she hopes to find tranquillity, maybe even love. However, her chance for happiness is short-lived when she suddenly finds herself the target of a relentless madman with a deadly agenda. Loath to continue living a life of fear, Jessica tells no one when she takes a bold risk to draw him out; dangerously unaware of the trap he has already set for her. Now nothing may be able to save her except the accuracy of a hunch.

Tell us about yourself, and your writing background. This is your first book so what did you do before then? Were you interested in writing or just enjoying being a reader?
I’m a native Brit currently living in the US with a background in the world of real estate and finance. I've always loved reading, and have dabbled with writing for years, however, I only thought about writing a novel a few years ago. My earlier scribblings are children’s stories and high-school essays. I started writing Madness and Murder in 2007, and finished the first draft eleven months later. Then came months of editing. The manuscript was accepted by Echelon Press in 2009, after I met my publisher at a writer's conference in San Diego.

Madness and Murder is quite an international mystery. Murder across continents, in fact. How did your storyline end up taking such intercontinental twists?
Madness and Murder takes us on a cross-continental journey because I like to travel, and I'm sure most other people do, too. Quite a few elements of real life are woven into the novel and quite a few of the characters are based loosely on people I know, myself included. I used real life journeys and situations to create many of the scenes (but not the murderous events, I hasten to point out).

I recently did a blog post on types of murders, genres, and Sheila Lowe, another murder mystery writer actually divided them for me. Maybe you can tell us where yours fits in.
I would say Madness and Murder fits somewhere between psychological suspense and thriller. We get into the mind of the killer from time to time and are privy to the murderous deeds he/she is planning, even though we don't initially know his/her identity. The pace is quick, and the murders piling up are violent and sadistic in nature. We know the killer enjoys killing. Madness and Murder is character driven, with plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing. We get an in-depth look at the characters to help us understand what makes them tick, even the killer.

It sounds as if you're having loads of fun writing—what's the best part of it?
I love everything about writing. I love making things up, and writing a novel means I can do it without getting into trouble. I usually begin with a title and a loose idea in my head for a motive and how the novel will end. After that, I decide what method of murder will be used, and then I sit down to write. I don't plot it all out in advance. Many of my characters show up uninvited and tell me what they want to do, where they want to work, and what their grievances are. When I wrote Madness and Murder, the villain invited himself into my story half way through and completely changed its direction.

Aren't you a bit worried you have all these murderous tendencies?????
The question made me laugh. I joke that my boyfriend sleeps with one eye open. I believe most adults have the ability to murder, but of course, most of us don't. The TV and media are filled with news of crime, real and fictional, and it fascinates people, whether they admit it or not. I write about murder not for the thrill of the deed—and sometimes my characters shock me with the things they do—but because I like to solve the crime. I love all things mysterious and puzzling. The murder/mystery genre chose me.

Tell us about your second book, or is it a secret and if you tell us ... you'll have to kill us?
My second book, No Alibi, is another suspense set in San Francisco, and is more of a police procedural. The story follows veteran homicide cop, John Doucette, plagued by personal betrayal, which affects his judgment while he sifts through a complex web of lies and deceit to solve the murder of a beautiful young woman found dead in her home. No Alibi will be published in 2011 by Echelon Press. Currently, I am working on Hide and Seek, my third suspense set in....you guessed it.....San Francisco. This story is based on an adult version of a child’s game with, of course, a murder thrown in.

It sounds as if you ARE becoming the next Agatha Christie! Readers can purchase Murder and Madness at Amazon, and please visit Jen's website to keep up with the body count!

Fantasy & Fangs: Paranormal Romance Author Susan Hanniford Crowley

2010-06-30T23:49:00.000-07:00

Vampires are such hot property right now that this is my third vampire romance writer. Guest number fifteen is Paranormal Romance Author Susan Hanniford Crowley.

Tell us about yourself, Susan.

I am a writer and editor. Being an Associate Editor for Space and Time Magazine is a passion of mine. I have also been a writing teacher for over twenty years. Currently I teach workshops from time to time at conventions. I am a Science Fiction and Fantasy author and an active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). I'm also a new paranormal romance author. I am a member of the Romance Writers of America (RWA) and recently became RWA Pro. I've written a variety of work including reviews on books and movies, political speeches, poetry, short stories, news articles, radio and television commercials, grants, brochures, and fiction and nonfiction manuscripts. I've also edited for writers in a variety of fields including academia.

Susan’s first full-length novel has just been released by Tease Publishing LLC on November 15, 2009. It’s a vampire romance, The Stormy Love Life Of Laura Cordelais.

The Stormy Love Life Of Laura Cordelais is the story of David meeting and trying to win the love of a tormented woman, Laura Cordelais. Laura possesses an extraordinary gift among supernaturals, a power that others envy and will do anything to possess. If you love vampires, you'll love Laura and David's passionate love affair and their struggle to stay together against amazing odds. Being descended from an ancient race blessed by Zeus doesn’t help Telkhine Laura Cordelais when she's desperate and standing between life and death. Her destiny looks bleak. Every choice leads to death, and there is no winning door. Or is there? Begging God for love, Vampire David Hilliard finds his request answered in the form of the tormented and dying Laura. In saving her, he falls in love and dooms them both to a dark underworld of voodoo and sorcery from which nothing can escape. For David to save her, he must kill her, and by loving her, he could lose her forever. When plunged into a dark underworld of voodoo and sorcery, will they escape? Together?

Ooh, definitely a spine-tingling romance in store for Vampirephiles! Let’s find out more about Susan.

1. Your most recent books are romance with the paranormal (i.e. vampire angle), yet you say you began with sci-fi. Is your attraction for the eternally undead just a natural progression from sci-fi to romance?
When I was growing up, in my view the writers who were always on the cutting edge were the science fiction and fantasy authors. That's what I wanted to be and I accomplished that by earning the professional sales needed for active (full professional) membership in SFWA (Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc. Even though I love and wrote fantasy and some science fiction, I always loved vampire tales. When a convention asked me to speak on a panel on vampires, I began what would be 25 years of research and many panels to follow speaking about the undead. I only began writing about vampires about three years ago.

2. You began writing at age 8. What did you write and what was published at age 16?
When I was 8, I wrote about squirrels. When I was 12, I wrote a spy novel widely praised by my classmates. When I was sixteen several of my poems were published in a local paper. At the same time, I wrote a play about the Drive-In, booed by my classmates as being too real and revealing about what went on there. I also sent also sent a teenage romance novel around to all the big publishers and was rejected by form letters. I never said in my cover letter that I was 16.

3. Paranormal is very hot right now—what sets your books apart from the veritable tidal wave of vampire related themes dominating the market? I have had the pleasure of interviewing a couple of vampirephiles already on my blog and it would be nice to compare comments.
I write about the Arnhem Society, a secret society of vampires in New York City. The mission of the society is to provide a refuge for vampires and promote a civilized lifestyle, preferring bagged, bottle, or donor blood. The Arnhem Knights, their enforcement arm, defends humans from death by vampire and assists supernaturals in trouble.

I write about the vampires and their interactions with the other supernaturals in the city, especially the rare ones like Telkhines and Harmonies. Telkhines are an ancient race that used to inhabit the isle of Rhodes. They were famed for their craftsmanship with metal and the ability to control the weather. Laura Cordelais for The Stormy Love Life of Laura Cordelais is one of their descendants. A Harmony is a human being with a very unique supernatural quality. I can't tell what it is. You'll just have to read A Vampire for Christmas. After you do, you'll be looking around and the people you know and wondering.

My books are filled with all sorts of supernaturals dwelling in the human world. Your florist could be a werewolf. The college student that just walked by could be half leprechaun/half elf. And even though my books are Manhattan-based, the adventures often include other locales. You don't know what supernatural is standing beside you on the subway.

I believe that's what makes me different. LOL

4. Tell us about your heroines.
My heroines range from the insecure like Laura Cordelais who at the beginning of her story doesn't know she's one of the most powerful supernaturals on Earth to shape shifter Lorraine who keeps forgetting to morph on her clothes much to her brother's chagrin and a certain man's delight. Lorraine is a divorced shifter in my upcoming, not yet released novella Vampire in the Basement. My heroines usually need to learn more about their abilities. Some of distrustful of men like Georgia in A Vampire for Christmas. Trevor is so tongue-tied that she thinks he's a stalker, which makes it very difficult for him to protect her from demons. Regina is just trying to get to the internship her advisor at the college set up for her and disaster strikes in When Love Survives.

5. Tell us about your heroes.
I always start with tall dark-haired David Hilliard with his dark fathomless eyes. He asked God to end his loneliness and ends up diving into the East River to save a despondent Laura Cordelais in The Stormy Love Life of Laura Cordelais. But Laura has some intense baggage which dooms their love, plunging them into an underworld fighting dark forces. David is passionate, loyal, inventive, incredibly handsome, and devoted to every inch of Laura's body and more.

Gregor is a stand-up guy, a financial advisor who looks out the coffee shop and sees the woman of his dreams. What does he do? He grabs her and pulls her in, of course. One look at this big, dark-haired, Maine sky blue eyed, bear of man would melt any woman's heart. Meet Gregor in When Love Survives.

My heroes are good-looking. Most are financially well off. Some of them are Arnhem Knights, but they have issues that range from convincing a woman whose heart has been broken by some bum that love can be real to even talking to the woman of their desire. The test of course is if they're secure enough to give love.

6. Have any classic vampire or paranormal writers influenced or inspired you (Bram Stoker/Mary Shelley/Anne Rice?)
Mary Shelley is the mother of science fiction. Her Frankenstein is brilliant. Bram Stoker's Dracula is written in the most personal style of letters. Both inspired me early on but so did fantasy's Marion Zimmer Bradley and science fiction's Ursula LeGuin and Ray Bradbury.

7. Have you a favorite vampire movie in mind when you browse the video store shelves?
The standards to beat are "Queen of the Damned" and "Lost Boys."

8. Will you ever change genres or try writing something else as a challenge—for example, a romance between two mortals?
You never know. Everything I write comes from my dreams. Right now I have several years of vampire book summaries written in my notebook, as well as books for some other supernaturals. I want to do steampunk too.

9. Gag question: How do vampires keep their love life interesting if they live for ever...
Gag answer (not really): I explore that a bit in the soon to be released Vampire in the Basement. I don't think I should give all their secrets away. You know just because a vampire lives forever doesn't make them boring. The ones that have survived this long are incredibly inventive sexually and often more sensitive emotionally. I think one thing that keeps them going is finding their life mate. This is a very hard task and a vampire might live for hundreds or thousands of years before finding that one person who makes their barely beating heart sing.

10. Do you have any upcoming events or book signings?
I will be participating in the Authors After Dark Romance Unlimited Convention in Secaucus, New Jersey, September 16-19. There's still time to register. There will be tons of fun events, panels, workshops, parties, a charity auction, and giveaways. Here's the link.
For those that are attending Authors After Dark Romance Unlimited Convention, come up to me and say “I saw you on Fiona Ingram's blog” and I will give you a small gift, while my supply lasts.

Fascinating stuff! Fangs for the interview. Susan. Vampire lovers can purchase any of the above books at this link.

Thanks for having me on your blog. It's been exciting. For more information, visit my website, my romance blog, or visit Tease Publishing.

21 Ways to Market Your Writing Services

2010-06-30T04:59:00.000-07:00

Today’s blog post is how to market your writing services. Many an author cannot live by book sales alone, that’s why marketing one’s writing skills can bring in the extra bacon, especially if book sales are down or you’re (still) waiting to get discovered and famous. People need words: they need stories, articles, speeches, press releases, Web content, and a dozen or other forms of communication that someone (you!) with writing skills can easily provide. But how do you let people know you’re skilled and available?

I have a very interesting guest today with loads of advice to offer: Carol Tice. Carol has written freelance for more than 15 years, as a business journalist, copywriter, blogger and Web-content author. Her blog Make a Living Writing focuses on the business of freelance writing. Carol’s accolades include a "Best in Business" award from the Society of Business Writers and Editors, and multiple first-place awards from the Society of Professional Journalists. Besides writing, copywriting and blogging, Carol also enjoys teaching, coaching and mentoring in two separate fields. She teaches businesses and nonprofits how to get their stories into the media, and she mentors other writers and teaches them how to make a living as a freelance writer. Carol also gives free advice on the business of writing at her Make a Living Writing blog. Read on and learn more!

21 Ways to Market Your Writing Services

In my mentoring work, I often find myself introducing my mentees to a basic fact of life for freelance writers: If you want to earn more, you’re going to need to market your business aggressively. Answering Craigslist or Kijiji ads is unlikely to get you $1 a word or $100 an hour gigs. To find really good-paying work, you will have to prospect.

This often produces a reaction along the lines of, “I’m shy! I’m no good at networking.”

But there isn’t just one marketing strategy in the universe, there are many. So today I’d like to kick off a two-part post highlighting some of the multitude of ways to market yourself as a freelance writer. Today, it’s 11 different 3-D-world marketing approaches. Somewhere in here, there’s a strategy that would be a fit for who you are and the kind of writing work you want to find.

1. In-person networking. I know you don’t want to hear it. But in-person networking is not only very effective, it can actually be fun. Just think — you get out of your writing cave, have a drink and a nibble, and meet new people who could help you make more money. Unless you are catastrophically shy, I want you to try it.

Bring business cards. Walk around and introduce yourself to as many people as possible. Overcome any shyness you have about plugging yourself by spending most of your time asking others why they came, what they do, and if appropriate what they’re looking for in a writer. If that description doesn’t fit you, try to recommend them someone. Networking is about learning others’ needs and helping each other succeed, not shoving yourself down other people’s throats. You don’t have to be pushy–be helpful. Personally, I have been to two in-person networking events and got great connections that led to wonderful paying clients both times.

Experiment with places to network–I’ve had good success with MediaBistro events here in Seattle, but your city may be different. I’m told the Linked:Seattle in-person events rock, too. Find your networking sweet spot and visit it as often as you can.

2. Direct mail. I’ve never tried this, but many of the top copywriters in this field develop a prospect list, and then audition by sending direct mail–makes sense, huh? One of them is Pete Savage-he sent one DM letter and got $64,000 of new business, and he sells a kit that describes how he did it. I don’t usually plug products, but if you’re interested in copywriting work, this may be worth a look. I can vouch for Pete–he’s the real deal. I can give you one tip I’ve gleaned from Pete’s newsletters–I gather he advocates including a bumpy novelty item in the envelope. Makes it irresistible to recipient…apparently they feel compelled to open it to learn what’s making the bump.

3. Cold calling. That’s right–just pick up the phone, call a company you’d like to do copywriting for, and ask for the communications or marketing manager. Or call the editor of a publication you’d like to write for. Ask them if they use freelance writers. Be ready to pitch your ideas for stories to editors, or your copywriting services to companies. Many will say no, but persistence can really pay off here. Everyone who tries it reports they get new accounts, and that every 10 or 20 calls, they get a “yes.” Give yourself an edge and check out their existing Web site or other materials before you can call, so you can point out specific weaknesses in their current marketing and describe how the materials you’d create would bring address their needs and bring in new customers.

4. White papers. Create a white paper about the value of your copywriting service, demonstrating the benefits to companies that use you. Much like the direct mail strategy, this one’s especially great if you want to write white papers for companies. If you haven’t written white papers, you should learn about them because they’re the hottest sales tool in copywriting right now, and they pay very well. Michael Stelzner’s your expert here, and he has a free training on this topic you can read online.

5. Free or paid seminars. They can be in-person, over the Web, over the phone, you name it. But holding a class in a topic such as “How copywriting can help your business” can put you in touch with many good prospects in one fell swoop. Some like charging a little for the class as you screen out looky-loos and get more qualified, highly interested leads who are more likely to become clients.

6. Free downloads. Create a helpful article with advice or tips on how to communicate your business’s value or some other related topic, which ultimately leads to a conclusion that hiring a professional writer will help your business. Put it on your Web site as a free download in exchange for which you capture their email address. Presto, you’re building a great marketing list and exposing your name to prospective clients while presenting yourself as an expert. (OK, this tip involves a computer…but it’s not social media, so here it is in the 3-D list.)

7. T-shirts and car decals. That’s right, think of yourself like any bike shop or car wash would, and promote the fact that you’re a freelance writer everywhere you go!

8. Contests and polls. Hold a contest for the worst business Web site and give the winner free home-page content, or write their bio page, or whatever you want to offer. Or take a poll on the most important thing to say on a business Web site, and give the winner a free consultation. Entrants will, of course, have to submit their contact information, giving you an instant list of companies that need copywriters. This one doesn’t just get you prospects and a great before-and-after sample, you could tell the local papers and get written up, too.

9. Charity donations. Doesn’t your kids’ school have an annual auction? Donate an article for a business, or a free brochure. Great way to let the whole town know you’re a writer.

10. Put out a press release. Have you expanded into a new field? Hired a virtual assistant? Moved your office? Many local papers have business columns that publish these news tidbits, along with your photo in some cases. If not your local paper, try your Chamber newsletter (you belong, right?).

11. Partner or reciprocal deals. Do you know a business whose products or services you use, who could use Web content? Make them a barter deal–you do their site over in exchange for free stuff, including a free plug on their home page that you wrote the content.

Yes, I know I only listed 11 tips here. Follow this link for the final 10 marketing tips in 21 Ways to Market Your Writing Services: The Social Media Edition.

The good part about this advice is that when people get to know about you and your writing skills, they also get to know about your books. You can connect with Carol on her Make a Living Writing blog, or her website for more fantastic tips. Don't forget to subscribe to her great and informative blog ... I just did!

A Passion for Writing: Author Tasha Wright

2010-06-28T03:40:00.000-07:00

Say hello to my VBT guest number 14, Tasha Wright. Her passion for writing began at an early age and drives her ever onward to create and publish more books. Tell us about yourself and your work, Tasha.

I was born in a small Texas town, so I had to find creative ways to occupy my time. At a young age I discovered my passion for writing. I have always embodied what my mother preached, anything in life is possible! In holding on to her words I’ve had the chance to publish my work, Carelessness of the Heart and When a Tattered Past Catches You, with many more to come. I write to allow people to drift into another world, if only for a moment.

Tasha’s latest book sounds interesting. Here’s more on it!

Tough willed, strong as nails Willa will do whatever it takes to provide for her family even if that meant putting her life in danger or on hold. Living the street life meant not allowing anything or anyone to get close enough to hurt or destroy her. But, after the death of her mother she is forced to return home and confront a past she tried to erase from her memory. As Willa confronts a tragic past she also has to confront something else, her long lost love, Damon. Living the street life and becoming the head woman in charge was something Willa did with ease but there was always something or someone missing in her life. Will Willa let down her guard and allow Damon back into her life again or will she continue to live the street life?

Q&A with Tasha Wright.

When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
That is a funny story. When I was 16, I turned into a drama queen. My mother grew tired of me having meltdowns and fabricating things. So, she bought me a computer and made me sit down and write. From that day on, anytime I would come out of my room and start an argument with my brothers, she would simply tell me to turn around and go write something. Lol, I’ve never stopped writing. As I touched on earlier, my mother really allowed me to be creative and she would read the things I wrote. Writing was the one thing I set for my life goal and I am doing it. I live on cloud nine each passing day.

How long does it take you to write a book?
If I dedicate the time needed to write, I can write a book and determine where I am going with it in about six months. Now, to get it exactly where I want it to be I would complete it totally in eight to nine months. But, I also write at least two or three books at one time.

What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
Well, I am not a New York Best Seller YET. I still work full time and I am also a full time College student.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I would say my humor. When I write, somewhere in my work I want my sense of humor to shine through. I would like to believe I’m quite the character.

Where do you get your information or ideas for your books?
When I write, I do not brainstorm and chose one certain thing I would like to write about. When I write, I take the first sentence and let it flow. By the end of the chapter I will see where I want to take it or scrap it. Remember, if you write bored and it bores you. Either fix it or get rid of the entire thing.

When did you write your first book and how old were you?
I wasn’t intending to write my first book. It was just a short story I had written because I was a bored housewife. My sister-in-law read what I was writing and she became excited and told me she had to read more. So, I gave her more and it keep going until I noticed I was about to complete an entire book.

What do you like to do when you're not writing?
When I am not writing, I love to just relax and sit at home. Now, that I have accomplished my goal of publishing I have so much on my plate. So, when I am home and I do not have any commitments that would be my relaxation time.

What does your family think of your writing?
My family is very supportive and they are my biggest promotion. I love that my family is excited for me. They make me feel like I am already that bestseller I strive to be. When I call home, there is always that excitement and love. There is nothing that could beat it!

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?
The most surprising things would be my imagination. My books are very different and they all hit a different aspect of life. I feel that is what will keep my readers intrigued on what I will write next.

Do you have any suggestions to help other authors become better writers? If so, what are they?
Learn the basic structures and grammar. I thought I had it down until I signed with Passionate Writers. They were hard on me but I also learned a great deal. They understand a character will have their own way of speaking but when it comes to my writing and my narration, I have to be on point or I will have to fix it. But, they only work with quality work and that will help both the writer and the publishing company in the end. Your readers deserve quality work.

Do you hear from your readers much? What kinds of things do they say?
I do hear from people who have read my work and the majority always say they enjoy not knowing what is going to happen next. Every time they thought they had me figured out, I took a different route.

Do you like to create books for adults?
I do have adult scenes but I have not written a book that is designed specifically for adults only. Maybe one day I will create a hot steamy romance but that is a very particular craft and has to be written well to evoke passion and feelings in your readers.

What do you think makes a good story?
Life makes a great story. Many things that occur in relationships and daily life can be pushed to the limit to create something so huge and will always keep readers intrigued. Your readers will say, “I know someone who’s going through this right now. This is such a coincidence.”

Thanks for sharing so much information with us, Tasha. Readers can visit Tasha's author site and purchase her latest book from Amazon.

The Real Secret to Twitter

2010-06-25T05:08:00.000-07:00

When I began marketing my book, I knew nothing. I always say I knew nothing and I don’t think anyone believes me, but truly I had no idea where to begin telling people about myself or my book. I happened upon one of Penny C. Sansevieri’s newsletters by accident and have been following her articles, Tweets, podcasts, and newsletters ever since. Penny is a book marketing expert. She has such an excellent grasp of the publishing industry that her advice and information are a boon to any author, either of fiction or non-fiction. Today I’d like to share her advice on using Twitter effectively. Actually, when I first created my Twitter account I had no idea what I would Tweet about. Talk about being terrified … I was Twerrified. If you’ve ever felt that way, or still feel that way, stop panicking. Advice to follow as Penny shares the real secret to Twitter!

If you've ever been impressed by the number of followers someone has on Twitter, I have a newsflash for you: it doesn't matter. The thing is, you can buy followers (no, I'm not kidding) sort of like buying mailing lists. How effective is buying followers? Well, let me ask you: How effective was the last mailing list you bought? Whatever your answer is I can guarantee you that buying Twitter followers will be far less effective. Why? Because social media does not favor automation, it favors engagement, interaction, and yes, being social.

You might be interested in knowing someone's Twitter-reach or you might be trying to determine if your campaign is effective. Here are some key things to look at when measuring anyone's Twitter-success:

1) How active is the person on Twitter?

2) How relevant to their market are their updates? For example did a mystery author just tell you she's washing her cat?

3) How much do they broadcast vs. communicate?

4) How often are they retweeted?

5) How many Twitter lists are they on?

One of the best ways to determine if your Twitter campaign is effective—or someone else's—is by gauging how often they are retweeted. Retweeting is an important factor in Twitter, possibly the most significant means to determine an effective Twitter person from an ineffective one. In fact, Twitter popularity lists aren't based on the amount of followers but rather on the amount of activity in a campaign. When I recently pulled up a list of the top 10 Twitter-ers in Southern California, I found that many in the top 10 didn't even break 10,000 followers.

How can you determine how active an account is? There are a few services that you might want to look into. The first is Retweet Rank. This service shows you (by user) how much someone has been retweeted as well as their most popular retweeted posts.

Twitter Analyzer is another great tool for determining how far tweets have traveled. You can isolate a user or a particular Twitter-stream. Very useful site!

How can you increase your tweet-ability? Here are a few tips to help you grow your Twitter campaign:

1) Know what your followers want: the first piece sounds simple but could take you the most amount of time. Candidly, it took me three months to finally get a handle on what my followers wanted and what seemed to rank high on the retweeting scale. If you don't know what your followers want, try following popular people in your market and see what they are posting about. Use this as a guideline to help you dig deeper into what your market wants.

2) Share useful advice: now that you've determined what your followers want to see on Twitter, make sure the information you are sharing is helpful. I know this sounds like an oxymoron. If you've determined what your followers want of course what you tweet on will be helpful, right? Wrong. Ask yourself what they need, not what you think they want. There is a big difference.

3) Don't overtweet: OK, full confession, I've been guilty of this from time to time but now I've found a good balance of between 4 and 5 posts a day. This may be a metric that works for you, but you'll need to determine that on your own. How do you know? If people start unfollowing you the reason may because you are overtweeting.

4) Balance broadcasting with communicating: this is a biggie for many of us. It's important to use any social media tool like a telephone. You would never call someone and just blast them with information, right? You'll give them something, wait for a response and then respond to their question and so a discussion ensues. Use social media as you would a telephone: communicate, don't broadcast.

5) Comment on current events that relate to your industry: becoming the go-to person for everything related to your industry is what most of us aspire to. Keeping apprised of what's going on in your industry is important and then, sharing the highlights or most significant items with your followers will go a long way toward growing your popularity.

6) Recommend helpful resources: much like current events, you want to offer helpful resources to your followers. This might not be appropriate to every market, but for the majority of us this works very well. Again, the more you can become a resource the more you will grow your popularity on Twitter or, for that matter, any social media site.

Many people hop on to Twitter thinking it's a numbers game when it really isn't. You can have a Twitter-tribe of millions and not gain the same kind of social media success that you would with only 1,000 followers. The wisdom of the crowd knows that it's not always the size of the audience that matters but how engaged they are in you and your message. Find the balance that works for. You'll be glad you did.

Reprinted from "The Book Marketing Expert newsletter," a free ezine offering book promotion and publicity tips and techniques. Visit Penny's Author Marketing Expert site for loads more articles and tips on book marketing.

Master of the Macabre: Author David Fingerman

2010-06-22T06:25:00.000-07:00

If you’re like me, you have to watch horror movies or read spooky books during the day. So guess what? I have as my 13th guest on the VBT, a master of macabre writing, David Fingerman. Do you think it’s mere coincidence that he is my thirteenth guest, as opposed to being another number guest? Maybe there’s something in this. (Shiver!) I mean, David scored Edgar Allen Poe as his crazy writer in a recent quiz…. David Fingerman, a master of the unforeseen and unpredictable, will take you on a number of seemingly ordinary journeys and then smoothly veer off course, surprising you with twists and turns that propel you toward destinations that are not only unexpected, but often terrifying.

Let’s have a look at David’s collection of shiveringly scary short stories.

Get ready to expect the unexpected when you read this collection of chilling short stories. The short stories of Edging Past Reality will take you to the precipice of reason and then push you over the edge. If you think you can always believe your eyes, and you're sure that what you believe is true, it's time to check your certainties at the door ... and start Edging Past Reality. In this collection of short stories, as you're warned in the introduction, ''the most common and familiar elements of life ... explode into a circus of horror.'' Imagine an inviting, lush meadow that turns shockingly deadly. A mirror that holds more than mere reflections. A trial where your life hangs by a call-in vote.

More about David:
You worked in the court system for 20+ years. Your experiences in the justice system have certainly given you lots of food for thought and many themes I am sure. Do you think that your work there influenced your choice of genre (horror, macabre/human condition etc) or is this something you just enjoy as a theme?
I've had a love of horror and the macabre long before I started working for the justice system. When I was young, my parents had a TV in their bedroom. After they sent me to bed, they'd go back downstairs and I'd sneak into their room and watch Alfred Hitchcock Presents, or The Twilight Zone, or Outer Limits depending on the night. So, as for my choice of genre, the courts had no bearing. That being said, my years working there has given me more fodder for ideas, plots, human behavior, etc. than I'll ever be able to write in this lifetime. I feel I've gotten to see the best and worst humanity has to offer. And what great stories that can create.

Apart from Alfred Hitchcock, what writers have influenced or inspired you?
Again, reverting back to childhood—I was an avid reader. The Hardy Boys were my favorites. As I got older I drifted more towards science fiction (which included speculative fiction). I couldn't read enough of Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury (there were many others, but those were the top three. Then I went to college, and pfffftttt! I had no desire to read anymore until a couple years after I graduated when I saw a copy of Pet Sematary by Stephen King. He was my new fave until a friend of mine loaned me a book of short stories called Shatterday by Harlan Ellison. I really enjoy reading short stories and that book showed me there was a solid market for it. I've always loved to write, but it was mostly as something to do when I was bored. Reading Shatterday planted the seed of me wanting to become a serious writer.

Your first book, Edging Past Reality, is a collection of short stories. Now you have moved on to novels. What made you decide to write novels, and what was the experience like for you? Easy/hard/killing?
For me, novels are much harder to write than short stories but also more rewarding. (I'm still amazed when chatting with some authors that they find novels much easier to write.) One thing I love about writing short stories is that by the time I get sick of ever looking at it again, I'm done. During the editing and rewriting phase of the novels, I had to put them away for a while. I couldn't read a passage without hating the whole thing. Although I still write short stories, moving to novels was a natural progression. Like Stephen King's novels, my short stories were getting longer and longer anyway. My first inclination for Silent Kill (soon to be released) was a short story, possibly a novella. Once I got started I knew there was no way I could do justice to it as a short piece of work. Once that decision was made, the floodgates opened and that possible short story finished at 95,000 words.

Your Desert Island books, or what you read for pleasure?
On a desert island? Um, now I'm thinking Gilligan's Island and making an air conditioner out of coconuts—but you didn't say stranded, so never mind. Ahem, sorry. Pretty much anything by Harlan Ellison. I still have a couple books left in Stephen King's Tower series that I haven't read yet. I love horror, suspense, mystery, and occasionally I'll be in the mood for history and biography. If it's fast moving and lets me escape from reality, I'll probably enjoy it. There are also a number of authors I've met on this tour whose books sound fascinating and are now on my list.

Are you afraid (very afraid...) when you read your own scary novels late at night?
LOL. Yes, but in a little bit different context—when I'm reading something really sick and twisted and thinking, what disgusting and disturbed mind ever thought that up? Oh yeah, it was me. That's kinda scary.

Your favorite short story from your own collection—can you give me a paragraph?
Oohhhh, tough one. My favorites change with my mood. Okay, here's a short passage from "Marty's Toy" found in Edging Past Reality.

“Marty's bedroom stood right above the kitchen, but from the second floor he was able to see a small section of the vacant lot. Through the weeds, acting like a cloak, two blazing orange eyes stared back from the corner of the lot. Sparkling in the night, teeth shone like stars.”

Readers with nerves of steel who would like to win a copy simply post a comment. Visit David at his author site for more detail on purchase links and release dates for his next two novels.

So You Want to Write a Book? 10 Tips for New & Aspiring Writers

2010-06-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

I love tips and advice. Of course, given the plethora of articles around, many writers have possibly read the advice a number of times. Hmmmm, how come we never seem to take it? Just think how rich and successful we’d be if we had… When I tumbled into the world of book publishing I knew absolutely nothing. No, really, I knew absolutely nothing. It’s embarrassing how naïve I was. I thought you just wrote a book and someone else would do all the hard work. Ha ha ha!

Lists of things to do are great. Writers often need lists to keep their heads in the right place. Sometimes we often use these lists as a means to avoid actually churning out the required number of words a day. But this is the kind of list you need as a writer. If you found my previous blog link about 50 Tips for Writers a trifle daunting, then this one's for you.

Here’s a fantastic list of 10 Top Tips by Nancy Ancowitz especially for writers who (like me used to) think that all you have to do is write a book and magically someone else does the rest of the hard work!

So You Want to Write a Book? - Excerpts from a blog on PsychologyToday.com by Nancy Ancowitz

My advice: 10 tips for new and aspiring authors

1. Purpose. Get clear about why you want to write a book versus an article or something else. Is it to reach more people, build your personal brand, and hit the jackpot on the New York Times' Best Sellers list?

2. Money. Determine how you'll juggle making a living while writing your book. Will you save up plenty of money, go on sabbatical, work part-time--or work full time while writing your manuscript at night and just take catnaps while standing in elevators?

3. Self-publishing versus conventional publishing. Weigh the pros and cons of self-publishing and e-book publishing versus conventional publishing. If you decide to go the conventional route, find a literary agent who is passionate about your book idea. She will "shop" your manuscript around at publishing houses and help negotiate the best terms for you. For a list of agents, check out the Association of Authors' Representatives; also ask published authors for their recommendations.

4. Branding. Start building your brand long before your book is published by writing, speaking, using social media tools, organizing and/or joining special interest groups, and spreading the word through your network.

5. Product. Consider whether you want to offer a product or service in connection with your book. If so, set the wheels in motion now so that when your book comes out, you'll have more to offer your readers.

6. Public speaking. If you're not already comfortable with public speaking, which is an important skill for an author, take a course, hire a coach, join Toastmasters International, and get some practice, even at small, approachable venues. Down the road, closer to the time of your book launch, also consider investing in press training to buff up your skills at answering questions on the spot for media interviews.

7. Published authors. Meet them. Buy their books and review them on Amazon. Gain from their insights. Build relationships with them and ask for their advice about your book.

8. Publicity. Save up now to hire a publicist, but don't rely on him to do all the work. You're the engine; start building relationships with journalists and organizations where you can speak that are interested in your topic.

9. Information for authors. Read books, magazines, blogs, social networking sites, and other resources to become an informed author. Check these out: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Getting Published by Sheree Bykofsky (whose literary agency represents me), Jennifer Basye Sander; Poets & Writers magazine and (of course Jerry D. Simmons web site).

10. Support. Get the support you need to write your book. Join or form a group of other authors, turn to a mentor, hire a coach, start a Meetup or Tweetup, and read, comment, and post questions to authors' blogs. You'll benefit from having a community of authors and can learn a lot from one another.

There you have it, writers! With so much advice, you cannot go wrong.

Excerpt taken from Jerry D. Simmons newsletter and web site www.WritersReaders.com. All written material Copyright 2010 Jerry D. Simmons. Readers can access additional information free at his web site www.WritersReaders.com - the SOURCE FOR INFORMATION ON PUBLISHING for WRITERS and AUTHORS where we take pride in Preparing Writers for Success.

A New Kind of Eden with Author Louise Wise

2010-06-17T07:52:00.000-07:00

Say hello to Louise Wise who hails from Northampton, United Kingdom. Louise is guest number 12 on my Virtual Book Tour.

Louise, tell us a bit about yourself: I am the author of Eden, my first published novel. It's a sci-fi romance—Beauty and the Beast for grownups. My second novel, A Proper Charlie, is going through its paces with my editor, and I'm busily working on my third, which I haven't named at the moment. I have written many short stories for People's Friend, Best, Take a Break etc and enjoy entering short story competitions where I can. I am a mum of four boys, happily married to Dave and live in damp England.

JOURNEY TO THE PAST... A tale of romance and survival as three people travel from 2236 to the beginning of time. Jennifer Daykin joins the three-man crew to explore the newly discovered planet, Eden. All was going well until Jenny found herself deserted...She listened for an answering shout - there was nothing. In the distance, Jenny was transfixed with horror as the space shuttle rose into the blue sky of Eden. 'No...Don't leave me here!' Only the pounding of her heart answered her...but not alone The instant she hit the floor she curled into the foetal position. Finally, the bare feet walked away. A Native American warrior, had been her first thought, but it was his eyes that had alerted her he wasn't an Indian or even human. They were completely black; black, dry orbs in a battered face. Ordinary people with ordinary emotions, fears and insecurities. Only this isn't Earth, and he isn't human. A modern day Adam and Eve.

It sounds fantastic! What inspired you to write Eden?
I had a dream, cliché, I know. I was stranded on the moon as my fellow travelers left me (I think I was Buzz Aldrin in the dream), such an odd dream and it stuck with me. I “romanced” it and turned the moon into a habitual planet, added an alien and crazy co-travelers. I started writing it about six or seven years ago, but the manuscript has been in my bottom drawer for several years.

How did you find the publisher?
I received many rejections, which stated that the novel was just too original for the current market. An agent took it on but failed to find a publisher for it. This urged me into believing in the novel and myself as a writer. Again, I put the manuscript away and concentrated on other things. Then I heard about youwriteon.com (a review website) and uploaded Eden to the site. It received brilliant reviews, and then YWO offered a fantastic publishing deal I just couldn’t say no to, and it went from there.

Your second novel, A Proper Charlie, can you tell us a bit about it?
This is a chick lit. I loved writing sci-fi/romance with Eden but it’s almost impossible to find a publisher for cross-over genres. I like comedy (there’s a bit of comedy in Eden), and really love reading chick lit myself and so I thought I’d give it a bash. I think I’ve found my niche.

Now that you have one novel under your belt, was the second easier to write? Did you make the same mistakes?
Because I took my time with Eden it seemed easy to write. Charlie (I’m editing it now) has taken 18 months, and it seems harder. It’s frustrating because chick lit is something people think is easy, almost badly written, but jokes have to be strategically placed, people have to be realistic yet still be “characters” and there has to be a plot. I made mistakes with Eden, and hopefully I haven’t repeated them with Charlie.

How do you juggle a writing schedule with a husband, four boys, and the English weather?
I write when the kids are at school and after my housewifey jobs, and again at night when they are in bed. The weather doesn’t bother me—I don’t like the heat so I’m suffering at the moment because it’s hot here. Love it cold and the sound of rain—guess I’m in the right country! I don’t think my husband understands my need to write. He’s proud of Eden, but thinks a book is something you “knock up” in between supermarket shopping and collecting the kids from school. It’s frustrating when I’m trying to concentrate and he keeps coming over to me to talk, then he gets all hurt when I’m snappy! Men!

What do you look for in a novel when reading for pleasure? Your Desert Island books? I'll let you choose three.
1) False Memory by Dean Koontz has stayed in my mind. It was really interesting, but as with all his books, they end a bit too abruptly.
2) Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella which is a chick lit but was sort of a cross-over to a ghost story. I thought it was very well written, and the author really knew her 1920s!
3) A Spring Affair by Milly Johnson, another chick lit. This had a multi viewpoint, and as writers we’re always told to avoid that, so it was interesting for that aspect. It had a good storyline and a nice “feel good” feel to it.

Who has/does inspire you with their writing? Anyone you've learned a lot from by reading their works?
I suppose Dean Koontz has inspired me the most. Even though he’s a thriller/horror writer and I’m a comedy/romance I love the way his novels are fast paced and hope that I have imposed some of that tension in my books. When I was a child I read a lot of Enid Blyton, and in hindsight now, think maybe the trigger for writing was then.

What made you decide to become a writer instead of a world-famous, filthy rich tennis player or a reality show star?
I think being famous would freak me out. I wouldn’t turn down filthy rich though. I generally think writers are born. Then they either hone their craft or fail.

What's the best/worst part of being a writer?
The best is for me is meeting other writers and be able to talk about my passion and them understanding. I used to write before the Internet on a little battered Amstrad and thought I was the only writer in the world struggling.

The worse is editing or rewriting when you thought you’d finished! You send it off to the editor, and get on with something new. But then it comes back with this, this and this that needs to be changed and you don’t want to do it because your mind is full of new characters and plots.

Do you eat chocolate to break writer's block or do you eat chocolate anyway?
I love chocolate, especially Cadbury, but I’m on a diet at the moment. Have you heard of the Ducan Diet? It’s a carb free diet and unfortunately chocolate is full of carbs. I’m excited though, I found a website that sells low carb chocolate (probably tastes disgusting!), and I’ve ordered a box! I shall stay in that day when it arrives.

If you'd like to read more about Louise and her books, please visit her blog. You can purchase her fascinating debut novel Eden on Amazon.

50 simple rules for making it as a writer - The Writer Magazine

2010-06-12T06:44:00.000-07:00

50 simple rules for making it as a writer - The Writer Magazine

Yes, we've all read all the rules and tips on the art and craft of writing, getting an agent, dealing with rejection, marketing, persevering etc. But here is one of the best and simplest list of tips by Harvey Rachlin to help any writer, aspiring or established, get on track and stay there. Often we become distracted, confused by advice on what to do, how to do it, and other angles we feel might be worthwhile. A lot of time can be wasted chasing the wrong rainbows, hoping they will turn into great leads (or pots of gold!).

There are a number of tips I have read before, but I hadn't given much thought to them. An example is the possiblity of foreign rights.

Tip #15. Write books with international appeal. Foreign publishers buy books they believe will be of particular interest to their countries’ readers, so keep that in mind when planning or writing your book. (Harvey Rachlin)

Is your thriller/romance/mystery/adventure set in a foreign country or an exotic location? Does your story have an interesting French/Italian/other culture flavor? An overseas publisher might just open the right door for your work.

This is just one tip that sparked my interest.

As for the rest? This is a list I shall print out and stick on my wall!

Harvey Rachlin is an award-winning author of a dozen books. His most recent book, Scandals, Vandals and da Vincis (Penguin), was published in June 2010 in Poland, following other foreign editions in Korea, Spain and the U.K.

The Rhythm of Life, Music and Poetry with Mary Muhammad

2010-06-11T05:18:00.000-07:00

Please welcome guest number eleven on the Virtual Book Tour. My special visitor today is author and poetess Mary Muhammad who has written books of poetry and two children's books.

Poetry and children’s books are an interesting combination. I’ve asked Mary to tell us in her own words where her inspiration comes from, and what her aims and goals are in sharing her emotions and messages with readers.

Mary on Poetry

My love for poetry stems from two areas in my life—jazz music and recitation. Music, just like life, is poetry in a rhythmic form. When you are a lover of words, and someone recites to you words that capture rhythm, you automatically form your own rhythm, your own song so to speak, and this is how poetry became my love of expression. I'm inspired by children and life in general when it comes to poetry. Everything has its own rhythm and song; this opens a whole world to me when it comes to writing. The process is awkward for me, I guess, because the majority of my writing has to have a title in order to be; it's not easy for me to just write without a face to what I'm writing, and the title is a face for me. As my writing matured, my biggest influences came from a totally different era than today. It came from the early writers who seem to draw on the real issues of life, the deep intimacies of the early century. I was fascinated with this form of expression, the dialogue and many fashions of it. I just love reading it. Jazz is my second love of expression because of the diversity. I enjoy the instruments and how each of them voices their own sound while being just as important as the next in a piece. Yet without each one, the whole sound changes in a particular song. Jazz has melody, it's the real music expression for me, it's like body language without a lot of hoop and holler.

Mary on Writing for Children

My love for children comes from my upbringing. I came from a very large family and children were everywhere you turned. With six sisters and four brothers came many nieces and nephews, many of whom I baby sat, so my love of children has always been there. When I first started to hear and read of children being abused, I just couldn't fathom the reasoning; it just didn't make sense to me. I mean here you have an innocent being, and you have this happen to them! Every parent has the right to protect their children and should be an advocate for their protection. When seeing and hearing all this negative activity with small and older children, I couldn't sit still, I hoped with God blessing me to write, I could be an advocate for the children. I hoped I could be the voice they hold quiet, and bring awareness to this awful act. I pray more parents and family members will become more active on children’s behalf and learn of the seven steps to help protect the children. They need to know how serious and life changing this issue is for the children. They need to love them enough to stop and pay attention to changing behavior, because it changes their lives forever. They see life and people totally different than most. I don't know for sure if my message is working, but I pray it will save a child's life, at least one each day. If I can do that by making this as open as I can, my heart is happy, a child is happy, a child is safe. People don't have to take my word for it; they can go straight to the mouth of the predator committing the acts. They can hear it from them by visiting my website and going to the media room, where they are speaking about this, where they themselves warn the parents about what, how, when, where and why they do these things. How much more warning and proof do parents need to help protect the children? It's because of this activity Hugs and Kisses was written.

Mary’s Motto; "The love we say we have for another becomes a fallacy the moment judgment enters in."

Please visit Mary's blog post and jazz and poetry connections for more details and book purchase details.

Escape to An Enchanted World with author Danika Dinsmore

2010-06-10T03:34:00.000-07:00

No, there's no mistake. Please follow the link below to my great interview with Danika Dinsmore, author of Brigitta of the White Forest. Danika is an award-winning writer, spoken word artist, and educator. Danika has been working with children of all ages for 18 years. Faerie Tales from the White Forest is her first novel series. Brigitta of the White Forest is Book One of Faerie Tales from the White Forest.

Danika grew up in Northern California. She earned her MFA in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University's Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics (founded by Allen Ginsberg). Her early writing career was built on experimental poetry and collaborative spoken word performances. While living in Seattle, she organized and performed with the 12-person Word Orchestra as well as the performance group FourWord FourTete. Her inspired performances earned her the Washington Poets Association award for Performance Poetry. After moving to British Columbia she turned her attention to film, television, and new media. She has worked as an artist-in-the-schools and media literacy educator for Learning Through the Arts and has taught screenwriting courses in the Writing Department at Vancouver Film School and at Capilano University. She blogs about her multi-disciplined writing life as The Accidental Novelist. She currently lives with her husband and their spoiled cat in Vancouver.

My good friend Shelly Burns is away for a day and asked me to fill in the gap in her blog schedule. So please hop over to Write for a Reader and browse this fascinating article. Plus you can get to know Shelly as well! http://tinyurl.com/36frqsr

The Art of Murder (Writing)

2010-06-09T09:03:00.000-07:00

I love murder! I should qualify that statement by saying I love a good mystery and if it includes a dead body or two in the library, so much the better! From Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s canny detective to Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, to Midsomer Murder’s Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby, to the slew of murder and mystery thriller writers on the shelves today, each writer has something fascinating to offer in the way of (dare I say that word again?) murder. But how about the authors of murderous writing? Do they all write the same? Are all murder mysteries the same? No, there are rules and shades of differentiation. Here’s the opinion of an expert who is my guest today. Please welcome Shelia Lowe, author of the Claudia Rose Forensic Handwriting series. Her titles are compelling, just demanding to be read: Poison Pen, Written in Blood, Dead Write, and Last Writes.

What makes Sheila an expert is her more than 35 years experience in the field of handwriting. The author of Handwriting of the Famous & Infamous, and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis, her analyses of celebrity handwritings have appeared in Time, Teen People, and Mademoiselle. Her articles on Personality Profiling and Handwriting Analysis for the Attorney have been published in several bar association magazines. Her expertise in forensic graphology makes her the perfect author for her Forensic Handwriting series.

I was fascinated to find that Forensic Graphology is the study of handwriting especially that found in ransom notes, poison pen letters or blackmail demands. Although this is a recognised and called upon scientific technique Forensic Graphology cannot tell a person's age or sex from the handwriting. What it can do however is give indications as to the person's state of mind at the time of producing a particular document, be it a blackmail letter, a poison pen letter or a suicide note. In addition, you can tell a lot about a person by the way they write—or more importantly—in the words they write. It has become commonplace now for us as individuals to write in the same manner as we speak, using abbreviations, slang and colloquialisms that vary from person to person and indeed place to place. These are important and a Graphologist can make good use of these things during the investigative process. So the next time you’re writing that blackmail note… be afraid … be very afraid!

Let’s hear it from Shelia Lowe about The Art of Murder (Writing)

Who doesn’t love a good mystery? With six of the top ten hardcover fiction books on the New York Times bestseller list in the mystery/crime genre, clearly, many readers do. And since my own mystery series has been published over the past four years, I’ve learned that a very large number of people are interested in getting their own mysteries published, too.

I’ve heard it said that there are three rules in mystery writing...but nobody knows what they are...ba dum bum. Seriously, all fiction requires plotting, characterization, setting, dialogue, and point of view, but the mystery genre has some other special stuff of its own. But before you even get to those things, you’ll need to know what subgenre you are writing. Subgenre affects who your audience—your all-important market is going to be. The subgenres include soft-boiled cozy (traditional) mysteries, medium-boiled psychological suspense, and hard-boiled gritty noir, police procedurals, thrillers. Who knew it could get so complicated?

In cozy mysteries there is little or no on-scene violence, bad language or, heaven forbid s-e-x. Cozies feature an amateur sleuth who is an ordinary person, such as Jessica Fletcher of Murder She Wrote, or Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple. The sleuth knows the people who are involved in the mystery and the story is typically set in a village or a small community where there is a limited pool of suspects. There’s generally a puzzle that has to be solved in order to get the bad guy or gal, which is why cozies are sometimes known as “locked room mysteries.” For example, how did the killer do his deadly deed when the door to the room where the body is found is locked from the inside and there are no other exits?

Police procedurals have a protagonist who works in law enforcement, usually a police detective, such as Michael Connelly’s Harry Bosch. The detective follows police procedures (or doesn’t, and gets his butt kicked by his superiors as a result), and often has personal problems to deal with, such as alcohol or drug abuse, several troublesome ex-spouses, and run-ins with authority figures in the department.

Thrillers are fast-paced, action-oriented, and tend to be more graphically violent. Think Jason Bourne. The reader may know from the outset who the bad guy is—a spy or terrorist, perhaps—and we might see him plotting some horrible crime that is going to affect an entire population. The larger scale plot is the polar opposite from the setting of the cozy.

In stories of psychological suspense, character is emphasized more than plot. Thus, there may be less physical action, but a closer focus on who the various characters are and their reasons for doing what they do. My own Forensic Handwriting Series falls into this subgenre. My protagonist, Claudia Rose, is drawn into each plot through her clients. She doesn’t solve crimes with handwriting analysis, but she does learn about the motivations of the various people who populate the stories.

Once you’ve figured out your subgenre, you’ll have to figure out the crime, the precipitating event. Then, there are the subplots, the suspects, and the red herrings you’ll plant, making sure there is tension on every page. But those are subjects for another blog.

I will certainly be featuring Sheila again to learn more about those subgenres! Thanks for sharing those words of wisdom with us. Interested readers can visit Sheila’s site, and find the Amazon links to her books.

Book Review: The Devil and Sherlock Holmes

2010-06-07T02:08:00.000-07:00

The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness and Obsession by David Grann

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Inspired by a review on Galleycat, and being a devoted fan of Sherlock Holmes, I purchased this book with eager anticipation. I have mixed feelings about it because I really did want more of Sherlock Homes. Only the first story deals with the famous detective, but I already knew that from the review I'd read. However, the book is riveting adventure reading. An acclaimed New Yorker staff writer, David Grann does not disappoint when it comes to giving the reader electrifying reading material. This is a magnificent collection of spellbinding true stories about murder, madness, and the kind of obsession that grips the human psyche. Sherlock Holmes once said that "life is infinitely stranger than anything the mind of man could invent." David Grann leads the investigation in a true spirit of discovery as he sets out to solve a dozen real-life mysteries. The stories are unforgettable, as are the true characters that populate them. Entertaining and compelling!

View all my reviews >>

Book Review: the Lost Ark of the Covenant

2010-06-07T01:36:00.000-07:00

Lost Ark of the Covenant by Tudor Parfitt

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tudor Parfitt's epic twenty-year quest for the lost Ark of the Covenant is a real page-turner! According to the Bible, the Ark contained the Ten Commandments given to Moses and possessed a divine, awesome power. It was used by the ancient Israelites in battle and, by Bible accounts, had the devastating powers of a modern-day weapon of mass destruction. Regarded as the holiest object in the world by the Jewish and Islamic faiths, the Ark suddenly disappeared from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem over 2,500 years ago and was, apparently, lost forever. The author embarked on a long, arduous, and often dangerous journey in what became an obsessive quest to track down the truth behind this fabled artefact and discover its whereabout today.

I read Graham Hancock's The Sign and the Seal: The Quest for the Lost Ark of the Covenant, which claimed to have located the Ark in Ethiopia, it having been taken there by Menelik, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. So, it was with renewed interest that I tackled Mr. Parfitt's account of the link between the holy drum, or ngoma, of the Lemba tribe in Zimbabwe and the Ark. Tudor Parfitt's journey takes him on a trail of ancient documents and codes from Oxford, to Jerusalem, to Africa, and even to Papua, New Guinea. It encompasses not only his obsession with the Ark, but also the dreams and ambitions of friends, helpers, and other interested parties.

The author also takes the reader on some astonishing side paths - the discovery that the DNA of the Lemba, an African tribe, links them directly to the Jews of the Middle East and specifically to the priestly tribe that would have been the guardians of the Ark; the vision that they have of their lost city Senna, and their wish to be recognized. In addition, the strange link that the Gogodala tribesmen of Papua, New Guinea have with Judaism and Israel is also fascinating and makes for one of the funniest travel accounts I have ever read, putting me in mind of Gerald Durrell. That section alone is well worth the book because one feels 'in the author's shoes' (covered with Shoosnake) so to speak!

I enjoyed the author's theory that there were multiple arks, for multiple reasons. Dealing with ancient, biblical, and tribal history is difficult. Oral traditions become twisted as ancient authors sought to portray their particular traditions or holy objects in the best possible light. One only has to read medieval and older accounts of historical figures and events to realize just how much 'tampering' went on, and that history is surely written by the victors. The book left me with unanswered questions: what happened to the Lemba after their DNA links to Israel were confirmed, and what were the results of the DNA testing on the eager Gogodala who, by all accounts, appear to be more Jewish than the Jews?

In dealing with research in Africa, I, as someone living in South Africa, have a special appreciation of what Mr. Parfitt has endured in his search. Africa is a tragic story: a continent riven by corruption, nepotism, wholesale destruction of historical assets, criminality, lawlessness, and tribalism. It's a miracle he managed to find anything in Zimbabwe, given the present state of that country. In all, a fascinating read. With the plethora of investigations into ancient history and secrets, I think readers should enjoy what riveting nuggets authors such as Mr. Parfitt have uncovered.

View all my reviews >>

A Different Kind of Romance with Margaret West

2010-06-03T11:14:00.000-07:00

Lucky me, my Virtual Book Tour authors are becoming more interesting with every post. Please say hi to my tenth guest, paranormal romance writer Margaret West.

Born in Croydon, Surrey, Margaret is married with two children. She has always found writing to be a creative as well as a cathartic process, especially during difficult periods in her life. She found her true writing voice after becoming a spiritualist. Her love for literature extends from writing to reading and she is always willing to embrace new ideas and philosophies. She likes nothing better than to sit with a good book in the quiet realms of the countryside, with her dogs, Milo and Chester. A true animal lover, Margaret’s warmth and sensitivity are reflected in her writing.

Let's find out more about Margaret and her genre of writing.

For those not in the know, what exactly is 'paranormal romance?' Does the hero/ine have special powers or rather a spirituality that sets them apart from ordinary people?

The paranormal romances are those that contain elements of the supernatural. It can be anything from the characters having certain gifts or the story containing ghosts, demons etc. In one of my paranormal romances, Abigail Cottage, that’s being looked at by a publisher as we speak, the paranormal elements are a demon and a shadow queen who rules the shadows of the physical world. The romance is between the characters that exist on the earth plane. So here you have a combination of two elements, paranormal and romance. My other paranormal romance, Spirit Intervention, which is also being considered by a different publisher, is about a woman who sees spirit people. One of these spirits is her dead mother, who tries very hard to fix her up with a husband. It’s a comedy romance, with paranormal elements i.e. the dead mother.

You only discovered your writing talents and urges later in your career. What was the spark that inspired you to suddenly say, "Today I am going to write my paranormal romance?"

I wrote Abigail Cottage when I was in my twenties (many moons ago!) It's a dark paranormal. So really, I've always leaned more to the supernatural side of things as it’s always been an influence in my life. My mother, grandmother and great grandmother were all mediums of some degree. I wrote the book because the characters were always rumbling around it my head to some extent. It was as if they needed to be brought alive. Hence the book.

You have your own spiritual talents - parapsychologist and angel therapist. What does this mean for persons not in the know; and a) how do you use these skills in your writing and b) how do you incorporate these aspects into your characters?

I am a person who likes to know the ins and out of everything. Because I had such an interest in the unknown I did a degree in parapsychology. That deals with everything from, the big bang, UFOs to ghosts etc. But it still wasn't enough for me. So afterwards I took more mind, body and spirit courses. I became a crystal therapist because I'm fascinated how crystals work. Angel Therapy, is working with angels for healing purposes. I'm hoping to do a course on becoming an Angel Reiki Master. Reiki is healing and the angels are the healing guides. I use my knowledge and understanding of the spirit world to mould my characters. But they grow and develop as the story does.

There are many paranormal writers around - why are you different? What sets you apart from the others?

I feel I'm a bit different, because I don't write about vampires or werewolves or mythical beings etc. I write about a place that really exists, that I have knowledge and understanding about from people who are on the other side of life. I feel that sets me apart from other paranormal writers.

What can people expect to discover or take away from your writing? What messages do you convey in your books?

Apart from one book, Abigail Cottage, all my books have an inspirational message. The Heart of a Warrior leaves the thought that nothing is insurmountable, even if it seems so at the time. In Two Faces One Life, the message is that a disability can be life changing, but never life ending. I hope readers take away those thoughts, rather than a memory of a story.

Well, I have learned a lot today from my guest. Thanks, Margaret, for visiting my blog. Margaret has a great website with loads of information for authors as well as readers.

Readers can purchase The Heart of a Warrior at Eternal Press.

Vampire Alert: Carpe Noctem!

2010-06-02T08:15:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true, I am knee deep in vampire writers it seems because my ninth Virtual Book Tour guest is vampire author Katie Salidas.

The youngest of four children, Katie has always had a desire to entertain. Since, early childhood, she's dreamed up fantastical characters and scribbled them into pages of various journals and notebooks. Taking an interest in vampires at an early age, she devoured every book, featuring those blood sucking creatures, in any genre she could find. She claims that, of all the monsters out there, vampires had always been the most interesting. It was only natural that a love of reading about vampires, and a love of writing, turned into a desire to write her own stories. A Las Vegas native, having grown up in the famed City of Sin, Katie loves to feature it as a recurring setting for many of her stories.

The book Katie would like to feature is Carpe Noctem, a riveting book in the Immortalis series.

Bleeding to death after brutal mugging on the campus of UNLV, Twenty-five year old Alyssa is rescued by the cold and aloof, vampire, Lysander. Taking pity on her, he shares the gift-and curse-of immortality. She awakens as a vampire and is soon devastated by harsh realities of her new way of life: the loss of her friends, her independence, and her humanity. As if having her humanity stripped away was not enough to make life interesting, Alyssa finds out her “turning”, did not go unnoticed by the rest of undead society. Old enemies; an ancient sect of vampire hunters, known as the Acta Sanctorum, as well as a powerful Vampire mistress, each set plans in motion to destroy both Alyssa and Lysander. Only by accepting her newfound immortality, seizing the night, will Alyssa hope to survive. She and Lysander must fight together against two sets of enemies bent on destroying them both.

Sounds like something one can sink one's teeth into ... er ... should I be saying that? Hey, let’s get into the mind of a vampire author with Katie.

You have always been fascinated by vampires. Big question: WHY? What is the appeal? (Tell me in dripping detail). What is it about them, or the concept of these undead underworld creatures that turns you on, inspires you etc.
Ahh, why is such a big question to answer. Ha! I guess I would have to break it down into levels to properly convey my love for the creatures of the night. For starters, my original interest stems from an age-old fear. Many of us fear death. It’s part of the human condition. Death is inevitable. The fear though is what lies on the other side. It’s a great unknown and that is where the real fear is. Growing up in a religious household, I was taught that it is heaven on the other side but can one ever really be sure what awaits us? It’s no secret that I fear death and always have. That is why I find the vampire so intriguing. They, though fictional, are immune to that mortal condition and thus, are able to escape that often scary unknown on the other side. Reading about vampires allows me, for a time to escape that worry too. To be able to fantasize about the ability to live forever is a pleasant thing. It’s the escapism that first attracted me.

While escaping from the mortal condition I am also able to indulge in fantasy too. Let’s not forget that vampires have an inherent sex appeal. In books, at least modern fantasy and romance, they always seem to be chosen and turned at the peak of their lives. They are at their most virile.
Males are hard bodied and don’t have an ounce of flab on them. (Every woman’s dream, right?) They have piercing eyes that can reach into your very soul and mesmerize the pants right off of you. Once they’ve got you in their strong, capable arms, you just want to melt. Their strength represents power and protection (once you know they want more than just your blood. LoL). They are the ultimate bad boy. And women, we cannot deny that somewhere deep down, there is a lingering desire for the danger and excitement they offer. That’s part of the fun of fantasy. We can put ourselves into the other characters shoes and have the bad boy for a time without the lasting negative effects. Let’s not forget the teeth either. They are part of the sex appeal. They are not only phallic on a subconscious level; they represent the very real danger that makes you tingle with anticipation. Think about it? Where do vampires typically bite? The neck. It’s a known erogenous zone. Need I say more? Vampires let us indulge in multiple fantasies all the safety of our homes via: books, movies, and TV.

What are your vampires NOT? What makes your set of characters unlike any others, given the plethora of vampire related themes right now?
My vampires don’t sparkle that is for sure. Though the sparkly vampires have come under great scrutiny, I have to applaud Mrs. Meyers for attempting to blaze her own trail. Let’s face it, vampires are everywhere. It’s hard to stand out from the crowd. Cheesy or not, she made a lasting impression with her interpretation. As for mine, I tried to keep their humanity. I wanted them to be real creatures who struggle with what they must do to survive. No one struggles more than Alyssa, whom the story of Immortalis follows. As a newly-turned vamp she is forced to make choices she hates. Think about it. Would you really be able to kill a person for their blood? Most people might say, “Oh, well if I was a vamp I would have to. So yeah.” Easier said than done. That’s what I wanted to focus on with my novel. Sure, you could probably do it if you had to but it would weigh heavy on your heart. Guilt over having to end someone’s life to keep yours is a struggle. Alyssa has to come to terms with this and other issues as a newly turned vamp. I wanted to really give readers the gritty reality of it. To show in full detail what “turning” could be like.

Have you a line/few words from one of your characters that truly defines your world of vampires.
Yes, absolutely. To quote my dear Lysander: “Becoming a vampire is easy. Living with the condition, that is the hard part.” That quote, really sums up the feel of my novel. It is all about the turning and living as a new-born vampire. Carpe Noctem, seize the night. To be a vampire you have to learn this and do it, otherwise, you might as well submit to final death. It’s certainly not Hollywood glitz and glamour but, in the end, it might not be as bad as you thought.

Are you married to a vampire?
Honestly I think it is the other way around. My poor husband is married to a nocturnal creature. I do most work at night and can often be found up at my computer till about 3 in the morning. That makes me a beast to deal with in the morning. Ha!

There you have it dear readers, the truth about vampires from the expert. You can visit Katie on her site and purchase Carpe Noctem on Amazon.

How Books In the Home Boost a Child's Education

2010-05-27T01:51:00.000-07:00

How Books In the Home Boost a Child's Education

Inspired by a recent article on child literacy and books, I have written an article on the effect of having books in the house on a child's education. What many of us take for granted is reading, being able to read properly and fluently, and the availability of books. I am sure many people never even think about how they learned to read; I am sure that for many people, including myself, it seemed that you just 'knew' how to read. How many people can remember growing up with books and more books and still more books in the house. I remember shelves and shelves of books, many of those beloved old friends I still have with me. Oh, I can't toss them out, even though the spines are broken and the pages more than a little dog-eared. My parents didn't know it at the time, but having so many books in the house is possibly the reason I went onto further and higher education, racking up an impressive number of degrees at university. Maybe that's the reason I became a writer? Whatever the reasons, books remain an integral part of boosting a child's chance of further study. So don't be frugal when it comes to the printed word. If you have kids, splash out and get them all the books their hearts desire!

Jo Davis & "Domestics"

2010-05-25T03:12:00.000-07:00

Say hello to my eighth Virtual Book Tour guest. Jo Davis has published two books, several short stories, and numerous web content pieces throughout the World Wide Web. She also writes periodically for the local news and is currently working on another local history text. Jo holds a bachelor's degree in English from Purdue University. When not writing, Jo helps others get their writing right. Her company Bylines by Jo specializes in content creation and editing. The BBJ team is comprised of seasoned freelance writers with experience in areas from construction to web design, gardening to midwifery. All writers are experienced in tailoring the voice and content of the article or piece of text to match that of the client.

We’re going to talk about Jo’s book Domestics.

Domestics is a terrific read comprising two short stories that waste no time getting into the action. Sarah is married to Keith and severely abused by him. The day he beat their child Brandy to death, Sarah’s life forever changed. In a heated rage, Keith learned exactly what he has put Sarah and Brandy through. After the death of her husband, Sarah becomes a counselor for domestic violence. She helps these abused women in more ways than one. The day Rick comes into Sarah’s life, she finds herself attracted to a man after ten years of solitude. They seem to be a perfect pair, talking until all hours of the night. Rick is a Private Investigator and retired police officer. After the sudden death of his partner, he vows to prove it was murder. Little does he know that his new found love is tied into it. The last short story in this title is Smoke. Charlie finds himself craving the one thing he is most trying to quit....cigarettes. While on a plane, the craving becomes unbearable. He suddenly finds a cigarette in his belongings that he didn't know he had. Knowing he had a cigarette made it that much worse. When he decides to create his own fire, the airline attendants become worried about what he may be doing in the bathroom. Lucky for them, there is a Fire Marshall on the plane, but not so lucky for Charlie.

Review Comment: Davis did a magnificent job with this title. Full of action from beginning to end, I loved this book. I give Domestics ***** (5) Stars, B.K .Walker, Author of "Near Suicide" and "Dares And Dreams."

Chatting with Jo
Your career is steeped in helping other people get their websites or writing up to the mark—how and when did you decide to branch out into writing?
I found that a lot of my freelance work was doing just that. The clients that I created content for started asking other questions about their sites and keeping their material fresh. At first, I raised my prices to accommodate these extra tasks, but it became easier to just offer a separate service.

Your two books are completely different—one is non-fiction, and the other a short stories collection. Tell us how that happened!
I was actually commissioned to write the manuscript for Michigan City Marinas by the Michigan City Port Authority, as a 50th anniversary review. I got the manuscript published and found the accompanying photos to get the book that you see today. Domestics was a short story for a competition that grew to a small novel. I actually used Domestics to get the commissioned job.

You have a university background in English—did you ever dream or plan to be a writer?
Oh yes. I was an avid reader as a kid and a daydreamer. Writing was my way to create the different worlds like the ones I read about. Surprisingly, I began my college career as in accounting. I never knew anyone who made a living as a writer, so I believed that I had to make a living first and then write as a hobby. I know now that is not true.

What's the fun part of writing? Creating the people, places and things that make up the stories.
I am a daydreamer, as I said before, so it isn’t very difficult for me to imagine these what-if’s that make up fiction stories.

What's the hard part of writing?
Editing my own work. I see what I intended to put on the page, not what is truly there. I have to set my work aside for a while, detach from it, before going back and editing. That is part of the reason why I write longhand. I edit as I am typing the words in. This forces me to pay attention to the words. Even then, it is still work.

Do you have new books planned or outlined in your head?
I have a handful actually. I am currently editing Carrying On, a mystery novel about a single mother who is thrown into the middle of a murder mystery. She is under qualified and her best detective is a career criminal who is constantly getting caught. Meanwhile, another case surfaces that involves two grown men, a pink Cadillac, makeup and drug deals. There is also a very hyper ferret that goes by the name Fred.

Switching from nonfiction to fiction—was it easy/hard/a cinch?
I wrote the nonfiction book like a novel, with characters, plot, conflict, etc. I am told that the book isn’t like other local history books. It is full of pictures, but beneath them are not captions, but the story behind the marinas’ rise from mud pit to a yacht harbor.

Some advice to writers—the best advice you ever got/something you should have done but didn't...
I was much younger when I heard a famous actor say to find your passion, think of the one thing that you think of when you lay down at night and that is on your mind when you get up in the morning. That is your passion. Practice it often and it will become your life’s work.

Tell us something you'd like readers to know about you or your work.
I am not one of the disciplined writers with outlines, plotlines and structure about doing the work. I just write. I create. I sometimes wish that the disciplined, structured way was mine, but what fun would that be?

My thoughts exactly! Want to find out more about Jo and her books? Visit her website Bylines by Jo for more info and book purchase.

Podcasting and Promotion, Part 1 of 2

2010-05-24T03:02:00.000-07:00

Podcasting and Promotion, Part 1 of 2

This is an excellent post/link by Lillian Cauldwell explaining the difference between podcasts and audio interviews, and how to get the very best out of this marketing format. I've had several podcast interviews and although it's initially nerve-wracking, once you're in the hands of a good interviewer, it's a piece of cake! Many people have said how much they enjoy hearing a favorite author speak, and explain things about their work that perhaps have never appeared in print or online. Pick up on these excellent tips!

Generality Is the Death of the Novel

2010-05-23T22:48:00.000-07:00

Generality Is the Death of the Novel

Another great post by K.M. Weiland and one that is particularly pertinent to filling in the blanks in one's novel for the reader, or else making a character jump from flat to full. In this post the writer discusses how tiny, perhaps inconsequential details, make up the portrait of a scene or a character, filling it out and breathing life into those pages. Is it important that your character does certain things, likes a particular kind of biscuit with his tea, or has a penchant for scruffy tracksuits? You might not think so, but perhaps these tiny details add immeasurably to the back story you're trying to feed into the plot. Relook at your characters and get to know them as old friends, with all the quirks you already enjoy and love about your real old friends.

On the other hand, attention to detail can also drag down your plot or slow the action. A good guide line when considering piling on more detail is this: does it add to the plot? Does this figure in my readers' understanding of the story and the characters' motivations? If not, leave it out. I once began a book which I have no doubt would have been interesting, but I could not get past the first few chapters. The author took the reader on a painful journey from the moment the main character opened his eyes, through to the shower, into the kitchen, describing in minute detail how he made a cup of coffee, how long it took him to dress, his decisions on what socks to wear etc. Eventually I had to give up: I was drowning in minutae that had absolutely no bearing on the book. Unless, of course, the main character had obsessive compulsive disorder, but alas I didn't read long enough to find out.

To Blog or Not To Blog

2010-05-20T06:54:00.000-07:00

To Blog or Not To Blog

Having just mastered the art of creating blog posts (actually creating the blog itself is a blog post all on its own) I was intrigued to read Jolene James' post about blogging. Why do we blog? Does it increase book sales? Are we hoping to rack up 2 million plus followers like Ashton Kucher's Twitter site (or is it Demi who has so many?)? I must confess that having slavishly followed all the marketing gurus' commands about getting one's profile out into cyber-space, blogging was my final frontier. I finally took the plunge on January 1 on 2010 (ah, the post I promised about erasing half my computer contents....) and I can't say if I have sold any more books from it. What to write is also a question that has given cannon fodder to many a far more seasoned blogger than I am. One is reluctant to say anything too personal/controversial/critical because, as you know, cyberspace is cruel and limitless and never forgets. Somewhere, out there is a silly comment you made after a night out, or a nasty remark after reading yet another glowing review of a hated rival's book. Oh, isn't it just awful trying to get to the top? Particularly when the statistics on anyone actually reading your solitary little island of a blog diminish as the numbers of blogs/posts climb. Please read Jolene James' forthright and honest appraisal of just why we are led to blog.