Sunday, November 27, 2011

Getting A Great Book Review - Part Six

And we come to the end of my book reviewing sites list.  I hope these have been helpful in your search for quality reviews that can help your works soar.  I'm working through the lists right now myself.  Wish me luck. :)


If you missed parts 1 - 5, you can find them here:


And last, but possibly holding a gem...


All romance and sub-genres except horror.

Adult Fiction, Romance, Paranormal Romance, Historical Romance, Erotica, Young Adult, Fantasy, Humorous

Mystery, thriller, suspense, crime, memoirs

All

Fantasy, romance, YA, Gothic, supernatural, classic, historical fiction, sci-fi, PNR, steampunk, and some biographies

All

Romance

All including Para Romance, Para Fantasy, Y/A Para Y/A, Thriller, Para Thriller. No erotica, poetry, epics

All, rock and roll fiction

All

Various genres



Best of luck!  Let me know which works best for you.



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Friday, November 18, 2011

Character Celebration - Book Two To Be Released



Thumping his hands on his desk, Cole pushes his master’s chair back and jumps to his feet.  It rams into the wall and James looks up from his book.
Cole:  Break out the drinks.  We’re celebrating.  *heads for the door*
James: What?
Cole:  *sends a telepathic message to everyone*  In the parlor. Now!
Rushed footsteps pound from the floors above.  The twins dart from the kitchen.  Birdsong fills the receiving hall as a sparrow dives past them and into the family room.  Dressen lets himself in the front door, followed by several reporters.
Vincent:  *eyes Dressen then leans on the hearth*  What’s going on?
Cole:  This isn’t just a family counsel.
James:  *smiles, dimpling his cheeks*  Is this what I think it is? *pours Ambrosia.  Linda and Elaina pass them out.*
Cole:  *Leans back into the sofa, pulling Mianna with him*  I’ll let Charlene do the honors.
Reporters poise their cameras at the door and wait.  Mandy and Mechenzie squeal and wiggle into a chair.  The doorknob turns and twitters pierce the air.  Dressen cocks a grin, glancing at his little friend.  Charlene enters.
Charlene:  Wow.  That was fast.  Is everybody here?
Cole:  I believe so.  *big smile*
Charlene:  Kyle, you even brought the press?
Dressen:  Most certainly.
Charlene:  *clears throat. Pats hair.*  Um…  I’m not a public speaker.
Dressen:  Allow me…
Cole:  Wait!  *tries to jump up and Mianna shifts to allow him to his feet*  If anyone’s going to announce this it’s going to be me.
Dressen:  This is my story as much as yours, Cole Shilo.
Vincent:  What?  Wait.  Charlene, is this about what I think it is?
Mianna: *jumps up*  It’s about book two, isn’t  it!  Our story is getting published!  That’s it isn’t it?  *twirls and the twins giggle and join her*
James laughs and pulls Linda into a hug.  Vincent jabs his fists toward the ceiling and sparks fly.  Elaina throws her arms around his neck.  The bird launches into wild flutters around the room.
Dressen: *looks at Cole*  To be released on February 15, 2012.  *folds him arms, a satisfied grin on his lips*
Cole: *scowls but can’t stop the smile that follows*
Cameras flash.
Charlene:  *looks around and her heart dances at the sight of her character’s joy*
A tap sounds at the door and Ray enters.  He ups his brows and leans to Charlene.
Ray:  Am I late?
Charlene:  Let’s let them have some fun before I tell them you’re here for book three.  I have a feeling there are going to be some very mixed emotions when they find out.
Ray:  *folds his muscular arms and looks at James*  Well, I know of at least one that won’t be too happy.
Charlene:  Give it time, Ray.  Give it time.

Six Elements of Digital Marketing Success for Authors

I keep my eye out for ideas and advice on how to better promote and market my work, and when I come across something I think you might find helpful, I want to share.  This article was sent with a newsletter I get.  It names six things that will help your marketing platform grow. 


The Six Elements of Digital Marketing Success for Authors
by Fauzia Burke, FSB Associates

There are six essential elements for successful digital marketing and when used together they make for a powerful combination. Each element is important on its own, but when you use all six together you will see a strategy that is effective, scalable and long term.
1)    Website -- A professional website is the single most important step towards your digital marketing plan. Your website is your home base, so make sure it is updated regularly and is current. Use your site as a platform for all other activities. Post your blog and photos along with links to your social networks. Always remember your audience when developing content. If a person cares enough to come to your site, you need to make sure their trip was worth the effort.
2)    E-Newsletter -- email is still the most powerful digital tool. Every single author should have an e-newsletter. You should collect as many email addresses of your readers as you can. Overtime email addresses of your readers will be a huge asset. You can communicate with your readers through a regular e-newsletter sent either once a month or once every 3 months. Just keep those lines of communication open.
3)    Blog -- A blog is the best way to share your expertise and drive traffic to your site. Use your blog on your own website along with posting it on an important high-traffic website as a guest post. Everyone needs content, and it never hurts to ask a popular blog if they want to run your blog post. Blogs don't have to be long, 500-700 words tend to be the most popular lengths.
4)    Facebook -- Every author should have a Facebook fan page so they can socialize and communicate with their readers. It's an important element of digital marketing and honestly at 520 million people, you can't afford to ignore it. Along with being a great place to build community, Facebook fan pages also offer Insights a great tool for monitoring your audience and your interactions.
5)    Video -- There is no better or easier way to show your passion and personality than video. It can be fun content for your Facebook fan page, your blog, and your website. Remember to post it on YouTube as well.
6)    Twitter -- I know Twitter intimidates many authors, but it's a fabulous way to share resources and develop a following. I find Twitter to be an incredible tool for listening and doing market research. You can listen to your readers, find out what other people are doing and saying, and build a relationship with current and future readers.
If you choose not to participate in digital marketing and social media, you are only hurting yourself and your readers. There are millions of people on social networks; they don't miss you, but you are missing out if you ignore them.
Digital marketing is a wonderful way to connect with people who care about your work. Just remember that all six elements of digital marketing working together will produce the best results. There are no short cuts here, but it is all well worth the investment of time and attention.
Fauzia Burke is the Founder and President of FSB Associates, a publicity and social media firm specializing in creating awareness for books and authors on the web. For web publicity and social media news, follow Fauzia on a new Twitter feed: @FauzisBurke


In my own arena, I can see I need to make some changes.  For one, my blog is here on Blogger...  Not with my author site on Wordpress. *cringe* I do have links directly to my site here on my blog sidebar... but the layout it obviously different.  What do you guys think?

Second, I don't have a newsletter.  I've been shy and putting that one off.  I'm still getting over my insecurity of be "pushy" with myself.  But, I see it's something I need to overcome.

Third, while I do have a book trailer for Cornerstone Deep and am working on one for Cornerstone Deep Echoes, I sure haven't introduced myself on video.  Wow.  That's one I'll really have to build up to.  Lol.  I'll have to think hard on that.


What you think?  Do you use these?  How do they work for you?  Any takers?


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Sunday, November 13, 2011

Getting A Great Book Review - Part Four

We're at it again this weekend with another 20 reviewers' sites to add to your list.  If you missed the first three parts, you can find them here:








On with the reviewers' showcase...






Science fiction, horror, fantasy, and thrillers – though we will consider all types of fiction.

Dark Faerie Tales

All Genre excluding Christian, Self Help

Romance

Fantasy, Self-Help, New Age, Magical Realism

Mystery, suspense, horror, paranormal, non-fiction and general fiction. WILL NOT review unsolicited sci-fi, erotica, fantasy or romance.

Erotic Romance Reviews

All except romances, Westerns, and erotica.

All

All

All

All

All

Horror and Romance

All, except religious.

All young adult or teen.

All Young Adult

Romance, Urban fantasy, dark fantasy, paranormal romance

All

All


Keep that file open for next week when, yes, another 20 will up for grabs!

Good luck!


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Friday, November 11, 2011

Special Guest Jacqueline Paige

Jacqueline Paige is stopping by Charlene Blogs as part of her virtual book tour!  She has two books that recently released and she agreed to share both of them with us.  

Jacqueline is a fellow Class Act Books author and in addition to being a multi-published author (and she has several more set to release next year), she manages a busy restaurant and five, yes five, children. 


Welcome, Jacqueline.  When did you discover you wanted to be a writer?  Do you remember the first story you wrote?

I think I’ve always been a writer; I just didn’t share it with anyone.  The first published full length story I wrote was Beltane Magic. What started as a joke to one of my friends turned into a 70,000 word story and the start of a five story series.

What genres do you enjoy writing most?

I always write somewhere in the paranormal genre, whether it’s romance or romantic suspense or fantasy.

Where do you get your ideas for the stories you write?

I wished I had a system for this, but I don’t.  Most of my best ideas show up when I’m trying to sleep.  My muse picks this time I think because I’m relaxed and can’t ignore her.

What is your normal writing schedule like?  Do you prefer pen and paper or computer and keyboard?

Schedule … there’s a word I don’t know.  With my crazy life, scheduling in writing is not something that ever happens.  Between my job and kids – nothing is written in stone.

I write on the computer mostly – but for a change or if a scene isn’t working out I will go back to the old pen and paper way. Then again if a story is flowing really well I’ve been known to jot ideas down on anything available, from the back of receipts to a flyer stuck on my windshield.

If you could choose one character to join your family for a holiday, who would it be and why?

Oh my, that’s a hard one.  Hmm… I’m going to pick from my own characters, because if it’s any character from any book – well I’d need a bigger house because there are just too many.   In all of my own, I think it would have to be my pirate ghost from Salvation, I had so much fun figuring him out that I would really like to see him. That and I have questions about his time period I’d like answers to.

Then again, Whiskers from Twice Cursed would be great to see – but we’d have to hide our dog I think…

Your  books have several short stories in them.  Tell us why you chose to collect them this way?

Dreams actually started out as a Christmas themed novella titled In Our Dream.  After it came out, the characters nagged at me to continue, so From A Dream became a Valentine’s day themed novella.  I thought it would stop there, but I was wrong.  A few other characters from these two stories demanded I write their story – so After the Dream became the third novella.  Then I had a short complete series and decided why not put them all together in one book.

Curses was a little different.  I had two stories about curses, Behind the Mask and This Ring – so I put them together and made a book.

I often don’t have time to read an entire novel so I pick up anthologies where I can read one or more of the stories as time allows.  With that in mind I wanted to give the readers some good stories but not ones that would take them days to read.

Would you tell us about them?

I can do better than that, I have a few short excerpts to share.  

Here’s a favorite scene from the first story in Dreams:

In Our Dream:  of where Jennah realizes that the man she talks to in her dreams is actually a real man that can somehow get inside her head!

The nerve of that man!  Why won’t he just accept things and go away?  She paced back and forth, trying to control the frustration that was pumping through her.  Every time she saw him, every hurt moment came flooding back to her and she just wanted him gone.  She wanted to move on and live her own life and try her damndest to be happy!

“Jennah?”

She spun around, expecting someone to be behind her. There was no one there.  Was that Dominic’s voice?  Oh no, she was hallucinating now!  Should she call her doctor?  Maybe the stress had finally caught up to her.  Was she going to end up spending her holidays alone in the psych ward?

“Jennah, why are you so upset?”

She squeezed her eyes shut.  I am not hearing voices! I am not losing my mind!

She heard his deep chuckle.  “No, you’re not losing your mind.  This is really happening.  I should have told you, but in our dream...it’s not really a dream. We’re connecting.”

Her eyes flew open.  What?  “What?”  She stood perfectly still, waiting to see if she could hear him again.

“I can explain it better later. I just picked up on how upset you were...”

She squinted.  “Picked up?  How?  How are you inside my head when I’m completely awake? How can we talk inside my head?”

She heard him chuckle again.  “Inside mine, as well.  I don’t have time right now. Are you all right?”

She laughed out loud, not knowing if he would hear it in her head too. “Clearly not!  I’m talking to a man from my dream inside my head while I’m wide awake standing in the locker room at work!”

“Jennah...”

And here is one from the second story in Curses.

This Ring:  Bryce is trying to figure out why Emma can see him when no one been able to for forty years.

All in all it had been a long tedious road to this point with no turns what so ever—until this morning when she had looked right at him with both disbelief and dismay on her face.  It may not have been a positive cosmic vibe but it was a hell of a lot more than he’d had in all the years he had been waiting and wandering.

Before he was filled with that woe feeling that plagued him daily, after all spending an eternity with no one but yourself got to you after a few years, he turned back to study her.  This hadn’t been a huge past time of his, most of the time when there were people around he wandered the other way.  After all they represented the one thing he wasn’t – there.  With her though it was different, she was somehow different than all the others.  What was it about her?

There wasn’t anything in particular that stood out about her.  She seemed to be an average height and build.  He pinned her age somewhere close to thirty that much about women hadn’t changed that he couldn’t guess an age range and be pretty close to right.  Her hair was a mousy brown, for lack of a better way to describe it, and she had it all chopped up like scissors had randomly been placed wherever and cut—he liked it, it was original.  Of course he didn’t know what the current in thing was, so it may not be all that original.  He wasn’t close enough to see her eyes, but thinking about when they were huge and staring in his direction, he was fairly certain they were brown.  So she was very much average across the scales—but what was it about her that just kept him sitting here on this rock, not that he felt his body against it, watching her.

There were choices here, at least a few.  He could sit here and continue doing what he was doing until night came, bringing morning closer.  That would get a few bits past boring if she went back inside again and didn’t return.  The second option was to go wander around the lake and pass the time with more speed than he was doing now.  Grinning, he shook his head—because making time go faster had worked out so well for him in the last decade, or two.


If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?

Keep writing!  Regardless of what you’re writing just keep going – at some point you will write that one piece that you have to share.

Thanks for being with me today on Charlene Blogs, Jacqueline!

Thanks for having me here!!



You can get your own copy of Dreams at Amazon. 

And you can find Jacqueline here:

Monday, November 7, 2011

Cornerstone Deep Echoes To Be Released Feb 2012!

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This happened a few days ago and my mind has been in a whirl since!  Cornerstone Deep Echoes has been accepted for publication and will be released February 15, 2012!  Woot! 

The characters are celebrating.  James immediately broke out the Ambrosia and Linda passed around the glasses.  Elaina headed to the kitchen to make my favorite muffins and Vincent is out back shooting rockets of blue neon with spangles into the sky from his fingers.  Mianna is twirling with the twins, Mandy and Mechenzie, and Cole pulled me into a dance to the song of Meridian.  Dressen is calling a press conference.  This party will be posted on the ShiloManor.com blog soon so they can express themselves to everyone. *wink*

I’m working on setting up the blog tour for February.  I’m happy to note that I already have 14 dates filled of the 21 I’m planning.  Weekends will be left open unless a host requires a Sat. or Sun.  If anyone’s interested in hosting a day during the tour, drop me a note.  I’d love to take a guest spot or participate in an interview.  There will be giveaways and special prizes as all of this surrounds Valentines Day…and my birthday!  It’s going to be a month long celebration!

Cornerstone Deep Echoes is the second book in my Chronicles of Shilo Manor series.  It takes off the day after Cornerstone Deep ends.  Here’s a little about it…


Quote
“Every breath you take is a song to my soul.”

Blurb
Mianna’s return heals Cole’s soul and he promises to follow her for the rest of his existence.  But the past isn’t what he believes.  The fight for her has only begun. 
Lord Dressen’s obsession grows as unexpected knowledge is revealed.  His search for Mianna spanned six life times and he won’t give up now.  The courts stand behind him.  Power pulses through his veins.  Determination peeks and not even Cole Shilo can stop him.  He will win his prize. 
Struggling to stay ahead, Cole’s anger explodes.  Nothing is sacred when it comes to keeping his love—not even covenants made with gods.  The desire to end a life consumes him.  Through all his efforts, lofty or damned, the truth remains.  Will echoes of another life cause him to fail?
Opening paragraph 
Exhaustion racked Cole’s body.  He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath to cleanse his lungs.  Pressing his palms to his brow, his head sank deeper into the pillow.  The harm he’d caused Anna pulsed through his fatigued mind in fits of memory—distorted flashes that reminded him of the deceit, broken covenants, and ethereal anger.  Did his actions really cost her soul six life times? 

To check out book one click on the flipping book on my side bar.  You can read the first 18 pages of Cornerstone Deep! 

I’ll be setting up an order form on my author and series sites for pre-orders.  Those who pre-order will receive a free PDF of Cornerstone Deep to read until Cornerstone Deep Echoes arrives.  The paperbacks will be signed and personalized according to your order. 

I can’t wait! 




Sunday, November 6, 2011

Getting A Great Book Review - Part Three

Here we continue with part three of Getting A Great Book Review.  I hope you were able to find some great contacts as you check out these reviewers.  If you missed the first two posts, you can find them here:


Now, for the next 20...






A Book A Day
Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Romance, Mystery

A Book Vacation
All Genre-NO Erotica, Extreme Religious Material, Extreme Horror, Textbooks, or Self-help

A Soul Unsung
Mainly Fantasy but also young adult, sci-fi, contemporary young adult, steampunk, paranormal romace, dystopia, horror, urban fantasy. NO Erotica.

Adarna SF
Science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative fiction

All Things Books
All

All Things Urban Fantasy

All

Bitten By Books

All

All

Horror, crime, noir, suspense, mystery, and thrillers

Paranormal romance, fantasy or historical fiction. Check guidelines.

Fantasy and Steampunk

Romance, YA, Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction No political or religious books, will accept certain non-fiction titles.

All, esp Young Adult. No erotica

All

All

Horror, Mystery, paranormal, YA, thrillers, fantasy, crime, detective. No erotica, prefer e-books

All

Fantasy, speculative fiction

All, except novels with overly religious tone, no erotica or adult novels.


Let me know if any of them work for you.  And if you have any of your own to add. : )



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