August 31, 2013

Book Reviews (IX)

Book Review:  
How to Write a Novel in 90 Days by Conrad Jones

As a published author myself, I was interested to read another fellow author's opinion. I have read a number of How to Write/Publish/Advertise/Market your book guides. How to Write a Novel in 90 Days is another one on a long list.

The main idea here is that you have to be diligent and keep reading and writing. That you have to understand that once you write the words The End on the first draft of your book the task is not over. I agree with the concept that rewriting is a difficult discipline to master. Patience and a great deal of luck are also necessary.

While I agree with many things the author shares with the readers/ budding writers there are others I don't see as being a must. Shakespeare never visited Italy and it was no obstacle to write The Merchant of Venice. So I don't think you should write only from your personal experience. Imagination plays an important part and don't forget there are so many sources of information nowadays. But I absolutely agree with the concept of 'using hooks.' You should never end the chapter without a hook. You should keep the readers interest alive and make them want to keep reading.

Nowadays publishers advise you not to start your book with landscape/ weather descriptions. That's way many present day novels plunge readers in the middle of the action. It has become a sort of requirement, though some readers may find it confusing.

All in all, Conrad Jones's "How to Write a Novel in 90 Days" is an interesting guide and many may find it useful. It deserves Five Stars.


August 28, 2013

Book Reviews (VIII)

Book Review: THE REPROBATE by Dorothy A. Bell

BLURB


 An Oregon Historical Romance
Fiddle playing, hard drinking Royce O’Bannon believes he’s worthless like his old man, no woman should have anything to do with him.

Music teacher Cleantha Arnaud, her virtue long spent, believes her life is over; crippled and barren, no man would want her.

When the two outcasts become lovers, hopes and dreams blossom within their parched souls.

Royce’s vengeful daddy begins a campaign of retaliation against his traitorous sons and the town that gave them a second chance. Now Royce, feeling the weight of responsibility thrust upon him, follows his daddy into the dark tunnels beneath Pendleton’s streets to stop his old man from his path of destruction. With a swift crack on the head, all of Royce’s newly found hopes and dreams could be shattered like candied glass.

MY REVIEW

Laura Creek, a relatively peaceful small Oregon town, is troubled by the attempt to kidnap the sheriff's future bride Wren. With their minds clouded by the booze they ceaselessly binge, the wrongdoers fail. The O'Bannons, whose logo is, 'the O'Bannon men had to live hard and play hard,' are arrested and face trial for their deed.


Kind hearted, the victim, none other than their own cousin, Wren Longtree, offers them a meal and, to Royce and Quinn, an alternative. Hard years in prison or work for her and give up their life of thugs.


The Reprobate is the story of Royce, a self-proclaimed reprobate, a good for nothing young man and a lost cause. And it is the story of Cleantha Arnaud, a wounded bird, beautiful and, fragile. I enjoyed the depiction of Royce's character, his evolution. I won't tell too much as I hate spoilers. But he's human in everything - his bad as well as his good parts.


I also liked how the author, Dorothy Bell, builds up the relationship, the emotional link, between Royce and Cleantha, his goddess - slowly and beautifully - from friends to lovers. Two characters different and yet similar in many ways.


All kind of obstacles are thrown in their path, starting with her father's disapproval of Royce, “What I am trying to say is that Royce O’Bannon is not worth your time. You deserve better...far better. He’s a lone wolf. Don’t be fooled into thinking all he needs is a good woman to change him. A wolf is a wolf."


You can relate to the characters and story in many ways and I think this is an important element in a good story.


The author masterfully combines action, adventure, conflict and sentimentalism. If you are fans of western stories, spiced with the right amount of romance and history, then you will like The Reprobate. I absolutely enjoyed the atmosphere of the rough old West. As I read the description of the town, 'a bank, a mercantile, a telegraphic office and a sheriff's office', images from every Western movies I’ve seen came to life in my mind.


A story worth Five Stars.



August 25, 2013

Book Reviews (VII)

Book Review: One Day in Budapest by J.F. Penn

Blurb
A relic, stolen from the heart of an ancient city.
An echo of nationalist violence not seen since the dark days of the Second World War. 

Budapest, Hungary. When a priest is murdered at the Basilica of St Stephen and the Holy Right relic is stolen, the ultra-nationalist Eröszak party calls for retribution and anti-Semitic violence erupts in the city.
Dr Morgan Sierra, psychologist and ARKANE agent, finds herself trapped inside the synagogue with Zoltan Fischer, a Hungarian Jewish security advisor. As the terrorism escalates, Morgan and Zoltan must race against time to find the Holy Right and expose the conspiracy, before blood is spilled again on the streets of Budapest.

One Day In Budapest is a chilling view of a possible future as Eastern Europe embraces right-wing nationalism. A conspiracy thriller for fans of Daniel Silva, where religion and politics intersect.

The novella features Dr Morgan Sierra from the ARKANE thrillers, but is stand-alone and can be read separately from the ARKANE series.

My Review


As an European citizen myself and, as I can say I lived history - the fall of communism in Europe and that of the Iron Curtain - and as a witness of what is happening right now on the political, social and economic scene in all the former countries of the Warsaw's treaty, I was highly interested in reading  Ms. Penn's novella. It was highly rewarding.  I read it in a go. I thoroughly enjoyed it. A real page turner, fast paced with believable characters, full of twists and turns. The plot interweaves Budapest's past and present in an interesting informative way.

I commend the author for the skilful way of building the suspense and for developing Dr. Morgan Sierra, the main character; a woman who knows how to fight her battles so as to be a winner. She's the type of character I enjoy reading and seeing in action. The only fault in this story - it ended too soon; as always happens with novellas. The story will not disappoint fans of thrillers; it's spiced in a clever way with the right amount of religion, politics and crime, to give an excellent story. It deserves five stars.

August 22, 2013

Book Reviews (VI)

Book Review:
17 SYLLABLES: OF LOVE AND LIFE by Adriana Dascalu

Blurb
This short collection of haiku about love and life contains the most subjective haiku poems I’ve written until now. These are the expression of my feelings and thoughts, as perceived at the respective moment. Some are love declarations, some are life lessons understood after analyzing myself and others at different stages in life. I hope you enjoy reading these pieces of my soul and mind.

Biography
Adriana Dascalu is a Romanian poet published both in the U.S. and Romania. Besides reading classic poetry and all sorts of fiction she also has a deep fascination for mythology and folklore. She loves photography, travels and discovering cultural aspects of different civilizations.

You can find her around the web:

Blog: In Between: http://adrianadascalu.blogspot.com/
E-mail: dascalu.elena.adriana@gmail.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adriana.dascalu.50
Twitter: https://twitter.com/DascaluAdriana


MY REVIEW

17 Syllables: Of Love and Life is a record of  Ms. Dascalu's feelings and emotions. The readers will meet here with forty pieces of Haiku on a variety of subjects, each and every one of them excellent in their way. It can't be denied that women artists have always had a special place in the emergence of art and contributed hugely to almost every literature. Women poets over the centuries have struggled for acceptance as artists. More and more in our present days they make their voices heard. The pure and at the same time fierce complexity of her stanzas shows that, on the subject of romantic love, longing and thoughts on life, women are as eloquent as men, if not more so.



The bitter and the sweet mingle as she writes about love, the transience of love and life and beauty.



A collection of stanzas of wonder, sorrow, longing and hope that speak directly to the heart.  My rating: Five stars. 




August 19, 2013

TALES OF THE ZINGARI: BOOK 1: THE WIZARD'S HEART - Tour Blog



TALES OF THE ZINGARI: BOOK 1: THE WIZARD'S HEART

Tour Stops


August 19: Emraz:The Spark
August 20: From Me to You ... Video, Photography, & Book Reviews

August 21: Book Bling Blog

August 22: Journey of a Bookseller

August 23: Must Read Faster


"The old one will come. When he comes, his one true wife must carry within her a child of the old one who would be king. Only then can the heart be found and the evil of the world kept in its bounds." –The Prophecy of the Land

Sorann is the queen's daughter and training to be an empathic healer. Javert is a member of the wandering tribe called the Zingari and their future king. When Sorann's failed healer's magic test brings them together, they discover the prophecy governing the land is false. In order to prevent magic, and the Zingari, from being wiped from the land, Sorann must become Javert's wife and leave everything behind that she once held dear.

Tricked by demons, and followed by the queen's soldiers, they must find the fabled Wizard's Heart in the frozen Winter Valley.

What sacrifices will they have to make along the way, and will Javert ever discover the true meaning of the Wizard's Heart before his people and the love of his life are lost?

TALES OF THE ZINGARI: BOOK 1: THE WIZARD'S HEART

Standing in the makeshift shower, peace descended in a comfortable blanket. Nighttime birds sang and whistled to each other, a frog croaked bass, and the crickets formed the string section. Conceivably, Cryant lived far enough away from the city for the emotions of those in the city not to carry into his compound, to reduce the overflow from battering at her shell.

Sorann let down her guard, expecting a deluge of energies to cause her to feel dirty again. A dog barked and went silent. The pig grunted in its pen, perhaps upset at having its mud rearranged. But no feelings invaded her. In her palace rooms, a shield stayed in place to protect her from the invasion. Could the same be true of Cryant’s canvas?

Dim moonlight spilled in when she pushed the flap aside. She stepped outside marveling at the emotional vacuum she found herself in. Silly to think Cryant could afford the spell needed to empower a canvas to keep out the extended aura of others.

The sky above her wore a sprinkling of bright stars on an inky background. The cool night air caressed her skin. Goose flesh rose over her entire body. The hard ground under her feet felt warm with leftover heat from the day. The stones she stood on glowed in the faint luminosity of the yard light, wet here and there, the water from the shower ran in twin streams on each side of the stone path.

The clarity of her mind extended beyond her in the absence of others emotions and feelings. The world came to her in clear brightness--a veil of gauze lifted. She ran her hands over her stomach, her own skin felt different. The bumps caused by the cold felt alien and as she ran her hands over them, she could feel the tiny hairs on her skin, a chill shook her. She hadn’t even realized a barrier existed between her own hands and her flesh before.

Animal smells came to her, the scent of the soap was even stronger. Why did everything feel magnified? Perhaps subdued?

A result of the shell she kept in place? She’d lowered the shell before, and it wasn’t like this--not even in her rooms with their encasing spell. She spun around holding her arms out in the moonlight. She caressed her own arms, enjoying the feel of the gooseflesh on them. She laughed at the feel of the mud between her toes. She stepped off the path and took slow steps with her toes spread, so the mud curled as it squished between her toes. More laughter escaped her. Her hands traveled to her breasts, her nipples went hard in the cool breeze--had that ever happened to her before? Perhaps she hadn’t felt it?

Sorann, you dressed?”

With a gasp, Sorann scrambled into Cryant’s robe. It stuck to her wet shoulders; luckily, it was over large for her. With quick movements, she wrapped her hair in the towel.

“Yes,” she called back. “I just need to re-rinse my feet. I . . . I accidently stepped off the path.”

“I’ve got soup on.” Cryant stood holding up the door flap. “Stay on the path.”

She quickly rinsed her feet in a clear puddle that remained on the platform under the barrel--the water mixed with mud creating patterns as it ran off her feet. Still puzzled, but prepared for the onslaught of Cryant’s life,

she moved to the slice of light coming from Cryant’s doorway.

Cryant moved back so she could enter without touching him. Sorann almost tripped over the threshold. Nothing came from Cryant, no feelings, no buzz singing along her nerves in a stinging assault.

The upper wall revealed how the home stayed warm. Inside, plaster coated it, and, going through the door, she saw the wall consisted of two parts with what looked like straw stuffed in between.

The inside of his home held the aroma of potato soup and fresh bread. A slightly musty smell road on the tail of the soup. She rubbed her nose. Things in the room, a small wooden table with two chairs, a handmade broom leaning in the corner, two glow lamps, and a braided rug jumped into clarity. Things in her life were always fuzzy, smells, sizes, shapes, colors--all made so, she assumed, because of her constant battle to keep out the everyday life of others.

Perhaps the hog knocked her unconscious and this was the result? A dream? She pulled Cryant’s robe up around her neck, aware of how low the neckline rested over her breasts. The fabric carried a slight scent--a slight male scent. Cryant’s robe hadn’t been laundered since the last time he wore it.

“Here, sit by the fire,” Cryant told her. He stood near a makeshift clothesline stretched across the room. Using wooden clothes pins he hung her now clean clothes so they would dry.

Sorann carefully sat on the chair nearest the fire. Cryant finished hanging the clothes before he retrieved two wooden bowls from a homemade shelf hanging over a tin washtub. He spooned soup into both of them and set them on the table.

“Thank you,” Sorann managed. Questions tumbled through her mind. Why could she let her guard down in Cryant’s house? Why had she been so overwhelmed at first, but now--now since Cryant touched her in the pig pen--skin to skin, she didn’t need to be on her guard? Was it possible Cryant’s left over aura on his clothes allowed her a measure of control? Maybe Cryant himself?

Cryant picked up a small crate from near the fireplace and brought it to the table. He set the box on the floor in front of Sorann and set the thin towel covering the top aside. Small bird voices started up in a demand for food. Sorann pushed the chair back ready to spring away from the birds. She stopped.

“You saved the birds?”

“Some of them,” Cryant answered.

She peered back into the box. Birds.Young birds. The way they looked--one with a bandaged wing, another laying with its neck outstretched and its sides heaving as it tried to breathe.

“I can’t heal them,” Cryant said. His voice carried a note of sadness.

Slowly, Sorann reached into the box. She touched the gasping bird and almost shrieked when she felt its young body hit the pavement. Instantly, she knew about the bird’s broken bones, its injured ribs--the bird struggled in her grasp. She set him back in the box where he strutted around the other injured birds squawking and chattering at her.

“You healed him,” Cryant blurted. “But . . .”

Sorann reached into the box and one at a time she picked up the hurt birds. When she set them down they strutted about whole and healed. Cryant leapt to his feet and brought out a small cat from behind a curtain hanging around his bed.

He held the tiny black cat out to her. Sorann took the kitten in her hands and saw from the cat’s point of view the cart coming towards it and felt a flash of pain as the cart ran over the kitten’s leg and hip--her body didn’t feel as though she’d been run over. The cat’s feelings didn’t overcome her. She used her hands to completely surround the cat and in moments it struggled to be free. She let him go, and he ran to the box of birds and began batting at them. Cryant picked the kitten up.

“Out you go, but not in the street this time,” he said. He shut the crooked door over the curtain after he scooted the cat outside. “What they say about you, it isn’t true.”

Sorann looked up into his blue eyes. Lines creased his forehead, his thin face betrayed his puzzlement. She’d never noticed the shadow of stubble on his face before, or the tiny scratches, perhaps inflicted by an injured animal, like the kitten.

“It is true. I can’t heal. I get caught up in the emotions and can’t even diagnose what’s wrong because I feel as if all the things are happening to me. I don’t understand this at all. With animals, you aren’t supposed to receive the clarity to diagnose and heal the way you attain it with a person, but I didn’t expect to simply hold them and poof they are back to normal.” Her stomach rumbled, and she felt as if she’d eaten her last meal weeks ago.

“Eat, eat,” Cryant said and shoved both bowls of soup toward her.

She picked up the slightly bent spoon and touched a small bite to her tongue. Flavors exploded across her mouth, rich deep flavors of spices and onions she’d never experienced before. Spoonful after spoonful, each one a new adventure in taste and satisfaction until she cleaned both bowls of soup without a thought.
“Do you think the stories, you know from the Lost Lands, the ones about The Dark Towers are true?” He spooned more soup into the bowls.

Sorann glanced up at him and continued to shove food into her mouth. Her stomach kept begging for more with rumbles and demands she couldn’t ignore.

“I mean, the orange cat, outside, the one with three legs, sometimes, it almost feels like she is trying to talk to me.”

“The stories about those dark wizards turning their enemies into animals?”

Cryant nodded.

Sorann chewed more food. She let out a small laugh. “I don’t think there is enough magic left in the world, dark or otherwise to turn people or animals into something else.”

“But isn’t that what we do with our gift?” He sat back and spread his hands on the table in front of him. He snapped his fingers shut. “Isn’t what we do magic of a sort? We take broken bones and turn them into whole bones, something other than what they were.”

Sorann stared at him a moment before she spooned more soup into her mouth. Around the food, she said, “Broken bone that was once whole bone, not something entirely different. Take the cat, where would all the difference in mass go?”


“Still, I think I would like a cat who could talk to me and could understand what I say.”
“I had a cat once, when I was small, I used to think she understood what I said. I think they do on many levels, if I can feel what they have eaten and their enjoyment, then . . .” Sorann shrugged. She looked up at Cryant after her spoon scraped the bottom of the wooden bowl.

“I’m sorry. You lied when you said you weren’t a good cook. I’ve never tasted anything, well, anything so full of flavors. I didn’t mean to eat all of it,” she added with a glance at the empty pot.
“Never mind. I have more friends in need, will you . . .?”

Sorann laughed, energy jumped along her nerves--she could heal. A miracle had happened this night--the speck of dust that sparkled with light--a wish fairy, if any still lived with the bounty on most things magic? Sorann laughed again, whatever had happened, she could heal. “Yes, yes, I will.”






August 18, 2013

Book Reviews (V)

Book Review:
Follow the White Pebbles by Lillian Summers

 
Book Description:   

Lizzie Wilburn is a riot. She is loud-mouthed, strong-minded and tough, as eighteen years surviving in the scum of Southside Jamaica’s ghettos have taught her. She is also outrageously wealthy. But the latter is news to her, as she wakes up on a hospital bed after a hit and run accident. Incidentally, she gets stuck with a pair of filthy-rich, infuriatingly haughty parents. To make things even worse, they force their ‘lowlife’ daughter to marry the son of another business magnate.

Lizzie’s new husband, Justin Winters, is handsome and as tempting as the most wicked of sins, but a serial womanizer whose only interest in his wife is limited to her business empire. Bound by a pre-nuptial agreement to remain faithful to his spouse, Justin tries every possible trick to go back to his playboy lifestyle. Lizzie, in turn, wants him badly, if only she could get him to even spare her a glance, let alone to come anywhere near her. Will any of them succeed in their quest?


MY REVIEW

A fast page turner that kept me glued to the pages. A touching story that runs on high octane fuel.

Lillian Summer's story is the kind of book you want to have with you when the blizzard howls outside, or the rain beats obstinately on your window sill. A book that gives you a warm, comforting feeling.

Arthur and Madeline Wilburn can't stop wondering what happened to their beloved daughter, Elisabeth, kidnapped eighteen years ago, when she was only one week old.  The unexpected news she was found turns their world upside down, as the young woman they welcome back is far from what they have ever imagined. I won't go into any further details because I really do hate spoilers. There are some amazing parts of this story that are worth reading, quoting and enjoying. I really liked the main characters as well. Lizz is the kind of person that is quirky enough for you to not get bored with and innocent and likable enough that you want to see her succeed.

I fell in love with Elisabeth and was enthralled by her fate. This modern Cinderella's destiny will win you to her side. I would have kicked Justin from here to the moon. And Madeleine, Lizz's mother, is the perfect embodiment of what a mother should be - caring, loving, and ready for the final sacrifice for her child's well being.

Mrs. Summer created a brilliant story in which she proves that, not only can she create excellent characters, but she can also lead them along a very well written and original story.
Follow the White Pebbles is emotionally charged and I felt every single moment. I wholeheartedly recommend this novel and I look forward to reading more works from this author. In my opinion it is a great story, worth sharing worldwide. I would have given it more than five stars but it's not possible. So, five stars!




August 15, 2013

Book Reviews (IV)

Book Review: Written All Over Her by Mia Darien


           Book description:

         One word can change the story of your life forever.

          Abduction. Torture. Surrender.

          Eleven months from her adolescence have framed thirty-one years of Detective Nykk Marlowe’s life. Despite the trauma of her past, and the unique physical scars it left her with, she’s built a career as a detective for the Adelheid Police Department.

Her personal life might only consist of caring for her sister and a pet rabbit, but she accepts that.

She accepts that she’ll never be able to be like “normal” people, even the supernatural ones. As long as she can keep the past where it belongs, she’s okay.

But when the body of a teenage girl shows up with the same scars that Nykk sees in the mirror every day, her “okay” life gets turned upside down and she’s forced to confront the past she’s been looking away from for sixteen years.

And when it turns out there’s already more than one victim, the pressure’s on to stop the killer before any more girls are tortured, mutilated, and murdered.



My Review

"Written All Over Her" captivated me from the first pages. A thoroughly enjoyable story by Mia Darien. Interesting characters and plot twists; this one packs a lot into a relatively short read.

I have always enjoyed detective stories and Mia Darien's novel is a classy one. Nykk Marlowe and Vance Johnson, her partner, and a shifter too, are confronted with a serial killer. Nykk's life plate is full: not only that she has to deal with her personal problems - she takes care of  her younger sister Ann, who has Down Syndrome and also has to get over her nightmarish past when she was brutalized and nearly killed - but she also has to deal with a murderer who, she suspects, is the one responsible for her scarred face and soul.

A real page turner that keeps you wondering and guessing up to the end.

The flashes, back and forth, help you better understand the character's motivation and determination in her action.

The characters are well-developed, each of whom brings his own expertise to this search for the perpetrator. I commend Mia Darien for her vivid and fluid narrative. There's no shortage of page-turning drama that kept me perfectly engaged.

If it's thrills that you seek, "Written All Over Her" will not disappoint you. It deserves five stars.




August 13, 2013

Book Release - SHATTERED by Patrick Royal

Horror Author Patrick Royal








     The only thing that multi-published, award winning horror author, Tom Elliot, wanted was to move to the country for a change of scenery and relaxation, to a quiet part of southern Illinois. It seemed he'd picked out a wonderful spot, miles away from the closest neighbor and even further away from civilization.

     Tom couldn't write to save his soul. Weird thoughts trampled through his head and left him wondering if he'd made a mistake moving from Chicago. Could it have been that he ripped himself from his element, like his best friend, Michael Gully, had predicted? That he couldn't answer yet.

Words came and flowed like wildfire, but at what price? Tom's imagination was getting the best of him and running rampant. The very characters that he created tormented him, driving him mad where he couldn't distinguish fiction from reality.



Genre: Horror
Book Length: Novel
Word Count: 53, 387
Pages: 181
Price: $4.99
Formats: PDF, ePub, Mobi, HTML




WILD CHILD PUBLISHING 




August 12, 2013

Thoughts for a friend

To a dear FRIEND
            Ionia

Why do we have to be quietly brave,
Like Vergilius’ heroes,
be submissive to fate ?
Better like Homer’s.
Take a stand to what comes
challenge the gods’ will,
and never lose chance.
 
 

August 11, 2013

Book Reviews (III)

Book Review: BORN IN SIN by Camelia Miron Skiba


BLURB:


Loathing the thought of his beloved Oriana in the arms of another man, fearless Zyraxes delivers death upon the Roman enemy. With only the rugged land as his bed and the sky as his blanket, trouble finds him often.

Summoned to aid Oriana’s father in the war against two powerful enemies—one of them Oriana’s savage husband—Zyraxes proves himself worthy of more than just noble titles and coin. But he wants none of it. What he wants is her.

When Zyraxes discovers a broken and nearly dead Oriana, though forbidden, he disregards her father’s orders to leave her to her death, and instead chooses to protect and conceal her. Will saving her be enough to win her heart? Will his part royal lineage make him worthy of her love?

MY REVIEW       

I read first Born in Vengeance and was anxious to see what happened next. I liked the historical part quite a lot.  As a native of Ilias's and Zyraxes's country I was able to see in my mind's eye the places the characters traveled around.  Though you'll meet again Ilias, the main character in Born in Vengeance, Born in Sin focuses on Zyraxes's feelings.


The first pages begin with the aftermath of a huge battle that has just ended - blood and death.


The characters are interesting and unique, and I commend the masterful way Camelia Skiba describes how they get to be where they are and makes their connections throughout a very well written story and original design.

The author kept my interest by telling the story from Zyraxes's POV, at the same time introducing me to the ancient times of the action by means of meticulous details. Zyraxes tries to reconcile duty and love. How he manages it, if he succeeds or not, you'll have to find it for yourself. All I can tell you is that the love story in Born in Sin is an intricate one. I highly recommend this extremely engaging book to fans of historical fiction. They won't be disappointed. I give it five stars! 

August 10, 2013

Guest blog with Leti Del Mar

One of my fellow authors and friends, Leti Del Mar, just brings to everyone's attention an interesting and useful book. I highly recommend it to those of you that wish to start on the adventurous path of self-publishing.
             Carmen


How to Self-Publish: A Do-It-YourselfApproach

Well folks... Here is my big announcement.  
Last Spring, I introduced a new feature to my blog called, "How to Self-Publish". For 12 weeks I released a new step and since its completion, it has continued to be tremendously successful and popular.  So I have decided to expand that tutorial into a new book called, How to Self-Publish: A Do-It-Yourself Approach!
This book is for anyone who has ever considered publishing their own work but has either thought the process seemed too complicated or too expensive.  My newest book will hold your hand as it guides your manuscript from your word processor to a formatted e-book and paperback.  It will show you how to launch and market your book, get reviews, and use social media to establish an author platform.  I promise to show you how this can all be accomplished for less than you would spend on a week's worth of lattes!
My Do-It-Yourself Approach is full of useful advice and practical tips any author new to the world of self-publishing can easily implement.  If you thought the information on the "How To Self-Publish" tab of my blog is helpful, well hold on to your seats.  This book expands each and every one of the steps I have previously outlined and includes lots of new information geared to help you turn that beloved manuscript into a book for sale with all the major online retailers.  I have also included a comprehensive resource section at the end.
The best news?  I am not alone in this endeavor.  I have teamed up with 6 other authors who represent a wide variety of writers including; Craig Hurren, Victoria Sawyer, Carmen Stefanescu, Clancy Tucker, Melissa Wray and Lee Zamloch.  They have each contributed their insight on topics like the importance of research, coping with bad reviews, creating a brand, utilizing feedback and much more!
I am so excited to announce that this new book will be available early September (I'm thinking September 3rd) and at the very low price of 99 cents!  So if you have ever even considered putting your beloved manuscript into the hands or readers, be sure to pick up a copy this September!