The Bridge Club by Patricia Sands - Guest Post & Kindle Fire Giveaway

The Bridge Club
by Patricia Sands

For more than forty years, the mantra of the eight women in the Bridge Club has been one for all and all for one. Beginning their monthly soiree in the psychedelic Sixties, unpredicted twists of fate weave through the good times and strong friendship they share as the years pass. The constant from one decade to the next is loyal and nonjudgmental support, even when agreeing to disagree is the final solution. From the exhilarating cultural changes of their early times together through the zoomer years, their connection never falters.

As they celebrate turning sixty (give or take a year) at a group birthday weekend, each woman recalls a challenging time in her life when the Bridge Club came to the rescue.After tossing around ideas mixed with a generous helping of common sense and a large dose of laughter they decide to refer to that time as their SOS. Eight chapters document each one's story.

Everything is put into perspective and the strength of their friendship is truly tested when one of these women faces a life-altering decision. Her choice profoundly affects all members of the group, pushing the limits of their beliefs and values. The unique alliance they share is confronted with a crisis none of them might have imagined.

Add on Goodreads, and buy on Amazon. 

Many Authors See Marketing as a Bind. What Are Your Thoughts?
Guest Post by Patricia Sands

To market, to market, to buy a fat pig.

Home again, home again, jiggity-jig!

For some bizarre reason, often when I get into a discussion about book marketing with someone, that childhood rhyme runs through my mind. I really don’t think it has anything to do with the subject and I’m not even sure why I shared that with you now. Never mind!

I think becoming aware of book marketing demands is one of the biggest shocks to a newly published author. We tend to think that once our book is written and out there, our work is over. Not so! In fact, the hard labour has only just begun.

This particularly rings true for independently published (indie) authors although many writers published through traditional avenues also are finding they are responsible for assisting in marketing more than ever. This is one reason why some traditionally published authors are now taking matters into their own hands and “going indie”. If they have to do all the other promotional work, they might as well reap the benefits of higher royalties and be in complete command of all decisions, without a publisher.

My experience with marketing The Bridge Club has involved an enormous learning curve. As a newcomer to the publishing world there was, and still is, much for me to learn. The biggest bonus for me has been meeting a group of amazing writers through an online blogging course. We bonded in a remarkable way and have continued through the past year to share experiences and strategies. Thirty heads working together are far better than one!

The best advice I can offer is to look at the online writing community and find a group that sounds like a good fit for you. I cannot stress enough how supportive, talented and helpful you will find most of the people involved in the world of writing.

The basic starting point is to join Goodreads, Facebook, and Twitter and also establish a blog and website. Most writers today offer their work as an e-book as well as in print and there are many excellent sites on which to promote your work. Listing your e-book on Amazon Kindle Direct is a must.

Shameless self-promotion seems to be a necessary part of a writer’s personality with business cards and promotional postcards or bookmarks showing your published information an absolute must in your purse, pocket or computer bag. Hand them out at every opportunity and don’t be shy!

Blog tours and promotional programs such as this fabulous Orangeberry Summer Splash are wonderful ways to spread the word about your work. They also offer great opportunities to meet and connect with other writers and that brings us full circle to my suggestion that this kind of networking is of immense value. 

I would be happy to share other websites and links that I have found to be helpful in developing marketing opportunities. Please feel free to contact me through any of my links shared through the Summer Splash. Writers helping writers is what it’s all about!

About the author:
Patricia Sands lives in Toronto, Canada and has degrees from the University of Waterloo and York University. With a happily blended family of seven adult children and, at last count, six grandchildren, life is full and time is short. Beginning with her first Kodak Brownie camera at the age of six, she has told stories all of her life through photography. Much to her surprise a few years ago, she began to write and her debut novel The Bridge Club has just been published through iUniverse. Currently at work on her second novel, Patricia admits the writing muse has possessed her and looks forward to a long and satisfying career as an author. She is particularly drawn to the rewarding friendships of women and the challenges many embrace once their families are grown. "It's never too late to begin something new," she enthuses. "As the saying goes, just do it!" 
  
Find out more at PatriciaSandsAuthor.com. 

Click here to find out more about the giveaway and the sponsors.

GIVEAWAY!

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Join Kimberly Kinrade & Zoe Winters in a Huge Giveaway for a Kindle Fire and Signed Books!

Summer is heating up, and we're making it even hotter with a sizzling summer promotion you won't want to miss.

Win a Kindle Fire and six signed paperback books from authors Zoe Winters and Kimberly Kinrade and get ready to enjoy some sexy hot reads while having fun in the sun.

From August 5-18^th, Winters and Kinrade are giving away two sets of each of their paranormal romance series (all signed) to two lucky winners. The Grand Prize winner will also receive a Gift Certificate for Amazon.com to cover the cost of a Kindle Fire. (But we won't tell if you just want to buy $200 worth of books instead!)

Join us in celebrating the launch of the newest in Zoe Winters' Preternatural Series, Life Cycle (how much do we love love love Tamara and Cain? So freaking much!) which now includes one novella compilation and three novels. If hot & steamy paranormal romance is your thing, then you'll fall in love with all the hunks in this series, whether they be demons, vampires, werewolves or mages… they're all so deliciously bad they're good!

Life Cycle is book 4 in the Preternaturals series. However, new readers can read this installment first with no problems. Most of the books work as stand alones, and each book focuses on a different couple. The main theme of the Preternaturals is: “Everybody is the hero of their own story.” Some characters start out villains and become heroes. Some are heroes and turn into villains. Some are heroes to some characters and villains to others.

The series world has multiple dimensions, heaven, hell (which is earth), demon dimensions, and others. Magic, reincarnation, witches, vampires, demons, werecreatures of all sorts (called therians), gods, and angels all play an important role in the Pretverse.

It’s a world where blood is magic, authority is questioned, and soul mates always find each other, no matter how many incarnations it takes.

The Preternaturals contains a blend of snarky humor and angst that fans of the series have come to expect and enjoy.

As an extra bonus for this exciting launch, get signed copies of Kimberly Kinrade's award winning Forbidden Series—a YA paranormal romance/thriller.

"...a thrilling, dark and deeply romantic read that had me sitting on the edge of my seat and eagerly awaiting the next installment." - Refracted Light Young Adult Book Reviews

While light on sex (it is Young Adult after all) it's packed full of romance and a fast-paced thrilling adventure. Think X-Men meets Dollhouse if Professor X has been an evil human trafficking geneticist.

Paranormal teens with unimaginable powers. An evil organization with deep secrets. When Sam, a girl who reads minds, meets a boy who controls minds, she discovers her future isn’t what she thought.

Together they must escape and free the others… or risk losing everything–and everyone–they love.

Learn more about Zoe Winters's Preternatural Series here:

http://zoewintersbooks.com/books/

Book 1: Blood Lust


Book 2: Save My Soul


Book 3: The Catalyst


Book 4: Life Cycle

And more about Kimberly Kinrade's Forbidden Series here:

http://kimberlykinrade.com/books/forbidden-series/

Book 1: Forbidden Mind

Book 2: Forbidden Fire

Book 3: Forbidden Life (coming Oct. 2, 2012)

About Zoe Winters

Zoe Winters writes quirky and sometimes dark paranormal romance. Her favorite colors are rainbow and clear.

To receive updates on new releases from the author, send an email to: zoewintersbooks AT gmail DOT com with "Subscribe" in the subject line. Newsletters go out only when there is an actual new release or a big contest. Your inbox will not be cluttered, newsletters won't go out more frequently than once a month, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

You can visit the author at: zoewintersbooks.com, on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

Be sure also to visit theriantype.com for some fun supplemental material. 

About Kimberly Kinrade

Kimberly Kinrade was born with ink in her veins and magic in her heart. She writes all things paranormal and fantasy, including award-winning young adult and children's books.

Visit her at KimberlyKinrade.com, on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

Also visit http://IPIAcademy.com to participate in a fun fan-based site with swag and info on all things paranormal. You even get to be a secret agent!
 

About the GIVEAWAY

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The Fine Art of Being Rejected

The Fine Art of Being Rejected

Guest Post by Merry Farmer
 

There are only two certainties in life: death and taxes.  But if you’re a writer, there are three: death, taxes, and rejection.  Yep, if you’re a writer, no matter what your genre, no matter what your experience level, you are going to be rejected at some point.

Ugh!  It’s not something we like to think about.  It is, however, something we have to learn to live with.  Rejection starts early in a writer’s journey and it follows you through your entire career and beyond.  It doesn’t have to be something that lands us in bed with a pint of double fudge brownie ice cream though.  Rejection can actually be the most powerful tool a writer has to improve on a variety of levels.

The first rejection that most writers experience is critique.  It would be wonderful if everything we wrote was gorgeous prose destined to become the stuff of legend.  Unfortunately, that just doesn’t happen.  A far more likely scenario is that we pour our heart out into a deliciously mediocre first draft with lots of potential and room for growth.  Then we give it to other people, whether that’s a critique group or beta readers or blurbs posted online for feedback.

The job of a critique group or beta readers is not to tell you that you’re wonderful.  It’s to give your work a fair assessment and to point out the areas that need more work.  The rejection of your words the first time around isn’t a defeat by any means.  It’s the starting point of a fantastic journey.  I’ve heard stories of some critique groups where a writer has gotten so painfully upset, and argumentative, by that first round of feedback that their peers are afraid to give them any further advice.  That’s not going to get you anywhere in the long run though.

A similar thing happens with feedback from editors.  They’re not going to tell you that you’ve written a masterpiece.  They’re going to point out the warts in your story.  But if you have the right editor, this rejection is a major step in the right direction.  I love my editor (Alison Dasho) for her ability to send me massive letters detailing everything I’ve done wrong in my manuscript … and to make me feel excited and energized about plodding through the hard work of revisions.  I listen to her, work with her suggestions, and ninety-nine times out of a hundred I make the changes she suggests.

Now comes the next kind of rejection.  I was once told that the minimum agent submission ratio was twelve rejections for every one acceptance.  Yes, this means that if you’re taking the traditional publishing route you’re going to get twelve flat-out no’s for every one request for a partial or full manuscript, let alone a full yes.  Aspiring authors may be some of the most rejected people on the planet this way.

Sending out all those submissions and getting all those no’s teaches us patience and perseverance.  And believe me, if you’re going to get any more deeply involved in this world, you’re going to need to learn patience and perseverance.  Writing is one of the slowest-moving, subjective pursuits I can think of.  Nothing happens overnight and even less happens without constant, steady striving towards your end goal.  Even if you choose to self-publish you’re going to have to push yourself.  The effort of being a writer doesn’t stop when you click “publish” on any given eBook site. 

Also along those lines, as anyone who has ever submitted to an agent or editor and gotten a lovely form letter of rejection in reply, the submissions process teaches you how to deal with the frustration of getting an answer that isn’t an answer.  It would be so nice if each agent or editor that rejected us could, like our editor or critique group, give us a long explanation of everything in our story that didn’t work for them.  Instead we experience the joy of learning how to cope with an anonymous no.  It toughens your skin, gives you a sense of the scope of what you’re doing, and prepares you for the biggest rejection of all….

Bad reviews.  The worst rejection there is.  You’ve done all the work, jumped through all the hoops, and if you’re a self-publisher you’ve paid all the money to create what you hope is the best book possible.  Then bam!  Someone comes along and pans it in public.  Break out the double fudge brownie ice cream!

Nothing compares to that first mediocre review.  I remember mine vividly.  But I also think that my first bad review was one of the most valuable that I’ve ever gotten.  I had a very kind reader who included in her review all of the things she thought I had done wrong.  Nothing could have been better.  Because two out of three of her points were spot-on.  I do tend to overuse certain words.  But thanks to that review those words are on my radar.  That reviewer taught me something that will make me a better writer with every word I write … or with every word that I delete after writing. 

The fact is that none of us are perfect.  We’re not going to write a Pulitzer every time.  Not even Pulitzer winners write a Pulitzer every time.  In fact, I’m sure if you were to look at reviews for most prize-winning novels you would find several that question the sanity of anyone who would vote for that particular book.  Not only does every writer have room for improvement, we all write in different styles and have different tastes.  Sometimes our books end up in the hands of readers who just don’t get it.

And this is the most valuable lesson of all.  It’s nothing personal.  A bad review is not a judgment about your character as a human being and an assessment of your right to be on this planet.  Of course, as a writer it’s hard to remember that from time to time.  We like to think that we are what we write and that a negative comment about our baby is a black mark against our character.  Fortunately, it’s not. 

Writing is a sadistic occupation.  We put ourselves out there with an intensity that few people really understand.  That’s why it’s important for each of us to listen to the critiques and to integrate that advice.  The point is to become a better writer and to keep writing.  So don’t let the negative words get you down.  For every rotten review there will be someone out there who thinks you’re a genius.  Don’t listen to either of those people.  Listen to your heart and keep writing.

About the author: 

Merry Farmer is an award-winning novelist who lives in suburban Philadelphia with her two cats, Butterfly and Torpedo. She has been writing since she was ten years old and realized one day that she didn't have to wait for the teacher to assign a creative writing project to write something. It was the best day of her life. She then went on to earn not one but two degrees in History so that she would always having something to write about. Today she is a giant History nerd and a hopeless romantic waiting for her own love story to start. Her first book, The Loyal Heart, is a swashbuckling Medieval Historical Romance involving a love triangle that will keep you guessing.  Both The Loyal Heart and its sequel, The Faithful Heart, are available wherever eBooks are sold.  The third book in the trilogy, The Courageous Heart, will be available sometime this Fall.  She has also begun a new Western Historical Romance series set in Montana in 1805.  The first of that series, Our Little Secrets, is now available.  The second, Fool for Love, will be released in early 2013.  Merry is also passionate about blogging, knitting, and cricket and is working towards becoming an internationally certified cricket scorer.

Find out more at MerryFarmer.net, on Twitter, and Facebook. 

This post is part of a weekly feature of guest posts about various topics related to writing and publishing. If you are interested in doing a guest post, please contact me.

Most recent post - Self Publishing or Small Press, Which is Right for You? by Michelle Birbeck.

While you are here, please also check out the previous posts included in this feature. 

A Reader or a Writer? - Elyse Douglas, author of The Astrologer's Daughter

A Reader or a Writer, 
Which Would You Rather Be?
Guest Post by Elyse Douglas

From Elyse:

Reading is much easier than writing. Let’s face it, you just sit there passively and enjoy the fruit of someone else’s work. You engage your mind and your feelings but you’re not forced to express a whiff of a feeling or grapple with a complex thought. Your mind can wander. You can slip into someone else’s world for a while and enjoy the flow of emotions and memories and fantasies it provokes… and then tune out. You can be in Paris or Maine or Baltimore, on a cruise ship to the Caribbean, at a stockbroker’s lavish NYC apartment, or sitting in a summer cottage on Martha’s Vineyard, about to jump naked into a hot tub with a stranger. 

If you’re reading Virginia Woolf or James Joyce, you can get lost in the rhythm of the prose, even if you can’t be sure exactly what the story is about. You can “ooh” and “ah” at the mastery of Steinbeck’s language, the cleverness of Franzen’s plots, and the calm clarity of Cather’s descriptions. If what you’re reading is good, though, you’re probably going to want to write a response of some sort: a story like it, a poem like it, even a paragraph in imitation of the style. And then you start on your own poem or story or novel, and the work begins. YOU’RE creating the world, sister and brother, so you have to get your fingers moving and dig deep.

Writing a novel is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It takes incredible discipline, persistence, and mental energy. It’s like unraveling several balls of yarn that have gotten all tangled together. There’s the emotional tangle, the motives tangle, the plot tangle, the setting tangle… and somehow you have to weave them into something people can wear. You have to knit the “lover’s knot” pattern to keep track of what and whom the characters love, the “seashell” pattern to keep track of where they’ve been, and the “diamond” pattern to keep track of their histories, who their parents were, what they wanted and what they feared. Then you have to make sure it’s all sewn together with accurate spelling, clear punctuation and passable grammar. 

And the novel never goes in the direction you believed it would when you started. You start out thinking you’re going to write about a woman who wants a baby, and you end up writing about a man who’s running for president. You have to keep the plot fresh and interesting while providing show-stopping descriptions and scintillating dialogue. You need to be poetic without writing poetry; and above all, you have to show and not tell.

And then once you have your first draft, you have to review it; edit it; rewrite it; have someone else edit it; read it again; proofread it; and pray your printer doesn’t run out of ink before you get it printed out for your spouse’s final read-through. 

And then comes the hardest part of all: trying to get someone else to read it and publish it. You try that route until you have a scrapbook of rejections, and then you give up and decide to publish it yourself. You have to get it formatted for e-book readers you’ve never heard of or seen. And then there’s the marketing… how do you get it read by people who don’t know you? You wait. Will we sell more than ten copies a week? Will anyone out there read it? Will anyone care?

My niece calls what Douglas and I do “a hobby.” Yeah. A hobby and an obsession. We must be crazy to write novels. Obviously, we have to do it, or we wouldn’t bother. We’d just sit down with a glass of wine, read a good book, and relax.

The Astrologer's Daughter
by Elyse Douglas

Joanna Halloran, a best selling writer and astrologer, lives in a beach house overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. After a violent storm, she roams the beach, glances seaward and spots a man clinging to a piece of wreckage, being tossed helplessly. She dives in and pulls him safely onto the beach.

Robert Zachary Harrison is from a wealthy, political family. As he slowly recovers from a private plane crash, he and Joanna fall in love and spend passionate and sequestered weeks together. But because of family duty, Robert makes the painful decision to leave her and return to his fiancée and political life. He departs, not knowing Joanna is pregnant.

Twenty five years later, Senator Robert Harrison is running for President of the United States. In the midst of a contentious presidential campaign, Joanna’s daughter, who has a passion to expose secrets, seeks revenge on her father. She is also falling in love with her father’s adopted son.

As secrets emerge, Joanna and Robert meet again and confront the past and present. Robert confesses a secret that Joanna had never known. Now, on the world stage, they struggle to keep their families and careers from destruction.

Add on Goodreads, and buy on Amazon.

About the authors:

Elyse Douglas is the pen name for the married writing team Elyse Parmentier and Douglas Pennington. Elyse grew up near the sea, roaming the beaches, reading and writing stories and poetry, receiving a Master’s Degree in English Literature from Columbia University. She has enjoyed careers as an English teacher, an actress and a speech-language pathologist. She and her husband, Douglas Pennington, have completed three novels: The Astrologer’s Daughter, Wanting Rita and a Christmas novel to be released later this year.

Douglas grew up in a family where music and astrology were second and third languages. He attended the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music and played the piano professionally for many years. With his wife, Elyse, he has helped to pen The Astrologer’s Daughter and Wanting Rita.

When asked how they write a novel together, Doug often answers, “Well… If Elyse is dismissive and quietly pacing, then I know something’s not working. If I’m defensive, dramatic and defiant, then I know Elyse will soon be scowling and quietly pacing. We remind ourselves of Rita and Alan James in our novel, Wanting Rita. How the books get finished, I don’t know.”

Elyse and Douglas live in New York City. 

Find out more at ElyseDouglas.com and on Twitter.   

Click here to see the rest of the stops on this tour.

 

Waiting on Wednesday - Splintered by A.G. Howard

I can't believe that I almost forgot I planned to start participating in Waiting on Wednesday. This will now be a new feature on Krazy Book Lady. (Provided that I can do a better job of remembering.) Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Breaking the Spine.

My very first feature is: (drum roll, please) Splintered by A.G. Howard! Love the cover, love the idea of the book, and love A.G. Howard. I can't wait to get started with the traveling ARC tour that I am hosting! 

Splintered
Expected publication: January 1, 2013

Publisher: Amulet Books 

For sixteen years, Alyssa Gardner has lived with the stigma of being descended from Alice Liddell—the real life inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s famed novel, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But cruel jokes about dormice and tea parties can’t compare to the fact that Alyssa hears the whispers of bugs and flowers... the same quirk which sent her mother to a mental institution years before.

When her mother takes a turn for the worse and the whispers grow too strong for Alyssa to bear, she seeks the origins of their family curse. A set of heirlooms and a moth tied to an unusual website lead Alyssa and her gorgeous best friend / secret crush, Jeb, down the rabbit hole into the real Wonderland, a place more twisted and eerie than Lewis Carroll ever let on.

There, creepy counterparts of the original fairytale crew reveal the purpose for Alyssa’s journey, and unless she fixes the things her great-great-great grandmother Alice put wrong, Wonderland will have her head.

Add on Goodreads.